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BCC Minutes 10/07/2024 (Hurricane Milton)October 7, 2024 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, October 7, 2024 EMERGENCY MEETING - HURRICANE MILTON 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 11:30 a.m., in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present: Chairman: Chris Hall Rick LoCastro Dan Kowal William L. McDaniel, Jr. Burt L. Saunders ALSO PRESENT: Amy Patterson, County Manager John Mullins, Communications, Government & Public Affairs Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations COLLIER COUNTY Board of County Commissioners Community Redevelopment Agency Board (CRAB) Airport Authority SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA Board of County Commission Chambers Collier County Government Center 3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor Naples, FL 34112 October 7, 2024 11:30 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. Anyone wishing to address the Board on Public Petition must submit the request in writing to the County Manager at least 13 days prior to the date of the meeting. The request shall provide detailed information as to the nature of the Petition. The Public Petition may not involve a matter on a future Board agenda, and must concern a matter in which the Board can take action. Public petitions are limited to a single presenter, with a maximum time of ten minutes, unless extended by the Chair. Should the petition be granted, the item will be placed on a future agenda for a public hearing. Anyone wishing to address the Board on general topics not on this agenda or a future agenda must register to speak prior to the Public Comment portion of the agenda being called by the Chair. Speakers will be limited to three minutes, and no additional minutes may be ceded to the speaker. At the Chair's discretion, the number of public speakers may be limited to 5 for that meeting. Any person who decides to appeal a decision of this Board will need a record of the proceeding pertaining thereto, and therefore may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, Page 1 of 2 which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based. Collier County Ordinance No. 2003-53 as amended by ordinance 2004-05 and 2007-24, requires that all lobbyists shall, before engaging in any lobbying activities (including but not limited to, addressing the Board of County Commissioners), register with the Clerk to the Board at the Board Minutes and Records Department. If you are a person with a disability who needs any accommodation in order to participate in this proceeding, you are entitled, at no cost to you, the provision of certain assistance. Please contact the Collier County Facilities Management Division located at 3335 East Tamiami Trail, Suite 1, Naples, Florida, 34112-5356, (239) 252-8380; assisted listening devices for the hearing impaired are available in the Facilities Management Division. Lunch Recess scheduled for 12:00 Noon to 1:00 P.M. 1. Pledge of Allegiance 2. Board of County Commissioners 2.A. Presentation: An update on the status of Hurricane Milton and its potential impacts on Collier County (2024-1592) 2.13. Determination of Necessity of Declaring a State of Emergency (2024-1593) 3. Adjourn Inquiries concerning changes to the Board's Agenda should be made to the County Manager's Office at 252-8383. Page 2 of 2 October 7, 2024 Page 2 MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Let's call this meeting to order. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, let's begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) Item #2A PRESENTATION: AN UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF HURRICANE MILTON AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON COLLIER COUNTY - MOTION FOR A MANDATORY EVACUATION OF ZONES A & B BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS/KOWAL – APPROVED MS. PATTERSON: Good morning, Commissioners. So we have several items on our agenda today as well as several guests here in the chambers that I'm certain are going to want to have a few words to say to the public and to the Board of County Commissioners. At your pleasure, we can get started with Mr. Summers who is going to make a presentation and give us an update on the status of Hurricane Milton and its potential impacts on Collier County. MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, good morning. For the record, Dan Summers, director of Emergency Management for Collier County. Troy and I are going to tweak a few things here, but let me open up with a few comments to date. At 11:15 -- I was just on a conference call with the Florida Division of Emergency Management as well as National Hurricane Center. And a couple of things that October 7, 2024 Page 3 are hot off the press: Number one, they do expect the storm now to reach Category 5 strength later today, rapid intensification. That's number one. Number two, we have talked about the fact that the angle of approach on this particular storm continues to be relatively historic, like, since the 1800s has been reported. There has to be -- I have to pick the middle of the planning assumptions and be on the -- err of side of safety. We're going to continue to see ticks in the track maybe north and south. We're going to continue to see increases and decreases in forward motion, and at some point we have to make an operational decision based on a set of planning assumptions, albeit whether -- we don't ever want to be late, and it's good if we're on time, and it's much better to be -- err on the side of safety. As a rule of thumb, I always do planning purposes for one category stronger and build at least four hours of decision time or other evacuation time that may be necessary. So if I'm off by four hours or off by one category, if I'm below that, if we are below that, that's great, but we want to make sure that we, in this particular event, especially, build in a margin of error with any of our protective actions. You are going to see the storm grow in size. So while we have a tendency to focus on the track, we're going to be on the periphery, regardless. Even as much as 50, 75, or 125 miles north or south will have a big impact still on Collier County just based on onshore flow at this particular angle. The Hurricane Center also said that there is a possibility of storm surge values increasing throughout the day with the first set of storm surge models being run already. But again, we are in a very, very fluid situation here where we normally have a parallel type event. This particular angle of approach -- or perpendicular October 7, 2024 Page 4 approach is quite scary. And then we've had all of this preexisting rainfall, so don't forget we are extremely saturated. Even light winds might generate some challenges later on today. So let me -- I'll give Troy a second here to get me back to home base. And again, short of a few things that are probably being updated at 11 o'clock advisory, this is pretty close for us, I think, to make some decisions. MR. MILLER: We need to get some typo fixed, Dan. Sorry. MR. SUMMERS: That's okay. That's all right. We just had one typo in here. Moving forward, as always, I talked to you a little bit about lifelines. They're in good shape. The only concern that we want to keep an eye on is power, energy, and fuel. FP&L and LCEC, I spoke with yesterday. Obviously, they're recalling crews from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. And I was up in North Carolina briefly, and I will tell you, it is just hard to fathom what those folks are going through. Water, food, shelter, no impacts at this point. HAZMAT is good. No mass casualty. No mass medical. All of our services are normal. And, again, some flight delays in travel. Our Road and Bridge folks have -- Marshal is here and has sharp eyes on target with any of the areas that we experienced localized flooding in before, and his team certainly did a monumental job. Real quick, the backup here, Governor DeSantis declared -- did the executive