BCC Minutes 08/13/2024August 13, 2024
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, August 13, 2024
LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as
the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such
special districts as have been created according to law and having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in
REGULAR SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present:
Chairman: Chris Hall
Rick LoCastro
Dan Kowal
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Burt L. Saunders
ALSO PRESENT:
Amy Patterson, County Manager
Ed Finn, Deputy County Manger
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Derek Johnssen, Clerk's Office
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
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August 13, 2024
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Community Redevelopment Agency Board (CRAB)
Airport Authority
Agenda
Board of County Commission Chambers
Collier County Government Center
3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor
Naples, FL 34112
August 13, 2024
9:00 AM
Commissioner Chris Hall, District 2; – Chair
Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3; – Vice Chair
Commissioner Rick LoCastro, District 1
Commissioner Dan Kowal, District 4; – CRAB Co-Chair
Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5; – CRAB Co-Chair
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS MUST
REGISTER PRIOR TO PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE
ADDRESSED. ALL REGISTERED SPEAKERS WILL RECEIVE UP TO THREE
MINUTES UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIR. ADDITIONAL
MINUTES MAY BE CEDED TO AN IN-PERSON SPEAKER BY OTHER
REGISTERED SPEAKERS WHO MUST BE PRESENT AT THE TIME THE
SPEAKER IS HEARD. NO PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL BE HEARD FOR
PROCLAMATIONS, PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLIC PETITIONS. SPEAKERS
ON PRESENTATIONS ARE LIMITED TO 10 MINUTES, UNLESS EXTENDED
BY THE CHAIR. ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON A CONSENT ITEM
MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO THE BOARD’S APPROVAL OF THE DAY’S
CONSENT AGENDA, WHICH IS HEARD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
MEETING FOLLOWING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.
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August 13, 2024
Lunch Recess scheduled for 12:00 Noon to 1:00 P.M.
1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
A. Invocation by Pastor Glenn Wiggins - Seagate Baptist Church
2. AGENDA AND MINUTES
A. Approval of today's regular, consent and summary agenda as amended (Ex
Parte Disclosure provided by Commission members for consent agenda.)
B. July 9, 2024, BCC Minutes
C. July 23, 2024, BCC Meeting & CRA Workshop Minutes
3. AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
A. Employee
B. Advisory Board Members
C. Retirees
D. Employee of the Month
4. PROCLAMATIONS
5. PRESENTATIONS
A. ARTIST OF THE MONTH
B. After Action Report - Tropical Storm Debbie (Dan Summers, Emergency
Management Director)
6. PUBLIC PETITIONS
7. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE CURRENT
OR FUTURE AGENDA
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8. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
9. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
10. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
A. Recommendation to provide direction to staff to develop options and
recommendations for completing Phases 3 and 4 of the Paradise Coast
Sports Complex and bring a report back to the Board. (All Districts)
11. COUNTY MANAGER'S REPORT
A. Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign two (2)
agreements between Collier County and Renaissance Hall at Old Course,
LLC. 1) Agreement ARP21-24 for $8,916,402.76 for pre-development and
construction, 2) Agreement ARP21-25 in the amount of $1,130,551 for
impact fees associated with Phase I to further affordable housing initiatives
provided through a grant from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, State
and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. (Housing Grants Fund 1835, Project
#33765) (Ed Finn, Deputy County Manager) (All Districts)
B. Recommendation to hear a presentation regarding the Draft ResourceX
Priority Based Budgeting Return on Investment Report and provide
guidance as we move toward the September public budget hearings.
(Christopher Johnson, Director - Corporate Financial and Management
Services) (All Districts)
12. COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT
13. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
14. AIRPORT AUTHORITY AND/OR COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
A. AIRPORT
B. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
15. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
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August 13, 2024
A. Public Comments on General Topics Not on the Current or Future Agenda
by Individuals not Already Heard During Previous Public Comments in this
Meeting
B. Staff Project Updates
1) PROJECT UPDATE For ‘Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension’ (Project
60168). (Matt Thomas, TECM Project Manager Supervisor) (District
3)
C. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
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16. Consent Agenda - All matters listed under this item are considered to be
routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion of
each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the Board, that item(s) will
be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered separately.
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A. GROWTH MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a
one-year extension to the Memorandum of Understanding between the
Collier County Board of County Commissioners and The Early
Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida, Inc., and to provide local
match funding in the amount of $75,000 in Fiscal Year 2025. (All
Districts)
2) Recommendation to approve a Resolution authorizing the temporary
closing of a portion of State Road 29 and determining that the closure
is necessary for The Cherryle Thomas' – “Christmas around the World
Parade & Snow Gala'' hosted by the Immokalee Chamber of
Commerce. This recommendation is to fulfill a requirement of the
Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) temporary road closure
permit application. The Immokalee Chamber of Commerce has
hosted this event for over twenty-five (25) years. This year, the event
will take place on Saturday, December 21, 2024, from 5 pm to 10 pm.
(District 5)
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3) Recommendation to approve an Agreement for Sale and Purchase
under the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Program with 1)
Conchita V. Aristizabal for a 5-acre parcel at a cost of $20,000, and 2)
Anacely Ayra for a 3.18-acre parcel at a cost of $65,710, for a total
cost not to exceed $88,910, inclusive of closing costs. (District 5)
4) Recommendation to approve the Conservation Collier Pepper Ranch
Preserve Final Management Plan 10-year update under the
Conservation Collier Program. (District 5)
5) Recommendation to approve an Agreement for Sale and Purchase
under the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Program with Linda
L. Arndt for a 1.14-acre parcel at a cost of $30,320, for a total cost not
to exceed $31,850, inclusive of closing costs. (District 5)
6) Recommendation to approve the Conservation Collier 2024 Cycle
Target Protection Areas mailing strategy. (All Districts)
7) Recommendation to approve the maximum height for the Naples
Greenway development SDP#PL20230014765 under Florida Statute
125.01055(7)(c), the Live Local Act, in effect when the SDP
application was submitted. (District 1)
8) This item requires that Commission members provide ex-parte
disclosure. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve recording the
final plat of Terreno at Valencia Golf and Country Club - Phase 3,
approval of the standard form Construction and Maintenance
Agreement, and approval of the performance security in the amount of
$2,461,116.33 (PL20230014749). (District 5)
9) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $516,320, which was posted as a
guaranty for Excavation Permit Number PL20190000534 for work
associated with Currents of Naples – Phase 1. (District 1)
10) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of the potable water
and sewer utility facilities and appurtenant utility easements for
Caymas Phase One – Phase 1A & 1B, PL20230011732. (District 1)
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August 13, 2024
11) Recommendation to approve final acceptance and accept the
conveyance of the potable water and sewer utility facilities for Groves
at Orange Blossom Phase 3, PL20240004723. (District 5)
12) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of a portion of the
potable water facilities and appurtenant utility easement for Bentley
Village – 64 Unit Multi-Family Buildings (Phase 2, Bldg. #36),
PL20240004856. (District 2)
B. TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to award Request for Quote (“RFQ”) in the amount
of $582,842, under Multi-Contractor Award Agreement No. 21-7842,
to Quality Enterprises USA, Inc., and authorize staff to issue a
Purchase Order. (District 1, District 3, District 5)
2) Recommendation to approve the FY24 Program of Projects and
authorize submittal of the Federal Transit Administration 49 U.S.C.
5307/ 5339 FY24 grant application to support the transit system
capital and operating costs in the amount of $5,632,209 through the
Transit Award Management System, accept the award, and authorize
any necessary Budget Amendments. (All Districts)
C. PUBLIC UTILITIES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve the selection committee’s ranking and
authorize staff to begin contract negotiations with the top-ranked firm,
Johnson Engineering, Inc., related to Request for Professional
Services (“RPS”) No. 24-8211, for “Design Services for South County
Water Reclamation Facility Electrical Service #1 Upgrades,” so that
staff can bring a proposed agreement back for the Board’s
consideration at a future meeting. (Project No. 70288) (District 1)
2) Recommendation to approve Agreement No. 24-007-NS,
“Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) equipment and
Software,” with Data Flow Systems, LLC, for a period of five years
under a sole source waiver, authorize the Chairman to sign the
attached Agreement, and authorize expenditures in the amount not to
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exceed $500,000 per Fiscal Year. (All Districts)
3) Recommendation to approve the Third Amendment to Agreement No.
15-6365, for “Disaster Debris Management Removal and Disposal
Services” with Crowder Gulf Joint Venture, Inc., to add a line item
and adjusting an existing line item for debris haul-out, and to
authorize the Chairman to sign the Amendment. (All Districts)
4) Recommendation for Board of County Commissioners, as ex-officio
the Governing Board of the Collier County Water-Sewer District, to
ratify administratively approved Change Order No. 1, providing for a
time extension of 30 days under Work Order under Underground
Contractor Services Agreement No. 20-7800, with Quality Enterprises
USA, Inc., for the “Eagle Lakes Metering Assemblies and
Improvements” project, and authorize the Chairman to sign the
attached Change Order. (Project No. 70166) (District 1)
5) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 2, to decrease the
contract price in the net amount of $199,129.12 (Work Directive No. 1
decrease by $250,879.12, and Work Directive No. 2 increase by
$51,750) to $13,784,850.58, under Construction Agreement No. 23-
8115, with Metro Equipment Services, Inc., for the “Golden Gate City
Transmission Water Main Improvements – Phase 1B” project and
authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Change Order. (Project
No. 70253, #70243 & #51029) (District 3)
6) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 2, for work associated
with Work Directives 2, 3, and 4 at a total cost of $60,800.72, utilizing
the Owner’s Allowances, and adding a total of two days to
Construction Agreement No. 22-7982, with Douglas N. Higgins, Inc.,
for the “105th and 106th Avenues Public Utilities Renewal” project
and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Change Order.
(Project No. 70120) (District 2)
7) Recommendation to approve an after-the-fact payment to Allied
Universal Corporation in the amount of $19,045.36 for the purchase
of 50% sodium hydroxide for the North County Regional Water
Treatment Plant, which was mistakenly acquired from the tertiary
vendor under Agreement No. 21-7921, “Countywide Chemicals”
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instead of the low bid primary vendor and deem the expenditures have
a valid public purpose. (All Districts)
8) Recommendation to approve a credit adjustment to Jensen
Underground Utilities’ water account to reflect an overcharged
amount and authorize the issuance of a refund to Jensen Underground
Utilities in the amount of $125,187.57. (District 5)
9) Recommendation to approve Agreement No. 24-029-NS, “Xylem
mixers, pumps and related equipment, products, and services,” with
Xylem Water Solutions USA, Inc., for a period of five years
commencing on October 1, 2024, under a single source waiver,
authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Agreement, and authorize
expenditures under Board approved standardization of specialized
proprietary equipment and services in an estimated amount of
$1,500,000 per Fiscal Year for an estimated total amount of
$7,500,000 for the duration of the Agreement. (All Districts)
10) Recommendation to authorize staff to make expenditures for the sole
source purchase of certain laboratory parts, supplies, and services
from IDEXX Distribution, Inc. (“IDEXX”), in an estimated amount of
$250,000 per Fiscal Year, for the remainder of FY24 and FY25.
(All Districts)
D. PUBLIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to authorize an exemption from the competitive
process for a subscription to the Hoopla streaming service from
Midwest Tape, LLC, for Library patron use in an amount not to
exceed $400,000 per Fiscal Year, as budgeted, through FY 2029.
(District 1, District 2, District 3, District 4, All Districts)
2) Recommendation to authorize an exemption from the competitive
process for purchases from OCLC, Inc., the acquisition of
subscription services to cloudLibrary™ and interlibrary loan services
in an amount not to exceed $600,000 per Fiscal Year, as budgeted,
through FY 2029, with the total maximum spend amount of
$3,100,000 which includes 2 months and 5 years). (District 1, District
2, District 3, District 4, All Districts)
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3) Recommendation to approve the first revision to the HOME-ARP
allocation plan as required by the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD). (All Districts)
E. CORPORATE BUSINESS OPERATIONS
1) Recommendation to ratify Property, Casualty, Workers’ Compensation
and Subrogation claim files settled and/or closed by the Risk
Management Division Director pursuant to Resolution No. 04-15 for
the third quarter of FY 24. (All Districts)
2) Recommendation to approve the administrative report prepared by the
Procurement Services Division for various County Divisions’ after-
the-fact purchases requiring Board approval in accordance with
Procurement Ordinance 2017-08, as amended, and the Procurement
Manual in the amount of $46,984.59. (All Districts)
F. COUNTY MANAGER OPERATIONS
1) Recommendation to approve a Site Use Lease Agreement with VB-S1
Assets, LLC, for the installation of two 700MHz Mutual Aid
Repeaters on a communications tower located in Everglades City to
support Public Safety and Emergency Management activities.
(All Districts)
2) Recommendation to authorize a Budget Amendment in the amount of
$657,000 to consolidate Infrastructure Sales Surtax Funding from the
Health Building Roof Replacement Project (#50165) and Health
Building, 3rd Floor HVAC Replacement Project (#50164) to better
coordinate project execution. (District 4)
3) Recommendation to authorize budget amendments in the amount of
$1,168,000, to realign current capital project funding within County-
Wide Capital Project Fund (3001) to support essential capital
maintenance of County facilities and advance Fleet Management
improvements. (All Districts)
4) Recommendation to award a work order using fixed term Agreement
No. 20-7712, “Construction Management Services” to Jacobs
Engineering Group, Inc., in the amount of $790,810, to provide
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August 13, 2024
Construction Management Services for the Collier County Forensic
and CID Facility project (Project No. 70167). (District 5)
5) Recommendation to authorize a Budget Amendment in the amount of
$300,000 from other General Admin cost center (103010-0001) to
Law enforcement expenses cost center (106010-0001) for utility
related expenses for facilities utilized for law enforcement operations.
(All Districts)
6) Recommendation to authorize budget amendment in the amount of
$123,141,000 within Pelican Bay Irrigation & Landscape Capital Find
(3041) from Beach Renourishment Project (#50126) to Pelican Bay –
Lake Bank Enhancements/Swale Restoration Project (#51026) to
support current priority needs. (District 2)
7) Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) No. 23-8176,
“Overhead Doors & Automatic Gates Maintenance, Repair, and
Replacement Services,” to Valiente Builders LLC, as Primary vendor,
and Atlas Door & Gate Inc., as Secondary vendor, and authorize the
Chairman to sign the attached Agreements. (All Districts)
8) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendments
(appropriating grants, donations, contributions, or insurance proceeds)
to the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Adopted Budget. (The Budget
Amendments in the attached Resolution have been reviewed and
approved by the Board of County Commissioners via separate
Executive Summaries.) (All Districts)
9) Recommendation to authorize a Budget Amendment to recognize
accrued interest and carryforward, in the amount of $7,304.29, from
October 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, earned by EMS County
Grant to support the purchase of medical and rescue equipment.
(All Districts)
10) Recommendation to authorize an increase in expenditures not-to-
exceed $255,000 per FY under a Single Source Waiver from the
Competitive Process with Cooperative Services of Florida, Inc., for
the purchase of medications and supplies used by the Collier County
Emergency Medical Services Division, and authorize payments be
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August 13, 2024
made to LeeSar, Inc., as the primary distributor and supplier of
products purchased under Non-Standard Agreement #23-008-NS.
(All Districts)
11) Recommendation to approve and ratify a purchase agreement between
Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, Inc., and Collier County
Board of County Commissioners in the amount of $145,833, to
participate in the Coordinated Opioid Recovery Network of Addiction
Care program in which funding will be used toward preventing and
treating substance abuse in Collier County and authorize necessary
Budget Amendments. (All Districts)
G. AIRPORT AUTHORITY
H. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
I. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE
J. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
1) To record in the minutes of the Board of County Commissioners, the
check number (or other payment method), amount, payee, and
purpose for which the referenced disbursements in the amount of
$70,972,400.56 were drawn for the periods between July 11, 2024,
and July 31, 2024, pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06. (All Districts)
2) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public purpose
for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions as of August 7,
2024. (All Districts)
K. COUNTY ATTORNEY
1) Recommendation to declare a vacancy on the Golden Gate
Community Center Advisory Board (District 3)
2) Recommendation to appoint Bonnie Hawley to the Bayshore/Gateway
Triangle Local Redevelopment Advisory Board. (District 4)
3) Recommendation to appoint two members to the Animal Services
Advisory Board. (All Districts)
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4) Recommendation to approve a Resolution approving a plan of
financing involving the issuance of multifamily housing revenue
bonds in an amount not to exceed $10,500,000, by the Public Finance
Authority, a Wisconsin bond issuing commission, for the Renaissance
Hall at Old Course multifamily housing project; approving issuance of
the bonds by the Public Finance Authority; and ratifying a public
hearing held by the Housing Finance Authority of Collier County,
Florida, in accordance with Section 147 of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986, as amended. (All Districts)
5) Recommendation to authorize an increase in the Purchase Order for
Woods, Weidenmiller, Michetti, and Rudnick, LLP related to its
provision of litigation services in the case styled Naples Golf
Development, LLC v. Collier County, Case No. 23-CA-1795, which is
a Bert Harris Action filed against the County concerning the
conversion of a golf course to a residential development. (Fiscal
impact $100,000) (All Districts)
L. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
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17. Summary Agenda - This section is for advertised public hearings and must
meet the following criteria: 1) A recommendation for approval from staff; 2)
Unanimous recommendation for approval by the Collier County Planning
Commission or other authorizing agencies of all members present and voting;
3) No written or oral objections to the item received by staff, the Collier
County Planning Commission, other authorizing agencies or the Board, prior
to the commencement of the BCC meeting on which the items are scheduled to
be heard; and 4) No individuals are registered to speak in opposition to the
item. For those items which are quasi-judicial in nature, all participants must
be sworn in.
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A. This item requires that Commission members provide ex-parte
disclosure. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve a resolution
renaming a platted street from Clear Bay Drive to Perry Dise Lane, as shown
as Tract 3 on the plat of the Cocohatchee River Trust P.U.D., in Plat Book
18, Page 98, located approximately 450 feet north of the intersection of
Walkerbilt Road and Tamiami Trail North, in Section 21, Township 48
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South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida. [PL20230017298] (District
2)
18. ADJOURN
INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD’S AGENDA SHOULD
BE MADE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE AT 252-8383.
August 13, 2024
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MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to
the commissioner meeting.
Before we get started with the Pledge and the prayer, I just want
to remind you to turn that cell phone off. Don't get caught playing
Brick House on your ringtone. I know, Lois, that you have that one
on your phone for Wayne.
And I want to remind you, if you are going to public speak
today, there's a three-minute time limit. You'll see the yellow light.
That means it's 30 seconds to land that plane, and we're going to hold
you to it. So you're welcome to talk to us but stick within the rules.
All right. With that, we'll say the prayer, get this started right.
Item #1A
INVOCATION BY PASTOR GLENN WIGGINS - SEAGATE
BAPTIST CHURCH - INVOCATION GIVEN
MS. PATTERSON: Our invocation today will be led by Pastor
Glenn Wiggins from Seagate Baptist Church, and it will be followed
by the Pledge of Allegiance from Patricia A. Benvenuto -- oh, I
messed it up anyway -- the chaplain from the VFW Post 7721
auxiliary and daughter of World War II Army Corps veteran.
PASTOR WIGGINS: Let us pray.
Lord, I thank you for the privilege of living in the great state of
Florida, the even greater privilege of residing in this beautiful city of
Naples.
Today as we gather, we seek your favor upon that county
commission. Your word tells us that you ordain those in authority.
These men and women have been ordained by you. Lord, I pray that
you would help them to legislate righteously and serve our city and
August 13, 2024
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county faithfully. We ask you for wisdom, Lord, because in this age
we need it now more than ever.
I pray for each person in authority in this council; that you
would bless them in larger influence, place a hedge of protection
around their families.
I pray for all of our schools starting today in Collier County, that
your mighty hand of protection would be upon all the students and
faculty, that you would bless them abundantly and keep them safe.
I pray that all that is said and done today will be guided by your
hand. We need your power, Lord, your strength and your wisdom.
Thank you for dying on the cross, being buried, and rising again
the third day so we might have salvation through Jesus Christ. We
ask for your blessing and thank you for this day you've allowed us to
live and serve Jesus. For it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, agenda changes for
August 13th, 2024.
First, we have continue Item 16B1 to a future meeting. This is
a recommendation to award request for quote in the amount of
$582,842 under Multi Contractor Award Agreement No. 21-7842 to
Quality Enterprises USA, Inc., and authorize staff to issue a purchase
order. This is being moved at Commissioner McDaniel's request.
Continue Item 16D1 to a future meeting. Recommendation to
authorize an exemption from the competitive process for a
subscription to the Hoopla streaming service Midwest Tape, LLC, for
library patron use in an amount not to exceed $400,000 per
year -- per fiscal year as budgeted through FY 2029. This is being
moved at Commissioner McDaniel's request.
And continue Item 16D2 to a future meeting. This is a
recommendation to authorize an exemption from competitive process
for purchases from OCLC, Inc., the acquisition of subscription
August 13, 2024
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services to cloudLibrary and interlibrary loan services in an amount
not to exceed $600,000 per fiscal year as budgeted through FY 2029
with the total maximum spend amount of $3,100,000, which includes
two months and five years. This is being moved at Commissioner
McDaniel's request.
We have an add-on Item 10B, which is a recommendation to
direct the County Attorney, working with county airport staff, to
coordinate with Quality Enterprises USA, Inc., and RTH Enterprise,
Inc., to formalize an agreement regarding the use of land at the
Immokalee Regional Airport. This is being added at Commissioner
McDaniel's request.
We do have court reporter breaks set for a time of 10:30 and
again at 2:50.
With that, County Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: Nothing to add. Thank you, Amy.
Item #2A
APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR, CONSENT AND
SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX PARTE DISCLOSURE
PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT
AGENDA.) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS -
APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED W/CHANGES
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, ex parte and any further
changes to the summary or consent agenda.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I have no changes and no
disclosures for consent or summary.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
August 13, 2024
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COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I have no disclosure and no
changes as well, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Same; no disclosures, no
changes.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No. You heard my changes
at the beginning, and no disclosures as well, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: No requests for lunch or anything like
that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Lunch. I'm hungry.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I have no ex parte and no other changes,
but I do have a comment. I don't want to pull 16F4 off, but I do
want to talk about it just for a second.
We don't get together. We don't get to talk. So this is one
where we're going to spend $780,000 for a construction manager to
build the Sheriff's building, the forensic building.
And so my comments are not so much to staff, but they're
amongst ourselves. And it seems to me that this construction
management and the Construction Management at Risk, it doesn't
work a lot of the times as, quote, "designed." It seems like there's
not very much accountability for the at-risk managers.
Anything -- if there's ever a discrepancy, it comes back on the
taxpayer. And there's not very much accountability.
So my point is, what are thoughts about instead of paying people
to do the management, why don't we just take a little higher view?
We have architects. We have engineers. We have plans. We have
a defined scope. We have agreed-upon timetables. And just as a
simplified version, to take that approach with a contract that's firm.
It spells all of the details out. When you get 25 percent of your work
done, you get paid 25 percent once that work is verified. And we
August 13, 2024
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can have people from staff that are capable of doing that, not so much
as trying to manage that job, but holding contractors accountable for
what they're supposed to do and when they're supposed to do it and
how they're supposed to do it.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, good morning,
Mr. Chair. And, for the record, my mother says you have a pretty tie
on today, just so you know.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, thank you, Ms. McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I applaud the idea. The
question that I have for you, and as you brought up adeptly, we don't
get to talk about these things unless we're here and Terri is writing
down all my misspoken words.
Would it -- would it not be prudent for us to review our RFP
process and our contract process similar to the 16B1 that I continued
today to put better measurables and milestones in? In my previous
life, I used construction managers at risk, and it meant something.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That's my point.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And so having it mean
something, having them being accountable, if we're paying somebody
$750,000, they need to earn that and stand accountable for it. You
don't just get to come in with an amendment to the contract and get
another couple million dollars because somebody missed something
along the way.
And so I guess my question isn't necessarily -- it's a discussion
point at this stage. I would -- I would think maybe we should be a
little more in depth on our RFP, our ITNs, our requests for
qualifications. The things that we put out have a -- have a
delineation for responsibilities, and not just because we have always
done it, but put measurables and milestones in those processes when
we put -- go out for bid and have a look at it from a management
August 13, 2024
Page 7
standpoint.
I'd kind of like to hear from our -- from Amy or Ed with regard
to their thoughts as far as legality go, because I know we're heavily
governed by the CCNA which requires us to hire a consultant
oftentimes when I would prefer that we not.
So I'd like to hear from our staff with regard to their
perspectives and see if we can maybe tighten it up but still have an
overseer who's standing accountable for what it is that we're hiring
them for.
They're consulting amongst one another.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Rock, paper, scissors.
MS. PATTERSON: Yeah. So I totally understand where the
Board is coming from and some of the -- I don't want to say
frustrations -- is the same that is experienced by staff. We've been in
the process the last several months of looking at portions of our
procurement ordinance and manual to look at where we can make
changes that will be meaningful as well as tighten up areas where we
think there are some weaknesses.
But I'll look at Mr. Finn now, because he obviously lived this in
his former role in facilities of dealing with contracts. And we live
and die by these contracts and, oftentimes, we're finding that, you
know, we're spending large amounts of time and effort on things that
shouldn't be this difficult.
So with that, Mr. Finn.
MR. FINN: Thank you, ma'am.
Yes, sir. I think there's some merit to this discussion, and it
does, in fact, start with the contract, which is preceded, of course, by
the RFP process.
I think there's room to look at this. Why don't you give us a
little bit of time, and we'll provide some briefings back to you.
We're going to need to confer with the County Attorney as well as the
August 13, 2024
Page 8
procurement people and see what we can do relative to contracts and,
of course, our own internal project management personnel. We need
to elevate their interest in making things go smooth.
I will caution -- caution the Chair and the Board, construction
contracts are complicated. The plans are complicated, often running
to hundreds if not thousands of pages, sheets of plans and
specifications. It's certainly not an easy thing. Change is part of
managing projects, and sometimes there are problems.
Further compounding our dilemma is oftentimes in a hard bid
situation, if a contract was qualified, we're largely required to select
the low-bid qualified contractor, and that comes with certain
limitations. You've all heard me talk about certain projects there
have been problematic, Big Corkscrew being an interesting example.
The contractor was a low bid -- low hard-bid contractor. That
contractor struggled. He was not local. Struggled to execute the
contract. Got caught up in COVID, and as a result, the project was
two -- two-plus years late. Now, the project -- to his credit, he stuck
with the project and got it done, but it was untidy. And that one still
is within the budget because it -- or largely within the budget, plus
allowances, but that is an example of could we have contracted
better? And I might submit that sometimes we have limitations on
who actually bids on a job, which leads to some of the difficulties we
have. If it's limited and we still have to move out with the job,
sometimes we have to make accommodations and move forward in
that sense.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Maybe -- I don't mean to
interrupt, but maybe -- and I'm certainly wanting to have a longer,
larger discussion with regard to this, but in the entire process, when
we go out for an RFQ, the stipulations that are in the RFQ preclude
certain people from being able to bid just because there's a
specification there that some people can't necessarily meet, and
August 13, 2024
Page 9
then -- and you've heard me talk regularly about our contract
management that we have had. We had a discussion not too awfully
long ago with our County Attorney in delineating date-certain times
that need to be met so we're not coming in here with the
after-the-facts because somebody -- somebody didn't see a particular
date on a contract, so I'm --
MR. FINN: You're absolutely right, sir. Administratively, we
are trying to snug up, and the County Manager and myself are
committed to that. Our project management teams are committed to
it.
If I can -- if I could wrap up with kind of a final comment,
certainly I think there's room here to hold contractors more
accountable, tighten up on our contract and our bidding documents.
That's our intent. We'll do a little study of this. We'll brief the
Board individually here over the next couple of weeks on what we
think we can do with that.
MS. PATTERSON: If I may, maybe it would be helpful at a
future agenda to talk about the process and the things that we're
required to do and then those areas where we have room or some
latitude for change from the way that perhaps we've been doing
business in the past, because the things that we have to do by statute
or by other rule we're kind of stuck with even when they don't make
sense, but it would be nice to maybe lay those out while the five of
you are together so that we all understand that those aren't -- there's
nothing we can do about it, but here are the areas where we could
make some meaningful change, and that would be when we could
bring that back for discussion.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That would be good.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
Mr. Finn, your point about tightening some things up -- and I've
August 13, 2024
Page 10
mentioned this here before -- couldn't agree more because, I mean,
what I've seen just in my three-plus years in the seat -- and we
all -- we all have done previous things. So in my previous life,
when, you know, contractors came to the Department of Defense and
they were the lowest bid and we were forced to take it and they were
the lowest bid by $10,000, and then six months into the project they
gave us an amendment that asked for another $600,000. And so then
the person that came in second that was $11,000 too much and never
would have changed the contract is who we should have gone with.
I mean, my question to the staff would be right now, could we
produce a spreadsheet that would show all the contracts that we have
agreed to that got amended for one reason or another or defaulted in
some way, shape, or form and, you know, do we keep, you know,
track of those folks?
I realize there's always changes. They found an underground
line. They hit a water pipe. They didn't realize there was an
environmental sort of impact. But as we've said before up here,
sometimes, too, it sounded like the contractor didn't fully do their
homework. They threw a really quick bid together. They knew
how to play the system. They lowballed it. They got the contract,
and then they knew that any amendments to the contract would just
be thrown on the consent agenda, and we'd blindly rubber stamp it,
which these five -- the five of us do very rarely, if at all. But I think
the -- you know, in the past maybe it sort of slid by a little bit more
easily, and that's also a compliment to you-all catching, you know,
that kind of stuff.
