BCC Agenda 07/23/2024 Item # 2C (BCC Budget Minutes from 06/20/2024)07/23/2024
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Item Number: 2.C
Doc ID: 29418
Item Summary: June 20, 2024, BCC Budget Minutes
Meeting Date: 07/23/2024
Prepared by:
Title: Management Analyst II ā County Manager's Office
Name: Geoffrey Willig
07/11/2024 4:54 PM
Submitted by:
Title: Deputy County Manager ā County Manager's Office
Name: Amy Patterson
07/11/2024 4:54 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.C
Packet Pg. 10
June 20, 2024
Page 1
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
2025 BUDGET WORKSHOP
June 20, 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 SPECIAL
SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples,
Florida, with the following Board members present:
Chairman: Chris Hall
Rick LoCastro
Dan Kowal
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Burt L. Saunders
ALSO PRESENT:
Amy Patterson, County Manager
Edward Finn, Deputy County Manager
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
June 20, 2024
Page 2
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good morning, friends and family.
We're in for the budget workshop. And I guess, first of all, we've
got Mr. Johnson.
MS. PATTERSON: If you'd like, we could start with the
Pledge of Allegiance.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Pledge of Allegiance, sure.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
GENERAL OVERVIEW
MS. PATTERSON: Good morning, Commissioners, and
welcome to our 2025 budget workshop.
So we have this broken down into sections. We're going to
start with a general overview. We're going to move on to court and
related agencies, then the constitutional officers, the County
Manager's agency, the County Attorney, Board of County
Commissioners, and then a recap and summary discussion.
We do have our partners here from ResourceX, and so they're
going to be participating throughout this conversation.
And we are going to change up the way we handle the speakers
for today so that we're able to take them after each section so if
somebody's here to speak on, for example, courts, they don't have to
wait until the end of the day.
So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Johnson to begin
the presentation.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Ms. Patterson.
Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, Christopher
Johnson, your director of Corporate Financial and Management
Services.
June 20, 2024
Page 3
I'll be doing the general overview today before I hand it over for
a quick briefing from our friends at ResourceX.
So just to jump right in, I just want to kind of get us oriented on
where we are in the budget process. So up on the screen here you
have your budget timeline. As you recall, in February, we started
with our -- the first initial -- the first initial strategic planning AUIR
budget policy workshop.
After that we -- in March, we adopted our budget policy, the
Board's budget policy. On the 14th, last Friday, you-all received
your recommended budget books from our office. And today, down
there at the bottom, in bold is our priority-based budgeting workshop.
Moving forward, if we're looking ahead here in the timeline, on
7/1, we will receive the certified taxable value from the Property
Appraiser. That will be utilized to determine our required millage
rate and to determine our maximum millage rate, which we will bring
to the Board on July 9th for adoption.
Again, that millage rate is going to be the maximum millage rate
that we can utilize moving forward in the process.
On the 12th, the Board will receive their tentative budgets from
the budget office, and then by April -- I'm sorry -- by August 4th, we
will -- we will send the millage rates, the rolled-back rates, and the
information for the first public hearing to the Property Appraiser.
The Property Appraiser will send out the TRIM notices to taxpayers
by August 24th. And then moving on to the right there, we have our
first public hearing on September 5th, our second public hearing on
September 19th. And in the middle, there is the -- this is kind of a
public service announcement. Any taxpayers that wishes to address
the Value Adjustment Board, the deadline for that is typically the
second Friday of September, which this year is September 13th.
Any questions on any of that timeline-wise?
(No response.)
June 20, 2024
Page 4
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Then we'll jump right in.
Okay. The FY '25 budget characteristics. The budget in front
of you is presented and is balanced, and it was prioritized in
conjunction with our friends at ResourceX. This budget remains a
flexible planning tool. It provides sufficient budget required to
conduct the business of government. The document reflects the best
efforts of your staff and the constitutional officers to maintain and,
where appropriate, enhance services to benefit the residents and
visitors of this county, and the budget provides the financial approach
for execution of the county's strategic plan. And if you notice
behind me, this is kind of -- we put an easel up with our strategic plan
just so it will be in the view of the camera today.
Moving on, the budget includes funding for strategic priorities
including, but not limited to, DAS facilities; aquatics capital
maintenance; strategic real estate acquisitions, specifically we're
looking at sheriff acquisitions; cybersecurity; Vanderbilt Beach Road
Phase 2; 951, Golden Gate to Green Boulevard expansion; roadway
resurfacing; and funding for employee recruitment and retention.
I'm going to kind of go through a few of the -- some economic
indicators to kind of show you how our current economic landscape
is looking.
County single-family permits issued in April of this year total
214. This is a 16 percent increase from April of 2023. Collier
County's unemployment rate was 3 and a half percent in April. It's a
slight increase over the 2.7 percent last year. The county's
unemployment rate is slightly above the Florida rate of 3.3 percent
and modestly below the United States rate for April of 3.9 percent.
The median single-family home value has dropped slightly to
889,000 from 922,000. It's a decrease of 3.6 percent. With that
said, single-family home sales rose to 508 in April, an increase of
8 percent from the prior year.
June 20, 2024
Page 5
Visitation to the destination totaled 1 million 667 for October to
April -- for the October to April 2024 period. This is 7.7 percent
higher than last year.
In April 2024, the Miami/Fort Lauderdale Consumer Price Index
for all urban customers rose to 4.5 percent. The core inflation index
for all items, less food and energy, was 5.8 percent over the same
period. Some of the keynotes here, the electricity price has actually
decreased 11.1 percent, and that's due to the surcharge being lifted
from the hurricanes.
Food costs modestly increased .8 percent, cost of goods and
services grew 5.6 percent, and prices increased 7.2 percent for rent of
a primary residence.
Iām going to jump right into our FY '25 tax policy. Based on
policy, tax rate is based on the budget requirements. The FY '25
recommended budget developed by the County Manager in front of
you is built on the rolled-back tax rate. What this means is it
includes the net new taxable value, the ad valorem associated with
the net new taxable value, and we'll get onto that in the next slide.
The millage rates -- the millage rates were developed in the
General Fund and Unincorporated Area General Fund operating
budgets utilizing a priority-based budgeting approach. Further
program adjustments throughout this process may result in changes to
the actual millage rate.
And then our MSTUs were limited to a millage rate sufficient to
cover their current operations and any capital planned allocations.
So now we'll jump into the preliminary taxable value. You can
see the chart there has the prior year, and at the far, far right column
you'll see the current year. There's a $12.1 billion taxable value
increase countywide; 4.1 billion of that is net new taxable value or a
taxable value associated with growth. The tax related to that growth
taxable value is included in the rolled-back millage rate.
June 20, 2024
Page 6
For the unincorporated area, the increase was 7.7 billion;
2.7 billion related to new taxable value.
And according to the State's estimated conference, they project
continued tax base increases over '25 and '26; 10.2 percent in '25 and
7.1 percent for tax year '26. And that's tax year. So 2025 would be
our FY '26. 2026 would be our FY '27.
And this is just kind of an interesting chart that shows the trend
of our taxable value. If you look at this, the top is the General Fund,
the bottom is the Unincorporated Area General Fund. The increases
in taxable value over the last five years in both areas is about
50 percent. So it's significant.
Going into our preliminary taxing scenarios. As I stated, the
taxable value increase related to net new or growth was 4.1 billion in
the General Fund. In the -- highlighted in green there on the first
row, you'll see the tax dollars associated with that, $12.3 million.
Then you have the additional ones for the countywide. The total in
the countywide, based on the net new growth, is $13.1 million, and
then right below that is the Unincorporated Area General Fund. The
net new growth of 2.7 billion there results in an ad valorem revenue
increase of $1.8 million.
Moving on to the blue column there, you'll see this is the tax
value increase with the millage-neutral rate, so essentially taking the
same millage rate we have this year and applying it to the new
taxable value. In the General Fund, that was 12.1 billion in taxable
value. That results in $36.7 million in additional ad valorem
revenue. And, again, if you go down to the subtotal for countywide,
it would be 39.5 million. And in the Unincorporated Area, it would
result in 5.2 million in additional ad valorem revenue.
And then, finally, in the column on the right there, you'll see the
variance between your rolled-back rate and your millage-neutral rate.
So based on the discussions we had in our February workshop,
June 20, 2024
Page 7
that's kind of the range that we're looking at here to set these final
millage rates between the -- between the rolled-back rate and the
millage-neutral rate.
Any questions on any of that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Troy?
MR. JOHNSON: All good? All right.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Anybody lit up?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No.
MR. JOHNSON: Moving on to the FY -- a few additional FY
'25 budget highlights. The budget presented to you, the net budget is
2.088 billion. That's an increase of 92.9 million over FY '24, which
was $1.995 billion.
The General Fund budget is at 688.3 million. That's an increase
of 890,000 over FY '24. And the Unincorporated General Fund is
budgeted at 84.4 million. This is an increase of 655,000 over 2024.
Overall, the recommended budget is within guidance for the
County Manager's agency with operating budgets funded through
General and Unincorporated General Fund based on their net cost
impact. Net cost impact is your program expense minus your
revenue, basically how much of the General Fund is supporting you.
That's across the board. Most divisions were actually under
guidance this year. And as you page through your book and as the
departments come up and do their presentations, you'll be able to see
those compliance sheets at the front of each section.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, can I ask a
quick question?
Just so I understand, then, the budget's built on a rolled-back
millage rate basis. And using that basis, the budget -- the increase in
revenue will be enough to keep the county within guidance of the
3.5 percent?
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
June 20, 2024
Page 8
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So
millage -- rolled-back millage is kind of where you're heading?
MR. JOHNSON: On the operating side, yes. To get to the
rolled-back millage, there were some challenges on the capital side
that -- a few adjustments we had to make to achieve that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Great.
MR. JOHNSON: And we can go over those if you'd like, or we
can save it for a wrap-up conversation.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: It sounds like it makes our
job a little bit easier. What is the impact on using the rolled-back
millage rate? What is the impact on Conservation Collier?
MR. JOHNSON: On Conservation Collier specifically? Let
me just get back here. So the rolled-back rate for Conservation
Collier would generate an increase of $707,000 next year, an
additional 707-. So the total would be $31.8 million. If you went to
millage neutral, you'd be at $33.6 million or an increase of 2.5-.
And keep in mind, with Conservation Collier you do have a ceiling
on that of .25 mills, which would have been the -- which is above and
beyond the millage-neutral rate.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Great. Thank you. That
sounds good.
MR. JOHNSON: No problem.
All right. Expanded service requests, budgeted County
Manager expanded service requests include 27 full-time employees,
plus 10 vehicles and operating increases for EMS, Code
Enforcement, Domestic Animal Services, the Immokalee CRA,
Human Resources, and Facilities. The total of these requests is
$4,012,900.
In addition, there's a budgeted expanded request for the Clerk of
Courts, which includes funding to support improvements to the SAP
payroll system of $208,800. That expanded service request falls
June 20, 2024
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within 3 and a half percent increase from compliance that we allow.
So she's within that amount with the expanded requests.
Moving on, here's kind of a breakdown of where these are.
Three FTEs in Human Resources, 10 FTEs in Code Enforcement,
four staff members for Domestic Animal Services. We have a
Facilities request of a million dollars. That's for an HVAC
preventative maintenance program. We have a hardening of an
employee in the Immokalee CRA, and we have another crew, nine
paramedics, for EMS. And I already explained to you the Clerk of
Courts. So that's for the SAP time and attendance upgrade.
Any questions on any of those at all?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: Investment in the workforce. Per budget
policy for FY '25, the recommended budget includes a 3 percent
wage increase to all classifications, an additional one and a half
percent for the implementation of a merit-based incentive program,
and a half a percent pay plan maintenance component to strengthen
targeted classifications that are under market.
The employee healthcare, per the budget policy, the
recommended budget includes a 7 percent increase to the existing
rate structure.
These are your CRA and Economic Development Zone
transfers. The General Fund this year will be transferring
$14.9 million to these zones and CRAs, and the Unincorporated Area
General Fund will be transferring about 1.8 million, for a total of
$16.7 million. This is up 2.3 million from last year. And if you
recall in our discussions in September, this is directly related to the
millage rate. So if you changed the millage rate, these numbers will
fluctuate based on -- based on their increment.
On to reserves. General Fund reserves increased to
78.1 million, or 12.8 percent of expenses. That's within the budget
June 20, 2024
Page 10
guidance of 8 to 16 percent. Unincorporated Area General Fund
reserves modestly decreased to 5.9 million, or 7.5 percent of
expenses. Below on the left, you'll see the graph for the General
Fund, the trend for General Fund reserves, and on the right is the
Unincorporated General Fund reserves.
The reason for the drop in the Unincorporated Area General
Fund reserve is the anticipated transfer that we've all discussed one
on one to Conservation Collier being reduced. So we had to reduce
some of our reserves to accommodate the operations.
Moving on to the capital budget. This is the overall capital
budget. This year it's programmed at $686 million. You can kind
of see the breakdown there. The majority of the capital is in our
Public Utilities department, as would be expected, followed by our
transportation network, and then the office of the County Manager,
which includes all of our general governmental facilities and our
TDC.
Any questions on this one at all?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: All right. So this slide depicts the General
Fund and Unincorporated Area General Fund transfers to capital.
What I wanted to point out on this slide is you'll see the
year-over-year transfer has been reduced. The overall program
hasn't been reduced by much. What we're doing is we're utilizing
that capital reserve in our countywide Capital Fund 3001 to fund
some of the projects moving forward. So the amount being
transferred out of the General Fund is reduced, whereas the capital is
still in line with what we've done in previous years. So if you look
at this next slide, you can see the total capital for the Unincorporated
and General -- and General Fund funded capital budgets is
$96.13 million.
And of that, we're kind of looking at this another way. What
June 20, 2024
Page 11
are we doing with this money? We have 73.6 million going into
renewal and replacement projects, 18.8 million going into kind of
new named projects, and then we have another category that's kind of
like our softwares and planning and those types of things.
Any questions on any of this?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Chris, can you go back to the screen
before that?
MR. JOHNSON: Certainly.
CHAIRMAN HALL: The next one first. That one there. We
got monitoring in a Capital Fund account? Sea turtle monitoring?
MR. JOHNSON: That's dealt with as a project. So it's a
project fund. So what happens is there's two funding sources for sea
turtle monitoring, the General Fund and then the TDC, and that goes
into a project so that money can roll over on its own every year. So
it's kind of a mechanism to, I guess, administer the program. We do
that as well in our landscaping.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah, I just -- when I saw a
service -- service thing in a Capital Fund, it just made we question it.
So thank you.
MR. JOHNSON: No. It's a very good question. And we can
look at that.
Any other questions?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: If you don't mind, on the
Parks and Recreation repairs and maintenance, 6 million -- I'm sorry.
Of the Parks and Recreation repairs and maintenance of 6.3 million, a
couple questions. We have a fund, I believe, that has about $10
million left in it for aquatic facilities.
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Should that be on this list
or --
June 20, 2024
Page 12
MR. JOHNSON: This is just General Fund and
Unincorporated General funded capital. In the overall capital, it is
part of that 668- or -86 million.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Understood.
Then in terms of the amount of money that's on that line item, is
that going to be sufficient to deal with the aquatic issues that we are
faced with?
MR. JOHNSON: There's a million dollars included
with -- from the General Fund, and then the 10 million from the
bond. And currently, with -- I know at this moment -- I
believe -- and I'll kind of look at Ed a little bit here -- we're moving
forward with kind of an assessment of the aquatics. So at the
moment, moving forward with the 11 million, I think we're in a pretty
good spot until we have an overall assessment of what needs to
be -- needs to be done. And I'll -- Ed, if you want to add to that, I
can --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, I don't need -- I don't
want to add anything, or if you're asking Ed, I don't need any further
clarification on it. I think you've addressed it.
MR. JOHNSON: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But in reference to animal
services and the newly -- some of the newly discovered needs there,
is that something that is included in these numbers here?
MR. JOHNSON: Yes, sir, it is. There's $3.5 million
specifically for animal services, two and a half million for the current
facility, and we put a million aside to look towards the potential of
another facility out to the east.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Great. Thank you.
MR. JOHNSON: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: How much more is that
money compared to what we did last year? What's the delta?
June 20, 2024
Page 13
Those are increases?
MR. JOHNSON: There was not a budgeted project for that --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. JOHNSON: -- in the general countywide Capital Fund
that last year. So, yes, yes, it is.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's new added money that
we didn't do last year?
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. All right.
MR. JOHNSON: Well, with that, I'm going to turn it over to
Chris Fabian with ResourceX.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you, Chris.
Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning, staff and
administration, and good morning, members of the public. My name
is Chris Fabian, and I'm here with my colleague, Jesse Muñiz from
ResourceX, as we have completed your first implementation of
priority-based budgeting as a county government.
So I want to extend my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to
this board, especially Commissioner Chris Hall, for bringing
priority-based budgeting to the county. We will begin to infuse the
impacts of priority-based budgeting in your very first year overall.
As a recap, the organization has accomplished a great deal in a
short amount of time in your first implementation of priority-based
budgeting. You have scored over 600 individual programs and
services across the county government, so that's the identification of
every single program that you offer, the cost allocation of personnel
and non-personnel. Your entire operating costs are allocated so you
know the programs that you provide and the costs of providing those
programs, and those programs have been scored relative to, as Chris
mentioned, your strategic plan priorities to understand which
programs have the greatest degree of alignment with your priorities
June 20, 2024
Page 14
and which programs have a lesser degree of alignment overall.
Programs were scored not only against your priorities but other
key reasons that the county offers programs, including degree of
mandate. Many of your programs are required by state law or the
federal government, but some programs are not. Every program
now has a score to it for a degree of mandate, cost recovery,
population served, degree of reliance, and change in demand. That
is no small undertaking, and the virtue of having this data is that we
can bring it to bear in today's discussion as you go through and
evaluate every budget proposal that comes before you and, secondly,
not only are we able to frame budget proposals, which we'll get into
how that has been used already in this year's budget process, but we
have a program evaluation.
So by virtue of scoring every single program as we will present
at the end of today's presentation, we can cross-reference every
program you offer based on its scoring criteria with every other
organization that has gone through priority-based budgeting to offer
resource reallocation opportunities and new revenue generation
opportunities, some of which can be used throughout the process.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can I ask you a question?
MR. FABIAN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: When you went through the
list of priorities that you set for each individual area before you
scored, are those priorities weighted differently so they have -- you
know, within those priorities, they also have different weights as far
as the importance and what you put on it. I don't want to
oversimplify the process, but you ran through some really important
things that you use for criteria, but they're weighted differently as far
as importance?
MR. FABIAN: You are correct to say that the priorities have a
higher degree of meaning and influence on the final score of any
June 20, 2024
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given program, so the Board priorities that you are trying to deliver to
the residents of Collier County.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. FABIAN: As opposed to those basic program attributes,
degree of mandate, cost recovery, population served have a lesser
weighting overall.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. FABIAN: So great question. You're exactly right. Oh,
go ahead.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Just for us. When you have a question,
just go for it. I'd rather this be a conversation than me trying to
watch this board and not focusing.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Pretty much is.
MR. FABIAN: Sounds great.
So throughout today's presentation, we will be jumping in.
Commissioner Hall, as you mentioned, when we have anything to
offer from a priority-based budgeting perspective, but most
importantly, we will be the final presentation today to describe how
priority-based budgeting has been infused into this process already
and where you go next with the list of program-specific opportunities
for each and every program throughout the county overall.
As Chris has on the screen here, I do want to at least give you a
prelude to many of the opportunities that have come up already for
which priority-based budgeting has helped to identify opportunities
for organizational adjustments, including a workforce prioritization
pool, a way to utilize human resources in an optimal manner, process
improvements and resource realignment from several of the
departments, revenue opportunities and fee adjustments, program
partnerships, as well, which is a key theme for all of the programs
that we'll get into at the end, and level-of-service analysis.
So you will hear these throughout the day today, specifically as
June 20, 2024
Page 16
departments make their presentations. But these have already been
acted upon in the proposed budget that you have before you.
So with that, I'll thank you, and we'll get on with the day.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Mr. Johnson, could you
explain, like you did with me yesterday, the workforce prioritization
pool?
MR. JOHNSON: Certainly, certainly. So what we've done
here, what the County Manager has directed, is we have taken
positions that have been vacant for an extended period of time, on
hold, or are kind of no longer necessary in the programs where they
reside, and we've put those into a cost center or a pool to be utilized
strategically for initiatives from the County Manager and anything
we need to kind of have a -- what did I use yesterday -- a "snipe
team" to go out and deal with, when I was talking to Commissioner
Kowal. So it allows us to take these human resources and prioritize
them for the things that are important or urgent.
And just to give you -- give you -- just kind of show you where
these all came from, this slide here kind of depicts where we pulled a
few of these positions. And in public services, there were Library
positions that have been vacant, some Parks positions, and a few
positions in Operations. Under the management office, we had a
few positions in Facilities, one in Communications, and in
Transportation -- there were three in Transportation and two in
Stormwater.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So, Chris, that means -- that
doesn't mean that they can't be filled. It just means that we're sort of
putting a cover over -- and pulling them all together and having a
little bit more of a fluid system of how we can utilize them best,
right? It doesn't mean that these positions couldn't be filled in the
Library and the Park or what have you, correct?
MR. JOHNSON: Precisely.
June 20, 2024
Page 17
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: We're not removing those.
MR. JOHNSON: Precisely. It's a process improvement. In
the past everyone -- you know, these were my positions. These are
here. Now it becomes let's go through the pool. As positions
vacate and are not filled, we can put them in the pool as -- if we need
a librarian, it comes up, and it was one that has been removed from
there to go to the pool, we would take one out of the pool and utilize
it for that as well. So it's a new way of looking at it, new way of
looking at things.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Think of it like a day worker program
where you need labor and you pull from the pool, and then when
you're done, you put it back in the pool.
MR. JOHNSON: Put it back in the pool.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Happy, happy, happy.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Any other questions on that?
(No response.)
COURTS AND THE COURT-RELATED AGENCIES
MR. JOHNSON: If not, we'll jump into our first department,
which is the courts and the court-related agencies.
Don't mind me. I'm going to switch this.
MS. FOX: Good morning, Commissioners.
MR. RICE: Good morning.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning.
MR. RICE: All right. Good morning, Commissioners. My
name's Chuck Rice. I'm the court administrator, for the record.
Good morning.
With me today is Amira Fox, the State Attorney.
I'd like to, you know, thank you guys in the county and the
June 20, 2024
Page 18
budget office, Chris and his staff with AJ and Maggie for their help
and support with this budget this year. I'd also like to recognize a
couple of our staff that makes the court system run.
So if you'd just raise your hand and be recognized when I
announce your name. I have with me today Kerri Hixson, our
operations director. Beside her is Iler Rivera; she's our program
coordinator. Beside her is Juan Ramos; he heads up our probation
department. And to his left is Jeff Nichols, our director of our
criminal division.
So we're here today to submit a $7 million budget. That's
1 percent less than what our overall budget was last year for
operating. We were able to do that through an assessment of all of
our court business units and requirements in an effort to develop the
most cost-effective budget possible. And in doing that -- I'm glad
we did this -- we looked at your 2024 strategic plan, and at this point
usually I highlight some of our programs and the successes the courts
have, but I'd like to take a different avenue this year and show and
just mention about five or six items of how the Court aligns with your
strategic plan for 2024, if that's okay.
One, under your vision, to be the best community in America.
Well, that starts with public safety, strong families, and individuals.
We try to accomplish that on a daily basis.
Number two, you support health, wellness, and human services.
We align with that through our drug court, veterans court, mental
health courts, our domestic violence unit, our dependency court, and
teen court.
Three, under responsible governing, your strategic plan talks
about promoting data-driven decision-making through performance,
management, and measuring the results.
We absolutely are on board with that, and we do that on a daily
basis through our case management, the court stats, and court tools
June 20, 2024
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we do, and our probation statistics. Not only do we track that, we
measure it, and then we reevaluate it. We have a saying -- I like to
say, "Train, try, measure, repeat."
Four, encourage community engagement and participation. We
certainly do that and run parallel with that in that we have
small-claims mediator volunteers. We have a foster-care review
board made up of the volunteers out of the community, our teen court
volunteers, and we also provide courthouse tours to schools, civic
associations, and basically anybody that requests a courthouse tour.
Five, safeguard taxpayer money by fiscal stewardship and sound
budget oversight. As you know, the last several years, we've always
come in way below target. We're able to do that just by being good
stewards of the money. Our budget is self-prioritized just by the
nature of what we do. However, we have a unique position where
we deal with some state funds, too, as the Clerk does. And I know
the Clerk is a big champion of trying to get state money and being a
great steward of the county funds, as we are. So we did realign our
priority goals and was able to reduce or guardianship budget by
nearly 200,000 this year.
The other thing that you mentioned as a priority is cybersecurity,
and I think that's an issue for everybody. We're dealing with that
through threats of cyberattacks and ransomware and, obviously,
we've got to continue to maintain and purchase hardware and
software to combat that.
So with that I think you see what the courts are doing aligns
very well with your strategic plan.
And with that, Amira.
MS. FOX: Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Amira Fox,
your state attorney for the 20th Circuit, and I have with me also
Debbie Stanbro, our executive director, who actually handles the
budget for me and does a wonderful job. So she is here in case I tell
June 20, 2024
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you anything wrong, but I'm sure I won't.
I wanted to come -- even though we have a decrease in our ask
of you this year, we have actually been able to eliminate a position
that you had funded for us by restructuring. Using technology,
we've been very efficient at being able to eliminate certain positions,
and one of them impacts Collier County, so you'll see that we
actually have a decrease in our budget to the tune of $59,600.
But I wanted to come to just personally thank you for your
support of our office and for the court system throughout the circuit
and particularly here in Collier County. I'm sure you-all already all
know this, but Collier County has maintained, for over a decade, and
the circuit has maintained the lowest crime rate in the state of Florida.
And I always tell people that's no accident; that's because we have the
most wonderful law enforcement and wonderful local government
that supports us.
And last year what you did for us was you increased the money
that you gave us in order to allow me to start a specialized narcotics
felony division, which we had already established in Lee County with
that commission's help. You followed fast on their heels of allowing
me to do the same thing here in Collier and giving me enough extra
funding for an assistant state attorney, an investigator, and a member
of our support team.
