Loading...
Agenda 07/08/2025 Item # 2A (BCC Minutes 06/10/2025)June 10, 2025 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida - June 10, 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 Chris Hall Rick LoCastro William L. McDaniel, Jr. ALSO PRESENT: Amy Patterson, County Manager Trinity Scott, Transportation Management Services Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Derek Johnssen, Clerk's Office Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. Page 13 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 2 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you very much. Welcome to the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners. We have a couple very special guests this morning to get us started off right. We have Pastor Greg Ball who will -- from Destiny Church who will lead us in the invocation, and following the invocation, we have Sergeant First Class Lawrence Thomas Rice, Palmetto Ridge ROTC, one of the Bears. He's going to lead us in the Pledge. So, gentlemen, thank you. Item #1A INVOCATION BY PASTOR GREG BALL, DESTINY CHURCH AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BY SERGEANT 1ST CLASS LAWRENCE THOMAS RICE – INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE GIVEN PASTOR BALL: Thank you. Could everyone please stand. Lord, your word teaches us in Thessalonians that in everything we give thanks. I am so blessed and honored to be a part of this meeting today to open this meeting with prayer. We ask that you would give our leaders wisdom. Lord, we thank you for the County Commissioners and what a blessing it is to have them serving in our county. And Solomon asked -- was asked of God what could he do for him, and Solomon asked God, give him an understanding heart. And today, Lord, I ask that you would give understanding hearts to the commissioners, Lord, and that they would lead with integrity and lead with wisdom. And I bless them today, and I bless this meeting. Lord, your Page 14 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 3 word says in Proverbs 4:7 that wisdom is the principal thing. So I ask, God, that you would give wisdom in the meeting today and let the atmosphere of the room be one of peace and love, and we thank you for that. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sergeant Rice, come on up to the -- up here and -- that's fine. And just lead us in the Pledge, and then you're welcome to -- LAWRENCE RICE: Please place your hand over your heart. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And if you'd like to go to the podium there and tell us a little bit about what your plans are when you finish your high school education. LAWRENCE RICE: Hello. My name is Lawrence Thomas Rice. And when I get out of high school, I want to be in the Marines, a marine officer. And after I'm done with Marines, I want to go work. Pretty much it. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's enough. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: One step at a time. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you for being here, and we look forward to your service in the military and beyond. Again, thank you. And thank you, Mr. -- I forget what rank you were. MR. RICE: I'm a junior vice commander of the VFW771. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. I want to thank you for being here with your son and your -- the other kids you have here with you. MR. RICE: I have all of them. Thank you, gentlemen. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. Ms. Patterson. Page 15 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 4 Item #2A APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR, CONSENT, AND SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX-PART DISCLOSURE PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT AGENDA.) – MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED W/CHANGES MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, agenda for June 10th, 2025. First we have Item 11B. This is our time-certain item to be heard at 1 p.m. It's a recommendation to accept a presentation from consulting firm Michigan Critical Partners related to an -- upgrade strategies for the P25 800 megahertz public safety radio system. Next is Item 16K2 being requested to move to Item 11C. This item was previously noted to be continued to the July 8th, 2025, BCC meeting. This is a recommendation to provide direction to advertise an ordinance establishing the Clam Bay Advisory Committee to provide recommendations to the Board on matters affecting the entire Clam Bay estuary system. This is being moved at Commissioner McDaniel's request. We have add-on Item 15C1, which is a discussion to consider the repeal of the Collier County burn ban on outdoor burning and incendiary devices. And we do have another time-certain item, Item 11A, to be heard at 10:30 a.m., which is consideration of the fourth amendment to the land contract and naming rights agreement with David Lawrence Mental Health Center, Incorporated, for behavioral health center operations and funding use. We do have court reporter breaks scheduled for 10:30 and 2:50. With that, County Attorney. Page 16 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 5 MR. KLATZKOW: Nothing. Thank you. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, any changes or disclosures? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I have no changes, and I have no disclosures on the consent agenda, or ex parte. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I have no changes and no ex parte. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have no changes nor any ex parte, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Same for me; no changes, no ex parte. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I have no changes and no ex parte as well. MS. PATTERSON: If we could get a motion to accept the agenda as amended. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and second to accept the agenda as amended. 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.) Page 17 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 6 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That passes unanimously. Page 18 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 7 Item #4A PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING THE DELTA ALPHA EPSILON ZETA CHAPTER OF ZETA PHI BETA SORORITY, INC. TO BE ACCEPTED BY DEBORA POLLOCK, Z-HOPE (ZETAS HELPING OTHER PEOPLE EXCEL) COORDINATOR. MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL - ADOPTED We'll move on to proclamations. MS. PATTERSON: Proclamations. Item 4A is a proclamation recognizing the Delta Alpha Epsilon Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. To be accepted by Debora Pollack, ZHOPE, Zetas Helping Other People Excel, coordinator. Congratulations. (Applause.) MS. POLLACK: Good morning to everyone. I'd like to just say a brief little something about our organization, zeta Phi Beta. Zeta was founded in 1920 at Howard University, and Delta Alpha Epsilon Zeta Chapter was chartered here in Collier County in 2021. Since that time, we have been partnering with the Naples -- Naples Shelter for Abused Women and Children; the March of Dimes, where we came in as the number three and four leader in collections for the Southwest Florida. We've also been partnering with our adopted school, Herbert Cambridge Elementary, and we have been working with the homeless people and feeding the hungry. And one of our big initiatives right now is Good Health Wins, which was developed by the National Council of Negro Women. And basically, what the purpose of the program is is to advocate for people to find out about vaccinations and get them so they can be protected from the COVID, the flu, or whatever illnesses are Page 19 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 8 spreadable. And so we go out and we advocate for that. We share the information. We also, this weekend, will be having our inaugural finer en blanc gala, which is kind of like dinner en blanc in France but will be endorsed, and the purpose of it is to raise funds so that we can carry out our initiatives through the next sorority year. At that time we will also be presenting scholarships to college-bound high school seniors from Collier County, as we have done for the past three years. We are a small group, but we are a mighty group, and our motto is "service is what we do." Thank you very much for having us and for this great proclamation. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. Thank you for all you do for the community. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, if we could get a motion to accept the proclamation. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Do we have a motion? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So moved. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 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. Page 20 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 9 Again, thank you. Item #5A PRESENTATION OF THE COLLIER COUNTY BUSINESS OF THE QUARTER FOR JUNE 2025 TO NAMI COLLIER COUNTY. THE AWARD WILL BE ACCEPTED BY REPRESENTATIVES OF NAMI COLLIER COUNTY AND THE GREATER NAPLES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - PRESENTED MS. PATTERSON: Item 5A is a presentation of the Collier County Business of the Quarter for June 2025 to NAMI Collier County. The award will be accepted by representatives of NAMI Collier County and the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce. Congratulations. (Applause.) MS. HATCH: Good morning, everyone. On behalf of our NAMI Collier family, we truly thank you for this recognition, on behalf of you all and the Naples Chamber. NAMI Collier serves from toddlers all the way to our seniors and veterans, and all of our no-cost, no-waiting-list services are really truly making a difference day to day in the lives of our community. So our motto is "small enough to care but big enough to make a difference," and you are all part of that. So thank you so much for all of your support. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you for all that you do. And obviously, today may be a very big day for mental health for Collier County. So I assume you're going to stick around for a while. MS. HATCH: We sure will. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate your support. Thank you. (Applause.) Page 21 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 10 Item #5B ARTIST OF THE MONTH – MUSEUM DIVISION, “JUST BEACHY, OUR MOST ENDURING ATTRACTION” MS. PATTERSON: If I could turn your attention to the back of the room for the Artist of the Month. June's exhibit of the month is presented by the museum division as is entitled "Just beachy, our most enduring attraction." A vacation on Naples Beach was once a rustic lifestyle choice. It is now a more sophisticated one. As the area's culture has changed and the skyline has evolved, one thing remains true: The beaches are still a place where sea and sand come together to enchant visitors young and old. These panels offer a journey through the hourglass of time, a journey in sand. Please enjoy a bit of beachy history courtesy of the Collier County Museums. With that, we move on to Item 7, public comments. MR. MILLER: Good morning. We have seven registered speakers under Item 7. I'm going to remind the speakers to please queue up at both podiums. You'll have three minutes. You'll hear one beep at 30 seconds remaining on your time. Our first speaker is Timothy Maloney. He will be followed by William Mares. MR. MALONEY: Good morning. Timothy Maloney, for the record. I came in this morning to call on my commissioners and county staff to put an end to the misery and the nightmare that we're experiencing and do the right thing, uphold your codes, ordinances, and maybe even adhere to the language in your Rural Golden Gate Estates growth master plan limiting illegal commercial activity. Page 22 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 11 It's been a long haul. It's been going on for a long time. And I think our journey, my neighbors and myself, I think it's testament to how this whole thing got out of hand. It's been a year. We've had no results. You guys have the power to do something about this. And there's been no consideration all the way -- all the way through this for the homeowners. It's been strictly twisting and contorting these illegal commercial activities trying to make them fit in our neighborhoods, trying to make them legal. And there's -- it seems to me there's some -- there's got to be some agenda. I don't know if it's going to expose some other interests or going to expose, you know, more problems in the Estates. But we've got 171 square miles in the Estates. If this -- if this activity continues, congratulations, you've just -- you've just made the largest industrial park in the state of Florida, and that's why we need to get a handle on this now, and that's what I'm asking. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MALONEY: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is William Mares. He will be followed by Jay Kohlhagen. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Mr. Chair? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. I was going to -- if you don't mind, I just want to let Mr. Mares speak. It's the same topic. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And then we'll get into the resolution of it. MR. MILLER: Mr. Mares. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm sorry, William. MR. MARES: William Mares. Thank your time -- for the commissioners. I'm a 25-year resident of the "E" Estates, Golden Gate Estates, just half a block off of 951 and Pine Ridge. Page 23 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 12 So what I wanted to just do today on my three minutes is talk about the Golden Gate Estates Master Plan, 2019. And in there -- I want to read one paragraph. It's Policy No. 1.4.2. It says, "The county's Code Enforcement Board shall strictly enforce the land development and other applicable codes and laws to control the illegal storage of machinery, vehicles, and junk," comma, "and the illegal operation of commercial activities within the Golden Gate Estates." So Tim and I -- I mean, we know the intent of that is, because right now in Golden Gate Estates, there's no regulation on parking of commercial vehicles. There's no regulation on commercial activities in the Golden Gate Estates. And so that's one of the reasons back in 2019 why that was embedded in there is to give Tim and I some protection, residents, for legal operations that's happening, like, right next to our door where a person's running five to 10 to 15 commercial landscape trucks out of there. So on May the 22nd, Tim and I met with the County Manager, the assistant County Manager and the attorney for Collier County, during that meeting -- all we wanted to talk about was this Golden Gate Master Plan because it addresses commercial activity. And during that meeting, we confirmed that, as an example, landscape companies, they can move into Golden Gate Estates. They can purchase two acres, three acres, they can park their rigs, they can run a commercial operation out of there unabated. But they still -- you know, they still fall under the violation of this policy where you can't have illegal activities, commercial activities. So I guess what I'm -- what Tim and I are asking is that -- and it used to be enforced. It used to be enforced, and over, I don't know, the last year or so, it's just fallen off the radar, and it hasn't been enforced. So that's what we're asking. Can we get the code department to enforce that code? And it can be done today, because Page 24 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 13 right now if we wait until the home-based business and parking of commercial vehicles gets embedded into Collier County for "E" Estates, I mean, it could be a year before we happen. So what we're asking is can we take care of these commercial activities. Even Ray Bellows, on July the 18th, we had a determination on this fellow that lives next to us. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Mares, your time is up. MR. MARES: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And if I may, just -- and I know it is -- you're all done, William, thank you. MR. MARES: Okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I know we don't regularly have interaction with folks in this portion of our meeting, but I wanted -- I wanted the community to hear the efforts that are, in fact, ongoing and then ask some questions with regard to our senior staff, if I may, about the enforcement activities and so on. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. I had asked Mr. Mares and Mr. Maloney to come here this morning -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Perfect. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- so that all five of us could hear what was going on and so staff could respond. I also recognize that we don't generally do that, but it seemed to be a pretty critical issue and one that, over a long period of time, hasn't been resolved, and I thought this would be the most effective way to do it. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Agreed. You and I have been dealing with for many years, sir, so... Mr. Bosi. MR. BOSI: Mike Bosi, Planning and Zoning director. And just to let you know, this item will -- the topic that we're discussing here will be in front of you at a later date as a future Land Page 25 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 14 Development Code amendment. It's currently going through the process. It's currently scheduled to go with DSAC subcommittee, and then it has a full DSAC, and then it has the Planning Commission. Both of those bodies will make recommendations, and then finally we present it to the Board of County Commissioners for either approval or denial related to the manner in which you can park commercial vehicles in the Estates and as well as home-based businesses. One of the things that has complicated the matter -- and just to let you know that there -- Mr. Iandimarino is actively working the code case that the gentlemen were referring to, so that is in -- that is in the process with the code enforcement. But one of the things that I wanted to point out is one of the conflicts is is the state statute. The state statute has stepped over and has influenced how we can apply our local codes in terms of home-based businesses. And because of that, we've been working with the county's attorney's office to provide a clearer path for our staff. For our Code Enforcement staff, for our permit issuing staff related to who provide for the home occupations, what does and what does not qualify. That's been a -- that's been a process that's been ongoing, and that will be culminated with the LDC amendment that's going to -- because not only are we going to have the commercial vehicle restrictions, but how home businesses are to be regulated within the Estates, and that's something we currently do not have a clear path on, like I said, because the statutes has complicated and has provided for over -- overreach as to what we currently have on the books. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And so with regard to that, my understanding is is the preemptive statute that is out there has timelines for additional restrictions that can be implemented within Page 26 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 15 our LDC within our Growth Management Plan; is that correct? MR. BOSI: Correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And what is that timeline extended to now; do you recall? MR. BOSI: I mean, not a timeline. What it says is you can regulate where commercial vehicles are parked. The -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Maybe you misinterpreted my question. The preemptive statute that prohibits us from adding any additional restrictions -- MR. BOSI: Oh, oh. Yes, I understand. That has been extended to October 1st of 2027. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And then -- and so now my next question is for our County Attorney with regard to, if you will, a deliberate action or an action that would be necessarily in conflict with that statute. How would that circumstance be mitigated? MR. KLATZKOW: I would not bring forward an ordinance that was in conflict with the state statute. That said, the state statute leaves us little holes to fill that we can fill. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And the efforts for filling those holes are ongoing? MR. BOSI: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And do you have a timeline? Because I've been speaking -- as Commissioner Saunders has, I've been speaking with Mr. Maloney and Bill for a while. Maybe too long for Maloney. But when are the -- when are the adjustments to the LDC and GMP coming to us? MR. BOSI: As I've said, they have a date with the subcommittee -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Which subcommittee? DSAC? Page 27 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 16 MR. BOSI: DSAC subcommittee. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: DSAC, okay. MR. BOSI: And Planning Commission is expected to be in October. So I would say November or December for the Board of County Commissioners. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Very good. Now, can I ask Jamie to come up? Mr. French. Jamie French. With regard to the specific circumstances that are transpiring next to these gentlemen's home, where are we at with that code enforcement transaction, for lack of a better term? MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. So, for the record, my name's Jamie French. I'm your department head for Growth Management and Community Development. Mr. Iandimarino, your Code Enforcement Board director, has had this case in front of your Special Magistrate. There has been some proactive steps taken by the property owner. The property owner has actually moved his business to a storefront, is my understanding. And Tom is here. So now what he does is, I believe he's got his employees that are renting/leasing the house. So these are their company vehicles. And there's no regulation in the Estates. You can park on grass. You can store. So even though the Golden Gate Estates is a residential community, it has an overlay, and that overlay allows for parking on grass, storage of materials, storage of these type of vehicles, and currently there's no regulatory times, and that's why we were -- we're really looking at this with Mr. Klatzkow and his staff as far as how we can address this by ordinance versus trying to make broadbrush changes to your Land Development Code that may, in fact, be in conflict with the state's preemption. So we are currently looking at that, and this board directed us to Page 28 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 17 take it back through the iterations of your DSAC as well as the Planning Commission, and then we'll bring it back here. And listen, if we can bring it back sooner, we most certainly will. We'll have this in front of your DSAC, hopefully your full committee by September, and then we can preemptively strike and at least get it maybe moved up in front of the Planning Commission so that we can do our very best to expedite it for your consideration. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I guess my only question is is -- so per our staff's interpretation, per our county attorney's interpretation, there's nothing we can do with regard to those activities that are transpiring now even though with -- MR. FRENCH: This is no -- I'm sorry. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's okay. But even though my interpretation -- and, again, I'm not a lawyer, but my interpretation of the GMP prohibits commercial activities in the Estates. MR. FRENCH: The business is no longer registered to the home. The home is owned by the business, and he's leasing to the employees. This is their work trucks that they're driving to the house where they live is -- that's my understanding. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And this is not a -- this is not a public discussion right now. We're just having discussions with our staff. MR. FRENCH: Now, if they're doing an illegal activity -- let's say they're dumping yard debris or something like that, clearly we will exercise the code to make sure that that illegal dumping doesn't occur. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We have done that in the past on this site already. MR. FRENCH: We have. We have, yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There were several illegal Page 29 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 18 activities that have ceased, if I recall. MR. FRENCH: You are correct, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. So I can appreciate the specifics of this one particular person that we're talking about who's skirting the holes, as our County Attorney said, that we need to fill, but are there people within Golden Gate that are in clear violation of what we already have in print that aren't -- that are -- it's so black and white, and we don't have to wait till October. We can take action against those people who are maybe -- you know, don't have as complicated of a case of this one particular person we're talking about, because it sounds like, from the citizens, it's not just this one house. There's -- you know, there's other varying degrees. You know, my thought is you go after the low-hanging fruit that isn't such a complicated case, and you send a signal to the whole community that we're no longer ignoring it. The impression I'm getting -- this isn't my district, but I can appreciate the argument -- is that, you know, this one particular person we're talking about is maybe the most extreme, and he's smarter than everybody else, and he's renting his house to people, and he's dodging, you know, some bullets and whatnot, but it sounds like there's also people that are just parking trucks all over their lawn, running a welding business out of their house, things that we already have in print that, say, are illegal, unethical, immoral, you know, against -- against our county code. Are there large numbers of those that we are currently investigating taking action against, and we don't need to wait till October to put in, you know, language that adds amendments to what we already have in print to go after the folks that are less Page 30 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 19 complicated? MR. FRENCH: So that's a really good question. Thank you for that. I will tell you -- and not that I'm testifying as an expert witness, but I have spent -- and Mr. Maloney knows this -- the majority of my life in Golden Gate Estates. This activity is not new. I can -- I can assure you of that. And now that we're seeing a vast amount of our population spread to the eastern lands, it is becoming much more apparent because there's not a lot of area that is -- that is -- many of these streets were dead-end, unpaved, and very few homes many years ago, and now we're starting to see these complaints come forward. But you compound that with changes under Florida Statute 162 that says I actually have to have a complainant. And it can't be a Board member. It has to be an individual. And Commissioner McDaniel and county attorneys and I, we went through this recently. So at the end of the day, if we see something that is life safety, and given the topography of the area where you've got a 660-foot deep lot on -- that's a typical Golden Gate Estates lot, whether it's an acre and a quarter or five acres or 10 acres, there's a lot of areas to hide. We don't fly drones. We can't use aerial photography. We actually have to have a lawful vantage point to where we could provide substantial competent evidence in a court of law or in front of your Special Magistrate or Code Enforcement Board. So we do this. You've got a limited number of staff compared to the miles of area to cover, as Mr. Maloney indicated, but at the end of the day, they spend an erroneous [sic] amount of time in that area working these cases. And whether it's a travel trailer, whether it's multiple families, whether it's illegal construction, illegal activity that is inconsistent with the zoning of the area, yes, sir, we're out there all the time. In fact, we've even most recently started at one section of the Page 31 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 20 Estates, and we're going street by street by street by street, and we're looking for particular things that we could justify in front of that magistrate or Code Enforcement Board to say it's life safety, and that's the reason why we open the case. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And have we had success, or we've run into, as you said, all these state statutes that work against us or these unique business owners that know how to skirt the issue? I mean, have we shut anything down? Have we had any progress as we've gone street by street? Because what I would tell the citizens is it's great that everyone's against this one guy that's lawyered up and has dodged some bullets and creatively is using his house, but it would seem like there's some people that probably are more black and white that are already violating what's already in print. Are we having success against some of these people, or are we running into roadblocks with virtually everybody? MR. FRENCH: We're very measured. Ron Tomasko in Jeff's office is very good representation for us, as well as outside counsel that we use. I would say, you know, based on the population and probably the number of activities, that success might be de minimis in comparison to the amount of violations that could be out there. But yes, sir. And we're hopeful to talk about that in your budget process where you could actually look back and see the amount of prosecutions and dollars you've collected off of these code actions. And it's been this board that had told us to educate but enforce, and that's really -- so our success factor -- and you've heard me talk about it before as far as our conviction rates. I'm going to bring you numbers so you could actually see from years past. But it really is, it's an uphill climb because it -- for so many years it went unnoticed. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Thank you. Page 32 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 21 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We're going to need to move on, but I wanted the Board to hear this. Don't run away just yet, because I do have a comment in terms of this. But I wanted the Board to hear this because this is a very serious problem that's only going to get worse. We're in the budget process now. We need to beef up our code enforcement activities. You know, I get more complaints about code issues such as this than anything else. And I wouldn't want to be living next door to a house where they were parking all these trucks at -- you know, at 5 o'clock in the morning they're revving up and leaving creating all kinds of problems. So I want to urge staff to ratchet up the investigation of this. It seems to me that this particular property owner, through some trick of simply changing an address on a license, is skirting the law, but he has the exact same operation in that same location, so it's still the same business. And I think there's -- you know, I seem to remember long ago hearing, you know, in terms of legal precedence that you can't really do something indirectly that you're not permitted to do directly. That's what they're doing. They're skirting the law. They know they are. And you are -- our staff, you're not taking action to enforce it, and I think you need to do that. But I want to encourage the manager and our staff, we need to get a handle on this because it's just going to get worse. Commissioner McDaniel, if we could -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I'll be brief. Thank you for recognizing me. Just a couple of things. We are beginning the process of the review of the Golden Gate Area Master Plan rural, east of 951, so -- but again, these things take time. This circumstance has been happening to our -- to our residents for well in excess of a year. Page 33 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 22 And, Commissioner LoCastro, I file code complaints all the time; illegal rentals, repair shops that pop up in somebody's backyard with heavy diesel equipment repair shops and things that are transpiring, and it needs to cease. And, Commissioner Saunders, I think you hit the nail on the head. I've said regularly I'm not infected with that mental issue called a law degree, but there is -- it's illegal to skirt the law at the same time, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's move on. The message has been delivered, unless anybody else has anything to add. MR. MILLER: Your next two speakers are Susan Zehnder, and she'll be followed by Mick Moore. MS. ZEHNDER: Good morning. My name is Susan Zehnder. I'm here to provide an update from the Friends of the Vanderbilt Library -- Vanderbilt Beach Library Committee. We last spoke with you about the library on April 8th. At that time, we expressed concern that the Vanderbilt Beach Library may be considered for closure based on the following facts: The county is looking to cut costs, the Pelican Bay Foundation and the Sheriff's Office both expressed interest in the library property, and the Pelican Bay Foundation had met with the County Manager regarding the library property. We understand that there has been no decision to close the library; however, the Sheriff's Office and the Pelican Bay Foundation both had reason to believe that closure of the library may be a possibility, and this prompted our concern. Today, we are here to provide you with feedback from your constituents about the library before your budget workshop next week. Key findings about the Vanderbilt Beach Library. The Vanderbilt Beach Library ranks fifth out of 10 libraries in visitor Page 34 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 23 traffic. The Vanderbilt Beach Library ranks third out of 10 libraries in the summer reading program. The Vanderbilt Beach Library has held an extremely popular book discussion group with a loyal following for over 20 years. The Vanderbilt Beach Library is accessible by neighborhood roads and has excellent accessibility for mobility-challenged patrons. These important attributes are critical to many Vanderbilt Beach Library patrons who told us that they will no longer be able to visit another library if this branch is closed. The Vanderbilt Beach Library is an essential service to those who use the WiFi, printers, and computers, including students and job seekers who don't have WiFi at home. Over 3,600 of your constituents have signed the petition to keep the library open. The petition was available online and in person. Over 1,900 people signed the online petition, and over 1,700 signed in person. The in-person signatures were collected by over 35 volunteers who stood outside of the library in the heat because this library is important to them. All 3,000 petition signatures are compiled in these binders. This level of community support underscores that the Vanderbilt Beach Library is a valued and vital resource for the Vanderbilt Beach community. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Mick Moore, and he'll be followed by Dan Schmitt. MR. MOORE: Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Mick Moore. I'm one of the owners of the Vanderbilt Beach Resort and the Turtle Club on Vanderbilt Beach. I'm here today because of the state of Vanderbilt Beach. It's Page 35 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 24 been severely eroded, particularly the area in front of the resort and restaurant. The water is almost up to the seawall at high tide. We're in dire need of a beach renourishment, and I know from talking with staff that there's a full renourishment plan for November, but we may need a temporary renourishment to even get to November. The erosion is simply the worst that I've seen in the last 25 years. Now, the history of beach renourishment is that beach renourishment started in Collier County, I believe, in late '80s or the early '90s, and before this time, I remember that the water was up to the seawall, and you could not walk the entire stretch of Vanderbilt Beach at times because of the high water and the lack of beach. Now, we all know -- and I'm happy to see the exhibit in the back, which is very timely -- that the beach is a major driver of both tourism, which brings tourist tax dollars into the state, and a driver and a reason why people move here. And it's no coincidence that after the county started beach renourishment, both tourism took off and the population exploded. So beach renourishment has been done every five years since that time, but I'm here to tell you that I think we need to do more frequent renourishment. The cycle might need to be reduced to four years. That would allow for a wider beach, and a wider beach helps with several things. First, a wider beach improves beach access for the public. We no longer have the ability to find properties on the beach for the public, but we can make the beach as wide as possible so that people are not crammed in, oftentimes in very crowded conditions. It also provides storm protection, perhaps some of the best storm protection we can have for the coast. And finally, it allows us to be competitive with those other areas that are competing for our tourists: Sanibel Island, Sarasota, and others. And right now when people come to the beach and see how Page 36 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 25 narrow the beach is, they don't want to come back. They want to go to those other areas. So our property, like it or not, even as we expand east as a county, has always been linked and tied to the beach. The beach still matters. So I'm here as kind of a canary in the coalmine. I'm here because I'm at the beach every day managing a business on the beach. I see it all the time, and I'm telling you that we need to pay attention to the beach. So I'd like you to do three things. First, consider a temporary emergency renourishment for the portions of Vanderbilt Beach that need it -- and I know Pelican Bay has a similar issue. Second, follow through with the full beach renourishment in November or December. And finally, consider -- ask staff to consider reducing the cycle from every five years to every four years, which I think, because of sea level rise and increased storms, makes complete sense. So thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Dan Schmitt, and he will be followed by Christine Robbins -- I think this is Andrews. I hope I'm getting that right. MR. SCHMITT: Hi. I'm Dan Schmitt. I'm a healthcare innovator with 35 years of experience. And I founded a company that was the largest producer of healthcare claims in the United States, processing millions in claims per month. This business led me to investigating systemic corruption in the healthcare system. And what I've found and now built solutions around is this: The healing that we so desperately need for veterans, for people suffering from substance abuse disorders, from mental health conditions, and from chronic illness all share the same mechanisms of causation, and the solution is not going to be found in Page 37 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 26 insurance billed services. Each day in this country, 17 to 22 veterans die by suicide due to unresolved trauma, 132 individuals die every day by suicide linked to mental health conditions, 295 people die from overdoses fueled by substance use disorders, and a whopping 4,600 people a day die from chronic preventable diseases. For the past 15 months, I've asked Collier County to do a simple thing, and that is to follow federal law. Federal law requires that when a person with a disability requests a reasonable accommodation, the government must pause enforcement and engage in an interactive process. That process is a legal obligation to simply have a two-way dialogue. To be explicitly clear, the lack of an interactive process is the problem, as a two-way dialogue must occur first before a reasonable accommodation can be decided. But Collier County's not only failed to comply. The attorneys admitted on record they don't know how to exactly comply. In a similar situation, a Wounded Warriors case here in Naples ended in federal court due to the same failure to have an interactive dialogue, a/k/a a discussion. And the case ended with an accommodation of seven unrelated residents in an area that was zoned for only four. Naples paid a $70,000 settlement reinforcing precedent that when zoning laws conflict with federal protections, federal law prevails. So I want to be clear -- and I don't support the outcome of that case. Cramming seven people into a tiny house in a dense neighborhood is not a very good healing solution. The model I'm proposing is wildly different, substantially lessening undue burden, arguments in comparison to that Wounded Warrior case. But without having an interactive dialogue, Collier County ensures that bad programs will exist, and innovations are blocked. Page 38 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 27 I have created a memorandum of law which describes the obligations of this interactive process, a/k/a, again, having a discussion, as well as a confidential accommodation recommendation as if we already had the two-way dialogue that would jointly create a win-win. And so I urge you to engage in good faith and not simply defer to judgment to county attorneys who have already failed in this process multiple times. