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BCC Minutes 02/25/2025 RFebruary 25, 2025 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, February 25, 2025 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: Burt L. Saunders Dan Kowal (Via Zoom) Chris Hall Rick LoCastro William L. McDaniel, Jr. ALSO PRESENT: Amy Patterson, County Manager Ed Finn, Deputy County Manager Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Derek Johnssen, Clerk's Office Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations Page 1 February 25, 2025 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 February 25, 2025 9:00 AM Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3; – Chair Commissioner Dan Kowal, District 4; – Vice Chair Commissioner Rick LoCastro, District 1 Commissioner Chris Hall, District 2; Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5 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. Page 2 February 25, 2025 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, 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, ADDRESSI NG 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. Page 3 February 25, 2025 LUNCH RECESS SCHEDULED FOR 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 P.M. 1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE A. Invocation: Pastor Kirt Anderson - Naples Community Church ||| Pledge of Allegiance: Chickabee Clark, USAF Veteran, Airfield Manager & founder of “Tag a Pet for a Vet” 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. January 28, 2025, BCC Minutes 3. AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS A. EMPLOYEE 1) 20 YEAR ATTENDEES a) Fausto Leyva- Parks & Recreation b) Tania Santos- Domestic Animal Services 2) 25 YEAR ATTENDEES a) Joann Greenberg - Code Enforcement – (Contractors Licensing) b) Vanessa Vairo- Emergency Medical Services 3) 30 YEAR ATTENDEES 4) 35 YEAR ATTENDEES a) Lisa Taylor- Fiscal & Grant Services B. ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Page 4 February 25, 2025 C. RETIREES D. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH 4. PROCLAMATIONS A. Proclamation designating March 8, 2025, as International Women's Day in Collier County. To be accepted by Althea Irving, Chairwoman, Women's Foundation of Collier County. B. Proclamation designating November 1, 2025, as Lung Cancer Screening Awareness Day. To be accepted by Scott Lowe, CEO, Physicians Regional Healthcare System, and Nikki Audia, Lung Navigator. 5. PRESENTATIONS 6. PUBLIC PETITIONS 7. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA 8. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 9. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS 10. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 11. COUNTY MANAGER'S REPORT A. Recommendation to hear a presentation regarding FY 2026 budget policy and provide guidance as we move toward budget policy adoption in March. (Christopher Johnson, Division Director - Corporate Financial & Management Services) B. Recommendation to approve an Interlocal Agreement with the City of Naples for the use of Bayview Park to remove debris as part of the Naples Pier Renovation. (John Dunnuck, Executive Director - Facilities & Redevelopment) Page 5 February 25, 2025 12. COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT 13. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS 14. AIRPORT AUTHORITY AND/OR COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY 15. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS 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 C. Staff And Commission General Communications ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A. GROWTH MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT 1) Recommendation to approve a Resolution for final acceptance of the private roadway and drainage improvements and acceptance of the plat dedications for the final plat of Allamanda Estates, Application Number PL20220001339, and authorize the release of the maintenance security in the amount of $26,226.61 2) Recommendation to approve a Resolution for final acceptance of the private roadway and drainage improvements and acceptance of the plat dedications for the final plat of Azure at Hacienda Lakes - Phase 2, Application Number PL20180002205, and authorize the release of the maintenance security in the amount of $229,608.45 3) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of a portion of the Page 6 February 25, 2025 potable water and sewer utility facilities and appurtenant utility easement for Greystar Multi-Family Santa Barbara – Phase 1, PL20240009049 4) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of a portion of the potable water and sewer facilities and appurtenant utility easement for Perry Hotel Naples, PL20240012794 5) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water utility facilities for Quail Creek Clubhouse, PL20190002340), and to authorize the County Manager or designee to release the Final Obligation Bond and the Utilities Performance Security (UPS) in the total amount of $13,413.66, to the Project Engineer or the Developer’s designated agent 6) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a Performance Bond in the amount of $65,020, which was posted as a guarantee for Excavation Permit Number PL20230007679 for work associated with Greystar Multi-Family Santa Barbara 7) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a Performance Bond in the amount of $174,360, which was posted as a guarantee for Excavation Permit Number PL20230015585 for work associated with the Vineyards Country Club – North Golf Course Renovation 8) Recommendation to approve the release of two code enforcement liens with an accrued value of $30,000, for a reduced payment of $11,517.70, in the code enforcement action titled Board of County Commissioners vs. Carmen Vasallo, relating to property located at 1013 New Market Rd. W., Collier County, Florida 9) Recommendation to approve the release of a code enforcement lien with an accrued value of $195,600, for a reduced payment of $20,796.90, in the code enforcement action titled Board of County Commissioners vs. Katherine M. Johnson Trust, relating to a condominium located at 1718 Bald Eagle Dr. #C, Collier County, Florida. Code Enforcement Board Case No. CESD20190009030 Page 7 February 25, 2025 B. TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT 1) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 1 under Agreement No. 21-7862, “Design Services for Airport Road Widening,” with Kisinger Campo & Associates, Corp., adding 240 Days to provide additional design services in the lump sum not to exceed amount of $195,923.55, and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Change Order. (Project 60190) 2) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 3 under Agreement No. 21-7900, “Design Services for Stormwater Improvements for the BCG & CC/ CCN Areas,” with Bowman Gulf Coast LLC, to extend the contract time by 180 days for Tasks 1-4 and 730 days for Task 5 and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Change Order. (Project Number 60102) 3) Recommendation to approve and execute a Purchase and Sales Agreement and Addenda with Bigi & Bigi, LLC, the purchase of 14 out of 18 condominium office units within the Court Plaza III building situated on 1.17 improved acres on Airport Road South, adjacent to the Government Center, for the Community & Human Services Division, and authorize the associated Budget Amendments. (Companion to item 16B.4) 4) Recommendation to approve and execute a Purchase and Sales Agreement with Joseph D. Stewart, P.A. for the purchase of unit 105, which is the last remaining available unit to purchase out of 18 condominium office units within the Court Plaza III building situated on 1.17 improved acres on Airport Road South, adjacent to the Government Center, for the Community & Human Services Division. (Companion to item 16B.3) 5) Recommendation to authorize the Chairman to execute twenty (20) Deed Certificates for purchased burial rights at Lake Trafford Memorial Gardens Cemetery and authorize the County Manager or designee to take all actions necessary to record the Deed Certificates with the Clerk of the Court’s Recording Department 6) Recommendation to approve the Collier Area Transit Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program Update to ensure its compliance Page 8 February 25, 2025 with Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requirements and authorize its submittal to the FTA 7) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 1, adding $33,702.40 and 137 days to the Work Order under library contract 18-7432-CZ with APTIM Environmental & Infrastructure, LLC., for the Park Shore Beach Renourishment and make a finding that this item promotes tourism (Project 90067) 8) Recommendation to ratify an administratively approved Change Order No. 1 for contract No. 24-8292 with Earth Tech Enterprises, Inc., for the Park Shore Beach Renourishment, adding 15 days to the contract time (Project 90067). (Companion to item 16B.9) 9) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 2 for contract No. 24- 8292 with Earth Tech Enterprises, Inc., for the Park Shore Beach Renourishment, increasing the contract amount by $2,739,153, applying the Allowance of $254,000.00 and adding 30 days to the contract time, approve the necessary Budget Amendment, and make a finding that this item promotes tourism (Project 90067). (Companion to item 16B.8) 10) Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) No. 24-8323 in the amount of $1,178,500.00 to Earth Tech Enterprises, Inc., for the Collier County South Naples Emergency Berm truck haul & construction project, authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Agreement, and make a finding that this item promotes tourism. (Project 50280) C. PUBLIC UTILITIES DEPARTMENT 1) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners, as ex- officio the Governing Board of the Collier County Water-Sewer District (CCWSD), ratify administratively approved Change Order No. 1, providing for a time extension of 110 days and use of the Owner’s Allowances under Agreement No. 22-7965R, with D.B.E. Management, LLC., for the Golden Gate City Transmission Water Improvements - Phase 2 project. (Project No. 70253 & 51029) Page 9 February 25, 2025 2) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners, as ex- officio of the Governing Board of the Collier County Water-Sewer District, approve Grant Agreement L0018 with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the “Naples Park Public Utilities Renewal Project 103rd/104th Avenues,” to accept cost reimbursement grant funding in the amount of $4,500,000, and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Grant Agreement. (Project 70120, Fund 4016 and Project 60139 Fund 1841) 3) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners, as ex- officio of the Governing Board of the Collier County Water-Sewer District, approve Grant Agreement L0019 with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the “Palm River Public Utilities Renewal Project – Areas 3, 5 & 6,” to accept cost reimbursement grant funding in the amount of $3,000,000, and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Grant Agreement. (Project 70257, Fund 4016 and Project 60234 Fund 1841) 4) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners, acting as ex-officio the Governing Board of the Collier County Water-Sewer District, approve Agreement No. 25-311NSWV, “IDEXX Laboratory Supplies and Services,” with IDEXX Distribution, Inc., (“IDEXX”) for a period of five years under a sole source waiver, authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Agreement, and authorize expenditures in an estimated amount of $250,000 per Fiscal Year, at a total estimated amount of $1,250,000 for the duration of the five-year agreement D. PUBLIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT 1) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign the Third Amendment to the agreement between Collier County and the Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources for the restoration of the historic cottages at Mar-Good Harbor Park to extend the period of performance from December 31, 2024, until June 30, 2025. (Public Service Grant Fund 1839 and Public Service Match Fund 1840) 2) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign Amendment One between the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and Page 10 February 25, 2025 Collier County to revise language in the Opioid Funding Agreement and update the budget 3) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign Amendment One between David Lawrence Mental Health Center, Inc., and Collier County to revise language in the Opioid Funding Agreement 4) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign an agreement between Collier County and The National Alliance on Mental Illness Collier County, Inc., (NAMI) for $146,700 to support the required local mandated match. (Fiscal Impact $146,700) 5) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign sixteen (16) mortgage satisfactions for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership loan program in the amount of $800,000. This transaction is a transfer of mortgage liability from Habitat for Humanity of Collier County, Inc., to the homeowners provided with home purchase assistance through the New Construction Assistance Strategy. (SHIP Grant Fund 1053) 6) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign the First Amendment to the Agreement between Collier County and the Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance, Inc., to amend the Period of Performance and incorporate retainage language under the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Rental Development Strategy (Grant Fund 1053) 7) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign Agreement #LHTF 25-01 with Housing Development Corporation of SW Florida, Inc. d/b/a/ HELP in the amount of $50,000 to operate and administer the Collier County Community Land Trust (CCCLT). (Misc Grants Fund (1077), Affordable Housing Plan Project 50137) 8) Recommendation to accept and appropriate restricted donations from various donors in the amount of $7,802.50 for the benefit of the Collier County Public Library and to authorize the necessary Budget Amendments 9) Recommendation to authorize a Budget Amendment recognizing Page 11 February 25, 2025 $2,802.77 in program income from interest earned in the Home Investment Partnership Program. Housing Grant Fund (1848) E. CORPORATE BUSINESS OPERATIONS F. COUNTY MANAGER OPERATIONS 1) Recommendation to ratify administratively approved Change Order No. 13, adding fifteen days to the Substantial Completion date for Purchase Order No. 4500229878, under Agreement No. 21-7883-ST with O-A-K/Florida, Inc., d/b/a Owen-Ames-Kimball Company, for the Main Campus Upgrades, and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Change Order. (Project No. 50214) 2) Recommendation to approve a Third Amendment to Radio Tower Lease Agreement 787-C with Crown Castle GT Company, LLC, authorizing the County to install a larger propane tank required for the operation of the County’s public safety radio system, and increasing the monthly rent by $320 for the additional space 3) Recommendation to approve a Fourth Amendment to Radio Tower Lease Agreement 787-B with Crown Castle GT Company, LLC, authorizing the County to install a larger propane tank required for the operation of the County’s public safety radio system, and increasing monthly rent by $320 for the additional space 4) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendments (appropriating grants, donations, contributions or insurance proceeds) to the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Adopted Budget. (The Budget Amendments in the attached Resolution have been reviewed and approved by the Board of County Commissioners via separate Executive Summaries.) 5) Recommendation to authorize Budget Amendments for a total amount of $818,682.00 for continued Hurricane Milton drainage, beach, and dune related cleanup expenses and beach dune restoration plantings within the Pelican Bay Services Division Municipal Services Taxing & Benefit Unit 6) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution providing notice of intent to Page 12 February 25, 2025 extend the levy of the Five-Cent and Six-Cent Local Option Fuel Taxes, pursuant to Florida Statutes Sections 336.025 (1)(a) and (b), and the Ninth Cent Fuel Tax Pursuant to Florida Statutes, Section 336.021, upon their scheduled termination date of December 31, 2025, without a gap or lapse in the collection of the tax, effective January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2055, and directing the Office of the County Attorney to advertise the appropriate Ordinances 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 $72,493,266.59 were drawn for the periods between January 30, 2025, and February 12, 2025 pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06 2) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public purpose for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions as of February 19, 2025 K. COUNTY ATTORNEY 1) Recommendation to appoint three members to the Public Art Committee L. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 Page 13 February 25, 2025 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A. This Item requires that all participants be sworn in and Ex-parte disclosure be provided by Commission members. Recommendation to approve an Ordinance rezoning a 7.4± acre property located at 6145 Polly Avenue from the Rural Agricultural (A) zoning district to the Estates (E) district to allow up to three single-family dwelling units with a maximum density of up to one dwelling unit per 2.47± acres on property located approximately 1600 feet east of Santa Barbara Boulevard between Polly Avenue and Everett Street, in Section 16, Township 50 South, Range 26 East, Collier County, Florida B. Recommendation to approve Petition VAC-PL20200001169, to disclaim, renounce, and vacate the County and the Public interest in the Conservation Easement recorded in Official Record Book 4296, Page 1735, of the Public Records of Collier County, Florida, located approximately 400-feet east of Industrial Boulevard, south of Mercantile Avenue, in Section 36, Township 49 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida C. Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendments (appropriating carry forward, transfers and supplemental revenue) to the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Adopted Budget. (The Budget Amendments in the attached Resolution have been reviewed and approved by the Board of County Commissioners via separate Executive Summaries.) 18. ADJOURN INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD’S AGENDA SHOULD BE MADE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE AT 252-8383. February 25, 2025 Page 2 MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to our commissioner meeting. It's a pleasure having all of you here today. Going to probably have a fairly short meeting, so if you have anything to say, say anything that you want to when you come to the podium because we have plenty of time today. We're very fortunate today to have Pastor Kirk Anderson to start us off in the right way. If you'd please rise for the invocation and the Pledge to the flag. Item #1A INVOCATION: PASTOR KIRT ANDERSON - NAPLES COMMUNITY CHURCH ||| PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: CHICKABEE CLARK, USAF VETERAN, AIRFIELD MANAGER & FOUNDER OF “TAG A PET FOR A VET” - INVOCATION GIVEN AS INDICATED; PLEDGE ACTUALLY GIVEN BY JACK COOPER, US ARMY RETIRED PASTOR ANDERSON: Let's bow together. Oh, gracious God, in a season when trust of government is in short supply, when hardworking staff are labeled as bureaucrats, and when a decision is the source of derision, we pray for our commission. Day and night, the heavy hand of discipline is upon them bearing the burden of governance on our behalf. Strengthen them, assure them, and may we all be respectful and civil. Agreement is easy, but we as a people must learn how to disagree again. We need your guidance, your patience, and your discipline. February 25, 2025 Page 3 Thank you for the gift of these servants and their arduous efforts to serve this community. We pray in the name of your incarnate love. Amen. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I want to thank you for leading the Pledge. Ms. Patterson is going to spend just a minute telling us a little bit about your history because I understand you were a dustoff pilot in Vietnam. MR. COOPER: Yes, I was. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And some very dangerous missions in terms of picking up wounded soldiers and not having any weapons on board to defend yourself, so very impressive. Ms. Patterson, you had a few comments there. MS. PATTERSON: Yes. So we do have the honor of having Jack Cooper. He is Army 1968 to 1993, and as Commissioner Saunders said, a dustoff pilot in Vietnam, which we've been educated that that is people that flew and picked up wounded soldiers without the benefit of being armed. So thank you for your service. MR. COOPER: Appreciate it. Thank you. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, sir. Let's move on to the approval of today's regular, consent, and summary agenda. We'll see if there are any amendments to that. Ms. Patterson. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We do have one change to the agenda, a request to move Item 16D7 to 11C. This is a recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign Agreement No. LHTF 25-01 with Housing Development Corporation of Southwest Florida, Inc., doing business as HELP, February 25, 2025 Page 4 in the amount of $50,000 to operate and administer the Collier County Land Trust. This is being moved at Commissioner McDaniel's request. Other than that, we have court reporter breaks set for 10 o'clock and again -- or I'm sorry -- at 10:30 and again at 2:50 if necessary. County Attorney. MR. KLATZKOW: Nothing, thank you. Item #2A APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR, CONSENT, AND SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX-PARTE DISCLOSURE PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT AGENDA) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO - APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED W/CHANGES CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal, any changes to the agenda? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: No changes. MS. PATTERSON: And also disclosure on the summary and consent. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And no -- nothing on summary or consent. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: No changes or -- and no ex parte. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Same; no changes, no ex parte. February 25, 2025 Page 5 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Same; no changes, no ex parte. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And I have no changes and no ex parte as well. So we need a motion to approve today's regular, consent, and summary agenda. COMMISSIONER HALL: So moved. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second. We have a motion and second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously. Proposed Agenda Changes Board of County Commissioners Meeting February 25, 2025 Move item 16D7 to 11C: Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign Agreement #LHTF 25- 01 with Housing Development Corporation of SW Florida, Inc. dlblal HELP in the amount of $50,000 to operate and administer the Collier County Community Land Trust (CCCLT). (Commissioner McDaniel's Request) Notes: TIME CERTAIN ITEMS: V2412025 8:56 PFL February 25, 2025 Page 6 Item #2B JANUARY 28, 2025, BCC MINUTES - MOTION TO APPROVE AS PRESENTED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HALL - APPROVED CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have the minutes of January 28th, 2025. Are there any questions or comments concerning the minutes? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Move for approval. COMMISSIONER HALL: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously. We have some special awards today, so let's start off, Ms. Patterson. Item #3A1 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS - 20 YEAR ATTENDEES – PRESENTED MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Let's start with our 20-year attendees. February 25, 2025 Page 7 First we have Fausto Leyva, Parks and Recreation. Congratulations. (Applause.) MS. PATTERSON: Next up we have Tania Santos, Domestic Animal Services, 20 years. Congratulations. (Applause.) COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Where's the Tania fan club? Where is it? Back there. Okay. (Applause.) Item #3A2 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS - 25 YEAR ATTENDEES – PRESENTED MS. PATTERSON: Moving on to 25 years, Joanne Greenberg, Code Enforcement, Contractors Licensing section. Congratulations. (Applause.) MS. PATTERSON: We are going to hold on our next attendee because, actually, she's just getting off shift from EMS. So as soon as she gets here, we will bring her up and honor her. Item #3A4 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS - 35 YEAR ATTENDEES – PRESENTED So that brings us to our 35-year attendee, Lisa Taylor, Fiscal and Grant Services, Transportation Management Services. Congratulations. February 25, 2025 Page 8 (Applause.) COMMISSIONER HALL: We got spirit, yes, we do. We got spirit, how about you? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Security? Officer? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: After we take the first photo, if the team would like to come on up for a photo, you're welcome to do so. Anybody else want to come up? Let's do another one. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Tania, your group next, since you've got a big group, too, if you want to take a photo. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We're going to do two photos here, one with everybody smiling and doing the thing you usually do in photos and then one with everybody holding their pom poms, or whatever those things are called. All right. So the first photo is a more serious one. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thirty-five years, that's really amazing. So thank you for your service to Collier County. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Does Tania want to come up with her group? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Is Tania still here? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Tania, can you outdo that with your group? MS. SANTOS: Yep. Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We've got another group photo. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We'll move on to proclamations, Ms. Patterson. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Let me be sure that our first proclamation, if Ms. Irving is here. Okay. Very good. Very good. February 25, 2025 Page 9 Item #4A PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MARCH 8, 2025, AS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY IN COLLIER COUNTY. TO BE ACCEPTED BY ALTHEA IRVING, CHAIRWOMAN, WOMEN'S FOUNDATION OF COLLIER COUNTY - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO - ADOPTED MS. PATTERSON: All right. So 4A is a proclamation designating March 8th, 2025, as International Women's Day in Collier County. To be accepted by Althea Irving, chairman, Women's Foundation of Collier County. Congratulations. (Applause.) MS. IRVING: I have remarks. MS. PATTERSON: Very good. MS. IRVING: Good morning, Commissioners and fellow community members. Thank you for this incredible recognition of International Women's Day here in Collier County. On behalf of the Women's Foundation of Collier County, I am honored to accept this proclamation and to stand with you in celebrating the achievements and contributions of women in our community. For over 20 years, the Women's Foundation of Collier County has been dedicated to transforming the lives of women and girls in our region. Through initiatives that support homeless senior women, mentorships in career development for young girls, and women pursuing education, we are working to ensure that every woman, no matter her circumstances, has the opportunity to thrive. Today's proclamation is more than a symbolic gesture. It is February 25, 2025 Page 10 a powerful acknowledgment that women who are supported, our entire community benefits from that. By investing in women, we create stronger families, a more vibrant workforce, and a future where every girl growing up in Collier County knows that she has the tools, resources, and encouragement to succeed. Thank you again for recognizing March 8th, 2025, as International Women's Day in Collier County. We are grateful for your partnership in fostering a community where women and girls are empowered, uplifted, and celebrated, not just today, but every day. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. (Applause.) Item #4B PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING NOVEMBER 1, 2025, AS LUNG CANCER SCREENING AWARENESS DAY. TO BE ACCEPTED BY SCOTT LOWE, CEO, PHYSICIANS REGIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, AND NIKKI AUDIA, LUNG NAVIGATOR - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – ADOPTED MS. PATTERSON: Item 4B is a proclamation designating November 1st, 2025, as Lung Cancer Screening Awareness Day. To be accepted by Scott Lowe, CEO, Physicians Regional healthcare system, and Nikki Audia, sorry, lung navigator, congratulations. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You're going to have to explain to us what a lung navigator does. February 25, 2025 Page 11 COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So there's two of them, right, lungs? MS. AUDIA: Two. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Got it. Got it. MR. LOWE: And I'm going to turn it over to Nikki so she can explain everything lung, but I just wanted to quickly thank the county commissioners for continuing to kind of stop, recognize, you know, these health issues and concerns that, you know, we are all here, you know, with Physicians Regional, NCH, you name the healthcare entity, but you guys continue to help and support those initiatives and help us recognize and bring that awareness to the community. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'll mention one thing. The last time I went over at Physicians Regional, it was for the FC Naples event, and so thank you for being a primary sponsor for that team. MR. LONG: Thank you. Yeah, we're excited for that partnership and certainly excited for them to be in this community. So great. Thank you. Here's Nikki. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MS. AUDIA: Good morning. It's an honor to stand here before you today as we formally recognize Lung Cancer Awareness Month. While November is the designated month to raise awareness for this disease, today in February we come together to sign this proclamation ensuring when November arrives our community is ready to amplify this very important message. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in our nation, and I'm sure nobody in here really knew that. And in women alone, lung cancer kills more women than ovarian and breast cancer. February 25, 2025 Page 12 Today we are here not only to raise awareness but stand together in support of those affected by the disease. Lung cancer does not discriminate. It impacts smokers, nonsmokers, and individuals exposed to environmental risks. The key to fighting this disease lies in early detection. Screening saves lives, and I urge everyone that meets the criteria to speak with their healthcare provider about being screened. When diagnosed early, treatment options are more effective and survival rates improved significantly. We are fortunate to have an incredible resource right here in our community, like Scott said, NCH, Physicians Regional, Lee, dedicated healthcare providers, cutting-edge screening programs, and organizations committed to patient support and research. These local resources provide hope, tangible support for those battling lung cancer and for their families. Advancement in treatments, research continue to offer new hope, but our fight is far from over. We must continue advocating funding research and policies that ensure access to lifesaving screening tools. As we recognize Lung Cancer Month, let's honor those we've lost, support those who are fighting, and commit to spreading awareness together as a community. Thank you again for sponsoring this proclamation. It is extremely important to our community to spread awareness about lung cancer screening. Early detection really is the only way. And I'll just give you one quick note, because I know I will talk your ear off, and I know we have just a little bit of time. But one unique thing about lung cancer is your lungs do not have nerve receptors, so you don't know you have lung cancer until it's too late. Usually you become symptomatic, and you're no longer eligible for lung cancer screening, which is covered by most of February 25, 2025 Page 13 your insurances if you meet the criteria, just like a colonoscopy or a breast exam. Lung cancer screening, unfortunately, is not part of the HEDIS guidelines despite the fact that it's the leading cause of cancer. That is hopefully going to be changed soon. But when you go into your primary care office, they're not going to bring up that screening to you. So advocate for yourself; advocate for your community. It's extremely important. It's an important conversation to have, and I'll leave you with that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I have just a couple real quick questions. MS. AUDIA: Sure. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: This may be an opportunity to put a plug in for antismoking issues. How many -- what percentage would you say -- MS. AUDIA: That's a great question. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- of lung cancer patients are -- lung cancer patients -- or how many of those were smokers at one point in their lives? MS. AUDIA: Actually, 25 to 28 percent in our community are nonsmoking individuals. And we're seeing people in their 20s, 30s that are not smoking. That's a big problem is people associate lung cancer with smoking, and there's a huge stigma with lung cancer. People that have been in the military, your firefighters, your police officers, people that have worked in -- believe it or not, lung cancer, the second leading cause of lung cancer is radon exposure. The first, obviously, being smoking. The second being radon exposure. And then theirs genetics. Believe it or not, six of my family members have passed away of lung cancer, and I have never ever been asked to be screened for lung cancer before. Most places offer out-of-the-pocket for lung cancer February 25, 2025 Page 14 screening. You go in, and it's a low-dose CT scan of your lungs, and they can detect lung cancer. Your survivability, if you catch it in early stages, is 80 percent, 80 percent. When it gets to Stage 3 and 4, you have less than a 2 to 4 percent of living because it metastasizes throughout your lungs. So I even urge you as the commissioners, push this, talk about this with your firefighters or your people that are exposed to different environmental things. I'm sure some of you up there qualify to have a free lung cancer screening. Get a lung cancer screening done. Talk to your providers about this. Again, some of these physicians, when you go in there, they're working at 99 percent capacity. They don't have the opportunity to sit there and talk to you about, you know, colonoscopies, about breast exams, about lung -- because they have to have that shared decision with you. And, unfortunately, they're at the bandwidth. So bring it up, you know, advocate for yourself, advocate for the people that work for you, at your health fair, invite NCH, invite us -- we will -- I will talk to you about lung cancer screening all day. Trust me, when people walk by my office, I have to keep the door closed because people take the other way because I'm always talking about lung cancer and the importance of lung cancer. And really, nobody really realized that lung cancer was so prevalent, and it was huge, because you don't see people wearing white ribbons. You see people wearing pink ribbons despite the fact that it far surpasses women's cancer with breast and ovarian cancer combined. So it's -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, thank you for that. And one of the points that I wanted to make, based on those statistics, is if 25 percent of lung cancer patients were nonsmokers, I think that means 75 percent were smokers. February 25, 2025 Page 15 MS. AUDIA: That's correct. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And the point is cigarettes cause lung cancer. So that was one of the messages I thought we would try to get out this morning. MS. AUDIA: Yes, that is the leading cause. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yep. Thank you very much. MS. AUDIA: Thank you so much. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Appreciate it. MS. AUDIA: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Public comments, Ms. Patterson. MS. PATTERSON: If we could get a motion to accept the proclamations. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Do we have a motion? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion and a second to accept the proclamations. All in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It passes unanimously. Item #7 February 25, 2025 Page 16 PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA MS. PATTERSON: Yes, that brings us to Item 7, public comments on general topics not on the current or future agenda. MR. MILLER: We have four registered speakers this morning. Your first is Jay Kohlhagen, and he'll be followed by Jacob Kohlhagen. MR. KOHLHAGEN: It's civics day. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No relation? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Bringing in the troops? MR. KOHLHAGEN: My grandson. This is a school day for him. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning. MR. KOHLHAGEN: Jay Kohlhagen, for the record. How you guys doing? I just want to throw some of this out here that I've been reading up on. Anyway. Moving on here. Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, and Minnesota. What do these two -- what do these 24 states have in common? They are all -- they are the -- their state's making legislation to protect their constituents from geo engineering and weather modification experiments. And we know Congress mandated to fund these geo engineering projects without a single study of the effects of human health, or not even a single vote was passed from We the People giving our consent. We know now because we can see now, and we -- our tax is being paid and sent via website February 25, 2025 Page 17 usaspending.com. Florida Senate Bill 56 would ban attempts that would cause or disperse rain, snow, fog, or other atmospheric conditions. We all need to support this. We need to make our sky blue again. I've got another one here. A proposed cell tower where the skunk ape roams in the Big Cypress National Preserve is coming under fire with the locals around there. We need to better look at the location. Cell towers will be obsolete in the near future. I don't know why they continue to put these things up. It's like ramping up production on horse carriages when the Ford Model Ts are rolling off the assembly line. It's just stupid. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Jacob Kohlhagen. He'll be followed by Francis Cook. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning. MR. JACOB KOHLHAGEN: Jacob Kohlhagen for the record. Today I stand before you and talk about an issue that has sparked concern and curiosity worldwide. Chem trails. These are visible streaks in the sky often mistaken for simple contrails, but some believe they're part of a larger, more troubling agenda. While there are many theories surrounding chemical trails, one thing we can all agree on is the importance of transparency and accountability in the actions that affect our environment and health. We live in a world where integrity of our air and atmosphere is critical to our well-being. If chemicals are indeed being dispersed and without the public's knowledge or consent, it undermines our right to a safe and clean environment. Whether it's for weather modification, geo engineering, or undisclosed February 25, 2025 Page 18 purposes, we must question the long-term impact of such actions on our planet, wildlife, and future generations. Removing the chemical trails is not just about eliminating the visible streaks in the sky. It's about ensuring that the policies impacting our environment are done transparently, ethically, and with our best interests at heart. We deserve to know what is happening in our skies and trust that our health and safety are the priorities. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. JACOB KOHLHAGEN: We want the sky blue again. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. Jacob, before you run, where do you go to school? MR. JACOB KOHLHAGEN: I homeschool. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You homeschool. Wonderful. You did a great job. Very well spoken, very poised, and congratulations on that. MR. JACOB KOHLHAGEN: Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: How old are you? MR. JACOB KOHLHAGEN: I am 13. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you for your presentation. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Francis Cook, and he'll be followed by Joe Hunt. MR. COOK: Good morning, Mr. Chair, Commissioners. Hard times create strong men, and strong men create good times. Good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. Mr. Chairman, I stand before you as a weak man who has created hard times for myself and for my family. I've acted like a boy trapped in a man's body for 25 years, enduring unhealed February 25, 2025 Page 19 emotional wounds from my childhood, being out of touch with my masculinity, and wearing a mask to try and be the person I thought others wanted me to be. Hitting me like a ton of bricks, this realization is forcing me to confront several character flaws, including selfishness, arrogance, and emotional immaturity. Unconscious beliefs about my self-worth, my potential, and my view of the world have formed a destructive pattern of thinking resulting in desperate needs for validation from others in a scarcity mindset that's caused hesitation and missed opportunities, and in refusing to play my part in raising our collective consciousness. These beliefs were formed primarily by my parents and cultural influences such as the school system, the entertainment industry, my peer group, and even the government itself. And while it's true these external influences did subconsciously program my mind throughout my life, blaming others, blaming circumstances, and blaming the systems of this world would be a copout. Mr. Chairman, I must take full responsibility and ownership of every aspect of my life by admitting my faults, by gaining an awareness of patterns of behavior, and by committing to a relentless self-discipline to become a strong and honorable man. It says in Proverbs 27:17, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." And so I've made this public declaration to invite scripturally based guidance and correction to state my intentions to embrace a servant's heart and to receive accountability for matching my actions with my words. I'm also making this public declaration to break the stigma about men's mental health and to show how important it is to embrace vulnerability, to face uncomfortable emotions, and to know that freedom is not something to be pursued and obtained, February 25, 2025 Page 20 rather freedom is something that is cultivated inwardly by uprooting limiting beliefs, interrupting destructive patterns of behavior, and taking massive disciplined action to embrace the fullest potential in life. Freedom, Mr. Chairman, is an inside job. And so as we move into America's golden age, I believe our families, our communities, and the women in our lives are depending on men to do our inner work and step into the best versions of ourselves so that we can lead with love, with righteousness, with wisdom, and with strength. Let's create good times again. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Cook, before you leave, one quick comment, and then Commissioner Hall has a comment as well. It takes a lot of courage to come before a group like this, on TV, and admit that you have some faults. We all have faults, but most of us aren't willing to get up and talk about them, so I want to congratulate you on that. MR. COOPER: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And then I know this type of setting will hopefully help you as you progress in your journey. MR. COOPER: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Hall, Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Cook, thanks for your humility. MR. COOPER: My pleasure. COMMISSIONER HALL: God resists the proud, but he's with the humble. And so I just want to encourage you. The words that you hear form the thoughts in your head, the thoughts in your head lead to emotions, those emotions will lead to decisions that you make, the decisions that you make you'll take action on, from those actions you'll create habits, the habits that February 25, 2025 Page 21 are created will form your character, and the character that you create will take you to your destiny. So if you find yourself listening to the wrong words and having the wrong thoughts, peel it backwards. If you find your emotions are out of whack, peel it backwards. Go back to what you're listening to, what you're reading. I just want to encourage you with that. MR. COOPER: I appreciate both your words. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Our final registered speaker for Item 7 is Joe Hunt. MR. HUNT: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's meant to be. The previous speakers before kind of hit the sentiment that I have about this country, and the advice the same. Let's go back to the original. Now, I don't think I have to give a grand lecture about the Constitution and our oaths of office, right? I've taken the oath of office. I assume many of us have ourselves, right? So I am a man here to lawfully redress my grievances. I bought a house in Naples, 2667 Lakeview Drive, right next to Dr. Angel Herrera, 2649. Within the first few months, he's committed trespass, egregious trespass by altering the seawall and installing a drain pipe. See there's some photos here. If I can get to it quickly enough. But either way, it's creating a major flooding condition, meaning the water now, because I have installed 11,000 -- 11 ton of rock, the water now comes through his driveway. This was before the water crested the seawall. It came through the driveway, filled the field across the street. I've been in long-term litigation. So I'll get to the crux of the matter -- oh, this is the upkeep February 25, 2025 Page 22 of the house. So when I say my civil liberties are shredded, I'm talking about disparity of enforcement. I've made multiple complaints to John Johnson. Now, the who, what, when, and where I think has been answered. You know the when, when I first moved in. The what, the alteration of the seawall, installing a drain pipe with no clapper valve, meaning boom. Plus there's probably other -- you know, under deposition, the wall's a mess. But the why and the who. Because through this litigation process, I've had some of the big construction companies of Southwest Florida under deposition such as Grady Moran [sic], Michael Herrera, Mike -- Mark Moran [sic]. Tim Hall, building Naples Pier, right? John Johnson, senior building inspector. They are defending the seawall that has admittedly had a repair by Dr. Herrera, unlicensed, uninsured, no diagrams. These guys figured a way to get it permitted -- back-permitted. But this is the reason why I'm here, because through litigation -- I'm looking at the overheads. Now, my house is in the red, okay. You're looking at the Windstar up here. The water comes out. Lakeview Drive. Now, this is the center point in the town. Now, why would all of these construction people be digging in to protect a house that's collapsing? As a matter of fact, why did they purchase the house, and why did not his brother fix the wall? Because I believe their intention is to flood out the neighborhood, because due to this, like an arson investigation, as a previous fireman, we would find it by the lowest point on the wall where the fire started. So therefore, if you take a funnel and you use the funnel strategy from this point on, going up towards -- well, this would be south, that's flooding out this entire region here. February 25, 2025 Page 23 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Hunt, okay. You're going through an awful lot of information that I don't think any of us can fully comprehend. MR. HUNT: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So what I'm going to suggest to you -- I don't know what commission district you're in, but perhaps you could set up a meeting with the commissioner in your -- from whatever district that is. MR. HUNT: Sir, sir, I'm just here to hold you -- everyone liable and put this on the record -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay, that's fine. MR. HUNT: -- that Bayshore -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, wait. Stop. MR. HUNT: -- is under -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Please. MR. HUNT: -- serious distress. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. All right. Your time is up, then. I was going to make some recommendations. But your time is up. We'll see you at the next meeting, I suspect. MR. HUNT: I'm actually -- I have other constitutional work to attend to. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. MR. HUNT: But I will be seeing everyone, especially after this gentleman's pool collapses -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Hunt. Mr. Hunt. MR. HUNT: -- and the road collapses. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Hunt, please. MR. HUNT: Then we'll be talking about more serious charges. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Hunt, your time's up. All right. February 25, 2025 Page 24 MR. HUNT: Thank you. Have a good day. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Ms. Patterson. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. That brings us to Items 11. Item #11A PRESENTATION REGARDING FY 2026 BUDGET POLICY AND PROVIDE GUIDANCE AS WE MOVE TOWARD BUDGET POLICY ADOPTION IN MARCH. (CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON, DIVISION DIRECTOR - CORPORATE FINANCIAL & MANAGEMENT SERVICES) - PRESENTED WITH DISCUSSION MS. PATTERSON: Item 11A is a recommendation to hear a presentation regarding FY 2026 budget policy and provide guidance as we move towards budget policy adoption in March. Mr. Christopher Johnson, division director of Corporate and Financial Management Services, is here to present. MR. JOHNSON: Good morning, Commissioners. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning. MR. JOHNSON: Chris Johnson, your director of Corporate Financial and Management Services, for the record. We're here today to kick off our FY '26 budget year with a brief budget policy discussion. Today we're going to talk about the FY '26 budget timeline, budget funding overview for FY '25, economic indicators, ad valorem history, we'll go briefly through the priority-based budgeting approach that we'll be utilizing this year for the second year, and we'll have a budget policy discussion on some high-level policy issues, followed by next steps. The first thing I'm going to go over really briefly is everyone's favorite calendar here. Starting with today, we're February 25, 2025 Page 25 having our FY '26 budget policy discussion. Next week we'll be having our strategic plan and priority-based budgeting workshop on Tuesday, the 4th. The following week, on March 11th, we'll be adopting the BCC budget policy. And I'm going to skip through a few of these to give you guys some important tentative dates for this year, for the FY '26 budget cycle. The June workshops are tentatively going to be scheduled for 6/19 -- June 19th and June 20th, which is a Thursday and a Friday, the proposed maximum millage rate adoption is on the 8th of July, which is a regular board meeting, a Tuesday, and finally, the first public hearing is tentatively scheduled for September 4th, and the second one on September 18th, 2025. Any questions on the schedule before I move on? (No response.) MR. JOHNSON: All right. All right. We'll start with the FY '25 budget overview just to orient everyone on the current-year budget. This first slide here, this first chart depicts the net adopted budget for the county. The net adopted budget is $2.1 billion. As you can see from this chart, we have substantial reserves at $691 million. Our physical environment, which is our Water/Sewer District, solid waste, stormwater, and beach renourishment comes in at second there at 21 percent, or 442 million, followed by public safety at 382 million, or 18 percent. This chart here depicts our sources of current county government operating revenues. Now, this is -- this is for all funds. As you can see, ad valorem is our main source. Ad valorem, our property taxes, are our main source of revenue at 47 percent, or $473 million, followed by our service charges at 31 percent, or $381 million. February 25, 2025 Page 26 This chart here depicts the FY '25 ad valorem property tax by fund. As you all know, General Fund is our primary ad valorem fund at 458 million, or 80 percent of the ad valorem collected, followed by our Unincorporated Area General Fund at 66 million, or 11 percent of the total. And this chart here depicts the General Fund ad valorem by category. As you can see, our health, safety, welfare is what the majority of our ad valorem is spent on at 58.3 percent. And this is our Unincorporated General Fund at $66 million in ad valorem. And there is -- there is health, safety, and welfare in this. It consists of our Code Enforcement, Ochopee Fire District, and Division of Forestry at 17 percent, and most of the money here goes to our parks and roads and stormwater at $47.2 million, which is discretionary. All right. From here I'm going to move on to a few economic indicators and some ad valorem history. This chart here depicts the CPI year over year from December '21 to December 2024. The current year CPI is 2.8 percent. That has dropped from last year's December to December CPI, which was 5.7 percent. Moving on here, this is the Florida Price Level Index. What this is is this is an index that the school board uses as a basis for labor costs across the state. When you look at these numbers here, you can see that the most -- this is the most recent Florida Price Level Index from 2023. Collier County, for the second year in a row, ranked the highest of the 67 counties as it relates to labor costs. This chart here just depicts this in a map format. As you can see, South Florida in the dark green, has the highest cost of labor in the state. This chart here depicts the historical changes in our taxable value all the way back to 2006. You can see the dip in the February 25, 2025 Page 27 recession. We've been, since 2013, gaining in taxable value. As you can see, from '23 to '25 we have some pretty good years of taxable value increase. The 2026 number you see there is going to be our planning number. That's what we've wrapped our scenario around from -- for budget policy. Property tax rate history, this is the General Fund. As you all know, we’ve carried on a 3.5645 rate for many, many years. Within the last two years, we did achieve rollback twice, bringing it down to 3.0107 in the General Fund. Same is true for the Unincorporated Area General Fund, just not quite as long of a timeline. In '17 that increased to 0.8069. The two years of rollback have brought that rate to 0.6844. And what does that mean? These two tables here show you the General Fund and Unincorporated Area General Fund taxpayer savings compared to the FY '23 or FY '22 rate, which was that original rate I was telling you about. So you can see here, over the last two years we've saved the taxpayers 134 million in General Fund and 18.7 million in the Unincorporated General Fund for a total of $152 million. The table below depicts -- depicts if we were to go millage neutral this year at that rate of 3.0107, we would -- compared to the 2023 rate, we would be saving the taxpayers about $100 million across those two funds. Any questions on any of that? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes, Mr. Johnson. The savings at the bottom right there on the last screen -- MR. JOHNSON: Correct. COMMISSIONER HALL: -- the hundred million, is that a running total from 2023 and 2024, or is that an additional 100 million? February 25, 2025 Page 28 MR. JOHNSON: That would be additional based on the difference between the rates in 2023 and the potential for the rate this year at millage neutral. COMMISSIONER HALL: That's if we went millage neutral? MR. JOHNSON: Correct. And that's with a 5 percent taxable value increase calculated in that. So that would shift depending on the actual taxable values that we receive from the Property Appraiser. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you. MR. JOHNSON: You're very welcome. All right. Now I'll briefly go over the priority-based budgeting approach that we -- that the Board implemented last year that we'll be utilizing again this year. What is priority-based budgeting? Priority-based budgeting is a strategic approach to budgeting that aligns our financial resources with the strategic priorities of our organization. By connecting budget decisions to strategic goals and objectives, the county can achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness. This chart here kind of shows our flow for our implementation that we followed last year and we'll be following again this year. At our March 4th workshop, we'll be here to define our strategic goals and priorities. From there, we'll establish our prioritization criteria. Then staff will gather budget data through the budget process, and we'll align that budget with these priorities and allocate the budget based on those priorities. And next week as well we'll have ResourceX here for the -- for the workshop, and we'll be talking about some of the insights that we've implemented along with Mr. Fabian's approach to priority-based budgeting. Any questions on that? February 25, 2025 Page 29 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I don't see anybody lit up. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I hit my button too late. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do you have the priority -- our budget priorities listed anywhere in this -- in this presentation? MR. JOHNSON: I do not in this presentation. We'll be bringing that back next week. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. All right. Because I'd like to see those and make sure they're what I recall. MR. JOHNSON: Perfect. We can do that. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MR. JOHNSON: All right. And this slide I know you-all are familiar with. This is the ResourceX budgeting lasagna, if you will. We're starting this year at the bottom again with our program inventory. And what we'll do is we'll have staff go through their program inventory, update it. From there, we add the line-item data into it, which is the old way we did the budgets through line-item allocations. We put it into programs. From there, we apply the attributes, the impact on the outcomes of our strategic plan to create budget proposals and move forward with you guys in June. Any questions on that? I know you've seen that probably 10 times in the last year. All right. Now we'll move on to our budget policy discussion. Today I'm going to go over briefly employee compensation, health insurance rates, operating control lines, millage rates, capital -- and capital allocations, along with our reserve policy for -- recommended reserve policy for FY '26. All right. I'm going to start off here with our General Fund February 25, 2025 Page 30 and Unincorporated Area General Fund operating control lines. Why do we establish budgeting control lines? It's a critical step in the preparation of priority-based budgeting. It establishes the total resources available for the departments, it allows the departments to prioritize and make their own tradeoffs within their -- within their -- within their reign of control there, and it also provides accountability and transparency. What we're recommending this year, based on that initial 5 percent taxable value scenario, is a 3 percent operating control line. And what this means is that department operations for FY '26 -- that the operations that rely on the General Fund and the Unincorporated General Fund for funding will be restricted to a 3 percent increase for current program services and operating transfers that feed those funds. Any questions on that? (No response.) MR. JOHNSON: All right. Capital allocations. We're recommending an additional $5 million allocation to the maintenance reserve. And I have -- the next slide will kind of be a brief history on our maintenance reserve. In addition, we're recommending a 5 percent adjustment on General and Unincorporated General Fund capital maintenance transfers. And this slide here depicts our countywide capital reserve since inception. As you can see, in '23 to '24, there was a large reduction in our reserve due to Hurricane Ian, and then in '25 we also reduced the reserve to balance the capital maintenance side of the budget. So we currently sit at, in '25, at $7.6 million in this reserve. Based on the initial planning scenario, we would be looking to increase that reserve to at least $12.6 million. Employee compensation, again, the slide earlier depicted the February 25, 2025 Page 31 December CPI of 2.8 percent. And as you saw, the most recent Florida Price Level Index ranked Collier County at the highest of all 67 counties in the state. The pay plan recommendation for FY '26 is a 3 percent adjustment; a COLA or general wage adjustment of 2 and a half percent, and a pay plan maintenance allocation of a half a percent. From there I'll move into health insurance. As everyone knows, our health insurance costs have been increasing. They're expected to increase again between 6 and 7 percent for this current year, FY '25. The recommended reserves for health insurance are 25.3 million for FY '26. This is to achieve 99 percent certainty within the fund, and I'll go over that here in a second. To achieve this, there's kind of two parts that we're recommending here. First off, a 9 percent adjustment to employer and employee contributions to the plan and then a potential for a one-time fund-level contribution to the plan to stabilize it based on FTE counts within the individual payer funds. Any questions on that before I go into the calculation of the reserves? (No response.) MR. JOHNSON: I'll just show you guys a quick slide here, too, that kind of shows our trend in health insurance. The kind of, I guess, magenta color is our expenses, the darker purple is the revenues, and the green is our reserve level. So as you can see, our expenses are exceeding our revenues, and our reserves are decreasing, hence the recommendation for an increase in the -- in the health insurance costs. And then this is -- this is what we're utilizing to calculate our recommended reserve. As you can see here, our minimum February 25, 2025 Page 32 recommended reserve is 25.3 million. That includes the required minimum reserve, which is 18.7 million, which consists of two parts: Our incurred but not reported claims, which this year totaled 9.5 million; and 60 days of claims, which total 92 -- I'm sorry, $9.2 million. In addition, to achieve 99 percent certainty, we recommend an additional amount to cover the cost variance. If you look at the chart, it's a Monte Carlo simulation, 10,000 trials to get this bell curve, if you will. The best estimated mean for next year is 52.2 million in claims. The 99th percentile -- with certainty at the 99th percentile is 58.1. The difference is 6.6 million, so we add that to the reserve to ensure that we are covered within the 99 percent certainty. Any questions on that? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: All right. When I see this bell curve, I'm thinking I've answered 35 percent of the answers right, but I got an A. So I know that you're real familiar with all of this, and you're going through it fairly rapidly. But does the county need to incur to bring this up, or is that going to be a part of the -- increase the fees on the employees or a combination of both? MR. JOHNSON: Combination of both. So the 9 percent would be an employee/employer contribution, and if we did a fund level adjustment, that would employer. COMMISSIONER HALL: Employer. MR. JOHNSON: Correct. COMMISSIONER HALL: Okay. Thank you. MR. JOHNSON: You're welcome. All right. And at the 9 percent rate, this chart here just shows the employee health plan increase. The center there is per February 25, 2025 Page 33 month, the center section. It varies between $10.51 to $56.55 a month at the 9 percent rate depending on the type of plan. All right. Millage rate policy. Prioritized capital and operating maintenance budgets. Millage rate is going to be calculated with preliminary taxable value based on the budget requirements within those established control lines we set, which were 3 percent for operating and that 5 percent for capital maintenance transfers. New incremental general governmental capital and expanded operating budget proposals will include a funding source and required incremental millage. Those would be above and beyond what was put in the scenario. So any additional expanded requests and/or requirements for additional maintenance or capital projects or reserve levels, for that matter, if we're looking at that capital reserve. MSTU millages for FY '26, it is recommended that the MSTUs be limited to a millage rate sufficient to cover the current budget year operations and any planned capital from those MSTUs. General governmental reserves, the General Fund, we're -- the recommendation is to stick with our continuing policy of between 8 and 16 percent of operating revenues. That's between 50 and $100 million, essentially. For FY '25, the budgeted reserve is 77.6 million. The planning scenario has that reserve at 79.6, an increase of about $2 million. Unincorporated Area General Fund, the target is 8 percent or one month of expenses or approximately 6.5 million. For '25, the budgeted reserve was 6.2 million. Any other general governmental funds that receive transfer revenue from the General Fund or the Unincorporated General Fund will be sized at one month's revenue or whenever we have -- whenever we February 25, 2025 Page 34 plan to send those transfers over to fund that fund to get them through with the cash flow until that point. Enterprise Fund reserves, the Collier County Water/Sewer District user fee reserves are established minimumly between 5 and 15 percent of revenues with working capital resources between 45 and 90 days. That's a continuation of policies from years past. I see I have an extra period there. I apologize. Solid waste reserves will be set between the 45 and 90 days based on FY '25 operating expenses, and we'll continue to reestablish the solid waste restricted reserve for disaster response which was utilized during Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Milton. Targeted reserves within Growth Management Permit Fund 1013 and Planning Fund 1014 will be set to three months and nine months of total budget appropriations respectively. And with that, our next -- any questions on any of that before I go on to the next steps? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just this one -- I was bumping Planning and Zoning yesterday, and we want to make sure that we have -- because we have multiple pieces of property that we already own that need -- direly need to be rezoned, and I'm hearing that there are budgetary constraints affecting that. So just make sure that we're touching the planning and -- the planning fund sufficiently so that we have the revenues to accomplish those needs, please. MR. JOHNSON: All right. All right. Appreciate it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I have a couple questions, first for Ms. Patterson. In terms of the pay increase, what is the current status in terms of vacant positions? Are we -- will we still be competitive? What's that scenario looking like? MS. PATTERSON: So we still are struggling to hire. February 25, 2025 Page 35 Obviously, it's a very competitive market out there. Now, we never expect to compete against private sector. That's just not realistic. But local governments continue to recruit our employees, so remaining competitive with them is important. The Board did take several steps a couple of years ago to try to bring our pay plan current. So what we're doing is attempting to keep that current with these general wage adjustments or the COLAs that we're doing each year. We're at a loss for some of these positions, and there's no way we can buy our way out of them. We just have things like project managers, engineers, things like that, where we just aren't able to hire. But it appears that we're becoming a little bit more competitive when we're dealing with some of the general positions. Now, we do analyze every vacant position when people leave, through retirement or whatever their reasons are, for the appropriateness of that position to be sure that we have those jobs slated correctly and that we're attempting to recruit the right people for the right jobs. We still are running the workforce prioritization pool, and that's that group of positions that had been vacant for a very long time that we hold back for strategic types of programs or whatever if there's a need. So to us the pay plan, continuing on with the cost-of-living adjustments in this competitive environment is key for us to be able to recruit and retain staff. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Correct me if I'm wrong, I think we had some testimony some time back that if we were able to hire project managers, that that would be far less expensive than contracting on individual projects. I think Commissioner Hall kind of led the lead in terms of figuring that out. February 25, 2025 Page 36 MS. PATTERSON: Yes, that is true. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So what's the status of that? Are we looking to do that? MS. PATTERSON: Yes. We are continuing -- none of our project manager positions have gone to the workforce prioritization pool, and we continue to look at ways that we can recruit project managers as well as attempting to have an internal mentoring process where we bring them up ourselves. Other areas where we have difficulties, it's nothing new. It's -- we have a national shortage of public safety. You know, for the last several years we've been working on getting EMS right sized, and then over at DAS, continuing to aggressively pursue hiring an in-house veterinarian. Those services are always augmented by out-sourced things, but we have increased the limit on what we're willing to pay, the maximum amount paid for a veterinarian in attempt to recruit a veterinarian for DAS. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I only mention that just -- I think it's important, obviously, to trim fat from the budget and to keep taxes as low as possible, but at the same time, we want to maintain a very high level of services in the community, and we want to be in the position, like with project managers, where we're actually spending money on employees but saving money in our contracts. So I know it's important to keep the numbers as low as possible, but as we go forward with this, I'd like some more analysis as to are we doing something here in the guise of saving some money but at the same time creating more expense for the county and less services. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. And it's a delicate balance. We have high expectations in this community, and obviously, we have a lot of -- a lot of things going on both with our growth February 25, 2025 Page 37 capital as well as our capital maintenance, so those project managers are incredibly important. Also, the private sector has a lot of work, so the availability of even being able to outsource any of that just because we're in need, it's very, very expensive, and they don't necessarily always have a lot of resources to give to us. So those are highly prioritized for recruitment, and we'll continue to look at different ways that we can do that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I may have misunderstood this, but you went through several different issues dealing with reserves, and one of them was -- I believe was reserves for our general employment of 1 percent -- or one month. Did I misunderstand that? MR. JOHNSON: That's General Fund in general. One to two months, 8 to 16 percent. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So what does that cover? MR. JOHNSON: That covers the cash flow needs for the General Fund. As you know, we don't receive our ad valorem until -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right. Understood. That's why I'm asking the question. I thought you said it was one month of reserves, but now you're saying one to two months. MR. JOHNSON: It's between one and two. We're at about one and a half currently. So we try to follow the guidance of one to two months, which is best practice. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So in your professional opinion, the number for reserves you have for that is sufficient? MR. JOHNSON: Yes, I believe what we have planned is sufficient. February 25, 2025 Page 38 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. And the reserves, I think the number was 12.6 million, down from about 25 million. What reserve fund was that for? MR. JOHNSON: That's in the countywide Capital Fund. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right. MR. JOHNSON: That was -- if you recall, that was the reserve we utilized to address the needs after Hurricane Ian. And last year we utilized that to continue with capital -- capital maintenance and projects even with the reduced -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We would be down to 12.6 million. When we -- when Hurricane Irma came through, do you recall just kind of generally how much reserves we had to tap into? MR. JOHNSON: Irma or Ian? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, Irma was the first one, but Ian as well. MR. JOHNSON: If you recall in -- I don't have that number offhand for Irma, but in Irma, what we did -- we didn't have that reserve, so we ended up tapping into actual capital projects and reducing our capital plan. So that's the purpose of that reserve is to avoid having to do that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: But with Ian, how much did we have to tap into? MR. JOHNSON: We tapped into that $13.3 million that year. Now, we utilized for budget flow purposes around 30- right away, but as we received money from FEMA, we were able to back off that amount to keep that reserve at about 22 million overall. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You're comfortable with the 12.6 million? MR. JOHNSON: I believe that should be a higher number. February 25, 2025 Page 39 Again, once we get taxable value, we can look at that and provide proposals for that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: What should that number be? MR. JOHNSON: I mean, honestly, around the -- we do have other options now with a few other areas of reserves, but if we could be putting in 7.5 million a year, plus, that would be something that I think would be beneficial to us. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. MR. JOHNSON: We had started with 5- a year. That was the initial plug. It depends on the circumstances with hurricanes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm still trying to get my arms around the number. So we're going to have reserves with this proposal of about 12.6 million. And the question was whether that's sufficient. I think you said that you'd like to have more. Then you mentioned 7 million, so you confused me. MR. JOHNSON: Oh, I'm sorry. An additional amount of 7 and a half million per year. Currently we're adding 5 million a year. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So you feel it should be around 20-. We're going to add 5- each year? MR. JOHNSON: Around 15- to $20 million -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. MR. JOHNSON: -- for next year. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall made a good suggestion that we not have any hurricanes for a while. MR. JOHNSON: I would second that if I had a vote. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I will tell you a long, long time ago, the Florida Legislature -- and this is back after the state had had numerous hurricanes. I think we were up to -- we were into the Greek alphabet on hurricanes and tropical storms. The legislature passed a resolution declaring that we would not have February 25, 2025 Page 40 any more hurricanes. And I think for five years or so we had no hurricanes. So we might want to talk to Kathleen Passidomo about that. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And thank you for bringing this up, Mr. Chair. You know, when you and I first came into office, this account didn't even exist. Up until that point, our methodology for any kind of a natural disaster cleanup was to belay necessary, oftentimes life-sustaining capital projects. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's true, because I think the 2017 hurricane, we were dealing with a 2016 budget; we weren't on the Board at that time. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You are absolutely correct. And I had long conversations with our senior staff and ultimately got this account established. Our entire facilities department that had been managed internally had never had any kind of actuarials done. We were -- at the time I thought we were a little bit over a billion in assets, and then necessarily found out that we were just shy of 2 billion in assets and never had applied any kind of an actuarial. And so what I would like to see next week is what that actual number needs to be coming from our -- from our revenue sources to put into this capital reserve. It's -- if my recollections are correct, it's -- it's something north of 20 million a year needs to be put into this to be able to maintain and ultimately replace our capital assets when they reach their useful life expiration. So I'd like a little bit more definite -- because back when we hired Mark to be our County Manager, we were in the final stages of the data entry and doing those actuarials, so -- and I recall a number being thrown around of between 20 and February 25, 2025 Page 41 24 million a year needed to be put in here to ensure that we had necessary maintenance reserves along with capital replacement when useful life actually was attained. MR. JOHNSON: And we can put that together. We had a model last year. I don't remember the exact numbers. But I'll take a look at that and bring it to you next week. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, please, just for a discussion point. It's -- this is a highly discretionary fund that we can -- that we can have available for future needs and future uses as we go along, especially when these short-term -- relatively speaking, short-term -- and we can do -- Mr. Chair, we can do a resolution about waiving on the hurricanes in the upcoming seasons. I'd be happy to do that. But it's imperative that we account for the capital assets that the county owns and that we have numbers associated with the useful life of those capital assets so we have the necessary repairs and maintenance, ultimately, and the replacement capital that's requisite. My second -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, I'm sorry. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do have two points. You brought this one up, but the second one has -- it goes back into the compensation side. We also rewrote job descriptions circa that same time frame to be able to initiate a merit pay program, especially with our -- and it would work well with our project managers. Have we -- have we renewed in that regard at all? MS. PATTERSON: So we are still having some difficulties with the merit program. There are a lot of hurdles on how to equitably administer that merit program, so we're continuing to look at it. And it's not something that we're the February 25, 2025 Page 42 only ones that struggle with. We've had similar conversations with the Sheriff's Office, unfortunately. That's just sort of the world we live in today. So looking at different options on how we might be able to implement -- re-implement a merit program and ensure that it can be administered fairly. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I understand, Ms. Patterson, that you can't operate government like you do the private sector, but certainly, we could have review of our contractual hiring agreements that we have with people, especially on the project manager side of things. When projects are brought in on time and under budget, bonuses can, in fact, be paid to incentivize our project managers to pay a little bit closer attention to the line items and the circumstances that are prevalent along those lines. Number two, the other side of that equation -- and I use this example regularly -- we have an enormous fleet of very, very bright people that we do have employed now. And when someone comes to us with a nice idea that can save the taxpayers money, compensation could/should be offered to be able to effectuate those savings. You know, Commissioner LoCastro has spoken regularly about “This isn't our money. This is the taxpayers' money,” and it's a benefit to all if savings can be effectuated. So I'd like to see that merit pay -- I'd like to know what the obstacles are, and then I'd like to have a discussion on what we can do to overcome those obstacles to be able to initiate that. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. If it's okay with you, I'll talk with our HR folks, and we'll get on your calendar so we can chat about some of those difficulties. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. February 25, 2025 Page 43 COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. You know, within the last five years, I think we had three weather events that affected our area. One pretty bad, the other two not so much. But is there any outstanding monies owed to the county through any of the other agencies, the federal? MR. JOHNSON: Yeah. We're still working through all of those storms: Ian, Helene, Milton. I believe there was another one that started with an I, Idalia. So that's work in progress -- in process, I should say. As we get contracts going -- I know Caxambas is a recent one that we've started working on -- we have to incur the expense before we can be repaid. So these things take five to seven years sometimes before you see the money back. But yes, there is potential FEMA reimbursements coming our way. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Because I know you had mentioned after Ian, you know, we dipped into our reserve funds -- MR. JOHNSON: Yes. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- and used initially almost $30 million. But you said at some point it came down to equate to about 13-, 14- after -- MR. JOHNSON: For that year. And we were able to take advantage of a new process FEMA had where they allowed upfront payment for debris. So we ended up, I believe it was -- don't quote me, but I believe it was around $23 million upfront from FEMA ahead of us incurring the expenses, which helped out with that. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Where I'm going with these questions are, is there a magic number? I believe -- right? We have to acquire so much damages before we qualify for some of those things up front, correct? February 25, 2025 Page 44 MR. JOHNSON: There is. I don't know it offhand. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So we're almost worse off having a bunch of little storms than having one big catastrophic one, because then it comes out of our reserves fund -- MR. JOHNSON: That is correct. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- and we don't get refunded for it. MR. JOHNSON: And the number isn't too substantial. It's -- but yeah, those little ones are -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: But I remember just Debby itself, just, you know, in the low-lying areas, we had -- MR. JOHNSON: And I don't believe that one qualified for FEMA. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: It didn't, right? And we had to spend that out of our own pocket. MR. JOHNSON: Exactly, exactly. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Something -- just food for thought for the rest of the people up here. MR. JOHNSON: No, I appreciate it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, you had something else? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That goes back to the capital reserve that we were discussing earlier. When we've got those reserves in place, the actuarial that's applied to our capital assets allows -- you've got a 50-year useful life and a 20-year roof and 10-year windows and two-year paint, and one-year parking lot, and you're supposed to put away a certain amount of money every year so that you've got the capacity to maintain those assets and then ultimately have the capital to replace the asset when the useful life has expired, and -- but when you have 20- and 50-year money that's sitting in this particular reserve, that allows for February 25, 2025 Page 45 discretionary spending on short-term items. Especially, if we don't reach qualifications with the different agencies that do reimburse us, we've got the money to be able to take care of our citizenry at the same time. So that reserve account's imperative for our longevity and maintaining the reserves that we require to protect our citizens. MR. JOHNSON: Any other questions before I move on? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I don't see anybody lit up here, so I assume none. MR. JOHNSON: All right. I'll just quickly go over our next steps then. As I stated before, on March 4th we'll have our strategic plan and priority-based budget workshop with ResourceX. We'll bring back some of this stuff that you guys have requested. And then on March 11th, we'll bring budget policy to the Board for approval. And from there, staff will start putting together their budgets. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Do we have any registered speakers? MR. MILLER: No. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. MR. JOHNSON: All right. Thank you, all. Appreciate it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Oh, I'm sorry. We do have two lights lit up here. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. I just wanted to wait till the end. I just have two things for Ms. Patterson. Are we still under any type of hiring freezes across any divisions, departments, offices? So everything that we're advertising out on the street, we're actively -- we're actively February 25, 2025 Page 46 pursuing? Because I know there's some other government agencies across the county that are experiencing certain areas where they are sort of freezing, maybe the Sheriff and maybe a couple of other places. But as far as us in this building, everything is wide open? MS. PATTERSON: The only -- the only thing that we have is the workforce prioritization pool, which is a group of positions that were open for -- and vacant for a very long time that were picked up and put into a prioritized pool for use to be deployed out under different circumstances. But as far as the rest of the open positions and as well as people who leave, the only thing that we are doing is making sure that we ask the questions when somebody vacated a position, "Is this the position that you need?" And we evaluate it that way, but people -- there's no hiring freeze as far as our ongoing -- our ongoing vacancies. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. And then, you know, second for you, Chris, is just more of a comment. But a year or so ago, maybe a little longer, you know -- and I think I'm speaking for all the commissioners here -- we charged you and the group that you're here representing to start putting some meat on the bone for us. You know, I remember when I was first elected -- and it's no slam on the process, but sometimes we got a lot of cartoon drawings up here. You know, we're smart enough to see spreadsheets and see numbers. And I've just been very impressed over the last year with the deep dive that we're getting, not only at these meetings but that we'll get next Tuesday. And that was -- that was always our direction, you know. We want to be part of this process, just not being told what's being done. And you could already see the fruits of our labor all working February 25, 2025 Page 47 together with a lot more detail and a lot more knowledge for the numbers. And so I really commend you for that. You know, when you've had one-on-ones with us -- I'm sure I'm -- like I said, I'm speaking for all the commissioners. I've always been really impressed that I'm not just getting three PowerPoint slides that are, you know, in five different colors with a graph and a chart, but it's actually, you know, spreadsheets and numbers, and we can really talk about the details. And so I really look forward to next Tuesday's meeting as well to continue to do a deep dive because, obviously, you know, two billion sounds like a lot, but it goes fast. You know, it goes fast. So -- and then, you know, I'll make one comment about Caxambas. Nobody wants hurricanes, but like Commissioner Kowal said, a bunch of these little storms can really, you know, bankrupt us in a way, you know, as far as repairs and things. You know, when Ian hit Caxambas as hard as it did, I don't want to ever say it did us a favor, but it did exactly what you said, it put us over that threshold, and it really allowed us to attack it aggressively with many repairs and things that were needed over many years that just sort of were difficult to make the cut. But I also know it's hard to chase those dollars. And, you know, you and others in this room -- and I've got some in the back, you know, Jamie French, Trinity, Jaime Cook, all these people that work really hard to secure grants and work with FEMA and put all this together. I know it's a lot of heavy lifting, so I really commend you for the improvement and the -- how we've increased the air speed for us up here in this budget process, so thank you very much. You know, it's noticed and appreciated. MR. JOHNSON: I appreciate the kind words. It takes a February 25, 2025 Page 48 village, for sure. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And so just to repeat for my brain, we're going to basically adopt or recommend a budget at rollback with the 3 percent allowable year-over-year increases? MR. JOHNSON: Not -- not at rollback. The budget is a 5 percent TV increase, taxable valuable increase, is what we put into the plan. And then from there, any additional items above that 5 percent, which is those control lines that we set, would be -- would be incremental millage that we would present in June. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. I'm sorry. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's not a satisfactory answer. And forgive me. That's not what I understood you to say. It was my understanding that we were producing the expense budget at rollback with a 3 percent increase year-over-year expenditure allowance. MR. JOHNSON: At the moment I don't have taxable value. So I mean, 5 percent is right around where we expect that net new taxable value to be, between usually 4 -- 3 and a half and 4 and a half percent. This year I'm expecting it to be a little bit higher. That would then create rollback in that situation at that 5 -- 4 and a half, 5 percent. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So what does the -- what does the taxable value have to do with last year's expenses with what they were? That's my question to you. MR. JOHNSON: What does the taxable value have to do February 25, 2025 Page 49 with last year's expenses? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. That determines the ultimate revenue that we're going to receive when the tax bills come out. MR. JOHNSON: Correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: But the -- but the proposition of this year's expenses over last year's expenses, last year's expenses we know what they are. MR. JOHNSON: Yep. So we took the 3 percent based on the CPI, and then that 5 percent is a little -- the 5 percent for capital is a little bit of an increment to attack our deferred maintenance. And once we receive the taxable value, we'll be able to determine what that net new taxable value is, which could, indeed, be the 5 percent in our planning scenario. When I put together a planning scenario, I put it together very conservative. The state was -- in July was looking at a 12.3 percent taxable value increase potentially this year. They don't give us what that increment is, which is how you calculate the rollback rate. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand that. But it would be my want -- it would be my preference that we utilize last year's expenses with the allowable year-over-year increases, and then the increment above that amount is whatever it is once those taxable values, in fact, come back to us. MR. JOHNSON: Come in, okay. And I think we're essentially saying the same thing, because that's what we've applied, that 3 percent and that 5 percent, to last year's. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So you're 8 over what we were last year? MR. JOHNSON: No. The 3 percent is just for the operations portion. The 5 percent is just associated with the February 25, 2025 Page 50 capital portion. So theoretically, it's a mix between the two, so you have 4 percent. Now, that's really simple math because one bucket's bigger than the other, but... COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Funny math in public? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, that's good math. Okay. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: See you Tuesday. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. I was going to say, we'll talk about it more in depth next week. We don't need to belabor the point right now. MR. JOHNSON: We can do that. Happy to -- happy to put that on paper for you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate the discussion. This is the third time that I've been through this, and this is the first time that I don't feel like I've been -- I'm being told or sold. I feel like you get the process. I'm looking forward to Mr. Fabian getting here. I want to see the real fruit of him. I mean, the pool is great. The ideas that we had to charge fees, and the first little thing that he had, that was great, but I really -- I'm anxious to see the real meat of where we can streamline this government machine. That way we don't have to focus on revenue; we can include it. And as far as -- County Manager, as far as the merit pay thing, you made two words -- you said two words together, and they're not congruent. You said "merit" and "equitable," and they're not. You don't have to be equitable with merit. I think a message to our employees that says, "Listen, if you come up with a great idea that's going to save the taxpayers money, we're going to compensate you for it in some way." You February 25, 2025 Page 51 don't have to define it. I don't know what the legalities are with human resources, but if that message goes out and everyone receives that message, then no one can have sour grapes if someone next to them came up with a great idea and they got compensated for it and they didn't. Nobody should have sour grapes. Everybody should understand. So I just wanted to bring that up and encourage you with that, because I think that's a -- I think the people that are doing the job know best. They know where things are wasteful, and they know where things can be changed. And sometimes we, sitting up here, we don't have it. We don't have our finger on that pulse, but they do. So I just wanted to encourage you with that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Seeing no other lights lit up, let's move on to the next item. We have a few people here from the City of Naples. Perhaps we can take care of that before we take a break. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Item #11B AN INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF NAPLES FOR THE USE OF BAYVIEW PARK TO REMOVE DEBRIS AS PART OF THE NAPLES PIER RENOVATION. (JOHN DUNNUCK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - FACILITIES & REDEVELOPMENT) - MOTION TO APPROVE WITH CHANGES BY COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL – APPROVED MS. PATTERSON: Item 11B is a recommendation to approve an interlocal agreement with the City of Naples for the use of Bayview Park to remove debris as part of the Naples Pier February 25, 2025 Page 52 renovation. Mr. John Dunnuck, your executive director of Facilities and Redevelopment, is here to present. MR. MILLER: Do I have the right one, John? MR. DUNNUCK: No. It should be under 11B. There you go. Perfect. Good morning. I've got a brief presentation, and we have the city staff here available to answer any questions. Just by a little history lesson, you know, what we sometimes forget is the Bayview Park was actually donated to the county by the city. So this is actually a partnership that goes back in time to the beginning of the park itself. Today is a recommendation to approve an interlocal agreement with the City of Naples for the use of Bayview Park to remove debris as part of the Naples Pier renovation. Just by way of timeline -- and this is the city's timeline -- in September of 2022, Hurricane Ian severely damaged the pier. I think we're all aware of that. The City of Naples in 2023 awarded a design contract to THA Consulting and MHK Architecture to produce redesigns for the new improved pier. In October of 2024, the construction contract to Shoreline Foundation was awarded. The construction schedule begins with when they finally get the permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, which they're in the final stages of doing as we speak right now. The overall construction's estimated approximately 18 months from beginning to end. The request you have before you is for the debris removal and the demolition portion of the project. There was a lot of damage that went into the water, and it is actually still on the pier itself, that they have to remove in order to continue the project. Bayview Park is the closest location to the actual staging February 25, 2025 Page 53 area for the removal of the project. And so the kind of contract outline is the contractor will remove the pier debris, place it on a barge, they'll take it to Bayview Park and then remove it and take it to the landfill. The debris will not be stored at the park location. It will be sorted there at the park location, but it will be immediately removed from the park each time that the barge is in place. Use of Bayview Park is only required for demolition, so there is no staging area, as I mentioned, and it is the closest location. They were asked during the CRA meeting, "What about Naples Landing? It's a -- you know, it's a location that you already own." Unfortunately, the barge -- with the size of the barge and the needs and the distance, it would raise the cost, plus the barge actually would not fit in the Naples Landing area to actually remove the material. And so they came to us for Bayview Park as a request to utilize -- and I'll walk you through it -- to utilize eight spaces. It's -- I mention in the executive summary seven. I actually went out and physically counted. It's actually eight spaces in totality out there. Operations Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No weekends or holidays unless authorized by the County Manager, because there could be a situation where a storm's coming, and they may say, "Hey, can we get in and do a Saturday," or something along those lines. We wanted to leave that flexibility. The dock will be available when the barge is not docked. So from the standpoint of when you look at the aerial picture -- and I have kind of depicted in green and red separate areas -- the green is areas where they're going to want to fence it in and keep it enclosed during the period of the project. The red February 25, 2025 Page 54 is the actual dock area that is utilized by boaters on a day-to-day basis to stage on and off the ramp. So when the barge isn't there, the red will be available for the boaters themselves. The maximum will be two days a week that the barge will be there, so it won't be there the full five days. It will be a hit or miss. As they load up the barge, obviously they want to bring it and remove it and take it back to the pier to keep the project moving. I think their target, obviously, would get as much done before hurricane season as possible, you know, assuming they're going to get the permits in the next month or so. We asked that the Naples Police provide security if we asked for that because, as you know, boaters, when they're having to wait to stage on and off a ramp, sometimes it can get a little congested and there can be issues, and so we asked that the city participate in having their boat police there and on site to help us along the way. And then operations, we'd monitor it just as necessary. And this is an important part of the discussion, because, you know, these are fluid situations. We recognize we just opened Caxambas. We just closed 951 boat ramp. We don't know what the full boat-traffic impacts are going to be with the 951 closure. I can tell you, as the CRA, you know, director, that we typically don't have overflow parking onto Hamilton Avenue unless it's a major holiday weekend or it just happens to be one of those super weekends where everybody's out on their boat enjoying themselves. So during the weekdays, we very rarely actually have people using the 34 spaces we have on Hamilton Avenue. Community impact. One of the things we wanted to do to ensure that we addressed all issues, we actually took this to the February 25, 2025 Page 55 CRA Advisory Board, because Danford Street, we've had a lot of challenges with Danford Street and the residents there about, frankly, the activities in Bayview Park, impacts with stormwater, the road, and all kinds of other issues. And so we presented this project with the city to the CRA Advisory Board. They voted 7-0 in support of actually moving forward with the project. They thought four to six months was reasonable in terms of use of the park; however, there were some side conversations that occurred. You know, one was make sure you monitor the park before and after to make sure if there's any damages, that we've done that, that we've -- we actually have a before-and-after scenario that if something were to damage the area, we would actually have the documentation. So I'm working with the facilities staff, and we'll make sure that happens. They wanted to bring back a sidewalk option to the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle area as part of the planned Danford Street maintenance project. We had presented a sidewalk option on Danford Street several years ago, and the citizens couldn't agree to which side of the road the sidewalk would actually go on. So it ended up not moving forward as part of the Hamilton Avenue project when we did the road, because it stalled because the citizens couldn't reach consensus. They've asked us to revisit that issue, and as the CRA, we're happy to do so. And then address any unauthorized commercial activity in the park. This has been an ongoing issue in Bayview Park and one that I'm super, frankly, happy that we've got Tom and Jamie French kind of leading Parks and Recreation from the standpoint of enforcement because we haven't had a lot of enforcement in Bayview Park, and there's a lot of issues there. And they've been out there, and they've been enforcing in February 25, 2025 Page 56 the past several weeks, and we're starting to see some improvements in terms of the unauthorized commercial activity in the park. And then one of the things I wanted to point out -- it came up in the discussion the other day -- was, "Well, how long is the distance from where we have actually built the overflow 34 spaces along Hamilton to actually walk to the park?" And I measured it out. It's .6 miles in total. And what we typically do on any given weekend when they park out there is they walk or a friend shuttles them back and forth, things along those lines. But the total distance of the park location, from what we've built as the overflow parking for Hamilton, is a little over a half a mile. With that, I've got Bob Middleton, public works director; Kevin Land with Shoreline; Dan Ohrenstein and Bruce Selfon; and Todd Turrell from Turrell & Associates, all here to answer any questions you may have on behalf of the city. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Just one quick question, and that was, what are the plans for the construction of the pier itself? The utilization for the demolition is a four- to six-month period. How are they going to tote the materials they need to rebuild the -- MR. DUNNUCK: They're going to store -- they could answer the detail of it, but their plan is to store the foot of the pier itself on land, and then they'll build the pier as they go out. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I gotcha. Okay. That was my only -- and, you know, the only other statement that I had is this ongoing monitoring that we're alleging that we're, in fact, going to do. It's imperative that we do do that. That ramp gets used a lot. Especially with the closure of 951, it's going to even get used more. February 25, 2025 Page 57 MR. DUNNUCK: Trust me, I have a lot of volunteer monitors on Danford Street. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. You know, we have talked -- we've talked, John, and I've actually talked to Mr. Middleton, you know, in reference to this project. This is in my district. You know, I was being told it was seven spots. Now I believe you said you confirmed it's eight. MR. DUNNUCK: (Nods head.) COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And two of those are handicapped, which were the only two handicapped boat -- or trailer-sized parking spots in that area. So -- and I've thrown this out. And I don't know if it's that much of an ask, but at minimum -- you know, I know during the week we haven't seen utilization of all the spots being used. But, you know, kind of the handicap are a game changer to the fact that on the weekends, when we do have an excessive amount of people using that park to launch boats, you know, I've recommended that if -- I don't believe it's that much of a reach, but maybe to improvise some sort of shuttle service instead of having -- especially a handicapped person going to park their boat three-quarters of a mile away from where they just launched it to park their trailer. So, you know, I don't know if that -- it's a possible -- that could be a possible ask for them to provide that service at least. We'll gauge it, see if it's, you know, necessary through the whole time. And I guess the second question is you mentioned -- you showed the red area on your little map on there in reference to sometimes people stage a boat to the north side of the launch. February 25, 2025 Page 58 That doesn't necessarily mean when the barge is there, they're not going to be able to still launch and go to the south and stage along that pier area? MR. DUNNUCK: Correct, correct. They'll be able to use the south at all times. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Because I don't want to make it sound like those two days out of the week there's no launching. MR. DUNNUCK: No, no. The south will be accessible the whole time. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. MR. DUNNUCK: And with respect to the handicapped accessibility, we will move those to appropriate slips near the ramp. Brian and I have had conversations in facilities about whether we actually need to put impervious asphalt down in the short-term or whether we can still meet the code short-term with the hard gravel that we currently have in terms of dealing with that. So we're looking to site that. I think the city has agreed that they will pay for that on a temporary basis, because it's not going to be a lot of cost. But we will relocate the handicapped accessible. And one of the other things was law enforcement. You know, of those eight, one's a law enforcement dedicated spot as well for launching. We will relocate that as well nearby. So we kind of have a plan in place for all of it. But, you know, to the point of the shuttle service discussion, I think we agree it's a wait-and-see thing, but I think they're agreeable to do it when we need to do it, but I'll have them come up and confirm that. I think it's just a matter of monitoring and not putting out there for days that there's going to be no activity. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Because you know as well February 25, 2025 Page 59 as I know, there's been some entrepreneurs in the neighborhood -- MR. DUNNUCK: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- that will charge people five bucks to give them a ride back -- or give them a ride down to the park, and to me that's -- MR. DUNNUCK: Oh, yeah. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- you know, that's -- taxpayers' dollars pay for that park. Nobody should have to pay somebody to drive them down to the park, you know. MR. DUNNUCK: Yep. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's capitalism. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Well, it may be, but it's confusing sometimes when people, oh, I've got to pay this $5 to get a ride on a golf cart, you know, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good point. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir. I realize every project's different, but I just wanted to make this one note. I had something similar in District 1 where we used the base of the Jolley Bridge as sort of, like, a lay-down area, and then, of course, you know, the barge was going to come and pick up debris that that area's being used for from construction sites of things that were being torn down. So it's sort of a similar situation. It sounds like this is well coordinated. But, you know, I'll just make this one notation. A big problem that we had in my district was, you know, the debris would be dropped off, and the barge that was supposed to, you know, come the next day, many times didn't. And so, you know, you have people that are staring at that garbage for, you know, weeks and whatnot. So, you know, just my only suggestion is, you know, the February 25, 2025 Page 60 barge people and the debris drop-off people are usually two totally different companies, or at least it was in my division -- or in my district. That was the thing we had to tighten. And then when we did, it was, you know, don't drop off the debris unless the barge is on the way or it's already there. And especially in this highly concentrated area, you know, these are citizens that, you know, are staring at all that -- all that junk waiting for the barge to show up. So that coordination is critical, as you well know. We didn't get it right in my district years ago, and then, you know, we worked hard to really fix that, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We do have some representatives of the city here. I don't know if we need to ask them any questions. Any desire to speak to those folks? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Any registered speakers other than the representatives from the city? MR. MILLER: No. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Then we need a motion on the interlocal agreement. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Chairman, should we make sure that language is in there, if we monitor this and it becomes an issue, that we will visit the idea of a possible shuttle being provided to get people to and from the parking lot? MR. DUNNUCK: We can certainly add that language. We have general language that talks about monitoring and revisiting the issues together as a group. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Why don't you clarify -- MR. DUNNUCK: But if we get somebody on the record, you know, maybe from the city to agree that they will, you know, provide the shuttle service if we deem necessary. February 25, 2025 Page 61 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. Why don't you go ahead and clarify that point. And -- yes, sir. MR. MIDDLETON: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. Bob Middleton, Public Works director. Part of the agreement is that, you know, we will work together on this, specifically the language is the City Manager and County Manager. We know this is going to be a fluid thing. Things will change. What I wanted to point out is there's probably going to be -- depending on when the project starts, there will be several holidays that are affected there. You know, we want to try to determine what that demand is going to be during specifically those holidays. And there may be steps that we have to take. I'm not going to -- I don't want to sit here and tell you what we're going to do right now, but there's probably some options that we have open. You know -- you know, we may demobilize the area for a certain holiday. Don't want to do that because that just adds cost to the project. But the language changes that we just discussed, I don't think there's a problem with putting it in there. I just don't want to put anything in there specifically to any things that we may do at this time. I'd rather us determine that as they're required. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Let me suggest that you put some clarification language in there that there may be changes such as the requirement for a shuttle. I'd also ask that you have periodic reports back to the Commission. MR. MIDDLETON: Absolutely. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You know, maybe once a month, once every six weeks. I know this is a four- to six-month project, but keep us informed, and if there are issues, then we'll deal with them. February 25, 2025 Page 62 MR. MIDDLETON: Be happy to do so. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Anything else from the Board? Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman. I do realize that this is a good -- this is a feel-good partnership with us and the city, and it's something that's going to be necessary. It's also taxpayers' money for those slips and those spots that we're taking up. So I think the overall good in my mind is worth it. As far as the debris, there's always room at the rock crusher plant now that that's cleaned up. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's a little far away. COMMISSIONER HALL: But, no, I will -- I will -- if there's no other further discussion, I'll make a motion to pass the interlocal agreement. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And can I just clarify something -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- because I know Commissioner LoCastro brought up a good point. But it's kind of the opposite of what we're doing here. Our debris' coming in on the barge, so no debris will be on the land because it doesn't exist until the barge gets there. So the debris comes off the barge and gets loaded right on the trucks. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. So you've got to have the trucks, like, imminent, in a way. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah. So what's more than likely, the trucks are probably a different contract, but that I'm sure will -- MR. MIDDLETON: I'll speak for the contractor. He has coordination with not only the barge but for the trucks that are February 25, 2025 Page 63 there that will haul the material off. They have to be there at the same time because we can't store material there. He doesn't want to handle that material twice; in other words, take it off the barge, set it on the ground, pick it up, or do extra work for it. So it's got to happen all at the same time, and I think the contractors will do that. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I just wanted clarification for the citizens out there listening that that's what we talked about how it's going to operate -- MR. MIDDLETON: Right. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- so they don't get the idea we're storing anything on them spots there, so... All right. Thank you, Chairman. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion. Do we have a second? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and second. If there's no further discussion, all in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It passes unanimously. MR. MIDDLETON: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Why don't we come back at 11 o'clock. We'll take a little bit of a break here, and we'll finish February 25, 2025 Page 64 up pretty quickly. So we're in recess until 11. (A brief recess was had from 10:38 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.) MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. We will reconvene the meeting. I believe we're on Item 11B, if I'm not mistaken. Item #11C THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AGREEMENT #LHTF 25-01 WITH HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF SW FLORIDA, INC. D/B/A/ HELP IN THE AMOUNT OF $50,000 TO OPERATE AND ADMINISTER THE COLLIER COUNTY COMMUNITY LAND TRUST (CCCLT) (PER COMMISSIONERS MCDANIEL’S REQUEST) - MOTION TO CONTINUE TO A FUTURE MEETING BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HALL – APPROVED MS. PATTERSON: We are at Item 11C. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I mean C. MS. PATTERSON: Yes. That is formerly 16D7, is a recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign Agreement LHTF 25-01 with Housing Development Corporation of Southwest Florida, Inc., doing business as HELP, in the amount of $50,000 to operate and administer the Collier County Community Land Trust. Ms. Kristi Sonntag, your director of Human -- Housing and Human Services? MS. SONNTAG: Community. MS. PATTERSON: Community and Human Services -- I can't ever get that right -- sorry, Kristi -- is here to present or February 25, 2025 Page 65 answer questions. This item was moved at Commissioner McDaniel's request. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, do you have any specific questions you want to be addressed, or do you want a presentation? Both? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I have questions. That's the reason I pulled the agenda item. But if -- how do you wish to -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, why don't you give us a brief presentation, and then we'll get into Commissioner McDaniel's questions. MS. SONNTAG: Sure. For the record, Kristi Sonntag, Community and Human Services director. The item before you today is the agreement with the Collier County Community Land Trust to perform affordable housing related activities to foster the development of affordable housing in the amount of $50,000. So the Land Trust originated from the 2017 Urban Land Institute study that was completed. In 2018 -- in April of 2018, the Board established a local housing fund, and then in 2019, the Board approved the policy and the work scope, et cetera, for that housing fund. In addition, on that same day, RFP 19-557 was approved in the amount of $100,000 to award to HELP for the Collier County Community Land Trust. So a community land trust is a not-for-profit organization that has its own board, and the goals of the land trust are for long-term housing affordability and to create permanent affordable rental and homeownership for low- to moderate-income persons. The Collier County Community Land Trust was certified in February 25, 2025 Page 66 2021 by the Land Trust Institute, which is backed by Freddie Mac. So how did we get here? In -- several years ago, there was a competitive solicitation by Community and Human Services at which the Land Trust applied for funding. The review and ranking committee approved the application conditionally, and the agreement over the last several years was worked on, developed, and where we're at now is there are five activities associated with this agreement. They include to prepare a plan to address commercial and mixed-use developments, submit grant and tax credit applications to support the construction of affordable housing, submit grant applications on behalf of the Community Land Trust to support their own operating costs, they are to provide quarterly and yearly financial statements, as well as conduct outreach events, and they are to engage in the development of one new affordable housing development. And with that, the recommendation is to approve the agreement for 50,000, and Mr. Puchalla from the Land Trust is here. And I'll take any questions. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Do you want to hear from the Land Trust before we get into questions? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's up to you. However you wish to proceed, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, why don't we have you come on up, tell us real quickly about the Land Trust and how this will work. MR. PUCHALLA: I absolutely will. For the record, Michael Puchalla. I serve as executive director of both HELP, which is a HUD-approved counseling agency, and the Collier County Community Land Trust. We have a management agreement that HELP manages, so I provide that service to both February 25, 2025 Page 67 organizations. So we have the flexibility and some operational efficiencies because it is two affiliated organizations, although they're managed separately, managed with separate boards of directors. But that allows us to pivot. And so, obviously, from 2022 to now, we've had a lot of focus in on helping with other programs related to COVID, with Hurricane Ian. So now we are in a position we're working on a couple of joint venture partnerships that I think will dovetail very well with this operating support to move forward and help to bring physical development of housing that is affordable, and it's kind of -- one of which is very exciting is a "build to rent to own," which is a hybrid rental that evolves into homeownership. That partnership is about to be materialized and move forward. So excited to answer any questions you might have, and I appreciate any support. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Well, with all due respect to the organization, I'm not pleased with this -- with this grant. This is a private not-for-profit organization that theoretically intercedes between the government, between the county, and affording -- affordable housing developers; is that correct? MS. SONNTAG: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Will you go back to the slide that shows the -- that one. We already do all of these things at the county. We assist developers for submission of grants. When I read the executive summary, everything that was -- that was being provided by this private not-for-profit organization is already being performed by our county staff, by February 25, 2025 Page 68 our -- and state staff with regard to housing affordability, and I didn't -- I didn't see a rationale for this grant to be bequeathed. So my question -- two questions that I have for you is, number one, is this grant request time-sensitive? Does it have to be approved today? MS. SONNTAG: Absolutely not. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Number one. Number two, I would then like to move that it's continued and we tighten up the language within this agreement so that it's not as global with specifics. And we don't need to belabor the point today since we're -- if it's the will of the Board to continue this item. I would like to know -- I have an issue with the name of this organization in the first place. This organization was named after Collier County as a land trust, and it's not a Collier County organization. This is an NGO. And so I would like a list of the submission of the grant proposals that they have secured. I would like a list of the projects and operations that they're actually working with and effectuating. Have they provided the quarterly reports and the financial statements that are requisite for them to even be participatory in this? And I'd like to see those things before this goes forward, if it goes forward. So if it meets with your pleasure, Mr. Chair, I'd like to move to continue the item. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Ms. Sonntag, how much time do you think you would need to meet with Commissioner McDaniel and get the information or make the changes that he's suggesting? Do you need -- is the first meeting in March enough time, or do we need to go to the second meeting in March? MS. SONNTAG: No. I could meet with him before then, sure. No problem. February 25, 2025 Page 69 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. I want to make sure that you're not -- you have plenty of time. MS. SONNTAG: Oh, yeah. I do, absolutely. I would just need to get some information from Mr. Puchalla on the list of activities he's done, but the financials, I already have those in-house, and the list of grants that he's received, some I know, but I would have to get the rest from him, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, first meeting in March? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's irrelevant to me when it comes back. I just want that documentation. And I also would like to see, if it's not already in the actual agreement with regard to the grant, specifics that can be tracked with regard to the expense. I don't want it just dumped into the operating account for this NGO and then not having -- not having trackable measurables and milestones. MS. SONNTAG: Yes, sir. The five activities up there do have fees associated with those activities. So if Mr. Puchalla and the Land Trust didn't deliver a plan on commercial mixed-use development, we wouldn't pay them. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MS. SONNTAG: Yeah. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Why don't we -- why don't we go ahead and continue this to the next meeting, if it's acceptable. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's fine. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We need a motion and a second -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do you want to specify -- do you want to specify the next meeting or just continue it until we're ready to bring it back? February 25, 2025 Page 70 MS. SONNTAG: That's fine. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I mean, there's no time constraint on this grant application. So I'm okay. Because if -- I've been -- contrary to the dumb look on my face, we've had a couple of really light meetings, Board meetings, county commission meetings, and I have a sneaking suspicion that things are piling up over here. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, that's one of the reasons why I thought we could go ahead and take care of this. But we'll continue it to whenever you want it continued. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, it's irrelevant when it comes back. If next meeting's fine, that's fine, I don't care, or the following. Just continue the item until we have that ready. MS. SONNTAG: Absolutely. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion to continue this generally. COMMISSIONER HALL: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a second. Commissioner Hall is seconding the motion. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I was lit up, but that's okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And if the motion passes, you'll bring it back when you're ready to bring it back. MS. SONNTAG: Yes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal, do you have a comment? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I was just going to -- I just wanted to go on the record. I don't really have an issue with the name of the organization. I mean, we've got several organizations here in Collier County that use Collier that are nongovernment organizations. I mean, Collier's just basically the founding family of this county that -- you know, that brought February 25, 2025 Page 71 this place forward. So they're not calling theirself "Collier County Community Land Trust." So I mean, I just want to go on the record, I don't think that's too much of an issue that's, you know, break or make me on this subject. But yeah, I look forward to maybe getting a little bit deeper dive and getting back to it next meeting, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and a second to continue this, and you'll bring it back when you're ready, which could be the next meeting. All in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It passes unanimously. MS. SONNTAG: Thank you. 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: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 15A, public comments on general topics not on the current or future agenda by individuals not already heard during previous February 25, 2025 Page 72 public comments in this meeting. MR. MILLER: We have no one registered to speak at this time. MS. PATTERSON: All right. Very good. You guys coming up? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Did Vanessa Vairo -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: EMS person? MS. PATTERSON: No. So we'll reschedule her for another meeting. Item #15B STAFF PROJECT UPDATES MS. PATTERSON: Item 15B, staff project updates. This may be a good time to invite our Parks and Rec folks up to give an update on Sun-N-Fun. MR. HANRAHAN: Oh, sorry, boss. MR. FRENCH: No, no. It's all good. I just wanted to introduce the team involved. Unfortunately, many of them can't be here. For the record, I'm Jamie French, department head for Growth Management and Community Development. This group was -- Parks and Recreation was reassigned to the already established Growth Management/Community Development, so now we're Growth Management and Community Development on around the first of October. As such, one of our -- one of our early-on directives was to get this water park assessed and reevaluated. So we've looked a little beyond just the water park, but we've looked at the entire North Collier Regional Park facility, to include our softball, our February 25, 2025 Page 73 soccer complexes, our food commissaries, the expo hall, as well as the associated kitchens that are there, and, of course, Sun-N-Fun. We've worked in collaboration with our partners at Facilities Management. Brian DeLony, as I said last week, has been a tremendous addition to lead that group with Facilities Management and just long-term friend and really a great colleague to work with, he and his team. Along with that, we've utilized a lot of our resources that we already had established within Growth Management. Jean Benoit, David Morino, Evelyn Trimino all -- that are there at the park right now probably working. But we just wanted to bring you an update, so I think Mr. Hanrahan's going to kick us off. He is your interim Parks and Recreation director. I apologize, Rob Stoneburner seems to be calling me, so I'm going to take his call and let these folks get back at it. Your Tax Collector seems to find it funny every time I'm at this podium, so he calls me. So thank you, Rob. Appreciate that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. MR. HANRAHAN: Thank you, Jamie. James Hanrahan, interim division director for Parks and Recreation. Going -- we will be going over the update for Sun-N-Fun. Jaime Cook, as well as Brian DeLony, will be assisting with this presentation as well. This has been a truly collaborative effort between many divisions. I want to thank, as Jamie mentioned, Growth Management, but specifically Parks and Rec; Redevelopment Review; Building Plan review; Operations Regulatory Management; the finance February 25, 2025 Page 74 team; Public Utilities, which included Water, Wastewater, Solid Waste, Transportation, specifically Road Maintenance; Facility Management; and OMB. It has truly been a collaborative effort between all of the divisions and departments within the county. As he mentioned before -- he took a couple of names. I was going to thank just the boots on the ground, Jean Benoit, James Williams, and Eric Short for having their staff working nights, weekends, and even the holidays. So this is an aerial view of the park that was taken last Friday, and I just wanted to hit on several areas of the park. This is the activity pool. We call it the pirate cove. It had work done three years ago, so it's still in great shape and looks good. This is the baby pool or kiddie pool area, very shallow water. It has a pirate theme as well that you will see a lot of families with young kids in the area. This is the family pool. If you remember from back in the day, it had an island in the middle. The island was taken out almost two years ago, and it expanded the size of the pool, including a sundeck. This is the dive well where you have two diving boards. And I'm going to go over the update as far as that work in a couple of slides. And you have two lap lanes as well as the slides. You have four that lead into this catch pool here as well as one that leads into the lazy river, and the lazy river which goes around the facility here. I do want to update, the main reason -- as Facilities mentioned back when we had the talk about the closure, this is Pump House 1. Think of this as the heart of all of our operations, and this is where a substantial amount of work was done to get all of this to work. So in order for these pools to be clean and safely filtered, this is where the work had to be done. February 25, 2025 Page 75 And then I also wanted to show that this is a concession area. Jamie French and Ahmed, who's come over from the accelerator, we are working along with Cormac Giblin to do an ITN for concessions in that area. So I was with Procurement this past week entertaining the people that are interested in that. So one of the main things that we had to address were the stair towers. And if you look here, there was previously several joints and bolts, along with the stairs, that were severely corroded and rusted. We were in violation of state requirements for slides -- for the slide towers, and these repairs were critical to being able to use the stairs. So if you see here what it used to look like and the repairs that have happened. Brian DeLony was -- and his team was there almost every single day making sure that we were able to have these stairs. Some kudos to him. Kudos to the contractor of understanding our timeline and getting it done. The lazy river, we had the contractor come in and acid wash the entire lazy river. This is what it looked like even just a week and a half ago. And then when -- you see the difference now, night and day. So the slides, paint that was previously installed in 2021 was already chipping, and so we had a company come in. I actually got a chance to meet with the company. They were from Missouri. They were very excited to come down and work. Brought a crew. I have not seen when you bring that many people to get something done, but they understood what we needed done, and they knocked it out fairly quickly. So just so you know, the paint was removed, and all slides were gel coated for protection of the slides as well as our patrons. If you've ever gone down a slide and it's not taken care of, you'll have those red marks on your back. We shouldn't have those red February 25, 2025 Page 76 marks on our back when we go down these slides, Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I don't go down those slides. MR. HANRAHAN: Once again, what I mentioned about Pump House No. 1, this is where we had to do a lot of the work. All new recirculation pumps were installed on all six pools. This included installation of VFDs, which are variable frequency drives, to assist with regulating the flow and new piping to connect to existing filters. Painting, if you can look here, before the painting had -- the paint around the amenities had kind of faded. Facilities came in. James Williams' team came in and painted around all of the amenities. And then if you look at the concession building, this is something that people notice, and it pops immediately when we were doing the ITN, was -- this was before, and this is the epoxy flooring that went down. So wonderful renovations there. This is a breakdown of what we've completed thus far. Pump houses; restoration of the slide tower; restoration of the slides; the concrete cracks and joint sealing; lazy river, as I mentioned; concession flooring; landscaping. And the projects to be completed after we open up for spring break -- okay. These will be also before we open as well. Thank you, Jaime. Bathroom door frames; Pump House No. 1; geothermal, which Symbion is the company. They have applied for their permits; pool deck lighting; diving boards, which the diving boards will be in tomorrow and replaced by March 4th. And the other projects that I mentioned are critical but not -- I mean, they're not critical to opening, so we'll be able to open even if those projects are not done. February 25, 2025 Page 77 I am going to pass it on to Jaime Cook, and she will discuss the permitting and inspection status. MS. COOK: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Morning -- sorry. Jaime Cook, your director of Development Review. I was asked to come in in October and help with a lot of the capital projects in parks, which is where my involvement has mostly been. And I'm going to talk about some of the permitting and inspections that will be completed prior to opening next -- by the end of next week. So first the Florida Department of Health/Environmental Health regulates all commercial swimming pools in the state of Florida. James spoke to the new pumps that have been installed for all six of the pools that will be opened, and we received permit approval to move forward with the recirculation pumps with the state on February 14th. We have been working very collaboratively with the Department of Health. They've been out on site a couple of times, and we have the opening inspection schedule for Thursday. As James mentioned, the diving boards won't be completely installed until next week. So we've already spoken to them, and they have on their schedule to come out midweek next week to make sure that the diving boards have been installed as well. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Fair Rides is who regulates the slides in the state of Florida. They regulate all water amusement rides. We have an inspection scheduled with them on March 3rd. The way the slide inspections work is typically they have independent contractors who do an initial inspection and then will provide a report to the Division of Fair Rides. That February 25, 2025 Page 78 inspector has been out on site multiple times since December and has been very pleased with the work that has been done so far, so -- some of the pictures that James showed you earlier. So we fully expect that this inspection will pass, and we will be able to use those slides next week. And, of course, Building Plan Review and Inspections permitting through Collier County is also required. So there are several open permits. For the pumps and exhaust fans, those inspections have commenced, and the fans are expected to be installed by early next week. So as long as those have been installed, we will be able to have that inspection finaled as well. The stair tower, the inspections have commenced; however, we do have a section of the stairs that Brian is going to speak to shortly that do need to be replaced. There's a temporary -- temporary solution in place currently. So that permit won't be finaled until sometime in April or May. And then the fence repairs and gate installations that have been done, those -- that permit has already been finaled. And again, I know James spoke to it, but we really would like to thank Dr. George's team for all of the work that they did installing VFDs with the pumps. They showed up with a temporary meter so we could get the lazy river, which is 300,000 gallons, filled within two days. So we thank them for all of their time. And I'd like to turn it over to Brian at this point to talk about the projects that will be done both after spring break as well as next fall. Thank you. MR. DeLONY: Good morning, Brian DeLony, Facilities director. I'll go over the projects that are going to be done after spring February 25, 2025 Page 79 break, before summer opening, and then after summer. So some of the main projects we have is the lazy river main drains. This actually went before you-all back in February. So this will be updating the main drains and the structure associated with the main drain to current state standards to keep people from being -- actually being able to be sucked down and held down under water with those drains. Slide pool drains, same thing. This one will be actually coming to you-all here in March for the contract award for construction. Again, updating those drains. Previously those drains were leaking. We had done some -- we had done temporary repairs on those drains, but this is to go in there and make it so we shouldn't have any future issues with them replacing the Fiberglass with concrete. On the concrete pathways, the pathway behind the slide, the south side of the slide, between that and the Rec Plex is in need to be replaced based on all the activities we've had out of there. We're also going to be updating that to a thicker concrete slab so that we can, in the future, have maintenance activities occur back there. We're also going to add a little pathway to one of the mechanical rooms associated with the Rec Plex. On the slide tower, there's a set of stairs at the bottom of it, and in the future hopefully all the stairs, that we intend on replacing. Currently, the construction of the stairs are basically welded in steel for the concrete step poured on them. This creates several issues. It's a maintenance issue. There's a lip associated with the metal, and as the paint ages, it flakes, and it creates actually a sharp edge. So you'll see, when these open up, we're going to have tape all the way up on every single stair, and that's really to keep that edge from coming loose even though it's February 25, 2025 Page 80 new paint, but it's to protect that edge. So in the future, on these bottom flight of stairs, we're actually cutting out all the metal, we're putting in areas where we can bolt in hot dipped galvanized steel, and we're replacing it with Fiberglass treads so in the future it will be much easier to maintain, much safer. This is currently how all our other slides are constructed. On the other steps we'll be actually cutting down that metal edge so it won't be up as high so the top part, when you step on it, will be concrete, so you shouldn't have the same issue with the paint delamination. But the hope is in the future that we can continue to replace flights of stairs every year as we shut down as part of a maintenance activity. LED lighting, this is just a replacement of the fluorescent lights within the pump houses to LEDs to provide additional lighting and more energy efficiency within the pump houses. Going on to post summer activities, we have currently in -- or finishing design and permitting is the interactive water feature. That's that center blue area that you see at the park. There's two large basins associated with that that were constructed of Fiberglass that excessively leak at this point, and that's why the activity's not open. The idea here is to change it out from an interactive water feature to a splash pad, an interactive splash pad like we have at some of our other parks. That would enable us to actually reduce the size of the basins and replace them with concrete basins. The chemical storage area, this is over behind Pump House 1. It's extremely deteriorated from the years of use. So this is to go in there and actually replace it and upgrade it to provide additional secondary containment, and then also to provide shade structure back there since a majority of our chemical feed pumps February 25, 2025 Page 81 along with our chemicals are stored back there, so to get them out of direct rain and sunlight. The dive well renovation, that's going back to that dive pool, is to re-Marcite that pool, so just to replace all the Marcite in that pool. The wading pool renovation, that includes re-Marciting, retiling, and redoing of the grading around that pool. And then that lazy river, the bonding replacement. If you've ever seen the lazy river or heard complaints about the lazy river having leaves in it, this is the reason why the lazy river has leaves in it, because we can't fill it all the way. We actually keep it about a foot, foot and a half down, because if we fill it all the way, that bond beam leaks. So this is to go in there and rip out about two feet of the entire pool -- or entire feature all the way around and then rebuild that back up and replacing, you know, the tiling, re-Marciting, and then the piping all associated with that. That's all I've got. Any questions? COMMISSIONER HALL: Comment. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: First of all, I want to commend staff for the job that they've done to get this -- I've been the one cracking the whip to get this open by spring break. This park was -- it wasn't dead, but it was bleeding at the jugular, and it was quickly dying. I mean, it was quickly going to die. And for what we've accomplished to this date is remarkable. I wouldn't take any excuses. And they've put up with me, and they've met the challenge. I mean, from Dr. George's team to permitting to the Clerk's Office to work with us. I said, "Get it done, and we'll ask questions later," and you've done an amazing job. February 25, 2025 Page 82 And I know that there's -- it seems like it's a lot of money. I did meet with the Hunden Group, the group that you have to do a study to be able to spend money, and they're fully behind this project to show that it draws tourism, and we'll be paying for a lot of this with actual tourism dollars, so that's coming out of your capital funds or our general budgets. So hopefully it's going to be paid for. I was kind of shocked to see the $5 million project for the lazy river. Hopefully we can get some minds together to where we can get that done to where it's not going to be that much money. I'm choking. Anyway, I just wanted to commend you. I'm looking forward to this project being open. It's -- it was neglected for years with no plan for maintenance, no plan for life. And we've actually completely redone this thing with that maintenance in mind, with that long-term keep so that we don't face this same issue another 20 years from now. I think 20 years from now, with the plan that we have going forward, it will still look like a semi-new facility, well taken care of, and well used by the community. So I just want to say thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And just -- and that -- you know, the lazy river has been a huge issue with this facility not working, an enormous amount of repairs. Do we have to replace that? MR. FRENCH: Commissioner, we will certainly value engineer this the best we can to kind of patch the holes, but there has been an independent study done. We recognize that around the coping, one of the things that we found is that even when this was constructed, it probably did not have good CEI, construction, February 25, 2025 Page 83 engineering, inspection, going on. No good owner's representation like we've seen from the regulatory side in the private sector to ensure that things are built correctly. We even saw it with the slide tower. So this park is 20 years old. So the errors and omissions are -- we're way past that time. So this is just something through not properly maintaining it over the years, making -- and, Commissioner Hall, I've referred to it as looking abandoned when I got there. It wasn't even primitive. But at the end of the day, it is something that it's going to continue to erode. It is something that is going to continue to need repair unless it's addressed. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So that didn't answer my question. MR. FRENCH: A repair is required, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And just -- and there's no argument that a repair is required. But the question is, do we have to have it? I mean, it started off with faulty construction. I remember when they built it 20-years-ago-plus, it was poorly constructed in the first place. And I'm concerned that -- because of the expense totals that were in there, that's another $5 million expenses associated with this amenity. Is it requisite that we do, in fact, repair it/replace it? MR. FRENCH: Sir, it's a feature. If the Board's direction was to remove the feature and to think of something different, we would certainly do that, but at this point we're simply providing you with what those costs would be to repair what's currently there. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. I'd like for us to have that discussion at some particular stage just to find out whether the relevancy of the expense is warranted. February 25, 2025 Page 84 MR. FRENCH: As would we, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's a very good point. And, Commissioner Hall, you're closer to this than anybody else. And that's one of the questions, I think, that we've all pondered is are there some amenities that just don't need to be in some of these water facilities. The lazy river may be one of those. That's just a question. Perhaps you could evaluate that and let us know. That's going to be coming back in the summertime for contract. Is that -- did I see that correctly? MR. FRENCH: For the lazy river, that would be on a future agenda that we would be seeking funding for that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So why don't we -- why don't we spend a little bit of time, Commissioner Hall, and, you know, kind of get an idea of how many people in the past have used it. Has it been really well utilized, and do we really need it? You've got so many other water features there. It seems like that's just an addition that may not be worth the 5 million to -- COMMISSIONER HALL: Lazy river necessity, I got it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Any other -- Commissioner Kowal? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. I guess it all comes down to numbers, raw numbers, right? We can't -- we've can't leave a giant trench around all those pools. It's a hazard. So I mean, it would cost us money to demo it and backfill it and whatever other landscaping we'd have to do. So we'd have to weigh that against repairing it and having it versus the cost to get rid of it because it would -- I don't think anybody would allow it to exist empty like that, I mean, because it would be a danger for our citizens. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It would definitely have to be February 25, 2025 Page 85 filled in if we didn't use it. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah. I mean, it also all comes down to the actual nuts and bolts of what's economically more -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good. Maybe that would be a good location for a butterfly garden out there. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: But I must confess, I have used that lazy river because I am lazy at times. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: I just want to -- this is going to be a good time to determine if the lazy river's going to be an actual, you know, feature that people are going to enjoy. It's been down for so long, people have kind of gotten used to not having it. But now that it's going to be up, we'll see how much it is filled up, how much it's utilized. And, you know, we can just -- along with the discussion ourselves, we can just ask the people, you know, how important is it to you. To me Sun-N-Fun is the slides. And I'm so tickled that those are going to be open. And I'm going to go to the top and scream like a girl, too. MR. FRENCH: Sir, if I could, just once more, it's not beyond thanking of these families, because I can tell you on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I was there, and I was there with crews. It's the families that support our colleagues, that sacrifice their time and their holiday to have them working over the holidays. And I can tell you I've been there, much like the Paradise Sports Complex, I'm there on nights and weekends. And I'm -- you know, whether I'm helping clean a bathroom or clean out a drain, we're walking this site. You've really -- I would -- I am so blessed and so pleased to be able to work with these colleagues. They have really stepped up. So thank you February 25, 2025 Page 86 for your support. I certainly thank the County Manager for not really -- much like you, Commissioner Hall, this was a gravity issue, as I like to refer to them. You can't fight it. So it's just -- it is what it is. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall, do you have anything else? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. MR. FRENCH: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well done. Now take a quick look at that slide over at the Golden Gate Park. There's been a sign up that says the stairwell is under repair. That's been up with there, I think, for two years. MS. COOK: So, Commissioner, I'll speak to that one real quick for you. Next Monday when we have the inspector out for Sun-N-Fun, they are then heading to Golden Gate to look at your slide tower with the intent to have that open for spring break as well. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Wonderful. MS. COOK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Ms. Patterson, anything else from your end there? MS. PATTERSON: No, Commissioners. Item #15C STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to Item 15C, staff and commission general communications. As we discussed, the workshop is Tuesday, March 4th. We have several topics that February 25, 2025 Page 87 we'll be covering. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Could you -- just for the public, could you let us -- could you recite what those topics will be? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Also I'll also tell you the order of their appearance. So first thing 9 a.m., we'll be talking about Clam Pass. We will have representatives from Pelican Bay here to discuss that, as previously requested by the Board. That will be followed by Solid Waste and all things trash. So a comprehensive discussion on solid waste in Collier County with Dr. George and his team. And then we'll close it down with a combination of strategic planning, ResourceX, and budget, as we touched upon a little bit today. We'll go a little deeper into that, and Mr. Fabian will be here from ResourceX. We're still looking for a date -- we were supposed to hear -- have a mental health workshop the same day. We're still looking for a date that works for our partners on that, and I'll keep you posted. That may end up being, if we have another light day, an afternoon session, if we can -- if we can make that work on a Board day. Other than that, yes, we also will be looking for a date for an AUIR workshop, as asked by the Board. And lastly, just for the record, there has been some information circuiting about -- causing some concern to the public about the state of EMS and privatization. Just wanted to put on the record that there is no intent to privatize EMS. We're not trying to hand our EMS service off to a private company or anything like that. There have been discussions, appropriately so, about our MedFlight simply because we're having -- this is one of those February 25, 2025 Page 88 areas we're having a very difficult time hiring helicopter mechanics. Without a helicopter mechanic, you have no helicopter. So we did have a great meeting with the MedFlight folks last week with a strategy to look at not only recruiting helicopter -- trained helicopter mechanics, but also a way that we can maybe train some up in-house. So working with the school system coming out of their aviation programs. So we are continuing, as we have for the last several years, to evaluate the staffing levels at EMS, looking to expand our training programs, really looking forward to Station 74 out on DeSoto opening up, and coming up with a real serious growth plan. We've had 26 ambulances for at least the last decade, and you know the growth that we've experienced in the county in that decade. So looking at all the different ways we cooperate with our partner agencies as well as how we continue to invest in our EMS system. So hopefully that provides some ease to the public. They'll still be calling 911 and having our first responders showing up at their door. It's not something that we're looking to shed off to a private company. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. I want to add just one thing in terms of the medical director and the email that I think we've all got. And I've gotten several emails from folks in the community that have read this material. The email basically said that we were firing Dr. Tober and did it in a way that was not particularly polite. All of that was false. Dr. Tober was advised that his contract was up and that we were going to do what a normal business would do, and that is to rebid, and he was welcome to bid on that. So there was no firing of the medical director and no indication to Dr. Tober that February 25, 2025 Page 89 he was not welcome to continue bidding on that. He's been the medical director for 47 years so, you know, he may choose not to, but he has that option. So all of that information was incorrect. And as the Manager said, there was some statement in there that we were looking to privatize EMS behind everybody's back. That's not a discussion this board has ever had in terms of privatization. So the whole email was just completely wrong. And so I appreciate you clarifying that for the record. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. And there's been a little further correspondence on the medical director; however, there was no intent to fire Dr. Tober, and in fact, our chief of EMS did make a call ahead of that letter, which is required by contract, to both Dr. Tober and Dr. Lee to advise them that we were going to be putting it out to bid. It has been 13 years since it was put out to bid, and there had been discussions amongst the folks in EMS about the interest of the sitting medical directors on continuing with that contract. So -- and, again, this is another situation, we can't be without a medical director, just like we can't be without a helicopter mechanic. So that's what's going on, and I welcome if there's -- if there's questions from the public about this, we're more than happy to answer those questions. I can understand how concerning it would be to think that something was going on with that type of lifesaving service that we provide to the public. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I would suggest that it is one of the most important functions of government is when you dial 911 and you need an ambulance, you want someone showing up. So perhaps down the road here you can give us a little bit of a report on just what the status is, and, you know, what do we need February 25, 2025 Page 90 to do to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the community. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. I did talk with the command staff about putting together their plans, obviously, coming into this budget, but also one of the highest priority things that we are asking them -- have been repeatedly asking them to work on but with renewed emphasis is a growth plan. With all of the growth to the east, we really need to think about what we're doing and how we're going to do it and how we're going to provide that service, because that -- that area is growing rapidly, and without a hospital out there, that puts a lot of stress on the system. And so we're looking at partnering with our -- another thing we're looking at partnering with our fire agencies. Definitely not about one taking over the other, but rather how we provide complementary service and how we augment each other. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And if at some point you need some outside assistance in terms of someone coming in helping make those decisions -- making recommendations, I think bringing that to the Board would be welcomed. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Klatzkow, do you have anything else for the good of the order? MR. KLATZKOW: No, sir, thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: No, sir. I'm good. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: I don't have anything, but unequivocally, without a doubt, the word of the day came from Commissioner McDaniel. Actuarials probably will stand as a record for a while. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Was that a fifty cent February 25, 2025 Page 91 word for you? COMMISSIONER HALL: Actuarials. I had trouble spelling it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, could you go ahead and define that for us? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You want me to? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Commissioner McDaniel, anything? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir. Thank you. On the helicopter mechanic, our MedFlight's not the only helicopter. Have we had consult with a -- with Mosquito Control and the Sheriff? MS. PATTERSON: We have not with the Mosquito Control, but we have with the Sheriff, and we're actually going to swing back around and have another conversation with them as part of this. The idea of the outsourcing was simply to provide some backfill services in the event -- so we do have a helicopter -- one right now, and he's been here a very long time. He's excellent. He's our director of something. The director of -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Maintenance on the helicopter. MS. PATTERSON: -- maintenance. Thank you. I, like, lost the word, director of maintenance. He is amazing. He is very committed to the program. So he gave us some good ideas of things that we could do. But yes, we've had a pretty regular dialogue with the Sheriff's Office because they're sitting right next door with helicopters. We can reach out to Mosquito Control. But I feel optimistic that we've got another plan in place here where we may have some luck recruiting in some talent, and Ram is committed to help bring February 25, 2025 Page 92 those folks along, so that's good news. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So we are communicating with these other agencies -- MS. PATTERSON: Yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- that do have helicopters, either other municipalities -- because we're not the only ones with a helicopter. MS. PATTERSON: Yeah. Lee County, even though it's called Lee Flight, is out-sourced completely, but that was one of the reasons why reaching out to these companies to see what types of services they provide in the event that when Ram is on -- even in the time -- he'll be here still -- when he's on vacation or he's mandated to take time off, because he can only work so many hours, that we would have services there to keep MedFlight up. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Number two, our East of 951 Horizon Study 2.0 is in need of another alternate to be placed on that committee. And I don't know, do we need to bring an actual agenda item forward for that recommendation, or can I make that now and, with consensus, push -- go forward? MS. PATTERSON: I'm looking at the County Attorney. MR. KLATZKOW: Are you asking to amend the ordinance to allow for an alternative? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, no, no. One of the alternates has some health issues. MR. KLATZKOW: Oh, okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And so there is -- and there is an applicant that's already there, Bruce Hamels, who I would like to recommend as that replacement for that alternate. MR. KLATZKOW: We'll bring it to the Board. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So you'll bring it. The February 25, 2025 Page 93 first meeting in March we'll take care of that. And the -- we want that committee to be well staffed up, because as they're finishing up the decree from the Board for its creation, we're also -- we're going to move into the Comp Plan review for Golden Gate Estates rural and open up that Comp Plan to have some discussion with the community about land uses and the inevitable growth and things that are going on out there. So I would like to make sure that that committee's well staffed up. The third and last thing is I would like to see if we have consensus to do -- have another look at our Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District. It's far past time for that to have been touched. We still are looking for the matrix with regard to the credit balance with regard to the TDRs and the needs for the Sending and Receiving, the generation of TDRs and then the consumption of those TDRs. There were some things that were implemented in the initial RFMUD, the Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District, that's what that stands for. There was a -- similar to what we dealt with with the Rural Lands Stewardship area. There was a fairly -- it was an arbitrary number. Somebody said, "How many acres should a town be?" And somebody said, "5,000." And then we then found out that 5,000 really wasn't an equitable way to go. Similarly, in the Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District, lands in the sending area can't be subdivided now less than 40 acres. And so I would like to have this restudy done to analyze whether or not that's an equitable process and what the impacts of our community are. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I would assume there's no objection for having Commissioner McDaniel get with our staff and come back with some sort of an analysis or put it on an agenda. February 25, 2025 Page 94 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, basically what I'm asking for is to give direction to staff to commence the restudy of that RF -- of the Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District and bring back those items to us. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And then what I would suggest, though, can you come back with an agenda item so we know -- if we ask staff to do that study, I think we kind of need to know kind of what's involved in that. So maybe come back the first meeting in March -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yep, that would be fine. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- with just some kind of a recommendation on that. All right. We're really pleased to see that we have our newest state representative in the audience. Come on up to the microphone -- and we -- I was going to ask Mr. Mullins to do two things at our next meeting. One was to give us an update on our Tallahassee trip, because we were up there last week, and there are a lot of issues that we addressed. And so I think at our next meeting, I'll work with Mr. Mullins to give us a report. But one of the most pleasant meetings was with you. We really appreciate everything you're doing for Collier County and for the state. MS. BENARROCH: Well, thank you for taking the time to visit me in Tallahassee. I do appreciate it. Commissioner McDaniel, Commissioner Saunders, and Commissioner Kowal came up there. Sorry Commissioner Hall and LoCastro couldn't make the trip. But I'm looking forward to working with all of you for our community. Session is getting ready to start next week. I'm here this week in the district, as you can see, working hard in the community trying to visit my constituents and then heading back to Tallahassee on Friday. February 25, 2025 Page 95 Deadlines are coming up for bills, so, like I said, ready to start on Tuesday, and it's probably going to be like drinking from a fire hose, but we're ready -- we're ready for the challenge. And again, I appreciate all you're doing for our county. It's really important that we all work together in the benefit of our community. So thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you for being here. Do any commissioners have any questions or anything? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You wouldn't have wanted me to come up, because you would have caught my pneumonia, basically is what you would have had. So when Commissioner McDaniel called to check on me, he's like, "What's wrong with you?" He's like, you -- "I can't even understand you." But I echo thanks. Sorry I missed you on the trip, but it's obvious to see all the great work you're doing, Yvette. We're really proud of you. MS. BENARROCH: Yeah. And I want to take the time to remind our constituents that our office is open. It's right here across the hall from these chambers, so we want to make sure that everyone knows that we're here. And our girl that's here in the office, Shovante (phonetic), to make sure that we can take care of our constituents while I'm away in Tallahassee. Thank you for all you do. We appreciate you very much. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Concerning misinformation on EMS, other misinformation that floats around, I'm going to give you a little short Costco update, separate rumor from fact. So I sent out a very detailed February 25, 2025 Page 96 newsletter to all my subscribers yesterday that outlined what happens, what doesn't happen, what's rumor, and what's fact. So I'll just give you the basics. Last Tuesday there was a NIM. It was well attended. But as most NIMs are, it's usually attended by most people that don't want something, which is fine. That's what the NIM's for. We had two staff members that were there to just monitor it, make sure that -- they obviously don't run it. It's the developer's meeting with citizens. It's not our meeting. But that's where some of the misinformation started. I got a ton of emails from some people that were looking for the five commissioners and/or me to basically run the NIM, and I had to remind them that this is the developer's meeting with citizens. It's not something we do. But the NIM took place. We still have not received anything from Costco formally. You know, obviously they've had conversations on and off with the county forever. I've been working with Mr. Klatzkow, Mr. Bosi, Ms. Patterson, and the whole staff on the Costco possible, you know, request for a build, but we have yet to formally get anything that actually shows us exactly what they're requesting. I mean, there's a lot of things floating around that may or may not be correct, but obviously, us commenting on anything when we haven't seen their actual formal request would be inappropriate and irresponsible. I sent you-all a one-way communication email because I think all of our in-boxes are -- mine especially, but yours will start to be filled with questions and things like that. And, you know, I'm plugged in with the staff deeply and have been for quite some time. So I welcome you forwarding those to me or, you know, I've been answering them all personally. Here's how the process could flow, and I just -- and this is February 25, 2025 Page 97 more of informational and then also just to get it on the record. The property is already zoned commercial. If a request came in for Costco, and much like any other construction request, if it met all of the permitting, all of the requirements of that piece of land, then they work with the county, they get permits, just like if you're going to build a house, and they put shovels in the ground. You know, we have it on pretty good authority, though, that although they meet most of the requirements -- and obviously, the 25-acre parcel is already zoned commercial. But if they have a request for any variances, the way the process normally works, if the variances aren't too complicated, if they're not too -- if there isn't too much meat on the bone, they're pretty cut and dry, it actually just goes to the HEX, and the Hearing Examiner would decide those variances and then say yay or nay, and they'd be done. We'd never see it. We have to wait and see what those variances are. But if they happen to be that, the normal procedure would be it goes to the HEX. If we think, however, when it comes in that those variances are maybe a little more heavy lifting than just putting on one person at the HEX -- and I'm telling you this from conversations that I've had with our County Attorney and our staff -- then we do have a few options, and the strong recommended option is if those variances are, you know, bigger than a bread basket, that we have the option to bypass the HEX and send it to the Planning Commission first. The Planning Commission, as Mr. Klatzkow -- I really appreciated you sending this to me because I didn't have the actual verbiage. But when it comes to the responsibilities of the Planning Commission, one of their sub-bullets are -- for us is, we can -- that they exist to make -- if there's any special knowledge or expertise available, we can make a reasonable request from the BCC that the bottom February 25, 2025 Page 98 line is that they hear anything to help vet out the questions to give a bigger spotlight to the, you know, topic and also allow citizens in a much bigger forum to speak to seven people on the Planning Commission rather than, you know, one Hearing Examiner. So, you know, just to recap, if variances are minimal, the Hearing Examiner is the next step. If variances are medium to large, our strong recommendation across the entire staff is that we utilize the Planning Commission's expertise to have them hear it first, and then they obviously don't vote. They make a recommendation -- or they vote, but their vote is a recommendation, then to us, and then at such time after the Planning Commission, it would come to us, like I said, if this request sort of flowed. So a couple of takeaways from the NIM. Obviously, the NIM, when it's run by a developer, you know, the developer's pitch to the citizens made it sound like, to some, that shovels were going in the ground tomorrow. You know, they use terms like, "Yeah, we might be requesting some variances," but they gave the impression that they're mere formalities, you know, when it comes to approval. And we know that not to be so. So this is still a ways away. I want to make sure -- and Mr. Klatzkow and Mr. Bosi and Ms. Patterson, when we've talked about it, you know, we want to be completely transparent. We want to use all of the -- all of the things that we have at our disposal to give citizens a voice, pro or con, to give the developer a chance to present their case, and then for us to have the table set for us as much as possible with as much detail so that when it comes to us we have it packaged in a way that we have all of the details on all sides, and it would make our job a lot easier. But it's not coming to us tomorrow. We still haven't gotten anything from Costco, like I said. And so we'll continue to, you know, February 25, 2025 Page 99 have it flow. But those are -- those are the options as to the different tracks that it possibly could go. Still too early to tell which road it might go down, but I'll continue to keep you posted. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's it. Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. The only thing I have is I'm going to ask Mr. Mullins at our first meeting in March to advise the Board -- I know we have some repairs that are going to take place in this room that are going to require that this room basically be shut down for a couple of weeks because of doing the work and then making sure everything is working properly, and most of that's communications infrastructure. So we're going to need to potential alter our meeting schedule at some point because the room's going to have to be vacant for a couple weeks. So, Mr. Mullins, if you could come back in the first meeting in March, and let's see when -- what we have to do and how it impacts our schedule. And I think at that time, also, second meeting -- first meeting in March, maybe we can have a little summary of -- basically for the public more than for the Board, but a little bit update on what we did in Tallahassee and why that expenditure of funds for travel to Tallahassee is money well spent, maybe even a little bit of a history as to how much money Collier County has gotten back in grants and things like that from the legislature, a lot of which is due to members of this commission meeting with legislators and actually traveling to Tallahassee to meet with members of the legislature that are not from Southwest Florida but are in very critical positions in the legislature. February 25, 2025 Page 100 So is the first meeting in March sufficient time? MR. MULLINS: (Nods head.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Other than that, I don't have anything. If there's nothing else -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just got a -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just as a reattack here, I just got a note from the staff. I neglected in my Costco update -- I actually do need us to -- I guess where's Jaime Cook -- to actually vote on this? Okay. So the strong expectation is the variances we're going to get from Costco are going to have a little bit of meat on the bone. And one of the things that we want to do is give as much notice to all the parties, pro, con, Costco, everybody, even the Planning Commission, of the path that we believe we should follow. If something changes, we can always, you know, backtrack. But I guess the decision up here -- and I would hope that, you know, collectively we'd have, you know, unanimous support that this is a smart way to go, based on the county's guidance, is that if something comes to us that we -- that the county staff or County Attorney, I, and that I know we would all believe would be bigger than what the HEX should say, that we are all in agreement that utilizing the Planning Commission as the next step instead of the HEX would be smart, and then they would give us a recommendation, and we would go forward. So, Ms. Cook, if you can just nod, is that a motion I should make so that -- this way -- and by doing this right now it's officially letting all the parties know that there's no ambiguity as to the set stages of where things would go. So I'll make a motion that with all the information we have, we believe there'll be some variances that will be a little bit of a February 25, 2025 Page 101 deeper dive than what normally we would lay on the HEX and that utilizing our seven-member Planning Commission that has a lot of experience to vet this topic first and then give us a recommendation would be the way to go. COMMISSIONER HALL: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and a second, but before we vote on the motion, I want to ask the County Attorney to make sure that we're not overreaching here in terms of what our procedures are. In your opinion, the motion, I think, would be to send this to the Planning Commission. We have that motion made without the property owner being informed that this was coming up, so I want to make sure we're not doing something that's going to jeopardize or interfere with our authority here. So give us a little bit of advice. MR. KLATZKOW: The Hearing Examiner was created for noncontroversial items. If you've got a couple hundred people showing up, that's no longer a noncontroversial item. So that my expectation is that the Hearing Examiner would kick it to the Board anyway. He recently did that with a matter involving Alfie Oakes. But we are -- this board is entirely within its purview to direct it to the Planning Commission for a recommendation to this board. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So the motion and second -- the motion, we can vote on that today, and that fits with our procedures for -- MR. KLATZKOW: We're good. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. So we have a motion and second. Any discussion on the motion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Seeing none, all in favor, February 25, 2025 Page 102 signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It passes unanimously. Then we'll have the Planning Commission and the County Commission hear those issues as it relates to Costco. I have nothing else. Seeing none, we are adjourned. ******* **** Commissioner McDaniel moved, seconded by Commissioner LoCastro and carried that the following items under the Consent and Summary Agendas be approved and/or adopted**** Item #16A1 RESOLUTION 2025-41: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAT DEDICATIONS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF ALLAMANDA ESTATES, APPLICATION NUMBER PL20220001339, AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $26,226.61 February 25, 2025 Page 103 Item #16A2 RESOLUTION 2025-42: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAT DEDICATIONS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF AZURE AT HACIENDA LAKES - PHASE 2, APPLICATION NUMBER PL20180002205, AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $229,608.45 Item #16A3 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR GREYSTAR MULTI-FAMILY SANTA BARBARA – PHASE 1, PL20240009049 – STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION AND FOUND THE FACILITIES TO BE SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE ON DECEMBER 16, 2024 Item #16A4 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR PERRY HOTEL NAPLES, PL20240012794 - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION AND FOUND February 25, 2025 Page 104 THE FACILITIES TO BE SATISFACTORY AN ACCEPTABLE ON DECEMBER 23, 2024 Item #16A5 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR QUAIL CREEK CLUBHOUSE, PL20190002340), AND TO AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO RELEASE THE FINAL OBLIGATION BOND AND THE UTILITIES PERFORMANCE SECURITY (UPS) IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $13,413.66, TO THE PROJECT ENGINEER OR THE DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED AGENT - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION AND FOUND THE FACILITIES TO BE SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE ON JANUARY 16, 2025 Item #16A6 THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $65,020, WHICH WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTEE FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT NUMBER PL20230007679 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH GREYSTAR MULTI-FAMILY SANTA BARBARA – THE AS- BUILT LAKE CROSS SECTION RECEIVED AND INSPECTION BY DEVELOPMENT REVIEW ON JANUARY 21, 2024 Item #16A7 THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $174,360, WHICH WAS February 25, 2025 Page 105 POSTED AS A GUARANTEE FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT NUMBER PL20230015585 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH THE VINEYARDS COUNTRY CLUB – NORTH GOLF COURSE RENOVATION – THE AS-BUILT LAKE CROSS SECTION RECEIVED AND INSPECTION BY DEVELOPMENT REVIEW ON JANUARY 13, 2024 Item #16A8 THE RELEASE OF TWO CODE ENFORCEMENT LIENS WITH AN ACCRUED VALUE OF $30,000, FOR A REDUCED PAYMENT OF $11,517.70, IN THE CODE ENFORCEMENT ACTION TITLED BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VS. CARMEN VASALLO, RELATING TO PROPERTY LOCATED AT 1013 NEW MARKET RD. W., COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA – THE VIOLATIONS FOR THIS PROPERTY WAS BROUGHT INTO COMPLIANCE ON NOVEMBER 20, 2007, FOR CEB AND ON OCTOBER 3, 2007, FOR THE SPECIAL MAGISTRATE CASES Item #16A9 THE RELEASE OF A CODE ENFORCEMENT LIEN WITH AN ACCRUED VALUE OF $195,600, FOR A REDUCED PAYMENT OF $20,796.90, IN THE CODE ENFORCEMENT ACTION TITLED BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VS. KATHERINE M. JOHNSON TRUST, RELATING TO A CONDOMINIUM LOCATED AT 1718 BALD EAGLE DR. #C, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. CODE ENFORCEMENT BOARD CASE NO. CESD20190009030 – THE VIOLATION February 25, 2025 Page 106 FOR THIS PROPERTY WERE BROUGHT INTO COMPLIANCE ON JULY 22, 2024 Item #16B1 CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 21-7862, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR AIRPORT ROAD WIDENING,” WITH KISINGER CAMPO & ASSOCIATES, CORP., ADDING 240 DAYS TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL DESIGN SERVICES IN THE LUMP SUM NOT TO EXCEED AMOUNT OF $195,923.55, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER (PROJECT #60190) - ADDING ADDITIONAL SURVEY AND DESIGN ALONG CURLING AVENUE Item #16B2 CHANGE ORDER NO. 3 UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 21-7900, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR STORMWATER IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE BCG & CC/ CCN AREAS,” WITH BOWMAN GULF COAST LLC, TO EXTEND THE CONTRACT TIME BY 180 DAYS FOR TASKS 1-4 AND 730 DAYS FOR TASK 5 AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER (PROJECT NUMBER 60102) – ADDING ADDITIONAL DESIGN SERVICED FOR STORMWATER IMPROVMENTS FOR THE BIG CYPRESS GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES/COUNTRY CLUB OF NAPLES AREAS Item #16B3 February 25, 2025 Page 107 A PURCHASE AND SALES AGREEMENT AND ADDENDA WITH BIGI & BIGI, LLC, THE PURCHASE OF 14 OUT OF 18 CONDOMINIUM OFFICE UNITS WITHIN THE COURT PLAZA III BUILDING SITUATED ON 1.17 IMPROVED ACRES ON AIRPORT ROAD SOUTH, ADJACENT TO THE GOVERNMENT CENTER, FOR THE COMMUNITY & HUMAN SERVICES DIVISION, AND AUTHORIZE THE ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS (COMPANION TO ITEM #16B4) Item #16B4 A PURCHASE AND SALES AGREEMENT WITH JOSEPH D. STEWART, P.A. FOR THE PURCHASE OF UNIT 105, WHICH IS THE LAST REMAINING AVAILABLE UNIT TO PURCHASE OUT OF 18 CONDOMINIUM OFFICE UNITS WITHIN THE COURT PLAZA III BUILDING SITUATED ON 1.17 IMPROVED ACRES ON AIRPORT ROAD SOUTH, ADJACENT TO THE GOVERNMENT CENTER, FOR THE COMMUNITY & HUMAN SERVICES DIVISION (COMPANION TO ITEM #16B3) Item #16B5 THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE TWENTY (20) DEED CERTIFICATES FOR PURCHASED BURIAL RIGHTS AT LAKE TRAFFORD MEMORIAL GARDENS CEMETERY AND AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO TAKE ALL ACTIONS NECESSARY TO RECORD THE DEED CERTIFICATES WITH THE CLERK OF THE COURT’S RECORDING DEPARTMENT February 25, 2025 Page 108 Item #16B6 THE COLLIER AREA TRANSIT DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISE (DBE) PROGRAM UPDATE TO ENSURE ITS COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION (FTA) REQUIREMENTS AND AUTHORIZE ITS SUBMITTAL TO THE FTA Item #16B7 CHANGE ORDER NO. 1, ADDING $33,702.40 AND 137 DAYS TO THE WORK ORDER UNDER LIBRARY CONTRACT 18-7432-CZ WITH APTIM ENVIRONMENTAL & INFRASTRUCTURE, LLC., FOR THE PARK SHORE BEACH RENOURISHMENT AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS ITEM PROMOTES TOURISM (PROJECT #90067) – FOR 167,000 TONS OF SAND TO FILL PARK SHORE BEACH Item #16B8 CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 FOR CONTRACT NO. 24-8292 WITH EARTH TECH ENTERPRISES, INC., FOR THE PARK SHORE BEACH RENOURISHMENT, ADDING 15 DAYS TO THE CONTRACT TIME (PROJECT #90067) (COMPANION TO ITEM #16B9 Item #16B9 CHANGE ORDER NO. 2 FOR CONTRACT NO. 24-8292 WITH EARTH TECH ENTERPRISES, INC., FOR THE PARK February 25, 2025 Page 109 SHORE BEACH RENOURISHMENT, INCREASING THE CONTRACT AMOUNT BY $2,739,153, APPLYING THE ALLOWANCE OF $254,000.00 AND ADDING 30 DAYS TO THE CONTRACT TIME, APPROVE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT, AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS ITEM PROMOTES TOURISM (PROJECT #90067) (COMPANION TO ITEM #16B8) Item #16B10 AWARD INVITATION TO BID (“ITB”) NO. 24-8323 IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,178,500.00 TO EARTH TECH ENTERPRISES, INC., FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY SOUTH NAPLES EMERGENCY BERM TRUCK HAUL & CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT, AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS ITEM PROMOTES TOURISM (PROJECT #50280) - FOR THE REMAINING 1.8 MILES OF NEARLY 14 MILE COLLIER EMERGENCY BERM PROJECT IN SOUTH NAPLES SCHEDULED FOR CONSTRUCTION IN APRIL OF 2025 Item #16C1 THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, AS EX- OFFICIO THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT (CCWSD), RATIFY ADMINISTRATIVELY APPROVED CHANGE ORDER NO. 1, PROVIDING FOR A TIME EXTENSION OF 110 DAYS AND USE OF THE OWNER’S ALLOWANCES UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 22-7965R, WITH D.B.E. MANAGEMENT, February 25, 2025 Page 110 LLC., FOR THE GOLDEN GATE CITY TRANSMISSION WATER IMPROVEMENTS - PHASE 2 PROJECT (PROJECT NO. 70253 & #51029) Item #16C2 THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, AS EX- OFFICIO OF THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT, APPROVE GRANT AGREEMENT L0018 WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FOR THE “NAPLES PARK PUBLIC UTILITIES RENEWAL PROJECT 103RD/104TH AVENUES,” TO ACCEPT COST REIMBURSEMENT GRANT FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $4,500,000, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED GRANT AGREEMENT (PROJECT #70120, FUND 4016 AND PROJECT #60139 FUND 1841) Item #16C3 THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, AS EX- OFFICIO OF THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT, APPROVE GRANT AGREEMENT L0019 WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FOR THE “PALM RIVER PUBLIC UTILITIES RENEWAL PROJECT – AREAS 3, 5 & 6,” TO ACCEPT COST REIMBURSEMENT GRANT FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,000,000, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED GRANT AGREEMENT (PROJECT #70257, FUND 4016 AND PROJECT #60234 FUND 1841) February 25, 2025 Page 111 Item #16C4 THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, ACTING AS EX-OFFICIO THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT, APPROVE AGREEMENT NO. 25-311NSWV, “IDEXX LABORATORY SUPPLIES AND SERVICES,” WITH IDEXX DISTRIBUTION, INC., (“IDEXX”) FOR A PERIOD OF FIVE YEARS UNDER A SOLE SOURCE WAIVER, AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT, AND AUTHORIZE EXPENDITURES IN AN ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF $250,000 PER FISCAL YEAR, AT A TOTAL ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF $1,250,000 FOR THE DURATION OF THE FIVE-YEAR AGREEMENT Item #16D1 THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE DIVISION OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE HISTORIC COTTAGES AT MAR-GOOD HARBOR PARK TO EXTEND THE PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE FROM DECEMBER 31, 2024, UNTIL JUNE 30, 2025 (PUBLIC SERVICE GRANT FUND 1839 AND PUBLIC SERVICE MATCH FUND 1840) Item #16D2 THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AMENDMENT ONE BETWEEN THE COLLIER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE AND February 25, 2025 Page 112 COLLIER COUNTY TO REVISE LANGUAGE IN THE OPIOID FUNDING AGREEMENT AND UPDATE THE BUDGET – BEGINNING ON MAY 1, 2024, AND ENDING ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2028 Item #16D3 THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AMENDMENT ONE BETWEEN DAVID LAWRENCE MENTAL HEALTH CENTER, INC., AND COLLIER COUNTY TO REVISE LANGUAGE IN THE OPIOID FUNDING AGREEMENT – AS DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Item #16D4 THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS COLLIER COUNTY, INC., (NAMI) FOR $146,700 TO SUPPORT THE REQUIRED LOCAL MANDATED MATCH (FISCAL IMPACT $146,700) – FOR COMMUNITY ALCOHOL AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR THE PERIOD OF OCTOBER 1, 2024, THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 Item #16D5 THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN SIXTEEN (16) MORTGAGE SATISFACTIONS FOR THE STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP LOAN PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF $800,000. THIS TRANSACTION IS A TRANSFER OF MORTGAGE LIABILITY FROM HABITAT FOR HUMANITY February 25, 2025 Page 113 OF COLLIER COUNTY, INC., TO THE HOMEOWNERS PROVIDED WITH HOME PURCHASE ASSISTANCE THROUGH THE NEW CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE STRATEGY (SHIP GRANT FUND 1053) – TRANSFERRING THE MORTGAGE LIABILITY FROM HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF COLLIER COUNTY, INC. TO THE HOMEOWNERS Item #16D6 THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND THE IMMOKALEE FAIR HOUSING ALLIANCE, INC., TO AMEND THE PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE AND INCORPORATE RETAINAGE LANGUAGE UNDER THE STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP (SHIP) RENTAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (GRANT FUND 1053) – FOR CONTINUED USE FOR AN AFFORDABILITY PERIOD OF 30 YEARS Item #16D7 – Moved to Item #11C (Per Agenda Change Sheet) Item #16D8 APPROPRIATE RESTRICTED DONATIONS FROM VARIOUS DONORS IN THE AMOUNT OF $7,802.50 FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COLLIER COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY AND TO AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS – AS DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY February 25, 2025 Page 114 Item #16D9 A BUDGET AMENDMENT RECOGNIZING $2,802.77 IN PROGRAM INCOME FROM INTEREST EARNED IN THE HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM, HOUSING GRANT FUND (1848) Item #16F1 CHANGE ORDER NO. 13, ADDING FIFTEEN DAYS TO THE SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION DATE FOR PURCHASE ORDER NO. 4500229878, UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 21- 7883-ST WITH O-A-K/FLORIDA, INC., D/B/A OWEN-AMES- KIMBALL COMPANY, FOR THE MAIN CAMPUS UPGRADES, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER (PROJECT NO. 50214) Item #16F2 A THIRD AMENDMENT TO RADIO TOWER LEASE AGREEMENT 787-C WITH CROWN CASTLE GT COMPANY, LLC, AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY TO INSTALL A LARGER PROPANE TANK REQUIRED FOR THE OPERATION OF THE COUNTY’S PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEM, AND INCREASING THE MONTHLY RENT BY $320 FOR THE ADDITIONAL SPACE Item #16F3 A FOURTH AMENDMENT TO RADIO TOWER LEASE AGREEMENT 787-B WITH CROWN CASTLE GT February 25, 2025 Page 115 COMPANY, LLC, AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY TO INSTALL A LARGER PROPANE TANK REQUIRED FOR THE OPERATION OF THE COUNTY’S PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEM, AND INCREASING MONTHLY RENT BY $320 FOR THE ADDITIONAL SPACE Item #16F4 RESOLUTION 2025-43: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2024-25 ADOPTED BUDGET (THE BUDGET AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES) Item #16F5 BUDGET AMENDMENTS FOR A TOTAL AMOUNT OF $818,682.00 FOR CONTINUED HURRICANE MILTON DRAINAGE, BEACH, AND DUNE RELATED CLEANUP EXPENSES AND BEACH DUNE RESTORATION PLANTINGS WITHIN THE PELICAN BAY SERVICES DIVISION MUNICIPAL SERVICES TAXING & BENEFIT UNIT – THE PLANTS WILL INCLUDE SEAGRAPE AND RED, WHITE AND BLACK MANGROVES Item #16F6 RESOLUTION 2025-44: A RESOLUTION PROVIDING February 25, 2025 Page 116 NOTICE OF INTENT TO EXTEND THE LEVY OF THE FIVE- CENT AND SIX-CENT LOCAL OPTION FUEL TAXES, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTES SECTIONS 336.025 (1)(A) AND (B), AND THE NINTH CENT FUEL TAX PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTES, SECTION 336.021, UPON THEIR SCHEDULED TERMINATION DATE OF DECEMBER 31, 2025, WITHOUT A GAP OR LAPSE IN THE COLLECTION OF THE TAX, EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2026, THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2055, AND DIRECTING THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO ADVERTISE THE APPROPRIATE ORDINANCES 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 $72,493,266.59 WERE DRAWN FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN JANUARY 30, 2025, AND FEBRUARY 12, 2025, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06 Item #16J2 REQUEST THAT THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF FEBRUARY 19, 2025 Item #16K1 February 25, 2025 Page 117 RESOLUTION 2025-45: APPOINTING THREE MEMBERS TO THE PUBLIC ART COMMITTEE – APPOINTING MARUEEN ROBERTS, KRISTEN KERWIN AND TAMARA DECARO ALL W/TERMS EXPIRING ON APRIL 12, 2026 Item #17A ORDINANCE 2025-09: AN ORDINANCE REZONING A 7.4± ACRE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 6145 POLLY AVENUE FROM THE RURAL AGRICULTURAL (A) ZONING DISTRICT TO THE ESTATES (E) DISTRICT TO ALLOW UP TO THREE SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLING UNITS WITH A MAXIMUM DENSITY OF UP TO ONE DWELLING UNIT PER 2.47± ACRES ON PROPERTY LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 1600 FEET EAST OF SANTA BARBARA BOULEVARD BETWEEN POLLY AVENUE AND EVERETT STREET, IN SECTION 16, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA Item #17B RESOLUTION 2025-46: PETITION VAC-PL20200001169, TO DISCLAIM, RENOUNCE, AND VACATE THE COUNTY AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE CONSERVATION EASEMENT RECORDED IN OFFICIAL RECORD BOOK 4296, PAGE 1735, OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 400- FEET EAST OF INDUSTRIAL BOULEVARD, SOUTH OF MERCANTILE AVENUE, IN SECTION 36, TOWNSHIP 49 SOUTH, RANGE 25 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA February 25, 2025 Page 118 Item #17C RESOLUTION 2025-47: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING CARRY FORWARD, TRANSFERS AND SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2024-25 ADOPTED BUDGET (THE BUDGET AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES) February 25, 2025 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 12:01 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL i44,)%.,,,cte..".40-- BURT SAUNDERS, CHAIRMAN ATTEST , CRYSTAL K. KJNZEL, CLERK / . . : Niteth . - : . • Attest as to Chairrn.an's'' signature cn+y . , These minutes approved by the Board on 3 09-5 a'ZD , 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 119