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BCC Minutes 08/29/2015 S (Tropical Storm Erika) BCC SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES August 29, 2015 August 29, 2015 TRANSCRIPT OF THE EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, August 29, 2015 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 12:00 p.m. in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Tim Nance Donna Fiala (Telephonic) Penny Taylor Tom Henning Georgia Hiller ALSO PRESENT: Leo E. Ochs, Jr., County Manager Nick Casalanguida, Deputy County Manager Jeffrey Klatzkow, County Attorney Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations Page 1 COLLIER COUNTY Board of County Commissioners Community Redevelopment Agency Board(CRAB) Airport Authority 0 r, .\ AGENDA Board of County Commission Chambers Collier County Government Center 3299 Tamiami Trail East,3rd Floor Naples FL 34112 Special Meeting August 29,2015 Tropical Storm Erika Noon Tim Nance-BCC Chair;Commissioner,District 5 Donna Fiala-BCC Vice-Chair;Commissioner,District 1;CRA Chair Georgia Hiller-BCC Commissioner,District 2;Community&Economic Development Chair Tom Henning-BCC Commissioner,District 3;PSCC Vice-Chair Penny Taylor-BCC Commissioner,District 4;TDC Chair;CRA Vice-Chair NOTICE:All persons wishing to speak on Agenda items must register prior to speaking.Speakers must register with the Executive Manager to the BCC prior to presentation of the Agenda item to be addressed. All registered speakers will receive up to three(3)minutes unless the time is adjusted by the chairman. Collier County Ordinance No.2003-53 as amended by ordinance 2004-05 and 2007-24,requires that all lobbyists shall,before engaging in any lobbying activities(including but not limited to,addressing the Board of County Commissioners),register with the Clerk to the Board at the Board Minutes and Records Department. 1. Call to Order 2. Update on the status of Tropical Storm Erika and its impact on Collier County 3. Determination of Necessity of Declaring a State of Emergency 4. Discussion of any appropriate action for the Board to take 5. Adjourn August 29, 2015 MR. OCHS: Mr. Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Thank you, Mr. Ochs. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to a Special Meeting of the Board of County Commission to the Erika Storm System. I would ask you to silence all your devices at this time and please join me for the pledge. (Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) Item #2 MOTION ALLOWING COMMISSIONER FIALA TO JOIN THE MEETING VIA TELEPHONE DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES — APPROVED CHAIRMAN NANCE: Our first order of business will be to allow Commissioner Fiala to attend the meeting via phone because of the extraordinary circumstances. Is there a motion to do so? COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: So moved. COMMISSIONER HILLER: Second. CHAIRMAN NANCE: There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Seeing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. COMMISSIONER HILLER: Aye. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Passes unanimously. Commissioner Fiala, are you with us, ma'am? Page 2 August 29, 2015 COMMISSIONER FIALA: I sure am. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Thank you very much. Welcome. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. CHAIRMAN NANCE: At this time we're going to -- I guess we're going to hear from Mr. Summers who is going to give us information on developments this morning. Mr. Summers please, sir. UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF TROPICAL STORM ERIKA AND IT'S IMPACT ON COLLIER COUNTY MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, good morning. Dan Summers, Director of Collier County's Bureau of Emergency Services and Emergency Management. Thank you very much for tolerating the inconvenience today to brief you on what I guess we'll classify as of this morning are the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika. Just wanted you to be aware that we were certainly well engaged in this over the last four or five days. And I just want to kind of preference my remarks to tell you that in 31 years of doing this I haven't seen a storm with a track that started toward central South Carolina and ended up in the Panhandle. So this has been a very, very unique situation for the Forecasters and for Emergency Managers. I have a short briefing for you, a couple of suggestions and recommendations, and certainly at that point we will move forward for discussion. It's very important when we do this to make sure that I tell you that the public and private coordination and cooperation in getting ready has been excellent. It's bad to have a disaster, it's great to have one in Collier County, so to speak, because of the inter-agency coordination, cooperation and communication that's done. So all of Page 3 August 29, 2015 our partners and employers I can only speak the most highly of. And I think it is very important