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Christine Robbins-Andrews, and she will be followed on Zoom by Marsha Oenick. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And let me make one comment before we go to the Christine there. I had met with Mr. Schmitt. I think the County Attorney needs to advise the Board, maybe at our next meeting, but what obligations, if any, we do have to accommodate the issue raised by Dan Schmitt and also to meet with Dan Schmitt to make sure that we're not in violation of federal law. MR. KLATZKOW: Well, I can give you my answer now, but I'm happy to come back in a more formal process at the next meeting. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think that probably would be best, because this is catching everybody by surprise. MR. KLATZKOW: All right. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Go ahead. MS. ROBBINS-ANDREWS: Am I supposed to push this? MR. MILLER: No, I'll take care of it. MS. ROBBINS-ANDREWS: Oh, okay. Good morning. Can you hear me well? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: That's okay. We'll take care of it. Page 39 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 28 MS. ROBBINS-ANDREWS: My name is Christine Robbins-Andrews. I live at 13 Butterfield Trail, Naples, 34113. I've visited Naples since 1976 when my father moved here. Permanent resident for 25 years. Two years ago, my husband and I already owned property in our community, which was an HOA mobile home park retirement community, and we bought another piece of property at 17 Oregon, which we found out afterwards there was a real feral cat problem around our home. They were defecating everywhere under our place, ruining the golf carts, the cushions. You can't leave anything outside. Multiple complaints by other neighbors as well. I tried to resolve this in a neighborly fashion to the lady next door that kept feeding them, and the lady across the street. The lady across the street ceased, but the lady next door did not. After a letter to the Board, I believe there was a letter sent, but for two years she's continued to do this. So this May, myself and other neighbors sent a letter to the association board members requesting that they resolve this. And one of the members brings back the brochure, which was generated by the community -- Collier County Community Cats. I don't know if you're familiar with that. But DAS tells me that this was written up by them but that the Collier County Commissioners approved it and implemented it. And this says that feral cats, once they are trapped and taken, they are neutered or spayed, and then they are then returned and considered a community cat. And so then the community's responsible, and anybody in the community can feed them, water them, do whatever they want, apparently. Well, this is impacting on us. And the state statutes also point out that the statute concerning cats focused on public health, safety, and animal welfare. Well, that's us, partly us, including our pets, like Page 40 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 29 our dogs, which have to be controlled, and this was to control the feral cats. But what's happening is quite a disturbance on this part of our side of the HMO. And apparently, my husband and I are under the impression, well, if they're causing these damages such as -- and disease problems -- because they're supposed to be vaccinated, but who has proof of that? Anyway, the cats are defecating. Who's going to clean up under our place, or do we have to spend more money to enclose it? Damage to our golf carts, our outdoor furniture. We've had renters the past two years who don't want to return because of the cats, because every time they took outside, they can't -- the cats are all over the place. So they're -- the county -- I'm asking you, when there was a dog problem there, DAS said that's the HMO's problem. Now, this is -- you're saying that DAS supersedes the HMO rights. So we're losing income, and we have a real problem here. And I've tried to resolve it neighborly. I tried to resolve it through the board. So I'm hoping that the commissioners can tell me what do I do. Who do we go to for damages? Why do cats have more rights than a property owner? Why does my next-door neighbor have more rights than we do? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Christine, we're going to need you to wrap up. MS. ROBBINS-ANDREWS: Well, that pretty much sums it up. I hope you can help me in this dilemma because it's an income problem -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. MS. ROBBINS-ANDREWS: -- and a disease problem, so... CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, your final registered speaker under Page 41 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 30 Item 7 is joining us on Zoom, Marsha Oenick. Marsha, you should be getting prompted to unmute yourself, if you'll do so at this time. I see that you have. Marsha, you have three minutes. MS. OENICK: Thank you. My name is Marsha Oenick. I'm a member of the Vanderbilt Beach Library Committee. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you this morning. Quoting from the county's strategic plan in 2025, the county's vision is to be the best community in America to live, work, and play. The county's mission is to deliver high-quality and best-value public services, programs, and facilities to meet the needs of our residents, visitors, and businesses today and tomorrow. What does the Collier County library system provide for this? Most of us are familiar with e-services, access to informational, recreational materials, books, DVDs, CDs, videos, magazines and newspapers, access to reference materials, informational databases and their content, access to IRS forms, access to knowledgeable people who can guide research, and programs to promote and support reading by children and adults, but also, access to WiFi, computers through which the internet can be accessed, printing, copying, and scanning facilities. These services are especially critical for people who can't afford to provide these services in their home, or don't have the knowledge to manage their installation and maintenance. They are critical for those who are seeking jobs and/or a place to live. Collier County library system has 10 facilities strategically located to ensure that all of the large and growing Collier County population has access to these services. This means Collier County library services provides critical vital services to Collier County residents in support of Collier County's mission. To lower the library's reliance on county funding, our committee studied the list of funding strategies proposed by ResourceX as a Page 42 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 31 starting point. One member of our team has identified over a dozen funding strategies that could be implemented to support the Collier County library system in general and some specific to the Vanderbilt Beach Library, including sponsorships and public/private partnerships. One of these, if approved, could generate revenue beginning by September 1st. This list has been shared with the Library Advisory Board and the library administration to add to the list of funding strategies they have identified. You understand that the introduction of new processes requires time for implementation in accordance with the county's policies and procedures. I hope that your strategic objective, quote, "to encourage active community engagement and participation," unquote, will support these efforts, including enabling the public to use online payment processes to donate to county libraries versus requiring paper checks. I implore you to recognize the Collier County library system is a vital public service that requires your support in order to fulfill the county's mission and achieve its vision. This means funding that enables continued service to all members of the county. Thank you for your attention. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. MILLER: And, Mr. Chair, that was our final registered speaker. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Just for scheduling purposes, we have a time-certain at 10:30. We're going to take a court reporter break just before we get to that item. It may be 10:30 when we take the break, because we don't want to take a break in the middle of it. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If you can get us to 10:30. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Page 43 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 32 Item #8A RESOLUTION 2025-121: APPEAL BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF HEARING EXAMINER DECISION 2025-02, WHICH DENIED AN INSUBSTANTIAL CHANGE TO ORDINANCE NO. 18-49, THE SEED TO TABLE COMMERCIAL PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT, TO REMOVE THE GATE CONTROL SYSTEM AT THE PIPER BOULEVARD ACCESS TO THE PARKING LOT. THE SUBJECT PUD IS 6.82 ACRES LOCATED AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF THE INTERSECTION OF IMMOKALEE ROAD AND LIVINGSTON ROAD IN SECTION 24, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 25 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. (PL20250003142) - MOTION TO APPROVE WITH CHANGES BY COMMISSIONER HALL, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL - ADOPTED 4/1 (COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS OPPOSED) That brings us to Item 8A. This is an appeal by the Board of County Commissioners of Hearing Examiner Decision 2025-02 which denied an insubstantial change to Ordinance No. 18-49 of the Seed to Table Commercial Planned Unit Development to remove the gate control system at the Piper Boulevard access to the parking lot. The subject PUD is 6.82 acres located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Immokalee Road and Livingston Road in Section 24, Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida. Mr. Mike Bosi, your Planning and Zoning director, is here to present. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Now, we heard this in some detail recently, I believe, so I don't know if there are any questions. We Page 44 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 33 understand that there's a requirement in the documents that need to be corrected and also a fine, but everybody's agreed to everything. So I don't know if we need a presentation on this or not. I'll see if the Board is in need of any information on this. (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Then if you can tell us how to proceed to get to that end point. MR. BOSI: Well, I had a recommendation, but the slide doesn't seem to want to advance. MR. MILLER: Hold on. MR. BOSI: It's the last slide. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, do you want to make a comment now, or do you want to wait till after? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll wait, sir. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Is that it, Mike? MR. BOSI: Keep going. Okay. So what this is is the Hearing Examiner had heard the item earlier this year in January regarding the proposed removal of the gate for the employee parking for Seed to Table. In his decision, the Hearing Examiner determined that it was a substantial change and not an insubstantial and not qualifying as a PDI. What we're asking the Board of County Commissioners is to reverse that decision to find that it is an insubstantial change and to -- and to authorize the removal of the gate. One of the things that was also included as conditions of approval were commitments that the applicant had made at the neighborhood -- at the required neighborhood information meeting. That was to add speed bumps and table -- speed bumps or slash tables to that parking area to prevent or discourage cut-throughs. Also post "authorized personnel only" signs specifically at the gate entrance to say it's only for FP&L, the CAT system, or Public Utilities to access, Page 45 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 34 and request police presence if necessary. So those three conditions were offered by the applicant's representative at the neighborhood information meeting. We want to impose those as an alternative to the gate because of the times -- the number of times that the gate has been taken down and had interference with. Because of that, staff is recommending that the Board of County Commissioners find that it does qualify for an insubstantial change and these three additional conditions of approval be placed within the PUD. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Chairman McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Well, do we have any public speakers, Troy? MR. MILLER: Yes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Well, I'll hold my comments until then, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Any other comments until we go to public comment? Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. Mr. Bosi, can you just clarify, who's taking the gate down? MR. BOSI: From the documentation that's in the -- it's been cited that -- either the CAT system and FP&L have indicated that neighbors -- or individuals within the neighborhood not associated with Seed to Table that has interfered with the gate at times. Now, there's no corroboration. There's no documented evidence of that other than hearsay, but that's what -- that's the information that was provided for within the application package. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Was it a hindrance from FP&L for their right-of-way to get in there and do work? Is that part of the problem? Page 46 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 35 MR. BOSI: Well, part of the problem is, if FP&L needs to get in there, they will get through whether they have to break down the gate or not break down the gate, because that is their easement that the parking lot is upon, and it's clear that if they need to access that area, they will access the area even if they have to take the gate down by force. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Jamie, did you have an additional comment? Because my understanding was that FP&L had removed the gate a couple times. MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. Thank you. Again, for the record, Jamie French. Commissioner, you and I spoke about this yesterday, Commissioner Kowal. And I did speak with your -- he's Eric Short, who was a code enforcement officer, the supervisor at the time. He's now -- he acts -- he still works for the county in the capacity of a superintendent over Parks. But Eric was the case officer on that and witnessed FP&L actually remove the -- they were down arms. So what happened is that the contractor had switched to a cattle gate with an FP&L lock on it. That then became a hinderance for county staff, meaning CAT. I don't know about Public Utilities. But then, you've no longer got an automatic swing arm. It's a manual gate. So that would require, perhaps, the CAT buses to back up. I don't know what's involved with that. Ms. Scott and I have spoken about that as well yesterday. But I did run that down, and they did try to make provisions for FP&L so that they would stop removing the arms, but then that created another problem for other authorized users that were identified within the PUD and the lease agreement. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's go to the public comment. Page 47 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 36 MR. MILLER: We have one public comment. Michelle -- is this -- MS. BAMMEL: Bammel. MR. MILLER: Is it Bammel? Okay. MS. BAMMEL: Thank you. I'm a -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good morning. MS. BAMMEL: -- Willoughby Acres homeowner since 2018, and I'm a full-time resident. And I think in the presentation of the county asking to have the gate removed, the vision has been limited to just pictures of the parking lot. So I'm providing a map that will show you the actual points of impact and future impact based on projects that are currently in place before the county. Items 1 and 2 in the lower left-hand corner are the entrance points to the parking lot. These entrances did not exist until the county actually allowed that Seed to Table employee parking lot to be built. What this has done is created a cut-through to two very busy streets from Livingston to Immokalee Road. Piper Boulevard, moving to .1, was previously a dead end with a small parking lot for FPL employees. So we very rarely ever saw traffic going down to that point until the gate was removed from the parking lot. Now, on a daily basis we'll see multiple instances of cars cutting through the neighborhood, going to and coming from the parking lot. The primary intersection, once you come down Piper Boulevard to Lakeland Avenue is .4. That is a stop sign on both sides of Piper Boulevard. There is straight-through traffic from Lakeland Avenue to .3, which is the Immokalee Road light, which is the primary entrance and exit to Willoughby Acres. At this time, we are seeing traffic backing up at the Piper Boulevard stop signs and at Lakeland, approaching .3, the stop right. Page 48 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 37 Cars are actually driving around the stopped traffic in the opposite road to get by to reach the Seed to Table parking lot. There have been multiple accidents at .4 due to this issue. I will point out that in a two- to three-week period of time we saw three accidents. One of them was a fatality. At .5 and Lakeland Avenue, that's where the young teen boy was hit on his e-bike. Within another two weeks, we had another accident, .4, and on Euclid Avenue, .6, we had another accident. That was within two- to three period -- three-week period of time. These crossroads in Willoughby Acres are very narrow. They're not a standard-size road. It's very difficult for two vehicles to pass each other, and that's just standard-size cars. There are very few sidewalks on these roads; that means the children are out playing on their bikes and scooters in the road. So they're now contesting what -- a significant increase in traffic cutting through to get point to point. Item 8 and 9 are proposed expansions for new housing. Eight is going to be the expansion to the Inn. Point 9 is going to be the Arthrex housing. So that's going to contribute additional traffic to Piper Boulevard. And at this time there's no consolidated Traffic Impact Statement that actually evaluates what's happening on Piper Boulevard and what's happened with the gate being removed from the Lakeland Avenue/Piper Boulevard intersection. So I ask that -- for safety purposes that you put that gate back in place. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MS. BAMMEL: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No other speakers? MR. MILLER: That was our only speaker on that item, sir. I'm sorry. Page 49 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 38 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Well -- and my question is for staff. Who owns the gate? MR. BOSI: I believe the gate is owned by Seed to Table. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So it was put in as a condition of their lease for the land that we own underneath the -- or on the easement, the FP&L easement. MR. BOSI: Correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And from what I understand, when we were speaking about this, we had multiple hearings on this throughout time. It's been problematic for FPL who utilizes that access to get to their -- to get to their facilities -- there's a substation or something over there? MR. BOSI: Correct, correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And did I hear someone say also that FPL actually had to manipulate the gate to be able to get through? MR. BOSI: I believe Mr. French made that assertation that they had to manually remove the gate at one point in time to gain access. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. No further questions, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman. It's -- the PUD, this was a novel thought to keep traffic down in the beginning. It's county property. The gate's owned by Seed to Table, and it's in the FPL easement. Mr. Oakes is getting the land -- the code violations based on things that are [sic] his fault. So with that, I'm going to make a motion to remove the gate. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I have a motion and second. MR. KLATZKOW: If you could make a motion to adopt staff's Page 50 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 39 recommendation because there are numerous conditions to it. COMMISSIONER HALL: I'll amend it -- my motion to take the gate down, put the speed bumps in, and the sign in, and if the police want to show up, they can. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I'll amend the second to accept that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Before we -- I do have a question and perhaps a comment on the motion. It seems to me that there should be a way to resolve a gate operation so that the parties of interest will have a gate that operates. I'm not sure I understand why we can't do that. I do agree with the speaker in terms of the speed bumps. The speed bumps aren't going to -- aren't going to deter anybody. Anybody that wants to cut through, they're going to go through with the speed bump. That's of zero -- in my view, zero protection. The police, they're not going to come to a speed bump. I mean, what would be the violation? There is none. So I'm wondering if we could defer the vote on this, because I think it does, from -- I'm compelled to -- by the testimony this morning from the public that this is a problem that is going to get worse, and I don't understand why we can't fix it so that there is a gate. Obviously, Seed to Table has no objection to a gate being there. So that's not a problem. So why can't we fix that without taking the gate down and creating what may very well be a very serious traffic problem in a whole area? So I'll suggest that we do that; that we defer this. The gate's down right now, I understand. MR. BOSI: That is my understanding, yes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So no one other than the neighborhood is getting prejudiced in any way if we defer this, but Page 51 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 40 there's got to be a way to fix that. This is not -- as some people say, this is not rocket science. Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you. Well, the gate -- the truth is the gate stays down most of the time. And gates don't cause accidents. People running stop signs, people not obeying traffic laws do cause accidents. So I understand the rationale that there -- whatever traffic comes on Piper is -- there's people that don't obey the traffic laws, and they get in accidents, but it's not the gate's fault. I don't think -- I've been up there during rush hour just to see, when this first came up, and I didn't -- the parking lot is designed for Seed to Table employees. Seed to Table employees only. And I didn't see very much traffic coming through, not to cause alarm, and certainly not to continue to let the land development violations add up on Mr. Oakes when it's not -- he's not the one taking the thing down, and he can't be a -- he can't be a gate babysitter just to keep that done. So if you want to defer the vote, we can do it, but my motion still stands. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. Yeah. Kind of two points, and I kind of agree with Commissioner Hall a little bit, because I travel that area. I have an interest back on Johnny Cake, which is within the community there, and I'm back there occasionally. And I see no benefit of using that, because it would only benefit somebody running southbound on Livingston Road to use it as a cut-through. It wouldn't benefit anybody going north or east or west. And I don't know why you would want to cut through there and have to sit at two longer lights just to get onto Immokalee Road on a shorter queuing area than just remain in the traffic that's already there Page 52 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 41 existing southbound. And secondly -- and it's very easy -- there is a state statute called "failure to obey a traffic control device," which signs fall under that, as long as they're legally placed, within the ordinance. And the sheriffs you could post a car there. If they see cars cutting through, and the minute they go through there with a sign that says, "This is authorized people only," they could get a ticket. And it used to be a $163 fine. I don't know what it is today, but that's an easy fix to post somebody there every once in a while just to -- if you see an uptick. So just -- that's my -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And do we have any information with how long the gate has been up and how long the gate has been down? I mean, from my understanding, the gate's down more than it's been up since it was installed and fixed, and fixed, and code enforcement installed and fixed again. MR. BOSI: I don't have, like, a chronology of when the gate has been open, when the gate has been down, but that's, anecdotally, the information that we've received from staff is the gate is down more than its up, and that's the issue, and every time it's a code enforcement issue associated with the property owner. And the suggestions that they've proposed, staff felt was adequate based upon the fact that the -- Piper Boulevard and those roads that are to the west, those are public roads. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I'm -- and I'm looking at an aerial photo. And one of the things I wouldn't -- if you want to defer the vote, we can defer the vote, but my second still stands. I don't -- I don't mind. What I would like to do is maybe work with the neighborhood of Willoughby Acres, have a discussion about -- because I've been there. I've sold homes there. I've got friends that live there. The Page 53 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 42 poor young man that lost his life -- I concur with my colleagues that people disobey safety issues. People are farther -- larger offenders with regard to the safety side of things. I concur with Commissioner Saunders, the speed bumps aren't really going to -- really going to do anything other than beat up my truck when I come through there, but on the same token -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You're cutting through there? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Why are you cutting through there? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah, where are you cutting through? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I wasn't cutting through. I was driving it just to familiarize myself with the area, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Right, right. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The bottom line -- my comment that I wanted to make was sidewalks. All of the streets in Willoughby Acres are very, very narrow, and sidewalks could be a huge improvement, and maybe we could -- we could do a study with regard to the cost, an individual MSTU to facilitate the financing for those things to enhance the shoulder width and the sidewalk safety progress along there. My other -- my other question that I did have for you, Mr. Bosi, is it looks like there's a road that travels all the way from Entrada [sic] Avenue, a subdivision considerably further to the north, that travels through that along that FP&L easement. Is that an access road, or is that just the excess road for -- access road for FPL to do their maintenance along there? Do people get to travel on that? I think it's a dirt road. MR. BOSI: I am not familiar with that -- with the official status of that road, whether it is a dedicated county road or whether it's a private easement. Page 54 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 43 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and a second. As I said, if we defer this for a couple weeks to see if there's a better solution, or a solution, we're not continuing to fine Seed to Table. They've arrived at a settlement in terms of a fine. That number is set, so we're -- there's no harm, no foul if this is delayed. There may be an opportunity to correct this. I'll call for the vote on the motion. I'm going to vote against the motion if it proceeds today because I think there may be an opportunity to take a further look at this. But we have a motion and a second. If there's no desire to continue it, then I'll call for the vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? Aye. And again, for the record, my opposition is simply that we need to -- we've got a problem there, and I wanted to see if there was a way to accommodate the neighborhood. Again, no harm, no foul if we had delayed this. All right. Ms. Patterson? QUESTIONING ATTORNEY: Yes, sir. Commissioners, that brings us to Item 9A. 9A is a recommendation to adopt an ordinance amending the Collier County Land Development Code to implement housing initiatives in the Growth Management Plan related to housing that is affordable. Mr. Mike Bosi is here again to present. And this is the first of two hearings. MR. BOSI: Good morning, again. Mike Bosi, Planning and Page 55 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 44 Zoning director. And this is the culmination of the ULI effort that started back in 2017 when the county declared that we had an affordable housing emergency. There were a number of different initiatives that were suggested. The majority of them were taken by previous boards and incorporated within the GMP as well as the Land Development Code. There were three initiatives remaining that the Board directed us to move forward with from a Growth Management Plan standpoint, and this is the implementation from the LDC standpoint. The three remaining were to allow for commercial-to-residential conversion via the Hearing Examiner, develop guidelines to incentivize mixed-income residential housing, and provide an increase in density to the Community Redevelopment Agency along transit corridors. So within this LDC amendment, Initiative 2, 3, and 5 are the ones that we're moving. Expanding the allowance for commercial districts developed with a residential or a mixed-use development by right when they provide for affordable housing; Initiative 3 is increasing density within activity centers from 16 units per acre, which is the current limitation, to 25 units per acre. As a sidenote, the Board has routinely approved the 25 units per acre within activity centers based upon the GMP amendment having already being adopted. And Initiative 5, increase density opportunities along bus/transit lines in connection to TOD, or transit oriented development. LDC sections -- I won't read them all -- but there are numerous that are being amended within here to make sure we are as comprehensive as possible. And the most significant you're going to see is the change to the chart. And one of the most -- you see there's two reddish arrows. And before we used to have a moderate AMI level, and that was 80 to 120 percent. Based upon the recent -- based Page 56 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 45 upon a number of the GMP amendments that we had to advance affordable housing, we were targeting the 80 and the 100 percent. So we created a new category. We split that in half. So we have 120 to 100, which is moderate, and then medium is 80 to 100, and we think that has a benefit. But we also updated -- updated the LDC chart to allow for the 12-units-an-acre bonus that's now allowed and is authorized by the Growth Management Plan amendments that were approved by the Board. The mixed-income housing program criteria, I'll just read a couple of these real quick. It's to incentivize developments that provide for a mix of housing affordability. The affordable units must be intermixed and not segregated from the market units like we have for most PUDs. The ratio of bedrooms per affordable have to be the same as the market-rate units, and the commitment for 30 years is now being memorialized within our LDC. We were following that as part of the GMP amendments, but this is a codifying and -- and for rentals, income verification has to be submitted annually, and that is a traditional activity that we have. Housing that is affordable in the C-1 through C-5 zoning district, it allows up to 16 units an acre. The proposed -- we proposed new development standards. All units must be housing that is affordable in concert with the following percentages, and just -- it's a mix to make sure that we have a range of affordable units within these individual commercial properties that are seeking to move to the -- to residential if they provide for affordable -- or housing that is affordable. And then finally, housing that's affordable in the mixed-use activity centers in the interchange activity centers. Those are our major intersections with the -- our collector and -- our collector roads but also within the I-75 interchange as well, allowing for 25 units an Page 57 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 46 acre, a mix, same regulation, same income verification, and we're proposing some new development standards that would be required. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall, did you have a question now, or do you want to wait till -- COMMISSIONER HALL: I'll wait till he's finished. MR. BOSI: And finally, the transit oriented development, if you are on a dedicated CAT bus system route and you provide for a CAT bus system, you can get up to 25 units an acre by this proposal. You have to have 50 percent of your units within a quarter mile of that bus -- of that bus stop that you would be developing simply because -- the thinking behind that is with that quarter mile you're going to have a -- you're going to have to condense 50 percent of your units within a walking -- a distance that staff and the literature says a quarter mile is not a far -- an unreasonable burden for individuals to access public -- public transit. And the specifics of it -- the specifics of it relate to when we have -- when we have those dedicated CAT bus systems, and it has that specific requirement for them to develop the transit stops. And the recommendation that came from your Planning Commission by 6-1 was approval of the LDC amendments, and staff is recommending approval to the Board of County Commissioners. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And this is the first of two? MR. BOSI: Yes. This is the first of two, and if -- and if it's a unanimous vote, the second one would be put on your summary agenda because you've already heard the item. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman. I remember working on these initiatives quite a bit when I first went to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and at that time we were talking about C-1 through C-3. My concerns are to include C-4 and 5 because we have very limited industrial space in Page 58 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 47 Collier County, and my preference is I would like to protect that. So I would be fine with these things as -- for discussion without the by-right in C-4 and C-5. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, it's not going to be a unanimous vote today. Did I understand you to say that this initiative's been worked on since '17 when the ULI report came out? MR. BOSI: Correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So here we are eight years later dealing with the subject matter that has been prevalent within our community. Before I can support this, I need new data. I mean, Commissioner LoCastro, when you first came on the Board, you served on the AHAC -- or the Affordable Housing Committee, forgive me. And you brought forward an enormous amount of data with here are the units that are affordable, here are those that are not, here are the at-market, here are the developers that aren't playing by the rules, so on and so forth. I need to see that first of all. I need to see what the current market circumstances are, because what I am actually seeing right now eight years later, after it was deemed to be a kind of crisis, I'm seeing rental signs everywhere. I'm seeing people out waving signs pointing people to these rental developments, both at market and affordable, number one. Number two, I asked eight years ago for a modified conditional-use process. That has never transpired. And I think we as a Board, in my eight-year tenure, have been honoring the need for the community, providing for housing that's, in fact, affordable on an as-needed basis when it's picked by the Board to be in certain areas, similar to what you're looking to do here by-right, and that's my Page 59 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 48 concern, as I share with Commissioner Hall. These increased by-right densities have an impact on my infrastructure in the urban area all the way across the board. I agree with you 100 percent in the relocation of populations into the urban area so we have capacities to move them around. Public transit's a nice thing, and we reduce burden on our entire infrastructure when we have -- when we have our residents living closer to the services that there are requisite. But I share Commissioner Hall's concern with regard to the by-right. No, it has to be on a case-by-case basis when it's proven there's a need, when it's proven that it's compatible, when it's proven that it fits into the entire scheme of what we're looking to do as a Board. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. I have two questions. I guess -- well, Mr. Cormac's more familiar, because now I'm on the -- or Affordable Housing Committee myself now. And I know we've noticed a trend that we're moving now. There's going to be, I think, at least two things before the Board here in the future that's more on the lines of affordable ownership. Now, I don't know how this addresses or how these changes affect that type of a concept where we're getting developers willing to have 20, 30 percent of the homes to actually be owned as affordable, set at certain rates for people to afford. So that's one thing. I don't know. You could -- probably have more detail of what they're looking for. MR. GIBLIN: Sure. For the record, Cormac Giblin, your director of Housing, Policy, and Economic Development. The two that you were mentioning that are coming forward, I think they're more of a function of the location of those specific Page 60 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 49 properties and the underlying densities that they would be allowed to get. They are not what I would say in the urban core. And so they are more on the fringes where they are eligible for a lesser density, and so they're looking at an owner-occupied property to make up some of that difference. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: But I guess your position -- I guess my position is I like to -- those type of things I want to hear case by case. I think everything has a special circumstance attached to it, so -- MR. GIBLIN: Sure. One thing in this amendment, the only part of this that is the by-right is the commercial conversion. The other two initiatives that Mr. Bosi went through still require a public-hearing process. So the commercial conversion that is proposed in this amendment, really, the state has already trumped us on that with the Live Local -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Well, that's my second part of the question. MR. GIBLIN: -- which would, in fact, get a developer 25 units to the acre and not the 16 that this would get them. So again, the state kind of beat us to the punch on that. As mentioned, these have been in the works for a long time. I think that these were the -- the germination of the Live Local law that went into -- into effect statewide, and now it's kind of we're catching up with both the legislature and with all the private GMP amendments that have been going through since the time these were first discussed. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Because I know I have a little understanding. This is probably the third change they've done, and they've passed it this year, and it definitely addressed the public transit part of it where they define it differently than it originally was. MR. GIBLIN: Certainly. Page 61 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 50 COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So I think it's going to handcuff us, too, as we move forward. MR. BOSI: And Mike Bosi again. Just to add to that, the state, they opened up PUDs. PUDs are eligible for Live Local as well, so that was another aspect of the change. And when it becomes law, any portion of a PUD that's designated mixed use, industrial, or commercial is eligible for the 25 units an acre that we -- that we -- that our Growth Management Plan would allow in terms of density within your activity centers. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. I'll be brief. I don't think you have the four votes. You don't have mine, not because I don't agree with this, but I think, you know, as I've said up here before about other things, I'd like to see a deeper dive, a more cohesive presentation, and not because we don't understand it, but every time we vote on something, the public needs to understand what we just approved. And I think it would be more valuable if something more cohesive, inclusive, and detailed was put together to explain exactly what we're doing here, what our options might be. And, you know, this is one where I think delaying it isn't because we can't make a decision, but I just think for something this important and some of the changes that we're making, we'd benefit more, especially when you need four votes as well. Like I said, it's not that I disagree with this, but I think, for all -- an all-encompassing presentation would be much more valuable before we vote on it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm going to suggest that we continue this. One of the commissioners needs more data, and you understand what that is; another commissioner's looking for more presentation detail, and I think that would require staff meeting with each one of us again to go through this in a lot of detail. Page 62 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 51 So I'm going to suggest that we continue this. Not for two weeks, because I don't think that's going to give everybody enough time, but continue this until -- well, we don't have a second meeting in July, so -- we do have the first meeting in July, but -- why don't -- I mean, is there -- there doesn't appear to be any major urgency; is that correct? I mean, it's been eight years since we started. MR. BOSI: This -- and I will say -- and staff hasn't been sitting on this for eight years. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I understand. MR. BOSI: These were the -- these were the last of the initiatives that were identified. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I understand. I'm just -- that was kind of a joke. I understand. So why don't we continue this to our first meeting in August. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'd be okay with that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And then staff's got some marching orders in terms of meeting with all of -- each one of us and going through this in detail and generating the data. Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Chairman, I would just like -- and I really want to look -- what I really want to see, and I want to make it clear, because I think we owe it to the constituents, too, what -- what we bring forth -- what are we bringing forth because it was statutorily driven versus a good idea, because I think that needs to be clear, because sometimes we can't trump the state, and if there's things in these -- because by July 1, we're going to know exactly the language that's in this new Live Local, and that's going to make -- that's going to determine what direction we go with this or what we can or can't do with it. So I just want to make sure we do what we can do that benefits the citizens of Collier County, not just lock, lock, and step. If there's things we can do outside of what the Page 63 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 52 state's saying, that we get clarity -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, did you have something else? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll be brief. And I was kind of making a joke on the eight-year thing. Did I hear you say that there's a statute coming through to overcome the PUD requisite that we have in place? MR. BOSI: Yes. Correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Does our PUD requisite protect us from that statute? MR. BOSI: I don't believe so, no. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can they -- well, that's another one we'll have to have a look at with our County Attorney. And then the last thing, on a happy note, I did like the adjustments in the AMI process, because when we started this, Commissioner Saunders, eight years ago, our AMI in Collier County was under 100,000. Now it's projected to be up to 115-. So those are needed maneuvers. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Real brief. I just -- I'd like to know what the difference is in what we're proposing with these initiatives versus what's going to be -- we're going to be trumped by Live Local. What the difference is. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I'll make a motion to continue this to the first meeting in August. What is the date of that first meeting, if anybody -- so we can have a date-certain? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll second it. Do you want to second it? MS. PATTERSON: August 12th. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So we'll -- motion is to continue this until August 12th. We have a motion and second. All Page 64 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 53 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: We'll see you in August. And that's August of this year. All right. We're going to -- we're going to take a break. We're going to do a little bit longer than we normally do. We're going to break until quarter to 11. That will give us -- I'm sorry -- yeah. This was set for 10:30, but we're going to break until quarter to 11 to get our court reporter a break, and -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 10:45. (A recess was had from 10:25 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.) MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. Ms. Patterson, if you can get us started on the David Lawrence Center item. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Item #11A APPROVAL AND EXECUTION: 1) A FOURTH AMENDMENT TO VACANT LAND CONTRACT WITH DAVID LAWRENCE MENTAL HEALTH CENTER, INC., TO MODIFY THE COLLIER COUNTY STANDARD FORM LONG-TERM LEASE AND INCLUDE AN OPERATING AGREEMENT EXHIBIT GOVERNING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CENTER OPERATIONS; Page 65 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 54 AND 2) AN AMENDMENT TO THE NAMING RIGHTS AGREEMENT TO CLARIFY USE OF FUNDS ACQUIRED WITH NAMING RIGHTS. (ED FINN, DEPUTY COUNTY MANAGER) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER KOWAL - APPROVED 3/2 (COMMISSIONERS HALL AND MCDANIEL OPPOSED) This brings us to Item 11A, our 10:30 time-certain. This is a recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners review and consider for approval and execution, one, a fourth amendment to vacant land contract with David Lawrence Mental Health Center, Inc., to modify the Collier County standard form long-term lease, and include an operating agreement exhibit governing behavioral health center operations, and, two, an amendment to the naming rights agreement to clarify use of funds acquired with naming rights. Ms. Kristi Sonntag, your Director of Community and Human Services, is here to begin the presentation. I should also mention this item was continued from the May 27th, 2025, BCC meeting. Kristi. MS. SONNTAG: Good morning, Commissioners. Kristi Sonntag, Community and Human Services director. For the record, as the County Manager stated, this item is continued from the May 27th Board meeting. The item before you has been presented to the Board several times over the last four years to address the lease agreement, the construction and design contract, naming rights, and currently, we're proposing the operating agreement. Today's objective is to address and approve the amendments to the lease agreement including the addition of the operating agreement, an amendment to the naming rights agreement to clarify the use of funds. Page 66 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 55 Since the workshop, there were some questions regarding audit provisions and the ability to audit this particular facility. So I just wanted to clarify for you that the operating agreement, in fact, does address the ability for the county to audit and, in fact, the operating agreement gives the county the authority to audit all records, documents, and books. The David Lawrence Center must maintain accounting, operating, and administrative controls. The operating agreement does require the David Lawrence Center to submit a draft and final financial pro forma annually for the county's review of the central receiving facility. The naming rights agreement does allow for the Clerk of Courts to audit those funds, and they must be in a segregated account. And also, your current state-mandated MOU does include the ability for the county to audit all records center-wide across David Lawrence Center, so outside of the central receiving facility. There have been several updates to the operating agreement since we last met and talked about this. These have been agreed to by the David Lawrence Center. The David Lawrence Center -- so in Section 3, scope of service, the David Lawrence Center shall operate an 87-bed central receiving facility. This shall not result in or be the basis for any reduction in the number of permanent beds that are currently operated by the David Lawrence Center at its existing facility. David Lawrence Center shall maintain a minimum current number of permanently licensed crisis beds upon the opening of the central receiving facility. Number 7, collaboration has been modified where David Lawrence Center can present evidence-based alternatives to standards every three years for the operation of the number of beds at Bathey Lane. So essentially, that's if the David Lawrence Center was to open a new facility somewhere, and let's say they wanted to reduce the number of beds at Bathey Lane because of another new facility, Page 67 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 56 they would need to come to the Board and request permission to do so. And lastly, they must report the number of permanently licensed beds on an annual basis to the county. So the fiscal impact associated with this item, as you're aware there is a 25 percent local match requirement for mental health and substance abuse services as stated in Florida Statute. In Fiscal Year '25, you committed $1.7 million of General Fund dollars of which 303- was a one-time nonrecurring request, so your base funding was 1.4 million. These funds are used to augment the LIP program. As you know, that's your federal program that gives you an adjusted return back to David Lawrence Center and capitalizes on those dollars. There is a $522,000 opioid settlement agreement that the David Lawrence Center has. The base funding for '25 included $812,800 of State and Local Fiscal Recovery. Those funds are exhausted, and that ended in March of '25, and those will not be replenished in upcoming years. As a reminder, per the operating agreement, the county is responsible for the capital replacement, and we've set aside $460,000 per year for that. So talking about shortfalls. Again, Collier County is not responsible for any additional funding beyond the state-required local match obligation. If sources of revenue for the operation of the CRF from the federal government, state government, or Collier County are reduced, David Lawrence Center may submit a request to you for deficit operational funding only after they have tried to seek other revenue resources through municipalities, philanthropic donations. The Board may approve the request, deny the request, or adjust the level of service. If the Board denies the funding and declines to adjust the level of service, this would be your grounds for termination Page 68 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 57 if you so chose. So with that, I'll bring up Mr. Burgess, or if you have any questions for me. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Any questions for staff? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. MR. BURGESS: Thank you. While that's being loaded, I appreciate it. For the record, Scott Burgess, CEO of David Lawrence Centers for Behavioral Health. Thank you for allowing us to be here again to review this item with you. I do have some high-level remarks to make that are just reviewing salient points that have come up in our conversation addressing comments that have been expressed and to provide additional clarity on recent questions. So what is -- has been expressed is very clear in this process is these are significant and growing needs in our community. I appreciate the fact that we just had, last week, the mental health workshop that you all participated in. Thank you for that opportunity to be before you with our, you know, 30 collaborating organizations and community leaders who were engaged in the process of offering up recommendations on mental health and substance use challenges in our community, trying to put forward solutions and recommendations and also execute on those. I appreciate your opportunity to do that. What has remained clear also in that process and was expressed last week by that entire group, the Collier County Coalition for Healthy Minds, is that this remains -- the central receiving facility remains the number-one priority of the strategic plan that has now been in existence for five years and now going into our next five-year plan. I come to you today with DLC having been a 56-year trusted Page 69 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 58 provider with a proven track record in our community providing impactful and effective care. Not only that, but also available to all in our community. And as we've gone through before, there are many that have struggles with income, with no insurance, and that are underinsured. DLC has a successful track record of being able to grow its services to meet the growing needs in Collier County and was cited before that in the last 12 years, Collier County's population has grown 26 percent, and DLC services have grown 138 percent. So we have that demonstrated track record of being able to effectively mobilize, execute, and enhance services. DLC's board and our staff were comfortable on taking -- in taking on the risk of the annual fundraising variance that we've talked about based on our historic success and our growing support. We've had an ability to rally the philanthropic community based on our years of trust in the community in providing these vital services and care. We've demonstrated an ability to leverage diverse funding through grants as well as federal and state and local supports. Our board, our executive team, and our treatment team are fully committed to success in this project, and we are confident that we will have success yet again. To ensure that there's full clarity related to the number of beds -- and, as you know, that was built into the actual operating agreement -- we have committed that we are going to maintain the 33 crisis beds that are on the current Bathey campus, permanent beds. We're going to be adding the 87 new beds in the central receiving facility, for 120 total beds between the two sites. The average bed cost -- I know that's come up before. To build a psychiatric bed ranges between $680,000 to a million dollars. The cost per bed for the central receiving facility is $644,000, which is below the low range for behavioral health, in this range. Page 70 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 59 This is partially due because DLC is committed to purchasing the furniture and fixtures, the security equipment, and the medical equipment for this facility. It's already been discussed in the previous presentation by Kristi that we have built in the agreement what Commissioner Saunders had presented at the last meeting, and that's in the red information there, which I know you have all seen. It was also discussed in the previous presentation in the collaboration section that there's this three-year review on the Bathey Lane campus beds as well. From a budget projection standpoint, the numbers have not changed since the last time we were before you. You do see that there is an operational shortfall in the projections on the central receiving facility going from about 870,000 -- or 730,000 to 1.4 million across those five years. We've also provided in the pro forma the information regarding DLC's center-wide budget projections. So you see those numbers as well. So that is inclusive of the central receiving as well, so between both campuses and all of DLC's operations. And you see that on the out-year of '32, that goes to about $3.7 million. And then I wanted to -- I made a statement before that we have confidence that we'll be able to address that shortfall, and that's based on our historic success that we've had and our growing support. So I wanted to provide you just some information regarding our more recent fundraising in the last few years and the historic average of 3 point -- close to, if you round it, $3.7 million. With that, I'm available to answer any additional questions that you may have. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Two quick questions. The slide you put up with total beds was different than the slide that I Page 71 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 60 saw. I can't remember if it was in the workshop or it was at the last meeting, Mr. Burgess. You talked about the 87 new beds and keeping the 33, but I also saw an expansion of your existing facility, and I didn't see that today. Has that plan changed? MR. BURGESS: No. What was presented today are the crisis stabilization beds. So it's 120 crisis stabilization beds. We will continue to have other beds that are on the DLC campus that are not Baker Act or Marchman Act related beds. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And you were expanding that to -- I think I saw 67 or 76 beds. MR. BURGESS: Correct. Well, the 78 beds is inclusive of the 33. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. MR. BURGESS: So we will have -- in addition to the crisis stabilization beds, we project that we're going to have 42 beds -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Additional? MR. BURGESS: -- that are going to be in addition to be available for other substance use disorder services. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And your funding mechanism to support that? MR. BURGESS: Is already in place. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's already in place, okay. And then the last -- the second question that I had was during the workshop, you represented that there were limitations -- if we came away from this location as was recommended by the consultant, that there were limitations on funding sources based upon proximity to the jail, I think, is what I heard; is that correct? MR. BURGESS: That is. It's my recollection that we had an individual from Central Florida Behavioral Health, that is the managing entity, that had -- I believe, it was Linda McKinnon, who was the CEO at the time, that spoke to the group in relationship to the Page 72 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 61 fact that to put such a facility next to the jail would be contrary to the movement that's been going on for a long time to de-stigmatize these challenges and, therefore, they would not support grant dollars going towards that facility. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Anybody else? (No response.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If not, do we have any registered speakers? MR. MILLER: Yes, Mr. Chair. We have 15 registered, many of whom have ceded their time to one individual. Your first speaker is Jay Kohlhagen, and he will be followed by Penelope Hayes. MR. KOHLHAGEN: Good morning, Commissioners. Is this mic on? Stakeholder Jay Kohlhagen, 34112. Hey, I don't want to really get into this fuzzy math here -- we've got going here, but what I witnessed this past Saturday in Naples only reinforced the urgency that there was clearly a rising need for mental -- more mental beds, especially for children. Reducing capacity at this time when demand is increasing, to me, seems shortsighted. In the current site, could that support more beds at a reasonable cost? We need to seriously consider relocating the project to a more suitable and cost-effective location, one that can be accommodated with the original or even expanded capacity. In the meantime, I strongly urge this board to put this project back out for competitive bid, at least three qualified proposals reviewed publicly. That is a responsible path forward to ensure we're getting the best value and truly serve the needs of the community. Thank you for your leadership and commitment to mental health in Collier County. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Penelope Hayes, and she's Page 73 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 62 been ceded time from 10 additional speakers for a total of 33 minutes. I want to go through these list of people ceding time. Catherine -- is it Scherk? MS. SCHENK: Schenk. MR. MILLER: Schenk. Susan Salzmann? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: Tom Salzmann? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: John Anderson? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: Sally Anderson? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: Kenneth -- I can't read this -- Koernen? MR. KOERNER: Koerner. MR. MILLER: Thank you, sir. Alex Pagan? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: Burt Hayes? (Raises hand.) MR. HAYES: Yes. MR. MILLER: Oh, over there. Theodore -- or Theresa Pagan? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: There. Cindy Brown? (Raises hand.) MR. MILLER: There. She will have a total of 33 minutes and will be followed on Zoom by April Donahue. MS. HAYES: And there's the PowerPoint presentation. Make sure it's running. Page 74 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 63 MR. MILLER: Yeah. MS. HAYES: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, I am Penelope Hayes. I come to you as a neighbor to the DLC site and a Collier County taxpayer. I am here to shed light on the confusion that has been borne from the entanglement with a potential service provider. We now have enough data and experience with this process and service provider to see that it doesn't fit. Let's begin with the transportation promise, PUD Commitment 8E, outlined by Scott Burgess himself on May 27th. In this part of Mr. Burgess' presentation, he was endeavoring to assure you that they have covered the concerns of the neighborhood, experiences that we've testified to, including elopements into our neighborhood, loitering on our properties, and more. Mr. Burgess told you on May 27th that every discharged customer, from what is now being dubbed the "new facility," will be offered transportation out of our neighborhood, but what he didn't say is that there's no line item in the operating budget pro forma to do that, and yet with 87 beds on a rotation of 72-hour holds, this means an average of 10,440 discharges every year. If you estimate $15 -- $15 per Uber ride, that's $156,600 a year, and it's missing, unaccounted for in their operating budget. And if a person lives farther away, you can expect $30 Uber rides, and that doubles the expense. So what happens? Without funding, 10,440 people per year, described on May 27th by DLC's own chairman, Edward Morton, as, quote, "suffering from alcohol abuse and fentanyl addiction," end quote, will be released into our neighborhood every single year. This is either an unspoken operation cost or an enormous safety risk in the neighborhood and burden on our police department. In truth, it's both. Page 75 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 64 More words without actions, false claim of monthly meetings. DLC's words don't match their actions. On May 27th, Scott Burgess stood before you under oath and said, and I quote, "We are meeting with the neighbors monthly," end quote. This is false. In November of 2022, the Planning Commission downright scolded Mr. Burgess and his team and strongly suggested that they hold regular meetings in the neighborhood. Mr. Burgess agreed to do that, and yet they did not contact us for such a meeting until March of this year. That's nearly three years. There was one meeting, and, ironically, the next is today at 4 o'clock, which simple math tells you it's quarterly, not monthly, as Mr. Burgess claimed in what has been an outrage to many of our neighbors; however, frankly, we don't think that meeting with DLC will suddenly make the conditions better and more peaceful and safe in our neighborhood. The point in mentioning this false claim is simply to demonstrate that an issue and -- to demonstrate the issue and to ask you the question: Why are we trusting the words on -- Scott Burgess' words on such critical hinge points? So when we hear things like we promise transportation or we promise outreach, we must ask, are these real plans or just empty statements? What this process has taught us is that DLC leadership will say whatever is necessary to get what they want. It's a shell game. The confusion ends today. Let's end the tangled numbers, the contradictions, and the shell game of bed counts. Higher costs, less services. This ends today. What's the real bed count on day one before ribbon cutting? It's been hard to watch, especially when these numbers shift at every meeting, bouncing from 15 to 33 to 48 and back again. Fifteen COVID beds to end soon, an expansion on DLC main campus that will add X number, and on and on to exhaustion. Page 76 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 65 All of this is designed to -- is it designed to distract and confuse? On May 27th, the real number of beds being moved was finally confirmed by Kristi Sonntag, Director of Community and Human Services, Collier County, and Scott Burgess. The number is 48: 30 CSU adult beds, 3 ESAC, 15 detox. And so the delta of 48 from 87 is 39. Not 87, not 105; 39. The transcript is up on the screen. And it ends with, "Okay, so you're moving 48 beds?" says Ms. Sonntag. Mr. Burgess says, "Right." The delta is 39. I also want to point out that there's no old site and new site. Let's be clear, this is a matter -- this is not a matter of an old site and a new site. There are two distinct businesses at play here. One is the David Lawrence Center, a private entity. The other is the Collier County Receiving Center, which belongs to the public. Right now that distinction is being blurred, and it's the very root of the issues with this site and the service provider requiring 19 meetings to try to make it work. Entangle these business -- un-entangle these businesses. Take back home court advantage. Whatever happens inside DLC, whether beds are moved, added through renovation, or teleported in from Mars is not our business. Let's close the lid on what's happening inside DLC. We have no agency there. We have no business there. The delta of our business is 39. And do the written donor commitments exist? We are told that there is donor support, so where are the written pre-commitments? DLC has had years to secure these. If they existed, we would not be worried about the budget. Where is the proof that funding exists to cover not only the furniture but medical equipment? But also a 900,000 plus annual operating shortfall, and let's add the 156,000 for the transportation out of our neighborhood. Page 77 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 66 Will those same donors also fund in any way the major renovation? I think you just spoke to that, and they already have. That's been covered. So are the same donors being tapped for the renovation and the new project? This is so pie in the sky. The math has collapsed. We were told 105 beds for 25 million. Now it's 39 beds for 56 million. That's nearly 1.5 million per bed. And then there's the operating budget deficit, $1,056,600 per year and growing. While people on pillows on beds before a grand opening was quite a mystery, it's also not logical to say that adults coming in under Marchman Act and suffering from drug addiction and fentanyl will ever be mixed in again with children in the DLC main campus youth ward. That's illogical. But again, that's not our business. What happens inside DLC is their business. What is clear to you and your staff and not a mystery to anyone is that the building itself shrunk. And why? It's the site restrictions pointed out by Ms. Patterson noted on -- as she noted on May 27th. She said quote, "height restrictions and zoning restrictions," end quote. This shrunk the project. This shrunk the services. The DLC campus site is the restricting factor. As far as the overage of one million-plus in annual operating expenses, well, that factor is plain and simply the operating agreement with DLC and all that was traded away for the land transfer. DLC can't cover their own interests, yet it's us who have no cards, no leverage? This deal -- with this deal it's all gone with the wind. The math has collapsed and so have the cards. Knowing that DLC could come to the county for operational funding if they cannot raise the deficit every year, we must ask, how deep are their donor pockets? When their big donors pass away, will the next generation of donors, whoever they are, make the same annual deposits? And Page 78 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 67 when DLC inevitably does come back to you for more money, will you really be able to say no when there will be a lineup of speakers before you with very passionate outcries, clergy even, and DLC's board asking you to not let DLC fail? The dream, the intention, the plan for this project can be likened to a square peg that does not fit in the DLC campus round hole. This has, indeed, been a tangled and messy process all along the track. And perhaps when you sue your own charitable foundation to gain the land, you've muddied and marred the outcome from the start. Time, research, and years of experience trying to whittle it down has shown us that it just doesn't fit. The 2021 Board of County Commissioners vote was not a promise. Let's remember something important. The 2021 vote was not a promise to DLC. It was a motion to explore the site. There was no neighborhood information meetings noticed yet at that time, no neighborhood input, no final agreement, and certainly no financial analysis or clear business case. That vote was to collect the data that we now have, yet what started as an exploration has somehow steamrolled into assumption. Other operators specializing in what is needed exists. When we see Scott Burgess and his staff not able to clearly answer questions, when we see missing data and thin budgets, when we hear testimony that is misleading and we know to be untrue, we question why you are still questioning their abilities. We see a good organization, but we see them clearly out of their depth. As has been pointed out by members of this board, DLC does a good service in the community for mental health needs, yet they do not specialize in drug addiction and fentanyl abuse. No organization is going to tell you that they cannot handle tripling their service scope. It is up to you to stop them from capsizing their entire ship. When you stand to triple your business, you should come to Page 79 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 68 these meetings with an A-plus presentation. This opportunity isn't a gift. It's a chance to prove you're the right fit. Any provider should treat this as the monumental opportunity that it is. While DLC could still earn a service contract at the Collier center, this is not a DLC-or-nothing scenario. There are other qualified, experienced operators who specialize in this type of care. Another provider and the RFP process itself would offer competition, innovation, a well-equipped business growth plan, a much sharper pencil, and value to taxpayers. Bring this project home. Commissioners, it's time to bring this project home back into clarity, back into the county and public control. We have excellent county staff. We have the budget. We even have sites. Let's put this out for competitive bid. Let's make balancing their own operating budget a mandatory requirement for consideration. Let's agree that a business with a plan to lose money every year is a plan to fail. No business can stay afloat that way. Let's unburden this neighborhood. Unburden the police from amplified collisions with this neighborhood and unburden DLC from a commitment that they can't make on their own behalf. Rather, let's invite DLC and others to an RFP and see them put their best presentation forward and sharpen their pencils and be required to prove they can handle the business load. What we need is a clean start free of the tangled mess weighing down the goal. We do not have to cut the corners off to make this fit. We've already done that, and it still doesn't fit. Let's empower Amy Patterson and our county team to take the lead. Let's create a facility that's worthy of our county. Let's make sure the service provider, whoever it is, is the best fit, because right now we are standing on the edge of giving away tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. Page 80 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 69 Let's say no today because the facts demand it, and our community deserves it. Let's say yes to a state-of-the-art county facility, a smart and unrestricted location under the domain of the county and for the people. Let leadership lead. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker joins us on Zoom, April Donahue, and she will be followed also on Zoom by Pamela Cunningham. Ms. Donahue, you should be getting prompted to unmute yourself, if you'll do so at this time. And I see that you have. You have three minutes. MS. DONAHUE: Thank you very much, Commissioners and Chair and Vice Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. And I'm speaking with you on behalf of the Collier County Medical Society board of directors to express their support of the Collier County Behavioral Health Center and ask you to approve the David Lawrence Centers for Behavioral Health operating agreement. This will ensure that the approved construction moves forward in a timely manner. There remains a pressing need for improved mental health services for both adults and children in Collier County. And the development of this new facility represents a vital step towards meeting that need that our physician members are anxiously awaiting. The board strongly supports this initiative and would be glad to assist in any way that may be helpful. Thank you again. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is also on Zoom, Pamela Cunningham. Ms. Cunningham, you should be getting prompted to unmute yourself, if you'll do so at this time. I see that you have. You have Page 81 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 70 three minutes. MS. CUNNINGHAM: Good morning, Commissioners. Dr. Pam Cunningham, for the record. I emailed all of you with my thoughts on this project but was asked to speak also on the record regarding this issue. I, in my career as a physician, have treated thousands of mentally ill patients, have a very strong understanding of mental illness, and also have really a strong heart for patients with these -- these illnesses. It's a terrible condition. All of them are terrible conditions. That being said, anyone who looks at this proposal should know that it is not the right way forward for either patients or for taxpayers. The numbers have changed drastically, leaving the county with potential for tremendous debt over a 30-year period. According to the Collier County Clerk of Court's report, with current DOGE scenarios, quote, "The potential financial liability that could fall back on taxpayers is unlimited," end quote. This is not acceptable to me as a taxpayer, and it's not acceptable to me as a mother. It's not acceptable for people living on fixed incomes. I respectfully ask that you take a step back, send this project out for rebids, hire a consulting firm as needed, and come up with a scenario that is organized, that will truly help patients in need and that will be fair to the taxpayers both of today -- both today's taxpayers and those of my children's generations. I want to briefly mention also that the -- your lady staff member who spoke -- who presented at the beginning said that if funding gets cut, the Board could vote against more funds and could terminate the contract, but what would this look like for our community? And I assume the county would not get paid back for its initial investments. As Ms. Penelope Hayes so astutely pointed out in her excellent Page 82 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 71 presentation, does the David Lawrence Center have signed contracts for donors that they can provide to you as our county leaders? If this has not been done, then this burden should -- will fall back ultimately to the taxpayers. Please vote no on this issue today and get back to the drawing board for a successful -- successful way to move forward for these patients in need. Thank you so much. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, I was handed one other slip. It says he may or may not speak. Father Orsi, did you want to speak? And this will be our final registered speaker on this item. FATHER ORSI: First of all, I want to thank all of you who have been working for so long on this project, and I really respect many of the concerns that you have. You've helped to clarify some things for all of us, and you've also showed us where improvement is needed, at least in presentations and perhaps for future funding for the project. I also want to thank the concerns of the community. They certainly made a very fine presentation, although I think we have to look at the big picture. Big picture is we can't kick the can down the road anymore, okay. We are in a mental health crisis in our country and in this county. We have a drug problem, a mental health problem. Two of the commissioners at least are very familiar with what I'm talking about. Commissioner Kowal was with the Sheriff's Department. He knows the problem. Commissioner LoCastro knows the problem that we have with the hospitals. We don't even have a hospital here that can take care of people with mental health issues. I've been in and out of the hospitals. I've been involved with St. Page 83 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 72 Matthew's House. This is a crisis. The finances are available. You had your penny tax collected. It started with $25 million. Well, it's up to $50 million now. And why? Look at all the years this has taken. See what COVID has done? Could we predict COVID? No. Do you see what inflation has done? Could we have predicted the inflation that we have? The answer is no. We can't predict the future, but we can predict the needs that we have right now. Perhaps if there is need, a future Board of County Commissioners will have to make other decisions, but if we do not make this decision now -- now, today, for the expansion of the David Lawrence Center and the central receiving facility, we are going to be entertaining a moral hazard for the people of our county. The sick people -- the addicted people are also sick people -- but also for the general population when these people have no place to go and no place to be healed. So I encourage you -- and I'm going to say this right now. Some people are concerned that Mr. Burgess will not live up to his promises. Let me tell you, Mr. Burgess will live up to his promises, and I'll be sure that he does. Thank you. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, with your discretion, please, we did have someone preregistered to speak on this item on Zoom, and they did not join us until Father Orsi was speaking. With your permission, I'd like to call on them. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Absolutely. MR. MILLER: All right. Kathi Meo. Kathi, you should be getting prompted to unmute yourself, if you'll do so. I see that you have. You have three minutes. MS. MEO: Thank you very much. Although I highly respect Father Orsi, I have to disagree with him at this point in time. He's Page 84 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 73 saying, "Oh, we have to do this today. It needs to be today." Well, I respectfully disagree with that. It doesn't have to be done today. This is, I believe, your 19th -- 18th or 19th meeting regarding this situation where it's involving over $56 million. And as the previous speaker, Penelope, had gone over so many issues and problems with this entire scenario -- it's a lot of money. I believe that there should be another look at -- you did it for -- when you were doing the budget, you had an independent come in and look at the budget. And to go from 26 million to 56-million-plus and not even have all of the delineation of everything that this encompasses, it just seems to me to be a rush decision, even though it's the 19th meeting. It definitely needs to be looked into further. Get another couple of bids. It's a lot of money. It has a lot of issues that have not been addressed. And I respect you all. I sent you an email last night with some other issues that need to be looked at. And yes, we do agree there is absolutely a need, and nobody is questioning that whatsoever. There's absolutely a need. But to spend this kind of money and not have the clarity on what really is in this -- you know, it's like the Big, Beautiful Bill and all of these gigantic bills that they have in Congress. This is our big, beautiful bill for DLC, and it really needs to be looked at a little bit further and do a deeper dive. I respect all of you. I know that you all are concerned with the taxpayers, and I believe that you need to look at this further. Thank you very much for your time. MR. MILLER: I said before, but I mean it this time, that was our last speaker. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, thank you. I know he Page 85 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 74 has a previous engagement. If I could, I'd like to call -- I think you're chief, aren't you? Are you a chief -- Chief Roberts to the podium. And he's my friend, so I always call him Chris. So forgive me if I don't formally recognize your title, sir. CHIEF ROBERTS: Good morning, Commissioners. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning. CHIEF ROBERTS: Good morning. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you could answer a couple of questions for me, please, because, there again, the need with regard to this circumstance is not the question for today. My question to you is within the existing jail facilities that Collier County has, approximately what is our average population that we have in our -- in our jail system? CHIEF ROBERTS: So if I could put clarity to your question -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir. CHIEF ROBERTS: -- I think what you're talking about is a crisis or central receiving facility which would treat inmates and/or patients that are currently under a live Baker Act. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. CHIEF ROBERTS: That population in your jail today averages between eight and 12 inmates per day. Only about 30 to 50 percent of those are able to be taken on the current David Lawrence Center facility, and only about 30 to 50 percent of those would be able to be taken on the new facility, with the remainder being folks that are violent felons that I don't think any of us want outside the secure facility of the jail. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen. And the overall population capacities of the -- of our jail system, do you -- rough estimate, Chief; just a rough estimate as to the total beds, if you will, available within the jail system currently. CHIEF ROBERTS: The current available beds with current Page 86 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 75 staffing is about 900. We actually have a rated capacity of over -- just slightly over 1,300 beds. Obviously, staffing contracts and everything would go into increasing the population, should we see a rise. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand. And our average population -- because I remember the Sheriff way back when I first became a commissioner, he was sharing with me we were -- we were staying pretty steady at about 800 visitors. I call it the Collier County Hotel. So we were -- we were pretty level at that 800 number. CHIEF ROBERTS: We still are pretty level between 750 and 800 on a daily basis, yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So for my assumptions, the average of 800 or so still leaves a space of about, potentially -- and I understand the stockade in Immokalee comes in with the total beds, but about 300 spare -- or not utilized beds on a regular basis. CHIEF ROBERTS: Four hundred probably. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Plus/minus. Okay. And currently when one of our deputies picks up someone who's suffering from mental illness or a substance abuse, do we have detox facilities within the jail system itself? CHIEF ROBERTS: No, sir, we do not. Currently, Marchman Acts are brought to the jail. We only get an average of one of those every two or three days. But essentially, we're not a treatment facility for those purposes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand. And how about our DJJ, the -- for the -- for the adolescent population; is there detox facilities there? CHIEF ROBERTS: I'm not familiar with their operations, sir. I can't answer that. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Okay. That's all the Page 87 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 76 questions I had for Chief. I do have a question for Ms. Sonntag, if I may. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Sure, Ms. Sonntag. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Chief. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I actually had a question for the chief. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We'll get back to him. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He has a meeting at 11:45, so that's why I wanted to bring him up. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Hey. How you doing, Chief? CHIEF ROBERTS: Great, sir. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I know you as Chris also. CHIEF ROBERTS: Yes, sir. I know. I know you. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: You know, I chair on the Public Safety Committee, and I know we've had discussion at depth because of this crisis in the jail, because I just want to make it clear that when you have a Marchman or a Baker Act, we can't put those in general population, like, just because we have empty beds in the jail, correct? CHIEF ROBERTS: Correct. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: We have a specialized medical facility that has a limited amount of beds, and right now, the males pretty much occupy every bed in there; is that correct? CHIEF ROBERTS: Actually, they overpopulate that particularly purposed built part of our facility. As we talked about in the Public Safety Coordinating Council meeting -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: We have a makeshift one for the females, which is dangerous for them right now. CHIEF ROBERTS: Right. The actual rated capacity of that is 26 beds. We run 35 to 40 male inmates in there, which doesn't include the females which are a -- typically are in more need of Page 88 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 77 mental health and substance abuse treatment inside the jail, and those female patients average 20 to 30 on a daily basis, are actually housed in an old part of the old jail, which is really terrible for what we're doing there. But we have to keep them separate, and we have to -- and as you're aware, we're looking to try and ask -- come back to the Board and ask for money to look at remodeling the jail, because we do have extra beds that we think we could save money by remodeling them to proper facilities versus building a new facility for those beds. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And I don't want to sound gruesome, but as of right now, I know at some point we had a history -- there was a history of a few females that may have tried to commit suicide just by jumping off the upper tier, which is not actually designed to have the mentally ill people in that type of situation, correct? CHIEF ROBERTS: That's correct, sir, yes. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. Thank you, Chief. CHIEF ROBERTS: Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I did have a question for Kristi. I asked Mr. Burgess earlier on about the potential or not, if you will, with regard to contributions or assistance with financing. Are you aware of grant limitations from any agency with regard to assistance with financing because of the proximity to the -- to the jail system that we currently have? MS. SONNTAG: Kristi Sonntag, Human Services director. No, Commissioner, I am not aware of any federal or state grants that prohibit funding based on location. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. No one else is lit up. Page 89 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 78 Any other questions or comments? Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: I do. The need is great and it's growing. MR. YOVANOVICH: Can I respond to some of the comments? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: In a moment. COMMISSIONER HALL: As far as being a crisis, that's a stretch. Not to -- not to deny it's a growing thing. But Mr. Burgess said DLC has the ability to meet the growing needs, which made me feel better. This particular deal has morphed into something not good. The voters agreed to spend surtax money for this very single purpose, but what they agreed to was $25 million and for David Lawrence Center to take care of all operating expenses. That's what they agreed to. Now we've morphed into $56 million. Our beds, who knows where they are. We're going to build 87 beds, but out of that, 39 of them are going to be open because they're going to transfer 48. And I don't know where we're -- I don't know why all of a sudden we are including existing David Lawrence Center operations and commingling them with new taxpayer obligations. I don't know how that happened. But when I look at spending $56 million of the taxpayers' money, I only want to consider the new central receiving facility. I don't really care what happens next door. And Father Orsi mentioned it. We can't -- we don't want to kick this can down the road, but there are things that I think that we can take action of as a board that would actually be faster in getting treatment for people than building a new facility at 56 million bucks. You know, there's an underlying pressure that I don't know why people are feeling about June 22nd with the construction manager. We have to know what we're going to do because our construction contract is -- we have to answer them by -- so what. That's -- we Page 90 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 79 shouldn't enter into doing something not smart or not -- or not well thought out because of a third party's contract. If I had a $40 million thing -- I don't know what their -- I don't know what their agreement is, but I'm just going to use it in round term. If I had a $40 million contract, and I couldn't get a decision based on local government or decision-makers, I think I would be patient. I don't think I would just flush that down the toilet because of other powers that be. But that could happen; could not happen. I'm not going to argue that. But I'm not under any pressure at all to just forge through and make a decision based on haste. You know, when I get out of this little 200-piece -- 200-person bubble that we're in here in local government in this -- and this subject, no one that I ever talk to even says this is -- why are you even considering this? Why -- this is crazy. This -- you know, if this was private -- if this was private business, this would be like, why are you even discussing this? But it seems to be allowed that we can talk about it because of public money. And I've said it before, I just can't go forward. It's not about the cause. The cause is noble. The cause is felt. I mean, it's growing. We acknowledge that, but there are other options. On July the 2nd, the Willough facility comes open. It's under contract right now by a faith-based entity. We don't know much about that. But on July 2nd they have to put up or shut up, and I would personally like to postpone this decision until we find out -- we could purchase that facility and remodel it a lot faster, and we could -- and David Lawrence Center could operate there. They could operate there. They could partner with faith-based businesses. They could partner with other people who do substance abuse, because there's no one better with the mental health aspect than the David Lawrence Center. That's unquestionable, but there are people that I feel like are stronger suited for substance abuse. They could Page 91 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 80 partner with those people in a government-owned facility. And surtax money could pay for it. They could share revenues, they could share expenses, and they could share expanded services. It seems like it's a decent exit tragedy than just forging through with this one. I just -- I would like to see us not be under pressure to make a hasty decision just because we said we did, just because we said we would, just because we get under pressure to do something piecemeal. You know how I'm going to vote today, so however it turns out it's going to turn out. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. I want to commend Ms. Hayes for giving a concise briefing. I've said before, we need to sort of, you know, not to be disrespectful, kind of dumb it down and just get to the brass tacks, and you definitely did. I do want to give the other side a chance to address some of those things because in some of the points you made, there's definitely meat on the bone, but I'd love to hear, you know, their rebuttal to it because I haven't yet. You presented a few new things that are definitely worth a response back. So while somebody from David Lawrence Center gets ready to take the podium, I'll just make a couple statements. I wish we did this deep of a dive on other things that we spend taxpayer dollars on them. Many of them much less critical. When the term has been thrown around saying, you know, this has morphed and grown in size, I blame the county for that. Shame on us. It didn't morph in size due to poor leadership. It morphed in size due to, you know, 18 meetings. And so apartment buildings have morphed in size over the last few years, houses, anything that we Page 92 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 81 build. The sports complex, if we built it today, it would cost a lot more money. I'm sure if Great Wolf Lodge came to us today, they would want more than $15 million that we gave them, and imagine what we could have done with that money for mental health. I respect what Commissioner Hall says, but I want to go on the record saying, I do care what happens next door in David Lawrence Center, because I think what we're trying to do, whether it's David Lawrence Center or another company -- and there's plenty of them who do it. I don't know if a bunch of them are breaking our door down to do it here, but putting the two missions together is creating a cohesive approach to addressing mental illness. So it's not about popping a bunch of satellite facilities all over Collier County and patting ourselves on the back. I'm not saying that this location is -- it's this or nothing, but I do think whatever we build and wherever we will build it, it has to be connected to David Lawrence Center, and maybe another contractor, if we wind up going in a different direction. But together, it creates a cohesive approach to healthcare. When I was the COO of Physicians Regional, I used to say, one of our closest allies should be NCH because even though they're a competitor, they should also be somebody that we cohesively work with. At the time, I don't think we were doing it very well but, you know, I commend NCH and Paul Hiltz and his team for not only reaching out to Physicians Regional, but Lee Health. And you see how much a rising tide lifts all boats. But you know, Mr. Burgess, you know, some things I'd like you to specifically address, and you can obviously all say whatever you want, but some things that Ms. Hayes brought up that definitely is worth -- you know, I want to hear the rebuttal or the confirmation as the Uber rides. You know, you sit here and you start -- you start adding those up and doing math and, you know, I want to know if Page 93 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 82 you think it's funny math, or some people come with their own cars. Not everybody's going to Uber everywhere. You know, it's been brought up before -- and maybe it's not something that's going to change any votes here, but when anybody says, "Hey, I'm going to have monthly meetings with the citizens" -- I'm not trying to throw rocks or spears, but I'm trying to get to the center of integrity and thought. And your rebuttal might be, well, I tried to have monthly meetings, but they didn't want to have them or something. And I'm not putting words in your mouth, but I'd like you to specifically address that. So the Uber rides, the monthly meetings. You did address the beds, but I went on record at the last meeting saying three different speakers came up here and did a shell game of the beds. Okay. We got a slide now that finally showed clear math, but in some of the minds of commissioners here, we're still sitting here going, okay, which is the real slide? So I'm hoping you can either -- you know, confirm that. And then anything else that you want to address. You know, I think that, you know, this is the day where we're going to -- we're going to make a decision, and hopefully we don't kick the can to an 18th or 19th meeting, sir. But, you know, sir, those are some of the questions I have. I'd like you to specifically address some of the things that Ms. Hayes brought up and then anything that you made notes on. MR. BURGESS: Absolutely. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to address those. And I was trying to keep track, as you were, of the items that were salient to make sure that we talked about. In regards to transportation, your point is very well taken, that the mathematics that were presented here today by Penelope are -- is assuming that everybody is going to leave the center and is going to need an Uber ride. So first of all, we've got many individuals that Page 94 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 83 have family members or friends that come pick them up. So right off the top, it's not going to be the number that was presented; however, the number that she presented was $156,600, if I copied that down correctly, and I think I did. We have built into the pro forma that for the first year, we -- and successive years, but in the first year, $141,000 is built into the pro forma specifically for transportation. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: How much? I'm sorry. MR. BURGESS: $141,000. So even using her analysis and building in 156,600 for every individual that would need to have transportation -- which is not going to be the case -- we have built in a very significant number to attend to that. In regards to the meetings, we did start holding those meetings after the Board of County Commissioners decided that they were going to move forward with the project; that was in January. And we have -- we've had one meeting. At the initial meeting with the neighbors, we asked them how regularly they wanted to get together, and their response was quarterly. So we have our second quarterly meeting that's scheduled for today. So I wanted to respond to that. In regards to the discussion that was if they -- you know, if they don't have any written pre-commitments from individuals pledging a commitment to this initiative, we actually do already have pledges and funds that have been raised for the central receiving facility in the amount of $1.27 million. That's to help, and that was part of the naming rights agreement for specific things in the central receiving facility, which you're aware of, furniture, fixture, equipment, and that can go for operations. So to speak for the fact -- and that's just very recently that that was passed. So we do have an ability to rally the community around supporting this initiative in addition to DLC. In regards to the beds, I will simply reflect back on the slide that I showed today, which is 33 permanent beds on the DLC Bathey Page 95 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 84 Lane campus for children, and we'll have 87 new beds in the central receiving facility, for 120. That's what's going to be for crisis care, Baker Act, Marchman Act, adults and children available through those locations. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can you address grant availability? Because even though Ms. Sonntag said, you know, she has no knowledge of if we put this in a different location -- and that's not throwing a stone at her. She might not be the subject-matter expert. Boy, I would sure hope you're the subject-matter expert on how to get grant money. And so I'd like to hear -- I mean, I know you addressed it, but for the sake of a big, huge vote here of tens of millions of dollars, that is a piece of the puzzle. I'd like to hear something with more meat on the bone and not just, "Well, you heard somebody say a while ago that if we built it next to the jail we'd be ineligible for a bunch of grant money." Because I'm hearing it from both sides. I mean, I'm appreciating what Commissioner McDaniel is trying to get to, and then asking Ms. Sonntag may or may not be the subject-matter expert. I would sure hope you're one of the subject-matter experts, and maybe at the county staff we just don't happen to have somebody that can cite ripple and line and, you know, everything about grants. But I'd like to put a little bit more clarity on if we move the location, we might be gypping ourselves out of millions and millions of dollars of possible, you know, grant money or not. MR. BURGESS: Yeah. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I mean, that's a big muscle movement as part of the decision. MR. BURGESS: Yeah. And I understand. And I don't know that there's anything in specific statute that would say that it could not be on a jail campus. What I'm saying is the conversation that we had with our local managing entity, which is the conduit through which Page 96 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 85 grant dollars flow from the state, they were emphatic about the fact that they would not support giving grant dollars to any provider that would put a central receiving facility on a jail campus because of stigma, and that would also -- that would take us back decades from what we've been trying to do, which is to de-stigmatize, decriminalize mental health, and that it would be -- it would be going 180 degrees from what the intention is in moving mental health treatment forward in our country and within our state. So they did not support -- and they have the right to be able to dole those dollars out based on their receiving applications for support. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well, I'll tell you what I heard, and this will be at least my final statement for now, was something more in the middle. It was -- and I wish I had a name and a date of the meeting and whatnot, and maybe you'll say I heard it wrong. But what I had heard was that we would be far less competitive, not that we couldn't get the dollars, but that we sure wouldn't be high on a priority list, possibly, for different grant dollars. So, you know, the answer might be somewhere in the middle. But I wanted to hear you restate it with a little more clarity of how you feel it is. I don't think it's the one and only decision that's going to sway this, but, you know, we're trying to sort of peel away -- MR. BURGESS: Sure. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- different sort of ambiguities here. That's all I have for right now. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Mr. Yovanovich, you had a couple comments you wanted to make? MR. YOVANOVICH: Yes. Thank you. Rich Yovanovich, for the record, on behalf of the David Lawrence Center. Specifically with regard to the beds, I think the slide we Page 97 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 86 showed -- and I'll admit it was a little less clean when we presented it a couple of weeks ago. But there's no question that there's going to be a total of 120 beds, 33 of which contractually we're now obligated to maintain at the David Lawrence Center, and 87 new beds in this central receiving facility. I think what's being lost in the conversation is this is a central receiving facility. What does that mean? It means that when someone is having an episode, they are specifically taken to this facility. So if they're an adult, wherever this facility is located, they're going to the central receiving facility. So to somehow penalize David Lawrence Center for being next door because adults are now going to go to the right instead of to the left seems to be an unfair penalty to David Lawrence Center, because they're going somewhere else, regardless, when the central receiving facility is being built, but David Lawrence Center is saying there's a tremendous shortfall in taking care of people less than 18 years old. We're going to make up for that by keeping those 33 beds. So for the good of the group, the good of our community, we're going to have 120 beds to deal with Marchman Act and Baker Act, and that's what the voters wanted, 120 beds. You're getting 120 beds for $56 million. It's not the David Lawrence Center's fault that construction costs have increased. Everybody's construction costs have increased. This is -- this is -- the cost of these beds is less than the average to build new beds throughout the country. It is the right location. That location was decided. It's time to build the building, and it's time to provide the services. And with that, I think it's -- that's all I wanted to add to Scott's presentation. And we've -- I think we've addressed the comments from the community. We just want to make sure that the facts are on the record, and we believe the facts are now on the record, and any Page 98 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 87 other questions you have of David Lawrence Center, we're here. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I have a couple for Ms. Patterson. I'm going to put you on the spot here a little bit. But there's been some concern that perhaps this project has not been well thought out in terms of the scope of the project, in terms of the location. We did have a unanimous vote to place this on this particular location back, I guess it was 2021. Whenever that vote was; I've got the transcript here. It was a unanimous vote to do that. But the issue of the planning for this, I know we had the committee that met for quite some time. I know we had a tremendous amount of input over the years. But can you give me just a little quick summary of how we kind of got to where we are in terms of the process? We've had 19 meetings. And I'm putting you on the spot because I didn't tell you I was going to ask you this, but I just want to get an understanding of, you know, this has not been, in my recollection, something that has not been well thought out. But I want to -- I want to hear this from either you or someone that you know that can answer that. MS. PATTERSON: Absolutely. I'll start, and then if any of our Facilities folks, Mr. Dunnuck or Mr. DeLony, want to come up because they have been involved since we started the process to actually engineer the site and deal with the building. So obviously, there -- years ago now, predating this board, there was a siting committee that looked at sites all over. And for reasons that were explained later, the several top sites that were listed in that study were not selected part to do with some of the things that have been discussed today about concerns about the central receiving facility being on campus, but secondly is the synergy of placing the central receiving facility next to existing -- or adjacent to the existing David Lawrence Center. With that, we proceeded on to the process of getting that Page 99 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 88 property properly zoned, hearing the concerns of the neighborhood. So there was an extensive land use -- oh, there's a -- there's actually a slide that addresses this -- but an extensive land-use process that we went through so that -- as you described, we have spent 18-ish, 19 meetings talking about everything to do with this project. Once that site was decided, the central -- the David Lawrence site for the central receiving facility, this has been in the county's wheelhouse for the planning as well as then the site engineering and then the now moving on to the construction. So yes, it's been a partnership. There's been a lot of thought that has gone into it for this site and for the building itself but also that it had to meet the requirements of the site, so the building has to be able to fit based on how the site was zoned, and that's the discussions. Also, other requirements. Security, a wall, how people are going to be taken into the facility were all things that have been part of this process. I'm looking at Mr. DeLony if he wants to add, because he's the lead for county on this property. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: This may be a question for Mr. Burgess or somebody on the David Lawrence Center team there. The actual design of the building -- MR. BURGESS: Yep. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- I'm assuming that there was some expertise applied to coming up with the design; that we're not just building a building out of the dark. Can you -- MR. BURGESS: Yeah. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- give me a bit of information as to how we got to the footprint and the building that we have? MR. BURGESS: Sure. Yeah. As Ms. Patterson was alluding to, this has been a completely collaborative process between the county that is the lead -- it is their construction management teams, Page 100 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 89 that is -- has the oversight over this project. In addition to the county, obviously David Lawrence Center having had expertise across all these decades in behavioral health, in addition brought to the team through contract from the county directly who was selected by the county was RG Architects, which has a specialty in these particular types of buildings, behavioral health buildings. They have a specialist on their team that they brought in as an additional consultant just on behavioral health as well. So we have -- and in addition to that, the construction team that was selected is DeAngeles Diamond who has built behavior health facilities not only in Florida but other states. So we really -- I want to commend the county for bringing together an amazing team of professionals who understand these facilities well. They -- they understand the regulatory requirements. They understand the unique design that is unique to these behavioral health settings. So all of those staff members have been meeting with great regularity. Inclusive of that team is also the Collier County Sheriff's Office who is at every meeting so that we can ensure the safety standards that our community specifically would like to have is addressed in this facility as well, so -- and these meetings have been going on with great regularity for a very long time. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. My questions are not for you. It's Kristi Sonntag, please, if you don't mind. MR. BURGESS: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can you tell me what you do for the county? MS. SONNTAG: I'm the Community and Human Services director for the county. I'm responsible for all federal and state Page 101 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 90 entitlement and other grants from Department of Justice, DCF, a variety of grants, and then I'm also responsible for social service programs like to seniors and homeless. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And, you know, I'm not debating with Commissioner LoCastro with regard to who is a subject expert one way or the other, and certainly Mr. Burgess is very succinct with his request for grants with regard to mental health and such. But that -- I just wanted -- I wanted the folks to know the reason I asked you that question earlier on was from an independent basis, to your knowledge, there's no prohibitions with regard to grant funding that could come for this facility if it were not located in this spot? MS. SONNTAG: No, sir. I'm not aware of any. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And thank you. MS. SONNTAG: Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I certainly -- you know, I've been participatory, I think, in all 19 meetings that we've had so far with regard to this. The planning is off the chart. The facility sounds like it's going to be off the chart. I still am not in support of the -- of the proposition that's in front of us. From a planning standpoint, I had to bring several months -- last year I had to bring minutes from a previous meeting to denote the fact that we had -- the county had entered into a lease to operate the facility but no performance measured operating agreement. And then -- and they went, "Whoa." We didn't have an operating agreement. We now have an operating agreement. I'm dissatisfied with that. I cannot get happy with the circumstances that are prevalent here today. I would rather we not postpone this decision. I would rather we do something different. I have said from the beginning this facility -- the facility needs to be Page 102 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 91 here on campus, as was recommended before. Here is a copy of that mental health plan that you talked about. I did review this. There's a lot of really, really small print, Mr. Burgess, but I couldn't find in here where it said that there were limitations on the capacities to receive grants. That's why I asked Kristi, and I asked you specifically. I think we need to go out for an RFP for this operation no matter what. I certainly, on behalf of the taxpayers of Collier County, cannot accept a business plan that talks about -- even perceives on losing a million dollars plus a year in perpetuity. I can't -- I can't even conceive giving that consideration. I think we need to take measures immediately. I think we need to give direction to our current staff immediately to work with our Sheriff's Department to enhance the facilities that we already have on site to better care for our residents, better allow for our Sheriff's Department to do their job, take these people -- treat these people with respect, allow them to go through the process, have some kind of programming in place. I think our money is far better spent investing in Collier County assets on campus where we have facilities; where we have a transportation system already in place, big public bus system; where we have a health department; where we have the court system in the event that that's requisite as well. I -- all of those things still add up to a no for me. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. I think when it comes to grants, I think we're all correct, but I think I'm the most correct. I'm just going to say that. I do believe that Ms. Sonntag is correct when she says she's not aware. Being not aware doesn't mean a definite no. I do think when I posed the question -- I wish I did have the transcript from whoever I Page 103 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 92 met with. It's not a matter of yes or no. There are some things where you just don't qualify, and nobody has said that here. If they were certain of it, you'd have it in your binder. What I believe is -- what I remember being told is that it's a sliding scale, just like anything else. You know, our veterans nursing home's a perfect example. It's not a yes or a no. It's a matter of where you compete, and are you a high enough priority. I don't think that changes any of the votes up here, but I think we're all correct in some way, but I'm the most correct. I'm just kidding. Mental health isn't a profit-making business. How much do we profit every year off of our parks? Even our Paradise Coast Sports Complex, which costs four times the amount of this, we have a lot of numbers in parentheses, but it provides a service. When I think of your -- and, you know, I hate that it was said somewhere the amount of customers. These are patients, okay. These aren't customers. You know, this is -- this is a -- and it might be semantics or whatever, but having worked in healthcare and whatnot, it does bother me when it said that. But regardless of that, most of the people that you see don't live in Port Royal. They don't get picked up by a Bentley. So you're -- it is going to cost money if this county wants to have better mental health and more services. You know, we have, I think, a member back there, Matt Holiday from NCH, and we sing NCH's praises, but one of the things NCH made a command decision on was, you know, not providing significant health services. When I was at Physicians Regional, I was speaking till the cows came home saying, "Why don't we add that as a service line?" And you know what the answer was? "Because it doesn't make us money. It costs us too much money, and then the liability is huge. We'd rather turn that area into a -- you know, a wound care center," Page 104 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 93 which is a high profit margin. So I'm not as bothered -- I would expect the numbers to be negative, but I would also think with your 56 years of experience of DLC that if this facility was built, it would fan the flames that much more of people who would be interested, and new money coming in because you have an expanded services -- service, and you would have a whole new brochure, you know, asking for money. So I'll just put that there. I have a question for Ms. Patterson. You've been in all the big meetings, maybe not 19, but lately trying to get this here. My question, similar to, like, Ms. Hayes' presentation, which is, you know, just brass tacks. Are we really that far away right now in an agreement between the county and David Lawrence Center that -- you know, we approve things here that are of this magnitude that still have loose ends, that still have things to tighten up. And yeah, at times we totally shoot it down if it's -- we're miles apart and we're taking great risk. But, you know, in your estimation, are we really that far apart? And before you answer that, I'll then just add -- so that I don't have to talk anymore -- the Willough and this is apples and chairs, okay. So if we truly want to have a state-of-the-art facility that the taxpayers voted for, yeah, we could have got it for 23 million with a lot more beds if we would have built it when we had the money and it was approved and we didn't kick the can, but that train left the station. But, you know, taking over a facility that's aged, not set up the way that we want and all that, it still gives us the service line. But make no mistake, it's not a matter of, well, we're not going to do it over at DLC, so we'll head over to the Willough, get keys to the facility. And I think you probably would echo some of that, that there's some long poles in the tent with the Willough or another agency. Page 105 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 94 But having said that, let me turn the floor over to you. How far apart do you really think that we are and any other comments that you want to make since you've really been our senior representation and been trying to, you know, bring this together, whether it's David Lawrence Center or another location? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. So we have provided an operating agreement that we negotiated in good faith and brings us the protections to the county that we were seeking. How far apart we are is really a decision for this board on whatever risk they feel comfortable taking, having been provided all of the information now that's been requested about the pro forma, the number of beds, potential shortfalls, and what the cures are for those things if they should happen. None of us have the ability to know what might happen tomorrow, let alone into the distant future. But both sides, I believe, have done a good job at providing that information so that this Board can make an informed decision. Regarding the Willough, what that would provide, if it were an option, would be immediate beds with the ability to eventually plan for a new facility or a greatly -- a greatly reconstructed facility. So it's still an interim solution. Now, whether that interim is five or 10 years and whether that facility will even be available -- they may close on that facility, and it's off the table. So any -- any built facility that's in the area, if we were to buy another building, if one was provided, chances are it's not going to be something that's perfect forever but would provide something that we would use to deal with the immediate issues and then do the planning to look at what it would look like in the future. The David Lawrence site provides that to be state of the art from day one, and so those are the decisions that this board is weighing. It's not -- it's really a decision for all of you, having experienced some Page 106 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 95 or all of these 19 meetings, to say, considering all of this, have we adequately protected the taxpayers as well as tried to move forward a project that's very important to the Collier County voters? And that's as simple as it is. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. You know, I've been getting a lot of contact from friends on both sides of this fence, you know, telling me the way I should think or not think. And, you know -- and a lot of people just keep regurgitating talking points and what-ifs. You know, I went through my life not depending on what-ifs because sometimes they never equate to anything in the future. I can probably speak to this. I'm probably the only person here that's ever -- on this board that's ever had to take a Marchman or a Baker Act in a ride in a patrol car while they're in crises across the county to get them help. I want everybody to understand, not everybody that's a Baker Act or a Marchman has a crime connected to it. The only crime is that they have an illness. And even in the state statute, every time I've had to take a person in under that provision that is provided to me by the State of Florida as a Marchman Act or a Baker Act, they're referred to as a victim. We say "the victim" and then the name. Everywhere in that report, everywhere in the paperwork, they're referred to as a victim. And a percentage are just victims. They've not committed any crime. Like I said, the only thing is that they have some sort of mental stability [sic] or an alcohol dependency where the families, loved ones, friends cannot take it anymore or cannot care for these people. That's when the state kicks in and gives us the ability, deputies, police officers, EMS, firefighters, doctors, some nurses to enact a Baker Act or a Marchman Act. Page 107 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 96 And if you've ever driven in a car 30 miles to get to the David Lawrence Center from one end of the county to the other with an adult individual kicking the window -- trying to kick the window out, trying to kick the cage out, and then when you get there, you've got another 30- or 45-minute wait -- because they have a very small receiving facility with only three beds -- to get through that door, you sit in that parking lot with that individual in that condition. That then being said, you get them the help they need. And the sad part is we're talking about having things near the jail, improving the jail, creating space in jail. Listen, the reality is that jails are meant for criminals, not victims, and the percentage have never committed a crime, and that's where you want to take them. This can's been kicked down the road. David Lawrence didn't create the $56 million problem we're all looking at. It is the fact that government failed to respond and get something done when the time was asked to get it done. That's why this price tag is where it is today. And if you look at what David Lawrence's -- they're actually putting it out because they're agreeing to everything this county and our attorneys and this contract that we've asked for, especially safeguards. And I will answer the question I think somebody presented, would we be out the $56 million if we drop and just say, "No, we're not going to fund you because you're a shortfall"? No, it's in there. It's written in the contract they have to pay us back in full, and I think with extras that have been incurred. So that's in the contract. But I just want to make sure we understand that that -- what we're looking at, either having a state-of-the-art facility that the people of Collier County deserves, and now's the time to build it -- because it's not going to get any cheaper. That's just a fact. And I can what-if it. What if I get a building here? Page 108 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 97 We looked -- I was all excited when I heard about the Willough, but then it didn't come to fruition. Somebody else has money on it. So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I'm going to wait around and the deal's going to fall through. That's a what-if, and that's not what I'm about. I'm sorry. But Collier County deserves it. The juveniles in Collier County deserve it. We don't have the ability to keep our juveniles within our own county when they're in crisis. There's times they've had to be shipped out to Fort Myers, Hendry County, and that's a burden on a parent with a 14-year-old or 13-year-old that's in crisis where they've got to drive two counties or a county away just to visit their child while they're getting treatment. That's unfair to the citizens of Collier County. It's unfair to the parents of Collier County. And by this contract and the way the numbers add up now, finally we're going to gain beds for these juveniles to be treated right here in Collier County. So, listen, I'm done kicking the can down the road. I think this is probably our best option and probably -- is probably going to be the best option that we even could find in the future. So, I have to support this. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I'm going to make a motion just to get this on the floor. I think we've beaten this horse a bit here today and over the last 18 or 19 meetings. We have a staff recommendation. I want to make sure I get the right motion, so I'm going to read the motion. If the Board wishes to proceed with the construction of this facility, the following actions are required: Approve and execute a fourth amendment to the vacant land contract with David Lawrence Mental Health Center, Inc., to modify the Collier County standard form long-term lease and include an operating agreement exhibit governing behavioral health center operations and approve and execute an amendment to the naming Page 109 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 98 rights agreement to clarify use of funds acquired with the naming rights. Ms. Patterson, is that the correct -- if we want to approve this going forward, is that the correct motion? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I'm going to make that motion. Commissioner LoCastro, you're lit up -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- so we're on the motion if there's a second. Right now we don't a second. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I second it. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well, one of the things that I'll -- that I wanted to say is I'd rather have a few loose ends but be negotiating and working in a team with David Lawrence Center than some unknown third party who has yet to be determined. We've spent way more money than this on things that -- like -- I like what Commissioner Kowal had to say. There's always what-ifs. You know, we sat here at our last meeting saying, you know, if we had to build the sports complex all over again, we would put in more grass fields and baseball fields. So there's always going to be something like that, but I'm looking at the bigger picture, as one -- another person said here. And I think we had our chance to sort of do all these tiny little things at 19 different meetings, but I think we're sitting in front of us here with an opportunity to tighten up this plan, but I think we already have something that's headed in a great direction. Don't forget, David Lawrence Center, their representations on this as well. So in the end, I don't think they want to crash and burn because they were short, you know, $50,000 for furniture or that sort of thing. So I think some things have been thrown around that negate Page 110 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 99 some other things. So I was going to second the motion. It sounded like Commissioner Kowal already did. But just, you know, as Commissioner Saunders says sometimes, just to count heads and either move forward or not, you know, I'm going to be in support of this, but it doesn't mean I'm going to take my eyes off of this plan. We're going to have to move forward and make sure that, you know, if we need grass fields, we measure twice and cut once, and that we don't sit here and just kick the can or vote on something and then look the other way and hope it all turns out great. But I'd rather work as a partner with the David Lawrence Center on this location and fine-tune it as we move forward. We haven't even put a shovel in the ground, and that's why I'm going to support it as well. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I'm not going -- forgive me for stuttering, but I can count noses, so we're -- you know what, I'm going to say my piece. There are other operators that are willing to operate a facility for us. I have spoken to two. And out of respect for DLC -- and I shared this with Mr. Burgess yesterday. I have an enormous amount of respect for DLC. They have done an enormous amount, for our community, of good over the years. I don't like this transaction. I think we haven't informed ourselves sufficiently to vote on this just simply because we never put this project out for an RFP. We don't even know what other operators that may be out there that might be interested in coming over and working with us. I'm not talking about kicking this can down the road. I'm talking about taking immediate action on known circumstances and known facilities that we, in fact, have available to us today to work on the Page 111 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 100 circumstances of the crisis that, in fact, exists. But be that as it may, I promised that I will work with our board, our staff, and David Lawrence Center to make this as successful of a facility as it possibly can be. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: One last comment, then I'll call for the vote. I want to congratulate our staff, the Manager, County Attorney's Office, Ms. Ashkar. There were a couple issues that needed to be resolved. The bed count was one. The commitment for ongoing obligations by the County Commission going forward for -- due to the shortfalls or potential shortfalls, that's been resolved. I've reviewed the contract. I think we've got an excellent partnership with David Lawrence Center. And so all those in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It passes 3-2. And that's the motion to cover all of the agreements as I outlined in the motion. We're going to take a break till 1:15 for lunch. (A luncheon recess was had from 12:16 p.m. to 1:14 p.m.) MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If you'll take your seats, we will resume the commission meeting. I believe we're on Item 11B. Item #11B Page 112 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 101 A PRESENTATION FROM CONSULTING FIRM MISSION CRITICAL PARTNERS RELATED TO UPGRADE STRATEGIES FOR THE P25 800 MHZ PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEM. (NATHANIELHINKLE, MGR -TELECOMMUNICATIONS) - MOTION TO ACCEPT THE PRESENTATION WITH DIRECTION TO STAFF BY COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL, APPROVED MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. This is our 1 o'clock time-certain. Item 11B is a recommendation to accept a presentation from consulting firm Mission Critical Partners related to upgrade strategies for the P25 800 megahertz public safety radio system. Mr. Nathaniel Hinkle, manager of Telecommunications, is here to begin the presentation. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Good afternoon. MR. HINKLE: Good afternoon, Commissioners, County Manager. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. I greatly appreciate the audience. I'm Nathan Hinkle. I'm the telecommunications manager here for the past three years. During this time, I've faced immense challenges keeping our current radio system operational. The system suffers from frequent outages, significant design flaws, including multiple single points of failure and a lack of timely alarm notification. In my 29-year career as a telecommunication -- I'm sorry -- telecommunications professional, I've never encountered a system with such persistent fundamental issues. These problems not only compromise system reliability but directly impact our public safety and emergency response. Concerns about Collier County's public safety radio system were first brought to the attention of the Board on February the 6th of 2024. I clearly stated then that the current radio system does not Page 113 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 102 meet public safety communication standards and presents a first responder safety issue. Again, at the BCC meeting on February the 13th, the Agenda Item 11B, where the commissioners greatly approved the hiring of a consultant to examine the radio system, we moved on that. Today I restate what I said then. Collier County's current 800 megahertz P25 radio system no longer meets the communication needs of our emergency services. It has been proven to be insufficient in supporting daily operations and disaster response, and it does not integrate effectively with the technology that we use in our 911 dispatch center. This is a serious concern for public safety. I literally have zero confidence in our public safety system on a daily basis or an emergency basis. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Could you tell us what you really think? MR. HINKLE: Yeah. I just want to make sure I'm clear. Yeah. And, again, this is very difficult for me. After three years, I never expected to be in this position. I've never dealt with a system like this before with so many problems. At the request of the Board, we did bring in a professional consultant to evaluate the current system and recommend a path forward, and I think that's the key here is the path forward, how we're going to correct the current problems along with getting what we need in the very near future here. At this time, I'd like to introduce Nick Falgiatore with Mission Critical Partners to present their findings, and we can answer any further questions after that. I'll have the speakers from our first responders then reply. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. HINKLE: Thank you. MR. FALGIATORE: Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Page 114 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 103 Commissioners. I appreciate the time and invitation to be here today. My name's Nick Falgiatore. I'm a consultant with Mission Critical Partners. My company has been in the public safety consulting space now for 16 years. I've been a practicing public safety consultant specializing in wireless communications for the last 18 years, registered professional engineer in the state of Florida, and I've worked with well over 100 communications systems similar to the one that the first responders operate here in Broward County -- or, I'm sorry, in Collier County. I would note that I've been spending the last 10 years also working across the highway in Broward County where I've been supporting their new communications system for the last 10 years and also a system up in the Panhandle for Okaloosa County. And the reason I call those out are one of those systems is a Motorola system. The other one is an L3 Harris system. These are the two main players within the space. The system you're using today is an L3 Harris system. We've worked very closely with both vendors and, you know, I just want to assure you in everything that we present here today, it comes purely from a case of understanding what the county's unique requirements and situation is, and that we have absolutely no bias when it comes to who the communications equipment provider is. So before we step into the meat and potatoes of this presentation, I want to take a brief moment just to give you an executive summary to summarize the key findings that we had. And the study that we conducted was a comprehensive top-to-bottom evaluation of communications within the county. We wanted to fully actually understand the situation. We met with every first responder agency within the county. We conducted in-person meetings to solicit feedback to understand what the strengths and weaknesses of your existing platform has been, what the needs are for Page 115 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 104 your communications moving forward, how the system has either failed to meet your -- their communications needs or has been -- what areas it's been successful. We conducted web-based surveys to solicit additional feedback. We surveyed every piece of infrastructure within the system. We documented condition and age and inventories and made sure that we had a complete holistic view of every element that makes up the communications system today. Based on that assessment and the input that we received, what we found is the existing communications system is not meeting public safety needs because it is not meeting public safety reliability. We'll go into details about what -- about why we came to that conclusion shortly. We've seen challenges that were documented by the county with regard to how the system is supported and maintained to maintain it at a public -- level of public safety reliability. And what we also documented is that the system design itself needs improvements to the amount of coverage it provides, the amount of capacity that the system provides in order to meet your current and growing needs as the community here continues to expand. There's been significant investments to date in portions of the radio infrastructure with Motorola equipment. The county has a very unique arrangement where you have Motorola infrastructure operating hand in hand with L3 Harris equipment, and there's been a growing amount of infrastructure placed on the Motorola side that has allowed the systems to interface together and provide certain features and functions through that equipment. As Nathan mentioned, the Sheriff's Office has also invested in a number of applications in the dispatch center on the Motorola platform, and there are some opportunities here for integration for allowing improved capability for the systems to work together. Page 116 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 105 Based on all of the information that we gathered -- and again, we'll go into the details here in a minute -- what MCP is recommending is a two-system solution whereby public safety and the user buildout on a Motorola platform and benefit from the capabilities that that system would provide while continuing to maintain the existing L3 Harris system to be used for school board and other nonpublic safety users. This would allow the benefits of both technologies to be leveraged. It would provide some inherent backup capabilities between the systems. It would allow the school board to continue to leverage the investment that they've made on their school radio system, which leverages the county's L3 Harris equipment, and it would allow you to maintain and get the full value out of the investment that you've already made in L3 Harris equipment without taking that equipment and putting it on a shelf. So again, jumping into the meat of the presentation here, a little bit about MCP. As I mentioned, I have 18 years of experience supporting public safety communications. I'm the manager of our wireless practice here at MCP. We have 16 full-time consultants that specialize in public safety radio communications. And again, as a company, we have an extremely strong commitment to vendor neutrality. This is at the core of what we do. Because we have no vendor affiliation, our goal is to provide our clients the absolute best expertise that they can receive regarding what technology platforms will meet their needs. And a little bit about MCP, so we're a very broad company. We have over 200 employees. In addition to land mobile radio, we also support NextGen 911, public safety facilities, justice management technology, data integration, and then IT networks and cybersecurity. So our study focused on, first and foremost, documenting the needs of all the users. We met with every public safety agency Page 117 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 106 within the county. We met with all the other radio users, including nonpublic safety users that are users on the same shared radio system today. And again, we focused on user interviews, making sure that everything we recommend ties back to requirements that we heard from your first responder community. Nothing in here is inserted as MCP's opinion. Everything is based on feedback that we received from the user community. A little bit of background on your communications system, the system in its current platforms began its evolution in 1995 on the 800 megahertz EDACS platform, which was provided by the predecessor to L3 Harris at the time. Communications International, who is the contract supplier, who you hold a contract with, is an L3 Harris channel partner. They started supporting the system shortly after the system's inception. There were upgrades to the system over time to get to its current place. It underwent an upgrade in the 2005 time frame, and then more recently, the current system was contracted in 2015, which included the migration to P25 and the addition of several radio sites. The county's currently undergoing a core upgrade. There was a secondary redundant core added in 2023 that provides some additional redundancy across the system, and the county's currently undergoing a number of repeater upgrades to upgrade firmware and some of the system components. So the system today has 10 radio sites, each with 12 channels. That speaks to how many -- how many radio towers you have, the level of coverage the system provides, and how much capacity the system supports. We'll go over this fairly briefly, but 24 consoles is -- that's the equipment that resides at the dispatch center that your public safety dispatchers utilize. And the system has a total of 11,544 radio users. Those are the hand-held portable radios and mobile radios. Total Page 118 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 107 fleet population is at that number. Here's a map that shows you where the towers are located. You can see it might be a little hard to see up here. There's a little marker. Of course, the sites are more concentrated at the west where you have a greater density of buildings. Generally, the way these radio sites work are the closer you are to a radio site, the more in-building penetration that you have. If you have a radio that only needs to operate outdoors, then you don't need your radio sites as densely spaced. So that's why you have much more radio sites out in the west than you do in the east. The radio sites are connected by a microwave network. These are -- this is the technology that provides data communication between the different radio sites, and this is a topology that shows the way that the radio sites are connected. As you can see here, this speaks to one of the resiliency challenges of the system where there is not a loop protected system meaning that you have a single connection between these sites which creates a major single point of failure. And we'll talk about those in a moment here. But this -- when you look at this map, this can help explain why the system is facing some of the challenges that it is. So a little more detail on the Motorola integration. So the user community has been largely replacing their L3 Harris radios with Motorola APX NEX platform radio. The main feature that has been advantageous with these radios are these radios enable users to switch back and forth between the radio system and between commercial broadband in the radio itself. So the radio can take that audio transmission and allow that traffic. If the radio system coverage is an area where it's not adequate, the traffic will go out over Verizon or, you know, a cellular carrier and will be able to maintain that communication over commercial broadband. The Sheriff's Office has invested in a Motorola core system. Page 119 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 108 Their goal here was to be able to support improved redundancy and provide backup capabilities and to host some of those services on those Motorola radios that they've been buying. They invested in a Motorola core, which is the same core that would support a larger deployment of radio sites. They have connected that core back to the primary L3 Harris core to provide connectivity to allow data to transport between the calls, and that enables some of those features to work properly. And then the Sheriff's Office has purchased a radio site that is used for backup services to support in the event of a failure of the primary system. So what were some of the key study findings that we found? Well, system reliability was the major, major concern that we heard. Throughout talking to the users and throughout the system's history, we've heard of many instances where the system has experienced a failure that has impaired communications. These situations have occurred during major disasters, during hurricanes which, understandably, the system is stressed during major disasters. It's also the time that these communications systems are needed the most. There's -- from our experience, from the time that we've been involved, we've seen outages occurring from a smaller scale to a larger scale. About every month or so, there seems to be another user-impacting incident. And when we look at what defines a system is public safety grade, and we talk about single points of failure. What that means is that in order for a system to be public safety grade, our expectation is that any one component in the system can break. Things break. There's moving parts. You know, we expect a part to go bad from time to time. If the system is designed without a single point of failure, that means that something can break, and there will be absolutely no Page 120 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 109 impact to users in the field. Their experience with what they're using the system for will not change, because you have redundant components, you have resiliency, the backup takes over, and there is no impact to user operations. The system today has many single points of failure, especially on that backhaul network, the connectivity between radio sites, such that when a failure occurs, there are sites that go off the air. There's an impact to the user experience on the system. And as Nathan mentioned, this is the system that first responders are relying on where you typically will measure acceptable outages in the time of seconds per year, not minutes or hours of downtime. And this has been a very regular experience for the first responder community. In addition, during our interviews, we identified -- the user community identified areas where there is coverage, that -- improvements that are needed. We also found that based on the analysis of system capacity, that there's improvements that are needed to the amount of capacity system could carry. That's the amount of simultaneous traffic. And what happens is when the system gets overloaded, the users go to push-to-talk on their radio, and they get a busy, and they have to wait for a resource in the system to become available. And we found the system, based on day-to-day usage, it's at its limit today, and that if you have major incidents, as the county has experienced on a number of occasions, the system will go into a state where many calls are placed in this busy queue. So that's indicative of the system needing improvements and increases in the channel count. We also found the sites need significant improvements to grounding and backup power systems so that the equipment can be better protected from lightning strikes so that it can continue to operate in a more reliable fashion, provide consistent and available Page 121 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 110 backup power in the event of commercial outages. COMMISSIONER HALL: Nick, what is swatting? MR. FALGIATORE: Swatting? So swatting is an incident where, say, an individual makes a false police report saying there's some major activity that requires a SWAT team response. Maybe calling in a bomb threat or some sort of major activity like that. And it is a situation -- I understand that the county had an experience with this where there was a swatting event that caused a major law enforcement/fire response, and as a result, the system became overloaded during that example. That's an example of a case where luckily there was not a real emergency, but it certainly gives you the indication if during a non-real emergency, if the system became overloaded and there was a high number of busies, that a major similar level actual emergency would similarly tax the system. This map shows several things on here. What you see in the green and yellow background is computer modeling showing what we predicted as areas where there are -- there is weaker radio coverage. The areas in green show generally good in-building coverage. The areas in yellow show where there is -- where there's not reliable in-building coverage. And when we've conducted our user interviews, we ask the users to tell us exactly where all those user areas were where coverage is inadequate on the radio system. And all those areas in those white polygons you see are areas that were called out to us as being areas that need improved coverage, that there's unreliable coverage today. And as we can expect, it's in a lot of these areas where you've experienced growth, new housing communities, areas where the county is expanding, and you're having a greater demand for in-building communications. So some of the systems-support challenges, this was Page 122 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 111 documented, has been well documented by the county. This information was provided to us when we conducted the study. And it details what the county's experience has been supporting the existing system. Things from prolonged outages to lack of direction for improvements, core upgrade planning, delays in problem identification, mis-notifications from the NOC, inaccurate as-built documentation. It's just various high-level problems that the county's experienced in its ability to maintain the radio system. One of the challenges that the county's experienced is the contract for the system is with Communications International, which is the more local provider, but it's created a challenge from getting support directly from the equipment manufacturer, L3 Harris. So they've had this challenge where they don't always necessarily have access to all the resources directly when they've experienced some of these problems. We put together a list of what we called out as some of the major challenges that the system has faced. I would say the county has a document. I think it's now up to 35 pages of incidents that they've experienced that they've been documenting every time they have a support challenge with the system. And we called out a couple of the high-level ones that were more significant, resulting in larger system-wide impacts. We can see, just based on the timeline, every month to every few months there seems to be another event that the county has experienced. These have gone up through this year. There's already been a couple of incidents. Again, one in April resulting in site outages. One in March resulting in a more significant -- I believe that one was a system-wide outage that lasted approximately 25 minutes. But again, we talk about single points of failure. Because the system has single points of failure, things can go wrong. There can be issues. But the expectation for a public safety system is not that Page 123 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 112 they would be user impacting. These have all been user impacting events that have reduced coverage or resulted in some sort of impaired ability to communicate. So based on the requirements -- what we documented are what we would feel are the improvements that are necessary for the radio system. The first ones that we documented improved coverage, particularly in the areas of new development. It's going to be those areas that we called out as weak coverage on those coverage maps. Improving system reliability through improvements to the backhaul network and system design. Improving site reliability through improvements to site grounding, backup power systems, and alarming. Improving -- or increasing system capacity to support future growth, surge usage, increased interoperability, and increased data. Providing integration with PremierOne CAD, CommandCentral Aware, and APX NEXT radios. We'll talk about what that means in a second. Addressing some of the audio integration challenges between the L3 Harris and Motorola cores and then providing more effective backup capabilities. So within our