BCC Minutes 03/28/2000 RMarch 28, 2000
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, March 28, 2000
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting
as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of
such special districts as have been created according to law and
having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m.
in REGULAR SESSION in Building 'F" of the Government
Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members
present:
ALSO PRESENT:
CHAIRMAN:
Timothy J. Constantine
Barbara B. Berry
James D. Carter
Pamela S. Mac'Kie
John C. Norris
Tom Olliff, County Manager
David Weigel, County Attorney
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COLLIER COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA
Tuesday, March 28, 2000
9:00 a.m.
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON ANY AGENDA ITEM MUST REGISTER
PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER WITH THE COUNTY
ADMINISTRATOR PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE
ADDRESSED.
COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 99-22 REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS SHALL,
BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE
CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT.
REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON THIS
AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION TO THE COUNTY
ADMINISTRATOR AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE MEETING AND
WILL BE HEARD UNDER "PUBLIC PETITIONS".
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD WILL NEED A
RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND THEREFORE MAY
NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE,
WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE
APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
ALL REGISTERED PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO FIVE (5) MINUTES UNLESS
PERMISSION FOR ADDITIONAL TIME IS GRANTED BY THE CHAIRMAN.
IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY ACCOMMODATION IN
ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO
YOU, TO THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE
COLLIER COUNTY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST
TAMIAMI TRAIL, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112, (941) 774-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING
DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE.
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March 28, 2000
LUNCH RECESS SCHEDULED FOR 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 P.M.
INVOCATION - Reverend Robert Jacobs, Messiah Lutheran Church
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
APPROVAL OF AGENDAS
APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA.
APPROVAL OF SUMMARY AGENDA
APPROVAL OF REGULAR AGENDA.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A. Board of County Commissioners Workshop - March 7, 2000
PROCLAMATIONS AND SERVICE AWARDS
A. PROCLAMATIONS
1)
Proclamation proclaiming March 28, 2000 as Habitat for Humanity of
Collier County Day in Celebration of the Construction of Its 300th Home.
To be accepted by Dr. Sam Durso, President/Habitat for Humanity of
Collier County
2)
Proclamation proclaiming March 21,2000 as Naples Junior Civitan Club
Day. To be accepted by Mr. David Fife, President, Junior Civitan Club
3)
Proclamation recognizing Gator Osceola, Everglades City School, Census
2000 Committee poster contest winner.
4)
Proclamation recognizing the Friends of the Parks. To be accepted by
Ms. Karen Wood, East Naples Community Park; Ms. Evelyn Vidaurri,
Immokalee Community Center; Ms. Lynn Allyn, Veterans Community
Park; Ms. Carolee Steelman and Ms. Donna Koenig, Vineyards
Community Park; Ms. Carole Timbers, President, Mr. and Mrs. Leon
Eisenbud, Barefoot Beach; Ms. Ginny Stack, President, Sugden Regional
Park, and Ms. Nancy Sineni, President, Tigertail Beach.
B. SERVICE AWARDS
1) David Miller, Transportation - 15 Years
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March 28, 2000
2)
3)
4)
s)
7)
s)
9)
Pamela Moore, Children's Library - 10 Years
Peggy Ruby, Parks & Recreation - 10 Years
Jorge Gonzales, EMS ~ 5 Years
James Turner, Building Inspector- 5 Years
James Dix, Insp. & Plan Review - 5 Years
Wayne Watson, EMS - 5 Years
Izell Hall, Road & Bridge - 5 Years
Lorraine Oldham, Community Development - 5 Years
John Dunnuck, III - County Administration - 5 years
C. PRESENTATIONS
APPROVAL OF CLERK'S REPORT
A. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES TO RESERVES FOR CONTINGENCIES
PUBLIC PETITIONS
Mr. & Mrs. Horbal regarding a Code Enforcement decision - removal of Java
Plum trees.
B. Ms. Karen Rigel regarding Immokalee Road.
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT
A. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
1)
Response to request to consider the rezoning of the Naples Park
Subdivision from RMF-6 (residential multi-family) to residential single
family at the request of a representative of the Association of Property
Owners of Naples Park.
2)
THIS ITEM WAS CONTINUED FROM THE MARCH 14, 2000 MEETING
Approve an alternative road impact fee calculation for the Naples
Philharmonic Center for the Arts.
B. PUBLIC WORKS
1)
Award a Construction Contract to APAC - Florida, Inc. for the widening of
Golden Gate Boulevard from CR 951 to Wilson Boulevard; Bid No. 00-
3039, CIE No. 62.
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March 28, 2000
2)
Approve staff request to transfer Six-Lane Improvements on Golden Gate
Parkway from Airport Road to Santa Barbara Boulevard (The "Project")
from Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Work Program to
Collier County Work Program.
3)
CONTINUED FROM MARCH 14, 2000: Transportation options for a
portion of the roadway network bounded by Wiggins Pass Road, U.S. 41,
Vanderbilt Drive and 111 th Avenue.
4)
Presentation on Water Sources to address the supply of water through the
Year 2020.
5) This item has been deleted.
6)
Response to Board request for investigation of one-way extension of
Piper Boulevard between Livingston Road and Strand Boulevard and
request for direction for further study.
7)
Declare an emergency condition and approve amendment No. 1 to the
professional services agreement with Agnoli, Barber & Brundage, Inc.
(AB&B), to incorporation Phase IV of Livingston Road design into the
Phase III design while maintaining the same plan production schedule.
Project No's 60071, 62071, 62061.
C. PUBLIC SERVICES
D. SUPPORT SERVICES
E. COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
F. AIRPORT AUTHORITY
G. EMERGENCYSERVICES
COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Discussion regarding Everglades Restudy funding options (Commissioner
Mac'Kie).
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March 28, 2000
11.
Appointment of member to the Ochopee Fire Control District Advisory
Committee.
C. Reconsideration of renaming of the Collier County Courthouse.
Discussion regarding results of Golden Gate Estates Area Civic Association
Survey Results. (Commissioner Constantine)
Appointment of member to the Golden Gate Community Center Advisory
Committee.
OTHER ITEMS
A. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
1)
Joint Presentation of the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in
Financial Reporting and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.
2)
Presentation of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal
Year Ended September 30, 1999.
3)
Department of Finance and Accounting seeks approval to file State of
Florida Annual Local Government Financial Report for Fiscal Year 1998-
99.
B. PUBLIC COMMENT ON GENERAL TOPICS
PUBLIC HEARINGS WILL BE HEARD IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING STAFF ITEMS
12.
ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS - BCC
A. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENTS
B. ZONING AMENDMENTS
C. OTHER
1) Conduct a Public Hearing to receive comments concerning a Community
Development Block Grant application; and approve a Resolution
authorizing the County Manager to apply for a $350,000 Economic
Development Grant offered through the Florida Department of Community
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March 28, 2000
13.
14.
15.
Affairs.
2)
An Emergency Ordinance amending Ordinance No. 95-66, the Collier
County Vehicle for Hire Ordinance - (subsection 142.35(b) of the County's
Code of Laws and Ordinances) - to authorize a temporary emergency
increase in taxicab rates due to the extraordinary increase in motor
vehicle fuel costs; providing for conflict and severability; providing for
inclusion into the Code of Laws and Ordinances; providing special
effective date.
3)
CONTINUED TO APRIL 11, 2000 MEETING: To consider adoption of an
ordinance to amend Collier County's Noise Ordinance No. 90-17, as
amended; lowers by five decibels Table I Noise Levels Applicable to
Residential Tourist Residential and Commercial Property; adds Table II -
Maximum Noise Levels to be Tested by Octave Band Analysis; adds
vibration standards applicable to residential and tourist residential sites
and units; amends parts of Section F; provides for conflict and
severability; provides for inclusion into the Code of Laws and Ordinances;
provides for a delayed effective date.
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
A. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
1)
Petition V-99-28, Richard and Leslie Lilien requesting a 5.5 foot variance
from the required 7.5 foot setback to 2 feet for property located at 10262
Vanderbilt Drive, further described as Lot 26, Block 40, Naples Park Unit
6, in Section 28, Township 46 South, range 25 East, Collier County,
Florida.
B. OTHER
STAFF'S COMMUNICATIONS
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COMMUNICATIONS
16. CONSENT AGENDA - All matters listed under this item are considered to be
routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion of
each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the Board, that item(s) will be
removed from the Consent Agenda and considered separately.
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March 28, 2000
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
1)
To receive Board approval of a Newsrack Agreement and Waiver of
Liability form.
2)
Petition C-2000-5, Mario Valle, representing Gulf Coast High School Band
Boosters, requesting an After-The-Fact permit for a carnival that was held
March 9, 10, 11 and 12, 2000, on property adjacent to the high school
grounds located at 8200 Immokalee Road.
3)
Authorization of a 100% waiver of impact fees for one house to be built by
Antonio Ramirez at 5469 Hardee Street in Naples Manor Addition, Collier
County, Florida.
4)
Deferral of one hundred percent of the impact fees for a 104 unit
affordable housing project to be built by Wild Pines of Naples, Phase II,
LTD., a Florida Corporation known as Wild Pines Apartments Affordable
Rental Units.
5)
Authorization of a 75% deferral of impact fees for one house to be built by
Erika Abrams at 5013 Catalina Court, in Colony Pines, Collier County.
6)
Recommendation to approve Commercial Excavation Permit No. 59.732,
"Creative Excavating, U 39, TR 68" located in Section 5, township 48
South, Range 28 East: bounded on the east, south, and west by vacant
land zoned Estates, and on the north by 54th Avenue, N.E.
7)
Recommendation to approve commercial excavation Permit No. 59.731,
"Jim Weeks Commercial Excavation TR 93, U 72" located in Section 28,
Township 48 South, Range 28 East, bounded on the north, south, and
west by vacant zoned estates, and on the east by DeSoto Boulevard.
8) Final Acceptance of water facilities for Yarberry Lane House of Worship.
9)
Request to approve for recording the final plat of "Pelican Marsh Unit
Nineteen", and approval of the Standard Form Construction and
Maintenance Agreement and approval of the amount of the performance
security.
10)
Request to approve for recording the final plat of "White Lake Corporate
Park, Phase Three", and approval of the Standard Form Construction and
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March 28, 2000
Maintenance Agreement and approval of the amount of the performance
security.
11 ) Final Acceptance of water facilities for St. Croix at Pelican Marsh.
PUBLIC WORKS
1) This item has been deleted.
2)
Award Bid 99-3005 to selected firms for manhole, lift station and wet well
rehabilitation contracting services.
3)
Approve Work Order WMBP-FT-00-01 to Wilson Miller, Inc. for
Engineering Services related to proposed improvements to the Potable
Water System in Pelican Bay, Project 74023.
4)
Approve Change Order to the North County Regional Water Treatment
Plant 8-MGD Expansion, Bid 97-269OR, Project 70859/70828.
5)
Request approval to use funds from the Solid Waste Tire Grant to provide
safety play surface at various locations in Collier County.
6)
Approve Amendment No. 2 to the Professional Services Agreement with
Wilson Miller, Inc. for the Gordon River Extension Basin Study (Phase III)
Project #31005.
7)
Authorize funds for Professional Services to perform post-construction
monitoring requirements for the Collier County Beach Restoration Project.
8)
Approve staff ranking of firms for Contract Negotiations for Grade
Separation Study, RFP #99-3010.
9)
Authorize the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners to execute
a Sovereign Submerged Lands Easement for the Water Turkey Bay
Maintenance Dredging Project.
10)
Approve funding for a Work Order with Hartman & Associates, Inc., for
Engineering Services related to noise issues at the North County Regional
Water Treatment Facility, Project 70063.
11) This item has been deleted.
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March 28, 2000
Dm
Approve a Developer Contribution Agreement between the County,
SUNCO Building Corporation and the Islandwalk Development Company
for provision of Right-of-Way and Stormwater Management Facilities
related to the future extension of Logan Boulevard one mile north of
Vanderbilt Beach Road.
Award Bid No. 00-3042 "Purchase of One (1) Portable Self-Contained
Vacuum Unit".
14)
Award Bid No. 99-3029 "Purchase of Seven (7) Trailer Mounted Portable
Generators."
Approve a Resolution directing that certain roadways in the
Unincorporated Area of Collier County be maintained by Collier County.
Award a Contract to Surety Construction Company to construct a sound
attenuating enclosure for effluent transfer pumps at the South County
Reclamation Facility, Bid 00-3049, Project 73916.
17)
Approve Work Order No. SMT-FT-00-04 with Southern Mapping
Technology, Inc. for an aerial survey of the proposed widening of
Vanderbilt Beach Road from Airport Road to CR-951 (Collier Boulevard),
Project No. 63051, CIE #63.
Award Construction Engineering Inspections Services Contract to Wilson
Miller, Inc. for the widening of Golden Gate Boulevard, Collier County
Project No. 63041, CIE No. 62, RFP #99-3022.
PUBLIC SERVICES
1)
Approval of a resolution and certification by the Board of County
Commissioners and signature of the Chairman permitting the Collier
County Public Library to apply for a State Construction Grant to enlarge
the Immokalee Branch Library.
SUPPORTSERVICES
1)
Approval of Amendment No. 2 for Architectural Services for the Design of
the Immokalee Jail Center, RFP #98-2867.
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March 28, 2000
2)
Appropriate Carryforward Funds in Human Resources Information System
Capital Projects Budget.
3)
Renewal and Approval of Prequalified List of Appraisers and Appraisal
Firms for Real Estate Appraisal and Valuation Services.
4)
Approval to Modify Authorization Method of Bid #99-2978 for Painting
Contract.
5)
Enter into an Agreement with Coastland Center for Exhibitor Space
During National County Government Week, April 17-22, 2000.
6)
Resolution for Approving the Satisfaction of Lien for a Certain Residential
Account Wherein the County has Received Payment and Said Lien is
Satisfied in Full for the 1992 Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Services
Special Assessments.
7)
Resolution for Approving the Satisfactions of Liens for Certain Residential
Accounts Wherein the County has received Payment and said Liens are
Satisfied in Full for the 1994 Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Services
Special Assessments.
8)
Resolution for Approving the Satisfaction of Lien for a Certain Residential
Account Wherein the County has received Payment and said Lien is
Satisfied in Full for the 1991 Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Services
Special Assessments.
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
1)
Approval of Budget Amendment Report - Budget Amendment #00-168;
#00-172; #00-179; #00-180.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
1)
Resolution of the Board of County Commissioners supporting the
candidacy and election of Commissioner Rudy Malloy to the position of
NACo Second Vice President. (Commissioner Constantine)
EMERGENCY SERVICES
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March 28, 2000
17.
1)
Appropriate revenue from donated moneys for purchase of Automatic
External Defibrillators to be placed in high risk locations in Collier County.
2)
Approval of an agreement between the State of Florida Department of
Community Affairs and Collier County, Florida to accept State and Local
Assistance (SLA) Funding for Local Emergency Management.
H. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE
1) Miscellaneous items to file for record with action as directed.
I. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
1)
Request that the Board of County Commissioners authorize expenditure
of Budgeted 301 Funds for the purchase of 800 MHz portable radios for
the Sheriff's Office.
2)
Recommend that the Board of County Commissioners serve as the Local
Coordinator Unit of Government in the State of Florida's Department of
Community Affairs Anti-Drug Abuse Act Formula Grant Program.
J. COUNTY ATTORNEY
l)
Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners approve a
litigation position and legal secretary position in the Office of the County
Attorney and approve the necessary budget amendments.
2)
Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners authorize the
employment of a land use attorney and legal secretary to be dedicated to
the Community Development and Environmental Services issues and
approve the necessary budget amendments.
K. AIRPORT AUTHORITY
SUMMARY AGENDA- THIS SECTION IS FOR ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
AND MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA: 1) A RECOMMENDATION FOR
APPROVAL FROM STAFF; 2) UNANIMOUS RECOMMENDATION FOR APPROVAL
BY THE COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION OR OTHER AUTHORIZING
AGENCIES OF ALL MEMBERS PRESENT AND VOTING; 3) NO WRITTEN OR
ORAL OBJECTIONS TO THE ITEM RECEIVED BY STAFF, THE COLLIER COUNTY
PLANNING COMMISSION, OTHER AUTHORIZING AGENCIES OR THE BOARD,
PRIOR TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE BCC MEETING ON WHICH THE ITEMS
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March 28, 2000
ARE SCHEDULED TO BE HEARD; AND 4) NO INDIVIDUALS ARE REGISTERED
TO SPEAK IN OPPOSITION TO THE ITEM.
An Ordinance amending Collier County Ordinance No. 93-20, the Disaster
Recovery Task Force Ordinance; amending Section Four, "Composition,
Appointment, Terms of Office of Recovery Task Force," by revising the
membership to twenty-seven to include a member from the City of Marco Island;
amending Section Five, "Removal From Office; Failure to Attend Meetings," to
conform with the requirements of Collier County Ordinance No. 86-41, as
amended; providing for conflict and severability; providing for inclusion in Code
of Laws and Ordinances; and providing an effective date.
18. ADJOURN
INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD'S AGENDA SHOULD BE MADE TO
THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE AT 774-8383.
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March 28, 2000
March 28, 2000
Item #3A, B,&C
CONSENT, SUMMARY AND REGULAR AGENDA - APPROVED
AND/OR ADOPTED WITH CHANGES
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good morning, and welcome to
the March 28th, 2000 meeting of the Board of County
Commissioners.
If you'd join me in standing, we have Reverend Robert
Jacobs from the Messiah Lutheran Church with us to say the
invocation.
REVEREND JACOBS: Dear heavenly Father, as we come to
you this day, we thank you for the many blessings you bring into
our life, the gift of family and friends, the opportunity to live our
lives in service unto other people. Especially do we ask you for
your guidance and direction upon this County Board of
Commissioners today. They have many unique items on their
agenda, and many things which will affect the lives of the people
of this county. And we just ask that you will give them that
outpouring of your direction and guidance. As they deliberate
and as they have studied many of these issues, may they come
to that decision which will best serve the interest of your
creation, the people of this county, and to our nation.
We ask also your gift of healing upon Commissioner Norris
and upon Commissioner Carter later on in his surgery. You are
the one who heals. And we ask that you will bring that healing
and renewed strength into their lives.
As we begin this day, we begin with that confidence of
knowing that you are a God who cares and provides for all of our
needs. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we ask this all. Amen.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: If you'd stay standing and join
us in the pledge to the flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Olliff, I understand we have
a very short change list this morning.
MR. OLLIFF: Yes, sir, we do. Good morning.
The change list is a full list of one single item. If you would,
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March 28, 2000
there's a staff request that we move Item 16(B)(2), which is an
award for some manhole lift station and wet well contracting
services, to Item 8(B)(8), under public works.
The only other item is just a note that under the staff
communications, we will -- would like to discuss with you the
BCC meeting schedule through the month of May. I think there's
some suggestions that have been provided to you in advance
earlier this week, and maybe we can have a revised schedule.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Sounds good.
Mr. Weigel, do you have any changes?
MR. WEIGEL: None, thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Nothing.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Norris?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Nothing.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Carter?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Nothing.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: None.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: With that, do we have a motion
to approve the agenda, consent agenda and summary agenda?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So moved.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
in favor, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
Motion and a second. All those
Motion carries 5-0.
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AGENDA CHANGES
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' MEETING
MARCH 28, 2000
MOVE: ITEM 16(B)(2) TO 8(B){8) - AWARD BID 99-3005 TO SELECTED
FIRMS FOR MANHOLE, LIFT STATION AND WET WELL
REHABILITATION CONTRACTING SERVICES. (STAFF'S REQUEST).
STAFF COMMUNICATION
1. DISCUSS BCC MEETING DATES FOR THE MONTH OF MAY.
March 28, 2000
Item #4
MINUTES OF THE BCC WORKSHOP OF MARCH 7, 2000 -
APPROVED AS PRESENTED
Approval of the minutes of the board workshop, March 7th.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: So moved.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
objections?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Seeing none, motion carries.
Item #5A1
PROCLAMATION PROCLAIMING MARCH 20, 2000 AS HABITAT
FOR HUMANITY OF COLLIER COUNTY DAY IN CELEBRATION OF
THE CONSTRUCTION OF ITS 300TM HOME - ADOPTED
Takes us on to proclamations and service awards.
Commissioner Mac'Kie, you have a proclamation for Habitat
for Humanity.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I do. I'm looking for it in my '-
here it is right here. If we -- is Dr. Durso, Sam Durso with us?
There he is this morning. Come forward, we're going to tell you
guys a wonderful thing that's happened with Habitat for
Humanity.
Whereas '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: You know, before you get
started, I was just thinking, it's a good thing these aren't
government hammers, because they would be valued at more
than $50.
DR. DURSO: They're less than a dollar.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: WHEREAS, Habitat for Humanity
of Collier County began its mission in 1978 to eliminate poverty
housing; and
WHEREAS, Habitat volunteers and homeowners have built
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March 28, 2000
200 homes in Immokalee, and t00 homes in Naples; and
WHEREAS, the lives of the Habitat families, comprised of
1,500 residents of Collier County, have become enriched through
the pride of first-time home ownership; and
WHEREAS, each of the 300 Habitat families worked over 500
sweat equity hours to build other Habitat homes, as well as their
own; and
WHEREAS, each of the 300 Habitat homeowners buys the
home at cost from Habitat and pays an interest-free mortgage for
20 years; and
WHEREAS, each of the 300 Habitat families pledge to
partner with Habitat to build not only homes but a community;
and
WHEREAS, the Habitat for Humanity of Collier County board
of directors, volunteers and staff are committed to build an
additional 250 homes for other deserving Collier County families
by 2005.
NOW THEREFORE, be it proclaimed by the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida that March 28th, 2000
be designated as Habitat for Humanity of Collier County Day, in
celebration of the construction of its 300th home.
DONE AND ORDERED THIS 28th day of March, 2000, Board
of County Commissioners, Tim Constantine, Chairman.
I'm honored to move the acceptance of this proclamation.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
objection?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Wonderful.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: If you want to say something, go
on the mike and do so.
Commissioner Berry and I had the pleasure of being at the
ribbon cutting, so to speak, of the 300th home yesterday. And
I'm sure she joins me in saying it was a very touching
experience. A kid-built house. A lot of Lely High School students
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March 28, 2000
worked on that house.
DR. DURSO: I'll limit myself to about 15 minutes.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: He's going to preach.
DR. DURSO: No, I won't. Yesterday Millit Fuller, who's the
founder of Habitat, visited us. And he's an inspirational person.
And 24 years ago he had the vision to eliminate poverty housing
in the world. Crazy idea. But in the last 24 years, Habitat has
built 100,000 houses in the world. In the next five years, Habitat
for Humanity will complete another t00,000 houses.
Collier County is a unique Habitat for Humanity chapter.
We're the sixth largest chapter in the country, even though this
county is very small in population. But it's inexcusable for
substandard housing to still exist in this county because of the
wealth that exists in this county. And we're committed to end
poverty housing is this county.
Millit Fuller has asked us to set a date, at which time we'll
do that. It's very difficult. I'm going to sit down with Greg
Mihalic, and we're going to come up with some kind of plan. I
would like to see it happen in my lifetime, and that's my goal.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thanks, Sam.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Okay, thank you, Sam.
(Applause.)
Item #5A2
PROCLAMATION PROCLAIMING MARCH 21, 2000 AS NAPLES
JUNIOR CIVITAN CLUB DAY - ADOPTED
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Carter, you have
a proclamation for us this morning.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Yes. If Mr. David Fife would
come forward this morning. Turn around and give TV land your
best smile.
WHEREAS, the Neapolitan Civitan Club is sponsoring the
Naples Junior Civitan Club, a part of an international organization
dedicated to helping our youth unite to make a difference in our
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March 28, 2000
society; and
WHEREAS, Junior Civitan teaches our youth to be builders of
good citizenship, being centered on helping the communities,
while supporting the members to live fuller and unselfish lives;
and
WHEREAS, Junior Civitan is progressive in a world of
change, and their members have pledged to be aware citizens,
seeking to meet the needs of the world in order to ensure a
better future of all people; and
WHEREAS, the Naples Junior Civitan Club has made a
commitment to help other citizens of the world that are in need
in their desire to make this a better world in which to live; and
WHEREAS, a group of dedicated local youths are founding
the Naples Junior Civitan Club by directing their energies to help
Naples Community and their fellow citizens; and
WHEREAS, the Naples Junior Civitan Club's pledge will
further benefit the Naples community and have positive effect on
the citizens.
NOW THEREFORE, be it proclaimed by the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, that March 21, 2000, be
designated as Naples Junior Civitan Club Day.
DONE AND ORDERED THIS 28th day of March, 2000, Board
of County Commissioners, Collier County, Florida, Timothy J.
Constantine, Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I move that we accept this proclamation.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
Motion and a second. All those
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
in favor, please state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
(Applause.)
Motion carries 5-0.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Do you want to say anything to
us, sir? Step right up to the mike.
MR. FIFE: I'd like to thank you for this proclamation, and I
hope that our club can help the community and meet you --
everybody's standards of what you would expect to be done.
We have several projects coming up. We are working on our
Page 7
March 28, 2000
fundraisers now. And all I could ask is that we have the support
of our community to help us get this done and help out families
that need help, and underprivileged children. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you, David.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: David Fife.
Item #5A3
PROCLAMATION PROCLAIMING GATOR OSCEOLA, EVERGLADES
CITY SCHOOL, CENSUS 2000 COMMITTEE POSTER CONTEST
WINNER - ADOPTED
Barbara Berry, proclamation recognizing Gator Osceola.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Absolutely. If Gator's here, and I
think I see him back there, if he would come up. And I think his
art teacher may be back there as well.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Can we get one of these up on
the display?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's a great idea.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Can we put this on the visualizer?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Let people see his work.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: If you want to turn around and face
the TV camera, I'd like you to do that. You just turn around and
just stand there and that camera will get you.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Say hi to mom.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: This is a great honor and I'm very
pleased to be able to read this proclamation. Gator is a fifth
grade student in the Everglades City schools. And for those of
you that might not be familiar, the Everglades City schools is one
of the few K-12 schools in the State of Florida.
Back when I was on the school board, there were only like
five or six in the entire state. And I don't know how that's
changed since I was there, but I do know that it's one of the few
K-12 schools. Very unique situation. Many of you, perhaps,
depending on where you lived, may have gone to a K-12 school.
And it's a very unique situation.