Charlotte County then said, "Oh, we'll do the same." So I have
been able to establish in this circuit a narcotics specialized felony unit
that handles these high-end drug trafficking investigations. They
work as part of our narcotics enforcement task force team, which has
been immensely successful in taking out huge amounts of fentanyl
and other drugs, arresting many, many people who are now serving
lots of years in prison.
So that's really thanks to all of you. I wanted to tell you your
money has gone to very good use. We do have a specialized
June 20, 2024
Page 21
attorney here now in narcotics that works hand in hand with our
wonderful Sheriff's Office here and our two police agencies at
bringing down these large-scale drug traffickers and also, I want to
tell you, specializing in drug overdose and poisoning deaths. We've
had our grand jury here in Collier recently indict somebody on a drug
overdose death, and we will continue to do so using that money to
fund our specialized prosecutor.
So I just wanted to tell you thank you for all you do for the court
system. It really does make a difference.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have a quick question.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just -- give me the short
version. But a big delta savings that I saw -- and like you said, very
impressive how -- you know, doing more things with less. But
court-related technology, was that, like, sort of a one-time expense
last year where you upgraded something and then you just didn't need
it? Why was that --
MR. RICE: As far as unused funds in that?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. Well, I just noticed a
big difference. You know, it was -- half a million was what was
adopted in 2024, and then it's -- you know, it's much less for current.
So I was just curious -- I was kind of setting the table for you to give
you a chance to say, "Here's what we did," you know.
Yeah, yeah, so here you go. I'm throwing you the softball.
Give me the, you know, home run.
MR. RICE: I appreciate that. But basically, you know,
sometimes the timeliness of the hardware and the servers we buy --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. RICE: -- it's all pretty much on a calendar basis whether
it's two years, three years when they need refreshed and everything,
and we're always trying to put off, as long as we can, any purchases
June 20, 2024
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to conserve money just for that fact. So you can see that decrease in
the budget.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Got it. That young
lady in the back just raised her hand and said everything you said was
untrue. So did you want to come -- no, I'm just kidding.
Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One little thing, and this is
something that you're going to be participatory in, is that we recently
had an issue in Immokalee with our CRA and MSTU offices. And
there's been some discussion, money appropriated for planning and
design for the remodel of the government complex in Immokalee.
And I just want you to have it on your radar that that lease extension
did not come to fruition. We thought we had more time than what
we have. The lease out there at the CareerSource center is over in
July of next year.
So we all need to be moving up on our priority list the remodel
monies necessary for that old courtroom that's in Immokalee that
hasn't been used in an excess of 20 years, and the Clerk of Court's
office in the back and the Tax Collector's Office, as well as the
County Commission offices. So keep that on your radar as you're
going through for what we're going to need to do out there, please.
MR. RICE: Yes, sir. And we're fully intending to -- that space
is available for the county's use, as far as the courts are concerned.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding. Outstanding.
Thank you.
MR. RICE: Any other questions?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
MR. RICE: Thank you.
MS. FOX: Thank you, Commissioners.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Thank you very much.
June 20, 2024
Page 23
SHERIFF
Moving on, next is the Sheriff.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good morning, everyone. Kevin
Rambosk, Collier County Sheriff.
I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here with you this
morning.
And, you know, I know we still have some challenges in our
community and a few for the future, but I believe we have had an
amazing year as a community. And for our part, that is really due to
the outstanding work of the men and women of the Collier County
Sheriff's Office who are committed to service each and every day;
and also to your leadership, and particularly for us, your support of
law enforcement and all of public safety.
I want to thank the County Manager and her staff for the
day-to-day support that we need and the community for supporting
law enforcement and professional law enforcement that allows us to
do our job, and that is one large element on how we are so successful.
I also want to thank our command staff. I didn't bring
everybody with us today, but, you know, starting with Colonel
Bloom, our chiefs, our executive-in-command staff, and certainly our
great admin section and finance director, Stephanie, who does a great
job.
I also want to recognize the partnership we have with our fire
rescue services in Collier County. I can tell you that around the state
and around the nation, there are few organizations that have the
partnership that we have, and that absolutely works towards the
positive of responding to emergency situations in Collier County,
both now and training for the potential of any event, and I'll touch a
little bit on that as we go.
But I want to talk a little bit this time about how we build our
June 20, 2024
Page 24
budget because I think that's -- I know you're familiar with it, but I
thought that for the public's perspective, I wanted them to get a sense
of how we get to where we are when I submit my certification of
need to you in accordance with Florida state statute.
So our budget and the creation of it is always in line and
supportive of our overall mission. And, of course, our mission is to
preserve and protect the lives, property, and constitutional guarantees
of all persons. So that's pretty straightforward. In order to do that,
we have built a strategic plan much like you were talking about
earlier with priority goals and objectives.
And when we look at budget formulation, we make sure that
everything that we're looking for is supportive of that strategic plan.
We have all members of our leadership team involved in the process,
and we're focused on our priorities as well.
And just to give you a sense, if you think about one of our patrol
districts, so you're -- not the same as your districts, but in our patrol
district, we have a lieutenant that runs the operation; we have
lieutenants throughout the organization. They're in charge of
bureaus. They start from the bottom up to develop what needs they
see for the coming year. They then submit that to their captain and
director level, which is the division level. They will review each of
those requests, and they actually have to make a presentation to a
board or group consisting of the chief of admin, the director of
finance, the colonel, and they actually go through and review each
and every request, again, really to make sure that they align with the
strategic plan and the reason that we're making the request.
The other thing that I think is important to know is there are
specific requirements under Florida State Statute 30 with regard to
sheriff's duties and responsibilities, and everything that we submit to
you has to be compliant with that as well.
We're currently using the Tyler MUNIS system ERP, or
June 20, 2024
Page 25
Enterprise Resource Planning software tool. That helps us with
integrating our finance and accounting. It allows us to track
everything that we're doing. And as I understand it, Tyler has now
purchased ResourceX, which is what you're using. So we don't
know what or how that may change what we do in the future, but
we're certainly looking forward to see if there are any new and better
ways that we can operate.
You know, we just think of best practices for zero-based
budgeting bottom to top, and that's how we formulate the budget.
But there are a couple other things that we utilize, and it's not done
every year. Some are every other year. But two important things.
In preparation for where we're headed both annually and, in the
future, we've commissioned a population and growth study from
David Farmer; you have as well. He has helped us in the past to
look toward the future. We're currently looking at updating that
study today. So we take that information and projection when we're
thinking about budgets not only today but in the future.
The other thing that's really -- I believe is really very important
is that, you know, we are a nationally accredited agency, and how
that relates to budget is we do periodic workload and organizational
reviews that are mandated under the accreditation process. That lets
us know and rebuild, refocus, ensure that we're not only meeting our
priorities both now and for the future, but also change things, because
it really forces you to go look and review. So it's not only best
practices nationally, but it helps us to build our system.
So what are the results of all that? U.S. News and World
Report, safest community out of 150 communities in the nation.
That's what that gets us. Best place to retire. Along with
everything that you're doing and your leadership in the county to
what we do for public safety, absolutely the best place in the country
to live. That is the overriding overall result.
June 20, 2024
Page 26
But, you know, we've got some individual things that I think are
important to highlight. One, your SWAT team here in Collier
County, again -- and they've done this before, but this past year, their
SWAT roundup competition ranked No. 1 nationally for their skills
and abilities. That is fabulous.
Your Corrections Emergency Response Team, which is a
SWAT team for the jail, they ranked No. 2 in their competition
nationally. So the -- and I say that to show the quality of the
training, of the equipment, all of which you support to enable us to
accomplish.
We've had some legislative successes. We have the massage
parlor bill, and that was -- that was requested by us, worked on by
your Sheriff's Office, to help thwart human trafficking in our
community. We do a lot with human trafficking, but we think that is
going to be helping what we do for the future.
A fentanyl enhancement bill for public safety, that was passed,
and what that does is it enhances penalties. If you recklessly
endanger the lives of first responder, fire rescue, EMS, and law
enforcement, your penalties can be enhanced at the end of your
sentence. So we thought that was critically important, because you
know we've had two of our deputies historically that have been
overcome by fentanyl. Both saved by Narcan, so we are thankful for
all of that.
We created a comprehensive Laced & Lethal drug program,
antidrug program for fentanyl. It has four component parts:
School, education for our kids; community awareness; enforcement,
which we are doing a lot of. The State Attorney just mentioned it.
We're not only a part of her teams, but I can tell you in the first year,
and actually the first six months of that program, we had 57 arrests
for the sale of fentanyl right here in Collier County.
And then our exposure control element of that which really
June 20, 2024
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helps to protect our law enforcement officers. And, by the way, we
have had requests from across the nation for that part of our plan.
We send them the whole plan because there was really no one
comprehensive plan that dealt with this. And so we are very, very
proud of that.
A lot of technology advances. I won't get into that unless you
want to, but we're also looking at the future. And I think with what's
going on around the world, there are a lot of concerns out there.
And, you know, we're looking at three main directions: Safety,
self-reliance, and security. And, you know, we've always dealt with
safety, but we are trying to become more self-reliant, because as
we've known from the natural disasters that we've had, and who
knows about the future of other disasters, we certainly will get help if
people can get here or if they're not engaged in the same disaster.
And there have been times when our help has had to leave because
other parts of the state were hit as well. So we're looking at a variety
of different ways to address that.
We're looking at how to secure ourselves as a community. And
there's a couple of ways that we're doing that. We have just
implemented the start of a Community Emergency Response Team.
We had our first training within the last two to three weeks. So
we're going to build a cadre of residents/citizens who want to
participate and help there in a variety of ways, from communications
in Ham radio all the way to technical capabilities that they might
bring to the organization.
We're increasing our volunteer core overall. And then we are
creating a new emergency volunteer capability. And, in fact,
tomorrow night I'm going to be meeting and giving a presentation to
the 1013 Club, which is retired law enforcement officers here in
Collier County, and we're going to look to them -- we provide them
the opportunity to certify to carry a firearm each year, so we meet and
June 20, 2024
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greet and know them. And we've started to ask if they would be
interested -- if we ever needed assistance for a particular event or
incident, would they be interested in assisting. And, of course, cops
are cops, and they said absolutely. So we're going to do a
presentation tomorrow night.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Commissioner Kowal, did he
say yes to that? You've got him on the list, Sheriff?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I put his name on the list already, so...
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just want to make sure he's
on there.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: He's coming, without a doubt.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: He's sitting over there quiet.
Okay, Dan, they're looking for you.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: So we're also doing -- we are looking
at Texas A&M University for providing some community awareness
training, some preparation training, and that's a community-based
training for those who are interested in doing that.
We're also looking at connecting with an online university as
well that we got referred to from them. So if you can't come into an
actual training course, you can take it online. So it's really all about
continuing what we do, keeping our community safe and then making
sure our community, our residents are prepared for whatever comes.
And I'll leave it open to questions.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I've got some questions. I'll
just jump in.
Sheriff, thank you so much, you know, for coming. And I said
this last year, we don't get -- we don't get separate reports from every
department -- we get a few. I said this last year, yours is always
phenomenal. It's -- I think I said to you the last time we spoke, you
could hand it to a stranger, and after going through it, it's just so
thorough. It's uncomplicated, very clear.
June 20, 2024
Page 29
So whoever, you know -- and like you said at the beginning, sir,
it's a team of people that put that together, but I'm so appreciative
when it comes across my desk, because I don't have to have a -- you
know, a Ph.D. in -- you know, in anything to take a look at it.
A few attaboy things that, you know, you hadn't mentioned, but
I think it's worthy of mentioning because it really jumped out in your
package to us, your separate package, was how hard you work on
grants. I mean, when you sit there and see half a million dollars and
then you, you know, line item everything, I mean, that's money that
has to be chased. And there's so many counties that miss out on
opportunities.
And, you know, I know from working, you know, in other, you
know, jobs, it takes a lot to go after -- a lot of times people don't go
after the grant money because it's like, oh, we had to turn in
something this thick to maybe get $10,000. You know, the juice
wasn't worth the squeeze, as I always say. Well, you're squeezing
the juice, because that was really impressive on grants. So, you
know, hats off to you on that as well.
The last two things I just wanted to mention is I like how you
always invest in IT. And like you said, "I don't really want to get
into it unless asked." I just wanted to have you hit some of the high
points of the investment that you continue to make in IT. What are
some of the new things that are coming into the county, without
doing too deep of a dive? But like you say, you know, we're here,
you know, to inform the public. Because you're really working hard
to keep -- keeping the Sheriff's Office on the -- at the leading edge
when it comes to technology.
Share with us a couple of things of where that investment that
you continue to make every year is going to go for this budget.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yeah, thanks for that question.
You know, we always try to be on the leading edge of anything
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Page 30
law enforcement and public safety related. Certainly, technology is
one of them.
The most recent technology advancements are in our real-time
operations center, and that is an adjunct to the 911 center where, as a
call comes in, they are listening to the call. We have analysts that
start to evaluate the call. They bring up cameras, like traffic cameras
if it's in an area of an event.
We are one of six agencies in the country that have been
authorized by the FAA to fly drones without line of sight up to three
miles; that is a pilot program right now. We've used that several
times now where a call comes in of a crime in progress -- this first
one happened to be a burglary. We sent the drone out while they're
still getting information on the event. The drone finds the location,
sets up on top of it, videos to the operations center, operations center
feeds all that to the deputies, and pinpointed the subject, the burglar,
moving between houses, hiding in certain places, until finally he just
threw his hands up and stood in the middle of the road and said, "I
can't outrun a drone." So...
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Are you adding more drones
to your inventory for the, you know, upcoming year or two? Is that
something you're projecting?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We are. We use them in the way that
we're allowed in the field. Our supervisors have them. We can
have a drone up and feed information at the point they get to a lost
person or other type of emergency. But the telemetry between
aircraft and drones has to advance before we can go any further with
our pilot program. But we'll wait. But we are ready to do it.
And, you know, all this reduces response time, gives more
information to the responding deputy, and has more successful
outcomes. So -- and there are many other things, communications
technology, digital technologies, we're using AI for the right reasons,
June 20, 2024
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again, to catch those few criminals that choose Collier County. They
should have chosen another county.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just from a personal
view -- so I do a lot of work with Warrior Homes for Collier County,
Dale Mullin. And, you know, once a year we go out into the woods
to try to find homeless veterans or just citizens and give them a
helping hand and point them in the right direction.
I saw you have smaller drones that, instead of us trudging
through the woods, the sheriff that I was teamed with said, "Oh, we
don't actually have to go out in the woods. We're going to fly a
drone and save us some time, because if we don't see anybody out
there, then we can move on to the next stop."
So we, like, quadrupled our efficiency from this tiny little drone
being able to fly out to an area where commonly there were homeless
people, but maybe not always. And then when we didn't see
anybody, then we didn't have the need to spend the next 40 minutes
to go through the brambles and whatnot. So it was a big help.
Lastly, I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about
retention and recruitment. You know, you come to the Board of
County Commissioners meetings, you know, graciously, and give us
a deep dive all the time as to how things are going, so I don't think
any of us ever feel like we don't have a good handle on what the
Sheriff's Office is doing. What's still your concern or the
temperature in the water, lastly, when it comes to retention and
recruitment? I know it's got to always be high on your list. Where
is it now, and is there something we can do to help you with that?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: It's very high on our list. You know,
it has been for some time. Unfortunately, there are some places in
the country that do not support their law enforcement. New people
do not want to become involved in law enforcement.
We're very fortunate in that we use that as a recruitment tool,
June 20, 2024
Page 32
that we have a community that supports professional law
enforcement here and allows us to do our job.
So, yes, it's an ongoing chore to recruit and retain people. Cost
of housing, cost of living overall, and the biggest thing is that we just
need to remain competitive with other law enforcement agencies
surrounding us, with other sheriff's offices surrounding us. We have
remained competitive, but I would say this: At a point where
everyone's new budgets across the state come into play, I'm going to
make sure that we remain competitive, and if I need to come back
and make a request for us to remain competitive, I would like to do
that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just a couple questions. I was going to tag on a little bit about
the recruitment, because I notice you're down about 200 positions.
And the question was, is that an issue of starting salaries, or is there
something that we can do to assist you in reducing that number of
open spaces?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: No. That is a quandary that I've had
since I came from the City of Naples. The way that we submit to
you with our budget, historically I've been told we always have to
attach numbers to that.
Those numbers don't actually equal the number of funded
positions that we have in the budget. So there's another line item
there that shows the number of funded positions versus vacant.
We are pretty typical. We run about 20 positions throughout a
year because of requirements, because of turnover. But we're -- just
to make sure -- the community doesn't know -- we're not down 200
positions. We have worked through and taken over a lot of those
responsibilities, but you'll also see that we're increasing the funding
for the request each year. So with the budget we've presented, we
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Page 33
will be looking at probably a total of -- with the vacancies we
currently have today and that which we would be authorized October,
about 30 positions.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Obviously, this
board has always prioritized public safety --
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and made sure that you've
always had the resources that you need. And your increase is about
$20 million, I believe, is the overall increase.
And this is kind of a question for the manager as well as for you.
Our -- it looks like we're moving towards the rolled-back millage
rate. That generates about 12 or $13 million in, I think, new
revenue. And I want to make sure that we understand that that new
revenue, plus some, would go to the Sheriff's Department. There
won't be a whole lot left over for other county programs, and I just
want to make sure that we fully understand this. Because this
budget's based on a rolled-back millage rate budget which is, I think,
the right way to go based on what we've been told. But I just want
to make sure that we're careful about doing that, which leads me to a
question concerning the radio system that we need to replace,
because I don't know how that's incorporated in here at this point --
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Right.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and what the timing is.
Can you kind of elaborate a little bit as to the timing of when we're
going to need to pony up for the new radio system and what you
think that may cost us?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: A couple of things. You know, based
upon my certification of need to you, I'm not looking to where the
funding that you're going to use comes from. I mean, obviously, I
know it because I've come up through the system in the city and the
county, but I think that's more a question for the manager.
June 20, 2024
Page 34
The radio system, which is a responsibility of the county -- but
we participate very closely. We have a great working relationship
with them -- we've been trying to make enhancements together with
them looking at the system, making sure that we have 95 percent
coverage throughout the county. They have looked at different ways
in which they can accomplish that.
I think the dilemma is we are getting on in age with the 800
system, and with technology, as you all know, over the, what, about
20 years that the system's been in place, technology today is
dramatically different than it was at that time.
But I would refer to the Manager for some of the dollars and
how that would be done. Believe me, if we thought we were in
critical need for this, we would have been working together with the
Manager right away -- she's very attentive, and her staff is very
attentive -- and then we would come to you and make that
recommendation.
Do I think we need to have a plan to refurbish or replace the
system? Yes, and before we get to that point that it becomes a
problem.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I want to, again,
reiterate the priority of this board has always been public safety, and I
want to congratulate you in your efforts to make Collier County the
safest place -- really one of the safest places in the country to live.
So that's kudos to you and to all the men and women in your agency,
so thank you.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: First, I'd like to thank you,
Sheriff, for the job you're doing, and especially the men and women
that work alongside you every day out there to provide this umbrella
of safety that we all live in.
I just want to piggyback a little bit on the retention issue. Do
June 20, 2024
Page 35
you see -- or maybe somebody else can answer this. Do you see a
specific, let's say, time and grade or rank area or where we -- when
we do see an attrition or a turnover of people coming, getting trained,
and then working for a certain amount of time and then just kind of
bailing out and, you know, after we spend the money to get them
trained up with some of the best equipment, best things available.
Do we have a pattern, or do we know where --
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I don't know that we have so much a
pattern. We'll ask the chief in a second, because he supervises HR.
But what we find typically is we have an agency of a lot of new
people, five- to 10-year people, and then we have a lot of senior
people, because when we went through the economic downturn for
10 years, we were not adding new people.
So our concern is we've got senior people with expertise who are
retiring, just, you know, retiring out at the end of DROP or because
they've met their 30-year opportunity to do that. The other side is
we're not seeing the length of commitment for career, I think, that
we've seen historically in law enforcement. There's all the more
flexibility in "I want to do this for 10 years. I want to go do
something else."
But, again, we're facing immediately everybody wants to
come -- not everybody. We have a lot of people that want to come
here to work and live, till they find out how much it costs to live, and
they can't find a house, and they're right out.
So before we even get them into the system, we lose them.
Those who are -- that do hire, we do a lot of recruitment. Locally,
we have a great program with the Immokalee Foundation, which we
have connected with to bring in people to be trained as dispatchers.
We're looking at people with connections that have the ability for
housing here.
So I'm not sure that there's any one thing, but a variety of things.
June 20, 2024
Page 36
And certainly, as I mentioned before, your support, the support of the
community has a lot to do with why people would want to become
involved in law enforcement here as opposed to other communities.
But it goes right back to if we do not remain competitive -- as I watch
other organizations, to your point specifically, we need to recognize
and thank the deputies that have worked here that have made all these
goals to be accomplished and to hold them -- because the hard
part -- you know, becoming No. 1, it's not easy, but when you get
there, you want to keep it, and I think that is our next challenge.
And competitive everything is something we need to look at but in a
very fiscally responsible way.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Sheriff.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And this is for you, Chief. I
actually have a letter here from Donna McGinnis with regard -- you
know, we met out at the rifle range -- or the gun range a few months
ago, a couple months ago. And with the housing affordability issue,
there's a lot of people that moved in just to the west of the gun range
and then went, "Uh, there's a gun range over there," so -- and we're
having a lot of issues.
But I have a letter here from the Garden with regard to the
plantings for the sound barrier there, and they're going to supply the
plants to us for free. So the irrigation installation and things will be
on us. So squirrel a little bit of money away over in here, get with
Ed Finn. You and I, when we spoke, that we would collaborate
together to ensure that that sound barrier's, in fact, planted.
And on that same note, how are the conversations going with the
potential relocation and an indoor facility with regard to our gun
range?
CHIEF SMITH: Thank you, Commissioner.
For the record, Greg Smith, chief of administration for the
June 20, 2024
Page 37
Sheriff's Office.
First, let me say that planting the berm and doing those other
things that might be necessary to make enhancements to the current
range, that sounds like an excellent opportunity for inmate labor to
assist with the county --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I love it.
CHIEF SMITH: -- in getting a lot of that stuff done --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I love it.
CHIEF SMITH: -- at a minimal cost.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Amen.
CHIEF SMITH: So I think that we can go in that direction.
We're having ongoing discussions with the County Manager,
Mr. Finn, and their staff to source some real estate somewhere that
we might be able, you know, along the way to move that range.
Certainly, everyone understands the need is there. And they're not
making any more land in Collier County, so we need to, like, you
know, find a parcel pretty quickly.
One of the things that you'll have presented to you today is an
acquisition on the Sheriff's behalf for a District 5 substation. So they
are starting to act on the needs of the Sheriff with that regard. But I
do think that the range is one that's a priority moving forward with
the increased populations.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding. Very good.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Sheriff.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you.
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
MR. JOHNSON: All right, Commissioners. Brings us to the
Supervisor of Elections.
June 20, 2024
Page 38
CHAIRMAN HALL: Page 8 in the constitutionals.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Perfect.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
MS. BLAZIER: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, my name is Melissa Blazier. I'm your Collier County
Supervisor of Elections.
This morning, our Fiscal Year 2025 budget request comes in at
$5.5 million, which is a 9.8 percent decrease from our current budget,
and that's primarily due to the fact that we are currently conducting
two countywide elections, so the March presidential preference
primary and the upcoming primary election, and then in this budget
request we are only funding one countywide election, and that is the
November general election.
In addition to that request, we have requested an additional
$1.5 million in 301 funding, and that is for voting equipment and
voting system upgrades that would take place in Fiscal Year 2025
after the general election but before the 2026 election cycle.
And with that, that concludes my comments. Any questions?
It's a small budget request.
CHAIRMAN HALL: We're good. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MS. BLAZIER: Thank you, gentlemen, ma'am.
CLERK OF COURTS
MR. JOHNSON: All right. And that brings us to the Clerk of
Courts.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Here come the suits.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, geez.
MS. KINZEL: Thank you. Good morning. It's hard to
believe it's already another budget cycle, but here we are.
June 20, 2024
Page 39
So good morning, Commissioners. I have with me Derek
Johnssen, our finance director; Mike Smykowski, our director of
administration; and Mike Netti, who's our director of recording and
accounting. And all of these counterparts with the math and budget
expertise work to bring our programs to completion.
I do want to thank first -- it's kind of interesting wrapping up the
constitutionals because they took all my thunder. But remember, the
Clerk's Office is integrated with all of them. We do all of the assets.
We do all the financial reporting. We work with each and every one
of the people that spoke previously, whether it's the courts, the state's
attorney, and the Sheriff, and Melissa in Supervisor of Elections. So
we are very integrated to all of the operations.
So we want to thank the Board, the County Manager and staff,
and, of course, I want to thank the great staff of the Clerk's Office
who support us every day and give great customer service to our
constituents.
Our 2025 budget request meets all the guidelines, as you
prescribed. Our budget is less than 1 percent of the county's budget
at .75 percent. We participated in the ResourceX program for
budget responsive, and that implementation's reflected in the
documents that you've received through the budget office.
We meet all of the policy guidelines. We participate in the
Board's insurance for employees, payroll plan, and follow pretty
much the guidance that you give to the staff for the county.
I would like to mention a couple of recent successes that we
have on our books. Automation, that seems to be the word that
you're hearing from everyone, and it has to continue. We have
automated everything from our records and information to the first
100 years. All of the recording documents for Collier County are
now automated and online for property and real records. That goes
back to the late 1800s, so we're pretty proud of that.
June 20, 2024
Page 40
Also in the recording department, I'll brag a little bit more about
them, for any of you interested, you can now be married online or get
your marriage license online.
So we offer a lot of these services now, including a mobile app
for recording. We found that with our contractors, this meets a
significant need in the community, and so we are trying to continue
to upgrade and update so that it provides convenient service and also
streamlines what we do so that we're able to do more with the same
individual staffing that we have right now.
Our budget, we did reduce it by one FTE going in the right
direction, but with all of the increases in population and activity, we
were only able to reduce by one staff.
The other major project that I want to bring to your
attention -- because the Clerk of Courts often is the backroom
component of what we do. We operate and manage the financial
systems for the Clerk, the Supervisor of Elections, and the Board of
County Commissioners. So we had a major upgrade this year with
the incredible cooperation of county staff; the Supervisor of Elections
will be going on with some of these things. We updated your
platform. You've heard how important it is to update mobile data,
upgrade mobile radios, upgrade the systems to make sure that you are
on a platform that is sustainable in the current environment.