analysis, we looked at really two main options here: That we have -- upgrade the existing L3 Harris system or installing a new Motorola system. These are -- these are the main options that you have available to you. And Option 1, considerations for the L3 Harris equipment, you know, the big benefit here, yes, you have the system in place today, there's an existing platform in place today, and there's been a number of budget -- of upgrades to that system to improve reliability that have been budgeted. More recently adding the second VIDA core, that's the core brain of the system, and upgrading site routers. The MASTR V repeaters, these are -- the repeater is the biggest building block of your radio system. It's the single biggest cost, and Page 124 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 113 it is the single most prevalent component that you will have. That equipment is approximately six years old based on when the system was deployed. It has about nine years of useful life remaining in it. We do note that there's been a long list of performance issues that have -- that have been identified that have not been able to be addressed to date. And the county is actively working on an updated procurement that would go out for a rebid for maintenance services to continue to support the system. Some of the challenge out there, there's only one other certified L3 Harris maintenance provider within the state. There -- that's Williams Communications. They're based in Tallahassee. They aren't in the market. There's another provider that services the Miami-Dade system, but there's not another maintenance provider within the area other than Communications International that's an established L3 Harris channel partner that could support the system. One of the challenges here, too, is -- I talked about those repeaters before, the Harris MASTR Vs. Harris has produced a new platform called Two47 repeater. This is their new next generation piece of equipment. It was just released within the last year or two. The MASTR V station was first released in 2008, I believe, is when that piece of equipment first came out. So well over 20 years -- or close to 20 years into its life cycle, there's now been a replacement that has been identified. The new Two47 bay station is not a plug-and-play replacement to be able to expand the existing system, meaning that if you were to expand your system with L3 Harris and add additional channels and add additional sites, for most of the system, the main component, the core simulcast sites, you cannot use the new equipment. You would have to buy the old MASTR V stations to make it compatible with your existing system. Page 125 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 114 And based on that, that means that that equipment -- you're probably looking at about 10 years from now that you'll be faced with another major upgrade and be needing to replace those MASTR V stations. That's not a published date. That's simply based on timelines that we've seen in the past for these types of -- these types of components. But just have that understanding that if you did upgrade the L3 Harris system, you would either have to replace all the repeaters and be looking at a very substantial investment, or you'd have to buy equipment that you're looking at a shorter life cycle to be able to support. With Motorola, you have some components in place based on the investment that the Sheriff's Office has made so far. You have the ability to leverage the investment capabilities that the users have made in the Motorola radios and be able to benefit from more -- the features that those provide. And we'll talk a little bit about integrations with PremierOne CAD, CommandCentral, and APX NEXT on the next slide. The largest user agency, the Sheriff's Office, has invested in Motorola infrastructure, again, both in radio infrastructure and in applications at the dispatch center. And then Motorola has a service shop located in Lee County. They've committed that they would open a shop in Collier County, and public safety agencies from when we conducted our study provided a great deal of feedback in support for moving toward a Motorola platform. So one of the key elements here when we look at the options before you is integration at the dispatch center with different applications. There's three different platforms that have the ability to interact and interface to the radio system. You have your PremierOne CAD. That's your computer-aided dispatch system. The CAD system acts as the brain of a dispatch operation. It's what -- when an emergency comes in, this is the software that says Page 126 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 115 based on this emergency, these are the first responders that need to get dispatched to this incident. The CAD system supports interfaces to radio to enable seamless operation for the users in your dispatch center which have to operate on the CAD system and the radio system. L3 Harris supports a common -- it's called an Application Programming Interface, or API. They can publish a standard that says these are the features that we support. And another CAD vendor, if they choose, has the ability to write and be able to offer those features. Motorola, on the other hand, as the operator of both platforms, has invested significantly in the ability to tie the applications together and allow for a much more seamless level of integration. The best example I could give you is it's kind of like taking an Apple phone and an Apple watch. Apple invests a lot of time in making sure that their devices and their applications work well together, that they support a very large number of features, as opposed to trying to take an Apple watch with an Android phone. So that's the big tradeoff. What we did is, in order to solicit feedback, is we had both vendors present to the user community and invited the users to be able to see what features and functions both L3 Harris and Motorola had on their roadmaps. And the feedback that we received from those presentations were these -- the level of application integration with PremierOne CAD, with CommandCentral, which is more of an ability to tie data and other resources in to be able to improve situational awareness, these applications, the ability to integrate and provide the features that Motorola can between their different applications, was something that was very highly desired in a way that cannot be achieved with the standard API that's published from L3 Harris for these different platforms. The APX Next radios, I mentioned the users are the ones that Page 127 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 116 have been investing in this equipment. There's features that are not able to be supported through those radios to tie them into the radio system. That would be enabled if it were a Motorola infrastructure. So recommendations: So we recognize from our side the challenges that the county is faced with the existing platform and some of the benefits that a Motorola system would be able to provide in terms of application integration. And then we note the Sheriff's Office has invested in this Motorola equipment and including radio infrastructure. We did, from our user interviews, hear near unanimous support from the public safety community for this direction. I'm sure they'll voice their opinions here today. And then everything we've seen is that the data is indicative of the current communications system not meeting public safety needs today. So the existing system, all system hardware based on current upgrades will be up to date for a period of six to eight years. The nonpublic safety users that are not the ones that put their lives on the line every day did not voice significant concerns. The big difference there is if the communications system fails, they're not the ones that are putting their lives on the line. They can live with an outage, make a phone call, be able to wait for the system to be restored. They don't have those critical needs. The school board has invested over $15 million in their school radio system which relies on the county's L3 Harris radio system today. It leverages the radio sites, and it is expanded through radio sites they've purchased at their schools that allow that system to be integrated. So what we're -- what we recommend is continuing to maintain that system because you already have it in place. It's already been funded, and it's already, through the current upgrades, going to be up Page 128 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 117 to date -- to continue to support those users. It's actually very common for counties to operate secondary radio systems for nonpublic safety users. We've worked with many other counties that have built completely stand-alone radio systems to support schools and other county utility departments and public works and other departments as a way of segmenting out that traffic so that that traffic doesn't compete for airspace with first responder traffic. So the fact that you already have the system in place, it would be a great opportunity to leverage the equipment for that purpose. So the two-system solution that we're recommending would allow for beneficial use of the existing equipment, it would allow the systems to provide backups for each other where if you did have a failure you could fall back one to the other. All of the user equipment is compatible across both platforms. It would allow for the ability to attract additional investment from L3 Harris service providers so that you could continue to support and maintain the existing system, and through this RFP process, be able to solicit a better level of support than what you've had in the past. It would allow for the system to -- or for the existing L3 Harris system already in place with uses having already -- users having already purchased compliant radios. So all of those radios that are on the system today would be compatible across either platform, whether they're Motorola or L3 Harris radios. It would provide the opportunity for reducing support and maintenance costs for the existing system. Maybe you don't need to maintain the same standards that you have with it not being a public safety grade system at that point. And it would allow for capacity surges on your primary system to not be impacted from your nonpublic safety users. So what are the challenges that are faced with that two-system Page 129 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 118 solution? Well, ongoing maintenance for the two systems is probably the most significant one; that you would have to continue to support, in some capacity, the ability to maintain the existing system while investing in the new system. There would be complexity for county staff and managing those systems. I think the county's goal is to be able to transition ownership of the -- of the L3 Harris system to the school board where they would be able to take on that responsibility. The shelter space and some of the constraints on radio towers would need to accommodate both antennas for the old and new systems. So there's a challenge there that would need to be overcome. And then we'd have to work out frequencies. So there's -- frequencies are needed to support these systems, and we'd have to figure out how we can make both systems work with regard to frequencies. I would note I think these challenges can be overcome. They are more technical challenges. They would just take some efforts to make sure that we had the right solutions in place. From a budget perspective, for both options we've presented budgets. We've identified here our long list of assumptions for what is included in those budgetary estimates. It includes a site count. In this case we're recommending a total of 20 radio sites, which would be six additional in addition to the 14 that you have in place today. It would support increase in-building coverage with a number of those areas we identified. That would be five new radio towers in support of those six sites. We're recommending increasing the channel count, replacing dispatch consoles, adding redundant controllers, maintaining the connectivity between the sites, and then providing infrastructure upgrades so that your shelters have improved grounding, improved relevancy to natural events, improved installation standards, the ability to make sure that your site infrastructure can be maintained at Page 130 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 119 a high level. The budgetary estimate we provided, we did -- we have an original cost here when we first completed the study. We added a column here just based on some of the uncertainty we're seeing in the market with regard to tariffs that -- we don't yet know the impact that these are going to have on pricing, but we included a 15 percent markup just in case. We want to make sure you're prepared, given some of that uncertainty. Part of the challenge here is radio vendors, when they commit to these projects, they're committing to pricing often for two-, three-, four-year projects on a fixed-price basis. So they have to consider their risk and uncertainty into how they price these systems. So a lot of times you will see pricing go up even before you might see policy cement or take effect. So that's the reason why we're seeing these differences here. What we're seeing is that budgetary estimate is somewhere between 50 and 60 million for the radio equipment for Motorola with different levels of incentive discounts, depending on how the system is negotiated, that you may be able to secure through that negotiation process. Ongoing costs, we gave a flat estimate of 10 percent of the infrastructure costs in annual maintenance. That works out to about four and a half million dollars based on that budgetary estimate. And then the system today is about 1.2 million, just under, in annual maintenance. So if the two systems maintained side by side, that's probably a good budgetary estimate for keeping both sides operational. So if we looked at the L3 Harris option, what we did for an apples-to-apples comparison is assume that we would include an identical radio site configuration, adding to 20 radio sites, adding -- upgrading the system to support 18 channels, improving the Page 131 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 120 infrastructure, improving the microwave connectivity, and improving the backup power systems. And based on those estimates, you know, the system budget, somewhere in that 30 to $38 million cost, getting as close as we can to an apples-to-apples configuration for the number of sites, number of channels, and system configuration. Again, with that ongoing cost, similar, when we factor the existing equipment added to the new equipment, in that range of four and a half million dollars per year. So some of the considerations, we remember with the Harris option, that you're looking at a significant repeater upgrade probably in the neighborhood of nine to 10 years down the road, that you're looking at a significant investment as those repeaters start to reach their end of life. You would not get the benefit of that integration at that level with those other dispatch applications that we talked about, and then you don't have the benefits that we talked about with the ability for the systems to fall back on one another. You would still have all your system -- your system would still be a single system; one platform with all users sharing that system. So as far as next steps, you know, our goal is to receive direction from you regarding how you would like to proceed -- with what direction you would like to proceed. Based on whatever that direction is, we are on board to support the specifications and assist with negotiating a contract with your vendor of choice to be able to secure a contract to provide the necessary system upgrades. So that concludes our presentation. Appreciate your time and your commitment to MCP to help you with this study. We'll hand the floor back to the county, and I know some of the users here would like to give their opinion on the matter. So thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We don't have any questions or comments yet from the Commission, so let's proceed. Page 132 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 121 MR. FALGIATORE: All right. Thank you. MR. HINKLE: Great, thank you. I think at this time I'd like to have our public safety first responders come up and address some of the issues that were presented here today. I think they're all well aware of it. They live with it every day. And at this point, I'd like to ask for the volunteers to come up and speak for the committee here. CHIEF BYRNE: Commissioners, good afternoon. My name is Chris Byrne. I'm the fire chief at the City of Marco Island, and I'm the president of the Collier County Fire and EMS Chiefs Association. First of all, the fire chiefs want to extend our appreciation to you and the county manager for utilizing Mission Critical Partners to provide an evaluation of the public radio system. As you see, their findings are both informative and concerning. Our first responders rely on quality communications systems to effectively respond to the needs of our community. System failures compromise the safety of our residents and first responders. As identified by Mission Critical Partners, the current radio system reliability is poor, and the radio system is not properly maintained by the current contracted provider. In 2022, the Fire Chiefs Association sent a letter of no confidence to L3 Harris regarding Communications International. As detailed in today's presentation, the public safety radio system is in need of significant improvement, and two options have been provided for your consideration. Based on the recommendations, the fire chiefs seek your support of Option 2. We have invested significantly in Motorola radio equipment and software, and Option 2, the Motorola solution, will align the radio system with our radio equipment, resulting in substantial improvements. On behalf of the fire chiefs, our firefighters, and paramedics, Page 133 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 122 thank you for your consideration. MR. HINKLE: At this time I'd like to call our former chief of Greater Naples Fire, Nolan Sapp. CHIEF SAPP: Good afternoon. It's been 14 months and two days since I retired. But my whole life I've had a couple of very near passions that I hold near and dear. The fire service being No. 1. Public safety, but communications. So I've been working with radios since before I could get a driver's license. And when I came here in 1990 to go to work for North Naples Fire, I soon got connected with the radio system. And in 1994, I was asked to sit with Crystal and many others as we went -- moved forward designing our new 800 megahertz system, and that was an honor and a privilege that I got to do. And through the time that I got to do all that and learn how the system worked -- back then it was GE. We started out with GE. We had a pretty good system going initially, and we went with GE at the time because there was a -- we call it a watch dog committee that spoke out against Motorola then because they were $2 million more than GE. The county at that time elected to be with the cheaper version instead of the Motorola system. I think if we'd gone with Motorola initially, we'd be in a lot better position than we are today. Truly, we would. If there's one thing that you noticed in that presentation, when you looked at L3 Harris and you looked at what Motorola's doing, what I see is a lot of research and development that's taking place with the Motorola side of things from not only the backbone of the system, but the user equipment itself that everybody carries today. They left the L3 Harris platform because the user equipment, meaning the portable radios, the truck radios, were unreliable. I raised numerous flags about the lack of accountability with manufacturing defects and so forth that was just left unanswered. Page 134 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 123 When we had the opportunity to go to Motorola, that was a tried-and-trued piece of equipment that everybody could use and have comfort in knowing it was going to function each time. The failure rate for a Motorola product was far less than it was for the L3 product. Of course, L3 came back, and they came back with a new design. "This is our new firefighter radio." It was just the old radio in a new skin. The technology remains the same. L3 has failed to do the research and development necessary for the user equipment and I feel also for the backbone of the system that needs to be in place to keep up with today's fast-moving technology changes. It has to be there. We heard all of the failures that have taken place. I lived through those failures. The swatting call you talked about earlier, Commissioner, that occurred on Golden Gate Parkway at the David Lawrence Center. Called in as a possible active shooter. The Sheriff's policy at the time was deputies that were available to respond on or off duty responded to the scene. They had over 100 deputies on scene. We had over 50 first responders from fire and EMS there and everybody else. It overloaded the system. The system was crashing. You were getting a busy signal every time you'd try to key up on your radio trying to have command and control of what's taking place and coming into you. It happened numerous times during large brushfires. It happened during Hurricane Irma. The system -- the microwave got bumped a half an inch during Hurricane Irma, and when that happened -- when that happened -- it's just a half inch on top of this building. But a half inch spread over 10 miles is how wide. So it missed -- it missed the tower. So we lost communication not for hours, not for minutes, but for days. It took three or four days to get the system back online, and we Page 135 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 124 were having to use backup radios. We were having to use direct line-of-sight radios, on and on and on. So the failures continue. It happened again in Ian. It's happened several other times. The other day, I was monitoring a brushfire that was occurring near my house. I was listening to the personnel operate on scene, and the radios just went off. So while they're trying to get on scene and coordinate all the activities for everybody, get everybody where they need to be, make sure everybody's safe, the radio just shut off. Nobody could talk to anybody. Some of the command staff were having to run from truck to truck to give that direction, and some of that was over a pretty good distance. Meanwhile, the fire's coming in on communities, coming in on apartments, coming in on houses, and they're trying to mitigate that situation, but nobody could do it. There's been other failures that, you know, the report doesn't mention. But, you know, because I've been here since dirt was brought to Collier County, I remember. SafePoint. SafePoint came to being. That was going to be the end all, be all for us to be able to track units in the field. The county paid upwards of over $2 million for this component to be put on the radio system. It was supposed to track us on where we go. Guess what? It showed the units in the Gulf of Mexico. When the EMS was trying to locate their ambulances, it was five miles offshore. The system never worked. I don't think the county ever got their money back for it, but we never implemented it. If we did, nobody in the Fire Service knew about it. It was going to be the end all, be all to everything. It was going to be great. Didn't work. We had house fires. I literally am as close as I am to you right now and could not communicate with people inside the house. That didn't work. When they mentioned the school board paying $15 million for Page 136 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 125 their system, I was in the meeting where we discussed this, and they start describing how this is going to work. It's going to put anywhere from a two- or three-channel site at every school. Well, that's a standalone site or, as we call it, single-site component to the system. Well, single site means you're leaving the simulcast -- that's what everybody works on. So you're going from being able to talk to everybody countywide to only somebody that can communicate right there on site. And when they -- they identified all this in the meeting, I raised my hand and said, "This doesn't work." They said, "Oh, it's going to be great. The school's going to love it." It works great for the school. It doesn't work for public safety when we go there. I described it as a two- to four-channel site. All right. Well, one channel's called a control channel. That channel handles all the data for the radio system itself, so that leaves either one or three other channels to have voice communication on. Well, the school board you know is going to take one of those. The Sheriff's going to roll up on scene; they're going to need one or two of the other channels. So that leaves Fire and EMS in the breeze. We can't communicate. Also, leaving the simulcast system to go to a single-site system negates your emergency button on your radio. So if you're in trouble and you need help, that button no longer functions. If you need to communicate with other resources coming to you, you can't do that because you've taken it to a single site outside of the simulcast system. I raised the question then, and John Daily was here, and John was near and dear to me. But I said, "John, this is dumb. This just does not make sense for public safety. It's going to work good for the school working on site day-to-day basis, blue skies, but when things Page 137 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 126 go ugly, they're going to go ugly fast because we're not going to have the ability to speak to each other, talk to our resources coming in, calling that mutual aid, trying to do what we did with David Lawrence Center when we had over 150 first responders there because something bad was going down. It's just not going to work." And the failures just continue and continue and continue. I can't tell you how many times we've be in wildfires. The system would go down. And the worst part was when we as fire chiefs would ask, "What happened?" "I don't know. They haven't told us yet." We've rarely ever got a detailed report on why the system would shut down. Again, we were talking 30 minutes, a while ago, about the wildfire or three days after Irma. The system just continues to fail. The Fire Service has left the L3 product, what they can control about it, which is the user equipment, for something that does a better job. And if anybody would like to, Motorola has the research and development for all their used equipment on the other side of the state in Plantation. You're welcome to go over there any time and take a look at it. It will astound you on where they're going in the future. What I see L3 doing, I see them putting a new cover on the same technology. I don't see anything new. Even though I'm not here on a daily basis, because I love radios and communications and everything else, I keep my finger on the pulse of what's going on. That pulse is fainting looking at L3 Harris products. It's not going to meet the needs of the future. It's not going to meet the needs of this community. It's just not going to do it. Try as they will, I just don't think they've got enough business out there to motivate them to do the R&D that's needed for public safety. They do a terrific job for the military. They build all the radios for the military. They're doing a great job for them. They're not identifying and they're not working on public safety. Page 138 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 127 And I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. I've given the County Manager a letter outlining a lot of what I said here, for the Board, but if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them or -- CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. CHIEF SAPP: -- I'll be here in the shadows watching. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. HINKLE: Thank you, Nolan. Anyone else from public safety? (No response.) MR. HINKLE: Okay. I think based on the presentation -- you know, I'm truly moved by the fact that the first responders are willing to step up today. I think that the results of the Mission Critical study are definitive and obvious as to what direction I would like to see us go in. I think, basically, nothing else matters but the first responders that put their lives -- put your life before their own, and I want to make sure that they come home at night. They're concerned about you more than their own safety in many cases. This radio system doesn't meet their needs, and I think it's important to consider that dearly. I would like to ask that we open further discussion with Collier County Public Schools to ensure that we have a potential agreement with them in the next couple of years as we move forward to a radio system. I'd also like to ask that we designate someone from Procurement and the County Manager's Corporate Financial Management Services to work with the team on whatever radio system that you would like us to go with, I'd like to schedule us to go before the Board in 60 days, on August the 12th. I'd like to open the floor up for questions now from the commissioners. I'm more than happy to answer. Page 139 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 128 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's see if there's any other public comment. I don't see any -- MR. MILLER: We do have some registered speakers. Your first speaker is Todd Reed, and he would be followed by Josh Trifiletti. Todd's been ceded three additional minutes from Eddie Stokes. And I believe Eddie's here. I just saw him earlier. Yeah, he's over there. So, Todd, you will have six minutes and will be followed by Josh Trifiletti. MR. REED: Hi. Good afternoon. I don't know that I'll necessarily need six minutes, although I'll be up here the entire duration for any questions you might have. As mentioned, my name is Todd Reed. I'm with Communications International. We're the service provider for the current system, and we are the channel partner for L3 Harris. First off, I want to commend your direction to staff to commission a report to be done, a consultation report on the system. And in general, we completely acknowledge and recognize their findings as it relates to the need for continued improvements and upgrades on the system. Clearly, a system in your community, as it's growing, needs to be improved and reinforced. And you have done a fine job, and your staff has done a fine job of doing that over the past 30, 35 years, taking from analog system that was originally installed back in 1995 to its current P25 digital configuration. Discussing the MCP report, they actually evaluated eight different categories as it relates to the system's performance and reliability. They evaluated coverage, capacity, reliability in network, interoperability, technology and features, subscriber user units, lifestyle and maintenance, facilities. Those are eight areas that they evaluated. Of those eight areas, there's three different criteria: Poor being the worst criteria, ranging from a 0 to 30 percent score; okay Page 140 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 129 being the second criteria ranging from a 30 to 70 percent score; and finally, good, which is the highest category that you can achieve that has an evaluation score of greater than 70 percent. In their assessment, they found that capacity scored at 70 percent, or in the good area. Interoperability was excess of 70 percent, as was technology and features. Subscriber radios also scored 80 percent. Life cycle and maintenance was at 80 percent. So of the eight categories that were evaluated, seven of -- or, I'm sorry, six of them scored higher than okay. The areas that were identified as being borderline between good and okay were reliability and network, facilities, and coverage. And as the map showed, there are coverage issues whether you stay with L3 and increase your coverage or go to a new system that would do the same thing. It's a matter of basic radio frequency technology. For coverage, you need more antennas whether you stay with L3 or you go with the Motorola solution. What's remarkable is the statement was made that the Sheriff's Office had invested in some building blocks in the Motorola system, and I agree with that; however, you-all, over the past 30 years, have investigated in the building. You have the building as it stands now, and there are opportunities certainly to improve it. And to that end, you have committed over $20 million in the past decade towards continued enhancements. I think -- you know, the numbers that were presented as it relates to a 56 -- 50 to $60 million price tag to replace the system with a Motorola solution is something that takes a lot of consideration, obviously. And we feel confident that, you know, doing an internal rough order of magnitude, that we can accomplish the same goals that are outlined in the MCP report and that would be achieved through a Motorola solution at a cost no more than $20 million. So potentially, a third of the initial cost. Page 141 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 130 Secondarily, as was mentioned, the cost of maintenance was significantly higher for the Motorola solution. If I'm not mistaken, it was almost twice as much or $2 million per year for ongoing maintenance that was outlined. And I think both of those things are something that clearly need consideration. It's remarkable that capacity was identified as an issue that needs to be evaluated and improved and upgraded. Capacity is merely the amount of traffic that the system can manage. And as it's noted, for future upgrades, capacity is an issue to meet, you know, the 15-year growth. Capacity, as it relates of today's system, we -- MCP's report found that we were in the 80th percentile under current conditions, and that's the same report that you-all have. The other consideration that I'd like you to take is that these improvements, using the building that you have in the L3 system, are improvements that can be phased in over a period of years. They don't need to be done in a single fiscal year. They can be phased in over a period of years based on a triage conversation that we have between you, your staff, and obviously, us and L3 Harris. There was a discussion about LTE coverage, that there are areas currently -- and there always will be areas in any system, because money is always an issue, where coverage is limited. L3 Harris also offers an LTE solution for the radios, so it's something that can be implemented in an L3 radio just as easily as implemented into a Motorola radio. Remarkably, there are almost three times as many Harris radios on the system as it stands today, and that's according to the report that was completed by MCP. There's nearly three times as many L3 radios on the system as it stands today than Motorola radios. Regardless of that fact, a Motorola radio and an L3 radio will work on a P25 radio system. The radio system that you have, either radio will work on it as is clear because currently there's Motorola radios Page 142 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 131 operating on the system. You know, we're committed to addressing these issues, these upgrade discussions and opportunities, and I believe that we can do it at a significant cost savings to the county and still provide public safety, the communications reliability, and coverage that they deserve. I come from the public safety environment myself. I was a 20-year law enforcement officer up in Volusia County. I have a friend that at the time we were on a Motorola system -- and it has nothing to do with Motorola, just we were on a Motorola system, and I had a dear friend that was in a fight for his life and ended up taking the life of the offender because of a failure of the communications system. So the idea of holding communications near and dear to my heart and to our heart is huge. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. MR. REED: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Josh Trifiletti, and he will be followed by Joe Warner. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have a question for the speaker. Should I hold it to the end? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just while you're at the podium, sir. MR. REED: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And I have some questions for Nick from MCP, but we'll hold those to the end. But how can those scores be that high when I've got a fire chief saying he's trying to talk to a firefighter that's, you know, 20 feet away and can't, yet it's being scored in the high 70s or low 80s? What am I missing there in the scores? And who did that ranking? Because, obviously, the people holding the radios aren't scoring it a Page 143 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 132 high good. So what am I missing? MR. REED: When I find out, I'll let you know, and if you would do the same for me, I'd appreciate it. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Okay. MR. REED: But it's in the MCP report, yeah. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. My second question for you, or my latest question, would be, if you can do the upgrade for a third of the cost -- MR. REED: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- what would we be getting that's different? Or, I mean -- or are you just going to be doing the exact thing that MCP has recommended, but you're going to do it for a cheaper amount? It sounds like there's sort of -- it's going to be -- your upgrade, for it to be a third of the cost, is sort of Option 3, and it's a bit of a hybrid. What are those main differences? MR. REED: Yeah, great question. So as I said, with Motorola, if you go to the other option, they have to build the building, and the building will include the upgrades. As I mentioned, you have the building, and now you're upgraded the building that you already have. So it puts us in a much better position to implement those upgrades that MCP recommended, and we don't disagree with them. We think they're great, and we should always be evaluating the system to see how we can improve it and how we can better serve the user community and the community at large as it grows. So the difference -- and my opinion is the true difference is you have a building already that you're putting some additions on versus tearing it down and putting a new building in with those same additions. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So in the end, the option that's a third of the cost would -- we would still -- our public safety teams would still maintain two systems, right, sort of a combination, of both Page 144 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 133 of L3 Harris and Motorola, but sort of upgrade both, keep the building, and basically don't start from scratch, but in the end we would wind up still having a combination of both systems. But in your estimation, it would be upgrading both to work together, the same way they are now, but better. Is that a good -- MR. REED: The Sheriff's Office, as I understand, has invested in Motorola core that they, you know, are, you know, saying that they can expand, enhance, and use as a foundation for the future building. It's the foundation. You as a commission, and your staff, has invested, I believe in October of 2023, $1.2 million for a new core on the L3 system. So you already have the infrastructure in place. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. MR. REED: Any other questions? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We'll let you know. MR. REED: Thank you for your time. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Don't go away. MR. REED: Okay. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Josh Trifiletti. He'll be followed by Joe Warner. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel, did you have something before this next speaker? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, not right now. We can hear from the rest of the speakers. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Yes, sir. MR. TRIFILETTI: Good afternoon, Commissioners, Chair Saunders, members of the Board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. First and foremost, I just want to express our deep appreciation for the long-term partnership we've had with Collier County public Page 145 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 134 safety agencies, Collier County Sheriff's Office, and the Fire and EMS agencies here within Collier County. And, look, when it's mattered, we've been here in good times and bad times. When Hurricane Ian just rolled through a couple years ago, we came right behind it with food, bringing into the dispatch centers, and then right behind that, we had our technical resources training outside dispatchers to come in and step in to operate those CAD dispatcher positions so the local dispatchers could tend to their families. We've also got a deep local presence here. My area sales manager, Maurizio Callari (phonetic), is our area sales manager. Many of you in here know him, and we're very involved in 100 Club and other local agencies, and we've also got a very unique relationship with Collier County Sheriff's Office and the surrounding agencies where we've helped to codevelop numerous products that have benefited both Collier County as well as other agencies nationwide. Collier County, you know, from the Sheriff's Office and all of the public safety agencies represent excellence in public safety, and we've been proud to be associated with that, and it aligns with our core values. Now, you guys have spent a lot of time, made a big investment here with MCP. You know, the public safety agencies have been a significant part of this. Collier County telecommunications has been a big part of this in trying to evaluate what the right path forward is. And what sets Motorola, I think, apart from everyone else is we're not covering just a radio system. So we are offering cutting edge technology that employs some of the latest and greatest that really sets us apart. So we offer a cloud-based backup core to the video system, so we talked about radio system cores. That's what the brain is of the Page 146 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 135 radio system. We've deployed these backup cores that are cloud based in different locations, and it's kept radio systems up and running in cases where the hardware infrastructure may have failed, and first responders were able to continue to communicate and respond to calls for service. We've also got best-in-class cybersecurity that allows us to manage, detect, and respond to threats, and we also employ what we call our Motorola Emergency Response Team. And many folks here in Collier County and in Lee County and around the state are very familiar with our Motorola Emergency Response Team where we truck in equipment and technicians anywhere anytime right after a hurricane comes through. We talked about Smart Connect. Motorola radio system would give you full capability for a feature set that is already being used by a lot of the first responders here, and Motorola is the only manufacturer that offers direct management, maintenance, service, and support to our radio systems. So that's very important. And I do want to continue on for a few more seconds. There are some vast, vast, vast differences between our radios and L3 Harris radios, and that's why Collier County Sheriff's Office, Naples Police Department, North Collier Fire, Greater Naples Fire, and pretty much every public agency here in Collier County has bought exclusively Motorola radios since this system moved to P25 back in 2019. So there's a good reason for that. Yes, it takes time. You know, over time we've been selling these radios, and we've been deploying these radios. But I want it to be very clear in here that all of the public safety agencies here in Collier County are relying exclusively on Motorola radio equipment for first responders. And we just want to, again, express our appreciation for the deep partnership here in Collier County, and we are here to help the county and support the county throughout this process regardless of Page 147 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 136 how this goes. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. Any other speakers, Troy? MR. MILLER: We have one more speaker, Joe Warner, and this is your final public speaker on this item. MR. WARNER: County Commissioners, Chair Saunders, I'm Joe Warner, vice president of strategic projects for Motorola. On behalf of myself and the Collier County account team for Motorola, I want to first thank you for the time today, all of the work that you have put into this project. I want to also thank the first responders in the county as well as the radio teams in the county for all the work over the 18 months that has been put hand in hand with Mission Critical Partners, your consultant, into this radio study. Collier County is a crucial partner to Motorola. You saw in Nick's presentation a lot of the deployments and projects that we're working hand in hand with your first responders on. We know how crucial this radio system is not only to your first responders but also to your citizens, and I want to let you all know, your first responders know and Mission Critical Partners know if there's anything you need from a Motorola standpoint over the next few months as you work through this process, you have our full backing and support. So thank you for your time and consideration. If there's anything you need on our end, please let us know. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. Commissioner McDaniel, you were lit up. Do you have anything at this time? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I have a statement. I don't really have a -- and I do have a question, I think, for the -- and I've forgotten your name, forgive me, from MCP. MR. FALGIATORE: Nick. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do have a question for you Page 148 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 137 when we get there. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We'll just call you Nick. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's a Nick. It's a Nick. It's Nick. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: How are you? Nicholas, how are you? MR. FALGIATORE: Excellent. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I just want to -- I, you know -- I feel like I'm being called upon to vote on something right now, and I'm not going to vote on anything. I'm looking at all my friends in the first responders line. We were -- we were here today to receive a presentation and accept a presentation from MCP. Now, we may, going down the line, hear other information that will ultimately cause us to have to go to a decision, but the decision is not being made today. This is a presentation that we're to accept. It says it right here, we're to accept this presentation, and I'll be happy to accept that. So I just wanted to say that up front. I don't want to feel like I'm being pressured right now. This isn't the day -- this isn't the time for that. My question to you -- and in the review -- because when you put up that -- when you put up the map of the tower locations -- MR. FALGIATORE: Yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- the first note -- and I'm just -- I'm just Huckleberry Billy. I'm looking at this map. The one that had the lines going on it. That one. MR. FALGIATORE: Yep. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The loop, that was my first note was the loop expense, because I don't know anything about radio communications, but I do know about interconnection and that loops -- I mean, Mr. DeLony in the back talks regularly about having Page 149 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 138 to have a loop connection even with our wastewater, water/sewer, and so on. So is there an analysis with the expense associated for looping this system -- and certainly, you probably can't loop all the way out to the one in the middle on I-75, but it looks to me like with a little bit of connection we can come from Immokalee to Corkscrew, and we can come from Carnestown over to the Krehling site, and necessarily we have looped the system. MR. FALGIATORE: Yep. So there is actually a project underway to conduct a portion of that. So the county is currently contracted with Motorola to support microwave enhancements based on the budget available to close some of those loops. The connection from Immokalee to Corkscrew, Old 41 to Gulf Coast High School. You know, a lot of these are some of those low-hanging fruit to take that budget available to try and make some common sense upgrades to the microwave system. There is also an upgrade that's being conducted with L3 Harris at the moment to add MPLS routers. They're the building block of enabling redundancy across some of these pads to try and provide some incremental upgrades. These are actions that the county's been doing everything they can to try and find ways to improve reliability on the existing platform. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding. And I'm glad to hear that. I mean, no matter what, we need to have the dang thing work when we hit the button. Number two, you mentioned that there was issues contractually between Communications International and the L3 Harris, the hardware provider. Can you identify circumstantially, or is that something that I need to look up with my county staff attorney and such? MR. FALGIATORE: Circumstantially, I can just explain their Page 150 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 139 relationship. So L3 Harris is the equipment supplier. They provide the hardware. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. MR. FALGIATORE: Communications International holds the contract. So they have -- any formal relationship is between Communications International and the county. So the challenge, as I understand, that the county has faced is the county does not have a -- the ability to go and elicit direct support from L3 Harris to help address issues that they've been facing. They have to work through the contract holder, which is Communications International. So there's been challenges that they've experienced in the past that they could probably elaborate on more where, because of that relationship, it has limited their ability to gain access to resources that might have been helpful for certain situations. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And as we go forward, I would like to hear what those challenges are and from what entity, who's not talking to who. Because it seems to me to stand to reason that if I have a contractor that's managing my hardware, the communication needs to be implicit. I mean, there can't be a breakdown in communication. MR. FALGIATORE: Yep. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I need to know whether that's a legal issue, contractual issue, Nathan not making the -- hitting the right button when he's calling -- and I'm picking on him because he's standing right behind you. So -- and we don't need to have those answers today. I'm just sharing with you these are -- those are some of the things that I heard throughout the presentation that I would like identified before -- before we are pushed. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. Page 151 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 140 A couple questions for you, Nick. So obviously our public safety teams use two systems combined together. You went over that in great detail. Does our school board just use L3 Harris exclusively, or they use a hybrid of Motorola and L3 Harris? MR. FALGIATORE: The school board uses L3 Harris exclusively. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. So hearing all the negatives with L3 Harris, one of my concerns is if we went with the option that takes -- and I might be oversimplifying this, so correct me if I'm wrong. If we went with our option that went heavy Motorola and then took all the investment that we've already made in L3 Harris and took it away from the public safety teams and gave it to the school board -- right? That's basically what you're recommending -- why would I want to do that if I saw a slide that had nothing but how horrible L3 Harris is? I mean, if there's an active shooter situation at Lely High School, not only are public safety guys going to be going bonkers, but I've got to think everybody that runs the school is going to be all over their radios as well. So if you've identified these huge shortfalls with the L3 Harris system, why would I want to pass it to the school board and say, you know, "Good luck"? And I'm not saying this in an attack mode at you, but I'm trying to get my arms around, wow, you guys have done a big deep dive on the systems, and, you know, in order to -- what it sounds like, to not waste our investment on L3 Harris, "Hey, the school board, they don't have as many moving parts. They could benefit from more L3 Harris equipment." But I sit here, and I still have some concern. And this is a big investment. You know, we just voted a couple of hours ago on a $50 million project to combat mental health. This is another $50 million project. Page 152 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 141 So give me a little bit of detail in sort of those multiple questions that I have in there. MR. FALGIATORE: Yeah, absolutely. So the school board, I think our recommendation is allowing them to be able to benefit from their much more recent investment that they just made. I would also -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: In L3 Harris? MR. FALGIATORE: In L3 Harris equipment and the system that they just provided. I will tell you that I don't want anything in my -- and at least in our opinion, in our presentation to be saying that there is something inherently bad about L3 Harris equipment. I think what we are saying is the deployments and the experience locally within Collier County has not been meeting your needs based on the system design that is in place here. The school board system -- and you mentioned it -- and not through this study, but through work that we've supported through the Sheriff's Office, there are a number of challenges that we've presented specific to the school system and the way that it's going to -- the way it's designed, the way it would support public safety operations, communications in schools, which, as Mr. Sapp mentioned, there's major challenges in the way that system will operate. But from a recommendation standpoint, for better or worse, the school board has just made this investment in that infrastructure. And if we were to go down one path, which we didn't present as an option, which is scrap the entire L3 Harris system and have everybody go to new Motorola system -- we did not see that as an option because that would completely gut the ability of the school board, among a number of other reasons, from being able to leverage the system that they just purchased. Because it depends on the Page 153 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 142 county L3 Harris system being tied to all of the sites that they just put at all of their schools in order to operate properly. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I know you didn't do an analysis of the school board's L3 Harris system, but with maybe what you know -- because here's a quote that I wrote down: "There's many single points of failure with the L3 Harris system." MR. FALGIATORE: Yes. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And that's on the public safety side. I'm wondering on the school board system, do you or anyone else in the audience have any kind of deep dive into what they've been experiencing. Obviously, they operate at a different -- at a different level than our public safety, you know, pros, but I'm wondering what they've been experiencing with the system. MR. FALGIATORE: So to that point, there are absolutely many single points of failure on the school radio system. I think the point that we were making with nonpublic safety users in the school board is for their day-to-day operations, they are not -- they're not -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Not life and death. MR. FALGIATORE: -- law enforcement. They're not fire. If there is an outage and the school staff can't communicate, that's not a life-and-death situation for those users. So hardening the system, eliminating single points of failure, are those things we'd like to do? Certainly. But there's a lot of radio systems out there that are not designed for public safety. They're designed for other less critical user groups that need the same capabilities but don't need necessarily the same investment and reliability, and the school board would be one that could use the system without all of that further hardening and resiliency because they don't need it to operate with seconds of downtime a year. They can -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Lastly -- let me ask you there, Page 154 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 143 too. If we went that route, so everything the school board would inherit that our public safety people are using now -- so they'd get a whole bunch of additional inventory, right? They'd get a lot more equipment. Did they really need it? Are they -- do they have some shortfalls, or they say -- it's just the smartest thing -- instead of throwing it in the garbage and then upgrading, you know, the public safety teams, would they really benefit, you know, from it? Are there some things in there that would be a big advantage to them and it would upgrade their system because, as you said, it's not a life-or-death type thing? MR. FALGIATORE: So the way that their system operates, they have two needs. They have the need to communicate inside of all of their schools, and that's the system that they bought, are sites at their schools so they could get coverage inside their schools. They also have all of their buses that don't necessarily operate in schools. They're going all throughout the county traveling on roadways. So the county radio system is high sites, tall towers covering the whole countywide footprint, and the school board relies on those for their buses and for all of the sites they just purchased to operate in the schools. The county handing infrastructure over would allow them to have that same system so they could operate outdoors with all their buses and still be able to operate in-building. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Which they can't do now? MR. FALGIATORE: Which -- well, they were sharing the public safety infrastructure to do that now. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I gotcha. Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I've got a couple quick questions. And it's my only concern. You're kind of recommending the dual system here for obvious reasons. So we have an active school shooter situation. MR. FALGIATORE: Yes. Page 155 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 144 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: The folks in the school system have radios that are not really set up for emergency situations like we're talking about. Does that create a potential problem as law enforcement is and first responders are on the way to the school -- what happens then? Are they able to still communicate with the first responders or -- MR. FALGIATORE: So there is -- so there is a major gap with the school radio system, and this speaks to the work that we've done for the Sheriff's Office on evaluating it, that the school radio sites do not have enough capacity to support a major public safety response. You need every bit of capacity that your whole wide area system can provide to have enough simultaneous talk path to support that type of response. The school radio system, depending on the number of channels they have, gives you up to a handful of available voice paths. So no matter what happens with the system, that is still a gap in your ability to communicate in schools and something that the school board is working on; we've been working with the Sheriff's Office to address. There's alternate solutions and testing that the school board is going through to see what the right solution is. But in our opinion, that -- that system that the school board invested in is not appropriate for providing reliable public safety coverage in the schools. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. The reason I'm asking the question is I don't want to be in a situation were we spend $30 million for a new radio system, we keep the L3 Harris system in the schools, there's an active school shooter, and because we failed to have the right system in the schools, kids die. So my question is: Are we shortchanging the school system, even though they've spent $15 million on a system that -- maybe they shouldn't have, I don't know, but they've spent $15 million on a system that will not be effective in an active school shooter situation. Page 156 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 145 Are we creating a problem? I'd rather spend $15 million to make sure that doesn't happen. MR. FALGIATORE: So the radio system, the way it's designed, it is expanding coverage in certain areas. The expansion of coverage is going to improve school coverage. There's no way of us guaranteeing that it's going to reliably cover every school throughout the county. It's going to improve it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: If your kid was at a school in Collier County, what system would you want them using in the school system? MR. FALGIATORE: I'd want them to put a reliable in-building bidirectional amplifier and distributed an antenna system in that school to reliably cover it if it's not being served by the outdoor system. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Can that be installed in our schools, and what would be the cost of that? MR. FALGIATORE: So -- it's a loaded question because the best answer is, "It depends." The guidance we gave to the school board is to go through a testing effort and find out exactly where the gaps are in the schools. They are -- they've contracted a company that's doing that testing. And what we'd recommend is based on the outcomes of that study that they would put in in-building enhancement systems where enhancements are needed. The cost for that depends on the size and complexity and number -- and construction and number of dead spots in the schools. But that would be the step to do that: Test the coverage, identify where the dead spots are, and look at whatever system design you ultimately decide to do and where the sites are going. That's going to tell you where you're going to get improvements in coverage. But test in the schools, find where the dead spots are and put in Page 157 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 146 the right solution to give you full system capacity that your whole public safety system's going to provide within that school to support the maximum available response from first responders. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal -- I'm sorry. Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: If it pleases the Chair, I'd just like to make a motion to accept the presentation. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. I'll just go back to my experience. I remember we used to do quad training in the schools and stuff like that with the Sheriff's Department. And I remember initially on, early on, especially after Columbine and all that, and when that was such a big, you know, topic, the problem we had -- and this is kind of like what Chief Sapp talked about, too -- but the problem we had was, you know, when we were in the schools early on, we had a hard time communicating even to each other within the schools, and then like you said, the schools then started developing repeaters that were in the schools. We'd do training or be in the schools in a situation and say -- we had a better communication in the schools, but then what the Chief was talking about is, then we would lose com -- because we were on that repeater that was just centrally located in the building -- MR. FALGIATORE: Yes. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- we'd lose com with the outside world to let them know what the situations were. We'd either lose com with the dispatch or lose com with the TOC, tactical operation command, things like that. Nature. But I guess what Commissioner Saunders is getting to, so if we leave the system in place as Harris for the schools and they get the repeaters to a point where it's not an issue where we're in the school Page 158 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 147 actively seeking a shooter, and we can talk to the teams while in the school seeking the danger, you know, the threat, I guess, if it's then we adopt a Motorola system, will the Motorola system be able to do the same thing where then we can have connectivity with the outside world because we're now on the Motorola system, or do we still have the same problem with being -- switching over to the repeater that's in the school system? Even -- it doesn't matter what radio we're carrying because it's what's going to happen. So can you -- MR. FALGIATORE: Sure. So functionally speaking, assuming the school system remains in place, the way that your users would access that school system is going to be the same whether you choose Motorola or whether you expand on L3 Harris. You would have to change talk groups on your radio to a talk group that works in that school. And there's some technical details as to why you have to do that. At a high level, you'd think that the radios could roam from the outdoor system to the in-building system, but there's some technical reasons why that can't happen. So on your radio, you'd have to switch to access the resource in the school that's serving that school on the system today. The system today only provides a few talk paths. So you'd be competing for traffic on those few talk paths that operate in the school with other users within the school, with fire, with police, with all the public safety response. So you mentioned -- Commissioner Hall, you mentioned the swatting incident before where the whole system got busy. This county operates a system that has 18 talk paths, meaning you can have 18 conversations at one time. The entire system of 18 talk paths got busy during that incident, during that swatting incident. You talk about an active shooter at a school, and those -- the school radio system only has between two and six talk paths at any Page 159 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 148 one individual school. So you look at the scale of what's needed to reliably communicate during an active shooter. The right solution that you need is something that takes the signal from outside and rebroadcasts it inside so you don't have six talk paths. You have the same number that you have outdoors, 18. And all your -- or in this case what we're recommending, an expansion that would give you some substantially more. But that way you have no bottleneck in your traffic, that all the maximum amount of traffic that you have would operate in your school and would allow seamless communication outdoors to indoors, so you don't have to switch channels and go to an island. You stay on your same talk groups as you go into the school and maintain communications. That requires finding a dead spots. And the technology today is putting in bidirectional amplifier and distributing antenna systems to -- what it does is it take the signal from outdoors and rebroadcasts it indoors. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So what you're recommending -- like, I saw initially you recommended keeping the two systems. MR. FALGIATORE: Uh-huh. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And I understand where you stand on that. But adopting whatever -- if we adopt the Motorola system, we spend upwards of $60 million, do we get that capability, or do you roll one page over and say, "Go to Option 2," which is upgrade the Harris system the L3. For $30 million do you get that same connectivity? MR. FALGIATORE: Neither option inherently gives you that option. It's almost -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So that's something else we would have to add on to make the schools and public safety operational at the same time to have that fail-safe? Page 160 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 149 MR. FALGIATORE: Correct. It needs to be a parallel approach. It would something different. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So either one fix that problem [sic]? MR. FALGIATORE: Well, either one -- either one would not -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Either one doesn't fix it. MR. FALGIATORE: Either one doesn't fix that problem. It would have to be a parallel solution. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Just a quick follow-up on the school situation, so -- and I don't know anything about radios and how you switch between the two different systems. So you have the L3 systems in the schools. You have an active school shooter. The first responders are on their way. They're on the Motorola system. When they get into the schools, they're going to have to do something to switch to be able to communicate while they're inside the schools. MR. FALGIATORE: Yeah. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I know they're well trained, and they can make that switch. I'm sure that's not a problem. My question is, you're in -- you're, say, a security guard in the school, or you're a maintenance person in the school and you've got the L3 radio, and there's a -- you've got information about the first -- or about the active shooter, are you able to use that radio to communicate to the first responders that are coming in? Now, I know they can communicate with themselves, with each other, but I want to make sure that everybody in that school system in that situation is able to communicate. And it sounds like the people in the school that work in the school that maybe have those radios won't be able to communicate. MR. FALGIATORE: So we have the -- there's a limitation, of course, with capacity, and we're assuming that the users are not Page 161 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 150 overloading the site serving that school, which is a very small amount of capacity at that site. Their traffic is going to inherently be limited from communicating directly to other users outside of that school radio site, because in order to prevent users from driving by the school having the radio see that site and saying, "Hey, that site's really close. I'm going to roam to site" -- users drive by those schools all the time, and the radios would incidentally roam and overload that site. So you have to put -- make it so that site is not roaming enabled. So the only way to access that site is you change channels on your radio to a channel that works inside that school. Users with -- inside that school calling for help on their talk groups, it could be configured where they could reach a public safety dispatcher. But unless that dispatcher initiates a patch to a talk group that works on the outdoor system, that would create a bridge, but it requires reaching a dispatcher initiating a patch to enable that direct communication. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And what I'm talking about may not even make any sense in terms of what is really needed in the real world. But I think I understand what you're saying. MR. FALGIATORE: Thank you. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Commissioner -- Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I could shed a little light, because even for our YRD deputies who are in the schools on a daily basis, the radios they have now, I still believe they have the ability to be on what they call AB frequency or AB channel. So they can keep one on the outside for freq and one on the inside, and if they had to call outside, they can switch over to B. MR. FALGIATORE: Yep. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Hit the B button, and now their frequencing out on the outside. Page 162 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 151 MR. FALGIATORE: As long as they have coverage from the outdoor system wherever they're at. If they don't have coverage, which is why the sites were picked there, to enhance coverage in the schools. But that's the limitation is you have to have coverage to the outdoor system in order to maintain that communication. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Nick, I'm going to ask -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Am I not lit up? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No, you were lit up, but you disappeared. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I'm going to ask my -- the same question but in a different way. If we go with your recommendation and then we give all the L3 Harris equipment to the school system, do they just acquire more equipment, or does it actually improve their system? And you sort of answered it a little bit because what I heard was, "Well, it improves their capability because a whole bunch of people don't have radios right now in the buses or, you know, on the outside, and by inheriting a lot more equipment from the public safety officers who are now going to get, you know, Motorola, if we went with this option, more people have radios in their hand." But does the system still have a lot of limitations for the school board, but as you said, it's not life or death, so the system isn't -- the problems aren't exacerbated as much. You know, they're not -- when they're looking for a bus, it's not in the middle of the gulf the way that the fire chief said. You know, they don't have that issue. Is that -- did I sort of put that together in the right way? They're going to get more equipment but not necessarily an improved system? MR. FALGIATORE: (Nods head.) COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But the improvement is more Page 163 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 152 people will be able to talk on the system because they'll have more equipment, and the limitations that the public service -- or public safety officers have isn't as -- isn't as prevalent in the school, on the school side, correct? MR. FALGIATORE: So it enables them to maintain the level of capabilities that they have today. So it allows them to have the platform that their buses can still communicate throughout the county, and it allows their equipment to continue to connect to the core and operate the way that it was designed. It doesn't give them much in the way of additional capability. What it does give them -- and this, I guess, would be ultimately determined, that the number of channels that make up the system today on the high sites, the outdoor sites, they might not need as many of those for the system moving forward, which would give them some equipment that they could repurpose, improve capacity at some of their schools, use it for other reasons. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FALGIATORE: So it does give them some fixed equipment, the equipment that goes at the radio sites themselves. It doesn't necessarily give more end-user equipment. Of course, I mean, a deal could always be worked out as user agencies upgrade their radios and, you know, have hand-me-downs that they could then provide to the school board or another -- you know, another agency, for that matter. But that would be a different effort. Really, what they're getting is fixed equipment that goes at the tower sites. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Got it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know how I disappeared. Troy left, so I can't really blame him. So I think you hit the button, so -- but thank you for recognizing me. My question is twofold, and it has to do with -- I mean, our first Page 164 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 153 responders have had issues in the past where there's been service interruption. I have to believe that depending on the size of the emergency that transpires, an antenna that gets bumped off a half an inch will equate to miles out there with its capacity. That same thing could happen with a Motorola antenna just as quickly or as easily as the system that we have now. MR. FALGIATORE: So there -- the answer is it depends on the amount of resiliency that's built into the system. So from a microwave perspective, putting in a loop-protected system would mean that if a microwave dish blows out of alignment, the traffic goes the other direction. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct. MR. FALGIATORE: What we'd also recommend is fiberoptic backhaul tying into the Sheriff's Office network where if the microwave blows out, we have a wired line fiber connection that allows our traffic to d through that direction or have some sort of diversity. But those are design decisions and options not necessarily tied to the manufacturer. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Gotcha. I understand. Thank you. And that -- and then the second, when there was the false call of an active shooter over at DLC, is there not any kind of a triage to not overload the system? Because there are certain people that are not critical to the actual mission. A hundred and fifty people respond, but only a few not -- not a few, but I don't know what the exact amount is, but it just seems to me that there would be a hierarchy of people that are able to manage -- manipulate or utilize the system. Is that not built into the current system that we have? MR. FALGIATORE: So there's a technology solution, and there's an operations solution. So technology gives you the ability to prioritize user groups when the system gets busy, which means the Page 165 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 154 system's overloaded, you would initiate a push-to-talk -- you get placed in a queue. And when a resource opens, your call is placed and you're able to have that talk go through. You can set priority on those user groups so that public safety get earlier access, say, over nonpublic safety users. And there may be priorities in place in the system today. So Nathan confirmed, there is priority that's set for public safety users today. That said, you're already in busy state. You're talking about improving a bad situation where you're already overloaded, and that doesn't mean that things are just going to work great because you're prioritizing public safety traffic. Those queues -- when you hit that limit and you just hit that limit, you might have a few users waiting a few seconds. If you're going above and beyond, that issue cascades a lot higher, and now you have lots of users waiting a lot of time for channel access. I'd also add some experience. So I was the consultant for Broward County when the MSD shooting happened, and so we had a full understanding of what happened to their system where it got overloaded during that incident. They were on an older system. It didn't have -- it wasn't as efficient as P25 and signal processing. And they were down for hours with calls being overloaded. And they had to take an operational decision because they could not put a new system in fast enough to address the need. So we met with all their users, put together new training protocols, and tried to come up with a way that says when you have a certain level of incident, here's a modified communications plan so that you'll limit it to critical traffic. You consolidate the talk groups that you're responding on. There's ways that you can work within your limitation. The question is, are there compromises and tradeoffs for making those decisions? Yes, there are. So ideally, we will build the system that Page 166 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 155 has the capacity that's needed, but you can do things to improve when you have a bottleneck to work within what you have available. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good. And I guess my other statement is for Nathaniel, or whoever's in charge of this. I keep hearing the school district, the school district, the school district, the Sheriff's Department. It seems like the Sheriff's department's heading down a road towards liking Motorola radios better than the L3 Harris radios. I think we need to be having some communication with the school district as to their recent investments, their future investments. Commissioner LoCastro mentioned something about giving them the radio system that we -- a lot more information needs to come my way, all of our way, I would assume, before we can be making these decisions and to what level of participation. I see the County Manager raising her hand. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. If it pleases the Board. So if we could, I have a note here as our next steps, besides to accept the presentation, would be to ask -- direct staff to work with Mission Critical Partners, the school district, CCSO, the fire districts, and EMS to discuss the path forward with all of this information that we have gathered today, because we do need to make sure that there's alignment with agencies that are -- many of them are outside of the direct control of the Board of County Commissioners, but they really -- these are decisions that need to be made together versus in a vacuum with everybody going in different directions. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Amy, when do you want to bring this back? MS. PATTERSON: If you could give us 60 days, because scheduling of all of those agencies may be a little bit difficult, but we could plan to be back at the August 12th agenda to give you an Page 167 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 156 update, and that way we would have some choices for you on next steps, because there's a procurement element to this, too, that we need to lay out for you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And also a funding source. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. And we do have some of that we're going to touch on the budget next week. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And you'll work with the school board -- MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir, and the Sheriff's Office. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: It sounds like the recommendation that was made from a financial standpoint is, perhaps, a sound one, and I don't know if ultimately we'll go that way, but we just need more information. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So we have a motion. Commissioner Hall, I assume you'll amend your motion to reflect what Ms. Patterson said? COMMISSIONER HALL: Sure. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I'll second it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and a second. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: What I would add, Ms. Patterson, is we heard just briefly from our current contractor that they have a $20 million option. I would love to hear a deeper assessment. I mean, your particular assessment was the two things you analyzed, but we sort of have a third option sitting out there that I think needs to be compared against the two options that MCP offered before we just sort of dismiss the current contractor that we have now, which we wouldn't, but make sure we work that into the presentation. Page 168 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 157 QUESTIONING ATTORNEY: Absolutely, sir. We'll work with Mission Critical Partners to work with our provider, and we can go through some of those comments as they provided on the record today. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Patterson, you're clear on the motion? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: You'll come back in August? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: A lot of homework to do so we can make a decision. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: 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. Thank you. Ms. Patterson, we have the add-on item dealing with the burn -- the fire burn [sic]. MS. PATTERSON: We do. If we -- would you like to take that item really quickly before the fire -- our fire chiefs leave? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah. I think we can wrap this meeting up in five or 10 minutes. MS. PATTERSON: We do have the Clam Bay item as well, Item 11C. Page 169 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 158 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I thought that was to be continued. MS. PATTERSON: It was continued, but Commissioner McDaniel asked for it to be brought to the regular agenda for a discussion before it may be continued or not continued. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Well, we can leave him here, while the rest of us leave, to discuss that. MS. PATTERSON: Shall we grab the burn ban, and then we can take a break? CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Yeah, let's grab the burn ban, and then we'll take a break. MS. PATTERSON: Okay. Very good. Item #15C1 - Added RESOLUTION 2025 -122: REPEAL OF THE COLLIER COUNTY BAN ON OUTDOOR BURNING AND INCENDIARY DEVICES. (STAFF’S REQUEST) - MOTION TO LIFT THE BAN BY COMMISSIONER KOWAL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO - ADOPTED 4/1 (COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL OPPOSED) So we have been -- since we received some rain here over the last week, we have been receiving correspondence from some of our residents about lifting the burn ban. We have been in communication with Forestry and with the fire districts about the possibility of lifting that ban. They have communicated back that they're in agreement that the ban can be lifted, but I just wanted to speak to the Board before we do that. With a nod, we have a resolution to lift the ban, and we'll get that executed. But it didn't rain for a few days, so I was a little nervous. Now the fire chiefs still feel confident in that decision that Page 170 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 159 it's an appropriate time to lift the ban, and I'm looking at them to see if they have anything. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: They're nodding in the affirmative. MS. PATTERSON: Yep. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Do we have a motion, then, to lift the fire ban? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So moved. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. We have a motion and second to -- MS. PATTERSON: Commissioner McDaniel has his light on. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, he does. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I -- did you get a report from Mr. Summers with regard to not just our fire chiefs but the meteorlogic -- COMMISSIONER HALL: That word. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- atmospheric conditions with regard to humidity and so on and so forth? MS. PATTERSON: Same report, that they consult -- and Forestry, and all are in agreement on the lifting of the ban. We do have the maps that show the drought index as well, and we do actually have rain that's expected this week. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I understand all those things. I would love to see the ban lifted, by the way, on a personal note. I've got brush piles that are taller than I am that need to go away. But on the same token, everything that's green burns, and we learned that in -- Nolan left already -- when we had the big fire out east many years ago shortly after I came into office. And I still know -- we are still at least two feet down from our normal water levels with regard -- under the surface with regard to Page 171 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 160 our water. And I mean, if it's -- it's the will of the Board to lift the ban, then so be it. But I just have reservations just yet so far in doing that, so... MS. PATTERSON: That's the reason that we have this here, because again, we got a good amount of rain, and then it stopped raining. So you know the stormwater person in me was a little anxious. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: So we have the fire chiefs here. The Manager's here. We can delay this for two weeks or three weeks. It's no emergency, so -- MS. PATTERSON: No, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: -- just tell us what you think is the best thing to do. The fire chiefs were sort of nodding that it's okay to go forward with it. Commissioner Kowal, do you have a recommendation as well? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I'm not a fireman. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Address the fire chiefs more than Commissioner McDaniel. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. CHIEF BYRNE: Commissioners, we just briefly consulted and, yeah, we're comfortable with lifting it now. The drought index has dropped significantly, and the weather forecast is showing more rain. It's not that fires won't occur. We're just comfortable that they won't spread as rapid. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Do we have a motion? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yes. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, we had a motion and a second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And a second. All right. Any further discussion? (No response.) Page 172 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 161 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Seeing none, all in favor, signify by saying. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All opposed? That passed unanimously. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It did not. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'm sorry. It passed 4-1. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm voting no. You didn't call for opposed. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner McDaniel opposed. We only have one item left, I believe, that -- I'm not sure how long that's going to take. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It won't take long, if you'll call on me. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Do we need to take a quick break? THE COURT REPORTER: (Shakes head.) CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Are you okay? THE COURT REPORTER: (Nods head.) Item #11C ADVERTISE AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE CLAM BAY ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BOARD ON MATTERS AFFECTING THE ENTIRE CLAM BAY ESTUARY SYSTEM - MOTION TO CONTINUE THIS ITEM TO THE JULY 8, 2025, BCC MEETING BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS - APPROVED Page 173 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 162 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll be quick. I asked for this item to be called up when it was on the -- on the consent agenda the last meeting. And, Commissioner LoCastro, you corrected me in not making a decision on this until Commissioner Hall was back. And now, Commissioner Hall, I guess my question directly is to you: Are you in opposition of the formation of this public committee -- community? COMMISSIONER HALL: I am. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You are? COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes, I am. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. COMMISSIONER HALL: I'm actually in the process of looking at all of our advisory committees and only finding out what's necessary by statute and maybe streamlining or getting rid of -- we have so many -- so many committees that never come to us and bring any advice, but yet we're paying for them. We're staffing them, and we're providing rooms for them. And we've got -- Pelican Bay Services Division operates the estuary. We've got city people that want to do -- that want a voice in that, but yet they don't bring any money to the table. And so I would probably -- when this was going to come up, I was going to -- I would be prepared to talk about splitting the duty between the city people and the Pelican Bay Services Division and let the city people create their own MSTU and do what they want to do. And anyway, that was the discussion that I was going to be prepared for. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: On the 8th? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Excuse me, sir. COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Page 174 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 163 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then -- and that was my rationale for the Public Advisory Committee from Pelican Bay and the City of Naples. That was my rationale for the establishment of this. I don't necessarily -- I don't disagree with you at all that we have a lot of advisory committees, but this circumstance with regard to Clam Bay has been going on forever. I mean -- and so my thoughts were to engage the City of Naples onto that advisory board, develop some sort of a plan with regard to the financial expenses associated with the management of Clam Bay but for us to not stall the -- or continue the creation of this committee. We could -- if we voted to do the committee, we could start soliciting applications, and then when other -- I believe one of the consultants is out of town, and one of our other board members has a trip coming up. My thought was go ahead and agree to do the committee, and then -- and then finalize it after we've got the applications. It will take us three months to gather a committee -- or to gather the applicants. COMMISSIONER HALL: My thoughts were they can meet without us forming a committee, and they can work it all out and come up with the same thing without us having to do a formal committee, and that would be more pleasing to my Pelican Bay people, because they're -- they don't want that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman. I agree we've got a lot of committees. There's committees out there I didn't know even exist because I've never heard from them. But in reality, I don't agree with -- you say they don't put anything towards it. In reality, they do. I had conversation with County Manager. I think we got $200-and-some thousand allotted to that particular operation that doesn't come from Pelican. Correct me if I'm wrong. MS. PATTERSON: In this year's budget, we do have $178,000 Page 175 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 164 that is -- that is in the project for the NRPA, and a portion of that is coming from 111. So we're doing some research now to figure out if this is something that is happening regularly or a special project and exactly how that's being split; however, I guess it doesn't come from the city, because if it's coming from 111, that's the unincorporated county. So it's a little -- it's a little mixture of things. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Well -- but also, the work -- the actual dredging is paid 100 percent by tourism tax dollars, which the city does provide a lot of bed tax money -- MS. PATTERSON: True. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- towards that fund. COMMISSIONER HALL: Sure. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So in reality, the big bulk of it is spread out amongst citizens in District 4 in the City of Naples. So I can't just sit here and say they don't have any. They do have bordering properties on this bay. Actually, their properties are closer to the bay and affected by the bay more than the people -- there's a large buffer between the people in Pelican Bay, between the bay and where their residential homes actually are. So in reality, I think everybody is all part of Collier County, either way you look at it. We overlay it, so -- And we had a workshop. I wish we could just have been here the day of the workshop and said, "Hey, this is all hunky-dory. We'll just do this and that." But I think the committee coming to the -- end of the day, it was form a committee and get some individuals from both entities, and let's sit down and talk it out, you know, so... COMMISSIONER HALL: That was my point. I would like for them to work out their own salvation and not have to worry about us. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Ms. Patterson, what was the consent agenda item number for that? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. That was Item 16K2, now Page 176 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 165 Item 11C. And I guess, for the record, I should just read this in. This is actually the first step in a two-step process. This is a recommendation to provide direction to advertise an ordinance establishing the Clam Bay Advisory Committee to provide recommendations to the Board on matters affecting the entire Clam Bay Estuary System. Also, each of the Board members should have received a letter from Pelican Bay about this matter and their opposition to the item moving forward. They are asking for it to be continued until the fall because all of the -- many of their residents are out of town and won't be able to provide -- won't be able to participate in the discussion. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. So folks that would have been interested in this item, if they had gone online, they would have seen this was to be continued. And the item was simply to advertise an ordinance. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I think what would really be appropriate would be to actually continue this item. It can be into the fall or whenever we want to hear it, but I don't think it would be appropriate to kill this item today. And so I would entertain a motion if anyone's interested in continuing this to a certain time, but to go ahead and move it forward with the understanding that we'll have a public hearing on it. Is that acceptable? COMMISSIONER HALL: I'm game. MS. PATTERSON: The original date that we were continuing it to was July 8th, to accommodate both the schedules of Tim Hall, who's an expert in the Clam Bay Estuary, and Commissioner Kowal, so he can participate in person. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. I'll entertain a motion to continue this till July 8th. Page 177 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 166 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll do that. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: We have a motion. I'll second. COMMISSIONER HALL: Second. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. 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. So that will be advertised for that date? MS. PATTERSON: It's -- I'm looking at the County Attorney. So -- MR. KLATZKOW: It's still a request to advertise, unless you want me to skip that first step and just go and advertise it. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: No, no. I just -- MR. KLATZKOW: My assumption was there's going to be changes made to the ordinance. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Let's go ahead and just put it on the agenda for discussion. MS. PATTERSON: Very good. 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 Page 178 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 167 Commissioners, that brings us to Item 15. Item 15A is public comments on general topics not on the current or future agenda by individuals not already heard during the previous public comments in this meeting. MR. MILLER: We have none. MS. PATTERSON: Next is Item 15B, staff project updates. We have none today. Item #15C2 STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS WAIVED THE ADOPTION FEES FOR DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES (DAS) AT THE PETCO LOVE FLORIDA MEGA ADOPTION EVENT FROM JUNE 27TH THROUGH JUNE 29TH - MOTION TO WAIVE THE FEES BY COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS - APPROVED Next, Item 15C, staff and commission general communications. We've already covered the burn ban. The only other item that I have is a request for Domestic Animal Services to participate in the PetCo Love Florida Mega Adoption event from June 27th to 29th. It does require us to waive the adoption fees on -- the Domestic Animal Services director has broad discretion in lowering fees, but she needs the Board's approval to waive fees. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: And that's your recommendation, to waive the fees? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. This will bring a lot of publicity and hopefully adoptions to Domestic Animal Services. Page 179 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 168 CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Okay. Do we have a motion to that effect? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Motion. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I'll make -- okay. We have a motion. I'll second it, to waive the adoption fees for this event. 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. MS. PATTERSON: That's all I have. County Attorney? MR. KLATZKOW: Nothing, thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Kowal? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I'm good. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner Hall? COMMISSIONER HALL: Nothing, thanks. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: All right. Commissioner McDaniel? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. I have one quick question. Since we had such an elongated discussion about towers and radio communication, I was -- there was a proposed cell tower radio down in the middle of nowhere that may help with this. And is there any updates on that? And we don't necessarily have to do that now, but I made a note on it to ask about that, because I haven't heard since we pushed that on down the road. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. I had seen some correspondence a Page 180 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 169 while back that there was the potential for the tower to remain on the existing site, but I don't know what headway they've made on that. I'll make a note to get an update. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I fired -- I know I had a meeting with Superintendent Ramos. I know I met with the mayor. I know I met with folks out on the East Trail. I know that there were multiple sites that I had proposed for that tower -- or that cell tower could, in fact, go other than the site that was -- the old firehouse. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I would just like for that to stay on the front burner so we get that taken care of. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Nothing, thank you. CHAIRMAN SAUNDERS: I have nothing as well. 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 RECORDING THE PLAT OF DEL WEBB NAPLES PARCELS 500-505 (APPLICATION NUMBER PL20230014890), APPROVAL OF THE STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT, AND APPROVAL OF THE PERFORMANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $4,437,831.20 Page 181 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 170 Item #16A2 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 TREE FARM COMMERCIAL, PL20250000995 - FINAL INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED BY STAFF AND FOUD THESE FACILITIES SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABE ON MARCH 31, 2025 Item #16A3 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE WATER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR ROADIES AT FOUNDERS SQUARE, PL20250002581 - FINAL INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED BY STAFF AND FOUD THESE FACILITIES SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABE ON MARCH 28, 2025 Item #16A4 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE SEWER UTILITIES FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SEWER FACILITIES FOR MINNITI RESIDENCE, PL20250000739 - FINAL INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED BY STAFF AND FOUD THESE FACILITIES SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABE ON APRIL 10, 2025 Item #16A5 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE Page 182 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 171 SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR 6100 TRAIL BLVD. SEWER CONNECTION, PL20240000367 - FINAL INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED BY STAFF AND FOUD THESE FACILITIES SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABE ON SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 Item #16A6 RESOLUTION 2025-116: FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAT DEDICATIONS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF GREYHAWK AT THE GOLF CLUB OF THE EVERGLADES PHASE 4, APPLICATION NUMBER PL20180002724, AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $370,496.51 - GROWTH MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT INSPECTED THE IMPROVEMENTS ON OCTOBER 31, 2024 Item #16A7 CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $10,000, WHICH WAS POSTED AS A DEVELOPMENT GUARANTEE FOR AN EARLY WORK AUTHORIZATION (EWA) FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH CREATIVE COMMONS, PL20230011142 Item #16A8 BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE I-75 AND COLLIER BOULEVARD (951) INNOVATION ZONE FUND (1031) REALLOCATING RESERVE FUNDING FOR THE FIRST Page 183 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 172 AMENDMENT TO THE CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH ULINE CORPORATION C/O CITY GATE NAPLES, LLC (ULINE) IN THE AMOUNT OF $557,874.90 Item #16A9 RELEASE OF A CODE ENFORCEMENT LIEN WITH AN ACCRUED VALUE OF $60,900 FOR A REDUCED PAYMENT OF $18,842.60 IN THE CODE ENFORCEMENT ACTION TITLED BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VS. DAHINET VARONA, IN SPECIAL MAGISTRATE CASE NO. CENA20220009117, RELATING TO PROPERTY LOCATED AT 171 14TH ST. SE, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA Item #16A10 CONSERVATION COLLIER ANNUAL REPORT, PROGRAM MANUAL, AND TO SOLICIT ACQUISITION PROPOSALS AND APPLICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC Item #16A11 EASEMENT TO FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY FOR RELOCATION OF AN EXISTING TRANSFORMER TO ACCOMMODATE THE PARKING LOT MODIFICATIONS AT THE PELICAN BAY COMMUNITY PARK AT 764 VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD, NAPLES, FLORIDA 34108 Item #16A12 Page 184 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 173 ONE-YEAR EXTENSION TO THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AND THE EARLY LEARNING COALITION OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA INC., TO PROVIDE LOCAL MATCH FUNDING FOR $75,000 IN FISCAL YEAR 2026 Item #16B1 SELECTION COMMITTEE’S RANKING AND AUTHORIZE STAFF TO BEGIN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS WITH DRMP, INC., RELATED TO REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (“RPS”) NO. 24-8286, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR IMMOKALEE ROAD AND LIVINGSTON ROAD FLYOVER,” SO STAFF CAN BRING A PROPOSED AGREEMENT BACK FOR THE BOARD’S CONSIDERATION AT A FUTURE MEETING Item #16B2 A PAYMENT OF $21,335.00 TO TEMPLE INC., FOR MATERIALS THAT WERE LOST IN A PACKAGE SHIPPED VIA FEDEX - THE BOXES CONTAINED A TOTAL OF 64 POUNDS OF INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED CLOCK CONTROLLERS FOR FLASHING SCHOOL SIGNALS (27 ITEMS IN TOTAL) Item #16B3 FIRST AMENDMENTS TO THE AGREEMENTS FOR SALE AND PURCHASE FOR THE ACQUISITION OF ONE (1) UNIT FROM JOSEPH D. STEWART, P.A., AND FOURTEEN (14) UNITS FROM BIGI & BIGI, LLC, WITHIN THE COURT PLAZA III BUILDING Page 185 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 174 LOCATED AT 2671 AIRPORT-PULLING ROAD SOUTH, TO EXTEND THE INSPECTION PERIOD TO SEPTEMBER 23, 2025, AND THE CLOSING DEADLINES TO NOVEMBER 22, 2025, OR WITHIN THIRTY DAYS OF THE COUNTY’S RECEIPT OF ALL CLOSING DOCUMENTS, WHICHEVER IS LATER Item #16B4 INVITATION TO BID NO. 25-8343, “ROADWAY STRIPING,” TO MCSHEA CONTRACTING, LLC, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT Item #16B5 RESOLUTION 2025-117: CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A SMALL COUNTY OUTREACH PROGRAM (SCOP) STATE-FUNDED GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) REIMBURSING COLLIER COUNTY UP TO $985,275.00 TO CONSTRUCT PAVED SHOULDERS AND WIDEN TRAVEL LANES ON IMMOKALEE ROAD (CR 846) FROM WEST OF BRIDGE NO. 034832 TO EAST OF BRIDGE NO. 034832; TO EXECUTE A RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE BOARD’S ACTION; AND AUTHORIZE ALL NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS, FPN 454028-1-54- 01. (FUND 1841, PROJECT NO. 60253) Item #16B6 AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO THE LPA0268 AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION STANDARD GRANT Page 186 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 175 AGREEMENT FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY GOLDEN GATE CITY WATER RESOURCE PROTECTION/RESTORATION MASTER PLAN TO EXTEND THE GRANT EXPIRATION DATE TO MARCH 31, 2027 (PROJECT NO. 33842) Item #16B7 AGREEMENT FOR THE DONATION OF A DRAINAGE EASEMENT (PARCEL 124DE) REQUIRED FOR THE EVERGLADES CITY DRAINAGE PROJECT. ESTIMATED FISCAL IMPACT: $100 Item #16B8 BUDGET AMENDMENT TO RECOGNIZE THE RECOVERY OF COLLIER COUNTY FUNDS TOTALING $47,885.86, RELATED TO INSURANCE CLAIMS INVOLVING A DAMAGED COLLIER AREA TRANSIT BUS SHELTER - LOCATED ON THE EAST SIDE OF WILSON BOULEVARD, JUST NORTH OF GOLDEN GATE BOULEVARD WEST Item #16B9 RESOLUTION 2025-118: COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE STATE FY2025/26 TRANSPORTATION DISADVANTAGED TRIP & EQUIPMENT GRANT AGREEMENT AND ANY ANCILLARY DOCUMENTS WITH THE FLORIDA COMMISSION FOR THE TRANSPORTATION DISADVANTAGED IN THE AMOUNT OF $740,173 WITH A LOCAL MATCH OF $82,241, TO CONTINUE OPERATION, AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS Page 187 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 176 Item #16B10 FY 2025/26 TRANSPORTATION DISADVANTAGED PLANNING GRANT FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $31,757 TO THE COLLIER METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION FROM THE COMMISSION FOR THE TRANSPORTATION DISADVANTAGED AND TO AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT. (FUND 1841, PROJECT NO. 33944) Item #16B11 COLLIER METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION’S ANNUAL OPERATING BUDGET FOR FY 2025/26 AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,178,086, EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2025. (FUND 1841, PROJECT NO. 33908) Item #16B12 (“ITB”) NO. 23-8154, “COUNTY BARN RD PATHWAYS (LAP),” TO RJ ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,023,344.44, APPROVE OWNER’S ALLOWANCE OF $200,000, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CONSTRUCTION SERVICES AGREEMENT AND APPROVE THE BUDGET AMENDMENT Item #16C1 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, AS THE EX Page 188 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 177 OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT, AWARD INVITATION TO BID NO. 24-8321 TO DOUGLAS N. HIGGINS, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,417,868. (PROJECT NO. 70234) FOR THE FOXFIRE SUPPLEMENTAL WELLS PROJECT, APPROVE AN OWNER’S ALLOWANCE OF $282,000, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT Item #16D1 CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AMENDMENT TWO TO THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ELDER AFFAIRS (DOEA) AGREEMENT #XF305 TO EXTEND THE PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE FOR THE GOLDEN GATE SENIOR CENTER EXPANSION AND HARDENING PROJECT. (FUND 1835 HOUSING GRANT, FUND 1839 PUBLIC SERVICE GRANT, FUND 1806 GENERAL FUNDS, AND FUND 3001 COUNTY-WIDE CAPITAL PROJECT) Item #16D2 GRANT DONATION FROM THE EILEEN AND CONO FUSCO FUND THROUGH THE FIDELITY CHARITABLE DONOR- ADVISED FUND GRANT PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF $100, FOR GENERAL SUPPORT OF THE COLLIER COUNTY LIBRARY AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT. (PUBLIC SERVICES GRANT FUND 1839) Item #16D3 FIRST AMENDMENT FOR REVISIONS TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT SUBRECIPIENT Page 189 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 178 AGREEMENT #CD23-03 BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND RENAISSANCE HALL SENIOR LIVING, LLLP, IN THE AMOUNT OF $329,706.00 FOR PRECONSTRUCTION COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PHASE II SENIOR RENTAL HOUSING (HOUSING GRANTS FUND 1835) Item #16D4 ROUND 2 FUNDING FROM THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT CYBERSECURITY GRANT PROGRAM, ADMINISTERED BY THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SERVICES, TO SUPPORT CYBERSECURITY APPLICATIONS AND UPGRADES FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) DIVISION. REQUEST AUTHORIZATION FOR THE COUNTY MANAGER OR THEIR DESIGNEE TO EXECUTE ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS TO ACCEPT THE AWARD, IN AN ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF $285,440.00 Item #16F1 (“ITB”) NO. 24-8289, “PELICAN BAY DECORATIVE STREET SIGN FABRICATION & INSTALLATION SERVICES,” TO PROJECT COMBO, INC., D/B/A LYKINS SIGNTEK, INC., AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT Item #16F2 RESOLUTION 2025-119: AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2024-25 ADOPTED Page 190 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 179 BUDGET. (THE BUDGET AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES.) Item #16F3 REPORT COVERING BUDGET AMENDMENTS IMPACTING RESERVES UP TO AND INCLUDING $25,000 Item #16F4 FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE LEASE AGREEMENT WITH AVERSANA AT HAMMOCK BAY CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., AUTHORIZING COLLIER COUNTY TO CONTINUE THE OPERATION OF PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT PREVIOUSLY INSTALLED AT 1060 BORGHESE LANE, NAPLES, FLORIDA 34114 Item #16J1 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SERVE AS THE LOCAL COORDINATING UNIT OF GOVERNMENT FOR THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT’S FEDERAL FISCAL YEAR 2024 EDWARD BYRNE MEMORIAL, JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (JAG) COUNTYWIDE PROGRAM AND (1) AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE CERTIFICATION OF PARTICIPATION AND SIGN THE LETTER OF SUPPORT; (2) DESIGNATE THE SHERIFF AS THE OFFICIAL APPLICANT AND THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE STAFF AS GRANT FINANCIAL AND PROGRAM Page 191 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 180 MANAGERS; (3) AUTHORIZE THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE GRANT IF AND WHEN AWARDED; AND (4) APPROVE ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS AND APPROVE THE COLLIER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE TO RECEIVE AND EXPEND THE GRANT FUNDS Item #16J2 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PROVIDE APPROVAL FOR THE STATE OF FLORIDA E911 BOARD/E911 STATE GRANT PROGRAM AND FOR THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE GRANT APPLICATION AND MOU ADDENDUM Item #16J3 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 $37,291,986.74 WERE DRAWN FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN MAY 15, 2025, AND MAY 28, 2025, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06 ____ Item #16J4 BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF JUNE 4, 2025 Item #16K1 Page 192 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 181 A $26,222.89 SETTLEMENT WITH ROBERTS DRILLING, INC., FOR DAMAGES CAUSED TO A 12-INCH WATER MAIN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF MAINSAIL DRIVE AND COLLIER BOULEARD, IN COUNTY COURT CASE NO. 23-CC-2693; AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE A STANDARD FORM RELEASE Item #16K2 (Moved to Item #11C per Change Sheet) THIS ITEM CONTINUED TO THE JULY 8, 2025, BCC MEETING AGENDA AND ITEM WAS PREVIOUSLY CONTINUED FROM THE MAY 13, 2025, BCC MEETING. RECOMMENDATION TO PROVIDE DIRECTION TO ADVERTISE AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE CLAM BAY ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BOARD ON MATTERS AFFECTING THE ENTIRE CLAM BAY ESTUARY SYSTEM Item #16K3 RETENTION AGREEMENT FOR LEGAL SERVICES WITH JACKSON LEWIS P.C. FOR SPECIALIZED CYBER SECURITY AND DATA PRIVACY LEGAL SERVICES ON AN AS-NEEDED BASIS Item #16K4 RESOLUTION 2025-120: APPOINT LEYANIS MUNIZ TO THE LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD - TERM EXPIRING ON DECEMBER 31, 2026 Page 193 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 182 Item #16K5 COUNTY ATTORNEY TO FILE A LAWSUIT ON BEHALF OF THE COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGAINST NOAH ALLEN WAYSON IN THE COUNTY COURT OF THE TWENTIETH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, TO RECOVER DAMAGES FOR THE REPAIR OF COLLIER COUNTY PROPERTY TOTALING $5,062.05, PLUS COSTS OF LITIGATION Item #16K6 STIPULATED FINAL JUDGMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $95,000 PLUS $20,604 IN STATUTORY ATTORNEY AND EXPERTS’ FEES AND COSTS FOR THE TAKING OF PARCEL 1341FEE REQUIRED FOR THE VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD EXTENSION PROJECT NO. 60249 Item #16K7 ADVERTISE AN AMENDMENT TO THE INNOVATION ZONE ORDINANCE TO REMOVE ANY CAP ON THE TRUST FUND, ALLOW THE BOARD TO TRANSFER FUNDS HELD BY INNOVATION TRUST FUNDS BACK TO THE CONTRIBUTING FUNDS, UPON A FINDING THAT THE AMOUNT HELD IN THE FUND IS GREATER THAN THE ANTICIPATED NEED OF THE INNOVATION ZONE, AND EXTEND THE AVE MARIA INNOVATION ZONE FOR ANOTHER 10 YEARS Page 194 of 4096 June 10, 2025 Page 183 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 2:15 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL ___________________________________ BURT SAUNDERS, CHAIRMAN ATTEST CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK ___________________________ These minutes approved by the Board on _______________, as presented ___________or as corrected______________. TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY PUBLIC. Page 195 of 4096