order yesterday. For our partners up north, they have a double whammy, if you will, with the existing debris on the ground and what they're trying to clean and expedite and make that area safe for the next event. We remind the public, local government units, that if you had damage before, you need to record a baseline damage of what you October 7, 2024 Page 5 had before and your conditions now. That's the same for county government, municipal government. This is a reset. FEMA does not merge disaster events. They will not combine previous damages, and your insurance company will not combine previous damages. So again, you've got it keep both of these incidents well documented as separate events. The state has done a phenomenal job in mobilizing resources but also told us that contractor assets across the southeast U.S. are running thin, and they are in conversations with Department of Defense to possibly see what they can help us with as well. As we know, over a thousand active duty troops were deployed just the day before yesterday in North Carolina. So we will continue to keep an eye on supplies and equipment and resource demands. I know some of our counties to the north are also struggling a little bit with cleanup contractor resource identification. For our families and guests, again, some important reminders for them. Important papers, cash, a family communications plan, four to seven days’ supply; food, water, and medicines. Remember you don't have to travel hundreds of miles for evacuation. More than half of the Florida peninsula is impacted from this event, and it is expected to still remain a hurricane once it crossed -- once it crosses, rather, the Florida East Coast. Make sure you're registered with Alert Collier for our updates. Our social media channels not only for the county, but the Sheriff will echo on his very large social media platform, our releases. Thank you, Sheriff, for the hospitality on that. Remind folks to help their neighbors. Be safe and be patient. These things are going to take time depending on the magnitude of impact, and with concurrent disasters, some of this cleanup and discovery might take a little bit longer. Lots of helpful information at ready.gov or collierem.gov, and October 7, 2024 Page 6 our own 311 team will be on the ball addressing information and resources for the general public. Just a quick reminder about stormwater impacts. Again, onshore flow diminishes our drain. Hats off to our Stormwater group as well as Water Management District who has been monitoring this for days for draw dawn. But, again, we're getting those rains, and we're going to continue to get those rains through the event. Protective measures, saturated soils, as I have mentioned, the 4- to 7-foot storm surge prediction over land. Let's not get focused on tides with onshore flow because it becomes a mute discussion at some point. So our planning and concentration should remain at that 4- to 7-foot over land as a potential. The tornadic activity has always occurred. Fortunately, the last couple of events did not generate a tornado with touchdown or landfall, but those tornado watches and warnings are going to pop up through the event. And, again, anything on the fringe that Collier County has is still going to -- the fringe of the cone is still going to provide some impacts to us. The tract deviations. Here again, in this cone you've seen some northern and southern jumps. If you'll notice, between 1 p.m. -- I'm sorry -- 1 a.m. Wednesday and 1 p.m. Tuesday, you see a big gap, and that's the indication that the Hurricane Center's predicting this rapid increase in forward motion. Again, until this thing gets a little bit closer, which also puts us in a little much -- much more precarious position, we have to play this as if we are in the cone. This is too close to say, "Oh, we're on the outside of the cone. We're going to be okay." We can't look at that. We want to focus on the arrival of tropical storm force winds and onshore flow. And I'll let you take a look at that, but if you'll also notice in the October 7, 2024 Page 7 graphic, there is the M, meaning a major hurricane event Category 3 or above. And so we're looking at 3 or above. And again, this is the current static estimate, subject to change, at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Evacuation zones, we've talked about this time after time through the season, but we want to remind individuals to know their zone. Our A zone ironically aligns with U.S. 41 and to the west. Our B zone concern is the Naples Bay/Gordon River area that we've had experience with localized flooding there before. So our protective action recommendations that I'm going to present to you today are Zones A and B. Again, just in anticipation of the storm surge concerns that we have. If we're lucky and we don't get the heavy winds, it still doesn't mean that we're not subject to this stormwater in- -- I'm sorry -- the storm surge inundation. This is from the National Hurricane Center on peak storm surge values for our Collier County community. It's showing 4 to 7 feet; however, that range does go 4 to 9, and that's what we want to be on the safe side about with this particular A and B zone coming right up to the 9-foot mark possibly. I want to focus, again, that we don't want to get honed in too much on the cone. Let's look at the fringe, and our protective actions are based on 45 to 50-mile-an-hour sustained winds or even gusts of wind. So I hate using the term "hunker down," but we want to be -- I want to have our community in a safe environment and a safe posture before we get any of these gusts of 40 to 50, all right, especially as saturated as we are. This is the wind field timing. And I want to let you know that you will see changes in this in the forecast. We've seen the Wednesday line, and we've seen the Tuesday line fluctuate, and that's only going to continue. So my goal here is to find a reasonable planning assumption. And this is based on, if you'll notice at the top, October 7, 2024 Page 8 the earliest reasonable. So I want to be a little bit conservative in this discussion because of the changes in forward speed that are likely with this storm. It is part of our plan to have a 10- to 12-hour clearance time from the time of our evacuation notice from the times of the winds. Anything could change, but our goal is to have 10 to 12 hours in that clearance time, hence my recommendation coming forward will be the 6 a.m. evacuation time tomorrow morning. We're blessed today to have a “ready, set, go” environment, and I also will talk to you a minute -- in a minute about voluntary evacuation discussions. So, again, you're going to see this model change, but you'll notice that we're in the 80 percent -- near the 80 percent probability of storm force winds going into Tuesday evening. And if it changes four to six hours, it changes, but, again, we want to have our community in a safe posture. I am recommending for your consideration a voluntary precautionary evacuation, and I believe the County Manager has spoken with the municipalities, and they're in support of that. We want to encourage residents that have concern and have resources that this is a good time now to leave our area and go well inland with family or friends, hotels, et cetera. And any mobile home residents that have had prior flooding experience, this is also a good time for them to mobilize before we get into any formal evacuation recommendations. And again, we all have recent flooding history. We've lived that. We don't want to go through that again. We don't want our public safety partners to have to effect unnecessary rescues if at all possible. So again, voluntary. So this is our encouragement that if you have the time and the resources and the availability and we can lower census within our community at this point, it's time to do that. If you have a plan with your resources to get well inland, go October 7, 2024 Page 9 over your checklist, don't panic, mobilize, and go ahead and have time to get to your destination. We