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BCC Minutes 09/07/2008 E (Hurricane Ike) September 7, 2008 TRANSCRIPT OF THE EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COLLIER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida September 7,2008 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 district as has been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1 :00 p.m., in EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: Tom Henning Jim Coletta Donna Fiala Frank Halas Fred Coyle (Absent) ALSO PRESENT: Jeffrey Klatzkow, County Attorney Jim Mudd, County Manager Dan Summers, Director, Emergency Services Page 1 ...---.- September 7,2008 MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your seats. Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, you have a hot mic. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Board of Commissioners of Collier County Emergency Meeting, today being September 7th, 2008. Would you all rise for the pledge of allegiance. (Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN HENNING: County Manager? MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. Today we're going to talk about Hurricane Ike, potential landfall and its impacts upon Collier County. At the end of the briefing today for Mr. Summers I'm going to ask the board to consider declaring a State of Emergency for Collier County and to move $50,000 from reserves into -- from the 001 account, the general fund account, into a cost center for Hurricane Ike. And those are the two major issues. You will have another opportunity with this hurricane Tuesday morning. You have a regular scheduled Board of County Commissioners meeting, at which time we will know more, because Wednesday is the big impact day, and it's pretty much staying on that particular time line right now. We'll know more about what it does or doesn't do to Cuba. And that basically is the big impact on Collier County right now. And we'll know within the next 12 to 18 hours about the hurricane's potential track, as far as that island is concerned. Without further ado, though, I'd like to bring Mr. Summers forward to the podium to describe what actions we've taken so far. MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, good afternoon. Dan Summers, Director of the Bureau of Emergency Services and Emergency Management. Before I begin today, just two items I would like to mention. First of all, thank you to Kristi, who's translating our emergency sessions Page 2 ~---- September 7, 2008 here at American Sign. We try to do that whenever possible related to the storm activities. And a special thanks to all the partners, external agencies and county staff that continue to join the EOC and the preparedness efforts for this community, and all the agencies. Never a hesitation to join in and go to work and help us. And I offer my sincere thanks, as well as yours, to the outside agencies. As I begin this morning -- this afternoon, rather, I'd like to bring you up to date on actions to date, and then we'll get into the weather discussion. It's important for you to be aware of a couple of things. Governor Crist did in fact declare a State of Emergency for the State of Florida related to Hurricane Ike. He did that well in advance of landfall to ask the Whitehouse for a disaster declaration specifically for FEMA Category A and B reimbursements to eligible agencies. And that is primarily to focus on the response costs in preparation for the event. Now that, as I understand this morning, is still sitting at the Whitehouse. It has not been signed. But the Governor has moved forward with that request under the Stafford Act. To tell you a little bit about the concern, a very serious concern that we had on Thursday and Friday, and still have concern but particularly on Thursday and Friday, our big concerns from the National Hurricane Center was to see this storm continue to escalate to what they call a major hurricane event, which would be Category 3 or above. And as you know, we've seen fluctuations in Category 3 and Category 4 as this storm currently is making its westward movement. The Hurricane Center this morning did say that it was not unlikely that this would go to a Category 5 event before it hit Cuba. Our concern also on Thursday was that this may in fact have been Ike following sort of I'll call it the vapor trail; that's a non-meteorological term for Hurricane Hanna. But we thought it would have followed and was going to be an east coast of Florida Page 3 .-~._.,,,._....,- ._--",'. September 7,2008 event. Very quickly that moved to a central peninsula Florida event. And now the models that you have seen, we've all seen on television, show this as a west coast event with these models continuing to slide. So I had no choice but to take some early preparedness efforts on Friday related to mobilizing, because -- number one, because it was the weekend coming up, and number two, the fact that so many rental assets in the Southeast U.S. are still in the New Orleans, Louisiana area. So I had to pull the trigger on a few items to get them here so that we had a reasonable -- made some reasonable planning assumptions for resources and preparedness with this being a weekend event. I also want to pass along to you that Monroe County, our adjacent county in the Key West area; they initiated a staggered evacuation on Friday and Saturday. And as you have heard from radio and television this morning, they still maintain their formal evacuation today for the general public. In