BCC Minutes 06/21/1995 B (Budget Workshop)BUDGET MEETING OF JUNE 21, 1995,
OF THE BOARD OF COHMISSIONERS
LET IT BE REHEHBERED, 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 9:05 a.m. in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the
Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members
present:
CHAIRPERSON:
VICE CHAIRMAN:
Bettye J. Hatthews
John C. Norris
Timothy J. Constantine
Timothy L. Hancock
Pamela S. Hac'Kie
ALSO PRESENT:
W. Neil Dotrill, County Manager
Michael Smykowski, Senior Budget Analyst
Jean Gansel, Budget Analyst
Edward N. Finn, Budget Analyst
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Let's call to order the budget workshop for
the Board of County Commission, June 21,'95.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Good morning. For the benefit of everyone
present, I know there's some confusion due to not completing the agenda
on Monday. I'll run through that quickly. We're going to start with
the balance of the capital funds, followed by the sheriff's operating
budget presentation, and then we'll defer back to our original calendar
which called for support services which is the consolidation of
emergency services and administrative services, followed by any public
input and then wrap-up.
The sheriff's office has made a request at the beginning. There
was an issue related to the jail video photography, and they also want
to -- to discuss the computer-aided dispatch system, and staff would be
unavailable this afternoon, so they've made a request to at least
discuss that, and they have told us it would be very brief and to the
point. With that, I -- I think we're ready to begin.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Let's finish up the capital then. Is that
what we're going to start with?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Yes. Followed by the sheriff.
MR. DORRILL: Yes. So we'll have 301, and what page under those
things were not --
MR. FINN: That would be -- Madam Chairman, Edward Finn, for the
record. That would be behind your capital funds tab. On page three is
the project number 1600, jail video photography. And on the following
page, page four, again under the SO is the computer-aided dispatch
system which had a requested budget of 850,000. That was not
recommended for inclusion in the budget that we reviewed on Monday.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: I'll defer to the sheriff's staff.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. Nind.
MR. NIND: Commissioners, good morning. For the record, I'm
Christopher Nind, the communications director for the Collier
County Sheriff's Office.
On Monday, Commissioners, I hope you received a copy of the letter
from Sheriff Hunter. It also had attached to it some photographs. I
have got some spare copies of that if you should require them.
The reason that a new computer-aided dispatch system has been
requested is primarily for operational and technical reasons. I'd like
to cover some of the operational reasons. Damian, the data processing
director from the sheriff's office, is here to cover some of the
technical aspects.
First of all, the computer-aided dispatch system. What is it? It
is the computer system that enables us to pass information from the
telephone call-taker across to the radio dispatch individual, who then
dispatches fire, EHS, or police. That information system obviously
contains a lot of information, and it is also used -- passed on to our
records side.
During the history of the computer-aided dispatch system, we
started off with this, the complaint card, and then about 12 years ago
we went to our first computer system. We have found that through those
12 years it has required a lot of modifications and improvements, and
those have brought about a major increase in the training load for new
dispatchers. It now takes us about six months to properly train a
dispatcher on a computer-aided dispatch system. We have looked at some
newer systems, and they are down to a training time of something like
40 hours.
Now, I'm sure some of you are aware that turnover in dispatch is
fairly heavy; and, therefore, training is a vital aspect for the new
people coming in. And really six months, quite honestly, is -- is too
long. It is too long with the turnover that we have.
The other aspect I really wanted to -- to cover with you is if you
could look at the first photograph which is that one if you have it,
which is letter A, you will see that there are four screens.
(indicating) We use those four screens with the system. The screen
at the bottom center holds one incident. That is all. The dispatcher
can only deal with one incident at a time. Newer systems using a
windows base, a dispatcher can be dealing with up to three calls at
the same time, and obviously this is going to improve the response
time for our public safety units to the public.
The other aspect, if you could look at the pictures of B and C,
will show you what is our only method of tracking vehicles graphically
within the county, and that is this picture here, and you will note
that it is a piece of metal with some magnets attached to it. That is
the only way that we can graphically track vehicles; and obviously we,
therefore, must suffer from some elements of human error. This really
should be done by computer.
So operationally there are some really major concerns that we
have. The system has worked well for us over the last 12 years, but it
really is a technology now that is -- that is passed. It needs a lot
of -- of work on it. And I think if I can hand over to Damian to cover
some of the technical aspects prior to your consideration.
MR. DEANDRES: Good morning. For the record, Damian Deandres from
the sheriff's office, HIS director. Our current system is running on a
proprietary operating system, hardware system, and the benders are
limited to those that are doing work in that proprietary system. We
have modified that system throughout the years. It works, but it has
its limitations. Redundancy. This is a business-critical application
where we're talking about the lives of citizens and deputies and
emergency service personnel. So it requires an extra amount of
redundancy, whether it be power supplies, disk in case one disk goes
down. We have limited amount with the current system. Newer systems
out in the market provide redundancy where critical equipment could be
swapped while the system is still running. In that case we do not have
to bring the system down for a two- or three-hour period to repair one
of the parts and continue providing the service to the dispatch center
and to the citizens of the community.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: What we see in front of us is -- is a line
item for $850,000. What I hear is, to serve the public better, to
increase safety for both the public and the officers, you know, but a
single line item for $850,000 to update that system, I -- I'm not
seeing the backup and the explanation for -- for justifying $850,000.
We could spend $10 million and make it safer for the public and safer
for the officers, but is it a prudent expenditure. And that's --
that's what I'd like you to focus on is, why are we seeing $850,000?
What are we getting for it? All I -- What I have for it is we're
replacing a magnetic board that we can track things a lot better. I
understand that. I understand that that is an archaic system and needs
to be replaced, but this is an entire system replacement, and I need
justification for $850,000.
MR. DEANDRES: The line items there would be -- one critical
system will be a GIS system showing the map of the county, where the
vehicles are located. That's just one item. The CPU, the main
processor, software for dispatching, the interfaces to the state
where we have to have connections to the state in order to provide
criminal history to the deputy.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Can I ask how many other counties of our
size have a GPS-type locating system? I mean, it's a great idea. We
always know where the officer's car is.
MR. DEANDRES: Not locator system, but at least a map that could
show where that vehicle is at.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: So the -- the vehicle sends a signal,
picked up by --
MR. DEANDRES: No. We're -- We're going there one step beyond
what we're asking for. COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. DEANDRES: We're only looking -- depending on the dispatcher's
location of that vehicle, it would be reflected on the map, not that
the vehicle is providing that signal. That's one step beyond.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The place where your -- the dispatcher
wants the vehicle to go is what will show on the map.
MR. DEANDRES: Correct. And that is what we're currently doing
with that magnetic board.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And I guess my -- my question is -- It
sounds like a great idea. Is that $850,000 -- is that the best way we
can spend that chunk of money to support law enforcement? I don't -- I
think if you ask the public and -- and from my ignorant perspective,
I'd rather you spend $850,000 on more deputies on the street. I
realize that's a large part of your budget already, and I realize that
I'm ignorant about law enforcement and that you people are the experts,
but it's $850,000 for something that I still don't have a picture of.
I can't understand.
MR. NIND: The point I made, Commissioners -- Well, it is an
operational system we are looking at to ensure that those deputies,
first of all, respond in the shortest possible time to that call from
the public, and also that they respond to the correct location with the
maximum amount of information we can give them. So, really, it is --
it is an operational aspect which allows us to dispatch those public
safety respondents in the most appropriate way.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Have we had -- Do we have an existing
problem with deputies not going to the right place? I mean, I know we
had a couple of silly things, you know, things that were in the
newspaper that were a little embarrassing but--
MR. NIND: There -- There are some things --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: My question -- I'm sorry. My question is,
what problem are we solving with this? I'm not able to understand that
yet.
MR. NIND: One of the major problems that we're going to solve
here is the -- is the training of those dispatchers. We are going to,
therefore, subsequently cut out a vast amount of human error. For
example, in the present system, to dispatch a law enforcement officer,
an operator is going to take seven to eight key strokes on that
keyboard. With the new system, that is likely to be two or three.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And the result on the street would be that
-- so they're faster, that they're more people there.
MR. NIND: They would be able to respond in a faster time because
certainly the dispatcher will be able to deal with more than one call.
Presently there is one screen for one call. When additional
information comes to that dispatcher, that doesn't automatically
appear. It has to be pulled up by the dispatcher. With a new system,
when he's looking at -- take a windows base, while he's looking at
dealing with a call and then also seeing possibly another call coming
alongside that which is of a higher priority which the dispatcher can
then deal with immediately.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And absent that system, the person who's
calling in and is second in line -- I know they're not getting a busy
signal so --
MR. NIND: No. No.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: -- what's happening to them right now under
the present system?
MR. NIND: Well, what -- what is happening -- We're not -- We're
not saying that we're delaying dealing with the call. That is being
dealt with. Where we have a delay is when that call is then passed to
the radio dispatch position.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Oh, I see. The call is coming in to the
911 operator.
MR. NIND: Coming in to 911. It is being handled by the 911
intake operator.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The question is, how quickly can the 911
operator tell the dispatch officer to send a -- a deputy?
MR. NIND: Well, that's -- that's the point I'm getting at.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's -- That's this --
MR. NIND: That's -- That's one of the keys right now. When we
send a request from the intake operator through the CAD system to the
radio dispatcher, the radio dispatcher can only deal with one call at a
time. She can only actually see one call on the screen. She will have
notification that there are other calls waiting either urgent or
priority or routine, but she can only -- She has to clear the call
she's on before she picks up the second one. Therefore, there is
naturally a delay in that, and that is part of the -- the technology of
the system we purchased 12 years ago.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'd just say it's public perception because
I know my perception -- if my alarm's gone off and I'm there with the
911 operator, I think if I'm talking to the 911 operator, somebody is
on their way, and what you're telling me is that's likely not the case.
MR. NIND: It could be a matter of seconds is what we're talking
about, ten, twelve seconds.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, that could count.
MR. NIND: Yes, it -- Yes, it can. Absolutely. Absolutely.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
MR. DEANDRES: Another statement I could make, let's say the
system goes down for any apparent reason, whether it be a disk that
went down or something like that, in order for us to repair that, it
could take two, three, four hours. During that time, the -- the
dispatch center is without any systems. Newer applications provide
this hot swapable both disk and other parts.
MR. NIND: And that's what we use today. That's what we used
before we got a CAD system. We've actually changed it now so that we
can put one to the police dispatch position and one to fire and EMS
position, but that is what we use and -- and if our system does go
down, we are back on that, and it does happen. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How many times has the system gone down
for twelve hours at a time?
MR. DEANDRES: Twelve hours? We -- No.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That was the example you just made.
MR. DEANDRES: No. I said four -- four hours.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm sorry. I thought you said ten or
twelve hours.
MR. DEANDRES: No. Four hours, three or four hours. That -- It
happens -- It's hard to say, but it has happened three times this year.
MR. DORRILL: I have a suggestion here. When I put the capital
improvement budgets together and -- we spent one whole afternoon and
it's just -- it's a very fast-paced sort of session, and it has been
interesting to learn a little more. I didn't really have the benefit
of a presentation at all other than just some brief conversation. But
in the interest of your time today, we've got a long, long way to go.
Let me just tell you what I think your -- your options are. You can
either eliminate the warehouse project and plug it in here, or you can
raise property taxes which I do not think is something that you want to
do because your total ad valorem capital improvement program for next
year is about 7.6 million at this point with some of the additional
add-ons that you had for the airport authority.
The suggestion that I would have would be to keep this
in a not-recommended capacity but give us a chance to evaluate it a
little further with the sheriff's department. And if we see the
merits of it between now and the beginning of the year, we can come
back. I think the only way you're going to be able to afford this
without raising taxes is to eliminate other projects or consider some
type of lease purchase, and I know that you have allowed the
constitutional officers to lease purchase data processing equipment in
the past. And at that point then, we'd have to take some money out of
reserves. If you -- If you're interested in this as a result of
further analysis, you can lease purchase, or you're going to have to
eliminate other projects or raise property taxes.
MS. KINZEL: Commissioners, for the record, Crystal Kinzel.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Hang on. I've had a question
that I've been waiting through four people now, so I'm going to ask my
question. A couple of things. First, one of the options you didn't
mention was we could eliminate the Building W warehouse and not do
this and lower taxes, also an option. The question as far as
dispatch, when you're talking about -- do we have more than one person
acting in the capacity of dispatch at any time, the radio dispatcher?
MR. NIND: Yes. Yes. We have presently four radio dispatcher
positions, three for police and one for fire and EMS. When the 800
system comes on, there will be one for fire and one for EMS. There
will be those positions.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: So at any given time, if there are more
than four calls coming --
MR. NIND: No. We can handle -- We have ten 911 lines that come
into the dispatch center, and we have six 911 positions, so we can
handle six calls at any one time. Those -- If they all came in at the
same time, they all happen to be directed to East Naples, East Naples
would have a cue of calls to be dealing with and it really -- If they
were all urgent, the dispatcher can only handle one at a time. She
wouldn't be able to pull up the others and see if there was one with a
slightly higher priority.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The -- That was going to be my
question, and you've partially answered that -- is whether there's
a new system or not, you can only make one call at a time. As you're
saying by urgent, you can -- you can flag one as urgent and put that
ahead of others if you needed.
MR. NIND: Correct. And a lot of the new systems basically are
color-coded which -- which assists the dispatcher. She could be
dealing, let's say, with an urgent call. Another call comes in which
is an in-progress call which would have a higher priority. That would
actually appear on her screen. She could actually hold the dispatch
shews on and get the in-progress call out and then go back to the other
one. Exactly the same if she was working on a routine call and
suddenly an urgent came in. She could deal with that quickly because
she can then see both of them on the screen or certainly up to three.
I think I have seen the systems with up to three. There may well be
more.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Finished?
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. Dotrill, when you go through your
analysis of this now that youwve heard additional information, I
-- Iwd like some sort of a cost benefit on -- on this. And I know
wewre talking about human lives, and wewre talking about human problems
and so forth but -- but one of the -- one of the complaints thatws come
to me fairly consistently over the last three years that Iwve been
sitting here is -- is the attempt to protect against the minutest
chance of something happening, and itws very, very expensive when you
get down to that last 1 or 2 or 3 percent and -- and thatws what I want
to be careful that wewre not trying to do with this. Commissioner
Norris.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. When we -- or at least I spoke to the
sheriffls office sometime back, I told them that we would like for them
to bring in a millage rate-neutral budget for this year, and it looks
like theylye come pretty close to doing that.
And the second point Iid like to make is that itls not really the
function of the county commissioners here to be telling the -- the
sheriffls office which is the most important piece of equipment for
them to have. Thatls their job.
And my point is that one option that we havenlt discussed here is
that if the sheriffls office feels that this is a very important piece
of equipment, what they need to do is go back into their own budget and
make the necessary adjustments and do their own prioritizing work and
fit this in and not have the Board of County Commissioners be
prioritizing the sheriffls department equipment.
MS. KINZEL: Well, Commissioner Norris, we do include in our
operating budget a significant amount of the sheriffls equipment,
including vehicles, but itls been policy and procedure to include in
the 301 fund any of the major capital items that the board would have
to either go for financing or make other arrangements. Thatls been
historical the entire six years Iive been here and I -- I think thatls
fair to say.
What we do try to prioritize -- We have many, many, many needs.
You know, welve been before you with helicopters. We have a lot of
needs. We have prioritized them with what welve submitted to you in
this budget package, the first being the jail expansion issue and this
being another one of the primary needs that we have. If we try to take
850,000 and go into our operating budget, you would be removing the
very road patrol that Commissioner MacIKie has indicated and we know
the people want to see on the street. This is a complement to those
road patrol positions. We need this to get those people out there and
get them in the right places, and thatls why welve asked for it under
this fund. Crystal Kinzel, the finance director.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: You still missed the point, Ms. Kinzel.
Therels really no need to respond. You missed the point. The point is
we did not receive -- If we include this, we did not receive anything
close to an ad valorem-neutral. Welre going to have to raise taxes to
pay for this, and so we need you to tell us what is a priority. What
you're telling me is they're all priority and you're not going to
differentiate and that's -- that's not the answer I think we want to
hear.
MS. KINZEL: No. I told you we've submitted what is our priority
to you for consideration, and the CAD is one of those. Now, on the --
the amount of 850,000, we can do a lease purchase arrangement so that
850 would not have to impact one year's budget. We could either do the
lease purchase or another financing arrangement, or we can split the
purchase and get the software imp1 -- I'm sorry -- the hardware
installed and implemented in one fiscal year, then implement the
software and the training and the other mechanics in the subsequent
year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm going to make a recommendation and
see if the rest of the board agrees and then see if we can move on,
that we keep this on not recommended for a couple of reasons. One, and
I think perhaps most importantly, is Commissioner Norris' point, that
there are a great many things we'd love to have in all the departments;
however, we only have so much money to spend, and I don't think we have
an extra $850,000, and I don't think any of us are interested in
raising ad valorem taxes right now. And I don't like the lease
purchase thing because next year we are told we are going to have a
bigger budget crunch than we have this year. So if we don't -- With a
lease purchase, we're going to have this same problem come back and
bite us next year.
Secondarily, I don't know whether there's a system that's
available for 500,000, 400,000, or 700,000. All we have is one line in
front of us and -- and I'm not going to get into that debate as to what
systems are out there. I don't need to now. But I'm not going to look
at one line of three words and a number and say, yeah, we've got to --
we've got to have this. Maybe we do. And maybe as part of the
sheriff's budget, as Commissioner Norris said, that needs to be
prioritized above other things, but we simply do not have an extra
$850,000.
MR. DORRILL: We're -- We're certainly committed, and then my
reason for not recommending it was essentially that and in the
absence of an opportunity to evaluate it more fully. My colleagues
around the state who do have GIS systems say that you need to work and
start with your property appraiser and use the tax maps and the folio
number IDs as your base system. And -- And this is a type of GIS
system and will be to a certain extent proprietary for law enforcement
or dispatch purposes, and I'm not opposed to it, but I just think we
need a little -- a little more time to evaluate it and evaluate it
from a perspective of -- if the county is going to pursue some type of
GIS system, we ought to have one that is compatible for everybody's
use, whether it's ours or utilities or Mr. Skinner, Mr. Carlton, or
Ms. Morgan, because we're all dealing with geographical-based,
population-type information, and that's why I think we need a little
more time.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, it's my understanding that
-- that Mr. Skinner is working on that -- that very program of GIS,
and I've heard development services say they wanted -- want a GIS.
The sheriff wants a GIS. I agree. I mean, why should we do this
three times?
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: We're -- We're getting --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Four times.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: We're getting into a discussion again.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
MR. NIND: Commissioner, may I just make three very
quick points? We are talking about the dispatch system and -- and a
part of that is a graphics package, but that is only a part of an
improved dispatch system. We are talking about a complete system,
software, hardware. We are also suggesting to you that 850 was a
figure that we have -- we have only looked at some systems when we
have got some idea of the cost. We felt that that was top of the
line, that amount of money.
The other thing that I would like to do because obviously this is
the subject that's isn't very easy to take at nine or ten in the
morning -- I would actually invite maybe, all of you, to come over and
to look at the dispatch system. I know some of you have seen it
before.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I've been there.
MR. NIND: But spend a little bit of time in there so that you
actually see the way that that information is passed and also you can
see some of the problems that do occur.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Mac'Kie.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I -- I -- I hate to see this go to a not
recommended status without us looking into if there is some way to do
-- to share a system on the GIS. Maybe that part waits, but that we
look at -- that we don't let this go completely away for the entire
year.
And -- And fundamentally what I wanted to say back a minute ago is
-- is on the issue of -- of divisions bringing in tax-neutral budgets
or -- or -- bringing in tax-neutral budgets, I think that we have to
prioritize for -- for my money, forget that warehouse and let's spend
some more money on law enforcement. I mean, maybe some division has to
go below tax-neutral because there's a -- a glaring need in another
division, and that's where we have the responsibility. It's not -- The
needs in the county manager's agency may be less pressing than the
needs in the sheriff's agency, so that then we have to -- to balance
those items to come out with a tax-neutral budget. But to tell the
sheriff to go away and come back with a tax-neutral budget may not be
the best choice and --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, the -- the county manager said, I
guess, ten minutes ago when we got into this that he's heard a better
presentation now than he originally heard --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- and he would like to take a harder look
at it and possibly swap out Building W for it. His decision.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Let me just make a suggestion.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I -- I'd like him to do that.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: If -- If we're ready to swap out
Building W, we probably don't need it in the first place. So let's cut
that, and then if we come back and throw this in there to fill the gap,
fine. And if we don't, then we have a decrease. But to say, well, we
need it if we don't need this but -- Either we need the warehouse space
or we don't.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's priorities.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But that's right --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Priorities.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: -- on the subject of how much money do we
have to spend. And -- And I agree that it -- it's the first thing to
go if there's a greater need. And, frankly, it may be -- I may be
ready to vote with you to cut it anyway.
MR. DORRILL: My suggestion is let's -- let's leave this as not
recommended. I'm more than happy to work on it between now and -- and
the beginning of the year. I'm -- I'm not willing to recommend to you
increasing property taxes for it, but I'm more than willing to evaluate
it and consider it the following year or to consider some type of
interim or compromise proposal. I'm willing personally or otherwise
not only to -- to learn more about the system here, but to go
somewhere, whether it's Fort Lauderdale or Hiami or Timbuktu, to see
the type of system because I do think we've got the ability to at least
evaluate that from a business perspective, not a law enforcement
perspective, and then make a recommendation to you.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I'll support leaving it in -- in not
recommended with the understanding, Chris, that I know some of the
operation difficulties you have. MS. KINZEL: Yeah.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: The solution may not be a $850,000 for an
interim step and that's -- that's where I'm coming from. So I will
support it being not recommended with the expectation the county
manager is going to bring this back at some time if we can find a way
to make either an interim step happen or the whole thing happen.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Agree.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I can do that.
MR. DORRILL: Okay.
MR. FINN: Madam Chairman --
MR. DORRILL: Let's -- Let's deal, then, with this video imaging
HR. FINN: Yes.
HR. DORRILL: -- thing.
HS. KINZEL: We had understood that you had eliminated that for
wrap-up, and we were to bring you more information for wrap-up. So I
apologize.
MR. DORRILL: That's fine.
MS. KINZEL: We -- We only brought one-half of the presenting
group.
MR. DORRILL: That's fine.
MR. FINN: Very good. That being the case, if we move to page
nine. On page nine is the water management budget. The primary source
of funding for this budget is a transfer from the general fund. Mr.
Boldt is here to -- to attempt to give you some idea of the projects
that are involved in this and their relative order of priority.
MR. BOLDT: For the record, John Boldt, stormwater management
director. Before you, you have a list of items we're proposing, one of
which is a track excavator. Do you want a detailed explanation of
these as we go along or you just want --
MR. DORRILL: We need -- No. We need to give them a little
because they haven't seen this, and you've only got a half a dozen
items. And the first one is a piece of heavy equipment that is going
to be replacing a dragline. So, John, you might as well explain them
briefly so they can ask better questions.
MR. BOLDT: We presently have a nine-year-old rubber-tired mobile
dragline which is a cable-type machine. It has certain benefits, but
the type of work we're doing recently -- particularly in some areas
where we have soft ground, it doesn't do the job. We're -- We're
looking at a piece of equipment. It's -- It's a rather track-hold type
excavator with a long arm on it. There are different manufacturers
that manufacture this. It will give us greater flexibility,
particularly in the urban area, to clean up some smaller secondary
ditches where we can work in soft ground without getting bogged down
with the rubber tire. We'd also like to keep the rubber tire as a
backup to do the emergency-type work, running around, cleaning up
culverts, and we can take it from site to site. So that's our first
recommendation.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: John, I -- I just need a fundamental. A
423 percent increase, but you must be -- going to tell me that there's
a "but" because it's not just a 423 percent increase over last year.
MR. FINN: I -- I -- I think I would like to respond to that if I
could.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Would you help me?
MR. FINN: Last year the recommended water management budget
contained no -- that is, zero additional funding for general fund
projects. Essentially this -- the water management program, if you
will, simply functioned on funds that carried forward from prior years'
general fund support. So last year, essentially, this -- this whole
program was in a holding pattern, and there was very little by way of
expenditures and zero by way of additional funding.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And had that been historically -- Is there
an every other year kind of pattern going on here or --
MR. FINN: That has been the pattern. The funding has been
sporadic. It's been up. It's been down.
MR. DORRILL: Funding is sporadic and -- and I think you asked a
question the other day about why don't we do more water management
capital improvements and continue to focus on not only drainage and
storm control but -- but water quality, and so this -- this is a year
where we -- we feel that we do need to do some very specific projects.
And that's why if you look at the middle of the page, there are
individual ditches or canals or spreader systems for water quality
projects. And, in addition to that, there is this piece of one heavy
equipment. And I will say they haven't convinced me yet that we ought
to keep the dragline and also get the track excavator. The track
excavator is the type of machine, though, that we -- we did use with a
great deal of success. We rented one to reopen Clam Pass. And they
have done some evaluation. And the track excavator, which is a big
backhoe, can work about three times as fast as this dragline because
the dragline is cable-driven, and it's like a crane, and so they're
looking at it to increase the productivity of the operator because he
can do -- and you correct me if I'm wrong -- he can do three times the
lineal feet of canal maintenance or canal bottom cleaning than he can
with this old dragline and so that's -- This is considered to be a
replacement piece of equipment with three times the efficiency of this
old crane dragline that we have.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And three times the cost or less?
MR. DORRILL: That's a good question. If we were to replace the
little giant mobile crane, if you can replace them, what -- what's the
difference between a crane and this particular --
MR. BOLDT: I think they're down to -- only to one manufacturer
that it -- it would be less than this piece of equipment but wouldn't
have the advantage of -- This particularly has a long arm on it. It's
a special piece of equipment. We can reach way across, get it from one
side as opposed to having it working from two sides. So it's much more
efficient.
MR. DORRILL: But fiscally, though, can -- if we were to replace
the dragline, can you buy one for $100,000, or is it $50,000, or do we
know?
MR. BOLDT: No. My guess would be closer to the 100,000 area.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I don't see anything on here
referencing the Davis Road, County Barn project. Are we still --
Where -- Where are we on that?
MR. BOLDT: County Barn Road, the relief drain along the
east side is going to be done in conjunction with a four-inning
project, and that is being done by special assessment districts that
you've already set up. So that's not within this fund 325 budget.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Thanks.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Norris.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Yeah. Let me ask, Mr. Finn, in this --
there's nothing additional on this page that we haven't been told about
before; right? This -- We were told a few days ago at the first budget
hearing that we were going up 1.1 percent. Was that --
MR. DORRILL: No.
MR. FINN: No.
MR. DORRILL: This is all-inclusive. Everything else that you
will see today is inclusive.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay.
MR. FINN: Yes. When Mr. Smykowski explained to you the fact that
we were under the rollback millage rate over all and significantly
under, relatively speaking, in the general fund, that millage included
all of the funding you're seeing before you.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. That -- That's my question.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: It's inclusive of everything the manager has
recommended in capital.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hac'Kie.
MR. DORRILL: One final comment from me. In addition to the one
piece of heavy equipment, and there are six specific projects that have
-- predominantly in North Naples and East Naples, and they're
identified by the specific capital project that is there. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hac'Kie.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: My -- My question is just this Lely work.
Is this -- Is this to do stuff that would have been done by the
Colliers for the Sabal Bay work so tied up in litigation?
MR. BOLDT: Only in parts. This is the whole system that includes
the area west of U.S. 41 and the Sabal Bay area, plus the main up to
near Doral Circle, by Rattlesnake Hammock, and then the complete branch
from there north to Davis Boulevard, east along Davis Boulevard. This
is the whole system.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So it's all the Collier work plus more?
MR. BOLDT: That's correct.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Ready to move on? Next page.
MR. FINN: Are we okay with that page? If we are, on page --
excuse me -- 11 and 12 are the park and rec capital improvement
programs. On page 11 is a summary that just shows you the proposed
projects and the funding requested. On page 12 is a little more detail
that reflects the number of funds we have that fund parks projects. As
you know, park projects are funded to a large extent by impact fees and
to a lesser extent by a transfer from the general fund. On page 12 the
fund 306 budget is the budget that's funded through the transfer from
the general fund. The balance of those funds are, in fact, park impact
fee funds.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: This "TBD" for project, does that mean to
be determined?
MR. FINN: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I was afraid you were going to tell me
that.
MR. OLLIFF: That's just number -- That's just a project number
that has to be determined for it. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Oh.
MR. DORRILL: We don't assign --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So the project number is not yet assigned?
MR. DORRILL: We don't assign project numbers until they're --
MR. OLLIFF: Right.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: We don't do that until the board --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I thought you were determining what the
project was going to be.
MR. OLLIFF: No, ma'am. That's just the number.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: That -- That's an accounting function. We do not
set them up until we have at least tentative approval that it will be
included in the budget.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hac'Kie.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is the Lake Avalon number right? 500,000?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: 500,000.
MR. OLLIFF: That's -- That's one of the adjustments that we'll
need to make to this capital budget, is based on the Lake Avalon
decision that the board made -- What -- What page are you looking at?
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: 11.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: 11.
MR. OLLIFF: Okay. If you're looking at page 11, the $500,000
number would actually be spent in this year's budget in order to close
on that property. The number just below that, the 222,700, would then
become a debt service payment in next year's budget for the commercial
paper note on the remainder of that -- that property.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And then two other questions. The
skateboard facility, where is that going to be?
MR. BRINKMAN: That would probably be located in the Golden Gate
area somewhere because it's centrally located. We believe that it may
be at the community park.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And the East Naples roller rink, what is
that?
MR. BRINKMAN: That is the skateboard facility that we're now
buildinc at East Naples Community Park.
MR DORRILL: That's not skateboard.
MR OLLIFF: No. Not skateboard.
MR BRINKMAN: I'm sorry.
MR OLLIFF: It's roller hockey.
MR BRINKMAN: The roller hockey. It's a roller hockey rink.
MR OLLIFF: That is the remainder of that project. It's called
basher boards is what they're called. It's the small waist-high boards
along the outside of a roller hockey league rink, and that's what's the
remainder of that project.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And where is that?
MR. OLLIFF: East Naples.
MR. BRINKMAN: East Naples Community Park.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Does that mean, then, that we can reduce
this 4.4 million by the 500,000 that's going to be removed from this
year's budget?
MR. FINN: Actually, ma'am, what would happen is we would expend
that this year. It would decrease carrying forward that fund --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Got you.
MR. FINN: -- lowering the -- lowering the budget but having no --
no real difference in the overall spending.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I understand. Are there questions?
Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: The 220,000 for the dockmaster building at
Caxambas, is that a private operation? In other words, is there someone
operating under contract services?
MR. BRINKMAN: Yes. There is a -- We have a contractor down there
that sells gas and also sells fishing supplies and things and it is --
The facility is owned by the county, but we contract with an individual
to run that.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Revenue producer?
MR. BRINKMAN: Yes, sir.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: About how much a year?
MR. BRINKMAN: Oh, gee. I think that that facility generates
about $300,000 a year in profit, and we get a percentage.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: And it goes into this fund, or does it go
into the general fund?
MR. BRINKMAN: It goes into the general fund.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. DORRILL: It's a good concession. It's -- It's the only boat,
gas, bait facility between the Marco River Marina and some of the small
marinas at Goodland.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I was just -- I was just asking where the
profits went because we're paying for repairs to this facility out of
one fund, yet the profits go into another fund, but then I guess it's a
wash in the end but --
MR. DORRILL: It's all general fund money. It goes in the
operating account, but then the operating account transfers the money
to capital improvements.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. Thank you.
MR. FINN: Madam Chairman, I would like to point out that projects
80074 and 75 which are both Naples Landing projects -- that's a
cooperative effort with the City of Naples. Those have carried forward
from this year where they were funded. I have -- Subsequent to putting
this together, I had heard from this -- the representatives of the City
of Naples, and they've indicated that one of those segments is going to
go to contract this year. So in all likelihood I'll bring back an
amended budget for you that will show these actually expended in the
current year rather than carried forward.
MR. DORRILL: Dr. Woodruff has been very good at my request to
keep us apprised in writing of both those and their pier project so
that we could keep funds available and not re-allocate it.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The eighth item down, athletic field
development, $565,000, what are -- what athletic fields are those?
MR. BRINKMAN: That will be either at East Naples Community Park
or at the south -- new South Naples Community Park if we are able to
get the land that we're working on right now.
MR. DORRILL: Preference is to install a primarily softball,
little league baseball type, because the East Naples Community Park in
terms of fairness is one athletic field short if you can compare them
generally to the other community park sites, and that has been the
problem with the Army Corps permit for dredge-and-fill activities.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: That is funded through community park impact fees.
MR. OLLIFF: The other note I needed to make in this particular
budget is -- is, again, this is the first full year that all new
capital construction in parks is impact fee-funded. The only
construction you see being proposed out of 306 is either commitments
for replacement, playground equipment at some of your existing parks,
or in the case of Gulf Coast Little League, those are repair-type
commitments that we made when they actually either gave or sold at a
very, very discount rate some of those existing fields. And because
they are repair and renovation-type projects, they are not eligible
for impact fees. So those are the only type of projects you'll see in
ad valorem-supported capital from parks.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Those will add to our parks inventory though.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Can I make a suggestion since Mr. Brinkman
brought up the South Naples Community Park if we're able to acquire the
land similar to Lake Avalon with Florida Communities trust fund.
That's a $40 million fund for land purchase.
MR. BRINKMAN: Yeah. We can certainly look at --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Are we going to do a grant on that one too?
MR. BRINKMAN: We can certainly look into that, sure.
MR. OLLIFF: Good idea.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. BRINKMAN: Steve Brinkman.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is it reasonable to assume or is it safe
that you guys are looking -- You're diligent. You're pursuing these
grants. You know, it's not like if we mention it, you're going to go
look out for some grants. You're going to try to get grants at every
opportunity; right?
MR. BRINKMAN: Yes. That's correct.
MR. DORRILL: In fact, there was a mandatory preproposal
conference in Fort Myers on June the 8th, and we had staff at that
prepropose -- They had them all over the state. We were represented,
and we do have the forms for those grants. And we are, in fact,
applying for those for eligibility.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Maybe to satisfy your concern, when I heard
about the Florida Communities trust grant and brought it to the county
manager's attention, his staff had already looked into it so --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Thanks.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Good.
MR. DORRILL: Are we on to roads?
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. On page 12, for presentation purposes, I put
the roads together in the same way as I put the parks together. On
page 12 is a summary project by project. It's the total amount proposed
in the budget. On page 14 are the various funds that support the total
road program. As you know, roads are funded through a combination of
gas taxes and impact fees.
One thing I will point out, on page 12, in order to stay with the
proposed cash flow plan for the 951 project, we felt it was necessary
to carry forward -- excuse me -- the $2 million in loan proceeds budget
that the board had approved as part of financing --
MR. DORRILL: Are you actually on page 137
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: That's actually page 13.
MR. FINN: I beg your pardon.
MR. DORRILL: I bet you never made a mistake before.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: He's human.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: We'll allow him one.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: All I hear is the crushing of his soul.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: He's used up his allotment of mistakes for today
early on.
MR. FINN: For the board's information, I -- I'll point out some
of the projects that are being funded in excess of the road plan that
we utilized last year. Project 62061 and 62071, those are projects
both funded almost -- combining the two of those, there are a million
dollars more in funding than in the road plan. The reason for that is
to acquire right-of-way prior for development occurring in those areas
thereby saving money in the long run on the construction of that -- of
that particular segment.
