BCC Minutes 10/10/2017 ROctober 10, 2017
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, October 10, 2017
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the
Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special
districts as have been created according to law and having conducted
business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in REGULAR SESSION
in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida,
with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN: Penny Taylor
Andrew Solis
Donna Fiala
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Burt L. Saunders
ALSO PRESENT:
Leo Ochs, County Manager
Nick Casalanguida, Deputy County Manager
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Crystal Kinzel, Director of Finance & Accounting
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
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October 10, 2017
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Community Redevelopment Agency Board (CRAB)
Airport Authority
AGENDA
Board of County Commission Chambers
Collier County Government Center
3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor
Naples, FL 34112
October 10, 2017
9:00 AM
Commissioner Penny Taylor, District 4 – BCC Chair
Commissioner Andy Solis, District 2 – BCC Vice-Chair
Commissioner Donna Fiala, District 1 CRAB Co-Chair
Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3
Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5 CRAB Co-Chair
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS MUST
REGISTER 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.
REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON
THIS AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION
TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF
THE MEETING AND WILL BE HEARD UNDER “PUBLIC PETITIONS.”
PUBLIC PETITIONS ARE LIMITED TO THE PRESENTER, WITH A
MAXIMUM TIME OF TEN MINUTES.
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD
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October 10, 2017
WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDING PERTAINING THERETO,
AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD
OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE
TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
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.
IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY
ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING,
YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN
ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY FACILITIES
MANAGEMENT DIVISION LOCATED AT 3335 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL,
SUITE 1, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112-5356, (239) 252-8380; ASSISTED
LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN
THE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DIVISION.
LUNCH RECESS SCHEDULED FOR 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 P.M.
1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
A. Invocation by Reverend Beverly Duncan of Naples United Church of Christ
2. AGENDA AND MINUTES
A. Approval of today's regular, consent and summary agenda as amended (ex
parte disclosure provided by commission members for consent agenda.)
B. September 6, 2017 - BCC/Emergency Meeting Hurricane Irma Meeting
Minutes
C. September 7, 2017 - BCC/Budget Hearing Minutes
3. AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
A. EMPLOYEE
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October 10, 2017
1) 20 YEAR ATTENDEES
a) John Kelly, Zoning
b) Michael Toolan, Park and Recreation
c) Kathy Topoleski, Parks and Recreation
d) Susan Usher, Office of Management and Budget
2) 25 YEAR ATTENDEES
a) Edwin Barroso, Parks and Recreation
b) Timothy Stick, Building Review and Permitting
3) 30 YEAR ATTENDEES
a) Ramiro Ponce, Road Maintenance
b) Steve Ritter, Transportation Engineering
c) David Streit, Water
d) Pat Webb, Facilities Management
4) 35 YEAR ATTENDEES
B. ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
C. RETIREES
D. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
1) Recommendation to recognize Andres Santamaria, Maintenance
Specialist, Growth Management Department as the August 2017
Employee of the Month.
4. PROCLAMATIONS
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October 10, 2017
A. Proclamation designating October 2017 as Domestic Violence Awareness
Month in Collier County. To be accepted by Linda Oberhaus, Chief
Executive Officer, the Shelter for Abused Women & Children.
B. Proclamation designating October 9 - 13, 2017 as Accounts Payable
Recognition Week in Collier County. To be accepted by Robin Sheley,
Operations Manager for the Clerk of Courts and accounts payable staff.
5. PRESENTATIONS
A. Presentation of the Collier County Business of the Month for October 2017
to Naples Harley-Davidson. To be accepted by John Greene, Business
Partner and Bethany Sawyer with the Naples Chamber of Commerce.
B. Presentation of the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for Fiscal Year
2017 from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) presented
to the Office of Management and Budget. To be accepted by Mark Isackson,
Corporate Financial Planning and Management Services Director.
C. Hurricane Irma Status Report with Dan Summers, Bureau of Emergency
Services Division Director
D. This item to be heard at 11:00 a.m. Presentation by Drs. Michael Savarese,
Professor of Marine Science, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), and
Peter Sheng, Professor of Coastal & Environmental Engineering, University
of Florida (UF) on a Web-Based Interactive Decision-Support Tool for
Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems in Southwest Florida
and Presentation of Sea Level Rise Report and Recommendations for Collier
County by Dr. Benjamin Strauss, Vice President for Sea Level and Climate
Impacts, Climate Central.
6. PUBLIC PETITIONS
7. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE CURRENT
OR FUTURE AGENDA
8. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
9. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
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October 10, 2017
A. This item has been continued from the September 26, 2017 BCC
meeting and further continued to the October 24, 2017 BCC meeting.
This item requires that all participants be sworn in and ex parte
disclosure be provided by Commission members. Recommendation to
approve an Ordinance amending Ordinance Number 95 -33, the Briarwood
PUD, as amended, to add 320 multi-family dwelling units in Tract B & C:
multi-family residential as an alternative to commercial development on
Tract B & C: commercial community; to add development standards for
Tract B & C multi-family residential; to add Exhibit A-1 Tract B & C
Master Plan and Exhibit A-2 enhanced Type D buffer for property consisting
of 209.17± acres; located on the east side of Livingston Road, north of Radio
Road, in Section 31, Township 49 South, Range 26 East, Collier County,
Florida; and by providing an effective date. (PL20170000007)
B. This item has been continued from the September 26, 2017 BCC
Meeting Agenda. This item requires that all participants be sworn in
and ex parte disclosure be provided by Commission members.
Recommendation to approve an amendment to Ordinance Number 2005 -63,
as amended, the Cirrus Pointe RPUD, to reduce the minimum floor area for
multi family dwelling units, and to approve a second amended and restated
Affordable Housing Density Bonus Agreement to allow the Developer to
have the option of constructing owner occupied units or rental units
designated as Affordable Housing Units. The subject property, consisting of
9.92± acres, is located at the northeast corner of Bayshore Drive and
Thomasson Drive, in Section 14, Township 50 South, Range 25 East, Collier
County, Florida. [PUDA- PL20170001626]
10. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
11. COUNTY MANAGER'S REPORT
A. Recommendation to approve the proposed Collier County State and Federal
Legislative Priorities for 2018 and adopt the attached resolutions. (John
Mullins, Government Affairs Manager)
B. Recommendation to provide an update of the current analysis for the
establishment of a Stormwater Utility and gather any commissioner or
public comments. (Thaddeus Cohen, Department Head, Growth
Management Department)
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C. Recommendation to reject offer from Winchester Lakes Corporation and
Francis and Mary Hussey to enter into a public private partnership with the
County for the property located in Sections 29 and 32, Township 49S, Range
27E. (Toni Mott, Manager – Property Acquisition & Construction
Management, Facilities Management Division)
D. Recommendation to approve the Fiscal Year 2017-18 Strategic Marketing
Plan for the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors
Bureau (CVB) and make a finding that this plan promotes tourism. (Jack
Wert, Division Director, Tourism)
E. Recommendation to implement the State Housing Initiative Partnership
(SHIP) Disaster Strategy and approve associated technical revisions,
approve a FY2016 - 2019 Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP)
Amendment 3 to add a new Demolition and/or Replacement of Site Built
Mobile/Manufactured Housing Strategy, approve a spending plan for all
unencumbered funds to be used for disaster recovery activities, and approve
hiring of additional staff to administer the accelerated spending plan. (Kim
Grant, Director, Community and Human Services)
F. Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a sub -
recipient agreement with Habitat for Humanity of Collier County for an
activity previously approved in the FY2017-18 Action Plan for the
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. (Kim Grant,
Director, Community and Human Services)
G. Recommendation to direct the County Manager to deny the request for
refunds for the permitting fees paid by two wildland fire victims, totaling
$4,772.27, from the General Fund. (James French, Deputy Department
Head, Growth Management Department)
H. Recommendation to direct staff to meet with the Development Services
Advisory Committee (DSAC) and the Collier Building Industry Association
(CBIA) to explore potential emergency permitting processes and building
permit fee considerations during declared disasters and provide subsequent
recommendations to the Board. (Jamie French, Deputy Department Head)
I. Recommendation to complete the Annual Performance Appraisal for the
County Manager. (Leo E. Ochs, Jr., County Manager)
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12. COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT
A. The Annual Performance Appraisal for the County Attorney
13. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
14. AIRPORT AUTHORITY AND/OR COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
A. AIRPORT
B. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
15. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
A. Upcoming BCC Workshop Schedule
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16. CONSENT AGENDA - All matters listed under this item are considered to be
routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion of
each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the Board, that item(s) will
be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered separately.
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A. GROWTH MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) This item requires that ex parte disclosure be provided by
Commission members. Should a hearing be held on this item, all
participants are required to be sworn in. Recommendation to
approve for recording the final plat of Hadley Place West,
(Application Number 20160002629) approval of the standard form
Construction and Maintenance Agreement and approval of the amount
of the performance security.
2) This item requires that ex parte disclosure be provided by
Commission members. Should a hearing be held on this item, all
participants are required to be sworn in. Recommendation to
approve for recording the final plat of Marquesa Isles of Naples,
(Application Number PL20160002811) approval of the standard form
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Construction and Maintenance Agreement and approval of the amount
of the performance security.
3) This item requires that ex parte disclosure be provided by
Commission members. Should a hearing be held on this item, all
participants are required to be sworn in. Recommendation to
approve for recording the final plat of Azure at Hacienda Lakes –
Phase 2, (Application Number PL20170001741) approval of the
standard form Construction and Maintenance Agreement and approval
of the amount of the performance security.
4) Recommendation to approve final acceptance and unconditional
conveyance of the potable water and sewer utility facilities for Isles of
Collier Preserve, Phase 6, PL20160000742, and to authorize the
County Manager, or his designee, to release the Final Obligation Bond
in the total amount of $4,000 to the Project Engineer or the
Developer’s designated agent.
5) Recommendation to approve final acceptance and unconditional
conveyance of the potable water and sewer utility facilities for Isles of
Collier Preserve, Phase 2E, PL20160000960, and to authorize the
County Manager, or his designee, to release the Final Obligation Bond
in the total amount of $4,000 to the Project Engineer or the
Developer’s designated agent.
6) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the sewer utility
facilities for Meridian Village (AKA Beach House), PL20160000399,
and to authorize the County Manager, or his designee, to release the
Utilities Performance Security (UPS) and Final Obligation Bond in
the total amount of $9,380.65 to the Project Engineer or the
Developer’s designated agent.
7) Recommendation to approve final acceptance and unconditional
conveyance of the sewer utility facilities for Collier Area Transit
Transfer Facility, PL20150000969.
8) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a Cash
Bond in the amount of $25,000 to Fortress Ventures, LLC which was
posted as a guaranty for Excavation Permit Number 60.149,
PL20160002746 for work associated with Thrive Naples.
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9) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $245,829.60 which was posted as
a guaranty for Excavation Permit Number 60.080-9, PL20160000520
for work associated with Isles of Collier Preserve, Phase 8.
10) Recommendation to approve the release of a code enforcement lien
with an accrued value of $21,600 for payment of $1,000 in the code
enforcement action entitled Board of County Commissioners v. ORI
& BHNV LLC, Code Enforcement Board Case No.
CEPM20150018950 relating to property located at 4201 Rose
Avenue, Collier County, Florida.
11) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign the
Utility Facilities Quit-Claim Deed and Bill of Sale between Collier
County and Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc., in order to
reconvey to Vanderbilt Community Association, Inc, all fire lines
utility facilities associated with the development at Vanderbilt Fitness
Center, PL 20140000162, which were previously erroneously
conveyed to the County.
12) Recommendation to approve a Capital Improvement Project of
approximately $114,208, for the installation of two (2) Beach Tractor
Shelters to be installed at the Tigertail Beach Park and the Vanderbilt
Beach Parking Garage to facilitate adequate equipment protection and
cleaning operations to prolong the operational life of beach cleaning
equipment and make a finding that this item promotes tourism.
13) Recommendation to review and approve the Fiscal Year 2018 Capital
Improvement Plan of the Big Cypress Basin, a part of the South
Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).
14) Recommendation to approve a resolution approving the Collier
County/Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
Comprehensive Multi-Year Implementation Plan and authorize staff
to transmit the Plan to the Department of the Treasury for review and
approval in order to draw down approximately $1.5 million funding
allocated to Collier County from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
15) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution amending Resolution 2014 -
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186, relating to the Stewardship Sending Area with a designation as
“CLH SSA 14”; approving the extension of certain dates to November
18, 2020 in the Stewardship Sending Area credit agreement for CLH
SSA 14 and the Escrow Agreement for CLH SSA 14.
16) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution amending Resolution 2014-
187, relating to the Stewardship Sending Area with a designation as
“CLH and CDC SSA 15”; approving the extension of certain dates to
November 18, 2020 in the Stewardship Sending Area credit
agreement for CLH and CDC SSA 15 and the Escrow Agreement for
CLH and CDC SSA 15.
17) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution amending Resolution 2014 -
188, relating to the Stewardship Sending Area with a designation as
“CLH and CDC SSA 16”; approving the extension of certain dates to
November 18, 2020 in the Stewardship Sending Area credit
agreement for CLH and CDC SSA 16 and the Escrow Agreement for
CLH and CDC SSA 16.
18) Recommendation to approve award of Invitation To Bid No. 17-7054
Beach Maintenance Activities to Eastman Aggregate Enterprises,
LLC for an as-needed contract for emergency beach maintenance
services, authorize the Chair to sign the attached contract, and make a
finding that this activity promotes tourism.
19) Recommendation to approve a Local Area Program (LAP) Agreement
(FPN 436971-1-58-01) with the Florida Department of Transportation
(FDOT) in which Collier County will receive reimbursement up to the
amount of $340,000 to automate and expand traffic count stations and
associated components, throughout Collier County; and to execute a
Resolution and authorize the necessary budget amendment. (Project
No. 33537)
20) Recommendation to award Contract Number 16 -7016 to Kisinger
Campo & Associates, Corporation for professional engineering
services for Independent Peer Review of Bridge Replacement or
Rehabilitation Projects in the amount of $202,442, pursuant to RFP
Number 16-7016, and authorize the Chairman to execute the attached
contract (Project No. 66066).
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21) Recommendation to extend ITB No. 13-6140 “Purchase of Lime Rock
and Fill” for an additional one hundred eighty (180) days or until a
new contract is awarded, whichever occurs first.
22) Recommendation to approve staff initiated recovery practices for
property damage caused by Hurricane Irma which promote
streamlined and safe build-back efforts. In addition, to approve
several temporary measures to ease recovery efforts for a period of
180 days or as extended by the Board of County Commissioners
(Board).
B. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
1) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners (BCC ),
acting in its capacity as the Community Redevelopment Agency
(CRA), approve the attendance of two Immokalee Local Advisory
Board members at the Florida Redevelopment Association 2017
Annual Conference; authorize payment of attendees’ registration,
lodging, travel and per diem from the Immokalee CRA Trust Fund
(Fund 186) travel budget; and declare the training received as serving
a valid public purpose.
C. PUBLIC UTILITIES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve a $336,562.45 work order under Request
for Quotation 14-6213-104 to Quality Enterprises USA, Inc., under
Project Number 70198, “MPS 302 Diesel Bypass Piping;” and
authorize the necessary budget amendment.
D. PUBLIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairwoman to
execute a Collier County Tourist Development Council (TDC)
Category “A” Grant Agreement with the City of Naples for $200,000
for the City of Naples’ 8th Avenue South Beach Park Improvements
and make the finding that the project promotes tourism.
2) Recommendation to approve eight mortgage satisfactions for the State
Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) loan program in the combined
amount of $96,050.
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October 10, 2017
3) Recommendation to approve a Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG) release of a 20-year lien for the associated Boys & Girls
Club of Collier County land acquisition project consistent with CDBG
requirements.
4) Recommendation to approve a Release of Lien to combine release of
three (3) separate liens with one developer for a combined amount of
$23,096.46 for properties developed by Habitat for Humanity of
Collier County, Inc. that have remained affordable for the required 15-
year period set forth in the State Housing Initiatives Partnership
(SHIP) Impact Fee program deferral agreements.
5) Recommendation to approve a Release of Lien to combine release of
29 separate liens with one developer for a combined amount of
$197,636.92 for properties developed by Immokalee Habitat for
Humanity, Inc and also known as Habitat for Humanity of Collier
County, Inc. that have remained affordable for the required 15-year
period set forth in the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP)
Impact Fee program deferral agreements.
6) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign the
Vendor Certification Regarding Scrutinized Companies List to
comply with a requirement of the grant award from the Florida
Department of Children and Families (DCF) for the Criminal Justice
Mental Health and Substance Abuse (CJMHSA) Reinvestment Grant.
7) Recommendation to accept the Community Development Bl ock Grant
(CDBG) Subrecipient Agreement Extension report for the third
quarter 2017.
8) Recommendation to accept and ratify fee waivers granted by the
Director of Domestic Animal Services for the period of April 1, 2017
through June 30, 2017 in accordance with the process established by
Resolution No. 2016-125 in the amount of $520.
9) Recommendation to approve a donation of $17,114 as off-site
preservation for 808 Wiggins Pass Road SDP (PL2016001111) to
satisfy the native vegetation retention requirement.
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October 10, 2017
10) Recommendation to approve the after the fact submittal of a 2017
FTA 5339 Bus and Bus Facilities grant application in the amount of
$368,000 for the purchase and installation of electric fan cooling
systems on sixteen fixed-route vehicles.
11) Recommendation to approve a Collier County Tourist Development
Council (TDC) Category “A” Grant Application for Beach Park
Facilities in the amount of $67,000 to install the T-2 Flex AutoCount
System at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park authorize the Chairman to
execute the Grant Agreement with the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection, and make a finding that the project
expenditure promotes tourism.
12) This item was continued from the September 26, 2017 meeting.
Recommendation to authorize execution of a Solar Lease Agreement
with the Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) for North Collier
Regional Park (NCRP).
13) Recommendation to approve the proposed route modifications to
Routes 22 and 23 serving Immokalee within the Collier Area Transit
(CAT) System.
14) Recommendation to approve the Eighth Amendment to the
Subrecipient Agreement with Big Cypress Housing Corporation and
Collier County to decrease funding in the amount of $60,000 to
eliminate fencing for the project known as Hatchers Preserve.
E. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Florida Emergency Medical Services County Grant Application,
Request for Grant Fund Distribution Form and Resolution in the
amount of $68,984 for Training and Medical/Rescue Equipment and
to authorize the necessary Budget Amendment.
2) Recommendation to approve First Amendment to Agreement #14 -
6293 with Millennium Physician Group, LLC to add limited
pharmacy services through the MedCenter.
3) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a
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October 10, 2017
revised Agreement with Hodges University to allow Hodges
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Paramedic students to
obtain State-required field internship experience and training under
the appropriate supervision of the Collier County Emergency Medical
Services Division; this Agreement was previously approved by the
Board on April 25, 2017 and Hodges subsequently requested
additional edits to the Agreement.
4) Recommendation to approve an “after-the-fact” request for public
assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
for reimbursement of expenses incurred during Hurricane Irma.
5) Recommendation to approve the Administrative Reports prepared by
the Procurement Services Division for change orders and other
contractual modifications requiring Board approval.
6) Recommendation to authorize routine and customary budget
amendments appropriating carry forward budget in the amount of
$6,062,082.56 for approved open purchase orders into Fiscal Year
2018.
F. COUNTY MANAGER OPERATIONS
1) This item continued from the September 26, 2017 BCC Meeting.
Board ratification of Summary, Consent and Regular Agenda Items
approved by the County Manager during the Board's scheduled recess.
(In Absentia Meeting(s) dated July 25, 2017; August 8, 2017 and
August 22, 2017).
July 25, 2017
a) Recommendation to approve a credit adjustment to Tiara Real
Estate, Co., LLC with respect to utilities account
#03902380000 for sewer services at 13325 Tamiami Trail N.,
due to onsite redevelopment in April 2012 by Tiara Real Estate,
Co., LLC.
b) Recommendation to accept the after-the-fact grant offer to the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) for
funding in the amount of $4,529 for the purchase and delivery
of three (3) Bearsaver Trash Receptacles for three (3) Collier
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October 10, 2017
County park/preserve sites.
c) Recommendation to approve the administrative report prepared
by the Procurement Services Division for disposal of property
and notification of items available for surplus.
d) Recommendation to approve the administrative reports
prepared by the Procurement Services Division for change
orders and other items as identified.
e) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public
purpose for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions
as of July 19, 2017.
f) To record in the minutes of the Board of County
Commissioners, the check number (or other payment method),
amount, payee, and purpose for which the referenced
disbursements were drawn for the periods between June 29 and
July 12, 2017, pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06.
August 8, 2017
a) To provide the Board of County Commissioners the Clerk of
the Circuit Court’s Internal Audit Report 2017 -8 Fee Payment
Assistance Program: Arthrex, Inc., Arthrex Manufacturing,
Inc., and RES Collier Holdings, LLC, issued on July 26, 2017.
b) Recommendation to approve the administrative reports
prepared by the Procurement Services Division for change
orders and other items as identified.
c) Recommendation to terminate for convenience the award for
ITB #16-70019 for “Printing of Tourism Guides” awarded to
Graphic Reproductions, Inc., of Titusville FL d/b/a Graphic
Press.
d) To record in the minutes of the Board of County Commissioner,
the check number (or other payment method), amount, payee,
and purpose for which the referenced disbursements were
drawn for the periods between July 13 and July 26, 2017,
pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06.
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October 10, 2017
e) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public
purpose for invoices payable and purchasing card
transactions as of August 2, 2017.
f) Report to the Board regarding the investment of County funds
as of the quarter ended June 30, 2017.
August 22, 2017
a) Recommendation to award ITB No. 17-7180 Collier County
Landscape Beautification Master Plan – Santa Barbara
Boulevard (Davis Boulevard to I-75 Bridge) Landscape and
Irrigation Installation Construction Project to Hannula
Landscaping and Irrigation, Inc. in the amount of $449,937.60
(Project No. 60207) and authorize the necessary budget
amendment.
b) Recommendation to approve submittal of a Grant Application
to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation for the
purchase of decontamination equipment in the amount of
$15,438.
c) Recommendation to approve the administrative report prepared
by the Procurement Services Division for disposal of property
and notification of items available for surplus.
d) Recommendation to approve the administrative reports
prepared by the Procurement Services Division for change
orders and other items as identified.
e) To record in the minutes of the Board of County
Commissioners, the check number (or other payment method),
amount, payee, and purpose for which the referenced
disbursements were drawn for the periods between July 27 and
August 9, 2047, pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06.
f) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public
purpose for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions
as of August 16, 2017.
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October 10, 2017
2) Recommendation to waive formal competition and authorize the
continual use of GovMax budget software as a single source and to
approve a five-year contract with a one year renewal option with
Sarasota County for Governmental Management System (GovMax)
Hosted Application Service and License Agreement for maintenance,
support and enhancements to the GovMax budget software.
3) Recommendation to approve the hiring of 3 full time employees in
place of full time temporary laborers currently used by Pelican Bay
Services Division to supplement the labor necessary to maintain the
community and to authorize the necessary Budget Amendment to
transfer funds from the temporary labor cost center to personnel
services.
4) Recommendation to approve Tourist Development Tax Promotion
and Marketing funding to support the four upcoming November 2017
Sports Tourism Events up to $27,700 and make a finding that these
expenditures promote tourism.
5) Recommendation to approve the usage of the Event & Athletic
Application for Sports Tourism in an effort to assist in the Sports
Tourism promotion for Collier County staff and event organizers alike
and authorize the County Manager or his designee to execute the
Application.
6) Recommendation to approve the 2017 Football University (FBU)
event operating and promotional expenses support budget of $372,0 00
and $140,000 for media expenses using Tourist Development Tax
Promotion Funds, approve and authorize the Chair to execute the First
Amendment to the Agreement with All American Games, and make a
finding that this event promotes tourism.
7) Recommendation to approve Tourist Development Tax funding in the
amount of $34,500 for Contract #17-7229-WV – Sports Facilities
Assessment with Hunden Strategic Partners for the development of
the New Amateur Sports Complex and make a finding that these
expenditures promote tourism.
8) Recommendation to approve the form of agreement between the
Board and applicants participating in the Immokalee Impact Fee
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October 10, 2017
Installment Payment Pilot Program (Program) adopted by the Board
on July 11, 2017, allowing for payment of impact fees by an
installment program, and to establish an interest rate, term length and
administrative fees for the Program.
9) Recommendation to approve the use of $250,000 in Tourism Division
Emergency Advertising Reserves for a post Hurricane Irma
advertising and Public Relations recovery plan, authorize any related
budget amendments, and make a finding that this plan promotes
tourism.
10) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute
an agreement with the Friends of the Fakahatchee for a wayfinding
project that includes trail signage, promotional materials, advertising,
PR, Digital and Social media promotion of the trails network at the
Fakahatchee Strand in the amount of $46,720 and make a finding that
this expenditure promotes tourism.
11) This item was continued from the September 26, 2017 BCC
Meeting. Recommendation to approve the updated request for
Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (COPCN), for Just
Like Family Concierge Medical Transport Services, LLC., DBA
Concierge Medical Transport (CMT), to provide Class 2 Advanced
Life Support (ALS) inter-facility transport ambulance service for a
period of one year.
12) Recommendation to adopt a resolution approving amendments
(appropriating grants, donations, contributions or insurance proceeds)
to the Fiscal Year 2017-18 Adopted Budget.
13) Recommendation to approve additional FY 2018 budget amendments
covering post Hurricane Irma clean up and recovery for the County-
wide debris removal mission, funding for Everglades City pursuant to
the recently approved inter-local agreement and certain cash flow
requirements in Emergency Disaster Fund (003).
14) Recommendation to authorize a FY2018 budget amendment in
Emergency Disaster Fund (003) in the amount of $400,000 intended
to provide budget to pay for goods and services incurred prior to and
in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Funds in the amount of $500,000
Page 19
October 10, 2017
were previously authorized by the board on September 6, 2017 but
these FY2017 funds were not encumbered by fiscal year end and thus
this budget did not roll forward because Fund (003) is not a capital
fund.
15) Recommendation to renew and approve the annual Agreement
between the Southwest Florida Economic Development Alliance, Inc.
and Collier County in continued support of the established public-
private partnership designed to advance the County’s economic
development efforts.
16) Recommendation to renew and approve the annual Agreement
between the Partnership for Collier’s Future Economy, Inc.
(“Partnership”) and Collier County in continued support of the
established public-private partnership designed to advance the
County’s economic development efforts.
17) Recommendation to renew and approve the annual Agreement
between Economic Incubators, Inc. and the Board of County
Commissioners in continued support of the established public-private
partnership designed to advance the County’s economic development
efforts.
G. AIRPORT AUTHORITY
H. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
1) Proclamation designating October 10, 2017 as Tzu Chi Foundation
Day in Collier County. This proclamation will be hand delivered by
Chairman Taylor.
2) Recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise and bring
back for a public hearing an ordinance reestablishing the Productivity
Committee.
3) Recommendation to provide a letter of support for a grant application
from the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council to the U.S.
EDA to fund a disaster recovery coordinator position.
I. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE
Page 20
October 10, 2017
J. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
1) Recommendation to extend the 2017 Tax Roll at the request of Tax
Collector Larry Ray.
2) Recommendation to approve an Interlocal Agreement for Election
Services for the February 6, 2018, City of Naples municipal election.
3) Recommendation to approve Tax Collector request for advance
commissions in accordance with Florida Statute 192.102(1) for FY
2018.
4) To record in the minutes of the Board of County Commissioners, the
check number (or other payment method), amount, payee, and purpose
for which the referenced disbursements were drawn for the periods
between September 14 and September 27, 2017 pursuant to Florida
Statute 136.06.
5) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public purpose
for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions as of October 4,
2017.
K. COUNTY ATTORNEY
1) Recommendation to appoint two members to the Public Transit
Advisory Committee.
2) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release in the lawsuit styled
Sharon and Lee Rubenstein v. Hannula Landscaping and Irrigation,
Inc. and Collier County (Case No. 16-CA-2045), now pending in the
Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in and for Collier
County, Florida, for $75,000, with payment to be made by Hannula’s
insurance carrier and no contribution by Collier County.
3) Recommendation to approve a Joint Motion for Stipulated Order of
Taking and Final Judgment in the amount of $9,000 for Parcel
427RDUE, in the lawsuit captioned Collier County v. Leondese
Bichotte, et al, Case No. 17-CA-1443, required for the Golden Gate
Page 21
October 10, 2017
Boulevard Expansion Project No. 60145. (Fiscal Impact: $9,170)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. SUMMARY AGENDA - This section is for advertised public hearings and
must meet the following criteria: 1) A recommendation for approval from
staff; 2) Unanimous recommendation for approval by the Collier County
Planning Commission or other authorizing agencies of all members present
and voting; 3) No written or oral objections to the item received by staff, the
Collier County Planning Commission, other authorizing agencies or the
Board, prior to the commencement of the BCC meeting on which the items
are scheduled to be heard; and 4) No individuals are registered to speak in
opposition to the item. For those items which are quasi-judicial in nature, all
participants must be sworn in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. This item requires that ex parte disclosure be provided by Commission
members. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve Petition VAC-
PL20170001877 to disclaim, renounce and vacate the conservation easement
described in O.R. Book 5079, Page 1855 of the Public Records of Collier
County, Florida. The subject property is located on the north side of Elsa
Street, approximately one-quarter mile east of Shirley Street, in Section 11,
Township 49 South, Range 25 East, Collier County, Florida.
B. Recommendation to adopt a resolution approving amendments
(appropriating carry forward, transfers and supplemental revenue) to the
Fiscal Year 2016-17 Adopted Budget.
C. Recommendation to adopt a resolution approving amendments
(appropriating carry forward, transfers and supplemental revenue) to the
Fiscal Year 2017-18 Adopted Budget.
18. ADJOURN
INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD’S AGENDA SHOULD
BE MADE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE AT 252-8383.
October 10, 2017
Page 2
MR. OCHS: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your
seats.
Madam Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good morning. Good morning,
everyone. So nice to see so many people here. We have a very special
event where we award and honor our employees here, and it's
wonderful. This is always a great day.
But on that I'd like to stand and hear Reverend Beverly Duncan
give the invocation and, Commissioner Saunders, would you lead us in
the Pledge afterwards, please.
Item #1A
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
REVEREND DUNCAN: Let us pray.
Creator God, in times such as these, one month to the day since
Hurricane Irma, it's important that we pray for the needs that are great
and even overwhelming in Collier County, for the courage and
strength to address those needs, and for the resources to be there for the
cleaning up and the hauling away.
And we pray to be able to help the people who are suffering great
losses. We pray to keep our vision and compassion in the midst of
exhaustion. We pray to hang on to hope and to be wise when we'd
rather just get it done however, and most of all we pray for an end to
the violence of people against people.
We pray for respite from the violence of weather, and we pray for
calm in the chaos of human events. We pray with gratitude for the
blessings we have and enjoy and for the good we are able to do with
breath and hands.
In peace, we pray all these things. Amen.
October 10, 2017
Page 3
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you, Reverend Duncan. That
was quite beautiful and very, very timely. Thank you.
Item #2A
APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR, CONSENT AND
SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX PARTE DISCLOSURE
PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT AND
SUMMARY AGENDAS) – APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED
W/CHANGES
MR. OCHS: Good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners.
These are the proposed agenda changes for the Board of County
Commissioners meeting of October 10th, 2017.
The first proposed change is to withdraw Item 9B from the public
hearing agenda. This withdrawal is made at the petitioner's request.
This was the Cirrus Pointe RPUD amendment. Again, withdrawn at
the petitioner's request.
The next proposed change is to move Item 16A12 from the
consent agenda to become Item 11J on the regular agenda. This move
is made at Commissioner Taylor's request.
The next proposed change is to withdraw Item 16D3. That
withdrawal is at staff's request so we can rework that item and bring it
back at a subsequent meeting.
The next three proposed changes are to continue Items 16F15,
F16, and F17 from your consent agenda. These are the three economic
development partnership agreements you have between the Board and
local and regional economic development organizations. Those are
continued till the next meeting at Commissioner McDaniel's request.
The next proposed change is to move Item 16H2 from your
October 10, 2017
Page 4
consent agenda to become Item 10A under Board of County
Commissioners. This is a recommendation to re-establish the
productivity committee. That move is made at Commissioner Fiala's
request.
We have one time-certain item this morning, Commissioners.
That's Item 5D. It's a presentation item. It will be heard at 11 a.m.
That's the presentation from Dr. Michael Savarese and Dr. Peter Shang
on the sea level rise and modeling program that they've been awarded a
national grant for. We're excited about that presentation.
And those are all the changes that I have this morning, Madam
Chair.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. So we'll start
with ex parte and any changes. Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't have any changes or ex
parte. I'm curious on the three economic development items. The
request is to continue those?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: What would be the reason for
that? I'm just --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: More clarity, more specificity.
I have a few notes if you want to hear them.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, just does that create any
problems for the --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I asked the County
Manager yesterday for that. I don't want to create a problem, but I
would like to see more specificity in those agreements. Just to be
clear, the deliverables were rather vague.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't have a problem. I just
want to make sure it doesn't create a problem for anybody.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's a short answer.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. These are reimbursable contracts typically
October 10, 2017
Page 5
on a quarterly basis. So if we can get these squared away by the next
meeting, I don't think it creates any payment problems.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I did a little double time in
review of those agreements just in case it got to be brought up to be a
discussion point so I could make specific requests, so...
That's all I had.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That's fine. I just wanted --
again, just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to create some
problems.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, no.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No changes and no ex parte to
disclose.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. I have no changes. You
know, I -- Leo, did you pull that one that we were talking about in my
office yesterday? Goodness me. Let me see if I can find it real quickly.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: While she's looking, I'll go.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No changes and no ex parte.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And I have no changes, and I do have
one ex parte which is a -- two, rather: An email regarding Hadley
Place West and then correspondence with Marquesa Isles.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What's the productivity committee?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, the productivity? It's there. It's
been pulled.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, it's been pulled to the regular
agenda?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes, it has.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's the one I wanted.
MR. OCHS: It's on the change.
October 10, 2017
Page 6
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So -- and do you have any ex
parte, ma'am?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: My ex parte -- yes. I -- let's see.
The regular agenda -- I don't think I have anything on the consent. No,
no.
Oh, on 16A2, which is the Marquesa Isles, I got a letter from
Unity Church on that, and that's the only disclosure I have.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Very good. All right. So do I hear a
motion to set the agenda as described just a minute ago with all those
changes, which I won't go into again?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Motion by Commissioner Fiala and,
Commissioner McDaniel, you second that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That will be fine, yes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
Thank you.
Proposed Agenda Changes
Board of County Commissioners Meeting
October 10,2017
Withdraw Item 9B: ***This item has been continued from the September 26,2017 BCC Meeting
Agenda.*** This item requires that all participants be sworn in and ex parte disclosure be provided by
Commission members.Recommendation to approve an amendment to Ordinance Number 2005-63,as
amended,the Cirrus Pointe RPUD,to reduce the minimum floor area for multi family dwelling units,and to
approve a second amended and restated Affordable Housing Density Bonus Agreement to allow the
Developer to have the option of constructing owner occupied units or rental units designated as Affordable
Housing Units. The subject property,consisting of 9.92±acres,is located at the northeast corner of
Bayshore Drive and Thomasson Drive,in Section 14,Township 50 South,Range 25 East,Collier County,
Florida. IPUDA-PL20170001626] (Petitioner's request)
Move Item 16Al2 to Item 11J: Recommendation to approve a Capital Improvement Project of
approximately$114,208,for the installation of two(2) Beach Tractor Shelters to be installed at the
Tigertail Beach Park and the Vanderbilt Beach Parking Garage to facilitate adequate equipment
protection and cleaning operations to prolong the operational life of beach cleaning equipment and make a
finding that this item promotes tourism. (Commissioner Taylor's request)
Withdraw Item 16D3: Recommendation to approve a Community Development Block Grant(CDBG)
release of a 20-year lien for the associated Boys& Girls Club of Collier County land acquisition project
consistent with CDBG requirements. (Staff's request)
Continue Item 16F15 to the October 24,2017 BCC Meeting: Recommendation to renew and approve
the annual Agreement between the Southwest Florida Economic Development Alliance, Inc. and Collier
County in continued support of the established public-private partnership designed to advance the
County's economic development efforts. (Commissioner McDaniel's request)
Continue Item 16F16 to the October 24,2017 BCC Meeting: Recommendation to renew and
approve the annual Agreement between the Partnership for Collier's Future Economy, Inc.
("Partnership")and Collier County in continued support of the established public-private partnership
designed to advance the County's economic development efforts. (Commissioner McDaniel's request)
Continue Item 16F17 to the October 24,2017 BCC Meeting: Recommendation to renew and approve
the annual Agreement between Economic Incubators, Inc. and the Board of County Commissioners in
continued support of the established public-private partnership designed to advance the County's economic
development efforts. (Commissioner McDaniel's request)
Move Item 16H2 to Item 10A: Recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise and bring
back for a public hearing an ordinance reestablishing the Productivity Committee. (Commissioner Fiala's
request)
Time Certain Items:
Item 5D to be heard at 11:00 a.m.
10/10/2017 8:31 AM
October 10, 2017
Page 7
Item #2B
SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 - BCC/EMERGENCY MEETING MINUTES
– APPROVED AS PRESENTED
MR. OCHS: Ma'am, Item 2B is a motion to approve the minutes
from the September 6th, 2017, emergency meeting of the Board
regarding Hurricane Irma.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Do I hear a second?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Second.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second -- third.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously. Thank you.
Item #2C
SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 - BCC/BUDGET MEETING MINUTES –
APPROVED AS PRESENTED
MR. OCHS: Item 2C is approval of the meeting minutes from
the September 7th, 2017, budget adoption public hearing.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve.
October 10, 2017
Page 8
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Second by Commissioner Solis.
All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
Item #3
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously. Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that takes us to Item 3 on this
morning's agenda, awards and recognition. If you'd be kind enough to
join us in front of the dais for our awards presentation.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, you can't stand next to
Commissioner Fiala. You have stripes, she has polka dots. I'm
kidding. I'm kidding; I'm kidding.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, we're pleased to recognize several
of our teammates this morning celebrating many years of dedicated
service to county government. We'll start this morning with those
receiving their 20-year service awards.
First awardee from our Zoning Division, 20 years, John Kelly.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That means you stuck with us
through thick and thin.
October 10, 2017
Page 9
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen; 20 years, my goodness.
MR. OCHS: Step back a little bit. There you go. Get right in
between them. There you go.
MR. OCHS: Congratulations.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Celebrating 20 years of service with Parks and
Recreation, Mike Toolan. Mike?
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I've known Mike since he was a
little boy.
MR. TOOLAN: The speech is coming.
(Applause.)
MR. TOOLAN: Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Celebrating 20 years also with Parks and
Recreation, Kathy Topoleski. Kathy?
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Our final 20-year awardee this morning from our
Office in Management and Budget, 20 years of service, Susan Usher.
Susan?
(Applause.)
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: We have two employees this morning celebrating
25 years of service with county government. The first from our Parks
and Recreation Division, Edwin Barroso. Edwin?
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Twenty-five years, you've got
to smile.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Which park?
MR. BARROSO: Parks and rec irrigation.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: What are you going to do with
those turf fields?
October 10, 2017
Page 10
MR. BARROSO: I've got job security.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Celebrating 25 years of service with Building
Review and Permitting, Tim Stick. Tim?
