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BCC Minutes 10/06/1994 J (w/Lee BCC and Charlotte BCC)Lee County, Collier County, Charlotte County Commission Meeting. ORIGINAL 1 Lion's Club. Bonita Springs 9:30 am. October 6, 1994 Reported by: Terri L. Schultz Official Court Reporter OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MEMBERS PRESENT T~e County Commissioners Ray Judah, Chairman Donald Stilwell, County Administrator Collier county commissioners Timothy Constantine, Chairman Bettye Matthews, Vice Chairman John Norris Michael Volpe Neil Dorrill, County Manager Charlotte County Commissioners Max Farrell, Vice Chairman Vincent J. Arnone, Assistant County Administrator OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 3 MR. JUDAH: On behalf the Lee County Board of County Commissioners -- hopefully my colleagues will be here shortly -- I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the Charlotte County Commission and the Collier County Commission. I'm Jay Judah; I'm chairman of Lee County Board of Commissioners. We certainly wish to thank the Lions for allowing us to take part in this meeting today in their wonderful host facility. We have an agenda here before us, and it's really a rather historic meeting. Lee County and Collier County have, for several years now, been meeting on a fairly regular basis to discuss issues of mutual concern. I really thank Bettye Matthews, Commissioner of Collier County, and Richard Leonard for recently getting together and suggesting that we ought to really try to pursue a tri-county coalition and start to have these meetings with Charlotte County in addition to Collier and Lee. And I'm appreciative of Vice Chairman, Max Farrell for being here representing Charlotte County. We do have a scheduled agenda, and we're going to start off -- do we have someone here for the invocation, if not, perhaps Reverend Jim Yeager, the county attorney, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 could give the invocation, and then we'll pledge allegiance. Jim, good morning. MR. YEAGER: Please stand and bow your heads. (Invocation given by Jim Yeager, followed by the pledge of allegiance.) MR. JUDAH: Thank you. Dennis Gilkey, current president of the Bonita Springs area Chamber of Commerce has some opening remarks. Good morning, Dennis. MR. GILKEY: Good morning. And as of last Friday, I'm immediate past president of the Bonita Chamber of Commerce. MR. CONSTANTINE: MR. JUDAH: president? MR. GILKEY: MR. JUDAH: MR. GILKEY: We'll put you on the spot here. He smiles as he says that. You will be introducing the new Yes, I will. Okay. But I would like to welcome you here. You've had two very successful meetings over the last 12 months, both Lee and Collier County. I hope we see some more representation from our Lee County colleagues. You look very lonely over there. MR. JUDAN: Me, too. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 5 MR. GILKEY: But you have had some very important items on your agenda over the past two meetings, and it's good to see that the staff in both counties have been working together over the last 12 months to really move some things forward on planning and infrastructure and service issues. You have a good agenda today to discuss, particularly, Lovers Key, to keep that moving, and road projects north and south and Bonita Beach Road. Other issues, of course, that you have gotten together on in the past include the Florida's tenth university and Florida Gulf Coast, which I don't know if there's any today that you want to discuss, but it certainly would be nice if we could see coalition to try to involve the permitting problems and see if we can hold that approval up for the tenth university to get going. Also, I think from the standpoint of the recent issues with the Department of Community Affairs with Lee County -- I don't know if that's a commonality of the other counties, but certainly that seems to be something that is a recurring issue of the hydro -- the three county area of problems of how to deal with the State and telling us how to do growth management plans. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 339~2 But I do welcome you here. I'm glad you're meeting here in Bonita Springs. I hope you have a very productive meeting, and I hope it's every bit as successful or more so than we've had over the last 12 months. I would like to introduce Skip Lapolla, who as of October 1, is the Chamber of Commerce, Bonita Springs, current president of this coming fiscal year. Skip. MR. JUDAH: Good morning, Skip. MR. LAPOLLA: Good morning. I'd like to just echo Dennis' comments. But during our recent annual breakfast, we adopted the theme, "Building on success," and I think those words are extremely true today. So I thank you for your participation, and good luck to you in deliberations. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Skip; congratulations. What I would like to do is have the respective county administers introduce themselves, and perhaps the department heads that are with them providing support for today's meeting. If we could start with either one of you gentlemen. MR. STILWELL: What's his name there. My name is Donald Stilwell, and I'm the county administor in Lee OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 County. MR. ARNONE: Please don't pay any attention to the sign; I'm not Thomas W. Frame. My name is Vince Arnone; I'm assistant county administrator. I'm here representing Tom in Charlotte County. MR. JUDAH: Thank you. MR. DORRILL: Morning, Mr. Chairman. I'm Neil Dorrill; I'm the county administer from Collier County. In addition, I'd like to introduce Bill Hargett, who's the assistance county administer. And we have the first team here all of the county division administrators; if you all would just raise your hands. They're here. I told them that they had to stay at least in the first hour, even if they didn't have anything on the agenda. So if they begin to slip out after that, they have been allowed in advance. We're delighted to be here. MR. JUDAH: We thank you, gentleman. And all sincerely, a warm welcome to the general public for taking the time to be here at this meeting. We'll go ahead and start with the first item on the agenda, and it's the update of the north-south connectors. We're going to start with Lee/Collier County OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 items directly. We had tried to do this so we could afford opportunity for any Charlotte County Commissioners perhaps, being a further distance away from this locations, an opportunity to get here, but we'll go ahead and start. George, did you want to start with of the presentation, or did you have Scott? MR. CRAWFORD: Scott. MR. GILBERTSON: Scott Gilbertson from Lee County DOT. Good morning. We've been working with two corridors for the north-south roadways to relieve U.S. 41 and 1-75 in the Bonita Springs area, one on either side of the interstate. The one on the west side has received most of the study today, and basically it's to provide some type of connection from Livingston Extension in Collier County on up to the Three Oaks Parkway area up by Corkscrew Road in Lee County. We've had a couple public meetings already and a couple other meetings with the CRA and the Chamber representatives to look at some of the alternatives. And those meetings have led to other alternatives, and right now we've got about nine different alternatives under OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 consideration. Most of those deal with alternatives between Bonita Beach Road and East Terry Street of how to best fit an alignment through. If you're all well aware, that's a rather heavy development residential established neighborhood. Such a major roadway's going to be pretty disruptive to that neighborhood, and we're trying to look # at ways in routes to minimize that disruption. Some considerations are to stop the multi-laning facility in the Bonita Beach Road area, and then provide a number of two-lane, collector-type roadways through the residential area to sort of diffuse the traffic out and get it in out past the Terry Street area where it would join in with another four-lane arterial and carry on up to Corkscrew. Some individuals pointed out, well, that disrupts a lot of the neighborhood by moving traffic throughout the whole neighborhood. You're better off concentrating it all in one area, and more or less sacrificing that area. There's a number of philosophical issues to pursue and discuss and evaluate. That's what we're looking at. We're going to have another meeting this coming Monday, October lOth, at 7:00 o'clock at the elementary OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 10 school in Bonita Springs to further present the additional alternatives we're considering and collect additional more public input. After that, we hope to evaluate all the comments we've got, cost analysis on all of it, the disruption and assessment on all of it, and present that then to the Lee County Board at one of their management planning workshops, perhaps in November, but more realistically probably in December where further direction and perhaps a selection of the preferred alternative of alignment. There is no funds budgeted for right-of-way acquisition nor for construction, but there is development picking up in the vacant areas north of there, so that's why we're trying to get an alignment 3 identified so we can put those developers on notice of what the future plans are, and hopefully we can work together to get a positive situation out of it. On the east side of the interstate, we're calling it, for lack of a better term, Treeline Extension. Now that the university has been finally site-selected to be up there in the Corkscrew/Alico Road area, it's the only additional transportation corridors to serve that plus the expansion of the airport, and at the same time to OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 relieve 1-75 or needed over on the east side. A lot of that is, of course, wetlands area and strong environmental issues that will have to be addressed, and we're looking at probably a lot longer time to address that. This past Monday at the Lee County Management Planning Committee, we passed out a proposed schedule, which was endorsed. I passed that out around the table, and I've got some additional copies here, which I'll leave on the chair if anybody's interested, they can pick it up. Basically what it calls for is between March and April of next year, we'll, as part of the Metropolitan Planning Organization Planning 2020 Update, we'll be working in with that and testing the feasibility and desirability of the Treeline Extension. Then later on in the year on maybe June, we'll be starting to identify various alignment alternatives for that corridor and doing various analysis to see cost and environmental impacts, traffic impacts, and that type of stuff, and then by midyear, we'll start consulting with other departments, agencies, Collier County, on the various areas of pros and cons of the alternatives, and then throughout the summer, we'll start collecting the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 12 input from specific groups in residential areas and other interests; get their input and put all that together by early fall or so then to go back to our Commission with our recommendations at that time. That's sort of a basic summary of where we're at with the north-south corridor studies in the Bonita Beach/Bonita Springs area. If there's any questions, I'll be glad to try and answer them. MR. JUDAH: Commissioner Bettye Matthews. MS. MATTHEWS: Yes, on the Treeline Extension coming south from Corkscrew to Bonita, in your vision, what northbound road from Collier County would tie in with that? MR. GILBERTSON: Primarily, we're looking at Livingston. MS. MATTHEWS: Livingston Road would tie in with it? MR. GILBERTSON: Right. MS. MATTHEWS: I believe -- my thinking on that is, Mr. Dorrill, aren't we supposed to take a -- isn't the current planning for that road to go to Bonita Beach and eventually from Lee County to Terry at this point? MR. DORRILL: That's my understanding. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 13 MR. JUDAH: Wouldn't Livingston go to -- I thought that was going to connect -- was that going to connect to Treeline, Scott? MR. VOLPE: I thought it was 951. MS. MATTHEWS: Yeah. We've got some confusion. That's what I thought. MR. GILBERTSON: Oh, Treeline, I'm sorry. Woodland, I guess they're calling it. MS. MATTHEWS: The Woodlands? MR. GILBERTSON: Yeah. It's over on the eastern side of the Park Place. That one then would be looking at that general area and trying to incorporate maybe Bonita Grand into that or -- MS. MATTHEWS: Well, the Woodlands is on the -- would have Logan Boulevard extended, which at this point is not planned at all. MR. GILBERTSON: It's shown as a connection to Collier County and the Lee County plan and the 2020, 2010 plan. MS. MATTHEWS: So I guess, Mr. Dorrill, there is a westward jog on 951 extended; is that eventually the road that we're talking about? MR. DORRILL: It's what I will call a sort of a OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 long S-curve. I don't know whether it goes on easternbound to the Woodland's DRI or not. But, in fact, the -- there is a developer who's doing some preliminary design of a master subdivision plane in that area. I happen to know about it because I got a call from a civil engineer who has to schedule the meeting this fall with the staff in order to coordinate that. MS. MATTHEWS: So right now the vision is 951 would connect with Treeline? MR. DORRILL: S-type curve back towards the northwest from where 951 curves against Im~okalee Road. MS. MATTHEWS: I'm just wondering where the north-south connectors are, because certainly if Treeline is going be the road that takes us to the university, I'd certainly like Collier County to have good access to it as well. MR. GILBERTSON: We'll have a coordination. That's part of what the 20/20 update will be over. The next five to six months we'll be looking at those different alternatives and modeling how the traffic works with those types of combinations. MS. MATTHEWS: I'm Just wanting to keep straight which north-south roads are planning to come together. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 15 MR. JUDAH: By the way, as an advantage to the general public, the County Commission on the 19th, Lee 4 County Commission on the 19th will be discussing the approach roads to the university and whether we ought to prohibit billboards on those approach roads, such as Treeline coming up from Bonita Springs and Collier County, hopefully there'll be some people in attendance that are interested in regulating visual blight in the community. Just thought I'd put that plug in. MR. VOLPE: We'd be happy to share with you our sign ordinance. MR. JUDAH: Pardon me? MR. VOLPE: We'd be happy to share with you our sign ordinance, which as I recall does prohibit billboards. MR. JUDAH: Prohibits billboards, wonderful. MR. VOLPE: Yeah. We have an excellent sign ordinance that was adopted by the Board of County Commissioners, I believe it's about two years ago now, and it may be something that your staff may wish to look at and compare that ordinance with whatever the existing ordinances are in Lee County. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Commissioner Volpe. If I OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 16 can get a copy of that, I'd appreciated it. Thank you. Any other questions of Scott Gilbertson? Thank you very much, Scott. Appreciate particularly the schedule of Treeline Extension, and thank you, Bonita Springs Chamber for bringing it the attention of both Collier and Lee Commission? I think we're on track now. The next item on the agenda is the Schedule for Bonita Beach Road Phase II. George Crawford, director of Lee County DOT. MR. CRAWFORD: Good morning. For the record my name is George Crawford, director of Lee County Department of Transportation. I want to give -- I don't think Charlotte County is too concerned about the Bonita Beach Road, but I hope they share a little bit of our joy at being able to get this thing eventually under way. For Collier County for the Commission's information, we have slipped the schedule lightly for a very good reason. The State of Florida Is starting a project on the other end of the beach, on the other end of the Fort Myers Beach and San Carlos widening. And we did not want to start this project during that same time and go through a hurricane season. Murphy's Law would suggest that if we have both ends of OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 the beach are under construction that we'll have a hurricane. I've been around long enough -- I'm almost as old as Murphy -- to understand that. So what we've done is phase this project so that we can start part of it early, but parts that can buttoned up in case we have a hurricane so that we can evacuate the beach areas successfully, so that's what this schedule is based on. George is very familiar with it. George -- the other George that you have as your DOT director, or as we call ourselves the George squares -- is very much aware of this and understands our concern about trying to do heavy construction on both ends of a sterile island, that could prevent some problems. Based on that, we do have the design completed. We do have the permits in place. We will have all of the right-of-ways, hopefully by January of next year. We will advertise for bids in November of this year, and probably complete that process in December. We will then tell the contractor that he will be able to ahead and bid in three phases, not three jobs, but three phases. The first phase starting in February '95 to February '96 will be the completion of the Fish OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 18 Trap Bay Bridge. Now, that bridge can be done and in case of a problem, we can get things clear and get the bridge open to two lanes and successfully evacuate anybody that we have to evacuate. That will be the first phase. Then Phase 2 will follow in February of '96. Phase 3 will follow in July of '96. Phase 2 is to construct the four-lane divided highway from the west of Fish Trap Bay to Forester Road. That's on the, what I'll call, the west end. And then on Phase 3, we will be constructing the road from the to east of Fish Trap Road to Vanderbilt, which is slightly east of Vanderbilt Intersection. We're still on the estimated construction cost of 9,600,000. This is a joint venture of the two counties. We've worked very smoothly with Collier County staff. This project has gone as well as any project could go. The two staffs have worked closely together, and we should be proceeding just on the same basis; we should have no difficulty meeting this schedule. MR. JUDAH: Any questions of George Crawford? MR. VOLPE: I have two questions. MR. JUDAH: Mr. Volpe. MR. VOLPE: What's the status of the relocation of OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 the utilities along that corridor? MR. CRAWFORD: I believe -- George, correct me -- that all the utilities are moved as I -- there are some to be moved yet, Saeed? 5 MR. KAZEMI: This is Saeed Kazemi from Lee County Department of Transportation. It's going to be part of Phase 1, relocation of all the utility will be part of Phase 1, which will be -- MR. CONSTANTINE: I think we need to use the microphone. MR. JUDAH: Saeed, repeat what you said so we can catch it in the mike. MR. KAZEMI: The relocation of the utility will be part of the original contract and will be done in Phase 1, which will be bridge construction, utility relocations, and the storm water drainage. MR. VOLPE: The utilities relocation in Phase 1 is going to extend to Vanderbilt Drive? MR. CRAWFORD: I'm sorry. MR. VOLPE: Is the entire relocation of those utilities, will be handled in Phase 17 MR. KAZEMI: Yes, sir. MR. VOLPE: The second question: Does the design OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 i III IIII III II II III I III IIIII II I I II ~ I ~ ..... of the four-laning of Bonita Beach Road include the alternative for median beautification and continuation of what exists to the east? MR. CRAWFORD: There's no -- MR. KAZEMI: Designers hopefully will have the designs of the beautification of the medians, but for the construction, no; the 9.6 million doesn't include beautification. MR. CRAWFORD: We will be doing the design of the beautification. MR. KAZEMI: It's already done. MR. CRAWFORD: It is done now? MR. KAZEMI: It's already done. MR. CRAWFORD: I wasn't sure that it was completed. MR. JUDAH: It's a matter of nine million dollars for the landscaping material. MR. VOLPE: Do you have a cost estimate as to the median beautification that's been designed? MR. KAZEMI: It's $250,000 for beauti -- irrigations and beautifications. MR. VOLPE: Thank you. MR. KAZEMI: For the record my name was Saeed Kazemi. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Saeed. George, just a quick clarification. We are going to have a sidewalk/bicycle path across the Fish Trap Bay Bridge? MR. CRAWFORD: That is correct. MR. JUDAH: Okay. MR. CRAWFORD: Combination, sidewalk/bike path. MR. JUDAH: Any other questions for George Crawford? Thank you very much, George, for your presentation. MR. CRAWFORD: Thank you. MR. JUDAH: The next item is the Discussion of Lovers Key. Bill Hammond, are you going to be making that presentation? Assistant County Administer, or is that Deputy County Administor? MR. HAMMOND: Deputy. MR. CONSTANTINE: Vice. MR. HAMMOND: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to give you a little bit of update on where we are with the Lovers Key/Black Island issue with the State of Florida; on the 17th of this month we'll go to Tallahassee, we'll take some staff, we'll sit down with DEP and go back over some of the deal points that we had discussed with them in August. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 They brought a staff down, they brought some of the regional people down and met with our people, and we had some good conversation. We did and on-site tour with Fran Manielli, who's the director of DEP and/or the Parks and Recreation section of it. And I think that we're all pretty well in agreement as to what can take place as far as using the tourist dollar/tax dollars for the first phase of the park project. And Elaine McGlaughlin, who is the director of the TDC and visitor convection; she will also attend this meeting, and I think we're very close to at least being able to bring something back to our Board and some deal points. MR. JUDAH: Any questions -- MR. HAMMOND: If there are any other questions I can answer. MR. JUDAH: -- of Bill Hammond as to regional facility? MR. VOLPE: Is there funding secured in the 1994/1995 state budget for Lovers Key? MR. HAMMOND: They have funding, only a $500,000 funding. They had been -- they had requested 2.5 million, and that had been cut to $500,000. So they're OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 very limited to the dollars that they have right now. They are going to reply, and next year they may come up with the additional funding. What we had suggested to them was, that by Lee County participating financially that they could go ahead and complete Phase 1, and we could at that time begin to phase out the Carl Johnson Park Side, and because -- we do have some ongoing problems, especially with the boardwalk that they have. We've done some improvements on the boardwalk, but it is going to take about a million dollars to do some things with the boardwalk itself, because it is about 20 years old. So we're very encouraged by the State saying that they would do some redesigns and create a different boardwalk to the Carl Johnson Park Side, provide tram facility to get people to and from the area, and that they could go ahead with the Phase 1 part of the project. So we're very encouraged with that. We're very encouraged that Elaine and her people and the TDC is very interested in supporting that phase financially, and that's where the majority of that money will come from. They are still going to request dollars from the State, and we'll see where that comes and how that OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 developments over the next couple years. Any other questions, Mr. Chairman? MR. JUDAH: Okay. Thank you very much, Bill; appreciate the effort. The next item referred to, Commissioner Bettye 6 Matthews, discussion of tri-county partnership on issues coming before the legislature. MS. MATTHEWS: Yes. Our Board has talked about this in discussion a couple of times and has indicated that conceptually, it seemed like it might be a good idea. And subsequent to that, I've asked Mr. Judah, Chairman Judah, and Chairman Leonard to join us at Chairman Judah's office, and we discussed it. And again, the three of us thought it was a good idea. So I took it upon myself to put together a sort of proposal as to why we would want to do this and how it might work, along with the proposed calendar of how the weeks might rotate. The reason for wanting to do this would be to try to form a coalition between the three counties to have a better influence on, number one, how the pie gets sliced in Tallahassee when the budget work is done and make every effort to be there when that pie gets sliced, so we OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 can try and get a larger slice of it and to try to be as organized in this effort as Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County are. They do get a lot of attention, and they get a lot of attention because they're there when this happens. A tertiary reason for wanting to move in this direction came to my mind when I realized that we were going to be looking at at least two freshman representatives in Tallahassee this coming legislative season, and it was my thought that perhaps, we too could learn along with them what we need to do to help them complete their work and their efforts in any way that we can help them. Part of the project involves meeting with legislative delegation in December. The legislative delegation comes to each of our counties now, and I believe Lee County, you have a formal meeting the delegation? MR. JUDAH: One is to be set up this winter. MS. MATTHEWS: Collier County Commission does not have a formal meeting with the legislative delegation per se. They do come, the delegation uses the boardroom, but they meet with