But, you know, that's the big problem that I have is that, yeah,
it's great we're forced to go with the lowest qualified bid, but, I mean,
I always scratch my head when I see these. And you've heard me
say before, "Gosh, we're approving a $300,000 amendment because,
you know, they forgot to look around the corner or they didn't
August 13, 2024
Page 11
measure twice and cut once."
You know, I think that's a contractor, then, if they have a pattern
of that, shouldn't even be, you know, allowed to bid again. And
maybe your answer's going to be, oh, they're not.
Well, you know, a contractor that built the Marco Island
Executive Airport -- not to beat up old things, but, you know, we
have to learn from past history -- had a history -- my understanding
from our own staff, is a history of lawsuits, a history of, you know,
amendment after amendment after amendment, you know, for asking
for, you know, more money and things like that.
So, you know, if we're going to look at tightening up the
process, I think that's a big catch is contractors who regularly come
back to us with something that -- that inflates the contract or
increases the contract, and then you sit here and go, "Wow, now
they're the fourth most competitive bidder," you know. And I bet
you the top three people, if we went back to them and said, "Do you
feel confident you wouldn't have come back to us?" there's a
possibility they wouldn't have.
And so, you know, I just think that the secret's out among some
contractors, "bid low, adjust later." And, you know, that's a -- you
know, is something that I think, if we're -- like you said, if we're
going to take a tighter look, I'd love to see the stats on that.
And then I know that the County Manager wants to say
something. Let me make one final thing. So the Chairman's
basically talking about 16F4. So do you think we should -- this is
one that, like you said, to talk about it. If it's on the consent agenda,
it's great we're talking about it, but we're not -- you know, if we leave
it on the consent agenda, then I guess we'll just have a conversation
about it, and then we'll go forward and spend almost a million dollars
with just a short conversation here. Is this one that should -- you
know, you should do a deeper dive and come back to us? Is that
August 13, 2024
Page 12
what you're sort of suggesting, or you're just trying to open it up for
conversation and see what we think?
CHAIRMAN HALL: I planned on leaving it, but I did want to
open it up. And this is good conversation because this is a direction
that we do need to go, I think, with our -- with our culture. And so I
think it's good.
So, Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And just as a final
note, while we're reviewing and doing what it is that you're -- is being
suggested this morning -- and we talked a little bit about it yesterday,
but I really want an incentive-based approach as we're managing our
contracts. The merit pay for our employees. Who's the best at
managing our overall expenses? It's our -- it's the staff. It's the
people that work for Collier County. If one of -- if one of our staff
value-engineers a project and saves the taxpayers money, then we
ought to have an incentive-pay program to incentivize, further,
people looking at our contracts and how we go.
At the same time, on the actual contracts themselves with the
contractors, on time and under budget means a bonus at some
particular stage because we've saved -- that contractor maybe had
value engineering that was done. So that's a proviso for a thought
process when we're discussing these things. I'd like -- I'd like to
certainly enhance or activate the merit pay program that we have
internally and have a look at a bonus with a deduct at the same time.
You don't get a bonus just because you're nice. If you -- if you aren't
paying attention to what you're doing within the parameters of the
contract and it exceeds budget and it exceeds time, then there's
penalties that travel along at the same time. So both ways.
MS. PATTERSON: Understood. We'll prepare some
information and bring it back to open up the conversation, and we
can include -- Commissioner LoCastro, we have probably several
August 13, 2024
Page 13
examples that would be good to discuss where we've had problems
with contractors that have led to change orders and other things
beyond unforeseen conditions, and to that point, we do work closely
with the Clerk's Office on these matters to make sure that exactly
what you're describing is not what's starting to happen where
somebody underbids the job only knowing that they can come back
and change-order us for additional things.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And I just don't think we
should keep that a secret.
MS. PATTERSON: Right.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I think that, you know, if
we're vocal about one that is cut and dry that looks like, you know, it
had a pattern of improper, you know, procedures, that sends a signal
out to other contractors that, "Hey, we don't fool around. You know
that this is a $10 million project. You bid 8-, and you knew you'd be
the low bidder because the thing's going to be more than 8-," and then
you come back and hit us with, you know, $4 and a half million over
a three-year period of changes. I mean, that's the kind of, you know,
shenanigans we've got to really kill.
So I look forward to seeing, like, more detail and not just sort of
just open discussion but measurement of these things, and -- and
maybe laundry lists. I mean, you know, in my prior job, the
Department of Defense would release a list. These are contractors
that are no longer qualified to bid on contracts, and it was a public
thing. And maybe we have it, and it might be buried on a website
somewhere. Maybe it needs to be a little bit more visible.
On the flip side, we've got some amazing contractors that do
incredible work in the county, and so it works both ways. You
know, thank you for giving us a proper bid, thank you for coming in
on time, maybe even under budget or on budget. That should be
something that's, you know, applauded, known, and highly respected
August 13, 2024
Page 14
and advertised.
MS. PATTERSON: Understood. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chair.
Yeah, that item that Commissioner McDaniel pulled, that 16B1,
was -- I going to pull it myself, but he had already done it. And that
was a perfect example. We had this discussion two weeks ago. Is
there a point -- because we had a big discrepancy in some bids in
something we discussed two weeks ago at one of our meetings. And
I had seen No. 2 on this particular bid. You had -- the bid came
in -- the awarded bid came in $528,000, but No. 2 was at
$1.2 million. That's a big discrepancy between two contractors. I
mean, that should trigger something.
And especially, you know, in this day and age that -- who's
missing something or somebody -- somebody's getting something
somebody else ain't finding on this project. So it should be a
discussion.
And the one at first -- I think Commissioner Hall had started out
as construction management more, like, you know -- you know, can
we not -- can we eliminate maybe that in the process or something?
But I think we need to find from staff and the County Attorney
the statutory where do we stand because maybe some of these things
were put in in the past because it was safeguarding the public's
money, you know, having a third party involved and things like that.
I just don't know statutorily. I don't know enough about it, but I
think that's where we start. I think we get those rules, what we can
and can't do, and we -- the five of us here have a really deep
discussion with the staff and attorneys and see what we can do in the
future and try to curb some of this cost we do put out. There are
things that we -- probably could be done with in-house.
August 13, 2024
Page 15
We had this discussion six months ago about quality control on
projects and using our own engineers and our own, you know,
out -- in the field and back checking some of these -- like, I believe it
was referring to the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension, you know, that
we're paying a separate individual contractor -- or a contract manager
to go out and watch these guys work when, you know, if we can
provide staff of our own to do it or have maybe a system in place
where these guys are checked on a -- periodically when they get to
certain levels or phases of the construction and they meet a certain
element of it of completion, then they do get awarded their money as
long as they meet that in a certain time, and that's put into a system,
built in.
So, yeah, I believe this is a good discussion we should all have,
because I think the people in the county deserve it.
MS. PATTERSON: Agreed.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks. Thanks for humoring me on
that. And I don't want to be hard to work for, but I do want to work
smarter, and I do want to do it more professionally, and when people
bid a job, I just want them to be accountable. Do what you say and
say what you -- and say what you mean.
So with that, I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion and seconded. All in favor, say
aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
August 13, 2024
Page 16
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you, Commissioners.
Proposed Agenda Changes
Board of County Commissioners Meeting
August 13, 2024
Continue item 16B1 to a future meeting: Recommendation to award Request for Quote (“RFQ”) in the
amount of $582,842, under Multi‐Contractor Award Agreement No. 21‐7842, to Quality Enterprises USA, Inc.,
and authorize staff to issue a Purchase Order. (Commissioner McDaniel’s Request)
Continue item 16D1 to a future meeting: Recommendation to authorize an exemption from the competitive
process for a subscription to the Hoopla streaming service from Midwest Tape, LLC, for Library patron use in an
amount not to exceed $400,000 per Fiscal Year, as budgeted, through FY 2029. (Commissioner McDaniel’s
Request)
Continue item 16D2 to a future meeting: Recommendation to authorize an exemption from the competitive
process for purchases from OCLC, Inc., the acquisition of subscription services to cloudLibrary™ and interlibrary
loan services in an amount not to exceed $600,000 per Fiscal Year, as budgeted, through FY 2029, with the total
maximum spend amount of $3,100,000 which includes 2 months and 5 years). (Commissioner McDaniel’s
Request)
Add-on item 10B: Recommendation to direct the County Attorney, working with County airport staff, to
coordinate with Quality Enterprises USA, Inc., and RTH Enterprise Inc. to formalize an agreement regarding use
of land at the Immokalee Regional Airport. (Commissioner McDaniel’s Request)
Notes:
TIME CERTAIN ITEMS:
9/25/2024 1:45 PM
August 13, 2024
Page 17
Item #2B
JULY 9, 2024, BCC MINUTES - MOTION TO APPROVE AS
PRESENTED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED
BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS – APPROVED
Item #2C
JULY 23, 2024, BCC MEETING & CRA WORKSHOP MINUTES -
MOTION TO APPROVE AS PRESENTED BY COMMISSIONER
MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS –
APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to Items 2B and 2C. These
are the meeting minutes for July 9th, 2024, and July 23rd, 2024,
including the CRA workshop minutes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Move for approval.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: On both items?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion and seconded. All in favor, say
eye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
Item #5A
August 13, 2024
Page 18
ARTIST OF THE MONTH – SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
OFFICE – ART FOR DEMOCRACY VOTER REGISTRATION
CHALLENGE BY LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL AS WELL AS
ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY STUDENT’S GRADE K-12; MORE
INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT THE SUPERVISOR OF
ELECTIONS WEBSITE AT COLLIERVOTES.GOV
MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to Item 5A, Artist of the
Month. And if I can turn your attention to the back of the room.
The August Artist of the Month is presented by the Supervisor of
Elections office.
On display are past winners of the Annual Art for Democracy
Contest. The contest showcases original drawings submitted by
students in grades kindergarten through 12th that express what the
democratic process means to them.
Students in grades kindergarten through eighth can also enter a
contest that awards an original design featured on the "I voted"
stickers.
The office also hosts an annual high school voter registration
challenge with the purpose to prepare students to vote in future
elections.
Since its inauguration in 2013, thousands of high school students
have been registered or preregistered. More information about
community programs and events can be found on the Supervisor of
Elections' website at colliervotes.gov.
Item #5B
AFTER ACTION REPORT - TROPICAL STORM DEBBIE (DAN
SUMMERS, EMERGENCY
August 13, 2024
Page 19
MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR) - PRESENTED; COMMUNITY
HOTLINE NUMBER FOR ASSISTANCE IS 311, OR
DOWNLOAD THE APP, WHICH RELAYS INFORMATION TO
DISPATCH; ANYONE HAVING AN ISSUE WITH ROAD,
BRIDGE, & STORMWATER, CALL 239-252-8924; A LOCAL
STATE OF EMERGENCY MUST BE ENACTED BY THE BOARD
AND NOT STAFF PER FLORIDA STATUTE
That brings us to 5B, Tropical Storm Debby after-action report,
and Mr. Dan Summers, your Emergency Management director, is
here to present.
MR. SUMMERS: Good morning, Dan Summers, director of
Emergency Management. Hope you-all are doing well this morning.
I'm happy to give you a little summary of activity associated
with Tropical Storm and what ultimately became Hurricane Debby.
With me today -- Trinity Scott is here from Transportation
Management, of course, and Lisa Koehler from the South Florida
Water Management District are both here if you-all have any
particular questions as it relates to stormwater and some of our
inundation challenges.
But what I'd like to start off with is I do want to take this
opportunity to introduce you very quickly to a short new process, and
that is community lifelines. For those of you -- I know you've all
been in the Emergency Operations Center at one time, and you have
seen within the desk what we call emergency support functions on
the EOC floor, and that's everything from business and industry to
fire rescue, medical, hospital, infrastructure, et cetera.
And one of the things that we realized very quickly is that with
almost 18 different emergency support functions, it's kind of hard to
give you a quick summary of activities that occurred to kind of give
you a dashboard.
August 13, 2024
Page 20
Our partners at FEMA have rolled this out, and this has become
a national standard. And so this was a great opportunity for me to
kind of introduce you to lifelines and a great way to communicate to
you and to the public as to how we're doing in response and recovery.
So to take a look, the lifelines now have been boiled down to
seven lifelines. And just to give you a quick dashboard, you see
these icons on the screen and, obviously, green means that things
within the community are good; yellow means that there's some
work, and red means there are some outages and activities that need
to progress.
So first of all, I will tell you, during Hurricane Debby we
remained green in that communications specter -- spectrum, excuse
me, and, basically, any interruptions were very, very minor.
Power and energy, and we were in constant communication with
Florida Power & Light, Lee Co-op. We did have some scattered
outages. Most everything was restored by the end of the evening
hours in most situations. And, again, they were not related
necessarily to any particular action other than an occasional gust of
wind or an outage -- neighborhood outage, that type of thing. So we
did track that, and we did have communications, but restoration
overall went extremely well. And let me just add, no reconstruction
type activities.
Food, water, shelter, no impacts there. No evacuation shelters
were activated. No mandatory evacuations. I did not bring you a
state of emergency declaration, but that is something I want to talk
about just a little bit at the end and make sure you know that we
know where the state stands on that state of emergency activity.
Hazardous materials, no spills or incidents.
Health and medical, all of our hospitals, EMS, mass medical
functions remained operational. No public health concerns.
Our public safety impacts, fire, law enforcement, Emergency
August 13, 2024
Page 21
Management, we call that blue sky conditions. Were busy, we were
managing traffic, but it was within normal levels of service activity
and, obviously, we were in communication with you-all throughout
the event with key staff.
Last lifeline is transportation. And we've marked that one
yellow because we did have to throw some barricades and have to
close some roads periodically as we waited for that storm surge and
short-term flooding to subside. So, again, we'll bring you from 18
reports -- 18 agency reports down to seven. In the future, this is how
I'll be reporting to you, and this is how we'll summarize in the EOC
in the days to come.
Just a quick history on Debby. Obviously, we were watching
extremely close, but we felt pretty good. When the cone -- just due
south and west of Naples, when the cone remains narrow, that means
we have a reasonable level of confidence in the track, so at most of
the point there, the center of that storm stayed 140 miles offshore.
We were, obviously, seeing something that was very slow and
potential intensification.
Now, granted, as we expected and was predicted, we had
onshore gusts, we had onshore flow, and as we always see in these
events, Mother Nature, the characteristics of the storm are going to
bring some storm surge, minor storm surge to us. But we were
very -- for the most part, pretty fortunate and certainly challenged by
the combination of rain and storm surge that prohibited our drains
from emptying.
Again, the forecast was relatively reliable. We maintained a
continuous monitoring posture, and we didn't see the need for EOC
activation with that offshore activity. Now, again, just because we
didn't activate the EOC doesn't mean we weren't communicating,
coordinating with some of our key partners during that period.
I really want to commend the Transportation team, our Road and
August 13, 2024
Page 22
Bridge folks. The communication between Collier Sheriff, their
information at their realtime operations center with traffic concerns,
how we were working that through the Transportation Management
team and our office as well as FDOT. We had really good
communication. We were closing the loop. If the Sheriff saw
something, we reported something, all of us synced up extremely
well during this period. And a special hats-off to Marshal and his
team who were in constant communication with traffic ops and with
us in responding and deploying. An awesome job.
We did -- as you-all know, we get a lot of tornado warnings
during these unstable events, weather events, and those are issued
directly by the National Weather Service. We got a -- no damages.
There were no damages reported from the tornadic activity but a lot
spotted on radar.
We did throttle back, and my office can involve Alert Collier.
We were getting so many severe thunderstorm warnings. So we
changed that from -- instead of a voice notification, to a text
notification just because we were wearing that out. But every time a
polygon shifts on the map from the radar, it initiates a new action.
And finally, just to remind the general public, we had very good
participation in Alert Collier, but when you get that call,
acknowledge it so it doesn't dial you again. You know, one or two,
I've received it, and then you won't be bothered again with that
particular notification.
I did situation calls with our municipal partners with no unmet
needs. They were in sync with us monitoring the event.
Our mass casualty ambulance bus deployed at the request of
Florida Department of Health and staged in Ocala with teams from
Tennessee and Mississippi, Emergency Management, Collier County
EMS, and North Collier Fire personnel.
And I do want to -- again, let's keep our neighbors up to the
August 13, 2024
Page 23
north in the big bend area, keep -- say our thoughts and prayers for
them. They are really having a tough time in these rural counties
with the flood inundation impacts.
I'm glad that we were able to go up there and help them for a
few days as they got through the critical period of that response.
And, again, it speaks very -- it speaks volumes, in my opinion, as to
how well the State of Florida coordinates and uses the resources of
partner agencies and the county. And as you know, we've had
hurricane events, and we've had a lot of folks come to help us. So I
was glad that we were able to return the favor.
We'll jump over to rainfall real quick. This -- these levels were
provided to us by the National Weather Service. Some of these are
private weather stations. Some of them are cooperative weather
stations. And as you see -- and Lisa pointed out to me earlier, you
know, we had some of the higher rainfall in the Estates area, and this
was not unusual. That is, these bands come through and will drop
rainfall at different amounts.
As we saw Debby progress west of Tampa and become a
full-fledged hurricane, it still brought onshore flow. And, again, we
expected that. I hoped it would clear out a day earlier, but a lot of
that just depends on the forward movement and, as we know, later on
Debby basically stalled in northern Florida and then even as it went
on up the coast. So a little frustrating for us that that storm had such
a slow forward momentum.
Stormwater impacts beyond the fourth. Again, when you blow
that water into our coastline, there's nowhere for our inland basins to
drain. We are really subject at that point from backing that water up
a little bit and, again, staying in that one- to three-feet range.
One- to three-foot range, it impacts outflow. And, you know, the
good news here is that systems perform very well once the tide's
receded. Only a few isolated areas required reactive maintenance
August 13, 2024
Page 24
due to the inundation issues caused by the event. So it's just one of
those challenges that we have in the gulf and with our elevation.
Wind reports, we were very, very fortunate here, in my opinion.
The highest gust, 43. In Immokalee, the highest gust, 36. Power
outages, I've already mentioned, and there were no critical facility
impacts.
For our beach areas, good news there was the berm holding out
a little bit. The bad news, some impact to turtle nesting.
And some debris impacts from storm debris with some algae and
seaweed drift. That was even more extensive up the coast for Fort
Myers, Lee County, Charlotte, et cetera. But, again, something with
that onshore flow that will happen.
Damage assessments, hats off to the Growth Management
Division who went out and did do some surveys in these areas.
There is nothing, unfortunately, within the total that will allow
FEMA assistance to individual homeowners. We would call this
mostly water incursion as opposed to flooding. So did a couple of
folks or a number of folks get an inch or two of water? They
probably did. There were maybe some exceptions to that. But,
again, all of this was classified as minor damages with a grand total
that we were able to report for the unincorporated area, that $877,000
estimate. We did not get any damage assessment reports from the
municipalities.
Right now, FEMA has offered Collier County under the
declaration -- and again, FEMA has -- FEMA did do a pre-event
disaster declaration for this storm. Collier County was included in
that pre-landfall disaster declaration, and it is what they call a hybrid,
which means that FEMA right now is only offering Category A and
Category B cost reimbursements at 75 percent. There is no state
cost-share at this point, and it's subject to change.
So this was the pre-landfall declaration. We'll know more in a
August 13, 2024
Page 25
week or two of what FEMA's final policy is going to be for Collier
County and Lee County as it relates to cost-share.
Category A and B are related to emergency measures,
emergency response costs, maybe pumps and equipment that was
rented, EMS personnel that work additional hours in mutual aid,
Emergency Management staff that worked some additional hours in
mutual aid, at a 75 percent cost-share. But we'll know more about
what that final fund offering is going to be.
Right now, no SBA declaration for Collier County. I hope that
will occur; we just don't know yet. That is not a determination that
we're able to make. That will be up to SBA and FEMA to make that
disaster declaration.
Our Human Services folks do have some new monies that have
opened up for housing repair and assistance. And Ms. Sonntag will
certainly get that information out in the days to come. And we're
also working with our non-profit partners to see what assistance they
can offer.
Just to remind you about disaster declaration thresholds that
FEMA needs to see, we have to have about $1.78 million worth of
damage to get some of those other categories, and the statewide
impact is $39 million. Some of that's just a benchmark that FEMA
uses for each county and for the state towards the disaster declaration
reimbursements.
Let me stop and see if you have any questions with both Lisa
and Trinity being here. And my final reminders are, again,
as -- we're not through the season yet, so continue to stock that
seven-day preparedness kit, continue to monitor, subscribe to Alert
Collier, monitor our home page so we can get that information out to
you and the new theme of "halfway full and halfway there" with
evacuation, and check out floridadisaster.org.
So thank you. Let me see if you have any questions.
August 13, 2024
Page 26
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. Summers, I appreciate that. You
did -- that was a good summary, and I also want to give you a
shout-out, to you, to Lisa, Trinity and Marshal in the Road and
Stormwater bunch, to county staff. The communication that we
received was priceless so that we could take that communication and
share it with the public. It was -- it was commended over and over
and over with our constituents. They appreciated it so much.
To the Stormwater and, you know, Bridge department, the
forethought was amazing from the drawdowns to the on-site action
and all of the forethought that went in prior to this storm coming. It
was really effective in the county.
Y'all's communication, your expertise, and the planning was
evident. I mean, there was things that you communicated to us that
most people don't even consider, they don't even think of, and a lot of
that was really appreciated. I just wanted to say that.
And with this storm, in the end of it, the communication that we
got as to why the water was remaining made all the sense in the
world with the onshore winds not allowing the water to go back out
in low tide and to just -- and just telling the public just to be just a
smidge patient; tomorrow by this time we should see some
improvements. It was a game changer, and I really appreciate it.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir. And I want to commend
the entire team. Everybody was on the phone and communicating,
and we -- if you don't mind, we're going to take credit for this as our
drill for this year.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Do it. You should.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
Dan, do you know offhand how many people have registered for
Alert Collier, like, as of right now and then how that number has
changed, like, in the last 12 months, or -- you know, we've all been
August 13, 2024
Page 27
working really hard to always put Alert Collier in our newsletters and
everything. I'm just curious if it's making a difference. Has the
number doubled in two years or --
MR. SUMMERS: It hasn't doubled, but I believe I can tell
when you've put the word out because we do see these incremental
increases over a week or two or three.
And so I'll go back and check those benchmarks. I want to say
we probably have around 11,000 people registered. But right now
the State has funded where we have resources -- there is a database
with a vendor that I can reach every resident right now on a major
event but not on a minor event. So we still need the public to
register.
And we know sometimes that thing can be a little bit annoying,
and so we manage that. We throttle that for some of the
non-mission-critical things. But things like hurricane warnings,
tornado warnings, evacuations, that's always going to be out, and
people really do appreciate getting that reminder. Just click the
acknowledgment.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I mean, 11,000's really not
that big of a number when you think about it. And, you know, like
you said, it might be annoying for Debby, but if a Katrina hits, then
all of a sudden, it's not annoying, and it's too late to register for, you
know, Alert Collier when you're, you know, in the middle of a huge
storm.
So I guess anything that we can all do to sort of get the number
out. It's great to hear that it's been increasing, but, I mean, you
know, I have 80,000 subscribers to my newsletter. Whether they
read it or not, immaterial, but I mean, to hear we only have 11,000
across the whole county -- it's better than it was a year ago, I'm sure.
You know, we all get Amber alerts whether we like them or not,
but Alert Collier is something that's very, very specific to us. Like
August 13, 2024
Page 28
you said, you do have the ability to force feed something out whether
you're an Alert Collier subscriber or not, and I hope we never have to
use that, but realistically, I guess, the more that we can do to get
people to sign up -- I mean, I know that we're -- it's in all of our
newsletters every single time, and you would hope somebody would
get down to that part of the newsletter and subscribe. It takes 10
seconds. But 11,000 across the whole county, you know, I wish it
was in triple digits. I'm sure we all do.
MR. SUMMERS: I'll reconfirm. That's my best estimate right
now.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. But you know it's not
100,000, right? I mean --
MR. SUMMERS: No, it's not.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- yeah. So we know it's --
MR. SUMMERS: But one thing -- you bring -- you really
bring up a good point, and let me say this: Yes, we can use it for
weather, we use it for these local emergencies, but let's go back to
that catastrophic event. We may need Alert Collier to tell people
where to get supplies, where to go for relief registration.
So the icing on the cake is sort of this initial notification. For
me, it's knowing that we have a secondary communication route to
help alleviate suffering or inconvenience or to get supplies and
resources should we have that fast-breaking catastrophic event.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I'd like to just give a
shout-out to two people who really helped me a lot. District 1, I
have a lot of low-lying areas. I mean, I have Henderson Creek,
Goodland. I mean, maybe some people got two inches of water
across the county. I have a shout-out of a picture on my newsletter
showing that Stan's was under two feet of water.
And so -- you know, and there was a car, you know, stuck in
front of Stan's where the water was all the way up to the windows.
August 13, 2024
Page 29
Yeah, it receded, you know, over time. But the two people that
really helped me a lot is Ed Finn and Jamie French. I mean, Jamie
French was out in a pickup truck driving my district, and I was doing
similar things. We were on opposites sides, and we were trading
photos and whatnot and really attacking a lot of issues.
So Jamie, in the back, you know, he put on his galoshes and,
you know, he was like, you know, "Hey, boss. I'll call you back in
30 minutes." And, you know, we were sort of directing the traffic.
And then Ed, similar to what the Chairman said, you know, you
were pushing out a lot of great information that was helping us alert
citizens. But, you know, Alert Collier is something that is very
important, especially when we have, you know, an extremely serious
storm.
Lastly, I'll just say -- and, Lisa, I don't know if this is something
that you can provide us. You know, you're the water expert. I
always go to you when it comes to water. People who have lived
here a really long time don't understand how swales work, okay.
And the reason I say that, with all respect, is if there's water in your
swale, yay, because then it's not in your living room.
And so people that send us all these notes, "My swale is full of
water. The county has failed me. Oh, my God, when's that water
going to" -- so I would like something written by somebody
extremely smart on swales that I can put in my newsletter. And I'm
sure maybe we'll all cut and paste it a little bit.
But the misinformation on swales is catastrophic, and also how
weirs work, and that weirs exist. Because I'll get something from a
citizen who's lived here for 40 years telling me that I haven't, and
they're like, you know, you really need to open up the swales and let
all the water out. And it's like, no, that's actually -- it's weirs that do
that. And then I put, you know, my basic information that you've
taught me from some of our travels driving around.
August 13, 2024
Page 30
But something that's easy to understand to educate the
public -- and I don't say this in a disrespectful way, but some people
were lighting up the phones, "Oh, my God, my swale's about to
overflow with water." And it's like, "Yeah, that's what they're there
for" -- I think would be helpful because we have a lot of new people
that have moved to Collier County and then that, you know, some
people were saying, "My ditch is full of water," and it's like,
no -- "Well, no. That's a swale, and here's how it works."
CHAIRMAN HALL: I understand ditch.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right, yeah. I understand
ditch, yeah. Either way. But I don't know, Lisa, I don't mean to
belabor the point, but I would like something that is eloquently
written so I don't misspeak but -- I think I know just enough to be
dangerous but -- and to answer citizens back and say, "I know there's
water in your swale. There's water in lots of swales right now, and
that's why they're all doing their job." And everybody's not asleep
and warm in their beds who control the weirs. We actually have a
process to open weirs. And you showed me that in person when I
drove around with you a couple times. But I don't know if you've
got a short comment you want to make. But something that would
help us get that out would be helpful, I think, to the citizens.
MS. KOEHLER: Commissioner, I'm happy to do that. The
District has a lot of really good graphics that we can share with you,
we can share with Troy, if you guys want to put it on CollierTV, just
to get it out to the citizens as well. So happy to provide you-all
some information for your newsletters.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I saw the Chairman in a
ditch.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I was exploited.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. I have a photo of that.
I'm going to use it at some point.
August 13, 2024
Page 31
But I think that would actually be helpful. And it's not being
disrespectful to citizens, but a lot of them don't realize that the ditch
in front of their house has a very important role, and here's how it
works, and we're not asleep at the wheel at the county just arbitrarily
allowing water to move or not.
And I always say as a last sentence to, you know, citizens that
send me a note that water's in your swale because it's not in your
living room, you know, that sort of thing, or in your house. But
anything you could send, I think, then we could all use at our
discretion. It really would be helpful to sort of remind -- especially
new people that have moved here.
Thank you.
MS. KOEHLER: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't go away.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm next.
First of all, thank you. Your cooperation with me as far as
getting information out was stellar. If I was a little more attentive to
my e-mails, I might have got it a little quicker, but I wanted to,
number one, thank you.
Number two, I would like to -- I'm on a new quest. Width,
breadth, and depth create volume. And I want to work with you to
elevate the dredging capacities within our waterways.
We have a circumstance that -- a tidal surge comes, and we get
an inundation of water. Well, if our waterways, both natural and
manmade, are a foot or two deeper, we have the capacity to hold
more water and not necessarily flood our residents. On
the -- conversely, when we have a rain event with heavy rains on the
inland side, we have a better capacity with our weir system to be able
to alleviate that flooding in the interior side if we have more room to
get more water out. So I'm on this quest.
August 13, 2024
Page 32
I serve on the county -- the 13 county coalition with Lake O. I
was corrected about the 3 foot of sludge on the bottom of Lake O,
and I was corrected and then told that it was known as "legacy
sediment."
And so I want to talk about legacy sediment within our inland
waterways both on our natural and manmade. So I would -- I'm
offering myself up to work with you and the District to enhance those
dredging efforts along the way. I don't want to talk about
navigability just yet. I'm talking about management of water. At
the end of the day, we are a low-lying area. We all have different
circumstances that come with these rain events and water events. So
I want to offer that up as well.
MS. KOEHLER: Well, thank you. And I think we're one step
ahead of you. We are just kicking off a canal bank restoration study.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I would venture you're
probably two or three steps ahead of me. I'm just -- I think this stuff
up. But if we have to do a study first, that's great, but...