Page 8
March 28, 2000
And Gator's very lucky, they have a brand new school down
there. Don't you?
MR. OSCEOLA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Right. And is your art teacher
here?
MR. OSCEOLA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Could you intro -- could you tell us
who your art teacher is?
MR. OSCEOLA: Mr. Tribble.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Would you have Mr. Tribble come
up here and stand with you?
MR. OSCEOLA: Mr. Tribble, over here. Oh, there you are.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Mr. Tribble's been an art teacher
down in the Everglades City school 24 years.
Anyway, at this time, I'd like to read this proclamation. It
says:
WHEREAS, Collier County government initiated a Census
2000 public awareness and education campaign to encourage
residents to fill out and mail in their questionnaires; and
WHEREAS, Census 2000 is vital to the future of Collier
County, because results determine the amount of federal funding
allocated here for 10 years that will be used for roads, education,
health care, social services, libraries, senior centers, and other
community needs; and
WHEREAS, children are an especially critical element in the
overall success of the Census 2000 count. And in 1990 more
than four million persons were missed in the United States. And
more than half of those were children; and
WHEREAS, the local Census 2000 committee staged a
poster contest to get school children involved in spreading the
word about the significance of the count; and
WHEREAS, more than 300 poster entries were received from
first through fifth grade students in schools throughout Collier
County, and were judged by a team of professional designers;
and
WHEREAS, the winner was fifth grade student Gator Osceola
of Everglades City School.
Page 9
March 28, 2000
NOW THEREFORE, be it proclaimed by the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida that we are recognizing
Gator Osceola today, Tuesday, March 28th, 2000, for his
achievement and congratulating him for his exceptionally artistic
and thoughtful poster. We thank you for sharing your creativity
with us and helping in our efforts to promote Census 2000.
DONE AND ORDERED THIS 28th day of March, 2000, Board
of County Commissioners, Collier County, Florida, Timothy J.
Constantine, Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I -- it's my pleasure and my proudest moment
to extend and move this proclamation.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
discussion?
All those in favor of the motion, state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
COMMISSIONER BERRY: And I'd also like to thank Mr.
Tribble.
(Applause.)
Item #5A4
PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING THE FRIENDS OF THE PARKS -
ADOPTED
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And Commissioner Norris, you
have a proclamation recognizing Friends of the Parks.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I do indeed. And we have a whole
group of people supposed to be here. Let me see if we can get
them up here. Karen Wood, from the East Naples Community
Park, would you please come up? Evelyn Vidaurri, Immokalee
Community Center; Lynn Allyn, Veterans Community Park;
Carolee Steelman and Donna Koenig, Vineyards Community Park;
Carol Timbers, president; Mr. and Mrs. Leon Eisenbud, from
Barefoot Beach; Ginny Stack, president, Sugden Regional Park;
and Nancy Sineni, president of Tiger Tail; and Mr. and Mrs.
Harold Saylor, Friends of Barefoot Beach.
Page 10
March 28, 2000
If you all would come up here and face the cameras, I'll read
this proclamation for you. Thank you all for coming.
Proclamation reads:
WHEREAS, the friends of Barefoot Beach, East Naples,
Immokalee, Tiger Tail Beach, Sugden, Veterans and Vineyard
community parks, and all our program volunteers are an integral
part of the Collier County park system; and
WHEREAS, in the past year, the Friends of the Parks and our
program volunteers have contributed $10,392 in donations, and
over 79,000 volunteer hours; and
WHEREAS, their efforts have educated park patrons, made
park improvements, assisted in youth activities and program
scholarships for children; and
WHEREAS, the Friends of the Parks and volunteers have
pledged their time to continue this endeavor of enrichment to the
Collier County park system; and
WHEREAS, the quality of life in Collier County would be
reduced without their presence.
NOW THEREFORE, be it proclaimed by the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, that gratitude and
appreciation is extended to the membership of all the Friends of
the Parks for their successful partnership between the public
and private sectors of the community. We the Board of County
Commissioners do affirm our commitment to a high quality park
system and honor these citizens who have given time and
service to Collier County.
DONE AND ORDERED THIS 28th day of March, 2000, by the
Board of County Commissioners, Timothy J. Constantine,
Chairman.
And Mr. Chairman, I move that we accept this proclamation.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Second it.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a motion, and there's a
second. All those in favor, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
Page 11
March 28, 2000
(Applause.)
Item #5B
EMPLOYEE SERVICE AWARDS - PRESENTED
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Which brings us to service
awards. Apparently early spring is a good hiring time. We have
several people who are celebrating their anniversary with us
today; these first few celebrating five years with the county.
First, from county administration, a gentleman who started
his career in Golden Gate Community Center, John Dunnick, III.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
development, Lori Oldham. (Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And five years currently with
road and bridge, Izell Hall.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
folks in the county.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
EMS, five years, Wayne Watson. (Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: From inspection and plan
review, five years, James Dix. (Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
five years, celebrating today, James Turner. (Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And five years also with EMS,
Jorge Gonzalez.
MS. FLAGG: Unfortunately, he wasn't able to attend today.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Accepting on behalf of Jorge,
Diane Flagg.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: All the way in from Hawaii.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And celebrating 10 years with
Also five years with community
Some of the hardest working
Speaking of hard working, with
Building review and permitting,
Page 12
March 28, 2000
Us, getting the -- what is that yellow stone? COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Citron.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: With a citron stone for 10 years
service, Peg Ruby, from Parks and Recreation.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Maybe a yellow diamond.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And from our library,
celebrating 10 years with the county, Pamela Moore.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Pam works in the children's
library, and I'll tell you, she's got a lot of kids who know her, and
she does a lot of good for our community. Lot of good public
relations.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: That concludes our service
awards for today.
Are we going to hear any clerk's items now? His items will
be later on the agenda.
Item #7A
MR. & MRS. HORBAL REGARDING A CODE ENFORCEMENT
DECISION - REMOVAL OF JAVA PLUM TREES - STAFF DIRECTED
TO RETURN THE FIRST MEETING IN MAY WITH A
HORTICULTURE REPORT
Public petitions. We have two today. And just so -- I think
this has probably been explained to the people who are doing the
petitioning, but for anyone who is not aware, our public petitions
work as follows: And that is you have 10 minutes to make a
presentation, and there's usually no specific board action,
though we may have some input or response. And we always
have the option to place it on a future agenda for particular
action.
Our first public petition is Mr. and Mrs. Horbal, regarding a
code enforcement decision, removal of Java Plum trees. Good morning.
MRS. HORBAL: Good morning. I have copies here. Can I
Page 13
March 28, 2000
present those to you all?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Sure. Could you give them to
Mr. Weigel, and then for the record, if you would introduce
yourself.
MRS. HORBAL: My name is Mrs. Horbal, Mrs. Cheryl Horbal.
My husband was unable to attend today, due to work obligations.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Go ahead.
MRS. HORBAL: Good morning, and thank you for the time.
Again, my name is Cheryl Horbal, and my husband and I are
respectfully requesting a variance be granted on the following
case. It was brought to our attention during the week of April
26th, 1999 by Ms. Alexandra Sulecki, from Collier County Code
Enforcement, that we had two Java Plum trees on our property
that had to be removed within 30 days.
Ms. Sulecki and I exchanged words and correspondence up
until the time I requested an appearance before the citizens
review board. The citizens review board felt I should come before
the commissioners to present my case.
These are the following facts: We purchased our home in
1997, receiving our CO, our final CO, and a clean CO from the
county on February 17th, 1998. We moved into our new home in
March. 14 months later, on April 26th, Collier County Code
Enforcement contacted us in person.
I started gathering information and facts in order to appear
before the citizen review board. And the following are the facts
that I have attained and would like to present to you.
Our builder, Rotland (phonetic) Homes, followed the current
Longshore Lake PUD. The inspector who was responsible for
signing off on the job card for our property was at our location at
least half a dozen times. He was actively involved in the
landscaping design because of the county requirements
regarding the sewer station, which is located in the front of our
home.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Before you go through
everything, this actually is spelling itself out fairly clear. There
is a process to request this. And rather than make you go
through it now and go through it a second time --
Page 14
March 28, 2000
MRS. HORBAL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- Mr. Olliff, can we have
somebody assist her in taking the steps to go through that
process? Because I just glanced ahead. I'm reading what -- and
they've come on property and so on. She may have a legitimate
case, and we probably ought to put this on a regular agenda
item, rather than go through it twice.
MR. OLLIFF: We can. We'll have Michelle, I think, work with
her. But my understanding is that what she's particularly asking
for is not an issue that the board actually has the ability to grant
those particular type variances, I think because we've set up a
process through the Code Enforcement Board, and that's the
process that I believe this has already gone through. But
Michelle can give us some more detail on that.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And Mr. Weigel, if someone
appeals the Code Enforcement Board, does it ultimately come to
us, or does that go to a court of law? Or what happens?
MR. WEIGEL: No, it ultimately comes to the Board of County
Commissioners. It does have to be done within the time frame of
the code enforcement ordinance. And it's my understanding that
the last action of the Code Enforcement Board may have been in
January, and that we're beyond that time frame, is my
understanding.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Can we grant a variance on the
time frame, or is that outside our authority?
MR. WEIGEL: Well, there's no controlling -- there's no
language in any ordinance that addresses that power.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's no language that
prohibits that, is there?
MR. WEIGEL: Well, the criteria for variances are typically
site related and not -- and structural related. And this doesn't
seem to follow under either of those, under the Land
Development Code.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And if we need to go through
the entire explanation this morning, we will. I'm just trying to
make it easier.
If -- is there anybody on the board who would object us
Page 15
March 28, 2000
having hearing briefly from staff, but having this item come
before the board?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, I guess I don't understand
how we would have any authority to hear it. It sounds like that if
they've missed their filing deadlines for appeal, if there's some
reason why, if the county participated and caused you to miss
your filing deadline for an appeal, then I would want to know
that. But if the process that was -- was available to you and you
just didn't avail yourself of it, I don't see how we can do anything
about it.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Let's hear from Ms. Arnold.
MS. ARNOLD: For the record, Michelle Arnold, code
enforcement director.
My understanding is that Ms. Horbal is not appealing the
board's decision. She agrees -- well, I don't know if I want to
stretch it to agree, but she understands why the board made the
decision that they made. And what she's asking for your
consideration is to exempt her from the rule to remove exotics.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: We can't do that. And God help
us if we started that, because I know a lot of people who would
be in here asking for it. I don't '-
MRS. HORBAL: Well, can I '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: In that case, let's go through it.
Because she does -- as you read through here, there are some
unique things to this. I'm sorry for interrupting. I '- MRS. HORBAL: That's okay.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- actually thought it would
move it along. You go ahead, and we won't take that time away
fro m you.
MRS. HORBAL: All right, thank you. I appreciate it.
Again, as I was saying, our builder did follow the current
PUD. He did conform to that. And the inspector from the county
was on our property at least half a dozen times, because we
have a -- the main lift station for Longshore Lake is in the front of
our property to the left-hand side. So there were some issues
with drainage. And we had to conform our landscaping to the
county requirements so that the water would not drain off onto
Page t6
March 28, 2000
the top of the lift station.
So the inspector was there, the same inspector who also
inspected the landscaping. The inspector signed off on the
landscaping that there were no exotics to be removed from the
property. And I've put a copy of that in with my paperwork to
you, so you can see that his signature is on there.
We purchased this specific lot in Longshore Lake because of
the trees. Our first concern that was brought to the builder was
whether or not the trees were on our property and whether or not
the trees could remain. We were told at that time yes, they were
on our property and yes, they could remain because they were
not on the current PUD, they were not listed as a tree that had to
be removed, or as a plant that had to be removed.
The trees are approximately 50 feet tall. They're pretty hard
to miss. And they're somewhere between 20 and 25 years old.
The back of our home faces west, or Valewood Drive. The trees
provide us with abundant shade, privacy, a noise buffer from the
traffic on Valewood, and are an integral part of our landscaping.
And I've also included some pictures of our home, the
backyard, in this packet.
The trees provide us with much pleasure and are
irreplaceable obviously at this stage in their life.
The traffic on Valewood is in excess of 7,300 vehicles per
day. Upon speaking with several neighbors who live on either
side of me, those folks do not have the benefit of these types of
trees, and they inform me that the noise is unbearable. They
cannot leave their windows open, they cannot sit on the lanai,
and they're unhappy with their new homes because of the traffic
sounds.
The county is now asking us to assume a financial
responsibility for these trees that we would not have otherwise
had if the inspector had done his job correctly from the
beginning. In fact, we would not even have purchased this lot if
we had known the trees had to be removed.
We are now put in a position that was not of our doing. The
removal of the trees would cost us approximately $1,800. The
replacement cost would be near 3,000 to 4,000 per tree, with
Page t7
March 28, 2000
months of prepping to ensure their survival.
The Java Plum is a large, lush tree found in Florida. It's
found from the west coast and the east coast from Sarasota and
Cape Canaveral down, as well as in Collier County. The trees
were brought here into Florida in 1877 and have flourished here
because of the subtropical climate. They do not do well in colder
regions, and they cannot live in water. They need dry, sandy soil
to survive. The trees can grow as tall as 75 feet, or can be
trimmed as a hedge.
Now, what I did was I contacted a tree service here in
Naples, obviously to get the estimate on removing the trees and
also on replacing the trees. Davey Tree Service, Mr. Phil Buck,
who's the owner here in Collier County, informs me that the Java
Plum trees are abundant in Collier County, especially around the
Lely Hibiscus area, Airport Road area, and of course directly
across the street from the Collier County Government Center;
there are about 50 of these trees that line the street on
Horseshoe Drive.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Could I --just because it sounds
like I hope there is an avenue by which we can provide some
relief. So I just want to interrupt you to ask Mr. Weigel to be
thinking creatively to give us some avenue, because two points:
One is if our inspector missed it, then it seems like that -- we
should have to play some role in remedying the problem. And
second, can somebody tell us what's wrong with Java Plums,
why they're on our list of exotics to be removed anyway? It's not
like it's a Brazilian pepper or '-
MRS. HORBAL: Australian pine.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: No, and I don't think -- your note
here indicates it was added in 1991. I think we actually added it
in the mid '90's, because I remember someone standing at that
podium, and I didn't think Java Plum should be added. If you
remember, I joked about the '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Carrotwood.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- Carrotwood. But there were
so many things we were adding that year, and it seemed like
Page 18
March 28, 2000
every year we were looking for new things to add to the exotics,
and Java Plum was one of them sometime in the mid '90's. So it
may or may not have even been on the list in 1997.
MRS. HORBAL: Well, I know in 1996 when we were building
our home, it was not on the current PUD for Longshore Lakes.
And they have to follow the county guidelines, so '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So help us, Mr. Weigel. How can
we provide some remedy?
MR. WEIGEL: Happy to help. It looks like what we're going
to have to deal with here is the exotic plant ordinance itself, not
the variance ordinance under the LDC, not the exemptions that
might be requested under the Code Enforcement Board. But it's
certainly within your purview and power to go on record
requesting staff to put a temporary halt while you review and
study this and possibly amend the ordinance. You could also
direct staff to come back with the horticultural report in regard
to specific '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Any objection to directing staff
to do that?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: No, I like it.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: No objection.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: You have a time frame, Ms.
Arnold, that you think you need to do that? Okay, one month it
is.
Let's -- two meetings from now, second meeting in April,
whenever that may be. We're not actually sure; we're going to
decide that at the end of the meeting.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: How about the first meeting in
May?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: First meeting in May. Sounds
like a good idea. That way we can address this appropriately
and we'll see if we can't help you out. MRS. HORBAL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
MRS. HORBAL: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Item #7B
Page t9
March 28, 2000
MS. KAREN RIGEL REGARDING IMMOKALEE ROAD - STAFF
REPORT GIVEN REGARDING CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN
SAFETY ISSUES ALONG IMMOKALEE ROAD
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Which takes us to Item 7(B),
public petition, Ms. Karen Rigel regarding Immokalee Road.
You've got some assistance this morning.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Good.
MS. DOWNEY: My name is actually Shannon Downey, a
student from Gulf Coast High School. And we have been working
on these petitions since -- three weeks. We collected over 3,300
signatures. They're for improvements on Immokalee Road.
We lost a good friend of ours, and we all drive on this road
every day, and we're hoping that something more has already
been done -- because we've seen a lot of improvements and are
very, very happy with them in the last couple of weeks -- can be
done to make it safer for all of us to drive on this road.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I will tell you, we don't get very
many petitions wrapped in a bow.
MS. RIGEL: And I am Karen Rigel. And I wanted to tell you a
little bit how this idea came about.
My good friend and neighbor Cheryl Horbal and I were
discussing our mutual concerns and fears for our own children
who have to cross Immokalee every single morning to get to
school. As we all know, Immokalee Road is one of Collier
County's most dangerous roads.
One morning I went at 6:45 a.m. to observe what was going
on. And as I stood there, I watched drivers waiting for a break in
the traffic, and then they would take off in frightening speeds to
get across safely. It was horrifying and totally unacceptable.
At that moment I began to organize our community through
an E-mail campaign to address all the safety concerns that we
had. Several people responded to our invitation to plan steps of
action, when, sadly, the tragic death of Melissa Schultz occurred.
To her parents, we all express our sorrow. Melissa was an
excellent student and a good friend of many. On that morning
Page 20
March 28, 2000
she was only doing what she was supposed to do, get to school
on time.
So the very next morning, 21 of us, including several
students, met and we started the Citizens for Immokalee Safety.
We discussed a variety of solutions, but wanted to present to
you only those ideas that could be done immediately and without
much cost.
Janet Vasey wrote the petition, with input from Sandy
Hoagland and Jamie Horsley. The board of Longshore Lakes
endorsed our petition at our annual association meeting, and
then we began to hand them out.
Please, do not misinterpret what we were saying in this
petition. We fully realize that the county faces many challenges,
as we have explosive growth. We know that you have taken
steps to expand Immokalee to a four-lane road, and we are also
happy to learn that there's going to be a light at Immokalee and
Livingston by the end of the year.
We in no way wish to hinder you and your staff in carrying
out your plans, nor do we wish to insult you by assuming that you
don't understand our situation. The main purpose of this petition
is to proclaim the need for safe access onto Immokalee Road
now.
You see, with every single day that goes by, someone else is
involved in another accident on that road. Staff member, Nancy
Frye, of the Department of Transportation, was very helpful in
assisting me in looking at all the traffic accident reports. From
January 1st to March 17th, I was amazed to find that there were
77 accidents on Immokalee Road. Only in Naples; that does not
count the town of Immokalee. And that is 77 days.
It doesn't take a fatality to severely traumatize a family. But
there were three fatalities during those three months.
Melissa's accident has turned into Melissa's mission. Many
students took this challenge and ran with it. And I have been so
impressed with the students both of Gulf Coast High School and
Barron Collier. They took this campaign seriously, because they
are very concerned. And they were instrumental in getting over
half of those 3,300 signatures.
Page 21
March 28, 2000
The idea of safety now is a hot issue, with many of our
residents in the surrounding neighborhoods as well. I had people
from all over North Naples telling me, calling me at my home, to
pick up petitions, as well as I know Ms. Lugo got several phone
calls at Gulf Coast High School.
Two weeks ago, one of our board members at Longshore
Lakes, Herb Luntz, arranged a meeting for our group to meet with
Ed Finn of the Department of Public Works, Ed Kant and Jeff
Bibby of the Department of Transportation. And a few days later,
Herb also met with the SherifFs Department. Both meetings
were very positive and our suggestions were well received, and
we were very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation among all
parties.
Just yesterday I was told that the speed limits on
Immokalee Road will be lowered, perhaps as soon as today, and
that there will be Sheriff's deputies assisting with traffic control.
We are very excited about this news, but we do have to ask,
where will these deputies be placed? Certainly they are needed
both at Executive Drive and Livingston Road intersections.
We also want to remind the Sheriff's Department that traffic
needs to begin -- traffic control needs to begin as early as 6:45
a.m., as the high school students must be in school by 7:20.
Also, will there be speed enforcement with this new speed limit?
There are only two other issues. We are asking that the
flashing yellow lights everywhere along Immokalee Road rotate
from red to green, because residents of the surrounding
communities need breaks in the traffic to get across this busy
road. We feel that this is needed at all times between the hours
of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. The traffic is already so heavy that
we feel this is a necessity, even now. Yet traffic is only going to
get worse as all the planned communities become populated.
Our last item on the petition is a request for you to work
with the residents for long-term solutions, as we are the ones
who have to live with the difficulties every day. We have many
good ideas and suggestions. Several residents of the Quail
Creek communities feel that there's enough traffic to warrant a
traffic signal at Executive and Immokalee.
Page 22
March 28, 2000
As you just heard, over 7,300 vehicles travel Valewood every
single day. And that equates to over 56,000 vehicles a week.
However, your staff has told us that traffic signals contribute to
the number of accidents. And that is important -- that it is
important to keep the traffic moving. Well, if this is true, then we
just ask for an alternative. Provide us with safe access. If that
means an access road to the nearest signal, then we're happy to
get an access road. In fact, if future developments are planned
along Immokalee without access roads, I fear that you will be
hearing this cry for signals over and over again.
The Citizens for Immokalee Road Safety want to thank you,
the board and your staff and the Sheriff's Department for
listening to us and acting upon our concerns. We anticipate your
continued cooperation, and this is indeed how government for
the people and by the people should work. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I want to say a couple of things,
and that is we get, as you might imagine, from time to time
petitions for different things, often asking us not to do something
that we've started off on. I think what's particularly impressive
about this is not only are you asking for something, but you've
outlined some very specific suggestions on how we can
accomplish that. That goes way beyond what we often get, and
you're to be complimented on that, for the work you've done on
it.
MS. RIGEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: If we could just ask our staff, I
know some of the things you have asked for are in progress right
now. And if we can just get a brief update, I think that would be
very helpful.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Edward Finn, interim
public works administrator, for the record.
We've just put on the digitizer a photo taken this morning.
The photo shows two things. The one we're looking at actually
shows a sign board that's been installed near the intersection of
Livingston Road and Immokalee Road. That sign board indicates
Page 23
March 28, 2000
that the intersection is being monitored and controlled by
Sheriff's deputies. And we, like the citizens, want to thank the
Sheriff for his efforts to assist us in improving the safety here.
Mr. Kant has put up on the board across from me a record of
some of the accidents that have taken place there. And he's
prepared to give you a brief overview on those, to give you some
indication of impacts, if you'd like.
Other than that, we are willing to work with them and we've
made some significant efforts. And we'll continue to do
everything we can.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Mac'Kie.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Two things: One is it's no
surprise to those of us who know high school students, that you
are as proactive and as positive as you were in this case. And I
just want to commend you for that and thank you for it. You are
hopefully an inspiration to some of the older adults in the
community about how to react positively and appropriately. And
I hope that this inspires you to get involved more often in your
local government and in government generally, because I hope
that you will see from this that we do respond, we will react, we
do want to hear. We are desperate to hear from your age group
in this community. And I just -- I know everybody joins me in
thanking you for what you've done.
My question for staff is for answers, please, on the
particular questions that were asked on the timing of law
enforcement participation there, and on whether or not we're
going to have increased monitoring for the speed limit.
MR. KANT: Edward Kant, transportation services director.
Before I answer your question, Commissioner, I too want to
thank the citizens committee. We work with a number of
citizens groups and it has been a pleasure to see the mix of
people -- and especially I met Ms. Brock at that earlier meeting '-
and we have found that it is much easier to work with people
that are genuinely interested, involved, and understand that we
also have some issues on our side of the fence. And I want to
thank you for helping us to help you.
As far as the timing, when we set the initial times, I believe
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March 28, 2000
that the a.m. times we thought were 7:00 to 9:00. I don't think
there's going to be a problem in discussing with the Sheriff
moving that back from 6:30 to 8:30. We -- today was the first
day. We're trying to get a handle on it. Based on our traffic
counts, we went for the high hours. But obviously there's a little
before that and a little bit after that. So we can adjust that. The
sheriffs representative is here. I will speak with him before he
leaves the room.
As far as the -- as you mentioned, the Immokalee Road and
Livingston Road signal is scheduled to be in place before the end
of the year. The Strand signal is undergoing final
interconnection with the 1-75 ramps. We've been living through
one of those two weeks, and we're pushing to get that two
weeks down to two days. It's pushing as fast as we can with
that.
The only other signal that I can think of that is in flash other
than school hours is the one in front of the -- it would be the
Laurel Oaks entrance, and where there is some activity on the
north side of the road at the Olde Cypress commercial center. I
believe that once we begin to get some traffic in and out of
there, that we will justify more than just the school hours
operation of that signal. So we're kind of tuned into that, too.
There was one other question, unfortunately it escapes me
right now, but I'll try to answer it.
MS. RIGEL: Where will the deputies be located besides
Livingston?
MR. KANT: Okay. They're at Livingston and Immokalee.
The bridge work that's taking place on Valewood, that permit
requires that that contractor have his own traffic control for
Executive Drive as necessary. And I believe that the community
development division has been enforcing that quite stringently.
That is not -- yeah, that is not a uniformed officer, however.
That is a construction flag person. But we'll talk to them and see
what we can do about that.
The other issue had to do with the traffic signal, I think, at
Executive Drive. And as I pointed out earlier at one of our
meetings, we are going to do a warrant analysis. If it's
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March 28, 2000
warranted, we don't have a problem recommending it in our
program. If it's not warranted, then that's a policy decision the
board's going to have to wrestle with.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Just one other comment. And this
is something -- since I happen to live out in that area and we all
share the Valewood Drive entrance and exit out there.
Mr. Kant, through some discussions, had proposed to our
homeowners' associations that we seek another alternative to
coming out Valewood Drive. And I will tell you, and this is
something that we need to work on our homeowners' groups,
when they went to them -- when I talked to them about the
suggestion, after Mr. Kant and I had spoken about it, apparently
our groups turned it down. And it would have linked us up with
the possibility through -- it would have had to have been
negotiated and there would have had to been some work done,
but there was a proposal made that perhaps we could go over
and tie up to where the signal is by running Valewood Drive and
kind of angling it around to the west and coming over perhaps
into that area.
MR. KANT: To Oakes Boulevard.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: To -- over to Oakes Boulevard.
Which to me was the best of both worlds. But that was
rejected by our boards. And so I think this is something that
perhaps this is '-
MS. RIGEL: Well, that will be our Phase II. We wanted
safety now, and I think we're addressing those concerns. And I
think you'll find us back here again.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Well, it really needs to come
through -- you need to get -- you need to work through '-
MS. RIGEL: The homeowners is where we start.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Through the homeowners'
association.