Cybersecurity, obviously incredibly important.
So we maintain all of those systems, but we specifically updated
our SAP financial system at the latter part of last year to the latest
platform. That enabled us this year to implement a more significant
change in the time and attendance programs and technology that we
have. This will not only add more transparency, but it will give us
the ability to better track our labor, associate it with more projects,
get a better handle on the total cost of everything that we do.
And we've had great cooperation with all of the county
June 20, 2024
Page 41
departments. The Clerk is the first guinea pig, so we will have that
completed in the next couple months with all of our payroll and
backup information, and then we will start implementing what we've
been working on for the Board's side this year. Those are really the
largest things that we've done. I don't want to belabor it.
We do provide the Board our budget book on May 1 of each
year with the details, and this is available to the public, if they have
any questions, and it includes information about each and every one
of our departments and our services.
And with that, we'll just look for any questions you might have.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No questions. Carry on.
MS. KINZEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
MS. KINZEL: Appreciate it. And I appreciate the Board's
continued support as we work through a lot of projects. It's been a
great difference in working with the County Manager and the
Commissioners in the past couple of years. So I look forward to
continuing that.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. I don't believe we have the
Property Appraiser, the Tax Collector, so we'll move on to Public
Safety.
MS. PATTERSON: Troy, did you have any speakers for the
constitutional officers?
MR. MILLER: I do not.
MS. PATTERSON: All right. We can move on to Public
Safety, but we're up on a court reporter break as well.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Do you want to take a break
now?
MS. PATTERSON: If you believe we're going to have a longer
conversation, maybe that would be best, and then we can go to Public
Safety.
June 20, 2024
Page 42
CHAIRMAN HALL: We'll go ahead and break, and we'll be
back at 10:30.
(A brief recess was had from 10:20 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Chief Choate, bring it to us.
CHIEF CHOATE: Good morning, Commissioners. Michael
Choate, your executive director of Public Safety. It's an honor to be
here this morning. You know, the thing I love about public
workshops is this is a -- this is a planning tool as we describe our
budget, and it gives us the opportunity to actually include you in our
plan and to seek your input and to field your questions and so forth.
So as your Public Safety director, I am charged with managing
five internal district -- or slash areas and -- divisions/areas. Those
include emergency management, emergency medical services, that
includes our telecommunications area, that also includes a dependent
fire district, which you have an MSTU for the Ochopee fire district
and an MSTU for the Goodland fire district. And I'm also
responsible for $94.8 million of Public Safety funds, and I do not take
that lightly.
So with that, I have surrounded myself with competent division
directors which, therefore, makes my job easier. We've
been -- we've been faced with a lot of challenges over the last -- since
I was brought on as your Public Safety director. We've had turnover
rates. We've had recruitment and retention issues. We've had two
collective bargaining sessions where we've successfully been able to
close two contracts within our EMS groups. And so we've had a lot
of changes.
I heard a term yesterday that Public Safety -- I think
Mr. Barnwell actually said it in a meeting yesterday, that Public
Safety was actually that aircraft carrier, and it took a long time to get
us turned around, and I think we are turned around now, and we're
June 20, 2024
Page 43
headed in a different direction.
So questions, Commissioners? We can start with emergency
management, EMS.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You're driving the bus.
CHIEF CHOATE: All right. Emergency Management,
Director Summers.
MR. SUMMERS: For the record, good morning. Dan
Summers, your director of Emergency Management for Collier
County.
And as you know, we continue to be responsible for your
disaster preparedness response, recovery, and mitigation. Our team
has worked incredibly hard. We're still in recovery, if you will, and
lessons learned from both Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Irma.
I think we've had an incredibly successful period. We've
almost completed that east bay renovation for our logistics supply
warehouse. We do have a temporary certificate of occupancy.
We're still waiting on the builder to punch list that facility, and we're
going to start our soft move on Monday to get that logistics staging
area in tiptop shape in order to get the first push of commodities to
our community in the disaster.
And I just want to thank you, and I want to thank the surtax
committee. I think you're going to see that this is going to be a best
practice. There are many, many communities that would just roll
over to have an opportunity to have a staging area in order to be
efficient in disaster response and save money by gaining commodity
and using grant during blue sky periods as opposed to gray sky. So
we're very excited.
We feel a little bit behind the curve on timelines, but my staff
has committed weekends and evenings to get that warehouse facility
up and operational, so that's next on our list.
We've continued to work across the board on standby
June 20, 2024
Page 44
contracting. You know, when you're a disaster survivor, not only as
a government public safety worker, you are not able to run at
complete efficiency. And with our partners at Florida Division of
Emergency Management, who also have a host of standby contracts
now, certainly working with our state and federal partners, I feel very
good about the readiness posture going into this season.
The Sheriff mentioned his engagement with volunteers, and we
have done likewise with our volunteer agency coordinator who is
now working under the financial support of the Community
Foundation of Collier County formally setting up a business unit
called Volunteer Organization Assisting [sic] in Disaster. With
close to 300 non-profit agencies in Collier County to be able to gather
that group, put a business process together, leverage the horsepower
of volunteer agencies, nongovernmental organizations and churches,
we're going to bring that fold into the efficiency of the EOC mission
tasking. That has been a tremendous partnership with Emergency
Management and the Community Foundation of Collier County.
Continuity of operations is big to me. We continue to work
with what we call our emergency support functions, our different
agencies to make sure that we've got staff depth in the EOC. We've
got contract depth. We have resource identification within the EOC
operations. And I think that continues to go well.
We are paying very close attention to our shelter space. We're
paying very close attention to our frail and elderly to make sure
they -- what we refer to as lifeboat. Not the love boat, but the
lifeboat of services during gray-sky events, and we work very
carefully on that registry, and we have a good team that will kind of
do what I refer to as disaster casework on steroids during times of
EOC activation.
And finally, just understand that our threats change all the time.
You know, we are spending more and more time on mass violence
June 20, 2024
Page 45
planning; mass casualty planning; obviously, our natural hazards
planning; our engagement with nuclear power plant planning over in
Miami; and then, of course, anything associated with terrorism. We
have some dotted lines, if you will, in cyberterrorism and also
continuing to look at anything else that might be a national threat.
Our partnership and the horsepower at the Florida Division of
Emergency Management is quite good. Our governor has supported
emergency management in ways that I have not seen before in my
42-year career in Emergency Management, and our team and our
interagency cooperation, our mutual aid engagement with
surrounding partner agencies are good.
And lastly, I have to thank the community. I have to thank the
county employees, the municipal employees. One message, one
effort, one team, and I feel very confident that, you know, we'll do
the best that we can and do a pretty good job with whatever Mother
Nature throws at us.
Thank you.
CHIEF CHOATE: Thank you, sir. Also, moving on to EMS,
Commissioners --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Hang on one second, Chief.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Hey, Chief. I just wanted to
ask Dan a couple questions.
First, thanks for what you did. You know, even before I was a
commissioner, you know, working with you when I was at Physicians
Regional, you know, you were just top notch. You know,
literally -- we always say, no one's irreplaceable. You know, when it
comes time for you to go fishing and play golf and not do this
25-hour-a-day job that you do, you'll be tough to replace.
But a couple quick questions.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you.
June 20, 2024
Page 46
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: During Ian, when we were
all, you know, coming and going in the EOC and, you know,
watching just an incredible operation and your team being incredibly
responsive, one thing that -- and we talked about it. This wasn't any
big secret. There were a few little holes there. You know, it was
disappointing to see a desk with a name of a very important agency
and have them be missing in action, and then right next to them -- so
I won't throw anybody under the bus that was missing. But then
right next to them you may have LCEC, and they're there 24/7. It's a
decision-maker. So it's not somebody that just had a phone book. It
was somebody that we could get rapid response from.
And it just seemed like there was -- there's a few agencies that
didn't realize that by them having their cubicle empty or some of the
cubicles that had somebody in there, but it was, okay, of no value
because we'd go to them with a problem. They'd say, "Oh, I don't
know. Let me make -- let me call," and, you know, I would say,
"Oh, I already called that number and left three messages."
So as we prepare for this hurricane season, you know -- and this
isn't being directive. This is just -- you know, just brainstorming.
You know, something from you out to the community to those key
leaders who were present in saying, "Thank you. We look forward
to seeing you again," but also to some of those agencies saying, "You
know, we had a chair for you, and it was cold the entire time," and it
would have been very helpful if somebody was there that could have
been a conduit to either, you know, a medical facility or, you know,
some other agency.
Because you do an awesome job setting up that command
center, but if they don't, you know, man the station -- and it was -- it
was -- it was obvious the ones that were missing, because it was so
obvious how helpful the ones were that were there and how they
made our jobs easier. I mean, the minute I got a call that there was
June 20, 2024
Page 47
something traumatic happening in the way of -- you know, I just use
LCEC as an example. It was great to then be able to look at their
key leader. And when she -- you know, sometimes she'd say, "I just
got a call about it, we're on it," or she'd say, "I hadn't heard that.
Thank you for passing that. I'm on it." You know, to see how
quickly we were able to respond to things. But, you know, if that
person wasn't in the seat, we sort of were moving in slow motion.
You know, what's your thoughts on that, and is there anything
we can do this year to maybe get a few more butts in the seats in
some of those key, you know, cubicles where they were kind of
missing in action? And some of those empty cubicles were really
key, you know, partners in time of emergency, you know.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. And thank you for that
observation, and you're 100 percent spot on. As you know, I make
sure that our house is welcoming. We offer training and
engagement. Some of those agencies are on our mailing list for
invites and engagements every day, including personal phone calls to
come and participate.
We do have a couple of private agencies in town that think that
they can work in a silo or can work successfully in a disaster
remotely. A hurricane is not a disaster environment that you can
work virtually. As you explained, that interaction at -- one-on-one
interaction is important for mission success.
I think maybe we could have a conversation, and some of those
agencies, maybe an invite by the Board would encourage their
participation and to get, as you said, decision-makers in that room.
And maybe --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I really like that idea.
MR. SUMMERS: I think an invitation, because even
to -- we've seen reluctance to even engage in MOUs or other
activities where, let's say, we need to place a special-needs client due
June 20, 2024
Page 48
to medical frailty, and we continue to see some reluctance even
though we offer to pay or offer to reimburse that entity.
So maybe an invite from you-all to strengthen that partnership.
And I think there are just one or two that you and I know are not
engaging the way we'd like them to. Maybe an invite would nudge
that along.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. Maybe that's
something you could work with the County Manager.
MR. SUMMERS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And then it, you know,
comes from either her or our chairman or whatever the -- and like
you said, it's not a pile of 50 letters. It's a couple. And maybe even
some thank you letters. I mean, I'm going to throw a shout out.
Tricia Dorn from LCEC --
MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely. Rock star.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- I mean, that lady was a
rock star during Ian, you know, and there were others. But I just
mean -- you know, it was like, wow, we need -- we need 10 other
people in these other seats. And it's actually, like you said, less than
10. But if she wouldn't have been there -- I mean, she was taking
care of stuff at light speed and, also, she was a decision-maker. She
was a senior person in that, and it made all the difference in the
world. She wasn't there just answering the phone telling us what we
already knew.
And the other seats, Matt Holiday from NCH, I mean, you could
tell that guy was sleeping in the EOC because he had, like, you know,
a 5 o'clock, 10 o'clock, and a 12 o'clock shadow, and it was like he
never went home. But it was so comforting to know that if we had
something major, that we didn't have to hunt down somebody from
NCH. I mean, he was there 24/7 basically, and that was so helpful.
So, you know, as you were saying, anything we can do to assist,
June 20, 2024
Page 49
you know, those one or two agencies. And then also, you know,
some thank-yous to make sure that the ones that did it great do it
again because, like you said, there was a few that were trying to dial
it in remotely, and it was like, I mean, you know, I can do that. You
know, we need something more robust.
So, yeah, that sounds like a great idea to suggest, and it might
be -- maybe it's two letters. Thank you. We look forward to seeing
you again if in the unlikely event we have an emergency, but we
might. And like you said, a hurricane's quite a bit different.
MR. SUMMERS: And we work -- just to understand,
too -- excuse me -- that, you know, we're engaged with these partners
365 days a year. Wildfire events, other severe weather events. So
you know, people like Trish, as an example, you know, they know
they're part of our team, we're part of their team, and that partnership
and that discussion goes on year-round.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And then, lastly -- and this
could have been a question for the Sheriff as well, but I sort of know
his answer. But when it comes to active shooter, we see so many,
you know, tragedies all over the country. If we, you know, God
forbid, had some sort of incident here, the EOC would be a big part
of a response.
You know, I just wanted to sort of set the table for you because I
know you're already doing some things. But just give us the short
version on what you're doing in that area to be prepared, you know,
should that happen -- that unfortunate incident ever happened in the
county. Because I know we are prepared, but I wanted to give you
a --
MR. SUMMERS: Well, thank you, and as an old-timer
EMS'er, too, you know, I take that patient concern seriously.
We have done numerous -- first of all, using FEMA and DHS
assets, we've put on several campus emergency classes just to help
June 20, 2024
Page 50
teach school folks and private schools how to engage in that incident
management. That's part of it. It's understanding the business
process that you need to turn on just like that to manage an incident.
Second, we're partnering with the school districts, private
schools, the Sheriff. We continue to work together on what we call
"reunification." It's very much a crisis situation when parents are
unnerved, kids don't have that information. There's this
gigantic -- there's this period in that fast-breaking event that does take
some skill set to organize and put together, because we're all very
concerned about our children.
The third component that we have done is that -- in the next two
to three weeks, I hope to take delivery on our second mass-casualty
ambulance bus, and that was a partnership with Collier Area Transit,
a grant opportunity with the Healthcare Coalition. We took a CAT
bus, refurbed it. Prison Enterprises in Daytona has done a
phenomenal job; will be taking delivery of that in a couple of weeks.
And so now we'll have two of these vehicles for mass-casualty
transport.
We also use them for firefighter rehab during major fire events,
and it also provides a safe place or a cool-down location even for a
localized evacuation.
So building that capability, which right now we continue to be
the only folks in Region 6, with the exception of Okeechobee
County, that has that type of capability. And we have done that,
literally, for the cost of a radio.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thanks, Dan.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, and appreciate the support.
CHIEF CHOATE: Commissioner LoCastro, I just want to
touch back on your comment. You made a perfect point in terms of
the decision-maker, you said, that should be in the seats when we're
activated. And I think we've closed some of those gaps since Ian. I
June 20, 2024
Page 51
think Director Summers would agree with that.
And further, I would say that some of that was an educational
piece. I can speak only to the emergency services aspect of that in
terms of the fire chiefs and the Sheriff's Office, both local police
departments, et cetera, and I can tell you that it's important to
have -- that's the whole point of the ESF program, the emergency
services function, right -- or the emergency support function, rather,
in the EOC, so the decision-makers there. Because when we need
something immediately, when something comes to the attention of
the director, when we're under activation and we need that entity to
make a decision, we don't need them to get a phone. We don't need
them to have to call their boss and say, "We need. We need. Can
we? Can we?"
And so I think we've done a good job of that red carpet, so to
speak, and, "Hey, come join us. Come be part of the team." And I
think -- let's hope we don't have to use it, right?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
CHIEF CHOATE: But I think, should we activate again, for
whatever reason, natural or manmade, I would tend to say -- I would
like to say that I think you'll see a different -- a little different --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I think the wording of any
letter, if it went out to key agencies -- and like you say, in some that
might need to be a phone call -- is really critical because we're not
asking them to come into the EOC and man their seat, because that's
when they send any Tom, Dick, or Harry.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's like, no, you know, we
need a senior leader from your organization to be part of the senior
leadership team that the county has put together during time of
extreme, you know, incident.
And so, you know, there was even a couple seats that did have
June 20, 2024
Page 52
somebody in it, but it was manned. It wasn't really covered, you
know, with a person like, you know, Tricia or -- you know, Matt
Holiday are two perfect examples of people that weren't manning
anything they were -- they were engrained in your team, and it was so
obvious and so helpful.
MR. SUMMERS: And, quickly, I just want to mention to the
Commission, I take this EOC activation very seriously in that -- and
my team knows that my job is to be ready for a fast-breaking event.
Yes, we have days to spool up in EOC for a hurricane. That EOC is
ready, 24/7/365. And the only thing left to do is turn the coffee pot
on, and that's it.
And so, you know, we have the ability to re-call staff quickly.
The faster that group can engage, the faster we can support our
responders on the street and we can support those that are impacted
by the event.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have a question about the
budget, not operations. You're doing a wonderful job.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: This budget is a huge
increase.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And so in going -- when I say
"huge," public safety is imperative for our community. I'm not -- I'm
not disavowing the necessity. But there's close to a $20 million
increase year over year in this -- well, what I'm seeing. It might be
more. But I'm saying 20- for today.
I would like a little bit of discussion with regard to how we
arrived at that, and is there -- because I saw there were -- there were
large increases for reserves for capital, reserves for contingency,
reserves for cash flow; increases, increases, increases. And so I'd
like to know, were we direly deficient in our previous budget analysis
June 20, 2024
Page 53
and estimations and how we were doing? And then, as a part of that,
in my review, you know, most of the budgets of all of the
departments that you have have breakdowns; personnel costs, this
and that and the other.
The Medical Examiner was, like, 2.4 million. Give me that.
And it's up two -- it's up from 2.4 to 2.6 million, and there was
no -- there was no -- there was no breakdown on that. Is there a
reason -- and -- well, just talk about the Medical Examiner first, and
then we'll go back to the big question.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yes, sir. She's doing some upgrades there.
She's in dire straits with her facility, so she's in the middle of some
upgrades; things like coolers, adding to for more capability and more
capacity and those types of things. That is the bulk of that, if not all
of the increases that you'll see there in her -- in her budget.
MR. SUMMERS: And her toxicology cost, by the way. So,
you know, as we see more drug-related deaths, I might add.
CHIEF CHOATE: Certainly.
MR. SUMMERS: Then her toxicology studies go up by
volume, and that's a very rare labor market, too. So not many folks
in that field.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I saw the breakdown in the
writeup over here, but in the line-item amount, it was an aggregate
amount, 2.4, 2.3 million for operating and no breakdown as to where
it was -- where it was divided up. In our other budgets, it is divided
up. So, now you can talk about the --
CHIEF CHOATE: EMS.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, a portion of it's EMS.
I mean, Emergency Management was up close to a million, and fire
districts are up a minute. So talk to me.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yes, sir. So starting with EMS, we -- you
know, we've had a host of challenges I alluded to earlier in an
June 20, 2024
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opening statement, and some of those challenges include turnover,
some of those challenges have -- include a restructuring or a
reorganization, and some of those challenges have -- the bulk of that
challenge has been recruitment of qualified personnel and then the
retention of the qualified personnel, and there's been a host of
problems for that. Some of it is not unique to Collier County.
Some of that is nationwide shortages in terms of paramedics, but we
need to remain competitive.
You heard the Sheriff just stand at this same platform and give
you that speech, and we need to remain competitive. And so
through the collective bargaining process, we were able to do some of
that. We were able to increase our salaries and do some things, like
paying for experience and those types of things that, graciously, this
board has adopted and ratified in contract for our collective
bargaining units.
But I'll tell you, there's still work to be done. We have
successfully been filling positions. We have pushed out "open until
filled," and we are -- HR is pulling in groups, pulling in groups.
Right now I'm happy to say that our training staff is inundated with a
paramedic academy trying to get folks credentialed to turn loose in
the street. I'm happy to tell you that every single field training
officer that we have has a student, a new hire with them today.
And so things are -- you know, my battleship analogy where we
are slowly turning things around. But that comes at a cost,
Commissioner, as you're well aware, the additional folks that we're
bringing on.
You know, this board approved two growth units several years
ago, and that was -- just post COVID you approved two growth units
with EMS, and that predates me. That's BC, as I say. That's
"before Choate."
So once -- yes, so once I got here and we started doing our deep
June 20, 2024
Page 55
dive into analysis and we started breaking everything down, we
started -- you know, why are we short? Why are we not successful
here? What's going on? You know, and we figured out those very
things, that it's just a -- it's a recruitment issue.
Now, I'm happy to say the state is starting to get more and more
applicants. The academies are pumping out paramedic students,
they're pumping out certified paramedics, and so -- but we're all
behind. And, you know, COVID came also with -- in the
pre-hospital world, COVID came also with, "Hey, I don't want to do
this anymore," right? There were tenured employees. We lost a
plethora of employees who -- day-to-day operations are here to run
those calls. They're here, and they're willing, and they're very
competent and able to take care of you.
However, COVID was a whole different ball game for all of us,
and we found some paramedics that were just -- the burnout. And as
people would leave us -- or we would have those that were sick that
were off work, and our employees would have to work double and
triple time and quadruple time, that burnout took place, and folks
would leave us. And we found ourselves -- when I got here, I
inherited -- I inherited a mess, let's just be honest. We were short.
We were understaffed.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: How many people you got
empty in the boxes right now?
CHIEF CHOATE: So we are -- happily, I can tell you that we
are caught up to what you've previously approved. With the two
growth units, we have caught -- we have filled those spots waiting to
push them out into the field. They're all in training or -- either with a
field training officer waiting to be credentialed by the Medical
Director, and we are still asking -- as you see in the budget, we're
asking for nine additional FTEs which equals one growth unit. Our
metrics is nine for one unit.
June 20, 2024
Page 56
And so -- and that's simply explained. Obviously, there's
two -- it's a two-person unit. So it's two, four, six with the three
shifts plus one, two, three for -- we're moving to that model so that
we can eventually, as we staff up fully, have what we're going to
consider float positions which will absolutely reduce our overtime.
If we have a float position on each shift, and they -- based upon
vacation times and call-outs, et cetera, et cetera, and they'll be
able -- they'll get that notification 6:30 a.m., "Hey, report to station so
and so today because there's a hole. Report to station so and so
today. There's a hole."
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did he answer my question?
No.
How many people short are you right now, plus/minus?
CHIEF CHOATE: Chief Gastineau, are we -- are we full?
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Correct. Well, we're --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Didn't we approve 25 FTEs
the last time we changed, right?
CHIEF CHOATE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It was 25.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, let me help.
So a couple -- a couple of years ago, we came to you with what
we believed to be a staffing plan. Now, understand that this is more
art than science. I can't -- because we don't -- they've been so
short-staffed that the methodology that we used to come up with that
planning number involved going back to a point in time when we
were fully staffed and then projecting forward the growth and the
growth units that should have been -- and the people that should have
been infused into the system to come to a number that we were going
to plan to knowing that -- that number was around 72 positions short.
However, we couldn't hire 72 people. You weren't going to
give us 72 people. You shouldn't. And we didn't know, as we
June 20, 2024
Page 57
started to add people, how the system was going to respond. So
we've used that 72 as a planning number.
So to get to your question, Commissioner McDaniel, you gave
24 positions, which has taken us over two years to fill. They're just
at that point now where we're going to ask for another round, and this
is what we had agreed to, is that we would continue to come and ask
in small bites as we add people to the system.
So if you take -- you're going to make me do math in my head.
Take -- 72 minus 24 is what, Ed? Is 48. If we're asking for another
nine, that gets us to 39. So let's call it we're plus or minus 40 people
short. Now, that again is a planning number, and we're going to
continue to understand this and ask for FTEs as we can hire them.
It is a much better situation than it has been for the last couple of
years. As Chief Choate alluded to, we have, generally speaking,
enough people to fill the seats, and we're not, generally speaking,
telling people that they can't go home -- because we have people
willing to work the overtime -- but we aren't in this mandation
situation which is a very dangerous situation to be in. But we are not
fully staffed.
So I just have to caution you, while we may say all of the
allocated positions are full, fully staffed is a number that we are still
targeting at somewhere between zero and 40.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So my -- and thank you for
that answer.
MS. PATTERSON: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You can thank her later for
answering my question.
CHIEF CHOATE: I plan to later, certainly.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He sat next to me last night at
a public hearing in Ave Maria, so conversations --
CHIEF CHOATE: We were up late, sir.
June 20, 2024
Page 58
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, we were.
Talk to me about the reserve contingencies for capital, for
catastrophic events, so on and so forth. And what are those
appropriations -- uh-oh. Here comes Chris.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. I'll answer this one --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And are these --
MR. JOHNSON: -- if you don't mind, Chief Choate.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And while I have you there,
are these blended in with the 301 that we already have established for
all of the county assets that are out in the realm?
MR. JOHNSON: Those are not. Those are separate reserves.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 301 is a separate reserve?
MR. JOHNSON: Correct, correct.
So the reason you're seeing the reserve increase there is, as we
speak -- as Chief and Amy have spoke about, the attrition savings in
that fund, we've been putting in the reserve for future capital
purchases.
I'll let Bruce speak to this, or the chief in a minute. But they do
have a large capital need coming up moving forward.
If you look at the net cost there to the General Fund on that page
with the revenue and the transfers, the transfers are compliant
transfers. It's just the money that is -- that's been floating through
that plan to be used on the capital expenditures.
In addition -- you're looking at the main page, I'm assuming --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I am.
MR. JOHNSON: -- so you see the reserves for catastrophe.
That is a number that used to be in Dan's shop that now we're pushing
over to our 1813 reserve, which is our FEMA fund, and that's money
that will be set aside for initial response to disaster.
MS. PATTERSON: So it's not new money, Chris?
MR. JOHNSON: It's not new money, no. It's money that's in
June 20, 2024
Page 59
the system.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's your -- it's your -- it's
your fund accounting methodology that squirrels me all the time.
MR. JOHNSON: Essentially, the carryforward being
reappropriated in a reserve to be utilized at a future date, if that --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That helps.
MR. JOHNSON: -- simplifies it a little.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We don't like fund
accounting, just for the record; have that on the record.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, this Aggie's lost. I need to catch
up. So I'm looking at a $25 million increase, and I'm not really sure
what's real money and what's extra money or what's transferred
money or what's shifted money. So tell me, bottom line, what's
required from the taxpayers from this year's budget to last year's
budget.
MS. PATTERSON: Chris will help you.
MR. JOHNSON: Will do, will do. So I'm on Page No. --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Four.
MR. JOHNSON: It's going to be Page No. 5 here, which will
show your --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I was on 4.
MR. JOHNSON: -- your revenues.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We were still on 4 trying to
figure out what you wrote there.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: All the answers are on 5.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, okay. Go to Page 5.