MS. KOEHLER: Well, we need to survey the canals. That's
the study is how much sediment do we have in there so we know how
to approach it, how many years it's going to take, and lay out that
program. So we're getting ready to do the surveys now.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm totally down with that.
MS. KOEHLER: But I'm happy to meet with you and discuss
it further.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I love that idea. I'd love to
enhance that, so...
My next questions have to go over to Mr. Dan, but thank you
very much, Lisa.
MS. KOEHLER: You're welcome.
MR. SUMMERS: Sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The second question that I
August 13, 2024
Page 33
have for you is what's the -- other than Alert Collier, what's the best
way for our community to reach you or Marshal or Road and Bridges
with regard to -- an, relatively speaking, isolated event? The
community is everywhere, we have 400,000 people that live here.
What is the best mechanism to be able to report a localized
circumstance with regard to flooding?
MR. SUMMERS: And sometimes when we all wear our
emergency hat, we think 911 is the answer, and it's not always the
answer. The answer is 311. So let's get that information. Again,
another tool in our toolbox that should be on the list is to download
the app, the Collier 311 app. That information gets routed to the
appropriate department or subdivision and gets that information, gets
those folks aware and/or dispatched.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding. Now,
Ms. Trinity's behind you, so I'm going to go to her right now and then
come back to you for one more.
MS. SCOTT: If I could also add if it is overnight hours and a
structure is imminent of having water within it, they need to contact
239-252-2924. Did I get it right?
8924. I'm sorry, 252-8924. That goes directly to our Road,
Bridge, and Stormwater maintenance. We have folks who are on
call, and they will dispatch someone out if we have an event where
someone may have water imminent.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Because -- I forgot the
number because you said it three times already.
MS. SCOTT: 239-252-8924.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Now you said it four times.
So I -- is there any way we can tie that to 311 dispatch where it's
popped over there? Because 311, everybody remembers.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But, I mean, if they call 311
and report something that should go to that number, doesn't 311 say,
August 13, 2024
Page 34
"Thank you. We'll take care of it," and then call over to that
number? Isn't that how it works?
MR. MULLINS: Yes. John Mullins, director of
Communications, Government, and Public Affairs.
To your point, if you dial 311 during business hours, you will
get an operator that can redirect that call to Road and Maintenance.
If you're calling after hours or on a weekend, the message will route
you to Road and Maintenance via the selections that you can dial in
from your phone.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So, necessarily, it's set up
within the 311 to push somebody over there in the event that there is
imminent risk of flooding?
MR. MULLINS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's a one-stop shop, that 311.
MR. MULLINS: Yes, sir; phone, app, and website.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And as we're moving through
the budget processes, have a talk at some stage or a discussion with
regard to manning up with humans during an emergency event. We
all knew Debby was heading our direction for a minute, and maybe if
we had live bodies on the phone, it might help.
MR. MULLINS: Well, keep in mind, in an emergency event, if
there is an activation, the call center at EOC is then activated. 311
moves there, and we do bolster up for that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I am aware. That was
stellar during Ian, but this -- we actually -- and that's going to be my
next discussion with Dan. When we don't have an emergency event
but there's circumstances prevalent, even though it didn't hit the
necessary thresholds to be declared an emergency, maybe we ought
to have a look at manning it up just to help our community.
MR. MULLINS: And just to supplement that, during, like,
wildfire events, if they are after hours, a lot of times in the evenings
August 13, 2024
Page 35
we will have people working over to do that. Now, we have not
functioned in overnight capacity without it being an emergency
activation, but we have worked some overtime.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. And the folks at
311 do an amazing job. I, literally -- by the way, I was driving out
Immokalee Road one day, and there was a sprinkler head in the
median shooting 20 feet in the air. It was 10 o'clock at night, and I
hit 311 and got a body, some body. Because I had to go through the
prompts and stuff, but I got a body, and then they came out and fixed
it. So thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Does 311 deliver?
MR. MULLINS: Within 30 minutes or less.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Collier -- Uber Collier.
Last question, sir, Dan, and this has to do with the declaration of
emergency. I believe we adjusted our policy back during
Ian -- because I was very frustrated with having to -- you're wanting
to declare a state of emergency because the Governor's done it, and
then we had to call an emergency meeting of the Board. Do we have
that policy established now where it can be done through necessary
processes enacted by the County Manager and then ratified by the
Board so we don't have to have a TV show to actually do it?
MR. SUMMERS: No, sir. I think it does require -- and I'll
look at the County Manager and the County Attorney, and I have an
augment to that, too. It is a matter of public record, and it is a public
action. So I think in terms of -- it doesn't mean that we can't make
that policy, but we have -- we did that for wildfires. So the concept
was the wildfire -- the burning ban we can do as an
administrative -- I'll call it administratively.
The state of emergency, to my knowledge, right now we cannot
do that administratively. Certainly something that could be
considered.
August 13, 2024
Page 36
And if I can "period" and start a new paragraph, you know,
when we declare that local state of emergency, that's a big deal for
the community. It's a big deal for the businesses. We always kind
of straddle the fence on these parallel events. And I thought that,
you know, we can always manage that. And I don't think -- and I'm
going to find out today or tomorrow if we even needed the local state
of emergency for the FEMA reimbursement. But I do know that we
can declare that state of emergency retroactively.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, my only thought -- and
maybe we just -- we need to speak with the County Attorney and
County Manager -- is to -- ease of process is what I'm looking for.
Adjust the processes so that we're compliant, of course, with the law,
but at the same time, I don't want to go -- I found -- I found it
frustrating with the last big event that we had to call -- I think we had
to call a couple of emergency meetings, which whips everybody up in
here, brings in staff, does all the stuff, and we've got a hurricane
bearing down on us. So I'd like to review the policy. If it is a
matter of policy, I'd like to review it so that it can be done
administratively and then ratified by the Board at a more convenient
time.
MR. SUMMERS: And each one of these scenarios kind of
gives us a different flavor, so --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Of course.
MR. SUMMERS: -- being a little bit flexible is important.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just have a couple of points. First of all, I do want to thank
staff for a job well done. I had a new experience. I was driving
down one street about 9 o'clock at night, and there were huge trucks
sucking up water and making sure that people could get to their
homes. And I just want to thank staff, because those trucks were out
August 13, 2024
Page 37
10, 11 o'clock at night and back on the streets at 7 o'clock in the
morning, and they stayed there until the water was gone. And that is
kudos to our staff for having that capability and utilizing it.
But the real point that I want to make is Tropical Storm Debby
was -- though it had an impact on a lot of people, was really a very
minimal storm when you look at the possibilities. We got eight
inches of rain in Golden Gate Estates and six inches around the coast.
There are areas in Florida that got 30 inches of rain. If a storm like
that came a little closer to the shore and stalled in Collier County,
we'd not only have storm surge issues, but we could have 20,
30 inches of rain to deal with.
And my point is that we all are looking at ways -- and there's a
question at the end of this. We are looking at ways to save taxpayer
dollars. We're looking at ways to cut budgets. And my comment
is, and my question is, when we do that, we weaken our ability to
respond in advance to storms to our stormwater needs.
And a question that I'm going to raise during our budget process
is -- and maybe you can discuss it a little bit right now: How much
money do we have in -- if we go to a -- just as an example -- we went
to the rolled-back millage rate last year. If we did the same thing
this year, how much money would we have to continue our
improvements to our stormwater system that we know are overtaxed
even in a minimal storm?
Now, this is not minimal to people that were impacted, but
minimal compared to Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Irma, or a storm that
hits us more directly and dumps 30 inches of rain on us. Where are
we in reference to being able to fix our stormwater systems to cope
with that?
MR. SUMMERS: Let's phone a friend. Trinity.
MS. SCOTT: Commissioner, for the record, Trinity Scott,
Transportation Management Services department head.
August 13, 2024
Page 38
What I can tell you is our best engineered system is not going to
cope with 30 inches of rain. But what the commissioners did do last
year, which -- they approved two additional swale maintenance
crews. We have -- and just to give a little update on that, we have
fully hired one of those crews, and we're able to use some spare
equipment to get them started. Unfortunately, we had a very early
on rainy season. So those folks actually became part of that strike
force that you saw out in your area working those overnight hours.
So they were there to be able to augment our staff.
We just had a hiring event in Immokalee. We're hopeful that
we're going to be able to hire our second crew. Our equipment now
is fully coming in. We have a few things -- actually, I gave up my
county car, so we have a crew car. So we're going to have two
additional teams to be able to start getting out there and being able to
do more proactive maintenance, and that's what we plan to continue
to do.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So I don't have any -- we're
going to get into this in the budget, but I just -- as a forewarning,
when we get to our budget discussions later on, that issue of
stormwater management is going to be very important to our quality
of life and to being able to survive, you know, a major event. And I
will tell you my recollection from some of our discussions was, well,
we can fix all of our systems, but at the rate we're going, it's going to
take 110 years to do it. So --
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, to your point, there are
very large deficits in both stormwater maintenance and stormwater
capital. And we can, obviously, talk about that as we move forward
through this process, but it is reflected in the AUIR. And that's only
looking at five years and then maybe encroaching out into the 10
years. The program is enormous. And even with the dedication of
this board and the prior board of pushing more money into the
August 13, 2024
Page 39
stormwater program, the needs outpace the funding that we have.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
I would also like to express my thanks to the staff, Amy, Ed, and
Jamie and Trinity. I'd like to -- but I'd like to really shed the light on
Marshal and his team, because they really stepped up. You know, I
thought I was -- I saw that we were going to have a high tide, and,
you know, I thought in my wisdom, like, knowing where my sea
level streets are in my district, I jumped in my truck and went running
out there to take a look.
And, you know -- and I saw some -- what I saw was
basically -- it wasn't the rain. It was definitely the seawater, because
we were on some streets, like Danford, they're at sea level. You
could see the seawater coming up through the storm drains, bubbling
up through the storm drains. It wasn't rain going to the storm drains.
And Marshal and his guys -- I mean, there was people -- when I got
there, there was one or two staff already there, and we talked, and,
you know, they were getting things done.
I reached out to Jamie, and I think Jamie just accused me of
wanting to drive around in my new four-wheel drive, but that wasn't
it. I really wanted to see what was going on in the district. And I
just wanted to reinforce that that tide was probably our biggest crutch
in this whole thing. You know, it didn't want to leave. It stayed
longer than a lot of people thought it was going to stay. And there's
nothing you can do. The sea -- the sea is the sea. You can't stop it.
You know, it's going to rise. It's going to rise up through to its
lowest points and stay, so -- but it took us a few days, but it worked.
And I know that -- I think Marshal said they pumped, just from
one street, three million gallons of water. That's -- you know, just to
imagine how much work these guys did. So hats off to you guys.
August 13, 2024
Page 40
Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you all. Thanks to the team as well.
Item #7
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 7,
public comments on general topics not on the current or future
agenda.
MR. MILLER: We have five registered speakers under Item 7.
Your first is Dr. Janine Mathesz. I hope I'm saying that properly.
And Christie Hutcherson will be following.
DR. MATHESZ: Thank you.
I just wanted to introduce myself and my staff, and Christie is
one of those persons as well. And we have with us our director of
education. Laurie, stand up and say hello.
And we are a new academy coming to this county. And we are
not a school as one might think of a school, but we are a support -- an
accredited support service for the public schools. So we come in and
support your public education system and any of the other charter
schools, anyone who would like to use our services. But mainly we
work with the public school system to help with the socially,
emotionally challenged population. And we work with the kids in
grades 5 through 12.
And so we just wanted to introduce ourselves as Keystone
Freedom Academy, Florida. And we are excited to be here to
partner with the Collier County School District and all of the schools
within the district.
And, again, we're a support service, so we don't come in and
August 13, 2024
Page 41
take any tax money or, you know, take money from the school
district. The students are still theirs. They're their students, and
they still get all of their grants and everything for those students.
But we do support them with students who are not able to access their
academics in the regular school setting, and a lot of those students
[sic] are due to various mental health issues, and we've seen an
increase with behavior-challenged students since COVID.
And so they help -- we help everyone because we're able to take
the behavior-challenged student out of the regular classroom so that
everyone in that classroom is able to access their academics as well.
So, again, I just wanted to introduce ourselves. And thank you
and thank the school district for partnering with us and welcoming us
into Collier County.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Christie Hutcherson.
She'll be followed by Lynn Dirksmeier.
MS. HUTCHERSON: Just to kind of echo, I'm Christie
Hutcherson. I'm the CEO and partner here for Keystone Freedom
Academy.
I am a Collier resident. I am a born-and-bred Floridian. And
when Dr. Mathesz approached me -- this is a very successful model.
This school is in Pennsylvania, been operating in Pennsylvania, the
state, for over eight years. They have 100 percent success rate with
the students that we've taken in.
And being somebody who's from the state of Florida and
understanding the influx and how much our school systems are
growing, that we really felt like this was a perfect fit not just for
Collier County but in other districts throughout the state of Florida.
So thank you so much for welcoming us. We've had incredible
response for the last six, seven months both in Collier, Lee Counties,
and also Glades County as well.
August 13, 2024
Page 42
So we're really looking forward to, again, like Dr. Mathesz said,
partnering with Collier County and the school district to help
these -- I call them the forgotten children. These children, they
really need a help up, and they need to let -- to know that somebody
cares about them and that they do matter and that they can be a
productive member of society.
A lot of the research and the study that we've done is some of
the children that we have taken in with these type of emotional
behavioral issues fall under that category, unfortunately, of the school
shooters because they just haven't been given the tools that they need
to be successful, and that's what our school does. We give them the
tools.
We have full wraparound services. We have behavioral
specialists and counselors in our schools, and we really give the full
service to these students to not only have them thrive but be able to,
when they graduate with their cohorts, become very successful,
productive members of the community, whether that's in the trade
field or going on to a college.
One of our students in Pennsylvania were so excited was
actually -- gotten a full ride to Tulane.
So these children aren't throwaway children. They actually can
and are capable of becoming responsible citizens. They just need to
have that extra help, and that's where Keystone Freedom Academy
steps in and fills in that gap.
So thank you so much for your time. We look forward to being
a partner in the community with you. And if you ever want to have
any questions, we're going to be opening up our school very soon.
We'll have a ribbon-cutting service, and we look forward to
furthering our relationship here in Collier County. Thank you so
much.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't go away.
August 13, 2024
Page 43
MR. MILLER: Hold on, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't go away.
MR. MILLER: Commissioner McDaniel has a question.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The Chair was thinking about
stormwater and wasn't watching my light. Make sure your contact
information gets to me, please, because I'm involved with several
organizations, and I want to make sure that we connect. First of all,
Keystone -- Pennsylvania's a really good thing, and -- but I also want
to connect you up with several organizations that I work with. So
make sure --
MS. HUTCHERSON: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Make sure we have your
contact stuff.
MS. HUTCHERSON: Thank you so much.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Lynn Dirksmeier. She'll
be followed by Darlene Santos.
MS. DIRKSMEIER: Hi. Good to be here. Thank you all for
hearing me out.
Yesterday I lived in -- I've lived in Naples for 17 years, and
prior to moving to Naples, I had a -- I was in Miami. I had a
non-profit no-kill animal shelter, which I closed when I moved here.
But I'm very aware of the importance of trap -- TNR program, which
stands for trap, neuter, and release.
So I have been doing some of this on my own, and I've been
going to a private charity, VAS, Volunteer Animal Services, to pick
up a certificate to get cats spay and neutered. And it's really a
nuisance. They're only there for a couple of hours on Saturday. I
have to go to a vet. I have to make an appointment. And cats don't
always decide to get in a cage on Wednesday mornings. So then the
neuter -- or spay would be paid for, but I would have to pay out of
August 13, 2024
Page 44
pocket to have blood tests done to make sure that they don't have
some terminal disease that will cause them to die a horrible death
shortly after being released or to pay for microchips or for
deworming.
Well, I went to get another certificate from VAS at PetSmart
only to find out that DAS does this for free; that I could have been
taking animals to DAS, to Domestic Animal Services every day
except Thursday to have them spay, neutered, vaccinated,
microchipped, dewormed, blood tested at no cost at all.
I couldn't believe it when I was told. So I called, and I -- and I
was told by the call center that there is a tab on the Collier County
Domestic Animal Services that says TNR. So first of all, how many
of you even know what TNR stands for? I know because I know the
lingo, but anybody else wouldn't even have been able to identify that.
But there's no TNR tab. It just says -- I had to search down all
of the different selections until I got to public service, click on public
service, and then there's a whole bunch of other menu selections, and
it says "community cats." What does that mean? I know what
community cats are because I know the lingo.
Then I click it, and it gives me all the information that's needed.
That information needs to be public knowledge. Do you know the
money I've spent? Do you know the money that other people have
spent out of their pockets having animals spay and neutered? Many
private charities who used to do this have gone under. They don't
exist anymore, like my non-profit doesn't exist in Miami anymore.
And cats -- the program that DAS now uses is just simply -- they
lethally remove and euthanize cats. That's really inhumane, and it
doesn't work. The only thing that works is TNR.
And I think that also community groups should be encouraged to
form, should be supported by the county, and there should be
community education as well that -- again, it would be private --
August 13, 2024
Page 45
CHAIRMAN HALL: Wrap it up, please.
MS. DIRKSMEIER: -- groups that would help, and I just
wanted to bring this all to your attention.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Darlene Santos. She'll be
followed on Zoom by Marc Schroeder.
MS. SANTOS: Good morning. Let's see. I'm Darlene
Santos, as you just introduced me. I'm a member of Collier County
for 12 years, and I've been very concerned with the animal, you
know, community. I've been fostering with mainly Humane Society
for 12 -- since 2016.
So, again, I'm here pretty much for, you know, spay/neuter,
return, but mostly low-cost -- low-cost spay/neuter, free. I did not
know -- I think Lisa just mentioned every day you can just bring
them to DAS. I had no idea.
I read, you know, that there's difficulties, people trying to, you
know, get that taken care of for their pets. But, I mean, that's the
core of it. I mean, there are so many other problems, so many
animals in the streets, abused, you know, but if you dealt with the
core, the core issue, spay/neuter, low cost.
I mean, people love their pets. They have their pets. And, you
know, you bring them to the vet, by the time you pay the assessment
fee, then you've got to get all those vaccinations. Before they're
even going to consider a spay or a neuter you've already -- you know,
the average person is already in deep with finances, so they're not
getting done.
I'm presently fostering a dog, the sweetest dog, four years old,
who just had eight babies. Humane Society brought them -- brought
them in. Eight babies, and the babies have been taken care of.
They've been adopted, and I now have the mom while she gains
weight.
And, you know, this is a lovely dog. I mean, you can tell she's
August 13, 2024
Page 46
come from a home, and at four years old, if she's not spayed and she's
having eight dogs and, you know -- who takes care of that? So then
it just seems like she was just dumped. She was just dumped at a
shelter, and her -- and her puppies, you know.
So people -- you know, if they didn't have her -- or whoever
hasn't had her spayed by four years old, here we are, and probably
because of finances. You know, probably just not enough funds to
do that. Whatever.
But I know that there's a budget, a budget coming up, and that
there are funds. There are commissioners. There are DAS board
volunteers. So I'm just hoping there can be some focus on that.
And, I mean, I left work once again. I could probably pay a
couple spay and neuter, or maybe one, to be done. But, I mean, I
hope we can all just get together and focus on this, because this is the
crux of it, you know. So anyway, thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your final speaker under public comment is
joining us via Zoom, Marc Schroeder.
Mark, you're being prompted to unmute yourself, if you'll do
that at this time. Mark -- there you are, Mark. You have three
minutes, sir.
MR. SCHROEDER: My name is Marc Schroeder. I've lived
in Naples since 2017. In October 2021, we bought a property in
3231 13th Avenue Southwest in Naples, 34117. And, unfortunately,
we bought (unintelligible) of a problem.
So three out of four code enforcement cases we could solve.
Those remaining issue/concerns, and it's a small building, that is 16
times 20 feet inside -- in size, and has existed since at least 1999, and
it's located approximately seven feet too close to the neighboring
property line.
The previous owner used this building as a guesthouse. Since
this is not allowed, I submitted a permit application to convert it into
August 13, 2024
Page 47
a utility room. And everything has been submitted, and it's mostly in
order except for the fact that the small building is seven feet too close
to the property line.
And to Collier County, to Growth Management, had several
opportunities in the past to inform the previous owner about the
problem. There was a code enforcement case in 2013 in which an
inspector mentioned in his report there was one structure on site that
was used as a guesthouse. I obtained all permits with the exception
of the pool permit. The house permit matches to current -- the
condition of the home, and no changes were observed.
The small building got its new roof in 2018 with a permit. At
this point, at least Collier County should have noticed that the small
building itself is not permitted, and it's too close to the property line.
I had several meetings with officers and supervisors from
Collier County, but unfortunately, without such an end to all Collier
County errors were (unintelligible) now, I'm being told to submit a
variance petition application which will cost me several -- several
thousand dollars with an uncertain end to outcome.
I asked Collier County did -- to cover the fees and -- since the
errors were to -- caused by them in the past. I was told that is not
possible, but I could present my case here today.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. Schroeder? Mr. Schroeder,
Commissioner McDaniel would like to talk to you just a second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah.
MR. SCHROEDER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning,
Mr. Schroeder. I'm not going to ask you to give me your phone
number on the public record, but I want you to call my office with
these details so that I can contact you later on this afternoon. Your
three minutes are up, my friend, but your circumstances --
MR. SCHROEDER: Thank you very much.
August 13, 2024
Page 48
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Your circumstances are not
going unnoticed, sir. Thank you.
MR. SCHROEDER: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: And that's our final speaker for public
comment, Item 7.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, would you like --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Take a break.
MS. PATTERSON: -- yeah, court reporter break.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yes. Let's be back at 10:35.
(A brief recess was had from 10:23 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Does that bring us to 10A?
Item #10A
PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF TO DEVELOP OPTIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COMPLETING PHASES 3 AND 4
OF THE PARADISE COAST SPORTS COMPLEX AND BRING A
REPORT BACK TO THE BOARD. (ALL DISTRICTS) - MOTION
TO MOVE FORWARD WITH A FINANCING PLAN AND
ANALYSIS FOR PHASE 3 AND BRING BACK AT A FUTURE
BOARD MEETING BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL – APPROVED
(COMMISSIONER HALL OPPOSED); MOTION FOR ALL
EVALUATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF PHASES 4 & 5,
AND BRING BACK A FEASIBILITY STUDY ANALYSIS BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER KOWAL – APPROVED (COMMISSIONER
HALL OPPOSED); STAFF TO COME BACK AT A FUTURE
MEETING REGARDING THE RELATED FEASIBILITY STUDY
August 13, 2024
Page 49
MS. PATTERSON: It does. Item 10A is a recommendation to
provide direction to staff to develop options and recommendations
for completing Phase 3 and 4 of the Paradise Coast Sports Complex
and bring a report back to the Board.
Mr. Ed Finn, your Deputy County Manager, is here to begin the
presentation.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Ms. Patterson, Mr. Chairman.
MS. PATTERSON: Hold on. This item is brought to the
agenda by Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, yeah. We've got to have
that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. So I'll jump in
just for a quick minute.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman and
Commissioners, I wanted to bring this up for a couple reasons.
Number one, we've had a lot of dialogue over the last month or so
about trying to shift some tourist development tax dollars from
promotion into some projects, and so I know there's going to be a lot
of discussion about the different possibilities for different projects.
But I wanted to see if we could make this one kind of No. 1 on
the list, and the rationale for that is that we're using tourist tax dollars
to build what is essentially a super regional park.
If you take a look at Big Corkscrew as an example, when that's
finished out, that's probably going to be a $90 million park. When
we finish Paradise Coast, that's going to be $160 million,
$170 million park. That's a big, big number.
But this park is a real gem, and I'd like to see us finish it off. I
know it's going to be painful to do it, but I'd like to see us do it.
And the reason it is is that this will provide, I believe, a real
facility that will greatly enhance the athletic opportunities for our
August 13, 2024
Page 50
children and families with professional soccer there. This facility is
becoming a nationally known venue. If we can finish this park off, it
will be one of the best, if not the best amateur sports facilities in the
country. It will attract tourism from all over the country.
And I want to read just a couple paragraphs from a letter that
I've distributed to everybody, and then I'm going to ask Mr. Finn and
then Adrian Moses and Jay Tusa to fill us in on why they feel that
this park should be completed.
But this is from the -- from Randy Smith, Florida Restaurant and
Lodging Association, and in his letter, he says that the Collier County
chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association -- I think
this is important because lodging facilities, owners, managers,
typically want to spend as much money on advertising and promotion
as can be done, but they're recognizing the benefit of this.
"The Collier County chapter of the Florida Restaurant and
Lodging Association strongly supports the completion of the
proposed sports complex project with Phases 3 and 4. This facility
represents a significant opportunity to enhance tourism, create jobs,
and improve the quality of life of our residents."
And continuing towards the bottom of this, "Beyond its
economic impact, the evolving sports complex will also enhance the
quality of life for our residents." And remember, one of the
purposes of this park was to enhance the quality of life by providing
much-needed athletic fields for our citizens.
"It will offer a word-class facility for local youth and adult
sports, fostering community engagement, promoting health and
wellness, and providing a space for families to come together."
I don't know if -- I think most of us were at the drone show on
July 6th at the Paradise Coast facility. There were about 10,000
people there. And I would guess probably about a third of them
were kids. Families out -- the whole field was completely filled, the
August 13, 2024
Page 51
stadium was completely filled, and everybody had a wonderful night
at that event. This is the type of facility that will provide that
opportunity.
So concluding, "We urge you to prioritize the completion of this
project recognizing its potential to drive tourism, create jobs, and
improve the lives of Collier County residents. The Florida
Restaurant and Lodging Association is eager to support this initiative
and collaborate with the county to ensure its success."
I know there's been a lot of discussion about this park is costing
a lot of money. It's costing a lot more than we anticipated. We had
problems with some of the -- some of our consultants going back to
the beginning. We've solved those problems.
And with the addition of Phase 3 and Phase 4, the additions of
that one field in Phase 3 and the additional 11 fields in Phase 4, this
facility will provide great opportunities for our kids.
And I think at some point I want Adrian Moses to come on up
and talk a little bit about what his needs are for this facility to make
it -- it's kind of humming along now. I want this facility to sing, and
I think it will if we can increase the number of fields and finish it off.
So, Mr. Finn, that's my brief introduction.
MR. FINN: Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
Mr. Chairman, if I may, today we're going to talk a little bit
about the sports complex, and as Commissioner Saunders says, it is a
beautiful facility. I think this aerial we're looking at here is a prime
example. You'll see the stadium in the foreground and some of the
areas to be finished in the background.
Our objective today is to not proceed today but rather seek
direction from the Board to allow us to do an analysis, both financial
as well as contract-wise, on how we would proceed with this and
come back to the Board with a report, allowing the Board to give us
specific direction to proceed.
August 13, 2024
Page 52
We're going to do a brief overview. We're going to do a
description of Phases 3 and 4. We're going to look at the business
outlook, and that will be Adrian Moses, the general manager of the
Paradise Coast Sports Complex. Mr. Tusa will give us a sense of the
economic impact on the sports complex. And we also have
Mr. DeLony here. He's our principal project manager, and he was
made responsible for this shortly after we kind of ended our
relationship with Manhattan.
The sports complex has a fairly long history. I know this is a
little bit of an eye chart, but I will say it started in 2015/2016 with a
concept development through Hunden Strategic Patterns. They did a
need assessment for us. I think they had about three assignments as
part of -- as part of getting us started on this project.
2017, the project picked up some steam. Concept approval and
a plan of finance were established. The key thing there is there was
an added -- excuse me -- fifth penny to the tourist development tax
to -- the City Gate land was purchased, and the county 305 parcel was
committed to the project as well.
In 2018, we did contract awards both for -- to Manhattan
Construction and the design contract. The TDT revenue bond Series
2018 was also issued at that point in time.
In 2019, the contracts with Manhattan were established. Those
were construction management at-risk contracts, and those did not go
particularly well, though they did go as planned. The plan was to
phase -- phase this contract. That caused some consternation in
some sense that we could have done better had we simply contracted
or amended those contracts all at one time.
The City Gate parcel was the first to go. That was five fields:
Maintenance building, welcome center, the market ticket booths,
restroom, the City Gate Boulevard south entrance improvements,
City Gate Boulevard -- City Gate Boulevard North, and parking,
August 13, 2024
Page 53
stadium and the great lawn, plus the Cove.
The 305 parcel started a little bit later. That was largely
excavating the lakes, spreading the fill, doing some grading; City
Gate Boulevard north extension, which wraps around the facility;
internal roadways; parking; infrastructure; five fields. Originally
this scope included a campground and the northwest parking lot.
In 2020, Phase 1, the City Gate side of the improvements
opened in mid '20 -- 2023. Mid to late 2023, we had that mediated
settlement agreement, which terminated the Manhattan contract as
well as, at the same time, we terminated Manhattan's CMAR contract
for the forensic building that we talked about this morning.
We removed a few items from the scope at that time to facilitate
terminating that contract, and that includes Field 9 that we're also
identifying as Phase 3 at this point. Some parking was removed
from there, as well as the campground.
2024, pursuant to the settlement agreement, county staff and the
engineer of record as well as Manhattan have been working through
the punch list, and they're still working through some closing out
permitting on the site.
And we'll get back to maybe a little more -- a little easier on the
eye when we look at the overall phasing plan.
You'll see in the middle, in the blue box is the existing complex.
That consists of the stadium and four fields, plus the green field
immediately east of the stadium. What we're talking about today is
Phase 3. You'll see that as a pink box pointing to the right. That is,
essentially, Field 9 that I'll talk about in a little more depth there
going forward, and Phase 4, pink box shown at the far right-hand side
with the arrow pointing in, that's pointing to that 11-field baseball
complex.