MS. RIGEL: We'll be there.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Because Mr. Kant and I talked, and
they took it to their joint meetings that they have, and it was
turned down because they wanted to keep the identity of
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March 28, 2000
Valewood Drive as the entrance and exit.
And I was -- you know, what do you do after that? You
know, I was very frustrated, because I also know what the
situation is in terms of trying to get lights at a T-intersection like
that. And it's a very difficult situation. It really doesn't warrant
it in some regard if we could have an alternative. And it
appeared through negotiations that there could perhaps have
been an alternative. And then to have it rejected, I was very
disappointed in that effort. But '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I bet it will be resurrected.
MS. RIGEL: I think it will be.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I certainly would have hoped -- I
would hope it would be resurrected.
MR. KANT: And for the record, Commissioner, anything that
the transportation department can do to assist you to the limits
of our resources, please don't hesitate to call on us. MS. RIGEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Just a final note, Ed. If we can
maybe copy Ms. Rigel in on the different steps as they take
place. Some of these things are staggered out as the lights get
phased in and so on, just let them know as that unfolds. MR. KANT: Not a problem.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Mr. Chairman, I -- you know, I
think this may lend itself well to going back to the homeowners'
groups. And I can only commend you and your young people who
have come here today, the maturity, the positiveness that was
brought to this commission. You are a message to this
community. Because so many times we get people who
complain about the problems but never want to be a part of
solving the problems. And you are to be commended for what
you've done. And it's certainly resonated well with everyone
here. And hopefully, we can get those who are adults to be as
responsive as you have. Thank you.
MS. RIGEL: Thank you.
(Applause.)
Page 27
March 28, 2000
Item #8A1
REQUEST TO RECONSIDER THE REZONING OF NAPLES PARK
SUBDIVISION FROM RMF-6 (RESIDENTIAL MULTI-FAMILY) TO
RESIDENTIAL SINGLE FAMILY AT THE REQUEST OF THE
ASSOCIATION OF PROPERTY OWNERS OF NAPLES PARK - STAFF
RECOMMENDATION APPROVED
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: That takes us to item 8(A)(1),
response to request to consider the rezoning of Naples Park
subdivision from RFM-6 to residential single family. Mr. Mulhere, good morning.
MR. MULHERE: Good morning. Thank you. For the record,
Bob Mulhere, planning director.
On February 22nd, you'll recall that Vera Fitz-Gerald
petitioned the board to direct the staff to explore rezoning
Naples Park to an appropriate single-family district. And the
board expanded that request a little bit too in directing staff to
also look at other redevelopment scenarios and issues.
And I'm pleased to report to you that I think we have an
excellent solution here. We've met with representatives of the
community. They support the recommendations of staff. In fact,
my staff attended the property owners of Naples Park meeting
this past week and answered questions. And it so happens that
Dover/Kohl & Associates, our consultants for the community
character plan, will be identifying five or six community
subdistricts to look specifically at issues within those
subdistricts. And in fact they're going to look at Naples Park.
So we think it would be a more appropriate -- and that will
happen on a fairly expedited time frame. I suspect that between
three to six months we'll have recommendations back from the
consultants. And those recommendations can be applied
elsewhere in similar neighborhoods that have similar issues and
concerns. This is a non-deed restricted older subdivision,
predominantly single-family with some commercial abutting it.
There are transportation issues, water management issues. So
there are a number of issues that need to be reviewed.
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March 28, 2000
We think it's an excellent solution and it's covered of course
in the cost of the contract that we already have with Dover/Kohl.
And we would be prepared to come back to you with reports as
recommendations are provided by the consultants. And of
course they'll be working with staff and with representatives of
the community.
That pretty much concludes my presentation, unless you
have some specific questions.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Carter?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Mr. Chairman, I would
recommend we go with staff's recommendation. I think this is
where we're trying to go with Dover/Kohl, to do a total picture for
Naples Park, and not just do a piecemeal situation. And from
what I read and from what I understand, this will take us where
we want to be. So I would recommend that we go with staff's
recommendations.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Olliff, I understand we have
one public speaker.
MR. OLLIFF: We do. Vera Fitz-Gerald.
MS. FITZ-GERALD: I waive.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Speaker has waived.
Commissioner Carter, do you want to put that in the form of
a motion?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I move that we accept staff's
recommendations in regards to '-
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Second.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I like that, John.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a motion for staff
recommendation and a second. Any discussion?
All those in favor, please state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 4-0,
Commissioner Mac'Kie temporarily absent.
Item #8A2
ALTERNATIVE ROAD IMPACT FEE CALCULATION FOR THE
Page 29
March 28, 2000
NAPLES PHILHARMONIC CENTER FOR THE ARTS - STAFF
RECOMMENDATION APPROVED
We go to 8(A)(2), approve an alternative road impact fee for
the Naples Philharmonic.
I had the question yesterday, Mr. Weigel, that someone was
under the impression that the opportunity to apply for alternative
impact fees was limited to either schools and medical facilities
or something. Is that the case, or can anybody apply for an
alternative impact fee?
MR. WEIGEL: It's very broad. It's not limited, as suggested
to you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. Hi.
MR. TINDALE.' Good Morning. My name is Phil Tindale. I'm
with Community Development Environmental Services. I'm the
county's impact fee coordinator, and I'm here to address this
issue.
Back in 1999, the Philharmonic had submitted applications
for a couple of building permits; one for a 14,000 square foot
office addition, and the other for a 31,000 square foot museum.
Those permits were issued, impact fees were assessed and paid.
Subsequent to that, the petitioner acquired the services of
Wilson-Miller, particularly Mr. Jeff Perry, who's here today, to do
some analysis to determine whether they were actually entitled
to a lower fee, based upon the individual characteristics of this
construction.
Mr. Perry did that analysis, submitted an alternative fee
calculation to staff. We reviewed it and subsequently put it on
the agenda. However, after that we have reviewed that a couple
more times just to ensure for our satisfaction that the data used
met the requirements of the ordinance.
In the process of reviewing this item, we have determined
that we really have not properly defined the issue with this. The
ordinance allows a petitioner to submit an alternative impact fee
calculation if they feel that the individual characteristics of this
construction results in fewer trips on the road network than that
which is indicated in our fee schedule for a particular land use.
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March 28, 2000
After reviewing this subsequently, we feel like the issue is
really not so much whether this results in fewer trips on the road
network, but does this land use in particular-- is this particular
land use one that is contemplated in our fee schedule. And after
reviewing this and discussing it with Mr. Perry, we feel it is not.
There is no particular land use in our fee schedule for a museum.
Also, that there is one for an office space for the office addition;
however, the -- that particular land use in our fee schedule is
based upon general office building as described in the docu -- the
trip generation, published by the Institute of Transportation
Engineers.
We feel like the description given to us of this particular
office addition, comes closer to the description of a corporate
headquarters building, which is addressed in that document, but
is not something that's included in our fee schedule.
So what we're doing here, and I'd like to provide some
clarification. This was initially submitted as an alternative fee
calculation pursuant to Section 2.03 of the ordinance. However,
we feel that this is more in the lines of an individual calculation,
based upon a land use which is not contemplated in the
ordinance, which is covered under a different section, Section
3.10 of the ordinance.
That particular type of a fee calculation can be approved
administratively by staff, but we feel that since this is being done
after the fact and it was initially submitted as an alternative fee
calculation, we need to go ahead and bring this to you to get
your input and approval.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Just to be clear, current law,
current ordinance in Collier County allows for alternative impact
fee suggestion '-
MR. TINDALE: Yes, that would be '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And they '-
MR. TINDALE: -- allowed under this case. We just feel like it
really doesn't fit the definition of what is -- of an alternative fee
calculation being needed.
Had we done this right in the first place last year, we would
have done an individual fee calculation and approved it
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March 28, 2000
administratively prior to issuance of a permit.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: You said that there's not an
appropriate category?
MR. TINDALE: Right.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What would you '-
MR. TINDALE: If you look at our fee schedule in the
ordinance, there is no museum.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What would you use if you were
required to use the ordinance? What's the closest?
MR. TINDALE: Well, the closest thing we could come to was
a retail facility, which is what that was initially assessed at. But
this is really not a retail establishment of the general sense.
There are I'm sure some retail sales involved. But this is more
for the purpose of educating and entertaining the public.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And what are other art museums
-- how are they calculated?
MR. TINDALE: There really -- there is no precedent for that
in Collier County.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: This is not the first art museum
in Collier County.
MR. TINDALE: Mr. Kant has something he would like to add.
MR. KANT: If I may, Edward Kant, transportation services
director.
The only other museum that we're aware of in Collier County
-- there actually are two. One was the Teddy Bear Museum and
the other is the Collier County Museum itself. Obviously the
Collier County Museum is exempt; it's a government building.
The Teddy Bear Museum, at the time it was built, predated the
present ordinance.
The only other type of art exhibition, if you will, that we're
aware of are the art galleries and shops that you might find on
Fifth Avenue South, which we would consider as retail. So we do
believe that this museum is a unique use.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Let's hear from the petitioner.
Mr. Perry, good morning.
Page 32
March 28, 2000
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I needed to -- I wasn't quite
finished with that question.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I'm sorry, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's okay.
Just I need to understand, because I think this is going the
right way, don't misunderstand me. But I need to understand the
distinction between this gallery and the, quote, retail galleries
that already exist. I don't understand enough about the use
proposed for this gallery to understand how it's different from the
other galleries in town.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Maybe the petitioner can tell us.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: There you go.
MR. PERRY: Good morning. For the record, my name is Jeff
Perry, with the firm of Wilson-Miller.
To answer specifically your question, before I have some
other comments, the other types of galleries are in fact art
galleries that have art for sale. They're in the business of selling
art and are in essence a retail establishment. I would argue that
they're probably not the same as a shopping center and,
therefore, if I was contacted by an art gallery who had said that
they had paid a rate similar to hardware store or something else
like that, I would probably suggest to them that they have some
cause for an alternative calculation, because their trip
generation rates are significantly different than you would have
on the square footage based on a hardware store or a
convenience store, one of those that would be listed in the list of
schedules.
I -- when I looked back and tried to calculate this particular
fee, there is in fact nothing comparable in your code, in your
schedule of fees, that we could even sort of look to to sort of
point at in terms of the types of uses that would generate the
same kind of trips. In fact, there is no museum rate in the
Institute of Traffic Engineers manual. So it's sort of flying here
and trying to come up with something -- some reasonable
methodology for calculating it.
I did, however, think that this was on the scale of the size of
kinds of buildings you have and the amount of people that you
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March 28, 2000
would have coming through, wandering around. It's similar to a
furniture store, that you have a large area of floor space with
display areas, and you have a certain volume of people that you
expect to go through a furniture store.
Certainly not the same as a grocery store, where you have
large floor space but you have just perhaps 10 or 15 times the
amount of traffic or people that you would have coming into it.
So we kind of went in that direction and developed a
methodology for looking at the expected number of visitors, the
number of employees, or, in this case, volunteers, and running
some calculations to try to identify the kind of traffic that we
would expect to get from this particular facility. We used the
high end of those estimates. We increased the trip length, which
is one of the factors that typically is looked at. Where in the
retail establishment it's a one and a half mile trip, we used a four
and a half mile trip. We assumed that 100 percent of the traffic
would be brand new, whereas, a retail establishment uses about
50 percent of the traffic being new and assessable.
So we felt we had a reasonable approach at trying to
calculate the kind of impact that the museum, not an art gallery,
but this particular museum, might have. We did the same thing
with the office addition. We're talking about an expansion of an
existing office that was built with the Phil to house a few
additional staff people, plus provide a boardroom facility, storage
facility and things like that.
So we tried to evaluate this particular use, as Mr. Tindale
has said, in the case of an individual use that would normally
have been done administratively, simply because they are not
listed -- like a lot of uses, they're just not listed in your code.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Obviously the intent of the
impact fee is that any new structure does have an impact. And
we want to make sure it is fairly applied and fairly taken care of
and that those impacts are paid.
Perhaps the best use of your time would be convincing us
what you think the appropriate impact is here.
MR. PERRY: Well, it's listed in your executive summary. I
think we've -- the calculation that we've made is based on those
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March 28, 2000
trip generation numbers that we've generated. I can go through
that specifically, if you'd like in terms of '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: No. Is there anything you need
to add to that '-
MR. PERRY: No, other than '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- that's already there?
MR. PERRY: No, the comparison that we're making here is
that the shopping center generates on the order of -- if this were
a shopping center, we'd be talking about 2,800 trips per day.
And in fact, that's not what this kind of use will actually
generate. It's probably one-tenth of that in terms of the amount
of traffic that would be coming in and out of this particular
facility on any given day.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Questions for Mr. Perry.
Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is the nutshell here that the
distinction is that this is a museum instead of a gallery? Is there
a category in the ordinance for galleries? MR. PERRY: No, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: It just comes -- it's under retail?
MR. PERRY: Right.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Let me just say what's troubling
me here is that -- you know, Mr. Olliff, we went through this with
Cleveland Clinic versus through NCH, that Cleveland was, you
know, clever enough to ask for an alternate calculation, got a
significantly reduced impact fee. We came to the place where
we were refunding NCH, or they were seeking refunds; I'm not
exactly sure where that one went.
Similarly, we have Naples Players and the art museum
downtown in Naples that we waived impact fees because they
were quasi governmental buildings. They were essentially
government projects.
I'm just -- I don't question, frankly, whether or not this is
appropriate, because if the -- I certainly don't want the
Philharmonic to be paying something more than their actual
impact fee, but it harkens me back to the Cleveland Clinic/NCH
problem. And what we had said was that in the future, we're not
Page 35
March 28, 2000
going to just accept whatever check people are going to give us,
we're going to help them calculate their impact fees and tell
them we're not going to just take your money, we're going to
take money based on the actual impact.
I'm concerned if we need to look at the galleries and similar
projects and see if we have over-assessed other businesses in
Collier County.
MR. TINDALE: Could I offer just a little bit of clarification on
that item, ma'am? The issue having to do with the road impact
fees for Cleveland Clinic and NCH had to do with an outright
exemption, which is prescribed in another section of the
document. It was not in reference to an alternative fee
calculation.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And let's stay on the issue on
the agenda today, which is this specific request. I understand
your concern, but I don't want to get too adrift from what we're
talking about here and that is a specific request from a specific
location for a specific use.
MR. OLLIFF: And perhaps to answer Commissioner
Mac'Kie's question, I think those were specifically very different
types of calculations that were done. The ordinance does
provide for this type of calculation.
I think the analysis was done and it requires a certain
number of steps of analyses that we've been working with the
clerk in terms of developing a full response to what the
ordinance requires in terms of analysis. I think this meets that
test. The staff agrees that it meets this test, agrees with the
alternative calculation that's been provided.
If there's one thing in the long term that I think that we
would look at as perhaps looking at some additional categories,
perhaps, within the ordinance that might allow staff not to be in
the position of having to make up uses, like we are in this
particular case. So we'll '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And is there a deadline by which
if some gallery thinks they've overpaid and they want to go hire
Mr. Perry to argue on their behalf, is there a limit on when they
could do that?
Page 36
March 28, 2000
MR. OLLIFF: Yes.
MR. TINDALE: I'm sorry, could you restate the question?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The limitation on when other -- if
some art gallery now realizes that they should have sought an
alternate impact fee calculation and they didn't, what's the
statute of limitations on their ability to come back in?
MR. TINDALE: Well, the ordinance normally would require
that this be done prior to the issuance of the permit. However,
we have some precedent because of some other cases in which
we have addressed alternative fee calculations in which we have
allowed them to '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I don't think that's the question.
If somebody two years ago built something, never asked for
anything, they're prohibited by law from coming back now, aren't
they?
MR. PERRY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That was my question.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I'd like to '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Any other questions '-
COMMISSIONER CARTER: -- move staff's recommendations.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Does that apply in this case?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Why are we here in this case?
Did you guys file at the time?
MR. PERRY: Yes, sir, we did.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And that's the difference, you
can pay it and then reserve the right. You can challenge it while
MR. PERRY: Right.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- construction's going on.
MR. PERRY: The purp -- the ordinance specifically allows for
what's called paying in protest. If you want to get your building
permits and move ahead at your own risk, but pay your fees, you
file your petition to seek the difference between what you
believe is appropriate and what you were actually charged.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: And did you '-
MR. TINDALE: And I'm sorry, I did misunderstand the
Page 37
March 28, 2000
question. That is correct. MR. PERRY: I'm sorry?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Did you in fact file in protest?
MR. PERRY: Yes. Yes, the fee was paid in protest.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Tindale, did you have
something you wanted to '-
MR. TINDALE: That's all I have.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I'd like to move approval of the
staff recommendation.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second.
Discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0. Thank you
very much.
MR. TINDALE: Thank you, commissioners.
Item #881
BID 00-3039 FOR THE WIDENING OF GOLDEN GATE BOULEVARD
FROM CR 95t TO WILSON BOULEVARD - AWARDED TO APAC IN
THE AMOUNT OF $15,047,228.29
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: 8(B)(1), award a construction
contract to APAC - Florida, Inc., for widening of Golden Gate
Boulevard from Collier Boulevard to Wilson Boulevard.
MR. BIBBY: Good morning. Jeff Bibby, public works
engineering director.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I'll make a motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Do we have speakers on this
item?
MR. OLLIFF: Yes, you do. In fact, you have a bid protest
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March 28, 2000
that you'll need to hear this morning that they filed the
purchasing policy and went all the way through the bid protest
scenario so that they are actually registered to speak.
You have three speakers on the item. And unless you want
to hear any more from the staff, we'll get right to those speakers.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Let's go right to the speakers.
MR. BIBBY: Before we do start, though, the actual bid
protest and their response to it was distributed late last week.
Last night we received the objection, and our response to it, and
I have that to pass out right now.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. OLLIFF: First speaker is John Humphreville.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good morning.
MR. HUMPHREVILLE: Good morning. For the record, my
name's John Humphreville. I'm with the law firm of Quarles and
Brady, and we have the pleasure of representing Better Roads, a
Naples contractor.
We have representatives from Better Roads here today. Mr.
Joe Turner, Mr. Joe Ristino, and Mr. Joe Bonness, president of
Better Roads.
If the contract before you today is awarded to APAC, Collier
County will pay almost $90,000 more for the same services on
the same or longer construction schedule.
Better Roads' total base bid for this project was 14,957 -- or
14,957,925.49. Better Roads based its bid on a 700-day
construction schedule. APAC's base bid is almost $90,000 more
than Better Roads. APAC bid on an alternative to complete the
project in 730 days, 30 days longer than Better Roads' base bid
construction schedule.
However, Better Roads did not bid on the non-mandatory
alternatives because they were ambiguous in their content.
Moreover, the timing of the release of the addendums, that's
addendum number one and addendum number two, did not
provide reasonable time to clarify these ambiguities with regard
to the alternatives themselves.
The alternatives are ambiguous primarily for two reasons:
First, the completion time is not defined at all. Second,
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March 28, 2000
unforeseeable delays is not defined at all in the alternatives.
The alternatives use the phrase completion time, but failed to
state whether that means the date of substantial completion, the
date of final completion, or some other date of completion.
Therefore, without a definition of this term, there is no date
upon which the county could assess liquidated damages.
More significantly, the alternatives are ambiguous because
they don't state whether completion time is an immoveable date,
not subject to extensions, whether it will be extended by
foreseeable delays in the procurement of right-of-ways and the
relocation of utilities, or whether it will simply be extended by
any delay that is beyond the contractor's control, including
foreseeable, right-of-way and utility delays.
The county knows that there will be delays caused by
right-of-way procurement and utility relocation. But Section 9.2
of the county standard road construction contract allows for
extensions of time for unforeseeable causes beyond the
contractors control. The bid documents simply fail to address
how this issue will be treated with respect to the alternatives.
In other words, if APAC -- if the APAC bid is accepted, it is
unclear whether they will be given an extension of time for
right-of-way and utility delays, or that we see now as foreseeable
delays, but could be construed as unforeseeable under the
county's own contract.
In fact, to this date, the county does not have a detailed
utility scheduled for the relocation of the utilities for the whole
five miles of this project.
The ambiguities could have been corrected if it were not for
the fact that the addendum themselves, that's addenda one and
addenda two, which introduce the alternatives were issued at
the last minute by the county.
And Joe, if you could -- I have a time line that I would like to
pass to the commissioners and share with you some of the time
sequencing.
The original invitation to bid, dated February 2nd, 2000, did
not contain alternative bids. The idea of a 24-hour,
seven-day-a-week work schedule was discussed at the bid
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March 28, 2000
conference, which was held February 2nd of this year, but their
alternatives were not actually introduced at that time. The
alternatives were first introduced by addendum one, which was
issued on February 25th, a Friday. Paragraph 8.1 of the
instructions to bid requires that all requests for interpretation or
clarification of bid documents -- may I continue?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: If you'll make it '-
MR. HUMPHREVILLE: Certainly.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- a wrap-up.
MR. HUMPHREVILLE: Bid documents be completed within
10 days before the bid opening of March 28th. The deadline was
two days away for Addendum 1.
Addendum 2, where the county changed the standard for
their review from an objective standard to a subjective standard,
was issued three days after the deadline for which we could ask
clarifications on the alternatives. So we had no opportunity to
ask questions on these ambiguities that we saw in these
alternatives. In fact, we attempted to contact the county, and I
think the county rightfully said no communication.
Better Roads is committed to building roads as quickly as
possible, and believes that the county addresses these
alternatives with the best intentions. But unfortunately, they
were added late in the bidding process and did not contain
enough specificity for us to make a reasonable bid on their
impact.
The county is required to award the contract in accordance
with the express terms of the bid documents. Addendum t
provides that the county will identify the lowest qualified
responsive bidder, taking into consideration the total base bid
and the two pricing alternatives. Upon doing so, the board has
the discretion to select the best pricing alternative, which is in
the best interest of the county.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: About 30 seconds, Joe.
MR. HUMPHREVILLE: We submit to you -- yes, sir -- that the
contract be awarded to Better Roads because it is the lowest
qualified responsive bidder. And the selection of Better Roads'
total base bid would serve the best interest of the county.
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March 28, 2000
The base bid, which is based upon a 700-day construction
schedule, is again $90,000 less than APAC's base bid.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much. I suspect
we may have some questions, but let's go through the other two
speakers first, and then we'll save them up.
MR. OLLIFF: Next speaker is Joe Bonness, followed by
Dennis Ferguson.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good morning.
MR. BONNESS: Good morning. I'm Joe Bonness. I'm
president of Better Roads, Incorporated. We've been a
contractor working here in Naples for the last 33 years. I'm sure
everybody is aware of our reputation. We've completed our jobs
as timely as we possibly can. I'm not going to downgrade our
competition; they're also very good. They've been here just about
as long as we have. We're a local contractor.
And we have -- when we were putting this bid together, we
did put together a short time frame schedule, which was 700
days. The bid itself does call for a longer time period, but
because of the ambiguities, we just could not see how we could
responsibly come back and meet the addendums and put in a
responsible bid with that. At the time that we were bidding the
project, there was a lot of unanswered questions as to utility
delays and that.
At this point, I think that we have pushed with the county to
quite an extent that we have been able to get the utilities to
actually answer and start putting together their schedule so that
the project will move along.
I think that this whole effort has probably benefitted the
county citizens, because now the utilities are jumping on it and
they are getting the answers that are necessary.
But we will -- if awarded the project, we will complete the
project in 700 days, and we will complete it for $90,000 less than
APAC has quoted, so '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. OLLIFF: Last speaker, Dennis Ferguson.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good morning.
MR. FERGUSON: Good morning, Mr. Chairman. My name is
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March 28, 2000
Dennis Ferguson, for the record. I'm with the firm of Mernahan
(phonetic) and Ferguson. We represent APAC-Florida, the
contract to whom it is recommended that this -- the contract to
whom it is recommended that this contract be awarded.
APAC's position before the board this morning is simply that
this project was validly proposed, it was appropriately bid, and
the purchasing department has reasonably exercised its
discretion to determine the best responsive bid in the best
interest of the county. And accordingly, this contract is
appropriate to be awarded today.
I would briefly respond to the arguments that have been
made on behalf of the petitioner. First, in the first argument I
would point out goes to the lack of information or ambiguity in
the bid documents with respect to the alternatives. And I would
submit to the board that that is an objection or a protest which
could have -- and as I read the rules relating to protest, should
have been made prior to the opening of the bids. It is directed to
the bid documents themselves and the information contained in
the bid documents. Not to the bids, not to the award. That rule
is intended to prevent just what has happened here.
Better Roads, with all due respect, wants to creatively
reconstruct its bid to -- with knowledge of all the other bids that
have been submitted. The objection on the basis of a problem
with the addenda should have been made before the bids were
opened.
With respect to other grounds for the protest that has been
submitted, I would only point out that it is not required -- it is
only required, I should say, that specifications in bid documents
be sufficiently specific to permit biddersto bid on the same
matter and indicate the factors to be given consideration as a
basis for the award. It is intended to provide a basis for an
effective comparison of the bids, and that is what was presented
here.
APAC's bid of a 730-day completion date could be directly
compared to Better Road's bid for a 900-day completion date
under the terms of the bid document. The 700 days that you've
heard today is nowhere in Better Roads' bid. And I would urge
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March 28, 2000
the board that you need to award this contract based upon what
was bid and what the contractor's bid obligates it to do, rather
than what the contractor says it now can do or will do because
of its own internal basis for calculating its bid.
Better Roads' evaluation of APAC's bid of course is entirely
irrelevant. APAC can't challenge APAC's alternative bid based
upon the way it sees this project going. It's particularly
inappropriate for Better Roads to argue for an evaluation of this
bid based upon what its intended completion time is, in
comparison to what the completion time is that its bid is actually
based upon.
In summary, I would submit the -- again that this project was
appropriately proposed, validly bid. The purchasing department,
in the exercise of its discretion, has weighed the factors that are
important to the county.
And one of the most important factors to the county is the
date of completion of this project. APAC's bid requires
completion within 730 days. That can be directly compared to a
date approximately six months later. APAC's bid was -- I want to
get this right -- less than one percent higher than Better Roads'
bid, some $90,000 in the scope this contract.
It is a valid consideration for the county to consider the
almost six months in expeditious completion of this project
under the terms of the contract. And we simply urge the board
to award the contract based upon the county recommendation.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Mr. Bibby, as concisely as you can, the reason you're
recommending APAC is?