Another area of significant change is project 65041 which is the
Livingston Road or the North Naples roadway. The funding plan did not
call for any funding of that project in this year. There is almost a
million dollars budgeted for that.
The last thing I will point out is the two C.R. 951 segments,
66061 and 66062. And through prior board action, as I'm sure you're
aware, we've advanced that project into the current fiscal year. That
project is under contract, and the funding that otherwise would have
been shown in '96 has been moved into the year we're in right now.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Questions? Commissioner Hancock.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I note on page 14 we have a revenue reserve
amount of $495,000.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Much more dramatic than -- than -- Is it
much more dramatic than previous years, Mr. Finn?
MR. FINN: No, sir. That would be in line with 5 percent that we
typically reserve of those revenue sources. So that should be
consistent.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. DORRILL: A statutory requirement. We have to by statute
underestimate our reserves. We can only budget 95 percent of reserves
in any fund.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: And that's consistent with the shift of the gas
taxes. There are -- There are actually more gas taxes in the roads
construction area in ninety -- FY '96 that were in the second year of
the three-year transfer from operating the capital, so correspondingly
there's an additional revenue reserve as a result.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I -- I have a question on the Livingston
Road projects. I see Livingston Road down here at least five times.
The 60061 and 71, what are -- MR. FINN: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What are they for? They're Radio Road to
Golden Gate Parkway and -- and Pine Ridge to Golden Gate Parkway WA,
whatever that is. What is that portion for?
MR. FINN: There are four separate segments that we budget in
separate -- separate project numbers.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'm just trying to get to what -- the
bridge question. We were talking Livingston Road yesterday.
MR. FINN: I'm going to --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I want to know what segments are in next
year's budget.
MR. FINN: I'm going to ask --
MR. ARCHIBALD: Those --
MR. FINN: -- George to respond to that --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. FINN: -- if that's all right.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Those two segments are the segments that will
parallel Airport Road and extend as -- as you noted, from Radio up to
the parkway and from the parkway up to Pine Ridge.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: All right. Is that PD and E, the -- the
first two?
MR. ARCHIBALD: Yes. And as Ed outlined, right-of-way. We're
attempting to not only prepare a right-of-way map and be able to
certify that, but be able to get into the right-of-way acquisition
phase while there's some development activity north of the parkway.
So we feel that there's something to be gained by having that
right-of-way map in place early.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. And 62061 and 71 is -- is all
right-of-way acquisition? I know you said there's a million dollars
more there that -- for right-of-way.
MR. ARCHIBALD: I believe that's the -- the segment that -- You
might need to help me, Tom. But I believe that's the segment up at
Immokalee Road.
MR. CONRECODE: Pine Ridge to Immokalee.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: 862 is --
MR. CONRECODE: For the record, Tom Conrecode from capital
projects. That's PD and E and right-of-way for the segments from Pine
Ridge Road to Immokalee Road, and then the fifth segment which was the
first one that -- that they had talked about, that Ed had talked about,
was the segment that is the HSTU portion of Livingston Road which will
go from Immokalee Road north and then cut west over to --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: As this -- As this bridge discussion goes
on, we're going to get questions and I want the -- you know, I want to
be able to answer them.
MR. CONRECODE: Yeah.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. Anyone else?
MR. FINN: I would like to point out --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I just wanted to ask as a part of that
right-of-way acquisition, is there extensive consideration being
given to the Livingston Woods neighborhood? I know that there's been
talk in there about everything from service roads to moving driveways
and so forth, or are we just doing a straightforward right-of-way
acquisition of "X" width? What is our approach on that? I know this
is a little out of order, but I'm going to get the question if we
approve it.
MR. CONRECODE: Well, we are -- we are giving complete
consideration to that, and we have a couple of options with the way
Livingston Road aligns with Pine Ridge Road there. We have an FP and L
easement that runs down. And in terms of the acquisition that we do,
we can either go right up against the FP and L easement or we can
leave a narrow strip which doesn't make a lot of sense -- it's not
usable property -- and then move that over to the existing Livingston
Road alignment. Right now for the Livingston Wood development, it
looks more likely that we'll have limited access to a new road rather
than use the existing road, but we haven't finalized those answers
with George yet.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Other questions?
MR. FINN: There's -- There's a few things I -- I do want to point
out for you. The two segments that are proposed to go under
construction contract next fiscal year are projects 65021, Rattlesnake
Hammock and project 67021 which is the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension
project. You'll see those are significantly higher than the other
projects.
Two other things. The first is that the budget that you're
looking at is predicated on a -- on an impact fee budget that is
approximately $800,000 higher than the plan called for. That's the
good news.
The second thing -- or the last thing I wanted to point out was
that we are just now undertaking the planning phase of the road
program. And much like last year, when we bring -- when we come to you
in the first public hearing, it is entirely possible that there will be
some changes to this, and I just wanted to make the board aware of
that. That would be subsequent to the board approving an updated
five-year plan along with -- That's the whole large planning thing. It
includes all our planning people, Jeff Perry and George Archibald and
typically the --
MR. SHYKOWSKI: It will be based on the AUIR, the update.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But the -- Right. It will be based on the
AUIR, and all these transfers are impact fees or gas taxes, and it's
not going to affect the ad valorem.
MR. FINN: No, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. FINN: That actually concludes looking at the various capital
projects individually. Pages 15 through 25 behind the capital tab are
informational in nature. It's just to indicate to you that all these
funds are balanced and the way we currently have them balanced. At
this point, there's really no need to take a look at these individually
because we have reviewed each one in looking at the projects.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. FINN: Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: That concludes our capital discussion. Let's move
into the sheriff's operating budget discussion. There is a separate
tab in your book labeled sheriff.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I don't know how far this is going to run,
but we can take a break at 10:30 though.
MS. GANSEL: 10:30.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Okay.
MS. GANSEL: Good morning, Commissioners. Jean Gansel from the
budget office. The sheriff's budget -- I believe Mike told you there's
a tab that starts the sheriff's budget. I would like to introduce
Crystal Kinzel and Jean Myers from the sheriff's office who would be
glad to answer any questions that you might have.
Overall the sheriff is requesting a 4.6 percent increase.
Included in this increase is 28 additional law enforcement positions
which will be phased in throughout the year. He's partially offset
some of the increased costs by reducing the costs of health and
worker's comp insurance through managed health care plan and reducing
overtime budget by $340,000. He also is budgeting -- is budgeting 3
percent attrition for non-emergency employees.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: He's -- He's not budgeting attrition for
emergency employees?
MS. GANSEL: That's correct.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You typically have no vacancies in
emergency employees?
MS. KINZEL: No, we don't, Commissioner. But what we did try to
do is reduce our overtime budget, and hopefully with the addition of
the 28 slots -- we've had a consistent vacancy factor, but we are also
-- we've had some intensive recruiting. We, for example, have made 50
conditional offers recently and will be hopefully filling the majority
of our slots. Our intent is to fully man those slots all year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Miss Kinzel, just to iljustrate, last
fiscal year tell me how many employees you started with, and at the end
of the fiscal year how many employees do you have?
MS. KINZEL: I can get you that number. I didn't look at last
year's number, but I can get you that number.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Because that's -- We're talking about
attrition. It's not a matter of intent to fill slots, but a matter of
a natural reduction of work force through the fiscal year that you
usually end up with fewer at the end than you had to begin with.
MS. KINZEL: No. That's not our case. We've actually added
bodies through the year.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: So you would say you have more employees
now than you had at the beginning of the fiscal year? MS. KINZEL: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Not just slots but actual employees.
MS. KINZEL: Actual employees, yes.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes. As we get to the detailed pages -- for
instance, in law enforcement there were 539 slots in the adopted
budget. Forecast is 556.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Miss Kinzel, I can't help but ask this
question. I've got to ask it in all honesty with this budget. You --
You said you -- you just made 50 conditional offers.
MS. KINZEL: For all the positions. That's to get people lined up
for not only the drill camp which is not included as a portion of this
budget because that's state funded, but we have -- That's just to give
you an example of the intensive recruitment effort that we have, and
that those positions we fully intend to fill to get the people back out
on the street. So we are not looking at a high attrition rate at all
for -- for the future years. We can't afford it, and that's why we
reduced the overtime budget.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. I guess my -- my -- my question
revolves around if you've had 50 vacancies but a portion of those from
what you said are for the drill camp which is coming on line -- MS. KINZEL: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So I'm -- I'm -- I'm having -- My thought
process is toward these 28 people that you want in addition to what
you've had but yet it appears you've had difficulty filling the
vacancies that you have had, and I'm wondering where are you going to
get 28 more bodies --
MS. KINZEL: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- to make applications.
MS. KINZEL: We -- We've had a great difficulty in recruitment
process, primarily due with a lot of the academy changes that took
place over the last year. Now they've instituted the state test which
they said was as bad as the CPA exam. I didn't believe it, but they
swore --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's not possible.
MS. KINZEL: But we did have a lot of adjustment in the
recruiting, and our criteria for recruiting is pretty intense. We
have worked with the academy, and we are working through our Vo Tech
training in-house to better prepare not only the people that we've
made these offers to but also future applicants through the student
ace program and all of those positions because we were experiencing a
higher attrition rate than is acceptable. We can't continue at that
high rate of overtime. So while we've experienced probably a number
of vacancies, we are working diligently to -- to lower that.
Also, out of that -- that 50 conditional offers that I mentioned,
that's -- that's your clerical and road patrol, and that's also all of
our other grant positions which are going to include the cops program
which we funded elsewhere and the drill camp which will be funded
elsewhere with the state funding. So it's not 50 out of our operating
budget, but that was just to give you an example of our recruitment
effort and the increases in that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Commissioner Hac'Kie.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I think part of the reason that you have so
much trouble filling the slots and I think an indicator of future
attrition is that the pay for road patrol deputies is so low and -- and
-- What's the starting salary for a rookie?
MS. KINZEL: Twenty thousand five seventy-one.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And Fort Myers it's --
MS. KINZEL: It's up to over 21-plus in Fort Myers.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I know it's more than that in Lee County.
It's more than that in Naples. It's more than that just about
everywhere. And I think that part of the result is that we get people
who are willing to work for less money, and people come here if they
can't get a job somewhere else and --
MS. KINZEL: Can't pass the exams. Then our entrance criteria is
still extensive. So you're exactly right. If they can make more in Lee
County where the housing costs and -- and all those factors are less,
they'll probably go there. But we are currently having a pay plan
study done for law enforcement, all the positions at the sheriff's
office. That should be returned to us no later than the end of August.
We -- We do annual surveys. We compare ourselves to other sheriffs'
offices, and we are following behind in the quadrant where we rank in
pay levels. So we're having that studied right now and will be done by
August 31 because that -- All of the indications are our entry salary's
too low right now.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: And you also do -- I just wanted to
mention, my brother is a detective in Hillsborough, and you also
have to remember that there's a reason Dade pays a lot more and so --
so --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'm not comparing to Dade. I'm comparing to
Naples and to Lee County.
MS. KINZEL: And, for example, we've also heard that Hendry
Corrections or some of those facilities pay more than we do too, and to
live in Naples is a lot more costly than those areas. So we're --
we're exploring all of the -- the local economy and living costs as
well as salary so that you make apples to apples comparisons and not
just at random.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And -- And then after that salary survey is
done, is it possible to incorporate some of that information in this
year's budget? Because I'm concerned that you're not going to be able
to fill those 28 slots.
MS. KINZEL: Well, quite honestly, that's probably one of our
primary reasons for not reducing our budget any further for attrition.
We did the attrition on the civilian sides that are non-emergency
services. But if this pay plan, for example, comes back and indicates
that we need an increase to those pay levels, then we would need some
funding for that. If we don't fill the vacancies, it is returned to you
in turn-back. So, you know, we didn't want to cut ourselves too short
on this budget, particularly in light of the fact I cut the overtime
significantly.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: My -- My other question -- and I realize
I've used up my turn -- is -- is --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We're going to start having bells up here.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: -- is I'm looking for a comparison of what
administrators in the sheriff's office make to what road patrol
deputies make, similar to the questions that have been asked about the
school system. It's my impression that the sheriff's department is
administration-heavy as far as money.
MS. KINZEL: No. Well, that -- that is incorrect. For example, we
have sergeants that actually make more than our lieutenants. Anything
lieutenant and above is exempt in the sheriff's office and exempt from
overtime pay. So they work numerous hours without pay. Our exempt
hours, as a matter of fact, for the last year are significant. And
when you say administrative, that --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That would be primarily civilian
administrative.
MS. KINZEL: Well, the civilian administrative side, you really
only have the records which are operations-related, personnel, finance,
and data processing which also includes some of the dispatch.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And what do those people make? What's an
entry level administrative person make and an upper level
administrative?
MS. KINZEL: I think -- The entry level for captain is what?
35,000 entry level.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: That's for captain. Do you know what it
takes to make captain?
MS. KINZEL: That's entry, and that goes up. I'll double-check
that. But there's also compression. When they did the pay plan study
in '88, there's a lot of rank compression, and what you find
particularly in exempts, when the sergeants work overtime, they're
making more than their supervisor. And -- and also you have to realize
the -- for example, the lieutenants and the captains, they're not just
administrative. They're out there on the street. Whenever there's a
call out, whenever there's anything, they're up day and night
responding to those also. So they don't sit behind a desk
administratively.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hac'Kie -- Can I interject
here? The sheriff is doing a pay plan study, and he's expecting to
have that back to us the end of August, and he is taking a look at
whether his entry level salaries are too high, too low, whatever, and I
would suggest that we wait for the results.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay. But the only other point that I'm
trying to get to is I don't know if that -- if that survey includes
civilian employees.
MS. KINZEL: It includes everyone in the agency.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay.
MS. KINZEL: Everyone down from the clerical level to captain,
director level.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Just for clarification, when -- We
have no shortage of applicants for positions in the sheriff's
department, do we?
MS. KINZEL: No. Actually, we have a significant number of
applications but --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I realize certain ones of those either
aren't qualified or disqualified.
MS. KINZEL: Actually, we only are able to make conditional offers
or -- or eventually hire -- three out of 100 applicants can pass the
criteria and testing, and that's comparable to the nationwide stat for
hiring of law enforcement because -- particularly when you're dealing
with a drug-free work space and no prior drug use or minimal prior drug
use policies and also polygraph exams and background checks, extensive
background checks. It's more difficult to get those applicants through
the process, but we have sufficient numbers of applicants. It's
qualified applicants.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Okay. And why I asked that is because
you had expressed a concern, can we fill that many positions. I don't
think that's going to be a problem.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: But what they are hiring -- Well, I think
it has been a problem. I think they will tell you they've had trouble
hiring qualified road deputies.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Anymore so -- I mean, you just said
we're comparable to the national average. I don't think we're having
any different situation than other law enforcement agencies.
MS. KINZEL: I think if you look at the local academies,
where our trouble runs is in -- is in competing with those other law
enforcement agencies in the whole east coast -- I mean -- I'm sorry --
west coast of Florida. When you fall below the other hiring entities
on the west coast, then everyone going to the academy who qualifies
can work for any of those agencies. Naples is more expensive to live,
and we pay less. That's a problem. So we're hoping to balance it out.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I don't think there's '-
MS. KINZEL: So I think we can fill the positions.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I don't think there's anything we're
reviewing today that this has any bearing on. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No.
MS. KINZEL: And, as a matter of fact, I would like -- I jump in
and answer the questions that I have been because Jean was out last
year, but Jean is going to be answering the questions for the budget,
and I'll be quiet for a while, try to.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. Miss Gansel.
MS. GANSEL: Okay. Commissioners, on page two we have the fiscal
information for the law enforcement section which is where we have the
28 additional positions. I want to point out some of the forecasting
increases in the operating and capital costs. We had a significant
increase in the liability insurance, almost $90,000 within this year,
and there was $70,000 that was spent for security improvements in
Building A and the six substations. Additionally, we have 285,000 for
some space-saving modular furniture. So the personal services for the
forecasts are down, but there were some significant increases in the
operating and capital costs. Yes?
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Quick question. All 28 expanded positions,
are those all entry level road deputy? Are any of those going to go
for sergeant or experienced positions, or are they all entry level?
MS. MYERS: For the record, Jean Myers, budget analyst for the
sheriff's office. No. Those are all entry level road deputies.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Other questions? I don't see any. You can
go ahead.
MS. GANSEL: Okay. On page four we have the financial information
for detention and corrections. There are no expanded positions in
here, but as you might note, there were some additional positions
between the adopted budget to the forecasted budget. There also are
some operating increases, both in the forecast as well as the current.
This is due primarily to the increased jail population, the
double-bunking, as well as some of the renovations at the Immokalee
jail to accommodate more inmates.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: These additional five positions in
detention and correction, are all those correctional people for the
jail?
MS. MYERS: Yes, Commissioner. It's a combination. Nine
positions originally were from the Department of Corrections' agreement
with our former sheriff, Aubrey Rogers, that if we were to open to
capacity the Immokalee jail center, that we would have an additional
nine positions.
The difference then to get to the five positions, we had a
transfer of three positions from jail records. We combined them with
our law enforcement record section. So that's a minus three. And then
we also had a retirement of a maintenance worker in corrections, and
that position has been eliminated. So that brings us to the plus five.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Plus five. Okay.
MS. GANSEL: Page six --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Are there questions?
MS. GANSEL: Page six is the bailiffs, and the number of positions
is remaining the same in this budget; however, there is some reduction
in the cost. They have experienced some turnover, and the new
positions are at entry level, and those were the result in the decrease
in salaries.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Questions? Next question. Next one.
MS. GANSEL: On page seven is the E-911 special revenue fund. It
sort of shows some major increases in this budget. One of the reasons
for that is -- I believe it was on yesterday's agenda or a couple of
weeks ago. You had increased the fee that the residents pay for the
E-911. They are attempting to increase their reserve for capital.
There's some major capital expenditures that they will be experiencing
in the next few years, and they will be phasing that in the capital
expenses. There is one additional position of technician they are
requesting to be added to this budget.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What is that technician going to be doing?
I mean, we heard Mr. Nind this morning saying that there would be a --
a person dedicated to EHS and to fire when the 800 megahertz goes on
line, but that's not due until the end of next year.
MS. KINZEL: This is a separate function all together. Primarily
the dispatch center operates independent of the E-911 services, the
E-911 services which are totally fee supported, and in some regards you
have approved that budget or the fee increase two weeks ago on the
regular commission agenda because it doesn't coincide with the fiscal
year here.
But these three people work on updating the entire data base so
that when a dispatcher keys in a phone number or when the phone number
rings into dispatch, the address is correct to send the deputy to. So
as our population increases, you have to have more and more people to
maintain that data base, and that's their primary function. They also
do public education on use of emergency systems throughout the schools
and to the elderly and communities to further the community policing
concept to actually -- to help them get information in.
MS. GANSEL: On page eight is the confiscated property trust fund.
The money -- The revenue from here is from confiscated property, and it
is used for -- primarily for the Dare Program in the school -- in the
schools for drug abuse prevention, and also it's used for matching
grants, and we'll see the grants that they're proposing in a couple of
pages.
Okay. On page nine is the second dollar training trust fund.
This is -- In some of the fines, there's an additional $2 that is
levied, and this is transferred directly into this trust fund for
training of police officers exclusively.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I have a number of questions back on
page two.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, let's go backwards. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: 70,000 for security improvements to
Building A and six substations, I don't necessarily disagree. I'm just
curious what that entails.
MS. MYERS: We are at the current time upgrading all of the
security to Building A and all of our substations. It's been determined
due to, I guess, community protection -- we had secretaries and people
that are accessible to the public just sitting out there in our
lobbies, so we are in the process of -- it's lexan (phonetic) I believe
is the term, a bullet-proof type glass that they will be sitting
behind, and so that's just been some, like, wall modifications for this
lexan both in Building A and at all of our six substations to make them
more secure.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Are the -- some of the older
substations -- I know in Golden Gate -- unless that glass isn't
bullet-proof, I know in Golden Gate we have no access anyway to -- you
can't see who's back there either but -- so that's just replacement?
MS. KINZEL: Replacement. In the -- In the old substations we
replaced it.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Space-saving modular furniture,
$285,000.
MS. MYERS: Yes. We are currently in a critical space problem in
Building J, and we are trying to put more and more people into the same
amount of space, and it seems like with the old bulky desks and file
cabinets that we just don't have enough room. So we are -- It's --
It's -- It's been -- We've been phasing in different areas of the
sheriff's office over the last three years, and we're almost to the
point right now where we cannot count on 301 funds, so we are absorbing
that into our budget and trying to finish up the areas that we have not
converted to modular space-saving furniture.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How many square feet is it anticipated
this 285,000 will save?
MS. MYERS: I would have no idea on the square footage. I'd have
to get back to you.
MS. KINZEL: We can get that for you.
MS. MYERS: Some of the areas -- I don't know if you've ever -- if
you've toured Building J at all, but the finance area in particular, we
-- this year we've done the personnel area, civil. Our records has
been -- they've done like a phase two part of that. They had done part
of that last year, and some of that was 301 funded. Yeah, records.
And then now also in Building A, our vice narcotics unit, our YRD unit
which are very large units over 25 to 30 people. Square footage I
would have no idea.
MR. DORRILL: My office had a concern on this particular item
because what the young lady already attributed to. This should have
been a major capital improvement request, and the only concern that I
have as we look forward to next year, the commissioners directed all
agency managers to budget for attrition. And if -- if I misstate
this, correct me quickly. Essentially what happened here was they used
personnel savings attrition money in the law enforcement division to
purchase office furniture totalling almost $300,000 and -- and my only
point for bringing it up is that if -- if you -- if you don't ask the
sheriff to control his expenses for personnel and salary issues and
tell him that your fiscal policy requires him to budget attrition --
and I'm not diminishing the need here. What I'm saying is that this
need should have otherwise been identified as part of the budget with
all of the other capital improvement projects as we did with the -- the
clerk's agency this year, and we did spend -- we've spent 301 money on
-- on the sheriff's improvements in the past, but what happened here
was exactly what I said. He had attrition money for personnel and
salaries that -- that ended up being spent several hundred thousand
dollars worth of office furniture.
MS. KINZEL: Well, I -- I don't believe it's fair to attribute it
strictly to attrition. We had numerous savings in other areas,
including our health plan and worker's comp. So the savings came from
a number of areas, but that's one argument.
The other problem is the -- the reason that we did not extensively
budget for space saving is, quite frankly, we've held our hat on the
fact that we're going to be expanding Building J, and we've tried to
refrain from doing anything beyond the bare necessities in Building J.
We are right now -- We've already gone to shifts in civil and records
area where it's shift work. We have just now -- Part of this furniture
will be going into a safe which we are taking the door off of the safe
to add records clerk space.
MR. DORRILL: Crystal, I'm not diminishing any of that. I'm just
saying '-
MS. KINZEL: I know.
MR. DORRILL: -- That the -- the board's -- and I'm not trying to
go backwards. I'm saying the board's fiscal policy said they wanted
everybody to budget 3 percent for attrition, and on the law enforcement
side, you've submitted your budget without doing that. That's '-
MS. KINZEL: It was my understanding it was without -- For
example, EHS did not budget attrition, and they are an emergency
response unit, and that was the policy we followed. For the
non-emergency, we did budget the attrition. For the emergency
responders, we did not budget attrition.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: EHS typically spends its -- its entire personal
services budget. The budget policy was based on analysis of two years'
prior year actual to budget comparison, and the agencies -- For
instance, the tax collector typically spends the bulk of his personal
services, so he was excluded from the attrition policy in the adopted
budget policy as a result of that. The same '-
MS. KINZEL: But -- But our budget reduction is also based on an
analysis and -- and where I took the dollars out of what the overtime
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Can I hear the rest of what Mr.
Smykowski was going to say?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: For instance, on page two you'll note the adopted
budget was approximately twenty-five and a half million. The forecast
expenditures are 24.9 million, approximately $563,000 of salary
savings. In this case, though, it appears that a portion of that was
utilized in both additional costs in operating but also for space
saving furniture.
I guess to round up this discussion, one component is that in my
overview of the general fund on Monday, I indicated that on the revenue
side in the -- in the general fund we have budgeted $600,000 as a
turn-back from the sheriff in both forecast and current, and obviously
that is a -- now a revenue component of your general fund. So the --
the general fund is balanced and assumes $600,000 in turn-back from the
sheriff's office. Over the past three years, the turn-back has been
1.373 million, 1.116 million, 1.008 million. And as a result, we felt
comfortable at the $600,000 level, given that 3 percent of the entire
personal services budget within the overall sheriff's budget is
approximately $1.1 million. So we at this point have assumed 600,000
as a turn-back, just so that is clear.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, if you've historically been turning
back over a million dollars, what's the problem with the $600,000
budget item?
MS. KINZEL: We didn't object to that. He -- He was questioning
the attrition, and I think what Mike's just answered for you is that
the attrition -- basically you're upping our turn-back requirement so
you have budgeted the attrition but just through a different source.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Or a component of it, not -- not to the
full 3 percent. But obviously I guess the other issue is that we do
not control the sheriff's ability in terms of how much he will
actually turn back. So that's why I'm pointing out to you that -- you
know, we are budgeting that and assuming that on the revenue side, but
the sheriff obviously controls his own expenditures, and whether or
not he'll actually turn -- turn that amount back or less or more is at
issue, and we just wanted to point that out. That is a deviation from
what we have done in the past. Typically, you know, it's been
budgeted at 200,000 or thereabouts. Typically the turn-back over the
last three years has been a million or better.
MR. DORRILL: I don't want to beat a dead horse here. I
think we can move on. It's -- It's our -- It's my obligation as the
budget officer of the county to tell you that if someone hadn't
adhered to your policy that you adopted, and it's our position that
they have the ability to budget 3 percent for attrition both on the
civilian as well as the sworn side and then let you make the decision
and we'll move on.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But does -- does history dictate
that they use for the emergency -- for their sworn work force, do they
use the bulk of the --
MR. DORRILL: It -- It appears not.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- personal services?
MR. DORRILL: It appears not. And once -- once you make
the appropriation, I'll be the very first one to say the discretion of
how the money is spent is solely the --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: To the sheriff.
MR. DORRILL: -- responsibility of the sheriff. But from
our perspective, it appears that the sheriff does, in fact, have the
ability to budget 3 percent for attrition in accordance with your
policy directive. If you choose to allow him to do something else,
that's a decision that you need to make. I'm just trying to say from
one agency manager to the other, I need to point out when -- when
those occasions occur that -- that are not adherent with your policy.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Can anyone in this room tell
me the dollar value if they did, indeed, budget 3 percent for all
personnel?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: 1,074,600.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It would be that much more?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: No. That is -- That would be a 3
percent total.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And what have they budgeted?
MS. GANSEL: 170,000.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It seems to me we ought to
follow up on our policy a little bit.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: However, though, again, on the over
side, we have of the turn-back to $600,000.
MS. KINZEL: And I've reduced overtime by 350. So we're
at 950 reduction in those two components. We're just managing it a
little differently because we would like more efficient hours, and I
would like to reduce the overtime. That with the additional bodies,
we need to fill the road slots. That's our primary concern.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: I understand that, Crystal. But
the idea was that we're all talking the same language so when we look
at your budget it's no different than another department's budget, and
we're not.
MS. KINZEL: Well --
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: We're not -- We're not talking
the same language here. It's not -- to use your term -- an apples for
apples, and so we have to ask these kind of questions, and it's really
a waste of time. If -- If -- If the end result is the same, let's
just all do it the same way. I mean, that just makes common sense.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: May I?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: So play the game, and put your
overtime back in, and put your 600 back in, and do the 3 percent
attrition across the board, and you get the same place by playing the
game.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, maybe I'm missing
something here because everything they have told about equals roughly
$950,000. Mr. Smykowski said if we simply budgeted for 3 percent
attrition in the sheriff's department, that would be $1.74 million.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Of which they've already done.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: 1.007.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm sorry?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: 1,074,000.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Okay.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: 1074.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Still there's no difference.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. There's no difference.
MS. KINZEL: And we've also reduced 170 for the civilian
side. So we've already taken out the civilian side. So it -- it was a
management issue on what's overtime, what isn't. We don't want the
attrition. We're trying to encourage hiring. We do want to reduce
the overtime. That's how we got there.
MR. DORRILL: Wait a minute. Wait. It's -- It's a
little more complicated than that. That would be like me saying, if
you give me 20 new paramedics next year, I'll cut my overtime budget
because I'm going to have all these full-time paramedics extra per
shift. I won't need any overtime. So it's a little more complicated
than just saying, give me 28 new deputies and then we'll cut back on
the amount of overtime.
MS. KINZEL: Well, I believe the issue was office
furniture which we put off significantly in our area, and if you'd
come over and look at the comparatives of furniture, I -- I think it's
not a good issue to bring up on conditions for staffing. So, you
know, we have put off purchasing a lot of things in the hopes of the
Building J expansion. We have tried to sit where we sit. The desk I
sit in is what I brought from home. Okay? That's -- That's no
indication, just because I wanted the desk I had at home. But we're
on the old metal wood leg desks, and we've just run out of space. So
we're back to the furniture issues. I think we can look at some
comparisons there as to how this started --
MR. DORRILL: No. I don't -- I didn't --
MS. KINZEL: -- and where we took the money and put the
money so --
MR. DORRILL: I didn't intend to -- I didn't intend to
raise a furniture issue --
MS. KINZEL: Okay.
MR. DORRILL: -- or who's got the fanciest desk. I said
that this commission in -- last January set a fiscal policy that said
every agency manager was to budget for attrition at 3 percent, and it
is our position based on the historical spending patterns of the
sheriff that they have the ability to do that for both sworn and
civilian people because unless you -- unless you control the
appropriation, we've already said that how he spends the money is
going to be up to him. This year is a pretty good example. There's
-- There was $600,000 worth of attrition money on the law enforcement
side, and they elected and they made their own management decision and
they spent 300,000 of that on -- on, admittedly, space-saving office
furniture. It's my job as the budget officer of this county to at
least raise the issues when someone has not prepared their budget in
accordance with the five to nothing policy directive that you gave in
January.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Which you raised it, Neil, and
it's been responded to. I mean, you've done your job and -- and I --
I have heard and I think Commissioner Constantine just heard that the
math washes. So, you know, everybody's done what they were told to
do.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: They -- They can go back and make
the changes, but we're going to be at the same place.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: The point is, let's not have this
discussion next year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
MS. KINZEL: And I apologize, because our understanding
was that the emergency services were not budgeting the attrition and
not necessarily tied to the fact they had spent all their dollars
previously.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: You know, we don't need to
elongate this discussion --
MS. KINZEL: Yeah. Right.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- but the direction usually
comes from the board, not from EMS and we -- the board -- MS. KINZEL: No.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- as a whole had asked the
sheriff's department, and so hopefully in the future when the board
asks for a particular policy, he'll respond to that policy instead of
what another department is doing.
MS. KINZEL: No.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: End of story. I don't need a
debate on it.
MS. KINZEL: Well --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Next item.
MS. KINZEL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: 37,200 for radios. If we're
going to be replacing all the radios, I'm just wondering, is there any
way we can hang onto whatever we have for another ten, twelve months
until the new system is up and running.
MS. MYERS: We're anticipating 28 extra road deputies.
We need radios for them before they will -- before the 800 megahertz
will be on line, plus replacements and -- for those that will not make
it to the 800 megahertz.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Understanding the timing that it
takes from when you start focusing on hiring 28 deputies till the time
they actually come on line, is there a possibility to reduce that
number of radios or to phase it so that we may not have to expend all
those dollars or that you can project obviously expending fewer
dollars on that item?
MS. MYERS: Yes, Commissioner. Of these 28 deputies, we
are -- this -- The $993,000 that you do see in our expanded budget,
they are being phased in, 14 at a time. Fourteen will be phased in,
and they're based on the academy dates that we can get them through
the school and get them trained.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Right.
MS. MYERS: So 14 of them are phased in or would only be
on board for nine months, and 14 will be on board for five months. We
are actually saving $348,000 by doing it that way as opposed to if we
just said we wanted them all on October 1.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I wasn't talking about the
phasing of the deputies. I was talking about the -- providing them
with radios.
MS. MYERS: Right.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Is that -- in dovetailing with
Commissioner Constantine's question, but it sounded like that.
MS. MYERS: They also need radios. That's another
$152,000 you'd see in expanded. I believe Commissioner Constantine
was referring to the current --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yes.
MS. MYERS: -- increase.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yes.
MS. MYERS: Which that's the replacements.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The -- Okay. Wait. Now
you've -- you've confused me, and it's not hard to do this morning.
This -- When I asked what the 37,200 was for, you indicated that that
was for new deputies coming on and for replacements.
MS. MYERS: Right. The --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Now you've said there's an
additional 152 for new deputies?
MS. MYERS: The 152,000 is for the additional 28
deputies.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The thirty-seven two, then,
is simply for replacements?
MS. MYERS: That's the in -- That's the increase from
our last year's budget to this year's budget. So we actually didn't
even -- We didn't increase 152,000. It's kind of the 37,000 for all
of that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What 152,0007
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, I don't think that
appears on our sheet. I'm guessing you spent 152,000 last year or
some burb minus 37 or --
MS. KINZEL: 32,000 is just the difference between the
two -- It isn't?
MS. GANSEL: No. The thirty-seven two is -- Yeah. I
don't do just the increases in capital whenever I do highlights. I
always just tell you what the capital is since you have that. The
thirty-seven two is for current service for replacement of radios.
The -- Any costs associated with the new positions are included in the
expanded column, the capital acquisitions.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Which takes me back to my
original question. If the 37,200 is strictly to replace old radios,
can't we drag those along for another ten or twelve months? Now, I'm
not talking about replace -- about new radios for new deputies.
Obviously they need that.
MS. KINZEL: Here's our problem. We've been dragging it
out for about three years because of the Motorola and 800 megahertz
conversion. We have cannibalized everything we can possibly
cannibalize. If one dies now, we have no recourse but to get a new
radio. I mean, we've got the radio shop because we knew the 800 was
coming and we haven't replaced radios. We have radios that are ten,
twelve years old out on the street that doesn't meet the guidelines
for public safety at all for the radio retention and the age of a
radio and our -- our shop has been very efficient in cannibalizing
everything we possibly can. This is a minimal replacement because if
it dies we have to have another one. But we -- You know, we put in
the minimum amount really because we know we're going to be
converting.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Two other items on this.
155,000 for data processing equipment. What -- What is that?
MS. MYERS: Those are for new as well as replace --
replacement PCs within the agency. We have over 700 employees and
only about 350 people actually have access or terminal or PC access.
Even with the ones we have, we have some that are what our data
processing people call dinosaurs, and they are not capable of handling
the information that they need anymore. This is approximately 35 new
PCs for our agency and throughout the various bureaus. If you would
like that breakdown, I have it.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah, I would. And finally
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE:
have thought.
That's $4,000 a piece.
$4,000 a piece?
Yeah.
That's about double what I would
MS. MYERS: They range anywhere from -- depending on
laptops, we -- we are purchasing them for about $2,800.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But the math doesn't come out.
MS. KINZEL: But you have to factor in all the cabling,
the install, the software licensing, everything having to do with
that.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, you've got another
20,000 here for software. I'm -- I'm going to assume licensing --
MS. KINZEL: Right.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- Is included in software.
MS. KINZEL: Right.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: If that's 35, the -- the math
doesn't work.