I don't know if it's any easier to see on this aerial, but in the
foreground, you can see the stadium. You can see a natural turf
August 13, 2024
Page 54
field, then a parking, and the brown field next to that is where Field 9
would go. We're identifying Field 9 as Phase 3. That will include
Field 9, associated prefabricated metal building structure, the south
and west parking surrounding that field, and a bathroom structure.
In a little more detail, this is a snip from the plans, and this
shows the extent of Phase 3. As I noted before, Field No. 9, a
prefabricated metal building. Scaled that quickly last night. It
looked like about a 12,000-square-foot building. The parking
surrounding the facility. Over to the left of there, you'll see kind of a
white-and-black box. That's finishing up some flagpole features at
the stadium, and then the pathway that runs north from Field 9.
Sports complex Phase 4, the photo on the right you can see the
11 fields, in a little more than we had on the last one, eleven
multipurpose fields. And while they're configured, certainly from
that aerial, as baseball fields, all these fields are multipurpose. The
five fields in an octagon pattern, those are sized for softball or Little
League. Those would provide multipurpose fields for
small -- smaller scale soccer, lacrosse, and other lawn field type
sports.
The larger baseball fields are configured for baseball, and those
provide essentially full-size long fields. The plan by the operator, if
these were to be constructed, the mounds in the infield would not be
constructed as part of the site work, but rather they would be brought
in and taken out as needed, allowing them to be used for
multipurpose.
This phase consists of a welcome center, concessions, and
restrooms, a trophy presentation plaza, marketplace, storage and
maintenance buildings, and potentially -- in light of kind of our
experience with the facility, potentially an outdoor amphitheater that
would necessitate a reduction in the field count.
With that, I'm going to bring up Mr. Moses, the general manager
August 13, 2024
Page 55
of the facility, and he'll talk to you a little bit about the community
use, the rationale, and some of the business aspects of it.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Moses, one of the things
I'd like for you to -- because we had that conversation -- to kind of
emphasize is what this will mean for our citizens, our kids, and being
able to use these facilities.
MR. MOSES: Okay. Good morning. Adrian Moses
representing Sports Facilities Companies as general manager of
Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
Thank you very much for bringing this motion forward and the
renewed appetite and enthusiasm towards this.
On behalf of the phone calls I get from sports groups, from
families, from parents, I thank you because those are the groups right
now that we're struggling to accommodate with the number of fields
that we have right now.
We provide local sports groups -- football, soccer, lacrosse,
rugby, we provide our field space to those groups at a reduced rate to
what we charge sports tournament operators that come in.
The number of fields that we have does not meet the amount of
current demands of local usage. Speaking with my colleagues in the
Parks and Recs department, that is replicated at all of the other parks
as well.
Our youth and our recreational population are using the fields to
the point that, you know, we really need an eighth day in the week,
which would be helpful, or a few more hours in the day.
At the fields that we have at Paradise Coast, we have no way to
support the diamond field sports, which is softball, whether that be
fast pitch or slow pitch or the baseball, Little League or adult -- adult
diamond field sports.
So the addition of these fields would really help in alleviating
the scheduling conflicts that we have that are requiring parents to get
August 13, 2024
Page 56
their kids to our facility early or for the younger kids essentially
trying to stretch out their bedtime so they've got time to play sports at
the field times that we have available.
The other aspect to reducing the burden on some -- that the
additional fields will have, when we bring in our larger sporting
events on the weekends that require additional fields than what we
have at Paradise Coast, we have to lean on the county parks to be
able to accommodate and take full advantage of the sports tourism
dollars that those events bring. What that has is an impact and a
burden on the county parks because we're essentially taking those
fields away from local use during those weekend events, granted it's
not every single weekend, but still, those events are happening at
peak times of the year and in peak season times of the year.
And in general, there is a shortage of diamond field facilities in
Collier County. That's those individual and those groups that
play -- that play those sports have to travel far, and the implication on
their schedules is even more amplified than perhaps those that play
on long fields.
So there's an absolute need for the additional fields to be built
just to take care of the needs of -- the demands of our sports -- our
local sports organizations.
As Mr. Finn had identified, the proposed design is multipurpose
turf artificial fields. Our organization, and me personally, have
experience in managing these types of fields. It's not a traditional
baseball field with a dirt infield that needs to be drug [sic] and
maintained. It's an entirely turf field out -- infield and outfield with
portable mounds that can be brought in and out to support the
different types of baseball that are played on there and removed
completely for softball.
The use of outfield fencing to provide different -- different
distances for the perimeter of the field also allows us to use those
August 13, 2024
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diamond fields for bat-and-ball sports.
When it comes to their use for long field sports, they're big
enough -- the larger baseball fields are big enough to paint a full
football or a full lacrosse or a full soccer field on.
So as we have those events that come in, that we do lean on Big
Island Corkscrew, and we do have those events that come in that lean
on North Collier Regional Park for their long fields. We can now
retain all of that -- all of those tournaments at the complex.
There's an additional benefit to the complex on that. In fact,
that we would -- we would have the entire footfall for those events,
and our ancillary sales would increase because we're not -- we're not
sharing the visitation around multiple venues, and there's obviously
an operational savings on that as well.
These increased number of fields would obviously support local
organizations for practicing midweek. And in terms of what we
have at Paradise Sports Complex, it provides the communities that
play the bat-and-ball sports on diamond fields would have the
high-quality comparable facilities that those in our soccer- and
lacrosse- and football-playing communities have. So that would be
the rationale based upon the increased fields at Paradise Coast for
community use.
And the other reason why the sports complex was built was to
drive sports tourism dollars into Collier County. We already drive a
lot. We're the most consistent driver of sports tourism dollars into
Collier County. There is -- the majority of events that we have from
Labor Day to Memorial Day are for out-of-region events, and we
define that as people that are coming from outside of a driving range
of an hour and a half. These are the groups that come in that stay in
our hotels. These are the groups that eat in our restaurants. I'm sure
that if you've been out on a Saturday, like I have, and try to go to a
restaurant, and there's a wait for a table, and I'm kind of kicking
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myself because everyone who's sat at the table is wearing a lacrosse
uniform, and it's -- I can't help but feel that I'm the reason why I'm
waiting for a table at that restaurant.
But it's also our excursion tours, and that led to the letter of
strong support that you read out, Commissioner, that the hospitality
industry is really interested in making sure that this -- this project gets
completed in full.
Our challenge right now, in a very successful and a really good
trajectory that we've seen over the last couple of years at Paradise
Coast, has been in between Memorial Day and Labor Day we've seen
comparatively low usage to the rest of the year, with the exception of
the excellent FBU Top Gun event, which is a -- which is one of our
largest events that sits in the middle of summer. The events that we
attract in the summer aren't as large as the ones that we do in the
other period of the year.
There's a benefit here. That same period is the peak season for
diamond sports. I'm going to refer later to a facility that our firm
manages on the east coast of Florida in Melbourne, the USSSA Space
Coast Complex. Their busiest time of year is our quietest time of the
year, and they are a diamond field facility. So they are busiest from
Memorial Day to Labor Day at the same time that we're not. So
we're confident that we can use our network to book out the summer
months the exact same way that we booked out the other months of
the year.
What does that mean in terms of numbers? Our firm put
together and, you know, I put together some projections for economic
impact. The financial return for the complex, I'm looking forward to
sharing some excellent news just for the operational performance of
the complex. In this year for economic impact, this is -- this is
something that we define, I mentioned earlier, is people driving from
over an hour and a half away. We qualified 34 events in this fiscal
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year. So the majority have happened. There's three or four yet to
come. But we estimate between 40 and 50 million dollars of
economic impact into our community through these events that came
in.
Only six of these events happened within that period of time
between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and that is around 10 percent
of that; 40 to 50 million happens in the summer months, which I'm
sure that the hospitality industry would be looking for us to support
them with events in that period of time because of that reason.
The venue that I managed -- that we manage in the east coast,
they experience 60 percent, on estimate, of their entire annual
visitation in those same months. So ultimately the development of
these additional fields allow us to flatten out our performance over
the year at a very high level and provide a consistent return to Collier
County in terms of the performance of the facility and the economic
impact that it drives.
If you have any questions, I'm happy to take them, or if you'd
like to hear from Jay Tusa, I can pass the -- I can pass it on to him.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
How you doing, Adrian?
MR. MOSES: I'm well, thank you.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Good to see you again.
You know, you were talking about the diamond sports. You
know, you have been approached, and we're kind of like dispersing
them to our other facilities in North Collier and stuff like that, and
you said, typically, our offseason is their season.
MR. MOSES: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And you see that on the east
coast with other facilities. So we've been getting -- I understand it's
a stress trying to get these things spread out amongst the county and
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get these done.
Now, we know there was a study done in 2015. I'm sure you
probably read the study or have seen the study that was done.
Because I'm assuming the study kind of gave this footprint saying
this is -- 10 years ago this is what people wanted or what they saw or
foreseeing what they were seeing. But I don't know if the study
knew that we'd have a professional soccer team by now. I don't
know if that was taken into consideration in the study. Are you
aware that there was any --
MR. MOSES: It's unlikely that that was taken into
consideration. It was in the general plan, but -- in my conversations
with those who were involved in the inception of the facility, but it
wasn't specifically -- it wasn't specifically identified there.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So just -- let's just say -- I'm just
spitballing.
So I understand Phase 3. I think that's something we should
really explore today or have our staff explore that and look at this
particular portion of this. But I think also, like, Phase 4 and Phase 5,
in the makeup of what's going on in the country and what sports, over
the past 10 years, you know, what's up here. You have your thumb
on the pulse. You know, what are we seeing that's booming?
Would a field house be maybe better to start in Phase 4 instead of 5,
you know, for the bulk -- multiple reasons, because it also would be a
Category 5 shelter for, you know, our citizens in their time of distress
and we need to shelter people. And the indoor sports, like, you
could have 100 pickleball courts inside a facility that big and hold
pickleball events and then even volleyball tournaments, nationwide
volleyball tournaments come in, and have them inside an
air-conditioned controlled climate thing all year round, you know.
Because we don't know what the soccer's going to bring yet, right?
We haven't played a game.
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MR. MOSES: Not yet.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So we don't know -- that might
be the direction this facility goes in. You know, we might not need
extra softball fields or extra, you know, baseball fields. Maybe we
might need some more soccer fields, because from what I understand,
this team wants to be part of this community and nurture our children
and be part of their leagues and things like that.
So I'm just wondering maybe just -- not say let's take a look at
all -- these next three phases all at one time now and you say, "All
right. This study hit it -- you know, hit the nail on the head 10 years
ago. This is exactly what this place needs," or I understand doing
Phase 3 and then maybe taking another look after we get a season of
soccer in or this or that, because we might need more parking. We
might need -- you know, this land, this virgin land, this undeveloped
land may need to be parts of parking or other things like that, because
we don't know what it's going to -- what it's going to bring here. So,
I mean, would you agree or disagree with --
MR. MOSES: I would tend to disagree for a couple reasons.
The first one being that we see across our network where we manage
multiple diamond sports facilities, that diamond sports are thriving.
It also is serving the local community of the diamond sports, which
are -- which don't have enough fields at the moment in Collier
County.
You mentioned pickleball. The county invested a bunch of
money in creating, you know, I think it's over 60 pickleball courts for
that community in East Naples Park.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: But they're all outside.
MR. MOSES: Yeah. The --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I bet if I told the nation
tomorrow Collier County would have a pickleball tournament in an
air-conditioned facility in August, we would be chasing people out of
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the county, it would be so full.
MR. MOSES: It would -- it would potentially be one week of
the summer rather than -- rather than every --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Well, I'm just saying, just the
outside facility, bring over 40- to 50,000 people in just for that one
weekend.
MR. MOSES: The way that we've structured out our
economics for the facility from when first were -- put our pro forma
together included the baseball and softball facilities. That allows us
not only to take the existing events that we have and provide more
soccer fields through the multipurpose nature of these fields but also
drive into that very lucrative diamond field sports market as well.
From in terms of a field house, absolutely a field house would
be nice. But don't underestimate the amount that it costs to manage
a field house. A field house with a parquet wood flooring requires
24-hours/7 air conditioning on top of that.
So there is maintenance to outdoor fields, but it's our
recommendation that the baseball and softball fields would be built
before a field house.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I guess I'm just leaning towards
understanding, you know, if this soccer team and what they're saying
they're going to bring to this community might change the outlook on
Phase 4 or Phase 5, that's all. I mean, would it -- it would behoove
us to say, well, I say we're going to spend this money -- put the
money together to build these things, and then two, three years down
the road we realize that maybe we could have used this property in a
different way.
MR. MOSES: It's possible. The same --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Then it's too late.
MR. MOSES: Yeah, I had --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Then it's too late. We can't go
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backwards.
MR. MOSES: I had this same conversation with Commissioner
Saunders, is that we already have 300 team soccer tournaments
multiple times of the year. How much bigger can we go with soccer;
whereas, at the moment we only very -- as a community at Collier
County, we only scratch the surface of the very lucrative baseball and
softball market, and that also fits the -- fits the calendar schedule for
us. The reason why we don't have soccer tournaments in the
summer is because soccer tournaments typically don't happen in the
summer because that's not summer season.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Is our league played in the
summer?
MR. MOSES: The league is, yes, but in terms of youth
tournaments that we can bring in to -- to drive the revenue that would
support the operation of the facility and the economic impact that
they would drive, there are very few tournaments that occur
in -- soccer tournaments that occur in the summer.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: All right.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: On that note, I've been
talking for quite some time about utilization of our TDT revenue for
O&M in our parks and rec system. I've been talking about it for a
long time, and I've asked for review of those TDT -- the tourist
development taxes dollars for us to be able to utilize those funds for
operations and maintenance of our overall park system. And I can
say out loud, because I was here the day we chose to not do the
Atlanta Braves baseball stadium and brought forward the advent of
what's now known as Paradise Coast Park, and there was no
discussion about a professional soccer team back in those days. The
potential was there, but there wasn't any discussion about it or
certainly in any kind of a business plan.
August 13, 2024
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So I'm excited to see, with the advent of our own professional
soccer team, what, in fact, that's going to bring to our community.
I will also say that it was represented to me that Phase 1 was
going to be an 80,000-square-foot indoor stadium for sports events.
It was represented to me -- in my rationale, that was an
80,000-square-foot Cat 5 hurricane structure inside the dam of I-75, a
huge, huge benefit to our community necessarily in perpetuity.
And so as we're moving forward with this, I'm not -- I don't
disagree with you with regard to the shortage of baseball fields,
softball fields. You call them bats-and-ball sports.
So I don't disagree that there is an enormous shortage with
regard to the availability. We're all struggling within our park
system existing today with the fee structure for our Little League
teams and softball leagues and so ons and so forth to be able to have
a sufficient amount of time on our fields.
I want to see, as we're going forward with this, an analysis of the
TPC, the total -- and maybe I need Ed back up there. This isn't
necessarily for you, Adrian. But I want to see a total project cost
where we're at with this project so far.
It was represented to us when we brought this forward that the
total -- it was going to tip out 80-, 90 million, and we're well in
excess of that now, and we still have Phases 3, 4, and 5, and we're not
even talking about this field house as of yet in these proposed phases,
number one.
Number two, I need a cost associated with these proposed
phases to be able to actually have a rationale with regard to our
budgeting processes for these -- for these additional phases. And
then -- and then the last point is, I would like to have a review of the
phasing prospects or a review of the phases in general so that this
board can have a discussion about what those community needs, in
fact, are.
August 13, 2024
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You okay, Ed?
MR. FINN: (Nods head.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. On a global level, we
have an enormous latent maintenance expense that's running with our
Parks and Rec system for facilities that we already have. We
belay -- and I'm going to get on a bandwagon here, but we belayed
artificial turf fields in Immokalee -- a decision that was made last
year that had been in the mix for in excess of two years, and we're
staring at another year at least before we see the advent of those
fields.
We have -- I think -- we just got an analysis of our aquatic
centers within our community, two of which are not even operational
at this point in time. So we need -- we need to have a discussion
about the priorities of the community for our existing facilities that
we already have in place and balance those with any new
development that we -- that we are, in fact, going to bring forward.
That's my personal opinion.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
I, too, am going to take a little bit smaller of a bite out of this
apple and look at what we're being asked to approve today. Today
we're just asking to recommend to provide direction to the staff to
develop options and recommendations for completing Phase 3 and 4.
That's all I'm looking for.
I'm not voting today on approving 3 and 4. And I can tell you
I'm going to need a way deeper dive. And it doesn't need to be at
this meeting. You can meet with me every single day if you want so
that I'm fully prepared when -- the next time that we come back here
and I have much more info.
But similar to Commissioner Kowal -- he made some great
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points that I had written down here as well. I don't want to just see
what 3 and 4 was supposed to look like and here's why we need to
move forward, because we're a shortage of -- we have a shortage of
fields.
First of all, we can do anything, but we can't do everything.
And if there is such a big giant shortage, well, before we had the
sports complex, where did these kids play? And we know that it
was -- there was even more of a shortage.
So I'm not saying that this isn't a big, huge plus. But the points
that have been made up here of "I want to see the difference between
parking versus the field, softball versus soccer, soccer versus
pickleball, nothing," I'd rather do nothing than the wrong thing.
Commissioner McDaniel, you know, brought up what I just
wrote down here. I just wrote down "pools" with a question mark.
We have so much need in so many other areas. So before we
continue to build the Taj Mahal at the sports complex and talk about
we need this and we need this and we need this, we have things
already built that are failing and that we possibly could use TDC
money for.
So I'm not taking anything away from the sports complex, and I
think I said in my office to you, Ed, yesterday, I'll never vote against
moving forward for exploration, having public comment on a topic.
I mean, it costs us nothing. But I'm going to need a lot more -- I
wasn't part of this, you know, 10 years ago talking about the sports
complex and all that. I don't know that I would have voted for any
of the things that were on that slide, or at least the way they were
voted for. But, you know, maybe, maybe not.
But currently, right now, if you're bringing 10,000 people for
fireworks, I can tell you parking's at a premium. If you're bringing
people for the soccer game, we certainly don't want 16 games a year
to have everybody say how the game was awesome but parking
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was -- you know, was unbelievably unacceptable.
So I'm really looking for more deep-dive analysis. Don't show
me the slides of what 3 and 4 was agreed to 10 years ago and now
we're ready to move forward. I really need to be convinced as to
why the money -- just like you said, is parking smarter, is pickleball
smarter, is nothing smarter, before, you know, I personally vote on
making the sports complex any bigger or more expensive.
I mean, there are times -- you can go out there now. You can
say, like, "Wow, the fields are at a premium." I was out there last
night. Fields were crowded with kids who are now starting the
soccer season. You know, I have some friends that were out there,
and I was out there most of the evening last night. But you can go
out there other days where that place is a ghost town.
And, to Adrian's point, regardless if you build a field house or
not, operation and maintenance is extremely expensive. So it was
great seeing those kids on the fields last night, but when there's not
kids on the fields, we're still lighting it, paying utilities, paying staff.
And then when you do have kids on the fields, I'm sure there was a
little bit more maintenance that needed to be done today to put things
back in order.
So, you know, I just want to make sure we're not overextending
ourselves and we're not thinking just because -- you know, even if we
have the money -- to Commissioner McDaniel's point, I really want
to think about prioritization before we, you know, focus on, well, 3
and 4 is next and it's time so it's -- you know, it was in the timeline.
Three and 4 might have been next, but I don't know that we
could have imagined some of the shortfalls that we have in some of
our parks that are currently built in some of our other areas of the
county.
And so like I say, it doesn't need to be a 100-slide presentation
here the next time we meet. Meet with me separately, if I'm the only
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one that needs a deeper dive. But I'm going to need way, way, way
more of a deeper dive and comparison and contrasting and
convincing before I vote on phases.
But what's being asked here is just giving the staff direction to
move forward and, you know, that has my full support because, I
mean, I think the staff moving forward -- I guess, in closing, I would
just say, I'm looking for a more comprehensive view, not just "Here's
why it should be built." You know, I want to see a compare and a
contrast and a bit of a deeper dive across the board, not just, "Here's 3
and 4. Here's what it looks like. Here's what it's going to cost.
Please vote yes so we can get, you know, a construction company out
there." That won't cut the mustard, you know, for me. Thank you.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. Good comments. I appreciate those.
If it pleases the Chair, Mr. Tusa probably had a few comments
he wanted to make, if the Chair's interested in hearing from him.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I can wait for Mr. Tusa's report, and then I'll have a few
questions and comments.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Because I think our tourism
folks -- I think their thoughts are critical to this process as we go
forward.
MR. TUSA: Good morning. Jay Tusa, for the record,
Tourism director for Collier County.
I just have a few stats that I wanted to relay just so you kind of
understand the economic impact and the value sports tourism has to
Collier County.
So we had our research firm do a little deep dive into
Mr. Moses' data that he presented based on those 34 events, and very
similar to the economic impact that he presented of 40- to 50 million,
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our economic impact came back 45- to $55 million range. So very
similar, which that's kind of good. Then you kind of have two
different sources that are kind of coming up with a similar number.
So that kind of gives us some reassurances that that's probably a good
number.
I just wanted to touch a little bit on room nights that are
generated from those 34 events. We estimate 62,000 room nights
with a room revenue of under $14 million, and then that equates to a
TDT collected of $686,000.
One thing I want to stress -- is so based on that room revenue of
$13 million, just over $13 million, the average rate is $220. Right
now the average daily rate in Collier County is $372. So you can
kind of see a pretty big difference there in those numbers.
So the one good thing about that average rate of 220 that's being
generated by the sports complex is it's a little bit low of a rate, but
then that also then presents an opportunity for midlevel properties to
be able to sell their rooms at a more affordable rate and generate that
business for them.
And so we all know Collier County's a very high-end
destination, but there are certainly -- there's room within our
destination for multiple segments coming into our market. So this
does fill a need for that midrange property that's out there. So I just
wanted to convey that information to you.
One little bit of information that I had a conversation with
Mr. Finn about is the potential of hiring a firm to come in and look at
feasibility, kind of to what some of you commissioners just kind of
mentioned as far as looking forward of, you know, what the demand
might be, look at the needs of the community, and have maybe a
firm, you know, do that for us.
I did speak to the firm Hunden Partners that did the original
feasibility study back in 2015. They are available to work with us
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on this project, so they could go back in and look at where we are
currently, what the market -- bringing this -- these new fields or new
products onto the market, what that could be for us, what that could
look like for us in the future. So that could be an opportunity for us
to kind of give us some insight there for the Board to make an
informed decision.
So certainly whatever your feelings are on that, we can take that
into account. And if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to
answer any questions you might have.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My goal in bringing this forward is really quite simple. We're
in our budgeting process now, and we don't -- we're going to collect a
certain amount of tourist tax dollars over the next several years,
obviously. I don't want to see us spending money in our tourist tax
revenues on projects during this budget cycle until we've had a full
analysis of what this facility can do for us.
And so my goal is to have staff directed to evaluate what's the
best use of this facility; let us know whether we need a feasibility
study. I think that's a great idea; but also just to make sure that we
don't do something in this budget process that we're going to
conclude in the next 60 days; that we don't do something in this
budget process that ties our hands so we cannot finish this park.
If there's a better use of dollars for other types of facilities,
whether it be a field house or whatever, I'm okay with that. I just
want to make sure that we make the right decisions in this budget
process.
And so my motion ultimately is going to be to direct staff to
evaluate all this and come back and let us know what we should be
doing or could be doing.
In reference to the maintenance on our pool facilities, that's kind
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of a little bit of a sore subject, because back in 2021 the County
Commission appropriated $17 million. We actually had a line item
in that budget that said $17 million for maintenance and repair of our
aquatic facilities. And for some reason -- and I'm not pointing
fingers, but we do have some staff folks that are not here anymore.
For some reason, the county did not spend that money to maintain
our facilities, and now we have North Collier Park that's shut down.
We still have -- the good news is we still have about $10
million, I believe, in the bank, maybe even plus interest; maybe it's a
little more. So we do have -- we've set funds aside for that. We still
have some of those funds available. We need to fix those, and I
think we can do both. I think we can walk and chew gum at the
same time when it comes to our aquatic facilities and this facility.
So that's going to be my motion ultimately, Mr. Chairman. I know
we may have some public speakers.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And thank you,
Mr. Chair. And I agree, Commissioner Saunders, with what it is.
I was -- I was there when we appropriated those funds for O&M
for our Parks and Rec system and was terribly dissatisfied that those
Board-directed expenditures weren't accomplished.
Number two, I was here when this park was brought forward.
Phase one was the 80,000-square-foot indoor stadium in the original,
put to me, set of plans. And so the project goes along, and then all
of a sudden, I get a Phase 0. I've been in construction a long time,
and I have never seen a Phase 0 show up.
Then all of a sudden, the field house got moved to Phase 12. I
don't know what phase -- it isn't even -- well, it's 5 or 6. It's way out
on the list. And my whole -- my whole rationale when I was
coming -- when this was coming forward was certainly to provide a
Grade A facility for our community, but at the same time protect our
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community, at the same time, so we have a centralized hurricane
shelter that can house -- in the event of a terrible storm surge, we
have place for our people to be able to go and to be able to take care
of our community.
So my request, Commissioner Saunders, whenever you get
ready to make your motion, is we make an adjustment for this
recommendation that staff's put forward to just talk about Phases 3
and 4. I would rather not delineate just Phases 3 and 4. I would
rather completing -- recommendations for the completing of phases
of the park in general, not just delineate 3 and 4, but all of them, and
come back to us with the information that this board has requested.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Before I go to you, Commissioner
LoCastro, I just want to make a comment.
As I sit here and listen, I don't -- I don't think this is something
that we never need to do. I don't know if it's now. I agree that we
have things that we have money set aside that we should have done.
I can't help what should have, could have, would have been, but I do
know that I've got people in the district that are screaming at me,
"How can you dare close down Sun-N-Fun in the summertime?"
And to me, that's what we need to be focusing on.
I do think we can walk and chew gum. We can think about the
future with the Paradise Sports Complex.
I still question these figures that come in. You know, my old
adage is, "You never ask an insurance agent if you need insurance."
So to hear that -- you know, I understand needing some softball
fields, some Little League fields. I understand needing another field,
some parking lot. Whether it's a metal building or metal pavilion, I
don't know. I heard metal building, and I saw metal pavilion. Nine
million bucks for a field and some parking places and a bathroom and
a pavilion? I don't do that math -- that math doesn't compute in my
head.
August 13, 2024
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But as far as to bring us back some options, I'm not opposed to
that, but I'm not going to be excited about putting the public in debt
to get some extra softball fields in or to get a $9 million double field.
Just so that you know when you come back, I want real figures, just
like Commissioner LoCastro said. I want to know how many
parking places we have, what the size of the building or the pavilion
is, what is the anticipated -- real anticipated "these are the butts that
we can put on the fields, the real return on investment figures," not
fuzzy stuff.
You know, you come to me with a 40- and $50 million figure
that's the economic impact, then there's 62,000 rooms. You know, if
you divide that by 34, that's like 1800 room nights. If you divide
that by two people -- two paying people for a room, that's 950 people
that you've got -- 915 people that you've got per event. I question
that. It may be -- it may be true. I'm just telling you I question it.
So I would like to be made -- felt better about that.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
Yeah, I guess in summary, one of the -- a couple more notes I
wrote down here, and then, Jay, I've got something for you. You
know, as the commissioner who sits on the TDC board, especially at
our last meeting, some of the things we talked about -- and I'll get to
that in a minute, so...
But I want to start out with the goal of you-all coming back to
this committee, or at least me -- I won't speak for the other
commissioners, but I feel like we're all paddling in a very similar
direction, most of is -- isn't to come back and to convince me that 3
and 4 should be built. I would like to see more balance and more,
you know, multiple options.
I think we all look really stupid if we sit here and approve
multi-million dollar, you know, fields or parking or whatever. We
August 13, 2024
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have to justify that if there's some other things where we have a
significant deficit.
If the big evidence being pushed is how many room nights and
how many this and how many that, I can tell you that's a piece of the
puzzle, but that wouldn't get me to approve. You could say that for
almost anything.
And trust me, on the flip side, there's people that live around that
sports complex that don't want it to be bigger. I always say, "Who
loves Celebration Park?" People who don't live across the street
from it.
So, you know, let's make sure we find balance and we don't
come back here, and we have tunnel vision and group think about,
"Hey, this is why it's time for 3 and 4." It might -- you know, it was
said up here, you know, we have to complete the sports complex, you
know, or something like that. I sit here and say, "It might already be
done for now."
You know, Commissioner Hall said it perfectly where he was
saying, and I couldn't agree more, "We might be done for now. We
might have other priorities."
That's not an answer we know. But please come back here with
a very balanced presentation, not group think trying to steer us into
why 3 and 4 needs to be approved, and if we don't approve it, here's
all the room nights we're going to lose, all the revenue.
You know, like I've said before, nobody can argue that Great
Wolf Lodge isn't going to bring us money, but you can't build 50 of
them in Collier County. How much bigger should the sports
complex be? Those are some things I really want answered for me
in particular. And like I said, it doesn't have to be in the
commissioner meeting. It could be prior to so I feel better coming in
here.
You know, Jay, you don't need to come up here to the
August 13, 2024
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microphone, but it's easy to throw millions of dollars around for the
sports complex. How long did we talk at the last TDC money [sic]
about this much money to go -- to help the Fun-N-Sun [sic], and there
were people on the TDC, "I really don't know if we should be using
the money for that. You know, does it really help tourism?"
And then we're going to sit here with the same breath -- and I
realize there's different colors of money, but, you know, your
job -- and you do it well, and our meetings are very valuable. But
make sure that your part in this is having a broad perspective. You
don't have unlimited TDC dollars, so whatever gets thrown at the
sports complex are things that maybe could have been used
elsewhere.
I want to make sure we're voting on priorities, because there's
only so much money to go around. And, you know, it seems
sometimes that we're fat, dumb, and happy with TDC dollars, and it's
always -- you know, we say this at our TDC meetings, everyone's
always like, "How about the TDC? How about the TDC? Oh, the
TDC could pay for that."