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, we're honored this morning to
recognize four employees with 30 years of service in county
government. It's outstanding. Our first recipient from Road
Maintenance, Ramiro Ponce.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Celebrating 30 years of service with our
Transportation Engineering Operation, Steve Ritter. Steve?
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Celebrating 30 years of service with our Water
Division, Dave Streit. Dave?
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thanks for all your good work.
Well done, Dave.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Our final 30-year awardee this morning, from our
Facilities Management Division, Pat Webb.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that concludes our service awards
this morning. Thank you very much.
Commissioners, that takes us to Item 3D on your agenda this
morning, and that is a recommendation to recognize Andres
Santamaria, our maintenance specialist in the Growth Management
Department, as the August 2017 Employee of the Month.
Andres, if you could come up, please.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Stand right in there; in front of the chair there. This
October 10, 2017
Page 11
embarrassment won't last too long.
All right. Stand right there, though. It is going to last a little
longer.
I have to tell the Board and the public a little bit more about this
guy. Andres has been with our Traffic Operations Division for over 11
years working in our locates division, and oftentimes those locates are
difficult to find, and Andres makes every effort to find each and every
one of them. He's one of the team's best locators in an emergency and
has become an integral part of our rapid response personnel team.
He always makes time, even while completing his regular locates,
to meet with excavators who need clarification on utility locates or
have questions about their projects that require his expertise.
These are just some of the reasons that he is so deserving of this
award this morning. And, Commissioners, it's my honor to present
Andres Santamaria as your Employee of the Month for August 2017.
Congratulations, Andres.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that moves us to Item 4,
proclamations.
Item #4
PROCLAMATIONS – ONE MOTION TAKEN TO ADOPT ALL
PROCLAMATIONS
Item #4A
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING OCTOBER 2017 AS
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH IN COLLIER
COUNTY. ACCEPTED BY LINDA OBERHAUS, CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE SHELTER FOR ABUSED WOMEN
October 10, 2017
Page 12
& CHILDREN – ADOPTED
Item 4A is a proclamation designating October 2017 as Domestic
Violence Awareness Month in Collier County. To be accepted by
Linda Oberhaus, chief executive officer of the Shelter for Abused
Women and Children. Linda?
(Applause.)
MS. OBERHAUS: Good morning. So I just want to thank
Madam Chair and the commissioners for acknowledging October as
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month here in Collier County.
This year marks the 30th year of National Domestic Violence
Awareness Month, and we've really made great strides here in Collier
County.
What most of the community probably doesn't know is that the
Shelter for Abused Women and Children has been selected to be part
of a PBS television series called Visionaries. And so what this group
does is they try to locate nonprofits around the country who are
making great strides in accomplishing their mission.
And so this -- it will be airing this year. I'll make sure that I get
the information to the County Commission so you'll have an
opportunity to see it as well.
As part of the Visionaries program, they have really focused on
leadership in Collier County, and they believe that what we're doing
here in Collier County to address domestic violence is a replicable
model. So you'll see interviews with the Sheriff of Collier County, the
Mayor of Naples, also our school superintendent, Dr. Kamela Patton,
and others talking about what we're doing here in Collier County to
address the issue.
So I just want to mention, many of you probably know that
domestic violence is still a national epidemic in our country and in our
community. Sadly, there were over 1,600 reports of domestic violence
October 10, 2017
Page 13
right here in Collier County. We know that law enforcement is
spending about 29 percent of their on-duty police time responding to
domestic violence calls. And so, although we're making great strides,
we still have a lot of work to do.
Some of you may know, especially Commissioner McDaniel, that
the shelter is embarking on a capital campaign to build a second shelter
in Immokalee. So we're really excited about that project. We're going
to be serving both victims of domestic violence and human trafficking
at that location.
I just really want to thank our partners, all of our law enforcement
partners, the Collier County Sheriff's Office, the Naples police, the
Marco Island Police, for coming together and really supporting the
shelter, identifying victims in our community, and helping them to get
to a safe place.
I also want to mention there are several more events happening
this month in order to raise awareness about the issue of domestic
violence. We have our purple party happening at Cavo on October
19th. We're doing a flash mob, and we're inviting the community to
join us. You can go online at -- on our website at NaplesShelter.org if
you want to learn the Justin Timberlake song and come out to Mercato
October 20th, and then we have an Immokalee children's fair
happening on October 23rd.
So I just want to invite the community to come out and join us for
some of the activities we'll be doing for National Domestic Violence
Awareness Month. Thank you.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Linda, of course, I just love all the
work that you do within our community, and I could never tackle the
job you do, I tell you. And I was just saying up here; I don't know how
you do it. But thank heavens we have you and that you do such a great
job.
October 10, 2017
Page 14
Have you told anybody about Little Cottages yet? I think people
ought to know. That's an outstanding idea to keep the people safe once
they're back to regular life again, and keep them still in a sheltered
area.
MS. OBERHAUS: Sure, I'd be happy to.
So a lot of times, when people think about domestic violence
centers or shelters, they think of them as just shelters where women
and children and some men come for safety. But the shelter -- we have
a whole continuum of programs and services. And what Commissioner
Fiala is talking about is we have seven three-bedroom, two-bath
cottages. So when families leave our emergency shelter they can stay
in those cottages for up to two years learning about economic
empowerment, trying to increase their Collier County income, get jobs
so they can support their families, improve their credit scores and so
forth. So we work very, very closely with those families, again, for up
to two years.
And so just keep in mind we have a 24-hour crisis hotline, a
60-bed emergency shelter, staff available 24 hours a day to assist
victims in need. So if anyone in the community is in need, I would just
encourage them to reach out to us.
Thanks again.
(Applause.)
Item #4B
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING OCTOBER 9 - 13, 2017, AS
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE RECOGNITION WEEK IN COLLIER
COUNTY. ACCEPTED BY ROBIN SHELEY, OPERATIONS
MANAGER FOR THE CLERK OF COURTS AND ACCOUNTS
PAYABLE STAFF – ADOPTED
October 10, 2017
Page 15
MR. OCHS: Item 4B is a proclamation designating October 9th
through the 13th, 2017, as Accounts Payable Recognition Week in
Collier County. To be accepted by Robin Sheley, operations manager
for the Clerk of Courts, and the accounts payable staff. Please step
forward.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: But you've got to get them organized for a picture,
Robin. Could we get two lines, ladies. Thanks. Two rows.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I need to stand on a stool. Oh,
there's a hole. You just go ahead. I'll work around you. You stand
there.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Look at Haris out there. Isn't he
something?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You actually woke him from
his nap.
MR. DOMOND: I'll leave now.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No, we'd like a report, please. And the
very -- you know, let's have a report on the traffic, please; just for a
moment, please.
MR. DOMOND: Are you serious?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I mean it. Yeah, I'm serious about it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The signalization and all that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Just give a real cool report.
MR. DOMOND: State my name for the record. My name is
Haris Domond. I'm with Traffic Management or Traffic Operation
Management Center. The status for Collier County traffic is
phenomenal; phenomenal.
MR. OCHS: All right. All clear.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Madam Chair, can I tell a quick
story?
October 10, 2017
Page 16
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have my staff meetings on
Monday, and I was running a little bit late; imagine that. So just for
fun -- and I was meeting with Leo as my 9:00. I said, Sue, do you
want to have a little fun? Call Haris and tell him the commissioner's
on his way in, give him my route of travel, and tell him I want the
lights to be green the whole way. And she was really serious, and then
he was kind of taken back. And, of course, a minute later my phone
rings, and he was like, "uh, Commissioner, no."
MR. OCHS: Thanks, Haris.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Have you ever seen a greater smile,
huh?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir.
(Applause.)
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, if I could get a motion to approve
this morning's proclamations, please.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve this morning's
proclamations.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Seconded by Commissioner McDaniel.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
October 10, 2017
Page 17
MR. OCHS: Thank you.
Item #5A
PRESENTATION OF THE COLLIER COUNTY BUSINESS OF
THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER 2017 TO NAPLES HARLEY-
DAVIDSON. ACCEPTED BY JOHN GREENE, BUSINESS
PARTNER AND BETHANY SAWYER WITH THE NAPLES
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE – PRESENTED
Item 5A is a presentation of the Collier County Business of the
Month for October 2017 to Naples Harley Davidson. To be accepted
by John Greene, business partner, and Bethany Sawyer with the Naples
Chamber of Commerce.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: My daughter works there; details the
motorcycles. Sherry; that's my daughter.
MR. GREENE: Very nice.
MR. OCHS: Congratulations. Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
MR. GREENE: Can I say a word?
Very brief. Good morning, everybody. First of all, thank you for
myself, John Greene, but also on behalf of my partner, Scott Fisher,
and certainly all the customers and staff at Naples Harley Davidson.
And it's an honor to receive accolades and recognitions and so
forth, but on a morning like this when you've got so many years of
public service, it's a bit humbling to sit in the same room with people
who've dedicated that kind of time for so long. So appreciation to
them and certainly to you guys for the work that goes on.
And we have some core values and core purpose and things like
that inside of all of our stores, and our core purpose is to make people's
October 10, 2017
Page 18
lives better, and whether that's an employee or the community or a
customer, somehow we strive to do that.
And in light of what's happened here in this community in the
last, you know, 30 days, 45 days, sometimes making people's lives
better is about putting them on a brand new motorcycle, and that would
kind of be the pinnacle of what we'd like to do. But sometimes it's --
sometimes it's raising money for charity and people in need. And after
the storm, where we were really able to make some impact is when we
got power back, we were actually able to give people showers and
water and food and some air-conditioning. So it's great to be able to
give back to communities that always support us.
So thank you again very much. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
(Applause.)
Item #5B
PRESENTATION OF THE DISTINGUISHED BUDGET
PRESENTATION AWARD FOR FISCAL YEAR 2017 FROM THE
GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION (GFOA)
PRESENTED TO THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET. ACCEPTED BY MARK ISACKSON, CORPORATE
FINANCIAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES
DIRECTOR – PRESENTED
MR. OCHS: Item 5B is a presentation of the Distinguished
Budget Presentation Award for Fiscal Year 2017 from the Government
Finance Officers Association presented to the Office of Management
and Budget. To be accepted by Mark Isackson, corporate financial
planning and management services director, and his budget staff.
(Applause.)
October 10, 2017
Page 19
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: If anyone doubts the purpose of this,
just pick up that plaque. It weighs a lot.
(Applause.)
MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, good morning. Mark
Isackson with the Office of Management and Budget.
A couple of acknowledgments. Certainly, the staff of OMB,
they're small in number, but they're certainly large in talent and
experience.
I was looking at some resumes the other day. I think we've got
over a hundred years of experience in that office combined. So
certainly more than capable of handling challenges that come up
financially in the organization.
We also have a cadre of financial experts in the County Manager's
agency and each of the departments that go a long way toward
assisting in our efforts to prepare a budget and financial management.
And on the constitutional officers' side, you've got a number of
financial professionals there. We work very closely with the Clerk of
Courts' finance section. We do it every day. It's truly an honor to
work with the financial people in this organization. We're truly
blessed in this agency to have them, and my interactions with them on
a daily basis represents a privilege, so thank you very much.
(Applause.)
Item #5C
HURRICANE IRMA STATUS REPORT WITH DAN SUMMERS,
BUREAU OF EMERGENCY SERVICES DIVISION DIRECTOR –
PRESENTED; MOTION THAT THE CHAIR SEND LETTER TO
FEMA REGARDING HOUSING – APPROVED; LETTER READ
INTO THE RECORD FROM REP. BOB ROMMEL REGARDING
DEBRIS
October 10, 2017
Page 20
MR. OCHS: Item 5C is a presentation from Dan Summers, your
Bureau of Emergency Services division director, on the status of our
response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Irma.
Dan?
MR. SMITH: Commissioners, good morning. Dan Summers,
director of the Bureau of Emergency Services and Emergency
Management. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you.
I, too, am in a bit of a time warp, I guess you would say, for the
last 35 days or so knowing where we are and which direction. We
have kind of a saying in Emergency Management: Response is hard;
recovery is harder. And that's certainly where we are today as we're
trying to put the community back together, match the pieces and the
parts that need to be done to try to make people's lives whole again.
And let me start off by giving you a -- I have a lot of information.
So some of these visuals are going to be a little bit of an eye chart, but
I think it's important to give you some perception in terms of what's
going on with recovery.
I'd like to go over these areas with you briefly, just talk a little bit
about survivor and neighbor assistance, debris removal, temporary
housing, the fiscal monitoring aspects, mitigation opportunities, and
the corrective actions that we go through. And, again, some of these
slides are a little bit lengthy, so bear with me.
I think it's important to realize that, you know, when we said we
went through a major hurricane event, there's no question that we did.
You have 65,898 people that registered for FEMA assistance
throughout. That says two things, one. Number one, about the need
that's out there, whether it's a small need for replacement of an
appliance for, say, a refrigerator for medications, as opposed to those
that have been through the housing challenges.
Twenty-one million dollars by FEMA has been committed to
Collier County in individual assistance. And those -- that is an
October 10, 2017
Page 21
ongoing process, meaning that there is a dialogue between FEMA and
the applicant, but not all 21 million has been disbursed yet.
Twenty-one million has been obligated.
Forty-two thousand people have been referred to an Individual
Housing Assistance Program. Now, that is not temporary housing.
That's a different component. So we always have trouble with
FEMA's terminology and acronyms. So individual housing assistance
could have been a rent subsidy, a rent adjustment, or it could have been
the transitional shelter assistance that we mentioned where we go from
shelter to hotel.
Some of the highlights of the assistance -- so these numbers are
not going to match the 21 million obligated, but just a little bit of a
component here to give you some idea: $11 million has been provided
in rental assistance; 27.6 million has been provided in emergency
repairs; 386,000 has been provided for essential replacements. That
may be -- typically that's medically related; and 381,000 has been
provided in personal property replacement funding through FEMA's
Individual Assistance Program.
I want to stress again there are only 30 days left to apply for
FEMA assistance. That window will close in 30 days. You can do it
through the 800 number. You can go to one of the disaster recovery
center sites, and you can go to DisasterAssistance.gov. Now, what
seems to be a message that we want to continue to stress is that in
many of these packages or many of these reimbursement activities
with FEMA, you'll receive an SBA loan package, okay. That doesn't
necessarily mean that that's the only form of relief, but it's the SBA
loan package that can carry you through the next step of FEMA relief,
which may include temporary housing.
So, again, part of this is the -- if you will, the FEMA boost to help
you to get back on your feet, but not -- you have to go through that
entire process for the large dollars of individual assistance or even
October 10, 2017
Page 22
temporary housing to take place.
So if you get a package in the mail -- we tell the disaster survivor,
you get a package in the mail, stay with it. Don't give up on the
paperwork. That's just the necessary process that FEMA has within
the Stafford Act to continue some of those relief efforts. And, by all
means, if you need assistance, go to one of the disaster recovery center
sites and have a FEMA agent help you with some of that information.
You certainly are going to hear additional follow-up from FEMA.
We're hearing where folks may not be answering the phone. They may
not be responding to some of the paperwork that takes place. So,
again, to get some of that assistance, work through the process, meet
with the FEMA agents at the disaster recovery center, and know that
there are resources here. These folks are here to help you, but it does
take a little bit of information in order to move forward.
Quickly, let's talk about debris removal. In my reports, Dan
Rodriguez's team has just done an awesome job. They have ongoing
reports. I wanted to put this together over the weekend, so my "close
of business" report on Sunday 334,000 cubic yards of debris. I know
that number's higher today, obviously.
One of the things I wanted to mention, an obligation we wanted to
make sure that everybody understood that there were debris removal
sites that are just for our trucks, that's part of our processing, as well as
some other sites that are available for drop-off. So the locations,
rather, that we're operating -- and, again, that's for the safety of the
public there where we've got the big trucks coming in and out and the
debris monitoring taking place as part of the FEMA reimbursement.
Those location are located there: Wiggins Pass, the Resource
Recovery Park; the Northeast Park; Everglades City; Immokalee
Peninsula is a debris management site; and the Manatee Park. So that
gives you some idea just of the depth of the operation that Dan and his
team have done an awesome job with with the ongoing work.
October 10, 2017
Page 23
The drop-off sites, as I mentioned, I wanted to get that back out
again. The Immokalee Transfer Site, the Naples Airport, Carnestown
Recycling, and the Santa Barbara site. Two of those, of course, are
mentioned as closed on Sunday, and I believe we have all of that
information posted on our website as well.
We want to remind the public of what's going on with the debris
removal, and I did watch some of those operations yesterday.
Obviously, it needs to be in the right-of-way. Our focus is that on
horticultural debris and trying to remind folks, again, that construction
debris and bulky items need to be separated. That's very important for
the horticultural waste haulers to have a clean drag, if you will, a clean
snag at their load. And conforming piles will be -- up to 10 will be
collected by the Waste Management group, and Dan can give you
more information about what needs to be conforming, but that's
certainly smaller and lighter debris.
Sir?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Dan, just a quick question. Bulky
items, that would be non-horticultural bulky items.
MR. SUMMERS: Well, we're talking about maybe a refrigerator,
a mattress, or some other type of item like that that's not part of our
horticultural.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Not necessarily a giant stump or
something?
MR. SUMMERS: No, no. Well -- and those stumps -- the
stumps that have -- there are various levels of stumps that can be
picked up. If we've got a root ball and still attached to the sidewalk,
they're obviously not going to lift that because you could do more
damage. But there is a process here under the first and second pass.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just one other quick question.
I was messing with computers. Is the fee still waived at the transfer
sites for private?
October 10, 2017
Page 24
MR. SUMMERS: I believe that's correct.
Dan?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, Dan Rodriguez, your deputy department head, Public Utilities.
The fees are waived at the drop-off haul sites that Dan mentioned
earlier. At our transfer site and at the landfill, those are not waived
because it's such a small facility, we couldn't handle the deluge of
material here. In addition to that, we have to pay for that to be
processed and disposed of.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So for private delivery of your
own debris, we're not allowed to go to the designated sites that we're
using as a county?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: That's correct, the ones that are operated by
our contractor, but we do have designated drop-off sites for the
residents at no charge.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Thank you, sir.
MR. OCHS: Right there on the screen.
MR. SUMMERS: Let's talk about temporary housing because, to
be honest with you, I'm pretty frustrated at this point with our federal
and state partners. So let me give you a little bit of information and a
couple of suggestions here of a way to move forward.
A couple things for clarity. And I think -- I went into detail
because I think it's important for the public to understand that a
temporary housing mission is typically that of a travel trailer or a
mobile home unit and there are, again, acronyms. FEMA refers to that
as an MHU or a TTU, a travel trailer unit.
And when FEMA owns and operates this mission, it is theirs.
Under privacy acts, they do not share with us client information.
They're not going to disclose to us deployments, although we'll
probably be involved in some type of permitting process. But when
FEMA and the Corps operates this, this is exclusively their operation.
October 10, 2017
Page 25
Again, to get temporary housing, you must go through the FEMA
registration process in its entirety.
There may be a situation, as I mentioned earlier, that as part of
that application process an SBA loan package might be considered an
alternative. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're not eligible when
you receive that SBA package. A lot of that has to do with the
information that you provide during the registration. Are you a
homeowner? Are you a mobile home owner? Are you a renter? And
those type of things are so very important.
There is a phased process, and I think this is one of the things that
has been frustrating for all of us is to understand that a temporary
housing mission with FEMA has several phases. First of all, it's to
evaluate commercially available mobile home parks and RV parks
where units can be set up quickly. This also requires that the Corps do
some site evaluation and as well as the National Flood Insurance
Program also is engaged in this assessment.
What is intended to do is to usually get renters who may be a little
more mobile into something quickly. That's the intention. Now, we
have about 42, 44 mobile home and RV parks in Collier County, and
the U.S. Corps of Engineers -- Army Corps of Engineers has surveyed
those sites.
The good news is we've certainly identified those locations. The
bad news is, with season coming, there's just not spare pad space
available. The last report that I saw on Wednesday was only nine pads
were available or -- and very few parks had an interest in negotiating
with FEMA and the Corps for mid-term leases.
So we have a situation where the market just doesn't fit the need
here in Collier County. And, again, I think part of that's due to season
coming with folks coming with their RVs, or maybe just a general
interest in not participating in the program.
The second thing that I think I want to make sure that everyone
October 10, 2017
Page 26
understands, that for FEMA to get involved in the replacement of a
mobile home, the mobile home, according to the Stafford Act, must
have a fair market -- verified loss value that must exceed $16,800. So
in other words, if that mobile home is less than $16,800, FEMA is not
going to make a substitution for that unit. And again, that's in the law,
and I'm sure that's related to some cost-benefit analysis.
If FEMA does provide a mobile home unit, they will require that
the mobile home be elevated. Now, that's not -- that is up to a
manufacturer's approval elevation. This is on concrete blocks, not
concrete stilts, okay. And that can be 42 to 58 inches, according to the
manufacturer standard, and there is a base flood elevation review that
has to take place in that. That may, in fact, also -- that base flood
elevation may be a waiver that Growth Management Division would
have to review.
If a mobile home is placed, the intention is it can be used for six
months or longer. If a travel trailer is placed, it is up to six months.
Again, that's a quality-of-life issue. We know a lot of folks want travel
trailers in their driveways so that they can repair their homes, and the
goal there for FEMA and for the occupant is to have that home
completed and repairs completed less than six months.
Two hundred fifty-six applicants have been approved for
temporary housing as of the 7th. We know that that number will
increase. Then once those applicants are approved, FEMA and the
Corps get together and look at the occupancy in terms of they look at
the family, they look at the location options, they look at the -- whether
it's -- a travel trailer is desirable because it's going to go on a residential
homesite during repair, or is it going to an RV park.
And we are due a FEMA housing specialist that's to be assigned
to Collier County that's due here tomorrow. We're anxious to work
with their staff and get some details and some finite information going
on with the mobilization.
October 10, 2017
Page 27
I'm not defending FEMA or the State. I think they have been
working very hard, but I'm not satisfied with the progress, and I have a
couple of suggestions.
First of all, I think it's appropriate at this juncture to ask the Chair
to draft a letter to Administrator Long at FEMA as well as the
governor to see if we can't get this temporary housing mission
expedited.
I think that while these sites have been identified, we've had
Everglades City put in a resolution to allow travel trailers in the
driveways as well as temporary hookup. I think all of that really just --
we're ready for -- we're ready for travel trailers and we're ready for
connectivity, and we've been ready for that for some time.
There was some discussion that some other emergency grants for
temporary-type repairs in the homes might be eligible. I looked at that
grant program. It was just not executable, in my opinion, and it did not
address the mold and mildew issues that some folks had. So I think the
basic construction issues are easily handled by insurance and the
homeowner in many cases, but the absence of any support funding for
mold or mildew remediation didn't make this effort worthwhile.
I would like to -- assuming that this FEMA representative shows
up in our EOC tomorrow, I'd like to give an update to the County
Manager for one-way communications to you on Thursday to see how
we're moving forward with the mission, if things are not moving, at
least to my satisfaction, in terms of placement coordination and
activity.
I am aware that this is a complicated process in terms of the
siting. The federal engagement here, the procurement, et cetera. Now,
there's a little bit of good news in all of this in that FEMA and the
Corps are not waiting on FEMA-produced temporary housing. They're
actually buying off the retail shelf, so to speak, or buying off the lot,
RVs and mobile homes from existing inventory in Florida.
October 10, 2017
Page 28
There was a big concern last week with the media that while --
had had a primary parking area for these travel trailers that we were
expecting to be staged here -- doesn't mean they were going at the
Immokalee airport. They were just parking there for deployment, and
all over Collier County, but FEMA said, we're not going to move them
twice. We can get these from the central part of the state where they're
being purchased. The order can go in, and they committed an
overnight delivery of those items followed by setup, and there is a
setup process, a commissioning process.
The -- FEMA has hired the National RV Association to do quality
control on these RVs, make sure everything is working safe, make sure
the propane connections are proper and so there is a vetting process or
a commissioning process that takes a day or so once these RVs arrive,
or travel trailers, excuse me, arrive.
So, again, those are my recommendations as it relates to
temporary housing. I've got a few more points, or we can answer
questions now.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, thank you.
I have two questions, actually. You've mentioned about filling
out the forms and don't get frustrated and it's very long, but you have to
keep up and, you know, don't just put it aside. Is there a place that
people can go to seek help to fill them out? I mean, sometimes you see
some of this paperwork, and it's overwhelming and people just throw
in the towel and say, I can't do this.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am, absolutely. You can circle right
back to the Disaster Recover Center where they register. We're
continuing to, right -- today we've moved the Mobile Disaster
Recovery Center back to Everglades City. So just because you
registered and you got a package doesn't mean you can't go back to
that location and ask some additional questions and get that
October 10, 2017
Page 29
information processed.
As you know, we have been moving that Disaster Recovery
Center. And, again, that has not been quite the full service that I've
wanted, but they're out of those resources; they're out of that capability.
So we've been moving that from Golden Gate City to Immokalee and
Everglades City being on location two or three days at each site,
moving that, allowing the folks to not only register but also, once they
get a packet, they can go back and ask information and get some help
filling information out.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Do you ever get into East Naples
where all of the mobile home parks were affected?
MR. SUMMERS: Well, we have not -- the geographical
locations have been the Golden Gate City location and, again, based on
the numbers we're seeing, that seems to be fairly accommodating. The
parking is good. That seems to be a good layout between what FEMA
brings, the satellite connectivity for their laptops, and a place for those
folks to get in the air-conditioning and work with FEMA staff.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Where is it in Golden Gate City?
MR. SUMMERS: Pardon me? At the recreation center; pardon
me.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, good.
Okay. And the second question I had was, would it be a good
idea for us, as the County Commission, to work with staff to see if we
couldn't put something together for the Land Development Code that
asks all mobile home parks to -- not require. Just asks them or
encourages them to harden their community centers or their clubhouses
so that in case people can't leave the mobile home park for some
reason or another, they have a safe place to go?
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am. I would say that's a great topic of
conversation for our after-action board work session coming up to take
a look at that. Let the Growth Management staff talk to you. Most of
October 10, 2017
Page 30
the situations right now, as I understand it, is we don't have any new
parks in development. So with the absence of any new parks to my
knowledge, the challenge is, do you force that burden of retrofit on the
existing parks? And I'm not sure how they are set up to do that. But I
would say that might be a great topic for the work session coming up.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's good. And not force, just
encourage them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's called incentivization.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay, good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Saunders?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Two things. First of all, I
make the motion to direct the Chairman to send the letter that was
described by Mr. Summers.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So you'll have that
authorization.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. Okay. So there's a motion
on the floor to direct the Chairman to send a letter to FEMA regarding
housing, and there's a second.
All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Then just a couple questions.
Is there going to be more of a description of the debris removal
October 10, 2017
Page 31
process, or is your report completed?
MR. SUMMERS: Certainly. Dan Rodriguez is here for any
questions. I was hitting the highlights this morning.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. I do have a couple
questions on debris removal. I noticed in the most recent report that
there were 109 trucks operating yesterday, and I think it was like
90-some-odd trucks the day before. So, obviously, a few more trucks
have arrived. Are you anticipating more trucks? What's the status of
getting more trucks here?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely, Commissioner.
For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your deputy department head,
Public Utilities.
We are expecting more trucks from our contractor. As you know,
with the demand for collection vehicles throughout the state of Florida,
they were disbursed throughout the state. Now what you're seeing is
some of the contractors are completing their work in different areas
that weren't as hard hit, but also some of those contractors, like our
own, have done a good job in collecting and clearing the areas that
they were responsible, and they'll be moving those resources to us.
And we anticipate this week, next week to see a better surge of
vehicles, collection vehicles.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Do you have any guesstimate
as to the numbers of vehicles we might --
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Just in the last day we saw 10 come to our
county, and anticipate probably at least another 40 by the end of the
week.
MR. OCHS: You might introduce our --
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure. If I may, I'd like to introduce our --
this is the owner of AshBritt.
Randy, come on up.
MR. PERKINS: Dan, thank you.
October 10, 2017
Page 32
Commissioners, Randy Perkins, Chairman of AshBritt, for the
record.
Can I -- I'll answer your question directly in a couple seconds.
We had our first contract here at the Collier County Landfill
processing debris and vegetative waste back in 1997. We've been your
contractor since 2000. I've worked with staff since then.
I want to comment first on leadership. Mr. Manager, Leo, Nick,
Dan, your staff, we've handled over 250 recovery missions in this
country, the entire state of Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina: The
entire State of New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. And I've never seen
the leadership that I've seen, starting with you, Mr. Manager, and also
your counterparts in the City of Naples and the City of Marco Island.
And, Dan, your calmness, your decisiveness, your ability to make
quick decisions has made our job much easier.
We plan and we train with this county for the last 15, 20 years.
We have a plan. We're going to execute that plan. We know -- I
understand, as the chairman of this company, the gravity of the
situation here for the residents of Collier County, and that includes
every residence in Collier County.
I understand the impact of economic recovery. I understand that
the residents and seasonal residents are going to be coming back into
this community starting in November, mainly in December 15th
through Christmas. I'm sorry, Collier County, I understand that.
There's nothing about recovery that I don't understand, the gravity of
the challenges that this contractor and the chairman of this company
has in front of him.
But to answer the question that was asked directly, we have over
150 units working today. The county next door, as of this morning, has
72. That's not knocking the contractor next door. There are challenges
throughout this state. We expect to be moving between 75- and 80,000
cubic yards of debris sometime around this time next week.
October 10, 2017
Page 33
We're working daily. We plan daily with staff and also the
manager and Nick, the assistant manager, on how we're going to
continue to ramp up resources. More trucks doesn't necessarily mean
more debris being removed. I think that's very important to
understand.
There's 59 zones that were laid out in the county. You've got to
be -- you have to manage the amount of equipment you put into these
areas. You've got traffic issues, you've got congestion, you've got
dead-end streets, you've got children, you've got school. You've got
lots of activities going on.
So we have a plan to finish the majority of this -- the recovery and
the debris removal in this county laid out based on the time frame of
residents coming back, and we intend to meet that. Now, not
everything's always fluid. We're not perfect. We take everything we
do well at any given day, and we improve on those, and we have a
whole list of things we didn't do so well, and we're going to fix those
on a day-to-day basis.
But I would -- I implore you and I would encourage you to allow
us to continue to work with staff, one of the best staffs we've ever
worked with in the entire country, and meet the needs of the residents.
So we are going to ramp up the equipment as it takes, whatever's
needed, and that will be phased in today, tomorrow, the next day, and I
expect to see a significant amount more equipment on a day-to-day
basis up until the point where we reach -- where we reach saturation on
the equipment that's needed in this county.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I want to thank you for your
comments concerning our staff. We share those views. We feel that
we have an excellent staff, and it's certainly reassuring to hear that
from -- someone from the outside saying that. So I hope that the
community appreciates how good a job our staff is doing.
The only criticisms we're starting to hear now for the most part
October 10, 2017
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are debris removal, obviously. It affects everybody. And I really
appreciate your being here today. That gives me a lot of reinsurance
that the job will get done, so I just want to thank you publicly for your
comments.
MR. PERKINS: Thank you. And, listen, again, sometimes you
better zip it and move on. But, listen, we understand that the residents
want the debris moved from in front of the house, there's no question.
We will get it done, and we'll manage that on a day-to-day basis with
staff, which we've done from day one.
And the last thing I want to say is the recovery in this community
is as important to me as any community we've ever worked in in this
entire country and actually internationally with the state department,
USA ID. I understand what needs to be done. We plan to accomplish
that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Just a quick question.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Could I -- and just to help a lot of
residents understand the process -- I keep getting asked this question.
Is this just a random thing? And I'm assuming is it not just a random
thing, that there's a process for determining where you're going to go
in, how to get to each street and all that. That's all analyzed, right? I
mean, that's the system?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: It is.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean --
MR. PERKINS: I'm going to turn it over to --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'm asking a question that I know the
answer to, but I think it's important to hear that, because that's -- a lot
of frustration relates to that. You know, we don't see the trucks, and
we don't see anything happening, and I keep trying to reassure people
that this is not a random activity that they're just running around
October 10, 2017
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picking up, you know, piles of debris in just random places.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Again, for the record, Dan Rodriguez, your
deputy department head, Public Utilities.
Actually, we've a pair of dice. We roll them out. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. Perfect.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: As you know, with the beginning of the
storm, we had priorities laid out, those most hardest hit. Especially
with the tidal surge, we were able to get those pretty quick thanks to
AshBritt and their work, and then we had the schools were a priority,
the main thoroughfares, working with road and bridge, so we've got a
lot of that completed, that first pass in those areas. So now we're
moving into the urban areas where you have, you know, areas that
have a lot of debris and whatnot, and then to get to the Estates and
some of those outlying as well.
But as we bring on more and more equipment, we plan to have
equipment in every zone, the 59, and then look at each zone
independently and say, well, this one or six or 10 pieces of equipment
are not going to do it within the time frame we need, and then we'll add
up and ramp down as we successfully complete those. So there is a
method to our madness.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: There is a method?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: We'll get it done, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's what I want to hear.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: And if I could just --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, go ahead.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: I just want to take one minute to recognize
an individual, Matt Gierden with AshBritt. If you could stand up.
Even prior to the storm, Matt is the -- one of the vice presidents for
AshBritt, but he's been with us for over 13 years. He was responsible
for bringing those pumper trucks, 120 generators, which Matt tells me
October 10, 2017
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that was one of the largest generator deployments they've ever worked
on, including Katrina or Sandy. So that was a huge, monumental feat,
and he's been there from day one bringing the resources and priorities.
He actually is just a wonderful individual and a great project manager,
so I just want to recognize him.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Great job.
(Applause.)
MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, at this time I want to alert you that
Priscilla Grannis from representative Bob Rommel's office is here.
She wanted to read a communique from Representative Rommel on
this subject.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay, that's fine. This is a good time
to do it. Thank you very much.
MR. MILLER: Right here is fine.
MS. GRANT: Good morning. My name is Priscilla Grannis, for
the record, and I am here on behalf of Representative Bob Rommel of
District 106, as he is in Tallahassee at the interim committee meetings.
Currently -- and this is -- I have to say this has to be adjusted
based upon the numbers that have just been presented and due to the
increased number of trucks. The numbers that I have here are not
completely accurate, so I recognize that. They are as up to speed as
they were at 9:00 this morning.
Currently, the county was removing about 25,000 cubic yards of
debris per day. This is now increasing due to the increased number of
trucks.
Thus far about 340,000 cubic yards of debris have been picked up
since September 22nd, leaving about 3.86 million cubic yards yet to be
picked up of debris.
Using these numbers as a foundation and, again, I recognize that
they are somewhat off based upon the ever-increasing number of
trucks, under the current plan we're talking about 154 days or 31 weeks
October 10, 2017
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or 7.7 months to complete the debris removal process. Again, I
understand that these numbers are not quite correct based upon today's
announcements.
The expeditious removal of the remaining debris is of paramount
importance to Naples and to Collier County. Tourism and real estate
are prime sources for Collier County's economy. Many small
businesses may not survive without the dollars that tourism and
property sales bring into the area because of the ugly appearance and
the potential hazards of the remaining debris and because access to
these businesses may be limited.
Questions: Has the county considered hiring additional
companies even at a higher rate to expedite the debris removal?
Has the county considered spending less money in other areas and
then using those monies to expedite the debris removal process, rather
than raising taxes to pay for the expeditious removal of this debris?
Has the county considered using its reserves to expedite removal?
And, finally, does the county have plans to update the public on
the removal process? That is, is there a plan that will show on a daily
basis the progress that is made -- being made on the debris removal?
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. All right.
MR. OCHS: You want to wrap up, Dan? Just a couple more
slides, I think.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you.
Briefly, we have worked -- the fiscal monitoring has just been
extensive work ongoing, and understand that FEMA has new
regulations. We won't spend a lot of time on that. I couldn't be more
proud of the team that's working together on the fiscal aspect of all of
this. And make no mistake, remember that all the FEMA
reimbursement is a grant activity, so it is very cumbersome, and it's an
awful lot of detail to put together.
October 10, 2017
Page 38
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Dan, I'll just interrupt you.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We had a FEMA truck in our
neighborhood, and there was a car following that FEMA truck. And
every time that FEMA truck stopped, a woman got out to monitor what
was going on. It was marked FEMA relief. That's how strict FEMA
is.
MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am, that's correct, and that takes place
not only in our emergency response activities but our ongoing recovery
activities.
I won't spend too much time, but understand that we'll be looking
at mitigation opportunities, and there's two facets to that. One might
be an opportunity where we're doing an emergency repair, and FEMA
may authorize some small additional monies to make that particular
physical location more disaster resilient, and then there will be some
long-term monies probably available in the next 18 to 24 months for
other natural hazard grant -- mitigation grant opportunities.
Finally, we know we're going to meet with you, I believe, on
November the 10th or 11th for an after-action review, and staff is
going through their after-action reports. We're going to -- we hope to
bring you a consolidated after-action report working with Hagerty
Consulting Firm to bring that to you for your read on or about
November the 1st to give you ample time to review that so we can
have an effective discussion for the after action.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Mr. Ochs, regarding this after action,
maybe to consolidate it, in the course of this month I've asked different
communities, for instance, Immokalee, to contribute to this, maybe to
direct it to your office, certainly Everglades City, what did we do right,
what did we do wrong, so that we have a meeting that consolidates and
spearheads this.
And I'm wondering, if my colleagues agree, I think we should do
October 10, 2017
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the same. I think if we could submit -- I mean, I'm hearing comments
all the time -- I'm tabulating them -- of concerns that we can direct to
your office so that it can all be consolidated and there's no surprises at
the meeting.
MR. OCHS: Yeah, that would be great, ma'am. Actually, we're
going to use this tool and get that distributed to each of you as well to
be able to enter any comments or suggestion or critiques so we'll have
it all gathered in the same place, and we can compile that document
and get it out in report format well before the workshop. So, yes, I
would certainly encourage that. If you don't want to use this form, just
send it to me any way that's convenient for any of you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We have some friends from Immokalee
in here, so I just wanted to direct it to them also to really get it in to us
so that we can -- so we can really address the concerns and make it an
effective meeting not just, well, there's a problem here. Well, I didn't
hear, but we can go into next meeting. Let's make this focused and
clear.
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Are we going to try and answer
Representative Rommel's questions today?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Not today, no.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No? Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And if I might just on that. I
mean, you know, with all due respect, the information that was
provided was calculated upon information that was old and tired and
not necessarily accurate. There was a time frame alleged there --
alleged there that's really not fit -- could fit in in real life depending on,
in fact, how the work is, in fact, performed. But the statements that he
made are very valid questions.
And I think I've been assured that our staff and our people are
doing as much as is feasibly possible to engage with our contractor and
October 10, 2017
Page 40
get the work done. I know I personally have been in constant
communication with staff with issues as they arise and letting them
know.
And on another note, Madam Chair, with regard to the
Immokalee and Everglades City, I'm all over that. We're working with
the CRA, the MSTU, the agencies, the organization of the agencies in
Immokalee, as well as the City of Everglades, so...
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So that it comes in well before.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, ma'am. I got a list.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: On the flip side to the debris pickup, I
can't tell you how many people have called and emailed me and said,
thank you, we know this is tremendous, we know you're doing as --
working as hard as you can. Even in one gated community we've
started to pick up the debris, but we can't take it to the county's
drop-off. What do we do? Or, no, we can't take it to the private. And I
said, well, is there a sign on your truck such and such landscaping?
Oh, yes, there is. You can't drop it off. There's a cost to this.