MS. MYERS: There are -- There are other things. I
didn't get to finish that. I'm sorry. We also have -- In that, what
we call data processing equipment, we have -- it's called a touter
modem multi-plexer. It has to do with the communications between our
off-site areas. I don't have the technical description of that. That
is also included. Since we do have a lot of remote sites, that is
also included in that line item.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: It still seems awfully expensive.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Mr. Dotrill, offhand, our IT
department is buying computers, touter modem multi-plexer finaglers
and all that good stuff. What are we paying?
MR. DORRILL: I -- I can find out and let you know.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: I'm just again looking for that
apples to apples. You know, another agency on a large-scale purchase
for installation and software and so forth what's the comparison
because I agree. I open up the paper and see $1,200 for a -- for a
complete 486DX PC unit with everything under the sun including
software and --
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's old now though.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's an old one though.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Oh, I know. It's not a 586 with
a Pentium chip but it works.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Pentium may even be getting old
at this point. A question I have on what you said is that you have
over 700 employees, and 350 of them have access to PCs.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How many are road patrol?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: How many are on the road patrol
that don't even use PCs?
MS. MYERS: Approximately 200.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: 200.
MS. MYERS: They -- They may have one at their
substation, a terminal or a PC.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. But they don't each have
one?
MS. MYERS: No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I mean, they -- they have --
MS. MYERS: No. They have access to one.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: They come in on shift and they
have access to a station to prepare reports and correspondence and
that kind of stuff?
MS. MYERS: Right. And I'm not -- I wasn't -- I hope I
didn't insinuate that they had a need for one, no, but that we do have
700 people, but sometimes there might be a greater need than to have
just one available to our road patrol at our substations, but we just
currently do have one.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well --
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm not comfortable with
that. I don't think the numbers add up, first of all. Also, when you
say, well, sometimes there's a need to have more than one for a road
patrol at our substations but they only have one --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: That -- That doesn't make sense
to me --
MS. KINZEL: Why don't we come back and do it --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: -- Just one for a shift change at
a substation, you know, to get them home to family, you know, if one
PC is going to be tied up.
MS. KINZEL: Why don't we get you a full list of the
equipment detailed and what he pays for the equipment because I'm
confident that we price-shopped and bargained. We're below state
contract prices on most of what we buy, so I know there are more
component pieces, and we'll get you the full analysis per PC.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: That would be helpful.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That would be helpful.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The final item is 700,000 for
vehicles. Where are we? What's going on with the fleet?
MS. MYERS: Our fleet -- that seven hundred and -- it's
actually $706,000. That has been our budget request for the last
three years. That's our -- We are currently still under the
five-year, 100,000 miles. We do minimal purchases. We are right now
going to a seven-year life of our vehicles and 120,000 miles. The
point I'd like to make is we are asking for the 28 expanded road
deputies. You do not see any expanded for vehicles because we feel
that with going from the five to seven years and the 120,000 miles, we
will be able to keep enough cars to have a car for these 28 deputies.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How many patrol-type vehicles
do we have, including those from Ford that are donated?
MS. MYERS: Including the ones from Ford?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: The answer from the public would
be not enough.
MS. KINZEL: Trying to get more from Ford all the time.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Can we get Chrysler to compete
with Ford?
MS. KINZEL: Actually, a lot of the -- the makers are
going away from the high-impact --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: High performance. Yeah.
MS. KINZEL: -- road vehicles, and we're even seeing a
reduction. They're not going to be making -- I think the Crown Vics
next year is the last year and they're -- you know, they're phasing
down to the Tautuses, and a lot of them are getting out of the law
enforcement business all together because of the --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: So next would be the Baron
convertible police car.
MS. KINZEL: Well, our guys would like that, but we
don't do that.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Kind of tough to keep the light
bar on top of that.
MS. MYERS: Commissioner Constantine, I don't know if
you have -- if you're looking at our budget book, but page 46 has --
our marked patrol cars are 270. Our unmarked are 146, and our Ford
test cars are 35. That's 451 in our total fleet.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Are there usually 70 cars
down at a time?
MS. MYERS: Pardon me?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Are there usually 70 cars in
repair at a time?
MS. MYERS: Not that I believe. I --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Because I just thought in our
discussion a moment ago on a different topic you said there were
roughly -- When we were talking about computers and how many road
deputies there were, the discussion was that there were about 200.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Unmarked for investigation too.
MS. KINZEL: That's a road patrol function. It doesn't
include K-9, SRU, and all the specialty units, and they're all in
marked cars on patrol. She was just quoting the road patrol in the
districts road patrol.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How many -- How many K-9
units and -- How -- How many are we looking at all tolled there if we
just start adding all that up?
MS. MYERS: There again, if you look in our budget book
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: What page?
MS. MYERS: -- page 75 is a breakdown of our positions.
We have 396 certified law enforcement officers. There's some -- couple
of pie charts on that page.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: And all of those have use for
their own vehicle, have need for their own vehicle? MS. MYERS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: So we have 60 -- We have 60
cars in repair at any given time?
MS. MYERS: No, they are not in repair. We also do have
a few civilian positions that do have access to a car as well as a few
corrections, and these also do include our unmarked surveillance vans,
the -- we have two BAT mobiles. So, I mean, they all aren't cars that
somebody's taking home at night or that they're in the shop.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: There's a '72 Firebird used for
drug buys that sits most of the time. MS. MYERS: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, it's not --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Really -- It's really not a'72
Firebird.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It's not going to be able to
be used anymore, I guess.
UNKNOWN VOICE: Formerly used.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Yeah. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yellow license plate XR.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Please don't report that.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, out of that page --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We probably just gave the sheriff
a heart attack.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: If only I knew what I was talking
about.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right. There you go.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: From that page, I would like
to flag the 155,200 for data processing and -- until we have further
MR. DORRILL: I -- I've got that. We --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- information. Yeah. Let me
just finish.
MR. DORRILL: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Until we have further
information on that, I'm not comfortable funding that until we know
more details than we have. I also have -- I'd like to see more
details on the modular furniture. I'm sure you can save some space
over there, but I'd like to have some idea of how many square feet are
you saving. What -- What are we achieving by spending close to
300,000 bucks.
MS. KINZEL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Mr. Dotrill, did you have some
information on PCs regarding the county?
MR. DORRILL: You had asked what we used for budget
purposes. For replacement PCs, we budgeted 3,000, and that includes
the going rate plus shared printers. We don't purchase printers for
every -- we -- we share, like, one printer for three or four different
people. If it is a new -- If it's a new installation, we budget at
about 4,000, a little more, because then you do have the wiring. You
have first-time software. You've got licensing fees to establish the
little lans, what we call servers. You have to purchase servers, and
it's between four and 5,000 if they're brand new. But if we're
replacing or trading out, we use 3,000 as a plug number, if you will.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Is that for PCs or for dumb
terminals?
MR. DORRILL: Those were PCs. I'm distinguishing, and
that's why our cost to get away from the dumb terminals and go to
these new lans with servers is -- is higher than that.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Given the transition to IT and looking
to a local area network type, we're at this point discouraging the
purchases of dumb terminals, knowing what our future direction is at
this point.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'd like to interrupt this
portion and take a break. It's quarter of, and we could probably rest
our brains for ten minutes.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Do we have consensus on those
two items?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Neil, at this point did you want to get
an idea where the board -- CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. The -- The sheriff's
office said that they would get us additional information on the 155.
MR. DORRILL: I'll speak to the chairman at the break.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Ten minutes.
(A short break was held.)
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
workshop for June the 21st.
MS. KINZEL: Still.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK:
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
Constantine, you have more.
Let's reconvene the budget
We're doing the sheriff's budget.
Still.
Ding. Round two.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Mr. Constantine -- Commissioner
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Two questions. Just before
we broke, I mentioned getting more information on data processing.
Could somebody do that today since we need to finish the budgeting
process today?
MS. KINZEL: Sure.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Also, I'm -- I'm still not
comfortable with the attrition numbers. I did a little math on the
break. I don't think it's actually a wash. I don't -- I don't think
we come up the same either way, and I'd be much more comfortable if we
looked at cutting some dollars there. I don't know what the rest of
the board thinks on that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other comment?
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, just -- Could you share the
math with us then?
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah. And I -- I have my
little yellow sheet back there but it's -- roughly half a million
dollars is -- I don't have the math in front of me, but it's roughly
half a million dollars. I think Neil did something similar.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I need to understand.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I think what we're -- what we're
talking about here is -- is the -- the 3 percent attrition is a
million seventy-six, and they budgeted $170,000. That's roughly
900,000. And last year they budget -- there was a budgeted turn-back
of -- what? 200,0007
MR. SMYKOWSKI: 207, but round numbers 200.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: 200.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Good job, Mike.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And -- And this year we're
budgeting 600 for a turn-back? MR. SMYKOWSKI: Correct.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So we've really only got $400,000
there, not $600,000. So we're -- we're kind of a half a million
dollars off. And when we throw into that mix, normally, Crystal, you
turn back a little over a million dollars and -- and if we budget even
600,000 for a turn-back, we're still $500,000 off. So it -- it seems
like there is a half a million dollar number here somewhere.
MS. KINZEL: But there was about a $700,000 savings last
year in our health and warker's camp premium reductions and -- and
part of the turn-back last year was significant savings end up an
expenditure and not directly attributable to attrition. So if we're
going to go in a pure sense budget to budget, you know, we'll go back
and calculate that number exactly. I'll work it out with Mike and do
it the same way as the other departments and --
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, if you'd prefer to do
it -- CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, we're still under budget
for turn-back though.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: If you'd prefer to do it that
way, the turn-back has been 1.3, 1.17, and one point something the
last three years. So we can -- let's -- let's -- if you want to just
go strictly by that, let's do a million dollar turn-back this year
instead of 600,000.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, let me ask -- Let me ask,
what's your objection to just doing like the rest of us in our request
and budgeting 3 percent attrition?
MS. KINZEL: I -- I don't have a concern with that. I
-- I thought what I was hearing you said would be that we would leave
the turn-back number high and budget the additional attrition rate,
and I think that's hitting both sides of the angle because the
majority of our turn-back previously has been attrition and also
expense savings, not attrition, in, for example, health insurance and
warker's camp. I have no objection to sitting down with Mike and
working it out the same way everyone else has worked it out. That's
what I said. We'd like to do that.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Maybe last year was health
savings. I don't know what it was the year before or the year before
that, but Mike told us the last three years it's been well in excess
of a million dollars. And -- And your suggestion just a moment ago
is, well, let's look at past budget history. Let's do that, and then
if the turn-back has been in excess of a million dollars the last
three years, let's simplify this and just say, instead of budgeting
for a $600,000 turn-back, we'll look at the past three-year history,
and we'll budget for a million dollar turn-back.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Are you talking about doing both
things or -- or one?
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm saying just do that, and
we'll leave the other. We'll leave just the -- the clerical side on
attrition, and then we'll sort it out and put it all consistent next
year, but I think it achieves the same thing. We'll get 400,000 back
into the budget that way.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Do you guys care which way we do
it?
MS. KINZEL: It's going to be the same dollar amount.
That's -- No, we don't care.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: So whatever is the board's --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, I'm not sure it's going to
be the same --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I'm not either.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- Budget amount, Crystal. And --
And the reason I say that is because you -- you say you've reduced
your overtime by $350,000, but you -- you've got -- you've got
additional positions. You've -- You've just put out 50 offers. Now,
I know some of those are drill camp, but let's say you've put out 30
offers to fill positions that you were not paying salaries for and --
and that overtime that you've been paying is a function of those 30
positions not being filled, and then we're giving you 28 more
positions on top of that. So your overtime allocation is going to
come down anyway merely because you filled the 30 positions that have
previously been budgeted for.
MS. KINZEL: I wasn't arguing the amount. Whichever way
you want us to go back and work it, we'll calculate it.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I'd -- I would like to suggest --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: -- that it's traditional in every
department that we budget a turn-back amount but generally less than
we expect to get to err on the conservative side. Is that a fair
assessment? We don't -- We don't budget, say, the exact average of
the last three years on turn-back. We budget generally a little
lesser amount so that we don't end up on the short end; is that
correct?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Yes.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. What I would suggest is
that we --
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Turn-back is not guaranteed obviously.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yeah. It's not guaranteed, and
we don't want to count on something that may not be there. MR. SHYKOWSKI: Correct.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I think that's a prudent
approach. So what I would like to see is, let's do this budget the
same as every other. Let's budget for the attrition and -- you know,
for -- for all positions, not just non-certified, budget attrition for
all positions and leave the turn-back at 600,000 and see where we end
up.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And keep the overtime low.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Well, you know, that -- that --
it's already been done. It's just how the numbers are -- are
reflected to us, and they just need to be reflected in the same manner
that other departments have -- have done it in. So that's all I'm
trying to do, is get this on the same format that everything else
we've looked at is on. And others have budgeted for attrition; is
that correct?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: None of the constitutional officers have
budgeted for attrition.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: But -- but --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: None of them?
COHHISSIONER HANCOCK: Crystal is going to be a
champion, and she's going to go out and do it.
MS. KINZEL: Well, I -- I will say that I obviously have
to take this back to the sheriff and -- and I'm -- I'm saying we'll
calculate it however you want and give you those numbers but the --
the policy is for the sheriff to come back to you. So we'll be glad
to do that but come back.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The history though -- Just in
answer to your question, the history, like in Guy Carlton's, he
doesn't have a turnover there. He has not historically had 3 percent.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: He does not have the attrition to
budget for.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: But we've determined that the
sheriff's office has.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Correct.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: So we want to see it applied in
that instance. Just as we have in all the county departments that
have attrition, we've asked that it be applied.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: At this point, then, your direction is 3
percent attrition --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Across the board.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Norris.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: -- in the sheriff's office. Obviously
the turn-back I'm assuming would not be at the 600,000 level if you're
__
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: -- counting on a million dollars in
attrition. Just -- I just want to be clear on my direction so that I
don't leave the room today with unclear --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I think we're saying budget the
full 3 percent for the attrition; lower the overtime because they have
filled the positions that created the overtime last year; and the
turn-back, whatever I guess it's historically been, a couple hundred
thousand dollars. Commissioner Norris.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, that -- I think that's the
better way to do it and the more appropriate way to do it I should say
because we're -- we're sitting here -- we're saying we -- we're giving
you line item "X" because we think we're going to do something on "Y"
and "Z" over here, but that's not the procedure. You're saying, well,
we're going to cut overtime; and, therefore, we don't want to budget
attrition. Well, you know, it's not the same thing. It's just not the
same thing.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So they're going to do it now the
way that -- I mean, I'm just wondering have we settled this so that we
Can '-
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I think we've settled it.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Three percent attrition --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I agree with --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: -- on total personal services within the
sheriff's budget, turn back at approximately 200,000. That is what my
understanding is at this point.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's the goal.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That's not the goal. That's
what we're budgeting.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Remembering that a budget is a
spending plan.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: And remembering the sheriff can
tell us to go fly a kite, but we hope he won't.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: And we can tell him to go see the
governor.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: No, we can't. I mean, we
allocate the funds. So he can tell us whatever he wants, but it
doesn't mean he's going to get more money.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Are you finished with your --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah. Those -- That answers
mine as long as we have an answer on data processing before we wrap up
today.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: I was trying to show
constitutional respect there.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Ms. Gansel, where are we on the
other?
MS. GANSEL: We've gone through the other cost centers
and then the trust fund. The only remaining fund that we had was fund
115 on page ten. This is their grant fund. As I had indicated in
their confiscated trust fund, they transfer money to this fund as a
match, and three grants that they have made preliminary application
for at this time are COPS MORE, domestic violence grant, and criminal
-- career criminal.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What's a domestic violence grant
for? I mean, it's $19,000 I understand, but yesterday Judge --
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Wilson.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- Wilson was -- was looking for
127,000 for a domestic violence unit as well. I mean, is this a
duplication?
MS. KINZEL: No, Commissioner. This is a -- Communities
can apply for this grant and different entities did. We were one of, I
believe, eight funding agencies that pursued a grant for the domestic
violence group, and we were ranked number one out of those eight
competitive groups. We're not in competition or in overlap at all
with what Judge Wilson is trying to do, and we'll work directly with
her. We've had that unit in place, and there's a statutory
requirement, for example, that the sheriff's office do mandated
notification of victims and that we do provide certain victims
services and referrals. So that's what this unit is for.
We've also taken an existing investigator to work with
Judge Wilson's unit, but none of these will be duplications of
services. They're providing a different angle. Her's is through the
court system. Ours is for direct referral to project help the abused
women shelter and also notification and help with processing
injunctions and instruments of that nature in domestic violence
situations.
It's also not only domestic violence. This particular
one that we were grant-funded for will be located in Immokalee which
at present has no services directly other than the victim advocates
that we ship out there from the Naples area. So this will be for an
Immokalee person primarily.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And I just wanted to make sure
that it's not a duplicated service.
MS. KINZEL: And we're working very closely to ensure
that that doesn't happen.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And in addition to that, once the
court system -- domestic violence unit is up and running, is there a
way that we may be able to get more effort for this $19,000 by
coordinating more closely even with the court system to get added
effort, economy of scale?
MS. KINZEL: Well, I think that's what we're exactly
trying to do. We're working with the clerk of courts, the judges, and
the sheriff because of all the elements through prosecution, arrest,
and, like I said, restraining orders and injunctions, those
comprehensive victims services with these positions so --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. I just wanted to make sure
that we're coordinating completely with it.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: And the career criminal grant is
to train more career criminals? MS. KINZEL: No.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Oh, okay.
MS. KINZEL: Just the opposite.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: I thought I'd check.
MS. KINZEL: We've had great success with that. That --
That program in particular is one of the premier around the state.
They bring people here to look at our system. And if you have a
particular interest, the state has commended us particularly --
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Crystal, I was just kidding. I
think that's a great idea.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: She just wanted a chance to brag.
MS. KINZEL: That's it. I try to get the positive
points out when I can.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It is a good program for sure.
Does that complete the sheriff's budget?
MS. GANSEL: That completes the sheriff's office, and we
will come back this afternoon with those revised figures.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. For the benefit of --
of the -- our budget staff and the others who are here, we have
decided to have a working lunch. We're going to be ordering
sandwiches and continue to work through so that we can try to wrap
this up early -- early afternoon. Okay? Thank you, Miss Kinzel and
MS. KINZEL: Myers.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- Myers. I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: What's next?
MR. FINN: Good afternoon, Madam Chairman. Edward Finn,
budget office. I think at this point in time we are behind the
support services tab. And, as you know, from the manager's
reorganization, support services is now -- rather, EMS and the
previous administrative services department have been integrated into
one larger division called support services.
Immediately behind the tab on page one, we're going to
start with the departments that were previously emergency services,
and Mr. Griffin is here to sit in for Mr. Ijams. He's right there in
front of you. And if everybody is ready --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We're ready.
MR. FINN: All right. On page one, this is the budget
that -- This is the emergency services division administration budget.
You will notice that there is no budget next year for this section.
This is one of the administrative sections that was eliminated as a
result of that reorganization.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Next page.
MR. FINN: Next page. Page two is the 800 megahertz
administration budget. One position, the 800 megahertz administrator
position, has been moved into this -- this particular budget. The
forecast operating expenses are for contractual maintenance on the
existing 800 megahertz administration budget or administrative radio
system. Next year's budget includes operating expenses for the
administration and project management of the 800 megahertz.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What's the salary for that
position?
MR. FINN: I beg your pardon?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The salary for that position? I
see 46,200.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That includes retirement.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That would include benefits.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
salary?
MR. FINN: 35.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
MR. FINN: Yeah. 35.
anything more?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
MR. FINN: Page four.
Yeah. So what's the ballpark
35?
Is the board interested in
Ready to move.
Ready to move on?
Next page.
This is a dedicated funding
source for the 800 megahertz program. The funding source is from a
twelve fifty surcharge on moving traffic violations. Operating
expenditures for the 800 megahertz system are budgeted here. The
balance of funds are placed in reserves.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Next page.
MR. FINN: On page five -- On page five is the emergency
management budget. This is Mr. Pineau's budget. This is Mr. Pineau's
budget. There is really nothing significant here. This is a pretty
significant increase over the prior year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: He has a 21 percent decrease --
MR. FINN: Yes. I think that's --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Good job.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- in operating costs mostly --
mostly.
MR. FINN: Before we pin a medal on Mr. Pineau, that's
-- that's largely attributable to moving the 800 -- the existing 800
megahertz radio system contractual maintenance contract into the 800
megahertz administration budget. If you can say that three times
twice --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's funny money. Sorry.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yeah. But his operating expenses
did go down more than his personal services went up.
MR. FINN: Yes. That's true. Mr. Pineau has done an
admirable job in holding the line.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Next page.
MR. FINN: On page seven --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Good job, Ken.
MR. FINN: On page seven is a budget for miscellaneous
grants. These grants are primarily emergency service-related.
There's a forestry grant for the Ochopee fire district, fire
equipment, as well as some emergency management grants.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Next.
MR. FINN: Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No questions?
MR. FINN: On page eight is the medical examiner budget,
contractual service provided with Dr. -- Provided by Dr. Coburn.
There's a 3.1 percent overall increase.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
MR. FINN: Very good.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
No questions.
Are there questions?
None.
On page --
Well worth the drive here.
Thank you for coming.
MR. FINN: On page nine is the Immokalee medical
assistance program budget. This is a fairly long-running interim
program. The board's action at the program budget time was to
eliminate the shuttle program from this budget. Last year the shuttle
program cost about $24,000.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Next page.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Is the TD picking that program up
essentially?
MR. FINN: I do not have any information myself.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: I know that's we thought. That's
what we were told and --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That it would.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
MR. FINN: It appears that Miss Flagg may have some
information.
MS. FLAGG: Diane Flagg, EMS. I spoke to Mr. Larson who
is the director for community transportation. He is putting a
proposal together to include, incorporate those services of
transporting patients from Immokalee to Naples and back to current
services. If there is an additional cost, I've asked him to put a
proposal together so that we can let you know what that is.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Because he -- he can -- he can
transport those patients and bill Medicaid, Medicare, whoever for it.
MS. FLAGG: Yes. We talked about that, and I said the
goal is to just incorporate it and there would no cost, and he said,
well, certainly he would look at it and let y'all know.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: We agree with you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Thank you. Page ten.
MR. FINN: On page ten is a division of forestry budget.
This is a payment Collier County makes to the division of forestry
for --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: This is going away, isn't it?
MR. FINN: No, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No, no, no, no. That's the
Irving forestry. I'm sorry.
MR. FINN: There is a decrease here. This is based on
per acre assessment of the woodland areas in the county. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. FINN: Take it out of the unincorporated area
general funds. On page 11 is the Isles of Capri fire and rescue
budget. You may recall during the program budget review there was a
proposal to add some full-time firefighters to this department. That
proposal subsequently has been revised. The proposal you see before
you proposes to add enough funding to hire a part-time firefighter 12
hours a day, 365 days a year. I think their intent is to get a fully
trained volunteer-type person in there to provide that coverage. That
coverage would continue to be supplemented with the volunteer effort
that -- that has been ongoing down there for many years.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Let me ask a question here. The
last proposal I heard from the advisory board was that they wanted to
-- I see we're going to have some help answering this question. Why
don't you tell us what -- what your latest proposal to do is then?
MR. GRIFFIN: The latest proposal is to use the existing
fire -- volunteer firefighters and dedicate -- CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Sir, would you identify your
name?
MR. GRIFFIN: I'm sorry. I'm Bill Griffin,
administrative manager for the no longer emergency services division.
Their most recent proposal and the proposal you have before you is to
use the existing volunteer firefighters but to assign them a 12-hour
shift per day and then to pay them $8 per hour while they're on duty
at the station.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: So you'll have one -- one person
in the station for 12 hours a day every day?
MR. GRIFFIN: That's correct.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I've got to have a little
help here. My definition of volunteer -- COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Free.
MR. GRIFFIN: That's why they become a part-time paid
department, but they're going to use the existing volunteers to do
that, and the existing volunteers will supplement the part-time paid
staff when they're on duty.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: What will this do to the
existing millage rate?
MR. GRIFFIN: It will increase it --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I couldn't find it here.
MR. GRIFFIN: -- by --
MR. FINN: It will increase from approximately .25 to
approximately .7.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It will double the millage.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: More than double it.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Almost triple it.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Almost triple it.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But is this the thing that we had
a groundswell of support for, if I'm remembering right -- MR. GRIFFIN: The existing millage -- Our cap for
operating is one mill.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, we also had a
groundswell of opposition.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Did we?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah. For --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: We were told we had a groundswell
of support and we found a groundswell of opposition.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Wait. Wait. Wait. I think we're
confusing two different proposals. There was one proposal that was to
hire three full-time firefighters. That one gamered a lot of
opposition. And this latest proposal, as I understand it, is the sort
of gelling out of everybody's proposals and -- and finally has the
community to a large degree in support of this proposal. Is that a
pretty accurate statement?
MR. GRIFFIN: Yes. And that was mainly to keep the
millage cap below one mill because if they went full-time paid, they
would exceed that which would require us amending the ordinance and
those sort of things. That's what they elected not to do.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: And there was some side proposals
that they may want to merge into one of the other fire districts and
that sort of thing, but this is what they finally sort of agreed to.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: You're comfortable that the
majority of Isles of Capri is okay with this?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: That's what I hear. I have not
heard any violent opposition to this latest proposal.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Violent being the key word.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Where is our deputy today?
MR. FINN: Commissioner Norris is correct. I think it's
important to note that the proposal that originally came to the board
was for three paid full-time firefighters. It was going to
necessitate a significant -- a more significant than the millage
increase you're looking at now. It was going to necessitate amending
the ordinance and having -- having the full public hearings, and what
you see before you is perhaps a reduced version of that, that the
representatives from the Isles of Capri feel that the residents down
there are willing to accept. It's a reasonable alternative, given the
even larger millage increase that might be required.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I realize we're not doing
public comment until we're done and everything, but is there anybody
here from Isles of Capri that is in opposition to this?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Doesn't look like it.
UNKNOWN VOICE: They're all up north.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: They're all up north?
MR. FINN: In this budget --
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: There's nobody on Isles of Capri.
MR. FINN: Excuse me, Madam Chairman. In this budget,
you also note there's funding for the acquisition of a front-line -- a
pump vehicle. The estimated cost of that vehicle is $100,000. The
proposal you see before you is to use funds that have been put in
capital reserve for the acquisition of that pumper to use those funds
for a down payment and to enter into a five-year lease purchase
arrangement. The estimated payments down the road will be $15,000 a
year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: For five years?
MR. FINN: For five years, yes, ma'am. And that -- And
I'm also going to point out that that's estimated to have about a .11
mill increase impact when those payments come due. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Is that a new pumper?
MR. FINN: I believe it would be a replacement for the
existing piece of equipment.
MR. GRIFFIN: That would be for a new pumper to re --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: For a brand -- For a brand new
pumper?
MR. GRIFFIN: To -- To replace the existing one. That's
what I understand.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: What is the existing piece of
equipment?
MR. GRIFFIN: It's a 1979 Ford that has become -- from a
mechanical standpoint, often breaks down and is very expensive to
maintain.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How much maintenance have you
put into it this year dollar-wise?
MR. GRIFFIN: Dollar-wise there's about $5,000, I
believe, this year in maintenance so far where in past years they
haven't had that kind of a problem as far as ongoing expense.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That's an awful lot of $5,000
to pay for a new pump.
MR. FINN: Chief, can you identify yourself for the
record, and perhaps you could shed some light on the frequency of
breakdowns?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: I'm the new chief of the Isles of
Capri. My name is Emilio Rodriguez. And I feel that we compromised
from the proposal, the first proposal, that we submitted a mail-out to
all the residents, approximately 600 of them, asking them exactly what
they wanted for their fire department and we've -- could put in there
the three options. The first option was either stay all volunteer but
we need more volunteers or --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm okay with the personnel.
I thought we got past that. My question is on this pumper.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: On the pumper.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, our pumper now is in very bad
shape as far as it's unreliable. There's been several times where
we've responded to emergency calls and we've lost all the power of the
truck where we've had to run off the road several times, and that's
scared all the volunteers to operate the pumper because it's a big
truck, it carries a lot of water, and you just don't stop on a dime,
and we've haven't had the problem --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Is there -- I've got to
imagine out there in the vast world of fire protection that as people
-- as different departments trade out old, used equipment, that there
is still some good used equipment out there, and I'm wondering if
there's a happy medium. If this one is a danger, we don't want to
keep it, but at the same time, do we need a brand new piece of
equipment as opposed to perhaps a quality --
MR. GRIFFIN: We did look at one other alternative, and
that was to refurbish what we would call refurbishing the existing
vehicle, and estimates we had on that was anywhere from 70 to $80,000
just to bring it up to current standards and make it reliable, and
that's why we felt it would be better just to go ahead and do a new
One.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: My question, though, is there
a used market out there? When East Naples Fire Department purchases a
new pumper, I assume there's somewhere they trade in their old one and
__
MR. GRIFFIN: Yes. I believe they do, but it's also my
understanding that when a department gets rid of an old pumper, that's
the reason why they're getting rid of it, because it's in a similar
condition of what this one is, and that's why they're getting rid of
it.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: So those trucks just go away
to a junk yard, and nobody ever does anything with them?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We've had East Naples where if they
have a spare pumper and we've asked them if they would like to sell us
that pumper and from -- to their chief, of course, it's -- it's not
worth it because that's why we want to get rid of it --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Let me oversimplify the
question. Is there a used vehicle market anywhere in the universe?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Yes, there is.
MR. DORRILL: Specifically I'm sure that if we went out
to try and find a late 1980s Class A pumper that you can do that, if
-- if -- I'm sure if we solicited bids for a 1988 to 1990, you know,
Class A pumper with certain vehicle gross weights and that type of
thing, the answer is yes.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That's what I'm suggesting,
is this is a pretty healthy hit on the residents of Isles of Capri,
and I'm wondering if perhaps we could still achieve the objective of
getting a better piece of equipment but doing it at a little bit lower
cost than what we have.
MR. GRIFFIN: That's certainly something we could do.
We just haven't pursued that avenue yet, and I'm sure they're
available.
MR. FINN: Madam Chairman.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yes.
MR. FINN: As this particular expenditure relates to the
millage, the proposed down payment in this year's budget is coming
from reserves. They've built up over time which means acquiring a
truck in this year is going to be millage-neutral. If the board's
direction is to -- as they go forward with this proposed expenditure,
if the board direction is to simply include as an alternative to a new
truck, also looking at the used truck market, I think we can -- we can
-- you could give that direction and we can move on because at this
point it's not having a millage impact.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'd like to give that
direction.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I'll give that direction too.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'd like to -- In that case, the
direction is to look at the used market.
MR. FINN: And there's -- there's one additional thing
I'd like to point out here. This budget also includes $15,000 for the
acquisition of new 800 megahertz radio systems and that's -- that's in
conjunction with the board's -- board's direction to have the
independent and the dependent fire districts fund their own radios
rather than the general funds.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yes.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: So that 15,000 won't be there
next year? It's a one-time capital expense? MR. FINN: Yes.
MR. GRIFFIN: One-time capital expense for the Isles of
Capri's participation.
MR. FINN: And 83 percent of that is coming from
reserves they've built up over the last several years for capital
acquisitions.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COHMISSIONER NORRIS:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
MR. FINN: Very good.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you. Are we okay?
On page 14 is the Ochopee fire
budget, and the Ochopee chief is here. The Ochopee's current service
budget is -- is fairly neutral in terms of its millage impact. There
is an expanded service request, and that is for an additional
supervisory position to enhance community fire awareness and
prevention, and I think the chief will -- would like to elaborate on
that for you.
CHIEF DOERR: All right. Well -- Chief Vince Doerr,
Ochopee Fire Control, for the record. We're trying to apply for this
additional help or however you want to call it, we're referring to as
capital or whatever, to help in inspections and everything. As we
mentioned in the last meeting, we have to have prefire plans and
training and other things that are coming aboard like development of
Port of Isles where we've got to get better -- tighter on our
inspections yearly on our commercial, stuff like that for better ISO
ratings. We're waiting right now for Chokoloskee to finish up on
their hydrants. We're hoping to call the man down from the state and
get a new ISO rating which has been over ten years. We're at eight,
slash, nine. We're going to try for better than that.
So this man will help put together this and I think help
justify his position. Also -- which means a lot to me as he's a man
or woman aboard that will also be available day and night off duty 8
to 5 for calls. And that -- that means a lot to me in running this
thing for 20 years. The inspection part and all this will help
justify it but also the manpower we also need. Do y'all have any
questions so far?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I don't think so yet. Oh.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: One. Total calls have
actually gone down each year that you responded to, about 12 percent
from what's forecast this year since two years ago, and I'm wondering,
as it goes down why we need the extra body there to respond.
CHIEF DOERR: Well, that's -- that's hard to explain. I
mean, that's due mainly to brush fires. You know, it's been wet the
last few years. I mean, our day is coming. I would say most of that
is due to the brush fire parts. I don't think our auto wrecks and
everything are that far down or, you know, our medical and heart
attacks and all that which are ongoing all the time.
But with the last seasons we had and being wet, that is
true. I would agree there. But, like I said, besides the regular
on-call situation, you know, the part of the inspections and training
and all that, it would help in there.
We do not have anybody -- Right now we have a problem --
When I leave and go to the Harry King conference or if I go to
vacation to Georgia for nine days, right now we have to finagle around
and use lieutenants and this, that, and the other. It would be nice
to have a next man in line in charge. I mean, if I end up in the
hospital, we just would have to pick one of the lieutenants, and we
could make due. But most all departments have, you know, somebody
next in line. Right now I just have to exist with the three
lieutenants. We have one in each crew. So there's more, Mr.
Constantine, than -- you know, than just to cultivate my interest.
And we haven't hired anybody -- I don't know -- eight, ten years or
something, unless they refill, we have somebody and refill.
MR. DORRILL: I think the focus here was not so much on
the operating side but on the fire prevention side to do more post-CO
annual fire inspections and to create an inter-departmental training
program for the operating side as opposed to just adding another
firefighter because their -- their call volume is sort of a function
of automobile accidents on the Alley and on east 41 and essentially
what the brush fire season is. The -- The only question that I had
was, did specifically your fire board review this request; and if so,
what -- what was their position on it?
CHIEF DOERR: Yeah. We brought it up in a board meeting
at the point when I was making the budget, and we mentioned that. I
think at the last meeting we had a letter or in the minutes where our
board, you know, approved it at their level and for the advisory board
level as a necessity and need, yes.
MR. GRIFFIN: Yes, they did. And they submitted a
letter, and we have it here somewhere. We can get you copies of it if
you've never seen it, but they did endorse this additional position
for the Ochopee Fire Department.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. Dorrill, aren't we putting an
EHS unit in Everglades City?
MR. DORRILL: We already have.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's already there. Is it housed
in the same building that the --
CHIEF DOERR: Yes.
MR. DORRILL: At Everglades City, yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Everglades City. That's the --
the building behind the city hall there. I see that on this listing
here, that more than half of their calls are either rescue medical
calls or automobile wrecks which could also be medical calls. Are you
continuing to run jointly with the EHS on a medical call even though
it's housed in the same building you are?
CHIEF DOERR: Yes. We have a man -- when available, we
put one on board on the ambulance; as you know, the three-man -- or
three-person concept. If he's not on the ambulance, then he's the
only one on fire if he's needed to respond. So either our man is on
the ambulance with them, or if he's not, we're going to have one man
from that day, well, then that man will respond if needed, you know,
if needed. In other words, like the person is 400 pounds.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But -- But you're not taking a
brush truck or -- or -- or a pumper along with the EHS unit?
CHIEF DOERR: Only -- Only if a fireman's on the
ambulance for that day, the two EHS people and our man goes only,
sprained ankle, broken leg, whatever. If needed, he will still go.