MR. BIBBY: We have two options in front of us: One where
we would enter into a 900-day contract with the low bidder, the
base bid. Another where we would go for alternate no. 2 when
APAC would enter us into a 730-day contract.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I just have a question, looking over
this information. And I'm just asking a question. What is to stop
-- if we go ahead and award this bid -- and I have no ill feeling
toward either one of these companies, but we award a contract
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March 28, 2000
and the company comes back for a change order, based on the
fact that they're going to require more time to do the project due
to the fact that we have -- the county has failed to get the
utilities moved and also the right-of-way procured.
MR. BIBBY: Correct. First of all '-
COMMISSIONER BERRY: That's taken into consideration.
What does this do? Where are we at then in terms of the
contract?
MR. BIBBY: Okay. First I take exception to the fact we do
not foresee delays on this project. Right-of-way acquisition is
well along. We're doing this in two phases, as I'm sure you know.
The right-of-way is available for the first phase. The right-of-way
for the second phase will be available no later than early
October. Our in advance is when the second phase will start.
Right-of-way is not an issue.
As far as utilities go, let me just take a second to just
outline the approach on this. The first phase of the project was
of more importance to us. We took responsibility for clearing and
grubbing, which we've done. We are taking responsibility for
utility relocation there. Phase I is not an issue, and I know it's
not being discussed as an issue.
The second phase we revert to a regular type project. The
contractor under this contract is responsible for clearing and
grubbing and responsible for clearing and utility relocations.
There are two utilities involved here, FP&L and Sprint. They
have not changed their approach or interest in supporting this
project in the last couple of days. They've been very responsive.
In the case of Sprint, they will be laying their cable as the
contract continues, or as the construction continues. The
contractor is responsible for coordinating this. I see no reason
why this shouldn't go smoothly. Now, there could be extensions
to the contract, as on any job. I do not foresee them at this time.
If there's an extraordinary situation, we'll evaluate it based on
the merits.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Well, you know, I think that's fine.
But in 18 months, you know, there's going to be a new board,
probably, sitting up here. And I could see change order coming
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March 28, 2000
back or a real concern about why didn't the board take this into
consideration~ and this $90~000 difference here being eaten up
very quickly and surpassed. And I just -- I would hope that we're
making the right decision here. I --
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Of course I suppose that could
be true regardless of which we -- whether it's -- MR. OLLIFF: You're exactly right.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Whichever we award it to~ you
could have change orders or delays.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Well~ that's probably true. But, you
know, when you're looking at the concerns here that are
expressed -- but what I don't understand is, I don't understand
why any of this is even a consideration~ why it's even a problem
now. And I would hope this is not only about this project~ but
we're going to have numerous projects, road projects going on. I
would hope that we are doing whatever is necessary in terms of
right-of-way and the clearing process and the utilities and all that
kind of thing~ so we don't have this as even a question when it
comes up of whether the county is doing their part of it. I would
hope that we're going ahead and proceeding so we don't have
these kinds of delays and have to have this as an issue.
MR. BIBBY: Again~ I'd like to make --
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Bibby~ you're confident we
are?
MR. BIBBY: I'd like to make a point on Phase II of this
project. The county is not assuming responsibility for clearing
and grubbing or utility relocations. We can't. It has to go with
the construction contract. It has to be coordinated with the
construction.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Okay. Well~ I would be the last to
sit up here and delay this road project, okay? This thing has
been a millstone around this commissioner's neck for four years.
And if that road doesn't get built pretty darn soon~ I'm out -- well,
I'm going to be out of here anyway. So you won't have to throw
me out, I'm leaving.
At any rate, let's just get this road project built, guys,
because I'm sure you don't want to hear about it anymore either.
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March 28, 2000
MR. BIBBY: We're very eager to complete this.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: And do it for the people that are
out there.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: It seems to me that the question
here is one the challenge is to Mr. Weigel in the drafting of the
contract. Because what we are hearing -- if I understand it, what
we are hearing today is that we are willing to pay $90,000 extra
for a shorter time frame. What Mr. Humphreville is pointing out
to us, that we don't have language well drafted that will allow us
to enforce that shorter time frame. He's telling us a lot of other
things, but that's the one that I'm hearing, because it's the
bottom line for me.
Is there something that we could do today, Mr. Weigel, to
get on the record some clarification with APAC, or whatever is
necessary in the contract, to be sure that -- forgive me -- that Mr.
Humphreville is wrong, and that we will have the ability to
enforce the deadlines and that the ambiguities are not going to
prohibit that?
MR. WEIGEL: I think so. I think you already have on the
record counsel on behalf of APAC indicating that they recognize
completion time as being final completion time. If you want to
have him come back up and indicate that, that's fine.
Let's keep in mind that when the addenda came out quickly
in the process here, based on board direction or other impetus,
that the contract language itself is not -- or the draft contract
that we have in place for these things are not in place in poorly
worded fashion. But the fact is, is that if you're looking for
further assurances from the potential awardee (sic) for either
one of these in your consideration, you may ask them that
question on the record right here in regard to interpretation,
where one or another claims that there's an ambiguity. I'd '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'd like to bring them back and
ask you to ask them the question so that it's worded
appropriately.
MR. WEIGEL: All right.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And with -- the penalty that we're
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March 28, 2000
looking for here is clearly that there's a financial penalty, a
liquidated damages penalty if they fail to meet the deadlines that
are established. That's what we're looking for, true?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Make sure that was understood
as part of the bid, not that that's new news today.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right.
MR. WEIGEL: Okay. Mr. Ferguson, on behalf of your client,
APAC, are you prepared to respond to the board on the record
today, indicate that there is no ambiguity and no -- that you have
clear -- your client has a clear understanding in its bid response
that the 730-day, I believe, completion time is for full completion,
not merely substantial completion, and that -- that's a yes or no
question.
MR. FERGUSON: Yes. That's APAC's understanding, as
provided by the bid documents, yes.
MR. WEIGEL: And that the promise and indication, the
response that you're attesting to right now takes into account
the requirements for a utility relocation, whether in Phase I or
Phase II of the project?
MR. FERGUSON: Yes. As provided by the bid documents,
yes.
MR. WEIGEL: I believe that's clear for me. If you have any
other questions --
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I understand very clearly from
Mr. Bibby's comments that we received two bids, and one was
for 730 days, I believe, and one was for 900 days. And so for an
additional -- particularly considering how many delays we've
undergone out here, if we can pick up three months or five
months or six months on that project for an extra $90,000, I think
we ought to do that. I understand there's some concerns. I don't
think I'm going to agree with them.
Unless there's any other questions for our staff, we do have
a motion on the floor from Commissioner Norris. Did we have a
second on that?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Yes, we did. I think --
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a second from
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March 28, 2000
Commissioner Carter. Any further discussion?
All those in favor of the motion, please state aye.
All those opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0. Thank you.
We're going to take about a seven-minute break for the court
reporter, and then we're going to come back and move fairly
rapidly.
(Recess.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Hi, we're back, and we'll
continue with the March 28th agenda.
Item #882
TRANSFER OF SIX-LANE IMPROVEMENTS ON GOLDEN GATE
PARKWAY FROM AIRPORT ROAD TO SANTA BARBARA
BOULEVARD FROM FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) WORK PROGRAM TO COLLIER
COUNTY WORK PROGRAM - APPROVED
Our next item is 8(B)(3) -- no, I'm sorry, 8(B)(2), approve staff
request to transfer six-lane improvements of the Golden Gate
Parkway from Airport to Santa Barbara route.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Second it.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
discussion?
Any public speakers on the item?
Seeing none, seeing no discussion, all those in favor of the
motion, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
8(B)(3), continued --
MR. RANT: Thank you, commissioners.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. Great presentation,
Page 49
March 28, 2000
Edl
Item #883
TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS FOR A PORTION OF THE ROADWAY
NETWORK BOUNDED BY WIGGINS PASS ROAD, U.S. 41,
VANDERBILT DRIVE AND 111TM AVENUE - STAFF
RECOMMENDATION APPROVED
Item 8(B)(3) continued from the March 14th meeting. That is
transportation options for a portion of the roadway network by
Wiggins Pass Road.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Build 'em all.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Hi, there.
MR. KANT: Good morning, commissioners. Edward Kant,
transportation services director.
Unfortunately, I don't think this item will be quite as quick
as the last one.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, for what it's worth, I'm
going to be hard pressed to be argued out of agreeing with staff's
recommendation.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I concur with that.
MR. KANT: If I may be permitted to spend just a moment
and give the public some background on what we've looked at
and what our recommendation is. I recognize that this may be
old hat, but there are some folks here that are interested, if I can
have the board's indulgence?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Go ahead.
MR. KANT: Thank you.
This is an item that was originally put on the agenda several
weeks ago, and at Commissioner Carter's request we took it
back off the agenda and reexamined what some of the options
might be to make sure that we had closed the loop and that we
hadn't left anything out.
One thing that was brought up at both the workshop and in
discussions with members of the public was what about Wiggins
Pass Road instead of 11 l th. And I believe that staff had always
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March 28, 2000
been of the opinion that it wasn't a matter of either/or but a
matter of when.
And one of the issues -- or some of the issues that have been
raised by some of the residents which we feel do merit further
investigation are the issues of the residential driveways
connecting 11 l th Avenue at very close spacing; whether or not a
roundabout might provide a more efficient terrific circulation
pattern at the intersection of Vanderbilt and 111 th than would
the proposed signal; and some environmental issues associated
with the reconstruction of existing bridges and culverts on
Vanderbilt Drive, which again must ultimately be four-laned.
In an effort to get to a conclusion that would both ratify
staff's original or deny the original conclusions and also provide
an individual analysis. The firm of Wilson-Miller was hired and
they did confirm that 11 lth Avenue did require four-lane
improvements to assure sufficient network capacity. They also
confirmed that Vanderbilt Drive would be a candidate for
four-lane improvements.
Based on the information and based on some of the public
concerns, staff developed three options or three items that
should be considered. One was investigating the potential for
creating a roundabout at Vanderbilt Drive and 11 l th in lieu of a
traffic signal.
An option to proceed with the work order for Agnoli, Barber
and Brundage for the update of the construction plans, which
were completed a number of years ago for proposed four-lane
improvements for 111th, or to revise the 111th Avenue plans to
reflect what staff is terming an enhanced two-lane section,
cross-section, which would be in concept similar to, say, Orange
Blossom Drive, between Goodlette and Airport, which has two
wider travel lanes but has left turn and right turn bays so that the
through traffic is facilitated. That section will not provide the
ultimate capacity that a four-lane section will, but it will
certainly alleviate the existing two-lane problem.
The MPO data continues to indicate that 11 lth Avenue
would be best four-laned. And the staff recommendation is that
we adopt -- that we implement options one and two, which are to
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March 28, 2000
investigate the roundabout and to proceed with the four-laning
plans. And we will await your directions.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: My question was on three. And
Ed, that -- you're saying that is not a possibility, that '-
MR. KANT: No, sir, what I said was that if we went that
route, that would not provide as much capacity, obviously, as a
four-lane route. However, it would provide more capacity than
the existing type of two-lane road that's there now.
Eventually -- and the eventually is getting shorter and
shorter as we talk about these limited network sources. We will
still have to do something with Wiggins Pass, we will still have to
potentially do something else with 111 th, or find a third
alternative.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Okay. If we took option three
and widened Wiggins Pass Road, would that not alleviate the
situation? And in the future, there may even be another
connector further north, way in the distant future, before you get
to Bonita Bay Road.
MR. KANT: That is a possibility. That modeling has not
been done. We can do that as part of-- again, if we're directed to
do so. Keep in mind, we're not offering an either/or solution.
Eventually additional capacity is going to have to be found in an
east-west direction in that part of the county.
The extension of the what has been termed east-west
Livingston Road, for lack of a better name, at present is
programmed to stop at new 41. It's coming east from where
Livingston Road comes up, will come east, cross old 41 and then
cut across that bottom to new 41, and eventually we will try to
eliminate that terrible intersection at The Y.
However, the plan, which showed that continuing across to
Vanderbilt Drive, goes through some significantly impacted
environmental wetlands. And the indications I'm getting from
our environmental experts are that that's just going to be a bear
to try to get permitted. We've already had several instances
where we've had construction in the area, and they've actually
required us to use our right-of-way for mitigation. So we were
going to have to not only mitigate for ourselves, but mitigate for
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March 28, 2000
somebody else, if we do try to pursue that.
So frankly, sir, staff is not looking very kindly on that. We'd
have to find yet another way of getting from U.S. 41 to Vanderbilt
Drive. And right now the only one -- roads that I'm aware of are
going through closed communities.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Two concerns. And one is as you
know right now, Ed, when you come off of 41 on 11 l th, this is the
WaI-Mart corner, the McDonald's corner, and you have the traffic
coming from Immokalee Road, the other side, and you're coming
through that intersection, and if you're going straight through,
you have a lot of people who are coming through on two lanes.
And suddenly it dawns on them that if they want to continue on
111 th, they can't do it '-
MR. KANT: They have to merge.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: -- and so we have this continual
cutting in of traffic.
Tell me how just an enhanced two-lane would benefit that
problem.
MR. KANT: I can't stand here and tell you that that would
eliminate that problem, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Thank you. Because that, I think '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: It's the bottom line.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: -- is one of the biggest situations
and the biggest reasons to go ahead and make this a four-lane
roadway. And I think you need to four-lane that one, and I think
you probably eventually will four-lane Wiggins roadway as well.
And you have the park at the end of this. I just -- it makes sense
to do it.
MR. KANT: There are going to be some Iogistic issues.
We're very, very concerned about how we're going to treat the
residences which front on 11 l th.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I understand that.
MR. KANT: We've had some questions about where will the
right-of-way come from. The existing right-of-way along 111 th,
as you're probably aware, is much wider than the normal 60 feet
that we have. And we have, as those projects develop, we've
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March 28, 2000
been acquiring right-of-way along the north side of the road.
Our present anticipation is that if we do need any
right-of-way at all along the south side of the road, it would be
corner clips at intersections or silvers for turn lanes. And the
trick is going to be preserving the residential aspect, at the same
time recognizing that we have traffic that needs to move through
there.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: And that's '-
COMMISSIONER BERRY: My second question has to do with
the roundabout at t 11 th and Vanderbilt Beach Drive. How does
that work for emergency vehicles?
MR. KANT: Not particularly different from any other type of
traffic control, considering that in a roundabout -- a true
roundabout, as opposed to a traffic circle -- the cars, the vehicles
in the roundabout have the right-of-way. COMMISSIONER BERRY: Right.
MR. KANT: Every approach is a yield approach rather than a
stop approach. And if we do a roundabout with a four-lane
section, it would have to be at a minimum a two-lane or a two
width '-
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I understand, okay.
MR. KANT: -- two widths of the doughnut, if you will, circle
in the middle. That's going to be of significant size. We -- if
we're directed to do so at this point, though, depending on what
your direct is with 11 lth, we would look at both a single lane
roundabout and a two-lane roundabout.
The traffic volume capacity of a roundabout is significantly
greater, we found in the literature, than is a signalized
intersection. So that should help enhance the traffic flow in that
area.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: They don't have any problems as
far as fire to the big hook and ladder trucks, negotiating those?
What do they do, just drive over them, or '-
MR. KANT: We have -- if you'll notice -- again, I will be happy
to provide you more information on roundabouts, but typically
they have what's called a truck apron around the center island
so that it's uncomfortable for passenger cars, because it's got
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March 28, 2000
about a three-inch lip on it. But emergency vehicles, garbage
trucks, have no problem at all traversing with roundabouts.
We have three public speakers.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
MR. OLLIFF: We do.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
second put in the on-deck circle.
Let's call the first one, and the
MR. OLLIFF: First speaker is Dick Lydon, followed by Vera
FitzGerald.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good morning.
MR. LYDON: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Certainly
nice to be here again.
Seems to me we got a chicken and egg situation here.
Which comes first? The problems that exist on Vanderbilt Drive
seem to me to be driving this particular factor. Four-laning
Vanderbilt Drive from 11 l th to Bonita Beach Road is about half
done. There's enough turn lanes in there north of the bridge that
adding another one isn't going to be a major problem. It's the
problem from the bridge, including the bridge, to come south.
What we're looking at is a method of getting people from
Vanderbilt Drive to U.S. 41. And that method, it seems to me, is
first off Wiggins Pass Road. Wiggins Pass Road is sitting there
ready to be four-laned. A right-of-way is there, everything is
there. You have to move quick, because those folks who are
building over at the corner of 4t and Wiggins Pass are already
doing things, that means that if we do four-lane it, we're going to
have to tear out some of their concrete. That seems to me to be
the first priority, get that one done.
We still, after being promised many, many times, we have
never seen, Mr. Kant, that comparable to Vanderbilt Beach Road
type of a design from Wilson-Miller. They have never given us
anything to look at that would give us some opportunity to see
what the traffic movement would be on your third point to be
considered.
The roundabout, thank you very much, I'm glad you certainly
have taken the second look at that. We do believe that the -- any
way you do 11 l th is going to impact the people on the south side
of it. The less impact will be the two-laning with the turn-offs.
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March 28, 2000
There's one other thing that scares me to death, and I
understand why. There is a proposal to put the cemetery access
-- the cemetery entrance in at the same place as the entrance to
Saint John's goes. Why do you put more traffic on t 1 l th when
you have a perfectly good opportunity to put that particular
entrance north of 11 l th on Vanderbilt Drive? You have Signature
Properties up there tearing the hell out of things right at the
moment with in, out and whatever roads. Let's put it up there.
That does not seem to me to create nearly as much of a traffic
problem as to adding to the existing problems on 11 l th.
In closing, let me just say one thing: Yes, let's look at the
turnaround as a roundabout.
Two, let's go ahead and do Wiggins Pass Road and get it
done. That will take a lot of it off.
Three, let's not go ahead immediately to four-lane 11 l th
until we -- the neighborhood has seen what it's going to really do
to the people in Naples Park. Thank you. Any questions?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Ms. Fitz-Gerald will be followed
by whom?
MR. OLLIFF.' Sally Barker.
MS. FITZ-GERALD: I must say, this constant push by '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: You are?
MS. FITZ-GERALD: Oh, Vera Fitzgerald, Naples Park.
I just can't understand this constant push by -- I think it's
capital projects office or something, that just keeps pushing for
four-laning 11 lth. It's like they're looking at a map and saying
oh, that would make a nice double black line.
There's something in this world called a livable city. And
when you start putting four-lane highways through residential
areas, this is not a livable city. It's the antithesis of a livable
city. It just -- it makes no sense to anybody up there in the north
end. It's just ridiculous.
We could four-lane Wiggins, we can make 11 l th enhanced
with turn lanes, and we can have it policy constrained. The more
congestion you have, the less traffic you have, believe it or not.
That is a fact.
And if you put out this great big four-lane road to come
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March 28, 2000
whipping through our residential area past the living rooms of the
people who live on the south side of 11 l th, all that will happen is
you will bring an enormous amount of more traffic down to use
that. They're going to get on 11 t th and they're going to say oh,
that 41 and 11 lth is so congested, I'll just cut through Naples
Park. So they'll just cut along Seventh, Sixth, whatever. Or they
may just say, well, I'll stay on Vanderbilt Drive, and I'll cut up
99th, and I'll zap right through Naples Park and I'll get up on the
highway that way. And that's what's going to happen if you drag
all this traffic down into what is now a congested area.
As they say, you build it and they'll come. And if you do
build -- four-land 11 l th, they'll come. And we don't want them.
We've got enough of our own.
99th, as we all know, is currently being used as a
cut-through. And we're trying to work with the transportation
department to do something about that.
Now, one of the commissioners, Commissioner Berry,
mentioned this problem with merging on 11 l th. There is -- with
the odd exception, one in 200 comes down there and says oh,
my, I'm stuck. No, they don't. They get up there on Immokalee
Road, they're going to go across 41 and they're saying I'll get
ahead. So they know one lane goes into McDonald's and into
WaI-Mart and the other one goes straight ahead.
And what they do is they pull up, they gun that car -- and I
know this, because I use that road daily, two, three times a day '-
and they gun it and then they cut in front of you. And that's the
whole purpose, just to get ahead one car. It has nothing to do
with getting stuck out there. It is just -- it's just the typical way
people seem to have taken to driving. I don't understand it, but
anyway, that's what they do. So it isn't an accident, believe me.
I would think that by now our area is almost built out. I
think Dick Lydon made a good point when he said that taking
traffic counts now with problems on the highway and the
construction of the Dunes, it greatly exaggerates what the actual
traffic is. So I don't think you should really use those.
The cemetery entrance, by all means, please, don't put it on
Sixth and 1 t lth. We already have a serious problem with traffic
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March 28, 2000
going in and out of that church. It is big time. And I can't
imagine having the cemetery entrance on there, too. What's the
matter with having it on Vanderbilt Drive? It's the only sensible
thing I have heard about that one.
As far as -- oh, and the roundabout. I think that is an
absolutely marvelous idea that's decades late. We should go for
it. Anywhere I've ever driven where they have roundabouts, I
thought they really worked great. I'm not talking about the
traffic circles up in Boston where you can get lost for decades,
but a good roundabout is a marvelous way to keep traffic moving.
And lastly, the only way I can think that you could construct
a four-lane highway along 11 lth is to buy out the residences
along 11 l th and put up a berm. That is the only way I can see it.
And you better hurry up, because Sabatino is going to build his
$350,000 townhouses, so that's going to be a pretty expensive
proposition. That's the only way you can do it.
Please, don't four-lane 11 lth. Thank you.
MR. OLLIFF: Sally Barker is your last speaker.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Hi there.
MS. BARKER: Good morning, commissioners. Try to stay as
far away from the flu area as I can.
For the record, my name is Sally Barker. I'm chairman of the
Property Owners Associations of North Collier County/The
Second District Association.
And I wanted to be here this morning to support our
members, the Vanderbilt Beach Property Owners Association,
the Naples Park Area Association, and the Property Owners of
Naples Park Association, all of whom, as you no doubt know, are
unalterably opposed to four-laning of 11 l th.
It is the job of staff to plan the movement of traffic around
the country to -- county to ensure that traffic moves smoothly
with the fewest problems. And staff does that job very well. It is
our job to speak out on behalf of the residents of the
neighborhoods to try to head off impacts that we feel would be
potentially injurious to them.
Sometimes these two viewpoints come into conflict, as you
very well know, and you're faced with the tough choice of
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March 28, 2000
keeping traffic moving and sacrificing a neighborhood, or
protecting a neighborhood and adding to traffic congestion.
I commend you for the choices that you have made in the
past on these issues, as unpopular as some of those choices
have turned out to be among people who do not live in the
effected neighborhoods.
The problem with 11 l th is intellectually we understand the
need to find reliever routes for U.S. 41. However, we also
question the appropriateness of funneling the excess traffic from
U.S. 41 directly into the heart of a residential neighborhood.
Especially an older residential area like this where the homes
are so close to the roadway, and where large volumes of traffic
have really no reason for being here, other than to avoid U.S. 41.
In short, the four-laning of 11 l th is not aimed at improving
traffic circulation for people who live in Naples Park or who live
in Vanderbilt Beach, but rather to improve the circulation for
traffic that is just passing through en route to someplace else.
That said, we are cognizant of the fact that 111 th, as it
exists now, does need improvements. Which is why we came up
with the enhanced section that Mr. Kant has described, which
would be two lanes with a median that would house turning
lanes that would take the traffic out of the mainstream -- the
turning movements out of the mainstream into the church, into
the school, into the streets of Naples Park, so the traffic can
continue to move along that roadway.
But more smoothly does not actually mean faster. And this
is the point I think we need to get across. Even with the turn
lanes, 11 l th will continue to move relatively slowly as a two-lane
section. And that's all right. That's a good thing. A roadway
lined with residential driveways, as this one is, along with a
school and a church, shouldn't have the kind of traffic volumes
on it that move at higher speeds along other collectors and
arterials in the county. And hopefully, the slower speeds along a
two-lane section of 11 lth would encourage this passing through
traffic that are really looking for faster routes elsewhere to find
some other way to go.
We have an opportunity right now to do something to
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March 28, 2000
improve 11 lth without over-improving it, to the detriment of the
neighborhoods it serves. We would strongly urge you to consider
option number three. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. What's the pleasure
of the board?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'm going to move staff's
recommendation and just with apologies to Ms. Barker. I'm
going to use her words in making that motion, and that is we
should find -- people should find some other way to go. There's
not one. We need to do Wiggins Pass and 111. We have to do it.
It's not the first or the last time that we're going to have these
kind of impacts on existing neighborhoods, but we have to do it.
I move staff's recommendation.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second.
And I support the -- and I don't know about the balance of
the board, but I support the roundabouts, only if they are two
lanes and are true roundabouts as opposed to a little circle like
on 7th. I mean, that just confuses everybody and makes it
difficult to get around. Now we have an actual thing where
people can keep moving comfortably.
Unfortunately, like Vera said, in Boston I think if you go up
to New England, there are several that worked very well where
traffic continues to move, you can keep your level of service '-MR. KANT: We would come back to you with a
recommendation and a design before we wanted to implement it.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Don't anybody misinterpret that
to say we want to have a traffic system like Boston. Perhaps the
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Well, Mr. Chairman, I can support
the roundabout effort. I cannot support the second part of the
motion. I believe we've got the other alternatives that have been
proposed. I also think that we've overlooked, perhaps, that
Dover/Kohl might have given us some insight to work with this
process, and if we lose sight of widening Wiggins Pass Road,
we're making a major mistake. So I cannot support the motion as
proposed.
Page 60
March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: All right, we'll call the question.
All those in favor of the motion, please state aye.
All those opposed?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Aye.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 4-1,
Commissioner Carter opposed.
MR. KANT: Thank you, commissioners.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thanks, Mr. Kant.
Item #884
PRESENTATION ON WATER SOURCES TO ADDRESS THE SUPPLY
OF WATER THROUGH THE YEAR 2020 - PRESENTED
Item 8(B)(4), presentation on water resources to address the
supply of water through the year 2020. Good morning.
MR. ELTON: For the record, I'm Mark Elton with the South
Florida Water Management District, and project manager of the
Lower West Coast Water Supply Plant.
The Water Management District, following droughts and
water shortages in the late Eighties, early Nineties, undertook a
water supply planning initiative for development of water supply
plants encompassing the water management district. The lower
west coast is one of those regions.