You know what, I understand. We'll play by the rules. You
know, this is what's going on out there. And we know that this is a
great concern to everyone, but I think there is a level of understanding
of the enormity of this task that has touched our community, and we
are working together. So I just wanted to add that right now.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, ma'am. Well said.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And just a couple of things. One,
going back to Representative Rommel's questions, I mean, there was a
question regarding whether or not we're going to raise taxes for this.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, I know.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: The answer is no. We just said it
right out loud.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I was under the impression that we
October 10, 2017
Page 41
just adopted a millage-neutral budget, so I'm not sure --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah. Where does that come from?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Maybe I'm confused as to what that
question was about. But, anyway, I just wanted to point that out that
we are not raising taxes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
MR. OCHS: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Not today. I'm teasing, I'm teasing, I'm
teasing.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I just want to make sure.
And secondly -- and, again, just in the effort to try to dispel as
many rumors as we can because they're rampant, one of the questions
I've gotten on more than one occasion is, is it true that there's plans to
locate trailers at the Wiggins Pass staging facility?
MR. OCHS: No, there's no plans. That's not true. In fact, I sent
a response to that constituent this morning advising them of that. No
uncertain terms.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. I just wanted to put that out
there on television that that is --
MR. OCHS: No way, no how.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It is just a rumor.
MR. OCHS: It's not even a rumor. It's not happening.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It's not happening. Okay. Thank
you. That's all I had, thanks.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Finally, Commissioners, thank you. Thank
you very much. And, again, as I mentioned earlier, recovery is hard.
We all are seeing this from different perspectives, different operational
viewpoints. There are always areas for improvements, and I think it's
also important to recognize the successes that took place by all of the
October 10, 2017
Page 42
local government units, and especially our private non-profit partners
as well that did such a phenomenal job. And I'm always afraid to list
any agency because I'm going to leave somebody out. But there were a
ton of heros in this community, and I'm certainly grateful. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just one last thing, if you don't mind.
I don't mean to belabor this. First of all, you guys have done a
yeoman's job. You've done better than we could have ever hoped for or
expected. And I'm so proud of everything you do and what we are
trying; we, as a commission. Yes, we have to answer all of these
questions and so forth.
But one of the things I always insert in my notes to people is the
storm was 400 miles wide, and it went all around Florida. Everybody
wants their debris removed, just as we do. We're the last guys down so
those trucks get picked off as they're coming down, and yet you guys
are there pulling the stuff out, and all we can do is ask for patience
from -- with everybody.
We've gotten the hospitals taken care of. We've gotten the schools
taken care; the most important sites where people could get injured
easily. And now we're trying to pick away at the neighborhoods. And,
of course, we've had to apply a lot of extra care to places like
Everglades City, for goodness sake.
So, I mean, we're doing all we can to do the best job we can. And
I, for one -- and I can see all of the Commission, we're all so proud of
what you've done. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you to the entire team. Thank you,
ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do have a question, Madam
Chair.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It was in the question and
October 10, 2017
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comments, and I hit my light, so...
If you wouldn't mind repeating -- I think I heard you say when
you were talking about the temporary housing initiative that you had
FEMA representatives coming tomorrow?
MR. SUMMERS: Tomorrow. I want to -- I have been told I will
have FEMA representatives tomorrow.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We've been told things, and
that was where one of the concerns came last week because we were
told certain things that where -- and I don't want to put you on the spot,
but is there any kind of a time frame as to when we're going to start
seeing assets?
MR. SUMMERS: Sir, I have begged the answer to that question
since last Thursday, and I've been on the phone continuously. I've
been assured that the wheels are turning, and the advantage was that
the units themselves were in Florida, so that helps a little bit. They're
not coming from Kansas or something like that in terms of shipping.
So I'm optimistic, but I would like to see it move forward faster.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And you will keep us up to
date --
MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- as much as you are given
information --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- so we can put it out?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: The letter will go out today, Dan.
MR. SUMMERS: We are still doing -- we're still in recovery,
and we will be for some time, and rest assured we're going to push
hard.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you.
October 10, 2017
Page 44
Item #10A
RECOMMENDATION TO DIRECT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY
TO ADVERTISE AND BRING BACK FOR A PUBLIC HEARING
AN ORDINANCE REESTABLISHING THE PRODUCTIVITY
COMMITTEE – MOTION TO CONTINUE TO THE NOVEMBER
BCC MEETING – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, that takes us to Item 10A. This was
previously Item 16H2 and was moved at Commissioner Fiala's request.
This is a recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise
and bring back for a public hearing an ordinance re-establishing the
productivity committee.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. I'll just jump right in and say
that we had a great productivity committee before, and their efforts are
-- and, Commissioner McDaniel, you are the one that brought this all
up.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, I did.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Anyway, their effort was to
encourage -- to take a look at each of the departments. And I have to
tell you that departments do -- they strive to do their very best, but
every once in a while they could even do better. Like, for instance, if
you've moved this widget one notch over, you can probably save so
much time, but maybe when you've done it all along, you didn't see
that that widget could be moved.
Something like this, productivity. The committee in the
beginning did exactly that, but then as time went on, they turned more
into the budget and less into the productivity. And with that, there was
some of the commissioners that were unhappy with that performance.
And so they -- and there's a long story but, anyway, the committee was
October 10, 2017
Page 45
abolished.
So what I wanted to do was ask Commissioner McDaniel, but I
can't ask him in private, so I have to ask him here. Is that what you
were hoping to do is bring back the productivity committee to see if we
can't function --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Better.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: See, I think that's a wonderful idea,
but I hated to see it buried down here so that people can't see what
we're doing, and it's very --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was actually kind of hoping
to sneak it through buried down there.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, that's not true at all. You didn't
ask for that.
Anyway, and also it's -- there's seven members on there, and it's
going to be one from each commission district.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: With two at large.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We have to make sure that we select
people -- and the two at large -- select people who have business
background in productivity so that we can -- not our cronies, you
know, but --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I don't have any cronies.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I didn't say you did. I do.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Anyway, so that we could have the
best performing committee ever. And so I would -- with that, if I get
an agreement with everybody that they would like to move forward
with that, then I would make a motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I'll second for discussion,
if I might, just to add a moment.
October 10, 2017
Page 46
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Sure.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Hang on for a second. Commissioner
Saunders is next, and then you, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, I was first.
I want to just commend Commissioner McDaniel for bringing
this forward. I actually brought this to the county commission about a
half -- about a century ago, and it worked -- I thought it worked very
well for many, many years, and so looking forward to -- I'll have to dig
out my old file. I still have some of the old --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I bet you do.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- news articles about that,
because at that point in time the manager was not particularly
supportive. And I don't know if the new manager, different manager,
is supportive of this one. But it worked well, and I really appreciate
you taking the lead and bringing this back.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: For the record, he was
supportive. That was the reason it was buried down on the consent
agenda so that we could slip it through.
What I wanted to say is thank you for bringing it up for
discussion. Thank you for the compliment, Commissioner Saunders,
with regard to that.
If you -- I would like for -- because you know we all have to vote
on these things multiple times as it gets through the system. I would
like for you to -- I made some initial -- I pulled the original ordinance
that created the productivity committee, and then it was amended, and
then it was amended, and then it evolved into whatever it was that
ultimately dismissed. I went through and made adjustments all the
way through, and that's where I moved it. I had suggested -- and,
again, it's not carved in stone. If you have a better mousetrap, speak
up.
You know, I reduced the size of the committee from 13 down to
October 10, 2017
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seven, five appointed from each district and two at large, and left the
vice-chair of the Board as the chairman of that committee as it's going
on.
So go through that ordinance if you have a moment before we
vote on it again, make your suggestion. I'd be -- I'm more than
interested to hear anything that we can do to add to the productivity of
the productivity committee.
Did that all get through, Commissioner Saunders?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I look forward to seeing the
ordinance.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's in there.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm going through it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner, anyone?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: A couple of things. We are in recovery
from a storm that has been described as the storm of the last 100 years.
We have a lot on our plate, and staff does, too. So I'm questioning the
timing of this at this point. I'm not suggesting that we don't do this.
I'm suggesting that perhaps we maybe revisit this in January or
February of the year when we are well out of recovery, because I'm
optimistic that our staff is doing an extraordinary job and we will be
out of recovery. The debris will be picked up, and it will be business
as usual.
But right now we're sitting up here as business of usual, but let me
assure you on the staff level it is not. They are -- for instance, over the
two weeks that the EOC was open, there were 22,000 calls to our staff
members for help, for advice, for guidance; 22,000. Those are staff
members that left their job to go and volunteer at the EOC.
October 10, 2017
Page 48
We've got, still, issues out there with traffic lights. We've got a
lot of things we have to manage. And I think the timing is probably
maybe a little premature, not that it shouldn't happen, but I'd like to see
this brought back for discussion, certainly, at our next meeting but then
advertised for -- to start in January, February.
The other thing I would like to do, because I have experience of
this on my City Council days where we created a Blue Ribbon
Committee at my request, and each of our City Council people got to
pick a person that would sit on this Blue Ribbon Committee. It
became very political. In fact, one of the members of this Blue Ribbon
Committee, unfortunately, was the spouse of one of my colleagues on
the Council, and it was clear that that was probably what he had to do
at that time.
So I'd like to see if we could nominate folks with very clear
criteria. You know, very strong government management operational
experience. Have those criteria before us before we go pick them and
advertise for it. And who knows, there might be six from
Commissioner McDaniel's district and none from mine. I don't -- it
doesn't matter. It's more to get the level of experience that we need to
create a productivity committee.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I agree with a lot of what you
said in terms of who should be on this and how this -- obviously, we
just have a first draft. And I don't have any issue with this draft being
advertised and brought back in a few weeks, but it's going to be
changed, and those are the types of changes you're talking about.
So I think we can move forward with this today in terms of
directing staff to advertise an ordinance, bring it back in a few weeks,
give us a chance to mark it up and make changes. And I'm sure it will
be continued, but I don't think we need to delay this for any particular
reason, but it will change, or at least there will be some suggestions
from some of us to make some changes.
October 10, 2017
Page 49
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Remember, when you do have a
committee like this, there's an education level that has to be -- it's
required by staff. Sunshine issues, minutes taken, there's a cadre of
staff involvement. So that was my thought that maybe -- not that we
should not go forward with it, no, no, no, but it's more that when it
starts, let us get through this recovery phase, and that was the issue.
Are you -- is that all right?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't have any problems
going forward or delaying for a few weeks. It doesn't make any
difference to me. So whatever the preference of the Board is.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: There's no urgency, so it's --
we can delay this for a while.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Usually to start anything like this, if
I may jump in, is it usually takes a while. By the time you get the
ordinance written, and then we approve that, and then by the time you
have the criteria set so that people have to think, I mean, it's probably
going to take six months before we even get there anyway because it's
-- government doesn't move real quickly sometimes. Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I put my light on.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just as a point -- and I concur
with Commissioner Fiala. I don't see any need to delay the process.
We all know this is an evolutionary process. I brought this initiative
forward just to start the ball rolling. Everybody's going to have some
input. As I suggested earlier, if you have a better mousetrap, speak up,
add to the ordinance, make suggestions. Your discussion with regard to
the criterion for the committee members being vetted and approved by
us in advance, all great ideas. It's going to take time just because of the
input that we all have.
I think we all singularly want a productive productivity
October 10, 2017
Page 50
committee, not a political animal. That's not the rationale behind this.
This is a -- that, as Commissioner Fiala said early on when she brought
this forward, was, you know, we want the widgets to be viewed, so...
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good. All right.
All right. So there's a motion on the floor and a second, but so
we're going to have it -- so the idea -- excuse me. I'm going to
interrupt myself. We're going to have a -- at our next -- when the
ordinance is brought back, you're going to draft something, and then
we're going to start fleshing it out, or should we have another meeting
to start forming it before you advertise the ordinance, County
Attorney? What's your preference?
MR. KLATZKOW: The better process is if you would go
through the ordinance now and advise of any changes you would want.
This way we could advertise it and bring back a mostly finished
product for the public. If you want time to look this over, we could
continue this particular item.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No.
MR. KLATZKOW: But before we advertise, we should have a
largely final draft.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And there will be changes, so
that --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's absolutely expected.
And, again, my suggestion was the ordinance is part of the backup
documentation. You'll be able to see the line-throughs that I proposed
as suggested changes to the ordinance, make your own, send them to
the County Attorney in whatever time frame. I mean, had this issue
not been pulled from the consent agenda, how long would it have
October 10, 2017
Page 51
taken to get to second reading?
MR. KLATZKOW: I would have probably had it to you at the
next meeting.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So -- and then we're moving
into one meeting a month for November and December. So just by
attrition, it's going to take some time. I really didn't personally
envision this committee's formation until after the first of the year and
certainly after my colleagues had an opportunity to change, as
Commissioner Saunders says.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Madam Chair, why don't we
consider doing this: Let's not advertise this, because really the only
thing you're advertising is the title, and we may make changes that may
even change the title. And if that's the case, then we'd have to
readvertise. Why don't we just put this on an agenda in November for
discussion purposes, and then in November we can direct the
advertisement?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good. I like that. And, meanwhile, we
can develop some -- maybe the County Manager's Office can develop
some criteria/ideas. Let's just start working on this and thinking about
it.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think you've got a good point
because it will take a little bit of time. So I would suggest that as well.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. Good. All right. Good.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But you do have a motion and
a second.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Now, we had a motion on. Do you
want to --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Do you want to amend the motion to
have --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Withdraw the second and then
withdraw the motion, then direct staff to bring it back for further
October 10, 2017
Page 52
conversation. Commissioner McDaniel doesn't seem to want to do that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm just wondering about the
process. I think we're ending up in the same place. I don't see the
necessity to continue it. I don't see the necessity to -- I mean, we don't
necessarily need to advertise it for our next meeting, but we can
certainly have it on the agenda for the next meeting if you want to
advertise it as an actual topic and devote an hour or so to those
suggested changes. I just -- again, I don't see the necessity to take it all
the way to a straight advertised ordinance until we've all had a shot at
making adjustments to it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's exactly what Commissioner
Saunders said.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So, in other words, just like
Commissioner Taylor suggested, just delay it for a while?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Right. Just put it on the
agenda for our November meeting --
MR. KLATZKOW: Just continue this item to our next -- another
meeting.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and then we'll bring out
changes and discuss --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Right.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and then go from there.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It's changed a lot since we first
started. So I'm going to withdraw my motion because it isn't the same
anymore.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's why we wanted it on the
consent agenda.
I'll make a motion as -- well, you make the motion,
Commissioner Saunders, since you did it.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll make the motion just to
continue this until our November meeting for consideration by the
October 10, 2017
Page 53
Board.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. There's a motion on the floor
and a second. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously. Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, it would be appropriate for a court
reporter break.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes, court reporter break. I was
looking. She was looking at me fondly saying, please, please. Thank
you very much.
MR. OCHS: Ten minutes, ma'am?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Ten minutes.
(A brief recess was had.)
MR. OCHS: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your
seats.
Madam Chair, you're back with a live mic.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. I guess we are
now -- I'm just looking here, sir.
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am.
Item #11A
October 10, 2017
Page 54
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE PROPOSED COLLIER
COUNTY STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
FOR 2018 AND ADOPT THE ATTACHED RESOLUTIONS –
MOTION TO APPROVE LIST AS PRESENTED WITH THE
ADDITION OF THE LAND ACQUISTION TRUST FUND:
RESOLUTION 2017-194 (IMMOKALEE POST IRMA
RECOVERY); RESOLUTION 2017-195 (VETERANS NURSING
HOME); RESOLUTION 2017-196 (TAX EXEMPT MUNICIPAL
BONDS); AND RESOLUTION 2017-197 (PICAYUNE STRAND) –
ADOPTED
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, the legislative priorities; is that
correct?
MR. OCHS: Yes. We've got 15 minutes to get through that. I'm
hopeful that we can, unless the Board thinks they need more time, we'll
try to jumble this -- move to some other items.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Jumble it? Did you say jumble it?
MR. OCHS: Well, I just said jump around.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I was just checking.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And note he was looking at me
when he said "jumble it."
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, one of the things I wanted to talk
to my colleague here, Commissioner Saunders, who's actually been on
the other side and listened to, I think we need to narrow this down, do
you not, sir?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I think in terms of --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: How do we present this? I mean, how
do you present all of these things? And I bow to you on this one.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, the document -- and I
assume that this is the proposed state and federal legislative priorities.
You, obviously, need to have a state priorities separate document,
October 10, 2017
Page 55
which I assume the staff would be presenting, because you don't want
to mix that in with -- the federal in with the state there.
MR. MULLINS: John Mullins, government affairs manager.
What we did is we put together the state and the federal into one
package just to list all of our issues for the upcoming year. As it is
approved, as you make your edits and suggestions, we can change that
into separate documents to give to our different lobbying teams, and
we expect that you may want to pare some of this down. We were just
trying to give you the laundry list.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, again, if I may, Madam
Chair, this is going to be brought back again to us with specificity.
MR. OCHS: Whatever the Board wants. You know, this is our
attempt to capture your state and legislative priorities for the next year.
Obviously, the state will come sooner than some of the federal issues,
but we can bring this back if you'd like, or we could just move through
it and you can pare it down or whatever the pleasure of the Board.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I believe that this has to be presented
before our next meeting.
MR. OCHS: Well, we have -- you know, your state delegation
meeting is coming up --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Next Thursday.
MR. OCHS: -- next Thursday, so we certainly want the state
priorities determined if we could today, Commissioners. If you want
to delay some of the federal issues, that's certainly fine.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We could do that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And these priorities will
change at over time. But I would ask the question, have you spoken to
our lobby firm, Smith --
MR. MULLINS: Yes, Commissioner. We have actually
consulted not only the county staff and the applicable departments, but
October 10, 2017
Page 56
we've also consulted the new state lobbying team as well as our current
federal lobbying team, so everybody has had a look at this.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And in terms of the delegation
meeting, really the only thing that's critical in terms of presentation is
if you've got projects that you want funded, then it's a good idea to --
it's not required, but it's a good idea to present those to the delegation.
That would be a strong recommendation. And then, obviously, if
there's local bills, they have to be presented.
MR. OCHS: Right.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But in terms of our legislative
priorities, they don't have to be presented at the delegation. They
certainly need to be presented to the individual members at some point
in time, but we could do that individually. It doesn't have -- so we don't
really have that time constraint in terms of developing our priorities.
MR. MULLINS: Actually, by my estimation, I think, aside from
the projects that you mentioned, there are only probably two pieces of
legislation on the state level that would have to be written. One would
apply statewide, and the other one would probably be considered a
local bill.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: The EMS station?
MR. MULLINS: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And then the workman's comp?
MR. MULLINS: That one actually is existing legislation from
the prior session that may or may not be reintroduced in this session.
Based on some of the events of the last week with the Insurance
Commission, it's not even anticipated that they will move forward with
that bill this year now because rates are projected to be lowered in the
next couple of weeks by the insurance commissioner. That doesn't
resolve the problem, but it may temporarily take the wind out of its
sails.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel?
October 10, 2017
Page 57
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Well, I would -- I'd like
to make a motion that we approve the legislative initiatives as
presented.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second the motion.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And could I ask one question?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Of course.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You mentioned the EMS
station at Mile Marker 63.
MR. MULLINS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And you indicated that that
might require a local bill. It looks like, from what you've got here, that
it's amending a section of Florida Statutes, which maybe -- I'm
assuming that's a general law and you can amend that. If it's a local
bill, then we've got a bit of a time problem.
MR. MULLINS: Right. No, you probably could do it generally
with DOT language in the statute.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Because I think
that's the only way you're going to be able to do it at this point.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Should this come through the MPO?
MR. OCHS: No, it's not an MPO issue.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: This is ours. Okay.
MR. MULLINS: And we actually have a meeting set up with
Senator Passidomo at the end of the month to discuss the specific issue
and try to provide a path forward.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. I do think that -- funding
streams. I mean, when I look at the Everglades City Utility
rehabilitation, I mean, that's got to be priority. It's got to be.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It already is, Madam Chair.
MR. MULLINS: Yeah. And I will point out, too, that the
numbering used in this was just to separate the items. It is not to
convey any sort of priority from a staff's point of view.
October 10, 2017
Page 58
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. All right. So that's -- so what
I'm hearing, Commissioner Saunders, because I'm confused about this,
so that we can present -- we can separate the state -- well, we wouldn't
do it in the Everglades City Utility rehab, but we can present our issues
and just deliver it as such and let them decide which -- what they
wanted to do, or shouldn't we narrow it down to one, two, and three
priorities?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think when you get down to
the final weeks of the session and you're trying to get a couple projects
funded, that sort of thing, then you really have to narrow your list
down, but for purposes of starting, there's no need to narrow this down.
But I want to make sure you're working with our lobbying firm --
MR. MULLINS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- because there are some time
periods -- the House has special forms, the Senate has forms, and those
things have to be filed.
MR. MULLINS: Yes. And they are our frontline offense and
defense, so they'll be consulted every step of the way. And as things
either start to move through the committee process or flounder in the
committee process, we may even have to come back to you with
certain items that need a little bit of a push.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So you file all of them. At
some point in time Senator Passidomo and the House members are
going to say, what are your real priorities here? We have to have them
ranked in some form, and then we have to do that to get it through.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Then we have to do that. So we don't
have to do that right now.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You don't need to do that
today.
MR. OCHS: No.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
October 10, 2017
Page 59
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes, of course.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
One of the things I find on here -- I can't find it right this very
minute, but I have it underlined someplace or another, and that is the
veterans housing.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Number one is veterans.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, is it? And that, to me, is
extremely important. We lost it before through -- at the 11th hour, and
it wasn't a good loss, and our veterans here -- we have a lot of veterans
in this community, and I think we need to think of them. I don't know
how much effort needs to be put in that, but I hope that that's on the
very top of the list, because it's extremely important to our community.
MR. MULLINS: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I wondered if we could -- because I'm
delivering. I wonder if we could individually just rate our top four and
give it to the County Manager and then -- you know, not right now, but
really study this, and you mentioned one, and then we can deliver it as
such, but these are the priorities? I'm -- again, I'm concerned this is
way too broad.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'd have to ask the County
Attorney, if we put down on a piece of paper our top four and hand it
to the Manager, that's kind of polling the Board and coming to a
decision, and I'm not sure we can do that.
MR. KLATZKOW: I think it would be appropriate if you would
each tell the other commissioners what your top four would be at this
public hearing.
MR. OCHS: Well, Madam Chair, if I might, before you do that, I
know we have some speakers as well, I believe on this item, so you
may want to hear speakers. You also have an 11 time-certain.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Eleven. Okay, thank you very much.
October 10, 2017
Page 60
All right. Let's hear from our speakers.
MR. MILLER: We have three registered speakers for this item.
Your first speaker is Nicole Johnson, and she will be followed by Brad
Cornell.
MS. JOHNSON: Good morning. For the record, Nicole Johnson,
here on behalf of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
We really enjoyed looking through your list of legislative
priorities, and we look forward to working with your new lobbying
firm in Tallahassee.
We have shared with you our Conservancy top priorities for the
2018 legislative session. We emailed that out to you this morning.
No surprise, banning fracking and fracking-like activities
statewide is the Conservancy's remaining top priority. We are very
happen to see that that is on your watch list. One suggestion could be
the language for watching that item addresses only high pressure
fracking and, in fact, in Florida, you have not only high pressure, but
matrix acidizing and other forms of well stimulation, so you may want
to just add that caveat into your watch list.
And also to reiterate that any bills -- and there actually are two
ban bills that have been already introduced this session. They do not
restrict conventional oil well drilling.
And we would ask to maybe add to your very long list of state
legislative priorities one more, and that is if you would consider
including in your priority support for the state Amendment I funding to
be dedicated to conservation land programs.
As you recall, the 2014 water and land conservation amendment,
what we call Amendment I, which Florida voters overwhelmingly
supported, fund the Land Acquisition Trust Fund which historically
supports programs such as Florida Forever, Florida Communities
Trust, and the Rural and Family Lands Program. Each year those
programs have to vie for those legislative dollars generated through
October 10, 2017
Page 61
Amendment I.
Collier County continues to benefit from these programs. Florida
Forever has been used to purchase land in the CREW area; very
important for wetlands and flood storage. Florida Communities Trust
has benefited the county in a number of ways, including helping to
acquire the Gordon River Greenway, and the Rural and Family Lands
Protection Program provides funding for conservation easements so
that active agricultural and ranching areas can continue with farming
while having those development rights removed through willing sellers
and the property put into conservation in perpetuity.
So these are dollars from Amendment I. This isn't a new tax. It
isn't any increase in fees being collected, but this would be a request
that those monies from Amendment I that voters overwhelmingly
supported go to the very important Land Acquisition Trust Fund
projects: Florida Forever, Florida Communities Trust, and Rural and
Family Lands.
And we had provided the County Manager with some language in
support of that, and we would ask that you consider amending your
motion and including this as one of your priority items.
Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Brad Cornell. He'll be
followed by Pam Brown.
MR. CORNELL: Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Brad
Cornell, and I'm here on behalf of Audubon of the Western
Everglades, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
I want to support what Nicole Johnson had just advocated in the
way of Florida Forever programs, but if I may suggest that you have
the ability to focus in on what projects we have right here, and those
would be the CREW project which is absolutely vital for watershed
management flood protection the natural way, not developing it, and
holding those waters in the upper watershed rather than shunting them
October 10, 2017
Page 62
off through canals and flooding the downstream communities.
So CREW, you know, decades ago, was seen as a vital way to
address these kinds of issues, and post Irma, this is a very logical
project that we should be supporting.
Another project that's here locally is the JB Ranch. It's been --
about 6,000 acres of that in the Okaloacoochee Slough are proposed
for Rural and Family Lands Protection Program funding. That's an
easement. It keeps the ranch in business as a ranch. And it's not, you
know, condemning it. It's not putting it in public ownership, but it does
cap -- help them capitalize it and keep it in ranching. And that's true
across the state. That program needs funding. So we would urge you
to support that knowing that we have our own ranch here in Collier
County that would benefit.
And the third one is, of course, Half Circle L Ranch also in the
Okaloacoochee Slough. So I would support that. Audubon supports
adding that as one of your legislative priorities.
The other one that I want to highlight for you -- I appreciate very
much the inclusion of Picayune Strand, one of the biggest CERP
projects for Everglades restoration right here in Collier County. It's
going to restore the old south Golden Gate Estates. It's already 89
percent done. But having spent $500 million, we're only seeing a
quarter of the benefits.
So there's another $71 million that's needed. 40 million of that is
from the state, and you don't -- you haven't identified that state
funding. And the immediate request for Fiscal Year '19 for this
legislative session would be $19.8 million for the southwest protection
feature. That's the partial levy that protects the Littman Farms from
flooding as the waters flow across the landscape and towards U.S. 41.
So that $19.8 million in Fiscal Year '19 would be something I
would suggest you add as the state initiative for advocacy for Collier
County benefits in that project.
October 10, 2017
Page 63
Thanks very much.
MR. MILLER: Your final registered speaker for this item is Pam
Brown.
MS. BROWN: Good morning, Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: By the way, it's her birthday.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Really? Happy Birthday.
MS. BROWN: Oh, Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do you want us to sing?
MS. BROWN: No. I appreciate it, though. Thank you.
I was looking briefly at the legislative priorities also this morning,
and I saw the 5.75 million for the incubator accelerator at the airport,
and I think this might be a pretty good endeavor here. And I also
looked at mobilization opportunities. And I would like to see if maybe
you all would entertain promoting 29 north of Immokalee, 82, to
facilitate with additional funding to make sure that that's going to be a
priority in the future. We do have a lot of accidents, a lot of fatalities
there, and I would like to see that -- I don't know if that would be under
mobilization opportunity that's in the legislative priorities.
And I am really endorsing Lake Trafford sidewalks. It's really
been a dilemma since the storm. There's debris all over the place.
People are actually having -- kids can't even walk on the sidewalk in
certain areas when they go to school, and I really appreciate you all
looking at this.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MR. MULLINS: Commissioners, in regard to the Land
Acquisition Trust Fund, number one under our state and federal
funding request is advocacy for full funding of grants and continued
appropriations for program funds applicable to Collier County as well
as opposing actions that devote monies to other purposes than
originally intended.
October 10, 2017
Page 64
The list of funds states "including, but not limited to, and then
mentions several grants and appropriations."
You could specify including the LATF as part of that, given it
funds the programs that have been mentioned by the Conservancy.
That fund, for your information, also provides money for the
Everglades, Lake O and, if passed, 50 million for Senator Latvala's
beach nourishment bill that is being fast-tracked this session in hopes
of passage. FAC and eight individual counties expressed support for
that bill at yesterday's Environmental and Conservation Committee
where it passed unanimously.
As the Conservancy mentions, there are many worthwhile
programs that the LATF funds. I would recommend supporting full
funding of the LATF as the individual programs advocate and compete
with their share of the monies.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Question.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did I understand you to say
that the request that came from Nicole is basically already included in
our initiative; it just doesn't specify?
MR. MILLER: The list -- there were some initiatives that were
spelled out dealing with housing and other things, but the LATF was
not specifically mentioned. But it did say "including but not limited
to." Technically, it's already caught; however, if you want to spell it
out, you can without much problem, because it is something that
Collier is already benefiting from.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Is there a number on this that we
have that we can look at?
MR. MULLINS: In the priority list, it's number one under state
and federal funding. It deals with protecting all of the county funding
streams.
MR. OCHS: We can just add that into the list.
October 10, 2017
Page 65
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's already there.
MR. OCHS: Well --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Not with specificity that Nicole
suggested, but it's already included in the initiative.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Can you put it up?
MR. MULLINS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Somebody needs to show her
how to run a computer.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Right here. I got it. I got it. Okay. All
right. So recommendation of staff is to include and to spell out full
funding of the LATF under title one. Is there an agreement that this
would be one of our priorities?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It's on Page 3.
MR. MULLINS: Yeah. It's not reflected in the PowerPoint; I
apologize. It's only in the long document.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: So it is already in there?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, it's not named
specifically in there. Okay. It is named -- it is part of our legislative
requests, but it's not specifically named in there, and I don't --
Commissioner Saunders, is there a detraction from specifying that
language in there, or is there an enhancement to adding it?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think, if there's any
clarification that's needed, it best to have it in the document.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we're not detracting from
any other initiatives or any other participants that weren't able to get
here or didn't have an -- because we are a little bit behind in this
preparation of these initiatives.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: As I said before, we can
always add to this at a meeting. And so I think that will just provide
October 10, 2017
Page 66
some clarity.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll adjust my motion to reflect
that language change just to add them in.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. Do I hear a second?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. All right. So spell out what
we're adding in, the --
MR. MULLINS: Land Acquisition Trust Fund will be the
language.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Perfect.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What did you say? I'm sorry.
MR. MULLINS: Land Acquisition Trust Fund.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: LATP.
MR. MULLINS: F.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: F.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So all those in favor of adding
this into the priorities, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
So are we going to make this a priority? Commissioner Saunders,
is this a priority for you?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Are we --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, I think we need to short -- I think
-- I just can't --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: In terms of the four top
October 10, 2017
Page 67
priorities?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, four or five.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: What I started to do -- and this
may be a process we all want to go through. I went through all --
there's 11 -- I believe it's 11 projects --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- that are listed in here, or 12
projects. And so I'm kind of going through and picking four out of
those 12.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Right.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But if we start doing
individual ones, then we're going to get confused. I thought just listing
our top four, then we can talk about whether there's overlap here.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. That's what I -- okay. So --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I mean, personally, I understood that
we were going to adopt this as our legislative agenda as a whole. It's a
list of everything that we want to focus on for the coming year.
I can't even say that I'm prepared to pick my top four. I mean,
that would require some more time on my part if we're going to do
that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. I just -- to deliver it, I mean, it's
just -- it's overwhelming to deliver this to say these are our priorities
and sit down if we don't have some kind of ideas.
Commissioner Fiala, you've done this before.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. One question we haven't
spoken of yet, and that's the FEMA remapping. Wasn't that the
remapping we started to -- then would address all of the insurance and
it would -- actually, with remapping, our flood insurance would drop
down in many areas, but we've never been able to get that, and that
stopped quite a few years ago. And nobody's mentioned that, but I
think that's a real important part of this thing as well.
October 10, 2017
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MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am. That's one of our federal legislative
priorities, not our state one.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. So we're just addressing
state.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: State.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
MR. OCHS: I think Commissioner Saunders is going to make a
thoughtful comment here.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm not sure if it's thoughtful,
but just -- we could approve this -- the entire list. I assume that
information will be presented to the delegation in terms of what these
projects are.
MR. MULLINS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And then either today or
sometime in the future we can pick our top four as we go forward. But
in terms of the delegation meeting, I don't think it's necessary. First of
all, it's going to be a long day. No one's going to be paying attention
anyway, and they're going to support your request because that's the
easy thing to do, and -- but at some point they're going to ask for --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Specificity.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- some priorities. So I don't
think you have to go in there --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. It will be a first pass, right?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. All right. Good.
MR. MULLINS: Yeah. I think as of Friday there are 33 RSVP'd
speakers at the delegation meeting next Thursday, and there are a
number of people with a number of requests that will be there.
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, I think, as has been suggested, we
present the whole document --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Whole thing.
October 10, 2017
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MR. OCHS: -- as recommended, and then you just simply tell the
delegation, look forward to working with them through the session
with your board to identify specific priorities as we move forward.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. That's fine. Okay.
MR. MULLINS: And I would also point out, too, that, you
know, this list may be called a priorities list, but I can tell you as of this
morning, there are over 100 bills filed for the 2018 session that is
currently on our bill track. These either have positive or negative
impacts upon the county depending on which way you look at them.
But we'll be looking at everything. And as issues emerge that become
concerning, we'll be back before the Board to get your input on those.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good. Thank you. I'm a little more
comfortable. Sorry I took you down that road, but I just -- okay. So
do I hear a motion to approve the priorities?
MR. OCHS: I think you already have one, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We already voted. Have we
voted?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We have a motion and second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Motion and second, yes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We do. Okay. So there's a motion and
a second. Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
October 10, 2017
Page 70
MR. OCHS: Thank you, Commissioners. Time-certain.
Item #5D
PRESENTATION BY DRS. MICHAEL SAVARESE, PROFESSOR
OF MARINE SCIENCE, FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY
(FGCU), AND PETER SHENG, PROFESSOR OF COASTAL &
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
(UF) ON A WEB-BASED INTERACTIVE DECISION-SUPPORT
TOOL FOR ADAPTATION OF COASTAL URBAN AND
NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA AND
PRESENTATION OF SEA LEVEL RISE REPORT AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COLLIER COUNTY BY DR.
BENJAMIN STRAUSS, VICE PRESIDENT FOR SEA LEVEL AND
CLIMATE IMPACTS, CLIMATE CENTRAL – PRESENTED
That moves us to our 11 a.m. time-certain hearing this morning;
that is Item 5D.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Madam Chair, if I may
interrupt a second, I was remiss during the proclamations. If I could
make our 11 certain two minutes later.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Probably -- could we do it after lunch,
sir?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Proceed.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Good morning. Amy Patterson, for the
record, division director, Capital Project Planning Impact Fees and
Program Management.
I'm here today and pleased to introduce Dr. Mike Savarese of
October 10, 2017
Page 71
Florida Gulf Coast University, Dr. Peter Shang of the University of
Florida, and Dr. Ben Strauss of Climate Central, who have been
working together and will be making presentations today.
We're going to kick it off with Dr. Strauss speaking about the
rate-of-rise recommendations, and he'll provide a basis at board
direction to begin the process to update our floodplain management
plan. Dr. Strauss will then hand it off to Dr. Savarese and Dr. Shang to
discuss their work on their project on sea level rise and storm surge
scenarios for Collier County that's being funded by a NOAA grant.
With that, I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Strauss.
DR. STRAUSS: Thank you so much, Amy.
Thank you to the commissioners, all of your time here.
And I also need to understand how I advance the slides. Great,
great. I think I got it.
All right. So just as a -- I'm going to give a brief introduction and
explainer around sea level rise broadly and then get into the
recommendations I'm making for sea level rise rates for the county.
As a piece of context, my title slide shows you land that is less
than four feet above the high tide line right here in the Naples area.
The area shaded in blue is land that's less than four feet above the high
tide line and connected to ocean water. The green represents low lying
areas that are not connected to the ocean. But that just gives you a
picture of four feet to put this in context when I'm giving numbers
later. Obviously, we're living in a very low and flat area here.
So first a little primer on sea level rise. We have been tracking --
we have been -- basically with sticks in the water, like the tide gauge
pictured here, we've been measuring the steady increase of sea levels
with these instruments globally for more than a century now. And, in
fact, the orange dots represent tide gauges globally where we've been
making these measurements over different periods.
And coming up with this picture of sea level rise, it translates to
October 10, 2017
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around eight inches between the late 1880s and 2000 as measured in
tide gauges.
The tide gauge here at Naples, which started service in the mid
1960s, shows sea level rise rate averaging a little bit more than an inch
per decade since the 1960s.
We have another means since the early '90s for tracking sea level
rise, which is satellites that measure the whole global surface very
precisely, a series of four satellites that have been launched by NASA
European Space Agency. And so since the '90s we've actually seen a
rather steeper rate of rise, more like an inch and a half per decade. So
there's been a global acceleration that we very clearly observed.
Sea level rise is happening at different rates in different places.
This map shows the results of satellite measurements of sea level rise.
The reds are the most rapid sea level rise regions, and the blues
actually show places where sea level has been dropping. If you look
carefully, you can see around Florida with her pretty close to the global
average, around three to four millimeters per year. And the orange is
there, and you can see Florida is surrounded by orange.
Stepping back a little bit further, there's evidence for sea level rise
over many centuries. And if you compare the 20th century against the
20 centuries that came before it, like you see in this graph, you see a
very sharp departure. So something very different is going on over the
last 100 years.
And we understand historic sea levels by taking cores and
measuring where salt-marshes, their elevations have been over the
many -- last hundreds of years and dating those salt cores.
So where is the sea level rise coming from? It's something -- this
is something the scientists have been working hard to do the
accounting for over the last couple of decades, and the largest source
of the sea level rise that we have seen so far is the warming of the
oceans. When water gets warmer, it actually grows in volume, and
October 10, 2017
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that is the main effect that has been leading sea levels to rise.
This map shows a pattern of sea surface temperature warming
since 1900, and that is based simply on thermometers from ships and
also most recently thousands of floating temperature sensors. Here's an
Argo float deployed by NOAA.
The second factor that's leading to sea level rise over the last
century has been the melting of glaciers. Here's some simple
photographic evidence, a change in one glacier system in Alaska over
60 years, a very dramatic retreat, and there has been photographic and
survey evidence of the retreat of almost pretty much every glacier
system in the world, and that is the second factor contributing to the
sea level rise that we see.
And, third, we've been losing ice from the ice sheets of Greenland
and, to some degree, Antarctica, and that rate of loss has been very
much accelerating since we've been observing it since the early '90s.
We really -- these are remote, harsh environments. We have some
overflight surveys, and we also have a remarkable new pair of satellite
sensors which can detect that gravitational attraction, the gravitational
field of any patch of land on earth, and they've literally seen the gravity
decreasing over Greenland so they measure the mass loss.
All right. So where do we go? So there is a wide -- there are
many different streams of advents that the sea level is rising and what
is accounting for it, and the budget adds up for the sea level rise that
we're observing now. Where do we go from here? If we understand
those processes and model them forward, what are the projections for
the future?
So the recommendations I'm going to give are based on the top
science that exists at this time in sea level protections. First and
foremost, it's based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
most recent physical science report that was published in 2013. The
IPCC is a collection of thousands of scientists globally who align
October 10, 2017
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together to develop a consensus around what we can say concerning
climate change and its related symptoms, such as sea level rise.