You know what, we've got tourism dollars that are used for
environmental restoration of our beaches after hurricanes and things
like that.
So, you know, once the check's written, it's written. And now
might not be the time to write it, or it might be. That's the question,
you know, that I'm going to need answered.
That's it. That's it. So I look forward to that discussion.
MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just two quick points. And
as we're -- as we're talking about our aquatic centers at large -- and
you brought up Great Wolf. I think they're supposed to open next
month, in September. And that is an enormous for-profit aquatic
center that's not part of Collier County's exposure. So that needs to
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be brought in, when we get into this, as you spoke, Commissioner
LoCastro, this tunnel vision of "We've got to get this done." We
need to give consideration to the advent of that facility coming
online.
Number two, with regard to parking, there was a time when
there was a big push for a public parking garage out at Seagate, and
we nixed that because it really wasn't a happy place for public
parking.
I would like to have a discussion when we're talking about
parking at the sports complex about a public/private partnership with
parking garages to -- because we suck up an enormous amount of
available space for horizontal parking when we could do a parking
tower or a parking garage facility that would also allow for storage
for our community for vehicles during storm events and so on. But I
would like to have a discussion as we're doing this future analysis,
Ed, with regard to at least one parking garage, maybe two, and free
up some of the parking spaces that are being -- or field spaces that are
being utilized for parking.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
I know Commissioner Saunders is going to make a motion.
You know, what we have on the table here is these -- Phase 3, 4, and
5. Like I said at the beginning of my initial comments, I kind of
understand Phase 3 because it kind of -- it coincides with us having a
professional soccer team now and having the ability for them to
practice in inclement weather and having that partial covered field as
part of that Phase 3 and some of the upgrades to some of the -- and
the one additional parking lot is all part of the Phase 3. That kind of
makes sense to have the staff go and take Phase 3 right now and
maybe take a deep dive and look at it and see where the money can
August 13, 2024
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be used from the -- from tourism money and things like that.
But I don't think anybody has a crystal ball for Phase 4 and 5,
and I don't think telling the staff today, saying, "Well, give me an
answer on 4 and 5," I mean, and then they come back and say, "Oh,
yeah, we do need six long fields, we need five softball fields, and
this, this, and that," but I don't know what they're basing is on,
because we don't know -- I just want to pump the brakes and say, "All
right. Let's get through one season of professional soccer, revisit the
4 and the 5," because maybe they need to be flipped. Maybe we do
need to go to the field house now instead of the fields or maybe vice
versa, or maybe we do need the extra parking.
I don't think anybody on our staff, Mr. Moses or anybody, has
that crystal ball to tell me what the future holds after we have a
season of soccer, or at least let's have a season of soccer and revisit
those other two phases. I don't have a problem with maybe moving
on with Phase 3 today, because we do have a commitment to that
soccer team, and to provide, you know, the facility for inclement
weather practice, things like that, with the overhang half field.
I believe that's how it's going to be designed, Mr. Finn, correct?
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And the additional parking lot
off the second circle and things like that.
So -- and I remember when they gave us the presentation, they
talked about the numbers of the people that are going to come and
use hotel rooms during the games. I don't think we even have the
ability to support that right now. And we need the private sector to
catch up, too, and some private money willing to invest in some
maybe newer hotels in the area and things like that, too, and see
where we're actually at, you know, what kind of draw we have.
So that's kind of my position. I mean, Commissioner Saunders
is going to make his decision on how he wants to move forward on
August 13, 2024
Page 78
this motion, but that's just my opinion. You know, it's just being
wiser about how we spend the people's money in the future and just,
you know, making a more educated decision, I guess. That's the
way I'm kind of putting it, so...
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So I -- you know, like I said, I'm not
saying -- not never. I'm just saying maybe not now. And I can so
much agree with Commissioner Kowal on "let's see what the
season -- let's see what the soccer's going to turn out. Let's see what
that's -- let's see what it is," instead of guessing at it. Then we'll have
some real hard data, and we'll know.
So, Commissioner Saunders, do you want your motion?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yes. Do we have any
registered speakers? If not, I'll go -- I want to do this in -- I want to
do this in two pieces, if I could, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, first motion, let's direct staff to move forward with
the financing plan on how to complete Phase 3, which is just that one
field. If we can get consensus on that, I think it's important to move
forward as quickly as possible on that field that we already have the
design work and we're ready to move forward with it. So I'm going
to do this in two motions.
That's the first motion, Mr. Chairman. Let's move forward with
Phase 3, which is just that one field, and get that completed as a
priority. Then I'll make a second motion if that one -- assuming that
one passes.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And my question is, are you
asking to do the analysis on Phase 3 and then come back and vote on
it at a later date? Because I'm not prepared to vote to support
Phase 3 today.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, that's fine.
August 13, 2024
Page 79
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If that's your motion, then --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll make that -- I'll amend
the motion for staff to come back specifically on how we can proceed
with Phase 3, that one field, and to do that fairly quickly, because I
think that analysis will be pretty simple.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, you're correct. Per
my understanding, they're already along with their plans and such,
and --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: The design.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just with the analysis of.
We're not approving it as of today. But I'll second that if it's the
analysis portion.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That's all that I'm asking for
right now is for staff to come back on how to -- the analysis on
Phase 3, the need for it and how it can be financed.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I've got a motion and second.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I was just going to say, don't
make the analysis simple. So maybe the analysis was simple a few
years ago that Phase 3 was a foregone conclusion. It's not for me.
So I'm going to need a lot of meetings in my office before you come
back here or come back here with something that's a much deeper
dive. Because I think that a lot of the analysis has changed, and a lot
of our priorities have changed. So I'm going to need a lot more
slides.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Motion to move forward with
the options to come back for Phase 3 only. Second's made.
All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
August 13, 2024
Page 80
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Then, Mr. Chairman, the
second motion is I do want staff to begin the evaluation of and
recommendations concerning Phase 4 and Phase 5 -- we'll include all
of the completion of this park -- to come back with some information
on how we can consider moving forward, if we decide to do so, with
Phase 4 and 5 or parts thereof and also to come back with
information concerning a feasibility study, what that would cost, who
would do it. I think we have a company that's already done it once,
but to come back with just some analysis as to the benefits of having
another analysis done, another feasibility analysis done.
So no commitments. Just simply directing staff to start looking
at how we can potentially complete Phases 4 and 5, and whether or
not a feasibility study would be beneficial.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. We've got a motion and a
second. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
MR. FINN: And if I may, Mr. Chair and Commissioner
Saunders, my inclination is to do that study. So insofar as we have
the authority to do that under procurement, we will do so. If we
have to return to the Board if it exceeds that authority, we will
probably do that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I think, based on the
August 13, 2024
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conversation we just had, I think it would be important for this board
to -- I realize you may have some authorization in your budget, but I
think just based on what's been said -- I mean, I'd be willing to make
a motion to direct you to do the study now, but I think you need some
direction from the Board as opposed to just going off and doing it. I
think that would be a bit of self-preservation, if you will.
So let's see if the Board wants to proceed with that feasibility or
have you come back and tell us what would be involved and how
much it would cost. I think that -- I think that's the best thing.
Come back to us next meeting or a meeting in September and just let
us know what a feasibility study would involve. Let us make that
decision as to whether you should do it.
MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you, sir.
Item #10B
DIRECT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY, WORKING WITH
COUNTY AIRPORT STAFF, TO COORDINATE WITH QUALITY
ENTERPRISES USA, INC., AND RTH ENTERPRISES INC. TO
FORMALIZE AN AGREEMENT REGARDING USE OF LAND
AT THE IMMOKALEE REGIONAL AIRPORT. (COMMISSIONER
MCDANIEL’S REQUEST) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to add-on
Item 10B. This is a recommendation to direct the County Attorney,
working with county airport staff, to coordinate with Quality
Enterprises USA, Inc., and RTH Enterprise, Inc., to formalize an
agreement regarding use of land at the Immokalee Regional Airport.
This is brought to the agenda at Commissioner McDaniel's
August 13, 2024
Page 82
request.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I apologize for the tardiness of this. I assume it was all sent to
you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It was.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was told that it was all sent
to you in a one-way communication.
And, basically, for summary, we have worked with the Hesters,
the operators of the Raceway in the Immokalee airport, the lessee of
one of the hangar facilities that we've gone to contract with for
construction of hangars at the Immokalee airport.
They've all -- they all have come to a consensus it's going to take
about nine months for construction to actually commence on those
new hangars. And so a negotiation has been agreed upon by the
parties to extend the Raceway's operations through next March, for
nine months, and they have an agreement themselves to work out
those technicalities, insurance, and so on.
And I just am bringing this forward to let you folks know of the
shift in the timing for the -- for the termination of the lease with the
Raceway.
Have you got any questions of me?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Then I'll make a motion for --
CHAIRMAN HALL: It's cut and dry.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It is pretty cut and dry,
but -- so I'll make a motion for approval here.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. We've got a motion and a
second to approve the timing of the airport and the lessee. All in
favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
August 13, 2024
Page 83
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
MS. PATTERSON: I turned my mic off.
Item #11A
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN TWO
(2) AGREEMENTS BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND
RENAISSANCE HALL AT OLD COURSE, LLC. 1) AGREEMENT
ARP21-24 FOR $8,916,402.76 FOR PRE-DEVELOPMENT AND
CONSTRUCTION, 2) AGREEMENT ARP21-25 IN THE AMOUNT
OF $1,130,551 FOR IMPACT FEES ASSOCIATED WITH PHASE I
TO FURTHER AFFORDABLE HOUSING INITIATIVES
PROVIDED THROUGH A GRANT FROM THE U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, STATE AND LOCAL
FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS. (HOUSING GRANTS FUND 1835,
PROJECT 33765) (ED FINN, DEPUTY COUNTY MANAGER)
(ALL DISTRICTS) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 11A is a recommendation to approve
and authorize the Chairman to sign two agreements between Collier
County and Renaissance Hall at Old Course, LLC. One, Agreement
ARP21-24 for $8,916,402.76 for predevelopment and construction;
two, Agreement ARP21-25 in the amount of $1,130,551 for impact
August 13, 2024
Page 84
fees associated with Phase 1 to further affordable housing initiatives
provided through a grant from the U.S. Department of the Treasury
State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
And Mr. Ed Finn is here to present or answer questions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. Finn, before you begin, Mr. Fabian,
what is your drop-dead time that you have to leave this afternoon?
MR. FABIAN: Three.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. So we have time. We're good.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Sorry about that.
Go ahead, Ed.
MR. FINN: Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Ms. Patterson, Mr. Chairman.
This item before you today is a continuation and a necessary
step to proceed with the financing for the Renaissance Hall project at
the Golden Gate Golf Course. This has been through the Board
previously both in terms of the financing plan as well as adjustments
to the use of these federal funds. This is consistent with this.
I will note that there is an increase in the amount by
approximately $100,000 over the previous amounts, and that, to a
great extent, is a convenience because of the timetables on this. The
other -- the other proposed user of these fees was unable to use them,
freeing up a thousand dollars -- $100,000, I'm sorry, and this is in a
"use it or lose it" type situation.
With that, I will endeavor to answer any questions you may
have. You may have a registered speaker on this one.
MR. MILLER: We do have one registered speaker, Steven
Kirk.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Are you going to talk us out
of it?
MR. KIRK: No, no. I don't want to speak unless you want to
August 13, 2024
Page 85
listen to me.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, no. I'll make a motion
for approval.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second that motion.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Didn't we say one time in
here a few meetings ago, "Don't talk," right? I mean, you're about to
get what you want. Don't speak. You can only screw it up.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We're really happy you're
coming forward, Steven.
MR. KIRK: I'm really here for questions. As Ed said, this is
really an implementation of two awards that were previously awarded
and have been in the budget for this -- in this pro forma for many,
many months. The grant agreements have been reviewed by the
County Attorney's Office --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, I'm going to
withdraw my second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He continued talking, didn't
he?
MR. KIRK: -- and the lenders, and so this is really just to get
us to move -- to be able to move forward with the grant agreements.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll renew my second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Motion and second for
approval. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
August 13, 2024
Page 86
MR. FINN: Thank you, gentlemen.
Item #11B
A PRESENTATION REGARDING THE DRAFT RESOURCEX
PRIORITY BASED BUDGETING RETURN ON INVESTMENT
REPORT AND PROVIDE GUIDANCE AS WE MOVE TOWARD
THE SEPTEMBER PUBLIC BUDGET HEARINGS.
(CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON, DIRECTOR - CORPORATE
FINANCIAL AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES) (ALL
DISTRICTS) - MOTION TO ACCEPT THE PRESENTATION BY
COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
KOWAL
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that does bring us to our
ResourceX presentation. If that's the direction we want to head, go
ahead and get that started.
CHAIRMAN HALL: How long do we anticipate? I mean, we
could break for lunch now and come back early. That way we
would just -- we'd get it done in a --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, before we do
that, though, let me make one comment. We do have some
registered speakers, and maybe we can hear from the registered
speakers. That won't take more than probably 10 minutes.
MR. MILLER: I've got thirteen registered speakers, so that will
take a little while.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I think a lot of them
are ceding time, so maybe they will be quick, maybe by 10 minutes
after 12 we could have all the speakers out of here.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can I just throw an option
out there: To keep the momentum going and hear from the speakers,
August 13, 2024
Page 87
you know, now. But do -- and we've done this for meetings that I've
chaired before. Do we really need to take a lunch break? Can we
just press and, you know -- do you really have to have lunch at 12:15
and --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Let's get the speakers out of
here, and then we can decide whether we want to break.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, that's fair.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Over even just -- even a
30-minute break.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, that's -- yeah, that type of thing.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Let's hear the -- let's go
ahead, Troy.
MR. MILLER: All right, Mr. Chair. Your first public speaker
is going to be Laurie Harris. She will be followed by Stephanie
Nordin. Now, Laurie's been ceded additional -- oh, I've got the
wrong PowerPoint here. Give me just a second. Laurie's been
ceded additional time from Awa Front, who I can see that she is here.
(Raises hand.)
MR. MILLER: So she will have a total of six minutes.
MS. HARRIS: Still morning. Good morning, Commissioners.
It is good to see you all again. And I am presenting on Domestic
Animal Services, as you could already have guessed.
What I want to show you-all is -- and that presentation this
morning from Linda -- I've never met her. I didn't know she was
going to be here, nor did I know she was going to speak on spay and
neuter programs. No clue. So her timing was incredible.
But what she was saying is absolutely right. If you -- these are
just the July statistics. We've had 508 animals come into the county
shelter. This is just July. This happens every month. These
numbers are unsustainable. Every month. So no matter how many
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Page 88
you can move out, adopt, get to other departments, other counties, all
over the country, they still keep coming in. You can see our ending
inventory. That's how many are in our care at this time.
So there is a spay and neuter initiative program that is currently
happening. The language needs to be tightened up. There is a
resolution that speaks to it. It was written many years ago. That
language needs to be tightened up because, as Commissioner
Saunders had said with the aquatic center, $17 million never was
used for the aquatics center. We don't want the money that's in the
budget to go to any other use other than a spay and neuter initiative
program.
And it is -- the money's already in the budget. So here is the
program. We want to make sure that the current funding is
maintained and goes towards this program and potentially maybe set
minimums per month. We have a surgical vet on staff. She can
crank out an amazing amount of spays and neuters in a day. So if
we can start setting minimums, that would be wonderful, and ensure
that the money goes towards this program.
So here are some things we've been kicking around. Try to get
partner vets throughout the community. There are a lot of rescues
that we could also work with, but partner vets, if we could maybe get
a rescue rate so the vets would charge us maybe $100 for a neuter,
maybe 150 for a spay. It's all dependent upon anesthesia. The
larger the animal, the more anesthesia. That's where the big money
is. So the vet could donate their time, but we're still going to need
the money for the anesthesia.
If we can determine low-income families for this -- I mean, we
don't want just to have free spays and neuters throughout Collier
County, but have it dedicated for certain people. Low-income
families, maybe if they're already on some kind of government
assistance, they would, you know, immediately qualify for this
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program.
And then we've also learned that there could be a very high need
for people who can't get to the shelter. People out in Immokalee
potentially. They may not have a car. They may not have
transportation. They may have a job. They can't drop the animal
off first thing in the morning.
So if we have a voucher program with local vet partners, they
can take their vet [sic] to their local vet partner, have the spay and
neuter done for a much reduced rate.
Some other initiatives that we've been kicking around -- again,
this is low-income families. The frequency would be determined by
the need in the community, which we understand is tremendous. So
all of those strays that come in -- I think it was 460 strays for just
July.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: For -- yeah. I was going to
say, per month.
MS. HARRIS: Just July. Right, per month. Seventy percent
of them are not sterilized. So the problem is just repeating itself.
And as the Collier -- the growth of Collier County has taken
place -- we've seen it in absolutely everything. There are
communities going up everywhere. Larger population of humans,
larger population of animals, and they are reproducing. Ten cats will
get you a hundred in a couple of months.
So we're trying our very best to identify the root cause of the
problem, which is these animals are not sterilized. So if we can be
proactive and go after this, make sure that the money is in the budget,
work with the new director to get this program up and running, that
that money is dedicated towards spays and neuters in the community.
We can also bring in a vet for the day. I believe it was -- For
the Love of Cats has done this already. They bring in a vet, the
community brings in their animal for the day, and they get spays and
August 13, 2024
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neuters. So there are multiple ways of doing this. Just trying to be
creative.
Some of our local vet partners, SNIP Collier you all know. Vet
Services for Animals, that is where that woman went this morning.
They do amazing work. They do a TNR program. They do have a
food bank. We need to expand that to local rescues. We get food
donations. Let's see where the need is. And For the Love of Cats,
they are a current partner, and they do have a TNR program.
I have one last thing for your consideration. Also, this would
be out in the field, not inside of DAS. Enforcement. Out in the
field, we do have cruelty cases. One of them was just arrested.
There's also backyard breeding. This backyard breeding is
contributing to this overpopulation of animals. Maybe add a
negligence charge instead of cruelty, so if we can't get to cruelty,
maybe negligence.
Right now we do have an animal cruelty task force. It has one
officer on it. He, I am certain, is overworked.
And then maybe introduce a cell dog program, so once we get
the animals into the shelter, they have to be sterilized before they can
go out, but this program is really not bringing prisoners into the
shelter to take care of the dogs. It's they become the foster for the
dog, so the dog goes to the prison; it's a very different program.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks, Laurie.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Stephanie Nordin. She's
going to be followed on Zoom by Brad Cornell. Stephanie's got
quite a few ceding times here. Let me go through these. Jay
Kohlhagen. I know Jay's here.
MR. KOHLHAGEN: Yep.
MR. MILLER: Liz Goodman.
(Raises hand.)
August 13, 2024
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MR. MILLER: Is here.
Christine Hutcherson --
(Raises hand.)
MR. MILLER: -- is here.
Dr. Janine Mathesz, I see, is still here.
Dr. Amy Perwien --
(Raises hand.)
MR. MILLER: -- is here.
Ashleigh Whitchurch.
(Raises hand.)
MR. MILLER: She will have a total of 21 minutes and will be
followed by Brad Cornell on Zoom.
MS. NORDIN: Good morning. I'm not going to take 21
minutes, but I'm glad I have it. My name is Stephanie Nordin, and I
am the founder and executive director of Autism Collier.
During Autism Acceptance Month, we celebrated a significant
milestone here in Collier County, a shift from awareness to
meaningful action. The commitment shown by this commission to
addressing gaps in special-needs programs has inspired hope across
this community.
Today I'm here to build upon that foundation with a request for
$700,000 in funding to support two critical initiatives that will foster
a more inclusive environment for individuals with disabilities here in
Collier County.
Our funding request prioritizes, one, expanding and enhancing
adaptive inclusive recreation summer camp programs and, two, the
establishment of Autism Collier Resource Center, or ACRC, with a
focus on training programs for county employees, service providers,
businesses, families, as well as leasing space to address the growing
demand for our summer camp expansion.
The demand for specialized programs for children with
August 13, 2024
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disabilities in Collier County is growing rapidly. According to the
CDC, 17 percent of our children age three to 17 are -- have one or
more developmental disabilities. So in Collier County, that
translates to about 10,000 of our children that may have -- may
require specialized support.
However, our current offerings are insufficient, leaving many
families to struggle and find the necessary service. This request
marks the beginning of our efforts to expand these services and meet
the full scope of demand. As Collier County population continues to
grow, so will our special-needs children programs.
By supporting this expansion now, we can lay the groundwork
for our broader initiative to ensure that every child can participate
fully in our community.
Since April, Autism Collier has received 425 requests from
families seeking special-needs summer programs, demonstrating the
critical need for expanded services. The community is rallying
behind the cause as well. Collier County libraries have reached out
as well as local healthcare providers for guidance in better serving
our children with special needs. This past weekend at the
Neapolitan Family Expo, we had eight providers come up asking for
training regarding autism.
So approving this funding will directly respond to the urgent
needs and advance a countywide movement towards inclusivity.
So let's talk about the programs that we currently have. We
have two inclusive summer camp programs. One is called AIR,
Adaptive Inclusive Recreation, over at Golden Gate Community
Park. Its focus is tailored towards children that need a higher level
of support. And then we have our AIR 2 program located at North
Collier Regional Park, and their focus offers more of a traditional
camp experience with integrated support for children with
disabilities. Both of those staff ratios currently are one to 10, and
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both camps have a limited capacity, 20 spots for AIR and 40 for
AIR 2, highlighting a significant gap in services compared to the
other community needs.
Now, for campers that require assistance with daily living
activities like eating, dressing, toileting, or mobility, Collier County
Parks and Recreation currently requires a personal care assistant to be
provided by the family. To illustrate the financial burden on
families, consider a typical summer day when a child goes to camp
from 9 to 5. The parents would need to hire a personal care
assistant, and that is at an average rate of $25 an hour, which would
be $200 a day. At nine weeks of a summer camp, that's $9,000
addition to that camper on top of the regular camping fees.
With each camp accommodating 20 children, the collective cost
for all families is $180,000 for the summer per camp. The financial
burden severely limits access to these essential services, addressing
stress -- adding stress to families that are already managing complex
care needs.
And thanks to Commissioner Saunders for coordinating a
meeting we recently had with the Parks and Rec department. It's
abundantly clear that the leadership within Parks and Rec is dedicated
and passionate to serve all of our children. They shared with us that
their long-term vision goal is to have an AIR component in every one
of their children programs. So the proposed expansion is the first
step in realizing a broader vision.
At our meeting, the collective belief is the most effective way to
begin this expansion is by targeting our areas with the highest need,
such as our friends over in Immokalee where services there are
extremely limited.
So by starting where the demand is most urgent, we will ensure
that our efforts have the greatest impact from the offset.
So to address this, Parks and Rec has come up with a 230,000
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allocation request to expand our AIR camps to Immokalee, to
establish an AIR camp in Immokalee providing essential service for
20 children with disabilities and enhancing our existing AIR camps,
lowering our staff-to-camper ratio from 1-10 to 1-6, allowing for
more individualized attention and support, as well as relieving the
financial burden on families by supporting the personal care needs
with county funds.
So for the next part of the allocation request, I have an
announcement to make. I'm excited to announce our recent
submission to the school district to form Autism Collier charter
school. This school is intended to open 2025 to 2026, and our target
student population is for those that are most significantly impacted by
autism. We will serve children ages kindergarten through 22. So
while our application is still currently under review, I can't go into the
specific details, but I would love to talk to you further about the
school in private.
The ACRC, or the Autism Collier Resource Center, will serve as
a wraparound support system for this school and the community at
large, offering training, resources, year-round camps and outreach
programs. Training is the backbone of any successful initiative,
especially in the context of developmental disabilities.
Without proper training, even the most well-intentioned efforts
can fall short, leading to gaps in care and support.
So our goal is to extend this training to every corner of our
community. We envisualize [sic] offering special training for
professionals in education, healthcare, public safety, corporate
sectors, and local small businesses. By equipping these areas with
the tools and knowledge they need, we can create a more inclusive
environment for individuals with disabilities, ensuring that they are
supported and understood in all aspects of life.
The 470,000 we request will support countywide employee
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training, family support and outreach training, staffing cost, and
leasing space. This request is a modest yet critical step addressing
the growing needs of individuals with disabilities in our community.
As resources are allocated and the community becomes more
engaged, the ACRC is expected to become a cornerstone support in
Collier County.
So in conclusion, Commissioners, your leadership and your
commitment to inclusivity have already set Collier on a path toward a
greater understanding and support with individuals with disabilities.
By approving this funding, you will help us expand our vital services
to underserved communities like Immokalee and equip our workforce
with the knowledge and skills needed to support the residents
effectively.
Thank you for your time and your continued dedication to make
Collier County a place where everyone can thrive. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chair.
Stephanie, how you doing?
MS. NORDIN: Good. How you doing?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You have really accelerated
and increased action for autism since the first time that I met you at
the Boy Scout troop.
MS. NORDIN: Right.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Two boys.
MS. NORDIN: I have -- yeah, four boys. You met two of
them.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The two, how are they doing?
MS. NORDIN: They're in high school today. Today is the
first day of ninth grade. Go Cougars.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I don't want to get off track,
but you popped up in my Facebook timeline, the pictures from that
August 13, 2024
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Boy Scouts. I bet they look totally different now, you know.
Obviously --
MS. NORDIN: They grow.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- they were little boys.
Just a couple quick questions for you. First, really applaud
what you've done to shine a spotlight on autism. You're so close to
it with your family, but, you know, so many families that you've
helped.
Just a couple quick questions. Autism Collier, how has your
fundraising gone? I mean, you know, folks come here. They ask
the county for money, and one of the things I always say is, "The
county doesn't have any money. It's taxpayer dollars." And,
obviously, worthy cause, so I'm not trying to give any kind of, like,
hidden meaning here. But what kind of support have you had from
the community to raise funds on your own or anything of -- you
know, has any of that been possible?
MS. NORDIN: For the last two years, we've been completely
funded on our own. So this is a much bigger expansion
trying -- especially this training piece, trying to get the materials and
the resources together. But until this moment, I've never actually
asked for funding before.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, right.
MS. NORDIN: So...
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just say, like, when you
groups come to ask for funding, the one thing that makes it the most
powerful is for you to explain to us, like, what you've done so far on
your own and how you've self-funded so that it's more of a
partnership, because I assumed you -- like you said, you've been
self-funded, so -- and it doesn't need to be, you know, right this
second, because I already sort of knew the answer. I just -- I don't
know the numbers. But for people that are listening and thinking
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that, you know, we're about to write a $700,000 check just because
anybody answers -- asked for it, that's -- you know, I wish it worked
that way for causes like this, but it's more of, you know, sort of a
partnership. But all that's not going to get solved today, but I think
all of us would benefit from how you've grown.
MS. NORDIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, organizations
and -- or maybe philanthropic people that are supporting you up to
this so we can see what we would be adding taxpayer dollars to
would be -- would strengthen your ask.
MS. NORDIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The summer camps that exist
already, just explain to me, are they most -- are they all just through
the county, or are you self-funding summer camps on your own?
MS. NORDIN: So -- yes. So the ones that we talked about for
that 230 allocation --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MS. NORDIN: -- that is Collier County Parks and Rec. So
that's through you-all. The parks, that will be funded through us, the
ACRC.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. So the current
counselors that are working with, you know, your kids, that -- they're
our counselors. They're county staff, right? Or are you -- you're not
funding separate staff that are part of these camps? It's not your --
MS. NORDIN: Separate.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- camp counselors.
MS. NORDIN: This would be separate staff.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No, I know it would be, but
currently, what's happened up till today? It's been --
MS. NORDIN: Currently --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- your kids in county camps
August 13, 2024
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funded by the county camps that already exist, but these kids need a
little bit more help, and that's where the families come in. Hey, they
might need a caregiver.
I just want to -- I wanted to make sure I wrapped my mind
around actually how it's worked up to this point. So it's been county
camps that these children have been part of, but if they join the
county camp and it's our -- it's county-funded counselors but they
need a -- they need a little extra support that in most cases the family
provides, supplements; is that true? A little -- you know, either an
extra person or something? I might not be asking it right.
MS. NORDIN: I think I -- I think I understand the question.
So right now Collier has the two AIR camps. The City of Naples
has a camp. Our local schools have a three-week period of, like,
extended school year for ESE students. And that's all that I know
that exists in the area, and both the county and the city currently have
that personal care support ask of the families. And so --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. I got it, okay.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I guess I'm confused a little bit. So is
it -- is it your personal camp -- is the autism camps that go on and
they're just doing it at --
MS. NORDIN: There are no camps through my personal -- I'm
trying to create --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. So it is a --
(Simultaneous crosstalk.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: It is a county program that your kids are
participating in?
MS. NORDIN: My children --
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm not talking about yours personally.
MS. NORDIN: Okay. Yes, that the kids are -- the 60
participants that we have in Collier, that's what we've got so far.
We're trying to grow that.
August 13, 2024
Page 99
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, if I might just
kind of jump in to maybe provide a little clarification, because I am
going to ask the Board to talk to our park people about this particular
issue.
But we have 20 kids in our county park system where the
parents that sign up for that, they're not charged an extra fee because
we have the counselor there. So we have 20 in one group, 40 in
another group spread out amongst a couple parks.
We have new parks now, and we have a greater need. At some
point I'm going to ask staff to talk to us about can we increase that
number from -- you know, from 20 to perhaps 60 and from 40 to 120
just so that there would be more kids that can come to our county
parks and participate in these programs, keeping in mind that we have
new parks, and we have an increasing need.
So that's going to be one of the questions I'll ask our park
director when this -- when we get into our budgeting process on that
particular issue. But these are -- these are existing county programs,
but they're so limited that we need to consider, at least, expanding
them so more kids can participate.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. Thank you.
MS. NORDIN: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your final speaker under this item is Brad
Cornell.
Brad, you're being asked to unmute yourself at this time, if you'll
do so, please. Brad?