CHAIRMAN HALL: No wonder.
MR. JOHNSON: That's why.
MR. FINN: Start with compliance maybe.
MR. JOHNSON: I mean, we can do that. Let's do that. So
turn back to 1A, if you don't mind.
June 20, 2024
Page 60
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 1A?
MR. JOHNSON: 1A, 1A.
So on this page you'll see the -- do I want to put this on the
overhead?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, please, because I don't think anybody
can see it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: The writing just got smaller.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, I have new eyes so I can
see it just fine.
MR. FINN: That's how you can tell we're dealing with
something important.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You're hiding stuff.
MR. JOHNSON: Okay. So on the top here, you're going to
see your General Fund compliance page. Looking at the whole
department there, you're going to see the General Fund net cost
is -- in last year's budget was $31.6 million. I'm looking at the first
section, the bottom. 31.6, that's your Emergency Management
800 megahertz, EMS, and Ochopee Fire Control added together for
last year. This year the budgeted transfers and net costs total
32.6 million. It's a $1 million increase, which equates to 3.2 percent.
So they're compliant.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Ding.
MR. JOHNSON: And then if you go down to the other section,
that's the 111 portion of that. The only one who's in there is the
Division of Forestry and Ochopee. So, again, it's money that's
flowing through the system. We earmark it. We put it in the
reserve for capital. Talking with the chiefs for -- they will be having
future needs for replacement capital, and, of course, Dan's group as
well, and Nate's with the radio maintenance.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So when all the smoke settles, it's within
budget policy?
June 20, 2024
Page 61
MR. JOHNSON: Correct, it is.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. That's all I need to know. I was
panicking at 35 percent increase.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One of these days, we're
going to move you over to a cash basis and see how you act.
MR. JOHNSON: It may be a little different.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah.
All right. Let's hear from -- let's hear from Mr. Gastineau
because he's been dutifully sitting there waiting to talk, and we
haven't got to him yet.
CHIEF GASTINEAU: That's fine. Good morning,
Commissioner. Bruce Gastineau, chief of Collier County EMS.
I'm fine just sitting here listening to you. I'm not as
long-winded as my cohort next to me, Mr. Dan Summers.
As you know, Collier County's no longer a sleepy town. We
continue to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our call
volume has been increasing steadily every year. We're up almost a
half a percent just from this year -- from last year from October 1.
Our transports are up.
And thank you -- with your support and your continued support,
the biggest thing that we've been able to overcome is what Director
Choate said, is our vacancies. And now we have a recruitment tool
where we are paying for experience, up to five years. So now we're
attracting people, paramedics from other areas of the state of Florida
or nationally registered from out of the state coming down here to
apply, whereas we didn't have that recruitment tool in the past. That
has been very beneficial to us.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that's part of the revenue
increases that are over in here?
CHIEF GASTINEAU: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
June 20, 2024
Page 62
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Dan, my colleagues call me
long-winded all the time, but it's because we have a lot to talk about.
We have a lot to say, right? We have a lot of detail. It's not
long-winded. It's detail oriented.
MR. SUMMERS: Give me the sign, and I'll put it up.
CHIEF CHOATE: Commissioners, less, more, or no?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: One correction I'll make as a
military guy. It's not turn the battleship. It's turn the aircraft carrier.
CHIEF CHOATE: Turn the --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Battleship is easy to turn.
Aircraft carrier --
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
CHIEF CHOATE: In fact, I think I may have said aircraft
carrier first --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You switched boats.
CHIEF CHOATE: -- and I think I went back to --
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. You switched boats.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yeah, I did. I did, yes. Now that you say
that, I realize I did that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Anybody got anything?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, I'm good.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So all the good stuff was on
1A, hidden on Page 1A. Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then on Page 5.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Five.
MS. PATTERSON: Small print.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I agree, the small print.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Finito?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yep.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you.
June 20, 2024
Page 63
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
CHIEF CHOATE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: My pleasure. Thank you.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Troy, do we have any public
comment on that group?
MR. MILLER: The only public comment I have registered at
this point is for public services and then for Growth Management. I
don't have anything else up until then.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you.
CORPORATE BUSINESS OPERATIONS
All right. Moving onto Corporate Business Operations.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Just turn to 1A.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Everything's on 1A. This
book could be a lot smaller if we just had 1A.
MR. KOVENSKY: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, Ken Kovensky, executive director of the Corporate Business
Operations department.
This department is comprised of four internal service divisions:
Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement Services,
and Risk Management. The department has 112 employees and a
total budget of $150 million.
The Human Resources division provides a variety of services to
county employees, including recruitment and retention,
compensation, employee recognition, employee relations,
performance management, development, and training.
This division continues to undertake activities to align with the
county's strategic plan specifically related to the Board's priority that
recruitment and retention will position Collier County to be an
June 20, 2024
Page 64
employer of choice.
This HR budget includes a request for three expanded positions.
The current staffing level of 19 is not adequate to effectively support
a county staff of 2300 employees. The same number of HR
employees supported between 3- and 400 fewer employees 15 years
ago. An industry study conducted this year found that the average
HR staff-to-employee ratio was 1.7 per 100 employees, which would
translate here to 39 HR employees.
We are looking to bolster support in the following areas: First
adding an application's analyst to support the continuous upgrades
and enhancements that are being applied to SAP, which has been
increasing in complexity and scope, requiring extensive training,
maintenance, trouble-shooting, and training.
Second, adding a management analyst to the patrol function,
overseeing timekeeping, and the management of leave programs.
Currently, this function is administered by only one FTE who
processes payroll for over 2,000 employees every two weeks.
And, third, adding an HR business partner to handle increasing
employee relations matters. This is another area lacking depth with
only one FTE supporting the entire county.
Notwithstanding the requested expanded positions, this General
Fund budget meets budget guidance and includes a 1 percent
decrease in operating expenses compared to FY '24.
The Information Technology division provides efficient,
reliable, and secure customer-oriented IT services which includes the
agency's data network, telephone system, software applications, and
data.
There are two County Manager priorities in the strategic plan for
the IT division: Cybersecurity initiatives and an IT master plan.
Cybersecurity efforts include creating the capacity to allow for more
than six months of immutable backups online, adding and upgrading
June 20, 2024
Page 65
layers to the existing security infrastructure, implementing a security
operations center, and continuing to work towards a zero trust
networking environment.
Some components of the IT master plan include adding and
replacing outdated fiber, upgrading equipment, applying software
patches, installing next-generation firewalls, and moving to cloud
applications where it is deemed a good fit.
The overall IT budget is programmed to increase by
11.6 percent primarily due to a $1.5 million investment in replacing
old network storage devices that will increase capacity and speed.
The Procurement Services division ensures proper safeguards
are in place to maintain a procurement system of quality and integrity
that protects taxpayer money by promoting fiscal stewardship and
sound budget oversight.
Current initiatives that are supporting this mission include
updating the procurement ordinance and procurement and purchasing
card manuals, continuing to enhance the recently implemented
cloud-based bidding platform, continuing the vendor outreach
program to encourage vendor engagement, and improving strategic
sourcing involving contract oversight and agency procurement
support.
This General Fund budget meets budget guidance and is
programmed to decrease by 3 percent compared to FY '24.
The Risk Management division strives to continuously develop,
manage, and improve the county's risk finance, group insurance,
safety, and occupational health programs in order to provide quality
cost-effective support to our customers, to protect the county's
financial interest against catastrophic loss, and to serve as a resource
for the health, safety, and well-being of our employees.
The budget in the group health and life insurance fund is
programmed to increase by 9.1 percent due to increasing payouts for
June 20, 2024
Page 66
healthcare claims. This budget includes a 7 percent increase to
health insurance premiums for both employer and employee. This
follows an increase of 5 percent last year that was recommended by
the county's actuarial firm in what may be a multiyear effort to
stabilize reserves.
Operating expenses are budgeted to increase in the Property and
Casualty Insurance Fund due to continued increases and reinsurance
premiums, although we are seeing signs of rate stabilization.
The overall budget across the Risk Management's three funds is
programmed to increase 7.2 percent.
That concludes my remarks. I'm available for any questions,
and my division directors are on standby as well.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Ken, what's the bottom line? What's
the -- is there an increase in budget or a decrease in the budget from
last year?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Departmentally --
MR. KOVENSKY: Well, there's four different divisions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Overall?
MR. KOVENSKY: Overall it's -- it will increase --
CHAIRMAN HALL: How much?
MR. KOVENSKY: -- because of the IT -- IT costs.
MR. JOHNSON: And if I may, Commissioner, from a -- from
a compliance standpoint, I can run through the Page 1A if you'd
like --
CHAIRMAN HALL: I can see that.
MR. JOHNSON: -- to show you the overall.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So it's like the actual change was
13.7 percent, but it was over the 3.5 percent of the guidance so,
therefore, it's like my wife went shopping and spent money and told
me how much she saved. So I see that.
MR. JOHNSON: Right.
June 20, 2024
Page 67
MR. KOVENSKY: One of the considerations is that the
workforce utilization pool is included in the HR budget, so that was a
$3 million addition. But it's not really part of the HR budget; it's just
where it's been housed.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
MR. JOHNSON: And if I may, a couple things that came out
of our ResourceX prioritization. Obviously, we discussed the
workforce prioritization pool. Another one that Ken touched on is
we're looking at our procurement ordinance and looking at the
thresholds we have established there to try to see if we can look at
other counties, states, to provide more efficiencies by maybe making
these more standard with the state and/or other counties.
So that's something -- I'll turn it over to you, Chris.
MR. FABIAN: Yeah. This is a good foreshadowing to the
report that we'll discuss towards the end of today's presentation.
But Chris is absolutely right, both on a process standpoint and
perspective for changing procurement thresholds, to create program
efficiencies and, as well, while our report tends to get less into
specific processes, this was one key recommendation, as
organizations like the City of Austin, Texas, the City of Denver,
Colorado, they're included in your report as specific case studies for
these types of recommendations, as well as some opportunities to
consider some centralized procurement up for consideration.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. Thanks, Ken.
MR. KOVENSKY: Thank you.
TRANSPORTATION
MR. JOHNSON: All right, Commissioners, that brings us on to
Transportation.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Hold onto your money.
June 20, 2024
Page 68
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, here we go. Here we
go.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Look at her 1A -- look at her
1A page. Did you see your 1A page? It's huge. With very small
print.
MS. SCOTT: Good morning, Commissioners. Trinity Scott,
Transportation Management Services department head.
This department encompasses six divisions: Capital Project
Planning, inclusive of our Stormwater Management and Coastal
Zone; Fiscal and Grant Services; Operations and Performance
management, which includes the county's three airports; Public
Transit and Neighborhood Enhancement, who oversees Municipal
Services Taxing Units and both the fixed-route and paratransit
systems; Road, Bridge, Stormwater Maintenance; and Transportation
Engineering and Construction Management.
With me at the table today I have Ellen Cheffy, who is our
director of Fiscal and Grant Services, and also in the room are several
department division directors.
Transportation Management Services employs 310 full-time
team members who dedicate their professional lives to optimize
operations and efficiently plan our limited resource capacity to
support the Board's strategic plan as Ms. Patterson directs.
Our funding sources are very diverse. They include tourist
development taxes, ad valorem, grants, gas taxes, impact fees, fares,
and infrastructure sales surtax.
Our operating and capital budgets are 100 million and
$174 million respectively.
This year we had the opportunity to work with the ResourceX
team, during which we evaluated and prioritized our programs to
ensure that each activity that's undertaken by this department
supports the Board's strategic plan.
June 20, 2024
Page 69
One of the themes with ResourceX was to be future-focused
looking at opportunities to create revenue. Over the next year, the
airports, Public Transit, and Pollution Control will be evaluating our
various fee and rate structures and will come back to the Board with
suggested modifications.
Another key initiate of ResourceX is to use our data to drive our
budget decisions. We have an amazing asset management system
that promotes our decision-making, and we continue to improve the
inputs into that system.
Road, Bridge, and Stormwater Maintenance division is currently
finishing a countywide assessment of our pavement conditions that
we're going to use to build a proactive multiyear pavement program
with a future assessment that will be utilized to assist in building our
asset management system's degradation algorithm so that we can
further refine that plan.
We're going to continue prior years' efforts to carry forward our
aggressive stormwater capital program which includes joining forces
with the City of Naples and Collier County Public Utilities to
leverage our funds for cohesive projects consistent with the
infrastructure and asset management objective.
As the County Manager has stated on multiple occasions, most
residents do not drive by and say, "Wow, what an impressive
stormwater system you have," but in situations like last week, we
must remember that the underground infrastructure is crucial for our
quality of life. And with the renewed focus on proactive
maintenance and capital infrastructure, last week's events were
manageable. I'm not saying that they were without issue, but this
county performed much better than other surrounding communities.
We will continue to prepare several other major capital projects
for construction, which are identified in the Annual Update and
Inventory Report as well as were mentioned in Mr. Johnson's
June 20, 2024
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introductory remarks, while continuing a variety of bridge projects,
intersection improvements, and roadway enhancements.
We continue to anticipate challenges such as supply chain
delays, project cost inflation, and a stressed labor force. We work
very closely with our Human Resources division on hard-to-fill
positions, attempting to -- attempting to ensure that we can remain
competitive in the market. We're also attending hiring fairs and
fostering our relationships with the higher education providers in our
area to engage potential employees.
As you are aware, we leverage state and federal funds to ensure
efficient use of the county's local funding sources; however, even
with these efforts, there are unfunded needs in the current program
for both roads and stormwater.
For many years, you've heard me come before you and say,
"We're going to need money. We're going to need money. We're
going to need money," and now we're finally to that point.
For FY '25, roadway unfunded need is approximately
$20 million. It's anticipated that the local option fuel tax will be
reimposed effective December 2025 to cover a large portion of our
anticipated needs; however, short-term borrowing opportunities may
be necessary to bridge the gap. No pun intended.
Strategic funding plans will be necessary to cover the
anticipated stormwater capital shortfall which is estimated at
$91 million for FY '25. This is, in large part, perpetuated by the
need to keep up with our local utility providers whereby the
stormwater infrastructure replacement is necessary and must be
closely coordinated.
On a brighter note, because I'm not all about the gloom and
doom, I want to point out our cost of landscaping maintenance per
mile. It has remained steady from prior years' budgets. The team
has worked hard to contain the costs while our contractor labor has
June 20, 2024
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increased in price tremendously. You have seen these contracts
come before you with 30 and 40 percent increases, and the fact that
we've been able to keep the price per mile the same is no
unrecognized feat by the team.
Our strategies have included reallocating maintenance efforts to
our in-house forces versus the more expensive contracted services,
modifying our mulch color from a very specific Collier County blend
to cocoa brown -- and I would venture to guess that no one
noticed -- and we're also reevaluating our irrigation to ensure that
we're not overwatering.
In addition, the team has developed a new cross-section for an
inverted median that will be used in our upcoming capital projects
and, as we are replacing plant material along existing corridors, we
will work to incorporate that new design.
We are actively implementing the initiatives identified through
our exercise with ResourceX that will assist in developing new
revenue sources and prioritization of our existing sources to achieve
the goal to plan and build public infrastructure to efficiently,
effectively, and sustainably meet the needs of the community.
All divisions have met the budget compliance outlined by the
County Manager's Office and your Board policy. And with that, I
thank you for your consideration of the budget that we have
presented to you today.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Did ResourceX come up with cocoa
brown?
MS. SCOTT: No. Actually, that was our team, and it's an
off-the-shelf color of mulch so...
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So we're not paying extra for
a special color?
MS. SCOTT: Exactly, exactly. We're not paying extra for that
special blend.
June 20, 2024
Page 72
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And since you brought up the
landscape median, that makes me really -- the design is something
that I've talked about for years. Have we -- I know we have some
constructed already that are inverted. Are we able to do any kind of
cost comparison with the ones that are already inverted in comparison
to a similar length of median, similar plantings, and compare the cost
yet?
MS. SCOTT: We cannot yet -- and I will tell you, one of the
reasons why -- I will do that for this upcoming year. We hired a new
irrigation person, and they -- and we actually -- we stole them from
the Botanical Gardens. But one of the things that they've been able
to do is adjust our watering significantly.
And so looking at last year's cost versus comparatively I don't
think will give us a great comparison. But by doing that this year
with our new watering protocols, I think that that will give us a more
apples-to-apples comparison. So, yes, we will do that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then the -- you know,
that was one of the things that Donna -- I don't know -- you might
have been in here, but we were -- the Garden is contributing the
plantings for the berm at the rifle range, the gun range out east, and I
know that -- and she even mentions in this letter thanking us for the
collaboration utilized in the Garden to make planting
recommendations and so on and so forth.
And have you found that to be -- is that what's actually leading
up to some of these cost reductions is less -- more Florida-friendly
planting, less irrigation, less fertilization?
MS. SCOTT: That is definitely some of the way to be able to
contain our costs as well as the significant reduction in watering.
And we've been very dry --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, yeah.
MS. SCOTT: -- until last week.
June 20, 2024
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So, yes, we've been able to go through and significantly change
how we were running our irrigation from prior. We are utilizing
partnerships with the Naples Botanical Garden for our beach berm.
They were part of our stakeholder group but then we regularly meet
with them with regard to our landscaping plant material that we're
choosing and so on and so forth.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Stormwater swales.
MS. SCOTT: All of those things --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Littoral shelves --
MS. SCOTT: -- yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- all those things.
MS. SCOTT: We are definitely coordinating with them on
those items.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Love it. Love it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. Fabian.
MR. FABIAN: I was simply going to add that while first and
foremost we seek cost -- we work on the expense side in the
recommendations for efficiencies, service-level questions,
partnerships that could take place, equally important for resource
optimization, especially for high-priority programs that have strong
alignment with countywide priorities, we have to look at the business
model overall.
And so both -- just to reiterate, you'll find in your programmatic
report examples from Grand Junction Regional Airport,
Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, all the way to larger
airports, including City of Atlanta, Hartsfield airport, some of the fee
models, that these are among the best practices. We try to come in
with an outside point of view just to help demonstrate for these types
of business operations at the airport and also, for your stormwater
operation, these are just areas of opportunity to consider for the
revenue side of the house.
June 20, 2024
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Good, thank you.
MS. SCOTT: Thank you, Commissioners.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Thank you.
PUBLIC SERVICES
Moving on to Public Services.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Chris.
As staff files in, I'll come up with a couple of remarks. First of
all, I want to --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just for your information,
you don't have any staff filing in, so you're the Lone Ranger now.
CHAIRMAN HALL: You're flying solo there, Mr. Finn.
MR. FINN: Commissioner McDaniel, I find that's usually
where I am.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You may need to call
somebody.
MR. FINN: Maybe I might have a lifeline phone call out there.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Phone a friend.
MR. FINN: Right.
In any event, I want to thank the Board for their attention to the
budget this year. I know it's been a pretty heavy lift. We started
back very early doing workshops dealing with the strategic plan, the
AUIR, and the budget, the concept of the budget policy, and we're
down the path on a new process that I think is adding considerable
value.
In any event, I'm going to just lean into this one a little bit, see if
we can get through it. The Public Service Department provides,
really, our most front-facing -- front-facing services. They provide a
wide range of public amenities, recreational opportunities, national
resource management, and access to health, wellness, and human
June 20, 2024
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services consistent with the strategic focus area of responsible
governance, infrastructure, and asset management.
The division includes Community Human Services, Domestic
Animal Services, Library, Museums, Operations and Veterans
Services, Parks and Recreation, and University Extension Services.
Additionally, through contractual arrangements, the Public
Services Department has oversight responsibilities for the Florida
Department of Health, and Public Services is also responsible for
managing mental health contracts with David Lawrence Center and
NAMI of Collier County.
The number of positions in the division is about 447. There is
an expanded request for four additional DAS positions.
Additionally, the DAS budget that you're looking at moves 11 animal
control officers into the Code Enforcement section. That is one of
the things that came up through our ResourceX evaluation, making
sure that we're resourcing things right and achieving the benefit of
same -- same over same where we have similar services that are
working in one area that have systems in place. When we can
coordinate those together, we're seeing it as a win.
So having said that, this department is one of the most largely
funded by the General Fund. There are revenue sources, certainly,
in Parks, but the revenue primarily comes from the General Fund.
Museums are funded by a portion -- a small portion of the General
Fund, but principally a transfer from TDC, which introduces another
factor that we're considering, which is the appropriate use potential
changes to the way TDC monies are used to fund operations, and that
would include the museum operations.
Additionally, most recently we've discussed several aspects of
the Public Services Department. One, the capital renewal and
replacement shifted largely from Parks to Facilities Management
except where it is specifically required to be done by the Parks
June 20, 2024
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personnel. Privatization of the aquatics has been discussed.
Similarly, we're looking at alternatives for how we can best
achieve our goals with the Museum division.
Parks fee policy is under review, and I've already mentioned the
TDC utilization for Museum. The TDC utilization for our aquatics
program, or perhaps more specifically for Sun-N-Fun, as it benefits
the tourists and the tourism industry, is one that we're going to be
considering going forward.
Mr. Hanrahan is beside me. He is the interim Parks director,
and he has been doing yeoman's duty given that the Parks is without a
permanent director, and it is also shy its maintenance -- maintenance
department head.
So having said that, if there are any questions, we will -- we will
respond to them.
Is that my compliance view up there, Chris?
MR. JOHNSON: Yes, it is.
MR. FINN: Very nice.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Why the big dip in veteran
services? I mean -- and sometimes, you know, a change is a savings
or it's, you know, you're doing something more efficient, so it doesn't
always mean a cut. But, you know, I'll just start there. And I had
some other questions, but I might see what everybody else has, but
that's one that sort of jumped out at me.
You know, veterans services. It's not a huge, you know,
operation, small team, but what are they doing different that they
don't need as much money?
MR. JOHNSON: Mr. Finn --
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
MR. JOHNSON: -- I can answer that question.
The reduction there, sir, is part of that workforce prioritization
pool. There was a position there that had remained vacant for a
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period of time.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, so it's the FTE
movement?
MR. JOHNSON: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. So -- but on their
operating budget and the things that make them work, and perform,
there's not a reduction?
MR. JOHNSON: They're up the 3.5 percent that was allowed
in compliance.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, okay.
MR. FINN: Chris, can you put up Slide 25 out of your initial
show which provides for the -- there's actually 20 total positions
coming out of the Public Services Department that's going into that
pool.
MR. JOHNSON: Let me pull that up. Give me one second.
Let me get out of this one.
MR. FINN: And, again, the concept of the pool is as the
requirements for additional positions are demonstrated to the County
Manager, the County Manager has -- always has the flexibility, but
this provides a centralized budget so that these positions are not
squirreled away where it's difficult for us to see them. It's certainly
impossible for the Board to see them when they're spread across a $2
billion budget.
So this is the concept, and you'll see that the -- if you look at the
screen, the prioritization pool is made up of about 20 positions from
the Public Services Department. Libraries, we've talked about at
length. They're having -- have had historically considerable
difficulty filling positions. Library services is one the Board has
looked at at their last meeting, and staff will be presenting that, I
believe, in the first meeting in July to wrap that service-level
discussion up, at least for the moment.
June 20, 2024
Page 78
Parks, Parks always has a large number of vacancies. That's the
largest department here in excess of 200 positions. And then
Operations and Veterans Services is both veterans services and the
operations section, and they've had some vacancies. So as the needs
come up, the County Manager will reallocate those positions as
they're needed.
MS. PATTERSON: Mr. Finn, also, just to mention, when you
look at those numbers with both Libraries and Parks, they actually
have positions that are out and open for recruitment. So as we get
those vacancies filled and then we evaluate that, then we'll be able to
look at the use of those positions.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I was just going to add, the
increase in Domestic Animal Services is -- you know, fully support
that. We've gotten a lot of e-mails from folks, but it goes without
saying, you know, we know the overhaul that you and the team are
leading to turn some things around there and some concerns.
I would leave you with the same thing that we always tell the
Sheriff. You know, if you -- as you march down the next couple
months, if you need more, you discover more, don't be shy about
coming here. You know, some departments, you know, they're here
once a year, they give us their budget, they're happy, and they're able
to move forward. That's one that's very fluid obviously, DAS. So I
think it's not lost on all of us up here that as you discover things or
come up with better ideas or something that needs to be done, you
know, don't be a stranger in these chambers here to talk to us about
maybe some adjustments that may need to be even made further to
help get DAS accelerated even more.
MR. FINN: Yes. And I do appreciate that comment, and I'm
going to quickly say that Mr. French is leading -- leading the charge
on that, and he will be before the Board talking about GMD. The 11
animal control officers I mentioned are shifting over to his side of the
June 20, 2024
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house through Code Enforcement, and with him taking the lead on
DAS, the Board will have an opportunity to ask kind of more specific
questions on DAS and the direction it's taken operationally.
MS. PATTERSON: And if I may, part of -- we had this
conversation with the advisory board last week. Part of the strategic
ask of these four is they're known deficiencies in the staffing. We're
spending time getting our arms around what it is that everybody is
doing there, what their assigned job is, or what they were hired to do,
and what they might actually be doing so that when we come to you,
we're asking in a meaningful way versus sort of trying to throw
something at the wall and see what sticks.
And so we assured the advisory committee as well that when we
have our arms around that need and an understanding what we might
need to ask for, we will certainly come back at the appropriate time,
be it midyear or at some time to the Board. So this is not tying our
hands, this is four, and we're done. It's four because we know we for
sure need these, and then we're going to evaluate any additional asks.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that's a nice segue into
what I was going to say. I would like for us, utilizing ResourceX, to
be reviewing the job descriptions of everybody that works for us.
There is no job that needs to get done that you don't do if you're a
county employee. Everybody -- you know, and I think -- I think,
and my rationale is, is everything flows with the pool of FTEs that
are requisite. When we hire -- and the relocation of DAS officers
over to Code, similarities in how they do and what they do. Same
thing at Parks and Rec. I'm just pointing at you because you're
sitting there. I'll point at Trinity. Same thing in Transportation.
So if the broom needs to be pushed, somebody that's working
there needs to push the broom, and that's a -- that's an -- that's
a -- that's a maneuver in efficiencies that will actually allow us to
aggregate how many people we really are short instead of having this
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org chart that says we're 200 people shy. Maybe not.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, pardon me.
A couple questions. Just -- I'm trying to get my arms around
the number of personnel in Domestic Animal Services and the new
hires, because you indicate that actual, we have 36 FTEs, but current,
under 2025, it says 27. And I'm not sure why that number dropped.