The second document that is the basis of the projections that I'm
recommending is a technical report accomplished as recently as this
January by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency
Administration.
And the third document is an April update to sea level rise
scenarios published by the state of California, which has been very
forward-looking in this respect. Both the NOAA technical report and
the California report use as a foundational study a paper published in
2014 that presents sea level projections based on the IPCC but
extending the IPCC projections with a little update of the science to
account for the possibility of more significant ice loss from the ice
sheets, something which recent science supports.
So to cut to the chase, apparently we had a little formating glitch
in computer transition, but here is my recommendation: Basically the
projection's represented by three red lines. The central red line is the
central or main projection, and the dotted line at the top and the solid
red line at the bottom represent upper and lower range limits that I'm
recommending. The blue line contrasts the guidance given in the 2015
flood plan -- Flood Management Plan for Collier County.
So a little bit more on where these came from. Here is an excerpt
from the NOAA technical report. Now, one thing I'd like to emphasize
is that the scenarios in the rainbow colors here are global sea level rise
scenarios. They have not been localized to Collier County, although
Collier County is not far off from the global average.
And NOAA's approach was to simply take a series of round
numbers spanning a full range of possibility that they see in the future;
.3, .5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 meters, okay.
Instead of choosing one of those round numbers, the approach
that I'm recommending is to take a look at this red bar. That represents
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the range of most of the likely outcomes by 2100 under a
business-as-usual carbon dioxide emission scenario, okay.
So that is the range of the most likely. And if we draw a line to
the middle of that range, that is basically the projection that I am
recommending. Those bars showing what is most likely to occur under
different emission scenarios, those come from the top research that I
was just describing, which is, in fact, heavily used and cited in the
NOAA report to give context to their round numbers.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And on the left-hand side, .0 -- 0.50,
0.5, what is that; meters?
DR. STRAUSS: Yes, those are meters. So I'm going to translate
that to feet. I'm not -- I've gone with feet, but the scientific literature
tends to be --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It's always meters.
DR. STRAUSS: -- in meters. So it creates some difference in the
numbers but things line up. This is just below one meter, so around
three feet, okay.
Now, something else you'll notice is that the highest line goes all
the way up to 2.5 meters, which is about eight feet. It's what NOAA
calls the extreme scenario. I'll touch on that more in a little bit.
Here are the different but similar projections in the California
report. Again, we're looking at global mean sea level. Instead of using
round numbers, California directly adopts what they view to be most
likely, which is what I'm recommending, and the red line corresponds
to a business-as-usual emissions and, again, it's ending up just a little
below three feet on the right-hand side and a little below 100
centimeters on the left-hand side.
But the purple line at the top, again, is this extreme scenario
above eight feet. And the reason for the introduction of that extreme
scenario in both cases is recent science that suggests that Antarctic ice
sheet -- West Antarctic ice sheet. This Amundsen Sea sector in
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particular may be a great deal less stable than we had hoped. May
deteriorate sooner and faster than previous science had imagined. But
I want to emphasize this is a plaus -- this is something that is
scientifically plausible, but we do not, cannot right now assign a
likelihood.
So I'm going to show you my main recommendation and also
what the extreme scenario is. The extreme scenario is something -- I
do not recommend planning based on the extreme scenario, I do not,
but I do think it is something that's important to keep revisiting every
several years to understand how the science is evolving.
It really only comes to play in the second half of the century, if it
comes into play at all. So I just want to flag that.
Here's a table of numbers that corresponds to the figure that I first
gave you. So the main projections, the main rate that I'm
recommending is the line that's bolded. It's the central or kind of most
likely mid range sea level projections based on the science updated
from the IPCC. It corresponds to about .6 feet of sea level rise from
1992 as a baseline by 2030; 1.4 feet by 2060, 2.8 feet or just under 3
feet, like I explained, by 2100. And for the benefit of the scientists
here, I have a column with meters in the far right just for 2100. A kind
of wider range would be around one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half feet
of possibility by 2100.
The 99th percentile is another standard you might consider, all
right. There's a basis in looking at floodplain management. We care
very much about the 100-year floodplain; in other words, the one
percent risk. And the sea level equivalent of that, to the best of our
ability to estimate it, is around 5.7 feet by the end of the century; 2.4
by 2060 and, finally, the extreme scenario for Collier County
specifically -- and all of these projections have been localized to
Collier County -- is 10.4 feet. And there's not a lot of -- it's not really
worth modeling or thinking about that. Again, I think for near-term
October 10, 2017
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planning, the focus needs to be 2030, 2060 time frames and the main
range of protections, but keep that unlikely but scientifically plausible
extreme in the back of your the mind.
My final message would be if we kind of froze time right now
and we have the concentration of carbon dioxide that's already in the
atmosphere, published scientific research in the top journal says that
we would eventually see about five or six more feet of sea level rise
than we already have today.
There is not a time frame on that. That could take centuries to
unfold, but it's as certain as if I dumped a pile of ice in this room that it
would all melt. It would be harder to tell you exactly how quickly it
melts, right, and that's what the science is constantly working on is to
understand decade by decade. That's really hard. But it's much easier
to tell you the ice is going to melt and we're going to see five or six
feet of sea level rise. Chances are we're going to see a great deal more
than that. If the planet warms as projected, we probably will see 20
feet or more over many centuries. So not your concern.
But the point -- the main point is when we transitioned from a
stable sea level to one that is continually rising, no number on this
chart is the right number. No number that anyone will ever tell you is
the right number, but what is true is that we have gone from stability to
constant change.
And so any plan that you adopt is one where whatever you decide
to do, it's the first step in a longer journey, and that change in mind
frame, I think, is something that's very valuable.
We've seen that the sea level has been rising for the last 100
years, we've seen that that rise has accelerated over the last 20 years,
and we know with great confidence that we will see continuing sea
level rise for the rest of the century and likely centuries to come.
So I'll transition it now. My colleagues here -- I've given you a
really broad brush kind of global perspective. Dr. Savarese and Shang
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have great expertise on the local conditions here in Florida and detailed
modeling about what that's going to mean -- how it interacts with the
natural ecosystems, the flood risks, and other features that are local to
southwest. So I hope you'll give them a great deal of your attention.
DR. SAVARESE: Good morning. Give me a second to find the
right -- or someone else is doing this. Is this you, Troy?
MR. MILLER: Yes.
DR. SAVARESE: Wow. You're magical.
MR. MILLER: Is that it?
DR. SAVARESE: Yeah, but let's start at the beginning.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, come on.
DR. SAVARESE: Good morning. Thank you, Commissioners.
I'm Mike Savarese from Florida Gulf Coast University, and with me in
person this time, unlike last April, is Dr. Peter Shang from the
University of Florida. Thanks for taking the time to let us speak.
I feel like I need to just make one sort of segue statement from
Ben's presentation into ours.
The numbers that Ben is providing you is really where we start,
the numbers that go into the modeling. And I should let -- I can see --
when I listen to that and I think of myself not as a scientist but as
maybe an elected official like yourselves, I can see how frustrating this
can be because everyone expects science to provide certainty, and this
isn't the kind of science that provides you with certainty.
So what I would like to say before we start, is I want to assure
you that whatever numbers we decide to use in these simulations that
Peter and his colleagues are going to do, and Peter will describe in a
few minutes, are going to be decisions that you're comfortable with as
the end users.
So one of the purposes of this is not for us to work in isolation but
to work with you as decision makers, and we'll talk about the team
structure of this project a little bit later. We want to make sure that
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you're comfortable with the numbers that we're going to use so that
you're willing -- what risks or what levels of confidence are you
willing to accept to make your jobs easier and to decide how to invest
resources in the future. So don't let the uncertainty frustrate you too
much. Don't let it scare you too much, and everything will be fine.
So anyway, with that, we're here today to talk about this project.
We were here back in April, and we were sort of -- we had learned
back in April that this project was going to be funded by NOAA, but
we weren't allowed to talk about it yet and the details simply because
we didn't have a contract in hand. We're now allowed to talk about the
details, so we've very excited about that. And we're here today to
describe this project in that kind of detail.
And this is really about preparing Collier County for a stainable
and economically healthy future, not only in the urban realm, but also
in the natural realm so that Collier County remains a wonderful place
to live without any suffering.
The project was funded through a program of NOAA through
their NCCOS office. This is the actual project title. Hopefully people
can read this. It was the title that went on the proposal. It's maybe less
informative for the layperson.
But suffice it to say, this is a three-year project. It's almost a
million dollars coming to Collier County to help you deal with this
issue, and will span over three years. The monies come from the
RESTORE Act, and so this was part of the Deepwater Horizon British
Petroleum settlement.
The good news about this is because this is a legislated fund, it's
not subjected to budget cuts. So the federal government can go about
its business and make decisions about what dollars go where, but our
money is secure. So this project is secure for the county, which is
great news. There's nothing worse than having the rug pulled out from
under you when you're partly through a project.
October 10, 2017
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This is not your typical science award. Peter and I, Ben probably
as well, are used to the kinds of awards made by the federal
government that have us going out and doing science. This is less
about doing science and it's more about providing tools to you as
decision makers. So rather than investing a lot of money and doing
new science, it's taking existing science, creating valuable tools that
then you can use to make decisions about how to deal with the
problems of sea level rise and storminess as things begin to change as
we move forward in this century.
The proposal success. We'd mentioned this last time we were
here. It's really a function of two things. It's the robust science. Peter
has assembled a team of extraordinary people, and we'll talk a little bit
about those people in a bit. But it was also the strong collaboration
with urban and natural resource planners and elected officials. It was
this county commission's resolution, for example, that helped so much
in having our proposal being favorably reviewed.
So we'd like, at the onset here, to thank the County Commission,
thank the city councils and manager of the City of Naples and Marco
Island. There's also a suite of federal and public lands or state land
managers that have been part of this that have been supportive, and
then probably our greatest advocate in terms of building consensus is
Collier's League of Women Voters. So we thank all of them on behalf
of the county for making this happen.
The way this project should work, it's really a project that
involves three phases. The first phase, which is really our phase, is to
use the best available science to generate possible scenarios of what
the environment is likely to look like at various times in the future as
sea level rises and as storms continue to influence us.
The second part that this project can inform but not do completely
is to then employ the best actionable science to develop viable plans
for adaptation, okay. So our work will help decision makers develop
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those plans so that you can move ahead into the future. And then the
third phase would be to eventually engineer a plan in anticipation of
those changes.
I've been very outspoken about this before. We'd like to be
outspoken about this again. We're here to provide to you the best
science, but like I mentioned in April, if that best science doesn't do
anything, if it just sits on a shelf, it really is money squandered.
So we want to stress the importance of Phase 2, that this science
should be employed in the planning, okay, and that the county take on
a genuine effort to build those plans, and then we would argue that
engineering requires a forethoughtful plan.
So before you invest money in engineering and improving or
changing the infrastructure, you should have some plan in mind.
So with that as a beginning, let me first note -- well, this is a point
that I wanted to mention and just kind of lost my train of thought. The
plan that you develop, too, as you've recognized, given the
uncertainties particularly further out, like in 2100, like Ben had noted,
the plan itself needs to be adaptable and change as the actual effects
are realized, so that adds a little difficulty to what the county has to do
as you move forward.
Our respective roles, Peter and myself, I'm the -- I guess I'm the
person here on the ground. I'm the communications person. I'm the
person that's supposed to do a great job in getting information from us
to you so that people are informed and you're involved in the process
all along the way, and then Peter and his intellectual capabilities and
the team assigned and associated with us then are the people that
produce the tools that are going to best inform you.
So with that, let me turn it over to Peter, then I'll be back later for
part two.
DR. SHENG: Thank you, Mike, and thank you, Ben, for setting
the stage for my presentation.
October 10, 2017
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So this information on top, that's the complete title of the project.
The name, it's called a Web-Based Interactive Decision-Support Tool
for Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems in Southwest
Florida, and that includes the current climate and future climate.
And on the diagram you can see on the left I highlight the
mangrove -- mangroves in Southwest Florida. This is one of the most
important assets in this region, the largest mangrove forest in Gulf of
Mexico region. As we know, mangroves are moving further north.
And whatever we learn from this project will benefit people in the
Gulf region. Maybe, who knows, mangroves will go up to New York.
On the right is the study domain that we will focus on in Collier
County, including Marco Island, Naples, and also Everglades City and
Chokoloskee Island. And there you see on the fringe, and other
agencies involved, universities, and stakeholders, we work as a team
on this project. Again, thank you for your strong support of this
project. Without that, we couldn't have had this success.
And here I give you a quick overview of this region. We have
Florida is the hurricane capital, and a lot of hurricanes go through
Florida. Even Katrina had to go through Florida, check in first before
they hit New Orleans.
And so we have a high risk of hurricane-induced storm surge.
And on the right you see the storm surge. Storm comes in with high
tide and generates a lot of high water and inundates the coastal region.
So I've given you a list of all the mechanisms that contribute to
coastal flooding in this region. Storm surge, it could go from one to 28
feet. This is the real number that happened in Mississippi during
Katrina. It could happen. I'm not saying that it happen in Naples area.
Tide anywhere between zero and six feet. But, again, this is
something that could happen in the gulf region or a little further north
and, again, tide is a little lower here. But the letters' size indicate the
relative magnitude of these factors.
October 10, 2017
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Wave setup could be up to 5 feet. Precipitation is becoming more.
It could go up to 0 to 4.5 feet. And sea level rise, I put some
approximate numbers for 2030, 2060, and 2100. These will correspond
to the high-end numbers that Ben presented.
And so all those factors contribute to create high water level in --
on the coast, but they create inundation over land. So the important
message is, high water on the water is not equal to the inundation over
land, all right.
And when you talk about the water level on land, you talk about
NAVD88. You don't talk mean sea level or mean low, low water or
mean high, high water.
And FEMA maps are probabilistic maps. They're based on
historic storms, but they do not include climate change, future storms,
or sea level rise.
So the one in the middle, the map in the middle is an example of
the current climate 100-year flood map also known as 1 percent annual
exceedance for the inundation map for Collier County and Lee County.
This is produced by us, which is very similar to the FEMA base flood
elevation map.
So we're building upon a lot of experience on coastal flooding and
coastal flood mapping. On the left you see two reports produced by
National Academy's Committees, one on improving flood map
accuracy. The other one on the New Orleans hurricane protection
system, which was formed right after Katrina.
These committee members were assembled by National
Academies to produce information that will help FEMA and other
federal agencies and local agencies to make their -- more flood
resilient. And I was involved on both committees, and I actually wrote
the chapter on coastal flooding in the map and the zone report, and
those -- both books can be downloaded free from National Academy
Press, okay.
October 10, 2017
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So on the right this is the basis of flood mapping. When we look
at coastal flooding, we look at this flood elevation. The blue line on
top, this is the 100-year flood elevation going from the ocean on the
left to the land on the east. And you can see this flood elevation
becomes less and less as it goes towards England because of the
structures, houses, and mangroves, marshes. They provide buffering
function. And on the ocean side you have V zone, and then you have
A zone and X zone.
So this is the 1 percent annual exceedance base flood elevation
map. And these are produced with coastal models and historic storm
data, and this, together with the zoning map, are the bases for FEMA
to collect flood insurance dollars for the National Flood Insurance
Program, which is, unfortunately, broke.
So this 1 percent annual exceedance flood elevation is often
exceeded during storms. As we know in Harvey, 100-year plan was
flooded very badly, and the worst part was Harris County actually
allowed 66,000 properties to be built under 100-year flood plan, and
that's the cause of the damage.
Now, to ensure resilience, 100-year flood map is not sufficient.
In a Dutch government case, they used 1,000- to 10,000-year return
period flood map to ensure coastal resilience.
And the other thing you see is this base flood elevation changes
with spatial location because of these land use features. So this coastal
plan is not a bad top (sic), all right.
Unfortunately, FEMA map does not include climate change
effect, future storms, and sea level rise. So this is something that we
will address in this project.
Now, the sea level rise, where sea level rise comes in, that's on the
open boundary on the ocean side. It's provided as a boundary
condition. So whatever value that Ben recommends, along with other
folks in NOAA, we can use them to specify the boundary condition of
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our coastal model when we do this flood mapping.
And so the map has to be done with coastal models that are
robust. So in this case we use a very robust coastal model called
Advanced Coastal Modeling System. It has been used to simulate
numerous storms, including Andrew, Isabel, Charley, Ivan, Katrina,
Wilma, Ike, Sandy, Irma, Maria, and more to come. And results are
evaluated with extensive water level data and high water marks
throughout different regions of the nation.
So during each study we gain experience; we make the model
more reliable. In this case, we show in the case of Hurricane Sandy,
superstorm Sandy hit New York area 2012. You were still probably in
New York. And we got 3.4 meters high surge tide at the Battery was
about 11 feet. So that was not a very pleasant scenario because all the
subways got flooded; 3.44 meters.
And so we produced a rapid forecasting system. This one can
produce a forecast during an approaching hurricane in three minutes.
Once we have the hurricane track from National Hurricane Center, we
produce this coastal inundation map. We did this for two advisories.
One is Advisory 38, the top two, and the bottom one, Advisory 46.
And Collier County really lucked out, because if you had the one on
Advisory 46, you would see surge level on the left, lower left would be
more than 11 feet. Inundation would be more than nine feet, all right,
in most of the county. And, in fact, the real case is more close to
Advisory 38, okay.
So on the left is surge, on the right is inundation. You can see
there's a difference. Inundation, again, is inundation over the land.
So then -- now we have the best track. It's the real track that
actually happened during Irma. We took that. We run through this
rapid forecasting system. And we got our inundation map. Maximum
inundation on the lower left, which we then compared with the USGS
high water mark stations on the upper right. They were very quick,
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and we were able to download those numbers. Unfortunately, some
are not QAQC yet, but we did a quick comparison, and they look
pretty good. The tran looks pretty good. Our square could be a little
higher, and we're trying to check with the USGS to make those
numbers more believable.
But the bottom line is this rapid forecasting system is something
that's available. We actually trained six coastal communities in South
Florida in August, which Mike went to, and along with some other
people from this area. So it's a tool that we can use to supplement the
forecast of National Hurricane Center; give you more detail.
Since Ben already talked about the CRIs, I don't need to say much
about this. But basically when we start doing these sort of future
inundation maps, we start looking at NOAA 2012 report, and at that
time they're saying there's a 90 percent chance that sea level will never
-- not exceed two meters by 2100. This is for the global mean sea
level. And in 2017 the NOAA report included the results of Kopp, et
al, 2014, and it gives slightly different numbers; 99 percentile.
Numbers are a little higher if you include the local effect, and NOAA
give the extreme number that Ben mentioned.
But -- so the point is, you look at the bottom. The Kopp
recommendation there, results, 99th percent is 1 foot, 2.4 feet, 5.94 feet
in the three time periods in 21st century. Now, certainly those are very
high numbers, and they did not include the local effect, and they need
to be adjusted slightly. But we are not just interested in looking at the
high case. We can look at the 50 percentile case for the three time
periods. They come to be about half feet and 1.5 feet and 3 feet. These
are very close to what Ben would recommend.
This is following the report of 2017. Following their procedure,
we produced those numbers, and so we can start from those 50
percentile numbers and perhaps doing some 99 percentile numbers just
to show what could happen.
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And this is taken out from the 2017 NOAA report. On the top,
other authors. And I've spoken -- I know quite a few authors on this
report. Bill Sweet at NOAA and Obeysekera with South Florida Water
Management District. He's also on the Compact, Southeast Florida.
One of the case studies they showed in appendix of the report,
and look at Miami as example, and you see those solid curves are the
local sea level rise for Miami region all the way to 2100. And on top
of that, they took the tidal data at Virginia Key and did 100-year
extreme water level assessment. They added that to the regional sea
level and to produce their projection.
In this case, they try to tell you how to design an infrastructure for
2070, and looking -- if you look at the table down there, they look at
three cases: Intermediate, intermediate-high, extreme case.
So some similar can be done in Collier County. We can look at
three different possibilities and for each of those RCP scenarios.
There is only one thing I want to comment shortly on the report,
and they added this number. Together they call that 100-year annual
chance flood. And I spoke to two authors on the report. They agreed
that word "flood" probably should be changed because flood is on
land, not on water. So it's really a 1 percent annual chance water level,
okay.
So how do you do flood? And that's what we're here to tell you
about. So this is what we're able to do, the science stuff we're going to
do in this project in a nutshell. I'm going to spend the next 40 minutes
going through every one of them.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Then we'll see you a little --
DR. SHENG: In fact, we'll spend -- I'll spend less than one
minute. I'll just tell you what are the tools that we're using, what are
the information we're using, what are the products, what are the most
important elements. I want to point out the most important elements in
this diagram are the green boxes; those are the urban system and the
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national system of Collier County. That's what we are here for. The
centerpiece of this project is you guys here, and then the goal, the final
product is the one all the way at the lower right corner, is resilient
coastal, urban, and natural ecosystems. That's what the goal is.
How are we going to get there? We are going to be very broad.
We're going to be very compressive. We're going to drill down very
deep. We actually start from those global climate scenarios for those
three time periods. In 21st century we use those scenarios. We use the
results of global climate atmospheric models that predict future storms
that are becoming more intense. The intense storms are going to
become more frequent. The less intense storms are becoming less
frequent. But at the end of the day, that means the impact of the storms
is going to be somewhat higher than now.
But those are global storms, and we need to scale it to the region
using downscaling technique and so it works for the Florida region,
and those have been done. So we have regional representative storms
because if we have to represent all the possible storms based on these
predictions, we would have to run about 40,000 possible storms, which
is a tremendous task with dynamic model.
So we decided to follow the example of the U.S. Congress; we
elect representatives. We select -- we select representative storms. We
get it down to about 150. We're more efficient. We can't afford 450
representatives. We want to go with 150 representatives. We run
those storms with the coastal model. We create an inundation map for
each of those, and then from there we can get inundation of any
possible storm. But most important thing, we can produce inundation
maps of any return period from 10 year all the way to a million years.
I'll tell you, at the end I'm going to show you an inundation curve
for Naples -- for Collier County government, Naples City government,
from 10-year to a million year, the elevation, based on our preliminary
prediction. We're not done get yet. This is just a warmup.
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So after that, we're going to do -- we're going to see -- we're going
to put the urban system and natural system into the model and look at
the impact from these extreme events, and then we start thinking about
adaptation, protection, using green infrastructure. I believe nobody
wants to build high seawalls and accommodation, raising houses in
some area if they insist on living right next to the water or retreat.
We're not recommending everybody going to Gainesville. That's not
an option.
So after adaptation, now, we check to see if it's resilient. Now, if
it's not resilient, we go through this exercise again to see what
additional impact is and what additional adaptation needs to be.
And we do the same with the ecosystem. We're going to talk to
the ecosystem folks tomorrow afternoon for our meeting.
But on the left side, this is what Ben talked about, the sea level
science is very pioneering, emergent science. They've done great work
in the last few years. They went from scenarios to probabilistic.
Except sometimes you try to read all of those probabilistic papers, you
get a headache like me. But those are good work. And we can benefit
from their scenario selection and help us to decide the boundary
conditions for our coastal model.
So that's in a nutshell. I'm almost done.
DR. SAVARESE: This is where the intermission should be if we
had an intermission.
Anyway, so Peter gave you sort of an overview of the kinds of
products, and he'll talk a little bit more about products in a little bit.
But let me talk to you a little bit about the communications and how
the science team, the project investigatory team interacts with people
in the community.
Our science team, the co-principal investigators on this project, is
an interesting cast of characters representing a variety of institutions.
You can see our mugshots there.
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It includes people from University of Florida, from Florida Gulf
Coast University, it includes people from University of Miami for the
U.S. Geological Survey. Every person comes onboard with a
particular specialty. So this is half of them, and then this is the other
half.
And so we are the group that then produces the tools that are then
shared with the end users, the people in the community that are
affected by all of this.
We have an interesting structure. We've taken all the end users,
the stewards, the people that are responsible for managing either the
natural system or the urban system, and we've created these teams.
This is what we're calling the Natural Resource Management Team.
This is a collection of those team members, and they represent all
kinds of public, state, and federal lands with various responsibilities.
And these are the people that have agreed to serve as discussants,
decision makers that are going to help with the management of those --
of those public natural lands.
Kevin Godsea. I don't know if you know him. He's the manager
at the 10,000 Islands and Florida panther wildlife refuges. He's agreed
to serve as the team leader for this group.
And then a group that's of greater interest to this organization, the
Board of Commissioners, this is the Urban Resilience and Planning
Team. You can see people here represent the City of Naples, the City
of Marco Island, Collier County, some private interests, and some
NGO interests, and you can see the names here. Some of them are in
the room. Linda Penniman, the vice mayor of Naples, has agreed to be
the team leader for this group. And you can see you've a couple of
county commissioners that are on here: Commissioner Taylor and
Commissioner Fiala.
So I should point out that these teams change every day, and the
size -- there is no limit to how big these teams can be. These are not
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meant to be exclusionary by any stretch of the imagination. We just
need to find the right people that are responsible for the right kinds of
elements that are important.
Let me talk just briefly about the process of how we connect the
tools to the community. How does the collaboration and
communication work? First I should say that many of those team
members that you saw on those lists were actually involved in the
development of the proposal. So one of the wonderful things about
this is from the very beginning you've been involved. The Natural
Resource and Urban people have been involved. So, again, I think that
added strength to the proposal. So we started out well involving the
end users from the very beginning.
Again, the products are developed and they're shared over a
three-year period. So the way our timeline works is at the end of every
year -- and our year ends on May 31st. That's the end of our fiscal year
for this award. In May of every year, the new products from this
project will be generated, and those products will be presented to the
end-user teams.
The process is at the beginning of every year, in the fall, we host a
series of workshops for both teams, and at those workshops we provide
an opportunity for those teams to give us feedback on how the tools
shall be developed, what should the starting conditions be.
So, for example, we are hosting two kickoff workshops this week.
Peter mentioned we've got one tomorrow hosted by Rookery Bay,
National Estuarine Research Reserve for the Natural Resource
Management Team, and we have one hosted here by the county on the
fifth floor conference room for the Urban Resilience Team.
And at that meeting we're going to have some very serious
conversations about what kinds of levels, what kinds of magnitudes
would people like to see in those models so that your interests are best
represented.
October 10, 2017
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Those workshops in the fall also provide sort of an overview of
what the tools are going to look like and what they're likely to do and
generate, and then, most importantly, we will facilitate a conversation
and ask those team members what they perceive as the critical and
most important questions that the tools can help with, okay.
So maybe someone from Coastal Zone Management, like Gary
McAlpin, might say, oh, well, the county is considering fortifying
dunes in our region. We'd like to know what regions of our coast
where the dune's most vulnerable. Those are questions the tools can
address.
So those are the kinds of things we're hoping that heuristically
come forward in those conversations with people representing those
two teams. That's what makes this powerful. You're asking the
questions that are important, and we're employing the tools to help you
get those answers.
Then in the spring when the products are ready, we host another
serious of workshops. The tools are introduced. The data, the
simulations are shared. People will be trained on how to use those
tools so that you can use them -- rather than sleeping at night, you can
sit at home and be obsessive on your computer and, you know, play
with simulations.
And it's also, most importantly, an opportunity to revisit those
critical questions. The question that Gary McAlpin asked about dunes
can be answered with advisory simulations. So it's an opportunity to
provide real insight as to how you might invest your resources and
how -- here at the bottom bullet, how the county might pursue the
planning effort.
For this to be most successful, for this to be of greatest help, we
envision during Year 2 that the county pursue a companion planning
effort. We've talked -- I've talked with many of you. I know
commissioners have talked and the county managers have talked about
October 10, 2017
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maybe crafting an RFP to hire some team that would come in and take
on the onerous role of doing planning. This body's considered in the
past the Harvard project. That kind of team, a team that would be
competitively bidding for that -- for that role, would then take this to
the next level. So that's how we envision this working.
I think I'm now passing it back to Peter. I am.
DR. SHENG: Thank you.
All right. Since I'm standing between you and lunch, I'm going to
try to rush in about one minute; try to finish this whole thing.
Okay. So let me just go through, what tools are we developing?
We came up with this cool name. It's A-C-U-N-E, ACUNE, and this is
Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystem. This tool with --
the goal is enable end users to develop coastal resilience plan for flood
protection, estuarine preservation, and mangrove restoration.
This tool will include these parts and the tropical cyclones for
future climates. This we pretty much have them done already. And
the sea level rise scenarios, we're in the process of soliciting input, and
we'll make those up this year, hopefully.
And probabilistic coastal inundation maps for current and future
climates. So we're doing four scenarios; current and three future
scenarios, future years. Beach impact maps, mangrove distribution
maps. We have USGS folks working on mangrove distribution, how
they evolve over the future climate with more storms and sea level rise.
Then we'll have probabilistic inundation maps and economic
impact maps with various adaptation plan in place. Like, for example,
Mangrove Restoration Plan where we'll change the buffering capacity;
therefore, the flood map will be different. So we'll be doing more and
more maps.
So how do we develop probabilistic coastal inundation maps?
Let me just go through this quickly. As I said, we can't rely on just
current climate. Yes, we do historic storms like the FEMA maps, and
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we need to develop a storm ensemble. The lesson we learned from
Katrina is we can't do coastal planning based on a single storm, single
design storm, okay. That doesn't work. And they learned that. That's
the biggest lesson they learned from that academy report. So we need
to develop a storm ensemble which represents all possible storms using
something called joint probability method.
Then we develop coastal inundation maps for the storm ensemble,
then we can generate coastal inundation maps of any return periods.
Let's do the same thing for the future climate. A future storm
ensemble needs to be predicted from dynamic climate models. They're
not -- they're not made up. They are not historic storms. So that's the
main difference.
So let's show some example of how we've done this coastal flood
risk study for Southwest Florida. So we had actually done the study in
2012 in natural hazards with Andrew Condon, my former student. We
studied -- the domain is a little bit larger than what we hoped to do for
this study, because it includes south of Tampa Bay all the way down to
the south of this current model domain. It goes off shore. So on the
offshore boundary, we actually couple to a large model, which
includes the entire Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
So on this inside boundary on the right, we have very high
resolution, 30 to 500 meters resolution. On land is 30, 50 meters, not
centimeters. On the open boundary we would use the sea level rise
scenarios.
So let me just show you one case. We run a Category 5
hurricane. So we do this with -- without sea level rise on the left, with
level sea level rise -- 1.5 meters sea level rise on the right. This is to
show two purposes. One is to show just how does the Category 5
hurricane do in terms of the inundation it creates; the other one to show
what the effect of sea level rise -- how much more inundation does sea
level add to it. And, as you can see, zero rise; 1.5 meter adds a little bit,
October 10, 2017
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but because the hurricane Category 5 already generate a lot of
inundation. Those are scary numbers that hopefully it will never
happen here.
But then the message is, we cannot do planning based on this one
map. Unfortunately, somebody in Tampa Bay region is banking on
planning using a Category 5 hurricane hitting Tampa area. Hopefully
they learn not to do that. So, again, we have to do this joint probability
method. This is a very mature method used by FEMA -- used by
FEMA.
And so what I'm showing here is for Southwest Florida. Those
are the historic storms in the middle that the present climate -- this is
an interesting way of showing the vulnerability we see. Regions
influenced by 10-year flooding all the way to the blue area. Those are
500-year flooding. And those -- for the current climate on the right is
the worst case, 2100, with 1.5-meter sea level rise with more -- slightly
more intense storms. Again, those are extreme case which may never
happen, but those are just shown as our sensitivity study.
One problem with this joint probability method, it requires many,
many storms, more than 20,000, sometimes 40,000 storm to represent
all the storms; computationally, very intensive. In our study, 2012, we
developed an optimal sampling method. Basically decided to elect
representatives to Congress, and we end up with 150 optimal storms.
And so we can now quickly produce these maps. The maps shown
here are actually done with those representative storms.
One of the important message is that not only we can get the
100-year inundation or 500-year inundation, we can actually get the
100-year surge. Shown here is the 100-year surge, okay. The water
level along the coast of Collier County. As you can see, the Naples
area has a value of 2.74 meters, but there is quite a bit of a variation
spatially. So if you're trying to define the possible flooding for Collier
County, where do you pick that single value of the 100-year surge?
October 10, 2017
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Naples, of course. That gives you a very high number. If you pick
some number on Marco Island, the number is much lower. By the
way, that 2.74 meters agrees well with the analysis of Chibaldi
(phonetic) using the extreme value analysis.
So the power of this coastal dynamic model is you can get
100-year flood, 100-year inundation, you can get 100-year surge.
So these are the results based on the prediction of Tim LaRow
2014, and they're also consistent with what Knutson and Princeton had
produced, and these are based on climate -- global climate in SREG
(phonetic) models, all right, and downscale regionally to this region.
So we have shown here several different climate scenarios. On
the left we have RCP 4.5 and 8.5. We didn't do the 2.6 because it's not
a scenario which is likely to occur. And we do 20-year period for early
and late 21st Century. We look at --
DR. SAVARESE: Sorry to interrupt. The chairperson said we
have to wrap it up.
DR. SHENG: Okay. I'm almost done.
Different Atlantic multidecadal oscillation, la Nino, el Nino. Sea
level rise I've used 30 centimeters, one meter, and two meters. So
those numbers are -- they are not based on probabilistic numbers
because this was before the report came out. But these are compatible
with the 2012 scenarios, okay.
So based on this, we produced inundation maps. Current climate
on the left; 4.5, 2030, 30-centimeter sea level rise in the middle; 8.5,
2100, 2 meter sea level rise on the right. They are very different.
The other thing is they are spatially varying. They're not constant
numbers throughout the basin.
So here -- one question. Some people suggest that by 2100 sea
level rise may be so high that we don't need to worry about storm
effect. So we run with one meter sea level rise, with two meter sea
level rise, with different return for the 50 years, 500 years. We look at
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the percent of storm inundation due to sea level rise alone.
The purple value is 100 percent. The red value is over 80 percent.
You see in the inland area, sea level rise dominance. But in the coastal
area, sea level rise constitute only about 20, 30 percent of the effect.
Storms still dominant. So even in 2100, we cannot ignore storms.
And here is one comparison using the dynamic model versus
bathtub model. So if we take 2-meter sea level rise with the
2.74-meter surge, okay, based on extreme value analysis applied with a
bathtub model over this entire region, we see in unrealistic --
unrealistically high values of inundation: 7 meters in large areas. The
dynamic model shows more reasonable distribution of the flood
pattern.
So here is the end. Naples City Hall, we have the value going
from 10 years to a million years return periods. The water level.
Okay, the top four curves, those are late 21st century. Those are really
not hyperbole case. But if you look at the green and red case, those are
early 21st Century. Those are likely to occur, okay.
So the same thing here for Marco Island City Hall; the numbers
are a little higher. So the question comes down to, the stakeholders,
where do you want to pick? You can say I want to prepare against
100-year flood elevation or a million (sic) flood elevation. That's
something we need to know from you.
I'm not going to tell you to protect against a million return period
flood elevation because that would be too much.
One last thing is you have lots of mangroves. Mangroves can
protect people from massive flooding. This is a paper just published in
Hydrobiologia. This is a biological paper. It shows during Hurricane
Andrew the mangroves behind Biscayne Bay prevented people from
massive flooding. The one on the left is with the vegetation in place.
The one on the right, we removed the vegetation in the model. You
see it creates massive flooding for those Collier Countiers.
October 10, 2017
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So there's a lot of potential here to use the mangroves to help you
to become more resilient against flooding.
So we are starting sampling. These are the sample stations we
have surveyed. We plan to put real instruments in there. So the storm
come by, it will trigger, will measure the storm surge, all right.
And we know at the Chokoloskee Island we have over 11 feet
inundation, and model predicted that.
And we'll look at the vegetation, how they change with sea level
and storms and beach, how they are impacted by storm and sea level.
And these are the things we need to do, and I'll let you read them.
There's the timeline. We're going to complete everything right on time.
Any questions? I assume everybody's hungry. Thank you very
much.
(Applause.)
DR. SAVARESE: Do we have time for questions?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Probably not. Let's save our questions
individually upstairs, if we could ask you, and I think -- because our
dear court reporter is probably ready for a break. Thank you very
much.
We'll adjourn and reconvene at 1:15.
(A luncheon recess was had.)
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much.
I think we'll continue with our meeting, and I assume it's
Stormwater Utility Program.
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
Item #11B
RECOMMENDATION TO PROVIDE AN UPDATE OF THE
October 10, 2017
Page 99
CURRENT ANALYSIS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A
STORMWATER UTILITY AND GATHER ANY COMMISSIONER
OR PUBLIC COMMENTS – MOTION TO ACCEPT REPORT AND
CONTINUE WITH ESTABLISHING A FUTURE STORMWATER
UTILITY AND PROPOSED FEE STRUCTURE – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Natural segue from the sea level rise stormwater
planning. Mr. Cohen, your department head for Growth Management,
will kick off this presentation.
MR. COHEN: Madam Chair, Commissioners, Manager, yes, I'm
here to talk about more water. And as the Manager said, it's a good
segue from where we were.
I'd like to kind of tie in this presentation that I'm going to
introduce with what you just heard. There's some themes, I think, that
we can carry through. One is to be comfortable with the numbers, and
that's one of the things our conversation's going to be about is having
you feel comfortable with the methodology.
Invest resources in the future; clearly, as we look at our
stormwater, I'm approaching -- I just finished 60 days here at the
county. It's been very eventful. And as I'm looking at a lot of the
issues that face this county, being able to have a methodology that
works well with our stormwater process is something that's going to be
a key.
A stable economy is what the last group talked about. So, clearly,
if we're able to move the water effectively, that helps with our
economy particularly during regular rain events and storms. And
pioneering science. Well, you're not going to hear pioneering science.
What you're going to hear more about is what's nuts and bolts, what we
actually do on the ground and how it is that you're able to help move
that process forward.
Back in November of 2015, you had an integrated water resource
October 10, 2017
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management strategy workshop -- kind of feels like deja vu. I think
you're kind of doing that again today -- in which you were looking at a
stormwater utility feasibility study to take a detailed look at the current
and future stormwater surface management needs and evaluate what
system would work best to be able to meet the needs of this
community; that the system that we have now is not adequate in order
for us to move forward.
So with that, I'd like to introduce Tim Hancock. He's with
Stantec. He's the team leader on this process, and he'll walk you
through the update as to where we are currently and the other team
members that will have important components to talk to you about
how we can get from where we are to where we need to be. Tim.
MR. HANCOCK: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Tim
Hancock with Stantec.
And I was able to witness Mr. Cohen's trial by fire in the
Emergency Operations Center in the days following Irma, along with
the rest of your staff. And he's handled himself extremely well, and it's
a pleasure to be working with him and a lot of the growth management
staff and groups on this project.
I'll briefly introduce our presentation team for you today. You'll
be happy to know we've pared this down from the two hours we
originally planned to something more in the area of about 20 minutes
and, with your permission, if you'll allow us to kind of move through
the presentation and do your best to hold any questions, we may be
tapping on some things you're thinking along the way throughout the
presentation, and that may be the best use of your time. But, Madam
Chair, I certainly leave that to you as well.
Along with me, a principal with our financial services group, Mr.
David Hyder is here. He is also with Stantec. Also you're going to be
hearing from Mr. Jerry Kurtz. You've seen Jerry once or twice. He's
your stormwater principal project manager. And then there's a guy that
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nobody has a bad word to say about, Mr. Travis Gossard, your division
director with Road Maintenance. He's also got a few items that he's
going to bring to your attention today as well.