accordance with the plan in this type of category storm, I was very concerned with the storm that may have impacted all of Interstate 75 north and even eastbound, that this could have potentially been a very healthy or a very populated shelter emergency type situation. So I did -- working with the school district and the American Red Cross, we did identify on Friday 11 shelters for the general population and our special needs population. And we still have those shelters identified. As usual, as we always do, we'll announce those shelters if they become necessary. But we were moving very forward in cooperative action to have shelter situations ready. Saturday and today we continue to receive calls from the aging and elderly, medically frail public about special needs registration. So we manned phones in the office on Saturday to address any last-minute surge that we always have in special needs registration and do some case work on the phone, so to speak, with those individuals. Page 4 September 7, 2008 And we will continue that effort today through 4:00 as well. Earlier today I spoke with Bill Moss from the City of Naples, as well as Mayor Hamilton. Both of those gentlemen reported to me that they were not going to report to today's meeting, they would monitor on television. And the Mayor of Naples would take his discussions to his council on Monday morning. Mayor Hamilton would convene at his board's convenience possibly this afternoon or tomorrow and follow our lead most likely in echoing the State of Emergency. Solid waste division was one of the items. As you know, we still had a mission ongoing from the cleanup of Tropical Storm Fay. It was prudent for them to push out additional resources to collect that debris. FEMA does not allow us to blend debris missions. You sort of the have to go period, paragraph, start new. So a surge in that collection activity was handled by the solid waste division, and they'll continue those efforts. A lot of announcements went out this weekend to remind the public to call their call center so that those final debris missions can be completed and debris can be picked up as a result of Tropical Storm Fay. Again, I think before I get into weather discussions and ask you to move forward on discussion on the State of Emergency, I do want to tell you and emphasize, particularly with our schools and shelters and other arrangements that we have in place, we have to be very careful that we don't have maybe a 60 or an 80-mile jog in this storm very quickly and the storm's track very quickly puts Collier County back in the game and with a potential serious event. So while the models are in alignment and we'll see how the storm behaves over Cuba the next day or so, make no mistake, this could be a very serious event. It's very much going to put us on the borderline for any serious concerns. So let me go to the graphics and then I'll take your questions and we'll talk more about the State of Emergency. Page 5 September 7, 2008 Let's just talk a little bit about the current activity with the storm right now. As you see, a well defined eye, and just getting ready to bear down on the Island of Cuba. Once you get into central Cuba, there are some mountains there, I believe five to 6,000 feet high, that we expect this hurricane to reduce in intensity as a result of the terrain features. But once it exits Cuba and comes through the Straits of Florida there again very, very warm waters we've been aware of all summer, and the Hurricane Center's concern of a rapid escalation back to Category 3 or Category 4 as it starts to approach the central Gulf. So you see a well defined eye, you see good symmetry in the storm, you see significant westward motion in terms of speed. So without a doubt, this -- again, another significant storm for the history books here. Nothing to discount whatsoever. It was important for me to show you this graphic. Ifyou'll-- you see the dark area there, the dry air ahead of this storm. It is this high pressure that is generally looped, if you will, here well west of the Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coast. And it's that particular high pressure that's been responsible for steering this storm. I will tell you, on Friday that high pressure had a break in it. And as a result that was why Ike was initially planned to be an east coast event. That high became stronger and had more influence on the southwest activity and southwest direction of the particular storm. The good news is that the Hurricane Center seems to think that that is a pretty strong high pressure and should be pretty reliable in this storm track at this point. But should anything change significantly with that steering current, again it puts Collier County and Southwest Florida in a vulnerable area. And so again, once it comes off of the northern tip of Cuba, 60, 80 miles could be all the difference in the world for Collier County. And then as we know, that the storm will head towards the central Gulf. And that's as far as we have on our particular models. Page 6 September 7, 2008 Let's run the timing elements for you. We've gotten very accustomed to that particular graphic. This is the starting point with the storm moving at 13 miles per hour and winds 130 miles per hour for this particular event. The blue bands, the outside ring of the storm, is really your storm force winds. And it's that area that we're concerned about, plus a radius from Collier County to make decisions for evacuation planning. So I'll move this forward in time a