The paramedic would justify or call for that, meaning that he's over
400 pounds and it takes four people to get him out. Okay? Kind of
the same thing I'm pretty sure they're doing in town so --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. In town they're just sending
pumpers whenever.
CHIEF DOERR: Well -- But if there's nobody on the
ambulance, one of our personnel and the two EHS leave, then they would
as -- he would go, you know, as required unless they know it's a
little cut hand or something like that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. I -- I just want to --
want to verify that your -- your -- your operating expenses for the
fire trucks and brush trucks and so forth is -- is -- is going down
because the EHS unit is there and you're not having to run dual units
so to speak.
CHIEF DOERR: Some. Yeah. I would say some.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You are still running some?
CHIEF DOERR: Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're still running
medical calls. All -- All other regs we both run. Okay?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, I can see that you may have
to because you've got the equipment on there.
CHIEF DOERR: Just -- Just -- Let's take a heart attack.
Okay? If their third man's on the ambulance, three of them go. If
they see needed, then we tail along with one from the firetruck if
needed, but we try to let the EHS part handle with the three people,
meaning our man on the truck or --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But it's not automatic? You don't
automatically run a -- CHIEF DOERR: No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- fire -- a piece of fire
equipment with the EHS?
CHIEF DOERR: No, unless as specified by the paramedic
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
CHIEF DOERR: -- as needed help.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. FINN: The other expanded request here, Madam
Chairman, is partial funding for the acquisition of 800 megahertz
radios for this department. They're not in the financial position in
order to be able to afford them all at once, and we're proposing a
two-year -- a two-year acquisition plan.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Are there other questions?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We're -- We're all comfortable
with the expanded service? I don't have any problem with it.
MR. FINN: Very good. On page 16 is the Collier County
Fire Control district. And, as you may know, this is a district that
incorporates areas of the county that aren't otherwise in a district.
The county levies two mills for this and distributes the proceeds from
that to the five fire districts that are under contract. The specific
amounts are shown on page 17. I'll go over those if you would like me
to.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
MR. FINN: Very good.
operations.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
Next.
Next page.
On page 18 is helicopter
Thank you, Chief Doeft.
HR. FINN: I will just make note real quick about the
performance measures. There has been an increase in all areas in
terms of response time, and that's associated with the movement to the
new hangar. The budget itself is on page 19. You'll also notice
there's a decrease there in the operating expense area. That's
attributable to the new fuel facility that is adjacent to the hangar
and the fuel savings that result from that facility. I also make note
to the capital expense reserve category which continues to include
$35,000 as a capital recovery amount for the eventual overhaul of the
-- the helicopter's engine.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Is that fuel tank in place yet?
MR. BOLTON: It was installed two days ago. Peter
Bolton, chief pilot.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Last time I was out there they
were still digging. So that's why I asked.
MR. BOLTON: It was installed two days ago, and we
filled the tank yesterday. COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I noticed that -- that the
personal services have gone up 5 1/2 percent. What's driving that
one?
MR. FINN: Allow me to respond to that. This -- This is
unusual in that this one has gone up a fairly significant amount while
most are neutral or 2 or 3 percent increase. In reviewing last year's
budget and how that was developed, it appears that I made an error in
not including certain adjustments to the salaries last year. I take
full responsibility for not budgeting properly this year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Second error today?
MR. FINN: Well, this got -- this is from a year ago so
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: This is coming out of your check,
Ed.
MR. FINN: It's just being reported today.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: He gets three, Mike, three
strikes. That's two.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Go ahead, Ed.
MR. FINN: So that -- that's the sole reason. This
year's budget is not correct; therefore, the percentage increase is
larger than it otherwise would be.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Thank you.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: It seems that our budget
department is fiddled with errors.
MR. FINN: There's also an increase in the overtime
budget. So while I'm taking responsibility for the math error, I
can't take responsibility for the need to increase overtime.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Don't try to cover up, Mr. Finn.
We know where the problem is.
MR. FINN: There is another savings in the operating
expense category. It's also associated with moving to the new hangar.
And, as a result of that movement, they are able to eliminate their
need for a fleet -- fleet vehicle because they're all on site at this
point in time.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: If you haven't been out there,
that's a great facility.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I presume the overtime increase
is -- the overtime is not to the point yet that it's warranting
another operator?
MR. BOLTON: No, it's not.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other questions?
MR. FINN: On page 20 --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. FINN: -- is the emergency medical service budget.
That actually runs through page 22. And Ms. Flagg is here, and she's
going to assist me in going through this budget. There were some
discretionary services that were approved by the board. Those
discretionary services include dedicated EHS paramedic units at
special events. It includes the addition of a Corkscrew area ALS unit
which at this point in time is also proposed to include a station
construction, and there is also the discretionary program of an S.R.
951, slash, Isles of Capri area ALS ambulance addition.
The budgets which you'll see on page 21 are at the top
-- Excuse me. Performance measures are shown at the top. These are
on every department budget. If you look at the total number of calls
for EHS service -- I'm sure Ms. Flagg is going to bring your attention
to this -- there's a sizable increase between '93 and the '94 actual
amounts that jump from 18,000 to 23,000. The '95 budget was
predicated on a planned response level of nineteen five. The forecast
at this point is for 24,000 calls.
Towards the bottom of this group of measurements, you
will receive four that are associated with the two -- two areas that
are proposed to be added. There's some Corkscrew area response
numbers. The estimated responses next year in that area is 375. With
the addition of that unit, the response time is estimated to be within
six minutes 90 percent of the time. The C.R. 951 Capri area, there
was an estimated three -- there will be an estimated 325 responses.
And, again, with the addition of that unit, the response time 90
percent of the time will be six minutes or less.
The budget itself, the current service portion is
actually revenue-neutral. I -- I believe there's actually a rollback
in the amount of ad valorem support when you just look at the current
service for this budget. The expanded request that I mentioned do
generate a 5.7 percent increase in the ad valorem portion. This
budget does not propose any changes to the EHS rate structure.
If there are any questions, I'll be happy to entertain
them. If Ms. Flagg has a brief presentation, perhaps the board would
entertain that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I had a question. A couple of
years ago we were talking about an assessment instead of ad valorem
support for the EHS and -- How -- How much further down the road are
we on that? Because I was under the impression that we were going in
that direction but were not yet ready to get there. Mr. Dotrill, can
you help me with that? The -- The -- Dr. Woodruff's proposal for an
assessment for EHS support as opposed to ad valorem? Because, again,
with ad valorem support for EHS, we -- we have the -- the same problem
where our -- our very low assessed dwelling units are also using EHS
services, but they're not providing their support toward the ad
valorem support of it.
MR. DORRILL: We had done -- Mr. Ijams had done an
analysis of that with the City of Naples approximately two years ago,
and at that time we -- we reached sort of a different compromise, if
you will, in terms of the location of units within the city. So I
remember us discussing it, and I remember there being a presentation
and a joint meeting, but we haven't done anything this year concerning
that. The board sort of tabled any further action on that. It's been
about two years ago.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I -- I -- I remember it
when it was and we -- I was under the impression a couple of years ago
that we -- we were contemplating moving toward this in order to get
100 percent of the residents of the county supporting the service as
MR. DORRILL: Not as I recall.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- as opposed to strictly ad
valorem.
MR. DORRILL: But there's -- there's nothing to prevent
us from reconsidering that as a part of our -- our work plan next year
or as part of the consideration for some type of consolidated district
because I think that may come up in conjunction with that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: How -- How many households are --
I mean, if -- I mean, what are we talking about? How many households
are there in the county roughly? I mean, I don't need an exact
number.
MR. DORRILL: I'll say 60,000.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: 60,000?
MR. DORRILL: I -- I could -- On a -- On a permanent
basis, there could certainly be more than that. You know, taking into
account hotel, motel, seasonal rental-type facilities it could be as
high as 80,000 if you take all those into account.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. It might be something
that, you know, we should have another discussion in a Tuesday meeting
or in a workshop though.
MR. DORRILL: I'll make a note of that.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I have a question for Hiss Flagg.
If I understand correctly, among other things, you're talking about
adding two services areas, a total of 14 paramedics, and you're doing
that with only 5.7 percent additional from the general fund?
MS. FLAGG: Yes, sir.
COHHISSIONER HANCOCK: Where's the rabbit?
MS. FLAGG: There's no rabbit. In the -- In the FY '93,
'94 budget year, we had the opportunity to instill a lot of measures,
more cost-efficiency measures, and the paramedics were successful in
achieving that; and, hence, we had about a half a million dollar
savings in total, and so that reduction in the overall millage rate
and the reduction for current service for ad valorem is a result of
that savings.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: We're using a good portion of
those savings this year. Are we going to see a hit to the general
fund -- general revenue fund next year if nothing is cut from this
budget?
MS. FLAGG: Those savings were able to make a
significant difference in lowering the millage rate, and next year you
will see a millage consistent with the current years with an obvious
increase if the medical needs continue to increase.
MR. FINN: Commissioner, if I -- if I may respond to
that, it is entirely possible that using one-time revenue source
generated from actual activities in '94 to offset ad valorem this
year, in all likelihood in FY '97 we would need to replace that with
ad valorem funding.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Let me ask Ms. Flagg of the 951
Capri service ALS, where would that be based?
MS. FLAGG: Right now there's three public safety
facilities that potentially it could be based. One is county owned or
county controlled, and the other two are controlled by independent
fire departments. But it is -- After looking at the call volume
there, one of those locations -- there's no need to further impact the
taxpayers by building another public safety facility, and so we are in
the process of working with the various departments to see where the
unit could be placed. One, the Isles of Capri unit is county
controlled. The other two would either be East Naples or Marco
Island.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. And the new facility on
Isles of Capri, does it have sufficient space available?
MS. FLAGG: My understanding -- I worked with the
previous chief who was very supportive of the idea, and, yes, he took
me through it, and it has -- it's a facility consistent with 24-hour
facilities.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Other questions? I think we're
done.
MR. FINN: Very good. Ms. Flagg, if you wouldn't mind
staying there for one minute. On page 23 is the EHS impact fee fund.
This is actually capital funds, but because it's so closely in line
with the EHS operation, we're -- we're seeing it here.
You will notice that the projects included here include
two ambulances to support the personnel in the fund 490 budget. Those
will be medium-duty ambulances. Estimated cost per unit is $100,000.
This also includes the construction of a station in the Corkscrew area
for the Corkscrew area unit. It includes equipment, $55,000 per unit
to equip those units adequately. It also includes funding for
helicopter repair maintenance parts which is part of the EHS impact
fee ordinance. All of these expenditures are fully funded by the
impact fee. All of these expenditures are justified according to
growth; and, therefore, they apply in this fund.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Mentioning helicopter repair
maintenance takes me back to another question. By increasing these
two service areas, is there a likelihood of reducing the flights from
Marco to Naples Community on the helicopter side, or do you think that
demand will stay the same or even increase?
MS. FLAGG: I wish I could say that the medical calls
would stop increasing, but I perceive based upon our numbers that the
calls are going to remain pretty consistent --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: But these two stations --
MS. FLAGG: -- the demand on the helicopter.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. These two stations aren't
going to change the demand on the helicopter from Marco?
MS. FLAGG: They -- They may slightly, but I don't
expect it to have a significant impact.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. Dorrill, the -- the -- I hear
-- I have heard discussion for several years now of the sheriff
wanting a substation out in the Corkscrew area as well or in northern
Golden Gate Estates. Is this going to be a -- this -- MS. FLAGG: Joint.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- building a joint effort --
MS. FLAGG: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- so that we get economies of
scale and --
MS. FLAGG: We have met with the sheriff's office and
their capital projects personnel, and they are not interested. They
said right now their needs are not out in that area this year but
probably next year. So we are working on a design that will
accommodate an addition so that our whole facility is going to be
designed to be a joint facility from the initial planning stages.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Similar to North Naples.
MR. DORRILL: Without -- Without the architectural
review controls that were imposed on us there. COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Gottcha.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I could tell you a story on that
one .
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: We don't have time.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. FINN: You mean all the EMS facilities aren't built
with tennis courts in the back yard? CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Not all.
MR. FINN: If the board pleases, we can move on to page
24 which is the -- which is the EMS trust fund. There are several
expenditures forecast this year. They're all items that the board has
seen and seen fit to support through a transfer from fund 490. They
include pediatric child restraining seats, EKGs, and other medical
equipment. The FY '96 proposed budget is -- represents 100 percent
grant from the state for EMS expenditures and they're budgeted for --
for the purchase of additional medical equipment. I think we're done
with the emergency services --
MS. FLAGG: Thank you, Commissioners.
MR. FINN: -- portion of support services.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's correct. On page 25 --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you, Miss Flagg.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: On pages 25 and 26 is the support
services administration, Mr. Ochs' budget. The spreadsheet of the
proposed budget FY '96 is on page 26, overall a 2.3 percent increase
in appropriations, just two positions, no expanded services proposed.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any questions? I don't think
anybody has any questions. Thank you, Mr. Ochs.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Pages 27 and 28 are the budgets for the
public affairs office. Of note in the forecast is the planned -- at
this point, planned replacement of its postage equipment for the mail
room. Overall appropriations in FY '96 increased one-tenth of 1
percent. Operating expenses were reduced $3,100 for repairs. The
existing equipment is very old and is expensive to repair at this
point based on the planned replacement postage equipment as a result
of the operating budget is reduced for repairs of said equipment.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I don't think there's any
questions.
MS. BRUBAKER: No questions?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No questions. Thank you, Hiss
Brubaker.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Pages 29, 30, and 31 looks like the
proposed budget for the human resources department in FY'96. Page 31
is the budget spreadsheet. Overall a 1.4 percent decrease in total
appropriations. You will note an increase in operating expenses, and
that's associated with additional funds required for physicals and
drug testing which was implemented this year due to a change in --
change in law in that regard. Additional funds for employment
advertising and data processing development charges for improvements
to what is the -- the human resources module of our integrated
financial and budget system. If there are no --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Mr. Dorrill, are there any
changes to this subject to recent county manager action such as Mr.
Day being moved and those kind of things?
MR. DORRILL: None that are immediately necessary. I
haven't seen the final PARs and salary changes and whatnot, but if --
if and when we process that paperwork that we need to come back and
advise you of any changes, I -- I'll do it. I just have not needed to
do it.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: This increased drug testing, is
that increases in -- are we doing random tests?
MR. DORRILL: No. I'll -- I'll let --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- after employment or only
pre-employment?
MR. DORRILL: I'll let Mr. Whitecotton give you the
current status of random testing under some federal case law that --
that is there, but we do require -- require prescreening of any
prospective employee.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I knew we did that.
MR. WHITECOTTON: Tom Whitecotton. Yeah. Really what
we're doing is pre-employment drug testing for all applicants before
they're considered for employment. As the manager mentioned, under
the new employee testing act, those individuals whose positions
require a CDL, there is a random both alcohol and drug testing
component which requires us to test 50 percent of all eligible
positions over a year. We've implemented that several months ago, and
that will continue, you know, throughout the next fiscal year. We did
not budget or anticipate that last year when we put this together, and
that's why we're indicating additional monies in that pre-employment
exams category which really covers that drug testing provision.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What's a CDL?
MR. WHITECOTTON: Commercial driver's license.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. DORRILL: It has to do with operating certain types
of heavy equipment. Those are the only instances where you can -- can
do random testing; however, we reserve the right to do testing for any
individual that we have reason to believe or suspect substance abuse,
and we do that at our discretion and have done it -- we -- we probably
do it half a dozen times a year.
MR. OCHS: Again, but that is a federal mandate that we
do at least 50 percent of the employees that fall into those driving
categories, so it's not a discretionary random testing in that regard.
We must do at least 50 percent of the eligible drivers.
MR. DORRILL: And it's my understanding we are precluded
under federal law from just taking amongst normal office workers and
do spot, random checks. You have to have a suspicion of substance
abuse in order to test someone post-hiring. You cannot just do random
testing.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How is it Mr. Carlton does
his program?
MR. DORRILL: He does not.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: It's a volunteer, though, isn't
it? I mean, it's a drug-free workplace, and they have to sign a
consent when they -- I mean, I know a little bit about how drug-free
workplaces work.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: He does do some because
during Red Ribbon Week this --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Yeah, he does.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- year he gathered a group
of public and private employers together to try to come up with some
sort of system to encourage countywide.
MR. DORRILL: I -- I know that he has -- has been
required to change his former program. And, again, Mr. Whitecotton,
if you can shed some light on that. But he may have even had some
action against him that has resulted in a change. I don't -- I don't
have the details on how he may be doing voluntary testing.
MR. WHITECOTTON: I believe he has made it mandatory,
but in the public sector you really cannot require individuals to go
through random testing, again aside from this recent legislation. I
know that he has sought legal advice in terms of retooling the
program. I really don't know the status of the program at this point,
but, yes, there is another look at it.
MR. DORRILL: When you say "mandatory," is he testing
annually everyone that works for him?
MR. OCHS: I believe Commissioner Hac'Kie was correct
when she said what -- what he's got over there is voluntary compliance
by all of his people to go ahead and -- and be tested. But if -- if
one of those were to object on a legal basis, my understanding from
the County Attorney's Office is that there's been an Attorney
General's opinion that said mand -- random testing for that category
of employee without reasonable suspicion is not legal.
MR. DORRILL: So he -- he has voluntary compliance as
opposed to random spot-checking unannounced of employees?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I think so.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Perhaps we ought to inquire
of our employees if they'd be willing to volunteer on a similar
program.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I -- I think I would like to see
the results of what is going on over there and -- and what legally can
or can't be done because I -- I would encourage pursuing that.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That's probably a policy
discussion for another day, but it's something -- MR. DORRILL: Voluntary.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- we may want to pursue.
MR. DORRILL: Some type of voluntary --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: It sounds that involuntary is not
an option and -- you know, so it leaves voluntary.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'm interested in looking at the
drug-free workplace program and that includes -- necessitates
volunteers.
MR. OCHS: We are pursuing that through the state
worker's compensation act, and when Mr. Walker comes up a little bit
later, we can talk a little bit more about that if you'd like.
MR. DORRILL: There are really no other issues, but this
is where I told you the other day I wanted to -- to at least make you
aware of some good news on the employee pay and benefits side. This
year, as you're aware, we budgeted a 3 1/2 percent cost of living
adjustment that will be effective on October the 1st. Also this year
the board's premium for the group health insurance has decreased
approximately $700,000. And if you can hold or write down two numbers
in your heads, under -- under this year, the board is currently paying
for about $6,200 worth of the total cost of insurance for the employee
and their dependents, and the employee is currently paying about
$1,100. That's what was budgeted. Because of the reduction in our
total premium, because of our managed health care agreement with
Naples Community Hospital and the physicians and, frankly, a little
better utilization, the amount's next year being decreased by about
$900 for the premium. The tentative budget has been prepared with all
of that benefit accruing to the employer in this case. When I told
you I was going to ask you to at least consider it, I think it would
certainly help. I'm not talking about adding a new benefit, but I'm
talking about trying to prorate the savings that are accruing this
year. And, for example, the tentative budget has been put together
with the board paying next year approximately $5,320 of the cost of
the insurance and the employee paying 1,080. An alternative that I
would like for you to consider -- it would at least send a -- I think
a strong morale increase to the staff, would be to prorate the savings
and to consider $5,600 for the county commission and $800. Again,
those are significant decreases over -- over this year's premium rate,
but because there are some one-time savings of about $700,000, you
could at least share that with the employees, and I think that's
something that needs to be considered. Otherwise, the budget has been
tentatively prepared the way that I stated it.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: On the surface I'm supportive of
that for the simple reason that the employee becomes a part of whether
they -- of the rate they pay. In other words, if they manage their
own health insurance requests and approach -- in other words, they
don't abuse the system, particularly since we're partially
self-insured -- I think they need to see a reward for that, see a
reduction in their rate. It would encourage them to continue managing
themselves. So I would like to see us pursue that in some form to --
to give the employee something back for not abusing the insurance
program.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'd like --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I agree with that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'd like to see something a
little bit different because if we're talking about -- I don't know --
$90, how -- how much is it we deduct from the employee's pay for
health insurance? I know it varies with the program.
MR. DORRILL: On the average the $300 deductible which
is the average program, my understanding is it's about an
$1,100-a-year premium for the employee.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: For the employee. What -- I
think what I would like to see is a -- is a mix between the $1,100
deduction on the employee's health insurance and the 3 1/2 percent
salary increase because if -- if we increase their salary 3 1/2
percent but at the same time reduce their -- their reductions or
deductions for health insurance, the difference in that is going to be
increased taxes for all of us, and I think I'd like to see some sort
of a mix of decreasing their contribution to their health insurance
even more but reducing the salary increase to compensate for it.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Is that a discussion that we need
to be engaging in today?
MR. DORRILL: I need to make you aware of it today, and
if you want to see some -- some options concerning the way that we're
going to budget the $700,000 savings, we -- we sort of need some
instruction there before you go off on vacation.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I agree with both of you. I
think we need to try to take care of the employee. One concern I have
-- Mr. Dotrill, the one concern I have is my understanding is this is
the first year where we've seen a decrease in costs, in several years
anyway. We've seen a stepped increase each year. And I'd hate to
have this be an aberration and have next year bumped back up and all
of a sudden we -- we are penalizing those employees. We won't be, but
that's how it will be perceived. If there's a cut this year, next
year if all of a sudden we need to have their burden go back up, I
don't want the perception to be that we're hitting them hard.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Agreed. The step may not need to
be 100 percent of the savings. It may need to be a part of that but I
think the --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: But I agree with the concept.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yeah. The self-insured portion,
the idea is individual responsibility results in individual lower
rates, and that's an attractive part.
MR. DORRILL: I don't disagree, but they will perceive
it as a one-year morale boost. And what I'm saying is, if you want us
to consider it, your premium next year, budgeted premium would
decrease by $600. Their budgeted premium would decrease by
approximately $200 and it's -- it's admitted -- the way -- Since we're
self-funded for insurance, we -- you know, it is a direct reflection
of our loss experience and our ability to control our costs, and if it
goes up next year, then the employees are going to have to see that
big swing.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How much does all that equal
when you add that up? That's the $700,000 -- MR. DORRILL: Yes, sir.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- is the 800 per -- Okay.
MR. DORRILL: I'm using some averages here because based
on family size and the deduction level that they -- they choose, you
get three different plans, and I'm using the average plan to try and
keep the discussion simple.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: I think the worst thing we could
do is not to reward them for managing the system. We have to do just
what Commissioner Hancock said.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I -- I'd still like to introduce
the idea and maybe -- maybe Mr. Dorrill needs to do some more work on
this. But -- But the average payroll benefits tax-wise, worker's
comp, unemployment, the whole bit, is about 15 percent, and if we take
that $700,000 and -- and work some balance between the salary increase
and the -- and the hospitalization deduction, there's a potential
there to save $105,000 in just simply payroll taxes.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: For God's sake, I mean --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And I don't know what that
balance should be.
COMHISSIONER NORRIS: Well, the problem with that is
that everybody gets a 3 1/2 percent salary increase but not everybody
uses medical services and you're -- now -- now you start picking and
choosing who's going to get benefits, and that's the problem with
that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Is this an item that we can have
a discussion on at a later date?
MR. DORRILL: I think what I need to know today -- The
tentative budget was prepared because we had not had a chance to talk
about this with you as the employer getting all of the benefit of the
one-year savings, and I'm saying from a morale perspective, I would
like for us to consider some type of shared one-year savings and what
is that windfall of $700,000.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The share then being the
equivalent of roughly $175,000 difference? MR. DORRILL: Approximately.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That would be one-fourth of
the --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Out of the 700. I -- I think the
direction I'm hearing from the board is we want to -- to share it with
the employees, and if Commissioner Matthews is right that there's a
way to do that and pay the feds less money, then please also do that.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I just want to make sure the
employee realizes some gains in self-managing a system. That's my
goal.
MR. DORRILL: So that -- So that I understand, I think
what Ms. Matthews is saying is that perhaps we should award a 3
percent cost of living adjustment but reduce the employee premium for
insurance -- this is just a hypothetical -- to $200.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Right.
MR. OCHS: I should point out, though, that under the
scenario that we're talking about, right now the board funds the
employee health insurance at 100 percent. So all of these deductions
or these savings in employee contributions are only for those
employees that have dependent coverage. So, you know, in fairness to
the single employees, we need to point out that -- that they're not
getting any benefit potentially --
MR. DORRILL: To be fair, then we -- we would have to
have a -- sort of a tiered system. If you only have single coverage,
then maybe you would get 3 1/2 percent. But if you -- if you had
dependent health insurance and withholding to pay your portion of the
premium for that, then we'd -- I agree. We need to have a fair
system.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Are you comfortable with the
direction then?
MR. DORRILL: I think so.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It appears the majority of
the board wants to -- MR. DORRILL: And you will need to adopt that by
resolution in advance of October the 1st.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I've got no problem with the
tiered system. I -- I -- I want it to be fair, but we have a
potential to save some tax money, and I just as soon keep it here than
spend it there.
MR. DORRILL: I understand. My rationale being if we
can help share this with the employees in some way, that -- that would
be a good morale booster for them.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Absolutely.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Next item.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: At this point, obviously with the bulk
of the budget set, I would prefer not to have to change personal
services on a global scale.
MR. DORRILL: My -- My suggestion would be for us to --
to do an adjustment to reserves rather than try and go back and change
every single budget --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Oh, yeah.
MR. DORRILL: -- by some teeny little fractional amount
based on changes.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: No. No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. Whatever -- Whatever we work
out as being a fair method, let's -- let's run it through reserves.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That is fine.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: And, of course, the most
difficult way for Mr. Smykowski to adopt that would be the route we
want to take.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Whatever is keeping him here
working the longest.
MR. DORRILL: Are we on to real property now?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: We're on to real property.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Real property.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Real property is on page 32 and 33. The
spreadsheet is on 33. Overall there's a four-tenths of 1 percent
decrease. Obviously here this is one place you'll note in -- in the
forecast area with the actual cost of health insurance savings of
$12,300, personal services FY '96 reflects a two-tenths of 1 percent
decrease.
COMHISSIONER NORRIS:
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK:
COMHISSIONER NORRIS:
to see.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK:
Next.
Good job. Next page.
That's the kind of budget we like
Yep.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Page 34 is the GAC land trust fund.
Overall appropriations here are down 13.1 percent. That is due to a
decrease in anticipated land sales and available carry-forward -- a
reduction of available carry-forward revenue. We're assuming $90,000
in land sales. There's only small tracts of land in more remote
areas. I believe we are land-banking the larger parcels in
anticipation of future appreciation. Correct me if I'm wrong.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: How many parcels of land do we
still have south of 75?
MS. TAYLOR: Sandra Taylor, for the record. We don't
have any property south of 75.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's all been turned over to the
state?
MS. TAYLOR: It's all been turned over this past year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: What is this sixty-seven four
for architectural -- architectural fees for the Golden Gate Estates?
MS. TAYLOR: That was for the park design, Golden Gate
Estates Park. The GAC trust contributed money for that.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Each of the items is approved by
separate board action in terms of under the forecast area. They bring
forth a proposal through the advisory committee and to the board.
MS. TAYLOR: Correct.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Next.
MS. TAYLOR: Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Page 35 and 36 is the purchasing
department. Overall here there is a 17 percent increase. Your net
cost to general fund revenue though decreases 3.4 percent. The large
increase in operating is a function of changing and how disbursements
to the auctioneers are handled. We now budget the auctioneer
commissions as an expense and the full net revenues received from
surplus sales. This allows greater control over cash. We had a
problem, obviously, with the disbursement to the auctioneer
previously. As a result of this change, we feel we'll have better
control over cash disbursements.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So your -- your overall
operating expenses, then, have gone down?
MR. CARNELL: Correct. Well, I'm sorry. No. The -- the
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Can you identify yourself?
MR. CARNELL: -- percentage of general -- I'm sorry.
For the record, Steve Camell, purchasing director. The percentage of
general revenues has been reduced because we're introducing a new
revenue source for the vendor subscription service. So that's going
to reduce the amount of general revenue.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Steve, the auctioneer commission is
offset by budgeting surplus sale revenues, and that in addition there
is a part-time purchasing technician proposed to initiate the vendor
subscription service. They provide a range of information regarding
conducting business with the county.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Excuse me, Mike. That will more
than pay for itself, Steve?
MR. CARNELL: Yes. That's what we're showing. If you
look at the net cost general revenues line, you see that deficit.
That's the reduction in impact on ad valorem.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: A 6,000 percent increase in
revenues is -- is positive.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Next.
MR. DORRILL: Facilities.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Facilities is page 37 through 39.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Maybe we should skip facilities.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I have two questions on it.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: It's early but it's late.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. Let's get it moving.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Page 38 is the facilities management
proposed budget. Overall appropriations are up 14.1 percent. That --
That includes a number of expanded services. I will note on the
permanent position count there are 26 in the adopted budget. Under
current service 1996, there are only 24. That is based on two
community telephone technician positions which will be included as
part of the information technology department effective October 1st.
In terms of highlights in terms of increased operating
expenses, there's an additional $16,600 for new facilities being added
to the custodial contract as well as a cost-of-living adjustment in
that contract, an additional $9,800 in the grounds maintenance
contract for a cost-of-living adjustment there, an additional 44,300
for new properties being added to the contract. Under maintenance
services, there's additional contracted services such as coil
cleaning, UPS service contracts, et cetera, that add $57,300. Under
expanded services there is up --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Skip, could you explain these
first two under expanded services, the project manager and the
craftsman?
MR. CAMP: Yes. For the record, Skip Camp. The project
manager is to manage the 35 -- actually, it's 40 contractors now. Our
-- Our direction was to start contracting out as many things over the
last three years. We -- We have 40 contractors now, and he will rider
over those contractors.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Nobody currently doing that?
MR. CAMP: No. Well, we do it but not very much. We're
really tight with the personnel. And the other one is the two
craftsmen position, and that is right now -- As you know, we have one
trades worker for every 45,000 square feet of space. We're trying to
get that down. That's one thing. The other thing is a response time
to both routine work orders and emergency work orders. The two --
These two positions will be used to reduce the response time which is
just under a day for emergencies. If -- If you had a mobile trailer
and the air-conditioner went out, a typical response is -- is eight
hours to get there. We want to bring that down to a four-hour
response time for emergencies.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You're going to bring that down
to four hours --
MR. CAMP: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- response?
MR. CAMP: What we plan to do is to cross-train these
two positions in air-conditioning and plumbing because those things
have to be done acutely.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: I just asked if a firetruck
responds with you each time. MR. CAMP: No.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: In addition to that, there's also
$58,400 for inspection and certification of the water-based fire
protection systems; $28,000 in contract building maintenance services
due to the additional facilities being on line; $29,000 for a base
station and 20 hand-held 800 megahertz radios; and $10,000 for the
purchase of a compactor-dumpster.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Are these 800 megahertz -- are
these our old administrative 800 system? This will be the new
sheriff's system? MR. CAMP: Yes.
MR. DORRILL: These will be deferred in part of the new
purchase.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. So are we sure we need to
budget them -- Do we need to budget these this fiscal year? Because
we're looking at almost a full fiscal year before this thing comes on
line.
MR. CAMP: My understanding is that by November these
things could come on line -- COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Really?
MR. CAMP: -- according to John Daly.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: This November?
MR. CAMP: We're hoping. That's my understanding.
MR. DORRILL: I believe that -- it's sort of a
two-phase. The first phase of 800 -- of 800 to replace our
administrative system, you know, the facility. The second phase of
that is the emergency service aspect of the system but we'll -- we'll
verify that.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Under -- On the previous
page, you mentioned the cost of living adjustment for grounds
maintenance, and I'm just curious. On grounds maintenance, I was
thinking -- out here a good example of the entryway and exit onto 41
where we beautify that general area there -- MR. CAMP: By the signs?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I understand there are
certain seasonal flowers and plants and such. It appears and -- and I
don't know much about horticulture or agriculture or -- COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Flower culture.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Floraculture. But it seems
we lose some things in there that are not just the seasonal flowers.
When I drive by and they're in there doing their work every three
months or however often we change that out, when they pull the flowers
or pull the whatever is going -- it appears they pull things that are
green year-round.
MR. CAMP: In the flower beds, we try to have the
annuals for about eight months if we can. And sometimes because we
try to expand that as long as we can, they'll take out the ones that
are kind of -- that are -- that are pretty torn up, and typically we
should probably only go about six months with those. We try to just
go a little longer, and so you'll see them take out some -- what
appear to be annuals, but they're on their last leg.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: We don't as a -- as a rule
then just pull everything that's there? MR. CAMP: No, sir.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: My question then -- we talked
about the sundanians. (phonetic) You know, I think the campus here
looks better than it ever has, and I commend you for that. But just
as when I was doing my yard, annuals would have been nice, but the
maintenance on them is a pain, so I went to an annual flowering plant
like a pinto or -- you know, there are other things out there that
flower year-round that are less maintenance, less costly, that kind of
thing. To maybe offset a cost of living increase, you know, maybe we
need to look at replacing annuals with -- with flowers that -- that,
you know, that bloom year-round.
MR. DORRILL: We can do that. The current bid requires
him to put like I'll say impatiens in the fall and marigolds or some
other type of annual, but pintos -- and I know that Pelican Bay
service district has gone to pintos and more permanent-type flowering
plants.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I just think there's less costly
attractive plants out there that we need to invest in.
MR. CAMP: We actually at one time went to a Mexican
heather, and then there was some criticism that it was not enough
color because we use them pretty sparsely. At the two entrances and a
couple of the high-profile areas --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Right.
MR. CAMP: -- we do use them but not like some of these
major developments like Pelican Bay.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I don't know what the extent
we're doing it --
MR. CAMP: We can look at that. Absolutely.
MR. DORRILL: We can look at that. I don't know whether
the -- the contractor has a different line item in there but that's --
that would be a negotiated item, and if we can do it a little cheaper,
We Ca~.
MR. CAMP: Absolutely.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Any other questions?
Sounds like we're done, Skip. Thank you. MR. DORRILL: Fleet.
MR. FINN: Edward Finn, budget office. On page 40
you'll see the beginning of the fleet management budget. The fleet
operations run through page 42. On page 40 you'll see a significant
number of workload and performance indicators. These -- These would
assist the board in kind of making some kind of judgment or having
some impression of the workload and some of the performance that's
being provided in fleet management. On page 41 there's some more
direct ratio-type performance measures and the actual operating
budget.
In general, this budget is down significantly. Without
going through every plus and minus, the reason this budget is down is
because of the privatization of the landfill and the fleet management
no longer being responsible for the feeding and -- feeding and
repairing of that equipment. So that is basically the thrust of why
this budget is reduced.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other questions?
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: We all have our mouths full.
MR. DORRILL: Do we have the answer to the probation
pickup truck caper from the other afternoon? The annual problem with
the state's annual contracts, can we shed any light on that?
MR. PUCHER: For the record, Dan Pucher, fleet
management director. There's a product shortage with General Motors.
When we ordered new vehicles from Chevrolet, the cut-off date for 1995
model year was January 25. We ordered that S-10 for probation on
January 6. Subsequently they have told us that there's a severe
shortage, and automatic transmissions is the major component. At this
point, I can't order any more '95s and I -- I can't order any '96s as
of yet either. So I'm waiting for them to catch up. General Motors
has had an outstanding year, but they have a tremendous shortage of
product.
MR. OCHS: We've got about 13 vehicles that are in this
type of situation on back-order so to speak. This is the only one
where there's a -- there's a driver kind of waiting. The rest of them
are replacing older equipment that's just remaining in service until
the back-order production period is met.