Mr. Cohen hit on a brief history there, and I'll just simply say that
this is an effort that commenced in about 2014 and has been taking
graduated steps since then with milestone deliveries in December of
2015 and again September of 2016 of last year. Because of some of
the newer members of the Board, but certainly not new to our
community, we are going to backtrack a tiny bit to make sure we kind
of have everybody on the same page moving forward, at least from an
informational standpoint.
But you see today is really the next step in several years' worth of
work and effort on this project.
This is what I call Stormwater 101, and it's probably more for the
benefit of anyone who may be monitoring this as opposed to you folks.
But why do we manage stormwater? First, and simply most, flood
protection, protection of private property rights. That's what the
primary function of a stormwater management system is there for.
Second to that, and equally important, particularly on the heels of
Irma, is to ensure that roadways are accessible. It's one thing to protect
private property rights. It's another thing when you cannot get
emergency apparatus down a roadway to address someone's health and
safety conditions.
So I look at stormwater. It's a bigger issue than just having some
water in my front yard or in the ditch in front of my house.
Along with this, water quality. A major component of any
stormwater system as required by our current permits is to ensure that
we do a better job in the future than we have in the past.
And we, of course, have regulatory requirements. The Clean
Water Act, I believe is 1972, set that in motion. And we are required
to perform certain stormwater management activities to comply with
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what is called our stormwater discharge permit.
So that's a little bit of background. And you probably sum it up
best, believe it or not, in your own Growth Management Plan. There's
a very simple statement as a policy, and it states that the objective of
stormwater management is to develop a combination of techniques
which provide for adequate pollutant removal and flood protection in
the most economical manner. Those are your words, your policy, and
they could not be more succinct.
So it's not a question of do we have a stormwater management
program. You have one. The question is, what does that program look
like? And the question today we're really hitting on is, how is it best
funded?
A quick overview of your system. You currently manage and
maintain over 122 miles of canals. You are in partnership with the Big
Cypress Basin of the South Florida Water Management District who
also manages another 170-plus miles of canals. You have 372 miles of
storm sewer pipes that must be cleaned and maintained; 687 miles of
roadside swale. To put that in perspective, that's a straight shot from
Everglades City to Atlanta, Georgia.
You have 648 centerline curb miles of streets to be swept; 50,000
tons of storms debris collected annually. The Irma exception goes in
there; 6,000 curb inlets; 53 hydrodynamic separators. If you want to
get into what that is, let's do that afterwards; 65 major stormwater
control structures; and you also have aquatic weed control. You have
vegetation removal, weir maintenance, and mowing.
And so when you look at this as a total body of work, we haven't
even gotten into any capital projects. These are the things that your
staff has to handle every day, day in and day out.
Who pays for all this? It's simple; Collier County taxpayers; $1
million from the Big Cypress Basin. That source is an ad valorem tax;
and $7 million from General Fund revenues plus grant funds where
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available.
To kind of give you a little more of a boots-on-the-ground look,
I'd like to introduce your stormwater principal project manager to give
you a little more information. Mr. Jerry Kurtz.
MR. KURTZ: Thank you, Tim.
Jerry Kurtz, your stormwater principal project manager. Good
afternoon.
We have many challenges; we have many great challenges. One
of our biggest challenges, we have a substantial amount of aging
infrastructure out there that needs attention. We have multiple control
structures today, weirs, that need replacement, and those are substantial
projects and require a lot of planning and take time to do.
To be a resilient storm-ready community, it's important that we
have an aggressive structure, maintenance, and replacement program.
Structure failures during a storm event can result in catastrophic
conditions.
Example of our latest weir replacement project is about two
weeks before we were ready to start the new construction project on
the weir nearby here at the Haldeman Creek, half -- or a major
structural component of half the weir basically crumbled right in the
middle of the day. It was a big structural failure, so that one we kind
of prioritized right, and we're in there replacing it now; but to give you
an example of how our structures are in great need.
Water quality, as Tim alluded to, is always a concern.
Stormwater runoff needs to be treated before it reaches our sensitive
receiving waters. Water quality projects are necessary and typically
come with significant capital costs.
Keeping up with the county's public renewal -- public utility
renewal project is very challenging for us. When an aging
neighborhood is targeted to get new potable water, sewer facilities,
stormwater prefers to partner with Public Utilities so that we can get
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the job done right, come in and fix everything at once, only tear up the
neighborhood once. These projects are very expensive.
Two projects are currently underway, but those two projects alone
are utilizing most of our budget in stormwater. That would be Naples
Park and Vanderbilt area, Vanderbilt Drive area.
Replacing the aging infrastructure in Golden Gate City is a big
challenge. We're getting ready to kick off our first phase of
replacement there, but we're looking at over $25 million worth of work
there and possibly up to 10 years to complete.
We have many existing neighborhoods in Collier County that
need significant stormwater upgrades such as Poinciana Village,
Country Club of Naples, Palm River, and Pine Ridge Estates.
Immokalee -- the needs are significant in the Immokalee area;
huge stormwater needs.
Current funding levels allow for principally a reactive effort only.
You're going to hear from Travis Gossard next on the maintenance
side of stormwater. Deferring maintenance sometimes results in
emergency replacements that can cost two or three times more than a
planned project.
On September 10th, 2013, I came before you to assist with a
stormwater declaration of emergency along Ridge Drive in Pine Ridge.
We had a well-documented aged-out pipe there that failed during a rain
event, destroyed a major portion of the roadway and caused predictable
flooding that could have been avoided. We spent $96,000 replacing
six feet of pipe under the emergency and spent $30,000 on pump
rentals trying to reduce the flooding.
So wrapping up, this slide is -- we can be proactive and not
reactive, and that will allow us to better use the money and be better
stewards of taxpayers' dollars.
Mr. Travis Gossard.
MR. GOSSARD: Thank you, Jerry.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we all want to clap for
him.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I would just give him a hug.
MR. GOSSARD: Thank you very much. Travis Gossard, your
Road Maintenance director.
And so we do have some system challenges and we have some
maintenance challenges, but I'm going to tell you one thing we don't
have; that's a lack of leadership. The support that I've got from the
county commissioners, Leo, and Nick, everybody was just excellent
during the storm, and I want to tell you very much "thank you." It was
awesome. I've talked to many of you over the phone, and I was really
appreciative during the storm the support that you gave us and backed
us during the storm. I really appreciate that. Thank you very much.
So I'll jump into some of the maintenance challenges we're facing.
I think all of you are aware we're unable to keep up with the demand
for services for Collier County as a total. Not one specific area, not
one commissioner's district alone, but this is globally all throughout
Collier County.
Our current program is extremely reactive instead of proactive,
and we really want to get to the proactive state.
I give you one example. Commissioner Solis, we dealt with
email after email after email for Mockingbird Lake up in the Pine
Ridge Estates area. That is basically confined by one 30-inch outfall.
The water cannot get removed fast enough. We've got to do something
to be proactive in the neighborhood. And we have these little instances
all over the county.
Better maintenance equals faster recovery. I believe we all agree
that a stormwater utility is not going to fix what Invest 92L or
Hurricane Irma did, but what it will do is give the community
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members a much faster recovery rate, which that's what they're asking
for. They understand they're going to have water, but they don't want
to have water for weeks.
And, again, the residents -- every phone call I'm on, they seem to
be asking for a much higher level of service, and I think we can
definitely provide that.
The next slide, these are some typical industry sustained numbers.
And I don't want it to shock anybody. Basically, these are just what
we call typical. They're not a one-size-shoe fits all. These can be
adjusted for Collier County. They don't have to mirror that image. But
basically what you're seeing right now is storm sewer vacuuming. It's
taking us -- if we continue on the same pace, it would take us 27 years
to clean the entire county.
Curb inlet cleaning. If we stay on the same funding mechanism
and the same pace, 25 years. Catch basin cleaning, same thing, 37
years to do all of Collier County. And then the one that hurts me the
most, roadside swale cleaning, 57 years.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Travis, does this take -- I'm sorry if
you said this. But I want to put this in perspective. Does this take into
consideration what the storm did, or is this just where we were before
the storm?
MR. GOSSARD: This is where we were before the storm.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Oh, my God, okay.
MR. GOSSARD: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: What does cleaning mean?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: The swales will get garbage in them.
MR. GOSSARD: So when we go in and we clean out the swales
to put them back to their original invert so that everybody can get the
flow. And the most important thing to think about this it's not just one
driveway culvert pipe or one inlet box that makes an issue here. It's
when you have hundreds of them or miles of them. And this is a
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system issue. It's not just one little thing out there.
And, again, I thank you very much. I'll be available for questions,
and we're going to move on. Thank you very much.
Tim?
MR. HANCOCK: And I'd like to reiterate what Travis said.
What you see up here is it's a simple math function. You look at what
you're capable to do on an annual basis, you look at the total roadside
miles, and you do the math. That doesn't mean if there's a problem,
Travis doesn't do what he's always done, which is get his crews out
there and get it taken care of.
But if you look at one where you don't have a demonstrated
problem or a complaint, he may not get to that particular customer in a
reasonable period of time. And I think that's the focus here. Not so
much to shock anybody, but to say, there is a demonstrated problem.
And we don't want to focus so much on that as much as what is
the best path moving forward, and the best person I can provide you to
talk about what your options are and what may give you the right
footing heading forward is our principal financial services, who's going
to get into -- more into what a stormwater utility looks like.
Mr. Hyder has completed and adopted numerous stormwater
utilities all over the United States. He's been doing this more than 15
years. And I hope that what he has to share with you today will help
give you that path going forward. But I'd like to give you Mr. Hyder.
MR. HYDER: Good afternoon, Commissioners. It's really a
pleasure to be here.
I did want to comment on this in terms of the typical industry
standard. And that essentially does provide a range of where, you
know, ideally you'd want to be.
And I did want to mention that in terms of the work that Travis
and his group are able to do, given the resources they have, is just
phenomenal, so I didn't want that to go unnoticed. And this,
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necessarily, shouldn't reflect on their capabilities. The ability they
have to stretch a dollar is pretty darn impressive, so -- but there are
clearly some issues in terms of the maintenance levels in the current
system.
So I want to step back a little bit and just talk about -- provide a
little bit of background on what a stormwater utility is. And just -- this
is a definition that we've come up with, and I just want to read through
it for you. It's really an approach to organizing and funding
stormwater management with dedicated revenues, and those revenues
are generated from user fees based on the use of the stormwater
system.
So that may sound familiar to you in terms of that type of
approach, because that's what you use right now for your water, your
sewer, and your solid waste systems. You provide those services, and
you have a dedicated funding stream that's a user fee based upon the
use of the system.
And so what we're essentially talking about with the stormwater
system is transitioning your stormwater program to that same type of
approach. You essentially manage the stormwater program as a utility.
Instead of using property taxes to fund the stormwater system,
you'd use stormwater fees, and it's really analogous to your other
utilities.
So there's 180 stormwater utilities in the state of Florida. It's the
second most in the country. And there's a number of reasons why
communities have adopted stormwater utilities, and I have some of the
benefits listed here. And I'm going to go through some of those
benefits on the next few slides.
The first one is that it provides that dedicated and stable funding
stream. That may sound simple and pretty basic, but it's extremely
important when you're managing a utility. It allows you to have less
costly reactive repairs -- I'm sorry -- less costly proactive repairs;
October 10, 2017
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you're not in the reactive mode because you know you have those
funds. It allows you to do the long-term strategic planning,
coordinated planning with other utilities, generally increases your
ability to get state, federal, and local grants because you have those
matching funds and, as Jerry alluded to earlier, it allows you to
coordinate efforts with other utilities.
Right now you have two projects on the water and sewer side that
you're coordinating with. When you're going in and replacing the
water and sewer lines, you're able to do the stormwater at the same
time. That's very effective, minimizes the disruptions within the
community. But the challenges going forward -- there's so many
additional projects that have been identified, my understanding is that
water and sewer is ready to move forward with their projects, and the
challenge is going to be keeping up and the concern is, without a
dedicated funding source, it will be difficult to keep up.
Worst-case scenario, you're not able to do the stormwater projects
at the same time and, therefore, you have very costly projects in the
future and more disruption within the community. So that dedicated
funding source is extremely important.
Closely related to that is that it provides a fair and equitable
revenue stream. The stormwater fee reflects the cost of providing a
service in a fair and equitable manner, and the reason for that is
because the fees are proportionate to the use of and the contributions to
the system. And I'll talk about that more in a minute. But it does
reflect, essentially, the intensity of development and how much a
property is using the stormwater system.
Also, another key benefit is that it allows you the ability to
recognize on-site stormwater management, which is a key component
because that encourages properties to be proactive in their management
of the stormwater.
Currently, there's very limited ability to encourage that type of
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development, but if you have a stormwater fee, you can essentially
give a credit or reduction in their fee if they do on-site stormwater
management.
So to drive this home a little bit further, I wanted to talk about
comparison of your current funding approach, and then also in terms of
the use of the system. So what I have here on the slide is an example.
These are two properties in the county. Property A is a single-family
home. Property B is an industrial parcel within the county. The
impervious area on the parcels is obviously very different. So Parcel A
has about 1. -- I'm sorry -- .15 acres of impervious area, and that's just
essentially the portion of the property that doesn't drain, so it's going to
run off. And Parcel B has an acre of impervious area.
So when you have a one-inch rain event, Parcel A is going to
generate about 4,000 gallons of water whereas Parcel B is going to
generate 26,000 gallons of water. It's a tremendous difference in the
use of the system.
So, obviously, this is an impervious area on those two and,
obviously, as you have increased impervious surface, you also have
increased runoff generation.
So that's the equity issue, the contribution, the use of the system.
And the reality is right now, under the current funding approach, since
these two properties have the same taxable value, they're both
contributing the same amount to stormwater management.
A couple other benefits is that the stormwater utility provides a
transparent and accountable way of accounting for the service, and it's
needs based. So it's important to note that every dollar that would be
collected in stormwater fees would only be able to be used exclusively
for stormwater management. You can't divert those funds anywhere
else. So, again, just like your water and sewer utility, those funds
would stay within stormwater management. This provides for
transparency within the community. They know where their dollars
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are going. It allows you to evaluate the performance of the stormwater
program.
And also, again, similar to water and sewer, the level of the fees
are based on the needs of the system. So on an annual basis, you
would have the ability to adjust the fees based on that budget process
and as the needs change in the system. So those are some of the key
benefits.
What I wanted to talk about next would be potentially what the
stormwater utility might look like and just some common questions
here. The stormwater utility would apply to parcels in the
unincorporated areas of the county. It would not apply to the
incorporated areas. The fee would be based on impervious area as
identified in the Property Appraiser's database in terms of how it would
be billed or proposing that it would be a non-ad valorem fee on the
property tax bill, just like your solid waste fee. And then if it is
approved, it would on the tax bill in 2019, is the plan.
So a little bit more in terms of what it would look like in terms of
the fee structure. So when we look at stormwater fee structures, we
have a number of goals in mind. One is we want the fee structure to be
simple and easy to understand within the community so that people
can understand what they're being charged for and how it's structured.
We also want to be able to administer it.
But closely related to that, we also want to continue to have those
equity components that I talked about earlier. So one way to do that is
to essentially use impervious area with some simplifying assumptions.
And what we're looking at initially, and this is a preliminary,
would be to essentially group -- for single-family parcels, to group the
impervious area for the various parcels into three tiers or more. You
could do two or you could do four tiers, but essentially, tiers of
impervious, and then that would be the basis for assessing the
stormwater fee.
October 10, 2017
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So, for an example here, if the fee was $10 a year, one year your
one equivalent residential unit would pay $10, that's your average
impervious. If you're above that average, you'd pay $15. And if you're
below that average, you'd pay $5. So it's essentially just scales based
upon the number of ERUs.
And then the same concept -- and, again, this is purely an
example. We're still developing this, and I want to emphasize that it is
just an example.
In terms of the non-single-family parcels, what you traditionally
do is just do that as multiples of a single-family ERU. So if you're a
non-single-family commercial property and you're 10 ERUs, you'd pay
10 times the stormwater fee, and that represents then, again, the use of
and the contribution to the stormwater system.
So that's the fee structure. We think the utility also should
consider property exemptions, potential properties that should be
exempted from the stormwater fee for advisory reasons. I also believe
that the stormwater utility should have credits and incentives and that
essentially recognizes on-site stormwater management, so that can be
an ongoing reduction in the fee if you have a detention pond or if you
put in pervious pavement or things of that sort. So, again, and it
recognizes and encourages that positive behavior and management of
the system.
I just wanted to provide a little bit of a comparison. These are just
some communities that have stormwater fees in coastal communities,
what they charge annually, their population, their revenues they
generate with a fee, and then their per capita revenues. So just
informational there.
And the final slide I have, before I turn it back over to Tim, is just
to talk about what we believe the estimated range of the stormwater fee
could be. And this is -- I can't emphasize enough that this is
preliminary, but you can see that, depending upon the level of service
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that's decided for the community -- and this is where you'd come in
and have the ability to pick that level of service -- the range of the fee
could be anywhere from $45 a year up to $125 a year.
The 125 is certainly the premium. That would be doing all of
your current level of service plus improved maintenance plus all of
your capital projects that you could ever wish for, so that's the -- you
know, the Cadillac version. But, essentially, you have the ability there
to look at what level of service you want to provide.
And this just gives you a range and an idea of what the fee would
be. So we're not talking a huge fee. Again, this is an annual -- an
annual fee, and then you can also see the revenues that would be
generated.
And just to put that you into a monthly -- again, this is going to be
on the property tax bill, so it would be an annual fee. But this gives
you a sense of what that fee would look like per month, just to give
you a sense, from a budgeting standpoint, as people are typically used
to budgeting on a monthly basis.
So I'm going to turn it back over to Tim to talk about our
schedule.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Can I just ask you, what is your
name? I'm guessing you work for Stantec because that's what it says
on here.
MR. HYDER: Yes. My name's Dave Hyder. I'm a principal
with Stantec.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
MR. HYDER: Yes.
MR. HANCOCK: I was just going to stay, Commissioner Fiala,
if you'd like his presentation, yes, he works with Stantec, and if you
didn't, I could make up another company.
I like this slide in particular because I remember when I had the
pleasure of serving on this body. We had a drainage problem in
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Naples Park. And there was no money in the county funds to address
it. And so the people of Naples Park decided, okay, let's do an MSTU
and let's address our drainage problems. So we hired a consultant, the
consultant came in, gave us a big program. It was too expensive.
There was just no way.
So what we did is, instead of going for the Cadillac, the
community decided, hey, do you have a Chevy behind Curtain No. 2
that we can afford? And we came up with what we called the "pizza a
month" program. If we could scale it down to where they could
address the big issues for less than $10 a month, that was bearable.
Now, again, that was at that time for that community.
But when I look at this and we start looking at the overall scope
of this program being at this level, it begins to sharpen and focus a
little bit. And so the thing I want to answer for you going forward is,
we're here giving you an update today, and the question is, where do
we go from here?
This is our project schedule that we have put forward, and we are
on time and on budget, very pleased to say. And so sitting in the
middle of October, what we're going to continue doing is going and
completing our review of your billing and collection alternatives. So
everything you got is an update. Nothing you've seen is written in
stone or cast in stone in any way but as an update of where we feel we
are at this point and where we may be heading.
Secondly, we want to initiate and finish our public engagement
program. By "initiate and finish," I mean by the end of December we
will have completed a stakeholder reach-out program with 10 to 15
meetings with HOAs, government -- nongovernmental organizations,
civic groups, and so forth. On top of that, we're going to have
community meetings publicly noticed in each of your districts.
Commissioner McDaniel, you get two because you're geographically
larger, so we're going to eat up two nights on your calendar.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did he say I was --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, he did say you were large.
MR. HANCOCK: But we're going to have public engagement
sessions, and they're not just going to be we're going to come out and
tell you what we're thinking. We're actually going to look to gather
and glean information from the public; where are there issues and hot
spots and things that maybe we're not aware of. Who's not calling
Travis? And that's a short list. But who's not calling Travis and saying
I've got a problem, okay. So we hope to gather more information and
be more responsive to the public in that process.
Part of that also will be the creation of a project website, and we
will host a community survey on that website as well. As you've heard
in a couple of projects we've done with you lately, we've been very
successful in getting -- at times I think the library survey was over
1,400 respondents, which is almost unheard of, and I think for parks
we had over 800. So we hope to have that similar success level in
getting input through a community survey on our website platform.
We then will complete the detailed rate study by mid January, and
in February we'll have the ability to come back to you with a lot more
details, a lot more specificity, and, of course, be able to answer and
address any questions that may have cropped up in that time.
So these are the things that we're going to see you in February
with, and we just kind of went over all of them, but our goal is to
develop a rate structure here that first and foremost is fair and
equitable. And I think we've seen from the examples provided today,
basing stormwater contribution on your property value may not be the
most fair, equitable approach in addressing future funding needs of this
utility.
So we want to come back to you, and I'll tell you now, if we can't
come back to you and convince you that what we're proposing is more
fair and more equitable than the current system, then we have failed,
October 10, 2017
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and I'll tell you, we're not going to fail. There is a better way to go
about this.
As to what level of service the community receives from their
stormwater utility, that is and always will be a determination by this
body, not by us as consultants and not by your stormwater staff. So
you will have the full breadth of options available to you to determine
the level of service you think is most appropriate, not just from a "can
we get it done" standpoint, but can your constituents, you know, bear
that.
So those are all the tough decisions you're going to have in
February, but we're going to do our best to make it as easy and as
simple and as fair as we can for you.
And with that, I'm happy to make our team available to answer
any questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Mr. Miller, how many speakers do we
have?
MR. MILLER: We have five registered public speakers on this
item.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No questions at this point, Mr.
Hancock. Let's hear from our speakers, please.
MR. MILLER: Your first public speaker is Gary Kluckhohn. I
hope I'm pronouncing that close to right. He'll be followed by Nancy
Payton.
MR. KLUCKHOHN: Good afternoon. It's been a very, very
educational morning, as the topic on the storm and where the water
went and where it's going to go.
This is -- my name is Gary Kluckhohn, for the record. I live at
2180 Sandpiper Street.
And yesterday in this room your Conservation Collier Committee
unanimously purchased the 27-acre mangrove forest on Sandpiper
Street. Are you all aware of that that took place?
October 10, 2017
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You know, the stormwater management that we have in Collier
County under Jerry Kurtz, from my experience as a builder, and living
in a swamp, I'm very grateful for everything it is right now.
But we need to coordinate the stormwater management with the
City of Naples, you know. It's happening. And I've met a few people
on that list this morning, the man that spoke about our pollution
control, our stormwater management. We've got some wonderful
people. The awards you guys gave today. And this district, this whole
purpose of this particular agenda -- I don't want to introduce anything
else -- is for the stormwater district to be implemented and whatever
you guys needed to do to move it forward. Because I'm very grateful
my house did not flood. And you start taking away any of that
wetland, and it will flood. The aquifer's already bad, and we need to
talk about that once you get this district funded.
But I'm not going to burden your time. I would like to thank you
guys for -- this happens to be a picture of Haldeman Creek headwaters,
you know, and I showed that to Mr. Saunders some months ago. And
he said, well, what's that copper color? Well, that's copper. Copper
sulfate's dumped in it under the license and permit of Florida
Department of Environmental Protection agency to control algae in
golf courses. That's what that creek looks like when it's coming in
before it meets the copper; that's what it looks like.
So Naples Bay and all what we're doing here to make this
community what it is and the resources -- you know, I'm from
Chesapeake Bay. Save the bay. My time's up. But I just want to
applaud you for what you guys are doing and the experts that you've
engaged. Thank you. It's been quite an education.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Madam Chairman, your next speaker is Meredith
Barnard. She's been ceded additional time from Nancy Payton and
from Brad Cornell for a total of nine minutes.
October 10, 2017
Page 118
MS. BARNARD: Thank you. Meredith Barnard on behalf of the
Conservancy of Southwest Florida. My comments today reflect the
collective position of the Conservancy, Audubon of the Western
Everglades, Florida Wildlife Federation, and Ellin Goetz, who is the
chair of the Vote Conservation Collier campaign in 2002 and 2006.
I know I've been ceded time, but I promise to keep it to just about
three minutes.
The stormwater utility agenda item today is extremely timely.
Collier County was heavily impacted by Hurricane Irma which
reinforces the fact that stormwater infrastructure projects should be key
components for a global strategy to manage the county's watersheds.
For this strategy we encourage that the county continue to
evaluate this stormwater utility, and your consultants have already
reached out to us, and we look forward to working with them on this
concept.
The protection, restoration, and enhancement of our natural
watershed systems is an essential component of stormwater
management, water quality, and flood control, all things that have been
elevated in importance in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
The county has an existing Watershed Management Plan that was
approved back in December of 2011, and at that time the estimated
cost of implementation for that was estimated at about 24 million, and
it's certainly going to be much more than that today.
Each year some of the funding for the Watershed Management
Plan projects are allocated within the county's budget. But your
discussion about a stormwater utility actually provides a great
opportunity, connects both the stormwater and Watershed
Management Plan projects.
From your presentation today, you anticipate the stormwater
utility funding to be through a tax, but there's also an opportunity to
expedite projects within the Watershed Management Plan through
October 10, 2017
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another funding source, that being the Chamber of Commerce's
proposed infrastructure sales tax. This is a very logical source of
money for the clearly defined projects that are within the Watershed
Management Plan.
But a distinction must be understood between these green
infrastructure projects and Conservation Collier. Although
conservation lands do play a very important role for naturally storing
rainwater, Conservation Collier and the stormwater utility program
must be separately funded and guided programs. For example, urban
green spaces like abandoned or failing golf courses, they could remain
green by being re-purposed into natural stormwater systems.
These engineered watershed infrastructure projects and open
space acquisitions that address flood control but have relatively little
wildlife habitat value are not the mission of Conservation Collier.
Most important today, we want to reiterate, our collective position
remains that Conservation Collier must be a stand-alone ballot
initiative and is not appropriate for commingling with the
infrastructure sales tax.
Watershed infrastructure projects that address flood control are
critical, and tying them into an infrastructure sales tax to expedite the
Watershed Management Plan is extremely timely.
We look forward to discussing further the wisdom of pursuing
Watershed Management Plan projects and not Conservation Collier as
a part of the upcoming November 7th sales tax discussion.
Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, our final and only other speaker
has decided not to speak. So that concludes our public speakers.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Saunders?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Madam Chair, unless there are
a lot of questions, I'll make a motion to get the item on the floor, and
that is -- I think the staff request is that we accept the report and tell
October 10, 2017
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them continue proceeding with the process, so I'll make that motion.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'll second that.
MR. HANCOCK: Madam Chair, if I may very quickly. I just
want to address one comment. And I think it was just a slip of
verbiage. But currently your program is funded via taxes. What we're
talking about is a move to an equitable fee. So I just want to make sure
we don't -- it's not a new tax. That's the way it sometimes gets
characterized. But it would be moving to a fee structure. That's the
only offer -- only additional item I have.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. This isn't part of the sales tax.
This is creating its own fee structure like we do for solid waste.
MR. HANCOCK: That's correct, sir, and that's the primary focus
of what we have right now is to establish that structure.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: One thing that the city did is enact, the
City of Naples, a stormwater tax. I've lived in my neighborhood
probably for about 25 years, and at one point a good rain, and you
better not drive down the street because the depth of the water would
cause the water to go into folks' homes. And they divided the city into
basins, and I can tell you it's been a huge and positive change. It has
made a big, big difference.
I don't think anybody in the City of Naples regrets a stormwater
utility fee, and we've all seen the benefits of it. So I just kind of want
to put that out there.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's a good word.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I've got one question; actually a
couple questions.
There was a reference to determining which properties would be
exempt. Just can you give me an idea of what kind of properties we'd
talk about as being exempt?
October 10, 2017
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MR. HANCOCK: I think those that are typical of that discussion
would be, first and foremost, agricultural lands. There are rules and
regulations in the state of Florida that may govern whether or not a fee
could or should apply to an agricultural operation, as long as it's a
valid, licensed agricultural operation.
Another one that's very consistently debated, and it's handled in a
multitude of ways, are vacant parcels.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Vacant.
MR. HANCOCK: Vacant parcels. Do you assign a base fee?
Do you not assign a base fee? We really are not in that position to
have that overall discussion today, but I will tell you the general
numbers you saw today assumes that vacant parcels are not assessed a
fee. So that's -- it's not a supposition of which direction you wish to
take; merely, we went conservative so that the numbers would -- if
anything, maybe they get a tiny bit better.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you for that.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And my other question is, if we're
moving forward with this, is there going to be some -- and maybe this
is a question for Travis or somebody else, but is there going to be some
consideration given to areas -- for example, one of the areas in my
district which there are some issues with, not only Mockingbird Lake,
but there's a portion of Palm River, and how that relates to stormwater
drainage is probably beyond my understanding.
But, you know, the drainage there is obviously -- you can see it.
It's an issue. And hopefully part of this process will be looking at that
proactively and maybe expanding what we're -- the whole thing.
Okay.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much.
MR. OCHS: Did you vote?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I don't think we have.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Do we need to vote? Should we vote?
October 10, 2017
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MR. OCHS: There was a motion to accept the report.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. There was a motion.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And a second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, I'm sorry. I was asleep on that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You seconded it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I did. Id second. I didn't remember.
Okay. So there's a motion on the floor and a second. All those in
favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously. Sorry about
that, everyone.
Item #11C
RECOMMENDATION TO REJECT OFFER FROM WINCHESTER
LAKES CORPORATION AND FRANCIS AND MARY HUSSEY
TO ENTER INTO A PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE COUNTY FOR THE PROPERTY LOCATED IN SECTIONS
29 AND 32, TOWNSHIP 49S, RANGE 27E – MOTION TO
ACCEPT STAFF’S RECOMMENDATION – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Item 11C is a recommendation to reject the offer
from Winchester Lakes Corporation and Francis and Mary Hussey to
enter into a public/private partnership with the county for property
located in Sections 29 and 32, Township 49S, Range 27E, and Ms.
October 10, 2017
Page 123
Toni Mott, your Property Acquisition and Construction Management
Division manager, will make the presentation.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Madam Chair?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Let me ask. Is there anyone
on the Board interested in doing anything other than rejecting the
offer?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Are you polling the Board
before we vote?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, no, before I make a
motion.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm joking. You made that
motion. I'm with you.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I make a motion just to accept
the staff recommendation to reject the offer. I don't know that we need
a lot of conversation about it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'll second it. Any other discussion?
MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, I do have four registered public
speakers. Your first speaker is Meredith Barnard. She'll be followed
by Joe Bonness.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Are you going to talk us out of it?
MS. BARNARD: I was just going to be supportive.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. That's fine.
MR. OCHS: I'd waive.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well done.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Why don't you come on the record and
--
MS. BARNARD: Sure.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- say who you represent --
MS. BARNARD: I apologize.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- and tell us how you feel about it.
October 10, 2017
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MS. BARNARD: I apologize for that. Meredith Barnard, for the
record, on behalf of the Conservation of Southwest Florida. Just in
support of you guys accepting the staff's recommendation today.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MR. BARROSO: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Joe Bonness will be followed by Nancy Payton.
MR. BONNESS: Good afternoon. Joe Bonness speaking for the
petitioner here.
Commissioners, I would like to thank you for having dedicated
the resources to analyze the proposal there. My effort has been to
provide a funding mechanism to acquire this very valuable resource for
the county.
The property is in the path of development and will, left to the
market, become a future development. The opportunity here is to
reserve land that is vital to the link -- vital link to stormwater control
and to aquifer recharge. It provides protection for wildlife,
preservation of natural lands, while acquiring the future land for any of
the various needs of the county in the future. This is a future
transportation corridor, and the proposed funding mechanism will help
fill the gaps of the road system.
The ranch has already provided benefits to the rural Collier
County. These horticultural operations provided truckloads of needed
materials for both plywood and for particle board, while the clearing
place to -- barrier that provided a battleground to stop the North Belle
Meade fire that happened earlier this year. And the ranch openings
provided a barrier for the North Belle Meade fire that would have
marched continuously on to the county landfill, and it would have
wiped out residences, nurseries, and the RCW cluster. As it was, the
fire did wipe out the RCW cluster on the east side of the ranch.
Again, well -- and I'd also like to bring up, you know, like the
Picayune Forest that was to the south this year also was -- our Willow
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Run Quarry provided a fire -- actually, let me start over again.
The Picayune fire harvested on into a virtual fire storm that was
only stopped because it was squelched in the Willow Run Quarry,
making it possible that they could halt that fire at 951. It would have
marched on probably down to Crown Pointe development.
I would ask future negotiations to tailor our proposal to the
county's desire. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Nancy Payton. She'll be
followed by Billy Rollins.
MS. PAYTON: Good afternoon. Nancy Payton with the Florida
Wildlife Federation here to support staff's recommendation to reject
the mining partnership.
We do advocate the county continue to look at the Triple H ranch
for its eco-services. Many of them were outlined by the previous
speaker. And I remind you that it is under evaluation by Conservation
Collier for the purchase of the entire ranch. It has opportunities for
stormwater -- natural stormwater control, water-quality improvements,
watershed management opportunities, mitigation for impacts
elsewhere by infrastructure, wildlife mitigation or compensation, and
natural resource-based recreational opportunities.
So we do urge the county to continue to look at this property but
through a green lens and for its eco values.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your final registered speaker for this item is Billy
Rollins.
MR. ROLLINS: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name, for
the record, is Billy Rollins. I'm the senior broker at Land Solutions,
and I have the task of selling this piece of property.
The county engaged a couple of -- actually two appraisers, then I
think you had your own appraiser also do an appraisal on the property.
October 10, 2017
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I'm sure that you didn't go down that avenue if you didn't have
intentions to purchase the property.
I'm here today, and what I'd like to do is I would like to start some
negotiations with whoever from the county and see if there is a number
that will work for the county to acquire the property.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. We have a --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Madam Chair, I made the
motion to accept the staff recommendation. I think there is -- there
may be some merit in having further conversations down the road here,
but in terms of the offer that's on the table, I would stick with that
motion and would suggest that if the property owner wants to discuss
other scenarios, then so be it.
We do have the Conservation Collier program that hopefully will
be renewed, and so there may be some opportunities there, but this was
just too much.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. All right. So there's a motion
on the floor and a second. Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor of the motion, say
aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously. Thank you.
Item #11D
October 10, 2017
Page 127
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE FISCAL YEAR 2017-
18 STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN FOR THE NAPLES,
MARCO ISLAND, EVERGLADES CONVENTION & VISITORS
BUREAU (CVB) AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS PLAN
PROMOTES TOURISM – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, Item 11D is a recommendation to
approve the 2017/2018 strategic marketing plan for the Naples, Marco
Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Jack Wert, your division director, will make the presentation.
MR. WERT: Thank you, County Manager.
Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Jack Wert, your
tourism director.
I'll try to get through this presentation as quickly as I can. I've
really summarized a 200-page document that we provided you a link to
and a longer PowerPoint, so let me get through this as quickly and give
you an overview of what we're really trying to do here.
For our marketing plan for '17/'18, the overall goals are to
obviously increase our brand and our destination awareness
year-round, differentiate our destination from our competition, and we
want to build up our upscale, our luxury, and our brand positioning but
avoiding imagery that might say we're unaffordable. That's kind of a
fine line that you run, but that is what we've been doing for several
years, and that continues to be our goal.
Our target audiences are looking for vacation and getaway
opportunities, kind of that escape from the day-to-day grind, while
experiencing what their definition of paradise is all about.
We want to stress our luxury and our quality, but we want to
reinforce our superior experiences and the good value that we have in
the slower times of the year. We want to demonstrate our promises
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that we're going to pamper you, that we're going to entertain you, that
we're going to educate you. People like to learn while they're
vacationing, and to really energize each of our visitors.
And reinforce our destination value during those slower seasons,
as I mentioned, spring, summer, and fall primarily, and that is a
primary concentration on bringing families to our area.
The marketing plan development really is a year-round process.
We have monthly meetings that our sales staff has with the sales staffs
of our hotels and attractions, so we get one-on-one face-to-face input
from them; they know what we're doing to market the destination, so
we learn from those.
Quarterly we have a roundtable where we have between 80 and
100 of our hotel, attraction, shopping, restaurant partners. We bring
them together, and we talk about strategic things we might be able to
do, things that they're doing. This marketplace changes very, very
quickly, so we need to know what they're doing as well as they need to
know what we're doing.
In addition to that we get monthly reports from our contracted
research company, Research Data Services, and our international reps
really help us a lot as well by giving us a pulse of Europe, of the UK,
and of South America.
We also then have a day-long marketing summit where we bring
together everyone from the tourism industry. Everyone's invited, just
as they are to all of our quarterly roundtables. This year on June 30th
we had over a hundred people, and we talked about virtually every
aspect of the plan that you're about to see. And we got input from
salespeople, from public relations, those people on various -- in various
businesses that work with the international market; our sports council
so we could really see what kind of projects we should be going after
in the sports world; and the lodging association we have here in Collier
County to really help us understand where they're going and, more
October 10, 2017
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importantly, where, together, we can go.
The next couple of slides just really summarize what's in the table
of contents in the written plan, and I'm just highlighting, really, all of
the sections to just show you this is a very complete plan. It integrates
all the various disciplines that you have to market a destination, and we
use each and every one of them. We've got marketing goals and
objectives, we've got strategies and tactics. There's a media plan that
shows how we implement those strategies and how we communicate
them to our customers.
There are marketing plans then for each and every one of our
disciplines within the tourism division. So we have a sales team, we've
got a public relations team, we have a sports team, film and television
team. All of them have their own plan of how they integrate the
various aspects of the plan and how we get to the various objectives
that they have. They adopt a number of those themselves. There's also
a crisis communications plan. It's actually a separate document, but we
do have a summary in the marketing plan, and I can tell you that that
plan got an awful lot of use over the last 30 days. We really used it to
its maximum.
I mentioned our international reps. We get information from
them every month, but they also build plans so that we know how
we're going to market this destination in the UK and Ireland,
throughout Europe, and in Brazil and Latin America as well.
We've got some specialized plans as well within the plan. Nature
tourism plan, that shows how we're going to market our ecotourism
fishing, our artificial reefs. There is a plan for how we market arts,
culture, and heritage.
And then we have an air service marketing program as well that
helps us to attract new direct air service to Southwest Florida. So
currently we're working with new service coming from Germany. It's
going to be coming into Fort Myers in the spring of the year. Those
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things require co-op marketing to sell tickets, so we need to be a part
of that early-on equation to make sure that those flights are successful.
And, finally, a section on how we measure results, how we use
the various research tools that we have to know, are we delivering to
our customers. What kind of response are we getting? Are we getting
good spending from them? Are we filling our hotel?
There are implementation schedules as well. We've got a whole
series of e-newsletters, and they are all themed and timed throughout
the year so that we are delivering a consistent message but on different
themes targeted to different types of travelers.
And then, finally, we've got a social media calendar that really
ties very well with those e-newsletters, similar themes that we use
there. And then a whole section on our budgets, both the media and
production budget, how we actually are going to promote the
destination, and then budgets for each and every one of those
marketing disciplines that I mentioned earlier: Sports and sales and PR
and so forth.
Every plan needs a mission statement and a vision statement, and
we're certainly in that mode. Our Convention and Visitors Bureau
mission statement, that's our marketing arm of tourism, a Convention
and Visitors Bureau, and we use that term because, worldwide, that
term is known as that's the go-to place to get visitor information. That's
where you get information on meetings and so forth.
So our mission is to promote year-round distinctive world-class
vacation and group meeting experiences -- and this is really the
important part -- which result in positive economic growth and
stability for Collier County. We bring people here; they spend their
money; they support jobs in the community.