little bit and I'll get this close. Mr. Mudd likes to illustrate some of these timing concerns. So Mr. Mudd, I can take it to the proximity and you can certainly comment there, if you'd like. As we approach this particular storm again, you see this coming -- the predictions right now are to come off the coast of Cuba with this storm returning to Category 1 status, 72 miles per hour being the concern; 75 miles per hour with 10 miles per hour forward motion. I'll zoom this in just a little bit to help give you a little better graphical representation. So it's this distance here, the 40 to 60 miles or so, that could have bearing on Collier County. Now, this also puts the outer bands not really -- let me move forward here. Because we're talking about Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning concerns as we move forward here. So we may -- again, just to stress to you that any particular jog in this storm, any particular closer direction to Key West is what we have to deal with. Now again, the only other scenario I want to mention, if this storm doesn't come across the center of Cuba, it doesn't lose its punch. If it comes across the center of Cuba, it does lose some punch. And we'll see what happens when it emerges. So again, this is a pretty close call, pretty close scenario. To summarize just a little bit, I would say that if I had to wrap this up in two words, it's remain very guarded over the next 48-hour Page 7 . --- ,. September 7, 2008 period with the cone of uncertainty and a potential Category 4 or 5 event looming off our coast. The other thing is to be prepared for what I call a fast-breaking event. If we have a shift, a significant shift in the track, we will have to be well poised and may have less than 12 to 18 hours to react. And as you all know, I like to react during daylight hours. The last thing I want to do is be in some scenario either Monday night or Tuesday night and having to take precautionary or protective action strategies in the evening hours. We do much better and we're much safer during daylight hours. We still may get some unstable weather. If we get any additional bands on the fringe, as you well know, always puts us typically in a tornado watch. I will tell you that the rainfall models were not too bad. So I didn't see anything in excess of two inches in the runs regarding precip., but again, that may be heavier than that in some localized areas. And again, continuing to monitor. As Mr. Mudd mentioned, it's my recommendation to you to move forward with a State of Emergency declaration that coincides well with the Stafford Act and FEMA and the Governor's request for the State of Emergency. No guarantees of any -- of the reimbursement scenario, but that remains to be seen by the Whitehouse and FEMA. Continue to stress to our residents to monitor carefully, continue to be prepared. I am not recommending, and I'll certainly ask Colonel Storrar to come forward from the Sheriffs Office, but I'm not recommending any curfews or voluntary evacuations or anything that's not normal business, but we want to be very much on guard. And I'll have him address that. And as Mr. Mudd mentioned, the budget amendment that we needed for our readiness cost. Just to finalize, we will see you on Tuesday morning. I'll be in a Page 8 -.---- September 7, 2008 position to give you an update then if any -- if the weather conditions do change. MR. MUDD: Dan, can you back this thing up to 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, I can. MR. MUDD: There's kind of where we are at 9:00 in the mornmg. And if -- based on that we've got some time, he's got the daylight that he's looking for and we could get our most neediest residents into some special needs shelter. And we have a conversation with the school board if it the shifts to the right. So we've got some time that day and we'll know better Monday night how that's going to play out. This is -- now, Wednesday, as Dan shoved it back out again, and it was 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, depending on where that track is, if it stays out into the Gulf, we still could have some gusty wind situations that could affect school on Wednesday. I know the kids will hate to hear that, okay, but it has everything to do with school buses. And if you're over 40 miles per hour, we don't run the school buses. So -- and the superintendent and I, we will confer and be in discussions about that possibility there on Wednesday. MR. SUMMERS: We'll keep the EOC Monday at a Level 2 status to continue to monitor some of the logistics and preparedness activities and adjust our planning and timing concerns. We'll continue that on Tuesday. And I will ask that we'll have an incident planning session on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., just a briefing with all of our EOC players. We had scheduled that on Friday anyway to get together Monday morning. We'll continue that planning session, incident planning session, with the EOC team Monday at 9:00. I don't anticipate that lasting much more than about an hour and a half. So I'll stop right there. And Mr. Chairman, I also have some of Page 9 -_.._.>._.>,,~--,"---~-----~~---,-_._,..~_..~_.,. September 7,2008 the key agency representatives here: Health Department and schools, Sheriffs Office. I believe Marco -- I'm not sure if there's a rep from Marco here yet or not. And we'll allow those individuals to speak as you call them forward, Mr. Chair. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Commissioner Fiala, and then Commissioner Halas, Commissioner Coletta. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you, Commissioner. Yes, on the debris that you spoke of earlier from Waste Management, I'm now just speaking about Lakewood because a neighborhood approached me. We have quite a bit of debris still sitting there from the last storm, and they were afraid to let it sit there in case another storm is coming. So one guy put his stuff all in cans. And he said, I can't leave it out the way the county had told me because we're coming near another storm. Others have just left their debris all cut up and neatly piled there. But what happens if -- maybe we're not going to get a storm this time, but what does happen if it hasn't been picked up and it's still sitting there? MR. MUDD: We plan to have -- and I'm going to speak for Dan a little bit, unless things have changed. But Solid Waste Department plans to have all the Tropical Storm Fay debris up by Tuesday close of business. And that's right around 6:00 p.m. And if that gentleman who has put that stuff back in the can, if he just calls that phone number -- and Dan, you've got that phone number? MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure. MR. MUDD: I hope you could put it over the microphone right now. They call and they'll come get it. MR. RODRIGUEZ: For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your Solid Waste Director. And the County Manager is absolutely right. The number to call is 252-2380. And it's Collier Piling, if you have debris that's still there. Page 10 ._"_'''~''__~____'__~'~___''''__,~_~__._,,_.'n , September 7, 2008 But we currently have crews out throughout the county. East Naples, we're hitting East Naples today very heavily. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, today? MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, okay. MR. RODRIGUEZ: And by Tuesday we'll have all the piles picked up. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, thank you. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Commissioner Halas? COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, Dan, couple of questions that I have for you -- or Dan Summers, excuse me. Sorry, we get so many Dans here. MR. SUMMERS: If I can't answer it, Dan R. can, how about that? COMMISSIONER HALAS: As I look at the track here, this hurricane, is there any potential that instead of crossing across Cuba that it would have a glancing blow off of Cuba? MR. SUMMERS: Sir, that's what we remain very guarded about, that if this storm does in fact center the island, if it sort of ricochets off the island, and that's what we're going to be watching very closely over the next 12 to 24 hours. The models remain consistent. We have to kind of put our relative faith in those models from the Hurricane Center. But we have seen meteorological surprises like this before where Mother Nature doesn't do what the models think it's going to do. So again, my concern, and same as yours, very guarded to make sure that this storm doesn't ricochet off the coast, bring the center more towards the center Keys, and we could be in for a serious event. COMMISSIONER HALAS: So in the next couple of hours this will be what we'll be looking at then very closely, I take it. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, we will. And we continue -- our entire staff, we monitor this. If we're not in the office, we're on the Page 11 "",,,~_,~,__,,_"___'. ~'_"_'_~~'o_"__"_~'.__,,__ ". ---- September 7, 2008 laptops at home monitoring this. We do conference calls. We don't have to be at the office, we can take our Hurricane Center calls remotely. So we monitor this. I'll check it at 11 :00. I frequently will check intermediate advisories at 4:00 a.m., and also the 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. advisories. So we will be very much on point for any changes, and we will be well postured. And I think we did that Friday for -- if we have to ramp up our operations quickly, I think we're in a very good position to do that. COMMISSIONER HALAS: My other last question is if the storm remains on the track that's projected at the present time, do you feel that we'll have any storm surge? MR. SUMMERS: That was very difficult. There were no model runs this morning on this particular forecast. The only thing that was left as a standing -- potential kind of a standing order in the forecast was a potential for two to four. And we can tolerate that two to four as long as we're not getting it on a lunar high tide. So that will be that standard statement, but I don't have any run data that I can report at this point that's any higher than a potential for-- COMMISSIONER HALAS: And that's -- MR. SUMMERS: -- two to four. COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- based on the track that we presently see in front of us. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, that is correct. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Commissioner Coletta? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. Mr. Summers, if -- what are the rules as far as calling an emergency meeting? In case this suddenly does take a departure and heads to the north towards Florida mainland. Could we call a meeting within hours, could we have it late at night or early in the morning? MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely. And by maintaining this State of Emergency, as you know, I propose always that you table these State Page 12 , ..._----~-"...