We've looked at alternative vendors. We've even called
other dealers off of lots to see if they have vehicles on the lots and
they don't. We looked at other manufacturers. They're a little more
expensive, some as much as two to $3,000 more, and we've made the
judgment in conjunction with the operating department as long as
they've got a vehicle that's still running, it's not worth spending
that extra money. We'll wait until the backlog order comes in.
Unfortunately, in the case of probation, that's a new --
that's a new vehicle request, and apparently an employee had been
using their private vehicle and getting reimbursement, and now they
have changed to a request for a county vehicle. So that person is
still waiting for the initial vehicle to come in. It sounds a little
crazy but that -- that is the situation right now.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Could -- Could this person that's
waiting for this truck be using a pool vehicle?
MR. DORRILL: We don't really have any pool vehicles
anymore. We did that a number of years ago to eliminate the un --
what they call the unassigned pool, and while there -- there may be --
What's -- What is the unassigned pool at this point? I'll say it's
maybe two or three vehicles.
MR. PUCHER: Well, we have about seven, but they're out.
MR. OCHS: Checked out almost every day. What we might
do, though, Commissioners, when -- if we have a vehicle that comes out
of service, we might be able -- or if we have one that's been out of
service now waiting for the next auction, we might be able to get one
in shape enough to run on an interim basis.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Waiting for the auction?
MR. OCHS: Right. Right.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Big black spray paint blotches on
the side?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I assume -- I assume if they
have been using their own vehicle being reimbursed prior to that,
that's probably still the case now. As long as they're being
reimbursed --
MR. OCHS: Yes.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: -- it should be all right.
MR. OCHS: I would suspect that's the case.
MR. DORRILL: Is -- I wanted you to have an answer to
your question about where the pickup truck is, and it's a function of
us only buying off the state contract and a particular problem in
back-orders with the manufacturer who has that class of vehicle.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: And if we were to vary from the
state contract, you're saying it's two to $3,000 additional per
vehicle?
MR. PUCHER: It's not -- I'm sorry. It's not state
contract. We're getting bids. We get a bid each time, and we have an
agreement with all the person -- all the vendors. It's -- It's the
same case if I were to buy a state contract or not. I -- We can't get
those vehicles.
MR. OCHS: But when we called other -- other dealers or
other manufacturers on average for comparable vehicle, in this case
anyhow was two to 2,500 more than this one. So we decided to wait as
long as they -- Host of them already had a vehicle that they were
using or being reimbursed for their private vehicle.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Any other questions?
MR. FINN: On page 41 is the -- I'm sorry.
COHHISSIONER HANCOCK: Is that three, Ed?
MR. FINN: 43, motor pool capital recovery fund. You'll
also notice here that -- Commissioner Norris had -- had some good
questions about the average life of the vehicles being replaced, and
the fleet management staff has added significantly to the number of
performance measures in an effort to answer -- answer that question.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Overall here appropriations are up 55.8
percent. This year we are edging up -- we are anticipating a total of
49 vehicles scheduled to be replaced. Included is the purchase of
four medium-duty ambulances at an estimated cost of $400,000.
Obviously you'll note on the expense side, our capital outlay has gone
up significantly this year, a component of which is a transition to
these medium-duty ambulance types which while -- with a higher initial
cost but with a longer life in terms of chassis and engine, et cetera.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Are there questions? I guess
not. Next one.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Page 45 and 46 is the beginning of our
risk management funds. On page 46 is the proposed budget for FY '96
for our property and casualty insurance. Overall there's an 8.2
percent increase in appropriations. Mr. Walker is in operating
expenses. The bulk of the increase is there, and that is reflective
of anticipated increases in budgeted insurance premiums and which are
10.8 percent above FY '95 forecast levels.
In addition, one change that Mr. Walker has made, in
prior years we've utilized outside attorneys to -- to pursue claims
here. We're using the County Attorney's Office as a result here, and
proposed payments to the County Attorney's Office is $114,600.
However, that is offset by a corresponding reduction in the property
and casualty claims of which a significant component in prior years
was actually payments to the attorneys in pursuing those and resolving
those claims.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Questions? Next page.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Page 47 and 48 is the group health and
life insurance self-insurance fund. There's a 13.5 percent increase
in appropriations. There's a -- This fund is particularly strong in
terms of where its proposed reserves are at, et cetera, in terms of
actuarial funding. Conversely, though, in the work comp fund, Mr.
Walker, there are some issues there in terms of adequate reserves per
the actuarial studies. So what is proposed in FY '96 is a transfer
from the group health fund to the work comp fund of $1.7 million and
that -- that basically gets reserves much closer to where -- to
actuarial studies reflect that they should be and that -- that is not
really a function of current claim expenses but actually what the
actual anticipated cost of offsetting claims that have been incurred
from prior years is now estimated to be. Is that --
MR. WALKER: That's correct. Jeff Walker, risk
management director.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. Dorrill -- Mr. Dorrill, under
health claims --
MR. DORRILL: Page 48?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. You were just telling us
it was a $700,000 savings of which were budgeted to the county's
budget for these and I only see -- the only difference I see between
'94 and '95 budget is $100,000.
MR. WALKER: What we are reducing is actually an amount
that is budgeted within every departmental budget for health
insurance. That is not the amount that I have been charging. I'm
been charging about 14 percent less than that in terms of actual
rates. And so what we had proposed to do this year was to reduce the
amount that's actually budgeted down to what I actually charge because
basically it doesn't need to be there. And so that's where the
$700,000 figure is --
MR. DORRILL: Simply put, rather -- he journal-entries
the money out of every individual departmental budget, and so they're
being invoiced on a monthly basis for their premium. And in
recognizing that he had savings, he has reduced the amount that he has
journal-entried. That may be too simplified a statement but my --
MR. OCHS: That's basically it. As the experience
improved, we decided not to keep going at the budgeted rate if we
didn't need that amount of money. So we would go at the appropriate
rate instead of building up an even larger budget reserve in the group
health fund. That way the operating departments wouldn't see a larger
unnecessary monthly budget or -- excuse me -- monthly invoice for
their health insurance clause.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, I'm thoroughly confused
because this is only showing a $100,000 budgeted difference. I mean,
if I've -- if I've misunderstood, somebody tell me.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Those revenues include the employee
contribution. That is why you do not see a more significant decrease
from the budgeted billings.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: But if we reduce those employee
contributions, are we going to be able to meet the $5.4 million in
health claims? Is that it in a nutshell?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. I mean, we're -- we were
just being told a half hour ago that there was $700,000 worth of
savings and that under the -- under the budget we have in front of us,
all $700,000 of it was allocated to the county's share, to the
employer's share.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I only see $100,000 here.
MR. OCHS: Well, where you're seeing that reduction is
in all the operating budgets. Instead of the operating departments
budgeting annual premiums at -- at a $6,200-per-year level, they've
been instructed in their budget instructions to budget at a lower
level. That's why you're seeing the small increments in personal
services increases by and large in all the operating budgets. So,
again, this is an internal service fund. All the money that you see
in this fund comes from charge-backs to all of the -- the client
operating departments.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But wouldn't -- I'm -- I'm sorry.
But money in and money out -- if it's an internal fund and it's
money that's circulating through all these different budgets, the
money coming in should be seven hundred thou -- The budgeted money
coming in should be $700,000 less than the budget last year.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: I believe Mr. Walker can respond to
this.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I mean, this is the in, and the
other budgets have been the out. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So the in doesn't match.
MR. WALKER: In essence, what's occurred is the amount
that's actually budgeted in the various departmental budgets is
$700,000 higher than what I actually charge. This is what I actually
charge, and what we did in this year's budget is reduce what we
budgeted individual departments down to what I actually charge.
That's where you get the $700,000.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Show me a line item where
that appears.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So it's not -- It's not a real
savings.
MR. WALKER: It wouldn't even show up in my budget.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's not real money.
MR. WALKER: It would show up in the other departmental
budgets. That's why you're seeing --
MR. FINN: What -- What -- What Mr. Walker is saying is,
while he has adjusted his revenue budget for the savings that have
occurred this year, the individual department budgets were not
adjusted in the same manner. MR. WALKER: Right.
MR. DORRILL: This year's budgets. They were -- They
were approved at the forecast premium rates, and as we realized that
our -- our actual experience was going to be less than that, he
reduced the invoicing, if you will. MR. WALKER: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I understand that and -- and --
and -- and I understand that you've charged the individual departments
$700,000 less than what they budgeted for. MR. DORRILL: Correct.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And that this year they have
adjusted their budgets downward. MR. WALKER: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Now, does that -- does -- Does
that mean then that we have actually increased -- we're rolling that
money through the reserves for the individual departments? Is that
what we're doing?
MR. FINN: No. It will show up at the fund level as an
additional carry-forward because the money was saved this year, but we
can demonstrate by looking at the expenditure side only how much was
budgeted total, how much is forecast, and how much is projected for
next year, and the savings that Mr. Dotrill is referring to is the
savings on the expense side, what was budgeted on the expense side to
pay these premiums versus what was forecast -- that is, the actual
expenditures to pay these premiums versus what's proposed for next
year to actually pay those premiums. That is where we can demonstrate
the savings and can demonstrate the savings.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, now, wait a minute now. If
the -- If the forecasted expenditure in the risk management is only
$100,000 less than last year --
MR. SHYKOWSKI: I think I can -- I understand.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- but -- but last year we
budgeted -- you know, somewhere there's money sitting here somewhere,
and I just want to know where it is. We've got a difference of
$600,000, and last year we charged the department $700,000 more than
we budgeted. That tells me --
MR. DORRILL: It would be in the reserve account for the
various funds. The EHS reserve is going to be that much higher
because we do not allow people to spend money for insurance. They
can't move it out of the insurance that he would otherwise
journal-entry and move it down into furniture or subscription in dues.
We restrict the movement of that type of money. So when EHS got to
the end of the year, their carry-forward would have been higher
because their actual billings for insurance were reduced.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I think all I'm trying to say is
that last year we budgeted -- we budgeted $700,000 more than we needed
to budget for the various departments, and we knew it at the time that
we did it; is that not right?
MR. WALKER: Well, I don't -- I don't necessarily say I
would agree with that. I mean, you know, hindsight is always better
than foresight.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Did you -- Did you charge the
department $700,000 more than you budgeted you were going to have to
spend?
MR. FINN: No. They were not charged -- They budgeted
more than ultimately was required to pay these premiums. The
departments have not been charged. All of those savings --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. We're talking pure
budgets. Okay. What I'm saying is that last year we budgeted in the
various departments $700,000 more than Mr. Walker knew he was going to
have to bill them for because he budgeted $700,000 less.
MR. FINN: At this point in time we can say that. When
we did all those budgets, I'm not sure Mr. Walker had the benefit of
that knowledge.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: At what point in time did Mr.
Walker realize that?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Last year.
MR. DORRILL: What did Mr. Walker know and when did he
know it?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. What did he have and when?
MR. DORRILL: You would have to go back and you would
have to determine when was the date that we executed our agreement
with Naples Community Hospital, and then subsequent to that, when was
the date that we executed an agreement for the Sunhealth Cooperative
of Physicians, and at that point we were dealing with projections of
anticipated savings because we didn't have managed care agreements in
place at that time.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: And those agreements happened
between this time a year ago and October of when we actually --
MR. WALKER: They happened Hay 1st of '94.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So when you were doing your
budgets over the summertime, you --
MR. WALKER: We had no idea how that was going to work.
MR. OCHS: They actually -- We submit our budgets in
February and March that have to be good for the following --
MR. WALKER: So, I mean, I didn't knowingly --
MR. OCHS: -- 20 months.
MR. WALKER: -- put money in there that I didn't think I
would need.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'm just -- I'm just asking
did --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I think we're going to have
to drug-test him.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I'm just asking last year did we
budget $700,000 in excess budget funds to our various departments
that --
MR. WALKER: We know that today.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- that you knew that you were
not going to need because you only budgeted --
MR. WALKER: We know that today. We didnwt know that
then.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, Iwm not going to argue the
point because itws history, and hopefully the reserves picked it up,
but youwre only $100,000 lower this year, not 700.
MR. DORRILL: I can guarantee you that reserves picked
it up.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Oh, yeah. I'm -- I'm confident
the reserves picked it up.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: There have been highlights throughout on
most of these pages. Personal service savings reflect actual cost
charged for health insurance as well as in current service. That is
why most budgets have not gone up 3 1/2 percent or greater even though
we've budgeted a 3 1/2 percent COLA because health insurance rates are
down.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, I'm -- I'm not going to
argue this point because I could argue this for the rest of the day.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But it's some kind of accounting
language that I don't understand. So if it's -- if it's okay --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That's what scares me, if our
CPA doesn't understand it.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I think I understand.
MR. DORRILL: She -- She understands.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I understand.
MR. DORRILL: I guess from my perspective as your
manager, a more accurate but risky assessment would have been for me
to come back at this point last year because I would have had my
agreements in hand and I may have known what the projected savings
were going to be and asked you to reduce across the board all of the
insurance premium line items in all of the various departments. It
would have been a calculated risk at that point not knowing until we
then begin to receive our billings from Naples Community Hospital and
all of the attendant physicians who belong to the co-op what our
actual monthly billings were going to be. And in fairness when he
began to see evidence of that, then he reduced his invoicing of the
user department so as to not overcharge them. Consequently, then
their reserves and carry-forwards were all higher as a result of that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Let me say this though. We've
been going through this budget process for the last week, and we've
been hearing our budget department say, and correctly say, that, gee,
our personal services -- you know, we're giving people 3 1/2 percent
increases, plus we're budgeting a 1 percent merit increase, and
they're rightfully saying, ah, but our personal services are only
going up something less than -- than that, and they're going up less
than that because there's $600,000 in that personal services that
you're not budgeting this year that you did budget last year.
MR. DORRILL: That's absolutely correct.
MR. WALKER: That's correct.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay?
MR. OCHS: That's absolutely correct. No argument.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: All right.
MR. OCHS: No argument. No argument at all.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's what I'm saying. But you
knew you were doing it when you did it. Okay.
MR. DORRILL: This year. I don't know that we've been
willing to take the risk on that last year.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: That's the part I have to
disagree with. I don't think Mr. Walker sat here and intentionally
put it in his budget not expecting to spend it based on what Mr.
Dotrill has told us.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: You know, I think we've only
got five pages left here.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Let's finish up. I mean, it's
history but --
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Page 50 is the worker's comp fund. As of
9-30-94, recommended reserves at a 75 percent confidence interval for
the worker's comp fund recommended reserves at $3.5 million to pay off
the estimated cost of current claims as well as claims incurred in
prior years and what it would cost to close out those claims from
prior years with the addition of the $1.7 million transfer from the
health fund, insurance reserves are approximately $3.3 million or
fairly close to that recommended by the -- by our audit. And, as a
result of increasing the reserves, appropriations are up as a whole
27.6 percent.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other questions? Mr. Walker,
I -- my comments are not directed directly at you. It's -- and I hope
that you don't take them that way. It's a -- The "you" is an
empirical you all. Okay?
MR. WALKER: That's fine. I appreciate that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Pages 51 through --
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Now, take your bruises and get
out of here.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: 51 through 53 is the information of
technology department budgets. In terms of permanent positions, the
adopted budget FY '95 was the AIS fund. There were two and a half
permanent positions. In the transition to the information technology
department, the board agreed this year add one additional FTE, Mr.
Coakley, to lead up the efforts and the formation of the information
technology department. Mr. Coakley has a brief overview of the
proposed department.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I've got a couple of
questions then -- maybe then you can incorporate into your overview.
MR. COAKLEY: I'll try.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: At our workshop a month or so
ago, you did the analysis and did a comparison to Sarasota and how
much they were spending on their information and so on.
MR. COAKLEY: Yes. For the record, I'm Bill Coakley,
the information technology director. Yes, Commissioner, I did do
that.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The -- Correct me if I'm
wrong but in -- in -- or let me just ask a couple of yes, no
questions. In the -- In Sarasota does the sheriff have his own
information technology department, or is that in some way under the
regular --
MR. COAKLEY: In -- In Sarasota, Commissioner, each of
the elected officials has a small information technology or data
processing group ranging from one person to -- I think the largest is
three persons. In the case of the support that I was providing as
central HIS director, I did provide support to the sheriff's
department in addition to the work that his own staff did in more
specialized areas, and that was true of other elected officials too.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Central HIS, in fact, did
with all the constitutional officers with the exception of one, I
believe, up there?
MR. COAKLEY: We provided support to all -- to one
degree or another, I think it -- with the exception of the tax
collector. I don't believe we did anything significant with the tax
collector.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: My point just being, the
comparison was a little unfair in that each of those has their own
independent -- Obviously we would like to get to the point where we're
all doing things together here, but they have their own independent
projects. So when we say how much we're spending system-wide here
versus how much was spent or is being spent system-wide in Sarasota,
that system was set up a little differently in Sarasota.
MR. COAKLEY: It was set up a little differently,
Commissioner, but I factored that into the numbers that I prepared. I
adjusted them for that. For example, if I recall the chart, I -- I
did not show the mainframe computers nor the expenses associated with
them which is some of the significant support that was being provided
to the sheriff's department up there and to the clerk and to the
supervisor of the elections and to the property appraiser. Tax
collector being excepted. We did very little for them. I did -- I did
adjust them, yes, sir.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: My two direct questions were
that dollar-wise if it's a direct comparison and also number -- number
of employees if it's a direct comparison.
MR. COAKLEY: I adjusted those too, Commissioner.
They're on the same basis. What I did effectively was adjust the head
counts, the FTEs, to match the support that was provided to Board of
County Commissioner departments in Sarasota because that's the scope
of my job here. Hy job here right now is not to support the elected
officials. So I adjusted the head counts.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: So the numbers you gave us
for central HIS in Sarasota were only for people that -- That was not
a total count?
MR. COAKLEY: That is correct, Commissioner.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Okay. Thanks.
MR. COAKLEY: Yes, I did adjust that.
MR. OCHS: And part of that number, I believe there were
several IT support personnel and individual operating departments up
in Sarasota County so those -- those were counted in, Commissioner, if
they were in BCC operating departments.
MR. COAKLEY: That's correct. Yes, I did that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We -- We just had an update on
this department a couple of weeks ago and --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I was going to say the same thing.
Turn the page.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. And these numbers look
similar to what we saw a couple of weeks ago. And, quite frankly,
you've got to bring it on line to let us see what you're doing. MR. COAKLEY: Looking forward to it.
MR. OCHS: The only comment I'll make is that --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We do too.
MR. OCHS: -- all -- again, this is an internal service
fund that is totally funded by charge-backs to user clients. So all
of the operating budgets that you've already seen already contain the
appropriations that are going to be required to fund this one.
you've already reviewed that in some way.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other questions? I don't see
any. Thank you, Mr. Coakley.
MR. COAKLEY: Thank you very much.
MR. DORRILL: I believe, then, that has us through your
entire phase of reviews, and what you had said -- CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you, Mr. Ochs.
MR. DORRILL: -- was that you would then go to public
comment, and then we will deal with a list of probably 15 hopefully
quick wrap-up items one way or another.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: How many public comments do we
have?
MR. DORRILL: Well, some folks had sign-up slips. Some
have not turned them in, but if you're interested in speaking under
public comment, would you mind raising your hand. Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: There's another one out there.
MR. DORRILL: I'll say half a dozen. And I only have
one slip, so if you have a slip, if you could bring them to me. If
not, we'll begin with Miss Varner, or as long as you state your name
for the record I think that's fine. Miss Varner, you'll go first.
MS. VARNER: Good afternoon. I'm Jane Varner, and I'm
representing the Taxpayer Action Group. The executive board of the
Taxpayer Action Group endorses the proposal that non-county residents
pay parking fees at beach parking facilities. It is reasonable and
fair that the costs incurred providing and maintaining these
facilities should be shared by users outside of the county with the
county residents who aren't present providing the revenue because of
the commission's previous stance favoring tourist shares in the cost
of other items for which they benefit, most recently noted in the one
cent sales tax for a new bridge. We urge the commission to remain so
disposed and apply this concept to beach parking fees as well. Thank
you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Next.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Next.
MR. DORRILL: Miss Byles.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Miss Byles.
MS. BYLES: My name is Faye Byles, president of the
Marco Island Taxpayers Association. I'll make my comments very short
because we have some other people that would like to speak. I would
just like to remind you that the people at Marco Island -- and I don't
know about the other beaches, but we certainly can speak for our beach
and the parking lot at Marco Island. Our people were absolutely
thrilled when the commissioners came out last time to look at the
beach condition, and I mean they were thrilled because you saw the
turn-out. They all wanted to shake hands with you. They were
absolutely thrilled that you took the time to come out. Commissioner
Constantine, you were not able to come that day, and I think you would
have seen the interest that the people had in that beach and in the
parking lot. We just can't -- There's no way that we can tell you how
much that beach means, not only to Marco Island residents, but the
whole -- the county.
There was so much trash left two weeks ago at that
parking lot that we had to call for help. We had to get some
attendant in there to remove the trash. In fact, some of the -- even
some of the people on the island were calling other people on the
island to say that -- that beach parking lot is a mess, and the beach
is a mess, and I must tell you that the condition of that beach has
deteriorated since you have been there. It's obvious that there's not
enough money, evidently, to address the conditions that are there. So
I think we need to have the parking lot -- the parking fees raised and
supported so that we can address the condition of not only the beach,
but the park, the parking lot itself. This is one thing that all the
groups on Marco Island have supported, believe it or not. I think
it's the first for Marco Island, and I mean that MICA, MITA, MAC,
(phonetic) the realtors, the chamber of commerce as well as TAG and
the Greater Naples Civic Association. So I think we have a lot of
support for this fees to be restored to where they were several years
back and perhaps even more. To me, it's like Avalen Lake. It's one
time where we can all enjoy -- as well as the tourists coming in, to
enjoy something that the tourists helped pay for.
I just finished a long study of Sanibel Island's
long-range plan. They did an in-depth -- in-depth study about
day-trippers who come onto the island, and they have found out that
the day-trippers spend very little money when they come onto the
island. They live behind the trash, the garbage, and so forth that
the taxpayers have to pick up and pay for.
So we think it's time that we put this parking fee back
into position and let's all enjoy the beaches and the parking lots.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. Miss Maggie. Would
the next person who wants to speak, why don't you come up and sit in
this corner seat up here and we'll get you on deck. Miss Maggie.
MS. MAGGIO: Good afternoon. For the record, my name is
Emily Maggie. I live in Little Hickory Shores. I'm here today as a
private citizen. I'm representing the Benita Shores and Little
Hickory Shores Improvement Association. I'm also representing the
property owners of Naples Park and the Naples Park Area Association.
I've seen what's been proposed. I've seen the figures,
and I have to say they certainly grab your eye. The problem is they
do not and are not supported by the report that was produced by the
parks department. This is the history of the past performance of the
beach parking fees, and what they're promising here is not justified
here; however, it is reminiscent of what has been promised in the past
in these executive summaries when we were always going to make a whole
lot of money. The problem is, it never happened.
We'd like to offer to the board some old but good
advice. If somebody is offering you a deal that sounds too good to be
true -- and a million dollars profit -- watch out. You're about to be
had perhaps.
Tourists are very important, not only to our economy
because of the jobs -- Let's face it. We've targeted them to pay for
beach reneurishment even though they didn't cause it. We certainly
don't want to make this an unfriendly place for them to come. We have
a low tourist tax. It certainly gives us an edge. If we could offer
fee-free access to our beaches, as we do to our all park and library,
it certainly would give us a little competitive edge as far as vying
for that business.
I think if we need more revenue from the tourists, if we
feel they're not paying their share for these facilities, then a small
percent of the tourist tax should go to maintaining the parks and the
beach, and I think you have less administrative costs. You're already
collecting it. It's a simple matter to write a check to the parks
department.
We would also like to say if -- if the board decides to
go with parking fees for outsiders, that Collier people don't pay. We
would like to raise the following issues and please respectfully have
them addressed. There should be no charge to Collier residents to
receive these stickers. They should come to us free, and we would
like to know how that will be done, what the administration will be,
and what -- the costs involved with that because that takes off from
your expected revenue.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: In our discussion the other day,
the stickers would come to county residents free of charge.
MS. MAGGIO: Okay. Second of all, we would like to
raise the issue how these discriminatory fees would affect the
county's ability to secure grants and the amount of grants you would
be able to secure because of the -- the tiered -- because of the fact
that you're letting Collier residents go free and charging others. We
don't want to do something where we're going to cut off our nose to
spite our face because that diminishes whatever profit you think you
might be making.
Third, what assurance. We want some assurance and not
just a promise. We want some assurance that if these revenues don't
come in, that we won't end up in a situation where everybody is going
to end up paying this because then we're right back to where we were
before when we were collecting a fee and it was losing money. We want
a provision that if it doesn't work out, it goes away.
I agree with Commissioner MAtthews' comment that if
there is a profit from these fees, that the money should only go back
into beach parks and maintenance of beach parks or acquiring access.
As far as the city program, of paying the city, I was
always opposed to that, but that was because the county's charging us
to park at our own beach parks. We've gotten rid of that. I can now
look at that program with a different light, and I feel this way.
There's 900 parking places available to the county at the city
accesses. I don't know where the county would find the property to
put 900 parking places and -- either in one or many locations;
therefore, the 900 parking places at whatever the fee is -- I think it
was 200,000. It may be less now. I don't know -- seems to me an
economical way of providing free beach access to county residents
because you couldn't do it in your own park. I don't know how you
could ever do that. So I changed my position on that. I think we
ought to keep it.
But, again, to recap what I said at the beginning, we're
opposed to them, and that's all three associations. We're opposed to
the fees. If you do it, we would like, please, consider the comments
that we've made. Thank you very much.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. Commissioner Hancock.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Emily can vouch for this. I've
always said that I'm opposed to county residents paying to park at
beaches that they paid for. We've -- We've talked about it several
times. But I will tell you, many of the phone calls I got supporting
beach parking fees came out of Naples Park and I -- I was surprised
you said you were representing them, but it was just -- it's
surprising to me because I have heard a lot of phone calls out of
Naples Park supporting beach parking fees so --
MS. MAGGIO: Okay. And just to make the record
absolutely clear, I would never stand here and claim to represent
someone that I didn't have the permission to, and I spoke with MAria
Sourbeer yesterday and that's --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. But that's not Property
Owners of Naples Park.
MS. MAGGIO: And -- And Property Owners of Naples Park.
I spoke to Doug McGilvra so -- and he polls his board and so --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Their boards. Okay.
MS. HAGGIO: So I had their permission.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. Next.
MR. BAKER: Next?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yes.
MR. BAKER: I am Richard Baker, and I'm now representing
the Greater Naples Civic Association. We sat through these sessions,
and they're always educational. I'm going to have to be careful what
I say because you all have eaten and you have an energy level that I
don't have.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Sorry.
MR. BAKER: But we do applaud the efforts that you're
making to try and hold the millage at what it was last year, and there
have even been some hints or suggestions from some of the
commissioners that maybe some cuts can be make that would reduce the
millage below what it was last year, and I am glad to hear that
because I think we're all aware of the -- the mood in this country now
as far as government is concerned. We see it on the national level,
and I don't think we're any different down here. But people want less
government and less costly government. So I hope you'll hold the
line, please, and maybe do a little better than that. I think you'll
be applauded by all of your constituents. I certainly will applaud.
We -- and somebody else has already commented that we
are supporting the beach parking, so you'll hear it from me. We have
discussed this thing, and we have talked about it in months past but
we -- we feel that this user fee, as we are calling it, should be put
in place. We don't think that the residents should pay for it, and I
think the board has -- in their comments are agreeing to that, but we
hope you will go ahead and put this through. If it doesn't pay off,
you can always do away with it as the previous speaker brought up in
her comments. But I think it is a good thing, and I think we ought to
give it a shot and see if it will -- if it will carry.
One other thing that we have -- We heard the comments on
the health benefits and the comments that were brought up and
especially those of Commissioner Matthews. We would like to see
something like that happen, the combination thing. I think -- I think
we all agree, as you do from your comments, that the employee should
share in the savings, and it will give them an initiative to perhaps
further curtail the amount of medical services that are used that are
not necessary perhaps. We certainly don't want to deny them from
having the medical attention that they do actually need, but we have
seen what's happened. I happen to be a Hedicare recipient, and I see
how much abuse really goes on in the Hedicare system, and a lot of
money is wasted by people seeking unnecessary medical treatment. So I
think some of that -- if you can encourage the employees to cut back
on what they really don't need and thereby save some from it, then I
think that's the proper incentive for them to do that, and I hope you
can see your way clear to push that through.
Also from the standpoint of the COL, cost-of-living
increase, we have opposed the 3 1/2 percent increase from the time it
was first suggested for a number of reasons. The main reason it's
above the cost of living. It's anticipated -- I think the cost of
living for the year is going to be about 2.8. So why should the cost
of living for county employees be 3.5? So I think that gives you some
negotiating room in there to cut some of that and also to give them
some share of the savings in the health benefits.
One last point I have here. By scheduling the public
comments that you have for the March session and for this session, the
board is showing that you're trying to be citizen-friendly, and we
appreciate that. But one other step we would like you to take if you
can and further being citizen-friendly is that -- that is a
preparation of the material for the budget hearings. We've gotten
them from anywhere from one day ahead of the hearings to three days
ahead of the hearings and I --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's the way we get them.
MR. BAKER: That's what I was going to -- I -- I -- I
think that's the case too and -- COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: We're hoping to make it
commissioner-friendly too.
MR. BAKER: But what you get is about an inch thick, and
it's filled with lots of numbers, and most of us are not CPAs, and
even the CPA who's on the board I suspect has a little difficulty
going through that wealth of material in that short period of time.
Why can't you direct the staff to have these prepared at least ten
days ahead of the meeting that they apply to and hopefully two weeks
ahead? And not only will it help you, but it will help us poor people
too so --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It may just be a function of that
much work to do.
MR. BAKER: Well, the way --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Can't we start it two weeks
sooner? I mean, Neil, that -- that is really a valid point.
MR. BAKER: That's the point I make because in business
we do the same thing in preparing budgets. We -- The material that
you have to prepare the budgets is certainly available to you two
weeks earlier than -- than you've been starting on it. So it -- it
might take a little different approach to the scheduling of it, but I
don't see why it can't be done.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We moved the whole budget -- this
portion of the hearings up a week this year as well because we --
yesterday was the last hearing --
MR. BAKER: Yeah. But this is -- But this is a
follow-up on what was done in March. I mean, it's the next step after
what was done in March, and now you're going to have the next step in
September. And why can't all this as far as the preparation of it be
moved two weeks ahead, and we'll have it and you'll have it too.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Another thought is that we made
this a priority, didn't we, for the -- what is the committee you used
to chair?
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Productivity committee.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: -- productivity to talk about the
whole budget process and how to do it -- how to do it better, but I
could sure do a better job if I had a little bit of time to look over
this stuff before we get here.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, we could all use more time
to look over it.
MR. BAKER: I think so, yeah.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's true.
MR. BAKER: I think it would be a benefit to the -- I
think it would be a benefit to the whole process. Thank you very much.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Just -- Just one thought.
You had mentioned the 2.8 percent. We had mention -- We had come up
with a 3 1/2 percent. You asked how. Because in March it was
anticipated that the CPI would be 3 1/2 percent, and I think we had
based ours on the consumer price index.
MR. OCHS: Excuse me. For the record, Leo Ochs. That's
correct, Commissioner. In fact, I just checked with the HR before I
came downstairs, and we had a monthly report from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics for the Fort Lauderdale standard metropolitan statistical
area, and it was running 3.7 for the -- for the month last month. So
we'll have to get together, maybe compare some notes with Mr. Baker
and see where that number is, but we'll be happy to --
MR. BAKER: Well, the number I'm using is a national
figure.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. We have to use the correct
number for the area though.
MR. OCHS: Yeah. You may be using the calendar year
when we are on a fiscal-year basis. Again, we're projecting always
the cost of living from October -- this coming October through the
following September of '96.
MR. DORRILL: But that -- That's consistent with what
we've done every year. We've used the same standard indices, and we
require the Department of Labor to project the Miami, Fort Lauderdale
as the closest individual index that they do. They have another
composite index for the southeast, and then have a national adjusted
cost of living.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And we're using southeast --
South Florida; right?
MR. DORRILL: Which is the closest and we think the best
one that pertains.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Can't get much closer.
MR. BAKER: Okay. Thank you very much.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. PARAY: Good morning, Madam Chairman. For the
record, my name is Ray Paray (phonetic), and I'm here representing
both MICA and MITA. Samuel Goldman, a Hollywood mogul, once said, if
I want a second opinion, I'll give it to you. Well, Mr. Olliff did
not give us a second opinion when we met with him many, many times in
discussing the free installation of beach parking fees, something I've
been working on for three years. They were not removed because they
were not paying their way. They were removed because the previous
commission was stampeded into it.
With the many high-dollar ticket items that parks and
rec is facing, to not take advantage of passive income would border on
fiscal irresponsibility.
The only area of disagreement we had with Mr. Olliff
from the parks and rec program was that the real numbers we have are
low on the cost side and high on the income side, and I think you all
will be pleasantly surprised when they're put into effect.
You all know that beach parking fees are charged north
of here, south of here, east and west, and everywhere else. The
minimum projected income that is going to be derived from the parking
fees in Collier County comprises an integral part of the proposed
balanced budget from what I read in the paper. To vote against it
will require replacing these funds or cutting services to the citizens
of this community. Does any commissioner really want to go back to
his constituents and say he would rather tax them than to receive
passive income from our visitors? I think not. I too feel I should
be able to freely use the waters that adjoin these beaches, but that
privilege costs me $98 to float my boat in state waters. I hope you
paid for your own lunches. I expect you did because there is no free
lunch. Our amenities --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We did.
MR. PARAY: -- are what Collier County has to offer. We
have all paid to offer these amenities, and it's time again to ask our
day-trippers and our visitors to help defray the costs of it. Let's
do it like he says. Let's just go for it. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: I want to pass this out before I make a
very brief, a very brief -- emphasis on very brief presentation.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Ah, it is brief.
MR. MILLER: For the record, my name is Gil Miller. I
serve on the Collier County park and recreation advisory board, and
I'm also a member of HITA. You may recall that you received an
executive summary from the park and recreation board urging you to
reinstate beach fees. You may recall also that the Vanderbilt Beach
Association sent Kim Kobza, I believe is the president, and he signed
a letter -- sent you a letter also recommending the reinstatement of
beach fees. From a personal standpoint, the bottom line, I suppose,
is the fact that to me it just seems wrong to continue to expect the
taxpayers of Collier County to pay for beach enjoyment from -- for
example, at Tigertail, so many people from the east coast and Bonita
Beach, people from Lee County that come across the road to enjoy our
beaches because they have to pay for the beaches in Lee County.
Somehow that just doesn't seem right. That's about all I have to say.
Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. Mrs. Ward.
MS. WARD: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I am not
going to repeat what I have already sent to you people on this subject
by letter, but I do have three new items that I'd like to bring up.
First of all, we have read that one of the commissioners on the
Collier County -- as someone just a few moments ago said, it's the
only place in Florida without fees for parking and/or admission to the
beach. Wrong. Several places on the southeast coast do not charge.
One place is Boyington Inlet. Another is Lake Worth Inlet. A third
spot is known as Gulf Stream. There are a lot of others, but we don't
have time to go over there and drive out to every beach to check it.