And then we have four expanded, which brings us to 31, which is still
obviously less than the 36 that we currently have.
MS. PATTERSON: We have temporary service -- staff
services that fill -- that round out those numbers.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So we're not short?
MS. PATTERSON: No. And that's part of the evaluation
process as well is, you know, we do use our staff services to help
augment our FTEs. But there are times, as you see, with the
Immokalee CRA, where that position's actually now going to become
an FTE.
Part of this evaluation process for DAS is, is it time that we
should be hardening those positions? Secondly is, it's nice to have
the flexibility of the staff service positions for times like now we're in
kitten season where we might need extra people, but a few months
from now we may not, and so that gives us that type of flexibility not
through FTE headcount. But that is part of this evaluation process.
My personal belief is that we'll be coming to you at some point
asking for some different or additional positions, but we want to be
very thorough and meaningful. We know the four we're asking for
are holes that aren't going to be reevaluated.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: We have approximately 200
volunteers --
MS. PATTERSON: Yes.
June 20, 2024
Page 81
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- at DAS. And from what
I've been able to observe, a lot of those volunteers -- not all of them,
but certainly a large number of them -- work very hard, long hours
cleaning kennels and doing a lot of things that would be maybe less
attractive for some people. Do we do anything to kind of honor
them or reward them in any way? I know, obviously, they're
volunteers, but do we have a small budget set aside for some types of
recognition and --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Pizza once a week.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Pizza, yeah. Something that
may sound a little silly, but just something to --
MS. PATTERSON: I'll look at Mr. French. I don't believe so,
but --
MR. FRENCH: Thank you, Commissioners. Jamie French,
for the record. I've been there for a month and three weeks now, so
I'm up for the challenge as well as continuing to do my other
responsibilities.
I would tell you that we've appreciated all of your support, and I
would tell -- and I'd also tell you is that I had no visibility or no
knowledge, and I'm certainly cognizant of it now that the volunteer
force that we have is second to none. These are amazing people of
all different age groups that are willing -- quite honestly, they'll
outwork me, and I'm up to about 73 hours a week now. But I will
tell you that -- yes.
So one of the things that we did is a collaborative space effort to
clean the place up, to share break room areas, refrigeration areas, cool
down areas, but there is an annual recognition of the volunteers, kind
of a thank you. Clearly, we've not got to that yet. We're primarily
focused on the site, to bring the site back up to both safe and effective
means and methods for operations.
We're looking at everything from site plans -- and that's what the
June 20, 2024
Page 82
volunteers are asking for first and foremost, to come in and not leave
a day with wet feet because the yards were flooded.
And so through Jaime Cook, Lisa Blacklidge, Trinity's folks,
Marshall Miller, we've been all hands on deck.
And I appreciate what Commissioner McDaniel said, because I
can tell you, I've been out in the middle of the night in the pipe off
Burning Tree Drive. I've responded, as many of you know, with
you, and that is what we do at Growth Management, no doubt, but
that's also what our other colleagues are there to do as well. So
there's no separation of duties. We're all in. We all do it, along
with the volunteers, and we certainly recognize them and thank them
every day.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Well, then I'll just
plant the seed in terms of a budget or something for the volunteers,
but then I want to raise another question that perhaps will just need
some information generated.
Obviously, we -- next Tuesday we're going to be waiving fees
for certain types of services at DAS to promote more spay and
neutering, that sort of thing. And I'm wondering if -- you know, we
have a -- we charge for different services. We charge for adoptions.
I'm wondering if we didn't -- if we just didn't charge for spay and
neuter and adoptions and all of those things -- because we spend a lot
of money collecting that money, and I'm wondering if we really
collect enough to make it worth it. And if we had free service there,
whether that would reduce the number of strays that we have to go
chase down.
Just some analysis as to how can we be really most efficient.
Charging fees may be a way to. That's the way we've been doing it,
but maybe not charging would be a more efficient way to save money
on the other end. So I just want to plant that seed, because I have
not been convinced that -- you know, we're waiving fees to promote
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more adoptions and that sort of thing, but why have the fees in the
first place? Because we need to have those adoptions all year long.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. So we are evaluating those fee
structures, but to your point, the longer-term goal, and even
beginning in this budget, is to look at those community services that
we provide to folks, including low-cost or no-cost spay/neuter and
low-cost, no-cost veterinarian, because part of keeping -- trying to get
ahold of the pet overpopulation centers around those things.
And the problem is is that -- you've heard probably time after
time that there's a shortage of veterinarians, which there is. It can be
very difficult to get a veterinarian appointment even if you have the
money to get those veterinary services. But sometimes people that
are otherwise very good pet owners just don't have the 3- or 5- or
$700 to have their animal fixed.
And so we're looking -- now that we have a surgical vet on staff,
we're looking at different programs that we can stand up to provide
those veterinary services and the spay/neuter services to the
community along with Community Cats and really growing
that -- what is essentially a community veterinary program. That's
really what we're there for, and it keeps animals from coming through
our doors that then we are going to have to take care of and then try
to find homes for. So it's a constant vicious circle.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: There was one thing that was
raised at one of the advisory board meetings, and that was a pet
pantry.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Because there are some folks
that have a lot of pets, and they can't afford to feed them --
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- so they're mistreated.
And so I'm wondering if we have any -- I know -- I think you've
June 20, 2024
Page 84
mentioned that there was some effort in that regard, but is that
something that we need to look at in terms of a more permanent type
of a program?
MS. PATTERSON: Yeah. Mr. French and I have been
talking about this, so not only working with some of our local food
banks, but also being able to have some of those resources on site.
The Humane Society has a similar program, where if you have
somebody that comes in, you know, sometimes we get people that
need -- are asking to surrender their pet, but it's simply that they need
assistance maybe, you know, just bridging that gap of being able to
feed that pet or sometimes back to the veterinary is that their pet
might have something wrong with them, and they need some
veterinary assistance.
So we're looking at those to be able to have those on-site
services as well as partner agencies to help fairly deal with the
volume of donations we get, things like pet food.
And we have cat sanctuaries that are in need. One of their
biggest needs that they have is food. If you're feeding 300 cats,
that's a lot of cat food. And there are people that are very giving in
the community, so we're getting our arms around that. We have a
donation program currently. It's just not -- it's not maximized and
efficient.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Amy, just one quick
question -- well, really two.
I like the idea of the no cost. We know that -- the advantage
that would be, but then the flip side of that, has anybody done the
math to see what the delta would be? Because I'm sure that revenue
that we are getting now -- although, like you say, you know, it's six of
one, half dozen of the other. But if we didn't get that revenue, then
you'd be coming back to us probably saying, "Hey, now everything's
June 20, 2024
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no cost, so we need another $400,000."
So I guess in future updates, seeing if the juice is worth the
squeeze there -- I love the idea as long as we can absorb it --
MS. PATTERSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- so that would be one thing.
MS. PATTERSON: It may be a tiered system so -- similar to
the way that we provide other incentives and other assistance through
the county, there may be qualifications, and we can
work -- Mr. French has been talking to our housing group about
different ways where people may -- they qualify for certain types of
assistance. They may qualify, then, for assistance with their pets --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MS. PATTERSON: -- up to somebody that just might need a
little bit of a break. They could afford to pay for the cost, but it's not
the "cost plus." And so I think that's part of what we need to get our
arms around and develop sort of that tiered program.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And then, Dave [sic], you
actually said what I was hoping to hear, that I'm not stealing pizza
from volunteers, but if you really sit down and talk with the
volunteers -- and obviously you have -- I'm sure they'd love free
pizza. But like you put it perfectly, what they want to see is
leadership action, the facility getting all the stuff they've been
screaming for.
So, obviously, you've already seen some of the things that are
the meat and potatoes down at DAS that the volunteers see every day,
and so I'm sure they'd love a free lunch. And I don't want to take it
away from them, but the priority is exactly what you said: They
don't want to go home with wet feet. They don't want to leave
feeling disappointed about the facility that they work in. They don't
want to feel like they're doing the heavy lifting of DAS, and
their -- and the county positions, the county leadership, the County
June 20, 2024
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Commissioners aren't there with them in the trenches supporting
them.
So it sounds like, you know, you've jumped in with both feet,
and those are the kind of things that we're here to support are the
action items, the heavy-lifting stuff that maybe has been missing for a
while.
MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir, I appreciate it.
And so you know, Commissioners, we're looking at alternative
sites with regard to some of our veterinarian care. There are some
sites that we're aware of that may be available. We have evaluated
the facility from both the health department standards as well,
because this is a -- this is a true medical facility, so we're always
maintaining and interested in maintaining that sterile field for our
medical professionals that work within there, whether you're a vet
tech or whether you're a veterinarian.
End of the day, clearly it's a patient. We want to treat it as
such. We also want to be able to provide the best and most reliable
service to our community. And I think what the volunteers and the
community is looking for is more so of a case management approach
so we're reuniting pets where they belong, whether or not -- and then
doing a full investigation. By moving your ACOs under Code
Enforcement, we're finding that it may actually qualify the county for
additional Community Development Block Grant dollars. We're
investigating that now. And so there may be an offset to that, and
we may be able to maximize that site by even -- by even considering
putting a clinic off site versus actually making the investment into a
20-, 25-year-old, 30-year-old building that was never intended.
And so when you go through this change of use for these types
of structures, it's not that it can't be done, but when you start to look
at metal buildings that are not sprinkled [sic], that were never
intended to be sprinkled; that the demand has changed; the
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Page 87
community expectations have changed; your expectations and then
the methods and approaches have changed with regards to
veterinarian care and the science. We're cognizant of that, and so
we're trying to keep this all in mind.
But I will tell you is I'm a big Six Sigma guy. I think what gets
measured gets done, and you can't manage it if you can't measure it.
And so everything we're doing is measured, and automation is a key
here. By incorporating some of the ACO activity into your Code
Enforcement software -- you as a board, the industry as a community
spends better than a million dollars a year in that software, and we
self-support it. They've designed it. They support it. They love it,
and hopefully your aides and you and your -- and your constituents
are seeing that. Everything is in real time with us, and that's what
we intend to bring them too.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I will say that I have -- come on up,
Chris.
I will say that I've been out there, and you know, there was a lot
of chatter when we were making some changes a couple months ago
about, you know, board directors and, you know, some of the
decisions that were made.
But to Commissioner McDaniel's comment about, you know,
somebody's got to -- if you work for the county, you've got to be
willing to push the broom. And I can tell you that under Jamie's
leadership out there, things have changed, and they've changed
rapidly. And I want to say publicly, thank you for your leadership
out there, thank you for your common sense, thank you for your
creativity to come forth with a lot of ideas that you're coming forth
with to make very positive changes within DAS.
So I know you don't need to have your horn tooted, but I'm
tooting it.
MR. FRENCH: It's my colleagues, sir, and I'm so blessed and
June 20, 2024
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so lucky to be able to work with such skilled people. And it's the
Sheriff's Office, and it's you, and it's these community members.
And I am not a keyboard warrior. I know the truth doesn't
always get in the way of a good story, but I will tell you is that if
anybody wants to meet with us, I am here. You'll see me there on a
Saturday and Sunday. And I get it. I move fast, but that's okay.
You expect that of me, and I'm going to deliver, as will our
colleagues.
MR. FABIAN: I'd simply reinforce -- I mean, this is definitely
a tough business across all the organizations that we work in. So
nothing new to that story. We were encouraged by at least some of
the revenue that is coming in.
Amy, to your point, we've seen, for some of the generous
donations that come in, everything from Sponsor a Pet programs.
We have documentation on -- Humane Society of Charlotte has
initiated these. A tiered rate structure like you discussed, including
premium services that you may already be implementing, but to
consider ways to bring in new revenues for those who can afford it,
such as training and grooming. So on the tiered rate structure, we've
definitely seen that.
Back to code enforcement and lost pets, we've seen -- he's
bringing the data -- but a rising trend in microchipping of animals to
properly return them to their owners, such as what we see in Austin,
Texas, and Miami-Dade County doing some local partnerships with
local veterinarians to have them participate as well, share the cost.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Quick question for him.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Has any analysis been done
with regard to the expense associated with spay and neutering and the
incentivization for people to do that in relationship to the long term
effects of more animals running around? Has that been done?
June 20, 2024
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MR. FABIAN: Not -- that won't show up in our report, but I
took note of -- that came up earlier in the discussion, and we'll go
back to see who has been doing that sort of analysis. We took the
perspective of what are all the ways to --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: To me, that's just common
sense. I mean, if you're -- if people are disincentivized because of an
expense associated with spray and neuter and they don't do the spray
and neuter, we're going to end up with more animals that we have to
then, in turn, care for, keep, medicate, da, da, da, da, adopt all of the
other things that goes along.
So -- and I know that he's an interesting fellow, but Tom Kemp
over at Snips is a huge advocate of that, works a lot with me in
Immokalee, and has -- and has a relationship with Gulf Coast
Humane Society in Fort Myers. So there may be -- just to give you a
little path, there may be some people to talk to there with regard to
that.
I don't want to -- I don't like calling it a cost-benefit ratio when
you're talking about animals' lives, but at the end of the day, if there
is a potential for that scaled system or no expense to incentivize
participation, it just makes total sense.
MR. FABIAN: Cost prevention in the future.
MS. PATTERSON: I think you're going to have a couple
speakers that are going to speak to something similar. We have a lot
of community members that are very interested in this topic and have
done a lot of research.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Good. Good.
MR. MILLER: We have three registered speakers with one
additional speaker ceding time. Your first speaker is Jim Rich, who
was ceded time from Charlotte Herbert, who is present in the back of
the room, and he will be followed by Eva Front.
MR. RICH: Thank you, and good morning, Commissioners.
June 20, 2024
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Thank you for allowing me to speak today.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jim Rich. I
am cofounder of the non-profit cat rescue organization For the Love
of Cats and recently resigned as chairman of the DAS advisory board
after serving on that board for 11 years.
I'm here today to speak about the thousands of stray and
abandoned cats in our county and to request funding for a program
that was approved and supported by previous commissioners but
whose trapping, sterilizing, and financial responsibility has fallen
primarily on the public or rescue groups such as mine. I'm speaking
about our community cat program.
This is my organization's 21st year with recorded numbers of
over 5,000 cats and kittens we have trapped and sterilized, all with
personal or donated funds. Until recently, we were able to work
with the veterinary community with discounted surgical fees;
however, with the extreme shortage of vets and vet techs in our
county in comparison to our growing population, many of the vet
practices are closed to new clientele, can barely accommodate their
existing ones, and are reluctant to continue offering discounts to
rescue groups versus full-paying customers.
DAS has attempted to help when it has a vet but even then can
barely keep up with its own inventory and must limit the number of
ferals and strays it can surgically accommodate.
Three months ago, my organization made the decision to stop
relying on just DAS and the few weekly surgical appointments we
could still get from one or two of the vet clinics. By DAS giving us
permission to use their surgical room, we independently purchased
our own medical equipment and supplies, hired our own vet and vet
techs on their day off from their regular practice, purchased an
additional 40 traps and carriers, and rented a large cargo van.
The day before our actual surgical event, called CatNip Clinic,
June 20, 2024
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we trapped 41 cats. These were all transported to DAS for
sterilization, vaccinated, and ear notched. They were then held
overnight at various locations and returned to their familiar
surroundings to be cared for as community cats.
This was such a successful event that we immediately contacted
our county manager, Amy Patterson, who's been wonderful, by the
way, working with, and requested permission to again use the
facilities at DAS. Our second clinic is now scheduled just nine days
from now on June 29th. Again, at DAS. We hope that Amy and
this board will support future spay days at DAS as we can schedule
them.
We realize that the only way to ever make a difference in the
enormous stray cat population is by going into a neighborhood and
doing volume trapping. One or two cats at a time will never let us
get ahead of the problem. In fact, we just purchased our own cargo
van to help achieve such a goal.
We currently have three full-time employees for marketing,
trapping, and fundraising. Although we serve our community with
programs other than T&R, this has been and will continue to be our
top priority. Our success will never be limited by our effort but can
be by insufficient funding.
For over 20 years now I have listened to our politicians
encourage our animal rescue organizations to form partnerships to
address our ever-increasing stray and abandoned animal population.
Today I'm asking you to fulfill your commitments toward the
community cat program by being a participant in this partnership. I
am not asking for direct funding to any organization.
I am requesting financial support for any organization working
in partnership with DAS in helping pay for supplies and veterinary
expenses for sterilization programs such as ours. This can be funded
directly through the DAS budget by having them provide the
June 20, 2024
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necessary surgical supplies and paying the veterinarians and vet techs
as independent contractors the same way the BISSELL Foundation
was paid when they were hired last year.
I know you all profess animal advocacy. There are reputed to
be close to 50,000 stray and abandoned cats in our county alone.
Please consider my request regarding financial partnering and the
potential for what it could accomplish.
And I'd like to thank Jamie and Amy again. Everything I've
heard lately, you are doing a phenomenal job, and I -- I do
support -- even though I'm not on the advisory board anymore, I fully
support their efforts and will continue to support this county and the
animals and the people in it. So thank you so much.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Eva Front.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Jim? Jim? I wanted to ask
you something.
MR. RICH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, first, thanks for
what you do. You and I traded a couple of emails where I think we
lost a little something in translation, so I think face to face is better.
But I know one of your frustrations serving on the board so
long -- and maybe I'm paraphrasing this incorrectly -- is a lot of times
I think you felt like you had the voice but maybe not people listening
or a person to go to.
I really hope, regardless -- if you're on the board or not is
immaterial. Your expertise and your eyes and ears of what you've
seen down at DAS is critical and valuable. And I appreciate the
shout-out to Ms. Patterson, but I hope also that you and Mr. French
have opened up a dialogue or get a chance to at least talk once so he
can get some valuable feedback from you as to what you've seen and
heard and maybe some things than haven't been advertised as much,
you know, to county the staff, but it was sort of in your own circle of
June 20, 2024
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influence. I think it would be very valuable for him to, you
know -- you know, talk with you if you haven't already.
MR. RICH: I think there have been some miscommunications
between Mr. French and myself lately.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. RICH: And I work very hard to resolve those things.
The only way we're going to accomplish anything is by working
together. And we don't by adversity and by not working together.
So this -- DAS has my full 100 percent cooperation. I think Amy
will tell you I've had three or four different meetings with her and one
with Jamie also.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. RICH: And they are welcome to pick my brain anytime
they want. And as far as we're concerned, we're good.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. Okay. Thank you,
sir.
MR. RICH: Thank you all again.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I'd like to ask a question also,
sir. Where do you -- where do you -- where have you found the
heaviest population of the -- you said about 50,000 stray cats.
MR. RICH: They are -- and this is actually statistically. That's
one of the low numbers that's given. That's from the University of
Wisconsin, which breaks all these things down.
Right now we're looking at areas, even like Immokalee, as part
of our clinic we'll be doing, there's a woman there that has 100 stray
cats that she's feeding, which are not fixed.
So we're bringing our van into that area, and we'll be picking up
as many of those as we can. That's going to take two or three
different sessions. And then there are other pockets in Bayshore and
some other communities which is a matter of communicating with
people. We're putting up flyers and trying to enlist the public to help
June 20, 2024
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us.
And you're right, they can't -- they can't afford it. They don't
have transportation. And so we're trying to provide that
transportation with a van we have and do everything we can.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah. I remember the Gulf
Gate Plaza area, behind there, between Weeks and the back of the
plaza, at night you would see hundreds of cats underneath that
building.
MR. RICH: Right.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And I was just curious. Do you
think it's also a people training thing also? I think educate the
public, you know, of these things, because if we're having a high,
high concentration of 100 cats around one particular home, then
that's -- you know, that's not fair to the other people in the
neighborhood.
MR. RICH: In the areas where we're finding those high
concentrations, communication is a problem, and the people are
afraid to come forward because they're afraid they'll be fined or
they'll be arrested or, you know, whatever.
So we're just -- we're trying to go from community to
community and establish relationships with them, earn their trust, and
then go into that area and set down 30, 40 traps at a time. So it will
happen. It's just going to take time. And it's not going to happen
unless we all work together. And, again, we only have so much
funding. So we've spent privately just -- as much as we can, so that's
why we're looking for help.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And I remember reading your
e-mail also. I don't think -- I didn't respond to it, but I did read it,
and something did stick out. When I read it, you were talking about
chain of command. I believe that was you who made that comment.
MR. RICH: That is correct.
June 20, 2024
Page 95
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: If I remember correctly, the
Board's -- your job was to tell us things we might not be being told by
our actual employees, and I think in your comment you said you
didn't want to bother us, and you went to your chain -- you liked to
hold to the chain of command, and you were going directly to the
employees of DAS, which would not necessarily be the chain of a
command. It would be the Board of County Commissioners.
MR. RICH: I should have come to each of you individually. I
did not want to speak here because, frankly, for as many years as I
was involved with DAS, it had a very bad connotation to it. People
didn't want to bring their animals in. They were afraid they were
going to be killed. They were afraid they were going to be
mistreated.
It was a kill shelter for many, many years. When I started
there, they were putting down 6,000 animals a year. You know, I'm
going back several years.
So I didn't want to speak in a public forum where
everyone -- the public can hear us and tell you my grievances and stir
up things when you may not be hearing -- they might not be getting
the full picture of everything. But where I made a mistake,
truthfully, is instead of going to you individually. I could have done
that instead of not coming to you in this format.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: No, I encourage that to anyone
out there that my -- at least me personally, my door's open to anyone
that wants to come and have a one-on-one talk with me.
MR. RICH: Well, I am grateful for that, and in the future,
believe me, I will be. So I really respect all of you and appreciate
your time, so thank you so very much.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Who's next?
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Eva Front. She'll be
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Page 96
followed on Zoom by Laurie Harris.
MS. FRONT: So can I just say a quick remark to Mr. Rich's
comment about the financing? I think if we start incentivizing the
local rescues, and I mean all of them, by, say, paying maybe $75 for
every cat that is brought in for sterilization, long term our county will
benefit from that versus just picking and choosing a couple of the
rescues that are preferable to the county, but work with everyone.
Good afternoon. My name is Eva Front, and I'm a full-time
Collier County resident.
Today we all have been presented with proposed budgets for
Domestic Animal Services. I know firsthand how hard our county
leadership have been working the past few months to improve service
quality at DAS, and the progress is truly remarkable.
I'm here today to ask for your consideration in the budget for
next year to address the influx of unwanted animals and support
policy changes leading to long-term cost savings for our county.
County statistics show that the majority, 90 percent, of animals are
coming in as strays, and roughly only 10 percent of animals are being
reclaimed. We need to address and act on a resolution pertaining to
creating programs for the community with low-cost or no-cost spay
and other initiatives for animals most commonly relinquished to
DAS.
Slide No. 2.
We can double and triple DAS budget every year, but if true
animal control and sterilization programs, especially for low-income
families, are not being introduced, the taxpayer funding will never be
enough.
I hope you appreciate the five-year intake snapshot for the same
month, the month of May. The cat intake to DAS doubled within
only three years for the month of May.
Going by what Mr. James French just said, each animal costs
June 20, 2024
Page 97
between 25 and $30 a day to care for at the shelter. And the only
way to reduce the expenses is by actively implementing County
Commissioners resolution or Animal Care Sterilization Act listed in
the budget on Pages 2 and 5, preventing the tsunami of unwanted
pets, saving our money, and stopping animal cruelty.
When it comes to pet overpopulation, currently Collier County's
heavily or exclusively relying on small not-for-profit organizations
with limited financing and resources.
Average age of people running around our community in Florida
weather attempting to stop senseless breeding, it's about 75 years
young.
As you can see by the numbers presented, we are all losing this
battle. There are no new organizations entering the rescue field, and
the existing ones are tired, broke, and aging out.
Please, Commissioners, when considering DAS budget for next
year, be generous in supporting introduction of robust spay and
neuter programs. These programs will not only reduce pet
overpopulation but also decrease the number of animals entering the
shelter, lessen the burden on animal control dealing with stray
animals. Carry on the concept of stewardship of our creation,
including animals, as the core principle in Christianity.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Ms. Front.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Could somebody keep this
chart around right there. This is a graphic of what we were talking
about about the low- no-cost spay/neutering program.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Did you make this slide, or
you found it somewhere?
MS. FRONT: This is online, the previous ones. The first one
is from online --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, if it was online, it has
to be true.
June 20, 2024
Page 98
MS. FRONT: But the second one I kind of -- no, I kind of went
through the statistics over the years and put the numbers together just
to show you the increase basically doubled in --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No you said "tsunami." I
picked up on that. It's a great word.
MS. FRONT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And then this slide popped
up. I was like, "Yeah, it's a tsunami."
MS. FRONT: Yes. So that basically -- because County
Manager mentioned we are in the kitten season. Sadly, the kitten
season in Florida in this weather, we are experiencing all year round,
right? We don't have snow. We don't have severe weather that will
stop that. It's all year round.
And that directly translates -- and I'm speaking right now as a
taxpayer, because we can put so many more millions into the budget,
but if we don't act on prevention, nothing will happen. I can
compare it to our public services maybe with libraries. If you have
people stealing books, coming in, and you have loss of hundred
thousand dollars a year in books, you don't just replace them. You
go in and try to figure out what is causing that loss and try to stop it.
So I'm asking for the same approach with our Domestic Animal
Services.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
MS. FRONT: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your final speaker under the Public Services
section is Laurie Harris.
Laurie, I see you've unmuted yourself. You have three minutes.
Please begin.
MS. HARRIS: Good morning -- good afternoon. I'm sorry.
I'm on Central time right now.
I have to begin by thanking you all for shedding a light on
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Domestic Animal Services, to Ms. Patterson, Mr. French for their
yeoman's work in turning it around.
I also have to agree with Ms. Front and Mr. Rich. We must
stop the overpopulation out in the field, or there will never be a
budget large enough. The animals will just forever keep coming in.
So enforcement -- as to Commissioner McDaniel, what he was
saying with Tom Kemp, enforcement out in the field is so key to
lowering the population in the shelter.
The changes at the shelter are just tremendous. The facilities
team, I cannot begin to thank everybody enough. It is infinitely
better. We are still going home with wet feet, but we know that that
is going to end shortly. So we are so optimistic in going there every
day and just making a difference for the animals.