since we're right here around the eve of the anniversary of Katrina to make sure that we do kind of take a minute and refocus our efforts for those who have lost their lives in these hurricanes, floods and tornado tragedies that our country's experienced this year. Typically what I do in these events is brief you on current conditions. And as you know from commercial media this morning, there's been a substantial degradation in Tropical Storm Erika, but there are still a few points that are noteworthy, as we're sort of the first up, if you will, as this storm passes the southern peninsula of Florida. We had discussed about removing a State of Emergency Declaration. We can certainly talk about that some more as it becomes prevalent in our discussions today. But I will tell you that the State of Emergency Declaration that we have drafted has no probations, no curfews, no voluntary, no involuntary or mandatory evacuation discussions in it and no shelter operations. So again, this might be a -- I postured yesterday when we drafted this State of Emergency, just for any potentials related to flood or tornado activity. Now, we've obviously continued to have a shift in the track, but we don't want to discount the potential for minor storm surge flooding, rain flooding events. And I'll talk some more about that shortly. I will kind of give you a very quick overview of the operating posture of the Emergency Operations Center. Joe Bellone is here from our public utilities division. Sometimes we get some questions about any minor debris, which is all we expect at this point, that he can discuss how that will be handled, tell you where we go from here in our EOC readiness actions and certainly get your comments. The timing, the intensity and the angle of the approach of this forecast, as I mentioned earlier, has really been a challenge in today's Page 4 August 29, 2015 degradation of the storm. If you haven't heard, the National Hurricane Center is ceasing any of its additional modeling efforts due to the deterioration of the storm. Now, that means they have sort of handed off any of the subsequent unstable atmosphere to the Miami Weather Service and we're in constant communication with them. It's important at this point to make sure that you understand that we are not recommending any cessation of government activities. No school cancellations are being recommended from emergency management. All of your normal services can proceed forward on Monday as we know it today. Again, we'll have to watch and make sure that this storm remains a remnant low. And obviously if we have any fast-breaking conditions and/or events, we'll respond to that. But no changes in general operations are recommended from the EOC at this point. Leo, if I can go to the visualizer just real quick. Guys, I need one of those PDFs. Thank you. We're not going to -- we're not going to spend any significant time on this, because really what you're looking at is forecast for remnant lows. So again, what came out again, and again there's no 11 :00 advisory, but the 8:00 advisory as you see put most of these tracks substantially offshore in Collier County. But I just stress that to you to make sure you know that there still remains that potential for an unstable atmosphere, and maybe some rain forecast, substantial rains that have not yet been forecasted from the Miami Weather Service, so they're really not going to have a grip on rainfall precip. amounts until we get a little bit closer. That's all I need on that graphic, Leo. Again, just to make sure you understand that in terms of impact discussion and how we classify that over at the EOC, obviously now we're at no tropical storm force winds, so that means that anything that we have would be certainly 34, 30 miles an hour or less. Doesn't mean Page 5 August 29, 2015 that that staying here for a long time can't be a little aggravating. Some localized flooding is certainly possible with our astronomical high tide. We've got high tides at 12:45 and 12:35 respectively Sunday morning at 1 :18 and Sunday afternoon at 1 :22. So we do have a little bit of high tide potential. And as usual, and as the folks are familiar at Marco, Goodland, Chokoloskee and Everglades City, as well -- and certainly Naples Bay are familiar with what those astronomical high tides can do. The National Weather Service has not made any determination as to whether they will put us in a flash flood watch or warning. Again, it's a little bit early. But I wanted to make sure you knew that those flash flood watches and warnings could become evident between Saturday -- between tonight and certainly Tuesday. We've had great cooperation and communication with Florida Power and Light and Lee Cooperative. But just as we have our major thunderstorm you can have some intermittent power outages. We expect no significant problems here in that event. Our posturing, as we do always in late July, all of our disaster resource trailers that have our hurricane evacuation shelter supplies are ready and pre-deployed