On the Gulf Coast, there are accesses in Lee County where there is
parking but there are no fees. In Sarasota County, at one time there
were no fees at any beach locations, and we believe that that is still
correct. Just recently we rechecked, and we found that with
boardwalks, showers, rest rooms, and in one case even a child's
playground, there are still no fees at Casey Key, Siesta Key, Venice
and Nokomis. Other places also don't charge. But, as I say, we have
more things to do than just drive up and down the whole coast of
Florida and check it. This is a snapshot. It was taken from Sarasota
where there is the entrance to one of the beaches where it is free.
Number two, I would like to present you with 5,340 signatures which
are opposed to any --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm sorry, Harge. How many
was that?
MS. WARD: 5,340 signatures opposed to any form of fees
in unincorporated Collier County beaches, and many of these sheets
were collected by the various Collier County associations who you have
already heard either now or at previous times have been opposed to
beach fees of any sort. Some were collected on Collier beaches, and
some of the addresses may be elsewhere because your TDC spends a lot
of money advertising for tourists who provide the economy of Southwest
Florida.
Barefoot Beach abuts Lee County, and this is one spot
where beachgoers don't give one iota what county the beach happens to
be in. For many years the only parking lot at the county line was in
Lee County, and it was used by everyone. Then and even now, there is
only one rest room which is in Lee County, and it's used by everyone.
The beachgoers look at it as just their sovereign lands.
And, incidentally, with these petition forms, I just
want to show you that we tried to be very fair when these were
collected. This is the sheet which requested fees. Note it's blank.
No one wanted to sign it.
Immediately following Monday's hearing that you had and
the discussion wherein you, Commissioner Constantine, questioned the
statement that the proposed profit on the fees was based on all the
parking lots being full all year round, well, on route home we checked
Barefoot Beach Park and Barefoot Beach Reserve. This was at
approximately 2 p.m. In the afternoon, a hot, beautiful, sunny Florida
day. Now, as I understand it, there's approximately at the present
time 254 parking spaces between those two particular areas. Only 54
spots were occupied. We did an actual count on them.
Your percentages of 20 percent of the people being at
the park happened to be from Collier County, and 80 percent are from
other places. Well, let me tell you. There were a lot of -- Sure,
there were out-of-state licenses, but many of them had Naples parking
stickers on their car; so, therefore, they must have some relationship
to Collier County. Plus it was just a couple of years ago when Bonita
Springs got a tax office locally. Previous to that time, our own
household bought licenses for four vehicles, one trailer, one motor
home, four boats with three boat trailers and all driving licenses in
Collier County.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Marge, in --
MS. WARD: Now --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Marge, we -- we didn't
particularly limit the time that you could have input but --
MS. WARD: If you would just let me --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Try to wrap up.
MS. WARD: -- finish this one because I wanted to point
these things out and then get to point number three because that's the
most important one.
There are a lot of people that live in Bonita Shores.
There are a lot of people that live in other places in Collier County
that work in Bonita Springs, and they buy their licenses in Lee
County. Why? Because of convenience. So this is why a lot of this
summary as to how many people are from where is just a little bit off
kilter.
Number three, many of the past speakers -- and I'm not
talking about just today. I'm talking about when this subject's come
up before, including yours truly, have made reference on many
occasions relative to discrimination of fees when it comes to Collier
residents or beachgoers from elsewhere. We've pointed out that Florida
does not look favorably on different fees or fees versus no fees with
regard to Florida's sovereign beaches and especially so where state
funds have been involved as grants or owner -- or outright ownership
by the state.
I'd like to point out to you that was a March 18, 1975,
decision that was passed down to Miami Beach from the Attorney General
of Florida. The question was, quote, may a municipality charge a fee
for admission to a municipal beach, unquote. And I have been advised
a municipality is not just a city but any governmental entity such as
a county. The response was, and I quote, a municipality may charge a
fee for admission to and use of its municipally owned beach provided
that no such fee is reasonably related to the expenses incurred in
operating the beach and is non-discriminatory, unquote.
Another such case was between Fort Lauderdale and the
state where the question was --
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Excuse me. Miss Ward, please --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Miss Ward --
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: We take our legal advice from our
county attorney. He doesnwt agree with you, and we donwt need your
legal advice.
MS. WARD: This is -- This is in the records up in
Tallahassee and --
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: We donwt need your legal advice.
MS. WARD: -- I would like to -- if I could just finish
this other case to point it out to you.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Marge. Marge, we donwt need your
legal advice. Our county attorney has -- MS. WARD: Iwm not giving you my legal advice,
Commissioner Norris.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Yes, you are.
MS. WARD: Iwm giving you from the --
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Marge. Marge.
MS. WARD: -- from which is being read --
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Marge. Marge.
MS. WARD: -- or written and from the records.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Marge, wewve been through this
with our county legal department. They disagree with you totally in
whole. We donwt need your legal advice.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Wewve been a year getting this
opinion from our attorney, and he has spent a year researching whether
we could do this or not, and he has come back and said, yes, we can.
MS. WARD: Well, all Iwm referring to is that these are
record cases between the Attorney General and two cities in
particular, and it has a lot of other reference backup, and I think it
is something -- just as a matter of caution to you, I would not want
to see the Collier County get into any trouble because they were doing
something that could not be backed up and these -- these I have gotten
from a very high source and a reliable lawyer.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Iwm sure that if our attorney has
made an error he will let us know.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Marge --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Marge, of those 5,000 signatures,
how many were county residents?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: County taxpayers.
MS. WARD: Pardon?
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: How many were county taxpayers of
those 5,300 signatures? Do you know just offhand? MS. WARD: How many were for which?
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Full-time residents, county
taxpayers. Of those 5,000 signatures, how many were actual Collier
County taxpayers?
MS. WARD: I have never made any attempt to check that
at all. You have them as they are. Some sheets are completely all
Collier. Some are a little of each, and some with Bonita Springs
addresses are Collier people.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. That answers my question.
Did those sheets state that county residents would park for free? MR. DORRILL: No.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: They do not state '-
MS. WARD: Well, whoever -- Whoever signed it wanted the
parks free, the parks and parking lots free.
MR. DORRILL: The question reads --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: What does it read?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What does the petition question
read?
MR. DORRILL: It said, the following residents,
visitors, tourists hereby express opposition to parking fees and/or
parking meters at any public beach in Collier County. Fees are
discriminatory, have the greatest impact on those who can least afford
it. This results in less, not more, public access to our beautiful
beaches and natural resources.
And then in glancing at this, I'd say half of them are
Collier County residents who would be exempt under the proposal. I'd
say the other half are clearly Bonita Springs or Lee County. There
are some individuals who signed this who were from out of state.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. Because, again, this isn't
an example of something that's been presented to the electorate fairly
or evenly because if they didn't know that they wouldn't be paying for
it, they may have been signing under different circumstances, and
that's the reason for the question, Harge.
MS. WARD: Excuse me. At the -- At the time most of
these have been collected, there was no proposal that people from
Collier County were going to be get -- able to get in free, but some
of them did express to me or to others who collected these -- because
I didn't collect the whole 5,000 signatures, I guarantee you -- that
some people said that even if they could get in free, they didn't want
the hassle that there was with passes and parking meters and so on and
so forth --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Right. But we just '-
MS. WARD: -- because they like the system as it was.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: The point is -- The point is we
don't know that from those 5,000 signatures. We don't know how many
people. So, you know, I think this has to stand on its own merits,
but I thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, I've got to respond to
that. The point is that you can't simply negate 5,340 signatures
either. I realize there is a percentage of that from elsewhere, but
we can't take that number down to zero either. I think the point with
all those signatures, whether they're here, there, whether they
understood the exact nature of how we were going to do this, is that
there is some concern out there about this particular issue.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Sure, there is.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Sure, there is, but you could
hardly count that as a -- as a fair circuit question either. I mean,
you heard the language. I mean, it's extremely biased.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I'm sure there are people that
are directly opposed to any type of beach parking whatsoever, whether
they're free or not, and I've talked to some of those people, but my
phone calls are two to one --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Talking to one now.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
one the other way. So I --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
information we were given.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
My phone calls are about two to
At least.
I'm just trying to gauge with the
Mr. Pointer, did you have
comments? Is there anyone else in the audience that wanted to have
comment in the public? Okay.
MR. POINTER: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is
Jack Pointer, and I'm here representing Willoughby Acres Property
Owners Association. As we have said many times before and we continue
to say, we are opposed to any beach parking fees at any of the Collier
County beaches. We will continue along that particular line. And one
of the things that if you do put in this beach parking fee and that
you do exempt Collier County residents, in the case of Barefoot Beach
on the north, there are parts of that that have some investment by the
state, and the state may well say that the state people too may not be
charged to park at that particular beach. Thank you very much.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you. That seems to
conclude the public comment on the budget process. We're into
wrap-up.
MR. DORRILL: Our reporter may need to take a brief
break, and then I count 17 wrap-up items and --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We'll take a ten-minute break.
(A short break was held.)
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Reconvene the budget hearing,
budget workshop of June 21, 1995.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: I provided you with a budget wrap-up
item list. What we propose to do is just kind of work our way right
down the list from top to bottom starting with community development.
I believe Mr. Cautero is prepared to discuss the issue related to the
additional building inspector requests. There were three, and that
was an issue raised at the community development budget workshop.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. This was related around,
and when we were doing the priority budgeting, we had approved
additional inspectors, but after that period of time we discovered
that there was a deliberate slow-down.
MR. CAUTERO: Thank you, Madam Chairman, members of the
commission. I've talked to the people on my staff in the building
review and permitting department and went over some of the numbers so
we could give you some information back as to what they were looking
at for the number of inspections that they were doing per day and what
the load was on the building inspectors and whether or not it would be
justified to come back to this commission and ask for an increase in
the number of inspectors. And what we've done is also make some
comparisons to other counties on the Gulf in South Florida to
determine what is an optimal number that you want to look at for the
number of inspectors.
Let me first say that you may be familiar with some of
the documentation that came out of the State Attorney's Office in
light of Hurricane Andrew. As you probably know, there were a lot of
allegations about building inspections not done properly in South
Florida, and when the State Attorney's Office started to -- Attorney
General, excuse me, started to look at some of those, they made some
statements that 15 was the best number of inspections that building
inspectors should do per day, but that's not reality, especially in
high-growth areas. You're looking at 20 or more, but they said 20 is
your optimum number in order to do a good job on the inspections
because when you take travel time into account and when you take the
average half-hour lunch hour into account, you're looking at about 15,
perhaps 20, minutes per inspection, and you want to do the best
possible job you can.
Right now we're averaging about 23 inspections per
inspector per day in Collier County. We're looking at about 75,000.
Numbers through the last few years have been consistent with that.
There was a slight dip in 1993. There was approximately 700 -- 74,277
inspections in that year, down about 500 from the previous year, but
over 76,100 in '94, and we're on track for approximately 76,000 again
this year. But to be conservative, I'd like to go with the lower
number now, 75,000, and there's 14 inspectors in the county. So if
you look at the average number of workdays that people are off,
considering sick days, vacation, and holidays, you're a little over
210, 212 workdays per year. So by dividing that number, that's how I
come up with the average number that they're looking at.
Now, the average number of inspections that they're
performing isn't the total number that they're actually getting, that
they're assigned. They're actually getting more, but they're doing a
little bit less, and this is an actual workday regardless of whether
they will go overtime or not, and we are looking at some overtime
hours averaging between two and five per inspector per week. And we
also have two inspector vacancies right now that interviews are taking
place for to make up for that load. Two of the chief inspectors and
two of the plans examiners are going out.
So, in my opinion, and what I would recommend to you is
that the optimum situation is to have the inspectors go out, and very
rarely would you have your chief inspectors go out which is consistent
with their position descriptions to work on the more complex type
investigations of inspections and those sorts of things. And your
plans examiner shouldn't be out except in very rare circumstances
because they need to be in the office and they need to answer
questions for people when they come in or when they call.
Another problem that we're experiencing is that the
building inspectors are going out now doing some investigation work
with code enforcement for unsafe building. So it takes a little bit
more time there. And having the plans examiners go out has slowed
down the development review process somewhat. In January we were
looking at a six-day turnaround time for development review, and that
slowly has increased the number of days. In May we were looking at
double that, 12 working days. In February, seven and a half; March,
seven and a half; and in April, ten. A way to get that back is --
again, with filling these vacancies, I expect to see some improvement
there. And I also think that there's a better way that we can use our
time. I'm not convinced that they're using time in the most efficient
manner. But, nonetheless, the numbers are showing approximately 23
average per inspector per day. So I think the numbers are there.
To try to bring that number back down to around the 20
range which is optimal, I think, and probably expected -- to reach the
goal of the 24-hour turnaround time in the building community. I
think that would be another thing to keep in mind. I think the numbers
can justify the three, but I don't want to propose to the board that's
an all or nothing type thing. I would like to think that we could
possibly talk about an increase of one, two, or three, but two of the
three are structural. Those are the most important. The third one is
for electrical, but I believe that the two structural are the most
important. But, again, I have some numbers here I think can justify
adding three, but I have to tell you that I think that there's some
ways we can save some time and work a little bit smarter so that we
can probably tighten up a little bit so that you're not looking at an
increase of 23, 25, maybe more than that, per day. So I would just
like to throw that out for you and then perhaps any questions that the
commission might have.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I have -- I just have a statement.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock,
Commissioner Norris, and then Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I just -- First of all, I
appreciate the work you've done on this, Mr. Cautero, and I guess I
want to ask a very blunt question. In your opinion, to give the
community and the building community the minimum service or the
service that you think is appropriate, of the three positions, you're
-- if I understand you correctly, you're saying two you would
consider very important, and the third would be possibly needed, but
you think you could get the job done with two and some efficiency
measures? Is that a fair summary?
MR. CAUTERO: Yes, sir.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Norris.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, I was just going to make the
statement that I think originally the reason for putting this on the
bring-back list is because we had some question of whether this was an
artificially induced shortage or not, and I think you've answered my
question very well. So, you know, I have no objection to okaying the
item myself.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: The only other question --
and I realize you may only partially be able to answer this, but do
you believe we've been operating at a dangerous or deficient level?
Because it was only a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, that
we cut some of these positions. I don't want three or four years from
now when buildings that have been inspected in the past year, to find
that we've been in a dangerous situation.
MR. CAUTERO: If I understand your question correctly,
Commissioner, in terms of not having enough staff to do the job
adequately? Is that -- I don't think so because of the number of
inspections that are being done and the amount of time that the chief
inspectors are putting in the field, and the plans examiners are
doing, of course, the best job they can because they have to stay in
the office to complete their other tasks. But you're looking at some
communities that are in that balipark between 18 and 20. The county I
came from is looking at 18 per day. Sarasota is approximately now at
16. Lee County is 16, but they have a lot more inspectors and a lot
more inspections. So you lose some of the -- It's skewed a little bit
when you look at that. Charlotte and Sarasota are a lot more closely
aligned than what are in terms of the number of people, but there's
20,000 inspections less. So I don't think it's a dangerous situation,
but I think when you start hovering around the 23 to 25 -- which means
they're getting more cards than that per day. They may not be
finishing them all -- then you're getting pretty dangerous because
you're under 15 minutes per inspection. But I think with the addition
of two and some efficiency measures, we can do a good job.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: General consensus to add two
of the three?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I have a question before we do
that. You've got two vacancies now? MR. CAUTERO: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: In what areas?
MR. CAUTERO: In structural, I believe.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Both of them --
MR. CAUTERO: One might be electrical.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Both in structural or one
structural, one electrical?
MR. CAUTERO: I believe they're both in structural.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And the 23 inspections per day
that are being done now are without -- what's currently being achieved
with those vacancies?
MR. CAUTERO: Yes. But there's four people making up
the difference for those two. I have two chief inspectors going out
and two plans examiners going out that have expertise in those areas.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Gottcha. Okay. Yeah.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: I would like to see the addition
of two based on Mr. Cautero's information.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Agreed.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Two?
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Two.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Two. You get two of the three.
MR. CAUTERO: Thank you. Vince Cautero, community
development administrator.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Next item on the wrap-up list is under
pollution control. I would ask Mr. Yilmaz to perhaps bring back an
item related to funding pollution -- actually doing cleanup work as
opposed to monitoring, and I believe he is --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I think -- I think we were
talking about having a -- less of a Cadillac monitoring system and
spend -- taking some of that money and put it to actual cleaner.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: I believe Mr. Yilmaz has prioritized a
cleanup effort, and it would require half a million dollars per year
for ten years.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: That involves just a shifting of
money from what's presently being proposed for monitoring into
cleanup. That's what we asked for.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Is that what your program does,
Mr. Yilmaz? Does it shift or does it add on? MR. YILMAZ: Add on.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's add on.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: But we wanted a shift.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That's not what we asked for.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. I remember Commissioner
Hac'Kie broaching the subject that if we have a full tenth mill
available, perhaps we ought to be using it. COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: You're right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And I think he's reacted to that
and brought forth a plan using the full tenth mill. So we may not
want to do all of that. We may want to take some of the monitoring
and move it into cleanup.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Obviously if you added a half million
dollars in aggregate, we would again be -- we're basically at a no tax
increase in aggregate at this point. Obviously if you add a half
million dollars, we would be advertising a tax increase in aggregate.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, we took $266,000 out of the
budget just yesterday. I'm sure that's going to go into reserves and
be carried forward, and we could use that for some of this stuff. So,
I mean, it -- it -- We have lots of money out there. The interior
redesign for this building, you know, this is the one we said we
weren't going to do it.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That was not in the budget.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Not in this budget, but it's in
the current year's budget.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That has no impact on ad valorem for
next year.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It doesn't increase the reserves?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, it's an increase in
reserves so -- MR. FINN: Let's try to clarify this. What project are
we talking about, MAdam Chairman?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: The communications.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Audio visual.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: The audio visual stuff in this
room.
MR. FINN: The audio visual proposal that was brought to
you Tuesday is not and never was included in any budget. That was a
request to take money from reserves and do that project.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Oh, okay. Commissioner
Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It seems to me if we're
looking at an add-on of $500,000 a year for ten years or $5 million,
that's going to take more than a few minutes. Obviously it's going to
have budget impacts if we decide to go with it, but that seems like
it's going to be a policy decision, not simply a budget decision. So
I don't know if this is the appropriate forum to be diving into that.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Mr. Dorrill has perhaps suggested either
in a future workshop date or under a separate executive summary to
bring forth a proposed program and let you all review it.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: It wasn't that long ago that we
discussed a cleanup program, and there was a general feeling there
that --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: With the chlordane thing.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Well, not just chlordane, but we
had a broader scope of discussion on this particular item, and what I
remember is a lot of these sites that we're -- Mr. Yilmaz has put on
his list, many of them fall under the jurisdiction of another agency's
responsibility it is to do that, and if I remember correctly, this
thing more or less died with that being a significant element. So I
don't want to sit here today and revisit that entire discussion.
My only reason for going along with some idea of the
cleanup fund is if there are sites out there that no one has
jurisdiction over, that the county has had a significant role in the
degradation of that need to be cleaned up, then we need to take a look
at those. But, you know, I'm just not sure today we can adequately,
you know, address that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Could I suggest, then, that we
leave the monitoring budget for pollution control alone for the time
being and ask Mr. Yilmaz to come back with us -- to us at a later date
with a shift of some of that money into cleanup for projects as you've
stated that the county has had a hand in the degradation and no one
else in this world is even looking at cleaning them up.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Whether they have jurisdiction
over them or not, nobody's doing it. Maybe as a service to the
county, to citizens we should be.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, if someone else has
jurisdiction and is ignoring it, we need to make an effort to bring it
to their attention and try to get them to enforce it.
COHHISSIONER HAC'KIE: Certainly.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Absolutely.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That may be what we need to know,
is who's got jurisdiction, who's not doing what they ought to be
doing. If we need to do it, let us know, rather than just leave it
out there and nobody's doing it. Okay? MR. YILMAZ: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Can we do that?
MR. YILMAZ: Certainly.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Does that make sense?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Thank you for the
presentation.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Just to be clear, we typically adopt the
proposed millage rates used in the trim notices when you get back from
vacation, typically your first or second meeting back in July, just so
you're clear of that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, I think that what
Commissioner Hac'Kie was first talking about was a shift --
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Was a switch from --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- to shift some of that Cadillac
monitoring money into cleanup, but we don't know what the cleanup is,
and we don't know who's got jurisdiction. We want -- That's what we
want to know, who should be cleaning it up. If they're not doing it,
let's get some letters off and remind them that they ought to be doing
it.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: So you're saying keep the
dollar amount the same, and if we need to shift how it's used later
on, that's fine.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Right.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I think you can use this in that
workshop, Mr. Yilmaz. It's probably not time wasted here.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. I don't think it's time
wasted. We'll see it.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Please don't let it die. I mean,
please try to get it back on an agenda so that -- if it's a workshop
or otherwise, that we make some decisions about how that money gets
spent, whether it's in monitoring or in cleanup. I'd like very much
for it not to just go away today.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Are we okay with that?
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yep.
MR. FINN: Very good.
MR. YILMAZ: Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's what we'll do. So I guess
executive summary and one Tuesday, not in the too distant future.
Okay?
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: The key today, as just mentioned,
it's a half million new additional monies, and you can leave very
quickly.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: That moves us into public works. There's
a few items under utilities related to the -- some sort of payment
from community development for the utility reviews performed by
utilities' engineering staff, recommended enhancements to the water
and sewer maintenance programs that were discussed in their line item
budget review, and also duties and responsibilities and/or additional
justification for that additional finance supervisor position.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. McNees, I think our question
was, are -- is the -- are the utilities being adequately funded from
community development for the work you do in their behalf.
MR. MCNEES: Mike McNees, for the record, utilities
division. The answer is we are not funded in any way by development
services. I've handed -- handed you a short memo from our engineering
supervisor. He estimates the time of the two employees in his
department, how much of it is directly development-related. That's
22,000 for the technician, 16,000 for the engineering director, and
add to that the full-time position that we pay for that is a
development services employee that deals with line acceptances and
that sort of thing. The total is $83,452, our estimate of just that
part of the utilities effort that is directly development-related.
Obviously there's effort across the board on pretty much everyone's
part in some way or another, but this is directly attributable and
accountable.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Mike, I'm -- I'm surprised that
they didn't count more than just the time of the employees.
MR. MCNEES: We didn't attempt to recover overhead or
any of those issues. We were just trying to get to something that we
could readily account for and the employees' time is -- You know,
obviously the pieces become a part of the utilities system so we're --
you know, they are our expenses too but directly development-related
costs. We would have the overhead anyway. It's not like this is a
20-person department that two of them do something and we would lose
their overhead. There's only two people in this department just
allocating out these --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: They're already in development
services physically, aren't they -- MR. MCNEES: No.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: -- in that building?
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No. Not these.
MR. MCNEES: Two of these people are -- are utilities
employees. One of them -- The last one that's listed is a development
services employee located at 2800 Horseshoe.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's the $44,000 number you're
talking about?
MR. MCNEES: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. So -- And right now
development services is not refunding you this money at all? MR. MCNEES: No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You're actually paying them
44,0007
MR. MCNEES: We are paying them the 44,000, yes.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So at least this 83 -- and I
would say that's too low. But at least that much should be paid by
developers instead of by utility rate payers.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, I'm -- I would be
comfortable to say there's some sort of overhead --
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right. Me too.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- allocated to this. I don't
know what that number is. Our budget -- Our budget people knows --
know that.
MR. FINN: Which number?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: What the overhead allocated to
these people would be.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: That would have to be figured, I
would guess.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
MR. FINN: Yes. We would know that number.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'd agree with you also.
COMHISSIONER NORRIS: I would agree. I think we should
reimburse utilities from development services.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Good.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: So rather than utilities paying
community development, instead you would have community development
pay utilities 83,500 --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, no. I think what we're
talking about doing is development services picking up the $44,000
salary that really belongs to them and then developing -- taking these
two pieces of salaries, developing some overhead that's applicable to
the work that they're doing, and billing development services for that
portion. So we're talking about 30 -- 38, $39,000 plus a piece of
overhead.
MR. FINN: That's fine.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And --
MR. FINN: That's fine.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I mean, I know we've got two
enterprise funds that are paying each other, but we need to properly
allocate it to where it belongs. MR. FINN: That's fine.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: The funding mechanism for this
would be an increase in application fees for things such as plat
acceptance and so forth of utility lines.
MR. FINN: I would suspect that their current structure,
even after being revised, would be adequate to cover the 38, 42,
45,000 that they would have to reimburse utilities division. So I
don't envision any trouble there.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: So that can absorb this, and you
still have the 15 percent cut.
MR. FINN: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I think we're all in
agreement that we'd rather see a redistribution of it rather than to
decrease the permit fees that don't need to be decreased. There are
expenses there.
MR. FINN: Very good.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Next item on you guys's
recommended enhancements to the maintenance program.
MR. MCNEES: Yes, ma'am. The two department heads,
water and wastewater, have put together quite a volume of information
for you, and I've asked them to capsulize it for themselves. The one
-- I'll let Tim Clemons from wastewater go ahead and go first. Then
Mike from water.
MR. CLEMONS: Good afternoon. For the record, Tim
Clemons, wastewater director. I gave you just a moment ago a little
handout you can look at. And what I have done is gone back to the
staff in each of the segments in the wastewater department, asked them
to pull their manufacturer's recommendations, the specifications for
maintaining the equipment in their facilities and in their lift
stations, and from that have tried to compile a list of tools and
materials that they say they're deficient in having to meet the
manufacturer's recommendations.
You'll notice in both of the plants, they've broken that
into two categories. One is the first priority and the second being
the second priority, and collections is done there into three
priorities --
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: I'm having trouble finding --
following.
MR. CLEHONS: I'm sorry.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: So take us -- The first page is
sort of a summary.
MR. CLEHONS: The first page is just a summary.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And then enhanced maintenance for
north facility.
MR. CLEHONS: For the north county regional wastewater
treatment facility.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And then I see second priority
total at the bottom, but what's first?
MR. CLEHONS: Okay. You'll see the bulleted item. The
bulleted items going down are considered first priority items.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And the total there is --
MR. CLEHONS: The total for that is $107,400 as put
together by the senior maintenance technician for that facility.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And this represents parts of
things that they need according to manufacturer's regulations that
they don't have?
MR. CLEHONS: Parts and tools or equipment that they
don't have to maintain what's on hand. Yes, ma'am. COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Okay.
MR. CLEHONS: And the second priority total is $20,100
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: 20,000.
HR. CLEHONS: -- for that facility.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Then we skip a page and then
there's south county.
MR. CLEHONS: The second is the south county, and it's
relatively the same as the north county.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And they have 150 --
MR. CLEHONS: They have 150,000. In looking through
this just before we came up here, there's perhaps $36,000 that I would
recommend pulling out of that, that may be able to be put off for
another year or so or borrowed as far as -- They have a portable
generator, for instance, listed. It may be that we can borrow that
item rather than purchase it this next year.
They've got scales for a Hack truck listed. The reason
for that is one of our drivers the other day was stopped by FDOT and
was 1,100 pounds overweight. We don't have scales for the vehicles.
They were kind of gauging it on load by visual, and we don't have a
set of scales for that vehicle. However, I think that, you know, we
may be able to come up with something used. We may be able to come up
with another method of making sure we're not overloaded on the vehicle
rather than the $20,000.
The third item I'd recommend that we pull out of that is
the refurbishing of the Hack trailers. I think we can go another
year, perhaps two, before we spend that money. So the 150,400 can be
decreased by another $36,000.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: You've pulled out just about all
the things I saw that were not what I would call machine maintenance.
MR. CLEHONS: Right.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: You know, that was my focus --
MR. CLEHONS: Right.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: -- was that we don't have pumps
and equipment going down because we didn't maintain them.
MR. CLEHONS: Right. What you do see on there are the
tools and the valves, the impellets, the refurbishing of the
waste-activated pumps in the plant that run almost all the time, those
type of things that that maintenance gentleman is telling me he's not
able to keep up with. So I can reduce that 150 -- 150,400 by an
additional 36,000 on that first priority.
The second priority again is 28,600. On both of those I
don't recommend that we go after that this year. That's something we
can stretch out over the next couple of years or pick up as budget
constraints permit.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Let me ask on some of those,
especially the second priority items. I see a recipro saw in there
and a target saw and various pieces of equipment like that. Correct
me if my assumption is not accurate, but I would assume that those
don't get daily use and I -- MR. CLEHONS: Exactly.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: -- and I wonder if there might not
be an opportunity to, number one, perhaps share north and south and --
MR. CLEHONS: Yes.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: -- number two, maybe these would
be used on such sparse occasions that rental might be the more
appropriate way to go on these tools and equipment.
MR. CLEHONS: Rental on that is something we should look
and will look at. If not, then -- You're right. It's not used daily,
and between the two facilities, they may be able to buy one and share
it. You know, there's no reason they can't share them. So that's why
that's not shown as a big priority and is not recommended that we go
after right now.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: First of all, Mr. Clemons, I want
to thank you for not popping in here with just a wish list because the
truth is you know what needs to be done over there better than we do,
and if you wanted to smokescreen us, you probably could.
But since you've taken a very logical approach on a lot
of these things, my question is, would we be able to make these
improvements you've recommended, one, without raising rates; and, two,
without sacrificing the future reserves to a point in which we are
uncomfortable?
MR. CLEHONS: Yes on both of those, Commissioner. We
would not --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. My next question is -- is
-- is why -- not directed at you intentionally, but why hasn't that
been done? Was it -- Did you need the board to authorize those
expenditures?
MR. HCNEES: I'll field that one. I've been sitting in
budget reviews now for many years, and these crews and tools and
equipment come to budget meetings as expanded services and they get
cut. As simple as that. These guys have been making these types of
cases now repeatedly for years, and the crunch comes on, and they get
cut. So it's --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But this is an enterprise fund
and we can fund it without raising rates.
MR. MCNEES: You are preaching to the choir. Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. MCNEES: We've been saying that for years. I
understand that with the large growth -- In every part of their
budgets, there's growth even without some of these things, and so, you
know, it gets difficult to justify the percentages in this form.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Many things on this list are what
I would consider -- we don't because of the dollar value, but I would
consider them capital items. I mean, they're not -- it's not $150,000
each and every year.
MR. MCNEES: No. No.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Much of it's a one-time expense
MR. CLEMONS: Much of it is --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- and then it's labor.
MR. CLEHONS: And then it's going to be labor and parts,
and the parts would be, you know, on a continuing basis, but much of
it is just a one-time purchase.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: With the changes Mr. Clemons has
recommended, I'm very comfortable with these, and I'd be willing to
give direction to pursue Mr. Clemons' recommendations in the
wastewater department.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Remove the 36,000?
MR. CLEHONS: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yes. Removing the 36,00.
MR. HCNEES: That's only the first priority items.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Correct. Do not include the
second priority items. I'm going to trust your judgment on that.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, is this more than your
current labor force can accomplish in one year? Are you going to have
to spread it out over a couple of years to get it caught up?
MR. CLEHONS: The gentlemen that are doing this for us
today tell me that it would take them anywhere from 12 to 18 months to
catch up.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. So we're going to spread
the labor effect of it over a couple of years.
MR. CLEHONS: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. CLEHONS: And the same with collection. They're your
last two pages. They broke theirs for me down into three priorities,
and I would recommend their just priority one for the first year or
two which is basically pump parts, inventory materials for pump
maintenance that they need. That would be what I would recommend to
you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: One more question also, Mr.
Clemons. If we increase the maintenance and the maintenance
scheduling on this and acquire these parts or rent them or whatever it
is that we need to do to perform the maintenance on the recommended
level, are you going to have to enhance your maintenance labor force?
MR. CLEMONS: In collections, no, ma'am. The existing
work force would be able to pick up the work there. Based on the work
in the plants, both of those gentlemen have told me they need to add
one technician to their work force.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Now, if we take the whole
picture, increased an FTE and increased parts and increased all this
other stuff, you still don't need to raise your rates in order -- MR. CLEHONS: No, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: -- to accomplish that?
MR. CLEHONS: No, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: And you're still not sacrificing
your reserves to a point that you are uncomfortable with as far as the
overall operation?
MR. CLEHONS: No, we're not.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I can't see any reason not to go
forward with this.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: He either.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Consider that sufficient
direction.
MR. HCNEES: On the collection site, just for your
information, Commissioner Norris, some of the savings that you saw the
other day were due to the merging of what used to be a north
collections and a south collections section into one large section,
and Mr. Clemons has done that as a means for better sharing and better
cooperation of equipment and all those items.
MR. FINN: Excuse me. Just so that I have some idea of
the magnitude we're talking about, the first priority items for
wastewater amount to in round numbers?
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: One was 107, and the other was --
came to 114.
MR. FINN: I have a piece -- the top priority and what
I'm seeing in total here.
MR. CLEHONS: The priority ones amongst all the segments
come to a little over $400,000.
MR. FINN: So we'll add $400,000 to the utilities budget
MR. CLEHONS: I'll give you -- I'll give you a
breakdown.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: $461,000.
MR. FINN: I just want to get that out to make sure that
everyone understands the scope of the dollars that we're talking about
here.
MR. CLEHONS: Right.
MR. FINN: Very good.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Where did we get the 400,000? I
only see --
MR. FINN: We'll reduce the reserves and --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK:
wastewater collection.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
sorry.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK:
It's 107,000 on the front --
Right.
-- 114 for the second --
Right.
-- and then 240,000 under
Oh, I didn't see that. I'm
Yeah. That was the last one we
talked about that we asked a question again when you said if we
include all of these.
MR. CLEMONS: That's why I wanted to make sure you saw
that back package for collections which included the pump inventory
parts.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: And this one of the parts that
concerned me the most, was that we were talking about a capital
expenditure of replacing a ton of pumps at the same time if we don't
do this maintenance.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I understand that.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: That's going to far exceed
$240,000.
MR. CLEMONS: Actually, on -- in talking with Mike just
now, the pump parts, I would actually recommend based on us having to
get up and run in for this, that we phase that over a two-year period.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Cut it in half?
HR. CLEHONS: Cut it in half.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: So we're down to 541,000.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: No.
MR. CLEMONS: No. Going the other way.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
MR. CLEMONS: Right.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK:
at this.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
MR. CLEMONS: -- 800.
341,000.
341,800, I believe.
I understand the concept. I'm new
341,000 --
MR. MCNEES: We'll take that as a maximum. If there are
other areas here where we feel like practically we can't inventory all
of this or do all this in the first year, we'll -- we'll --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: The idea though behind this -- I
mean, I know this sounds like it's moving real fast for you people
that don't know what we're doing, but proper maintenance according to
our list has not been carried on in accordance with the manufacturer's
recommendation and -- but our rates are set as if it did supposedly
since we're not going to have to increase rates or --
MR. CLEHONS: So much of it's brand new, and the
maintenance is just now catching up, and if we don't stay on top of it
now '-
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: If we don't do it now, we're
going to be in trouble.
MR. CLEHONS: Yes, ma'am.
MR. HCNEES: We have enough capacity under our rate
structure given the additional customers to cover it is more accurate
than really that they were budgeted for this.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I mean, we don't have to
raise rates in order to do the proper maintenance, and we're not going
to -- we're not going to adversely impact any reserves for future
expansions.
MR. HCNEES: Correct.
MR. CLEHONS: Right.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. Good. I guess we're at
water. Are you going to give us as good a news?
MR. NEWMAN: I hope so. Good afternoon, Commissioners.
For the record, Hike Newman, the water director. What you have before
you is --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I've never seen budget people
smile.
MR. FINN: Why don't we just start with the number,
Hike? What's the number?
MR. NEWMAN: You ruined my lead-in.
MR. HCNEES: Your budget people can't believe this is
really happening.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: You're giving them things?