< ,." September 7, 2008 of Emergencies. You don't terminate that State of Emergency, you table it. I think under unusual circumstances, telephonically or other emergency powers, that you delegate to the County Manager and he gives to me, we can operate. And we won't fail to operate, even if we have to get with you three or four hours after the event. If it's a fast-breaking event, we'll move forward, do the right thing and contact you telephonically and then get on the record in any format that the attorney or the manager prefers. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And two other questions. In days of old, they used to have things such as sirens to be able to alert people to a sudden and imminent disaster in the making. If this was to take a turn late at night, do we have some ability to be able to reach out to the public by phone? What is that called, the -- MR. SUMMERS: We have a couple of resources. First of all, that if we are -- if we become in an activated mode, the EOC will activate and our call center will open, our 252-8444. We'll bring those teams in. The second notification scheme that we have within our organization is that we can reach out telephonically to all of the special needs clients. We can give them a message. We can do that in about eight minutes. We can reach all 12 or 1,300 that are registered at that particular point. NOAA Weather Radio, local radio and television, we can get those alerts out. As you know, the NOAA Weather Radio can activate. The municipalities, and we hope to tighten that coordination with the EOC at a later date. But the City of Naples has a Code Red system, which is automatic telephonic notification outbound. The Sheriff has that in the unincorporated area, and Marco Island has Code Red notifications as well. If there are any other remote areas of concern or I hear from the Sheriffs Department that there are some communities or pockets of communities that are not mobilizing well, we are very comfortable in Page 13 -"----'-'. September 7, 2008 asking our public safety agencies, fire, law enforcement to do what we call backup alert routing or notification. They'll go into the neighborhoods, get on the public address system on the vehicle and make that emergency announcement, pop that siren a little bit and wake folks up. So there is not a tornado siren program in Collier County, nor is there anywhere in the U.S. a hurricane siren program. But those are limited to tornado communities and tsunami communities and nuclear power plant communities. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: But we do have the ability to-- MR. SUMMERS: But we do have the ability, and-- COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- be able to help people. MR. SUMMERS: -- we have multiple resources and we'll hit all of those notification systems. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: My other last question once again has to do with debris (sic) removal, pickup. I think we have to be very explicit about when people can set this out and still expect it to be picked up. Because in all our discussions that we've had here today, we didn't say that if you don't have the pile out, don't put it out. At what point in time is that cut-off date? Because, I mean, I'm sure if they went down some streets and completely cleaned them today, it would be -- it would not behoove anyone for them to set out another pile today on that same street. I don't see how you can ever get a round robin thing like this -- MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- completed. MR. RODRIGUEZ: For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your Solid Waste Director. Commissioner, as part of our original plan, today is actually the last date to get your debris out. Two and a half weeks ago we notified the public, based on board direction, that September 7th was the last day to get it out to the street for collection. Page 14 - --_.,,-. September 7, 2008 COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. So anyone that hasn't placed their debris out at this point in time should leave it in place and then put it into regular containers or bundle it for Saturday or Wednesday's pickups, whenever the-- MR. RODRIGUEZ: That's correct, if -- COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- normal pickup would be. MR. RODRIGUEZ: -- they could make it conforming to the regular horticultural waste pickup. If I could mention on the record also, we have people that are customer service, utility billing service standing by accepting calls for people to call their piles in. So if you do have a pile out there and you would like it picked up, please, by all means, call it in. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Once more, that number? MR. RODRIGUEZ: Is 252-2380. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Mr. Summers, do you have the wind projections on the present track now? MR. SUMMERS: Sir, the only estimates that I have right now were some potential gusts to 25 to 35 miles per hour. And I'll have those -- I can look at those wind fields later. But we're just outside -- you know, we really -- we are just taking a good guess at this point until the storm comes off the Cuban coast. We just don't know what those -- you're talking about if it affects Collier County? Was that your -- I'm sorry, I may not have-- COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, on its present track, what would be the wind speeds -- MR. SUMMERS: For, as -- CHAIRMAN HENNING: -- for Collier County? MR. SUMMERS: For Collier County. Right now the models are 25 to 35, but very, very -- that's a very poor estimate at this point in time. Page 15 --".,._~--"-........