the public, and we don't have any OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 formal meeting with them. Another item that was discussed in the meeting between myself and the chairmen from the two other counties, was that we have a tri-county commission meeting with the entire delegation for all three counties. That would have input -- what did we count that up to, Ray; about 26 delegation members? MR. JUDAH: That sounds -- MS. MATTHEWS: It was a large number. MR. JUDAH: Yeah, it was. That sounds about right. MS. MATTHEWS: Yeah, it was a large number. And that would be 26 Senators and representatives that we could begin to have impact on almost right away. How it would work; I guess to get it started you'd draw straws. But the information that Chairman Leonard brought forward, because he has done some lobbying efforts through the FAC, he brought forward the idea that we need to cover more than the 60-day legislative session, that we need to cover January as well. That's when the committee work is done, and most of the decisions to move bills forward are done in January, so we need to start covering that at that point. So I enlarged my scope to cover January, February, and March OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 and did some quick estimating on costs and so forth. And I'm seeing a cost per county of less than $3,000 to cover all three months. Sounds really reasonable to me for the benefit that it could derive. In addition to that, I've been contacted by the Collier County School Board. They would like to join in this effort, and I believe both Chairman Judah and Chairman Leonard indicated that their school boards also would like to join in this effort. So it's beginning to look to me like we have all of Southwest Florida wanting to push together to bring this to a point so that we can have more influence on what happens to us coming down from Tallahassee and the state government. We're always complaining about they make us do things, but sometimes it's because we haven't said we don't want to do it before they pass the law. That's what the effort is. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Commissioner Matthews. Don, let me ask you: I think you're working with Commissioner Albion on scheduling the meeting between the Lee County Commission and our legislative delegation. Do you have a date; has that date been set yet? MR. STILWELL: It has not been set. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: I would think that we're looking at sometime in November and I don't know. It's always difficult just to get our own legislative delegation to meet with us. It's going to be, obviously, doubly 7 difficult to get all the delegation and all the county commissions. And if we can, that would be wonderful, but I don't know if we can do that this fall, this winter. Anyway, we're going to go ahead and proceed with the meeting with our delegation. Certainly, representatives from Collier and Charlotte are welcome to that meeting. I don't know if we can facilitate this year, the entire meeting. MS. MATTHEWS: Yeah. That might be difficult; notice is somewhat short. So it might be really difficult to put that together. But certainly as we move forward in the years to come, if we venture into this, I think that it would be good if all three counties joined with their entire delegation to -- MR. JUDAH: Let me say that I think you're definitely on to something positive, and I say that out of recent experience. And I know you Commissioners certainly know the political power that Florida Association of Counties can muster when they're all OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 29 focussed on one or two issues, and I think was reflected on recent imminent domain reform that occurred last legislative session. It was primarily because that was one of the number one issues that was brought to light by the Florida Association of Counties. And I know it helped to have a number of county Commissioners actually meet with the various chairmen, in this case the House Transportation Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee, in advance of the legislative session. You're absolutely right; a lot of it's taken care of well before the session commences. So I'd be very interested in exploring this idea. I know Lee County, of course, has a lobbyist under contract, and we also receive funds from the municipalities to have Paul Pillar lobbying on your behalf in municipalities. But quite clearly, it's very important to actually have commissioners present in Tallahassee. So if I could maybe generate some discussion on this issue. MR. VOLPE: I think the concept, Commissioner Matthews, is an excellent one, obviously it's going to take some time. It's taken some time Just to get us to the point where we're able to meet in these joint OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 sessions. So I think the concept should be pursued. I'd like to pursue with Commission Judah. Lee County's arrangement with their paid lobbyist; you have a paid lobbyist under contract? MR. JUDAH: Yes, sir. MR. VOLPE: What's the annual funding for the lobbyist? MR. JUDAH: Don, if you could -- MR. STILWELL: It's either 20 or $25,000 a year. MR. JUDAH: From Lee County? MR. STILWELL: Yes. MR. JUDAH: But there are other funding sources from Sanibel, Cape Coral. MR. STILWELL: Right, and Fort Myers -- well, North Fort Myers is no longer involved. MR. JUDAH: Just this past year they dropped out; they were in before. We can get the total amount to you. MR. VOLPE: I'm just curious in terms of what immediately could be done perhaps by Collier County and how effective you have found the engagement of a paid lobbyist on behalf of the local issues within your community, Lee County, and then the municipalities within Lee County. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: I personally felt that he's been -- Paul Pillar's been invaluable because of his knowledge of Tallahassee and being able to set up appointments and accompany me personally on various appointments, but also not so much even just to promote issues that we're trying to advance in the legislature, but to actually prevent certain issues from getting on the floor or moving forward because of being detrimental to the counties. MR. VOLPE: How long a period of time has Lee County actually engaged in the services of a lobbyist? MR. JUDAH: Oh, gosh, I'd say no less than -- at least five years. MR. DORRILL: It's been about six years, because Mr. Pillar -- I'm acquainted with him as former city manager. He made what amounted to a co-op proposal to Lee and Collier Counties in the municipalities at that time about six years ago. We elected not to participate. He did and has been retained. He has a very good reputation, not only for those legislative issues, but on that rare occasion when we seem to be having a dispute with the DEP in the nonlegislative time, and he's very helpful in coordinating staff issues and permanent issues of the DEP or DCA, the other nine months of the year. He OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 has a good reputation in Tallahassee. We're familiar with him. In Collier County elected not to participated in that. MR. VOLPE: Mr. Dorrill, isn't Mr. Pillar the same person who did the incorporation study for Pelican Bay? MR. DORRILL: Yes, he is. MR. VOLPE: So he would be familiar then with some of the Collier County issues? MR. DORRILL: He has good working knowledge and also he's done some work in the City of Naples. MR. VOLPE: I guess as an interim measure just for the consideration of my colleagues, depending upon what issues may be important to our local community, there is an opportunity through someone whose business it is to participate in the process in Tallahassee, so that may be an interim measure as this process of involving the local elected official begins to evolve. MR. NORRIS: Yeah. I certainly think it's a great 8 idea to get this in. This is a good start with the three counties that we have here, if we are able to get this program moving and find some success in it. I think there certainly wouldn't be any harm in getting a larger group of counties together, maybe Manatee and Sarasota OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 and Glades, Hendry, and build a bigger lobbying base for all of our regional issues. And the real benefit may not come solely through the issues that are regionally applied, but if we have a lobbying base that's well known in Tallahassee over time, than our local individual county issues can be also lobbied through that same group, and then we'll be really effective at getting our local needs taken care of as well as your regional need. So I think it's an excellent idea, and Commissioner Matthews is to be commended for bringing the subject up and getting us started on it. MR. JUDAH: Mr. Farrell? MR. FARRELL: I would agree completely with the philosophy that we need to do these things cooperatively. In fact, since the first trip I was up in Tallahassee, the time and money it takes to get up there and back, I see five counties, eventually, I know you take it a step at a time. From Manatee to Collier, I think that we have a great deal in common. We're fast growing coastal counties and probably about everything that happens, there's an example of in one of those five counties. I don't think it's a secret to anyone. The few large metropolitan areas dominate the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 34 legislature. The only way that I know to overcome that is for the smaller counties to put together some kind of a cooperative effort. So I personally am in complete support of the idea. The only question is how we do it mechanically. MR. JUDAH: Okay. To that end, perhaps Commissioner Matthews logistically and maybe a represent from each of the Commissions to meet and try to hammer this out and work out a -- MS. MATTHEWS: I think that's a fine idea. If this Board doesn't mind, I would provide that service from this Board. I've done a lot of the groundwork on it, as you can see from your books with a proposed calendar of how to cover it and what the cost might be, and so forth. I would be happy to continue with that, if this Board agrees to have me do so. MR. JUDAH: I think -- MS. MATTHEWS: I'm seeing a lot of nodding heads. MR. CONSTANTINE: Yes. MR. JUDAH: I think clearly, what I would like to do, and I think Commissioner Farrell, too, is give us the opportunity to bring this proposal back to each of our respective Boards and have a representative meet with you OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 35 and see if we can work out the logistics. MS. MATTHEWS: I think that sounds fine. MR. FARRELL: One of the things we'd like to try, we've got so many things going. We have trouble finding meeting days. We have had a lot of workshops. Tuesday's agenda is just not suitable for some of these things and you can't spend the time on them, you can't have the people there that you need. This year we've just had a whole series of workshops where we sit around the table like this and look at each other and talk to each other, and we can spend a couple hours on something if we need to. I think that might be a good approach for you. MS. MATTHEWS: That's sound good to workshop it or if your Board in one of your workshops would like myself to come up there any day but Tuesday, obviously. MR. FARRELL: That's what I was thinking. We could schedule a two hour workshop sometime and you can come up and meet with us. That would be a great opportunity to sit around the table, look at each other and talk philosophy and mechanics. MS. MATTHEWS: Okay. That sounds fine. MR. JUDAH: Thank you very much, Commissioner OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 Matthews. Thank you, Commissioner Farrell. Any other questions or discussion on this issue? Okay. The next item is the fractional year assessments for ad valorem taxes. I asked that this issue be brought up because it seems that even though we've had Senator Dudley sponsoring this legislation every year, we seem to be stymied, ironically enough, by the counties in the Pan Handle, and there's evidently several property appraisers in these counties that just don't want to have to utilize computer systems to be able to keep up with homes that are built and eventually occupied or certified as completed. And as you know the way the tax assessment process works, you know, after the assessment's done, after January 1st, someone could go ahead and get a completion or an occupancy after that date, and they are not -- 9 their annual position of not having to be assessed after that date, but not until the following year. And what we're trying to do here is actually make it to -- make it fair as to once an individual's in a home nearly constructed, certified as completed and occupied, they are to be assessed at that time, and it OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 can be done. We just need to -- I believe at least initially, have all three counties sign a joint resolution and make it available at the annual legislative meeting of the Florida Association of Counties, which is the first part of December, I believe, and make it a legislative priority for next session. MR. VOLPE: Commissioner Judah, obviously something that's been talked about for quite a while, I sense that there is some momentum to eventually get this legislation passed. As an alternative -- and I need some help from Mr. Cuyler, if he's still here -- it seems to me that we had discussed in a little different context the opportunity for a county to impose a fee for these types of situations where you have got a structure which has been completed after the assessment roles have been closed. It requires an advertisement and an adoption of the ordinance, but it's like a payment in lieu of a tax. Can the county do that at this time? MR. CUYLER: When I talked about that, that has not been generally done. There has been some discussion that that is a possibility. The cleanest way, obviously, is to do it through legislature, as I think you're proposing. At least one law firm has talked to me about OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 the fact that there should be equivalent to an impact fee type of situation that you would pay, that would, in fact, be in lieu of taxes from the time you get your COT, in fact, are assessed. MR. VOLPE: I thought Mr. Cuyler, that there was at least one county that, in fact, one or two counties that had actually passed legislation that does, in fact, compose that type of -- MR. CUYLER: I'm not sure of that. I would have to check on that, but -- MR. VOLPE: It may be something that our respective staffs may wish to explore in the unlikely event that this legislation doesn't pass at the upcoming session of legislation, because I think that there are some opportunities here where we, as local governmental officials, can take the opportunity to ensure that fairness and equity does prevail and that this is addressed on a local level. MR. JUDAH: I appreciate hearing about that option. If I could just hear from Jim Yeager for a second as far as -- MR. VOLPE: He's shaking his head in the affirmative. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: And maybe anticipated legal challenge. MR. YEAGER: I'm in the same position. MR. JUDAH: Jimmy, come up here a second. MR. YEAGER: I'm basically in the same position that's been discussed. I believe there may have been some draft ordinances floating around from some other counties. I'm not aware that it's actually been like implemented. Likewise, I'm not sure it's been litigated yet, but it's a potential out there; something that we can look into early. They call it a service fee, service charge, but it's merely an impact fee. MR. CUYLER: It's been discussed with me by Bob Navors (phonetic) firm; you know Bob Navors '- MR. JUDAH: Right. MR. CUYLER: -- works with us at the State Association of Counties. They may be able to give us additional information if you're interested. MR. JUDAH: I appreciate you're bringing up that option. Commissioner Norris? MR. NORRIS: Commissioner Judah, I think I understood you to stay that the resistance has come from some of the smaller counties? MR. JUDAH: Right. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. NORRIS: Up in Florgia (phonetic)? MR. JUDAH: Right. MR. NORRIS: Would it be possible to draft a legislation in such a way that a county would have the option of applying it either way? MR. JUDAH: I don't know. Either attorney? Interesting concept. MR. NORRIS: That way that should quill the critisism or the resistance they have in the smaller counties. MR. CUYLER: I think you probably could. I want to take a look as to whether one county would be able to claim that -- or the residents would be able to claim that they're being treated unfairly as a result of another county's ability to opt out of that type of legislation, but perhaps you could do that. Certainly if you can do it on the individual county basis that we just discussed -- MR. JUDAH: Yeah. MR. CUYLER: -- that same argument arises, so perhaps you could set up legislation so the counties could opt out if they don't have the computer systems or don't want to pay the money to have one. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 41 MR. NORRIS: Or for any other reason they don't want to join the program. Could we have someone ask that question to the legislature somehow? MR. JUDAH: I'd be happy to do that. MR. NORRIS: We could get a determination on that. Attorney General's Office perhaps? MR. JUDAH: Certainly. How do both Commissions feel though about a joint resolution at this time though, supporting the -- MR. NORRIS: Absolutely. MR. JUDAH: -- fractional year assessments legislation? We can have our staff draft a resolution for purview? MR. CONSTANTINE: Yes. MR. JUDAH: Commission Constantine. Well, that would be great. I really appreciate the support. And certainly the addition that you just suggested, 10 Commissioner Volpe, we definitely want to pursue that. MR. VOLPE: Sure, we got to get bold and innovative and go ahead and be one of the first counties in the State of Florida to have done it and let them all challenge Lee or Collier. MR. NORRIS: Then we can give it all back after the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 lawsuits are over. MS. MATTHEWS: Wait a minute now. We don't want to be on the leading edge of innovation, do we? MR. FARRELL: We've discussed this at various times. I think this is a favorite project of Chairman Leonard. He's talked about this ever since he's been in politics. We could go as long as 18 months without any contributions. I think -- probably the one that could really build up front. And I can't speak for four other people, but if we had some kind of a resolution in front of us, we could put it on the agenda. I think it would get support from Charlotte County. MR. JUDAH: That would be great. County administrators and county attorneys can get together, come up with a resolution through county commissioners and county commissions. MR. STILWELL: Sure. MR. JUDAH: It needs to be done fairly quickly because that legislative, annual legislative meeting is, I believe, the first week of December, as of Florida Association of Counties. Thank you very much. Proposed legislation increased citizen protection; again, the incompetent or dishonest contractors. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 43 MS. MATTHEWS: This is like apple pie and motherhood, isn't it? MR. CLARK: Dick Clark from Collier County Community Development. We have a common problem; one that's been recognized for several years. I've had the pleasure of working with Charlotte County and Lee County and a lot of other counties with their enforcement agencies for contractor licensing. We all share a common problem, and that is the distinguished -- the differences between the state certified contractor and the local licensed contractor. Let me give a little bit of background. The state certified contractor is one that obtains the license from the State of Florida and is a is as it applies, it's statewide jurisdiction. The local license is one that's obtained through the local Jurisdiction to the county or city, and they take the required test for competency and have the required insurance and so forth. The difference between the two reasons licenses is dramatical and it's important in this regard: The state -- the first state statutes prohibit local jurisdiction from taking licenses from state certified OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 contractors. In other words, you cannot take the license. The most you can do, any of us can do, is restrict their building permit privileges; that's all you can do. So what happens -- we've had recently and several -- in the past several years, we've had a series of fraudulent activities. In fact, of some of them, one of them in particular after two and a half years of investigation and pushing the effort towards the state, because they're state certified. They generally are when you have a pattern of fraudulent behavior. They're generally state certified, and they can go from one county to the other. In other words, if we take them from Collier County, which we oftentimes do, they can come to Lee County and rip off Lee County citizens to -- in fact, one of them did for the tune of several million dollars. And what happened is, obviously, the air-conditioning fraud cases, they misrepresent -- in fact they usually get in on a misrepresentation, saying the air-conditioner is faulty is in some regard, and they have a service contract, a very low service contract, so they can get into the house and develop a little bit of trust, and OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 then they misrepresent or sabotage, in some instances. We have had -- we've video taped with our investigators fraud in this action, while it's being done. And they've taken the disciplinary action that we're limited to do by taking the permit privileges away and referring them to the state for additional action. It oftentimes takes two, two and a half years for any activity to take place at the state; not because the state license investigators are incompetent; they're extremely good. There are two of them that are in Fort Myers for a nine-county area. And now, they're also being asked to also investigate interior designers, engineers, pilots, auctioneers, and land surveyors. They have thousands of complaints per year. Their inability to actively pursue and bring to the just conclusion those kinds of complaints are subjecting our citizens in each of our counties to many repetitious acts of fraud and victimization. Some of these are extremely sad cases where you see widows and widowers who should be -- should be allowed to rely on the competence of licensed people, being ripped off and sometimes for all of their savings; that's happened many times. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 I've identified somewhat of the problem. The 11 limitations I've also identified a little bit. The -- on a local licensed contractor, if, in fact, they commit some act of fraud or even a contract violation, we, collectively or individually, can take their licenses away. In other words, they're out of business. The state prohibits us from taking their license, even in our county; we cannot take their license away a say, "You're no longer licensed to do business." We can say, "You can't hold permits." That has some effect certainly, but if somebody else pulls the permit, another contractor, they can work out of a subcontractor because they're not required to hold a permit. The proposed legislation -- there has been some proposed legislation. In fact, in the state statutes -- state statutes for several years has allowed a deterrent in one regard. We call them disposable qualifiers or disposable license holders. A contractor, a developer or a corporation and the air-conditioning contractors got very savvy of this and did it. If your county would take their permit privileges away or ours would take their permit privileges away, they would get rid of that qualifier, hire another one, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 business goes on as usual. Several million dollars worth of victimization occurred in your counties and ours as a result of that, the disposable qualifier. In other words, you can only deal with the qualifier. Several years ago the state passed legislation saying that they can also have the authority to deal with the principles of corporation. In other words, the officers, directors, and so forth of the corporation, they can keep them from getting back in business again by hiring other qualifiers and Just repeating the same seams. Up until two years ago when the air-conditioning -- almost three years ago now, the air-conditioning scam that we collectively, your investigators and our investigators, pushed the state very diligently on, up until that point, they had never exercised that, they had never prosecuted, they had never restrained any officers of any corporation ever, although they've got the authority. so basically not what I'm saying is that the state is bad, what I'm stating that something we always have known, all of us have individually have know, closer to the problem that you keep a solution, the more effective OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 48 it is. In other words, if we delegate to the state that which controls our citizens, the less control we have, the less effective it will be. And the same if we delegate to the federal government, those of us, and we collectively and individually see the victims, see what happens. The poor widows, the poor people who are victimized and left holding the bag and left with a minus of life savings due to these acts, we see, they are our citizens. They are our neighbors. And so we are very involved to try to correct these problems. But our hands are tied somewhat by the legislation, the current legislation. In your -- the state, after we've asked for several years, has proposed some legislation that would be curative in some regard, and they proposed a bill, and I'll quote from the bill, "In addition, a local Jurisdiction which has disciplinary control over locally licensed contractors which has been determined to be adequate..." In other words, we have adequate enforcement in local boards, "Adequate pursuant to," state statute 489,117(2), OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 