MR. NEWMAN: It's a new experience for us too. I'd like
to walk you through this thing. We start off with the south county
regional water treatment plant, and the first area you look at is
facilities maintenance. This would deal primarily with the building
and the pipes and everything that's exposed to maintain that properly.
At the bottom of that page, you'll see a total, 32,600.
That's material, rental equipment, parts, other materials that would
be involved in that.
We have two options by which to accomplish this. One
would be to do it in-house with two people at an estimated cost of
74,600 a year or to contract that out at a cost of $84,815 per year.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: What were those two numbers
again?
MR. NEWMAN: 74,600.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I found it.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Versus 84.
MR. NEWMAN: And then the initial cost to contract it
out at 84,815. Now, those costs drop down after the first year. In
these cases, there's a higher initial implementation cost. That would
drop down to 54,200 in-house for the next two years and then jump back
up to 74 due to the timing and how some of these phase in.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Gottcha.
MR. NEWMAN: The next section for the south county
regional water plant would be the equipment for preventive
maintenance. The same thing at the bottom. You have the materials
that will be necessary to accomplish the list of duties that are
listed on that page at 34,155.
And on the next page, again you have a breakdown of
either doing that work in-house at 63,405 with the addition of one
personnel and the equipment necessary for that personnel to conduct
those activities or contract that out at 74,865.
The next section at the bottom of that page is the north
county regional water treatment plant. Being that that's a new
facility, we were very fortunate. We have the engineering -- the
engineers add into that contract a very advanced preventative
maintenance program, and it is tied into all the equipment. So it
spits out work orders on a daily basis and keeps track of all the
equipment run times, and so it allows those people to stay on top of
it. Also, that's a new facility, so we're not going to see a big
facilities cost here. It's merely going to be in the annual
preventative maintenance.
What you're going to see here is some infrared testing
of the electrical systems, vibration analysis of the pumps and other
associated equipment; electrical maintenance and testing; and then a
small amount for building maintenance that will basically encompass
the remote facilities which that facility is responsible for the well
fields -- the 26 wells that the county has and also the Carica raw
water -- or Carica booster station and pump station, and then the
Vanderbilt and Barefoot Beach stations.
That brings us to their grand total. For all the
electrical maintenance testing, you're looking at $130,422, and then
for the personnel and equipment to go with that for a grand total of
$199,422.
Moving on next to the water distribution section, we
have several options there out in the field. The first would be the
meter installs. When we brought you the first report, we indicated we
were following slightly below the average install rate we find that
after surveying some of the other municipalities. To bring that up to
a ten-day, 100 percent, basically you get your meter in ten days.
You're looking at one additional crew to accomplish that at an initial
cost of 120,413 a year and then an analyzed cost after that of 65,613.
We move on to the meter change-out crew.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How long is it currently
taking?
MR. NEWMAN: Pardon?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How long is it currently
taking?
MR. NEWMAN: I have that for you. I'll have to wing
that one. It was -- It was something -- may have been 70 percent of
them were being done within ten days. The remainder were falling in
the 15-day range or something of that nature. COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. NEWMAN: That's just an option. Next you can go to
the meter change-outs. This is the crew that is responsible for
changing out. The old aged meters in the system basically are cash
registers out there. Currently we're only getting to 67 percent of
those, and to bring that up to be able to get to all the meters that
are being -- that were being issued to be changed out by the computer
system would require one additional person at an annual -- at an
initial cost of 52,182 for the truck and things and then an analyzed
cost after that of 37,682.
After that we move on to fire hydrant maintenance and
inspections. Currently the county has 130 hydrants in the system. We
would propose to contract this out to a contract agency. There's a
good company. They have come down and did an initial audit for us
about five years ago, and we are still waiting for -- There's been
some rumor that we may take on the responsibility for all the hydrants
in the county from all the fire districts. I know they're interested
in giving up that responsibility.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: If I may interrupt, is this
something that might be more appropriate for the Pelican Bay services
division?
MR. NEWMAN: Fire hydrants?
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Well, if we're not -- if we're
not currently doing them all over the county for all county residents
MR. NEWMAN: We're doing them every place other than
where the fire districts are maintained. Basically the way it's set
up, if a fire district wants them, they take them at the time that the
project is turned over. If they don't want them, the county is stuck
with them, and it becomes our obligation then to own and maintain
those.
MR. HCNEES: There's 130 Pelican Bay hydrants. I think
that's the item he's talking about.
MR. NEWMAN: Right. Well, they're owned by the county.
They became part of the county water sewer when they took over the
Pelican Bay services division. And that would be-- We're estimating
that at an annual cost of $33,000, and that would be an initial cost
-- which would also include to bring those hydrants up to
specifications. We have no idea at this point what condition those
hydrants are in. We assume they have not been maintained properly.
North Naples has undoubtedly the best record maintained hydrants in
the county.
MR. MCNEES: Commissioner Hancock, to get to your
question, I think the equity transfer from the Pelican Bay utility
that went into fund 408 which is the county utility district is more
than adequate to deal with whatever left-over -- at least this item
and to appropriately pay for that with what is now fund 408 money.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. NEWMAN: The next item on the list is main line
valve replacements. We have currently, although with limited
resources, identified 87 valves that would need to be repaired or
replaced in the system. We don't know exactly how many of that is at
this time because we do not have the personnel to go through the
system and identify them all. And right now we are recommending that
that be contracted out through an annual service contract, and that
would cost approximately $86,100 to accomplish that.
After that we get into a service line replacement. The
county has acquired a number of service areas in building its utility
service area. Many of those were required for private utilities.
They used substandard materials in the construction of those services.
It causes us a lot of customer complaints, and we only get to them
when the service line breaks and basically inconveniences the
customer. We would propose that if you wish, you could go into a
service line replacement, also through an outside contract service,
and that would cost you approximately $235,100 based on the number of
service lines we have currently identified in the system needing
replacement.
After that you have a flushing/repair blow-off. We are
required to maintain a minimum chlorine residual that dead-ends in the
Collier County system according to DEP regulations. Currently we have
identified a large number of those that either do not have blow-offs
or have blow-offs that do not operate properly. As a result of that,
your initial fund -- and this is also -- it would be proposed to be
contracted out for repairs. The initial funds required to initiate
that type of program would be $196,175, and the annual cost after that
is estimated at $180,000.
The next item on your list would be the valve
maintenance program. The board approved several years ago a crew to
start undertaking that process; however, they in all that time have
only located 43 percent of the valves in the system. They get
approximately 15 percent of the valves annually, and we are required
or recommended by the manufacturer to exercise every one of these
valves on an annual basis, and we're only getting 15 percent of those
done.
We can't get the standard without adding an excessive
amount of people. We could improve the service we're currently
providing now by adding one two-person crew, and that would be at an
estimated cost or initial cost of 84,913, and then an annualized cost
after that is 65,513.
After that we get into the last category here, and
that's the actual maintenance or flushing of the water system. As
referred to earlier, the county has a large number of dead-end lines
in their system. Due to the nature of our population, very transient,
during the summer months -- and including the depth of the lines,
during the summer months we have basically no ability to maintain the
legal residuals at the end of these systems. If you would like to,
you know, pursue closer compliance with the regulations, we would be
looking at two additional flushing crews dedicated solely to that
purpose to go around the county and flush these dead-ends. You would
be looking at an initial set-up cost of 171,626 and an annualized cost
after that of 130,626.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Mr. Newman, I guess the questions
after your having gone through this are the same for the water system.
Are there rates -- Are the current rates sufficient to handle this
maintenance program and will you not have reserves to the point that
we -- that we get into a dangerous reserve situation for enhancements
later?
MR. NEWMAN: I believe that is the case. Hike.
MR. HCNEES: Well, I haven't heard a total.
MR. FINN: Nor have I.
MR. HCNEES: I guess my answer to that -- I'm not going
-- When you add the total of all those items with the wastewater
items, I'm not going to be quite so quick to say, sure, we can absorb
it. We had time since last week to essentially count everything. I
would prefer to take a little bit more time and analyze the impact. I
believe we're over a million dollars on the water side. You add that
to 400 grand and I'm sitting here telling you we can eat that without
some sort of an impact --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. That's what we want to
make sure of.
MR. HCNEES: Given that this is an enterprise budget
that has no trim impact -- in other words, if there is no trim notice
deadline for us to meet, I think what I'd prefer to do is look at the
phasing of this and the total impact of what Hike's put together and
come back with a first-year recommendation what we can do without an
impact on the operation or the rates because, you know, they've
counted everything, and they've shown you here's what they believe to
be done but in the water it's a little more extensive in terms of
crews and all of that, and I'd rather get a little bit better handle
on it than ask you to give us that additional 1.6 or whatever million,
the total that it is today.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yeah. I would like to see that
happen, and I'd like to ask two elements when it comes back. And one
is, as Mr. Clemons did, if you could go through and look at maybe a
prioritization within what you proposed. If this is the minimum,
absolute minimum, that's one thing. But if you feel there are things
that could either be phased or delayed to reduce the annualized costs
over a longer period, I'd like to see that, just kind of a
prioritization within it if you can make that happen. And the second
thing is just -- as Hike had mentioned, is those things that you'd
have to get a big startup and run all at the same time. You may not
get them all done. Let's look at a phasing to see if we can reduce it.
But, yeah, I'd like to see those come back before I'm really ready
to say go ahead and do it all.
MR. NEWMAN: And, again, we're just responding to your
request for the information. We're trying to give you an overview of
what is necessary, and we would agree with you that this should be
phased out over a number of years, obviously starting with the most
essential components first, mechanical components moving in the
system, and then building maintenance.
COHHISSIONER HANCOCK: Yeah. I think we're able to
grasp what Mr. Clemons brought forth and look at it, but we're
probably not able to grasp as much information as you brought and make
a solid decision today.
MR. NEWMAN: That's fine.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: His is a little more nebulous.
Why don't we -- Why don't we look at getting a maintenance schedule
that will put us onto a schedule closer to the recommended maintenance
from the manufacturer.
MR. HCNEES: We'll bring this back to you, if it meets
everybody's approval, on a regular agenda item during I guess either
late July or early August prior to your public hearing so that we can
have all the numbers finalized well in advance of the hearing. The
budget people can deal with whatever the changes are. And, as I said,
there's no trim impact, no ad valorem impact.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It looks like a lot of this stuff
just can't be done in one year anyway. MR. NEWMAN: I agree.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: So if you would do that, we'd
appreciate it.
MR. HCNEES: We appreciate it.
MR. NEWMAN: Thank you.
MR. FINN: Last item under public is a discussion of the
duties and responsibilities of the finance supervisor position.
MR. DORRILL: Let's try and combine the next two. If we
have Mr. Newman and Clemons step to the back. Mr. HcNees, you want to
stay there. Mr. Yonkosky, if you'll come up and take the other staff
seat.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I have some specific items on
this list of 22 that maybe I can at least take you in the right
direction. Some of these are very clear and I understand. Some of
them I don't get.
Number four, five, and six, payment processing, payment
approval, and miscellaneous invoice billing; number ten, alternative
impact fee study evaluation; number 21, OCPH coordination of projects;
and number 22, inventory and billing system. All of those I'm trying
to -- Either I see being done somewhere else or I'm wondering what the
connection is or I need a little help.
MR. HCNEES: Four, five, and six, if you see the note at
the bottom, there are a couple of clerical employees, and what's --
The list that you see here is a list that the finance department put
together near the beginning of this DOR discussion with all the things
they could think of that would be left behind in the finance
department when DOR folks moved out.
Those that are clerical, payment processing, payment
approval, are still being done by clerical people who were left
behind. So those duties are not -- we're not trying to hire somebody
to do that. That's being done, and that's taken care of.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Hike, pause for a second for me.
Those -- So the billing for utilities, bill processing is going to
remain in utilities?
MR. HCNEES: What we're talking about are paying for
electric bills, that sort of thing, that processing today is -- takes
place within the utilities division. Now, we are the only division
that currently we do that for yourselves, and we have been talking to
the clerk's office about taking that load over, and they are
interested in doing that. What we're talking about is -- call it sort
of a reorganization where some of that what I'll call the lowest level
of clerical work will shift over to the clerk's and will be able to
allow those clerical people without any significant additional cost or
without any additional cost to do a little bit higher level of work
dealing with purchasing and taking some of the load off some of our
field supervisors which is how we got to some of the savings that we
talked to you about last week. So these were duties that were
originally left behind. The payment processing, those types of duties
are not a factor in what we're talking about in this finance
supervisor position.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: But payment processing is number
four on utilities finance supervisor.
MR. HCNEES: Okay. That's the title of this page. What
this is a list of are all of the finance department items -- this was
prepared by those folks -- that were going to be left behind in the
utilities division when the move was made. There are clerical
employees remaining to accomplish many of these, and then perhaps I
didn't do a good enough job of identifying which are which. That
would be my fault.
The clerical and those that -- As you read this, I think
it's fairly evident which are clerical-type tasks and which are a
higher level, higher responsibility tasks. The clerical tasks are
covered, and it's the other tasks that we're talking about needing
someone to be responsible for.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other questions? This --
Items four and five, then, are in my purlins, Mr. Yonkosky,
essentially counts payable functions.
MR. YONKOSKY: Yes, they are.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. YONKOSKY: There is one portion of that payment
processing that was included before. It was refunds of deposits, and
that is in the department of revenue and is going to be automated.
that process will be enhanced.
MR. HCNEES: If you want to take four, five, six, seven,
and thirteen and just put a black line through them, that's fine.
We'll take them out of this discussion.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Those are --
MR. HCNEES: Those are covered.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: They're already covered.
MR. HCNEES: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: By people who currently exist?
MR. HCNEES: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. So now we have these --
these executive summary preparation, that's now done by -- Well, for
fiscal impact review, that's now done by somebody else that's moving?
MR. HCNEES: That's done by somebody whose job has been
proposed to be eliminated as part of the reorganization.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Bond issues. I'm not
understanding what your department would do with bond issues yet we
also have a finance committee, and we also have bond counsel, and we
also have -- whoever else we have that gets mixed up in bonds.
MR. HCNEES: Two things. Essentially one being on new
issues, the staff work related primarily to the official statement
preparation whereas -- all data gathering and working with the
engineer, provides the engineering report and coordinating all that
information. Secondly, monitoring of covenant compliance, rate
coverages, that sort of thing, and that's not a constant ongoing every
month of every year process, particularly on new issues, but it is
something that when it happens, somebody has to be responsible, and
that's typically been this person that's being eliminated.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Lease agreements, how many leases
do you have?
MR. MCNEES: A few. Not very many.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Not very many.
MR. HCNEES: Not very many.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Any other questions from this
list?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Any of those leases about to
expire?
MR. HCNEES: To the best of my knowledge, no.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Why don't we -- Why haven't we
transferred those to real property that has a computer program to
monitor expirations and lease terms?
MR. HCNEES: I don't know that we haven't at this point.
I know that the type of issues with the leases are -- ongoing leases
that we have are processing, making the payments and processing,
particularly the ones with the Hubschmans where we have to kind of
keep a hold of that because it's complicated on exactly how much we're
paying and what the status of that is, and I'm not representing that
to be a huge effort. It's just something that somebody has to be
responsible for.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. Somebody has to do it
regardless.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, I think Mr. HcNees has
answered the original question, at least to my satisfaction, so I'm
willing to go ahead and approve.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah. I think he has too. He's
got enough functions here that need to be tended to. We need a third
person.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Consensus.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You've got.
MR. MCNEES: Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: The next area is department of
revenue, Mr. Yonkosky. We're looking for another analysis or a better
analysis of savings that were generated.
MR. YONKOSKY: For the record, John Yonkosky. Yes,
Commissioner, and I don't know whether you all have the report that
was handed out to you. We have a set to give to you if you don't.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I don't have anything. Oh,
they're in our in-boxes. Mine was.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: These are?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Uh-huh.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. YONKOSKY: During the line item review for the
department of revenue, there were four questions that were raised that
you asked for additional information, and briefly they were lockbox
process and savings, and personnel reductions and utilization, prior
year costs, and the expanded services.
On the lockbox process, the lockbox is basically a
trade-off between cost and -- that you currently have and additional
cost that you would pick up played against the benefit, the economic
benefits of reducing the float time. You have two schedules in there,
one that was prepared concurrently with the one that I prepared last
year that shows an overview of the process and shows you what the
savings are there. We, in effect, did eliminate or will eliminate in
the 1995 budget two positions by the use of the lockbox.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: We -- The cost of the two
positions that are eliminated is how much and -- MR. YONKOSKY: Approximately $53,000.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How much are we saving today?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: 53,000 so far today by getting
rid of two positions.
COHHISSIONER HANCOCK: Where in my budget are those two
-- Where in my budget can I find those two positions being
eliminated?
MR. YONKOSKY: If you'll let me go to the next one, to
the personnel reductions, I'll walk you through that. COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. YONKOSKY: So you have two comparisons there that
show approximately $25,000 in net savings to the county under the
lockbox process.
Under personnel reductions and utilization, in the
fiscal 1994 and 1995 budget, you had funded and paid for 23 positions
in utilities for the finance section, three in solid waste, and four
in EHS. That's 30 positions, plus you paid for three positions in the
clerk's cashiering section. Utilities paid for two of them, and
community development paid for one. That's a total of 33 positions.
The budget that DOR is requesting for fiscal 1996 has 29 positions in
it. That's a net reduction of four positions. Two of those positions
dealt with the cashiering. They're absolutely gone. They're not part
of what's being requested. You have a net reduction of four positions
in there by the combination of the different departments in the
billing section. And by combining them, you're able to use people to
move them laterally for one peak billing period to another. The use
of the lockbox actually eliminates two full-time positions.
MR. DORRILL: Where were those then -- Where were the
two cashiering positions? In this year's budget, where were the
cashiering positions? Were they in the clerk's budget or were they in
MR. YONKOSKY: They were in the clerk's budget. They
were part of the funds that you actually transferred to the clerk.
Utilities paid for two of those positions, and community development
paid for one.
MR. DORRILL: Okay. Then part -- part B of that is the
other two positions that are coming down on the positive side of this
little ledger through the lockbox mechanism were -- like one of those
community development and one at EHS, or where are the other two?
MR. YONKOSKY: No. The two -- Two of those positions
came from the lockbox. You paid for three cashiering positions.
Using the lockbox next year, you're only going to need one of those
positions. And then over on the other side, by combining the
different billing functions, we actually eliminated two other
positions.
MR. DORRILL: Where would they be in this year's budget
in the '94 -- fiscal '94 budget? Where are those two positions?
MR. YONKOSKY: They were in EHS. Those positions were
in EHS and you -- Oh, okay. All right. I see. That's a question
that -- If I understand the question, those positions -- we did not
fill that one position in customer service. That was vacant at the
time that you approved the --
MR. DORRILL: But that -- it was in that budget at EHS?
MR. YONKOSKY: Yes, it was. It was in the EHS budget.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Those four positions you're
talking about do or do not contemplate the two positions that were
originally coming over from the tax collector and will not be coming
over from the tax collector?
MR. YONKOSKY: They -- They do not. And as I go through
this under -- on the second page, you can see there, Commissioner
Constantine, I addressed that very specifically and in detail because
you had raised that question at the line item meeting before. When we
came to you and you approved the combination of all the billing
departments, we gave you a list of options, put all four of them
together, and we will reduce the number of people that's required. If
you would like us to take over and actually perform the mailing
function associated with the mandatory special assessments, we could
do that, but we would have to add two individuals to do that, and that
same time we would reduce the amount of money that was going to be
paid to the tax collector and to the clerk and to the property
appraiser, giving you a net savings of $125,000. And the commission
at that time very clearly said, well -- and recognized the fact that
that $125,000 savings is only going to be valid if the tax collector
reduces his budget by $125,000.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Along those same lines, you
said two of those four positions were formerly shown as clerk
positions. Did we see --
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Cashiers.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Did we see two less cashier
positions in the clerk's budget this year?
MR. YONKOSKY: I'm sure you did because that was not
part of the transfer. That was -- COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Three?
MR. YONKOSKY: -- a payment from --
MR. DORRILL: Yes, three.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Three less.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Three less.
MR. YONKOSKY: And we had to use one of them as -- so
that -- that is a real savings. That's not part of the general fund
transfer. That is a reduction, and your staff is now performing the
cashiering functions.
So when you approved or accepted the $1 bid from the tax
collector as opposed to DOR performing the mailing, you accepted the
bid from the tax collector, $1 per account. That comes out at 50,000
accounts to $50,000. You had been paying the tax collector $175,000.
There's a $125,000 savings. This time it is -- it's real because
there has not been an increase in staff in those two positions. So it
is a -- It is a real savings. Does -- Mr. Constantine, does that
address the position you were talking about? COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. YONKOSKY: And then Commissioner Hancock directed me
to prepare a schedule because he wanted to -- it was showing
200-some-thousand dollars budget to budget for the functions that DOR
will perform in '96 compared to a budget for DOR in fiscal 1995.
Commissioner Hancock asked me to go back and put together a schedule
of actual costs for those functions in fiscal 1994, and that's what I
have done. And when you compare the two of them, the million nine o
four two seven three, for the cost for ninety -- actual cost for '94
compared to the budgeted cost of a million eight seven four, about 400
for the proposed cost in the DOR in fiscal '96, there is approximately
30-some-thousand dollars difference. And you've got to recognize that
those salaries in fiscal 1996 have six point -- or 6 percent -- 6.2
percent increase -- well, $56,000 for the increases that you awarded
those people, the 2.7 percent in fiscal '95 and the 3.2 percent which
you have currently left for the personal increases. So there's
$56,000 in the difference of a two-year increase that the board has
approved. And if you look at the actual expenditures themselves
because DOR is coming away from utilities, included in that budget is
$60,200 for meters, for the small meters that would be changed out by
the meter-reading crew in the department of revenue. I would assume
that that $60,000 decrease occurred in the large change-out meter
inventory in the utilities division. And in addition in there too, we
also have $56,000 when you approved the tax collector putting those
mandatory special assessments on the tax bill in fiscal '97. In
fiscal '96, you're going to have to pay to get that roll certified the
first time. That's been estimated at approximately $40,000 you're
going to have a bare minimum of $16,000 to mail out first class
notices to everybody in the county and approximately $4,000 for
advertising, and that's to go through the conversion process. And
that's the one-time expense. So that is a savings that you will
realize.
And then, finally, the -- you have approximately $25,000
in interest earnings that doesn't really float through your budget,
but you're going to realize an additional interest earnings of
approximately $25,000 by the fact that you have eliminated the float
that is out there in the utility billing and the mandatory solid waste
billing.
The last item that you had questioned dealt with
expanded services, and I've written you a fairly lengthy memo on the
expanded services, but there's five positions that are being
requested. Three of those positions currently exist. They are --
just because they're going from one division to a new department that
you've created, they're being reflected in expanded services.
there's really only two expanded services, and one -- one of those is
an individual that's being split. When you privatized the landfill,
you may opt to maintain the scalehouse operations and rightfully so
because of the cash that flows through there. But under the scenario
before you privatized it, your landfill scalehouses are open six days
a week, and you had three employees performing the services there from
early in the morning until late in the afternoon for the trucks going
through. You had two employees in Naples and one in Immokalee, and
one of the employees that you transferred to waste management used to
be a part-time employee in the scalehouse operations that would
relieve that person that was in the scalehouse, going to fill in when
that individual was sick or couldn't make it to work. That is now
waste management's employee. We need to have someone to fill that up.
And one of the things that was happening is that you were shelling
out about $30,000 a year in overtime for those people so that they
could maintain the scalehouse being open. And I believe, Commissioner
Matthews, it was you that suggested very strongly that someone ought
to take a look at reducing that overtime and putting a part-time
employee in there which is -- under this scheme or plan is what we're
doing. We want to have a half a position to fill in out there. We'll
use flex time. We've reduced the overtime from 30,000 down to 12,000.
So it makes those people's lives a little bit more agreeable too,
and we do think it will work. We've worked it out to -- where by the
use of flex time and using people back here from the department of
revenue to fill in when there's vacations that are needed, we think
that we can handle it.
The other half of that employee would be to EMS --
because we can't hire a half an employee, and so we'll use the other
half of that employee to fill in at peak periods and do some other --
perform some other functions. We are really tight in EMS, and that
would be their primary, secondary function, but that employee would
then fill over into the other areas, utility, billing, and special
assessment.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I guess the alternative would be
to hire a half-time person.
MR. DORRILL: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I mean, a half an employee.
MR. YONKOSKY: That's correct.
MR. DORRILL: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And that would save on medical
benefits and stuff too. Is the other half -- you know, justified, I
guess, is my concern.
MR. YONKOSKY: We think that it is. For example, we
went through and did some very serious analysis in the EMS area, and
the growth in EMS this past year -- and I guess you had your EMS
review this morning, that the actual growth in EMS has been -- at
least from the information that we're getting has been considerably
more than we thought that it would be when we first pulled together
the DOR budget. We would like very much to be able to have a slight
amount of -- and it may be cushioned, but to have that employee in
there. And then if it works out that the growth isn't there in EMS,
then we could come back to you and say that we probably should go the
-- use a part-time employee for that, but right now we feel that we
can use it because of the growth. One of the things that --
MR. DORRILL: Mr. Yonkosky, let's -- hang on just a
second. Let's -- the reason we've been here for six hours. Let's see
if they've got some questions now. We can answer their questions, and
we'll see what decisions they've got, unless we need to keep going.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Questions?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: That's fine.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We don't have any questions.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Thank you, John.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Thank you.
MR. YONKOSKY: Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Public services. I thought we
covered the $21,000, that Denise said she was going to outsource that.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: As long as we're going to
save it, I don't think you'll have any argument. We probably don't
need a verbal review. If we're not going to save it, then maybe we
do.
MR. OLLIFF: That's fine. We'll do that. I think the
only reason it ended up on this list was because there was an
outstanding issue that Miss Glanten (phonetic) raised about some
possible legal problems with what she had proposed, and I think those
have been resolved. There are no legal problems, basically laying
off, so you know, two existing FTEs, and we will replace that with
some contract service which we can do without the overhead cost,
without the benefits cost.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. OLLIFF: On the parks I had thought as well that the
board had made a decision that the site lighting improvements -- those
were the two site lights for Aaron Lutz and for Frank Mackle Community
Park. They were primarily not athletic field lighting but parking lot
and more security type lighting for a $30,000 item.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's not on the list.
MR. OLLIFF: It's not on the list.
MR. DORRILL: It's already in.
MR. OLLIFF: Okay. I want to make sure I'm working off
the same list. My next item is maintenance. Is that the next --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Neighborhood parks deeded to
homeowner's associations.
MR. OLLIFF: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Just do it.
MR. OLLIFF: Neighborhood parks, I'm assuming I've got
some direction to do that, but I do need to make the board aware that
in order to do that, if we're going to create taxing districts, the
timing on that is it has to be done by January so that we could not
actually create districts to pay for those until fiscal year '96, '97
at the point --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You might have to do it over a
two-year period.
MR. OLLIFF: Correct.
MR. DORRILL: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But the concept's good.
MR. DORRILL: But in lieu of that, we would go to just a
minimum level of maintenance for neighborhood parks. I mean, we
wouldn't be out there cutting the grass every week and that type of
thing.
MR. OLLIFF: Right. Okay.
MR. DORRILL: Let's -- Can we get on down to the meat of
this thing? Because he does have some options for you on the -- what
I'll call community park type maintenance and mowing schedule.
MR. OLLIFF: What we handed out to you, you had had
before. I just felt obligated to at least preface what we started by
handing you out that budget fact sheet as well, and if I can just draw
your attention to numbers two and three, I think I need to impress
upon you again that your park maintenance staff is not at a Cadillac
level. I think your number of maintenance employees to acre is higher
than -- or, actually, lower, I guess, in that case than anybody around
and has been getting lower and lower each year over the last number of
years that we can count since 1991.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: One to 30. What's that?
MR. OLLIFF: One maintenance worker per 30 acres of park
land, and you generally have a very, very good maintenance department
in terms of how much we provide for what you put into the system.
In addition, your cost per acre maintained continues to
go down, and you are already 7 percent lower than anybody in the area
in terms of how we maintain it. And it was just a little odd because
I felt like what we were being told was that you do it too good. And
I'll tell you what our philosophy is, that when people get to our
libraries, our parks, I don't want them to leave satisfied. Our goal
is that they leave impressed and that's -- that's how -- what we're
stressing to our maintenance crews, and I think we do that, and I'd
stack our parks maintenance up against anybody, whether it's Palm
Springs, California, or Palm Beach, Florida. I think --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Even the City of Naples. Is that
counting the City of Naples as one for every two and a half acres?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Two and a half acres.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Theirs ain't better than ours?
MR. OLLIFF: No. I don't think so. I think a lot of
the credit goes to those two guys sitting in the back of the room --
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Thanks, guys.
MR. OLLIFF: -- to Hurdo Smith and Gary Franco, who do
an outstanding job for you in that regard. But, anyway, that is a
starting point.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I would like to at least clarify.
There was -- There was no question whatsoever about the quality of
our parks, and I'm not trying to penalize you for doing too well, but
in a year where we are looking at what big bill areas have small
fine-tuning that may result in a different level of service, albeit
lower, can we go down a little tiny bit and save a significant amount?
And that was the question I think that we were looking at, not do we
want to degrade the parks that they're no longer quality or no longer
impressive, but is there a way we can drop a little bit of quality for
a big dollar savings and still have some of the finest parks in the
state?
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Tim, I think the place where
we're seeing that is through divesting ourselves of the neighborhood
parks and reducing the neighborhood parks maintenance and that we
might not want to make anymore cuts than that and even if that does
take a couple of years.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We may just want to see what that
accomplishes.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I hate to do much more than that.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, I don't want to limit
our cuts either, particularly before he's even had a chance to explain
what these options are. I think we do have to look at whether we have
an opportunity. I would just like to hear what those options are.
MR. OLLIFF: Just based on your discussion, we did put
together three options for you to at least look at. The first one --
and I will tell you clearly it is primarily all capital related.
These are what you call operating capital items. They're not on your
capital list. These are 001 fund-supported capital items. And it's
primarily just simply delaying replacement of some of our existing
operating equipment, postponing that into future years. And there's a
whole list of capital items there. All of those are in an operating
capital area because they are less than $25,000 per piece. So they
show up in your 001 budget. A $298,000 net decrease cost to the
general fund on that option. MR. DORRILL: One year.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The TECH worker contract, though,
isn't that where we use, like, mentally impaired people to do some
work that they -- I mean, that's a wonderful program.
MR. BRINKMAN: Yes. There's five people on that
contract. They work half a day over at the Golden Gate Community
Park. Steve Brinkman, parks and recreation director.
MR. OLLIFF: I'm sorry. Tom Olliff. I didn't do that
either.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I think I'd agree with
Commissioner Hac'Kie. I'd hate to lose that program there, and I
think we'd probably get a benefit, as does the community, from that
and as to those individuals. The other items on here, though, the
pickup truck, the mowers, the tractor, et cetera, I'd like to -- I
would like to see deferred out for a year or years if we can, and
that's still $268,000.
MR. OLLIFF: The next item we actually -- option we
actually get into reductions of maintenance worker positions and --
and, so you know, we would sort of be going in two different
directions. Your cuts are a little greater than just the number of
positions that you're looking at. You're actually increasing the
number of park acres next year by 8 percent, and that's without Lake
Avalon. Assuming that we will bring Lake Avalon on, you're talking
somewhere in the 15 to 18 percent increase.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, that's 60 acres of it you
don't have to cut.
MR. OLLIFF: That's true, and that's the kind of park we
love to have, frankly, from a maintenance standpoint. But what we are
proposing on that particular option is those three maintenance worker
two positions at the top are those that are budgeted in this coming
year's budget, primarily to offset the middle school maintenance for
those facilities where we would improve the middle schools. What
we're saying is we would bring those on line and simply absorb those
into your existing staff and not add any -- any personnel at all in
order to be able to handle those.
In addition, we're showing those two maintenance workers
-- When we totalled the number of hours that we spent today in
neighborhood park maintenance, it comes up to about a little better
than 4,000 manhours per year which is about two FTE positions, and so
we're talking about taking those and at least showing those as being
funded by some other source.
In addition, we went ahead and continued to show that
capital from the first list, and your net decrease to the general fund
increases $303,000.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: If you have the three worker
positions on there, what's missing from the list on the front?
Because it's only $4,695 difference even though it has 72 plus 48,
whatever that equals, 120,000 in positions that don't appear on the
front. I think it doesn't list all of the --
MR. OLLIFF: It does not list all of the capital. I know
items ten and eleven are not on this second list. I think they tried
to pick of what were --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Four and five aren't.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm just thinking, is there a
mix and match here, or could you include those 72- and 52-inch mowers
because that's still another $100,000. MR. OLLIFF: Yes, you could.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Have option two plus those is
100 minus the 30 because we don't want to delete TECH, but that would
be $270,000 roughly.
MR. BRINKMAN: Correct.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'm sorry. 370.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Steve, could I get a copy of
this? We're sharing here, and I'm starting to make notes and Chairman
Matthews is making notes.
MR. OLLIFF: Option three takes you to a net decrease
general fund amount of nearly $450,000. This is a reduction of
primarily 25 percent of your maintenance staff. There are nine total
maintenance worker two positions, the TECH contract. And, again, that
-- I think this is the same reflected list of capital that's in
option two, so it's not that complete list from option one. But that
option takes you to 447,000.
We do try to specifically show you in both options two
and three that there is a service level impact. We try to listen to
your desires for the trash receptacles at community parks to be
cleaned every day. When we say "delittering," you need to know that's
when we actually have people in the parks picking up the trash that's
left behind by the public at a ball game, and that's a significant
amount and a significant time that we spend on the maintenance crews.
But when we say we're talking about reducing our delittering efforts,
that's what we're doing. So, I mean, we may go every other day, and
we may get some complaints from that, but I think that's -- in terms
of priorities, that's a lower priority than emptying trash and
cleaning rest rooms.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Let me make a suggestion and
see if can get consensus from the board. I think perhaps option three
goes a little further than we would like to go, but I like option two.
You said we could absorb those three positions at the top into --
what they're doing into what we have now anyway. Add in the small
capital items that would be -- that are on the first page as well.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Take out TECH.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Take out TECH. So total all
that up and it's 372,000 or something like that.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: And that makes sense to me,
except for, Tom, I didn't understand -- what's the -- what's the
result of eliminating those three maintenance worker positions and the
two maintenance -- five positions and the net effect on the parks will
be --
MR. BRINKMAN: Yeah. The -- And that's under the
service level impact that you see there. The community parks means
that the grounds for littering will be done four times per week now
instead of seven. It means that athletic fields will be dragged four
times per week instead of on a daily basis now, and that all softball
and baseball fields will be mowed once per week, and soccer fields
will be mowed twice per week. Both of those are one mowing less than
we currently do. General park area mowing will be accomplished every
ten days, and then trash receptacles will be emptied and rest rooms
cleaned seven days per week because that was an important issue.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: That seems consistent with
what we had asked the other day.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I have a question. You've got
two maintenance workers, and I don't think we've addressed this, but
it says here that they're paid for from a beautification district. Is
that HSTU and not ad valorem dollars? Is that --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Not general fund dollars.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Not general fund dollars.
MR. OLLIFF: The beautification district is probably
incorrect. We were talking about a taxing district like you were
talking about for neighborhood parks or in those cases when an
association can pick it up completely, do it that way but --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: My question on that is, are these
workers that are working on the beautification district?
MR. OLLIFF: No.