He's been -- oh, there he is.
There you go, Brad. You have three minutes.
MR. CORNELL: Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. This is Brad
Cornell. I'm here on behalf of Audubon Western Everglades and
Audubon Florida, and appreciate the opportunity to address you on
August 13, 2024
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the priority-based budget return on investment report.
We've reviewed this report, and we've found it to be very helpful
on efficiency ideas and some really good insights from other local
governments around the country, actually, which is really helpful in
this -- in this process of prioritizing how we use our resources.
I want to recommend also emphasizing input on efficiency and
effectiveness in the budget process from your own staff which, for
those that I know and have worked with, are very experienced in their
disciplines and highly qualified. They're sure to have some really
good ideas to complement and expand on this return on investment
report that's before you today.
Regarding the Conservation Collier insights, just two comments.
One, on the idea of asking non-profits to collaborate on Conservation
Collier preserve management, I will say that I know this
collaboration already occurs amongst Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
and the CREW land manager, South Florida Water Management
District, and other agencies. There's data-sharing on monitoring.
Our Audubon Western Everglades biologist, Brittany Piersma, shares
lots of data from Marco Island and Fiddler's Creek and other places
like that with Conservation Collier staff, and it's a -- it's a big mutual
effort for land management, burning, prescribed fire, et cetera.
However, we've got 6300 acres-plus for Conservation Collier
now, and that demands really dedicated equipment and staff. So I
just want to emphasize that collaboration will continue, and it is very
important. We should look at every opportunity, but we also need
our own robust program for managing.
And, finally, I just want to comment that currently Audubon
does not support asking for fees to raise money for people to use
these preserves which they paid for with their tax dollars, but I think
it might be something to consider charging for parking. If
somebody's going to drive to a preserve in a car, well then, they
August 13, 2024
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should pony up some extra money for the parking facilities because,
you know, you could bike there or get dropped off or take the bus, et
cetera, et cetera. So perhaps consider that as a strategy for extra
funding for that.
So thanks very much for listening, and I hope you have a good
discussion today. Appreciate it.
MR. MILLER: And that concludes our speakers on this item.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. You all want to take a
30-minute -- 30 minutes?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's what I think.
CHAIRMAN HALL: And then back -- because this is going to
be --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm down. I like that.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Let's break for 30 minutes,
and we'll come back at -- let's just come back at 12:45.
(A luncheon recess was had from 12:09 p.m. to 12:46 p.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right.
MS. PATTERSON: Before we get started, let me just read the
title in, because I think we neglected to do that before we heard the
speakers. This is Item 11B. It's a recommendation to hear a
presentation regarding the draft ResourceX priority-based budgeting
return on investment report and provide guidance as we move toward
the September public budget hearings.
Mr. Chris Johnson, your director of Corporate Financial and
Management Services, will begin the presentation.
MR. JOHNSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the
record, Chris Johnson, your Corporate Financial and Management
director.
I'll start here with what we're going to do today. We're going to
go through briefly the budget timeline again just to get everyone
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oriented on where we're at. From there, I'm going to turn it over to
my colleague here, Mr. Fabian, to go over the draft ResourceX ROI
report, and then we'll go into some of the initiatives that we've
developed through the ResourceX process, on to program insight
summary, into the in-process implementations from the ROI report
and, finally, we'll finish with some potential future implementations
that staff have identified within the report.
So to start it off here, you guys are familiar with this, I know. I
just kind of wanted to go through where we're at because we do have
something coming up on the calendar here. The items in peach are
the ones we've already accomplished. If you look at the first blue
one there on the bottom, on or before 8/24/24 [sic], the property
appraiser will mail out the TRIM notices. That's the next step in the
TRIM process. Just for, kind of, public information purposes, that
TRIM notice will contain the tax -- last year's tax levy for the
property along with the millage rate last year, the millage neutral rate,
which is our maximum millage rate for the General Fund,
Unincorporated Fund, Conservation Collier, and the pollution control
districts, along with all of the maximum millage rates for the MSTUs
and the associated levy and the rolled-back rate and the associated
levy. And that will be mailed out, like I said, sometime between
now and 8/24.
From there, we go on to our public hearings. Just again, for
your calendars, the first public hearing is on September 5th. That
will be at 5:05 in this building. The second public hearing is on
9/19. That's where we'll be adopting the budget. Again, that's at
5:05 in this building.
Any questions on the timeline at all?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Well, moving on then, I'm going
to flip it over to Mr. Fabian for the ResourceX return on investment
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report presentation.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you, Chris.
Thank you, Commissioners. Pleased to be back in the county
and have an opportunity to talk about the return on investment first
report, the first draft, and progress on that report as well as where
we're headed next.
I'm going to start with a little bit of a recap on when I was here
last in the county and what we delivered, and I want to spend some
time just describing what the ROI report actually is and what its
purpose is, and that will lead us into how staff have been using it and
reacting to it thus far.
The first step after you have created your priority-based
budgeting data -- and as a reminder, the priority-based budgeting data
is the program inventory, the list of every program and service being
offered by every department across the county, along with a cost, the
translated cost from line items to program costs, as well as program
scores. The evaluation of the programs relative to priorities sets us
up for what you have here is a -- what we call the blueprint to open
the door on where we have opportunities to think about different
funding models for the programs that we offer.
So primarily, in priority-based budgeting, we're trying to derive
two main opportunity areas, which is spending your current budget
differently or freeing up how you're currently resourcing programs,
as well as entrepreneurial and opportunistic ways that you could
bring new revenue into the equation, and if you think about it, why
are we trying to do this over on the left-hand side of that blueprint.
As you've heard about all morning and as you're engaged in in your
budget discussions, the county looks out towards the future and tries
to understand its needs, the vision that you're trying to accomplish.
And in order to fund your future vision, we're trying to present
all options on the table, every -- every other way to fund current
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operations, every other way to fund your current programs, to
perhaps free up resources, especially in the General Fund, but not
only in the General Fund. And if we can alleviate that pressure with
other funding models, then you have new resources, perhaps readily
available resources, to be able to allocate towards other needs.
So the first way to get there is the ROI report, the return on
investment report. When I was here, it's just under two months ago
now when we first delivered -- first presented on the report and then
delivered it with updated numbers a few weeks after my presentation.
You'll recall that we broke out all of the programs that we studied in
priority-based budgeting into 16 categories. The categories allow us
to see different programs and, therefore, different opportunities as it
pertains to that priority-based budgeting blueprint.
We sorted programs on impact; how did we get there? Impact
on your county priorities overall as programs were scored and
evaluated, as well as differentiated by high cost to low cost, high
mandate to low mandate, and high reliance to low reliance, meaning
is there an opportunity to partner? Again, I'm pleased to hear so
many conversations today around partnerships where they could
possibly exist.
And depending on where programs fall among the 16 categories,
there are specific opportunities for each and every program to
reconsider its funding model. So the initial scoring leads us from
priorities to a program evaluation to understand how we can optimize
resources overall.
The fine-tuning of that initial ROI report -- if you recall, I
presented at the Board meeting in late June, and then we refined the
program costs that we had to reissue a new report -- said if you add
all of the opportunities across every program, perhaps there is as
much as $101 million worth of resource reallocation in new revenue
generation opportunities, up to $151 million in opportunities.
August 13, 2024
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And those are not all immediately actionable. They don't
materialize overnight, if you will. But each of those potential
opportunity areas requires investigation for feasibility. Are they
reasonable recommendations? Will they work here in Collier
County?
For every recommendation, these are proven implementation
plans from other county governments or other local governments.
And, again, the concept of that ROI report is to -- is to prove that
there are other options for how you go about funding each and every
program overall.
So with this initial ROI report, if you've been through it, you'll
see that every program has an insight, at least one insight, potentially
up to three specific program insights, and insight is related back to
the blueprint, an opportunity to free up resources or generate new
revenue, and every insight that we're bringing back to you is backed
up by another local government who has implemented something like
this before.
So that was the starting place. And, again, that was just
towards the end of June when that very first report came out.
Since I was here to present, the next step in the work is to find
out for every insight is it a real opportunity for the county? Is it
realistic? Is it something that you could implement overall?
And this is where the rubber hits the road. So we take all of the
universe all possible opportunities for resource reallocation and new
revenue generation, and then we have to put it in front of staff to say,
can this actually be implemented? And if so, when? When can we
begin to anticipate that this opportunity could be realized?
So since the last time that I was here and since the numbers were
updated in the ROI report, the departments have had a chance -- just
approximately two weeks in their review, which is exceptional. I do
commend staff for the commitment to take on reviewing what is a
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very long report of possible insights and recommendations and being
able to categorize them in buckets, if you will, similar to what you
see on the screen. Let me just run through these real quick.
First and foremost, we want to find out, is the recommendation
included in the report an insight that has already been implemented or
is currently in the process of being implemented? So it very well
might be the case that as we looked at the data, we're bringing back,
hey, the best practice is partnership, or the best practice is looking at
fees in a certain way, looking at a revenue approach.
And as departments were looking at their own programs and
their insights, we're able to capture where progress is already being
made, and Chris is about to demonstrate that here in just a moment.
A second area is, is the insight actionable and is implementation
of the recommendation or some variation thereof possible for FY
2025? So meaning it's practical, we can implement this, we could
save money or generate new revenue, and it's near term. Why is that
important? It's critical as you're considering the budget process
ahead.
The third is, is the insight actionable? It's practicable. We
could do something like this, but it's likely that implementation might
extend beyond FY 2025 somewhere into the future.
And the fourth area is the insight does not apply. It's not yet
practical for one reason or another at this time. And for those I did
want to make clear that -- we talked last time that this is a living
document, and for every single insight that we're bringing back to the
organization, we want to find out, if the insight does not fit for the
county for any given program, we can go back to the well. We can
go back to other insights and other opportunities for that specific
program, and that's what it means to have a living document is we
want to find out why, what is it about Collier County specifically for
any given insight that it doesn't work here so we can bring back
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additional recommendations and not give up on it, because it still
meets the criteria that we're identifying for the blueprint, so that is
something that we could consider for the future.
So, with these -- with this categorization, as departments began
to internalize the insights and report back on them -- Chris, go
ahead -- for every -- Commissioner McDaniel, you had mentioned
this in the last presentation. For all of the types of insights that
departments find applicable, we want to bring back more than what
you saw. The case studies were just reference that this has been
done before, but as an example, for any given insight that looks
actionable for FY 2025 or in the near future, we bring back far more
detail on the implementation plan and how this insight could be
executed here with the county.
We don't include this for every single insight that was in the
initial report because it would double or perhaps triple the size of the
report. We're really trying to narrow and achieve focus.
Commissioner Hall, I think as you were looking at the initial
report as well and seeing, well, it's insight and a little bit of
information on the case study, but it's surface level, we need more
depth on each and every recommendation. And so that's part of the
process is that for every insight that we're looking at for moving
forward with, we get a lot more depth on exactly how that insight was
achieved.
So that is a component of the process that takes place next is, as
you get into what Chris Johnson's about to present, not to take any
thunder, but for all of the more actionable insights we then, from
ResourceX Tyler, move to producing implementation plans that are
far more specific for any given case study overall.
So we had this one just as an example, from a museum example,
specifically, that you're going to hear about and how Santa Clara,
California, in your slides, was able to move forward, so we'll get into
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those in just a second.
We have another one in the slides. Go ahead, Chris. But just
to illustrate, that's all these slides are showing is that for any chosen
insight that we really do want to move forward with, we want to get
more detail on how do we achieve it. How did this other
organization bring about the results, and what can we expect?
Go ahead.
Okay. So if you're following along, we have the prioritized
insights, if you will, the most actionable opportunities with
implementation and execution plans as our immediate next step, and
in addition to that, we have begun another component of the analysis,
which is efficiency analysis. And I wanted to talk just briefly about
why do we structure the order the way that we do.
With the initial priority-based budgeting information that you
have, the question on the table is, "Should we be in this business?
Should we actually be providing this particular program?" We've
heard about prioritization many times today. Commissioner
LoCastro, you've talked about the need for prioritization.
The first question in priority-based budgeting is, if something is
a low priority, meaning it doesn't achieve the highest degree of
impact on your priorities, it's not mandated, perhaps, there's another
partner, it doesn't pay for itself, the first question is not, "How can we
make this more efficient?" The first question is, "Should we be in
this business at all?" That's the question.
And so we bring back to you those programs as well as alternate
funding plans, but it's from there that we can say, once we're pretty
well settled taking a look at all the insights, now we want to move
towards how can we streamline the operation, and where we can we
look for those types of opportunities as well.
So I did want to give you at least a forward look at two ways
that we're starting to go about the efficiency and streamlining
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analysis looking for opportunities for centralization, looking for areas
where there's, perhaps, redundant operations or staffing or resources
in the organization. This is where we can start to squeeze out some
of that efficiency overall.
First, we'll be looking at -- this is an analysis of positions and
programs. So where do we have common functions taking place
across the organization? So we have IT, HR, and Planning
Department in this particular example whereby having that program
data and the staffing, we're able to see where there is commonalty.
So positions called very similar things performing similar functions
overall and where that centralization and streamlining can exist, this
being one example overall.
Chris, go ahead.
And not only staffing and positions, but also looking at
streamlining processes within each program. So with all the
programs identified, this being an example from IT, seven different
analysis of the various processes that take place within IT-related
programs that were identified in priority-based budgeting and being
able to see, if these processes are taking place in IT, where else are
they taking place from other departments overall? So these are two
examples of internal focused streamlining redundancy process
evaluation.
So just as a recap, first and foremost, prioritization got us to
understanding the programs that you provide, and we're putting on
the table should we be providing this program and how else can we
fund this program? That's the ROI report.
The second report that we're engaging in is an analysis, then, of
beyond the programs, what about the people, the positions that we
have in the organization, as well as the processes, and where can we
streamline those once we decide that these are the programs that are
highly prioritized that we want to continue to provide overall?
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So that will be a continuation of the process.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So, Chris, just to clarify.
MR. FABIAN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN HALL: This is in addition. This is other than --
MR. FABIAN: Other than.
CHAIRMAN HALL: This is not part of the ROI. This is in
addition to that.
MR. FABIAN: Absolutely. Yep.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Because that's where I want to get to.
MR. FABIAN: This is in addition.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We all want to go there.
MR. FABIAN: Right. And I know -- I feel ya. I know that
we want to get into understanding the efficiencies and streamlining
positions and processes. I also hope that we continue the dialogue
on why we ordered it the way that we did because we want to put
programs -- entire programs on the table, first and foremost, and then
get into streamlining what we choose to remain in the business of
doing.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, sure. I see the method to the
madness. So, you know, I'm following.
MR. FABIAN: Okay. Sounds great.
All right. Well, Chris, I want to turn it back over to you for
continuing on with this component.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Chris.
Give me a second while I pull this up again.
All right. Commissioners, the next thing I want to talk to
before I dive into what staff has done with these insights is just to
kind of go over -- go over some of the initiatives that have been
developed through the ResourceX process since we started in
January. We've been looking at resource alignment with the help of
ResourceX. As you guys are all well aware of, there's organizational
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realignment that we're working towards moving into the next fiscal
year. We've created in your tentative budget the workforce
prioritization pool to utilize for strategic staffing of initiatives. That
workforce prioritization pool on its own right now sits at about
$2.8 million in that cost center.
Fee right-sizing, the Water/Sewer District impact fees have been
before you, and they will be again at the next board meeting. The
GMCD permit review and inspection fees have been right-sized; you
guys have approved that in the past few months.
We're also looking at beach parking fees, marina parking and
launch fees, and Parks general fees.
Privatization and partnerships, there's an ITN on the street right
now for the aquatics facilities, and we also plan on looking at the
museums as well.
Level-of-service considerations, you've heard level-of-service
considerations for the libraries, and that will be back before you
shortly as well.
Again, museums and parks programs are also included in that.
Any questions on that at all?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: All right.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have questions, but I'll wait.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. I'll move on into program insight
summary. So in that document, your ROI report, there are 381
programs included and 957 insights. What staff has done over the
past couple weeks is we've gone through those. We've identified the
type of -- the type of insight, whether it's in-sourcing, revenue
generation, a grant opportunity, inefficiency, or a partnership.
And just to go onto the next slide, I'll kind of show you the
breakdown of those 957 insights in those categories. We had seven
in-sourcing insights, 309 revenue-generation insights, 275 grant
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opportunities, 31 efficiencies, and 335 partnerships.
What we also did was -- and, again, this was a quick
turnaround -- we sent out the report to staff, and we had them identify
which of these insights have been currently implemented, which of
these insights are in the process of implementation, and how many of
these insights are a possible future implementation.
Now, you'll notice that this number doesn't add up to the 957
because there are a few that might not be possible in Collier County
that we need to look a little further into and have a little more time to
identify. But, again, there's 321 currently implemented, seven in the
process, and 174 with the potential of future implementation.
Moving on from there, I just want to kind of touch on some of
the in-process implementation of these insights. The main one that
were the insights provided were energy efficiency insights. A few
things relevant to that are the campus chiller replacement that we all
see the nice tower going up on the other side of the campus. We've
had the replacement of 23 or 25 building chillers.
We're working on different landscaping ideas with xeriscaping
and native plantings. The LED streetlight conversion that we've
been doing over the past few years, sports field lighting evaluation,
and utility plant operation efficiencies.
Another one of these in-process initiatives is the low-cost
spay/neuter vet service, and I know we've heard about that today.
There is -- included in the FY 2025 tentative budget is additional
funding to kind of pilot and start that program working with the other
agencies and hopefully vets within the area, and then we have various
program partnerships that we're working on currently as well.
Now, moving into the potential future implementations, we
asked staff to identify these and provide us with a short list of these
potential future implementations that we can move forward with in
the coming short-term future. So this is the potential future
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implementation list that we currently have. I won't leave this up too
long for you guys to stare at unless you want me to.
Overall, it hits all of our departments. And the total, based on
the case study opportunity -- which, again, the case study
opportunities were included in the ROI report with each insight. It's
about $40,985,000 in case study opportunity. A lot of that is on the
Public Utilities side within wastewater collections, and that deals
with technology and partnerships.
Any questions on this before I flip the screen?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. Can you give us just -- give us
hard data for just one example of potential future implementations.
MR. JOHNSON: Certainly.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I mean, I either need pictures or bigger
writing.
MR. JOHNSON: Let me drop down to that wastewater
collections.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: A truck, wastewater.
There's a photo, picture.
MR. JOHNSON: So, again, this information comes straight
from the ROI report with the exception of the next steps and the
estimated implementation. So the program cost annually for the
wastewater collection is $19 million. The case study had an
opportunity of 20 million by developing strategic partnerships with
engineering and environmental firms to enhance the capabilities.
Currently, what the Utility department is doing is moving from
these traditional gravity systems, which need to be up to 30 feet
underground to pump and allow the gravity for the flow into the lift
stations. And in Palm River, currently, what they're doing is piloting
a program to have a low pressure system, which keeps these pipes up
along -- a little closer to the surface where they're easier to maintain.
So that's an example of something that will be an upfront cost that
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could potentially save us in the future.
Good with that one?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: I'll fly back up here. Don't mind me.
All right. And then this is just a few more charts on the
potential future implementations by department, and then on the
bottom there you'll see the potential future implementations by
funding source, which, as you can see there, the Enterprise Funds of
the identified future implementations have the brunt of the potential
opportunity.
Any questions on any of that?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: Any questions on the presentation as a
whole?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Are you done?
MR. JOHNSON: This is where, unless you guys want to go
into anything else, we have discussions, questions. We're ready to
answer any --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: What do you think, we just
wanted death by PowerPoint? Class dismissed. Those slides were
just a formality, you know. We're not dumb or stupid. No. Good
overview.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, I probably am the
best to start out with, because the comments that I just wrote down
here are just more generic to set the table. I have a deeper dive, but I
just want to set the table with a few things.
First of all, I like the pro- -- or these are things that are important
to me, okay. So I like the proactive and extremely -- and an extreme
focus on very specific areas, which you've done, but as we drill
through this, this isn't the last meeting. We're going to get a lot
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deeper.
It's easy to say, "Let's pick the low-hanging fruit." I actually
am not looking for the low-hanging fruit, because the low-hanging
fruit are the libraries and the museums, okay. I'm looking for the
rotted fruit, okay. So I'm looking for the stuff where it is obvious we
are wasting money and we have an unbelievable amount of overlap,
okay. That's the rotted fruit.
Low-hanging fruit is, you know, only 20 people go to the library
a day. That's not very much. Let's just shut down all the libraries.
Okay. I'm not -- there's no -- and there's some stuff -- and I'm going
to give you just one example, and I don't want you to take this as
directive. And it's a little bit later, but it's just an example of
something that I read in the detail that I was like, okay, that
part -- that I don't like because there's a little more background
information than what you would have because you haven't, you
know, been here as long as us. And not that we've been here a
hundred years, but I'll get to that.
But I'm looking for the rotted fruit in the county departments, in
their budgets. And then I wrote down here, "waste and
redundancies." And these are all words you've got all over your
report, so I love that. But those are the things I really want to hit.
Some other key words I wrote down after reading through your
whole report, when you talk about how we can take better advantage
of possibly grants, you know, really want to run with that because
that's gaining us something, not reducing something, and it's gaining
us something that maybe was already out there. We just weren't
astute enough to go after it.
You know, similar to what we said a few hours ago, we had
17 million to fix our parks, but for some reason, you know,
everybody missed it. Let's not miss any of the grant opportunities,
and your keen eye, especially helping other counties, it seems like
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will identify some things that are maybe easier grabs than we thought
or that we just were unaware of, so I like that.
Any kind of technology improvements, like you've said in there,
these are things that I think are higher on my list. Because it's not
necessarily reducing a service and going, "Well, you know, it's not
the best bang for your buck, so a bunch of people are going to be
ticked off, but you know what, you're going to save a bunch of
money."
I'm not saying you don't attack those things, but, you know,
some of your technology examples here, it's like, wow, if we were
doing this, we'd have much more efficiencies. Nobody gets hurt.
They actually get helped, and we save money. So I like that.
Partnerships. You've got that sort of, you know, spiced in here.
Love that, too.
Fees. We have patted ourselves on the back in this county at
times and saying, you know, we haven't reduced -- we haven't raised
the fees for, you know, X number of years out at wherever, the
marina, the parking, you know, what have you, yet our costs went up,
so we were losing money over those years. And then all of a sudden
someone came up with the idea and said, you know, we're going to
have to triple the fees to catch up where we should have been where,
if you take small bites of the apple, people can understand that, hey,
you know, you raised the fee a dollar, but, you know, you didn't wait
15 years and then raise it $15.
And I know we have missed opportunity or -- what I hear from
some people that sort of tell me this in confidence because they're
like, hey, you know, I love that the fee is super cheap for A, B, C, D,
and E, but I can't believe what a steal it is for us to pay, like, a
minimal amount to get an unbelievable -- unbelievable access to
whatever, a marine, or you know -- you know the examples.
So those -- the fee focus is really a big one for me because that's
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bringing us in more revenue, and maybe it's slowing the bleeding a
little bit. You know, there's some things that we have that they're
not cash cows, but they can't be, you know, cash -- you know, huge
cash exits of taxpayer dollars.
I wrote down here next to fees, things that are more
self-sustaining. Hey, it didn't pay for itself, but it paid for itself a lot
more and closer to what it should have been. I really want to try to
dig into this report as it becomes more detailed and get a lot deeper.
The one spreadsheet you have where you talk about high impact,
low reliance, you know, all that, the two key words for me are, man, I
really want to know what the high-impact things are with low
reliance. And if I'm understanding it correctly, it's like, wow, this
thing could really save you money or make you more efficient, and
it's not going to hurt a bunch of things. In fact, you're already kind
of doing it. You just need to do it a little bit better. And so I look at
that as sort of rotted fruit, you know. It's like, okay, this one's a
no-brainer. It's high impact, and it's, you know, low reliance on, you
know -- and I hope I'm reading that right, but, you know, my
takeaway from that it's -- if we implemented it, it's a very small
negative or maybe a zero negative but high impact on the budget.
And if I've taken those two words out of context, whatever the right
words are, those are the things that would really resonate with me
because I look at that as the -- like I said, the rotted fruit, for a better
example.
And then lastly, I'll just say -- I'm going to give you my one little
museum example. It's not directive. It's in the weeds. We're not
there yet, okay, but it's just at least an example.
So in your report, it talked about the Marco Island Historical
Society. And like I said, Chris, this isn't, like, any homework
assignments. This is just like an example to give you the
50,000-foot view.
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So in there it sort of suggested -- and it's in a much bigger
summary, so it's not like you were targeting them or anything, but,
you know, I really like the way that this was put together. But it
basically -- and I'll summarize. Hey, they pay this amount of
money, the county pays this amount, and they get to function.
Maybe let them pick up the county piece, and everybody is still
happy. The missing pieces, we've been squeezing them to pay more
and more for quite a bit. So they've been really good team players.
So I -- it doesn't mean they don't get analysis, but there's some people
that, I think, should -- and we all will have knowledge of things in
our district that wouldn't be -- they'd be very low on my target list
because they've been so positive and proactive that the county has
sort of tightened what little bit the county has done, and they have
done an unbelievable amount of job -- unbelievable amount of work
getting donations, finding other funding sources.
I will tell you, that one little organization, I'll just use it as an
example, man -- and I've said this to Jay Tusa at our TDC meetings,
we need so many organizations to follow their model, organizations
who haven't changed what they've brought to the table for years and,
in fact, have begged the county for even more money.
Little Marco Island Historical Society, they were rated like, you
know, top 10 of all the best locations to go in the United States, and
they're always bringing really positive things to Collier County.
And I'm not trying to put them on a pedestal like they're the
number-one thing, but they are a really good example of an
organization who has really played ball with us fairly and has really
come to the table with a lot of funds.
I'd love to find the organizations that have sort of been kind of
sliding by, you know, and skating and saying, you know, we raise
100,000 every year, and then we always get 70,000 from the TDC,
and we do just fine.
August 13, 2024
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It's like, "Okay, but why haven't you been able to raise
150,000?" where the Marco Island Historical Society really gets it.
They have an incredible leader. And so that's just one example. It's
in the weeds, but that story is something that I think is woven through
this -- your entire report, and we've got to make sure we target the
right type of organizations who have really been sort of sliding by
and maybe not pulling their weight, and then those that have, I don't
want them to feel that they're sort of victims of this deep dive that
we're doing; that they sort of all got caught up. Everybody had to
tighten their belt by 20 percent. There's -- or, you know, I'm just
talking off the top of my head.
But there's several that have already done that. So we've got to
make sure that some of those organizations that have really done an
impressive job to lessen the burden on the taxpayer and carry their
own weight are somehow highlighted and rewarded and not sort of
caught up in the tidal wave of, wow, you know, there's a lot of money
to be saved and we're going to, you know, lump all these
people -- you know, all these organizations are a little bit different.
We've got to really target the ones that stand out as sort of maybe not
pulling their weight, if there is -- if there are some.
And then, you know, lastly, like, I'll end on libraries again. It's
a very sensitive topic from all -- by all of us. But I don't want
anybody to hear the word "libraries and museums" 100 times in this
meeting and make it sound like that that's our target. There is so
much more fat, I believe, in the county -- or wasted where there isn't
as much efficiency, and those are the things I really want to see in
the -- earlier in the slides and not, you know, the low-hanging fruit
which are always the easy targets that we always sort of start with.
But in reality, those are things that bring services to our county.
You know, the taxpayers help fund those things, you know. So
sometimes you sit here and go, "Well, only 20 people walked in the
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library." I'm not saying you don't make changes, but, you know, for
those 20 people, though, that was really an important visit, you know.
So that may not be the best example, but there's some stuff, I
think, that will jump out at us as sort of, like, easy targets, but we've
got to make sure we do a deep dive, that we're not targeting and
penalizing maybe, you know, a certain organization or even a
department in the county who actually has done a really good job.
We have some departments that come here during budget time,
and they say, "You know what, for the third year in a row, we're not
asking for any more money. We've already moved around" -- okay,
well, that -- you know, that deserves a little bit of praise, reward, and
maybe they're -- you know, they're not an initial target.
Lastly, I was just going to ask you, are you having one-on-ones
at some point, or you're open to that for us? I mean, I've met with
the county staff and whatnot, but I don't know, you know, if
you've -- if you've -- you know, of course, you've met with
Commissioner Hall. But at any time we can reach out to you and get
on the calendar so that we're not doing such a deep dive in here of
something that's very specific to me, because there's a couple of
slides that I sort of flagged and -- you know, and I mentioned it, you
know, at the one-on-one meeting that we had yesterday to see if, you
know, I could meet with you so I don't sort of waste the discussion
here, or I get more info from you that makes it much more easy for
me to feel better about, you know, things that we're targeting.
But I'll just say your first dive into this was very impressive. So
thanks, Chris.
MR. FABIAN: Do you want me to --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, he's got a response to
all that, and then I'll go.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. There was 11
questions in there, Chris, so go. No, I'm just kidding.
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COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Was there one question?
CHAIRMAN HALL: No. It was the same question just 11
times.
MR. FABIAN: I wanted to make a couple clarifications and
reiterate, number one -- I'll keep it short as well. Yes, please,
one-on-ones, let's talk.
Second, you mentioned getting into the specifics, and that is
intentional by design. It's part of our unique approach to this work.
As opposed to giving you, "Here are 10 things that are really big
dollar amounts that you can do that are very controversial," we're
giving you -- how many insights did you see, nine hundred --
MR. JOHNSON: Nine fifty-seven.
MR. FABIAN: Nine hundred fifty-seven that are all actionable
at some level, and that's very specific. I mean, there's a whole theory
behind this about the long tail.
You, very quickly, picked up on our emphasis in the first cut to
not focus on reducing services. We can. We absolutely can, and
the priority-based budgeting framework sets you up to look at
services to be reduced, but it's starting with, "Here are your other
options that can create a win-win. Do you want to consider that?"