in July, along with our generators. All of our EOC systems are tested and operational. Great dialogue and communication with our partners, as I mentioned. And we've issued a fair number of just general news releases, keep everyone aware. Checking in with all the County Agencies and Departments, everybody's on track with their particular plan. And this is also a great opportunity to kind of get the rust off a little bit, since we've had a dry spell fortunately in these storms, and take advantage of this to refine any policies or procedures. I am requesting to do our tradition of what we call an all-hands, all-agency briefing at the EOC this afternoon. I still want that to continue at 2:00 today. It will give us an opportunity to put current Page 6 August 29, 2015 names and faces with operations. We'll talk a little bit about things like flooding concerns and traffic issues, any particular construction projects that we may have underway, and give us a chance to do any minor corrective actions in real time, if necessary. It will give us an opportunity to make sure our public safety agencies are postured for rain flooding and the tornado risk, and it gives us an opportunity to remind residents to listen to local radio and television, the NOAA weather radio, our social media resources, all the resources that we have out there to keep you informed of any last minute or fast-breaking changes. Sunday we have our EOC postured so that we can staff up or not staff, as the case is going to be for this Sunday. But we can ramp that facility up in less than 45 minutes. So if we see something that materializes very quickly with our robocall systems for staff and all of our other communication assets, we can have the EOC ready to deal with whatever Mother Nature throws at us on short notice on Sunday. But again, my plans are not to staff that EOC on Sunday at the present time. Again, if you want to revisit the discussion of the State of Emergency Activation, either way your State of Emergency Declaration does not limit the County Manager and I activating the EOC for emergency measures on a timely basis. Joe, did you want to talk about anything related to routine debris cleanup in the event of? MR. BELLONE: Thanks, Dan. Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Joe Bellone, Director of Financial Operations, and I guess Dr. Yilmez today. The minor debris mission, as you understand, can be handled by our franchise contractors, Waste Management in District 1 and Progressive in District 2. We did amend that contract several years ago, and we've got methodology to do that, that will not be an issue. Page 7 August 29, 2015 Monday's trash collections, if we go forward with those, are primarily in the southern part of Collier County. That would be Marco, Everglades City and in mainland Collier, South of Davis. So on Dan's recommendations, the issue with roll carts being out is, as you know, in the wind they can become missiles depending on the wind. However, if there are no tropical storm force winds, that might not be an issue. Thank you. MR. OCHS: Thank you, Dan. MR. SUMMERS: Just as we normally remind folks, our agencies and partners, all of our actions are typically coordinated through the EOC, and that's for any mission coordination. Any State or Federal resource request comes through our office; that way we can make sure that it is number one, eligible, number two, properly tracked, has a mission number and helps validate any federal reimbursement that may be necessary. If needed, if we do ramp up, we will publish every 12 hours what we call a situation report. It's a 5,000 foot overview of what all the agencies are doing and it also allows me to communicate with you any unmet needs. I do not anticipate a situation report at this point with this particular event. And again, we maintain a close conduit or communication with the Municipal EOCs. Finally, for our residents, again we want to stress monitor radio, television, NOAA weather radio and the interne for additional information. If we see some down power lines, do not assume all downed power lines are energized. Stay clear of that, notify 9-1-1 and call your utility company. Anticipate changing conditions. The hurricane season is not over and a lot of folks did stock their hurricane supplies, and that's a good thing. And it's an opportunity for you to go back and see if there's anything that you missed this week as we get through the remainder of the hurricane season. Page 8 August 29, 2015 Localized flooding, we can't stress that enough on our streets in the event that we get rainfall that highly exceeds our design capacity, which usually happens, and in that particular case our motto is "If you can't see the ground, turn around" and stay out of that flood; keep your cars out of that flooded area. And again, remember the call in to 9-1-1 is for true emergency situations. I'll stop right there. I believe in terms of any other -- I would like to recognize our guest, Mayor Sorey is here. And I'll come back -- after Mayor