- ----- September 7, 2008 CHAIRMAN HENNING: We're actually in a heck ofa lot better shape than we were. So is it really necessary to call a State of Emergency today, knowing that this could be a -- most likely be at the earliest a Wednesday event? MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I would strongly recommend that you proceed with that of emergency with no prohibitions, no curfews, no restrictions. And that does two things -- CHAIRMAN HENNING: No restrictions on who? MR. SUMMERS: No restrictions -- in other words, there's -- what I'm trying to say is have normal government operations, but declare that State of Emergency. Because if we don't indicate to FEMA and the state that we were posturing for this particular storm and we are late, any of our eligible costs -- or many of our costs could be deemed not eligible if we have a delayed State of Emergency declaration. So our readiness and preparedness costs would be important to try to have that reimbursable. And by doing that now, that gives us an opportunity to reclaim some of those eligible costs as early as Friday. CHAIRMAN HENNING: So you want to back date the emergency? MR. SUMMERS: No, sir, I have -- CHAIRMAN HENNING: A declared emergency, is it from the cost, the time that we declare it, or what? MR. SUMMERS: Generally. And as you all know, that FEMA has all types of interpretations of these activities. If I'm taking reasonable and prudent steps to prepare the community and you declare whether I engage that on Friday or Saturday, if it's directly attributable to this storm and tied to the State of Emergency within a reasonable period of time, it's eligible. So again, if things change dramatically tomorrow and I don't see you until Tuesday and I'm getting additional rental equipment or we're doing some other preparedness activity, the timing is good to proceed Page 16 --_.-- "~'-'---'" -- .,,-- September 7,2008 on with the State of Emergency. And I would feel much more comfortable and it would put us much more in line with typical FEMA guidance. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Okay. Well, I'm okay with that. But I don't want to scare our residents. Because, you know, what I see, this storm is moving away from us, it's not moving closer to us. And the worst thing we can do is concern our residents, nothing happens and we keep on doing this exercise over and over again, we're not going to get a response. MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I think-- CHAIRMAN HENNING: I understand what you're -- you just want to prepare in case the storm shifts and moves close to us. MR. SUMMERS: Right. CHAIRMAN HENNING: And I can appreciate that. But I think the emphasis needs to be on we're looking pretty doggone good. MR. SUMMERS: Sir, you're right, forecast-wise we're looking very good. You can understand that I always want to maintain a guarded situation here so that we don't get caught by surprise. And we're not doing any evacuations. And I know from experience that if you unnecessarily evacuate, that gets to be harder. My goal today, and I think you echoed the message very well, is our concern here is don't be scared but be alert. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Stay tuned. Somebody have something down here? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Just a couple of points. Just an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But a similar situation, which could develop, something like that what happened with Charley when it was going up the coast and took a sudden right-hand turn when no one expected it. It caught many communities not fully prepared as they could be. So I do encourage you at all points in time to keep the guard up. I would just as soon muster the forces time and time again needlessly Page 17 -~-,--_.. .__.-...-....- - --- September 7, 2008 than fail to muster them once and to have the public suffer any undue harm. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir. Just as a planning wisdom, I mean, I would rather turn resources and programs down rather than being at the last minute and trying to crank them up in an expeditious manner. So it gives us a little planning. Understood. Thank you. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Now we have to do the resolution. Proclamation/Resolution RESOLUTION 2008-239: DECLARING A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN COLLIER COUNTY, FL EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 7, 2008 DUE TO THE THREAT OF HURRICANE IKE - ADOPTED MR. MUDD: The proclamation, sir. Proclamation Resolution No. 2008. Proclamation that the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County to declare a State of Emergency for all territory within the legal boundaries of Collier County, including all incorporated and unincorporated areas. WHEREAS, Hurricane Ike has the potential for causing extensive damage to public utilities, public buildings, public communication systems, public streets and roads, public drainage systems, commercial and residential buildings and areas, and WHEREAS, the Collier County Emergency Management officials are recommending that a State of Local Emergency be declared due to the current predicted path of Hurricane Ike, and WHEREAS, Chapter 252-38 (3) (A) (5) of the Florida statutes in Collier County Ordinance No. 84-37, Collier County Ordinance 2001-45, Collier County Ordinance 2002-50, and Collier