If it's a no-go, then we might get to service-level changes if it's low
priority, which gets me to one clarification. You're super close on
your interpretation of the 16 categories. High impact is high impact
on your community priorities.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. FABIAN: So you want to look at that next level down.
Commissioner Hall, you mentioned this last time I was here:
"Don't we want to focus on Categories 5, 6, 7, 8?" And that is
totally true. So that's low impact on your priorities.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Gotcha.
MR. FABIAN: Low mandate, high cost.
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COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: High cost.
MR. FABIAN: Yes. And so you're basically there.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, I gotcha.
MR. FABIAN: And then, lastly, on taking a look at fees, these
are not global fees to ask for more revenues. You are all over it.
These are targeted fees specific in an entrepreneurial way that other
governments are succeeding with where that user base is willing and
excited about preserving a particular program. And if that allowed
you to alleviate the subsidization with general government resources,
General Fund resources, and take those resources and put them
somewhere else, that's what we're trying to target.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Great.
MR. FABIAN: So I just wanted to reinforce learnings that you
already had for everybody else.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks, Chris.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You ready?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. First of all, he talks
to me all the time. If he isn't talking to you, then...
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I don't want to talk to him.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just so you know. And I'm
joking about that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Boy, those must be fun
meetings.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, they really are. It's all
by phone.
I want to say this -- and my comments are going to be very
global today, not with specificity. I'm really excited about this
process that we're in. This is -- this is something that I've wanted to
do since I became a Collier County Commissioner. This is the first
time, I believe, in our history as a county where a third party's been
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looking at how we do -- and I'm pointing at those folks over
there -- at how we do what we do every day. And having -- having
these insights, having these opportunities, if you will, is extremely
refreshing, a lot of which has already been shown that we do do, and
then we can improve as we go forward.
And you were quite -- quite certain to talk about that this is a
living document. This isn't the last time we're going to touch this.
We're going to be going through this on a regular basis.
From a suggestion standpoint, I have -- without naming names, I
have heard several departments, several divisions that are mentioned
in your report that didn't get a lot of communication from you,
represented to me that there wasn't enough communication with you.
So my suggestion is really, really reach out to the people that are in
charge of these different divisions and departments just to ensure that
we're all talking the same language.
Second of all, I still have not been able to distinguish a split
between the reallocation of the funding and then the compensation
for services rendered. You refer to it as "fees" regularly, but
"compensation for services rendered" is a -- I think a little more
palatable way of saying what we're, in fact, talking about, and I'd like
to see that split between -- because to me I know what "reallocation"
means. That means something's getting whacked over here, or cut,
and I want to make sure that we focus on those low-impact,
high-cost, high-mandate, low-reliance or resiliency, I think, as your
report goes.
So -- and I wasn't able to really distinguish that. After I read
through the suggestions, you know, the program was 675,000. And
if you do this and this and this, you could save up to 675,000, but I
wasn't -- I wasn't seeing a specific path to get to that point out of
those insights that were brought forward.
Two things that I'd really like us to focus on is -- and even our
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friend Brad Cornell mentioned it today. Who's the -- who are the
best people we have to rely upon looking at different ways to do
things within our system? Our staff.
And so an implementation of a merit pay program, bonus
program for incentivizing our staff to relook at how they're doing
what they're doing every single day, I think it's absolutely imperative
that we do that.
I've used this example before, at least with Amy and Ed. Your
particular department is given a million dollars to operate for one
year -- for your ensuing year, and because of your superior
management techniques, you only spend 800- of that million.
Well -- and rather than burning the last 200- in September before the
end of the fiscal year on technically potentially frivolous
expenditures, turn that 200- back, because it is the taxpayers' money,
minus 20 percent. Turn back 160-. Take the 40- and pay it from
the manager -- I'm pointing at you because you're sitting there. But
pay it -- from the manager of the department to the broom pusher that
effectuated that $200,000 taxpayer savings, pay the people in the
department a bonus.
Now, we're a government. We're not a private sector. We
have a little -- it's a little trickier for us to do bonus pay and merit,
and Amy and Ed and I and Chris spoke about it yesterday about some
adaptations to that that we think we may be able to bring forward and
help implement, which will help incentivize the people that work for
us, the people that are on the ground doing what our government does
for our citizenry every single day to incentivize them to bring these
ideas forward and actually implement these savings.
The second side of that is you can't cut your way to prosperity.
You have to -- you have to -- I believe we have to better manage the
revenues that we, in fact, have; making the adjustments to our -- for
compensation for services rendered is going to ultimately be huge for
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our community.
The example I'm going to cite there is a couple of weeks ago we
had the discussion with our water bill payers that were utilizing credit
cards as the mechanism to pay their water bill. And I thought it was
only $160,000, but it actually was two $80,000 budget amendments
to a 1.7, almost $2 million annual expense that we put out for credit
card fees. And by making that singular adjustment, we have that
opportunity to not spread that cost for the credit card users out over
the whole ratepayer base, but we actually are providing for
compensation from the -- from those who are choosing to utilize that
particular service that's rendered.
Today -- on today's agenda -- and not to beat on the libraries, as
Commissioner LoCastro said, but we have two agenda items that I
pulled today that are multiyear contracts for, relatively speaking,
large annual fees where supplementation from the General Fund
taxpayer base is going to a fairly, relatively speaking, small group of
users that are taking advantage of services that are rendered through
our library systems for access to digital materials.
And so -- and so we pulled those agenda items, continued them.
We're going to review the contracts, look -- get data to see who's, in
fact, taking advantage of that and how much supplementation is
coming from the General Fund, and then determining what a proper
compensation for the rendering of those services, in fact, could
be -- could be, in fact, utilized for.
My last suggestion is just from a personal standpoint, from
a -- we have a tendency to look at savings that -- unless we actually
adopt a rate reduction or a roll-back rate in our taxation, our
taxpayers don't really see the savings other than a reduction in their
tax bill or at least a leveling of their tax bill.
So one of the things that I'd like for us to do is
specify -- distinguish the actual program or process that needs to get
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done that doesn't have the funding. I want to fence off these savings.
I don't want them just dumped into the General Fund and being
utilized at our discretion. If we save -- if we save a million dollars
over here and we need to fix the Sun-N-Fun aquatics center, I want to
specify the savings that are generated. When a savings is, in fact,
generated, I want to specify it and fence it off so that that money is
then -- so that then our taxpayers can actually see, we had a need that
was over here, the funding wasn't, in fact, in place, we appropriated a
savings through budgetary manipulation, and now that money's going
to be appropriated over there so that it's taking care of a dire need or a
true need that our county -- or our community, in fact, has.
So -- and the last thing is, is I want to see -- and I think you put
up a slide on the separation of our divisions, General Fund,
Unincorporated Fund -- that one right there. My little screen down
here's not working today, so I'm having to go around this way.
But I really like that. I think it's important for us to
even -- because we have two enterprise funds. You only have one
up here right now, but -- isn't our Utilities one and GMD another?
MR. JOHNSON: Correct, and that's the combined.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. So I'd like them split
out. There's two Enterprise Funds and -- so that we're talking
individually, because a lot of our -- a lot of our community doesn't
necessarily understand this fund accounting that we, in fact, do and
how different revenues go into different places. And if we effectuate
a savings over in Utilities or Wastewater, we can't really dump it over
into the General Fund.
Now, if we're able to move out of the TDC, the tourist
development tax, and offset O&M in Parks and Rec or maintenance
and so on in Parks and Rec, then that's going to free up monies in the
General Fund. But this, I think, is important with one extra split
there on the two different Enterprise Funds.
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MR. JOHNSON: We can delineate that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay, please. That's all for
now, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Go ahead, Rick.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Were there any questions in
that -- in that at all? I didn't even hear one.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I didn't ask -- yes, there was.
There was direction.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And take note, since our
screens, at times, don't work up here, that's Troy Miller. So we
might have some savings in there in his salary. We might be able to
save a little more. Troy, kidding.
MR. MILLER: I didn't have the money to buy the replacement.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Good answer.
You know what I wanted to just say is one final thing, and then I
know Commissioner Hall's -- you know, he's got a big chunk.
I didn't want to leave you with sort of a misconception as to like,
oh, I need to meet with you. You've done such a great job briefing
the staff that -- I mean, Ed is, like, who I've been firing questions at
on our staff, and they already have absorbed so much of what you've
done. The questions that I've had up to this point, I haven't had to
hunt you down. So you're obviously connected with them at the hip
perfectly, so -- and they're much more easily getable possibly. I
don't know. You know, I always start with the staff, and, you know,
when -- I get them instantaneously, but they've done a great job
digesting where you are and what -- you know, what you're trying to
relay to us. And so that's a testament to, you know, how -- you're off
to a very fast start.
So I know I can call your cell phone at any time and wake you
up at 11 o'clock at night, but that's what they're for, you know.
Right?
August 13, 2024
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CHAIRMAN HALL: It's one o'clock in the morning our time.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Is it? Yeah, that's right.
But, you know, thank you, but -- I know you're always
reachable.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I would just like to say I would
definitely entertain a sit-down with you, though, because I haven't
had the opportunity to talk to you one-on-one. So these guys know
how to get ahold of me, so...
MR. FABIAN: Welcome it.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Excuse me.
So, Chris, I mentioned I'm beginning to see the method of the
madness.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: That's a drill or something.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, that's a drill.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Whatever department that is,
we probably have some savings there, right? You know, those are
obviously --
CHAIRMAN HALL: They're hanging pictures in Klatzkow's
office.
But, you know, I mentioned I can see the method to the
madness, and today it really came -- it's starting to come into focus
with the ROI being part of the blueprint and the reallocation or -- you
know, Commissioner McDaniel calls it reallocation. You call it
fees. What he's trying to do is make mud into legacy sediment.
So -- but, no -- and then you mentioned, now we've got that.
Now we're going to focus in on the efficiencies, the redundancies, the
streamlining, the optimization, you know, the minimizing resources
to maximize the service levels, and that's -- those are the hard
decisions.
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So I feel like the -- I feel like the sled dog at the front where I'm
jumping up and down ready to run, and the sled's not even loaded yet,
but that's what I feel like. So I can see now where the sled's going to
get loaded, and we're going to be able to pull that thing.
And as we move from potential -- potential savings and ideas to
reality to the hard decisions, the hard one-time decisions that can lead
to years, year after year after year of great benefit.
So I just need to be patient with that, but I just want to work
smarter and not harder. And if we can get this culture changed and
get this spending-and-collecting machine well oiled, I'll feel like
we've really done a good job with that. And so I said that to say I
have confidence, and I see hope, and I'm starting to get it. So I'm
just going to remain a little patient.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good luck. Good luck with
that.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. But I'm -- you know, I still have
to fight chomping at the bit, so...
Anybody else?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm good.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Good.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
MR. FABIAN: Thank you.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Commissioners, then with that,
we just have a recommendation to accept the discussion.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Third.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All approved, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
August 13, 2024
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CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, all.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 15,
the staff and commission general communication.
Item #15A
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA BY INDIVIDUALS NOT
ALREADY HEARD DURING PREVIOUS PUBLIC COMMENTS
IN THIS MEETING
MS. PATTERSON: First up, 15A, public comment on general
topics not on the current or future agenda by individuals not already
heard during previous public comments in this meeting.
MR. MILLER: We have none.
Item #15B
PROJECT UPDATE FOR ‘VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD
EXTENSION’ (PROJECT NO. 60168) (MATT THOMAS, TECM
PROJECT MANAGER SUPERVISOR) (DISTRICT 3) –
PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Okay. Item 15B is staff project updates.
We do have one. Item 15B1 is a project update for Vanderbilt
Beach Road extension. Matt Thomas, your TECM project manager
supervisor, is here to present.
August 13, 2024
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MR. THOMAS: Good afternoon, Commissioners and Chair.
For the record, Matthew Thomas, supervisor of Project Management
for Transportation Engineering division, and I'm here this afternoon
to present to the Board an update on the Vanderbilt Beach Road
extension project along with an update and provide some operations
that are happening about the project and some fun-filled facts.
You can see from the project here, this is an extension of
Vanderbilt Beach Road extension. It extends seven miles. We are
currently extending six lanes from Collier Boulevard to Wilson, and
from Wilson to 16th, there will be a two-lane expansion with future
expansion available as well.
Felipe Baez is my project manager, and he's doing a phenomenal
job with this project helping to maintain the schedule, making sure
the contractor's adhering to the schedule, and continuing to see that
some of the operations you'll hear today are continuing to process and
move forward as we continue on.
Along with the seven-mile corridor, there's some new
intersection improvements on Wilson, on 8th, and also on 16th Street
Northeast. We're also relocating a canal over a mile long, and some
of the existing intersecting streets on Weber, Massey Street, which
has some major drainage operations, and Douglas there on
Collier -- right close to Collier Boulevard.
Sacyr Construction is our contractor. This project is a
$153 million construction cost. Johnson Engineering is also helping
us offset verification testing.
The construction started in September of 2022. After the last
change order that was approved by the Board, Change Order No. 1, it
brought us to a three-and-a-half year duration. Completion is
expected to be in the spring of 2026. Currently, we've completed
over 50 percent of the work. Time completed there is 52 percent.
So we're right in that threshold of construction where we want to be.
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Some of the major operations I'm going to discuss today is -- the
canal excavation is one of them. The pictures there on the left-hand
side just don't do justice to how massive an operation this is.
You can tell I'm a construction guy. I get a little excited when
we talk about heavy machinery and heavy equipment. This
excavator is a monster of a machine. It's currently -- some of those
rocks and boulders it's pulling out there are the size of pickup trucks,
just to give you a visual on how massive this is.
A Vermeer trencher there on the bottom left-hand side, that's
over 45 feet long. The blade is sticking underneath the ground about
15 feet. So they're just tearing up this -- excavating this new canal.
Again, just some of the complexity, some of the size. Some of the
size of this equipment is just stuff that's not seen in Southwest Florida
or practically in the United States that often.
Along with the excavating of the canal, you can see on the
right-hand side that picture. That's around 21st Street. Looking
east, you can see the newly excavated canal there on the right-hand
side, the existing canal on the left, you can see some double row silt
fence as well. And along with that, we're processing material.
There's three different processing locations on our project
as -- currently 24 -- going around 24/7. And the three different
operations are -- this is about the size a mine that's operating
processing materials.
The anticipated completion of this operation in itself is to be by
the end of this year for the canal excavation itself.
Another major operation is pond excavation. We have over 18
different pond locations that we're excavating on the project. You
can see the picture there on the right-hand side; that's looking east
onto 8th Street looking toward 16th. This pond is pretty much
completed. There's some minor things that are done with the
gradings. There's a little bit minor operations of sloping and sodding
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the material, but that's the skeleton of the footprint of the pond that
you will see.
The top left-hand picture is a pond that's currently being
excavated and processing the material. The picture there on the
bottom left-hand side you can see is actually what I mentioned
previously from the previous slide of the processing of material. A
lot of that material is being processed on site. And to give you an
understanding of how much that is, there's over 600,000 cubic yards
of material that's being excavated on this project between the ponds
and the canal itself.
Another major operation -- and this one is coming closer to a
close than the other ones -- is the bridge construction. Currently,
Corkscrew Canal, Orange Street Canal, and Curry Canal Bridge are
substantially complete. Most of the operations are completed, and
we're working on a Change Order No. 2 to really -- for the -- there
was some upcoming rock layer and some unforeseen conditions with
the rock that we didn't expect, laying the pile foundations. But those
pile foundations are very important, as we want to make sure that we
get the longevity of a 75-year lifespan of the bridge itself.
Some minor things that need to be done, some planing and
grooving, some of the parapet walls need to be poured. But for the
most part, these bridges are substantially complete. And these
bridges are also being used by construction traffic to help alleviate
traffic offsite. Some of that heavy truck traffic we want to make
sure we keep within the project. So these bridges are also utilizing
that for us as well.
Erosion control and silt fence is an ongoing operation and will
be for the duration of the project. Especially with hurricane season
and rainy season, we want to make sure that we're keeping all of that
water on site. We're making sure the dewatering operations, that
we're not dewatering off the project site.
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Currently, right now, we've installed over 112,000 feet of
erosion control silt fence on our project. The contractor is
responsible for adhering to the stormwater pollution prevention plan
throughout the duration of the project. We also make sure the
contractor adheres to the national pollutant discharge elimination
system. That's called NPDES. We make sure the contractor
adheres to these processes while they're operating.
And, again, along with the silt fence, you can see the picture on
the top there; that's a little Vermeer trencher compared to the one we
saw on the previous slides. This is what we use typically for a silt
fence to cut through and make sure that we're installing the silt fence.
All silt fence that's installed on the project is per FDOT specification.
And along with following the specifications, we make sure that the
contractor has -- all silt fence that comes on the project is from an
approved product list that comes from FDOT itself.
Another major operation that's ongoing -- I feel like I keep
saying "major operation," but with $153 million construction cost,
there's not many thing that are minor.
Embankment here on the left-hand side, you can see at 15th
Street, this is looking east where the road starts to bend. And to give
you a visual, there's over 1 million cubic yards of embankment that's
going to be placed on this project. To give you a visual of what that
looks like, that's 80,000 dump truck loads of embankment that would
be placed on this project.
Now, luckily for us, a lot of that is excavated material, so we're
not hauling in and making wear and tear on our roads, but for -- that's
one million cubic yards of material that's being used.
The picture there on the left-hand side, you can see a little bit to
the right there's a little temporary bridge. After further discussions
with Collier County and Sacyr, we -- they decided to place a
temporary bridge there to help alleviate truck traffic for ease of
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operations with their material, for their equipment. And this also
further helped keep -- alleviate the truck traffic and the heavy traffic
that would be making up their arterial roads of Wilson, of Golden
Gate Boulevard, of Collier Boulevard, and also on Immokalee. So
this really helped out with that. We want to make sure that we try to
keep that traffic as minimal as possible, that it's not impacting the
residents but also all those -- that material and those trucking [sic], it
stays within the project limits itself.
Another operation that's ongoing throughout the duration of the
project, including on Massey Street, is the drainage installation. You
can see a picture on the right-hand side here. This is a picture of the
installation of drainage pipe and structures. There's going to be, at
the end of this project, over 72,000 feet of drainage pipe installed.
There will be over 500 drainage structures installed as well.
And we make sure that the contractor adheres during the pipe
installations, that he's adhering to backfill, density testing, and
compaction of all pipe and structures that are happening, and that's
per FDOT specification.
You can see the picture on the right-hand side, there's a little
plate compactor. They compact the earthwork down so we can get
six-inch density lift -- density test for lifts there.
And also, along with that, all pipe and structures are cleaned and
flushed using a vac truck. You can see the picture on the left-hand
side, the top left. That's a vac truck where they block off either with
the structures, they plug them, and then they flush the lines there till
we make sure that we get a clean pipe.
After the pipe is cleaned, the picture on the bottom left-hand
side there is a video. They take a little video rover, and they stick it
in the structure and the pipe, and they run through the structure and
pipe, and they check multiple different things. Some of that video
encompasses laser pipe alignment, joint size, connections,
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cleanliness, and damage.
And before we continue on with anything more from the
drainage pipe and installation, we make sure that those videos are
checked. If there's any deficiencies that are found, we make sure the
contractor repairs, replaces, or continues to move on and repair and
replace any of those things that are needed before we continue on
with the subbase, base rock and, at the end, asphalt.
And last, but not least, is curb and gutter. This is a picture on
the left-hand side of 16th Street looking east. There will be, when
this project is completed, over 128,000 feet of curb placed.
Currently, the contractor's moving from east to west on this
project, so we're starting at 16th, moving east, at least with the
roadbed. There's over 10,000 feet of curb that have been installed so
far, so we're already west of 8th Street moving forward with that.
And the curb and gutter is just a great visual. You can see in
the picture there on the left is -- you get to see the skeleton and the
framework of the new road. This is -- with this picture on the left,
you have one more lift of base rock, and then as in construction, we
like to say, "You get that black gold." We like to see that asphalt.
And so asphalt is anticipated to start in the fall, and we are
anticipating to start there on 16th Street and moving east -- or moving
west, sorry, as we progress. The contractors continue to push
forward. We're continuing to move operations forward.
And with that being said, just the last picture there before
questions and comments. This is a picture there. On the bottom
you can see 16th Street there, and this is a good visual of just the
whole project. You can see the bend there further down before the
horizon there of the VBR extension. So we don't make it all the way
to Collier, but we're pretty close.
So with that being said, leave it for questions and comments.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I think if you need to place any -- if you
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need a place to put some rocks, I think Commissioner LoCastro has
some --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, yeah.
CHAIRMAN HALL: -- spots and with Ms. Cook.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just what I need. Rocks size
of cars, is that what you said? Yeah, I don't have enough of those.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I do have a question.
Nick, I know a project of this size -- and when you guys do start
spreading that -- setting that asphalt down, are you -- I'm assuming
you're going to have the batch plant and everything on site, or are
they going to truck it?
MR. THOMAS: There's a batch plant that would be preferred,
which is in the Estates already, so it's very short trucking for asphalt
itself, yes.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. So do we have -- we
have one in the Estates already?
MR. THOMAS: Yes. Yes, we do.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Really?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's out off of 5th.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Huh?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 5th. At the APAC plant.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Interesting.
MR. THOMAS: So very close by.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: All right. That was the only
question I had, because I know that can be -- you know, them trucks
are common to keep that machine rolling, you know, you have to you
keep that hopper full.
MR. THOMAS: Yep.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So, you know, I know our traffic
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issues we have already in this town, that, you know, if you get a cold
patch, you know, you create a problem for yourself.
MR. THOMAS: Yeah, absolutely. And we like to try to do
that at night as well to kind of alleviate the traffic and stuff like that.
But, yes, it's definitely something to keep close by for sure.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just a quick comment.
You're doing an amazing job, by the way. I've been watching. I go
by. I look at the project. Especially during this time, I really want
you to pay attention to the drainage issues, so the folks that are along
the corridor, property owners that are along the corridor. I've had a
couple of folks share with me that there's been blockage in the
drainage that used to, in fact, be there. So just make sure we're
tending -- especially in this times of heavy rain, that we're taking care
of the folks that are along that corridor.
MR. THOMAS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then, number two, I just
want to -- I think I already know the answer to this question, but of
the 675,000 tons of material that you're excavating out at the re-dig
on the canal, what are you doing with that material?
MR. THOMAS: A lot of that material is processed and used on
site, so we'll process it, they'll screen it, they'll crush it, and they'll
actually use it for base rock and embankment even. I mean, we get a
better product of embankment than we would typically get in other
projects just because there's such a variety and such a mass amount of
material that's being used. But take into consideration as well we're
going to have to backfill the existing canal.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Sure.
MR. THOMAS: So a lot of that material will be used in that
regard for that as well.
August 13, 2024
Page 139
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's what I wanted to hear.
I mean, that was a huge savings when we brought this project
forward. And the relocation of the canal was -- a lot of cost
efficiencies with the excavation of that material and reutilizing it and
not have to in-haul and buy more. So thank you.
MR. THOMAS: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN HALL: What's the speed limit going to be?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: As fast as you can go.
MR. THOMAS: Forty-five.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Welcome to the Autobahn.
MR. THOMAS: Forty-five, yes, exactly.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Great. Matt, thank you so much.
MR. THOMAS: Thank you.
Item #15C
STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to
Item 15C, staff and commission general communications. I have
nothing for today.
Jeff?
MR. KLATZKOW: As do I.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. If, Mr. Iandimarino,
who's sitting in the back of the room, if you could come forward.
You weren't here two weeks ago. I don't -- and I'm not going to put
you on the spot, Thomas. You don't have to bring your laptop. Just
come on.
The discussion that I want to have is -- as he's coming up -- is if
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it's prudent for our board at this time to have a look at how we're
managing our code enforcement efforts. We've been -- ever since
I've been a commissioner and for the most part of Collier County's
history, we've been a reactive code enforcement agency.
And I'd just like to hear a little bit from you -- because I spoke
with Jamie yesterday. Collier County's growing in leaps and
bounds. We have a lot of people coming here from a lot of different
places, and they move into Rural Golden Gate Estates, and it's the
wild, wild east for us. And because they're in the woods, they think
they can do whatever they want.
And so I'd like to hear from you if you have an idea of how we
can better manage our code enforcement issues so that -- because one
of the frustrations I have, and just -- I'll lead you to the troth as to
where I'm wanting to go.
I file -- I file a complaint on behalf of a constituent that wishes
to remain anonymous about an illegal camper rental out in Golden
Gate Estates, and our officer goes to that complaint and drives by 10
that are readily visible by the road and doesn't necessarily stop. And
I'd like to know how we can enhance the self-initiated efforts of our
code enforcement officers without, on the same token, intruding on
the private property rights of our residents.
MR. IANDIMARINO: Okay. For the record, Tom
Iandimarino, Code Enforcement director.
I wish I knew the answer to that one, but the reality of it is is
that we can't stop at every single property on every single violation.
At some point in time, you've got to reasonably recognize what do we
address. With the staffing that we have, we can't address -- I'd have
to have one officer per that street. Once they finish that street, they
do all the cases, then they'd go on the next street. You know, it
seems like there's a lot there.
Currently, we're acting at about 20 to 25 percent of self-initiated
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calls. So 75 to 80 percent of calls are calls for service that are
complaints. So each code enforcement officer is averaging about
100 cases, carrying about 100 cases.
Simple numbers for this year, we've had about 4,000 cases
already opened up, and about 3,000 or so were complaints and about
1,000 or so were self-initiated. Of those, about 60 percent,
65 percent have already been closed through voluntary compliance in
about 90 days or less. Some of them take more. Some of them take
less. It just depends, okay.
Those that -- people who are going into voluntary compliance
may take a little while, may take six months, eight months, nine
months because they have to get permitting done. You know, those
kind of drag out, and they tend to carry those cases and monitor those
cases.
You know, how do we go about recognizing what really is a
violation on these properties? When you look at RVs, you look at
people living in potentially, quote-unquote, guesthouses that are
being rented out, guest Conex boxes that have been converted, guest
garages that have been converted. You've seen it all out there. I
mean, we've had school buses that have been converted that are, you
know, being put on Airbnb or Facebook.
It's a challenge for us to hit every one of these properties. It
really is. With the amount of other calls that we have, we almost
have to go to that one, take care of that one, because I've got others
that I have to go to that people are complaining on as well.
If I had 10 complaints on that property -- on those 10 properties,
I'll stop at every one of them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Agreed.
MR. IANDIMARINO: I really would.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, again, Thomas, this
isn't -- I don't want to belabor this point all that much today, and
August 13, 2024
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maybe you and I and Jamie can have a private meeting, and then we
can bring forward some amendments to our processes to try to
enhance this a little bit. I'd like to engage with the Naples Area
Board of Realtors.
MR. IANDIMARINO: Got it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: They're huge advocates for
our community with regard to property rights and how we can -- how
we can better manage this just to -- again, we're not a little fishing
community of less than 100,000 people anymore, so -- and being
reactive puts us behind before we ever -- before we ever --
MR. IANDIMARINO: It does. We're always treading water
to stay afloat in this. And, you know, I recognized it. I think
everybody here recognizes it. You guys get the complaints just as
much as we do. When they come to us, those are our priorities.
Those are the ones that we deal with right now, because those are the
complaints that we have. Those are the people that are going to call
you, are going to call us, and we have to go out there and do
something on these.
You know, we do get some frivolous complaints. Those have
fallen by the wayside quite a bit. It's rare that we get the neighbor
saying, "Hey, could you call my neighbor and have him turn his TV
down because it's too loud?" You know, we're not getting those
calls anymore, like, you know, I think we used to in the past.
But the reality of it is is that when we see an RV in a property
and it looks like somebody's living there and it looks like there's
possibly somebody there, we should be knocking on the door and
going from that. If we see an RV in the property and it doesn't look
like anybody's living in the RV, the RV's just got a wire to it, it's
plugged in because somebody's running their air-conditioning in it,
there's no plumbing coming out the back of it, they're just keeping
their A/C cool or keeping it at 85 degrees to keep the humidity down
August 13, 2024
Page 143
on their RV that they own that they use when they go to the Smoky's
to go camping, that's not a case that we're looking at, you know. But
we get calls on those, too. So when we go to those properties, we
knock on the door, and it turns out to just be that, we close the case,
and we go on our way.
So there is the balance in there. Oftentimes it's the former, not
the latter, so...
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir. I'll set up a
meeting with your people and my people, and we'll have a chat and
see if we can bring forward some initiatives to help your -- help your
process.
MR. IANDIMARINO: Be glad to work through that. Thank
you, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
That's all, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I've got a question, Tom, while
you're here, because I know we spoke about this a few weeks ago --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I know people.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- and I had made a comment
that I know in certain situations that, you know, by statute you can't
self-initiate an investigation, is that correct, or am I wrong on --
MR. IANDIMARINO: Not necessarily. There are certain
things in the ordinances that the Sheriff is responsible for and certain
things that, you know, any of us could really enforce as far as the
Sheriff, if they really wanted to go down, that they could.
But, no, we could open up cases that we see. Now, we may
have to get determinations from the Building department or the
Zoning department or Engineering to determine whether or not a
violation truly really exists, but we do and we can open up those
cases.
August 13, 2024
Page 144
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So just any blanket thing that's
in our code enforcement, in the rules, we can open a self-generated
investigation on?
MR. IANDIMARINO: Pretty much, yes.
MR. FRENCH: Life-safety only.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: It's life-safety only.
MR. IANDIMARINO: Well, self-generated, yeah. If we get a
complaint on something, yes, we can --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Not a complaint. A complaint's
different. I said self-generated investigation. Riding through a
neighborhood and you see a violation with a building code, can you
go on that property and --
MR. IANDIMARINO: If we see active construction,
specifically on weekends, you know, on a Saturday -- or on a Sunday
we see active construction where they're not allowed to be doing any
construction on the weekends, in that regard, we'll go and address
those. You know, if somebody's parked on the grass a little bit --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: They already have a permit.