So mostly, I have to thank you all for your work and your time
and your commitment to making this all better. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: And that was your final public speaker under
this section.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Great. We are at 12:15. It's
time for lunch. Let's be back here at 1 o'clock.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Ms. Hall, I wanted to make a
mention. You weren't here. Your husband made a comment about
your shopping. So while you're having lunch, you might want to -- I
just wanted to arm you with that, you know. It was --
(A luncheon recess was had from 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. I hope everybody had a good
lunch. Terri, since this is a budget workshop, we'll let you know that
we have increased your budget, and we have a jar -- a money jar back
there for you for brownies and cake, so thank you.
PUBLIC UTILITIES
June 20, 2024
Page 100
MR. JOHNSON: All right, Commissioners, we're on to Public
Utilities.
MR. BELLONE: Well, good afternoon, Commissioners. For
the record, I am Dr. Yilmaz. And my financial team is -- my
financial team is here to give you the highlights of the budget.
Well, good afternoon, Commissioners.
No, seriously, as you all know, the Public Utilities Department
is comprised of two different enterprise businesses, those being the
Collier County Water/Sewer District and Solid and Hazardous Waste
Management. Both of them are demand-driven businesses, demand
for services, and both receive funds for those services provided. But
they're very different businesses, so if it's all right with you, I'll
address each of them separately, and I'll start with the Water/Sewer
District.
Commissioners, this budget is revenue centric, meets all of your
budget guidelines. The Water/Sewer District is an enterprise fund.
It receives revenues from fees for services that are required to support
compliant operations, provide for critical capital repair and
rehabilitation programs, meet all debt obligations and bond
covenants, and provide for adequate reserves.
I'm just going to remind you, Commissioners, that last
December you approved a user fee rate resolution based on adoption
of the '23 user fee rate study that Raftelis provided for us.
The resolution provided for rates that become effective on
October 1st of '24 and will be in effect throughout '25. Those water
rates will increase 4.5 percent; wastewater, 7.5; and IQ water, 9.5.
And for those who are listening, that would represent for the average
single-family homeowner about $8 a month or 27 cents a day.
We established these rates to provide necessary revenues to
sustain critical and compliant utility services. We wanted to
continue to invest in the capital rehabilitation program, to replace
June 20, 2024
Page 101
utility infrastructure that was reaching the end of its useful life, and to
repair and rehabilitate the other aging infrastructure.
As a result, the utility was able to fund the 2025 capital
improvement program at $93.9 million. That's up from 61.6 million
in the prior year for critical asset replacements in conjunction with
our asset management program, according to the strategic plan.
The operating budget, as I said, was demand driven, and so we
anticipate customer demand for potable water that will allow us to
produce 11 billion gallons of potable drinking water, treat 8.9 billion
gallons of wastewater, and then distribute 6.12 billion gallons of
reclaimed irrigation water. Expenses are pay as you go.
And to achieve those goals, we've included an operating budget
of $163.2 million with 478 FTEs. I'll just remind you we have not
requested any new expanded FTEs in this budget, but we'll probably
see you at a later date.
Capital improvement program included in this budget, as I
mentioned, is $93.9 billion. That's focused on renewal and
replacement of $1.8 billion of gross asset and utility infrastructure in
alignment with the asset management program, as I said, of your
strategic plan.
I'll mention a few of the significant capital projects that we're
attempting to complete or start in FY '25. We actually will continue
the north county water reclamation facility headworks project. I
want to mention that with this budget we've added $24.9 million to
the capital plan, and that will fully fund that program without having
to touch our commercial paper that we established at the
commencement of that program.
We'll be making improvements at the Goodland pump station
assets, piping, valves, electrical SCADA, et cetera, to the tune of
about 3 million.
At the south water reclamation facility, we'll be doing some
June 20, 2024
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electrical service upgrades for about $7 million, and we'll be focusing
some attention on the wellfield and raw water boosted pump station,
make some improvements in that program to the tune of about $7.6
million.
Finally, the last significant program I'll mention to you is
wastewater pump station improvements. We're dedicating
$4.5 million to that program. We expect to replace, for that money,
about six lift stations.
As I mentioned, part of the user fees are also utilized to establish
reserves. Unrestricted reserves in this budget are $38.8 million.
They represent 54 days of operating capital funds, and that's within
your guidelines of 45 to 90 days, and we do have restricted reserves
in the Water/Sewer District. They're totaling 45.3 million, include
water impact fee and wastewater impact fee of about 20 million and
debt reserves of 28.9 million. That's in compliance with bond
covenants.
And FY '25 we have a current outstanding debt of $307 million.
Our debt service for the year is 24.6 million.
And just as a reminder, the Water/Sewer District has held the
highest bond rating from Fitch, AAA, since 2014, and similar for
Moody's since 2019. That's really critical, because maintaining
those investor grade ratings benefit our ratepayers by allowing the
utility to borrow at the most favorable interest rates when that
becomes necessary, and I'm sure Chris will cover that in his debt
discussion this afternoon.
Also and finally, for the Water/Sewer District, in line with the
strategic plan, we are continuing with construction and planning for
expansion related to infrastructure in Golden Gate City and the
northeast service area.
That completes the Water/Sewer District, Commissioners.
If there are any -- no questions, I can continue with Solid and
June 20, 2024
Page 103
Hazardous Waste. I'm getting some nods. Thank you, sir.
So I'll address Solid and Hazardous Waste. Again, this budget
is revenue centric. It, unlike the Water/Sewer District, has no
external debt, and it meets all of your approved budget guidelines.
Again, it's an enterprise fund. The revenues are for fees from
services. Just within Solid Waste, we have a disposal fund, and we
have a mandatory residential collection fund as well.
The revenues were prepared using an average 2.5 percent
tipping fee increase and a 2.5 percent non-ad valorem assessment on
the tax bill, an increase for residential curbside collection, and that
will equate to about 52 cents a month.
Those revenues will enable us to do the following: We're set to
provide 15.5 million curbside collections, manage a little over
342,000 tons of municipal solid waste, and we'll dispose of 2.9
million pounds of household hazardous waste.
That assessment that I mentioned to you will provide
twice-weekly collection of garbage, once-weekly collection of
recycling and yard waste. And in 2025, we'll have over 150,000 of
those residential accounts to service.
As far as expenses go, we have an operating budget of
66.6 million that we're executing with 54 FTEs; 30 and a half million
is on the disposal side, and 36.1 is on the mandatory residential
collections side.
Of their capital improvement program, $8.7 million, and I'll
highlight some of the major projects. Their Resource Recovery
Business Park for 3.4 million, allow relocation of landfill operating
activities that are on the top of the landfill today. We'll do some
landfill optimization.
Critical is re-enhancing the hammerhead turnaround program,
$3 million this year. That improves public safety by providing
designated turnaround capabilities on public roads, those long stretch
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dead-end roads that we'll use. Collection vehicles can turn around,
but not only collection vehicles, also ambulances, fire trucks, school
buses, whoever else needs to use those turnarounds.
Improvements in the Immokalee solid waste facility is critical as
that area grows. We're seeing significant growth there. Household
hazardous waste facilities, scale house, and some general site
upgrades.
The Solid and Hazardous Waste also has established unrestricted
reserves of $14.8 million, and they represent 63 days of operating
capital funds, again, within your 45 to 90 days' guidance. And we're
happy to report that we've been able to fund $7 million of disaster
recovery for emergency debris removal, should that become
necessary.
And that, Commissioners, are the highlights for Solid and
Hazardous Waste.
We're here to answer any questions. Our directors are here.
Dr. Yilmaz --
CHAIRMAN HALL: The way I see it, you're making money
coming and going.
MR. BELLONE: We provide the service; you pay the fee.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Any questions, guys?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good, thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Carry on.
MR. BELLONE: Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it.
MR. YILMAZ: Thank you.
DEBT SERVICE
MR. JOHNSON: All right, Commissioners, we'll move on to
Debt Service. I'm just going to switch the slide deck here for a
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second.
All right. So Debt Service, overall we're in a good position for
debt service. Looking at this slide here, you'll see in 2008, our debt
service principal outstanding was $788 million. As of the end of FY
'23, we were down to $649 million. Of that, 342 million is general
governmental, and 307 is related to the utilities.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: On a quick question there --
MR. JOHNSON: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- is it common practice to
use debt to support the solid waste and utilities, common practice
governmentally?
MR. JOHNSON: Yes, it is. Typically, it allows for the
financing of the improvements over the life of them, and what you're
doing there is you're putting the cost out into the future taxpayers or
ratepayers in the utility case.
All right. For FY '25, the current debt service totals
$66.5 million. Of that, 41.8 is general governmental debt service
and, as Joe said, 24.67 is utilities.
We're in a good position. Obviously, as we learned earlier,
public safety is our No. 1 priority. I think paying our debt service, if
I could, would be 1A to ensure we meet those obligations and those
bond covenants.
I don't really have anything else on the actual budget, but I did
want to bring up the fact that moving into FY '25/'26 and beyond, we
will be looking, through the Finance Committee, at these -- as you've
heard from Mr. Bellone and Ms. Scott, going out for potential
financing on roads, stormwater. We have Golden Gate utilities, and
we have -- moving out to the east with the utilities. Potential for that
this year, potentially, for transportation.
Our gas tax bonds are maturing this year, so we have that
opportunity come -- sorry -- next year in June, in FY '25. We have
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that opportunity moving forward. That gives us a little more
capacity moving forward with the gas tax bonding for the
transportation system.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Is there any -- is there any
discussions about moving forward on those debt instruments in
advance with other instruments knowing that those renewals are
coming up?
MR. JOHNSON: And we've done that. That's a good
question, Commissioner.
On the roads side, there is currently a commercial paper loan for
$30 million for Vanderbilt Beach Road. We have not drawn on that
loan yet. It's a line of credit at this point. Talking with Trinity, it
sounds like we may need to draw on that by the end of next year
possibly to start making the payments on Vanderbilt.
If need be, prior to -- prior -- you know, you've got to monitor
the rates. So as we monitor the rates, if it -- if it behooves us to use a
commercial paper line of credit to establish budget and move forward
prior to doing a large-scale issue, that would be the way we would
go.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, and timing is critical as
well.
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You know, we're direly shy
on infrastructure, specifically on roads. I mean, we've been pretty
good and fairly aggressive proactively for utilities as far as extending
boundaries and doing the main loop and the things with regard to
utilities. But as far as roads goes, I just want to make sure that we're
communicating the need in relationship to the funding, because
sometimes the funding gets to be the leading indicator as to whether
or not we build a road. And if we know there is a large amount
of -- I say "a large amount" -- there is renewable bonding money
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that's available that we can utilize, I'd like to make sure that we
explore that.
MR. JOHNSON: And this slide here shows your debt service
compliance with the debt management policy. Our self-imposed
debt management policy allows us to bond 13 percent of our
available revenues. As you can see here, we're currently, with the
recommended budget, at about five.
So there is capacity there. And to your point, we'll be
looking -- taking a look at this with the Finance Committee with all
these departments to ensure that our timing is right for their project
plans and programs.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Chris, what's the dollar amount that -- if
we maxed it out at 13 percent, what's the dollar amount that that
would to?
MR. JOHNSON: Oh, you're going to make me do math on
this?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Ask Ed.
MR. JOHNSON: If we're at -- if we're at 5 percent at --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Six hundred million.
MR. JOHNSON: -- 600 million --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Push that up to over a billion.
MR. JOHNSON: It looks like one point --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 1.1.
MR. JOHNSON: What do I have, 1.2, 1.3?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: In my brain, it was 1.1, 1.2.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So we can fix Sun-N-Fun.
MR. JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Just teasing.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Quit.
MR. JOHNSON: Sorry. I'm just checking my math.
MR. FINN: I'm comfortable saying it's more.
June 20, 2024
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MR. JOHNSON: I got 1.5.
MR. FINN: It would be more.
MR. JOHNSON: 1.5.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It would be more.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, sir.
MR. FINN: Growth Management.
MR. JOHNSON: Growth Management.
Any other questions on the debt? Or we'll move on to Growth
Management.
CHAIRMAN HALL: We can move.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS
MR. FRENCH: Commissioners, I will do my very best to be
brief and brilliant. I know we're coming to the end of the meeting.
So maybe they saved the best for last or last to get carted out of here.
So, again, my name is Jamie French. I'm the department head
for Growth Management and Community Development.
Just very quickly, our budget is in with -- is within compliance.
Understand that the Growth Management Department is
predominantly made up of Enterprise Funds, and it's -- with that
Enterprise Fund, as even Mr. Bellone stated earlier, it is based off of
demand.
I recognize we've not spent a whole lot of time with ResourceX,
but unlike Texas and unlike Colorado, the state of Florida is very
unique that they may follow a building code that is based off of ICC
standards, but the State of Florida controls how development happens
and how long it takes.
It is remanded onto the local government, but it is under state
authority, and we have no right of appeal. So when a building
permit comes in, we literally have, by statute, 30 days to turn it
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around, and I'm proud to say on residential, we're still maintaining
somewhere between five and seven days, well below that 30 days,
and on commercial, we're hovering right around 15 business days.
We maintain probably about a 10 percent vacancy rate. We've
experienced about a 20 percent cost [sic] in payroll predominantly
because the cost of actually hiring a licensed provider -- I know,
Commissioner LoCastro, we spoke about it yesterday, and you had an
opportunity to speak with some of our licensed professionals.
Bottom line is that when we recruit people, we're recruiting
them out of the private sector or from other governments. They
must demonstrate that they've got no less than five years of practical
experience or licensing in order to qualify just to take the test for an
inspector.
So you're coming out of school, you've got a degree in
architecture, you've still got to demonstrate at least a year of work, or
you're a -- let's say you've got a degree in construction management.
You've still got to demonstrate a year of work. A license for a
contractor is much easier to achieve than a license for a building code
official, much less a building inspector or a building plans reviewer.
With that -- and I know you don't always get to see the
ladies -- or lady and gentleman that -- these are my cabinet, so to
speak, Commissioner LoCastro. These are the ladies and gentlemen
that make this one-stop shop work for our county.
We adopt private-sector approaches. As I mentioned earlier, I
hold numerous certifications, not that they are to be measured, from
the private sector, and Lean Six Sigma finance, as well as I take a
very private-sector approach to making things right.
You'll notice in our budget, we have spent most of our
carryforward. As we've added staff based on the demand, we have
reduced fees. Now, that seems counterintuitive to any other
business. You increase the level of service, the quality of service,
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you add more staff, but you reduce fee -- fees. We are the only
group in the entire County Manager's agency that have done that
since 2014, so better than 10 years.
But unfortunately, we'll be bringing you an item that's to make
that come to an end. I know, Commissioner Saunders, you've
participated with us in front of the Productivity Committee, and
we've had multiple conversations with the executive committee of the
Collier Building Industry Association and your Development
Services Advisory Committee. They do not want to see a
degradation in service, and because we are Enterprise Funded -- in
other words, the taxpayers do not pay for growth -- the applicants that
actually pay the fee pay the staff. They pay the full operation
outside of -- about 85 percent of that operation at Growth
Management is paid for by the people that apply for permits. And so
they are our client. They are our partners in this industry. We are
part of that, and we have an obligation. It's well choreographed, and
they have grown to depend on it -- depend on us. That industry
represents about 10 percent of your gross domestic product and about
22 percent of your workforce in Collier County.
So currently we have, just in Growth Management -- and that's
not to -- I don't want to -- that number of 342, that's the number of
full-time employees. That is significantly higher than last year, but
we also assumed Conservation Collier, Economic Development, and
Housing Policy as well as your resiliency efforts.
I also serve as your floodplain administrator for Collier County,
and we hold more than many communities with regards to certified
floodplain managers and reviewers within our community.
You kept off the news the 25 percent discount, and better than
97 percent of your community is considered a special flood hazard
area, and our residents enjoy that 25 percent discount through the
community rating service. That's all done through the enforcement
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of the Florida Building Code.
We also do all of your GIS; in other words, your street center
lines, your address points for the entire county. Every map that you
see is based off of the work we do no matter what the department is,
including the Sheriff's Office. We are partnered with the Property
Appraiser, and we share data probably more than anybody else within
the county.
These are both previous populations as well as a perspective on
how growth might occur. Now again, it's always subject to market,
to availability, and the fact of the matter is, is that you still have about
10 percent of your county that has not yet been entitled. So when
that comes forward, then we'll start to see the eastern lands start
develop to even more.
Within the Growth Management Plan [sic], we manage your
Growth Management Plan as well as your AUIR. We coordinate
that throughout the county to include all the governmental agencies,
the constitutionals, as well as all of your staff that falls under the
County Manager's agency.
Future Land Use Elements and maps, those as -- if you
remember, we just updated that to go through 2050. Your FLUE
was expiring in 2025, and it is dynamic; it's not static. It will
constantly change until we reach maximum capacity or build-out.
Building permits: As I said earlier, we are subject to demand.
We have a staffing policy where we have core-level staff to maintain
our licenses and accreditations, but also we use third-party staffing
services to fill in the gaps. And although they are very hard to find,
we've got five contractors on -- on contract with one dependable one
where we might get two or three maybe a month or two if we order
them in advance. There is a lot of demand out there.
Also, as you can see, these building permits all get building
inspections. Currently we're carrying close to 90,000 building
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inspections that are due that have not yet been delivered. Average
building inspections costs us $46.80. We charge 45-.
So that's a little less than $2 million of liability that we're
looking at on due-outs, and that's not -- that wouldn't come due
tomorrow. But we recognize that a building, a construction site, if
it's commercial, very large, a hotel, those can go two and three years,
but those are all prepaid services up front that we are due. We do
not get a second chance to go back and charge again. So once we
take the obligation -- and take that very responsible [sic] because in
the event that we fall short, it's the General Fund that's on the hook to
provide those services, and we would never want to put you in that
position.
Within our growth model, you can see the development activity,
how it has shifted from the coastline to the eastern lands, and we
continue to see that from 2012 to 2023. Average building inspector
drives somewhere between 85 and 90 miles per day.
They're -- based off of ISO recommendations, we should be doing
somewhere between eight and 13 inspections a day. Your inspectors
do approximately 23 to 28 inspections per day.
So this is just a little activity link that I've showed you in the
past, and I believe I have it here. And this kind of just shows you
the growth over time, how have we experienced it. It's almost in a
heat map form, and this is available online. And it's almost like a
weather pattern watching the growth occur by quarter each year.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that's from 2019?
MR. FRENCH: It starts -- it will reset. I believe it starts at
2012.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, okay.
MR. FRENCH: Now, once that activity is closed out, the dot
goes away, but those are the surges that we've seen. So COVID
was -- that COVID period when we had a mass infiltration or a mass
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migration, our activity levels were off the chart, immeasurable. But
now we're starting -- we're starting to see stabilization and, again,
we're starting to see growth.
Now, this is directly affected, as you can imagine. So a
construction loan is probably about one point higher than market, and
I'll rely on Commissioner Kowal to correct me because there's much
more liability with a construction loan. So if your market is roughly,
with good credit, at about 7 percent on a 30-year mortgage, it's
hovering somewhere between eight and eight and a half on a
construction loan. So that will slow the market down. It's directly
tied back to commodities.
And so we are a global competitor. So don't think about just
lumber and concrete. You have to think about fasteners, doors,
windows, and all those other components that are involved
within -- within the construction of a facility, either single-family
home or a business, coupled with some of the additional requirements
that have come out of the state of Florida, like your milestone
inspections and your new FEMA plan review, which we charge zero
for, but every permit has to have one. That's coming back to you as
well for consideration because that is the longest review period on
our commercial side. It can take up to -- up to 10 days just to get
that FEMA review done, and we are audited constantly simply
because of the rating we have. It's very odd, we are the only ones in
the country that maintain a Class 5 rating where 97 percent of your
county is a flood -- is a special flood hazard area.
Our audits come directly out of -- they were coming directly out
of ISO out of Oregon, and it was not done by their Atlanta office
because it's really -- we get looked at every three years.
That's not me, not yet at least.
Let me advance this. There we go.
Building inspections activity. As I said, we're somewhere
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between 22- and 24,000 inspections today, and you're talking, even
with contract labor, no greater than about 55 to 58 inspectors.
So as you've spoken with Mr. Bosi, as you've heard Mr. Giblin
talk about, we know that -- we recognize that we have more than
50,000 people per day that are commuting to Collier County for
work, that's just to work in Collier.
We have taken the economic development and the housing
initiative very seriously. We asked for that. We got it just about a
year ago, and I will tell you is that your colleague and our chairman,
Commissioner Hall, has spearheaded that effort, and so much so that
it's less about ideas and more about solutions. And so we're so
appreciative of Commissioner Hall spearheading that effort and being
part of the solution for our community.
With that, I have with us -- Elbert Hubbard, back in the late
1800s, said that "The hero is the man that does his job." I think what
he'd be remiss in saying, that it's the woman that does everything
else.
So with that, I'd like to introduce Ms. Evelyn Trimino. She
heads up all of our financial efforts, as well as next to her is Jaime
Cook and Mike Stark, our chief of operations, and I'd also like to take
the opportunity -- because I know that Conservation Collier has been
quite a controversial item, Mr. Matt Dennison. Matt Dennison is
your new Conversation Collier manager. That's a position that we
created. Matt is actually -- he's from Collier County; grew up here.
Matt was working for us over in the building side of the house for
some time as a job bank associate. He left a large logistics company
to come to work for the county. He got tired of dealing with unions,
as he told me, but it does turn out that Matt's got advanced degrees in
environmental science. He was your GIS manager, GIS professional
for the county, trained by us, of course, and then stolen by Mark
Gillis, but he came home. So Matt is heading up the efforts for -- so
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say hello, Matt.
MR. DENNISON: Hi. Matt Dennison. Nice to meet you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: How do you do?
MR. FRENCH: But any questions you have for us, for
Conservation Collier, any of our budget numbers, level of service,
customer service, please, this is -- this is our team, and we're here to
answer any questions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: We're good.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, we have registered public comment
under this topic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure, go ahead.
MR. MILLER: Your -- we have one speaker in the room and
one on Zoom. Andy Wells-Bean will be followed by Brad Cornell.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Imagine that.
MR. WELLS-BEAN: Good afternoon. Hi, everyone. My
name is Andy Wells-Bean. I'm the executive director of Audubon
Western Everglades here talking about the Conservation Collier
budget within the Growth Management Department.
So we're coming off of a year of unprecedented transfers out of
Conservation Collier's trust funds and also an unprecedented year of
new acquisitions for Conservation Collier, which we are very excited
about, very pleased about and to make sure that the program has the
resources and staffing for new acquisitions and for all of the
maintenance that will need to be done in perpetuity, including
invasive removal as well as public-access provision.
It's our position that the Conservation Collier millage should be
set at the full 0.25 mills. We may have additional comments as this
budget process continues but wanted to show up early and let you all
know that we're paying attention and feel that that deserves full
funding.
Thank you.
June 20, 2024
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MR. MILLER: Your next speaker and final speaker is Brad
Cornell joining us on Zoom.
Brad, you're being prompted to unmute yourself.
MR. CORNELL: Thanks.
MR. MILLER: There he is.
MR. CORNELL: This is Brad Cornell. Can you hear me?
MR. MILLER: Yes, sir, go ahead.
MR. CORNELL: Thanks very much.
Mr. Chair and Commissioners, this is Brad Cornell. I'm policy
director for Audubon Western Everglades.
And I want to second my colleague and my boss, Andy
Wells-Bean's comments and also add to that we're very supportive in
the budget of the aggressive replenishment of the maintenance or the
management land -- excuse me -- the Land Management Trust Fund
amounts. That's absolutely vital as we see a $1.9 million bill for the
coming year, for Fiscal Year '25, for management. The interest
won't be sufficient unless we put enough money in that principal trust
fund. So that strategy we're very supportive of, and we're glad to see
that proposal in the budget.
I also want to just finally say, you know, we've been
appreciative of the recent approvals for land acquisitions for
Conservation Collier that the Board has made. We see coming up
next week that you've got a Cycle 12B in front of you, which has
over 800 acres of really important acquisition parcels. So we
anticipate your support for those as well and look forward to
continuing to work on this program collaboratively with you-all as
the budget process moves forward.
Thanks very much.
MR. MILLER: And that's our final speaker.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: We're good.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Finito.
June 20, 2024
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MR. FRENCH: Thank you, sir.
MANAGEMENT OFFICES AND PELICAN BAY
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Next up is the management
offices and Pelican Bay.
MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you, Chris.
Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Edward Finn, Deputy County
Manager. To my right is Mr. Dorrill representing Pelican Bay.
A couple of other brief introductions: John king is behind me
in the audience. I don't know if the Board knows him. John King
runs the fleet operation. Does a great job. He probably raised his
hand, if he's smart, behind me.
Mr. Dunnuck. John Dunnuck, the new CRA director. I hope
you've had an opportunity to meet him. John is actually -- years ago
was here at the county, and we're glad to have him back.
Mr. McCormick, who you know from Facilities. Mr. Tusa
from the TDC are all a part of this, as is John Mullins; Chris Johnson,
who has done an outstanding job on the budget and always does; and
Megan Gaillard, our corporate compliance director.
The executive management offices cover a wide range of
functions that touch on every aspect of the strategic plan from vision,
mission, and values to each strategic focus area. The divisions
within the department include the County Manager's Office,
corporate compliance and internal review, the Office of Management
and Budget, the grants compliance section, and impact fee
administration, as well as key internal service divisions, Fleet
Management and Facilities Management. In addition, the group
includes Pelican Bay Services, Tourism, and the Community
Redevelopment agencies.
Funding sources for the department include general tax revenue,
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internal service charges, and dedicated revenue for Pelican Bay,
Tourism, and the CRAs.
The budgets for the management offices have been established
consistent with the Board's strategic plan and are in compliance with
budget guidance.
Recommended service enhancements in this section include the
addition of one operations support specialist for the Immokalee CRA,
and consistent with infrastructure asset management strategic focus
area, the Facilities Management budget includes a $1 million HVAC
preventative maintenance funding enhancement. The objective, of
course, is to provide resourcing to move away from a break-fix
approach to our infrastructure maintenance and more towards a
predictive -- predictive maintenance approach. Inventory on that is
about 1800 A/C units across all our assets and, literally, 24 new
chillers that need to be maintained on a regular basis.
Speaking frankly, the resources to do that preventative
maintenance does not exist at your staff level, which is why we're
simply asking for that enhancement.
So that being said, all of this is, of course, within the County
Manager's recommended budget at the roll-back level, and, of course,
as we go forward with the process, we'll be talking more about where
we're going to be with that millage rate.