County Page 18 ------ September 7,2008 Ordinance 2007-49, codified as Section 38-56 through 38-71 in the Collier County Laws and Ordinances, provide for political subdivisions such as Collier County to declare a State of Local Emergency and to waive the procedures and formalities otherwise required of political subdivisions by law pertaining to: Number one: Performance of public work and taking whatever prudent actions is necessary to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the community. Number two: Entering into contracts. Number three: Incurring obligations. Number four: Employment of permanent and temporary workers. Number five: Utilization of volunteer workers. Number six: Rental of equipment. Number seven: Acquisition and distribution with and without compensation of supplies, materials and facilities. And number eight: Appropriation and expenditure of public funds. NOW THEREFORE, it is resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County, Florida in special session this 7th day of he September, 2008, that Hurricane Ike poses a serious threat to the lives and properties of residents of Collier County; that voluntary evacuation is encouraged and that the State of Local Emergency be declared effective immediately for all territory in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Collier County. TO BE FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of County Commissioners hereby exercises its authority pursuant to Collier County Ordinances No. 84-37,2001-45,2002-50, and 2007-49, and waives the procedures and formalities required by law of a political subdivision as provided in Chapter 252-38 (3) (A) (5) of the Florida Statutes including authorization for purchasing director to waive existing purchasing card limitations due to declared emergency. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of County Page 19 ._"' ..--- September 7, 2008 Commissioners hereby declares that during an emergency it shall be unlawful and an offense against the county for any person operating within the county to charge more than the normal average retail price for any merchandise, goods or services sold during the emergency. The average retail price as used herein is defined to be that price at which similar merchandise, goods and services were being sold during the 30 days immediately preceding the emergency as at a markup which is a larger percentage over wholesale costs than was being added to wholesale cost prior to the emergency. The waiver and imposition of the state gas tax should not factor as to gasoline/petroleum product sales prices. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that pursuant to Collier County Ordinance No. 02-50: One: This proclamation declaring a State of Emergency shall activate the disaster emergency plans applicable to the county and shall be the authority for the use or distribution of any supplies, equipment, materials or facilities assembled or arranged to be made available pursuant to such plans. This proclamation resolution adopted after motion, seconded and majority vote favoring same this 7th day of September, 2008. And it will be signed by Commissioner Henning, if the board decides to proclaim the emergency. CHAIRMAN HENNING: There's only one concern I have on the proclamation. It's saying due to the projected path. Can we say due to the projected -- due to the threat of hurricane? Because the projected path is just -- I mean, it's taking it further and further away. Or due to the declarant of the Governor of the State of Florida. MR. KLATZKOW: You can clearly say due to the threat of Hurricane Ike. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Right. MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Chairman, just as a technical FEMA point, it cannot be contingent upon the Governor's declaration. It has to Page 20 ---... -.-----.-- - ....-..... ------ September 7,2008 stand alone as our own. MR. MUDD: We can change it to make it the threat of Hurricane Ike and get that resolved and get it changed and get it back down here. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Okay. With that, entertain a motion. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve the resolution. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Second. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Second. As amended? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Thank you, as amended. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve the proclamation as amended. Any discussion on the motion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HENNING: All in favor of the motion, signify by saymg aye. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Any opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HENNING: Motion carries unanimously. RESOLUTION 2008-240: ALLOWING A BUDGET AMENDMENT FOR FUNDING OF EXPENSES BY OPENING AN APPROPRIATION FUND IN THE AMOUNT OF $ 50,000 FOR HURRICANE IKE - ADOPTED MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I need a vote by the board that the budget amendment moving $50,000 from general fund reserves to an active cost center in the general fund dedicated to Hurricane Ike. Page 21 ,--,~...,-~ '--~-'''-- _.~-~---_. -~.<-- September 7, 2008 COMMISSIONER HALAS: Motion to approve. COMMISSIONER FIALA: And I'll second that. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Motion by Commissioner Halas to move a budget amendment up to $50,000 for this event. Second by Commissioner Fiala. All in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Aye. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Any opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HENNING: Motion carries. MR. MUDD: Mr. Summers, do you have any additional business? MR. SUMMERS: Colonel Storrar who is here I believe would like to make a few comments from the Sheriffs Office, as well as some of our other key partners, briefly. MR. STORER: Thank you, Mr. Summers. For the record, I'm Tom Storer, the Undersheriff for the Collier County Sheriffs Office, representing Sheriff Hunter. Just a couple of quick things. We have not altered any of our shift scheduling, shift rotations or anything of that nature as of today. However, we've had some meetings on Friday. And as Mr. Summers has said, we've been monitoring on our laptops what's going on. But also, we are prepared if we need to pull the trigger on our hurricane operations plan, emergency operations plan, and that would deal with evacuations, sheltering, things of that nature. We're prepared to support whatever the needs are out there. I would like to just ask a discussion, if possible, or maybe Mr. Mudd can answer this. We're always concerned that if we do get impact that if we do a major loss of power, then we're going to start Page 22 ".~- -.--....... .. ~._,.--,- - -.-._-- September 7, 2008 encountering some problems out on the street. And if there's a mechanism by where we could approach the board through the county manager's office or whatever is appropriate, to consideration for a curfew at the agreement of the emergency management and the Sheriffs Office, we'd like to reserve that right. I don't think we need to do it today. Obviously there are no evacuations or no curfews plan planned. We'd like to keep that door open to expeditiously ask for board action, if necessary, and get the appropriate public information notices out reference a curfew. MR. MUDD: The board has a meeting at 9:00 on Tuesday, Tom, and if that's where it needs to go because of path change, then I'll put you first on that. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Yeah, I'd just rather the board inform the public. Ifwe have to meet whatever hour, if it's Monday, where I'm sure we're all going to be here, or Tuesday, like the County Manager said. I think it's prudent that we make those decisions instead of delegating that. And also getting it out to the public in general. Anybody else have any comments? Commissioner Fiala? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, two fast ones. The first one, I want to say that I -- you know, being involved in the community a lot, I hear a lot of good comments. People say that there's -- they have a good feeling of security knowing that we're always poised and ready and we have a plan in place. And that's important that -- because it helps them not to run around hysterically in fear, but knowing that, you know, everything is taken care of and they have to do their part to preserve their safety as well. And I'm just really proud of everything, our county government, whether it be the Sheriffs Office or Waste Management or the County Manager's office or EMS, I'm just so proud of what they're doing. So I Page 23 .-----.. - September 7, 2008 just wanted to say that. And then I wanted to know if we have any projections on Josephine. MR. MUDD: Ma'am, it looks like it's going to be a fish storm. It's going to go out in the middle of the Atlantic and go away. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, good. MR. MUDD: Thank the Lord. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Commissioner? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'm fine, thank you. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Okay. Anything else, County Manager? Mr. Summers? MR. SUMMERS: Dr. Thompson, would you care to address the board briefly. DR. THOMPSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Dennis Thompson, Superintendent of Collier County Schools. We're prepared to support the county with any measures necessary for shelters as appropriate, as they determine appropriate. As Mr. Mudd has said, we'll continue to monitor those, especially the wind speed at this point, given the tracking of the hurricane, and make decisions as appropriate it looks like Wednesday morning. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Good. Questions? Any questions? (No response.) CHAIRMAN HENNING: Thank you. MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Chairman, I'm done. I want to thank you and the board. I want to thank the team that's here. I don't like to have a hurricane, but if we're going to have one, this is the best darn team. Not they're the best in town, but they're the best in the region and I enjoy working with them. Thank you sir, that's all. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Thank you. Yes, I think we're all proud of what we have. Now we're going to Page 24 _.~.. --,. .-..-----.'-.,. -"'-'-'-~ September 7, 2008 recess this emergency meeting? MR. KLATZKOW: You don't need to recess it. You declared the emergency. The emergency is effective for the next seven days, at which time you may want to extend it or not, depending upon circumstances. But we're done. MR. MUDD: You can adjourn this meeting, sir. CHAIRMAN HENNING: Okay, we're adjourned. ***** There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1:43 p.m. );' ~ t)i,,>,;. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROLjI _1~ TOM HENNING, Chairm I.,' ATTEST~ .... .' ~\V~ ~ ~C\ef1(' . IItWIt .. to Qa 1~ , Ii gnaturt O<<i 1 " Page 25