shall; "Have the authority to conduct disciplinary proceedings against state certified contractors and issue an order levying a fine not to exceed $5,000 and/or restitution." That's a big one. "The fines shall be paid to and retained by the local Jurisdiction. The local jurisdiction enforcement body shall also recommend a penalty for board action," which means the state. "The recommended penalty may include a recommendation for no further action, a similar action, or a recommendation for suspension, revocation, or probation of the certification," the license. What I'm suggesting is that we collectively or individually may want to petition the State. And the state recognizes the problem. To be frank with you, I don't think they're putting adequate resources into it. They keep adding new licenses, licenses or requirements, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 and you still have the same two investigators to a nine-county area, and now they're doing auctioneers and everything else. They're on the telephone; they don't have the ability to go out and investigate, they don't have the time. The State does state, "The legislature recognizes that the construction and home improvement, which may pose a danger of significant harm to the public when incompetent or dishonest contractors provide unsafe, unstable, or short bids products of services; therefore, it's 12 necessary in the interest of public health, safety, and welfare to regulate the construction industry." We hardly agree, all of us do, because we have investigative functions in our county and cities. The problem is, the state and this current legislation is tying our hands, so we cannot be effective. I'm suggesting that we maybe want to individually and collectively petition the state to give us more authority to regulate those incompetent, dishonest contractors. By enlarge, the vast majority of our contractors are extremely knowledgeable, very OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 reputable, and they live in our community. The most disreputable ones we're finding by far, are the ones we have the least control over; those of the county, those come in counties and cities and victimize our citizens and leave, and that's the people we have the least control over. Thank you. MR. NORRIS: Commissioner Judah? MR. JUDAH: Yes. MR. NORRIS: This sounds like a great project for our fledgling intercounty lobbying group that we've formed this morning. MR. JUDAH: I agree. I'm wondering -- let me just ask real quickly. Have you all had an opportunity to meet with the Building Industry Association? Like you said, there's a lot of certain competent, responsible contractors out there, but unfortunately, there's an unlevel playing field. i would think the responsible ones would want to support this effort. MR. CLARK: That's correct, sir. They're very much in favor of this. In fact, our Contractor Licensing Boards are comprised of, as you stated, local licensed contractors who are not hesitant at all about cleaning up their industry. They don't want that image, nor do they OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 want our citizens victimized. They're very supportive of it. MR. JUDAH: And also any sponsors that you're aware of in the legislature for this amendment? MR. CLARK: I'm not sure who the original sponsor was, but it's been three years now, and we're still not getting it through there. It's been proposed for three years. MR. JUDAH: Commissioner Volpe. MR. VOLPE: Mr. Clark, two questions. Number one, a state licensed contractor who's performing work in Collier County, is he required to obtain any type of local license? MR. CLARK: Just the occupational license, sir, and not even that. In fact, if he has home office in Lee County and then comes to Collier County doing work, he's not required to have that. MR. VOLPE: Okay. Well, as an alternative, perhaps there may be the opportunity for anyone who performs work within a local jurisdiction would be required to obtain a local license to perform that work in addition in the state certification. MR. CLARK: I wish that were true, and it's an OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER CO~TY, NAPLES, FL 33962 53 excellent suggestion. We have desired that and expressed that desire. There is an expressed prohibition in the state statutes that says counties and local jurisdictions cannot require additional legislation or -- excuse me, licensors. So they tie our hands in many instances. MR. VOLPE: That answers the first question then. The second question is: With the State of Florida, there have been at least -- there's at least one instance where the state has delegated the enforcement provisions as it relates to small quantity generators, hazardous waste. And it actually funded local positions in order to enforce the provisions of the state statutes. Has the alternative been explored? That -- I don't know how many dollars are in the state's budget for this particular department or this enforcement. MR. CLARK: That's the ideal scenario, Commissioner Volpe. And we have -- three years ago when the fraud activity came about and through the citizen's complaints and through Mr. Dorrill's efforts, a great deal of publicity was generated about the problem in the media. And the response from the state was, Well, gee, maybe we can. In fact, we've got a lot of activity. They came down from Tallahassee, and well, perhaps we can delegate OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER CO~|TY, NAPLES, FL 33962 to the counties. But to be frank with you, the heat is down, and they've knocked on that. So that would be an ideal solution. MR. VOLPE: Just as an alternative the actual amendment here, perhaps I'm not sure how that delegation does occur, whether it occurs as a result of special legislation or whether it comes about through some sort of an administrative order, that the delegation can occur. But we are -- and maybe you're doing it in Lee County, but we have at least, Mr. Dorrill, nine employees in our Pollution Control Department whose positions are funding in part by the State? MR. DORRILL: Through agreements with DEP. MR. VOLPE: Are are you doing something similar? MR. JUDAH: With regards to the small waste generators, we Just recently approved occupational license fee increases to be able to provide for an educational program. We have a facilities where they can take their -- MR. VOLPE: We can give you the repealer for that 13 if you -- just in case you need to have that. MS. MATTHEWS: You may need to take from several meetings to cover that. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. CLARK: We would like to -- obviously, I think we all would like to have the solution closest to the problem, because the further we remove it, the less effective it is. I'll be glad to look into that, and Commission Volpe's suggestion, I'm just passing information along to see if there's support for the group. MR. JUDAH: I think clearly the area needs to be addressed. I wouldn't see any opposition by our county Commission. I can't speak for them today, but I would like to pursue moving forward with, working out whatever means necessary to promote the amendment to legislation. MR. CLARK: Okay. MR. FARRELL: Mr. Chairman. MR. JUDAH: Commissioner Farrell. MR. FARRELL: We've had three general contractors that have gone out of business in the last 60 to 90 days. I Just opened the paper this morning, and the third one was there. And I don't know how many have finished out to the effect, but that's become a very sensitive issue in the county. And our Building Department has initiated meetings to two groups; they've already had a workshop with the builders and subcontractors. Most the people OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 there were subcontractors there, by the way, not the public, and they're being taken for large amounts of money. You'll find a lot of support among them, and numerically and politically, they're the larger group. And I sat through that two or three hours one night; I heard a lot of interesting ideas. I don't know whether a recommendation will come out of that group or not, but their second meeting now being set up with financial people to pluck in the banks and the people that are lending them money to control this. So that between here and Charlotte County, it will be just right to support this. The present system just isn't working; I think there's a general recognition of that. It isn't protecting the public, and it's not protecting the subcontractors. And I think you'd find a lot of support for tightening this up if somebody can come up with something that's a realistic answer to it. MR. JUDAH: Well, this needs to definitely be advanced to the Florida Association of Counties. I would suggest that perhaps get a resolution set up for all three Commissioners, all three Commissions to propose an amendment to the statute, and let's shoot it up to the legislative meeting this December. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MS. MATTHEWS: There's a Board meeting for the FAC, I believe in November, early November. We may want to bring it before the Board of Directors. MR. JUDAH: Excellent idea. MR. NORRIS: This is really only a common sense deal. The state is actually interfering with our ability to protect our citizens, and we need to point it out to them and then go ahead and make the corrected legislation. I don't see why anyone would really object to this, but we just need to point it out to them probably. MR. JUDAH: Nell, as far as putting together a joint resolution? MR. DORRILL: Since we have taken the lead on this, we can. In response to Commissioner Norris, I would think that it's a tough nut to crack, would be the Florida Homeowners Association in the associated lobby, and that is there that controls the state and general contractors license. That might be a former adversary force, but we can draft some legislation and submit it to Florida Association of Counties, Board of Directors, perhaps that can be incorporated into their legislature. MR. JUD~{: Great. Thank you. Thank you, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 Mr. Clark. The next item is statewide mandatory boaters operating license program. The reason I brought this up is, I know in Lee County we've got an excess of 30,000 registered boaters. We've clearly had problems with out on the water with personal water craft, jet skis, motor boats, not only effecting Manatees, but also effecting wildlife in general as well as public hazard to other people on the water. And what I'm hopeful of is getting support from all three counties to send a Joint resolution for Association of Counties to make this a priority to implement a statewide boater education program. Ideally, I'd to see kind of like a driver's license for boaters, but I don't think that's doable, but certainly it appears that a mandatory boater education program is -- I know the Marine Trade (Sic) Association supports it. The industry seems to support it. It got close last legislative session; I'd like to see another push, and I was hoping we'd get support from the three counties. MS. MATTHEWS: Well, you're looking for an educational program -- MR. JUDAH: Boater educational program. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MS. MATTHEWS: -- that the operator of the boat would have to -- would be required to take -- MR. JUDAH: Right. And -- MS. MATTHEWS: -- a program similar to the Coast Guard? MR. JUDAH: Coast Guard, auxiliary, power squad. I mean, those programs are already set up, it's just a matter of making certain they at least go through an 14 education course before they're out on the water. I mean, it's just scary out there. MR. NORRIS: You're agenda item is titled, "Statewide mandatory boaters operating license program," but you're saying that you don't really want a license as much as you do the educational program? MR. JUDAH: The reality is that I'd be happy if we can get just an educator program, education program. MR. DORRILL: Do you have an affiliated Marine Trade Association in Lee County and have they taken a position -- MR. JUDAH: Yeah. A local chapter, yes, and they support it. MR. DORRILL: And likewise, the various hotels and beach side resorts concessions that are -- OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: I haven't checked with them, Neil. In fact, I would submit that the statewide Marine Trade Association supports the legislation. MR. NORRIS: Would you envision this as being a classroom type educational process, or perhaps a -- similar to a lot of the professional continuing educations where you have a correspondence type? MR. JUDAH: I envisioned classroom. MS. MATTHEWS: How would we handle resort guests who want to rent a catamaran or jet skis or what have you? I mean, they've come from Ohio and they're at the hotel, and the hotel rents equipment. What you're talking about, it would require those people to go through this course before they can rent it. MR. JUDAH: That would not be feasible, I don't believe. And that does present a problem. But what I'm referring to are those that actually are registering their boats. MS. MATTHEWS: So you're envisioning this for boat owners? MR. JUDAH: Yes. MS. MATTHEWS: Okay. MR. JUDAH: It would be nice, Commissioner OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 61 Matthews, obviously, if there was some requirement and ability of those that rent out those boats, insuring that those who do rent the boats, go through -- MS. MATTHEWS: It might be one step at a time that we need to address. MR. JUDAH: Right. MR. DORRILL: I was in Wyoming, Idaho last spring for vacation and rented a snowmobile and told them I was from Florida. And they said, "Here. Put this crash helmet on for this, and we want your Visa Card imprint in order to guarantee the machine is returned." That's how they handle it for snowmobiles for people from Florida. MR. JUDAH: A lot of confidence. MR. VOLPE: So we'll give them a just a life jacket, is that it, and take their Visa? MR. JUDAH: If we're able to circulate a draft resolution to respective counties, to Charlotte and Collier, concerning a boater education program? MS. MATTHEWS: I think it wouldn't be bad to see the actual wording for a boater education program for boat owners. ' MR. JUDAH: Right. MS. MATTHEWS: I'm Just not sure how we could work OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 with the hotel guests and resort guests. Fa~. JUDAH: One step at a time, like you mentioned. MR. CONSTANTINE: Yes. MR. JUDAH: Thank you. MR. FARRELL: I think we might be ready to go beyond education. We have a Marine Advisory Board; in my opinion, it's the best Advisory Board we have. We have the good towel on it, and maybe one of the reasons that works a little better, they pretty much screen and choose their own members. We get to pass on them, but they pretty much operate by themselves. They just prepared an ordinance of speed limits in the canals, and they worked on that for four years before they were satisfied with it and brought it to the Commission. We rely very heavily them. I attend their meetings with some regularity, and I believe they'd be a good booster of this. And I think that's the place where we would go with this, particularly, to give it to them, and get their input, and we rely very heavily on their recommendations. MR. JUDAN: Is that with Wil Shefton (phonetic)? Is Wil involved? OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. FARRELL: He's a member; he's a member of that. He attends meetings, advisory. A fellow by the name of Homer Smith is now the chairman of that, but you can communicate through Mr. Shefton. MR. JUDAH: What I'll do then, if it's all right, I'll work with our local chapter, Marine Trade Association, to have help with the wording of the resolution and circulate it to the representative Commissioners. MR. CONSTANTINE: Yes. MR. JUDAN: Thank you. The other items, let's just forego that. I'll be happy if we can just get the boater education program moving forward. What I'd like to do, fellow Commissioners, is afford an opportunity for the general public to comment. But before they do, I wanted to introduce to you Mr. Holly Botchford, who is the director of the Southwest Florida Food Bank. Mr. Botchford is here to explain to particularly Charlotte and Collier County Commissioners, the food bank's involvement in the distribution of food to the needy, in I think a five or six county area; and with that, Mr. Botchford. MR. BOTCHFORD: Thank you, Commissioner. This is OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 an honor to be your guest today. Today I could come before you to talk about the thousands of hungry children 15 in the State of Florida, because surely they exist. I could tell you stories of families that have never asked for anything in their lives, but because of life circumstances today, they must stand in line and bare their soles to get enough to eat and to feed their families. I could also tell you of the children that have told me personally that they're glad to be back in school, not because they see their friends, not because they're getting an opportunity to learn and experience new things, but because at least five days a week, they get two meals; breakfast and lunch. Those same children will tell you they don't look forward to Christmas; Christmas comes at the end of the month. First of all, there won't be any gifts there for them; second of all, they'll be out of school, they won't be fed at school, and food stamps have run out by then at the end of the month. Merry Christmas. No, instead I'm going to bring you a message of hope and celebration, because recently we embarked on a new era of serving our less fortunate neighbors in OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 Southwest Florida with the opening of the new home of the Southwest Florida Food Bank. Let me going back first and tell you what a food bank is and how it works, because I'm sure that most really aren't familiar with food banking, and that's one of the reasons I'm a here is to just kind of bring you up to date. A food bank is a nonprofit organization, which is the collection, storage and distribution center for donated food and household products to all agencies in a given area that serve the hungry. That's to include all the agencies you're familiar with, such as the Salvation Armies, the homeless shelters, the youth shelters, soup kitchens, church, emergency food pantries, any nonprofit organization that serves the needy at no charge qualifies to come to the food bank. The food is distributed free of charge to the agencies. But they do pay a small service charge on most of the products, which helps cover the cost of operating the warehouse. This is based on the pounds they take out of the food bank and is currently 14 cents a pound. Their alternative is to spend $2.10 a pound at the store, which OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 66 is the national retail average. Our facility is located in Fort Myers. In the past we had to limit our service to Lee County because our warehouse just wasn't adequate to extend any additional services. Three years ago, I began a quest for a new building. I'm glad to say that I was successful in bringing five local foundations, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, Foulds Foundation, the Price Foundation, the Kliest Foundation, and Ganetts Community's Funds, together with Lee County government and the City of Fort Myers, to give me a five-year commitment for a total of $310,000. This commitment we took to Barnett Bank and obtained a five-year note to be paid for through these commitments. And with that money, we were able to locate a building, which the mortgage is being held by the RTC, and we were able to work through and purchase that building, at what many have told us was an excellent, excellent deal. Let me add here that these grants that came from all of these agencies were awarded partly because of success we demonstrated in Lee County, but also partly OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 because of our express desire to extend our service to all of Southwest Florida. We now have approximately 11,000 square feet and over 32,000 cubic feet of refrigerated space. We have been able to acquire over $60,000 in gifts and kind to finish our project, and we've achieved our dream of a debt-free home to serve nearly 100 agencies in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades and Hendry counties. Last year we distributed over 866,000 pounds of food to agencies in all five counties with the retail value of $1.8 million. The total cost of the agencies was less than $75,000. This meant that over $1.7 million did not have to be spent on food in this area. This was money that was available to be put back into the programs to serve the people, and this is what these agencies are really designed to do. Obtaining food for distribution in Southwest Florida is a daily battle. Because we don't have food manufacturing plants and supermarket warehouses, that's 16 found in other areas of the state, almost everything has to be shipped in. Damaged products from supermarkets, known as salvage, which is free to the Orlando Food Bank from OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 local warehouses, where often it was damaged here, shipped there. They get it at no cost; well, it costs us over $1,000 a load to bring it back down here to Southwest Florida. After sorting an inspection by staff and our wonderful volunteers, we often must throw away nearly 30 percent as unfit for human consumption. While we do pick up surplus from some local sources, it's only a drop in the bucket when faced with the growing needs of your community. Food drives are also a local source for quality goods, but the average collection is often gone with the day we receive it. In the coming year from our new facility, we will easily exceed 1 million pounds of distribution to the five counties. Our budget is set at about $230,000. This is to put $2.1 million of product back into Southwest Florida. That's quite a bang for the buck. The agencies are expected to contribute about $84,000 for our budget in services fees for this product, leaving $146,000. I'm pleased to report that Lee County government, City of Fort Myers, the United Way of Lee County and the Florida Department of Agriculture will meet about 60 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 69 percent of this amount. That still leaves over $58,000 that I need to raise. If we are to meet our projected goal of distributing 350,000 pounds of product this year and 700,000 pounds next year, to counties other than Lee, I need your help. We need to show at least through minimal support that the entire area we serve is supporting this important cost effective work. This will qualify us for national grants unavailable to us otherwise. Hunger has no county boundaries. A hungry child in Charlotte County is just as deserving as one in Lee County or Collier. Personally, I don't care where they live. If they have a need and I can help, I'm going to do it. But the reality is, we must share the burden of the budget so that one county is not controlling our success in the other counties. So I'm here today to ask you to work with me, to meet with me, so that we can look into this and find the funding so that we can continue this work into all the counties and truly become Southwest Florida Food Bank. I'd be glad to entertain any questions. MR. JUDAH: Any questions of Holly; Commissioner OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 70 Matthews? MS. MATTHEWS: Have you spoken with the Board of Directors for a group in Collier County called Collier Harvest? I believe they work out of the Mormon's Church. MR. BOTCHFORD: Tuesday we entertained 11 agencies from Collier County; that group was one of them. And also the Phill-A-Belley Organization with us, and they are part of our organization. Currently -- well, this past year, we've already distributed over $100,000 pounds in Collier County. MS. MATTHEWS: Collier Harvest has a network of people who collect -- MR. BOTCHFORD: Yes, they do. MS. MATTHEWS: -- dairy product and bakery products as well as fruit from grocery stores, and they take it to different centers. MR. BOTCHFORD: They're doing an excellent job of that. And it's something that we're hoping to get started in Lee and the other counties. They do an outstanding job. The products they're able to get are somewhat limited. We're looking and meeting with Collier County -- and this is going to involve all the counties, we're looking at the possibility -- because the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 products -- donations are starting to dry up. It's very hard to get products, and we're still having to go out and buy. So we're looking at the opportunity to start a co-op purchasing program where if all of the agencies, all 100 agencies, came together and said, Okay. We all need green beans. We know that. We all buy green beans. Can you buy us five pallets of green beans and save us 10 cents a can. And that's the type of thing we're looking at right now. So you've got some great opportunity in Collier, but it's still just scratching the surface. And we need to be delivering, we're talking about in November, starting to deliver products directly to Immokalee because of the transportation problems, and we're going to start doing that. We are going to be delivering directly into Charlotte County also to the agencies there because of delivery problems, because of transportation problems. It costs money. It costs money to give away food. The realty is it costs me 24 cents a pound to collect it, 17 warehouse it and redistribute it. That doesn't count freight and getting it back out into the counties. The OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER CO~4TY, NAPLES, FL 33962 72 agencies pay 14 of that. I've got to find sources for the other parts of those funds. MS. MATTHEWS: I guess my questions on that are because I'm personally aware and have made the trip myself many times, picking up food at the Publix Grocery Store -- my own car, my own gasoline, my own time -- and taking it out to Immokalee and so forth. There's a network of people who have come together to provide this service, and I know we always need mor~ volunteers, but I wonder if such a service could be instituted with the food bank as opposed to the food going to Orlando, that