Since then, the legislature saw the wisdom and the benefit
of developing water supply plants in a proactive approach
towards water supply, and have incorporated into statutes in
1997.
This isn't the first effort within this area in looking at water
supply. There was a water supply plant completed by the
District in 1994. That plant is currently still being implemented.
So this could be considered an update of that plan.
A couple of things to emphasize. 1995 and 2020. We're
looking towards 2020 as projected demands and trying to
identify sufficient sources to meet those.
Another important concept of this is we're planning to meet
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the demands during what we call the one in 10 drought event.
Basically what that means is we're planning to not be in water
shortages regionally greater than once every 10 years, which we
think is a reasonable level of service.
What is a water supply plant? Like indicated, the proactive
approach, and what it comes down to is we project out demands
to 2020, urban, agriculture and environment, and identify
sufficient sources to meet those needs. During this process,
we're identifying where historically use sources won't be
sufficient to meet those needs, and we're developing strategies
so that there is sufficient water as development occurs.
Proactive verse reactive. An important thing here is this is
not a master permit. This is a regional look, and that there's
another level of analysis that's necessary at the local level and
through the district permitting process.
It's also not a growth management tool. We're charged to
identify sufficient sources of water for the projected needs,
basically keeping that decision-making process at the local level.
The lower west coast region incorporates Lee County, most
of Collier, and parts of Hendry, Glades and Charlotte counties.
One aspect I wanted to point out here is this is Lake
Okeechobee. And this blue represents some of the regional
canal networks. And for the majority of this area, it's not
connected to the regional system. There's not -- we don't have
the facilities for the ability to move water around like we do on
the lower east coast. So this area is primarily rainfall driven,
except for the C-43 basin.
On that point, this area is not short of rainfall. We get over
50 inches of rain a year. However, 70 percent of that falls during
our wet season, from May through October. And as indicated in
that previous graphic, there's not a lot of storage within that
system. So when it rains, we discharge significant volumes of
water. When it's dry, we're discharging very little. So
management is a key thing in the way of meeting our future
needs.
Generally speaking, the geology and some of the sources
that are available -- groundwater sources that are available to us.
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March 28, 2000
Collier County's somewhere right in there. And basically you
-- the historical use sources of water are the Lower Tamiami
Aquifer, and more recently, the Floridan Aquifer.
A couple of things I wanted to point out is with the Lower
Tamiami Aquifer, it's easily recharged from the surface, there's
communication, there's not a confining layer prohibiting water to
move downward. But also, it's limited in its development
because of migration of sea water inland with additional use in
the dropping of water tables, but also for protection of the
wetland systems here. We don't want to draw down water at a
depth where it could be harmful to our natural system. So it is a
limited system. And I'll get into that in a minute.
Another groundwater source that's available in this area is
what's called the lower Hawthorne or the Floridan Aquifer
System. There's no communication in this area to the surface.
It's recharged in central Florida, Orange, Osceola counties.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's where the Floridians
recharge?
MR. ELTON: That's one of the recharge points. But it
extends the whole length of Florida and into Georgia.
A massive system, lots of water. But the downside is it's
saline, it's brackish and requires desalination for uses of fresh
water source.
Some of the issues we are faced with -- and this effort's
been going on for approximately two years -- is a significant
increase in growth. And I don't think I have to tell you that. But
we're projecting about a 70 percent increase in population to
almost a million people in this area by the year 2020. With that
comes a need for potable water, as well as irrigation water. Golf
courses we're projecting to double, an increase of about 100
courses over the next 20 years, based on historical growth and
future projections.
Also, we have a significant agricultural industry inland
consisting of citrus, vegetables and sugarcane to the north.
We are attempting to meet these needs, while protecting
our environmental systems. We don't want to cause harm to our
inland systems by excessive draw-downs, and also to our
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March 28, 2000
estuarine systems. We want to try to manage our discharges so
that we can support a healthy estuarine system.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Which -- that's something we're
not doing such a great job on right now in the wet season,
because we've put so much fresh water out to tide.
MR. ELTON: Right. And one of the problems is the system
was designed as a drainage system and worked excellent as a
drainage system. Now it's become an integral part of our water
supply system, as well as we're recognizing the damage that that
is causing, or the harm to those estuarine systems. And I'll get
into that in a minute about some of the recommendations.
With agriculture, we're anticipating a moderate increase of
about 10 to 11 percent. Overall, water demands in this area will
increase about 30 percent.
We didn't do this in isolation. We established an advisory
committee that consists of about 44 representatives from
various organizations, local governments. Collier County was
represented regularly from the water department, Paul
Mattausch. This committee has met about 17 times over the
past year and a half; has provided critical feedback to us, to
ensure, one, that we've identified issues the issues and concerns
of the area, and two, that we've adequately addressed those and
have developed options that we can live with and are
reasonable.
And we tried to use a consensus-based approach. Not that
you got everything you wanted, but can you live with the
recommendations of the plan. And we've been very successful
with that.
In addition to the advisory committee, this has also been
coordinated with other regional planning efforts. Specifically in
Collier County, the Big Cypress Basin Watershed Management
Plan, which is looking at the drainage system within Collier
County and, you know, how can we modify that system to retain
more water in the watershed, which will have a positive
influence on recharge to the aquifer system, was also
incorporated into this analysis.
Okay, so when we used our groundwater modeling from our
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March 28, 2000
1994 plan with the public input we received during the update,
we've identified the following issues: The limited -- there's
limited expansion of the surficial aquifer system, especially in
the coastal areas because of that potential for saltwater and
intrusion of wet -- and potential harm to wetlands.
Also, the future irrigation demands. There's limited fresh
water. Reclaimed water's been used successfully, and really '-
especially in Collier County to meet those needs, but there's not
enough to go around. You know, like the rain, we have a lot
during certain times of the year. Supply and demand. There's
times where we don't have enough, and there's other times
where we need to dispose of it through discharge of surface
waters or through deep well injection.
As we indicated earlier, the fresh water discharge to the
estuarine system is another issue. And as we address those,
there's some potential opportunities that could become available
to benefit water supply. And also surface water availability,
primarily in that Caloosahatchee Basin.
And also, to a much lesser extent, surface water availability
within our systems as we address discharge to Naples Bay,
Estero Bay and some of the other estuarine systems.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That we may have less surface
water available? Is that your point?
MR. ELTON: No, I'm saying right now that it's really not
utilized in Collier County. The main use is in the Caloosahatchee
Basin. There's a potential as we try to resolve some of our
environmental needs. There could be some benefits to water
supply.
Okay, the good, the bad and the good. The good is we've
identified sufficient volumes of water to meet our needs through
the year 2020 during the one and 10 drought event.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Could you repeat that?
MR. ELTON: Yeah. We have identified sufficient sources of
water to meet our needs.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And?
MR. ELTON: The bad news is we're going to have to change
things from the way we've been doing business in the way of
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March 28, 2000
diversification and management. The good news is we've
already recognized that, and that's happening.
Collier County -- and I'll get to it in a minute -- has been used
as an example of positive things you have done to ensure your
water. And these can be met. And I'll get into that in a minute.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's a good example.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: We have done something right?
MR. ELTON: Yes, you have.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I would like him to reinforce that,
please.
MR. ELTON: We looked at -- to resolve these issues, we
looked at eight different water source options, from using water
more efficiently through water conservation to developing new
sources such as the Floridan Aquifer.
With these water source options, we developed two types of
recommendations: Recommendations termed water resource
development recommendations, which are regional in nature and
are going to be the responsibility of the Water Management
District. And these are more regional to facilitate development
of each of these options.
There's also water supply development recommendations,
which are more guidance to the local water users to facilitate
use with these sources.
I need to emphasize, this is not a prescriptive plan to water
users. We've laid out a menu for which water users can choose
to effectively meet their needs. And there's a bunch of different
considerations, depending upon the situation on which source
you tap.
Within this area, the -- for the urban public water supply,
we've identified fresh groundwater from the Lower Tamiami,
along with Floridan Aquifer waters. Probably the two primary
sources are going to be used to meet our urban needs.
The good news is Collier County's already went there. You
guys have initiated a Floridan Aquifer development program with
reverse osmosis to meet your future needs.
To address the urban irrigation needs, the continuation and
use of reclaimed water and the use of fresh groundwater, but we
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March 28, 2000
need to address the surplus and deficits that we're looking at
2020. And what we're recommending is we need to look at what
we term a regional irrigation system or a system that we could
move water from areas of surplus to areas of deficit.
The sources to this we perceive being reclaimed water,
groundwater and surface water. However, that's not going to be
enough, because all those sources are seasonal in nature. We
need something to balance it out, so we're recommending that
we need to look at storage also in the way of aquifer storage and
recovery.
An example of this system could be your existing reclaimed
water system. You have a north system, a south system, and
they're either connected or are in the process of being
connected, to allow you to move irrigation water, reclaimed
water, throughout Collier County to meet those needs.
And that's what we envision as some storage and some
supplemental sources to meet this need -- meet those needs.
And this plan is recommending a more detailed study than the
regional approach that we took to refine that and look at
potential solutions.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Who's it recommending
undertake that more detailed study?
MR. ELTON: The Water Management District would initiate
that.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What can we do to -- is that -- we
may have enough water but not electricity.
Is there -- is that going to happen, or is that a possibility?
MR. ELTON: That's a recommendation of the plan, with
approval by our governing board and budgeting. We hope to
carry that -- to initiate that next year. And it won't be done in
isolation. The public has a huge tool in this, and especially the
utilities and users, to develop the specifics of this system, so
that we look at it comprehensively.
For our agriculture inland, we've concluded that historical
use or groundwater sources are probably sufficient to meet
those needs. There's some local considerations that will have to
be addressed through our permitting. But regionally we think
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March 28, 2000
there's sufficient water.
I need to bring up conservation. That was a huge discussion
item as part of our process. And there's a lot of interest within
the community for increased conservation. As part of that, the
District is going to develop a comprehensive conservation
program in concert with local governments and utilities to realize
conservation to a greater extent than what we're doing now.
Just wanted to point out the sea water option. There's an
end-all out there. But at this time we didn't think that it was
necessary to look at that any further because of the other
options available to us, and with respect to cost considerations.
So what's next? We've drafted our documents, and I saved
you -- we've gone through the committee several times in
reviewing those. We have one committee meeting left on April
7th, one final review, and we will present this to our governing
board April 13th for their consideration of approval. Once it's
approved, we'll initiate the implementation of the plan.
And our board is 100 percent behind these plans and
realizing these plans and not making another plan that sits on
the shelf. So I think you will see several things occur as a result
of approval of the plan.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. ELTON: And that concludes my presentation.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Questions?
Commissioner Mac'Kie.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'm worried about
implementation. What -- will your -- will the board be -- will your
board be reporting to this board steps that we as a county need
to take in order to reach the happy conclusion here that we're
going to have enough water?
MR. ELTON: There are certain items that we look at
partnerships. Especially with the Floridan Aquifer, we intend on
developing a regional model to minimize the cost of developing
that and gathering hydrogeologic information. We look to partner
with entities who are drilling into the Floridan to gather that data
jointly.
As you drill your wells for the Floridan Aquifer, or water use,
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March 28, 2000
or if you're going to the border zone for wastewater disposal, we
want to work with you to collect that data.
Conservation I think is another important part where we're
going to see some partnerships.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And communication we don't
have problems with? You're going to be able to continue to '-
MR. EL~ON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: -- communicate with us so we
know what to do?
MR. ELTON: And what we plan on doing is conducting
regular every three-month to six-month meetings of our advisory
committee to keep them up to date on implementation and
where we need help and support in implementing the plan.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Norris?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I'm certainly glad you came down
here this morning, sir, and exploded the old water shortage myth
that continues to raise its ugly head around here.
From what we gather in your presentation, we have plenty of
water, we just need to work on our management and capture
systems more than anything else. So we certainly appreciate
the information.
MR. ELTON: Thank you. And we need to do these more
often. Because it seems like every time I give a presentation, it
rains. When we're talking about water supply or wastewater
reuse, it always seems to be raining outside.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Working late last night.
Thank you very much.
MR. ELTON: Thank you for having me.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Appreciate it.
MR. OLLIFF: Mr. Chairman, one quick note before you head
to your last item. That last blip was actually a good blip. We've
had no power to this building as of about 10 of 8:00, and we were
on generator power and emergency power from every floor above
this without air conditioning. We're back on full power now and
they've restored that FP&L lines. That's what that blip was.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Page 69
March 28, 2000
Item #886
INVESTIGATION OF ONE-WAY EXTENSION OF PIPER
BOULEVARD BETWEEN LIVINGSTON ROAD AND STRAND
BOULEVARD - STAFF RECOMMENDATION APPROVED
8(B)(6), response to the board request for investigation of a
one-way extension of Piper Boulevard. Mr. Kant.
MR. RANT: Edward Kant, transportation services director.
Good morning again, commissioners.
On January 25th at the board meeting, the board directed
staff to pursue a pathway option along the front of the Carlton
Lakes development, in lieu of an extension of Piper Boulevard.
And then at the March 14th meeting two weeks ago, the board
requested that we investigate the potential for a one-way street
in that same location.
In the package today -- and I'll use the visualizer for folks
who don't have that package -- we determined that there were
two options. One option was for a one-way east. And I just -- I
guess that blip also turned the visualizer off, if you'll give me just
a second, please.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: It's on.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: We're on up here, Ed.
MR. KANT: I don't have any lights here. Okay, I beg your
pardon. I just got so nervous.
What we've shown here in the heavy lines would be an
easterly one-way route which would require turning movements
against traffic for people desiring to go north into the either the
Strand development or the shopping center area, and then a
counter movement to blend with traffic in this short stretch
across the canal for people that wanted to continue to go east
along Immokalee Road.
The one way west -- thank you, whoever that was -- the one
way west -- the one way west option, on the other hand, would
permit a smooth right turn flow for traffic heading west back
toward the Palm River and Willoughby Acres area.
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March 28, 2000
After careful examination of the area -- and I have some
photos here which I can share with you -- showing the geometry
in that area, staff is still recommending that in lieu of a roadway,
a pathway be pursued. An eastbound roadway would not, in our
opinion, be safe. We would not be able to do anything with that
intersection that would guarantee motorists the ability to
traverse that in any kind of peace and comfort.
A westbound one way would work. On the other hand, to
what end? What does it gain? It doesn't really give us anything
that can't be done presently.
I also think that when we get the signal at Livingston and
Immokalee, that's really going to obviate some of that need;
however, the need for pedestrian, safe pedestrian and bicycle
access, is not going to go away, and that's why staff is
recommending that we continue to pursue that pathway.
We've also had some preliminary discussions with the
conservation land trust, the -- I'm sorry, but the full name
escapes me -- and they have some funding that they are looking
at that they would like to possibly distribute up in that area.
Apparently they have some funds left over or in lieu of another
project, they don't want to lose the funds, so they've asked -- can
I have another 30 seconds -- they've asked for us to consider if
we're going to do that pathway, to add kind of a greenway
concept to it. And we're investigating that also.
So that's why our recommendation does not change from
the January 25th recommendation.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I don't understand why the one
way west doesn't at least relieve some of the traffic on
Immokalee.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Yeah, that's my question, Ed.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Is it in concert -- and this is -- I
think we're all probably asking the same thing.
MR. KANT: I don't '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Particularly with the shopping
center there, does it alleviate some of your short-term -- short
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March 28, 2000
traffic coming out of the shopping center, driving down
Immokalee Road, half a mile or less and turning in again? Does it
just keep them off the main through?
MR. KANT: I can't stand here and represent to you that
there won't be some alleviation of that traffic. The question
becomes -- and frankly, we haven't done an in-depth analysis, but
the question becomes for the amount of money that you're going
to have to spend to make a roadway rather than a pathway, are
you going to get a return in terms of traffic relief? And frankly,
we don't see that happening with that type of geometry. If -- you
know, the question is can it be done? Certainly it can be done.
But what are you getting in return for your expenditure? We
don't see it happening. But I'll be happy to perform that analysis
if--
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry?
MR. KANT: -- it's of interest.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: One other concern, keep this in
mind, at where this point would start. You're going to have a
shopping area. Albertson's is coming in there. This would be
between Albertson's and the Strand, which is where the Publix is
located. So once you come down, if you were to go westbound,
you would be coming down along the canal. You would actually
be coming into what will be the Albertson's shopping area.
And I have to agree, if that one wasn't going to be there, I
could see more of a necessity to put this roadway in. But I do
think a pathway along there, at this point in time, is something
that, you know, we definitely need to consider.
Of course, my first -- you know, my first druther would have
been that we would have continued Piper Boulevard up along
there, and that should have been done years ago.
But in light of everything that's happened at this point, with
the event of the Albertson's shopping center going in there, and
having to get across Livingston Road from the current Piper
Boulevard, presents some concerns, because you have a bridge
right there as well.
But Ed I think was figuring they could somehow negotiate
and realign some things and make that work. But that would
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March 28, 2000
take you right on over into the Albertson's shopping area. And
then you would have to negotiate around that to get onto this
pathway that will then take you on up to the Strand. And then
once you get to the Strand, you still have another obstacle to
overcome of getting up onto the Strand Boulevard. And you have
at that point traffic coming out of the Strand. And so you're
going to have to negotiate getting across that to get into the
shopping area.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Motion to approve staff
recommendation.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: We have no speakers.
MR. OLLIFF: No.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second.
All those in favor of the motion, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
MR. KANT: Thank you, commissioners.
Item #887
EMERGENCY CONDITION DECLARED AND AMENDMENT NO. I TO
THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH AGNOLI,
BARBER & BRUNDAGE, INC. TO INCORPORATE PHASE IV OF
LIVINGSTON ROAD DESIGN INTO THE PHASE III DESIGN WHILE
MAINTAINING THE SAME PLAN PRODUCTION SCHEDULE -
APPROVED
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: 8(B)(7), declare an emergency '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Motion to approve.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a motion. Is there a
second?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a pair of seconds.
We'll give it to Commissioner Carter.
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March 28, 2000
All those in favor of the motion, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
Item #888
BID 99-3005 FOR SELECTED FIRMS FOR MANHOLE, LIFT
STATIONS AND WET WELL REHABILITATION CONTRACTING
SERVICES - AWARDED ACCORDING TO STAFF'S
RECOMMENDATION IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item 8(B)(8) was 16 something, is manhole lift station. This
was pulled from the consent agenda by whom and for what
reason?
MR. BIBBY: We pulled it because there is also a bid protest
on that that we'd like to discuss, and I'm sure they're here today.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Which means we do have one
speaker on this item. Let's go to them.
MR. OLLIFF: You actually have three. The first speaker is
Mike Angel, followed by Ron McNeil.
MR. MCNEIL: Actually, I'll be the first speaker, if that's all
right.
I'm Ron McNeil, and I'm president of SunCoast
Environmental, International.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Are you all part of a team?
MR. MCNEIL: Yes, we are.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Fine. I don't care what order
you go in, as long as you're all -- that's fine. MR. MCNEIL: Because--
MR. OLLIFF: All three of the speakers.
MR. MCNEIL: Yes, this is -- I'm here as an answer to prayer,
I guess, from the opening prayer this morning about the wisdom
and prudence in making decisions financially. And I brought two
angels.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Would you mind addressing us up
here?
MR. MCNEIL: Yes, I will. I'm sorry. Okay.
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March 28, 2000
We filed a protest on the bid for manhole and pump station
rehabilitation, and we've got a product that we've developed over
the years that's got 63 U.S. patent claims granted on it in three
separate patents. I'm the guy that invented the process.
These -- Mike and Holly Angel are -- Mike is with about a two
or three billion dollar a year company, international. It does
environmental work. Holly Angel is president of SunCoast
Environmental Utility Services down here locally in Cape Coral.
And they were -- will be our installers for this area for this
patented system.
We've installed systems throughout the United States and
Canada and Mexico. We have '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I'm going to ask you to just
stick strictly -- if it's a protest to the bid, let's stick strictly to
what you think was appropriate or inappropriate about the
bidding procedure and focus our efforts there '- MR. MCNEIL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- rather than the merits of your
particular system.
MR. MCNEIL: Okay. Well, for one, the -- to quote their most
important consideration was that we were the most responsive
bidder. That was their most critical contention of the protest.
They had asked for a cast-in-place product. And as they state in
their answer to Mr. Mohan Thampi, with the county engineering
department, said the bid offered by SunCoast is for a
cured-in-place technology not contemplated by the bid
specifications.
Well, it's kind of a play on words, cured-in-place or
cast-in-place. What they've basically specified, and we were an
alternative to that, was a product where you take a plastic liner
and you make a form inside a manhole or pump station and you
then put this plastic liner inside and pour concrete over behind it.
And of course they're calling that a cast-in-place. Well, it takes
28 days to cure, probably, as concrete would. And our process,
we called it a cured-in-place liner.
And they bid three different styles of product. They
scheduled A, B and C. And I personally am the author of that
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March 28, 2000
whole philosophy behind Schedule A, B and C. This is a news
article that was in Water Engineering & Management in February,
1999. And I started that whole thing of Schedule A, B and C for
preventive maintenance for the general maintenance of
manholes and for the really severe deteriorated falling apart
structures.
And there had (sic) one other contention was that I didn't '-
that we hadn't put in a manhole for Collier County to observe for
a year. And in fact, this is some pictures that I'd like to show
you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: We just need you to --you can
give that to us, and you need to stay on the microphone while
you're speaking.
MR. MCNEIL: I will.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. MCNEIL: We've in fact done about 70 structures for
Collier -- for the City of Naples. I shot those pictures late
yesterday afternoon. Those holes have been in -- that job was
scheduled to start the very day that Andrew came through in
1992, and so we had to delay about a couple of weeks. We were
there during all the cleanup and we did 40 of these structures. I
came in last night and shot a few of those pictures at night,
actually. And those holes have been in the ground now for -- ever
since 1992.
I wanted to give you a product to look at. What we do is we
pressure clean the structure at 5,000 psi. To give you an idea of
how strong that is, you could saw a two-by-four right into with
that pressure cleaner.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I appreciate where you're going,
but I need you to really just stay on the bid and what -- because
none of us up here are engineers and what we're going to turn
around and ask our staff is whether or not you've met
specifications, so '-
MR. MCNEIL: Yes.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I know what you're trying to
achieve, but we really need to stay on the technical question of
did you meet the bid request or not.
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March 28, 2000
MR. MCNEIL: We did meet the bid request, because we -- we
are -- we're cured-in-place because we mold our fiberglass hull
inside that existing structure. We clean that surface down to the
old material that's left after 5,000 psi pressure washing, and we
mold in a fiberglass hull that tests out at 23,000 psi flexural
strength.
And the savings -- and I'll quit right now -- the savings is that
in the bid, you have a $500,000 project that we can save you
either about $200,000 on, or you can get about 30 percent more
manholes lined.
The prices -- from the one they had specified originally, their
price was $450 a lineal foot for the manholes. Ours was 345,
$105 a foot less. That's on the four-foot diamond manholes. On
the five-foot diamond ones, we were 435 and they were $675 a
foot. So about 55 percent more than our bid. And we far more
than qualify.
As I say, I wrote the article on manhole rehabilitation that's
been published nationally. I've spoken for conventions all over
this nation and other countries, Germany and other places, and
we selected what the three process were that was a Schedule A
project, which was an orange corning fiberglass precast insert
that was put in place and poured behind it. The type that they
specified, which was a plastic liner with concrete poured behind
it and forming, and our Poly-Triplex liner system.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I need to you wrap up.
MR. MCNEIL: Okay. Basically, we are the lower bidder by
far. And just because SPERCO probably didn't think they'd had
any competition, they did. We're the best product in the
Category A, we qualify to be bid, and just because they want to
use a play on words of whether it's cured-in-place or
cast-in-place, I think that's a ridiculous splitting of hairs for
something that could save this city 200 -- or this county
$200,000, where you could get about 35 percent more manholes
rehab for the same money.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much. We'll
save our questions till we go through the other two speakers as
well, since it's a team effort.
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March 28, 2000
MR. OLLIFF: The other speaker is Mike Angel, and I believe
that Holly Angel, the third speaker, has waived.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Great. Thank you.
MR. ANGEL: Good morning. My name is Mike Angel.
As Mr. McNeil mentioned, I am -- I do represent also another
company, Seventron (phonetic) Environmental Services, which
I'm the underground utility contractor, licensed -- I hold the
license for them.
But as Mr. McNeil did state, we did meet the specifications
in the bid documents. It's a play on word, cured verse cast.
Actually, in the documents it does state that they mention two
different terms. They mention cured and cast for the other
product that's being supposedly awarded for this project.
So actually the bottom line is both products are cured, both
products are cast. That's our opinion, anyway.
Secondly is the cost savings to the county is substantial.
You know, it could be possibly up to $200,000. CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Mr. Bibby, cured, recast, what's the difference and do they
meet whatever our request was for?.
MR. BIBBY: Jeff Bibby, public works engineering director.
We're always interested in new methods, and we will
continue to look at this. We've already looked at what they've
done at the city, as well as Lee County. However, specific to our
needs right now, we did ask for three different methods: The
cast-in-place, sealing and coating with resin lining, cementitious
lining. They do not meet the specifications as documented in our
response to it. For our needs right now, they did not meet the
specifications. We will continue to look at it for future contracts.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: In what way did they not meet?
MR. BIBBY: It's not a play on words. For the cast-in-place,
they do not meet that spec requirement.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: How? How do they fail to -- he
described something that sounded like casting. Pour it in, he's
got a form, he pours it, it hardens. That sounds like casting. So I
mean, if we're going to save half price for a better product, I
want to understand it.
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March 28, 2000
MR. THAMPI: For the record, my name is Mohan Thampi.
I'm with public works engineering.
The cast-in-place, which you have specified, uses concrete.
A concrete plastic shell is inserted and concrete is poured
around it. What they are proposing is a completely different
method.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But it's a form that they pour
some kind of plastic or something into instead of concrete into.
MR. THAMPI: No, it's -- it's a fiberglass method. It's a
different method. It's '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: If I worked in the industry,
would I understand the difference between cast-in-place and this
product?
MR. THAMPI: Yeah. The material used for this method is '-
we use concrete plus a plastic liner, a PVC liner. We do not
specify fiberglass liner or using the cured-in-place. And it's
different. And if you want to get into the merits of which one is
better, you know, it's '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: No, because that's not relevant
on a bid protest. I mean, the question we have -- it may be '-
MR. MCNEIL: Theirs is cured-in-place also. Concrete.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Bibby, what I heard you say
was it may be a product in the future to look at. It does not meet
the particular specifications of this specific bid. MR. BIBBY: That is the case, yes.