Sorey, we'll check on our other Constitutional Officers. Mayor, anything for the podium? MAYOR SOREY: Well, Dan, I want to thank you for all the preparation. Commissioner Hiller and I were with the Governor at the 11 :00 briefing, and we pretty well know what the outcome of that was. But the main thing is the City of Naples is open for business tonight and come down and have dinner and keep the economy going. MR. SUMMERS: Maybe we'll change that EOC meeting to Downtown. (Laughter.) MR. SUMMERS: Very good. Tim is here from the Sheriffs Office. I believe Tim is going to represent Sheriff Rambosk. Sir, any comments from the Sheriff, come forward. MR. GUERRETTE: Good afternoon. Real quick, the Sheriff is currently over doing a conference call -- Tim Guerrette, Captain Tim Guerrette with Collier County Sheriffs Office. The Sheriff is currently over doing a conference call, agency-wide conference call with all the members now. It was prescheduled. He's going to try to get over here; he just told me that. Real quick, from a law enforcement standpoint, Dan nailed it pretty much as far as we're concerned is people on the road, roadways flooding. Very similar to what we might see in heavy rain storms, as you can imagine, over a period of time long rains and that type of thing Page 9 August 29, 2015 can be problematic, so what we're asking everybody to do if this does come through in any form, just stay at home, let the emergency personnel get to where they need to be, and that's important. Also, as far as from a law enforcement standpoint, we want to make sure that people adhere to what we ask as far as lines down. When you see the lights, I like to -- you know, the turn around, if you can't see the ground, that type of thing. So again just to echo those things. We're very well prepared throughout the agency, Law Enforcement, got with Naples PD and everybody across the board, so we're ready for anything that comes. And again, this is a great preparation for future. We do have about 60 days left, as you all know, and this is great for us to gear up and do a run, if you will. Again from Sheriff, thanks. MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Ochs, I think you had conversation with Dr. Patton. Is there anything from the schools? MR. OCHS: Yes, I spoke frequently with Dr. Patton over the last two days, most recently about a half hour before this meeting. She's monitoring the meeting by television. She's been in constant contact with her staff. They're in full operations at this point in time for Monday morning, and she expressed her gratitude to the Board and to Dan for keeping her and her agency updated. She's also coordinating with the other four superintendents in the Southwest Florida area, so there's good communication not only within Collier County with the school districts but also across the area. MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Chairman, lastly, my staff is at the office today working on a number of odds and ends. I will tell you that we are working with our partners at Department of Health. We are looking at our most vulnerable special needs clients today that are in home that could be in some vulnerable locations, and we're actually calling those clients today, just to make sure that they've got a backup Page 10 August 29, 2015 plan in case. So we are on shift today taking a look at those special needs clients that are registered with us. Two of my staff are here today and relatively new and I wanted to make sure you saw their faces. Michael Moreland and Mike Shaw, both are the coordinators that help things materialize down at the EOC with our field and training operations as well. That's all I have to share with you at this particular point, and I'll just see if you have any questions or comments. Thank you. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay, we'll go to Commissioner comments. We'll begin with Commissioner Hiller. Item #3 RESOLUTION 2015-151 : DETERMINATION OF NECESSITY OF DECLARING A STATE OF EMERGENCY - ADOPTED W/CHANGE COMMISSIONER HILLER: Thank you. First of all I'd like to commend you, Dan, and your staff, the Sheriffs Office and all of your staff, and the city and all of your staff. As well as Kamela and the school system. While I don't want to really call this a dry run right now because of all the threats of potential serious flooding, it is great that the storm as a hurricane has dissipated and that we were able to take the opportunity to test our system and see that we do work very effectively together and that this community is well protected in the event of a real emergency that we can really protect those most in need, as well as everybody else. So thank you so much. Really exemplary. Having heard what the state EOC is reporting, I do have a concern, and that concern is what you expressed Dan, and that is the threat of flooding. We have so many low-lying areas in Collier Page 11 August 29, 2015 County. And while I understand that we do not need to declare a State of Emergency in order for you