it comes directly to a warehouse. MR. BOTCHFORD: Unfortunately, Commissioner, we live in a day of lawsuits. The grocery stores, for the most part, are afraid of liability. They also are set up to where their damaged products, they receive credit for those from the manufacturers and distributors. The only way they can receive credit is back at their main warehouses, unless they can set up a tracking source here. It just doesn't work. We do pick up at the stores, but you look at the products that you were able to pick up and transport, and I'll almost guarantee that had a lot of breads, you have OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 73 some leftover produce, and that was about it. MS. MATTHEWS: That's pretty much it, yes. I mean it's not -- MR. BOTCHFORD: How many Jars of peanut butter did you pick up, tuna fish, and that type of thing? MS. MATTHEWS: Yeah. That doesn't spoil, so it's not on the list. MR. BOTCHFORD: That's what you have to feed people with. How many hungry children can be fed on lettuce and bread? You just can't do this. MS. MATTHEWS: Not many for very long. MR. BOTCHFORD: That's right. MR. JUDAH: Fellow Commissioners, I appreciate your indulgence in listening to Mr. Botchford, because it's an issue that we really to come to grips with and I -- I've experienced it directly with calls to my office from individuals, you know. We know that many people live on -- by pay check by pay check. And with tight economic times, folks getting laid off work, Holly will tell you, he gets the bulk of his calls late Friday afternoon, because of domestic violence, you know, mothers with children out on their own. Holly really has to take up the slack to take care OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 74 of those that fall through the cracks before they can get into a program, and that's why his service is so critical. And I appreciate your listening to his situation, what he's trying to do to address feeding the hungry in all five counties. MR. BOTCHFORD: Thank you, Commissioners. MS. MATTHEWS: Thank you. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Holly. I'd like to afford an opportunity for the general public to comment. And the first one that wishes to speak is Teri McCully. MS. McCULLY: Thank you. I'm Teri McCully, co-owner and founder of Rooftop Restaurant here in Bonita Springs. I've been here 22 years and seen a great change in our community all for the better. And I do realize the need for roads, wider and bigger. But there's one thing you Commissioners forget; you're hurting the business people in this town by doing all this. You're not giving us a fair break, any consideration. We have nine months of nothing to do where we starve to death. Why couldn't we arrange to have these roads done then, not during season, starting in February? It kills us. We thrive on ten weeks of money that comes in; three OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 75 months actually. And that's the time you're going to open up these roads and tear things up, making life miserable for the residents and hurting the business people. Is there any way I can appeal to you Commissioners to do something about double shifts? Working late at night? Early in the morning? We do see your program perhaps from a years work to nine months; is that possible? If so, it would be very much appreciated, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling. I've talked to other people in the area; a lot of them won't come forward. But I'm coming forward, I'm asking for your help, and I hope you'll consider it. Thank you. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, ma'am. We're going to have George Crawford respond to the questions you just mentioned. George. MR. CRAWFORD: We're very concerned about this particular situation in Lee County, and I can't speak for George, but I believe he may also. We are doing what we call "black base," which means that we are not using -- in critical areas, and are not using rock, we're using asphalt. With our summer rains, which we just experienced in last few weeks, we can't get the base OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 dried out, so we're going to the black asphalt, asphalt base, which once we get -- once we put that on top of dried out, then we're home free. We don't have to keep putting lifts of rooks in and waiting for it to dry. However, one of the problems we have is that some projects just can't be completed within the time frame that they were able to complete the bridge that you're going dedicate today, or ribbon cut today, where we were able to do it after the season, and as you know, is open now here in Bonita Springs on Old 41. That's the kind of planning we're trying do; however, it's Just impossible on a large project, and Bonita Beach Road is one of those, to be able to do it in a six-month time frame. I believe the gentleman ahead of me talked about unfortunately we're in a litigious society and we certainly are. I'll take my general pot shot at lawyers, as I always do. Hi John Spear. And we are in litigious society and night work is extremely dangerous, and to do that almost triples the cost of trying to do anything because of the problems in lighting and so forth. So while we -- there are certain circumstances you OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 77 can do that; most of them you can't. I believe that all of the agencies, however, are trying to reduce the time that we have people tied up. I believe the old way is, we're building a road for you, what are you complaining? I think that mentality is gone a long time ago. I think everybody's concerned about the business community and what we're doing to it when we do tie the road up. We're trying to do it. We do keep it to a minimum; however, there are certain projects that just take longer than necessary. Bonita Beach Road, for instance. If you remember, when we relocated the utilities this last year, they were relocated at night. That's one function that can done at night, and it was done cooperatively with the utility company. I believe it had a minimal impact upon the community, but we Just can't do that everywhere. And we are sympathetic to the business community and try where we can to avoid unnecessary, lengthy times in construction. MS. McCully: What is the time frame on this program? MR. JUDAH: Time frame for Bonita Breach Road? MS. McCully: How long? MR. CRAWFORD: The time frame is about, as I OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 remember -- I left my notes over there -- I think it's about -- I believe it will be into '96 before it's finished. But we're doing in phases. The Fish Trap Bay, which is being done in the first phase, should not materially affect the business community. It should not materially affect the business community. That bridge will -- will hold up traffic to some extent. I can't say that it won't, but it should not be as devastating as opening up large lengths of road. On Bonita Beach Road, we're going to require the contractor to only build short segments at one time. We're not going to allow him to tear up the whole road and then take time to do it. We're also looking at a constructibility review by a contractor out of Lee, Collier or Charlotte County to tell us how he or she feels it can be best constructed. And this will be by somebcdy who constructs roads but is not going to be bidding on this project. So we're looking these kinds of things to try minimize damage to the business community, both Collier and Lee County business. MR. JUDAH: If I could ask, I'm going to ask Ron OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 Telone, who has worked with the county DOT, worked for the Florida Department of Transportation, is now with the David Plumber Associates. Perhaps he could shed some comments and light on the -- or do you have another other issue to talk about, Ron? MR. TELONE: No. MR. CRAWFORD: No. MR. JUDAH: Another issue; okay. George, thank you very much. MR. DORRILL: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to add, at least in Collier County, we have been experimenting with our nighttime work. And our two most recent road construction projects do make allowances for the contractor to work in the evening until approximately, 9:00, 9:30 in the evening, also on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings for that very reason. And we've seen very good success on the Airport Road six-lane project where we've made an allowance to do that. The only other thing I'd like to say is that there are those of us in Collier County who still feel that you have the best Sunday brunch in any restaurant in town. MS. McCully: Thank you. MR. CRAWFORD: Yeah, Mr. Dorrill, my size will OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 80 attest to that, because I've been in your place many times. I want you to know that we're working on a contract in Fort Myers right now seven days a week, 12 hours a day the contractor is working. And if you know anything about sunshine, it's not sunshining, that whole 12 hours. 19 So we are working that contract. That's one that's scheduled to be open, for your information, probably a week from Friday, slightly ahead of schedule; that's boy scout in some of them (Sic). So we are conscious of that. MS. McCully: I sure hope so, because we deserve some consideration as taxpayers and business people. MR. CRAWFORD: I'll be taking personal attention of this, because I'm going to get all the telephone calls. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, George. Ron? MR. TELONE: Good morning. My name's Ron Telone, I'm with David Plumber and Associates. Our firm's been involved in transportation planning in Southwest Florida for ever 10 years. I want to address the issue related to the north-south corridors, which is Agenda Item 1. I wanted to say that I think Lee County is very wise to be planning for a new north-south corridor on the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 east side of 1-75 as well as on the west side. We know that there are a number of large property owners. They're willing to work with the county to identify future road alignments. So we just would like to encourage the county to press forward with their planning for these new road corridors. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Ron; appreciate the comments. Anyone else from the general public? Yes, John, good morning. MR. SPEAR: Thank you, Ray. For the record, my name is John Spear, and I'm co-chairman of the Bonita Springs Chambers Governmental Affairs Committee. I didn't Jump up here Just to defend my profession; I'm used to the pot shots from George in terms of the attorneys, but blaming the world hunger on attorneys, I think was going a little bit too far, but we're used to it. We'd like to thank you all for coming today. I know Skip Lapolla, welcomed you, and we appreciate you coming. Perhaps our first at -- at first when we heard that Charlotte County was Joining us, we were a bit concerned that we were going dilute the discussion of bi-county OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 issues and leave us in a situation where those issues probably wouldn't get the proper attention they deserved. From what I can see, that hasn't happened, number one; and number two, I think in terms of looking at what you've done here today as a Lee County taxpayer, both business and as a resident and as a voter, I think it's important that we recognize that Lee County tax dollars can also be spent wisely or wasted in terms of bi-county issues on the north part of our county, and thus our tax dollars on that end of the county as well. So I'm glad to see that the Collier County -- that Charlotte County has joined us. In terms of the north-south connectors, I would echo what Mr. Telone said. We've been working diligently, and I think in the next three or four months, I think you're going to see some real good work come out of the private sector in terms doing some of the preliminary planning for the counties on those north-south connectors. One item that I don't think was touched on today has to do with the widening and improvement of U.S. 41 through North Collier and South Lee County. That's probably going to be an issue between Lee County and OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 Charlotte County. There appears to be good progress made, and we'd like to thank the Commissioners of the two counties for working with us to push that and push that priority back into the late part of this century, rather than early or mid-next century. We'd thank you for that. And with that, we once again thank you all for coming. We appreciate you being here. And one final comment in terms of the food bank; that food bank does benefit Bonita Springs. The Bonita Assistance Office is in the next building over there, and that's funded entirely by local, private, contributions here in Bonita Springs, and it might be interesting to stick your head in the door and see what our community based, nontax-payers supported Assistance Office looks like, and how it operates. So with that, we'd like to thank you and hopefully we're going to be seeing you for lunch. So thanks for coming. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, John. Emily Magio. Good morning. MS. MAGIO: Good morning. I came a little late, so I don't know who was here an who left and whatever. My OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 comment is not intended as a derogatory comment against anyone, but when I came in and I look around and I see four or five Collier County Commissioners here, I see our county manager. When I saw the number of our staff here, I just want them to know how proud I am they showed up, and I think that's says as much and it's as important as anything else that was said here today. And I just want to let them know I'm very proud of all of them. Thank you. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Emily. I too am very appreciative they showed, supported by Collier County, and I, at a loss, with regards to Lee County Commission. But at any rate, there is at least a representative from Lee and Charlotte here today, and 20 hopefully we can do better next time. Are there my other -- yes, sir. Good morning. MR. WILES: Good morning. My name is Carl Wiles, and a I'm resident of Bonita Springs. And I just want to make some comments about the north-south corridor considerations, mainly the Livingston Road/Imperial Street problem. Collier County does not have a problem with this express road, four-laning express road, because they're OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 going through areas that haven't been development, and they want to put a road through for the department of residential areas. But when you put a lethal road coming up to Bonita Beach Road and then proceeding through residential areas, there is some serious problems for individuals. And I'm talking about a life and death situation. I'll give you an example. When Terry Street was put in, and you're going through residential areas, you're going to have to take homes in uproot people. There was one elderly individual who lost his home in that project, and it was mainly due to the stress and strain of negotiating, not the fact that he just was going to lose his home, but negotiating for a fair settlement on that home. And when you talk about a fair settlement on a home, it can run up to couple years. And it's a very difficult thing when you're taking residents -- when you're taking homes from residents and then having to negotiate, it's a very expensive thing. So that's why I say, when you come to a cost consideration, I wouldn't want to be the individual who's going to put a cost factor on lives. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 Fortunately, there is one alternate consideration. I appreciate that the county has come out and had two meetings in the community and there's a third one coming up Monday. But there is an alternate, which I think does not take away the -- eliminates the human factors. And that's on the east side, there's the Power Line right-of-way. When you come out of Collier County, if you swing slightly east towards 1-75, you can run that -- through that Bonita residential area on that Power Line Expressway, and you'll be destroying very, very few residential communities. I think Dave Loveline has looked into it; he said there would be a few homes. But that right-of-way goes all the way to Terry Street. And if you're looking at the ultimate, I would look at that right-of-way continuing down that Power Line, right over 1-75, connecting with Grand Bonita Boulevard, or whatever's going to be on the east side, which doesn't have the same probably with going through residential areas like you do on the west side, you could continue with local roads coming from Livingston to Bonita Beach Road, probably continuing down Imperial Street, all the way to Terry. From Terry, you can go east and west on East Terry, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 87 you can go up to the connection of the right-of-way at the power lines, and you probably can put a local two-lane road all the way to the Three Oaks Expressway or the Three Oaks right-of-way that you're talking about. You can go then west to Old 41, you can develop Old 41 with the possibility of swinging Old 41 through open areas and not having it dump into 41. But all I'm saying is there is an alternative. And I know possibly you're talking more costs, but don't forget about the human factor, because I think the human factor is something that is priceless. Thank you. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, sir. Look forward to that meeting on Monday night. MR. WILES: Yes. MR. JUDAH: Any anyone else from the general public wish to comment on any issues? We'll go back to the respective Commissioners, if you have any final comments, for the good of the order. MR. NORRIS: Only to thank everyone for participating. I think the way we've come together as a group over the last year or so is very healthy for everyone. I'd just encourage us to continue these, don't let it slack off. I think we need increase our OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 participation. Keep going forward. MR. CONSTANTINE: I would echo that. One of the things that's been very helpful, is this has made a much more common or easier working environment between the Commissions. When other issues have come up, I can call you, or anyone of the Commission for that matter, and there's a very comfortable give and take that I'm not sure existed before, and hopefully we can make that three ways from here on. MR. VOLPE: Commissioner Judah. MR. JUDAH: Mr. Volpe. MR. VOLPE: My six-year term as a member of the Board of County Commissioners will be coming to an end on i November 8th. And I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for your work in revitalizing these joint meetings with Lee and Collier County, with the help and the encouragement of the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce. I think we have all experienced that, as Commissioner Ferrill had commented, that much of what we are experiencing, we can learn and benefit from the experiences of some of your counterparts in the Southwest Region. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 So I want to thank you for the impetus that you've provided, and I would hope that there will be three people who are seated to my left, who I'm sure will work with you and your counterparts to ensure that these kinds of meetings continue. One last point that I'd like to share with you, and that is something that I think we shared together, and that is the provisions of the Florida statutes that allow for a counsel of local governmental officials. I've mentioned that to my colleagues on the Board of County Commissioners, and the opportunity that that presents for the various elected representatives within our community to function as a collective body. And I would also like to suggest for your consideration and perhaps the consideration of Mr. Farrell, Commissioner Farrell from Charlotte County, the opportunities that that presents for having a designee from each one of the County Commissions to sit in a regular ongoing basis during these hiatus where the Board's are meeting on a quarterly basis. I think it will provide a formal mechanism with formal agendas so that we can begin to develop some of those issues. Thank you. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 90 MS. MATTHEWS: I think that that's a good idea, and perhaps this effort to influence Tallahassee in local legislation will be a start in joint efforts between the tri-counties, and it may very well lead to a counsel of local government. MR. JUDAH: I see that evolving into that program. Commissioner Volpe. I know you've been a strongly supporting that effort and I do see that materializing. I also would like to take the time, if I could, to commend you, after the recent campaign, you being here; it speaks well of you. You're a quality individual. You've been deeply committed to helping out Collier and Southwest area and wish you well in the private sector; perhaps we'll see you again in the public sector. Thank you for your involvement with these joint meetings. MR. VOLPE: I appreciate that. THE COURT: Commissioner Farrell. MR. FARRELL: I thank you for the invitation to be here, and I consider this Just the first step in the process, our involvement in the process. I think among the benefits for all of us, and certainly for me, is the educational benefits that you receive here just by OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 listening to others. As I talk to other people around the state and pick up the newspapers from any place in the country, the basic problems are rather universal. Sometimes you think you're home when you look at the headlines in the newspaper. The details will be different, but the basic problem, I think, are vary similar. And the old cliche, we reinvent the wheel; we do, over and over and over again. When somebody else is just down the road from you, they've probably been through the same process, you can benefit from if you give it an opportunity. And we won't always agree on everything, but you don't in a political process. One of the things that happens sometimes, because you don't agree on one thing, it falls apart, you don't even try on the next. And I hope we don't do that, because there's some things that we just have our own interests in and maybe we don't agree on, but there are others we will. I think you have to learn that politic as being difficult for me, but I'm happy to learn something. Because you don't agree on one thing, you Just can't throw everything out; you've got to try everything. Some OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 92 things work, some won't, but we ought to give them all a try. Again, thank you for the invitation to participate. MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Commissioner Farrell. Before we break, I did want to -- I apologize, Commissioner. MR. CONSTANTINE: I was just going to suggest at the end of most of our agendas, we have set a tentative date for the next meeting. I was going to suggest that perhaps rather than waiting six months this time, at the turn of the year, because there may be new faces on all the Boards. THE COURT: That's a good idea. MR. CONSTANTINE: It might be appropriate to get together also, particularly with the plan Commissioner Matthews has put together, perhaps we can put the final touches on that before the legislative session begins. MR. JUDAH: That's an excellent suggestion. So sometime in January? MR. CONSTANTINE: Yeah. MR. JUDAH: Is this a suitable location, if the Lion's Club is willing to host? MR. VOLPE: We'll have the New Year's decorations. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: I understand, Skip, the Bonita Spring 2 Chamber -- that's fine. We need to set a date in January. We'll have our staff work out the logistics of the appropriate time and hopefully it will be at this location if we can work it with the out Lion's Club. Skip, I understand the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce is hosting a luncheon or involved in a luncheon for the Commissioners? MR. APOLLO: I think Robert's got all the information on that. MR. JUDAH: Okay. Mr. Belavance (phonetic). MR. BELAVANCE: It's at twelve noon at the Shangri-La Resort, which is just south of this place, and -- MR. JUDAH: I have maps here to give to y'all. MR. BELAVANCE: Look forward to seeing you. MR. JUDAH: I appreciate that very much, Bob. And we do have a ribbon cutting on the Imperial Bridge at 1:30. MR. DORRILL: Mr. Chairman, Just briefly. The second Thursday in January would be the 12th. We might just focus on that and staff can try and confirm that; 12th of January of 1995. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 MR. JUDAH: Thank you, Neil. We'll see if we can shoot for that date. I really do thank you all for your attendance and hope to see you at the luncheon. I do have maps for you, okay. We're adjourned. (Meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.) OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 95 STATE OF FLORIDA ) COUNTY OF COLLIER ) I, Terri L. Schultz, Deputy Official Court Reporter, do hereby certify that the foregoing proceedings were taken before me at the date and place as stated in the caption hereto on Page 1 hereof; that the foregoing computer-assisted transcription, consisting of pages numbered 2 through 94, inclusive, is a true record of my Stenograph notes taken at said proceedings. Dated this 17th day of October, 1994. Terri L. ~hu~ 'J Deputy Official Court Reporter 20th Judicial Circuit STATE OF FLORIDA COUNTY OF COLLIER The foregoing certificate was acknowledged before me this 17th day of October, 1994, by Terri L. Schultz, who is personally known to me. t State of Florida at Large OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS, COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FL 33962 October 6, 1994 There being no further business for the Good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by Order of the Chair - Time: 11:30 A.M. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOV NING BOARD ( S ) OF SPECIAL ~ICTST UNDER ITS . I . · .k. "' :.,. .' ,' u/ ~.. ,,. '~ ~ '.. ~. TI~- J, ~NSTA~LT/NE, CHAIRMAN TT~ST . ~- '~IGHT.' E, =BROCK,. 9LERK .~. - . ., ,., ~ ~ ',. ,~, . as presented v o= as corrected .