MR. MCNEIL: This is a multi year contract, four-year.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. You've had your
opportunity. I apologize, but we do have some forum here.
Okay, any questions for either staff or for the petitioner?.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Move staffs approval -- or
recommendation.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion for staff
recommendation. Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second.
Discussion?
I understand the concern, and there may be a great deal of
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March 28, 2000
merit. But if my guys who's expertise in this say it doesn't meet
our bid specifications, I can't go outside that bid specification. It
sounds like we may be looking at this for future opportunities,
but I'm going to support the motion.
We'll call the question. All those in favor, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0. Thank you.
Item #10A
EVERGLADES RESTUDY FUNDING OPTIONS - DISCUSSED
Discussion regarding the Everglades restudy funding
options. Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I put this on the agenda just
because I somehow de facto have been getting a lot of
correspondence from other counties on the topic. And it may be
an issue that we want to get recommendation from staff about
whether we take a position on how the restoration funding is
allocated, or it may be not. But it seems to me appropriate for us
to weigh in on the question.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Are you looking for us to weigh
in today, or just to have enough knowledge to set a direction
today?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Frankly, I had hoped -- and I've
discussed this with Mr. Olliff -- I had hoped that there was going
to be a staff recommendation today. But because of the timing
on finding out what was coming out of the Water Management
District, they were unable to do that by today. I don't frankly
care if we do this today or if we do it in two weeks. I care that
we make an informed decision and weigh in appropriately.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Maybe we could get a brief '-
brief being the operative word from Clarence -- and -- because we
do have a couple of agenda items still that are going to be -- have
a little life to them, have a number of public input. And also, I
know Commissioner Norris has a time line here today. So if we
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March 28, 2000
can get an update, we'll keep it fairly brief.
And Commissioner Berry, do you have a question?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I just -- I didn't know, I thought we
were going to probably have to approve this resolution. And if
we were, I would have to object to it, because it says something
about the 50/50 cost sharing between the State of Florida and
congress.
Well, folks, what that relates to is it's 100 percent for you
and I. Because you're going to be paying through the federal
government and you're going to be paying locally. And so this
50/50 cost sharing, I don't know why they put this kind of
misleading information in here, because everybody thinks they're
getting a big deal. Oh, we're only going to pay 50 percent. No,
you're not, you're going to pay 100 percent. They're going to get
you at the federal level and they're going to get you at the state
level.
So I really have some concern. And there's no way in a
million years that I would support that resolution.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Clarence, if you could just
spend a couple of minutes, frame the issue for us, and then we'll
get into it in some detail in two weeks.
MR. TEARS: Can you hear me?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: We can.
MR. TEARS: Clarence Tears, director of Big Cypress Basin.
In March, the governing board looked at internal funding for
the comprehensive Everglades restoration plan. So the Governor
requested the district governing board to come up with 100
million dollars. The district governing board could not find 100
million dollars internally, so as you can see on this sheet, they
went back and forth, they cut out some item '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Something's wrong with the
digitizer, guys. We can't read it. You go ahead, Clarence.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Just keep talking, Clarence.
MR. TEARS: I thought it was my eyes.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: There.
MR. TEARS: There we go.
Okay. Basically they went through -- originally they had 15.7
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March 28, 2000
million dollars worth of program cuts, they had 49.1 million
dollars internal sources, and all they could come up with was
14.75. The impacts to Collier County would be an alternative
water supply program, because we do pay some district funding
to the district. And as part of that funding was the alternative
water supply program.
This year we were able to get $600,000 worth of projects in
Collier County. And this is like seed money for like reverse
osmosis project, water reuse projects. So it did help the local
community. So I do see an impact there.
But the district, what they're trying to do is not increase ad
valorem millage rates. So some of the options they looked at,
there were some external sources, local participation, dock
stamp fees, water use fees, garage sales tax. They also looked
at airline ticket surcharges, rental car surcharges, road tolls.
These were some of the options that they said to the
Governor, we cannot meet the 100 million dollar request. These
are some ideas that we have to find the funding for the
comprehensive Everglades restoration plan. I'm missing one sheet.
And for us, this is the ad valorem taxes that we currently
pay. You can see where the district tax is the same for this basin
and all the other counties in the Okeechobee Basin. Yet the
Okeechobee tax is a lot higher for the other 15 counties.
My understanding at present, what we would be doing is
paying for the improvements in Collier County, Southern Golden
Gate restoration, Lake Trafford restoration, Tamiami Trail flow
enhancement improvements; all that would come through the
basin.
The large majority of the projects currently identified, I have
already included that in my 20-year capital projection at the
current millage rate. And that was based on the conservative
growth rate of three and a half percent, which were far beyond
that. So we're fine for our local funding.
Some of the larger projects that may be identified through
this plan would come out of the district funds. Not increasing
the district millage rate, but they would come -- the district
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March 28, 2000
would, through the district fund that we give to the district, help
compensate us for some of the local projects. Land acquisition,
some of the things that the basin budget couldn't handle, or
future projects that are identified through the Southwest Florida
study could be funded by the district and the basin and having
the cooperative agreement with the Corps of Engineers for
matching funds.
So the idea really for Collier County is it gives us the
opportunity to get these projects identified through the Corps
and possibly get partial funding for projects in the future that
protect the water resources of Collier County.
Any questions? I mean, I tried to do it real quick.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: No, that's great, thank you.
MR. TEARS: But basically there's no increase in millage
rates, and basically we do have the funding in place for local
projects through the basin.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
Item #10B
RESOLUTION 2000-96 APPOINTING DAVID LOVING TO THE
OCHOPEE FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE -
ADOPTED
Let's go to 10(B), appointment of member to the Ochopee
Fire Control District. One name here to fill out '-
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Motion to approve.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- our vacant term.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: One question before we vote on
that.
Ms. Filson, is it legal he's a -- it says in the letter that he's a
city councilman. Is it legal to put him on the fire board?
MS. FILSON: There isn't anything in that ordinance
prohibiting that.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. I just wanted to make sure.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
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March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please state
aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Item #10C
NAMING OF MLK COURTHOUSE BUILDING RESCINDED AND
COLLIER COUNTY COURTHOUSE TO REMAIN AS COLLIER
COUNTY COURTHOUSE; SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS BUILDING
TO BE NAME AS REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. BUILDING
Go to Item 10(C), reconsideration of naming the Collier
County Courthouse. Commissioner Carter?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Yes, a couple of things that I'd
like to introduce into the record this morning is that I have a
petition here of over 2,000 people encouraging us to keep the
name of the Collier County Courthouse the Collier County
Courthouse, and that we establish a process and a criteria for
naming any government facilities within Collier County.
Also, there is an option for us, because of the situation, that
Mary Morgan has graciously agreed to have us name the board of
county elections after Dr. Martin Luther King, I think which is an
appropriate opportunity for us to recognize him and the
community because of all the work he did in eliminating poll
taxes and literacy tests and those types of things, to encourage
people to be able to vote in this country.
So it is my recommendation to the board that we not name
any other buildings in the future in this county until we have
process and criteria, and that as the situation is evolved, that we
name the board of county -- the supervisory board of elections
building after Dr. Martin Luther King.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Comments before we go to the
public?
I understand we have a number of speakers.
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MR. OLLIFF: Mr. Chairman, I believe you have 11.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Well, let's get started.
MR. OLLIFF: First speaker is Rufus Watson, followed by
LaVerne Franklin.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And if the next person in line
could just kindly come up and stand behind the podium, we'll
move that along fairly rapidly, since we have so many speakers.
Good morning.
MR. WATSON: Good morning. My name is Rufus Watson.
I'm chairman of the Collier County Black Affairs Advisory Board.
A few weeks ago the board took action to name the
courthouse after Dr. Martin Luther King. This action by the board
created controversy, pro and con. However, as a result of that
controversy, some dialogue was created between all parties that
were interested and had some sort of interest in it.
I hope today is the day of a start of a new and cooperative
spirit that will bring about all citizens of Collier County in a
positive way.
We should let the naming of the elections building in honor
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. be an example of a positive and
creative spirit of the citizens of Collier County. I don't think that
we need to look backwards at the issues that would tend to
divide us. Instead, we should look forward at the issues that
unite us.
For you, the commissioners of Collier County, your action
today and acceptance of this recommendation will be a historic
-- will be a heroic and historic message throughout the state that
people of good intentions can take actions that will result in
inclusions rather than exclusions.
And by the way, the Black Affairs Advisory Board did adopt a
resolution on March 20th, unanimously supported the naming of
this building. I thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
Ms. Franklin will be followed by?
MR. OLLIFF: Frances Barsh.
MS. FRANKLIN: Good morning. My name is LaVerne
Franklin.
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I'd like to submit to you 622 petitions. I also submitted to
you in January 532 petitions. And so that bring the total to
1,154. And at that time we asked for highway, then we went to
the Courthouse, and now we're here at the elections building. So
the numbers clearly indicate that there is a genuine interest in
naming something permanent and honorable in honor of Dr.
Martin Luther King.
And I stand here before you and say that compromise is a
fine art. And I think that we have gotten to this point that we are
here to support that idea that we should name the board of
elections building in honor of Dr. Martin King.
We are here willingly and openly supporting that idea. And
we should move on with our lives and have something in honor of
him suitable. And indeed, I'd like to thank Mary Morgan and her
staff for bringing forth this idea, and we totally support that.
Because Dr. King, one of his great missions was to bring voter
registration empowerment to the people, and that is clear
throughout the United States, especially here in the south.
Because without Dr. King and that movement, a lot of people
would not have the power to vote. And I thank you so much, an I
hope that you will pass this.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Ms. Barsh will be followed by whom?
MR. OLLIFF: Jane Varner.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good morning.
MS. BARSH: Good morning. I'm Frances Barsh. I'm a
resident voter and a taxpayer in Collier County.
My parents were immigrants. They regarded themselves as
Americans of Polish heritage. I am the first generation of our
family born in the United States. I regard myself as an American
of Polish heritage. I am not a hyphenated American.
The naming of buildings in the Collier County complex after
single personages is the practice of special interest pandering
and the policy of exclusion. Such custom is a method which
gives an excuse to discriminate in the name of diversity. It is a
method which does not constructively serve anyone or any
community.
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For this reason, it is crucial to the integrity of government
and to the forthright recognition of diversity and equality for all
that the buildings in the government complex and that the
complex itself be identified only by location and function.
Champions of freedom have no exclusive face, color or
gender. A civilized society is achieved by people of all faces and
all colors. It is achieved by men and women alike. It is the
legacy of the nameless shoulder, who gave his life on the
battlefield, just as it is the legacy of those who garnered fame in
their pursuit of civil rights.
It is our obligation to those champions to keep the character
of government free of exclusionary policies and selectivism. To
do otherwise is to embrace government practices of methods of
diversity which exclude, divide and destroy.
At the February 22nd meeting, Fred Thomas spoke of a quilt
of diversity in this county; a quilt that would blend to a neutral
beige, just as the wall in back of you. A quilt that would enjoy
and respect diversity. Naming government buildings will not
make that quilt. But there is a way. There is a way in which all
the diverse people of this county can join together in moving
forward to a method of diversity which is inclusive, cooperative
and constructive.
I put forward an individual suggestion. It is independent of
the Botanical Garden. It is offered in the spirit of constructive
American diversity. The Botanical Garden is a new entity in
Collier County. It is just beginning, and has great promise for the
entire community. Its location in the tropical zone offers
singular conditions for horticultural research and development.
Why not cultivate unique strains of orchids honoring great
Americans? Why not cultivate a Martin Luther King orchid,
sponsored by the NAACP, Susan B. Anthony orchid, sponsored by
the League of Women Voters, a Marconi orchid, sponsored by the
Italian-American Club, a Jonas Salk, sponsored by medical
societies; all of these set in a great Americans pavilion with
commemorative figures and descriptive designations could bring
the people from all over the world to see how we, in Collier
County, can practice the method of constructive diversity.
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I dare say that all of us in this chamber share a common
heritage of slavery somewhere along the line. The practice of
slavery has existed from the beginnings of time. It has been
experienced by the diverse people of all the continents of the
world. The etymology of the word slave is slav. Let us be candid;
slavery does not have one face, nor does it have one color. It
should not be an excuse, nor should it be a reason for
demarcation.
Booker T. Washington said, and I quote, there is a class of
colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the
wrongs and the hardships of a Negro race before the public.
Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his
grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
It is time to move on. In Collier County, we have a chance
to celebrate American diversity at its best. We can recognize all
those great Americans who championed freedom, who
championed civil rights, who achieved women's suffrage, who
set the foundation of the technological communications age we
live in, and who freed the world of polio.
This is a sampling of the American quilt of diversity
possible; the American quilt of diversity that can be honored in a
Collier's -- in Collier's Botanical Gardens.
There are many possibilities. I urge you, the leaders of
Collier County, to extend your thinking. I urge you to have the
courage to move forward, to set an example to be followed by
other communities. I urge you not to compromise, not to move
backwards. I urge you to keep the buildings of Collier County
government reflective of what government must be; neutral,
unbiased and dispassionate. Only that kind of government
achieves the freedom, liberty and equality which Martin Luther
King himself espoused. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. Ms. Varner will be
followed by whom?
MR. OLLIFF: AI Moore.
MS. VARNER: Good morning. My name is Jane Varner and
I'm a resident of Collier County.
The renaming of the courthouse from Collier County
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Courthouse to Martin Luther King, Jr. Courthouse has created
controversy and hard feelings. And this is really a shame. But I
must ask you that since courthouses are generally named for the
counties in which they reside, it is only right and fair that you
return to our courthouse its original and rightful name.
And furthermore, the whole of the government complex, in
the interest of peace and harmony, should not carry any other
name than that of Collier County, indicating the different
buildings merely by their function. If the government center has
neutrality, favoring no one, then no one will feel slighted or
favored.
Regarding the naming of the supervisor of elections building,
I recognize the offer of conciliation, but we have other notable
people we could offer. Susan B. Anthony could rightfully have
her name on the building. She worked for anti-slavery, she was a
founder of the women's loyal league to fight the emancipation of
slaves. And she urged full participation of Blacks in the Women's
Suffrage movement. And although Black men were granted the
vote by the 15th Amendment in 1870, women of all races
continued to be excluded until the ratification of the 19th
Amendment in 1920. So Susan B. Anthony, in her work has every
right to have her name on the supervisor of election building.
But I'm not asking for that, because I'm adhering to our request
for no names and neutrality.
Also naming another building without a process violates
what seems to be or seemed to be your future intention to avoid
these problems.
There were some comments made before Ms. LaVerne
Franklin commented, that the county hadn't addressed the
concerns of Blacks. Since the Blacks in Collier County have the
same legal rights and protection of Whites, she can't be talking
about legal rights, so is she talking about special
considerations? Is she talking about things she feels entitled to
at the expense of others? It sounded as if we were hearing that
the people of Collier County owe certain things to certain groups.
Another statement by Ms. Franklin was that people were
brought here. Now, I don't know what that's supposed to mean.
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Everyone is free to decide where they want to live and who they
want to work for. She can't be referring to slavery, because that
ended in the United States 135 years ago. And while it has
existed for all races, and even still does exist in some parts of
the world, it does not legally exist here and now.
Another thing I don't understand is the comment that
somehow this county doesn't acknowledge the Black community
enough. It seems to me that we just had Black History Month
and celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday, which is a national
holiday established for him alone, while we have bunched
together other White notable males into generic terms for
holidays. And we have no holiday for any woman. So I would say
Martin Luther King, Jr. has unusual and amazing
acknowledgement.
Of course, I wish we could do away with looking at people
by race, ethnicity, gender or whatever. This diversity craze may
sound high-minded, but it really means division, and it doesn't
unify us one iota. Justice should be blind and we all should be
grateful for the vast opportunities this country offers. We're
Americans first and last. Everyone who has come here or was
born here has had to build his own worth. And true pride does
not depend upon someone else's efforts. Each one of us must
earn our own glory. It cannot be achieved by taking it from
someone else.
In closing, I again appeal to you that you return our
courthouse to its rightful name, Collier County Courthouse. And
to save us from future controversy, please abandon the naming
of other buildings in the government complex. You, our
commissioners, have your plates full addressing vital issues in
the county, one being growth. Your concentration should be on
those things necessary for the safety and well-being of everyone
in the county. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. Mr. Moore will be
followed by whom?
MR. OLLIFF: Jack Sodergren.
MR. MOORE: Good morning, commissioners. My name is AI
Moore. I'm a resident of Collier County. And I'd like to say thanks
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for the opportunity to address this issue.
And as you can see, the issue -- there are still issues out
there in reference to race. So I just ask you to consider, when
you're making your deliberations, to take those -- take that into
consideration.
I would applaud you for the recommendation to name the
elections building after Dr. Martin Luther King. I think that was
one of his primary focuses, and I think it would be very
appropriate.
I would ask also, though, it's my understanding that that
building will be replaced in the near term. I'm not sure exactly
what term. But avoid controversy again, that it should be that
the name should follow with the new facility.
For those who have said that we should remain neutral here
in Collier County, I would point to Washington D.C., which is the
capital of our country, and I would say that you can name
numerous monuments, the city itself, as reference to recognition
of people that have done great things for this country.
And that's the big thing about Martin Luther King. He
proposed that the country come together and live up to its
greatest potential. And that's what we're all about. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. OLLIFF: Next speaker would be Tom Macchia.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Tom Macchia. Macchia will be
followed by?.
MR. OLLIFF: Is Jack Sodergren not here?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Apparently not.
MR. MACCHIA: Good afternoon.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Hang on a second, Tom.
MR. OLLIFF: Marilyn Von Seggern.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. MACCHIA: I'm going to first read a statement, and then
I'm going to pass some remarks about the statement.
Maybe I'm becoming too critical at my old age, but I find
very few things that human beings do that make any sense.
Consider the following: Why would anyone want to change the
name of the Collier County Courthouse? That's what it is, the
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March 28, 2000
Collier County Courthouse. I see no sense in naming roads and
buildings after people unless there is some relevancy to it. It
makes more sense to me to name roads and buildings for their
location, which identify them, such as Corkscrew Elementary,
Middle School, Immokalee High School, Lely School, Golden Gate
Parkway, Tamiami Trail, Immokalee Road, Collier Boulevard, et
cetera.
Why doesn't the NAACP stick to its original purpose, which
is the advancement of Colored people, instead of trying to
change the names of everything to Martin Luther King.
This statement was a letter to the editor. It was not written
by me. And although I completely concur with everything that
was said in the letter, I will be called a racist for having those
views, while the fellow who wrote the letter is certainly not a
racist. His name is Eddie Flier (phonetic). He's a proponent of
civil rights, he is in favor of the -- he's certainly not a racist. Yet
what bothers me is the fact that I as a person cannot disagree
with anybody who's Black. I have the narrow option of only
being a racist. I cannot oppose Martin Luther King because I
don't like the man, because I'm not enamored by him, I must be a
racist.
And people are talking about people bringing people
together and being friends. The NAACP knows full well that
people in this county probably don't share their view of Martin
Luther King. And this is an in-your-face type of thing, trying to
name something.
I personally am enamored with Clarence Thomas and Walter
Williams and Thomas Sole and J.C. Watts. And the reason I like
them is not because they're Black, it's because they're
conservative. And it looks like a foregone conclusion, but I wish
you people would back off and stand up and say no. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you. Our next speaker?.
I'm sorry, Tom.
MR. OLLIFF: After Ms. Von Seggern would be David Shealy.
MS. VON SEGGERN: My name is Marilyn Von Seggern. I am
co-chair of the social action committee of the Unitarian
Universalist Congregation of Naples, along with my colleague,
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March 28, 2000
Maureen Armor.
The courthouse incident highlights the need for sensitively
and respect for the values and culture of all citizens of our
community. Until one has walked in the shoes of one of our Black
citizens who has and still does suffer from discrimination in
Naples, one cannot know the level of pain and insult that has
been inflicted by this incident.
To offer and then withdraw a recognition that is so
meaningful truly sends a negative message. I hope that this
community has learned a lesson from this debate. Now is the
time for the community leadership to: One, stimulate a
broad-based effort to address racist attitudes evident in some
areas of our community; two, develop programs to promote
justice and equity for all citizens; and three, make adjustments
to official procedures and processes that recognize diversity,
socioeconomics issues and minority needs.
I urge the commission to lend their support to such efforts.
Thank you for your time.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Next speaker is Mr. Shealy, and
he'll be followed by?
MR. OLLIFF: Jerome VanHook.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good afternoon.
MR. SHEALY: Good afternoon. My name's David Shealy, and
I'd like to say that I'm happy to hear, seems like there might be a
compromise coming around. And if that be, I hope there's a
decision made today on that. Because the only decision that's a
bad decision is no decision at all. We can't keep going on with
this. This is an item that should have never been brought up in
the first place, under these conditions.
My mother taught in a Black school. I grew up sitting on the
floors of one of the first all Black schools in Collier County. My
mother was a secretary there. She -- but back then they had a
multitude of jobs. I remember sitting there with no air
conditioning, the windows wide open, mosquitoes blowing in.
My father always helped people when they came to the
house. And many a time at night a Black person would come to
the house, and my father would help him. And I remember
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March 28, 2000
desegregation, when they started putting the schools together
instead of having different schools. I remember that.
But, you know, one thing I don't know anything about is
racism. My mother and father never taught me about that, thank
God. And I think this whole issue is really a big black eye to
Collier County, not only here but afar. Word of this has spread,
you know.
And I can't believe the NAACP is backing down. I just can't
believe it. It's beyond he me. And I think you should take this
opportunity to do the right thing and make a decision. Thank you
very much.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Before Mr. Van Hook comes up, our reporter from Fox News,
I'm pretty sure there's a sign back there referencing cell phones.
If you don't have a vibratory function on there, I'm going to ask
you to turn it off, because that's twice this morning it's rung.
Mr. VanHook?
MR. OLLIFF: And the last speaker following Mr. VanHook
will be Mary Morgan.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. VanHOOK: My name is Jerome VanHook. I'm the
president of the NAACP. And I would like to thank everyone for
their comment. I think that when we truly express our feelings,
we can get to a bottom -- the bottom of a lot of problems that
exist out here.
There was a lot that I was going to say, but a lot has already
been said, so I'm going to shorten it up quite a bite. And I know
the commissioners would like that.
We had the opportunity to witness a lot of things over the
past couple of weeks. I understand with the conclusion probably
it's going to end up being as far as the courthouse naming. But it
was a good gesture. And I would like to take this time to send
our warmest thanks in efforts to Tim Constantine, Commissioner
Tim Constantine, Commissioner Pam Mac'Kie.
I know the community was expecting us to retaliate
negatively on the conclusion of the courthouse, whether it was
to stay Martin Luther King or if it was going to be called the
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Collier County Courthouse. And the NAACP is not going to
retaliate in any form, because what we're trying to do is we're
trying to let the community know that there comes a time when
we have to come together as a group. And even though I've
heard compromise, I think it's more than a compromise. It's
leaders coming together to decide what is going to be in the best
interest of the community.
There's been a lot of fighting, a lot of verbiage that has been
going on. That is really sad. And I think that we need to bring
this to an end. And as some of the individuals have said, as they
have come up and spoke, that we need to move on.
Now, it is obvious that there are a lot of issues based on the
conclusion of whatever happens today. And what we need to
realize is that racism and prejudice is obviously a lie, even in
Collier County and the rest of the nation. We know that. What
we need to do, and as leaders, we need to be able to talk with
one another, find out what the problems are, and then come up
with a conclusion that again would benefit everyone. And I think
that's why we elect the officials that are in front of us today.
I hope that at the end of this ordeal we can, all of us, all the
individuals that came up and spoke, we can shake hands and
start the process of being a community with many cultures
instead of a community that is separated by different cultures.
So I would like to thank everyone, and I hope that at the
end, that we all can work together. And when there are
problems, if we could come together as a group, as a unit, I feel
that there's nothing that we would not be able to overcome.
And the NAACP stands for the National Association of the
Advancement of Colored People. But that does not just mean
Black individuals. That means people of all colors. And it just
doesn't mean civil rights, that means issues that is affecting the
community as a whole. And that's what we would like to do. We
don't want to just come up here and talk about things that are
negatively impacting the community. It would be nice to be able
to talk about some of the positive things as well.
So I thank you all. I hope that we come up with some kind
type of a compromise that we all can agree on and we all would
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be happy with and then we can move forward as one community
and not a community of just different cultures. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
Ms. Morgan.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And while she's coming up, I just
want to thank the local chapter of the NAACP and commend you
for your political maturity~ for one thing. But most of all~ for your
leadership on this issue~ in the finest tradition of Dr. King. I think
the action that you've taken today is exactly what he would have
donel and I appreciate it, commend you for it.
MS. MORGAN: For the record~ I'm Mary W. Morgan~
supervisor of elections for Collier County~ Florida.
For what it's worth with respect to my comments, at least
three of my forefathers were involved in the fight for
independence of this country over 200 years ago. And while I
don't really like to say that I'm proud of being born in a state
where a lot of Dr. King's headline events took place, I was.
Any decision that you make on any day~ you probably
alienate half the voters in this county. But when you're making
those decisions~ I personally believe that you're trying to do what
you think is best for the voters and the residents of the county.
And the decisions you have to make are tough. And this decision
is probably one of the tougher ones~ because you're not only
going to look at what's legally correct~ but probably what's
morally right.
In 1870~ the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was
passed~ and that gave people the right to vote without respect to
race~ color or previous condition of servitude. And about 90
years later it became apparent to the outside world that a lot of
the states -- or a number of the states have passed laws that
were barriers to exercising their 15th Amendment right. Those
states had passed poll taxes~ they had a literacy test. And when
I turned 21 and was old enough to register to vote myself~ I was
subject to those requirements.
Dr. King is the symbol of all of the people who were involved
in calling this problem to the attention of our nation and to
pricking the conscience of the nation. And some 95 years after
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the passage of the 15th Amendment, then congress passed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, which again reiterated the intent that
everyone would have the same rights to register and vote, and to
participate in the election process, and perhaps even be
candidates for office.
While I wouldn't try to tell you how to make your decision or
what it should be, I do think it would probably be more
appropriate that the building that houses the process of
registration and elections would be more appropriately named
the M.L. King Building. I urge you to make that tough decision
and send the minority members of our community -- and I mean
all the minority members of the community -- that we have a
message of inclusion and appreciation for the injustices our
forefathers may have brought to bear on them and that we
acknowledge them for the important contributions they've made
to our county and to our nation.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Is that all?