Our customer missions statement, a little different than what the
organization mission statement is, is to be the trusted source of visitor
information. Destination amenities and activities to vacationers,
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meeting attendees, sports event participants, and the news media.
Our vision statement. You've got to know where you're going in
the future. You may never quite get to a vision, but we think we're
really on our way, and that is to be recognized as the most desirable
year-round tourism destination in the world. The values that we aspire
to are the same as all county employees. We are part of Collier County
Government, and so those same values that all of our employees aspire
to we do as well.
And, finally, our commitment to the traveling public is we're --
we are dedicated to attracting high-value visitors to the area
encouraging them to spend their travel dollars in our area businesses.
And by encouraging that year-round visitation, what we get is full-time
employment year-round for those people in our community. Some
37,000 people in our community are employed directly or indirectly in
the hospitality and tourism industry. The more visitors we bring, the
more jobs that we are able to create and support.
Our brand -- this is something that we developed several years
ago, and it is something that virtually all of our businesses in the
tourism industry have adopted. Naples, Marco Island, and the
Everglades, Florida's paradise coast, and that brand promise that we
make to our visitors is they're going to love what they discover in
paradise.
We advocate all the time for our brand. It's something we really
believe in because we want to empower our visitors to enjoy that
vacation experience that they have with us. That word "paradise" that's
in our brand is very important. That's not something that I came up
with or the ad agency or the PR firm. It came directly out of the
researching our customers. We went all over, and we talked to people
in focus groups. We asked them, what do you -- what comes to mind
when you think about our area?
That word "paradise" came out time and time and time again.
October 10, 2017
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And so if it's in the customer's mind, it better be in your advertising
and marketing messages as well. So that's why you see that paradise
and Florida's paradise coast used throughout.
We want to grow the visitor yield in the coming year, and that's
spending. Continue to grow the amount of money that our visitors are
spending throughout our community. It's not just hotels and
restaurants. It's virtually every business you can think of that a visitor
touches in some way or other. And then, of course, finally, to grow
jobs.
We've got some specific objectives we want to do, and these are
measurable. These are things that we will hold ourselves to
accomplish during the next year.
We want to grow the tourist development tax revenue overall
from all the different -- where we get that from all the different payers
of the tax, to $26 million. Yes, that includes the fifth percent of tax
and, yes, we're going to look at tracking the incremental growth that
we see from that each and every month. We think 26 million is
attainable this year.
We want to grow the number of people that are coming to our
website to get information. Virtually everything we do in advertising
and promotion drives people to that website. That's where we want
them to learn more about our destination. So we want to see that -- the
number of inquiries grows by 2 percent.
We still have a printed visitor guide. It's primarily because we
have a lot of baby boomers that are still our customer, and they want a
printed piece. They want something to hold in their hands. They come
into our visitor centers with it in hand. They got it through the mail,
and they come to really see what else they can do in the area.
We want to grow our occupancy levels by 1 percent. We've been
flat the last couple of years, and it's primarily due to we have a lot of
our rooms that are still under renovation. Our largest property on
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Marco Island is still under renovation. The Marco Island -- or the J.W.
Marriott is probably not going to fully re-open until the first of the
year. So that's a long time those rooms -- up to 400-some rooms. The
Hilton on Marco Island has also been closed and probably will be till
February. So we're going to grow occupancy, but it's going to be on
the conservative side.
And, finally, in our objectives, the return on investment we want
to see from our tourism investment. That's the spending that we get
from visitors that we attract. So we measure the dollars we invest, and
for every dollar that we invest, currently we're getting $100 in
spending from visitors. We want to try grow that an additional $10
this year and in coming years as well.
You've got to target your audience very, very carefully. Who is
our typical client? It's adults 35 to 64. It includes those baby boomers,
but it also includes Generation X. We target household incomes over
$150,000. Why? Because we're a luxury destination. We cost a little
more than other places, so people need to be able to afford what we're
offering here.
So that's the household income we target, and it's skewed toward
women. Why do we do that? Because women make the majority of
the buying decisions on virtually everything, but certainly in the travel
segment.
Baby boomers continue to be important. And that's also skewed
toward women. Families and couples, because we get all of that type
of travel, and that's the $150,000 household income.
Generation X, a little bit young folks, but they really do represent
the first 19 years of our total sweet spot demographic for our visitors.
So we're going to go after those in both couples and families in that as
well.
Seniors is an interesting demographic. They probably don't have
quite the income they had before, but a good thing about them is they
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can travel midweek. Families have a difficult time doing that. So if
we target seniors 65-plus, they've got the time, they like to travel,
they're avid travelers. They also bring the grandkids often when they
travel. So it's kind of family travel; grand travel is what we call that.
And then Millennials. We've talked so much about, how do we
get the Millennials here? Well, it's not easy because a lot of them can't
afford all of the things that we have to offer, but there is an upper end
of the Millennial segment, that 100,000-plus household income, we're
able to target that, and we will go after that because, frankly, that is the
future of Collier County visitors. That's where they need to come from,
because the boomers aren't going to be around forever. Those
Millennials are the ones that are going to have to take their place.
I put these next two slides in here just because -- just to give you a
sense of it's not just that demographic we're after. We're also after
some really specific types of activities that people like to do. So if
you've got travel enthusiasts, like those seniors, they love to travel.
We got experiential travelers who like the active kind of tourism, the
stuff that you do in the Everglades, for instance. Nature explorers who
like to get a little more involved with nature. Golf enthusiasts, sports
warriors.
Wedding seekers, and that includes honeymoons and second
honeymoons and second weddings and that kind of thing as well.
Reunion gatherers. Lots of reunion business, especially in the summer
months.
Wellness gurus. That is really what we think -- a very strong
growth market for the future. People are looking for active travel
where they can enjoy working out, eat healthy foods, so the whole
Blue Zone concept that's coming to our community, we think, fits in
very well with really making this a wellness tourism destination.
Gender travelers, the girlfriend groups, the guys' getaways, those
kind of things. The LGBT community has high income and we really
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think is an opportunity for us to get some new visitors to our area.
The romance lovers. This is a romantic destination, and people
like what they find here, so we need to really get a good message to
them.
And then the business travelers who come for a variety of
different reasons either for business or many of the group meetings that
come to our area. In the group meeting area, the types of meetings
we're after, corporate meetings, board retreats, and the incentivize
market is really big and important to us, bringing salespeople who
have done a great job during the year, bring them to a place like
Naples/Marco Island and give them the first-class luxury treatment.
State and national associations are important to us because they
like to meet in the spring and summer where you've got a little more
value; they can find more meetings that are to their budget liking.
The types of meeting planners we go after, again, they're the
corporate planners. Third-party people, these are people that represent
multiple clients. HelmsBriscoe is perfect example of that who -- their
different salespeople may have 20 or 30 different companies that they
represent. If we can make friends with one or more of those
HelmsBriscoe salespeople, we've got the opportunity to really attract a
lot more meetings through less contacts.
And, finally, geographically, Northeast, Midwest, and Florida is
where we primarily target our group meeting promotion tactics.
We're about to bring you a contract with a Midwest sales
representative. This is an opportunity to really get somebody in the
Midwest, Chicago area who lives there and understands who the
prospects are so we don't have to travel there consistently. That is a
hotbed of new group meeting business, but we don't have the staff to
do it. So we think bringing this sales rep on will really help us a lot.
We use e-newsletters a lot to talk to meeting planners. They like
that approach. They aren't so much reading ads anymore, but they
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definitely will read a very targeted e-newsletter that brings them
information about something new, our destination.
I mentioned wellness tourism. We have a whole initiative that
our group sales folks are really moving toward.
We have a request for proposal enhancement program that has
been in place for several years now, and it has proved extremely
successful. What this is, is you've got a meeting planner, and they
want to bring a meeting here, and they give us the RFP, and there are
various things they ask for. To sweeten that proposal that goes back to
that meeting planner, our organization can put some money toward
that and say we will sponsor an opening reception, for instance, an
opportunity for us to talk to the group, to welcome them, and to get
recognition that we are a sponsor of their meeting there. That plan has
worked well.
We've budgeted 150,000 for 2018 and 2019, and I'll just give you
a little heads-up: Next year's budget I'm going to ask the Board to look
at looking three years out, because that's how meeting planners work.
They actually work five years out.
But I think if we can get this same kind of a program with three
years with an amount budgeted for each year, we can really help bring
a lot more group meeting business to the area.
We're going to be launching a new meetings market website.
Meet In Paradise is the URL, and we'll be completing that in the next
couple of months.
We do a lot of face-to-face selling. Twenty-two different planner
shows Debi DeBenedetto, our group sales manager, will be doing, plus
three sales missions we have currently planned for Pittsburgh,
Cleveland, and Indianapolis where we will go out with the sales team
from the group hotels, and we will meet with meeting planners in their
town and try to convince them to bring their meetings to our area.
Sports: We've all heard so much about sports and how much it's
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growing. Our primary concentration will continue to be amateur
sports. We think that's the right place for us to be. Training events are
really getting to be popular, though, to bring wintertime training to --
let's say lacrosse from some of the colleges up East, bring them down
here where it's a warmer spring training environment.
We're going to go after the things that really we do well at:
Soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, football. The growth sports like
pickleball are really worth looking at, and there are more of them out
there that we just need to keep our eye on: Softball, Little League
baseball.
We're a water-based destination. Let's get some more water- and
beach-related sports here.
There's some second- and third-tier sports also like cheerleading,
volleyball, basketball, karate. These can often go indoors. They can
be in a gymnasium or they could be in a ballroom of a hotel. You don't
need necessarily a field to do these.
Virtually, we're going to look at anything new activity-wise that
fits our sports venues here in Collier County.
The big thing we'll be doing with sports this coming year and
obviously for several years to come, the new amateur sports complex
that all of you supported and helped put that plan in place, we're going
to hit the ground running early in 2018, first of all, educating our own
community what this means to, let's say, the different soccer clubs and
the lacrosse clubs here; that this is going to be good future business for
you.
And then we're going to start making the circuit as we get into the
summer and fall of the year. This is when we go to trade shows and
meet with sports organizers, and we're going to start talking about that
new complex, because when it opens, we want that place full. We're
going to presell that whole facility.
You see some of the other things we're doing. We want to bring
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two new watersports to places like Sugden, and we've got that Pro
Watercross event that's coming up in just a couple weeks here. I think
if you can get out to Sugden and see that, it is truly exciting
entertainment.
Special markets. We're dedicating, at least part time, one of our
sales team to look at the weddings market and really try to attract more
wedding and honeymoon market to the area. Virtually any weekend
you will see weddings out on the beach and other places around the
community. There's a lot more out there. There's a huge demand for
destination weddings where you bring the whole wedding party and
everybody that's coming. They all get on an airplane and they fly here.
That is huge business for our destination, and we want to definitely
grow that.
Also, I mentioned the LGBT market before. We think this person
can also help us in that market. There are some -- some of the
destinations in Florida have done a tremendously good job of bringing
this business. It's high-end business. It's high household income. They
are spenders. They are Millennials. We think that we've got a great
growth opportunity there.
In PR and communications, the big thing we're going to do this
year -- I'm going to show you just a brief look at what a new brand
campaign is going to look like this coming year. What we're going to
do with public relations and social media is we're going to be out way
ahead of running any media, any paid media. It will already be getting
into newspapers and people talking about this and getting on talk
shows and really preselling what this new brand message is going to
be.
That's really the role of public relations, along with bringing
travel writers here throughout the year. We do groups of travel
writers; we do individuals as well. May do up to 40 different writers
coming to the area.
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What's good about that is they write a story through their eyes.
Their readers read it. That's even more believable than an ad I might
run right next to that story. So that's really powerful ways to get our
message across.
I mentioned the crisis communications plan, and it did get a lot of
use. We're part of the ESF18 in the Emergency Operations Center; we
were there. Saw most all of you there as well. We spent a lot of time
there. But our whole role there is business, industry, and tourism. We
need to know where everybody is. If we have an evacuation, how
many people do we need to evacuate? If people are coming from other
areas and we're a receiver area, we need to know how many hotel
rooms we have available.
And it was a challenge after the storm, because communications
were out. We found that text message really worked the best. We
were able to get through that way on a number of the hotels.
So we learned a lot, and the communications plan has already got
some tweaks that we're putting into it. We think we need some
additional Zika messaging this year. We hope it doesn't come back,
but it certainly might, and we want to be prepared for it.
And digital and social. A lot of how destinations market
themselves has gone this way now. We do very little print these days.
Frankly, we don't do a lot of television either, because you can get the
same message across through digital and social for a lesser amount, so
you get much more reach for your dollar.
And one of the things we're looking at is -- and actually we're
going to finish next month the complete redesign of our website,
ParadiseCoast.com. We're going to work with our local partners as
well to do some workshops on how to better manage the listings they
have on our tourism website and also how to better manage their social
media accounts so we can all be working together and really get a
similar message out.
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We're doing a lot of live broadcasts. We actually did three
Facebook live posts this week related to post Irma, and so we're using
more and more of that. It gives you an immediate opportunity to show
what the destination looks like or get a message across.
Film and television continues to be an important part of what we
do. Not a lot of feature films done here anymore, but a lot of ad
agencies from New York and Chicago use this place to shoot their own
television commercials for their clients. So we're out looking for that
actively.
There's a lot of film scouts that are out there, and a lot of
independent producers are looking for places to shoot their movies,
and this is a great place because we've got virtually anything that a
producer might be looking for; they can find it here in Collier County.
I won't spend a lot of time on this, but I want you to see that our
UK/Ireland representatives have a very solid marketing plan for the
year. They're going to do a lot in social media as well. The UK was a
little slow in the uptake with social media. They're now catching up
very, very quickly, so we're going to concentrate on that and training
travel agents and tour operators on how to book travel to our area.
The European folks, similar. They have been doing very well
with Facebook. We've had our German Facebook page up now for, I
guess, four years, and we continue to grow that with a lot of followers
in the German language, so that really has worked very, very well for
us. And we'll be bringing one luxury tour operator from Europe here
on a familiarization trip in 2018.
And in Latin America, again, the training is very, very important.
We're also using some interesting tactics. One idea that they've come
up with that I think is pretty interesting is bringing -- running is a big
sport in South America. Bring a marathon runner here to run in the
Naples Marathon February of next year. Keep them here a few extra
days, let him really start posting what he's seeing, what his experiences
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have been in the area. Again, that kind of a third party endorsement
can really help us in that Brazilian market.
I wanted to just spend a couple of minutes and tell you a little bit
about what we've been doing post Irma. The 25th of September we
had our Tourist Development Council meeting and, virtually, that
morning we had finalized what was open. We were really able at that
point to get a national message out as to the paradise coast is open, and
we're -- and our beaches are clear. We kept updating that message
every few days.
If you look on our website, ParadiseCoast.com, today, on the
home page one of the pictures that you click on is post Irma. It will list
all of the hotels and businesses that are open and ones that are still not
open for business due to various reasons.
October 2nd, just last week, we launched a nationwide digital
social media campaign, and we timed that because that's when the
majority of our hotels indicated to us that they would be open again.
So it really gave us a great platform to say, really, we are open; we
absolutely are. We've been, as I said, doing social media posts on
Facebook.
We just completed some television -- excuse me -- some digital
and social media spots that we'll be using out on the beach. One down
by the pier, one on -- up on -- I guess it was Vanderbilt Beach, and
then also on Marco Island. We used the spokesperson Jen Stacy, who's
a former WINKTV news anchor here, very well-respected newscaster,
also currently works as the PR director for Pincher's Crab Shack here
at Tin City.
So it worked out very well. She did some great stuff. That is
now up and running in social channels, and we continue to negotiate
trying to get a celebrity spokesperson. I got a couple things that are
pretty close to being ready to go; don't have it at the point I can
announce it quite yet.
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We also are shooting some aerial photography all the way up and
down the beaches. That will go into a video that will be in social
media as well.
One of the things that you approved for us today in the consent
agenda was moving $250,000 from our emergency advertising reserve
into a line that we could help spend. Some of these dollars will come
from that. But I want to assure you that that is in addition to what we
already would have been running in the fall of the year, and I'm going
to show you a couple of those in a minute.
But when you put it all together, it's about a million dollars that
we're investing between now and the end of the year to drive that same
message home that, contrary to what you heard in the news media,
Naples is up and running, Marco Island is up and running, and
hopefully Everglades City will be the same very, very soon.
Here's just a couple of the banner ads that we've been running.
These would click through online. So our hotels are ready. Our
beaches are open. The coast is clear. Reserve your place in paradise.
So you click there. It goes right to our booking engine on our website.
It gives people an opportunity to really get here and see what -- for
themselves that we are open and ready for business.
A couple of other things we're going to do related to Irma
recovery is stone crab season, obviously, starts on the 15th. We have a
wonderful opportunity to tell a wonderful story of getting those
fishermen back to work, getting them out, collecting the stone crab,
taking the claws off, bringing them back onshore. It also helps our
restaurants because the restaurants now will also have new reasons to
hire staff back to get more staff because we've got people coming back
to the destination.
So we'll use the Stone Crab Festival at the end of the month, the
27th through the 29th, in Tin City. And we did have the official
opening. Thank you, Commissioner Taylor, for helping put that
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together and getting the governor here. It really was a great statement
that here's an icon here in our community that got hit very, very hard,
and that was all over the news. They're open. That's a great statement
for our destination.
After the Stone Crab Festival, we've got two weeks coming up in
late November and December of Naples Restaurant Week. Over 40
restaurants get together and promote a pre-set menu that people can
come into. They don't even have to make a reservation to come in, but
to sample food from lots of different restaurants that they may never
have gone into before. So we think that's a great opportunity to get
people out to the community, get people downtown and all over where
our dining establishments are.
Then starting mid November and running through late December,
we've got three nationally televised professional and amateur sports
events. Gives us a great opportunity to talk to the networks, give them
video to show the nation that we are open and ready for business.
We've already talked to the event organizers. They are willing to
do that. We'll work with the networks to get that put together. So for
the CME group tour classic at Tiburon, the QBE shootout, which is the
Greg Norman tournament in December, also at Tiburon, and then our
football university event that happens in December. It's going to be all
over our community for about a week and a half. All of those, national
television coverage. A great opportunity to really tell our message.
All right. So that's -- I just want to go through very quickly what
the new stuff is for this coming year. This is the exciting part of a new
plan is new creative, a new look. So this new platform is going to help
us really speak to a lot of different interests that we have. I showed
you all the different types of activities that people are interested in
doing. New photography, new video, and a new really creative voice
using, in that new photography and videos, diverse talent so that we
can really talk better to the Hispanic market, the African-American
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market, that LGBT market.
In addition to that, what I want to just show you is this is how this
new brand voice is going to work. Dear visitor -- this is a letter to our
potential visitor -- there's something special about our destination.
Something that beckons you to explore stunning white sand beaches,
pristine turquoise waters, and glorious natural settings, something that
calls you to indulge in your passions for fine dining, upscale shopping,
and all things luxurious, something that speaks to you in an intensely
personal way promising one-of-a-kind experiences and moments never
to be forgotten.
This is our invitation to you and yours, an invitation to enjoy a
Florida vacation -- and it's dropping down. I can't show you this. Yes,
I can. I'm going to show you this, because the end of this is, we can't
wait for you to accept our invitation, Love Paradise.
This is going to be our signature that we have in each and every
one of our ads. And I'll show you some ways that we're going to
execute this. Let me get through this quickly.
All right. There we go.
So this little note will be down in the corner. There's something
to be said for following your heart instead of an itinerary, Love
Paradise. Lots of different images of people enjoying our destination.
Feel free to put the real world on hold for a few days, Love
Paradise.
Follow your heart; not an itinerary, Love Paradise. This would be
a digital ad.
Ecotourism; in our humble opinion, the best part about spending
an afternoon in Florida's Everglades isn't experiencing a world few
people ever do, it's telling them about it over a lovely dinner
afterwards. It's that part of the experience that a lot of people don't
understand; that you can do the Everglades and you can go to a spa in
the afternoon and have a great dinner the night before and stay at a
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fabulous hotel that night. So --
Okay. Let me --
MR. OCHS: Wrap it up.
MR. WERT: -- just go through -- I want to just quickly show
you, these are the active adventure strategies that we've got. They're
all outlined in the plan. Separate arts and culture strategies to call
attention to the great art and culture that we have -- this is a small
town, but we've got symphony, orchestras, and an opera and ballet and
all that kind of stuff that most towns our size don't have.
Heritage tourism; we're going to continue with our earmarking
100,000 of our budget for heritage marketing, and we're going to help
the museums market their major events. I mentioned air service
marketing before. And, finally, the plan has all of the different budgets
that we're going to do with comparisons with previous years as well.
And that's the end of my presentation. Glad to answer any
questions that you might have.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, I had two. And first off, it
had to do -- in the executive summary under the fiscal impacts. It
talked about this budget reflects the one cent increase in the TDT. I
thought that was fenced off revenues.
MR. WERT: Part of it, yes. The majority of the fifth cent is
earmarked for the -- for all of the debt service that we'll have in the
future. There is -- we didn't need all of the fifth cent. Some of it went
back into the destination marketing so that we could maintain the
marketing budget we had before, which is what -- everyone said, let's
find a way to keep the budget the same. That's how we did that this
year.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And because that was
my understanding, that that additional one cent was fenced off for the
amateur sports park and then for beach renourishment was
October 10, 2017
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predominantly the utilization of those funds.
MR. WERT: Beach renourishment actually is in the first 3
percent, and we did get a sizable increase as well.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we got an additional
amount over there.
MR. WERT: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Then the second thing -- I
actually have three. I said two, but there is one more.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's quite all right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Under measurable and
milestones -- and this is a portion -- and maybe you gave a more
detailed report to the TDC than what you gave to us. This was kind of
the plan. I don't recall seeing in any of the backup data what you did
last year.
MR. WERT: There is a section in there. It's got 2016 results that
are about -- several pages of those, and then also to date in '17.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that was in my --
MR. WERT: It should be in the printed -- both the printed --
yeah, the printed plan.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I didn't get the printed
plan.
MR. WERT: The one that -- the 200-page one.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have the digital one. If you
would be happy -- or kind enough to supply me with that. As I'm
looking, I like to see what we've done in the past and then measure
those against our measurables and milestones, which is the last
question I have, I promise, and that is, you estimated you wanted to
generate up to 26 million --
MR. WERT: Twenty-six million.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- in tax. What was last year's
amount?
October 10, 2017
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MR. WERT: Twenty-two.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we are, by the increase,
increasing that by five point -- $5.5 million --
MR. WERT: About 5 --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- so your $26 million estimate
is --
MR. WERT: Maybe a little low.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Uh-huh. Okay.
MR. WERT: But we're conservative, and we work with the
budget office. And so we -- and there is -- the other thing I should
always -- and you'll hear Mark Isackson tell you this, too. We always
do hold back 5 percent of that revenue and don't spend it, and we don't
budget it at all. So that does come off the top. So that's kind of the net
amount that we think we'll generate.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir.
MR. WERT: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. A couple things.
I was excited to read that you're going to have a Red Bull
paddleboard --
MR. WERT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- event this year. First time ever --
MR. WERT: Correct.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- on Marco --
MR. WERT: It's in Marco Island, yeah, Caxambas.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- and Cape Romano. Okay.
MR. WERT: Yes, correct.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And is that standing up on a board --
MR. WERT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- and paddling?
MR. WERT: Yes.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Good. That's just coming up
next month, isn't it?
MR. WERT: And you need a lot of Red Bull to do that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And then it shows watercross. Now
I know -- that's over here at Sugden, right?
MR. WERT: Sugden, correct.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And tell me what the date is and
what actually is a watercross, because I think a lot of people are
confused with that.
MR. WERT: Okay. Let's -- take a jet ski and put it on steroids.
It's more like a snowmobile on water. So they are very souped up,
very powerful. They not only race, but they do tricks, they do flips;
they do amazing things.
There are three or four other different contests that are going on
also at the same time. They've got a guy that does flips and turns with a
jetpack that he does.
And so there are a lot of different things, but the big attraction and
that will be nationally televised is -- and let's see. I believe it runs
October -- it's the end of October, first week of November. Kind of
that same weekend as Stone Crab Festival.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. Yeah. Just a couple of
questions, Jack.
MR. WERT: Yes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think this is a very thorough
presentation. And I've read your marketing plan and, certainly, the
content. It looks very good. So I think you've done a lot of work on
that. I was very pleased to see that your post Irma recovery is
extending through December.
MR. WERT: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: How are we doing about contacting
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local celebrities to go on social media?
MR. WERT: We have not only -- we used the local celebrity
because Jen Stacy is a very well-known local gal. She did a great job.
She was there yesterday at the event at Tin City as well.
But we've got two other people that we are talking to right now.
Haven't got a commitment yet, so I don't want to spill it but, yes, we
definitely have at least one more we'll have, and we'll do a whole series
of spots with them on the beach in various parts of the community.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And then there was another one that we
had talked about that was very close to Commissioner Fiala's heart --
MR. WERT: Oh, yeah. No, we did that one already.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Simone.
MR. WERT: Oh, yeah, we already did Simone. She's already
done, absolutely. Yeah, we did it at the pickleball courts, and that's
running on social media already. Sorry, yes, absolutely. Thank you
for reminding me of that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good. Now, I was just looking just
briefly in the marketing plan itself, and on Page 12 you talk about
employee requirements and you were talking about what you thought
you might do, and it was incentive pay for sales staff for meeting or
exceeding goals.
One of the things I just wanted to bring up, as chair of the TDC
for two years, I never ever remember -- I remember your people
coming forward and saying they visited things. I never saw goals. So
before we start giving them incentive pay, there needs to be some
tabulation of, you know, if Michael goes to an event, well, how many
-- what did he secure at that event.
MR. WERT: Right.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: The other one is you say that you have
challenges with the county IT department to adequately support our
tourism industry.
October 10, 2017
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MR. WERT: It's something that Mike Barrios and I have -- we've
had several talks about, and it's just -- it's social media. It's texting, as I
mentioned before, that are so important to us, and although we are able
to use that, it's not all the time. And we get cut off at the darndest
times. And also in our own office, we've got some challenges with just
enough capacity to really do -- for instance, we try to do video
conferencing, and it just falls apart. It just -- we don't have everything
we need. So we're working with them to get that up to speed. I was
just pointing that out that was a need this year.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay, great. And then the other thing,
under your destination brand platform brand voice, I'm not going to
say it again, there's something special about our destination, and there
is, but please don't forget the Everglades.
MR. WERT: Oh, no.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We're really at the doorstep of the
Everglades, and no other county in Florida is like us.
MR. WERT: You'll see in the section about active tourism a
whole segment of how we're doing that, and we've been doing that all
along, but we're going to intensify it this year.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I was just thinking about incorporating
it into that brand.
MR. WERT: Yeah. And that one piece that I showed about
actually being in the Everglades and telling the story about you still
can do --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah.
MR. WERT: -- a spa at night. That's pretty power -- people just
don't know about that, that they can do that here, and we've got to tell
that story.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Amazing.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: More orchids than anything else,
right --
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- over in the Fakahatchee.
MR. WERT: Yeah, absolutely.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And then, finally, your advertising
budget, your apportionment to digital, how does that compare to
traditional, like social media, Facebook? What's your proportion to
your standard, you know, print advertising?
MR. WERT: I would say that print is probably less than 5
percent of the budget right now. Television is, where we use it, maybe
10 percent. The rest of it is digital and social.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
MR. WERT: That's where the customer is, so that's where our
money needs to be.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It's word of mouth.
MR. WERT: Absolutely is.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. Thank you very much.
MR. WERT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Ma'am, I think Terri needs a finger
break.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You do need a break.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Do we have to make --
MR. WERT: I think we would like a vote, just an approval, if we
could.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I make a motion that we approve the
Fiscal Year 2017/18 Strategic Marketing Plan for the Naples/Marco
Island/Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau and make a finding
that the plan promotes tourism.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: There's a motion on the floor and a
second. All those in favor, say aye.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
MR. WERT: Thank you so much, Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Terri, rest your fingers.
MR. WERT: All right. You can rest now.
(A brief recess was had.)
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much.
County Manager?
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am.
Item #11E
RESOLUTION 2017-198: RECOMMENDATION TO IMPLEMENT
THE STATE HOUSING INITIATIVE PARTNERSHIP (SHIP)
DISASTER STRATEGY AND APPROVE ASSOCIATED
TECHNICAL REVISIONS, APPROVE A FY2016 - 2019 LOCAL
HOUSING ASSISTANCE PLAN (LHAP) AMENDMENT 3 TO
ADD A NEW DEMOLITION AND/OR REPLACEMENT OF SITE
BUILT MOBILE/MANUFACTURED HOUSING STRATEGY,
APPROVE A SPENDING PLAN FOR ALL UNENCUMBERED
FUNDS TO BE USED FOR DISASTER RECOVERY ACTIVITIES,
AND APPROVE HIRING OF ADDITIONAL STAFF TO
ADMINISTER THE ACCELERATED SPENDING PLAN –
ADOPTED; STAFF TO RETURN WITH DETAILED REPORT
October 10, 2017
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Okay. That takes us to Item 11E. This is a recommendation to
implement the State Housing Initiative Partnership disaster strategy
and approve associated technical revisions and plan amendments, and
Ms. Kim Grant, your director of Community and Human Services, will
present.
Kim?
MS. GRANT: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Kim Grant,
director of Community and Human Services. And I don't know about
you all, but I am booking the next ticket to Naples because it sounds
like a fabulous place to have a vacation.
Thank you for giving us a few minutes to talk about this really
great-news item. I mentioned at the last meeting that we were going to
bring forth a spending plan for our SHIP funding, and I'd like to take
you just briefly through that.
This chart was in your executive summary, and what we're
bringing forth, Commissioners, is a package of strategies allocating all
the unencumbered funds to disaster-related activity.
The first item on the list is a program you already approved back
in June, but we put it on here because it could apply to people who
have had issues. That's the owner-occupied rehab program.
One of the things that you'll see consistently here is that we have
modified our strategies to also be applicable for folks who own mobile
homes or manufactured homes. So the owner-occupied rehab is for
health, safety, welfare repairs.
Another common denominator you'll see here is that these funds
will pay only if FEMA or insurance has not paid.
The second strategy, disaster mitigation, this has been in our
LHAP, our Local Housing Assistance Plan, for some time. It was
already approved, but we only enact this in times of disaster. And this
strategy is the one that has a time-limited period on it, and we're only
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allowed to take applications for disaster mitigation during the period of
the declared disaster, which is currently scheduled to end November
9th. It may be extended.
Under disaster mitigation, what we're looking for -- to do here is
reimburse homeowners for smaller expenses that they may have
already incurred or they're hiring a contractor to pay for, and they will
bring us their receipts for those -- for those activities. We also can pay
for insurance deductible under this strategy if you income qualify.
The next one is a new strategy we're asking for your approval on
today. Clearly, one of the biggest issues in our community has been
the impact to the mobile and manufactured homes based on Hurricane
Irma.
So we offer for you a new strategy where we would be able to
demolish or remove and replace a mobile or manufactured home that
has had damage beyond what could reasonably be repaired. So that's a
new strategy we ask for your approval on today.
And the last one: You've also previously approved construction
assistance, and the program here is that we would be able to construct
12 new homes with this assistance for people who have been displaced
by Hurricane Irma.
I can go through things in more detail but, in a nutshell, this is the
package of programs we're recommending.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: How do folks -- how are you marketing
this with the folks in need? Because I can tell you that if they're busy
trying to figure out where they're going to wash their clothes, they're
not paying attention to what we're doing right now.
MS. GRANT: Okay. Several things. First of all, we're going to
open up satellite sites in Everglades City and Immokalee, and we also
will take applications here on the campus for anybody in the urban
area or -- from anywhere. You can go to any of the sites.
We are going to do outreach. We're going to do a press release
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that's ready to go if you folks approve. We'll put it on our division
website. We're preparing fliers that are going to go to all the libraries,
and we're going to make sure that they get brought to the East Naples
Civic Association, the Bayshore CRA, and out in the Immokalee and
Everglades City my team is also looking for places to bring the fliers to
where people will be coming in or where the not-for-profit or the
agency knows of people and can get the word out.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: What about the NAACP? Can you let
them know?
MS. GRANT: Sure, absolutely. We are also intending --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: What about the Red Cross -- the Red
Cross, the Salvation Army?
MS. GRANT: Salvation Army, certainly.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: They were on the front line.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The agencies of Immokalee.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, that -- I think she mentioned that.
MS. GRANT: Yeah. And I was about to say that we have a
distribution list, an email distribution list of all of these types of
organizations, so we'll send it out as well to them. I just saw Ashley
Jones here today, talked with her about it.
We'll also put it on the county's Facebook page. We can do a
Twitter or a Tweet. I don't do that, so I might be old-fashioned, using
the wrong terminology.
So we're attempting to use a number of mechanisms to get the
word out. We're going to have a concentrated effort over the next five
or six business days out in these sites. We always take applications
here at the county. If we're getting a lot of interest and we need to stay
longer, then we'll advertise and we'll stay longer.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So this is income restricted; is that
correct?
MS. GRANT: That's correct.
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And what is the income restriction?
20-, 25,000 one person? What is it?
MS. GRANT: Did I put that in here, Kristi? It's in our material.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: About?
MS. GRANT: Let me just get the information for you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: While you're looking for that, if
there's any way we can get the word out also in North Naples, if you
recall that chart that Jamie French provided, the largest number,
actually, of structure with major damage was in North Naples in
District 2. There's a lot of manufactured homes and mobile homes just
off of 41 and Wiggins Pass and Old 41; a huge, huge number of
mobile homes there.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And just a thought that if there's any
way that we could -- and they're all really concentrated in that one area,
so maybe we can get some information to the management offices or
something --
MS. GRANT: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- I'd appreciate that as well.
MS. GRANT: Okay. No problem.
As you will -- back to your income question. As you know, we
have to spend a certain amount of these funds at people who are below
60 percent AMI, below 80 percent AMI, and at 120. But I'll just give
you the upper limit for purposes of this discussion.
For people who are at 120 percent AMI, that means for a family
of three, you'd be earning $75,360. Let me just -- on the other
extreme, if you're earning 50 percent of the AMI, three-person family,
31,400. Okay.
And it goes by household, and it goes by our need to spend at
various levels. But we are going to maximum all the levels like we
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always do and you've asked us to do.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think the rest -- the humanitarian
groups, the Red Cross, you know, the Salvation Army, the folks that
have been on the frontline from the beginning and the agencies, as you
mentioned, in Immokalee, they're -- they know these areas because
they've visited them again and again and again and again. So they've
got to be your first place to do this.
MS. GRANT: Very good.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Do we need to -- yes.
Recommendation, yes.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Do I hear a motion to --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'd like to ask a question.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Sure, of course.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Would the income restricted affect
this program for, like, the seniors, like, in Commissioner Solis' area or
in mine? I've got so many mobile home parks -- you all saw the
Governor there and the President there -- that are obliterated. Would
that -- but if they don't qualify, but they still have lost their homes, will
you be able to help them?
MS. GRANT: Well, we have to stick with the income
restrictions. Within that, any age group, anyone who comes and
applies, anybody who's a resident of the county is eligible, but I cannot
go above those income levels.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I see. Who will be the contractor for
this?
MS. GRANT: It's different for each of the programs. So the
disaster mitigation, which is our strategy that we're turning on, people
will hire their own contractor. They either already have or will. So if
they have a tree down --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Let me stop you there for just one
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second.
MS. GRANT: Sure.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So I own a mobile home and there's
not much of it left anymore. So then I would go out and find my
contractor --
MS. GRANT: No.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- and bring them to you, and then
you qualify me, or how does that work? I don't know.
MS. GRANT: Okay, great. Let's take that as an example. So
that would fall under our -- most likely the demolition and replacement
strategy. So you would come to us, explain what happened, you'd give
us your income information, we'd qualify you.
For the demo and replacement mobile home strategy, the county
will do an RFP to select one or more mobile home entities that will do
the transportation and bring the mobile homes in and to fix them. So
that has not been yet been determined, and it will come back to you,
the contract or contracts, if we recommend more than one, will come
back to the Board for approval.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So you haven't identified any
contracts yet?
MS. GRANT: Not for that strategy. This is a brand new strategy.
If you approve it today as a commission, we are going to fast track this
through the state approval process, and once we've done that, we will
then advertise for, again, one or more contracts.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's what I was going to ask next.
You go out to bid then for people that will do this?
MS. GRANT: Correct.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It's not just going to one or two
organizations, but you will go out to bid?
MS. GRANT: Not for that strategy, that's correct; we'll go out to
bid.
October 10, 2017
Page 159
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. So you keep saying "not for
that strategy." Tell me what that means.
MS. GRANT: So let me go back to this -- let me go back to this.
So each of these on the left-hand side, these four boxes,
owner-occupied disaster mitigation, et cetera, are, in our vernacular in
the SHIP program, called strategies. They're buckets of money we're
spending for Purpose A, B, C, D. A, B, C, D have different
implementation approaches. The example you gave me fits into the
third one, demo and replacement.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. But in the other ones -- I'm
really concerned about the mobile homes because I think those have
been affected a lot; not that they haven't been affected even worse than
Everglades City, because nothing is affected worse than Everglades
City, but that's then another thing. But on the mobile homes, those are
the first two things, right?
MS. GRANT: Three. Three of the four impact mobile homes.
Did you want me to --
MR. OCHS: Yeah.
MS. GRANT: So the first strategy, owner-occupied
rehabilitation. What that means is I'm a mobile home owner, I've had
substantial damage to my structure, but it's repairable. In that
circumstance they come to Collier County; collier County would
approve them for the funding. And then we already have two firms on
contract who essentially act as general contractors to go out and
perform the repairs or hire the subcontractors to do the repairs.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Who are they?
MS. GRANT: They are Rural Neighborhoods and Habitat for
Humanity.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Rural Neighborhoods, is that the one
in Immokalee?
MS. GRANT: Correct.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Next?
MR. OCHS: Previously approved by the Board.
MS. GRANT: And those agreements were previously approved
by the Board in June before the storm even hit. Okay.
Now, going down the list, the disaster mitigation for owner -- et
cetera. If I'm a mobile home owner under the disaster mitigation, if I
have, I'm just going to call it, more minor damage, I have a tree down
or maybe even a tree fell on my roof, but it's only 2- or 3- or $5,000 to
repair, that's what the disaster mitigation is for; they get their own
contractor, and we reimburse them.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Which one is that one?
MS. GRANT: The second one, disaster mitigation.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. That's number two there.
MS. GRANT: That's number two.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. And then -- okay. So -- and
number three?
MS. GRANT: Number 3 is the one we talked about before. We
have not yet selected a contractor or contractors, partner. We'll go out
for bid, essentially, to find a partner to do that work for us.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: But then we're still having all those
mobile homes that don't qualify under this income restriction, right?
Are we going to be able to help them at all?
MS. GRANT: Well, the -- I only have at my disposal the
programs available. So if they -- if their income exceeds 120 percent
AMI, or those numbers read before, no, we will not be able to help
them.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, but it's up to 120 percent of
AMI?
MS. GRANT: Correct, remembering that about a third of our
funds can go for that income level, because we have to also serve the
lower tiers.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: So a third can go up to 120, did you
say?
MS. GRANT: Right.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And then a third can go --
MS. GRANT: It's approximately a third -- I'll go from the bottom
up. It's approximately a third from zero to 60 percent, a third from 60
to 80, and a third from 80 to 120.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I see. Uh-huh.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, those that don't income qualify
may be eligible through FEMA for assistance for replacement of those
mobile homes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'm still concerned about them, you
know. There's so much damage.