With that, there's always a lot of -- a lot of interest in the Pelican
Bay budget, and I appreciate Mr. Dorrill being here to talk to us.
Perhaps I could turn it over to him.
MR. DORRILL: Good afternoon, Commissioners.
The level of complexity this morning was a little overwhelming.
This is my 35th BCC budget workshop, but hopefully Pelican Bay
Services will be a little ray of very simple and less complicated sort
of budget work.
Our budget this year is in total compliance with your policies.
June 20, 2024
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There are no expanded service requests. Our actual real cash
carryforward will decrease almost 8 percent, because this was a
record year for us with respect to capital improvements, almost a
$13 million capital improvement plan that included the complete
rebuilding of all sidewalks and pathways in the community and the
replacement of our 40-year-old operations facility that was destroyed
as a result of Hurricane Ian.
So the budget this year is very straightforward, not very
complex, and comes to you with a unanimous recommendation of
your advisory board.
Having said that, our net operating budget will increase just two
and a half percent next year. There is a -- about a $5 per month
increase in the non-ad valorem assessment that will take us to $995
per equivalent residential unit next year or an increase of $60.73.
We really do think there's a lot of value associated with that. Your
current chairman has a corporate America background in finance, and
he really drills down into the budget process there.
I would also just want you to know that they actually look at a
full set of financial statements every time we meet, to include both
the balance sheet and a profit-and-loss sort of presentation that is
customized to our management requirements by the Clerk, and we're
very appreciative of the Clerk who goes the extra step to give the
board that.
The total ERUs remains unchanged at 5,659. There is no
increase in the millage for our street-lighting program. There is a
modest increase in assessed value as the community is approaching
about $10 billion now in assessed value which, in and of itself, is
really pretty impressive.
Two really bright spots in terms of current events that I would
want you to know on their behalf today. They, the community, have
been outstanding stewards of Clam Bay. The Board of County
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Commissioners are the single largest landowner in Pelican Bay. The
number of acres that you own in the estuary and the conservation
areas, you hold the deed, and you're the largest landowner in the
community. That comes as a surprise to a lot of people.
With regard to that, happy to tell you today that when the
water-quality analysis comes out later this year, for the first time in
almost 10 years, Clam Bay will not be impaired for dissolved oxygen
or copper; that is a remarkable achievement in a world who is
chronically worried about algal blooms and associated pollution
problems. We remain high for nutrients, but they have not used
copper sulfate in that community in almost 10 years to treat algae,
and it is finally beginning to show some benefits, and that's great
news.
As we speak today, Clam Pass itself is undergoing a
maintenance, excavation, and regrading in order to improve the
hydraulic efficiency of the paths there in the inlet, and we're
anticipating a full hydraulic dredge sometime this fall or this winter,
after sea turtle nesting season; it will be the first one since 2018.
So a lot of progress this year. Great budget that is in total
compliance with your directives that were set off in the spring.
Thank you.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Neil. That's very nice.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Hey, Neil, could you shoot me an e-mail
with those stats about the nutrients and the first time in 10 years since
it's been dredged or --
MR. DORRILL: Happy to. They are not published yet, so
you just need to consider that they are preliminary, but they're
independently obtained, and the analysis and the lab work is all third
party, and so it's pretty remarkable information.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. I have people that are over there
that would benefit from that information, and I won't put it out till
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you -- till it's published or --
MR. DORRILL: Understood.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks.
MR. FINN: Very good. Happy to try to answer any questions.
I think the whole team's behind me. And like you, I'm going to rely
on Chris Johnson to actually do any real thinking or math, so...
MR. JOHNSON: I'm not sure that's a good idea at the moment.
MR. FINN: I'm happy to answer any questions, or I
think -- what's up next, Chris?
COUNTY ATTORNEY
MR. JOHNSON: Next up will be the County Attorney.
MR. FINN: Very good, thank you.
MR. KLATZKOW: Good afternoon. Jeff Klatzkow, County
Attorney. To my right is Colleen Greene, whom you all know.
Colleen -- well, you might not know, manages my office, she
supervises my support staff, and she also puts together the budget.
Before I get into this, I'd like to thank Chris. Your people are
outstanding in this process, as usual.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it.
MR. KLATZKOW: We're below budget guidance. No asks
on this. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We could have had you stay
in your own seat.
MR. KLATZKOW: I could, but then she couldn't sit there
because of Troy.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Troy, get up.
MS. GREENE: Thanks, Troy.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good job, Colleen.
MS. GREENE: Thank you.
June 20, 2024
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MR. JOHNSON: Well done.
MR. KLATZKOW: I supervised.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Now for the tough one. We're
going to move on to the Board of County Commissioners budget.
So looking at your guys' budget, year over year, you are up about
8.6 percent, which is a little out of compliance, but offset it with the
other general admin side of things. The reason for that is because
we were looking at your actual yearly expenses every year, and you
guys are doing a lot of outreach, a lot of things that -- you had a very
small budget. So the overall amount is not material, and it will
better align the budgets with what you are spending.
And then on the -- if you kind of look up on -- again, it's
Page 1A, 1A.
CHAIRMAN HALL: We're good on 1A.
MR. JOHNSON: You are? All right.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: 1A looks great to me.
MR. JOHNSON: All right.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The font could be a little
smaller, but...
MR. JOHNSON: And just a quick explanation of the 111 side
of that where you see a reduction in about $950,000. If you recall
last year, we were negotiating with the city on the beach parking
contract, so we had an allocation in there for that that we no longer
need, because we came to a conclusion on that contract moving
forward for now.
Any questions on your own budgets at all?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Looks good.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Any public comment?
June 20, 2024
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CHAIRMAN HALL: We're out of compliance.
RESOURCEX
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Well, that brings us to the
wrap-up at this point. So, Chris, if you want to come back up, we
can have ResourceX do their presentation. Then after that we can
have some other discussions on a few topics.
Just point at me and I can do it, unless you want to come over
here, Chris.
MR. FABIAN: I'll come over your way. It may be easiest.
MR. JOHNSON: All right.
MR. FABIAN: Well, thank you all.
I don't have any new budget requests, so this is an opportunity to
bring you up to speed on where we are in priority-based budgeting
and where it goes from here.
I think throughout today's presentation, you've had the
opportunity to hear from numerous departments where you're already
taking action on the budget with program resource reallocations, new
fees up for consideration, and really innovative ideas. Not all of
these came from priority-based budgeting. I think we have heard
several throughout the presentations today that reflect the type of
culture that you have in this organization, and I think that prepares
you very well for continuing your work in priority-based budgeting
and evolving upon these recommendations, and that's where I want to
come in.
I thought I would, very quickly, start from where we last met,
where we last left off when you embarked on this path of
priority-based budgeting and reflect on some of your reasons why
you wanted to do this in the first place, not the least of which is the
fact that as a local government profession, as elected officials and
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public servants, this is a national call for action to re-think the
approach to budgeting.
This particular white paper was what we introduced when we
were just starting to get to know each other, and this comes from the
International City and County Management Association as well as
the Government Finance Officers Association who urge local
governments to approach the budget much in the way that you are
doing it this year and will continue to do so; that we're not doing
things the way that they've always been done.
And, again, I have heard evidence of this all throughout today,
but not only today, over the last several months as we've been
implementing from the Board level to administration, leadership,
your department heads, and staff. This is a new day, and you're
seeing things already changing. We're not just doing business as
usual.
As we presented, one of the probably -- in my opinion, what I
heard from you-all, one of the more attractive appeals of
priority-based budgeting was the thoughtful examination of every
program you currently offer, the resources that are being allocated to
those programs, and the opportunity for new resource reallocation.
I mentioned other counties who had achieved great feats along
these lines such as Washington County, Wisconsin, here who had,
over time, reallocated nearly 15 percent of their budget, their
operating budget that is, and have been written about extensively
from professional associations to say that this is not unique. Other
organizations are able to do this as well.
And our approach to be able to understand where the resource
reallocation concepts can come from is what I demonstrated in what
is called the priority-based budgeting blueprint where this is a chart
of the budget. On the left-hand side is where, just as you heard
today, there are new needs in this community. There are new
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programs, program enhancements that you are striving to fund, and
the question is, where do these resources come from, and can we be
as responsible as we possibly can?
The follow-up question is, for all of the new needs that come
forward, are they truly aligned with the priorities that you're striving
to accomplish by way of your strategic plan results and outcomes?
Over on the right-hand side are the two primary levers that help
you-all just as they helped Washington County, Wisconsin, before
you, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and others. We look at programs for
the opportunity where freeing up and reallocating resources can take
place, and we look at opportunities where the generation of new
program revenue, fees, charges, where appropriate, could be a
strategy that you took a look at.
By way of freeing up and reallocating resources, we can
consider partnerships. We can look at sourcing programs differently
than what you've done before. We can look at program efficiencies
by way of technology or reorganizations. We can look at
service-level tradeoffs or reductions where those make sense in order
to free up resources and reallocate them to fund your new needs
overall.
And, similarly, on the revenue side, we can look at partnerships,
we can look at in-sourcing, we can look at business models where
you are currently subsidizing programs today where new revenue
coming into the equation would make the most sense.
We can look at grant funding; we've heard a lot of grant-funding
opportunities today. And, ultimately, last, but not least, at the end of
the day, should we turn over every stone and look for all the resource
allocation and new revenue generation opportunities we have? As a
last resort, we can ask the residents what they think as well. So
these are the -- these round out the strategies that we get into in the
implementation of priority-based budgeting.
June 20, 2024
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And our approach is to attempt to work collaboratively with
your organization, build the data together that we use. And it turns
out in our work that there are groups of programs that meet the
criteria for being a perfect candidate for new revenue generation.
There are groups of programs that meet the criteria for really
thoughtfully questioning should you remain in this business at all,
looking at service levels, and looking at, "Is this your role?" "Does
this really meet what the county's in business to do?"
And that is precisely how -- organizations that we tend to
highlight in our work, this is how they achieve their level of
resourcefulness is by way of scouring all the programs that they
provide, identifying those implementation opportunities, and
beginning to move forward and implement those.
So here we are. This was the past. This was looking at other
organizations who came before you. And I suspect that Collier
County, Florida, has every reason -- now that we are through our first
phase of the analysis, the county has every reason to continue that
level of greatness.
There are two primary value propositions that we talked about
today. The first was having the opportunity to now frame all budget
requests around priorities, not only line-item accounts. And I make
mention of that because we'd, again, just remind everybody, we don't
depart from the line-item information. We just bring it to life by
way of the programs that you offer and their relationship to the
priorities that you are striving to achieve.
And the second item is indeed from the blueprint,
program-specific opportunities for resource reallocation and revenue
generation. So I just wanted to touch on where we are with these
and where we head next.
So the very first value proposition was how we are framing
budget proposals by priorities. And I will say, for all of the budget
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requests that have come before you today, we've continued to work
with Ed and Chris and the staff to load those into your budgeting
module. And as you continue to proceed through the rest of the
budget process towards adoption, the continued debate and
deliberations around these enhancements can be evaluated relative to
the General Fund, relative to their funding source, and when you-all
ultimately arrive at approval, denial, edits to any of the budget
requests, those will be tracked in the budgeting software so we can
continue to support the idea that new request -- program growth, that
is, takes place where those programs have the greatest ultimate
impact on the priorities that you're striving to accomplish. So this is
exactly where you are right now, and this will continue throughout
the rest of the budget deliberations all the way through adoption.
The second value proposition is what you have heard every time
that I've come to the podium today to talk to provide additional
examples of new revenue concepts or resource reallocation concepts
as well. These are opportunities where you're going -- where
departments have programs that they're offering that meet the
qualifications of the priority-based budgeting blueprint.
Our first effort at this is to take every program that you have, we
analyze them in terms of their impact on your priorities versus their
cost. We take into consideration all of the other scoring criteria, like
degree of mandate, whether or not they're highly mandated or
whether or not there's less of a mandate overall, cross-referenced with
the degree of reliance. Are there other potential partners who could
provide the program or help shoulder some of the cost burden, or can
you look at sourcing programs differently altogether?
In our very first attempt, I want to show you a few pages of
documentation from our report, but this is what I continue to
reference, and this will be the first deliverable that exists within the
tools for programmatic analysis. So what you see -- I'll just depict.
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It's not intended to be read. It is a larger picture in the draft
document. But if you can see, this is an axis where on the left-hand
side, the Y axis, we separate programs in terms of high impact versus
low impact, and on the horizontal axis, from left to right, we separate
programs from lower cost in general to higher cost.
And within those differentiations, we're also further separating
programs on degree of mandate. Are the programs highly
mandated? Why do we do that? We do that because it's harder to
change a program that has a stringent or high degree of mandate from
a higher level of government. They're more complex as you look for
implementation solutions versus lower mandate, those programs are
easier to address.
So that it's basically trying to drill down to ease of
implementation of any given budget recommendation that you come
across, and degree of reliance is, is there any partner who can come
into this discussion overall?
So if you are following, we have 16 areas of analysis that, by
analyzing your programs this way, we can quickly get to what is the
type of recommendation that is most appropriate. So I'd just give
you a quick example.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Is there any way you can blow that up?
MR. FABIAN: It is -- I apologize.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It should be appropriately
named 1A.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: 1A, yeah. I was thinking the
same thing, yeah.
MR. FABIAN: We could call this illustrative for now, and
you'll have your draft report with a larger version of this.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: When do we get that?
MR. FABIAN: What's that?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: When do we get the draft
June 20, 2024
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report?
MR. FABIAN: I'll be attaching the draft report -- you'll have it
by the end of the week. We're going to continue to edit it with some
of the things that we learned today, including we just did some
programmatic research on animal control versus -- yeah, that type of
analysis you were looking for, spay-and-neuter cost versus what
it -- subsequent outcomes in animal control costs overall.
So that's going to be one of my other major points is that this is a
living document. So one of the reasons, I think, that you brought in
ResourceX is -- as opposed to other consultants is that we don't come
with a one-time report, we drop it, and we're out. This is a report
that will continue to evolve as we look at new program opportunities,
and we house it in your software so you can take action on these
opportunities as you continue to move forward.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can I ask you a question
about the software that you've provided? So different
departments -- like everybody that briefed us today said, you know,
positive things about ResourceX. So they're using a specific
software that you've provided. Across the board, has -- and it's not
throwing anybody under the bus, but it's giving us a report
card -- have the departments been as receptive as they've been
sounding?
Because even when I've had one-on-ones, I've heard really
positive things, and so you don't know if they're just sort of saying
that because they think that's what we want to hear.
You know, without getting too specific, have you been
encouraged by, you know, the deeper dive you've done into the
different deputies as far as -- because this is -- this is a big change
and, you know, a lot of times counties or government, they don't like
change. What's the short version of what you've found in the
different departments?
June 20, 2024
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MR. FABIAN: I would also welcome Jesse who -- this is Jesse
Muñiz, who is from our team and leads all of our implementations.
Jess was a former client from the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico,
as an implementer, so he's been working most closely with staff and
would welcome your reaction.
MR. MUÑIZ: Hello, Commissioners. Yes, so to answer your
question, the departments have been very receptive and actually have
been very -- it's been highly encouraging the questions they've been
asking when they've been going through each phase of this process.
The most recent phase that we went through was scoring of
programs, and we had kind of a short time frame as we were to get
that done because of just how the project moved along, and they were
able to -- a total of, what, 600 programs? They turned it around in
about a week, which is outstanding that they actually went through
and were able to turn this around and give it to us.
So to answer your questions, yes, the staff has been -- they've
been great in all this. And, again, the nature of the way they've
approached this, you can tell that they're really, really wanting to look
at their budgets differently than they have in the past, and so it's
highly encouraging that this is just kind of the first year we're doing
this, so that only means from there just how much better we can get
going forward.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I mean, because our intention
was, across the board we didn't want the staff to feel like this was
some sort of force feed, you know, that it's a team approach, and we
want their feedback and, you know, the staff that I've met with, when
I've asked them about ResourceX, they've been very, very positive
that it has shown them a lot of things that they didn't, you know,
previously see.
So it's sounding like multiple unrelated people are all saying
very similar things, which is what I like to hear, so I was -- I wanted
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to hear your perspective. I mean, I expected you to sort of say that.
Like I always say, I sort of wanted to set the table to have somebody
articulate in a positive way that this has been a positive experience
and good things are coming out of it, obviously, so...
MR. MUÑIZ: The toughest part, I think, when we implement,
you know, priority-based budgeting is really the translation of
line-item data, the way you prepare budgets in the past to this new
programmatic lens of budgets. And so that's always a challenge for
any organization. And, again, the staff here has just been
tremendous in being able to kind of take a step back, think of a
way -- their budgets a little differently and approach it in this
programmatic approach. So I commend the staff for the approach
that they've taken.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
MR. MUÑIZ: Excellent.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Good to hear.
MR. FABIAN: My last comment on what -- to add onto what
Jesse said is it is seldom the case that in the midst of
implementing -- you're just building your dataset for the first time.
There are opportunities that are emerging that your team is taking
action on in the midst of it, without waiting for any sort of final
guidance or any sort of final report to take place, and that's
phenomenal. Usually we get to this moment, and usually what
happens is this is the first time that we're talking about directions that
you could head rather than talking about some of the wins that you
have already achieved, so that's another good sign to know about.
So let me give you an example, and I think this will make sense
in your mind of why we divide up the programs with their scores this
way. If you think about a program that ends up scoring pretty low
on impact towards your priorities, so it's lower impact, it's also not
mandated, so there's no real requirement that forces you to provide it,
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it's low on reliance, meaning somebody else does this program as
well, and it does not pay for itself, if you're following me, that is a
program where, in our experience, the local government thinks about,
"Are we sure that we should remain in this business? Should we be
looking at allowing another entity to provide this program?" You
certainly might not think through, "How do we increase the spending
for this program?" That would not be your instinct for a program
like that.
Another type of program that's high impact, so very closely
related to your priorities overall, might have a high degree of
mandate. Reliance is such that you're the only possible provider,
and it's not paying for themselves. You would not jump to the first
question about, "How do we get out of providing this program for
that type of service?" You might be thinking about, well, people -- it's
really highly meaningful to us. "Is there a revenue option? Is there
anything we could consider to help offset the cost? Is there any
efficiency we could gain through a partnership?" So I'm trying to
point out there's a different set of questions.
So we take all of your programs, and we simply cross-reference
it against every one we've ever worked with and other local
governmental examples to come back to you purely with data and an
objective outside point of view.
So you may very well look at some of these recommendations
and find them compelling, new ideas overall. You might look at
some of these recommendations, and you decide not to implement
them. That's 100 percent natural.
When the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, got to their
$41 million in resource reallocation, they first started with darn near
100 million in resource reallocation recommendations and whittled it
down to the ones that they implemented the soonest to take action on
them. And that's how it works. You start with this big bank, and
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we continue to evolve it, and we're going to execute as they make
sense and as we need them.
So I'll bring you one example. This is a slide that we made up
earlier today because it was a discussion that was taking place as we
were talking with the Bureau of Emergency Services division and, in
particular, special needs administration. If you remember, some of
the dialogue centered around, "How do they ensure that these
agencies with special needs are in compliance?" And some of the
examples that we're bringing to bear in the report come from Orange
County, Florida, and the City of San Diego. This is how the report is
organized.
So we look at the programs. We look at how it's scored. We
see, "What is the trend in how other local governments are
considering this type of challenge that you're facing?" And in
Orange County, we saw compliance review fees for -- on an annual
basis for facilities like nursing homes and rest homes to achieve full
cost recovery. This is a program, at least with the data that we have
today, does not have cost recovery coming into it. Perhaps there is
some sort of cost share from federal grants, but the program specific
revenue from fees is a true opportunity for you.
The City of San Diego provides workshops and training for
emergency preparedness, and that's become a steady stream of
revenue within their consistent emergency services division. So this
is the type of opportunity that we bring forward, and we'll be
conducting additional work with the departments to find out, "Is this
something you want to take action on? How did they actually
implement it? What's the execution plan overall?"
As you go deeper into the document, you see not only the
opportunities identified program by program for what could take
place but also some of the background implementation guidance. So
this is a -- I picked this one on purpose because it's very small, and
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it's in some ways, when you think about it, inconsequential. But in
our experience, the more that we've been doing this work, the way
that you get to massive resource reallocation opportunities is that we
don't even overlook the small opportunities. You got it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One bite at a time.
MR. FABIAN: Yep, one at a time. So some opportunities are
big, and some opportunities we want to rack up our quick wins.
And, again, you heard of some of those today.
You have a Bayshore redevelopment holiday decorations style
of program. It doesn't cost you but $25,000, but as we have seen as
we scanned across our database, we see from Frisco, Texas, to Winter
Park, Florida, other common ways where the trend is partnerships,
corporate sponsorships, revenues from specific activities, non-profit
partnerships and vendor fees that come together to help throw a
wonderful event. So you're not talking about getting out of the
business of it, but we're talking about ways to help offset the costs.
And that's because this particular program landed in Category 1,
which is, hey, low impact in the grand scheme of things, low cost.
It's not mandated, and the reliance is quite low.
So this is just an example. So you're going to see, for every
program that you offer, this type of research that is brought back to
you to take a look at.
I've got another one in the slides here. Here's a million-dollar
opportunity, taking a look at your program in Community and
Human Services, mental health and substance abuse. So it's a
serious program with actually a high impact on your outcomes, but
we see organizations here in your implementation report, such as the
mental health center of Denver, Colorado, taking a look at tiered
structure for rates. County Manager Amy, you brought this structure
up in other examples earlier today for animal care. So this shows up
again and again with specific guidance on how some of others have
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approached that. Again, not to say that you jump to this
immediately, but here is specific actionable guidance for every
program that you come across the organization, depending on its
opportunity area.
And we designed this intentionally. I was, as Jesse, a staff
member in local government, in county government, and what we
wanted was a playbook. We wanted a series of recommendations
that we could turn to that grows and evolves as other local
governments actually make these changes. So you're getting the
benefit of all of the other implementers of priority-based budgeting
who have come before you and all the types of recommendations that
they have come up with and exactly how they achieved the new
revenue opportunities or the resource reallocation opportunities
overall.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just real quick, how deep do
you go throughout our organization? Do you -- you brought up an
example in the Bayshore CRA. Have you gone into the Immokalee
CRA and MSTU yet?
MR. FABIAN: In research?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
MR. FABIAN: I believe so. I mean, I know we have a host of
programs that are within Immokalee -- well, we can cross-reference
the total program list. Chris Johnson is behind me somewhere.
MR. JOHNSON: And if I may -- if I may, Commissioner,
every department and section has taken -- has taken the steps of
identifying their programs, scoring their programs. So I
believe -- and I'll look back at Chris here -- that all of them -- all the
departments will be included in this under the County Manager's
agency.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Very good. Very
good. I just -- the example that you brought up there reminded me
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of a couple of circumstances that happened to me personally. I
attend the MSTU in Immokalee, and two different programs were
brought forward that weren't mandated. One was a trash can
initiative on Main Street, and the trash cans became so dilapidated
that they were a health issue, so -- and then the other circumstance
arose that when they became full, people just threw the trash outside
of the trash can, which created an eyesore.
Well, when the health issue arose, they removed the trash cans.
And then what happened to the eyesore? It went away as well.
Well, we'd always had trash cans. So the next thing I know,
they were spending another $25,000 for new trash cans and hiring
somebody to go pick up the extra trash that was put there. So we set
it off and put it aside.
So having this basis to -- because to me, that was -- again, that
was just common-sense stuff. But you come at this from a -- from a
programmatic standpoint that would -- based upon the impact as well
as the cost associated with it. So I see this to be hugely beneficial as
it filters through the organization.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Hey, Chris, in your David Lawrence
example, what was the cure? I can't read it because it's so small.
Was it adding revenue, or was it -- where in the -- it was the next one,
the one that was -- no, that was it. That was it right there.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But it was in a different
town. It's not David Lawrence. But like you said --
CHAIRMAN HALL: No, the David Lawrence is on the left.
It's in the small --
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
MR. FABIAN: Exactly. So the opportunity here is a
sliding-fee scale to ensure that the types of services that you're
providing --
June 20, 2024
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CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay.
MR. FABIAN: -- for mental health and abuse services are
accessible no matter -- despite affordability, and that's a tough
challenge to crack. And so when we came across this program, the
mental health center of Denver was a good example where that's
exactly what they're trying to deal with.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Where was this program in the grid?
MR. FABIAN: In the grid? I will find that for you here in just
a moment. I'm going to write that down and come back. Well,
actually, I bet I can bring it up.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Jesse's got it.
MR. FABIAN: Jesse's got it. Nice.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's why you stole him
from, what, Albuquerque or what? Are you trying to get a job with
these guys; is that why you're complimenting them so much?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No.
CHAIRMAN HALL: He was an implementer, too.
MR. MUÑIZ: This program, particularly, was in kind of the
category of low-impact priorities, high-cost. Low mandate but low
reliance as well. So that's why this program kind of fell into that
matrix.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you. Yeah, that helps.
MR. FABIAN: Good deal. Awesome.
I also want to impress upon you, I think, the example that the
commissioner gave about the trash services and what you were
thinking. Some of the recommendations are easier to implement
than others. Some are immediately actionable, and others will still
take time. They will take time to think through, okay, even in the
example that we have up on the screen right now, we can think about
a tiered rate structure, but rolling it out, having a good
communication plan, talking with the agency, talking with the
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director, those are -- they don't take forever, but what I want to
prepare you for is that for every opportunity for resource reallocation,
new revenue generation, we move from insights, which is the concept
and the recommendation, to implementation, and that is exactly
where you are right now.
So scanning across the entirety of the 16 categories, I think
you'll see in the -- these are categories 1 through 16 listed, and over
on the right is the potential based on your costs for those programs
and the opportunities that other entities have implemented. So that
is summing up everything that you'll see in the report.
And I mentioned earlier that when the City of Pittsburgh did this
exact same analysis, they were closer to plus or minus $100 million
for total opportunity, and they whittled that down closer to
$41 million in their resource reallocation opportunities in their first
foray into priority-based budgeting.
Mentally, that's what we're imagining. So we start with a large
range of opportunities. You know, there's still further analysis that
could be done to take, for example, the programs that we talked about
today, and that's why this is a living document overall. But I think
it's a good start. It's a very good start to have here as a punch line a
range from 86 million to 157 million in new resource allocation
opportunities and new revenue generation opportunities as well.