MR. OLLIFF: That is all your speakers.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I've got some comments. And I
understand the concern for those who have seen great
controversy over the last few weeks. However, the suggestion
that we not name anything for anyone because someone might
be offended, while in the year 2000, that would be politically
correct, I think is very short-sighted. And I don't think naming
something for someone is exclusionary.
Mr. Moore made the reference to Washington. Not only are
monuments there, but buildings are there. You take the great
leaders in the history of Congress and the congressional
buildings are named for them. You take the great leaders in the
United States Senate building and the Senate buildings are
named for them. And you can look at that all over the country.
Washington obviously is the most obvious symbol. But to
suggest that that is exclusive I think is too bad.
I think this building is a great example. The Harmon Turner
Building. The vast majority of people that live in Collier County
moved here from somewhere else. And if you're from
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Youngstown, Ohio, you probably grew up learning the history of
Youngstown, Ohio. But if you moved here as an adult, you
probably don't have a clue about a lot of the history of Collier
County. And things like the Harmon Turner Building will teach
you that history.
When you come in, if there's a plaque there that explains
Harmon Turner, he was the first county manager, and a brief
history of that. If nothing else, it may spark some interest in local
history. So I don't think that is bad, I don't think that's divisive,
and I think Mary Morgan's comments about Dr. King and his
influence on the elections process makes the obvious
connection there.
My intent, when I brought this up a month and a half ago,
was not to be divisive or to be exclusionary. It was supposed to
be educational and an honorable thing. And I certainly apologize
for the controversy it generated. I had no idea that would
happen.
I want to applaud the Black Affairs Advisory Board and the
NAACP for the leadership you've shown here today. As Jerome
said, you could very easily come here and fight and scrap and
argue, and you're not doing that. I appreciate your words on
trying to bring the community together and do what's in the
greatest good of the community as a whole. And I think that's
what all of us are trying to do.
I think the election building is a fair compromise. I think Mr.
Watson's comments about it being inclusive is correct. I think
the fair compromise is there. And I think we ought to do exactly
what Commissioner Carter has suggested and that is freeze any
future naming until we put together a policy. And that can't take
more than a month or two to lay out some sort of policy.
And I don't know that there's a rash or a rush on doing any
naming right away anyway, but at least until we do have a formal
policy, so we can avoid any difficulty in the future. I think that's
a great idea, Commissioner Carter. And we can decide how and
when and who at some future date. But I think the naming of the
election building is a fair compromise, it deals with it
appropriately, and allows us to move on from here.
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COMMISSIONER CARTER: I just want to reinforce one more
time that the reason I brought this back is we didn't have policy,
we didn't have a process, we did not have criteria. And if we can
come out of this with that for the future, then we won't be in
these situations again.
And I am comfortable with where we are. I think some great
remarks have been made this morning. I think what Frances
Barsh brought forward, the idea with Botanical Gardens is also
another excellent idea, thinking outside the box, the kind of
things that we need to do.
So I think the challenge now back to staff, make sure that
we don't end up in future meetings having controversy that
divides a community. And that was not my purpose. But I
wanted process and I wanted criteria, and I thank you for your
indulgence.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: In the interest of compromise, I'd
like to make a motion that we un-name the Collier County
Courthouse and that we designate its name to remain the Collier
County Courthouse; that we name the elections building the
Reverend Dr. Martin Lutheran King Elections Building.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Junior.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What? Junior. I don't think
there's a question about that.
And that the name -- that name survive the reconstruction of
the building.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Other comments? Mr. Weigel?
MR. WEIGEL: Okay. Well, that's -- that motion is fine, and
may the record reflect that that is a motion on the
reconsideration agenda item that's before the board today, with
the additional motion and vote of the board to be taken in regard
to the renaming of the elections building as per all of the
statement of the motion-maker, Ms. Mac'Kie.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Thank you for clarifying my
intention.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I believe initially that's what I
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March 28, 2000
said in our opening remarks, that we would not name the building
after -- the courthouse after Dr. Martin Luther King, it would
remain the Collier? County Courthouse, going to Commissioner
Mac'Kie's motion just now.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion, second. Discussion?
All those in favor, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Can I make just one comment?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: This has to -- this has nothing to do
with this other than the upcoming policy that may well be
drafted. And I have just two comments that I think on that, and
two points that ought to be made and build the policy based on
these, and that's dead and local.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Agreed. Particularly dead. But
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Well, I would support what the
rest of the State of Florida has done, where 61 courthouses are
named after the county and only four after that were dead and
local.
MR. OLLIFF: Will we take that as board direction then that
that's the parameters that you'd like that policy drafted around?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Let's work on that another day.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Yeah, because I'd like to '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: But I think those are a good
start.
Item #10D
GOLDEN GATE ESTATES AREA CIVIC ASSOCIATION SURVEY
RESULTS- DISCUSSED
Let's go to the next item, it's t0(D), discussion regarding
Golden Gate Estates Area Civic Association results.
Page t00
March 28, 2000
You have in your folder a -- the numbers that came back.
And what the state's area civic association had done is originally
made a vote. There were a limited number of people at their
meeting. There was some concern over whether or not that was
truly representative. They did a mailer to all of their members.
And then there were other people that said gee, I'm not a
member, can I participate, too? We sent them ballots.
I read in the paper, and I wanted to ask Commissioner Berry,
apparently there may have been some lobbying going on to the
folks who voted in this, and I didn't know '-
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I wanted to make a comment.
There had been some question; I was asked in regard to was it
broad-based enough in terms of the civic association. And I
made a comment that I had hoped that we could get other input
together. That -- and then it got down to well, those people came
to a meeting.
And I said, well, I would hope that those that come to a
meeting, that is what we would consider today if they had not
participated in the survey. In other words, don't be counted
twice. In other words, if you've already made your wants and
wishes known on the survey, that there's no need to come back.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Your intent was not to exclude
anybody.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Not to exclude anybody but to
include and expand it. But you don't need to feel like you need to
come back and say the same thing all over again, if you've
already been counted.
But I did want to make sure that it was as inclusive as
possible, because there are a number of people who live in the
Estates that are not members of the civic association that may
want to weigh in on the issue. And I thought it was only fair that
they be included in this particular survey.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And Ms. Filson, we did get a
handful of calls asking for those from non-members of the
association, didn't we?
MS. FILSON: It was probably less than five.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: A handful.
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March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: The numbers, I think for a
couple of reasons, are fairly overwhelming, particularly as it
pertains to a grocery store, that are in favor of the activity out
there.
And Commissioner Berry's probably more in touch with this
than anybody, but with the traffic and the time now it takes to try
to go buy a loaf of bread. Or your alternative is to pay triple the
cost at a particular store out there. So I think the idea of having
some alternative is overwhelmingly supported by the community.
The objections seem to come from people who want to
make sure that the Boulevard doesn't end up as a commercial
strip up and down, which I don't think is in danger here. But I
think we need to reassure the community that's not the intent of
this at all.
We have a couple of public speakers on this?
MR. OLLIFF: We do. Your first is Ty Agoston, and I don't see
him, but Steve Dellecave is also scheduled to speak.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good afternoon, Ty.
MR. AGOSTON: That's right. You are now in my martini
time, so -- good afternoon, everybody. My name is Ty Agoston
and I live in that disadvantaged Golden Gate Estates.
And I am here to protest the actual limits that were placed
on this discussion. As I understand, Golden Gate Estates at this
point is only 25 percent built out. You're going to have a lot of
people going to move there and live there. And it's already '-
traveling on Golden Gate Boulevard is a catastrophe.
You have three blank open corners on the corner of Golden
Gate Boulevard and Wilson. And for you to limit commercial
development to whatever, six, seven acres, is unreasonable.
Most people there would prefer a full preferably nationally known
grocery chain who would not think of building anything less than
a 40,000 square foot, which is the normal size of a grocery store.
What you are going to do with limiting the size of
commercial development there is having a Mickey Mouse
operation which is overpriced, just like the gas station that is
there now.
So you in a sense disadvantage a lot of young married
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March 28, 2000
people who live there now, have to get in line to buy a loaf of
bread, or travel -- I told you this story before, that it took me 48
minutes to get back from the library. It will take two or three
hours to get to the supermarket.
I believe that you should open up the commercial allowance
on that corner sufficiently so you can build a decent
supermarket.
I'm just watching, make sure he doesn't fall down.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: He ain't falling.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Wincing a little. Falling, no.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I'll be back.
(Commissioner Norris exits the boardroom.)
MR. AGOSTON: But the fact of the matter is that by you
limiting that corner development to that seven acres is not a fair
treatment of the Estates. And there is no reason for you to do
so. The space is there. A space is available. It's a question of
economics, and I'm sure that you'll find -- no, you don't have to
find anybody. I'm sure there will be people coming forward to
offer to buy those or develop those. And the discussion should
not be focused on building a small store, the discussion should
be focused to satisfy those people. They could use a drug store,
they could use a full-service supermarket and whatever else you
could fit into a country-like setting. I'm not suggesting that it
should be a commercially full-blown corner, but it should provide
the services a young family needs. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Just to clarify, too, that the Estates Civic Association
sponsored this. The reason this went to them is it was their
idea, and they have a fairly large membership. They just had it
mailed here to us to make sure nobody said oh, gee, there must
have been tampering, anything else. They just wanted a fair,
impartial location. And this is just an informational item to get a
good feel.
Commissioner Berry?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Just a comment, Ty. I think I
remember hearing this, I believe, from the Center Fund
representative, Mr. Raymond. He indicated when there was
Page t03
March 28, 2000
some discussion about Publix coming out there, and of course
that was the number one choice of the people who lived out
there, or at least an overwhelming choice. And one of the
concerns apparently from the Publix standpoint wasn't so much
the size of the grocery store, but the fact was that there weren't
enough rooftops in the area to warrant for them to come into the
area.
So I'm not so sure it's the size of the land where this store or
whatever is going to go in there, that that's the concern as much
as it is, even though you and I know there's been a lot of change
out in the Estates. As we speak I'm sure there are more homes
going up out there. That until they reach a certain point, that's
when Publix or perhaps some of the other bigger chains, that's
when they're going to come in.
But at this point, as of this time, that was their concern, that
the rooftops were just not there to support the kind of an
operation that they wanted to put out there. So it had nothing to
do with the Board of County Commissioners or anything to do
with the land size, but it has to do with the number of people out
there.
MR. AGOSTON: Before I heard '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: You're not on the microphone.
We are going to move on and we're going to go into high
gear here.
Item #10E
RESOLUTION 2000-97 APPOINTING KAYDEE TUFF TO THE
GOLDEN GATE COMMUNITY CENTER ADVISORY COMMITTEE -
ADOPTED
Item 10(E), appointment of member of the Golden Gate
Community Advisory Committee. One opening, one person.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: One question.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I move the item.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: One question. And that is a
member of the press?
Page 104
March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Member of the community.
Former president of the civic association, everything else.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I guess if there's a problem, it's
more from a journalistic ethics than from our rule?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Certainly is.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: All right.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: God bless them if they want to
be involved in the community.
Motion from Commissioner Carter to appoint Dee Tuff.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor, please state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 4-0,
Commissioner Norris temporarily absent.
Item #11A1
JOINT PRESENTATION OF THE CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT
FOR EXCELLENCE IN FINANCIAL REPORTING AND THE
DISTINGUISHED BUDGET PRESENTATION AWARD -ACCEPTED
11 (A)(1), joint presentation of the Certificate of Achievement
for Excellence.
Mr. Mitchell, good news.
MR. MITCHELL: Commissioners, good morning. For the
record, Jim Mitchell, the director of financing and accounting
department. And I have with me Mike Smykowski, who is the
director of the office of management and budget.
I realize it's long in the day, so we're going to move as
swiftly as we can. We have three items back to back, and if it
pleases you, we're going to get started and not stop until we get
finished.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: It please me.
MR. MITCHELL: Okay. As you are aware, the clerk of the
circuit court, serving in the capacity of ex officio clerk to the
Page t05
March 28, 2000
board, is responsible for the coordination of the annual
independent audit, along with the production of the
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, which is commonly
referred to as the CAFR, while the office of management and
budget, under the direction of the county manager, is responsible
for the production of the county's annual budget.
Our first presentation today is a joint presentation by both
the clerk's office and the office of management and budget, and
it deals with the CAFR for the fiscal cycle ending September 30th
of 1998, and the budget document that was prepared for the
fiscal year beginning October 1st, 1998.
For those of you who do not know, the Government Finance
Officer's Association has two awards program: The Certificate of
Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, and the
distinguished Budget Presentation Award. The Certificate of
Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Award was
established by the GFOA in 1945 to encourage all government
units to prepare and publish an easily readable and
understandable comprehensive annual financial report that
covers all funds and financial transactions of the government
during that fiscal cycle, while the distinguished budget
presentation award, which was established in 1984, recognizes
exemplary budget documentation by governments.
The GFOA, along with the finance department and the office
of management and budget, believe that governments have a
special responsibility to provide the public with a fair
presentation of their financial affairs. The CAFR's, along with the
budgets prepared by and for Collier County, go beyond the
requirements of generally accepted accounting and budgeting
principles to providing the many users of these documents with a
wide variety of information used in evaluating the financial
condition of this county.
Collier County has received the Certificate of Achievement
for Excellence in Financial Reporting Award for 12 consecutive
years, and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for 10
consecutive years. And it is with great pride that we present to
you today the 13th consecutive award for the CAFR that was
Page t 06
March 28, 2000
prepared for the fiscal cycle ended September 30th of 1998 and
the 11 th consecutive award for the budget document that was
prepared for the fiscal cycle that began on October I st of 1998.
I'd like to read to you the Certificate of Achievement Award,
and Michael will read to you the budget award.
This one reads: Certificate of achievement for excellence in
financial reporting, presented to Collier County, Florida for its
comprehensive annual financial for the fiscal year ended
September 30th of 1998. A certificate of achievement for
excellence in financial reporting is presented by the Government
Finance Officers Association of The United States and Canada to
government units and public employment retirement systems
whose CAFR's achieved the highest standards in government
accounting and financial reporting. Michael?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Excuse me, for the record, Michael
Smykowski, budget director.
The distinguished budget presentation award presented to
Collier County, Florida, for the fiscal year beginning October 1st,
1998. To receive this award, the budget document itself must
meet program criteria, as a policy document, as an operations
guide, as a financial plan and as a communication device. And
we appreciate the opportunity to participate in this program,
because we get reviews from other county budget
representatives who provide input as to means to improve our
product, make it more user friendly to the lay person. And it's
certainly a laudable, worthwhile program, and we're happy
certainly to continue to receive this award.
In addition, I'd like to recognize my staff, Gary Vincent '-
please stand up, don't be shy -- Tony Gambino, Chris Dublis, and
Pam Lehnhard, and thank them for their efforts. (Applause.)
MR. SMYKOWSKI: As well, the budget process is long and
detailed and involves cooperation amongst many groups, and we
certainly appreciate the cooperation certainly of the
constitutional officers as we embark upon another budget, one
that will be probably especially challenging. So we thank you.
Page t 07
March 28, 2000
And with that, I'd like to present to you the distinguished
award.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. MITCHELL: Mr. Chairman, before I present this award to
you, the one thing that I'd like to do is formally recognize that it's
not the finance department or the budget office that's
responsible for these awards, but it's each and every employee
that works for Collier County. The budget document is strictly
the plan of what we're going to do, and the CAFR documents how
we did it. Without the dedication of your employees, awards of
this nature would not be possible. So on behalf of the clerk's
office, the county manager's office and all your employees, we'd
like to also present this award to you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. MITCHELL: Moving on.
Item #11A2 & 3
PRESENTATION OF THE COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL
REPORT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 1999 -
ACCEPTED. DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING
SEEKING APPROVAL TO FILE STATE OF FLORIDA ANNUAL
LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR
1998-99 - APPROVED
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: t 1(A)(2).
MR. MITCHELL: The second and third items are companion
items that once they are accepted by the board, they allow us to
complete all of the filings required by law.
As was previously stated, the clerk of the circuit court, his
role as ex officio clerk to the board is responsible for --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Motion to accept the report.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second.
All those in favor, please state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
Page 108
March 28, 2000
MR. MITCHELL: We had planned a very short presentation
by our auditors. If you would like to hear that, they're here for
you. Or if you'd just like to have their -- the document they had
prepared, that's fine also.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Document will probably do the
trick for us today.
MR. MITCHELL: Very good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Which takes us on to public comment -- wait. Those weren't
both items. I thought -- okay, they were both items. Thank you.
That was inclusive of both. Matter of fact, if you want to leave
those with Mr. Olliff, he'll distribute them to each of us. Thanks,
appreciate it.
Let's go to public comment on general topics.
Mr. Olliff, do we have any?.
MR. OLLIFF: No, sir, we don't.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: How convenient.
Item #12C1
RESOLUTION 2000-98 AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY MANAGER TO
APPLY FOR A $350,000 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GRANT
OFFERED THROUGH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS - ADOPTED
We'll go then to 12(C)(1), conduct a public hearing to receive
comments concerning a community development block app.
Do we have any public speakers on that?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: No, but I move approval.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
MR. OLLIFF: Yes, we do, but I would bet if we hazard a
guess, they would both be in support of.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I just made a motion to approve it.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And I seconded it.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Who is our speaker on that?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Mr. Nogaj.
MR. OLLIFF: Mr. Nogaj and Florence Nogaj.
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March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
are waiving. You don't have to.
MR. NOGAJ: We'll waive.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
hearing.
There is a motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a second.
All those in favor, please state aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 4-0.
very much.
MR. MIHALIC: Thanks, commissioners.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thanks, Greg.
Sounds like -- or looks like they
Great. We'll close the public
Thank you
Item #12C2
EMERGENCY DECLARED. EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 2000-19
AMENDING ORDINANCE 95-66, THE COLLIER COUNTY VEHICLE
FOR HIRE ORDINANCE, AUTHORIZING A TEMPORARY
EMERGENCY INCREASE IN TAXICAB RATES DUE TO THE
EXTRAORDINARY INCREASE IN MOTOR VEHICLE FUEL COSTS -
ADOPTED WITH CHANGES
The next item is 12(C)(2). It's an emergency ordinance
talking about the taxicab rates.
What I'd like to do here, this part isn't written in the way the
ordinance is written. But if you've all had a chance, the only
change I would make, it bumps it up and makes it during the
emergency time period possible for these folks to make a living.
I'd like to just have a required mandatory review October 10 or
somewhere six months from now, and that gets us through the
summer season, rather than trying to tie it to a dollar amount and
fluctuating and following that. Let's just review it in six months,
and if OPEC is treating us better then, then we'll correct it.
Is that -- can we make that one particular change, if the
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March 28, 2000
board so wants?
(Commissioner Norris enters boardroom.)
MR. WEIGEL: You can. First you need to declare an
emergency by four-fifths vote. Then thereafter you can vote on
the ordinance with the direction. And if I understand correctly,
we will bring it back as an agenda item for consideration, and
you'll give us direction at that time to advertise an agenda -- an
amendment change, if it's necessary.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Before we do any of that, do we
have a speaker?
MR. OLLIFF: You have two. You have Russ Baisley,
followed by Jack Bridenthal.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Can I just ask, we -- I received a
letter. I don't know, did the rest of you receive that letter, too?
And I just want to know how that all '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Which letter is that?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: It had to do with the ordinance, I
believe.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Well, I think if it's the same one I
did, there was questions about the ordinance '- COMMISSIONER BERRY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: -- the process going in front of the
boards, and are we stepping out of bounds here by doing it. Not
that the need doesn't exist, but '-
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: -- are we violating process.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: It was for -- and I believe that
actually came from a competitor who would not -- who is not
under regulation right now.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I didn't know, but I know that the
letter came. And I had -- the concern was what were we doing.
And they mentioned that, you know, the gas price didn't go up
$2, and that's what the amount was that we were talking about.
And I just wanted to know how this all fit in.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a certain segment of
the transportation population that we have some restrictions on.
There are certain parts that do not. And those that do not aren't
Page 111
March 28, 2000
particularly enamored with this change. Mr. Baisley, let's hear from you.
MR. BAISLEY: My name is Russ Baisley. I'm an associate
with Yellow Cab of Naples.
The taxicab industry itself is regulated by your ordinance. It
says that we cannot discriminate against anyone on the basis of
the length of the trip. So you can quite often go across town to
take someone from a supermarket two blocks away for as little
as $2.35 or $2.05. Which may seem foolish, but to the person
needing to make that trip, it's a needed trip.
Our cost of operation really right now -- we're looking for
relief-- is to be able to continue to service those short trips. And
this temporary increase to help with the gasoline thing allows us
basically to serve that need. When we're going -- as the
Commissioner mentioned, the other parts of the industry, the
limousine and that are not required to accept anyone. They can
pretty much pick and choose what they do. We feel we provide a
needed service. We need some emergency relief at this point.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Is Jack here? Oh, I thought you
were hiding.
MR. BRIDENTHAL: I completely agree with everything Russ
says. The only question I have, there was some question as to
whether this was going to be on the meter or not, rather than
just a sticker in the wind.
Our population that we serve would not understand here's
the meter 6.85, pay us 8.65. They already think cab drivers steal
from them, like people from big cities, because they see the
same store five times. And our people don't do that way. But it
still would look that way to a non English-speaking person or
someone who doesn't understand completely.
Question, possibly, here as to whether that's in the
ordinance, that it is to be added to the start-up fee on the meter?
MR. WEIGEL: Well, it's in the ordinance that it's added to
the start-up fee. But we didn't get to the mechanics. And we
can do that if the board directs us. So it would be implemented
at the meter at start-up.
Page 112
March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Jack, for the record, you are?
MR. BRIDENT. HAL: Oh, Jack Bridenthal, USA Taxi. Just a
small competitor of Mr. Baisley's.
But see, when you hit the button now, it starts at $1.75 and
then $1.50 a mile in increments. This way would work. That was
the only reason I wanted to speak, was to make sure it was on
the meter, visible to the eye of the person like this.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: What we're saying is that the
moment you get in the cab, it's going to register 3.75, if I'm
understanding what '-
MR. BRIDENTHAL: Right. Instead of the current 1.75. And
that's going to take care of the drivers. But we'll revisit it in six
months and see. If the gas is back down to where it was a
couple of years ago, that's fine.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Yeah. And there's two
concerns here: One is I don't know that the numbers have been
adjusted for about 10 years anyway. And then you combine that
with the increase in gas prices. So when somebody says, gee,
gas hasn't gone up two bucks, it's worth reviewing in six months,
but I think the two bucks is going to do what it needs to do for
the next '-
MR. BRIDENTHAL: I've been in it six years, and it was at
least two or three before I was in it the last time that the rates
were increased. Now, most employees get three percent a year,
and these guys haven't had anything in nine, 10 years. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: We need -- we'll close the public
hearing. We need four-fifths majority to declare an emergency.
Is there a motion for that?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'm confused. I just don't know
enough about it. I'm worried about -- do we have a staff
recommendation from transportation, for example, or from
somebody? I don't know enough about this except for that there
are two people here who are going to benefit by it who are here
saying we need an extra $2. And I know gas prices are up, but
OPEC's meeting and maybe they'll go down tomorrow. I don't
know enough about this to declare an emergency.
Page 113
March 28, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Russ, can you come up and just
explain the way the drivers make their living? I mean, the cab
companies get a chunk, the drivers get so much per thing, and
when the gas prices go up, it literally comes right out of their
pocket. But he could probably explain that better than I can.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Maybe there's four for that. I just
MR. BAISLEY: The people who are ultimately going to
benefit from this, true, the companies and drivers will be better
able to cover their cost and in theory make more money. But
truly the people who are not going to be injured or will benefit
are the customers in Collier County who go short trips who will
be discriminated against by necessity, because it will be
economically impossible to go out to perhaps Sunshine
Boulevard to take someone to Winn-Dixie for a $2.40 trip. Most
of the driving that you do in a taxi is to get to the fare (sic).
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But didn't you say it's illegal to
discriminate against them? MR. BAISLEY: It is.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So you have to go, whether we
raise this rate or not.
MR. BAISLEY: It's true, but you won't stay in business very
long losing money.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: How does the driver make his
money?
MR. BAISLEY: Drivers make their money in a combination of
different ways. Some of them lease the vehicles, some of them
do a split meter where they pay the company commission.
Commissions vary from company to company on a gross dollars,
true.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: So the company's going to see
money whether gas prices go up or not. MR. BAISLEY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I mean, really, the person you
are assisting by doing this is the driver.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Is the driver.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And the person we're hurting is
Page114
March 28, 2000
the lady who can't drive who's going to have to pay an extra
couple of bucks to get in the cab.
MR. BAISLEY: That's true. And the concern that we have is
that person who is taking the short trip from -- for example,
Goodlette Arms. We take a lot of people from Goodlette Arms
just around the corner to a doctor's office. However, that same
person on Social Security has had substantial increases in their
Social Security over the last 10 years.
We've had increases in insurance, gasoline, motor vehicles.
Even the courier package (sic) who brought the taxi meters in,
UPS tacked the surcharge on because of the fuel. So it's not just
impacting the drivers, it's impacting all of us.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I mean, this is -- that's the price
you pay for a service. If you buy an airline ticket right now, fuel
prices are up, you pay more. If you hop on Greyhound, you're
paying more.
And so will it hit the consumer? Absolutely. But we are
controlling the price on a particular industry. Hasn't changed for
nine years. Now the prices are up literally t00 percent in some
areas, since -- certainly 70 and 80 percent since last summer.
And that is coming out of the folks who are actually trying to do
a genuine day's work. And so will it cost somebody more to
travel? Sure. But I don't think it's inappropriate. And I'm not
someone who usually is in any way excited about increasing cost
to anybody for anything.
MR. OLLIFF: The only difference between this item and the
way this item may have normally been brought to you is that
there is a Public Vehicle Advisory Board, and it probably would
have gone through that Vehicle Advisory Board. It has been
brought to you under an emergency, simply because the gas
prices have increased as rapidly as they have.