have concurrence, as I've mentioned, from the City of Marco on this voluntary discussion, Everglades City. We recommend this for Goodland, Chokoloskee, and as well as conversations with the City of Naples. Moving forward, again, my recommendation is for tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. to begin a mandatory evacuation of Zones A and B. Florida Statute does not use the word "mandatory," but we have historically used that term "mandatory" to put emphasis on the fact that now is the time to go. And I will tell you that, again, as we monitor conditions today, it is not out of the realm -- I hope this is not the case -- that we have to back that up. But what I don't want to do is put anything in motion in the hours in which it's dark. It's just not a safe thing to do. We don't want people mobilizing and loading during evening hours. We want to keep this in daylight hours for safety. We ask individuals to be as responsible as they possibly can, be as self-sufficient as they possibly can, and let's save our resources for those unknown and emergency situations. We ask residents, if they do evacuate and we get a significant impact, listen to our messaging, but don't be in a hurry to return. Our utility organizations may have time -- may need time for assessments, and you might be a whole lot more comfortable where you are until we evaluate lifelines, utility systems, et cetera. And again, we will continue to message what we call an "all clear" or "safe to turn," and those conversations will be with our law enforcement partners as well as our utility partners. Shelter locations, we are working on shelters, but remember shelters are a refuge of last resort. We will announce those shelter openings tomorrow early, but we are mobilizing to get our teams' supplies and equipment in place. As you know, Collier County October 7, 2024 Page 10 Schools is closed through Thursday, I believe -- Thursday or Friday. So Collier County Schools is working with us to get those facilities in a readiness posture. But we will announce those shelter sites. Again, they're not very comfortable. Space it limited, and the number of buildings is limited. So if you can find alternate locations, we highly recommend that. Part four of my recommendation to you is to go ahead and declare a local state of emergency without any prohibitions or conditions at this time. Typically, as you did during the last event, the Chair, the County Manager, and the Sheriff could have discussions on curfew or other prohibitions and enact those when needed. Authorize the County Manager this time to take actions to waive our CAT fees and EMS transportation fees from a shelter. This is not for a regular EMS call. But if we have a critical patient at a shelter and we need transport, we historically have waived that billing. Also, we have already incurred some expenses with this being for the weekend for me to get supplies and equipment together and, sadly, one of our national contractors defaulted today. Penske Truck Rental, nationally corporate, refused to do business with us today, and I'm really, really disappointed in that. That put me in a pinch with some rental equipment that we needed, but we'll overcome that and address that at a later date. So I do have some -- a forgiveness here for a couple things that I needed to rent over the weekend that may squeeze the purchasing policy, but I thought it was in the best interest to get our supplies and equipment in place. We plan on activating the county's Emergency Operations Center and going 24 hours tomorrow at 6 a.m., and we'll coordinate further briefings with you and the County Manager. Whether we do that teleconference, really, or one-way communications, we will October 7, 2024 Page 11 follow up with you as we get into the swing of routines here. That's a lot. Let me stop for any questions or concerns. Obviously, we're taking this -- my team is full up. Everything in the playbook right now is being evaluated and put to work. Our partner agencies have always been terrific, and we're going to continue to engage, move forward. And if we luck up on a storm track change, that's good. But I want to make sure that we're in a safe position moving forward. CHAIRMAN HALL: Hey, Dan, I've got a couple questions for you. When you said the baseline, to establish your baseline, so if people had damage during Helene, that's a separate damage than what they can anticipate if they get anything here. I just want to make sure I communicate with people. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, that's a good point. Let me clarify that just a little bit. So if you had some pictures or documentation from the previous event, that's good. I know it's raining outside today, but now get a current picture of your current status. Do you have tarp on roof? Do you have other things that are in place so that today's damages or the damages moving forward can be documented based on current -- current situations? CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay, great. And then would you -- can you give us a little bit better explanation of "mandatory"? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. As I mentioned, statutorily "mandatory" is not identified. It has historical always been the only default term that we have that is -- it is our strongest recommendation. We cannot pull you from your home. It is our strongest recommendation to communicate two signals: It is the highest concern for your public healthy and safety to leave the area, and number two, it's an indicator that our ability to respond to your public safety needs, emergency personnel, supplies, and equipment may be limited. So our ability to get to you in a life-threatening October 7, 2024 Page 12 emergency may be challenged. CHAIRMAN HALL: Great, thank you. And then we received some communication from Public Utilities about hurricane debris and to be patient with the twice-a-week removal. And so I know that some things change after the storm. So as of right now -- here she comes. I just want to make sure that we communicate with the public -- MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: -- like you want us to. Thanks, Kari. MS. HODGSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Kari Hodgson, your director for Solid Waste. As of right now, we're asking residents not to put out any further Helene debris. We're working as late as possible to remove the remaining piles that are out, and we've asked that no further bulk collection be put out this week. There's a high probability that we'll be canceling curbside services on Wednesday and be coming out with that notification. Does that answer everything? CHAIRMAN HALL: Perfect, yes. I just want to make sure that when we share information, as we're going to, that it's just like you want us to. So that clears it up. Thank you so much. MS. HODGSON: Yes. And we'll be asking residents to watch all of our local media for how to separate debris post Milton to see how that we can manage that debris for our residents. CHAIRMAN HALL: Great. Thank you so much. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, would you like to hear -- we have elected officials here in the room, including our Sheriff, if you want to take this time before we move into determining the local state of emergency. They may have some comments for the record. CHAIRMAN HALL: Yes. October 7, 2024 Page 13 MS. PATTERSON: Sheriff. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good morning. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning, sir. CHAIRMAN HALL: It's still morning. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you for the opportunity. Kevin Rambosk, Collier County Sheriff. I just wanted to let you know that we have been in communication with the County Manager throughout the weekend, EM, all the fire rescue and EMS chiefs, all law enforcement chiefs throughout the county. We continue to work together and have developed a plan with the changes to the potential of stormwater surge, a couple of things that we're going to do, and particularly as it relates to those who may want to either voluntarily leave their zones or have put in place a mandatory movement. We have created, since Ian, a coastal security plan, and it stretches from the North Collier boundary down south through the City of Naples, down, everything west of 41 and south of 41, down into Marco Island and then into Everglades City. What that means is the three law enforcement agencies are going to work together. We increase patrol and staffing, and it certainly depends on the areas that require it relative to our resources. So I say that to give our residents some comfort in that if they choose to want to leave, we are going to have extra of our staff, along with City of Naples and Marco Island, out through the neighborhoods, particularly on the coastal areas because that's historically where we have seen a predominance of damage due to water and this time maybe water and wind. And then should we choose to make a request for a curfew, we'll certainly do that through the process. We've been working with your attorney to develop that, so if we need that, we'll put that in place. I would concur with a majority of what Dan Summers has given October 7, 2024 Page 14 you as far -- the public as recommendations. There will become a point where we may not be able to get to you, not because we don't want to. We won't be able to get physically to you. So should you choose to stay, if we encounter you prior to that, we will ask for your name, contact information, and next of kin so that we can follow up should we need to do that. We are not going to fool around. Ian, I think, taught a lot of lessons about water that we have not seen in this community before. So our plans revolve a lot around that. We will be going into 12-hour shifts. That probably won't be until Tuesday night. We also have a rural area and a coastal area plan, again, for the purpose of distribution of resources. One, so that we don't burn everybody out, because it could be a long time for this thing to be over and the potential of yet another in the pipeline. So we need to finish out this season and don't want to burn everybody out. CHAIRMAN HALL: We're good? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Carry on. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Sheriff. MS. PATTERSON: We do have representatives also from -- our Florida House representatives, if either of you have any comments. MS. MELO: Thank you. Representative Melo, District 82. I'm just here to give you-all my support. Anything you need, please don't hesitate to call or text. My office line has also been forwarded to my cell. Wish me luck on that. But if you need anything, please reach out. I'm here. FPL, everyone is texting me currently and reassuring me that they are all here for us, whatever we need. Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you. MS. BENARROACH: Good morning. Yvette Benarroch, Republican candidate elect for District 81. October 7, 2024 Page 15 Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and for communicating with our residents. I want to repeat what everybody has said. District 81 is actually all in Zone A, so I want to make sure that everyone listens to the information here. It's very important. The governor's office and the State house is ready to assist, so please make sure you hear the emergency warnings because this has -- this has to be taken serious, and you can always reach out to me also, and I look forward to working with all of you soon. Thanks. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks, Yvette. MS. PATTERSON: Clerk Kinzel. MS. KINZEL: Thank you, Commissioners. Crystal Kinzel, Clerk. And I just wanted to make the public aware, today at noon the 20th Judicial Circuit has shut down and will not reopen until Monday. According to their regular calendar, there was a holiday on Friday. So the storm event will be Tuesday through Thursday for them. Many services for our office will be available on the website. We plan on probably closing -- depending on your decision today -- but probably 5 today, other than essential personnel that will be either in the EOC or taking care of business with the county. But our satellites, we have some also in low-lying areas, so those will close at 5 today, probably not reopen till Monday. And we do anticipate reopening Monday. But we want to give staff the time to recover with their personal housing and everything over the weekend so we can start and open fresh. But remember, the website is collierclerk.com. You can pay fines. You can do business over the website for as long as we have power and you have access. So I urge everyone to take care of business today before 5 o'clock. We're open and fully staffed. So please, take care of business today so you can stay safe in your homes for the remainder October 7, 2024 Page 16 of the event. Thank you. MS. PATTERSON: Chair, we do have a representative from the United Way here that signed a speaker slip as well. MS. MENSCH: Thank you. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today as we prepare for the impact of Hurricane Milton. My name is Tiffany Mensch, and I'm the president and CEO of the United Way of Collier and the Keys. We stand ready to support our community and respond in the aftermath of the storm. We're working closely with our 211 call center to ensure our community has access to the most accurate and up-to-date information on available resources. 211 is a free helpline. It's available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year providing nonemergency support to anyone in need, and it will remain fully operational through the storm and the recovery phase. One of our primary initiatives post storm will be conducting a digital wellness and needs assessment survey across Collier County. This will allow us to collect real-time data on the most urgent basic needs of our residents and prioritize assistance to our most vulnerable neighbors. With secured funding, we can distribute e-gift cards via e-mail and text, which allows us to quickly address essential needs, such as food, water, and other necessary household items. In the event of a presidential disaster declaration in Collier County, our support will extend to those assisting individuals in registering for FEMA, SBA, D-SNAP, et cetera. We will also provide guidance on understanding insurance policies, navigating declaration pages, and accessing disaster legal services. Our goal is to make it easier for residents to navigate the recovery process and provide clear guidance and support every step October 7, 2024 Page 17 of the way. We welcome volunteers to join us in this effort, helping with everything from assisting residents with paperwork to offering emotional support during what will be an extremely challenging time for many. So to make this level of support possible, we invite our community to go to our website to uwcollierkeys.org to learn more about our resources, to donate, to volunteer. And as we face this storm together, United Way of Collier and the Keys is here to serve. With the support of our community and our partners, we will work tirelessly to ensure that no one is left behind in the wake of this disaster. Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks, Tiffany. MS. PATTERSON: Fire Commissioner Dearborn. (No response.) MS. PATTERSON: All right. Very good. Very good. (No response.) MS. PATTERSON: All right. Good. I'm going to turn it back over to Mr. Summers to talk about the local state of emergency, and then we've got a couple of housekeeping matters for county operations as well as the Board meeting tomorrow. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention -- and, again, Ashley and Tiffany are one of the right arms in Collier County's recovery process. Remember, too, that you have endorsed a resolution to use the Community Foundation of Collier County as your financial philanthropic arm, and they have a portal to take financial donations that will be trickled out to these organizations in order to help meet those unmet needs. So you already have a philanthropic partner October 7, 2024 Page 18 ready to go to receive any financial donations to help our community in recovery as well as our volunteer agencies assisting in disaster in Collier County; collier disaster strong. We're very blessed to have all of our volunteer partners so well engaged with us, and our volunteer agency coordinators truly pulled this together as providing services to our residents that government simply can't handle or can't address -- process, so thanks to them. Lastly, our County Attorney has kindly prepared state of emergency documents and subsequent proclamations to go with that. Jeff, if I could put you on the spot to go over those with the Board. But we're in support of those in total. MR. KLATZKOW: The first is a proclamation resolution declaring this local state of emergency that we would like you to enact. It also deals with people charging more than they really should as far as markups go, which, unfortunately, is common in situations like this. The second document that we'd like you to consider -- emergency services. The second one is a resolution which allows us to open a new hurricane appropriation fund during the hurricane and provide for transportation fee waivers for CAT system and EMS for special-needs people. The third document we would like you to consider is a resolution authorizing the -- removing debris caused by the hurricane. And, lastly, I have a resolution that would adopt an emergency curfew. We don't know when that would be, so I would ask that the Board authorize the Chair to sign it if and when needed. And that's it. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do you want to do them en masse? COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, can I ask a October 7, 2024 Page 19 quick question before we take up -- you mentioned the EMS fees, and you mentioned individuals with special needs. But I thought that the -- when it was being presented to us that if anyone is in our shelter and needs emergency transport, that they would not be charged. Is that -- or do you have to be one of the special needs -- MR. KLATZKOW: It's convalescent transport, which is what we've traditionally done. The Board could expand that if they want. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm not suggesting we expand that. I just want to be clear on what we're doing, because I misunderstood what was stated. MR. SUMMERS: And I'm sorry. Maybe I kind of lumped that together. So if we -- I think a special-needs shelter or a general population, if we have someone critical. It's rare. Maybe we've done one or two of those. If they do come up, I'm certainly comfortable if it's a general population shelter as well as special needs. I don't think that volume is significant. This is for a pre-hospital care medical visit. This is not to take them back to home. We'll use a convalescent service for that. This is an emergency medical call from a shelter to the hospital -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So the resolution -- MR. SUMMERS: -- is our intent. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- would provide EMS transport in the general population shelter as well as in the special-needs shelter for individuals that would be transported to the hospital. MR. SUMMERS: To a hospital for emergency medical care. And my apologies; I did not clarify that. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just wanted to be clear on the mandatory evacuation. Are we voting on that? Because I mean, the majority of my district is in Zone A; majority of our district, October 7, 2024 Page 20 Yvette. You know, we'll be in close contact. And -- but are we -- so I like all your recommendations here, but I mean, my phone's blowing up from citizens saying, "Is it voluntary, or is it mandatory?" Are we going to decide that right now? Because this is your recommendation, but we have to vote on it. So I agree with all the resolutions. Those we do every storm for debris and this and that. But I think we need to be very clear to citizens that at 6 a.m. tomorrow, it's mandatory evacuation in A and B or not, you know, because that's a -- that's a very specific thing that needs to get out, so... MR. SUMMERS: And I'll look to the Sheriff to see if there's any last-minute concerns. But it is my recommendation that you vote on the mandatory. We've quantified what mandatory means. So we've put our strongest language forward. And, obviously, we can't remove people from their home. And we have advised them that there are potentials that we may not be able to get to them. We'll do our best effort, but we may not. So I would like to continue to use that language and would welcome your endorsement of that. I think it communicates the urgency to our community. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And along with that, then, we would also -- if I'm reading your slides correctly, that's when the shelters would be announced to be open? MR. SUMMERS: We will announce the shelters. Now, there doesn't have to be shelter opening at the time of mobilization of evacuation. Not everybody's going to be sitting in the driveway and ready to go, so that is a gradual process, and we want to give our teams time to make everything ready, be ready to register. And, most importantly, to our -- to the general public, we need you to be responsible to understand that this is a shelter of last resort. Please work to try to find resources with family, friends, hotels, or October 7, 2024 Page 21 other accommodations away from the storm surge area. As I mentioned, we hide from the wind and run from the water. So again, we will make those shelters available. We will announce those. But again, our desire is to have folks be as responsible as they can, and self-sufficient. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The doors wouldn't unlock at 6 a.m. tomorrow? MR. SUMMERS: The doors will not be unlocked at 6 a.m. tomorrow. We will announce that. Remember, we have a lot of staff that's doing county duty, county securing, school direct securing staff, making buildings ready, and then to do some setup. So we have a lot of pieces and parts to put together before we open the doors. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just think that's the first thing that we should decide, and then everything else, to me, trickles down from that. MS. PATTERSON: Understood. So -- Item #2B PROCLAMATION/RESOLUTION 2024-190: DETERMINATION OF NECESSITY OF DECLARING A STATE OF EMERGENCY - MOTION TO APPROVE THE PROCLAMATION RESOLUTION BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS- APPROVED RESOLUTION 2024-191: APPROPRIATION FUND AND FEE WAIVERS - MOTION TO APPROVE THE DEBRIS REMOVAL AND EMS TRANSPORT TO HOSPITAL FOR 911 CARE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS – ADOPTED October 7, 2024 Page 22 RESOLUTION 2024-192: DEBRIS REMOVAL - MOTION TO APPROVE THE DEBRIS REMOVAL BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS – ADOPTED RESOLUTION 2024-193: CURFEW – MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO SIGN IMPLEMENTAION OF A CURFEW IN COORDINATION WITH THE SHERIFF BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – ADOPTED CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. So we'll entertain a motion to declare the state of emergency for the county, and then we'll take all of the resolutions in a second one -- in a separate motion, if that's fine. MS. PATTERSON: As well as the evacuation -- the mandatory evacuations. CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. We're going to do that one first. MS. PATTERSON: Okay. All right. Very good. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. I mean, I'll make a motion that tomorrow at 6 a.m. we -- mandatory evacuation for Zones A and B only would go into effect. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second it. CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. We have a motion and a second for the mandatory. And again, the mandatory is not saying "must." We're not going to send the Sheriff's Office to your house and make you leave, but it's our highest concern, and it's also our way of telling the public we may not be able to get to you if you decide to stay. So with a motion and a second, all in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. October 7, 2024 Page 23 COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Mr. Chairman, if I can just add something. The Sheriff said it best when he said we learned a lot of lessons from Ian. How many of us -- all of us were in the Emergency Operations Center, and 311 calls were coming in from areas that should have evacuated. And in some cases it was people -- and I mentioned this at the last BCC meeting. Maybe they weren't in an area of storm surge, but you also evacuate when power keeps you alive. And how many people called 311 and said, "Oh, my God. Our power's out, and my husband's on a ventilator, has some sort of mechanical device that needs power and needs to be fixed immediately." So, you know, to just make it clear to everybody that's watching, you might not live on the water, but if power is of great concern to something that is emergent for you or medical, we have no guarantee that power can be restored to your particular home instantaneously if it goes out. And so those are the folks -- it's not just about the storm surge. It's also about what you require in your home to be able to survive. Because just as you said, Dan, LCEC or FPL isn't going to be able to race over to your particular home and flick the switch, as some people who were calling 311, they were saying, "We need FPL to turn on the switch, you know, for our block," and it doesn't work that way, so -- MR. SUMMERS: And, again, even at the shelters, power October 7, 2024 Page 24 could be limited. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Absolutely, yeah. MR. SUMMERS: So again, you are better off to make that action plan; family, friends, other resources well inland. The shelter is a refuge. It is not a hotel. It does not have 100 percent backup power. In some cases heating and cooling will be limited. Cooling, rather, would be limited. So we will do our very best. And I can assure you, our school district partners are awesome and will do everything that they can, but let's manage those expectations that the shelter resources are, indeed, very limited -- CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel. MR. SUMMERS: -- to our capability. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Are we going to activate the special-needs shelters sooner than tomorrow at 6 a.m.? MR. SUMMERS: So we are actively checking in with all of our special-needs clients. We have a way to poll them. We'll work on that polling this afternoon to find out if, in fact, they need assistance. We triage it. Do they need assistance? Is transportation a necessity? And again, our goal will be -- because we've got power services, we've got everything we would need right now, our goal will be to address that tomorrow. But we have real people, real bodies talking with those individuals. If they -- when they receive our robocall, and they may need some assistance, one of our special-needs call center folks will reach out, talk to them, evaluate their particular plan or situation, and make them ready for next steps. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So there is a list of folks who have registered with us -- MR. SUMMERS: Oh, yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- that are of special need? October 7, 2024 Page 25 MR. SUMMERS: Yes. And we are very aggressive. That is a beginning to end. That means making sure they get home safely, making sure that they -- we follow up on them even after they got home. So that is a very robust engagement. Their phones are busy right now, but we're going to continue to reach out to those clients, and we take that service quite seriously. And I have given that group carte blanche to do just about anything from run medications to find oxygen to -- boy, procurement's going to get after me. You know, get them an Uber if we need to. So we take their basic health, safety, and welfare seriously. I've used the term, "We provide them the lifeboat, not the love boat," but we're on it. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen. You push procurement all you need. We'll keep them off you. MR. SUMMERS: Boy, I'm glad I got that on the record. Thank you. We'll move forward from there. CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. So can we get a motion to approve the other three or four resolutions. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: En masse, so moved. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second. CHAIRMAN HALL: Yes. Moved and seconded to approve all of them. All in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved. MR. KLATZKOW: And would the Board authorize the Chair October 7, 2024 Page 26 to sign the curfew if and when needed? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That was part the deal. CHAIRMAN HALL: That was part of it. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Do you need a separate motion for that? Excuse me. I didn't mean to -- do you need a separate motion for that? MR. KLATZKOW: I would like a separate motion for that. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I make a separate motion that we authorize the Chair to institute the Sheriff and communi- -- or institute the -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Curfew. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- curfew, thank you -- the curfew in conjunction with the Sheriff. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second. CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved and seconded. All in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you for the support and thank you for the team effort. Item #2C (ADDED ITEM) TO AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR HER DESIGNEE TO APPROVE FUTURE BUDGET AMENDMENTS October 7, 2024 Page 27 FOR THE REALLOCATION OF FUNDING BETWEEN COST CENTERS AND PROJECTS WITHIN DISASTER RECOVERY FUND 1813 TO EXPEDITE DISASTER RECOVERY – MOTION TO APPRPVE BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – APPROVED MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 2C, which is a recommendation to authorize the County Manager or her designee to approve future budget amendments for the reallocation of funding between cost centers and projects within Disaster Recovery Fund 1813 to expedite disaster recovery. This is actually an item that we had on the agenda for tomorrow, and we're going to talk about that for a second. But in the interest of being sure that we have everything in place, we moved it up for approval today, but Mr. Johnson can just give you a quick explanation. MR. JOHNSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Christopher Johnson, your director of Corporate Financial Management Services. As the County Manager stated, this item was on your consent agenda for tomorrow's meeting. We're moving it up so we can kind of get ahead of the budget appropriation for this storm. Just for a little bit of background here, our Disaster Recovery Fund was established to centralize disaster expenses and documentation. We actually established this with Hurricane Ian. Currently, in the FY '25, budget we have $40 million in play, around -- I'm sorry -- across 30-plus divisional cost centers, and unfortunately, five different event project numbers. So what this authorization would do would allow us to administratively move and adjust these budgets between the cost centers and the projects within that fund. With that said, any new October 7, 2024 Page 28 money going into the fund or any -- recognition of any revenues from FEMA insurance, et cetera, would require Board approval and the appropriate resolutions moving forward. Any questions on that at all? CHAIRMAN HALL: Good job. MS. PATTERSON: If we could get a motion to approve. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, I'll move for approval. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second. CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved and seconded. All in favor, say aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN HALL: Opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved. Thank you. MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Commissioners. MS. PATTERSON: Before we adjourn, let's talk just briefly about county government operations and then the Board -- your pleasure on the Board meeting tomorrow. So our plan, in coordination with the city's as well as the constitutional officers -- and each of them, obviously, have the authority to move up or move out these timelines -- is to close our regular operations to the public for public programs and other public events starting at noon tomorrow through Thursday. Most of us will still be working. Obviously, we have disaster assignments, et cetera, but this will allow staff time to finalize any personal preparations that October 7, 2024 Page 29 they have left and report to their disaster assignments. It also will hopefully minimize unneeded travel in this whether, because it's continuing to rain. Additionally, much of our workforce that lives to the north of us, north of Collier County, and depending on the track of the storm, may be experiencing significant impacts. So that is our recommendation. I know that the -- Lee County is already closed as of noon or will be closing -- oh, is closed as of noon today. City of Naples may be closing a little earlier tomorrow, and City of Marco, I think, is following suit. I've been touching base with the constitutional officers to make sure that we're timed up as much as possible. And, again, this means that all of our folks doing emergency work are going to continue to work. It just means that our public-facing portions will be closed. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Do you need -- do you need any direction from the Board, any motion to do that? MS. PATTERSON: I'm going to look at the County Attorney to see if he's -- MR. KLATZKOW: No, I don't think -- I don't think you need any direction to do that. MS. PATTERSON: Okay. CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I was just going to ask Trinity Scott to come up here. She's been coordinating the effort for sand and sandbags. MS. SCOTT: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And although we've gotten out plenty of updates -- I mean, I was just talking to her in my office an hour ago, and she just delivered a big truckload to a park in my district, and maybe she can just give us the latest on sand, sandbags, October 7, 2024 Page 30 what's available, what's not. I know there's more deliveries coming later, but this is a good time to get it all on record. MS. SCOTT: Sure. For the record, Trinity Scott, department head, Transportation Management Services. Commissioner, we've had some new information since I met with you at 9 o'clock this morning. We were initially, as of the end of the day, going to be at 380 tons distributed with approximately 40,000 bags total. Marshal and his team are doing amazing work and got another 200 tons of sand donated to the county, so that will be coming out later today in our three locations, Donna Fiala Eagle Lakes Community Park, Sun-N-Fun, and the Big Corkscrew Regional Park out in District 5. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: How are we on sandbags? I know some areas they had sand but not bags. MS. SCOTT: So sandbags -- I can tell you I went and picked up sandbags myself yesterday. So Marshal makes me work, too, in an emergency. So give him the hoorah on that one. We are getting another round of sandbags in this afternoon, and we'll get those out to the locations. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And did I hear -- excuse me. I didn't mean to jump. Did I hear there is sand being delivered to Immokalee itself? Do we have a location in Immokalee? MS. SCOTT: It's in District 5 at the Big Corkscrew Regional Park. I believe that there was some sand that was taken out to Immokalee over the weekend. MS. PATTERSON: I believe there's sand -- is there sand going back out to Immokalee as well? Yes, there is sand going to Immokalee as well. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do we know the location? MS. SCOTT: I'll defer to Marshal. October 7, 2024 Page 31 MR. MARSHAL MILLER: Marshal Miller, director of Road, Bridge, and Stormwater Maintenance division. Yes, we are getting another donation. I don't know the quantity yet until it arrives. They weren't forthcoming with that. It will be at the Sergeant Joe Jones Road Facility. We are going to put it out through social media as soon as it arrives, the quantity and how many bags we have on hand. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Very good. Thank you. CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. MS. PATTERSON: Very good. Just a reminder to folks out there that have sandbags, there's been some questions about what should I do with my sandbags once the event is over. We're asking for folks to hold on to those sandbags. We've got another two months to go in hurricane season. Important just to keep the sandbags out of direct sunlight. But at the end of hurricane season, we'll figure out a plan for those sandbags. But right now, let's keep our fingers crossed and just hang on to them at your locations, if that's possible. With that, we can talk about, really quickly, the Board meeting for tomorrow. Our advertised public hearing for land use has graciously agreed to continue to the 22nd of October. That removes the land use from tomorrow's agenda, which is a good thing. Folks don't need to be sitting here when they can be making preparations at home. We are going to move the regular agenda items that we have -- they're not time-sensitive -- to the next agenda as well. That leaves the consent agenda and summary agenda. So we have two different options. We can move all of that to either next week, Tuesday, or to the 22nd, just making a larger agenda on the 22nd, or we can come in and have a short meeting tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., we can approve the consent and October 7, 2024 Page 32 summary agendas, and then be on our way. It is your pleasure. We can do either, either cancel the meeting tomorrow or continue with it with just an abbreviated meeting. CHAIRMAN HALL: What were the -- what were the regular systems that we're going to move to next meeting? MS. PATTERSON: We have an acquisition for Conservation Collier. We have an update on the study for the sports complex fields, getting authorization to move forward with that study, and then at the Board's request, we were going to give a presentation on the use of the tourist development tax pennies. CHAIRMAN HALL: Just my thoughts are, instead of coming in here just for consent and summary, with the land-use item gone, the meeting will be short anyway. Even if we do our regular stuff, we'll be out before noon, which will give us ample time to plan for. Those are just my thoughts going in. You're next. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's my echo. I was actually saying there's really not much use coming in tomorrow. If we can just -- I don't know -- under the declaration of emergency, can we approve the consent agenda now, or do you -- do you want to push it to the formal meeting on the 22nd? MR. KLATZKOW: You can't do it now because the public got notice that it's going to be tomorrow, and there are people who show up for both the summary and the consent. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So a continuance to the 22nd is more prudent? MR. KLATZKOW: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Why don't we continue everything to another meeting. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's fine. MR. KLATZKOW: All right. October 7, 2024 Page 33 MS. PATTERSON: Very good. If we have concurrence of the Board, we'll cancel tomorrow's meeting, and we'll put that notice out, and we'll move all of those items to the 22nd. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do you want a motion on that? MR. KLATZKOW: Yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll make that motion. CHAIRMAN HALL: I'll second it. 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: No meeting tomorrow. MS. PATTERSON: Okay. And finally, I'm going to send out to you as a one-way communication just a little write-up on the difference between storm surge and flooding from rainfall stormwater. There continues to be confusion, which is completely understandable. It looks like this -- we may be having both rainfall and storm surge, but it's important for members of the public to understand that there's not a stormwater system in the world that can deal with the storm surges that are experienced when you get -- you know, with five, six, 10, 12, feet of storm surge. A storm surge like that will overtop any type of stormwater system, any type of stormwater structure, and it's going to push its way through over the top of and under everything. The reason that modern constructions survive storm surge better is a multitude of reasons. Mainly that they're at new elevations, so they're constructed higher, but they also -- homes and other buildings October 7, 2024 Page 34 include things like flood vents and breakaway walls that protect the integrity of the structure while allowing the water to proceed on its way. I have a writeup on this that I'll send to you in case you're getting ongoing questions. With the competition of stormwater trying to leave the stormwater system from rainfall and the potential for surge may -- it may prevent some -- it may present some challenges for water disappearing as fast as we're used to, and so we just need to be prepared for that. We just want to continue to educate the public that while we have a lot of areas that need stormwater improvements, as they have gotten older, even if we had done all of them through the whole county, it would not change what we experience from this type of storm surge flooding. And with that, I'll send this out to you as a one-way, and we'll continue to provide you information throughout the day. I'm going to look at Mr. Mullins just to make sure that he doesn't want to put anything on the record from his perspective before we're done. MR. MULLINS: No. We would just encourage the community to pay attention to our social media channels. The actual emergency activation page of the county website will be activated shortly. Once there is a shelter list determined, that will be posted there. So please monitor reputable media sources, law enforcement, the county, and the county social pages for further information inspection. CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Mr. Mullins. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: At the risk of sounding redundant, I just want to make sure that the thing that we're the most clear of to the community -- because as soon as we leave this meeting, this is where the confusion's going to be, and it's just echoing again, that -- what the evacuation zones are. I guarantee October 7, 2024 Page 35 you if we knocked on 10,000 doors right now, people don't -- there's people that don't know that they're in A, B, or C. So that's key so that it's not -- we're -- we did mandatory evacuation across the whole county and what that meant. I really like the idea that we're using the word "mandatory," but people have -- as Commissioner Hall, I think, said and the Sheriff said, we're not going to pull people out of their homes, but we're basically saying if you're in Zone A and B and you have some sort of emergent need, the chances of you getting help is limited to none. And then Yvette Benarroch just reminded me here with a text, we should remind people about pet care, you know, that if you're going to evacuate from A and B, leaving all of your pets in your house probably isn't a great idea, you know -- and some of that sounds, you know, obvious, but maybe it's not as obvious, or you can't drop all your pets off at DAS. Those kind of things. But, you know, we'll have to do a really good job about our district, because it overlaps quite a bit, and A and B is pretty much the chunk of what we have. So anyway -- but I know that we'll do a great job shooting that out. And then, you know, to the commissioners, I just think we can’t overpublicize the evacuation zone map because it's really not out there a lot. It's only out there, you know, when there's an emergency, and a lot of people -- and that map has changed a little bit over time as well, so anyway. MR. MULLINS: And, Commissioner, to that point, we started broadcasting that about 36 hours ago, and it will be in regular rotation on our social media pages to try to, you know, get market penetration so people will see it. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, absolutely. MR. MULLINS: And the media is picking it up as well. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. October 7, 2024 Page 36 CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, two points. Number one, I believe when we're doing our shelter notifications, we actually have a pet-friendly shelter where folks can go. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir, we do. They're to bring the supplies to care for their pet, but we do. And should anybody need assistance with their pet or supplies for their pet or anything, please reach out. We'll get information from them and provide whatever assistance we can. We don't want people to not evacuate because of their pets or to leave their pets behind. MR. MULLINS: And expound upon that further, and not to be a broken record, but if you go to social media pages, particularly our Facebook page, there is a list of items that they should be considering on bringing with them, whether they evacuate to a shelter or to another location, to make sure that their furry friends are safe. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that delineation of pet friendly will be put amongst the shelters once they're announced and when they're going to be open? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. And, again, if there's people with needs, please reach out -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Of course. MS. PATTERSON: -- and let us know, and we'll do everything we can to get somebody what they need to be able to get their pet to a safe location. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The needs are sooner than later, you know. Folks need to be taking action as soon as possible. On a less important note with regard to our business, I'm currently the chair of the MPO, and I'm letting you know today we're not going to have a meeting on Friday. We're going to push -- everything that's on that Friday agenda for the Metropolitan Planning Organization, we'll push it on the November meeting. October 7, 2024 Page 37 So -- I spoke with our executive director this morning on the way in, and I told her that I would announce it here, so... CHAIRMAN HALL: I like it. So I just want to remind the public, the actions that we took here this afternoon is not by any means to cause panic or to cause chaos but to bring an awareness of the seriousness of the matter and just to bring awareness to the proper planning and the proper preparation for this storm. Be kind and be patient with us and use our processes. Like Mr. Mullins said, go to our social media pages, stay informed that way, use our Alert Collier, and use 311. And if you have special needs, before things hit the fan, let us know. And we appreciate you, and we're doing our best for you. So thank you. Meeting adjourned. ******* October 7, 2024 Page 38 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 12:32 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL ___________________________________ CHRIS HALL, CHAIRMAN ATTEST CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK These minutes approved by the Board on ____________, as presented ______________ or as corrected _____________. TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY PUBLIC.