So pretty good for our first draft and, again, none of this can
come to fruition without all of the work of staff on the analysis.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, of course, we haven't
seen your report yet, but will you split the resource allocation apart
from the revenue generation opportunities? Will they be split when
we see that report?
MR. FABIAN: That's a good question. We -- so the way that
the report is organized is around the 16 categories --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
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MR. FABIAN: -- which could include cost reduction and
revenue generation within the same category. But I understand your
point. And we do have -- for every opportunity that another
organization has come up with, it's clear, is this revenue generating,
or is this cost savings?
So I think that's a good idea. We will -- although you'll have a
first draft, we can reorganize it around cost savings versus revenue
generating with a side reference to what category it fell into.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That would help me.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah, that would help. What'd you call
those? It was possibility No. 1 and what --
MR. FABIAN: Yeah, just categories.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Number 1 and No. 2, the two strategies.
MR. FABIAN: Yep.
CHAIRMAN HALL: On that back page, would you say the
smartest place to begin for us to focus would be Categories 5 through
8?
MR. FABIAN: Yeah, they are the high-cost categories on the
low-impact --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay.
MR. FABIAN: -- side of things, and so for those, they can
be -- you're going to see both revenue-generating and cost-savings
concepts even within those categories overall. The benefit of
starting with those categories is that they have the least impact on
your strategic plan priorities. So even for communities that are
going through a budget shortfall -- so we're working with a very large
city right now who has a dramatic budget shortfall. That's not you.
They want to start with those type of categories that you mentioned
because it's the minimum impact on residents that you're talking
about. So you're making changes while minimizing the impact on
your priorities and therefore your community.
June 20, 2024
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All right. Back to the software, just so you know how this
works as well. So for each of those opportunities, they are loaded in
as what we call program insights, so an insight is a change to a
program that you could make. It could be cost-savings; it could be
revenue-generating.
And as you work at these over time -- when I was in local
government, in the Great Recession, we would do a revenue
committee, or we'd do a cost-cutting committee, and we'd come up
with a list of things that we might do. And it exists in a report, and
then time passes, and we forget that we had that report. It was a
one-time committee affair, or it was a consultant report, and it sort of
vanishes; it gathers dust.
We wanted to make these recommendations in a way that are
living, they can be changed as you go. Next year at this time when
you're going through the budget discussions, you can turn back to
these exact recommendations for what you have taken action on
already, what you have not taken action on, what new opportunities
have been developed. And, again, I think that's one of the reasons
that you wanted to do priority-based budgeting is it's not a one-time
report that exists for this moment, June 20th, 2024. It will stay with
you as you think about different changes you can make to programs.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Chris, so if I'm in Growth
Management, I've got -- I have this software, if I'm in the -- you
know, in the -- does everybody have this software, or it's just the
senior leadership of say -- I'm just using Growth Management as an
example. Who has it? Like, Jamie French has it for Growth
Management, and he's able to tap into it? I'm just trying to
understand how it operates.
MR. JOHNSON: Commissioner, good question. We have
specific users currently.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
June 20, 2024
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MR. JOHNSON: Yes, the department heads and --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: They can only see their
departments, right?
MR. JOHNSON: -- financial staff, yeah.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But then there must be some
overall master that, like, Amy Patterson has access to where she can
pull up every single department if she wanted, right?
MR. JOHNSON: Yep. In the budget office, we can see all of
them, and also the County Manager.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And I'm just talking out loud,
and maybe the answer's a definite "no." But having, like, that
overall access to all the departments, is that something that the
commissioners would benefit from so that instead of -- you know, if
we're curious -- I mean, not to go in and manipulate anything, but
we're all very interested in this as well, and sort of waiting for that
report quarterly or whatever, it would seem like it would be
interesting to try to -- you know, not have access to change anything
but to be able to visually look at something. You know, I don't want
to make this more complicated.
Amy might be sitting over there going, "Absolutely not. The
last thing I need is five commissioners all dreaming up questions for
me," right?
But even to play around with it a little bit so we could educate
ourselves. It seems like it's so user friendly that if we had a little
bit -- and maybe not all the commissioners would like it. Maybe just
a couple of the software nerds like me and maybe Chris and -- maybe
all of us. But I'm just curious.
MR. JOHNSON: You hit it on the head. If we have -- if we
can do it "read only."
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely.
Yeah. No, absolutely. But, you know, to just sort of -- so that when
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we're being briefed on it, we're as -- we're as educated, and then we're
having a -- it's not -- you know, it's not the department sort of talking
to us and just -- you know, we under -- we maybe could do a deeper
dive. And maybe it's just something we just get access to for a
limited time. Just, hey, if you want to play around with it, great, and
then it's going to be shut off after 60 days.
And I'm not saying that this is a great idea. I'm just
brainstorming that in -- you know, in the -- I can only relate to my
military background, and when we did similar things like this, all the
commanders had access, right, to every single squadron on the base,
and it was "read only," but it allowed you to sort of see some things
and then also to be part of the process and not just sort of be briefed
on, you know, the final results that everybody else was dreaming up.
We're able to see something. Like I said, maybe it's a bad idea. I'm
just sort of throwing it out there.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's a bad idea.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, I know. I figured.
MR. JOHNSON: I'll have to look at Chris to see if there is a
read-only option. I haven't found one yet, so...
CHAIRMAN HALL: You know, the thing that's exciting about
this is is this is not an event. It's a lifestyle. It's systematic [sic].
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, you know, I was just
sitting there thinking about it. You know, for an old accountant,
I've -- how long have I been asking for some kind of a zero-based
budget process?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Never. I'm kidding.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Since -- since I became a
commissioner, I started talking about zero-based budgeting process,
and that is such an arduous process to go through. And it's so
arduous you can't do it every year functionally. You end up
spending more money finding a penny than you do fixing issues;
June 20, 2024
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whereas, this system allows for an evolution over time. A living
document, as you've called it, a continuous look-see by the leadership
to see where things can be adjusted along the way.
I think over time this is -- because I remember Amy and I were
talking about zero-based budget, I don't know, four or five years ago,
and then we were talking about an index process interimly, a
zero-based budget maybe every 10 years with an indexing at five.
This is ongoing forever.
MR. FABIAN: Yes, that's the intent.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah.
MR. FABIAN: Because we've all been through when it doesn't
hold up, and you're looking back for a 2008 report that may or may
not be relevant, and you've shot down half the ideas you've
implemented. So we wanted it to be as close to realtime for --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And did I hear you say before
that there's going to be comparisons from the decisions that we end
up making this year? And next year we're going to be able to say we
decided to whack that $25,000 out of the -- out of that one particular
department, and then we'll be able to see -- we'll be able to see the
impacts of that both from the rating system as well as the expense
slash revenue generation. Did I hear that?
MR. FABIAN: Absolutely. So you have established a
baseline. Well, you will when you adopt this upcoming budget.
And as you make decisions that alter the baseline -- so you reduce
spending in a lower priority area, you're going to see that spending in
that category go down. And as you see growth in other areas that are
more highly aligned, that's the mark of progress.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then Johnson won't be
able three BAs and cover up something that he did over here?
MR. FABIAN: At the program level.
CHAIRMAN HALL: He won't be able to tell us how much
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money he saved by shopping?
MR. FABIAN: But it's all -- I mean, every idea that came up
earlier today where the departments are already taking action, we
want to -- Jesse and I were talking. We want to make sure we're
tracking -- we get those into the system because those are solutions
you've already implemented for this year's budget, and you want to
be able to see the credit for decisions that you're making now.
Awesome.
Okay. Almost done. Just a wrap-up here.
So the next steps, back to those two key value propositions that
you signed up for. One is finishing the budget process that you're in
right now. So I think the last discussion is relevant here. We're
going to get to that baseline level for data. So between Jesse and his
team of implementers, we'll be doing the continued support of
proposal evaluation to get to a total adopted budget. I mean, we'll be
looking at any program cleanup that we can do in the system as well.
It evolves, and you want to get better at that data and tracking, to
your point.
And then as far as the opportunities for resource reallocation and
optimization, the opportunity to see the very first report is critical.
So it's just the review to be able to see, are some of these insights
good? Are they things that you have done before? Are they
insights that don't -- they won't work here for some specific and
practical reason? That's totally okay.
But then we move from insights to action, which is helping the
staff mobilize and approach to move from just the idea that this could
be done, this is a good recommendation, there's money to be saved,
there's new revenue to generate. Other cities have done it. Here's
their case studies. Here's the implementation plan to actually doing
it and moving forward and taking action and implementing these
solutions.
June 20, 2024
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So that is -- we are -- you know, we've been on board with your
team. Your team's been working hard. We've been a part of the
process just for a few months now. So this is very much an interim
check-in for where we are, and we continue to make progress on
these insights on your budget and keep going from here.
That's my presentation.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well done. Excellent. I loved it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have to say I'm excited
about the prospects of these opportunities. I'm excited.
Now, I do have -- I do have one question, and I have not heard
you mention anything about reserves anywhere in these -- in these
allocations. It's all about -- and rightfully so, and how important
reserves are -- in fact, are for any -- any organization. So are
reserves brought into your equation anywhere?
MR. FABIAN: What we would do, typically, is back to the
blueprint. Let's say your reserves were not where you wanted them
to be. First off, I should say, reserves in and of themselves are not a
program in priority-based budgeting, so they don't -- they don't get
scored or anything. It's a -- so it wouldn't show up in the
opportunities report.
As you look at the blueprint, some of our communities might
say on the left-hand side of this blueprint, we have new needs, which
might mean -- you know, I think we've all talked about here, "What is
the right level of reserves?"
We heard in Chris' presentation, where do you want to be for
thoughtful risk management when it comes to reserves? And if you
need more money there, then the question will be, where does that
money come from? Do we reallocate resources? Do we generate
new revenue to replenish those reserves? And that is a funding
June 20, 2024
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choice to be prioritized, just like every other program enhancement
overall. We can certainly offer any of our learnings along the way
and work in collaboration with the GFOA. I would say that your
staff has a really good handle on reserve policy and what's
professional and strategic for the reserve levels that they're trying to
get you to achieve, but in terms of the priority-based budgeting
process, this is how we would address it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And so -- then, as we
go forward, as we start to home in on the actual reallocations or
revenue increases, then those priorities of what we do with those cost
savings and the reallocation could come in as a Board decision with
regard to prioritization on those revenues.
MR. FABIAN: Got it. Funding and reserve is to be evaluated.
It's a spending choice and prioritized against every other spending
choice that you have. There is -- well, maybe I'll say that...
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was smiling. I was smiling
at them.
MR. FINN: I'm reminded of the rule of wholes, yes.
MR. JOHNSON: Any other questions for Chris?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Well, actually, I think that's a
good segue into maybe one of our next conversations. Let me just
pull up this -- let me pull up my PowerPoint here, find the right spot.
All right. So I think the next thing we wanted to briefly talk
about was, as we stated earlier in my original presentation a few
hours ago, we did achieve the rolled-back rate for the recommended
budget. To do that there were a few things we had to do, and this
kind of hits on your reserve program question, Commissioner
McDaniel. To do that, we went through this priority-based review of
program revenue and expenses. As you've seen throughout the day,
we've taken action on a few items already. We've also departed
June 20, 2024
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from our historically conservative approach with revenue forecasting
and budgeting. We have -- in this year's budget, we've done a more
realistic approach to our revenues. We're utilizing state forecasts
and state budgets for next year with our large state sales tax and
revenue sharings in the General Fund.
We also -- to get there, we also had to reduce our planned
countywide capital program and our -- and a reduction in our planned
countywide capital reserves. The planned countywide capital
reserve for this year was going to be $27.6 million, and it's reduced to
$7.6 million.
Now, the reasoning for that is -- and I know we've talked to you
all individually on this in your office, and we will have an item
coming to you in July regarding budget amendments to realign this
transfer. But the Conservation Collier transfer that we were -- that
we adopted in the FY '24 budget, the actual transfer to be -- to
be -- I'm sorry, to be -- the revised transfer amount that will actually
be transferred is based on the ordinance -- money collected during the
ordinance dates of October 10th and March 24th, I believe.
CHAIRMAN HALL: What was the deficit? It was 23 million
or --
MR. JOHNSON: 23.9. Down there in the right-hand corner,
you'll see 23.9 million. To the General Fund, the deficit is
$17 million. As we looked at this, we're going to transfer all the
money into the General Fund that is available to be transferred, so
we'll realign the budgets to do that.
The Unincorporated General Fund will have -- will have a
shortfall of 6.4 million, which we've kind of discussed today how
we've addressed that through reserves and also a reduction in our
other G&A, and then Water Pollution Control, that will be about a
$395,000 reduction in the actual cash transfers that we expect to
happen this year.
June 20, 2024
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Now, that has been forecasted in this budget, so we've taken it
into account. To do that, though, these were the steps that we had to
take.
So, specifically, what we had to do in the General Fund, you'll
see here, we reduced the advanced funding for the 800 megahertz
radio upgrade. We reduced -- and I guess I'll say we delayed some
parking lot repairs, pushing them off to a future year. We cut our
advance for the CCSO furniture and fixtures for the forensic building
in half to two million, so we reduced it by two million, and then we
had to cut that capital recovery reserve by about $16.8 million.
So I wanted to bring that up in case there was any discussion on
that, but that is how we got to the -- that is how we were able to get to
the rolled-back rate in the recommended budget.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I appreciate you bringing that up.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So the -- forgive me. The
adopted -- the adopted transfer was 53,5- --
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- but because of
interpretation, we were only able to move 29; is that what I --
MR. JOHNSON: We will be able to move 29 based on the
recommendations --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then the other --
MR. JOHNSON: -- from the Clerk and bond counsel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So the other monies are
coming out of the General Fund.
MR. JOHNSON: I'm sorry. Can you repeat that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The other money, the
variances are --
MR. JOHNSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- coming out of the General
Fund.
June 20, 2024
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(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
MR. JOHNSON: The General Fund will have a variance and
the Unincorporated. And then in Water Pollution Control, that was
pretty easy to absorb in what's running through that fund, so...
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So I'm going to ask the question just
because it's the workshop. We got basically stonewalled because of
the time frame from October to April. And to quote Commissioner
LoCastro, because of that, I hate this a whole lot less. But if we
were to go back and change our policy like we had it the prior to
April, would we be able to recoup those funds like we intended to
and fund our reserves in this coming budget?
MR. JOHNSON: I'm going to -- I'm going to look at Jeff over
there. My understanding is the interpretation is it's the money
collected under the ordinance as it is, so it would be going forward,
but I'll look at the County Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: It's a going-forward basis now.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The monies that were
collected under the old ordinance are under the old ordinance, and
then till the amendment was effectuated, you can't -- you can't
retroactively go back.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That's my question. What if we change
the ordinance back to the way it was?
MR. KLATZKOW: You could. You've got accounting issues
here that your Clerk is more versed in than I am, quite frankly.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm just asking the question. Just -- I
like to see the reserves funded, and if it was because of something
that we did promising Conservation Collier something that was just
fuzzy --
MR. KLATZKOW: You could always --
CHAIRMAN HALL: -- feel good --
June 20, 2024
Page 150
MR. KLATZKOW: You could always direct staff to put
money into it as far as the trust funds go. That's not an issue.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. All right. Thanks.
MR. JOHNSON: Any other discussion on this? I mean -- and
another option would be -- if you wanted to refund this, obviously,
we have that -- I guess, that range of rolled-back to millage rate. So
if there was an idea to put money back into these reserves, we could
do that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Let's have that discussion
right now. There is -- from me, there is an interest to put that money
back, to refund that money over a period of time and develop a
palatable plan. That was one of the things that I -- when we did
those budget moves last year in our budget hearings, I specifically
told Meredith and Brad that, that I had full intention of refunding the
entire 53 million, so...
MR. JOHNSON: So you're talking the Conservation Collier
reserves?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right now that's what's on
the front screen here. There were other reserves that were utilized in
order to make up the aggregate difference in what we passed as a
budget and what -- or what had been proposed as a budget and what
we passed as a budget. But I would like to specifically see
Conservation Collier be repaid back, not just have the new unit
rollback. I think I saw a slide go by that Conservation Collier's
getting 30-, 31 million again this year --
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- at the rolled-back rate.
That's new money.
MR. JOHNSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And so we utilized 25 million
or so -- 28 million or so out of the Conservation Collier. I'd
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like -- I'd like an appropriation in this year's budget for the beginning
process of the repayment of those monies.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I disagree. I'd like to see that money go
to our reserves, not go back to Conservation Collier money that
wasn't being used for the last 10 years. That's why we used it.
MR. JOHNSON: Now, with that said, I have two slides here.
I have one for Conservation Collier repayment options, and I have
another one for a countywide reserve reestablishment.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There you go.
MR. JOHNSON: So either way, to get down to the -- I guess
the nitty-gritty of it is if we were to -- right now your millage rate is
at rollback. If you were to adjust in one area or another area, we
could utilize that additional ad valorem revenue to do either/or or
combination of both over a period of time, all at once. You guys
have the ability to make those decisions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm not interested in raising the taxes on
the people to replace Conservation Collier money.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That -- I can't buy into that
statement. I mean, we're not -- we're not raising the taxes on the
people to replace Conservation Collier money.
CHAIRMAN HALL: If we do anything besides rollback, we
are. It just sticks in my craw that we didn't get to do what we
wanted to do, so that's why I --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm coming from an aggravated --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It was never -- it was never
the intent to utilize those funds to fund the budget last year and not
replenish those funds that had been collected, paid for willfully by the
taxpayers of Conservation Collier. It's not their fault. It's not the
residents' fault that those funds were expended and utilized. And so
I feel obligated -- and I'm just telling you how I feel --
June 20, 2024
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CHAIRMAN HALL: I understand.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- Chris. I feel obligated to
replenish those funds over -- and I've said it multiple times, over a
reasonable period of time with some kind of a reasonable plan.
And so I'm not -- I'm not -- I'm not quite sure. I mean, there's
discussions here of -- I mean, our budget currently that we're looking
at is built around a rollback which holds us to a revenue neutral, from
revenue collected last year to revenue collected this year.
So there's -- we can and will have this -- not necessarily today
because we're in a workshop, but we can and will have discussions
about rate neutral, staying rate neutral. Rate neutral will generate
26-, $28 million, $29 million between the two funds, between the
Unincorporated and not.
And then -- I mean, are you going to get to this slide that you
showed me yesterday?
MR. JOHNSON: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. JOHNSON: I think I know which one you're talking
about. Is this the one?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's the one.
MR. JOHNSON: So I'll explain it real quick, if you don't mind,
Commissioner.
This is our annual renewal and replacement estimate. What we
have on the top there is our current asset -- general governmental
asset replacement value. Average life of the assets, we're assuming
25 years. That would give us a target annual allocation for renewal
and replacement of $112 million. Currently this year, we're putting
a good chunk of it into -- into PayGo R&R, about 76.3 million.
With that said, if you're aiming for that 112-, you're about
$35.6 million short this year.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And my question when I was
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looking at this slide after you threw it at me -- this piece of paper
after you threw it at me yesterday was this is based on an average
life -- and by the way, I'm astounded at the $2.8 billion worth of
assets that we're managing and we have to upkeep and we have to
maintain and we ultimately have to budget to replace. I'm astounded
that it's that much. I mean, when this whole process started back in
when, 2018 or so, when 301 Fund became --
MR. JOHNSON: 2020, I believe, was the first year.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So I had
maybe -- nonetheless, it doesn't really matter. I'm just astounded
that we have this much dollar value in assets, and this county had
never been appropriating for our reserves for the ultimate
maintenance and/or replacement of those assets. We'd never
been -- never been reserving, ever, in our 100-year history.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, Bill, when you and I
got elected, we were $1.5 billion in deficit.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: In deficit.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: In terms of --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Capital projects.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- this replacement value or
taking care of our assets, and that's why we were -- I mean, we were
able to replace a lot of that with the one-cent sales tax, but I think that
still leaves us with about 500 million or more in --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: More.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- a deficit.
Let me ask you a quick question on that -- back to Page 36.
The 2.8 billion, does that include all of our roads as well, bridges and
everything, or is that just --
MR. JOHNSON: That is roads and bridges. It does not
include utilities.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Actually, when you
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Page 154
start talking about the roadways and all, that 3.8 billion doesn't sound
like such a big number.
MR. JOHNSON: Not these days, right?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I mean, we're spending $150
million on --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Vanderbilt Beach.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- Vanderbilt Beach Road
extension. So we have a lot of roads. That's --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, as we're going forward,
I would like for us to have an open, honest discussion on how we
manage through this replacement -- because to me reserve funding is
key to success. You have to snatch your belt during the good times,
and you have to put money away for that inevitable rainy day.
One of the questions that arose when I was looking at this
yesterday is that annual target date is driven specifically by the
average useful life.
MR. JOHNSON: Correct. You have asset -- you have asset
ranges from five years to 50 years.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well -- and so maybe a little
more -- as Commissioner LoCastro likes to say, a little deeper dive
into the actuality of the necessity of that annual target. Because
that's a very -- that's a very voluminous annual target. So -- and it
wouldn't -- it wouldn't be as much if the useful life was longer if
you're amortizing your need over a longer period of time, so...
But I would like for us, as we're moving through these budget
hearings, to have a discussion on how we manage to get there from
there, from where we're at now. I mean --
CHAIRMAN HALL: I agree.
MR. JOHNSON: And just briefly, Commissioners, this is the
history of that -- of that reserve. Just of note here, in FY '23, as you
know, we had 35.8 million. Obviously, Hurricane Ian has moved
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Page 155
some of that funding into our Recovery Fund.
Just keep in mind that -- it won't be next year, but down the road
that funding will hopefully return, at least a percentage of it because
we expect FEMA recovery and other grant funding recovery on some
of those funds, so...
CHAIRMAN HALL: Do you have any idea or any good guess
of how much that money might be?
MR. JOHNSON: I can tell you right now, just kind of swag
numbers, it looks like we put about 130-, 131 million currently in the
system. We've spent about 80-, and we've got about 40- back.
Typically in these, it's anywhere -- and, again, I'm going to give you a
wider range because I don't -- I don't know the exact answer, but it's
between 75 and 90 percent of the money can be expected to come
back. Now, that means we have to -- you know, everything's got to
go the right way, and so far we're doing pretty good at 40- on 80- in a
year and a half.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: This slide here, on this
capital -- on this countywide capital reserve account, is -- can be an
amazing tool for generations to come to be able to take care of
natural disasters that come along and also provide for a planning tool
to have replacement dollars in the event that your 50-year-old
building that you're reserving for every year over here, you're not
going to need that money for 50 years, so you have a natural disaster,
you grab that money, and then you have a replacement plan put in
place when that money is needed on a short term, and it's highly
discretionary. We don't have to amend any ordinances to utilize
those funds.
Did you hear, Mr. Chair?
CHAIRMAN HALL: I sure did, yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I already -- I knew where you were
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Page 156
going, and I was already to another thought.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: When you didn't have
reserves in 2017, what did you do for -- because I wasn't here. What
did you do for Irma?
MR. JOHNSON: That's a really good question. We had to
basically collapse our capital programs.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Wow.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We shut down --
MR. JOHNSON: Shut down Utilities, Roads, to pay for that,
and that storm, if I remember correctly, $120 million range.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. I was going to say,
that was worse than Ian.
MR. JOHNSON: Exactly.
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Ask Dr. George sometime.
There were capital projects in Utilities' books that were set aside for
two and three years that were deferred because they were -- they were
pulling money out of the reserve accounts that were established for
capital projects for utilities.
CHAIRMAN HALL: You know, another thought is we just
heard a presentation where we could pick up 88 million to
157 million with some implemented change, so there's --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. We have future
discussions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And the sad part is the whole
idea that we spent that marathon session till two in the morning was
that the money we had -- I thought we were going to replenish this
because we knew we spent it on Ian.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And, you know, that's -- and
June 20, 2024
Page 157
there was never, I don't think anywhere on this dais, there was a
discussion of paying anything back. You know, we knew how
crucial it was to have that money on hand in case the next hurricane
came, and I think that was the discussion, and I think that pushed our
decision that night. But somehow we still didn't replenish -- it
was -- the idea was to get some money back into this fund.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Because we all knew how
important it is.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely, you know. And
there again, I -- I remember what was swimming around in my brain
that night, and Conservation Collier had 70 million in reserves. At
the rolled-back rate, they were getting an extra 30 million. That took
them to 100 million. To fund the budget that had been proposed to
us that night on the last minute of that time was 62 million -- in my
brain it was, I think, a $53 million ultimate spread is what transpired.
So utilizing the money out of Conservation Collier allowed us to fund
the budget as it was proposed, and --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And I think 17 million was
supposed to go into this reserve fund.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Well, then that was
where -- that was where -- they pulled money away from these
reserves in order to fund the others because there wasn't -- we weren't
allowed to, by the ordinance, by law, by the interpretation of the
Clerk and our legal staff, that the previous ordinance monies were
collected under the old ordinance, and until we adjusted the
ordinance, we weren't allowed to move it out of Conservation Collier,
so...
It's just -- as we're going forward -- we don't need to belabor the
point anymore. I appreciate you indulging me and having this
discussion, but 10,000-foot view, I would like to have a replacement
June 20, 2024
Page 158
plan put back into place for the monies that were utilized out of
Conservation Collier for Conservation Collier, whether it be
maintenance and/or acquisitions, and I'd like to see -- I'd like to see
this fund triaged a little bit more so that -- so that we have -- I -- so
that we have a definition of the useful life of the assets from the
50-year-old replacement costs all the way to repaving the parking lot
or resurfacing the parking lot every two years, so -- because with
that -- with that information, we'll better be able to utilize -- utilize
these funds for the benefit of our residents, I think, anyway.
MR. JOHNSON: Any further discussion?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: If I may, I'd just like to thank the Board and
also ResourceX and our staff at OMB and all the staff in all
departments, because this was a really big lift in a short window.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Is that what those ladies have
been doing all day long? I've been a little scared because they have
not said a word, and they're all just sitting there.
MR. JOHNSON: They're e-mailing me all the answers as I
stand up here, just so you guys know, so...
And again, thank you to the County Manager and Deputy
County Manager as well. Appreciate it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Finished? We're adjourned.
*******
June 20, 2024
Page 159
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 2:53 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
___________________________________
CHRIS HALL, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST:
CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK
These minutes approved by the Board on ____________, as
presented ______________ or as corrected _____________.
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS
COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED
PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY
PUBLIC.