MR. OCHS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You know, this is a little pot -- three
million is a lot of -- a big pot, really, but when you come right down to
it, it's really --
MR. OCHS: Well, you know, it's limited to a certain segment.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It's a great start, and I realize Habitat
rehabs homes. I don't know if they rehab trailers or not, mobile homes,
but --
MS. GRANT: Well, they will find an appropriate contractor to
do the work.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: One other source of marketing would
be Dr. Jacqueline Faffer --
MS. GRANT: Sure.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- the Center for -- the Jewish Center
for the seniors. She will have her finger on the pulse of the senior
community for sure.
MS. GRANT: She absolutely does. And she's on our list, but
October 10, 2017
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we'll make a special outreach.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you so much.
MS. GRANT: No problem.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: She is wonderful.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. So do I have a -- do we have
a motion and a second?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Bill has his thing on.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Bill -- yeah, he had his light on.
And I can make a motion for approval. I just have a -- I would like to
make a point of clarification.
And underneath -- in our -- the executive summary underneath
the box that was in there, there's a delineation that says FS
requirements, and it talks about where these monies are, in fact, going
to be divided by how much is going to admin, how much is going to
the individual -- individual -- different types of housing brackets based
upon the percentages of -- the percentage of the AMI.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Will we get regular reports on this
so that we know where the money's going?
MS. GRANT: Sure. I can bring a report back. I suspect that if
the word gets out effectively, which is our goal, we're going to know --
in relative short order, we're going to have more people than we have
money, and we'll have --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We hope that you do.
MS. GRANT: So do I.
Certainly, Commissioner, we can bring a report back.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. So there's a motion made to
accept the recommendation to go forward. Do I hear a second?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. Any other discussion?
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, before you vote, on this report would
you like that in a memorandum format to all the board members, or do
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you want it back on the agenda on a regular basis?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Memorandum.
MR. OCHS: I think a memorandum would give you all the data
that you're looking for, then if --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Give us --
MR. OCHS: -- you have a question or you want -- any of you
individually want to make that an agenda item in the future, certainly
you could do that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And this is just me. If we were
going to have it on -- if we got it on the consent agenda, it would make
it available to the public at the same time for those that are, in fact,
interested, and it's the same dissemination of information.
MR. OCHS: Your -- pleasure of the board. I'm just trying for
clarification here.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Commissioner McDaniel --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Commissioner Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- did you finish what you were
going to say about the executive summary?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: You did?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I did. I just wanted to bring --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I just -- there was --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You probably looked away and you
couldn't hear --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I thought I lost something, but okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I just wanted to bring attention
--
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Make sure he knows what you said
so --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Are you -- I mean, did you --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. No, I thought you were going
October 10, 2017
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to say something about the way that it was describing --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, no. It was more almost an
explanation of what Commissioner Fiala was asking with regard to
these funds and how it's being appropriated, and there was delineation
in there. Just more clarification on what she was already talking about
and asking Kim for.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was just kind of surprised that the
contractor was -- well, that some people can pick their own contractor,
but we don't know which ones could, and how do they find them, and
we had assigned one for Habitat for Humanity as a contractor for
others, and I was surprised at that because I didn't know they knew
anything about mobile homes. And so I was just trying to kind of
figure out who was doing what. That's $3 million. And I would like to
see it do a good job for these people. I worry about what's happening
to them. Okay.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. Motion on the floor and a
second. All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: (No verbal response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. It carries
unanimously.
Item #11F
October 10, 2017
Page 165
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE A SUB-RECIPIENT AGREEMENT
WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF COLLIER COUNTY FOR
AN ACTIVITY PREVIOUSLY APPROVED IN THE FY2017-18
ACTION PLAN FOR THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK GRANT (CDBG) PROGRAM – MOTION TO APPROVE
STAFF’S RECOMMENDATIONS – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, Item 11F is a recommendation to
approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a sub-recipient
agreement with Habitat for Humanity of Collier County for an activity
previously approved in your FY17/18 action plan.
Ms. Grant will present.
MS. GRANT: Commissioners, I realize this is a challenge.
We've just spoken about putting money into the community for
disaster. We know that it's not going to cover everything; however, it's
my job to provide recommendations to you to the best of my
understanding, working with my team and with the funder, as to how
we do allocate our funds.
And we were asked to come back to consider alternatives for the
previously agreed to or previously approved Habitat for Humanity
agreement.
Just a couple of things to clarify here. Here we're talking about
Community Development Block Grant funds. These are federal funds.
We've just been talking about SHIP, which are state funds.
I do have a brief presentation I'd like to take you through, and I
will be quick.
We are not recommending that we change the recommendation
we previously had, but the BCC absolutely has the authority to direct
funds. And for disaster you can award funds to any eligible activity.
We don't recommend that for three reasons. The first is that I'll call it
October 10, 2017
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the regular, the annual cycle funding that comes out from CDBG has a
lot of restrictions, and it does not allow us to quickly switch gears and
make a shift.
We are going to -- for example, we -- the normal CDBG funds are
not usually allowed for construction of new units or replacement of
mobile homes, just as an example. But we could use it for any eligible
activity.
To make a change is problematic and complex for us, and we
want to clarify that in disaster, similar to what we just talked about
with SHIP, any funds are only going to be available after FEMA and
after insurance.
To change course at this time, we're going to lose around six to
nine months. What we have to do is we have to understand what the
Board would want to do, we have to make sure it's consistent with our
action plan, which it probably would be. I'd have to take new
applications and then make awards, have to go through a scoring
process, we'd amend the action plan, we could do something called an
environmental review. It's not that it can't be done, but it's
problematic, and that's a lot of steps.
Now, the good news is that HUD has offered some potential relief
if you want to switch to disaster strategy. But we emphasize that
everything that they offer as potential relief is a request to them and an
approval, so there's nothing guaranteed here. We may get it, but we
have to make the request, we have to wait for a response, and then we
have to do whatever the steps are thereafter.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: One moment.
MS. GRANT: Sure.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: If we're adding -- if we're changing it
and adding it to what it's already been approved here, it's the same
process? So we take 600,000 and we just say, let's put it at Anthony
Park. I'm not suggesting that. I'm just -- I'm looking here at the
October 10, 2017
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approval.
MS. GRANT: Yes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It's the same process? You have to
start at the beginning and go through six to nine months to increase the
amount you're already giving to an entity?
MS. GRANT: Okay. If you want to, one of the options that I've
offered later on is redirecting the funds to a project that's already been
scored and rated. And we can do that faster, but we still do have to do
an amendment to the action plan, and we have to bring it back to the
Board, so we'll probably lose 60 days or so in that funding. But that is
an option to you, to any project that's already been ranked.
Just to continue on here. Oh, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And each time we talk about CDBG
funds.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And every time I bring up -- if I
don't first, you do or, if not, I do. Anyway, I bring up the Immokalee
sidewalks. And you said so often, well, it can't go for that. You know,
it has to go for so and so. It has to go for whatever housing. But here
we had a request for Immokalee CRA sidewalks, and they only got
half the funning.
MS. GRANT: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And they need it so badly there.
Let's face it, things are underwater and everything. We've got a few
other things here also that really, really need -- well, there's a Bayshore
sidewalk as well, which wasn't funded at all. And I don't know why
we're giving it away when there's so many needs that we're
overlooking entirely. I just think that's wrong.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And I'm having a little problem with
the Bayshore CRA fire supression which we've been asking for for
four years.
October 10, 2017
Page 168
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, that's over two million,
isn't it?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's about hydrants and safety and all
those things.
MS. GRANT: So, Commissioners, you do have the option to
award additional funds to either projects that have already been ranked
or already been awarded, and I'd like to come back to that, if you don't
mind.
I want to just put one more point on the record, that we are
anticipating CDBG disaster funding coming to our community. So far
the President of the United States has already allocated $7.4 billion not
just for Irma but for storms this year. My experience in the past -- and
I'm reading articles about it again -- is that there's often an initial
allocation and then subsequent allocations as the breadth and depth of
the disaster is understood and the needs are better defined.
Secretary Carson has said that he expects those funds to be
flowing by November, and that's consistent with what I'm hearing.
Nobody will tell you officially, but that's consistent with the word I'm
hearing through HUD.
And, in fact, Commissioner -- sorry, Secretary Carson is planning
a visit to Collier County and Miami-Dade County tentatively the 17th.
And the Miami field office director has already been over and taken a
look at Everglades City and Immokalee. So they are certainly
interested, and it appears to me that they want to get on-the-ground
information.
Disaster recovery funding is a better match for disaster needs, to
meet disaster needs. Why? Because they build in some congressional
waivers to take out some of the restrictions. It doesn't come easy. We
still have a lot of work in my division to make sure it happens, but they
-- they do that. They also have a better idea of what specifically is
needed and try to make sure that those types of projects are allowed.
October 10, 2017
Page 169
As I mentioned, we have historically received disaster funding.
Just in the last year we closed out disaster funding that we'd gotten
over several years. It was about 14 or $15 million for storms years
ago.
It's hard to know whether people's estimates are accurate or not,
but we're hearing all kinds of numbers from $15 million and up that
Collier County may be receiving. But I would not rely upon that until
we get official word.
Also in the short-term we've just awarded, you know, a great deal
of SHIP funds to disaster recovery. They're a littler easier to spend.
There's still some red tape but not as much as the federal funds.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could I ask, when we awarded the
SHIP funds disaster recovery, or was that just the last subject?
MS. GRANT: The last subject.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, the last subject. So we hadn't
done that before this meeting?
MS. GRANT: That's right.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It implied that we had already done
that, but I just wanted to make sure that we understood that we hadn't.
MS. GRANT: I'm sorry. Let me be clear. I'm talking about two
things --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: The one just passed by --
MS. GRANT: -- Collier County, yeah.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- where it said three million. Next
one.
MS. GRANT: The next one. So --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: There. Already has allocated.
MS. GRANT: This is what we just talked about, but in the past,
the slide before, Collier County has received CDBG federal disaster
money as well. I just want to be super clear.
Now, let's get to where some of you were going a few minutes
October 10, 2017
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ago. I just briefly want to remind you of the process before we even
bring a project to you for your review. We send out an application
cycle, usually in January. We get applications in, we go through a
review and ranking, those are scored, packaged up, brought to you in
an action plan in June. So we've got six months just to get you an
action plan. Then later on we bring you the agreements, which we did
last meeting.
This is -- the ranking and review is all done in a public forum.
Every applicant comes in and gives a presentation. The review
committee is -- it's publicly noticed. Anybody from the public can
attend, and it's overseen by myself to ensure consistency and integrity
of the process.
And the Habitat for Humanity application, which is up for
discussion here, just happened to earn the highest points. And I know
you've all seen the listing.
I want to point out, which we did not make a point of last time,
that when Habitat applied for these funds, what's highlighted here, this
grant funding would allow Habitat to explore other areas as well while
we seek to locate affordable housing throughout the residential areas of
the county, okay. Their intent is to do things in other areas of the
county. They have also told us that they'd be willing to focus on those
who have been displaced by the disaster.
Now, to the list that you all were looking at. What you're looking
at here is what came out of the Ranking and Review Committee work.
You see the scores, you see the amount they requested, and the
proposed award amounts. The proposed award amounts might have
changed a little bit as we finalized things and we brought it back to you
for the action plan.
Certainly, a moderate stance here is to, if you do not want to
award Habitat the funding, the highest ranging of the committee's
work, you could consider allocating that 600,000 to projects that
October 10, 2017
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already got approved. That would require an amendment to the action
plan, an amendment to the contracts, and we'd have to bring all that
back to you, but that's shorter than taking out a new project. It's a
shorter duration. And we can get going with the funds that they have
already been awarded.
You technically, of course, could also select a project that was
lower on the list. This is where the Board's discretion comes into play.
My job and we did with the action plan was brought back the public
process which, by the way, the action plan is advertised for, I think, 30
days to make sure that the public has an opportunity to comment. So
that's what we -- but that's an option for you if you want to look at
doing that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. So --
MS. GRANT: In summary, our recommendation is that you stay
the course. Habitat receives the funds that they were initially awarded,
we focus on spending the SHIP funds for the immediate term disaster
response, and then we focus on the disaster recovery funds coming
from the federal government, we anticipate, as they become available
and try to fill more of the need in the community.
That's the end of my presentation.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was just going to finish what I said
before.
First of all, I didn't vote on the last thing. I was thinking about it,
and we already were finished with it. I just want you to know it was a
four nothing vote because I didn't vote one way or another, and we
could come back to that one a little bit later. I just wanted to put that
on the record in case somebody calls it afterwards.
Secondly, on this list, some of the things, like, in Immokalee and
on Bayshore, I've been asking for a couple years now to please put in
streetlights because those are high crime areas that are just dangerous
for people to walk. We've never done that, but we give the money
October 10, 2017
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away to others. I think we should start tackling some of these really
serious and important projects that are left standing, and I'd like to see
that happen. I don't care if -- I don't care where it is as long as we can
see that we're making something happen to eliminate some of the
problems that we have instead of just giving the money away. So
that's what I wanted to say.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, let's tackle this problem first, and
then we'll address -- you can't none vote. You've got to vote.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, I know.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So we'll worry about that in a minute.
Okay.
So, Commissioner McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And I would like to say
this: You know, staff's recommending that we stay the course. I don't
like the course, to tell you the truth.
We're being asked to make a decision for an appropriation for a
budget year in -- starting in January, February, March, April, May,
June for a budget cycle that doesn't start for '17/'18. We're asking --
these recommendations are being made to us and approved by you --
by us, ultimately, for an ensuing budget year, and I don't like the
course.
MS. GRANT: Commissioner --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's my personal opinion. I'm
entitled to do it. You don't have to defend the course. I understand
that it is an arduous course. It's an arduous process. It's not -- it
doesn't certainly have the fluidity of our own budget of Collier County
where we have the capacity to move and do things that are necessarily
at will. So it's the process as much as anything that's distressing me.
I don't see -- I certainly don't have anything against Habitat for
Humanity and what they do for the community and so on.
But you speak of Immokalee -- and I understand that there is
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buckets of money that have to be spent in certain areas for, in fact,
certain things but, you know, our Collier County Housing Authority
over in Immokalee at Farm Workers Village, we have 260-some-odd
units that need HVAC that don't have it, and that's a -- that's a nyon
(sic) 7-, $800,000 project in and of itself. So -- and I know, Ms. Kim
--
MS. GRANT: They were awarded $300,000 of HOME funds.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I spoke to Oscar yesterday, yes,
ma'am.
MS. GRANT: Or was that 150,000?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, ma'am, I did. I spoke to
the executive director yesterday when I was reviewing some other --
the shift in the 20-year requisite with the lien and that sort -- you know,
with the Boys and Girls Club that got pulled from this agenda. That --
I let them know, because that was -- one of the detriments of filing for
CDBG funding was there was a 20-year requisite for reporting, an
extremely arduous requisite for reporting for -- that traveled with the
entire 20-year process, and that was -- I remember when I was
chairman of that organization. It was an impetus for us to no longer
seek the utilization of the CDBG funding just because of the arduous
filing and reporting that was a requisite after the fact.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: The City of Naples would be more than
happy to take what should go to Immokalee, and we will take it in the
City of Naples because we do not mind that rigorous filing.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand that, Madam
Chair. The bottom line is, it's the process that I'm distressed with here,
as much as anything.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: But that's something the federal
government --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that process has been
adjusted now. We now know that that 20 years doesn't travel along.
October 10, 2017
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And we did -- the Housing Authority did receive funding for some of
those HVAC units.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, good.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
MR. OCHS: So the reference to the fiscal cycle, I wasn't sure I
was following your statement.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, from what I understand,
we were approving the plan for the layout of those funds back in April
and -- from April through June, I think is what Ms. Grant said.
MS. GRANT: In June you approved the action plan for funds
that are available for spending October 1st.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. That's for the fiscal year
coming up in October.
MS. GRANT: Right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then have to -- and then
need to be spent in the following year. So in the Fiscal Year 17/18,
we're approving it for -- we're approving it in a prior cycle.
MS. GRANT: And that is -- you're probably aware of this,
because I know you're very familiar with our process. That is a time
frame established by HUD that the action plan needs to be submitted
timely for their review prior to the beginning of the -- our spending
fiscal year.
MR. OCHS: It's not unlike you do for your own budget.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah.
MS. GRANT: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand. I didn't say I like
that process either.
MR. OCHS: Oh, okay.
MS. GRANT: And I will -- it is an absolute challenge --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
MS. GRANT: -- and it's something we look at periodically, is
October 10, 2017
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there anything we can do to shorten, make it better, et cetera, but --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Do we have any registered
speakers on this?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Mr. Miller?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Because I'd like to hear from
the speaker, and then I had --
MR. MILLER: I have just one registered public speaker on this
item. Reverend Lisa Lefkow.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Then, Madam Chair, I'd like to
make a couple comments when she's finished.
MR. MILLER: I hope I said that right.
REVEREND LEFKOW: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For
the record, Lisa Lefkow, CEO of Habitat for Humanity.
Let me tell that you, first of all, I'm both appalled and
disappointed to have to be here today, while the work of county
government is so important and truly fascinating to watch. What I'm
missing at my office is the fact that we have volunteers from the
United Way, FEMA, Job Link, Goodwill all available to assist both
Habitat for Humanity homeowners in post-storm recovery and
members of the greater East Naples community.
In and out of this day, more than 200 people have been into our
office while I'm sitting here to defend a $600,000 grant application
which, as you saw, was the highest scoring application, went through
the same process as everybody else has gone through, was determined
by staff and this board to be advisable and, yet, of the 13 grants that
were recommended for your approval, it is the only one that has been
pulled.
So my understanding is that there is a clear message to Habitat for
Humanity that there is no longer support from this commission for the
work that we do.
Out of our $31 million budget for the coming fiscal year, the
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fiscal year that we have just -- our fiscal year begins July 1st -- $31
million in expenses, of that about $500,000 will come from the county.
Additional money that comes from the county in the form of down
payment assistance goes directly to homebuyers, does not come to our
office, neither does funding like you talked about before in
owner-occupied rehab work where we simply serve as the project
manager.
So I want you to be aware that though there is certainly a very
large budget for the work that we do, the need here, as you well know,
is absolutely tremendous and, post storm, it is only more important.
More than 2,000 Habitat homes, none of them, none of them
suffered any structural damage. So while you're talking about the
kinds of housing that was inhabited by folks that was destroyed, they
could have been in Habitat homes.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I might have misunderstood
something, but I had thought we asked before, when we give, you
know -- oh, I'm sorry. I thought we'd asked before. When we give
them $30,000 down payment assistance, right, or 50,000, or whatever
we vote on, sometimes it's 20-, 30-, 50-, I thought we -- well, anyway,
Reverend Lefkow said that it never goes to Habitat. It goes to them. I
didn't know -- because I know we were kind of concerned with giving
somebody $30,000 and just letting them walk away with it, you know.
REVEREND LEFKOW: May I clarify? Is it all right for me to
clarify that?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Of course, yes.
REVEREND LEFKOW: We are the lender, and so in the down
payment assistance program, just as if it were a buyer working with a
bank, the down payment assistance goes to that homebuyer to pay
down the mortgage. It is down payment assistance, and so it does pay
down the mortgage. It is to the benefit of the homeowner. We remain
October 10, 2017
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whole no matter what. The homeowner pays the entire mortgage. You
are assisting the homeowner in paying the mortgage. It is just as it
would be with any other lender.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So you make it out to -- we make it
out to the bank then?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well -- and they are the bank.
Habitat is the bank.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, you are the bank. Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Habitat is the bank in their
instance.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
Commissioner Saunders?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I guess a couple things. First
of all, I want to thank Habitat for Humanity for what you do.
REVEREND LEFKOW: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I didn't realize you had built
that many homes in Collier County, and hopefully you'll be building a
whole lot more because, as you noted, the need is tremendous.
And I think what I would say to the Commission, we have
competing needs. I mean, we have disaster relief needs, and we have
lower income workforce housing needs. And I think the process that
was developed for this was the process that this board should continue
to follow. I don't think we should make a U-turn here on this
$600,000. I think this $600,000 will help Habitat for Humanity
develop workforce-type housing, affordable housing in other areas of
the county other than district --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: They've got land. They've got $11
million worth of land, you know.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I understand. I'm not arguing
with you. I'm just trying to make a statement.
October 10, 2017
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I believe that this will help Habitat for Humanity develop homes
in other parts of the county other than District 1, which is, you know,
the East Naples area. I understand you've got a lot of this type of
housing there, and we need it in District 3, and I'm sure you need it in
District 5, and I don't know if you need it in District 2 or not.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: District 4 could use it.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But I'm going to make a
motion to approve the staff recommendation, and I'm going to do that
for a couple of reasons. I think that the staff went through a very
thorough analysis. I think that there's some other issues here other than
just moving money to disaster recovery.
There was an interesting article in the newspaper this morning
about the competing needs here and the issues of does this board
support Habitat, and I think we need to send the right message. So I'm
going to make that motion and would urge the commission to support
this.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So there's a motion to stay the
course and continue with the recommended awardees.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. The staff
recommendation, which is to continue the award of the $600,000 to
Habitat for Humanity.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Do I hear a second?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Any other discussion? All right.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. I was just going to comment
that, you know -- and maybe the issue isn't -- well, we have a selection
process, and so if we have a selection process that we use and, you
know, the funds are awarded to the best applicant, and that's what our
selection process says, then maybe the issue is with our selection
process. It's not necessarily Habitat or something. I'm just trying to
focus this more on -- is it an issue of -- and this is really a question. Is
October 10, 2017
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it an issue of who's receiving the funds, what entity, or is it a process
issue? I mean, we have a process. We've gone through it. They scored
the highest. That's what the process is for. It's for selecting the best
applicant.
So I'm going to support the motion, and if we need to revisit how
the selections are made, that's one thing, if we can. I mean, the
selection's probably dictated by the federal government, right, or how
they're scored?
MS. GRANT: The federal government does not give us a matrix
for the exact scoring. They give us guidance, and so we have created
very specific criteria, award points, and how you get the minimum or
the maximum points. And I'd be happy to review that with the
Commission before we do next year's if you'd like to.
MR. OCHS: If you want to review them personally and have
them apply and petition you, you can do that. You can listen to every
one and score them all.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'm not suggesting that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's just a process.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, I'm not suggesting that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think it would be helpful, not to
maybe bring it for discussion, but to understand the rating. I think that
would be very helpful.
MS. GRANT: I'd be happy to send a memo to the Commission.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So we have a motion on the
floor and a second. Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries 4-1.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I still hate to see that money going
not helping people.
Item #11G
RECOMMENDATION TO DIRECT THE COUNTY MANAGER
TO DENY THE REQUEST FOR REFUNDS FOR THE
PERMITTING FEES PAID BY TWO WILDLAND FIRE VICTIMS,
TOTALING $4,772.27, FROM THE GENERAL FUND – MOTION
TO APPROVE STAFF’S RECOMMENDATION – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that takes you to Item 11G, which
is a recommendation to direct the County Manager to deny the request
for refunds for the permitting fees paid by two wildlands fire victims
totaling $4,772.27, and Mr. French, your deputy department head for
Growth Management, will present.
MR. FRENCH: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record,
Jamie French.
I'm here to answer any questions you might have regarding the
public petition at the last board meeting for the request.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, I think we are at a point now
where, when this request was filed, it was before Irma. And the
question we have as a board, is this precedent-setting, and I would dare
say it probably is.
I would agree to the staff's recommendation to deny it. Not to be
cold and turn a blind eye to the suffering that the fire victims had, but
to understand that we have a whole heap of folks out there that are
suffering right now. Some of them don't have homes to live in. And I
October 10, 2017
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think we have to be on the unfortunate and unenvious position to make
these hard decisions. And I'd like to make a motion that we support
staff's position on this.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Is there any other discussion?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Don't agree.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Pardon me?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't agree. I believe that it
can be accomplished through and should be accomplished through a
designation of a natural disaster. There are multiple forms of natural
disasters. Fire is one of them. Hurricane's another, and so on. And I
can think that it's a small -- it's a small request for a relief.
I wouldn't be opposed to setting a precedent with regard to
offering relief to residents who suffer from a natural disaster in some
form or fashion. Whether we can do it legally or not has to be -- has
yet to be determined.
MR. KLATZKOW: No, you can do it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So I would like to see
us move in that regard, and I can't support staff's recommendation to
deny these folks these permit-fee refunds.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Any other discussion?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I would just say that the next item
relates to what we're talking about, I think.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, we're going to get there.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And maybe this is something that
will be considered in that process. So we can deal with it proactively
across the board, not on an individual basis or something. Because I'm
sensitive to the issue; obviously, I think we all are. But how we deal
with it overall, I think, is important, and especially now that we have
so many people that will be in the same situation. So I'm going to have
to support the motion.
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: There's a motion on the floor to support
staff's recommendation to deny the petition, and there's a second.
All those in favor, say aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Carries 3-2. Thank you.
Item #11H
RECOMMENDATION TO DIRECT STAFF TO MEET WITH THE
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE (DSAC)
AND THE COLLIER BUILDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION
(CBIA) TO EXPLORE POTENTIAL EMERGENCY PERMITTING
PROCESSES AND BUILDING PERMIT FEE CONSIDERATIONS
DURING DECLARED DISASTERS AND PROVIDE
SUBSEQUENT RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BOARD –
MOTION TO APPROVE STAFF’S RECOMMENDATIONS AS
AMENDED – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, 11H is, again, a related
recommendation resulting from prior board direction to ask the staff to
meet with the Development Services Advisory Committee and the
Collier Building Industry Association to explore potential emergency
permitting processes and building permit fee considerations during
declared disasters and then to bring those subsequent recommendations
October 10, 2017
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back to the Board.
Mr. French, anything to add?
MR. FRENCH: No, sir, just as the executive summary says --
and, again, Jamie French, for the record. Commissioners, I don't need
to remind you, this is 100 percent enterprise funded operation. Fees are
not refundable to local government from any of the disaster funds that
may be out there; however, what we'd like to do based off of
conversations with you individually as well as with Commissioner
McDaniel is we'd like to work with the Collier Building Industry
Association as well as your Development Services Advisory
Committee, primarily because they represent the paying customers for
the services we provide. So in other words, all of the damage
assessment, the hours that your Building Department or Land
Development Services spent on disaster recovery and assessment,
those are all absorbed within our operations anyway.
So we look at that, and we budget for that accordingly, but those
are -- we don't come back to you or try to seek any type of
reimbursement for those services. But when it does get down into
looking at the individual homesites, business sites, we want to make
sure that whatever precedent we set will move forward into the future
for all declared disasters versus a wildfire or a hurricane.
And so you also know is that the last item that the Board just
supported staff on, they would also be included in that with whatever
decision we make going forward and present to you for consideration.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So they would be considered?
MR. OCHS: Well, you would have that latitude as a Board to
apply some policy --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Retroactively.
MR. OCHS: -- directive you may enact retroactively if you so
choose.
MR. FRENCH: Thank you.
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I like this way of going forward a lot
better. I think this is measured, and I think that's what we need is a
measured response, but a prompt measured response, of course.
MR. FRENCH: Yes, ma'am. And we -- and I apologize. We
intend to work with even the agencies that were here today. We'll
reach out to them to find out what other funding sources might be
available to help offset some of those costs to our residents and
property owners.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good.
MR. OCHS: Speaker?
MR. MILLER: Yes. We have two registered speakers for this
item. Your first speaker is Pam Brown. She'll be followed by Kathy
Curatolo.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Happy birthday.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, happy birthday.
MS. BROWN: You remembered again.
Good afternoon, Commissioners. I know this is a little
controversial, and I love Jamie, but there are nine communities in the
state that have declared this a disaster area, and they're waiving
permitting fees. And I sent a copy of this to you. And it has to be Irma
related. It just cannot be, you know, flim-flam. It would have to be
within a 60- or 90-day time frame, and they are Fort Myers, Bonita,
Cooper City, Jackson, Port Orange, West Cocoa, Sarasota/Brevard
County, and the City of Palm Coast, and I would just like for you to
review this for consideration maybe for another meeting.
Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next and final speaker on this item is Kathy
Curatolo.
MS. CURATOLO: Good afternoon, Commissioners. It's been a
pleasure to be here with you today. I've learned a lot.
On this particular note, you know, we -- the Board just approved
October 10, 2017
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1.6 million in permit and inspection reductions. I have to say at this
very moment my leadership team at CBIA has concerns about further
reductions in specific arenas and how that might affect the Enterprise
Fund. But, as always, we are certainly willing to work with the county
and with DSAC to explore the issues and come up with some
suggested solutions.
So thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So what is your --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'm sorry. So you agree to our
measured report -- our measured but prompt response to this?
MS. CURATOLO: Measured, yes. Hopefully it could be
prompt.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
MS. CURATOLO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. So do I hear a motion?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, I'll make the motion.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: To?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Approve the recommendations
of staff and work with the CBIA and DSAC to determine the
appropriate fee reductions for disaster relief for our residents.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. I'll second that motion.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And, Madam Chair, just for
clarification, the item that we discussed just before that in terms of the
fire victims, those will be included in that evaluation so that if there is
a fee reduction or elimination, that those folks would be entitled to
that?
MR. OCHS: We'll give you that option, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I would ask that as part
of the motion that they be included so that everybody's treated the
same.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So that we can look retroactively at the
October 10, 2017
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disasters that affect --
MR. OCHS: We'll look for all declared disasters, including fires
and hurricanes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Tornadoes.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's sounds biblical this year.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Locust.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Locust.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No, no, don't talk about the locust.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Locust are next.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And if you want that part, I'd
be happy -- if you want that clarity added to the motion, I'd be happy to
add that in. It was my understanding if we did it by declaring from a
disaster declaration, that they would be included.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I just wanted to make sure,
because everybody should be treated the same.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So -- and do we have a second?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, Commissioner Fiala did.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. And you're agreeing to the
amendment?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: As long as it's timely.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: She doesn't even laugh when I
October 10, 2017
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say that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Before we go to 11I, I think we need to
revisit 11E, point of order. We had one of our commissioners that did
not vote. She --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was still thinking, and they just
counted it as a --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Vote.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- vote, so I just vote no on that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So what I'd like to do is maybe just --
can I reconsider it? I can reconsider it in the same meeting because I
voted in the affirmative, and then we can have a --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think we can just register her
as a no vote, can't we? Do you have to go through the reconsideration
and all that?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah. How do we do this?
MR. KLATZKOW: Register her as a no vote.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. As a no vote.
MR. KLATZKOW: If the majority of the Board agrees, register
her as a no vote.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So the vote on 11E was 4-1.
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. Thank you.
Item #11I
RECOMMENDATION TO COMPLETE THE ANNUAL
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL FOR THE COUNTY MANAGER –
MOTION TO ACCEPT APPRAISAL – APPROVED
MR. OCHS: 11I is a recommendation to complete the Annual
Performance Appraisal for the County Manager.
October 10, 2017
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Commissioners, as you know, my employment agreement with
you requires an annual submission of a self-appraisal to you and then a
subsequent annual review by the Board. Thank you all for completing
that on a timely basis, given the hurricane, and I certainly appreciate
the feedback and the constructive criticism and, more importantly, the
support that you've provided to me and, by extension, the staff, and I
look forward to a productive year in the next evaluation period.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Do we need to take a vote
on that? No.
MR. OCHS: No, it's just a completion of the process.
Jeff, is there an action required or --
MR. KLATZKOW: Motion to approve, and you're done, I guess.
MR. OCHS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll make a motion to approve.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And for discussion purposes, I
just would like to also remind everyone that, you know, I'm -- when I
was filling those -- when I was filling out that review, I forgot that
everything we do is a matter of public record, and so -- I said nice
things, and I actually said the truth along the way, but I have to note
here to myself when I was reviewing this, I said, next time remind me
that this -- everything we do here -- and I'll be a little more gentle next
time when I'm going through.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And the practical effect of
your announcement is that everybody in the world's going to go get a
copy now and see what you said.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, yeah. And I hit the panic
button when I saw the evaluation, Commissioner McDaniel. I'm like,
oh. So, it's okay.
MR. OCHS: It's all good.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, it is. And I just also
October 10, 2017
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wanted to call note that our leader is staying, although he has
contractual abilities to receive higher bonus pay or incentive pay, if
you will, or increase other than staff, he has elected to stay with the
team and not go that route. So that's just a worthy note as well.
MR. OCHS: Thank you, sir. Okay. We're moving on then to
Item --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: There's a motion -- I think there's a
motion on the floor and a second.
MR. OCHS: Oh, I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Right?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor to accept the County
Manager's appraisal report, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
Item #11J
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE A CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT OF APPROXIMATELY $114,208,
FOR THE INSTALLATION OF TWO (2) BEACH TRACTOR
SHELTERS TO BE INSTALLED AT THE TIGERTAIL BEACH
PARK AND THE VANDERBILT BEACH PARKING GARAGE TO
FACILITATE ADEQUATE EQUIPMENT PROTECTION AND
CLEANING OPERATIONS TO PROLONG THE OPERATIONAL
October 10, 2017
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LIFE OF BEACH CLEANING EQUIPMENT AND MAKE A
FINDING THAT THIS ITEM PROMOTES TOURISM.
MOTION TO CONTINUE TO A FUTURE BCC MEETING –
APPROVED
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that takes us to Item 11J. This was
previously Item 16A12 moved to the regular agenda at Commissioner
Taylor's request. It's a recommendation to approve a capital
improvement project of approximately $114,208 for the installation of
two beach tractor shelters to be installed, one at Tiger Tail Beach Park
and one at Vanderbilt Beach parking garage to provide shelter and
protection for our beach cleaning equipment to extend the operational
life of that equipment.
Ms. Patterson is here to either make a presentation or respond to
questions.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'll just be very quick. I have no doubt
that it's much better to bring this equipment in from the elements. But,
you know, golly gee, we've got structures on the beach, we've got two
hotels, or more than, hotels on Marco Island. We've got the Ritz on
Vanderbilt -- sorry, Ed. You know, why can't we see if we can
negotiate some kind of sheltering there before we go and spend
$112,000 of TDC money, of tourist tax money? And that's all I would
like to ask. Not to say you have to do it, but let's look and see where
else we could put these.
MS. PATTERSON: Amy Patterson again, for the record.
If that is what the Board would like us to do, we are certainly
happy and willing to go and talk with our partners on the beach and see
if that's a possibility.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So just continue this for a
couple weeks?
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah. We can continue this, yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Sure.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. So do I hear a motion to
continue?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you want to make the motion
since you brought it up, and I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'll make the motion to continue until
Ms. Patterson can come back --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: For a portion of discussion.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- with either good or bad news.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do have a question of --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Are you seconding?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I had seconded your motion --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- for discussion, if I may.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do we have an issue with
putting public assets on a private piece of property?
MR. KLATZKOW: No. We rent all the time.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. That was my only
concern, so --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: What about as a gift?
MR. KLATZKOW: As a gift?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah. They allow us to use it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, there would be a lease
agreement for no fee or a dollar or something.
MR. OCHS: It's usually a nominal --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
MR. OCHS: -- lease agreement for --
MR. KLATZKOW: We do that all the time.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Like a penny -- like a penny -- a dollar
October 10, 2017
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a year at Naples Airport.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You ought to negotiate the deal here.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'm going to call them up. We need the
TDC money for our beaches. Thank you very much.
MS. PATTERSON: I understand. We'll report back. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: All in favor?
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that takes us to 12A under County
Attorney's report. This is the Annual Performance Appraisal for the
county attorney.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We didn't vote on the last one.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Did we vote on that last one?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There was a motion and a
second and no vote.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: To continue.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: To continue. Okay. All those in favor
of continuing -- poor Terri -- say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's great. Thank you.
Item #12A
THE ANNUAL PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL FOR THE
COUNTY ATTORNEY – MOTION TO ACCEPT APPRAISAL –
APPROVED
October 10, 2017
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MR. OCHS: Now 12A. Mr. County Attorney?
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, like Leo, our contracts are
substantially similar, and I have also the annual requirement for a
review.
It is a privilege being your county attorney. Having spent the first
half of my career in private practice in the corporate world, I can
assure you that the satisfaction that I get working as your county
attorney, it is just worth every moment of my time. It's just
phenomenal.
To actually be able to work for -- everything I do is for a public
purpose by definition. It's just -- I couldn't ask for a better career than
doing what I'm doing. I couldn't ask for better people in my office and
without whom, you know, my performance would be horrible, as they
do much work behind the scenes, and I just -- I just appreciate being
here at the end of the day.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Well, you run a tight ship,
sir. We appreciate that. All right. Motion --
MR. OCHS: Madam Chair, that moves us to -- did we vote on
that?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We should probably make a motion to
accept the --
MR. OCHS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All those in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Those opposed, like sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: It carries unanimously.
Item #15
STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
MR. OCHS: Now, that moves us to Item 15, staff and
commission general communications. I just have one quick reminder,
Commissioners, and that is the reminder of your next workshop, which
is on November 7th. At 9 a.m. you'll have a public infrastructure sales
tax/surtax workshop, and then in the afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. on
that same day, November 7th, we will have the after-action workshop
on Hurricane Irma. So I think those are all on everyone's calendars,
but just a reminder.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right.
MR. OCHS: And that's all I have, Madam Chair.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. County Attorney?
MR. KLATZKOW: I have nothing, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Ms. Kinzel.
MS. KINZEL: Thank you, Commissioners.
I would just like to thank the Commission for supporting the
legislative agenda that included some support of the Clerk's Office and
our budget. We're working really, really well with the county staff and
working with the State to make sure that Collier County's still served
well by the courts, and we appreciate it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, three items.
October 10, 2017
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First of all, I would like to apologize. During the process of
proclamations, I did not realize that the foundation -- the Tzu Chi
Foundation had not been moved to the regular agenda, so I'm happily
over here going along waiting for it to be called out as a proclamation.
I would like, if I may, to read this proclamation briefly, because it
typifies what I have said quite regularly about the duality of our job
and how we are all elected from individual geographic bounds and
electorate, but yet while we're here we serve the entire county.
And Madam Chair has been extremely involved with this
organization, and it does say a little bit about what they have done for
our community. So if I may, if you'll indulge for a moment:
The Tzu Chi Foundation is an international humanitarian
organization which has been devoted to spreading the great love of
Buddhism through its work in the fields of charity, medicine,
education, and culture.
The Tzu Chi foundation is volunteer based and headquartered in
Hualien, Taiwan -- and forgive me if I'm not pronouncing this properly
-- and funded through donations from the public since its founding by
Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966.
Due to the severe suffering by Hurricane Irma over the course of
September 13th -- or through September 13th at the Bethel Ministries
International Church in Immokalee with 66 Tzu Chi Foundation
volunteers and 15 volunteers from the RCMA, Redlands Christian
Migrant Association, and October 1st at Everglades City in Ochopee,
Florida, with 69 Tzu Chi volunteers and 21 volunteers from the
Pickleball Forever Foundation, they distributed in excess of $256,000
to 591 households and a total of 2,100 residents in Collier County.
It is also scheduled, and I believe it already has transpired, on
October 8th the Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers will again distribute
and did distribute in excess of $100,000 to 328 households in need
from the Gordon River Apartments and Southwind Village in Collier
October 10, 2017
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County.
These relief efforts provided by the Tzu Chi served as a way for
the people of Taiwan to demonstrate their appreciation to the people of
government of the United States of America for the support they
provide to Taiwan during her time of need.
Recognizing the efforts of the Tzu Chi Foundation to help the
citizens of Collier County from the suffering caused by Hurricane Irma
with our admiration and appreciation.