MR. IANDIMARINO: Well, yeah, we'll confirm if they do.
We could check CityView to see if they have a permit. If they do,
that's -- then we'd go from there. "Hey, you can't work on Sundays."
Whatever it is, we'll go down that road. But if we see somebody's
parked on the grass a little bit, we're not necessarily knocking on their
door saying, "Hey, can you put these tires off the grass and put them
on the paved surface," if that's the question you're looking for.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Well, I'm only asking these
questions because I want to make sure we're moving forward, you
know, because I don't want to give the -- people are watching this. I
don't want to give the impression that we have the ability to just go
around and seek these out ourselves and start investigations on these
properties.
August 13, 2024
Page 145
I just want to -- I heard -- because from what I understand, it
was the life-safety was the only one that was kind of like an
exception, like what Commissioner McDaniel is talking about. If
you have extra people living on a property, you've got an unimproved
trailer, because of the septic systems and things, those can be
considered a life-safety type investigation, but not so much the guy
that doesn't take care of his backyard or -- you know, things of that
nature. That's why I wanted to get some clarity, because I don't want
the public to think that we have carte blanche --
MR. IANDIMARINO: Yeah, we're not actively going out and
looking at every property and taking photos of it, looking at it from
the sky, looking down to determine whether or not --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: That's not the question I'm
asking. I said, "Do we have the authority, yes or no, to
self-generate?"
MR. IANDIMARINO: Yes, we would have that authority, but
self-initiated is, I think, what Commissioner McDaniel is saying.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: That's what I'm talking about,
self-initiated. We don't have that authority.
MR. IANDIMARINO: Well, we have the authority but we --
MR. KLATZKOW: You do have that authority.
MR. IANDIMARINO: -- but we have been --
MR. KLATZKOW: You do have that authority. The Board,
years ago, decided to go to retroactive [sic] rather than proactive
because of complaints from the citizens, but you have that right.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I'm just -- I'm hearing two
different stories; that's why I just want to get clarity.
MR. FRENCH: Commissioners, for the record, my name's
Jamie French. I'm the Growth Management/Community
Development department head.
Under Florida Statute Chapter 162, we cannot patrol or
August 13, 2024
Page 146
self-initiate a code case unless there is a -- it's deemed to be
life-safety. Now, we do have an item coming back to you at the next
meeting that we would identify those things.
So a trailer, as Tom mentioned, it's being occupied, and we
recognize that it's for temporary use, we see that it's got a septic
connection that was not approved by the Florida Department of
Health or the DEP, you have an interlocal that exists that says you
will enforce that state law because they're not an enforcement agency.
That's life-safety. Florida Building Code, life-safety. Florida Fire
Prevention Code, life-safety.
Tall weeds that are within seven and a half feet from the house,
you have an ordinance that already says anything above 18 inches is a
fire code violation. That's already on the books. That's life-safety.
Unlicensed vehicles that are in the back of the property that are
storage that we don't have a lawful vantage point, and even if we did,
so long as they're not leaking oil, the Estates, if you own it, you're
allowed to store things on your property. That's not life-safety.
Mosquitoes, probably not life-safety. Storage is not life-safety.
However, perhaps debris, if you're dumping mulch, or you're a
landscape company and you're dumping those things, we want to
bring those back to you because that would best help us define what
the Board might consider to be life-safety outside of what the state
law or what your already adopted ordinance is, or resolutions, give us
guidance on.
So the answer's yes, as Jeff said, totally agree, but there's a
section of that Florida Statute that says no.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So do you know what kills more
people every year in this world? Mosquitoes.
MR. FRENCH: I would -- growing up here and having as
many different species of mosquitoes, I would totally believe that.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: It's the truth. Look it up.
August 13, 2024
Page 147
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Most dangerous animal on
the earth.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Most dangerous animal on the
earth.
Commissioner Saunders, do you have any comments?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Not on this issue. Enough
of that one for me.
I did want to mention one thing on the DAS -- Domestic Animal
Services' budget. And there was some discussion about a voucher
program and freeing up money for spay-and-neuter programs.
I'm going to be bringing back a couple things; one is some
language changes in our budget that just gives staff the ability to take
the existing funds that we have for spay/neuter programs and using it
for community cat programs and things of that nature, just to give
flexibility.
And in addition, we have -- and it's referenced in our budget
document. We have reference to Resolution 2017-104 which deals
with the spay/neuter program, but it restricts those programs to spay
and neuter activities at our DAS facilities. And so I'm going to
change all that language so that we can spend that money more
efficiently out in the field and perhaps the 10 cats that go to 100 cats
in three months, we can eliminate that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And would that include
partnering with other agencies --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Oh, yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- and that sort of --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Voucher program, the whole
nine yards --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That sounds like a good idea.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- to provide more
flexibility. So I will be bringing that back, unless there's some
August 13, 2024
Page 148
objections to that.
And that's all, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Just to piggyback on
this spay and neutering, the one thing that really resonated with me
with one of our guest speakers was how she said she had to really
drill down to find services for different things. So I hope somebody
took that as a homework assignment.
I know Commissioner Saunders isn't suggesting this, but before
we move money around from maybe a pot that's not being used, it
might not be being used because nobody knows about it, you know.
So, you know, just to make sure that -- we've got some programs
they're really proud of down there at DAS. And we all maybe know
about it and someone that's been a volunteer at DAS for 10 years
knows about it, but if I was an average citizen that just moved here
from Wisconsin and I went to that website, would the obvious things
that I'd really care about really jump out at me?
There's a lot of great pictures on there of cats getting, you know,
held and dogs being walked and how the area looks, but people really
are looking for our services, and I think some of them don't realize,
like, how much we actually do provide down there. And she
brought up a good point that she's practically an expert, and she had
to drill down, so...
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We've been -- we've been
working on the website quite a bit, and a key to this, of course, is
public education. So we'll take a look at what she had to go through
to find the information she was looking for and try to make it more
user friendly. That feedback's actually really helpful.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It was helpful, yeah.
James, can you come to the podium? I wanted to talk a little bit
about Parks and Rec.
August 13, 2024
Page 149
He's like, "Oh, crap."
MR. HANRAHAN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, darn.
No. You know, what I want to say, James, is I don't know too
many departments that have gone through as much turnover as Parks
and Rec. I mean, I've been -- in the short time I've been in the seat, I
don't know how many leaders we've had, you know, in Parks and
Rec.
So I really just want to say publicly just what a great job that
you're doing and how you've really stepped up. You know, you put
on the blazer. You're now in the seat. You know, I think of how
much you've done behind the scenes at Isles of Capri, Tigertail, Eagle
Lakes Park, you know.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Immokalee.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Immokalee. You know,
well, Immokalee's a different district, so he had a chance to call you
out. I'm just going to talk about District 1. And I can't believe you
have people. You said, "I have people"?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, I know people.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But, seriously, today was the
first day of school, and I don't want to miss the opportunity to say
how much our parks were enjoyed over the summer. You know, I
know we all have caught a lot of spears of Fun-N-Sun [sic] and all
that kind of thing, and that's not district specific. That's all of us,
you know, I mean, but also a lot of great things have happened in our
parks. In particular, in Eagle Lakes Park we've had lifeguards save
several children in the park, and, you know, that's never front-page
news, which it's unfortunate.
But I just want to say what a great job that you're doing, your
sense of urgency. I mean, I've sent you stuff at zero hour, and so
have citizens. And sometimes before I'm even able to reply to the
August 13, 2024
Page 150
citizen, because they put you on it -- and you know the e-mails I'm
talking about -- you hit "reply all." Your replies are so professional
even when their e-mails aren't.
So just, you know, thank you for stepping up and forward. And
I know you've got a lot on your plate. But, you know -- and you're
standing there representing a bunch of people that aren't here from
Parks and Rec. So a lot happened over -- like I said, over this
summer in a lot of the parks, a lot of great things, on a shoestring
budget in some cases, and a lot of miracles that nobody ever heard
about. And so, you know, keep it up. You have all of our thanks
and support. We all have parks in our districts.
But you and I have been through a couple of battles recently
with a few of the parks but, you know, you've been a great partner
and a great representative of the county staff and of your team. So I
just wanted to thank you, you know, for that. So no questions.
You're not being grilled about anything.
MR. HANRAHAN: I was ready. I was ready.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I know you are. I know. I
just wanted to scare you a little bit.
MR. HANRAHAN: I appreciate that, Commissioner. Thank
you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Thank you. Keep
it up.
And then I want to end with just a little bit of levity. I feel like
I'm the informal scribe maybe here, or maybe I've just appointed
myself as that.
So whenever I hear really good one-liners from some of our
commissioners -- so whenever my last day in the seat is, my whole
newsletter to 80,000 subscribers is going to be what I've heard here.
So I'm going to go back a little bit in history without mentioning
any names. So the funniest first thing I ever heard in this
August 13, 2024
Page 151
commissioner meeting from a commissioner who's no longer here,
quote, "So if the cell tower is higher, that means it will be taller."
That was a real quote, okay.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I was here. I was here.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That was an actual thing.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That was not me.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It was not. It was not. That
person's not here.
Now, a person who is here, and I won't mention any names, but
it's the last commissioner who just spoke, he's known for saying
"words matter," right? That's going to be sort of your token line.
Here's what I heard a little bit today from a commissioner.
"The sea is the sea." That was an actual quote.
"Does 311 deliver?" I got that down. I've added that to the
list.
And then I didn't think you were going to be able to top it, Chris,
but you totally did, and this one's a great one. "Making mud into
legacy sediment." I mean, you can't -- I mean, that can't be
better -- you can't get better than that.
And then -- and then I added this as a freebie at the end. "Do
you know what kills more people in this world?" See, these
meetings are educational.
CHAIRMAN HALL: What did you learn?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: These things are educational,
right?
You know, our job is hard. Sometimes I think it's nice to add
just a little bit of levity. I'm proud to serve with all five [sic] of you,
and we did a lot of good today. We really did.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I got one, too.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, what's that?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I heard, "Water in a swale's
August 13, 2024
Page 152
good."
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, yeah, there you go.
That's right, because it's not in your living room. I'm going to add
that.
Mr. Chairman, over to you, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: James, when you get new lights at
Veterans Park, then you'll be a champion.
I have no comments. Great meeting today. Thank you, all.
Bye-bye.
*******
****Commissioner Hall moved, seconded by Commissioner
Saunders and carried that the following items under the consent and
summary agendas be approved and/or adopted****
Item #16A1
A ONE-YEAR EXTENSION TO THE MEMORANDUM OF
UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE COLLIER COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AND THE EARLY
LEARNING COALITION OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, INC.,
AND TO PROVIDE LOCAL MATCH FUNDING IN THE
AMOUNT OF $75,000 IN FISCAL YEAR 2025. (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #16A2
RESOLUTION 2024-142: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE
TEMPORARY CLOSING OF A PORTION OF STATE ROAD 29
AND DETERMINING THAT THE CLOSURE IS NECESSARY
FOR THE CHERRYLE THOMAS' – “CHRISTMAS AROUND
August 13, 2024
Page 153
THE WORLD PARADE & SNOW GALA'' HOSTED BY THE
IMMOKALEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. THIS
RECOMMENDATION IS TO FULFILL A REQUIREMENT OF
THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (FDOT)
TEMPORARY ROAD CLOSURE PERMIT APPLICATION. THE
IMMOKALEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HAS HOSTED THIS
EVENT FOR OVER TWENTY-FIVE (25) YEARS. THIS YEAR,
THE EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER
21, 2024, FROM 5 PM TO 10 PM. (DISTRICT 5)
Item #16A3
AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE UNDER THE
CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION PROGRAM
WITH 1) CONCHITA V. ARISTIZABAL FOR A 5-ACRE
PARCEL AT A COST OF $20,000, AND 2) ANACELY AYRA
FOR A 3.18-ACRE PARCEL AT A COST OF $65,710, FOR A
TOTAL COST NOT TO EXCEED $88,910, INCLUSIVE OF
CLOSING COSTS. (DISTRICT 5)
Item #16A4
THE CONSERVATION COLLIER PEPPER RANCH PRESERVE
FINAL MANAGEMENT PLAN 10-YEAR UPDATE UNDER THE
CONSERVATION COLLIER PROGRAM. (DISTRICT 5) –
UPDATED PLAN WAS REVIEWED BY (CCLAAC) ON JUNE 5,
2024
Item #16A5
AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE UNDER THE
August 13, 2024
Page 154
CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION PROGRAM
WITH LINDA L. ARNDT FOR A 1.14-ACRE PARCEL AT A
COST OF $30,320, FOR A TOTAL COST NOT TO EXCEED
$31,850, INCLUSIVE OF CLOSING COSTS. (DISTRICT 5) -
PARCEL 39776880004
Item #16A6
RESOLUTION 2024-143: THE CONSERVATION COLLIER 2024
CYCLE TARGET PROTECTION AREAS MAILING STRATEGY.
(ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16A7
APPROVE THE MAXIMUM HEIGHT FOR THE NAPLES
GREENWAY DEVELOPMENT SDP#PL20230014765 UNDER
FLORIDA STATUTE 125.01055(7)(C), THE LIVE LOCAL ACT,
IN EFFECT WHEN THE SDP APPLICATION WAS SUBMITTED.
(DISTRICT 1) - LOCATED AT THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF
GREENWAY ROAD AND TAMIAMI TRAIL EAST.
Item #16A8
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF TERRENO AT VALENCIA
GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB - PHASE 3, APPROVAL OF THE
STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
AGREEMENT, AND APPROVAL OF THE PERFORMANCE
SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,461,116.33
(PL20230014749). (DISTRICT 5)
Item #16A9
August 13, 2024
Page 155
THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A PERFORMANCE
BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $516,320, WHICH WAS POSTED
AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT NUMBER
PL20190000534 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH CURRENTS
OF NAPLES – PHASE 1. (DISTRICT 1)
Item #16A10
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE
CONVEYANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY
EASEMENTS FOR CAYMAS PHASE ONE – PHASE 1A & 1B,
PL20230011732. (DISTRICT 1) - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL
INSPECTION ON MAY 8, 2024
Item #16A11
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF
THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES
FOR GROVES AT ORANGE BLOSSOM PHASE 3,
PL20240004723. (DISTRICT 5)
Item #16A12
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE
CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER
FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR
BENTLEY VILLAGE – 64 UNIT MULTI-FAMILY BUILDINGS
August 13, 2024
Page 156
(PHASE 2, BLDG. #36), PL20240004856. (DISTRICT 2)
Item #16B1 (Moved to a future meeting per Change Sheet)
Item #16B2
THE FY24 PROGRAM OF PROJECTS AND AUTHORIZE
SUBMITTAL OF THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION
49 U.S.C. 5307/ 5339 FY24 GRANT APPLICATION TO SUPPORT
THE TRANSIT SYSTEM CAPITAL AND OPERATING COSTS
IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,632,209 THROUGH THE TRANSIT
AWARD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, ACCEPT THE AWARD,
AND AUTHORIZE ANY NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENTS. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16C1
THE SELECTION COMMITTEE’S RANKING AND AUTHORIZE
STAFF TO BEGIN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE
TOP-RANKED FIRM, JOHNSON ENGINEERING, INC.,
RELATED TO REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
(“RPS”) NO. 24-8211, FOR “DESIGN SERVICES FOR SOUTH
COUNTY WATER RECLAMATION FACILITY ELECTRICAL
SERVICE #1 UPGRADES,” SO THAT STAFF CAN BRING A
PROPOSED AGREEMENT BACK FOR THE BOARD’S
CONSIDERATION AT A FUTURE MEETING. (PROJECT NO.
70288) (DISTRICT 1)
Item #16C2
AGREEMENT NO. 24-007-NS, “SUPERVISORY CONTROL AND
August 13, 2024
Page 157
DATA ACQUISITION (SCADA) EQUIPMENT AND
SOFTWARE,” WITH DATA FLOW SYSTEMS, LLC, FOR A
PERIOD OF FIVE YEARS UNDER A SOLE SOURCE WAIVER,
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT, AND AUTHORIZE EXPENDITURES IN THE
AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $500,000 PER FISCAL YEAR. (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #16C3
THE THIRD AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 15-6365, FOR
“DISASTER DEBRIS MANAGEMENT REMOVAL AND
DISPOSAL SERVICES” WITH CROWDER GULF JOINT
VENTURE, INC., TO ADD A LINE ITEM AND ADJUSTING AN
EXISTING LINE ITEM FOR DEBRIS HAUL-OUT, AND TO
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE AMENDMENT.
(ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16C4
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, AS EX-OFFICIO THE
GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-
SEWER DISTRICT, TO RATIFY ADMINISTRATIVELY
APPROVED CHANGE ORDER NO. 1, PROVIDING FOR A TIME
EXTENSION OF 30 DAYS UNDER WORK ORDER UNDER
UNDERGROUND CONTRACTOR SERVICES AGREEMENT
NO. 20-7800, WITH QUALITY ENTERPRISES USA, INC., FOR
THE “EAGLE LAKES METERING ASSEMBLIES AND
IMPROVEMENTS” PROJECT, AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER.
(PROJECT NO. 70166) (DISTRICT 1)
August 13, 2024
Page 158
Item #16C5
CHANGE ORDER NO. 2, TO DECREASE THE CONTRACT
PRICE IN THE NET AMOUNT OF $199,129.12 (WORK
DIRECTIVE NO. 1 DECREASE BY $250,879.12, AND WORK
DIRECTIVE NO. 2 INCREASE BY $51,750) TO $13,784,850.58,
UNDER CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT NO. 23-8115, WITH
METRO EQUIPMENT SERVICES, INC., FOR THE “GOLDEN
GATE CITY TRANSMISSION WATER MAIN IMPROVEMENTS
– PHASE 1B” PROJECT, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN
TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO.
70253, 70243 & 51029) (DISTRICT 3)
Item #16C6
CHANGE ORDER NO. 2, FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH
WORK DIRECTIVES 2, 3, AND 4 AT A TOTAL COST OF
$60,800.72, UTILIZING THE OWNER’S ALLOWANCES, AND
ADDING A TOTAL OF TWO DAYS TO CONSTRUCTION
AGREEMENT NO. 22-7982, WITH DOUGLAS N. HIGGINS,
INC., FOR THE “105TH AND 106TH AVENUES PUBLIC
UTILITIES RENEWAL” PROJECT AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER.
(PROJECT NO. 70120) (DISTRICT 2)
Item #16C7
AFTER-THE-FACT PAYMENT TO ALLIED UNIVERSAL
CORPORATION IN THE AMOUNT OF $19,045.36 FOR THE
PURCHASE OF 50% SODIUM HYDROXIDE FOR THE NORTH
COUNTY REGIONAL WATER TREATMENT PLANT, WHICH
August 13, 2024
Page 159
WAS MISTAKENLY ACQUIRED FROM THE TERTIARY
VENDOR UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 21-7921, “COUNTYWIDE
CHEMICALS” INSTEAD OF THE LOW BID PRIMARY
VENDOR AND DEEM THE EXPENDITURES HAVE A VALID
PUBLIC PURPOSE. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16C8
CREDIT ADJUSTMENT TO JENSEN UNDERGROUND
UTILITIES’ WATER ACCOUNT TO REFLECT AN
OVERCHARGED AMOUNT AND AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE
OF A REFUND TO JENSEN UNDERGROUND UTILITIES IN
THE AMOUNT OF $125,187.57. (DISTRICT 5)
Item #16C9
AGREEMENT NO. 24-029-NS, “XYLEM MIXERS, PUMPS AND
RELATED EQUIPMENT, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES,” WITH
XYLEM WATER SOLUTIONS USA, INC., FOR A PERIOD OF
FIVE YEARS COMMENCING ON OCTOBER 1, 2024, UNDER A
SINGLE SOURCE WAIVER, AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT, AND AUTHORIZE \
EXPENDITURES UNDER BOARD APPROVED
STANDARDIZATION OF SPECIALIZED PROPRIETARY
EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES IN AN ESTIMATED AMOUNT
OF $1,500,000 PER FISCAL YEAR FOR AN ESTIMATED
TOTAL AMOUNT OF $7,500,000 FOR THE DURATION OF THE
AGREEMENT. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16C10
August 13, 2024
Page 160
AUTHORIZE STAFF TO MAKE EXPENDITURES FOR THE
SOLE SOURCE PURCHASE OF CERTAIN LABORATORY
PARTS, SUPPLIES, AND SERVICES FROM IDEXX
DISTRIBUTION, INC. (“IDEXX”), IN AN ESTIMATED
AMOUNT OF $250,000 PER FISCAL YEAR, FOR THE
REMAINDER OF FY24 AND FY25. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16D1 (Moved to a future meeting per Change Sheet)
Item #16D2 (Moved to a future meeting per Change Sheet)
Item #16D3
THE FIRST REVISION TO THE HOME-ARP ALLOCATION
PLAN AS REQUIRED BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT (HUD). (ALL
DISTRICTS) - TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR ACTIVITIES THAT
SUPPORT COMPREHENSIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR
THOSE THAT ARE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS AND
OTHER VULNERABLE POPULATIONS.
Item #16E1
TO RATIFY PROPERTY, CASUALTY, WORKERS’
COMPENSATION AND SUBROGATION CLAIM FILES
SETTLED AND/OR CLOSED BY THE RISK MANAGEMENT
DIVISION DIRECTOR PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION NO. 04-15
FOR THE THIRD QUARTER OF FY 24. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16E2
August 13, 2024
Page 161
THE ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT PREPARED BY THE
PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION FOR VARIOUS
COUNTY DIVISIONS’ AFTER-THE-FACT PURCHASES
REQUIRING BOARD APPROVAL IN ACCORDANCE WITH
PROCUREMENT ORDINANCE 2017-08, AS AMENDED, AND
THE PROCUREMENT MANUAL IN THE AMOUNT OF
$46,984.59. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16F1
A SITE USE LEASE AGREEMENT WITH VB-S1 ASSETS, LLC,
FOR THE INSTALLATION OF TWO 700MHZ MUTUAL AID
REPEATERS ON A COMMUNICATIONS TOWER LOCATED IN
EVERGLADES CITY TO SUPPORT PUBLIC SAFETY AND
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16F2
BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $657,000 TO
CONSOLIDATE INFRASTRUCTURE SALES SURTAX
FUNDING FROM THE HEALTH BUILDING ROOF
REPLACEMENT PROJECT (50165) AND HEALTH BUILDING,
3RD FLOOR HVAC REPLACEMENT PROJECT (50164) TO
BETTER COORDINATE PROJECT EXECUTION. (DISTRICT 4)
Item #16F3
BUDGET AMENDMENTS IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,168,000, TO
REALIGN CURRENT CAPITAL PROJECT FUNDING WITHIN
COUNTY-WIDE CAPITAL PROJECT FUND (3001) TO
SUPPORT ESSENTIAL CAPITAL MAINTENANCE OF COUNTY
August 13, 2024
Page 162
FACILITIES AND ADVANCE FLEET MANAGEMENT
IMPROVEMENTS. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16F4
AWARD A WORK ORDER USING FIXED TERM AGREEMENT
NO. 20-7712, “CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES”
TO JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF
$790,810, TO PROVIDE CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
SERVICES FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY FORENSIC AND CID
FACILITY PROJECT (PROJECT NO. 70167). (DISTRICT 5) - TO
OBTAIN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR
THE COLLIER COUNTY FORENSIC AND CID (“CRIMINAL
INVESTIGATION DIVISION”) FACILITY.
Item #16F5
BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $300,000 FROM
OTHER GENERAL ADMIN COST CENTER (103010-0001) TO
LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPENSES COST CENTER (106010-
0001) FOR UTILITY RELATED EXPENSES FOR FACILITIES
UTILIZED FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS. (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #16F7
AWARD INVITATION TO BID (“ITB”) NO. 23-8176,
“OVERHEAD DOORS & AUTOMATIC GATES
MAINTENANCE, REPAIR, AND REPLACEMENT SERVICES,”
TO VALIENTE BUILDERS LLC, AS PRIMARY VENDOR, AND
ATLAS DOOR & GATE INC., AS SECONDARY VENDOR, AND
August 13, 2024
Page 163
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENTS. (ALL DISTRICTS) - TO RETAIN A VENDOR TO
PERFORM MAINTENANCE, REPAIR, AND REPLACEMENT
SERVICES FOR OVERHEAD DOORS AND AUTOMATIC
GATES
Item #16F8
RESOLUTION 2024-144: A RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS,
CONTRIBUTIONS, OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE
FISCAL YEAR 2023-24 ADOPTED BUDGET. (THE BUDGET
AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE
BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE
SUMMARIES.) (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16F9
BUDGET AMENDMENT TO RECOGNIZE ACCRUED
INTEREST AND CARRYFOWARD, IN THE AMOUNT OF
$7,304.29, FROM OCTOBER 1, 2023 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2024,
EARNED BY EMS COUNTY GRANT TO SUPPORT THE
PURCHASE OF MEDICAL AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT. (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #16F10
INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES NOT-TO-EXCEED $255,000
PER FY UNDER A SINGLE SOURCE WAIVER FROM THE
COMPETITIVE PROCESS WITH COOPERATIVE SERVICES OF
August 13, 2024
Page 164
FLORIDA, INC., FOR THE PURCHASE OF MEDICATIONS
AND SUPPLIES USED BY THE COLLIER COUNTY
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DIVISION, AND
AUTHORIZE PAYMENTS BE MADE TO LEESAR, INC., AS
THE PRIMARY DISTRIBUTOR AND SUPPLIER OF PRODUCTS
PURCHASED UNDER NON-STANDARD AGREEMENT # 23-
008-NS. (ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16F11
APPROVE AND RATIFY A PURCHASE AGREEMENT
BETWEEN CENTRAL FLORIDA BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
NETWORK, INC., AND COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS IN THE AMOUNT OF $145,833,
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE COORDINATED OPIOID
RECOVERY NETWORK OF ADDICTION CARE PROGRAM IN
WHICH FUNDING WILL BE USED TOWARD PREVENTING
AND TREATING SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN COLLIER COUNTY
AND AUTHORIZE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS.
(ALL DISTRICTS)
Item #16J1
TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER (OR OTHER
PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT, PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR
WHICH THE REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $70,972,400.56 WERE DRAWN FOR THE
PERIODS BETWEEN JULY 11, 2024, AND JULY 31, 2024,
PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06. (ALL DISTRICTS)
August 13, 2024
Page 165
Item #16J2
THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC
PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING
CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF AUGUST 7, 2024. (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #16K1
RESOLUTION 2024-145: DECLARE A VACANCY ON THE
GOLDEN GATE COMMUNITY CENTER ADVISORY BOARD
(DISTRICT 3)
Item #16K2
RESOLUTION 2024-146: APPOINT BONNIE HAWLEY TO THE
BAYSHORE/GATEWAY TRIANGLE LOCAL
REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD. (DISTRICT 4) -
APPOINTED TO THE COMMITTEE AS AN AT-LARGE
MEMBER, TO A THREE-YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON MAY 22,
2027
Item #16K3
RESOLUTION 2024-147: APPOINT TWO MEMBERS TO THE
ANIMAL SERVICES ADVISORY BOARD. (ALL DISTRICTS) –
ALLEN SCHANTZEN WITH TERMS EXPIRING ON APRIL 13,
2027, AND SUSAN MEHAS AS A CITIZEN AT-LARGE
MEMBER, TO A TERM EXPIRING ON APRIL 13, 2028
Item #16K4
August 13, 2024
Page 166
RESOLUTION 2024-148: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A PLAN
OF FINANCING INVOLVING THE ISSUANCE OF
MULTIFAMILY HOUSING REVENUE BONDS IN AN AMOUNT
NOT TO EXCEED $10,500,000, BY THE PUBLIC FINANCE
AUTHORITY, A WISCONSIN BOND ISSUING COMMISSION,
FOR THE RENAISSANCE HALL AT OLD COURSE
MULTIFAMILY HOUSING PROJECT; APPROVING ISSUANCE
OF THE BONDS BY THE PUBLIC FINANCE AUTHORITY;
AND RATIFYING A PUBLIC HEARING HELD BY THE
HOUSING FINANCE AUTHORITY OF COLLIER COUNTY,
FLORIDA, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 147 OF THE
INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986, AS AMENDED. (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #16K5
INCREASE IN THE PURCHASE ORDER FOR WOODS,
WEIDENMILLER, MICHETTI, AND RUDNICK, LLP RELATED
TO ITS PROVISION OF LITIGATION SERVICES IN THE CASE
STYLED NAPLES GOLF DEVELOPMENT, LLC V. COLLIER
COUNTY, CASE NO. 23-CA-1795, WHICH IS A BERT HARRIS
ACTION FILED AGAINST THE COUNTY CONCERNING THE
CONVERSION OF A GOLF COURSE TO A RESIDENTIAL
DEVELOPMENT. (FISCAL IMPACT $100,000) (ALL
DISTRICTS)
Item #17A
RESOLUTION 2024-149: A RESOLUTION RENAMING A
PLATTED STREET FROM CLEAR BAY DRIVE TO PERRY
DISE LANE, AS SHOWN AS TRACT 3 ON THE PLAT OF THE
August 13, 2024
Page 167
COCOHATCHEE RIVER TRUST P.U.D., IN PLAT BOOK 18,
PAGE 98, LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 450 FEET NORTH OF
THE INTERSECTION OF WALKERBILT ROAD AND TAMIAMI
TRAIL NORTH, IN SECTION 21, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH,
RANGE 25 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA.
[PL20230017298] (DISTRICT 2)
August 13, 2024
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 2:15 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
Ovvac
CHRIS HALL, CHAI AN
ATTEST
- , ,07- :,if,
C STAL K. KINZEL, CLERK
Attest as to Chairman's
signature only
These minutes approved by the Board on 1/ // oL , as
presented V 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.
Page 162