I will tell you that the rates -- and I was involved in
developing the first ordinance that regulated public vehicles '-
the rate is established on a reasonable operating cost plus profit
basis. So considering a rate increase based on a reasonable
known operating increase is a reasonable way to look at that.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And the whole idea of having
Page 115
March 28, 2000
the six months is not only to look at -- rather than try to tie this
to a particular price, is not only to look at what the gas prices
are in October, but to go through every step along the way with
our Public Vehicle Advisory Board. Because what will happen,
even if prices go back down, there may be a logical adjustment,
since they haven't made a change since 1991. That can take
months, and I just didn't think it was appropriate that our drivers
out there who are trying to make an honest day's wage be hit for
the next few months. That's why I put that on the table.
MR. OLLIFF: I think it does raise the bigger issue, and
perhaps we need to have a more regular way of reviewing these
rates so that we don't end up in this situation.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Well, I think you're absolutely
right, Tom. And I would like to see us review this in that
six-month period and make sure that we keep adjusting so you
don't hit people with these big jumps all at once.
But in this situation, I see why we have to do it. And we
need to do it with the review in process, so at end of six months
we know what we'll have is a better rate in the future.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I need a motion for an
emergency to allow us to do this.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: So moved.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Second.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. This one
will go to Commissioner Norris.
All those in favor of declaring an emergency, state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
Mr. Weigel, is there some reason why we can't take that
final step today?
MR. WEIGEL: Oh, no, absolutely not. And incidentally '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: That's on account of the
emergency.
MR. WEIGEL: That's right, you may go forward.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: So from there we can make the
change to the ordinance.
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March 28, 2000
MR. WEIGEL: You may. You may adopt the ordinance today.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is there -- how long will a
comprehensive review of the rates take, Tom? How long will it
take for your staff to comprehensively review whether or not this
is the appropriate rate? Can you do that in three months, or is it
going to take six months?
MR. OLLIFF: I think you've made a reasonable assumption
about what the increase was, strictly based on the increase in
fuel. I think what the motion is, is that we come back in six
months just to see if that rate increase is still appropriate.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: No, my question at this point is
we are just about to adopt the ordinance '- MR. OLLIFF: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: -- which will change the rate.
Does that need to be effective for three months or for six
months? If you can have a comprehensive review done of what
the rate ought to be in three months, then we should let this be
short-term.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: The reason I had suggested six
months is I don't think the whole oil situation is going to have
shaken out by June or July. Plus we have a limited schedule in
June and July -- July and August. So just rather than rush this,
then let's give them a break, and we have full time to do a full
review and come back as the '-
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Move that we adopt the proposed
ordinance.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion to adopt the proposed
ordinance with the six-month '-
COMMISSIONER BERRY: I'll second it.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Sure.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: There's a second from
Commissioner Berry. All those in favor, please state aye.
All those opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
Final scheduled item, and then we will have discussion item.
Page 117
March 28, 2000
Item #13A1
PETITION V-99-28, RICHARD AND LESLIE LILIEN REQUESTING A
5.5 FOOT VARIANCE FROM THE REQUIRED 7.5 FOOT SETBACK
TO 2 FEET FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT 10262 VANDERBILT
DRIVE, FURTHER DESCRIBED AS LOT 26, BLOCK 40, NAPLES
PARK, UNIT 6 - DENIED
Petition V-99-28. Anybody who's going to participate in this,
I need to you stand and be sworn.
(All speakers were duly sworn.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. REISCHL: Afternoon, commissioners. Fred Reischl,
planning services.
This is a request for a side yard variance for an accessory
deck screen enclosure from the required seven and a half feet to
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Is there anybody objecting to
this?
MR. REISCHL: Well, there was a phone call-in objection.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: And their reason for the
objection is? I'm sorry, I'm just trying to streamline. MR. REISCHL: It would set a bad precedent.
At the Planning Commission there was a motion made to
approve the variance, and that motion failed two to six.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Seems to me there's a negative
staff recommendation and a negative Planning Commission
recommendation.
MR. REISCHL: Yeah, staffs recommendation was due to the
no land related hardship. If -- I don't know if you have the
colored pictures in your packet. These are just black and white.
But this is the -- if you read the staff report, it was the variance
request is due to Banyan trees shading a good portion of the pool
area.
This is the petitioner's house under construction, the
Banyan trees, and you can see the pool under construction over
here.
Page118
March 28, 2000
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: This is a case, Mr. Reischl, of
somebody's designing and building a house and trying to create a
problem that they can solve during the design and build. All of
the variances, of course, as we see many times, they run with
the land. If you grant this variance, then it's permanent. But
they should have thought about this before they designed the
house is what I'm saying.
MR. REISCHL: That was the thread of conversation at the
Planning Commission.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Let's go to the petitioner. And
hopefully at this point you understand what you have to prove
from a legal standpoint is that there is a land-related hardship,
and that's the hurdle we need to overcome in order to approve it.
MR, REISCHL: If, Mr. Commissioner, I could add, the code
does allow -- doesn't require that there be a land-related
hardship, but staff sticks to that '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Right.
MR. REISCHL: -- position.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Then that's consistent with
what this board has always taught.
MR. LILIEN: I'm Richard Lilien and I'm representing my wife
and myself in this. I almost feel like it's kind of a minuscule
thing after all the big things that we've been seeing today. But
you have to understand that we have the good of Collier County
at heart.
We're actively involved with traffic, sidewalk, education
problems and other problems with the county, an we do
understand that we don't want to set a precedent that would
adversely affect the county.
How this turned about, we didn't realize we would have this
problem. It's a huge tree. It does -- and we hate to see it
trimmed off completely or destroyed. And what we've done is it
would cost us probably almost $2,000 to reset where our deck
area would be in the back. But it's the only alternative that we
do have for affording us getting sunlight in the back.
And so what we're doing is we felt if this request would have
a negative affect on the zoning, per se, we would not have made
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March 28, 2000
this application, and we hope that the commission would
understand that this was not a frivolous request and we had
thought it out completely and, therefore, just offering up the
problem as we have it and asking that you indulge us with this
request.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Norris?
MR. LILIEN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Mr. Williams (sic), the tree that's
causing you a problem, is that on your property or somebody
else's?
MR. LILIEN: It overhangs completely our property. And for
us to get any relief from that, we would have to get that whole
thing trimmed off. And we have discussed that with our next
door neighbor. And in fact if it were completely a problem, he
said that possibly we could go together and remove the tree.
So we felt out of deference, not doing that, we would bear
the expense of moving the deck area over to the other side.
Understand that alongside of us, our neighbors, Susan has
no problem with it. They have a lawn area there that it doesn't
affect. And none of our neighbors have been adversely affected
either. And we've had discussion with them on it.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: It just seems to me that if there's
an option to trim back a tree rather than grant a variance, then
that certainly seems to be a more reasonable solution.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Or to sit in the shade.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: For those of us with Irish skin,
that's not a bad idea.
MR. REISCHL: If I can show you the photo that Mr. Lilien
was referring to. This is the neighbor to the north. This is Mr.
Lilien's house. So that the neighbor to the north's house does
not directly abut where the pool cage is going. It's basically
backyard for the neighbor to the north.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: We'll close the public hearing.
I understand the nature of the request. I understand your
neighbors are being cooperative. We have a legal hurdle we
have to meet in order to grant a variance, and it doesn't appear
we're meeting that hurdle. So as much as I appreciate what
Page 120
March 28, 2000
you're trying to accomplish there, I'm not sure I can support it
and stay within the confines of my job.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: It's unfortunate, but I'll make a
motion to deny.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Second.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion and a second. Any
further discussion?
All those in favor of the motion, state aye.
(Unanimous vote of ayes.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Motion carries 5-0.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: No, I oppose.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I'm sorry, I thought I heard a
voice down there. Fair enough.
Motion is 4-1, Commissioner Carter in the minority.
Thanks.
MR. LILIEN: Thanks.
Item #14
STAFF'S COMMUNICATION - DISCUSSION REGARDING BCC
DATES FOR THE MONTH OF MAY
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Olliff, on communication,
we've got an issue. Commissioner Carter will be out the last
meeting of April, I understand Commissioner Berry has a conflict,
and we're looking -- do we need to reschedule that, should we
reschedule that and if so, how? You can probably tell us how
heavy of an agenda we're anticipating and we can talk, if we
need to reschedule, what the best for everybody is.
MR. OLLIFF: The memo that was sent to you earlier last
week was -- gave you three options to consider. One was simply
to continue with the current schedule the way it is, in which
case you would have three commissioners, you'd have a quorum
for a meeting on the April 25th meeting. You would not have the
ability to take action on several of the land use type items that
you would normally have.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Are there land use items
Page t2t
March 28, 2000
scheduled?
MR. OLLIFF: Yes, there are.
The second option was simply to reschedule that April 25th
meeting to the first meeting Tuesday in May, which would be
May 2nd, and then go to a first, third and fifth schedule for the
month of May, which still gives you an every other week
schedule and allows you to have the same number of meetings.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: That sounds like a great
opposite. First, third and if fifth.
Any opposition?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE:
what's easiest for staff.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE:
other week that way?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS:
Carter?
COMMISSIONER CARTER:
-- my schedule in Baltimore is about 15 days totally. I'm hoping
to be back by mid May. And even if I cannot physically be here, I
could certainly be hooked up electronically to participate in this.
And I think we've got legal clearance to do that. MR. OLLIFF: We have.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: So you may only miss one
meeting that way, as opposed to two.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: So I plan to be an active player.
MR. OLLIFF: I will tell you, if you go to that schedule, there
may be an item or two which because of the Planning
Commission schedule, we won't have a written recommendation
from them. We may have to have a verbal recommendation or a
follow-up memo after the agenda material is actually printed, but
that's the only hardship we really see in going to first, third and
fifth.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: As long as we can meet
communications requirements with the public and make sure
everybody is comfortable. Is that all right, first, third and fifth?
Deal.
Anything else?
I have more interest in deferring
Does that work, if it's still every
Does that work for Commissioner
Well, it will work for me. I plan to
Page t22
March 28, 2000
MR. OLLIFF: Only that we'll try and make our meetings a
little more interesting to keep the press awake from now on.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: First, third and fifth Tuesdays.
MR. OLLIFF: Yes, that would be '-
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I have a problem with the third
Tuesday. First, second and fourth, that's fine.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Then first, second and fourth
works for me either way. Because we don't accomplish much if
we--
COMMISSIONER BERRY: It doesn't make any difference to
me.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: I'm okay.
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Anything in May is fine.
MR. OLLIFF: 1st, 2nd and 9th?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: First, second and fourth.
Whenever you want to have them, I'll be here.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: There you go.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: There you go.
MR. OLLIFF: That would be May 2nd, May 9th and May 23rd.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I guess so.
I won't have anybody to go to lunch with May 9th. My dad
goes home May 8th.
Mr. Weigel, you don't have anything for us, do you?
MR. WEIGEL: Just one last clarification. That is on the
emergency ordinance you adopted for the fares. We're bringing it
back to you in six months, but we're not having an automatic
fare change in six months?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: No, you're bringing it back to us
for our review '-
MR. WEIGEL: Exactly.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: -- and you sent whatever -- or
make no change or whatever is appropriate change.
MR. WEIGEL: Exactly, that we don't -- it doesn't change
automatically without it coming back to you at that '-
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: You got it.
MR. WEIGEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry, anything?
Page t23
March 28, 2000
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Nothing.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Norris?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Nothing further.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Carter?
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Nothing from me.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good luck to you.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you. I'm here. I got one
more.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Oh, you've got one more.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Before new parts, I get one more
meeting.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Well, good luck to you anyway.
Commissioner Mac'Kie?
Ms. Filson, may we be excused?
MS. FILSON: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: We're out of here.
***** Commissioner Mac'kie moved, seconded by
Commissioner Carter, and carried unanimously, that the
following items be approved and or/adopted: * * * * *
Item #16A1
A NEWSRACK AGREEMENT AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY FORM
Item #16A2
CARNIVAL PERMIT 2000-06, RE: PETITION C-2000-5, MARIO
VALLE, REPRESENTING GULF COAST HIGH SCHOOL BAND
BOOSTERS, REQUESTING AN AFTER-THE-FACT PERMIT FOR A
CARNIVAL THAT WAS HELD MARCH 9-12, 2000, ON PROPERTY
ADJACENT TO THE HIGH SCHOOL GROUNDS LOCATED AT 8200
IMMOKALEE ROAD AND WAIVER OF SURETY BOND
Item #16A3
RESOLUTION 2000-86 AND AGREEMENT AUTHORIZING A 100%
Page 124
March 28~ 2000
WAIVER OF IMPACT FEES FOR ONE HOUSE TO BE BUILT BY
ANTONIO RAMIREZ AT 5469 HARDEE STREET IN NAPLES
MANOR ADDITION, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
Item #16A4
RESOLUTION 2000-87 AND AGREEMENT DEFERRING 100% OF
THE IMPACT FEES FOR A 104 UNIT AFFORDABLE HOUSING
PROJECT TO BE BUILT BY WILD PINES OF NAPLES, PHASE II,
LTD., A FLORIDA CORPORATION KNOWN AS WILD PINES
APARTMENTS AFFORDABLE RENTAL UNITS
Item #16A5
RESOLUTION 2000-88 AND AGREEMENT AUTHORIZING A 75%
DEFERRAL OF IMPACT FEES FOR ONE HOUSE TO BE BUILT BY
ERICKA ABRAMS AT 5013 CATALINA COURT, IN COLONY PINES,
COLLIER COUNTY
Item #16A6
COMMERCIAL EXCAVATION PERMIT NO. 59,732, "CREATIVE
EXCAVATING, U 39, TR 68", TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 28
EAST: BOUNDED ON THE EAST, SOUTH, AND WEST BY VACANT
LAND ZONED ESTATES, AND ON THE NORTH BY 54 TM AVENUE
N.E. WITH STIPULATIONS
Item #16A7
COMMERCIAL EXCAVATION PERMIT NO. 59,731, "JIM WEEKS
COMMERCIAL EXCAVATION TR 97, U 72" LOCATED IN SECTION
28, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 28 EAST: BOUNDED ON THE
NORTH, SOUTH, AND WEST BY VACANT LAND ZONED ESTATES,
AND ON THE WEST BY DESOTO BOULEVARD WITH
STIPULATIONS
Item #16A8
Page 125
March 28, 2000
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF WATER FACILITIES FOR YARBERRY
LANE HOUSE OF WORSHIP
Item #16A9
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF "PELICAN MARSH UNIT
NINETEEN" AND APPROVAL OF THE STANDARD FORM
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT AND
APPROVAL OF THE AMOUNT OF THE PERFORMANCE SECURITY
WITH STIPULATIONS
Item #16A10
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF '~/HITE LAKE CORPORATE
PARK, PHASE THREE" AND APPROVAL OF THE STANDARD FORM
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT AND
APPROVAL OF THE AMOUNT OF THE PERFORMANCE BOND WITH
STIPULATIONS
Item #16A11
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF WATER FACILITIES FOR ST. CROIX
APARTMENTS AT PELICAN MARSH
Item #1681 - DELETED
Item #1682 - Moved to Item #888
Item #1683
WORK ORDER WMBP-FT-00-01 TO WILSONMILLER, INC., IN THE
AMOUNT OF $41,050 FOR ENGINEERING SERVICES RELATED TO
PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO THE POTABLE WATER SYSTEM
IN PELICAN BAY, PROJECT 74023
Item #1684
Page126
March 28, 2000
CHANGE ORDER WITH WILMIR CONSTRUCTION TO THE NORTH
COUNTY REGIONAL WATER TREATMENT PLANT 8-MGD
EXPANSION, BID 97-2690R, PROJECT 70859/70828, IN THE
AMOUNT OF $81,897.
Item #1685
USE OF FUNDS FROM THE SOLID WASTE TIRE GRANT TO
PROVIDE SAFETY PLAY SURFACE AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS IN
COLLIER COUNTY, NOT TO EXCEED $35,000
Item #1686
AMENDMENT NO. 2 TO THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
AGREEMENT WITH WILSONMILLER, INC. FOR ADDITIONAL
STUDY, DATA COLLECTION AND BOUNDARY DELINEATION FOR
THE GORDON RIVER EXTENSION BASIN STUDY (PHASE 999)
PROJECT #31005, IN THE AMOUNT OF $58,912
Item #1687
FUNDS FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED BY
COASTAL ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS, INC., FOR POST-
CONSTRUCTION MONITORING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
COLLIER COUNTY BEACH RESTORATION PROJECT, IN THE
AMOUNT OF $283,000, AND APPROVING SCHEDULE "B" -
ATTACHMENT "B", HOURLY RATE SCHEDULE
Item #1688
STAFF RANKING OF FIRMS FOR CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS,
BEGINNING WITH TOP RANKED KIMLEY-HORN AND ASSOC.,
INC., FOR GRADE SEPARATION STUDY, RFP #99-3010
Item #1689
Page t27
March 28, 2000
EXECUTION OF A SOVEREIGN SUBMERGED LANDS EASEMENT
FOR THE WATER TURKEY BAY MAINTENANCE DREDGING
PROJECT
Item #16810
WORK ORDER HAA-FT-00-02 WITH HARTMAN & ASSOCIATES,
INC., FOR ENGINEERING SERVICES RELATED TO NOISE ISSUES
AT THE NORTH COUNTY REGIONAL WATER TREATMENT
FACILITY, PROJECT 70063, IN THE AMOUNT OF $19,730;
INCLUDING ADDITIONAL SCOPE TO BE INCORPORATED IN A
FUTURE WORK ORDER AMENDMENT
Item #16811 - DELETED
Item #168t2
A DEVELOPER CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
COUNTY, SUNCO BUILDING CORPORATION AND THE
ISLANDWALK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, ESTABLISHING A
VALUE OF $897,735 IN IMPACT FEES CREDITS FOR THE
ISLANDWALK PUD, FOR PROVISION OF RIGHT-OF-WAY AND
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT FACILITIES RELATED TO THE
FUTURE EXTENSION OF LOGAN BOULEVARD ONE MILE NORTH
OF VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD
Item #16813
BID NO. 00-3042 "PURCHASE OF ONE (1) PORTABLE SELF-
CONTAINED VACUUM UNIT" AWARDED TO VANTAGE
EQUIPMENT COMPANY, IN THE AMOUNT OF $33,297
Item #t 6814
BID NO. 99-3029 "PURCHASE OF SEVEN (7) TRAILER MOUNTED
PORTABLE GENERATORS" AWARDED TO AAA GENERATOR &
PUMPS, INC., IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $200,771.89
Page t28
March 28, 2000
Item #16815
RESOLUTION 2000-89, DIRECTING THAT CERTAIN ROADWAYS IN
THE UNINCORPORATED AREA OF COLLIER COUNTY BE
MAINTAINED BY COLLIER COUNTY
Item #t 6816
BID NO. 00-3049, AWARDED TO SURETY CONSTRUCTION
COMPANY TO CONSTRUCT A SOUND ATTENUATING
ENCLOSURE FOR EFFLUENT TRANSFER PUMPS AT THE SOUTH
COUNTY WATER RECLAMATION FACILITY, IN THE AMOUNT OF
$109,986
Item #16817
WORK ORDER NO. SMT-FT-00-04, WITH SOUTHERN MAPPING
TECHNOLOGY, INC. FOR AN AERIAL SURVEY OF THE PROPOSED
WIDENING OF VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD FROM AIRPORT ROAD
TO CR-951 (COLLIER BOULEVARD), PROJECT NO. 63051, CIE#63,
IN THE AMOUNT OF $89,270
Item #16818
AWARDING CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING INSPECTION
SERVICES CONTRACT TO WILSONMILLER, INC. FOR THE
WIDENING OF GOLDEN GATE BOULEVARD, COLLIER COUNTY,
PROJECT NO. 63041, CIE NO. 62, RFP #99-3022, IN THE AMOUNT
OF $1,43t ,556
Item #16C1
RESOLUTION 2000-90 AND CERTIFICATION OF APPLICATION,
PERMITTING THE COLLIER COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY TO APPLY
FOR A STATE CONSTRUCTION GRANT TO ENLARGE THE
IMMOKALEE BRANCH LIBRARY
Page129
March 28, 2000
Item #16D1
AMENDMENT NO. 2 OF RFP #98-2867 TO THE V GROUP OF
FLORIDA, INC., FOR ARCHITECTURAL SERVICES FOR THE
DESIGN OF THE IMMOKALEE JAIL CENTER
Item #16D2
APPROPRIATING CARRYFORWARD FUNDS IN THE HUMAN
RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEM CAPITAL PROJECTS
BUDGET
Item #16D3
RENEWING AND APPROVING THE PRE-QUALIFIED LIST OF
APPRAISERS AND APPRAISAL FIRMS FOR REAL ESTATE
APPRAISAL AND VALUATION SERVICES AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16D4
MODIFYING THE AUTHORIZATION METHOD OF BID #99-2978 TO
THE PAINT DOCTOR, INC., SPECTRUM PAINTING, INC., AND
TYTON PAINTING, INC., FOR ANNUAL PAINTING CONTRACT
Item #16D5
ENTERING INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH COASTLAND CENTER
FOR EXHIBITOR SPACE DURING NATIONAL COUNTY
GOVERNMENT WEEK, APRIL 17-22, 2000
Item #16D6
RESOLUTION 2000-91 APPROVING THE SATISFACTION OF LIENS
FOR CERTAIN RESIDENTIAL ACCOUNTS WHEREIN THE COUNTY
HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT AND SAID LIENS ARE SATISFIED IN
Page 130
March 28, 2000
FULL FOR THE 1992 SOLID WASTE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL
SERVICES SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS
Item #16D7
RESOLUTION 2000-92 APPROVING THE SATISFACTION OF LIENS
FOR CERTAIN RESIDENTIAL ACCOUNTS WHEREIN THE COUNTY
HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT AND LIENS ARE SATISFIED IN FULL
FOR THE 1994 SOLID WASTE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL
SERVICES SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS
Item #16D8
RESOLUTION 2000-93 APPROVING THE SATISFACTION OF LIENS
FOR CERTAIN RESIDENTIAL ACCOUNTS WHEREIN THE COUNTY
HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT AND LIENS ARE SATISFIED IN FULL
FOR THE 1991 SOLID WASTE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL
SERVICES SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS
Item #16E1
BUDGET AMENDMENTS #00-168, #00-t72, #00-179 AND #00-t80
Item #16F1
RESOLUTION 2000-94 SUPPORTING THE CANDIDACY AND
ELECTION OF COMMISSIONER RUDY MALOY TO THE POSITION
OF NACo SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
Item #16G1
APPROPRIATING REVENUE FROM DONATED MONEYS FOR
PURCHASE OF AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATORS TO BE
PLACED IN HIGH RISK AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT LOCATIONS IN
COLLIER COUNTY
Item #16G2
Page 131
March 28, 2000
RESOLUTION 2000-95 APPROVING AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN
THE STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
AND COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA TO ACCEPT STATE AND LOCAL
ASSISTANCE (SLA) FUNDING FOR LOCAL EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT
Item #16H1
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE - FILES AND/OR REFERRED
The following miscellaneous correspondence, as presented
by the Board of County Commissioners, has been directed to the
various departments as indicated:
Page t32
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE
MARCH 28, 2000
FOR BOARD ACTION:
I. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS TO FILE FOR RECORD WITH ACTION AS
DIRECTED:
2. Clerk of Courts: Submitted for public record, pursuant to Florida Statutes,
Chapter 136.06(1 ), the disbursements for the Board of County Commissioners for
the period:
A. February 16 - 22, 2000
B. February 23 - 29, 2000
C. March 01 - 08, 2000
3. Districts:
A. Port of the Islands Community Improvement District - Notice of Board of
Supervisors' Regular Meeting
B. Golden Gate Fire Control & Rescue District
4. Minutes:
A. City/County Beach Renourishment Advisory Committee - Agenda for
February 10, 2000 meeting
B. Golden Gate Estate Land Trust Committee - Minutes of September 22,
1999 and November 15, 1999 meetings
C. Utility Authority - Agenda for February 28, 2000 and minutes of October
25, 1999 meeting
D. Rural Fringe Area Assessment Oversight Committee - Agenda for
February 23, 2000 and minutes of February 9, 2000 meeting
E. Parks and Recreation Advisory Board - Agenda for February 23, 2000 and
minutes of January 26, 2000 meeting
F. County Government Productivity Committee - Minutes of February 14,
2000 meeting
NAR 2 8 2000
Pg, I
Me
Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council - Agenda for February 23,
2000 and minutes of January 27, 2000 meeting
Collier County Community Health Care Ad Hoc Committee - Minutes of
February 9, 2000 meeting
Historical/Archaeological Preservation Board - Minutes of February 11,
2000 meeting
Board of Building Adjustments and Appeals - Minutes of February 16,
2000 meeting
Environmental Advisory Council - Agenda for March 1, 2000 and
minutes of February 2, 2000 meeting
Collier County Planning Commission - Agenda for March 2, 2000
meeting
Pelican Bay MSTBU Advisory Committee - Agenda for March 1, 2000
meeting and minutes of February 2, 2000 meeting
HAR 2 8 2000
March 28, 2000
Item #1611
EXPENDITURE OF BUDGETED 301 FUNDS FOR THE PURCHASE
OF 800 MHz PORTABLE RADIOS FOR THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Item #1 612
BCC TO SERVE AS THE LOCAL COORDINATING UNIT OF
GOVERNMENT IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA'S DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS' ANTI-DRUG ABUSE ACT FORMULA GRANT
PROGRAM, EXECUTING THE CERTIFICATION OF PARTICIPATION
FOR TWELFTH YEAR FUNDING, APPROVING THE SHERIFF'S
OFFICE GRANT APPLICATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000/20001,
AUTHORIZING ACCEPTANCE OF AWARDS AND APPROVING
ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16J 1
A LITIGATION ATTORNEY POSITION AND LEGAL SECRETARY
POSITION IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY AND
APPROVING THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16J2
EMPLOYMENT OF A LAND USE ATTORNEY AND LEGAL
SECRETARY TO BE DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES ISSUES AND APPROVING THE
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #17A
ORDINANCE 2000-18, AMENDING COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE
NO. 93-20, THE DISASTER RECOVERY TASK FORCE ORDINANCE
Page 133
March 28, 2000
There being no further business for the good of the County,
the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1:13 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZON I NG APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL.DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
DWIGHT E:!BROCK, CLERK
s t n~ture
~hese ~m~futes approved by the Board on ~)o.~ ~.~ 2.~
presented /-/// or as corrected
, as
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICE, INC., BY CHERIE' R. LEONE, NOTARY
PUBLIC
Page 134