to continue your operations and for EOC to remain open and vigilant, there is a problem, and that problem is is that if something does happen, if we do experience serious flooding, in order to be able to recover financially from FEMA, a State of Emergency does have to be declared. And either we do that right now and know that we are going to be covered, or if we do it after we experience serious flooding and potential financial consequences as a result to the county as it protects its community, then we would have to convene another meeting in a very short time frame, and it would be another meeting ahead of the September 8th Regular Board Meeting in order to declare that emergency to ensure that we do get reimbursement from FEMA. So what I would like to do in an abundance of caution, and not to alarm the community but really to protect the community financially, is state that in light of the threat of flooding, which the state has now opined will be in the range of about 4.7 inches. They have not stated over what period of time, and that's the risk. I mean, it could come all at once. And our tertiary system would have a hard time coping with that much rain at one time. We would clearly have flooding and cost associated with that. So I would like to make a motion that we declare a State of Emergency for purposes of FEMA reimbursement to protect our citizens in the event of flooding as a result of Hurricane Erika. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'll second that motion. COMMISSIONER HILLER: Thank you. And I do have a couple of other things, but I'd like to go ahead with a vote first and then I want to mention two more things. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Let's have some discussion. Commissioner Henning? COMMISSIONER HENNING: Did the Governor lift the State Page 12 August 29, 2015 of Emergency? MR. SUMMERS: No, sir. And he does have an executive order for a State of Emergency. And I was not privy to any of the background details earlier today, but I would expect that to stay in place not only as a result of some of the rainfall and flooding issues in central Florida, but as well as the Tampa Bay region as well. So with a secondary event, I suspect he will keep that open. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And is anticipation that this storm event is going to be off the coast of Naples Sunday? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER HENNING: In the afternoon? MR. SUMMERS: Well, more or less. Right now we saw a dramatic change in the forward motioned had decreased, so we could be into a Sunday evening, Monday event. The challenge, Commissioners, quite frankly, and the Hurricane Center has struggled with this, is what are the characteristics of the remnant low after it comes off Cuba and hits some warmer water. However, there is a fair amount of dry area north of that. So it really is a little bit of a roll of the dice at this point. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Yeah, in light of-- Mr. Summers, you mentioned you were expecting extreme high tides or very high tides? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN NANCE: I think that Commissioner Hiller's motion is probably wise. And I certainly don't want to alarm our citizenry, but in light of the fact that we could experience a great deal of erosion, you know, some of our most serious beach erosion events have occurred not from named storms but from lows that have, you know, thrashed us pretty severely. And I certainly want to thank Mayor Sorey and Mr. Moss for coming in here. We don't want to see anything disrupting their Page 13 August 29, 2015 reconstruction of the pier or we don't want to see beach erosion and not have ourselves eligible for whatever we might be. And I think since the Governor has not lifted -- I think it's just a cautionary step that I think might be appropriate. Commissioner Taylor? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Let me throw in to say it's better to be safe than sorry. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I would agree. CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right, any -- Mr. Klatzkow? MR. KLATZKOW: We have a prepared resolution declaring a State of Emergency. I take it that's the one, Commissioner, that you'd like to use? I've modified it slightly to change it to the Remnants of Tropical Storm Erika rather than Tropical Storm Erika. Otherwise it would be the same. Just in case this turns out to be much worse than we anticipated, it gives staff the ability to quickly come in there and clean it up. And I do think it's a wise idea. But just for clarity, I wanted to make sure that this is the resolution you're referring to. COMMISSIONER HILLER: I think this is the appropriate resolution as you've suggested, and modification, and I'll amend my motion to add that we will be adopting this resolution as modified by you in your most recent statement. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Is that fine for you, Commissioner Fiala, your second? COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Thank you. Mr. Miller, do we have any public speakers, sir? MR. MILLER: We do not, sir. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Do not. All right. MR. OCHS: Chairman, I think County Attorney wants to put that on the visualizer so you have it in front of you as a reference with Page 14 August 29, 2015 those minor changes in the whereas clauses, as Commissioner Hiller had indicated. CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right. I think that's -- thanks for your preparation on that. I think it's appropriate. Is there any other further discussion on the Board? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Aye. COMMISSIONER HILLER: Aye. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Any opposed? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: All right. Well, we'll adopt that unanimously because of-- on a cautionary basis. I think that's a wise move. Any other further comments by anyone? Commissioner Hiller? COMMISSIONER HILLER: Yes, thank you. The other two things I want to address is the community is just now aware of the website that you have created. And I think it's important that you bring that out here at this meeting. Because not everybody reads the Naples Daily News, so as a result there are a lot of people out there who may not know what you have done, Dan. And so I would ask that you address this and make people aware of how to get to that website. The second thing that I would like to address, and I think this is extremely important, our community has a very large population that is hearing impaired to some degree because we have a very large elderly population. And one of the things that Governor Scott did in his Page 15 August 29, 2015 address was he had a gentleman who used sign language so that everybody could understand. And I think that we ought to adopt the same standard. For all emergency meetings we ought to have someone who can communicate what we are saying here on the dais and what staff is saying through sign language. And then what happens is when the media picks up our presentation, they will clip the interpreter's presentation and they will add it on the TV screens so those who are hearing impaired can have the benefit of the same information. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am, thank you. We're very sensitive to that. And honestly, it was one of those things that we had for our major hurricane major event checklist and we need to add that to our tropical storm list -- COMMISSIONER HILLER: We do. MR. SUMMERS: -- and we'll do that. COMMISSIONER HILLER: And again, because of the risk of flooding and tornadoes, I think for any emergency event, whether it's a hurricane or what I just listed, this should be a standard for us. I have the name of the gentleman who did the interpretation and I'll go ahead and let you take his card and you can communicate with him. MR. SUMMERS: Very good. COMMISSIONER HILLER: So can you speak to the website? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much for the plug there on collierem.org, colliergov.net and our new social site, collier72. And Mike Moreland, who was the project manager on that, Michael Moreland pulled that together for us. We're very, very proud. It has a unique look and feel to it and a social media environment. And we've had an enormous engagement on that site already to generate the spirit of a community effort towards preparedness, not just government giving you information. So we thank you for that. Page 16 August 29, 2015 We're going to continue. It's brand new. We're going to continue to refine that and we have an opportunity for a little bit of video interaction in there and some things that put that at the level of the average guy on the street, so to speak. So we're very excited about that. Michael did a lot of work on that particular project, and we're going to continue to refine that. Thank you for that opportunity. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Mr. Chairman, could I add something or ask something? CHAIRMAN NANCE: Commissioner Fiala, please. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you very much. I was wondering also, Dan, have you added that to our TV programming so that there's regular notification through that that this site even exists, that those different forms of communication exists, so that people, whether it be now during a hurricane or afterwards when they want to see what we have there they would be able to pull that up through their TV? And through our TV programming. And also, I wanted to ask if the TV programming also contains the hearing impaired person who would then tell them what they're seeing. MR. SUMMERS: I think we can add that to the shot in future meetings, if that becomes necessary. I'll defer to Troy. MR. MILLER: Yeah, in previous meetings, Commissioners, we've always had the sign language person here. And it was always included in the shot on the television so that it was there. It's not something -- I don't know about going back in and doing it on this meeting after the fact, but -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, no. MR. MILLER: Okay. But yeah, we've always done that that and that's always been a standard procedure for us in the past. COMMISSIONER HILLER: We do want to make sure that it's something available to all the other media sources, which is why we Page 17 August 29, 2015 need someone here. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am. We'll go to work on that. COMMISSIONER HILLER: The only last comment I'd like to make is Commissioner Henning very properly asked the question about whether or not the Governor had lifted the State of Emergency for the state. That question was asked of the Governor and the Governor said that he was not going to lift it. He also, when asked when he thought he was going to lift it, would not commit. So it's very appropriate to, you know, follow the lead of the state and if, you know, the state maintains the State of Emergency, we should be equally vigilant and when they lift it we should be equally relaxed. That was a very good point. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Yes, Mr. Summers, I've got a couple of things I'd like to mention. And I think -- you want to make some comments, Mr. Sheffield? MR. SHEFFIELD: No, I'm fine. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Okay. Yeah, Mr. Summers, a couple things. Out in Eastern Collier County right now, you know, we're -- the South Florida Water Management District is balancing the management of threats. And of course the water level that they're holding right now is very high because we're getting into the first part of September and it's the time of the year when we want to save water, save our water resources and we don't want to discharge them prematurely because of that. So if you wouldn't mind, I hope that you will communicate with the Big Cypress Basin and advise them that our cautionary maneuver here is not a request for them to massively discharge water when it's not warranted. Because we've seen -- you know, in recent years I think they've done an extraordinary job. Ms. Koehler the Administrator has done a very, very good job in improving that. But sometimes those Page 18 August 29, 2015 decisions are made in West Palm Beach well away from, you know, where our water resources are located. And I don't want to see a decision made over the weekend which we've seen in the past which, you know, we lose a lot of water unnecessarily. So if you wouldn't mind just making sure that you touch base with them, I would appreciate it. MR. SUMMERS: We will. And we did a hurricane briefing. We did cross-train our staff with them earlier this year, so that interaction is ready to go. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Yes, thank you. And secondly, when you have your meeting this afternoon and you discuss readiness and whatnot, I think there is a concern out there. And one of them is our relationship with the Red Cross relative to the FEMA designation of much of our county as a flood zone. So I think there is some anxiety, particularly in the school district, regarding staffing of our shelters, which of course we're not utilizing right now. But if you wouldn't mind, sir, would you review that and get back to the Board and let us know what your recommendation is on staffing of the shelters in light of the relationship between FEMA and the Red Cross? Because I believe that's very important to us. Maybe not today but, you know, one day. MR. SUMMERS: Yes, sir, will do. Thank you for that opportunity. It is a challenge that we're having right now. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Yes, sir, thank you very much. Any other comments from Commissioners? Commissioner Hiller? COMMISSIONER HILLER: I think lastly, we as members of the Board show our appreciation and thanks to Governor Scott for being here in Collier County at this time and looking out for the interests of Southwest Florida. We very much appreciate his concern and his commitment to this community. Page 19 August 29, 2015 CHAIRMAN NANCE: Indeed. MR. SUMMERS: Very good. That dialogue with his staff has been excellent this week. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Absolutely. Any further comments? (No response.) CHAIRMAN NANCE: Hearing none, we'll entertain a motion to adjourn. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to adjourn. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Second. CHAIRMAN NANCE: Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone for attending today. ***** Page 20 August 29, 2015 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 12:35 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL TIM NANCE, CHAIRMAN ATTEST: DWIGHT,-. BROCK, CLERK bLA'. &LA "C Attest:s to .ha',. an s signatur These minutes approved by the Board on ,` „r\JoPr 22,2-)/5 as presented or as corrected Transcript prepared on behalf of Gregory Court Reporting, Incorporated by Cherie' R. Nottingham, CSR. Page 21