MR. DORRILL: No.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: These are not those. Okay.
MR. OLLIFF: These are parks and recs.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: We're a little thin on that
already is what I keep hearing but -- So these would be for the
neighborhood parks funded by the neighborhood associations; right?
MR. BRINKMAN: Yes. It would be the pay for the two
people that we have maintaining those neighborhood park areas.
MR. OLLIFF: Right. By some other means and displacing
ad valorem monies with taxing district funds.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Oh, oh, okay. So you're saying
that $48,000 would be replaced with taxing district. MR. OLLIFF: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay. So that --
MR. OLLIFF: Unless there are associations who want to
simply pick up the maintenance, and that's great too. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: And there may be.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: We've also previously stated that that
would not occur until FY '97 in terms of being -- our ability to
implement a new taxing district.
MR. DORRILL: If we're going to impose a taxing
district, we will probably do it in '97. If we have, for example, the
Poinciana Village Homeowners Association and they're willing to assume
that responsibility, then we would certainly undertake all of those in
1996 which begins on October the 1st. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I have a quick information
question to refresh my memory. How often are we currently mowing the
baseball and softball fields?
MR. BRINKMAN: Currently we're mowing the baseball
fields twice per week during the heavy mowing season and the soccer
fields three times per week. This will reduce option -- Option two
will reduce that by one mowing.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It looks like -- It looks like
we're looking for option two minus TECH.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Modified by taking TECH out.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: And adding on the other --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Capital from one. Leave it to
us --
COMHISSIONER NORRIS: Adding what?
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: On the front page there is
the 72-inch mowers and the 52-inch mowers totalling $100,000. That was
not included on the list on page two, and we're saying it should be.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, two of them are.
MR. OLLIFF: What you're telling me is that you want the
full list of capital?
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Yeah.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Are we going to be able to get by
without replacing these mowers, or what is the status of these mowers?
MR. BRINKMAN: Well, they are really on the list, on the
replacement list because they are due to be replaced, and they are in
such a condition that they are needed to be replaced or new equipment
is needed. We would have to postpone that for a year and kind of
nurse them through for a year to make that happen.
MR. OLLIFF: And we can do that or we wouldn't have put
them on the list.
COMHISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. I feel comfortable if you
can do it.
MR. DORRILL: That's going to be a management function.
If they start spending too much money on maintenance on a single piece
of equipment, then it's just time to stop surplus.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Gottcha.
COHHISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. I agree.
MR. DORRILL: Beach parking fees.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: We've already discussed that in
depth.
MR. DORRILL: Have we done it?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: We gave direction on Monday to
bring that back as an executive -- CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: As an executive summary later
this summer, didn't we?
MR. OLLIFF: Uh-huh. My notes from that were to bring
that back in the July or August time frame and get some specific
approvals for new FTEs required to put that position -- that program
in place as well as the ability to order those capital equipments
necessary. By then -- I have a meeting scheduled next Wednesday with
Bill Harrison, the city's finance director, to go over the inter-local
agreement that we have, and that will be part of that package that I
bring back to you as well.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Fine. That was the direction.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Yep.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Wonderful.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Just quickly in the parks, are you
proposing to reduce the proposed millage or reserve those funds for
either a future decision or to be carried forward into --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: 372 you're talking about?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Yes.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I would -- I think we're
talking about cutting that.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: We wanted to reduce the millage.
That's why we went through this exercise. MR. DORRILL: We can do that.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Just a comment as we prepare
for the next item, Building W expansion. Earlier today we talked
about the possibility of either trading that off for something else
and I understand -- Whoops. I'm sorry. Never mind then. I'll get to
that. You can go ahead.
MR. FINN: All right. We can go ahead. Kathy and I are
sitting here in response to Commissioner Norris' request to clarify a
little clearer answer to some of the confusion surrounding the clerk's
budget and some of the just general concerns we had about whether
we're being presented an accurate picture of what's going on.
To that end, we've put together this spreadsheet seen
before you. You'll see the first three columns on the left-hand side
deal with the expenditure budget comparing '95 tentative budget to the
'96 tentative budget. In total dollars terms, the amount of increase
is $10,900.
Let me first say that this budget is somewhat confusing
for everyone to deal with. So the confusion that occurred the other
day is not really that surprising. This is a very confusing thing. I
think Kathy supports me in saying.
MS. HANKINS: Actually, we can cut to the chase. I was
wrong.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Good. Because that would have
been the third one for Mr. Finn, and we would have to say good-bye to
him.
MS. HANKINS: I'm new. I'm learning. I didn't have all
the information, and I have to tell you, these guys have been great.
They worked hard with us, and they taught me a lot, and I still have
more work to do on the budget. They've identified at least two other
areas where I should be looking at fee income that may offset the
board's contribution, and that's in the area of the county -- county
courts and also in MIS. We have another fund that folds into that
that I wasn't aware so --
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Thanks for your candor, Kathy.
MS. HANKINS: What can I say?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The first mistake you made today.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: If it's all cleared up, then can
you please then -- MS. HANKINS: I've been punished. I've sat here for
hours waiting.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: You've only made one mistake and
Ed's already made two.
MS. HANKINS: That was it.
MR. FINN: I think those mistakes occurred in the last
fiscal year. They're just being reported now. MS. HANKINS: Thank you.
MR. FINN: If there's no further questions, we'll be
happy to --
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Bye.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Bye.
MR. FINN: Thank you.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Y'all be good now, you here?
COMHISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Now on to Building W.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Building W.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I just want to say one thing.
We talked earlier about trading it off, and then I know the word
"priorities" was mentioned. Well, we have to establish what our
priorities are. It seems to me on something like this, particularly
after the explanation Monday, either we have a need for this or we can
get by without it for another year. Maybe I'm being too black and
white. But it seems to me if we were ready to trade it off earlier
today, maybe we can get by without it.
UNKNOWN VOICE: I wasn't here for the trade-off.
MR. DORRILL: Let me --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I was, and I wasn't ready so --
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, I was ready.
MR. DORRILL: Let me respond to that just quickly. The
only reason I picked this one was because it is the only other 301
capital project that's comparable size to the computer-aided dispatch
project; and, otherwise, we would have had the use -- like then take
the balance of the projects that were there, you know, the re-roofing
and the change-outs with the air conditioning, and it was coincidental
only in that it was the only one of comparable size. All of the other
projects are less than $200,000.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: And what about the parks money we
just cut?
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Let cuts be cuts and not --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: We cut capital.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's not capital either.
MR. CAMP: For the record, Skip Camp. I've been working
for the last four or five months with the constitutional officers and
particularly the clerk and the supervisor of elections. As you know,
we temporarily moved the microfilm out of this particular facility and
put them in a temporary facility. The clerk has agreed to relocate
the microfilm department to a record retention area that he's also --
needs additional space. He wants to keep it on campus but will take
it out of this office building which to us is very good because it
would cost us around $60,000 to incorporate his -- all the utilities
that he's going to need to the renovation of the fourth floor.
The expansion of Building W would be for the benefit of
all constitutional officers and directly or indirectly for you also.
If we can move microfilm over to this Building W expansion along with
providing the constitutional officers with additional record retention
space, then you have departments even under the commissioners, under
your agency, that will benefit. For instance, risk management now is
in very crammed space. They deal with a lot of personal items,
health-related items, whether it's HIV or hemorrhoids, for that the
matter, and they are literally on top of each other. So your own
departments will benefit from this expansion also. We've put it off
for five years. The last warehouse was good for ten years. It was
1985 that we built that, and I really do wish you would consider this.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Let me ask you. I think the
manager pointed out on Monday that this was a metal building.
MR. CAMP: That's correct. It's about $45 a square
foot.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: $45 a square foot. Being a metal
building, is there an opportunity to expand it in phases rather than a
15,000-square-foot expansion at one time?
MR. DORRILL: We had that discussion after you left.
Frankly, can we do something -- you know, I know these buildings come
in sort of pre-engineered widths of certain dimensions and the point
being --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Phase. Phase.
MR. CAMP: You could do that. There are some economies
to doing it once because of mobilization costs and that wall, but,
yes, that could be done.
MR. DORRILL: Can you give him some idea?
MR. CAMP: Well --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Obviously --
MR. CAMP: 5,000-square-foot increments is the way I
would recommend it because that would at least get the clerk and the
supervisor of elections' acute situation taken care of.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: They have a cute situation? A
5,000-square-foot expansion would take us out to how far would you
guess?
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: How many years?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: How many years?
MR. CAMP: If you did a 10,000-square-foot expansion and
allowed us to privatize a little bit some record retention, I think
that would be good for five years.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Five years.
MR. CAMP: We would have to continue to privatize at
least the board's part of record retention which we started to do.
MR. DORRILL: That's a very nominal cost.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: What's the comparison with
privatizing if that's how we're -- what we're going to call it now,
the whole concept? I mean, I hadn't seen that comparison.
MR. CAMP: We want to do that in concert. We've
actually gone out this summer to get those figures. There's one
organization in town that does it. It's Robert Flynn, I believe. And
we have -- That is a competitive quote that we have, and he's going to
start taking some pressure off of us, but it's 80 cents a box per
month. Okay? And there's a retrievable fee. And some things you
have to keep forever. Some things can be microfiched, and other things
can be just boxed for dead -- dead file.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: It just -- It just occurs to me
-- I mean, when you just walk around, there's empty space all over
the place. I mean, maybe things aren't as organized and pretty as
having it in one big warehouse somewhere, but I just can't imagine
that we need this, and plus -- well, that we have to have this, that
we can't do this some other way. I mean, it's too much money. And
I'm troubled by -- Didn't you guys just tell us it was 51 bucks a foot
and now it's 45 bucks a foot? And wasn't it that it had been
postponed for five years and now it's been postponed for three years?
MR. CAMP: It has been five years. Every year for the
last five years we proposed it, and every year we've deferred it.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I just find it '-
MR. DORRILL: In fairness to Mr. Camp, he was not here
for this discussion the other day. I think we were relying on Mr.
Conrecode or Mr. Karpinski, and I think the $50-a-square-foot number
was their number. It may have included certain portions of site work,
included the filling and --
MR. CAMP: Yeah. It's broken down to construction,
architectural, and site, and the square feet -- I may have picked up
the square feet for the construction, but there's some architectural
and site work that's got to be done.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And we've done an analysis of
every inch of space available on this campus, and there's just not
anywhere to put any of this stuff?
MR. CAMP: Absolute -- there are alternatives, but the
alternatives are more expensive, and right now these people are in a
temporary space in a shell on the fourth -- fourth floor of the
courthouse.
MR. DORRILL: That's the microfilm and records
retention.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What's wrong with the temporary
space in the shell?
MR. DORRILL: It -- well, frankly --
MS. HANKINS: It isn't -- It isn't even certified for
occupancy. It literally -- It literally is a hole. There's no
insulation. There's no walls. There's no ceiling. I mean, it's --
it's literally an unfinished floor.
MR. DORRILL: And the other problem with that with all
candor is I also cut a request from the judges who wanted to spend
2,700,000 to finish the fourth floor because it is a concrete shell
that is air conditioned. But they asked me, and I took out of my
budget two and a half million or whatever it was because they wanted
to have it finished for future courtroom expansion space anticipating
additional judges being added to Collier in the future.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I think prioritizing this is less
important than some of the other things that we're already cutting
out.
MR. CAMP: Commission, we are out of space, and the
clerk has really worked with us to put his people in this temporary
space in order for us to better utilize the space in the office
building.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: How long has it been --
microfiche and all that stuff been put in this, quote, temporary
space?
MR. CAMP: When we started the renovation of the second
and third floor offices.
MR. DORRILL: December.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: What would happen if it was
still there next September?
MR. DORRILL: We would probably need to try and
incorporate them onto the clerk's fourth floor of this building, and
we would have some costs associated with that, and we might have -- we
might have to relocate the marriage and passport section in order to
get microfilms closer to the bathrooms because the only stand pipes in
this building for water and wastewater are at this end of the
building, so we would have -- we're going to have to have some costs
to get --
MR. CAMP: They have a lot of special requirements
because of all these big cameras that they use, not only for exhaust
but, like you said, for water and those kind of things, and those
utilities have to be taken from this side of the building over. And,
quite honestly, it may not be the appropriate department just because
of all the utilities and their uniqueness to this kind of a structure.
MS. HANKINS: I would second that. They're a very low
traffic area. Right now I just checked on them today. There's 150
cases of records that are lined up waiting to go through the
machinery. Virtually no people walking in there. So using your
high-traffic Building F for that type of an operation might not be
your most cost-effective move.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Let me suggest something. I mean,
they're going to sit here and demonstrate the need and we're going to
say we don't think it's that high a priority, and we can do that for
hours of hours.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I was going to go back to
your first question, though, of the stepped approach. What would the
expense be to do, say, the initial 5,000 square feet?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: It would be -- Let's say $250,000
would be close.
MR. DORRILL: Roughly.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Roughly. It would be close.
MR. CAMP: Would you consider a -- if we could do half
the building now so that I can consolidate their operation?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I could do that. I'll do that.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: That's where I'm getting --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I can do that.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I can do that. It's $375,000.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Three seventy-five, sir.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Or something to that effect.
Three eighty-seven fifty.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
MS. HANKINS: Sold to the Americans.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Sold. Now, let's see now. That
gives us $400,000 for the sheriff's CAD system; right?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: No. It gives us $400,000 to
give back to the taxpayer.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Right.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Unless they would be better
served by some other -- CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Exactly.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE:
COHMISSIONER NORRIS:
two items left on here.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK:
dollars. Good luck.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS:
time?
I mean, that's to be determined.
Well, there's only -- There's only
Yeah.
And together they're a million
Yeah, but spend them all at one
HR. DORRILL: Let me bring up one point just because I
know everybody's already seeing it. When the big fellow starts moving
over here, you can't let him do that. We can also cut that from the
millage, but if you will remember and the reason he's coming over here
is we've got a two-year budget projection that they did, and every
time you lower the millage and lower the millage and lower the
millage, remember, next year --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: It's got to go up.
MR. DORRILL: -- was supposed to be the boogie man year,
and he's going to say y'all get medals for cutting the budget. You
can taking credit for that. He's going to say in terms of your
millage capacity, you're better off to put it in some restricted
reserve account so that if you need money next year, at least you've
got it already factored into the millage because if you lower the
millage, he's going to say that creates a bigger burden.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That 18 percent is going to
become 20 percent real easy.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: That's right.
MR. DORRILL: Theoretically.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Which makes it that much more
important to hang onto these cuts rather than simply trade them off
for some other --
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Well, they're not cuts.
MR. FINN: The only thing -- The cuts that occur in
operating areas are multi-year cuts and those real reductions. Cuts
in capital are one-time cuts and -- and they aren't significant in the
multi-year salary.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: We used to allocate approximately $14
million a year for capital, and we still had a long laundry list of
projects requested but not recommended. That has over time shrunk to
7.6. And then you have, you know, parking lot expansion project, 800
megahertz. Your available spendable dollars for capital outlay in a
large growing --
MR. DORRILL: Put it in reserves is what he's going to
recommend to you.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: If we have a one-time cut and
it's put in reserve for next year, then it does impact next year when
we're trying to struggle with how we're going to afford -- MR. FINN: It's available to offset an otherwise
increased ad valorem.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Exactly.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: That is certainly an option to you next
year, obviously, should we face a budget issue that you could further
reduce from the funds that you could say we're going to allocate only
$5 million now and use that other money to fund operations.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: But, on the other hand, if their
operating costs increases and we do some magic numbers this year which
increase our reserves a percent or two, all we've done next year is
stave an operating cost increase off one more year.
MR. FINN: Yes.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: That's all we've done.
MR. FINN: Yes. Ideally we would like to levy the
millage required for operations. That is why Mike's multi-year
scenario has a large spike because eventually the millage needs to
keep up or catch up to annual operating costs.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Right. You'll note in the budget we
have $12 million approximately in carry forward. Reserve numbers are
approximately $6 million. That means we are, in effect, upside down
to a certain degree already. And at some point -- You know, we've
been lucky over the years with additional turn-back funds or
reorganizations that, you know, have allowed us to accumulate those
funds, but eventually that one-time revenue dries up and your fixed
operational costs continue on.
MR. FINN: Or there are significant changes in the level
of service when that year happens. CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I hear you.
MR. DORRILL: We'll reserve it but -- It will be a
budget cut, but it will be reserved so that it cannot be used for any
other purpose.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: Okay.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Final two items.
CHAIRPERSON MATTHEWS: I've got to go.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: You've got to go?
(Chairman Matthews exited the room.)
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Shall we proceed on the last two
items? Has anybody changed their mind since this morning or --
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: We haven't heard about one of
them.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I have not, but perhaps my
mind will be changed. Who knows?
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: We haven't even heard this one
yet.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Identify for the record and
proceed, please.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Brief shot.
MR. BARNETT: Scott Barnett with the Collier County
Sheriff's Office. I'm here to answer any questions about the video
imaging system that we proposed. Basically the video imaging system
is for both jail centers, and that's why the cost is higher than what
you would normally expect. Immokalee has to have one. Naples has to
have one to develop a database. Putting the photographs on a digital
storage system allows for us to either instantaneously drop a photo or
never drop a photo if we don't have to. We can also do multiple
stacking of arrests. Because we have a lot of repeat offenders and
for career criminals, the A number with different variations, we can
pull all of the arrest photos for someone for later identification for
the judges. Other positives out of video imaging are I can transmit,
in the future with the 800 megahertz system, a photograph to a squad
car. And future uses of it would be each of the substations would
have the receiving terminal which is basically a computer where
instead of investigators driving to Naples or to Immokalee to do a
photo line-up or to get a photo reproduction, they could pull it up on
xerox paper at the substations themselves.
COHMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is this a public safety or an
efficiency? We're going to save dollars because of this, or are we
going to get more criminals off the street? Which is it? Money or
safety?
MR. BARNETT: Up front it's not a savings. In the
long-term it is -- you'll save time and money for court because every
time one of our techs makes a photo line-up for investigators, even
for a deposition, they're called in to state what they've done on a
case, and that's several hours each time.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Let's assume that this year the
sheriff focused on increasing personnel and next year he focuses on
equipment. Those pictures that are gathered over the next 12 months,
will we then be able to put them on video when the system comes on
line?
MR. BARNETT: We'd have to -- It's easier and more
cost-effective to start from scratch.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I understand that. But what I'm
asking is -- In other words, all the pictures we've taken, are those
wasted? We're not going to get those on video?
MR. BARNETT: Yes. They'd have to be stored from this
point on. So if we go another year, it's just another --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: So in a year we have
pictures.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Just a year we've lost and --
MR. BARNETT: Yeah. And after five years, we -- these
pictures seem to be deteriorating anyway because the Polaroid format
seems to go to a total white shell as opposed to --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Two things. It seems to me,
we're not going to be able to make full use of this until we have the
800 system anyway. So it might be just as well to wait a year.
Secondly, many of the uses on the 800 system you
mentioned such as actually transmitting a picture to a unit while
they're in the process of arresting someone, or what have you, is way
down the road. That's not one of the initial functions of our 800
system. It's just -- I think it may have some nice applications and
again may be premature right now to get very much use out of.
Secondarily, you mentioned the photographs and the
Polaroids are wasting away. I mentioned the other day to Crystal and
-- we purchased 18 months ago, 19 months ago, a full lab for regular
photographs to be able to develop --
MR. BARNETT: We spent roughly $24,000 on that small
photo lab, and right it's processing -- Since October, it's processed
1,300 rolls of investigative film. So it's running at it's capacity
right now. It's also doing medical examiners. The problem with doing
jail photos is you need an instant photo or one within a few hours for
the judges or for intelligence or whatever, and to shoot a whole roll
of film and then bring it up 24, 48 hours return on the photographs
back to the jail and that's --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I guess if the Polaroids have
a life of five years and we're looking at having many of those things
you mentioned with 800 megahertz on line within five years, then we're
still okay. But I just think as of today, right now, how much use
we're going to get out of this, it's premature.
MR. BARNETT: The dilemma with it is today with the 800
megahertz, that's -- that is a future application. It's when we
started which is when the benefits are going to -- It's going to take
a year for me to start realizing the benefit out of this because we
need data base built up before it starts to pan out. So a year's
delay is not even --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: My comment is the same at it was
this morning. We asked the sheriff to come in with a budget that was
millage rate-neutral, and he came very close to doing that. It's not
really the Board of the County Commissioners and I would never presume
to tell the sheriff how to run his agency, the sheriff's department.
I'm not qualified, and that's up to him, but I think what I would
prefer to do is leave the sheriff's budget as it is presented. And if
the sheriff feels that these are more important than some of the other
things that are in his budget, he'll make the necessary adjustments,
and that's the way I think the board should approach this item and the
one after it also.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I'm going to agree in not
approving this for the reason that there are a tremendous number of
technologies out there that would assist us in our job. The question
is, when can we fund them and how can we fund them. The answer to this
one is, not now, not this year. So there are a lot of things out
there that could help us do a better job or help the sheriff do a
better job. The question is whether or not you can afford them. And
I think that's where we are, and the answer is this year, with the
budget he submitted, we can't.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Norris, I concur
with you on the next item as well. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: There is one item I want to hear
on the computer-aided dispatch that I asked this morning that
hopefully we can get something different on. It was presented to us
as a single line item 850,000 mega -- this is it, this will solve the
problem type of thing, when what we saw in pictures was -- and what
I've seen in the communication center is a magnetic board that
obviously is, you know, not in line with today's technology or last
decade's technology, and something like that I think we're talking
about an operational help, but I need to know, is there a way to maybe
increase operation without spending $850,000 on this one huge
all-encompassing system. I don't know the breakdowns. I don't know
the levels in there. So that's where I need help.
MS. KINZEL: Well, unfortunately, I thought that was
kind of answered this morning, but I'll try to rephrase what I
understand from the technical people. We can phase in certain aspects
of that. The 850 is the entire project for the dispatch segment which
some of the graphics that pertain to the GIS because I know this
morning there was some confusion as to whether it was GIS system.
It's not a duplication of the GIS system. We're primarily talking
about the dispatch operational. And the two most important components,
while we can work on the hardware, software applications and phase it
or lease purchase to reduce the cost, I think the two primary things
that we need to be concerned with are the graphic applications so that
we can monitor without as much human error where the vehicles are and
where the incident is that they can get to, but also the down time
that Damian expressed. When we're down, we're down. They have to go
to the fully manual system which is almost impossible. We
unfortunately experience a lot of electrical, a lot of storm problems
here. I think he'd indicated he'd been down numerous times already
this year.
By putting in the primary hardware piece of this system,
because it's got that hot transfer, dispatch can stay running on one
system supported by the UPS, and it can transfer the data so you don't
lose any of the automated dispatch time. Unfortunately that's probably
one of the most expensive components of the whole unit that he's
proposing. But a lease purchase or phasing this in over a couple of
years would meet with us also. We can do that to compromise.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: For my benefit, what you've
answered is that you can phase it in, but you can't physically segment
it? In other words, you can't draw a facet of it and not get the rest
of it? It's either a package you go up front or you phase it. Either
way you're going to get the whole package?
MS. KINZEL: That's my understanding. Right. Because
you have to have the graphics to connect with the other hardware
component or the CPU processing unit that actually retains the data
that generates this, and that's the piece we're missing with just the
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Crystal, you should really be in
sales. You know that? You have the persistence and the gift of the
gab and all that.
MS. KINZEL: Vince convinced me. Believe me. I'm hard
on them. I really am.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: But you know what? You know what?
Collier County has the lowest crime rate in Florida, and they've
been doing that for years and years, and they've never had one of
these enhanced dispatch stations. So, you know, it's -- it's -- once
again, it's up to the sheriff to decide if it's important enough to
make adjustments within his budget.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Crystal, I'm going to save you a
little bit of time here because I'm not ready to approve something,
even phased in, that's an $850,000 system at this point. So that's
two.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: There's three. Anything else
on wrap-up?
MS. KINZEL: I believe we had one wrap-up on the
attrition that you did ask me to go back and speak with the sheriff
on. I did go back over there. He asked me to express to you a
concern about making a cut in our budget at this time. He'd like the
opportunity to come back and explain to you a little bit more the
management philosophy.
We looked at this budget extensively. We looked at how
to manpower, should we allocate it. We've looked at all of the
attrition, which departments are down, which are up, and what we would
like to say is that we know that in the past we've had those
vacancies, but what we're also saying is that this year we've
implemented very specific strategies in recruitment going to the
campuses. We don't foresee that that attrition will remain in
subsequent years.
So what the sheriff would like to do is be able to meet
with you more substantially on this issue before you make a decision
to cut his budget further. We've cut the overtime. We're asking for
specific bodies. The only way to cut the 3 percent out of our budget
is law enforcement positions. We're 82 percent manpower. It's going
to cut positions. What we're saying by that attrition factor is that
we can't staff up, and we're optimistic with these new strategies that
we've implemented that we will fill up and we need to fill up to
provide the road patrol.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I thought we already gave
that direction this morning. I didn't realize it was still on the --
I don't see it here on the list, but I thought we gave that direction.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: That's what I thought.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, what Crystal said is that
we've given the direction and she spoke with the sheriff, and this is
his response.
MS. KINZEL: He's requesting that you reconsider the
cutting of his budget at all. We've come in with a 4.6 which we think
is very positive. We've implemented again all of these strategies
that we feel we will staff up. If we don't staff up, you will see a
turn-back as the alternative. But we are -- The way we have
structured now with the recruitment at the university, the minority
recruitment, minority task force, all of those things have been
implemented in this year that we're in. So while we may have had a
deeper attrition in prior years, we're not looking to have that
attrition in subsequent years.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: So what's the net of your budget
if these two items that we did have in wrap-up remain cut? You said
you're 4.6 or something?
MR. FINN: I'm sorry. The items -- Are you referring to
the attrition being cut or the capital projects?
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: The two capitals are what I'm
talking about.
MR. FINN: Okay. The 850 for CAD was never in.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: Okay.
MR. FINN: The 110 for the video imaging is in -- the
countywide capital fund is not going to have an impact on the sheriff
MR. DORRILL: It's not part of the sheriff's budget.
That's, frankly, our budget.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: I see. So you're coming in '-
MS. KINZEL: 4.6.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: -- with the 4.6 percent increase.
If we had that 4.6 percent increase to get more patrols on the road,
if that -- if balanced with the other cuts that we've done, are we
still tax-neutral?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Yes. We walked in at 1.1 percent in the
general fund below rollback. In addition, now you've made these parks
and recreation cuts, 350, $360,000, and I've requested we make -- we
not reserve that but we actually reduce the proposed millage as a
result of that.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: So as much as our instructions
and marching orders are we want to be tax-neutral, it may be that road
patrols, increased road patrols, is something that people are willing
to pay for so long as their tax bill doesn't go up. And if we can
accomplish that goal, I don't see how we're -- what we're doing wrong.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, we're not asking them to
reduce the number of road patrol deputies. We're just saying budget
for attrition, and that's really not the same thing. COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: But --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Perhaps you want to --
Perhaps you want to poll the board, but I don't have any interest in
voting to overturn this morning's decision. I don't know. Maybe you
want to poll the other commissioners.
MS. KINZEL: Just so that you understand, if we --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Excuse me, Crystal, for just a
second. We -- This has to be decided obviously and acted on before
the trim notice.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Yes.
MR. FINN: We can always reduce the millage. We cannot
increase the millage after --
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Oh, okay.
MR. FINN: -- the trim notices go out.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: At this point, what we could do is based
on your direction, just put the money -- the marginal dollars that
this would free up into reserves, and at some future date you can
always --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, this morning we gave a
specific direction. Now, if the majority of the board wants to change
that direction now, obviously we will, but this morning we gave a
specific direction on how to handle this, and I for one don't have
interest in changing the direction we gave.
MS. KINZEL: Could I mention, though, that, Commissioner
Norris, in a way it does reduce our manpower because it assumes that
we will not fill our authorized slots. If we are successful in our
recruitment, the dollars are not there to pay the full authorized
slots because you've reduced those dollars by the 3 percent.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Do you carry --
MS. KINZEL: So, in effect, it is a cut.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Do you carry a reserve account?
MS. KINZEL: No. The county carries one for us, but we
did not request a reserve as part of our 4.62, no.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Are you anticipating a turn-back
next year?
MS. KINZEL: No. We do not anticipate that at all.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Not a dollar?
MS. KINZEL: We -- We --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Not going to turn anything back
next year?
MS. KINZEL: We allowed -- The budget office estimates
the turn-back for your benefit. We only request from you those
positions that we feel are necessary for the operations of the
sheriff.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Which is the way you've done it
the last two or three years; right?
MS. KINZEL: Six that I've been here.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. Six. And your turn-back
has been a million three, a million one. All of a sudden next year,
it's going to -- the world is going to change. There's no turn-back.
There's no room for budgeting for attrition.
MS. KINZEL: Commissioner, not all of that turn-back has
been directly attributed to attrition either. We saved last year, for
example, over 700,000 in health insurance, and that's what we're
asking. If you can keep it at a millage-neutral now and put it in the
reserve, that's fine with us. That gives the sheriff a bigger
opportunity, and perhaps we need to do a little more work in
explaining why this is a management tactic for law enforcement. And,
you know, just by keeping the money in reserve and not cutting the
millage at this time -- you can always cut the millage by the hearing
date, but if you keep it in there right now, at least give the sheriff
the opportunity to maybe talk to you a little more about his strategy
because we think it's extensive, and that's what I talked to him about
at lunch and that's the --
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: If it doesn't cost us anything,
out of respect for the sheriff, why not let him make that case? If
it's not costing us anything, the trim notices are going to be what --
you know, it's --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Well, with all due respect,
that's what these budget hearings are for, and if the sheriff chose
not to come, you've been here, I believe, on three different
occasions, so he certainly had the opportunity to do that. This has
been scheduled for -- I don't know how long. We've had this on our
calendar for two months. So there has been ample opportunity. To
suggest that budgeting for attrition is cutting positions is absurd
because it's not. Mr. Chairman, I would respectfully ask you poll the
board and ask us if we would like to change our direction.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: And I will do that. Commissioner
Hac'kie.
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: I'd like to honor the sheriff's
request.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Commissioner Constantine.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: I'd like to keep our
direction that we set this morning, budgeting for attrition.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Commissioner Hancock.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I'd like to maintain the position
we established this morning.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: And I will go along with that
also.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: And I'm sure we'll hear from the
sheriff.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: As any '-
MS. KINZEL: Well, the unfortunate part, if you set the
trim notices at that level, then you can't increase the millage. Then
you are looking for additional cuts to fund those positions. Again,
if we are successful in funding the positions, then you lose the
reserve which affects subsequent years so --
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Do we have anything else on
the --
MR. DORRILL: No, sir. We will reflect those cuts in
the millage rate, and I'd be the first to say that if the sheriff
experiences problems next year, then you'd have to take action on a
supplemental budget to move some money out of reserves and give it to
him if he experiences less attrition than 3 percent.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: If he enjoys the wild success that
Hiss Kinzel is predicting, then we'll have to deal with it at that
point.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I want to ask our budget office.
Do you expect that to happen?
MR. SHYKOWSKI: What to happen?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I don't know if they're qualified
to --
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: I know they're not qualified to
talk about the sheriff's hiring procedures, but I assume the board --
The action we took this morning was based on information given to us
by the budget office on past year, on turn-back, and attrition and so
forth. Is what we're doing consistent with the discussion we had
earlier today as far as what the sheriff has --
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Yes. Although we did not actually
discuss either reserving the money or reducing the millage.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
MR. SHYKOWSKI: Just like at the final public hearing
last year, it appeared that there would be additional sales tax
revenue and revenue sharing. Rather than reducing the millage, we
reserved the money, and at that time point obviously that has assisted
this year in allowing us to be below the rollback once again.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: On the surface it appears to me
that reserving it, opposed to reducing the millage is a wise course.
COMHISSIONER MAC'KIE: Thank you. That's what I'm
saying. Reserve it. Don't send out a trim notice that gives you
nowhere to wiggle.
MR. FINN: We can always reduce the millage. We cannot
increase it.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: We can always go down.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So leave it up and we can always
go down.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I guess where I'm caught in this
is that you said you would bring it back to us showing the budget the
way we asked for it, and now you come back saying, no, the sheriff
wants to talk to you about it.
MS. KINZEL: No. I believe I was very specific that I
couldn't make those decisions that I would take back to the sheriff
what you requested because I -- it is the sheriff's office. All we
are is his budget reps, and in reference to the comment about the
sheriff's had ample opportunity, quite frankly, we had --
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: That's not part of my question,
Crystal. That wasn't my question. Let's stick to what I'm talking
about here. I guess my inexperience is causing me a little problem
here. Okay. Because if we reduce the millage rate, we're then going
to have to allocate from reserves should this thing turn out other
than -- In other words, if there is no attrition within the sheriff's
office, it's then going to have to come out of reserves. MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes.
MR. FINN: Commissioner, the attrition numbers or the
turn-back numbers that have been evidenced in the past are real
numbers and are real turn-backs, and we did not use those numbers when
we budgeted. The sheriff's staff is representing to you that they are
going to do something different in that that number is going to be
lower. I can't sit here and tell you whether what they're saying is
going to happen or not. I can tell you that it's their budget, and I
wouldn't be totally comfortable, in light of what they said, reducing
that entirely.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: If I understand correctly, we've
budgeted initially for 600,000 in turn-back? MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. And the history shows in
excess of a million for the last couple of years.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes.
COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: There was some discussion about
reducing that budgeted turn-back to $200,000 this morning.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Your direction this morning was budget 3
percent attrition and reduce the turn-back to 200,000. COMHISSIONER HANCOCK: Okay. Thank you.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: My only issue with that is what you
would propose to do with that marginal money, reserve it or reduce the
millage rate further.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Reserve it.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Reduce it.
MR. FINN: There are two opportunities at public
hearings to reduce the millage subsequent to the trim notices going
out.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: In other words, if we reserve --
If we said to reserve it now, we can reduce it later?
MR. FINN: You have two opportunities to do so.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: I would like to get just a little
more solid on this before saying reduce it. I want to reserve it now.
We can lower the millage rate at a later date, but right now let's
reserve it until I have -- and I'm sorry. This may be inexperience
talking, but I'm just not ready to say reduce the millage, because I
want to -- I want to understand a little more how it affects the big
picture.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, the other problem is like we
have been. If we reduce the millage this year, continue to try to
reduce it -- we've already got it reduced.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Right.
MR. FINN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: If we can continue to try to
reduce it, we're going to have to deal with that next year.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: If it's a restricted --
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: It exacerbates our problem.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: If it's a restricted reserve,
I'm more comfortable with that, but if you're merely saying reserve it
so that we can have this exact same discussion with the sheriff's
office in September, I'm not comfortable with that. I don't need to
revisit the issue.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: But restricted reserve for --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Millage rate.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: For the 3 percent attrition.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: Yeah.
MR. DORRILL: We would -- We would take it out of the
sheriff's appropriation and put it in the Board of County
Commissioners contingency reserve in the general fund.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Bingo.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Fine.
MR. FINN: And in the event the sheriff's office -- the
attrition did not happen, then you would have a reserve dedicated to
give them what they needed to get through.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Exactly. Now, is everybody
comfortable with that?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I can live with that.
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: That -- Yes. That gives me
everything I was looking for.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay.
There being no further business for the Good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by Order of the Chair at 3:52 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS
CONTROL
BETTYE J. MATTHEWS, CHAIRPERSON
ATTEST:
DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK
These minutes approved by the Board on
as presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF DONOVAN COURT REPORTING
BY: Christine E. Whitfield, RPR