Therefore -- now, therefore, on auspicious occasion when people
and friends of the Republic of China, Taiwan, around the world are
celebrating her 106th national day, and volunteers of the Tzu Chi
Foundation from Florida continue their efforts to help our suffering
residents from the Gordon River Apartments, Southwind Village -- and
I did an editorial adjustment to include Immokalee and Everglades
City -- be it proclaimed by the Board of County Commissioners of
Collier County, Florida, that October 10th, 2017, be designated as the
Tzu Chi Foundation Day in Collier County.
And that was one of those slip-through on the consent agendas,
and I didn't realize it as we were going through, so...
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I want to thank Madam
Chair again. I said this before, but our effort while we're here as
commissioners are for all of the residents of Collier County, and her
work with this foundation in getting those contributions to the folks
that were truly hit hard by Hurricane Irma were a monumental effort.
Madam Chair, thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think it's very important to note I was
over there -- asked to go over there on October the 3rd, which was
Tuesday, today, for their national day, and on the stage there were two
flags, the Taiwanese flag and the American flag, and they sang two
anthems, and the first anthem they sang was the United States anthem.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Nice.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And at every closing ceremony of the
three -- when they gave out these debit cards on the three occasions, at
the end of it they sang God Bless America.
So I think it speaks volumes. They are great friends of America,
and they made it very clear by action, and I think we need to do some
business with them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Wonderful stuff.
On two other points, and I'll be brief. And this has to do -- you
know, Jack kind of stole my thunder. But, you know, everybody's
talking to me about relief efforts and what we can do, what can I do to
help the community and so on and so forth.
Go shopping. Take your family to Immokalee. Go to the
vegetable market over on New Market Road or one of those vegetable
markets and buy your fresh vegetables and then go to a restaurant in
Immokalee and eat. That's the number one thing we can do to help our
folks.
And as far as Everglades City goes, as Jack shared, stone crab
season comes in starting on October 15th. Go buy them all. Go down
there, take your family. If you don't have a family, get one and go
fishing. Go hire a fishing guide in Everglades City to have them take
you fishing. That's -- those are the two things that we can really do to
help our folks that were negatively impacted by the storm.
The economy needs a burst, and they're kind of fun things. So
that's my -- that's my -- Jack, as I said, stole my thunder on that.
Last, but not least, and this is a little bit of -- I would like to hear
what your thoughts are, especially from my colleagues on the end
down there. Oftentimes our county attorney reviews our information
for its legal sufficiency, but he doesn't oftentimes offer legal advice
with regard to our exposure on the contracts and that sort of thing.
And I would like to see if we could maybe have an adjustment to
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that. Jeff and I talked about this yesterday, and I would like to get
some more of a legal opinion as to what our exposure is when we're
looking at contracts and we're entering into agreements. Not just have
it reviewed for legal sufficiency but actually have an opinion from our
county attorney as to potential exposures, though they are somewhat
limitless.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: On each contract?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Wow. That's --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: What else does he have to do?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- a lot of work.
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, no. You're referring to exposure to the
county?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
MR. KLATZKOW: All right. I could do that if that's the
majority of the Board. I would hesitate only in that --
MR. OCHS: Business exposure?
MR. KLATZKOW: -- it's really the County Manager's purview.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's enforceability of the
agreements, Leo. And it's -- well, perfect example is some of the
deliverables in the contracts that we -- that I asked to be continued for
two weeks to be reviewed for EII and the Alliance and the other thing.
I have questions as to the enforceability of those documents as to
whether or not -- and, again, you all are the lawyers. I'm just reading
this from a layman's perspective, but the enforceability of those
agreements, I think, are somewhat in question.
MR. OCHS: Okay. Those are renewals of prior years'
agreement, essentially the same agreements that were previously --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir. And it's the first time
I've got to look at them.
MR. OCHS: Okay.
October 10, 2017
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COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Can I -- let me ask a question. I
mean, are you -- enforceability by the county or by these other parties?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: If there's a contract and it's been
executed, I would think it's -- I mean, contracts are enforceable by
either party unless it says --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm looking more for along the
lines of exposure or deficiencies in the agreement, legal opinions from
our county attorney of theoretical deficiencies in the agreement. I had
perceptions of deficiencies in these agreements, which is why I asked
for them to be continued so I had another shot at them to put more
specificity in there and have better clarity for my understanding of
those agreements, and that was -- and when I was speaking to the
County Attorney yesterday, I said, how come you're not telling me
about these things.
MR. OCHS: Well, he --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Can I make a --
MR. KLATZKOW: And what I said to you is that I review for
legality. I'm not telling you whether it's a good deal or a bad deal.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct.
MR. KLATZKOW: That's up to the County Manager.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: My suggestion would be --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm stirring up a rats nest.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- just the preparation of a legal
opinion, like a full one, is a lot of work. And I don't know that we
would want that happen or need that on every single contractor for,
like --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's why I asked you-alls
opinion. Again, you're the lawyers that look at these things, and I saw
deficiencies in those agreements, and I asked the County Attorney why
those deficiencies weren't being pointed out. And, again -- his words to
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me were he reviews our contractual arrangements for legal sufficiency,
not necessarily deficiencies.
MR. OCHS: Well --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think that the County
Attorney does review for legal sufficiency, and when he signs that off,
it's a legally binding agreement, it meets all the requirement for public
records --
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes. It may not be, in my opinion, a good
deal, but at the end of the day --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Exactly.
MR. KLATZKOW: -- that's the County Manager's
recommendation.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Right. And so if there's an
issue of the substance of a provision, for example, we might think the
price is too high or the term is too long or those types of things, we
really need to turn to the County Manager and the Purchasing
Department to raise those issues.
In terms of our exposure, I didn't know if you were talking about
what our exposure is personally. We don't have any.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, it wasn't our personal --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just on the county? But I think
those are issues that you have to raise with the County Manager. If the
County Attorney's tasked with trying to justify substantive terms in a
contract, then you're going to have a real fight between the County
Attorney and the County Manager over contracts, and you don't want
to do that.
MR. KLATZKOW: No. And quietly I'll work with the County
Manager's Office. If I see a contract that I'm not entirely comfortable
with, then we'll go back and forth on it. But, ultimately, at the end of
the day, it's the County Manager's Office who makes the
recommendation.
October 10, 2017
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CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And then I'll tell you what my city
attorney told me for years. He said, Penny, anyone can sue anybody
for anything --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we know that.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- and there's no way to get around that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I -- actually, I wasn't
looking to avoid litigation, because the litigious society within which
we live, as you said, Madam Chair, anybody can sue anybody. I just --
it was a thought that I had. I wanted to bring it up. Thank you for
clarifying it for me, and we'll let it go.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And, ultimately, if there is a contract
that one of us would like a legal opinion on, we just contact the County
Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: You don't see a contract unless I think it's a
legally enforceable contract. You won't see it. And there are times
when something won't be taken to you because I'll tell staff I'm not
signing off on this. You just don't see those.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And in defense of -- and not
that the County Manager needs any defense. When I questioned those
agreements, he pulled them for further discussion, and we'll see what
we can do.
MR. OCHS: I thought we were going to talk about them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We are, sir.
MR. OCHS: Okay. I look forward to them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, me, too.
MR. OCHS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I would just like to ask the
County Manager to please send me -- to please send all of us -- I don't
want to just say me -- the names of the people that serve on the
Ranking and Review Committee, please.
October 10, 2017
Page 202
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: For?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: For affordable housing.
MR. OCHS: For the CDBG awards that we talked about today?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
MR. OCHS: I think that's what you're talking about, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
MR. OCHS: You'll have it before five. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You think you're going to be
finished by five so you can do that?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Optimistic.
MR. OCHS: Someone just heard me say that, so it will be in your
boxes by five o'clock.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: By the end of the -- just after
the end of this meeting.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So I have a good-news item.
Hurricane Irma legal clinic -- legal aid, it is this Saturday from 10 to 2.
It's -- they do a great job. I just got the notice this morning. I'd like to
see if we could put it on our social media and make sure that
everybody gets this. It's so important because it talks about legal
issues affecting businesses and self-employed individuals, insurance
claims, and disputes.
It's a wonderful opportunity for folks to get questions answered.
And hopefully they'll do it another day, but the first day is October --
this Saturday from 10 to 2.
And then another good-news item, if my commission will allow
me to pursue this. There is an interest of creating a three-day
entertainment event in Collier County, probably we're talking maybe
December, maybe even January, to not only bring the community
together for a good time but also to announce to hopefully the nation if
we can get the entertainment, that we are open for business, and I'd like
to have your blessing to be able to work.
October 10, 2017
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I'm not going to commit any of you to anything and even -- you
know, anything that involves the county will be brought back to you,
for instance, perhaps parking, you know, and shuttle and things like
that; that we would like to move that forward.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Are you going to work with Jack on
that?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Not with Jack. With Pincher's.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Oh, okay. I think it's a great idea.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And we wanted to do it for the Stone
Crab Festival but, unfortunately, the window got too small. But the
governor has --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, great idea.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- involved -- his office is involved and
then, of course, Jack.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And if you have a dunk tank or
anything, I think our tallest commissioner should be --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think I'll be busy that day.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. So if I've got your blessing,
thank you very much. And that's it.
And, Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Party's always good.
A couple things. I had a question, and I keep getting asked this
by people that are emailing me about one of the -- and I know we're
going to do a triage, you know, an assessment of the response and
everything to the hurricane. But just for my own education, the
Emergency Broadcasting System, what is that, and was that operating
-- and I bring this up because I'm sure a lot of us have heard that for
people that didn't have cable TV or anything, many are -- were
disappointed on the coverage by the radio stations, you know, of
disaster recovery information.
So -- and one of the questions was, well, what about the
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Emergency Broadcasting System? You know, we've all heard the
thing when we're listening to the radio when it's being tested. Was that
-- what is that other than a test? Is this a test?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It was a test.
MR. OCHS: Well, it goes out over the television, so --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It's over the television.
MR. OCHS: Yeah. If you don't have power, you're --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: But it comes over the radio -- the
radio as well, right?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, you have to have
battery-powered radios, which a lot of folks didn't have.
MR. OCHS: You're talking about the NOAA weather radio?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No, just a battery-powered radio, you
know, the old boom boxes that we all got rid of because we like our
phones so much.
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, why don't -- I'll make sure that that's
a component of our workshop.
MR. MILLER: If I can, the Emergency Broadcast System is a
federal program. It's a federal government program.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It's a federal government program.
MR. MILLER: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Well, I mean, this is --
MR. OCHS: It's still a good point.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, I'd like to know what it is so I
can respond to people.
The other thing I would like to say is I had the pleasure of
spending an hour with a district -- well, now I'm not even sure she was
a District 2 resident. In fact, I don't think she is. But a Ms. Jilda
Rimondo (phonetic) --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Reamonde (phonetic).
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- who -- I think she describes herself
October 10, 2017
Page 205
as relentless --
MR. OCHS: That would be her.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- and she is clearly that -- has been
asking for years, my predecessor and my predecessor's predecessor,
about raking -- about having the beach raked on Sundays, which has
never occurred, apparently.
But in talking to her, something came up that I think maybe we
should think about, and I think it was a recommendation or at least a
suggestion from staff, somewhere, was -- about looking into a
Mobi-Mat, which -- does anybody know what those are? I mean, they
are -- it's --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: (Inaudible.)
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, no, it's a mat system for
providing access over the sand for people with disabilities. And it's
from -- apparently, I looked at the website, and they're from, you
know, pedestrian ones to -- for military vehicles and heavy machinery
over terrain that they would otherwise get stuck in.
And, you know, I don't know if -- I don't think we have any, but I
thought it might be worth looking at because I -- in talking to my
almost 90-year-old mother, you know, the reason she doesn't go to the
beach is because she can't walk across the sand, you know.
But it might just be something to look at because we have so
many elderly folks that maybe can't get to the beach anymore because
of a disability. So just a thought if anybody would --
MR. OCHS: Happy to do it.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Don't we have those beach --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Speak into the mic, please.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh. Don't we have those beach
things with the great big, fat wheels on them?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, we do.
October 10, 2017
Page 206
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I just -- we were at a wedding on
Marco Island on the beach, and the one gentleman just can't walk
there, and so they used that thing that the county has with the big, fat
wheels that took him out there.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: We have wheelchairs, those wonderful
wheel buggies.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, wheel buggies, yeah.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Grandma's not doing that. She's not
going in a wheelchair.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I've seen different access
points for the handicap where they have some type of trail, cement or
something, which is not a good thing to put on the beach --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, these roll up.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- but that sounds like a great
idea. No, that sounds like a great idea.
We are -- we rotate our chairmanship on an annual basis, and
there are a lot of communities that do that. I think probably most
communities that have a chair that's not elected, like one that's selected
from the commission, they tend to rotate those. They certainly do that
in Lee County.
And I'd like to bring back a resolution that sets out a system for
rotation so that there's no politics associated with it. There's no
intrigue, because in past commissions, from what I understand, there
was some circumstances where the selection of the chairman created a
lot of angst. I think Commissioner Taylor was on the Board during
some of those times.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Fiala, certainly.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Or Commissioner Fiala,
certainly. And I'd like to -- assuming that the Board would have an
interest in having a formal rotation so that there's never really any issue
about it. You know, there's just a rotation.
October 10, 2017
Page 207
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: But I do think it's a tall order to ask
someone who's newly elected to be chairman. I think that's a tall order.
So then -- I would agree to this, just we need to craft it accordingly,
newly elected I'm talking about.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, the problem with that is
that then you really don't have any kind of a rotation. I mean, for
example, the three of us, newly elected, and that would change
everything.
So let me come back with something. If you run for the County
Commission and you are elected, theoretically, you've studied the
issues in front of the county and you've got other county
commissioners that certainly are up to speed on things. So I think the
running of the meeting itself would not be a difficult task for a newly
elected person, assuming that, you know, that person has gone through
the election process.
So that's just a thought to --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: May I ask a question? Do we --
with this rotation -- because the way I understand it now is if there's --
the chairman serves at the pleasure of the Board and can be removed at
the pleasure of the Board, and I'm assuming that that --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That would always be the
case. This would be simply by a resolution, and you can -- at any point
in time if the Board felt that the chairman wasn't operating properly,
then you could certainly make that at any meeting.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Except if the Board is stacked, right?
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. We had a situation where we
had a new board, and it was well known that the new board had three
people and they were taking over the county government, and they
were going to run it their way. The first thing they did, they were one
meeting old, and they nominated somebody to be the chairman, and, of
October 10, 2017
Page 208
course, they seconded it and so forth.
And my comment was, well, that person's only been here one
meeting. They don't even know how we run things or what's
happening with the staff or anything. I don't think that that's the right
thing to do. And so I think maybe that's what you're referring to is
they should at least have maybe a year under their belt.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. There's a way we can
do that and still keep the rotation. You know, the rotation --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Right. I'm just saying --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, if you're rotating by
number and that numbered person that's up next is newly elected, you
just skip that number and go to the next. So there's a way to do it, and
-- but I just wanted to make sure that there was some agreement that
that would make sense.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, that's fine.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. We'll come back
with something over the next --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: To have some structure, that would be
fine, instead of having it a beauty contest or a popularity contest.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, geez. We'd be --
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Political contest.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And the tall guy on the end --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: None of us would ever make it,
right?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'm years without it. Guess what --
guess who didn't have the beauty contest.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It should be a facial hair contest is
what it should be.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Is that it?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, that was it.
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Boy, he drops it at the end, right?
October 10, 2017
Page 209
Well, any other comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much, Terri, for your
hard, hard work and, Mr. Miller, for your technical expertise.
And with that, the meeting is adjourned.
**** Commissioner Fiala moved, seconded by Commissioner
McDaniel and carried that the following items under the
Consent and Summary Agendas be approved and/or adopted ****
Item #16A1
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF HADLEY PLACE WEST,
(APPLICATION NUMBER 20160002629) APPROVAL OF THE
STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
AGREEMENT AND APPROVAL OF THE AMOUNT OF THE
PERFORMANCE SECURITY – W/STIPULATIONS
Item #16A2
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF MARQUESA ISLES OF
NAPLES, (APPLICATION NUMBER PL20160002811)
APPROVAL OF THE STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION
AND MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT AND APPROVAL OF THE
AMOUNT OF THE PERFORMANCE SECURITY –
W/STIPULATIONS
Item #16A3
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF AZURE AT HACIENDA
LAKES – PHASE 2, (APPLICATION NUMBER PL20170001741)
October 10, 2017
Page 210
APPROVAL OF THE STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION
AND MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT AND APPROVAL OF THE
AMOUNT OF THE PERFORMANCE SECURITY –
W/STIPULATIONS
Item #16A4
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND UNCONDITIONAL CONVEYANCE
OF POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR
ISLES OF COLLIER PRESERVE, PHASE 6, PL20160000742,
AND AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER, OR HIS
DESIGNEE, TO RELEASE THE FINAL OBLIGATION BOND IN
THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $4,000 TO THE PROJECT
ENGINEER OR DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED AGENT –
LOCATED OFF US41 AND RATTLESNAKE HAMMOCK ROAD
Item #16A5
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND UNCONDITIONAL CONVEYANCE
OF POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR
ISLES OF COLLIER PRESERVE PHASE 2E, PL20160000960,
AND AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR HIS
DESIGNEE, TO RELEASE THE FINAL OBLIGATION BOND IN
THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $4,000 TO THE PROJECT
ENGINEER OR DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED AGENT – A
FINAL INSPECTION ON AUGUST 10, 2017 DETERMINED THE
FACILITIES WERE SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE
Item #16A6
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES
October 10, 2017
Page 211
FOR MERIDIAN VILLAGE (A/K/A BEACH HOUSE),
PL20160000399, AND AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER,
OR HIS DESIGNEE, TO RELEASE THE UTILITIES
PERFORMANCE SECURITY (UPS) AND FINAL OBLIGATION
BOND IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $9,380.65 TO THE
PROJECT ENGINEER OR DEVELOPER’S DESIGNATED
AGENT – LOCATED ON AIRPORT PULLING ROAD BETWEEN
DAVIS BOULEVARD AND RADIO ROAD
Item #16A7
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND UNCONDITIONAL CONVEYANCE
OF THE SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES FOR COLLIER AREA
TRANSIT TRANSFER FACILITY, PL20150000969 – FOR CAT’S
MAIN FACILITY OFF DAVIS BOULEVARD AND RADIO
ROAD
Item #16A8
AUTHORIZING THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
CASH BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $25,000 TO FORTRESS
VENTURES, LLC WHICH WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTY
FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT NUMBER 60.149, PL20160002746
FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH THRIVE NAPLES – A
PROJECT LOCATED OFF PINE RIDGE AND LIVINGSTON
ROADS
Item #16A9
AUTHORIZING THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $245,829.60
October 10, 2017
Page 212
THAT WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION
PERMIT NUMBER 60.080-9, PL20160000520 FOR WORK
ASSOCIATED WITH ISLES OF COLLIER PRESERVE, PHASE 8
– ASSOCIATED WORK HAS BEEN INSPECTED AND THE
DEVELOPER HAS FULFILLED HIS COMMITMENTS
Item #16A10
RELEASE OF A CODE ENFORCEMENT LIEN WITH AN
ACCRUED VALUE OF $21,600 FOR A PAYMENT OF $1,000
IN THE CODE ENFORCEMENT ACTION ENTITLED BOARD
OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS V. ORI & BHNV LLC, CODE
ENFORCEMENT BOARD CASE NO. CEPM20150018950
RELATING TO PROPERTY LOCATED AT 4201 ROSE
AVENUE, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA – THE PROPERTY
WAS BROUGHT INTO COMPLIANCE ON AUGUST 17, 2016
AND IS UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP
Item #16A11
AUTHORIZING THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE UTILITY
FACILITIES QUIT-CLAIM DEED AND BILL OF SALE
BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND VANDERBILT
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC., IN ORDER TO
RECONVEY TO VANDERBILT COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION,
INC, ALL FIRE LINES UTILITY FACILITIES ASSOCIATED
WITH THE DEVELOPMENT AT VANDERBILT FITNESS
CENTER, PL 20140000162, THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY AND
ERRONEOUSLY CONVEYED TO THE COUNTY – AS
DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
October 10, 2017
Page 213
Item #16A12 – Moved to Item #11J (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
Item #16A13
REVIEW AND APPROVE THE FISCAL YEAR 2018 CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT PLAN OF THE BIG CYPRESS BASIN, A PART
OF THE SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
(SFWMD) – AS DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16A14
RESOLUTION 2017-183: APPROVING THE COLLIER
COUNTY/ROOKERY BAY NATIONAL ESTUARINE
RESEARCH RESERVE COMPREHENSIVE MULTI-YEAR
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND AUTHORIZE STAFF TO
TRANSMIT THE PLAN TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE
TREASURY FOR REVIEW AND APPROVAL IN ORDER TO
DRAW DOWN APPROXIMATELY $1.5 MILLION IN FUNDING
ALLOCATED TO COLLIER COUNTY FROM THE
DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL
Item #16A15
RESOLUTION 2017-184: AMENDING RESOLUTION 2014-186,
RELATED TO THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA WITH A
DESIGNATION AS “CLH SSA 14”; APPROVING THE
EXTENSION OF CERTAIN DATES TO NOVEMBER 18, 2020 IN
THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA CREDIT AGREEMENT
FOR CLH SSA 14 AND THE ESCROW AGREEMENT FOR CLH
SSA 14
October 10, 2017
Page 214
Item #16A16
RESOLUTION 2017-185: AMENDING RESOLUTION 2014-187,
RELATED TO THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA WITH A
DESIGNATION AS “CLH AND CDC SSA 15”; APPROVING THE
EXTENSION OF CERTAIN DATES TO NOVEMBER 18, 2020 IN
THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA CREDIT AGREEMENT
FOR CLH AND CDC SSA 15 AND THE ESCROW AGREEMENT
FOR CLH AND CDC SSA 15
Item #16A17
RESOLUTION 2017-186: AMENDING RESOLUTION 2014-188,
RELATED TO THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA WITH A
DESIGNATION AS “CLH AND CDC SSA 16”; APPROVING THE
EXTENSION OF CERTAIN DATES TO NOVEMBER 18, 2020 IN
THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA CREDIT AGREEMENT
FOR CLH AND CDC SSA 16 AND THE ESCROW AGREEMENT
FOR CLH AND CDC SSA 16
Item #16A18
INVITATION TO BID #17-7054, BEACH MAINTENANCE
ACTIVITIES, AWARDED TO EASTMAN AGGREGATE
ENTERPRISES, LLC FOR AN AS-NEEDED CONTRACT FOR
EMERGENCY BEACH MAINTENANCE SERVICES,
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
CONTRACT, AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS ACTIVITY
PROMOTES TOURISM – A 3-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH TWO
ADDITIONAL 1-YEAR RENEWALS
October 10, 2017
Page 215
Item #16A19
RESOLUTION 2017-187: AUTHORIZING A LOCAL AREA
PROGRAM (LAP) AGREEMENT (FPN 436971-1-58-01) WITH
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) IN
WHICH COLLIER COUNTY WILL RECEIVE
REIMBURSEMENT UP TO THE AMOUNT OF $340,000 TO
AUTOMATE AND EXPAND TRAFFIC COUNT STATIONS AND
ASSOCIATED COMPONENTS, THROUGHOUT COLLIER
COUNTY; AND EXECUTE A RESOLUTION AND AUTHORIZE
A NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT (PROJECT NO. 33537)
Item #16A20
AWARDING CONTRACT #16-7016 TO KISINGER CAMPO &
ASSOCIATES, CORPORATION FOR PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR INDEPENDENT PEER REVIEW
OF BRIDGE REPLACEMENT OR REHAB PROJECTS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $202,442, PURSUANT TO RFP #16-7016, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE ATTACHED
CONTRACT (PROJECT NO. 66066) – FOR PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERING SERVICES TO REVIEW THE DESIGNS OF
FOURTEEN (14) BRIDGES CONTAINED IN FOUR COUNTY
BRIDGE REPLACEMENT OR REHABILITATION PROJECTS
Item #16A21
EXTENDING CONTRACT #13-6140 “PURCHASE OF LIME
ROCK AND FILL” FOR AN ADDITIONAL ONE HUNDRED
EIGHTY (180) DAYS OR UNTIL A NEW CONTRACT IS
AWARDED, WHICHEVER OCCURS FIRST
October 10, 2017
Page 216
Item #16A22
STAFF INITIATED RECOVERY PRACTICES FOR PROPERTY
DAMAGE CAUSED BY HURRICANE IRMA WHICH PROMOTE
STREAMLINED AND SAFE BUILD-BACK EFFORTS. IN
ADDITION, TO APPROVE SEVERAL TEMPORARY
MEASURES TO EASE RECOVERY EFFORTS FOR A PERIOD
OF 180 DAYS OR AS EXTENDED BY THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (BOARD) – AS DETAILED IN
THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16B1
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (BCC), ACTING
IN ITS CAPACITY AS THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY (CRA), APPROVE THE ATTENDANCE OF TWO
IMMOKALEE LOCAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS AT THE
FLORIDA REDEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 2017 ANNUAL
CONFERENCE; AUTHORIZE PAYMENT OF ATTENDEES’
REGISTRATION, LODGING, TRAVEL AND PER DIEM FROM
THE IMMOKALEE CRA TRUST FUND (FUND 186) TRAVEL
BUDGET; AND DECLARE THE TRAINING RECEIVED AS
SERVING A VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE – WILL BE HELD
OCTOBER 18 - 20, 2017 IN DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA
WITH COSTS OF APPROXIMATELY $790
Item #16C1
A WORK ORDER UNDER CONTRACT #14-6213-104 IN THE
AMOUNT OF $336,562.45 TO QUALITY ENTERPRISES USA,
INC., UNDER PROJECT NO. 70198, “MPS 302 DIESEL BYPASS
October 10, 2017
Page 217
PIPING;” AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENT
Item #16D1
A COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
(TDC) CATEGORY “A” GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY
OF NAPLES FOR $200,000 FOR THE CITY OF NAPLES’ 8TH
AVENUE SOUTH BEACH PARK IMPROVEMENTS AND
MAKE A FINDING THAT THE PROJECT PROMOTES
TOURISM – WORK INCLUDES REPLACING A RETAINING
WALL AT THE PARK’S ENTRANCE, RECONSTRUCTING A
PORTION OF AN EXISTING WHEELCHAIR RAMP TO MEET
ADA SPECIFICATIONS, AND CONSTRUCTING AN ADA-
COMPLIANT WHEELCHAIR RAMP ON THE WEST SIDE OF
THE PARK
Item #16D2
EIGHT (8) MORTGAGE SATISFACTIONS FOR THE STATE
HOUSING INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP (SHIP) LOAN
PROGRAM IN THE COMBINED AMOUNT OF $96,050 – AS
DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16D3 – Withdrawn (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE A COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT (CDBG) RELEASE OF A
20-YEAR LIEN FOR THE ASSOCIATED BOYS & GIRLS CLUB
OF COLLIER COUNTY LAND ACQUISITION PROJECT
CONSISTENT WITH CDBG REQUIREMENTS
October 10, 2017
Page 218
Item #16D4
COMBINING THE RELEASE OF THREE (3) SEPARATE LIENS
WITH ONE DEVELOPER IN THE AMOUNT OF $23,096.46 FOR
PROPERTIES DEVELOPED BY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF
COLLIER COUNTY, INC. THAT HAVE REMAINED
AFFORDABLE FOR THE REQUIRED 15-YEAR PERIOD SET
FORTH IN THE STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP
(SHIP) IMPACT FEE PROGRAM DEFERRAL AGREEMENTS –
RELEASING LIENS ON NAPLES MANOR LOTS 7, 8 & 11
PROPERTIES; UNIT ONE, BLOCK 14
Item #16D5
COMBINING THE RELEASE OF 29 SEPARATE LIENS WITH
ONE DEVELOPER FOR A COMBINED AMOUNT OF
$197,636.92 FOR PROPERTIES DEVELOPED BY IMMOKALEE
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, INC AND ALSO KNOWN AS
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF COLLIER COUNTY, INC.
THAT HAVE REMAINED AFFORDABLE FOR THE REQUIRED
15-YEAR PERIOD SET FORTH IN THE STATE HOUSING
INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP (SHIP) IMPACT FEE PROGRAM
DEFERRAL AGREEMENTS – AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16D6
THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A VENDOR CERTIFICATION
REGARDING A SCRUTINIZED COMPANIES LIST TO
COMPLY WITH A REQUIREMENT OF THE GRANT AWARD
FROM THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND
October 10, 2017
Page 219
FAMILIES (DCF) FOR THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE MENTAL
HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE (CJMHSA)
REINVESTMENT GRANT – THIS CERTIFICATION AFFIRMS
THE COUNTY HAS NOT ENTERED INTO A CONTRACT FOR
GOODS OR SERVICES IN EXCESS OF $1 MILLION THAT ARE
EITHER ON THE SCRUTINIZED COMPANIES LIST WITH
ACTIVITIES IN SUDAN OR THE SCRUTINIZED COMPANIES
WITH ACTIVITIES IN THE IRAN PETROLEUM ENERGY
SECTOR LIST
Item #16D7
ACCEPTING THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK
GRANT (CDBG) SUBRECIPIENT AGREEMENT EXTENSION
REPORT FOR THE THIRD QUARTER 2017 – TO COMPLY
WITH REQUIREMENTS IN FY16/17 CDBG AGREEMENTS
Item #16D8
ACCEPT AND RATIFY FEE WAIVERS GRANTED BY THE
DIRECTOR OF DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES FOR THE
PERIOD OF APRIL 1, 2017 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2017 IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROCESS ESTABLISHED BY
RESOLUTION NO. 2016-125 IN THE AMOUNT OF $520
Item #16D9
A DONATION OF $17,114 AS OFF-SITE PRESERVATION FOR
808 WIGGINS PASS ROAD SDP (PL2016001111) TO SATISFY
THE NATIVE VEGETATION RETENTION REQUIREMENT
October 10, 2017
Page 220
Item #16D10
AFTER THE FACT SUBMITTAL OF A 2017 FTA 5339 BUS AND
BUS FACILITIES GRANT APPLICATION IN THE AMOUNT OF
$368,000 FOR THE PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF
ELECTRIC FAN COOLING SYSTEMS ON SIXTEEN FIXED-
ROUTE VEHICLES – THE COUNTY HAS REQUESTED THE
USE OF TOLL REVENUE CREDITS IN THE AMOUNT OF
$92,000 FOR THE 20% GRANT MATCH REQUIREMENT
Item #16D11
A COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
(TDC) CATEGORY “A” GRANT APPLICATION FOR BEACH
PARK FACILITIES IN THE AMOUNT OF $67,000 TO INSTALL
THE T-2 FLEX AUTOCOUNT SYSTEM AT DELNOR-WIGGINS
PASS STATE PARK AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
EXECUTE THE GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, AND
MAKE A FINDING THAT THE PROJECT EXPENDITURE
PROMOTES TOURISM
Item #16D12
CONTINUED FROM SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 BCC MEETING.
EXECUTION OF A SOLAR LEASE AGREEMENT WITH THE
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY (FPL) FOR NORTH
COLLIER REGIONAL PARK (NCRP)
Item #16D13
October 10, 2017
Page 221
PROPOSED ROUTE MODIFICATIONS TO ROUTES 22 AND 23
SERVING IMMOKALEE WITHIN THE COLLIER AREA
TRANSIT (CAT) SYSTEM – AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16D14
AMENDMENT NO. 8 TO THE SUBRECIPIENT AGREEMENT
WITH BIG CYPRESS HOUSING CORPORATION AND
COLLIER COUNTY TO DECREASE FUNDING IN THE
AMOUNT OF $60,000 TO ELIMINATE FENCING FOR A
PROJECT KNOWN AS HATCHER’S PRESERVE – TO ENSURE
THE PROJECT AGREEMENT END DATE IS ACHIEVED
Item #16E1
RESOLUTION 2017-188: A FLORIDA EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICES COUNTY GRANT APPLICATION, REQUEST FOR
GRANT FUND DISTRIBUTION FORM IN THE AMOUNT OF
$68,984 FOR TRAINING AND MEDICAL/RESCUE EQUIPMENT
AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT
Item #16E2
AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO AGREEMENT #14-6293 WITH
MILLENNIUM PHYSICIAN GROUP, LLC TO ADD LIMITED
PHARMACY SERVICES THROUGH THE MEDCENTER – WILL
INCLUDE COMMONLY PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS SUCH
AS ANTIBIOTICS AND FLU VACCINES – NARCOTICS WILL
NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE PROGRAM
October 10, 2017
Page 222
Item #16E3
A REVISED AGREEMENT WITH HODGES UNIVERSITY TO
ALLOW HODGES EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN
(EMT) AND PARAMEDIC STUDENTS TO OBTAIN STATE-
REQUIRED FIELD INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE AND
TRAINING UNDER THE APPROPRIATE SUPERVISION OF
THE COLLIER COUNTY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
DIVISION; THIS WAS PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BY THE
BOARD ON APRIL 25, 2017 AND HODGES SUBSEQUENTLY
REQUESTED ADDITIONAL EDITS TO THE AGREEMENT
Item #16E4
AN “AFTER-THE-FACT” REQUEST FOR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
TO THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
(FEMA) FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES INCURRED
DURING HURRICANE IRMA – ONCE APPROVED, THE
COUNTY WILL SEEK REIMBURSEMENT FOR ALL ELIGIBLE
EXPENSES INCLUDING LABOR, EQUIPMENT, AND
MATERIALS IN SUPPORT OF THE EMERGENCY
Item #16E5
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS PREPARED BY PROCUREMENT
SERVICES DIVISION FOR CHANGE ORDERS AND OTHER
CONTRACTUAL MODIFICATIONS REQUIRING BOARD
APPROVAL – AS DETAILED IN THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16E6
October 10, 2017
Page 223
ROUTINE AND CUSTOMARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
APPROPRIATING CARRY FORWARD IN THE AMOUNT OF
$6,062,082.56 FOR APPROVED OPEN PURCHASE ORDERS
INTO FISCAL YEAR 2018 – AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16F1
CONTINUED FROM THE SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 BCC MEETING
BOARD RATIFICATION OF SUMMARY, CONSENT AND
REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS APPROVED BY THE COUNTY
MANAGER DURING THE BOARD'S SCHEDULED RECESS. (IN
ABSENTIA MEETING(S) DATED JULY 25, 2017; AUGUST 8,
2017 AND AUGUST 22, 2017 – AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
JULY 25, 2017
A. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE A CREDIT
ADJUSTMENT TO TIARA REAL ESTATE, CO., LLC
WITH RESPECT TO UTILITIES ACCOUNT
#03902380000 FOR SEWER SERVICES AT 13325
TAMIAMI TRAIL N., DUE TO ONSITE
REDEVELOPMENT IN APRIL 2012 BY TIARA REAL
ESTATE, CO., LLC.
B. RECOMMENDATION TO ACCEPT THE AFTER-THE-
FACT GRANT OFFER TO THE FLORIDA FISH AND
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION (FWC)
FOR FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $4,529 FOR THE
PURCHASE AND DELIVERY OF THREE (3)
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BEARSAVER TRASH RECEPTACLES FOR THREE (3)
COLLIER COUNTY PARK/PRESERVE SITES.
C. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT PREPARED BY THE
PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION FOR
DISPOSAL OF PROPERTY AND NOTIFICATION OF
ITEMS AVAILABLE FOR SURPLUS.
D. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS PREPARED BY THE
PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION FOR CHANGE
ORDERS AND OTHER ITEMS AS IDENTIFIED.
E. REQUEST THAT THE BOARD APPROVE AND
DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR
INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING CARD
TRANSACTIONS AS OF JULY 19, 2017.
F. TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER
(OR OTHER PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT,
PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE
REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS WERE DRAWN
FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN JUNE 29 AND JULY
12, 2017, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06.
AUGUST 8, 2017
A. TO PROVIDE THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS THE CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT
October 10, 2017
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COURT’S INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT 2017-8 FEE
PAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: ARTHREX,
INC., ARTHREX MANUFACTURING, INC., AND RES
COLLIER HOLDINGS, LLC, ISSUED JULY 26, 2017.
B. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS PREPARED BY THE
PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION FOR CHANGE
ORDERS AND OTHER ITEMS AS IDENTIFIED.
C. RECOMMENDATION TO TERMINATE FOR
CONVENIENCE THE AWARD FORITB #16-70019 FOR
“PRINTING OF TOURISM GUIDES” AWARDED TO
GRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS, INC., OF TITUSVILLE
FL D/B/A GRAPHIC PRESS.
D. TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONER, THE CHECK NUMBER
(OR OTHER PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT,
PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE
REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS WERE DRAWN
FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN JULY 13 AND JULY
26, 2017, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06.
E. REQUEST THAT THE BOARD APPROVE AND
DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR
INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING CARD
TRANSACTIONS AS OF AUGUST 2, 2017.
F. REPORT TO THE BOARD REGARDING THE
INVESTMENT OF COUNTY FUNDS AS OF THE
October 10, 2017
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QUARTER ENDED JUNE 30, 2017.
AUGUST 22, 2017
A. RECOMMENDATION TO AWARD ITB NO. 17-7180
COLLIER COUNTY LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION
MASTER PLAN – SANTA BARBARA BOULEVARD
(DAVIS BOULEVARD TO I-75 BRIDGE) LANDSCAPE
AND IRRIGATION INSTALLATION CONSTRUCTION
PROJECT TO HANNULA LANDSCAPING AND
IRRIGATION, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $449,937.60
(PROJECT NO. 60207) AND AUTHORIZE THE
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT.
B. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE SUBMITTAL OF
A GRANT APPLICATION TO THE FIREHOUSE SUBS
PUBLIC SAFETY FOUNDATION FOR THE
PURCHASE OF DECONTAMINATION EQUIPMENT
IN THE AMOUNT OF $15,438.
C. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT PREPARED BY THE
PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION FOR
DISPOSAL OF PROPERTY AND NOTIFICATION OF
ITEMS AVAILABLE FOR SURPLUS.
D. RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE THE
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS PREPARED BY THE
PROCUREMENT SERVICES DIVISION FOR CHANGE
ORDERS AND OTHER ITEMS AS IDENTIFIED.
October 10, 2017
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E. TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER
(OR OTHER PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT,
PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE
REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS WERE DRAWN
FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN JULY 27 AND
AUGUST 9, 2047, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE
136.06.
F. REQUEST THAT THE BOARD APPROVE AND
DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR
INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING CARD
TRANSACTIONS AS OF AUGUST 16, 2017.
Item #16F2
WAIVING FORMAL COMPETITION AND AUTHORIZING THE
CONTINUAL USE OF GOVMAX BUDGET SOFTWARE AS A
SINGLE SOURCE AND APPROVE A 5-YEAR CONTRACT
WITH A 1-YEAR RENEWAL OPTION WITH SARASOTA
COUNTY FOR GOVERNMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
(GOVMAX) HOSTED APPLICATION SERVICE AND LICENSE
AGREEMENT FOR MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT AND
ENHANCEMENTS TO THE GOVMAX BUDGET SOFTWARE –
A STATE OF THE ART BUDGET SOFTWARE PACKAGE
DESIGNED AND HOSTED BY SARASOTA COUNTY
Item #16F3
HIRING 3 FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES IN PLACE OF FULL TIME
TEMPORARY LABORERS CURRENTLY USED BY PELICAN
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BAY SERVICES DIVISION TO SUPPLEMENT THE LABOR
NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN THE COMMUNITY AND TO
AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT TO
TRANSFER FUNDS FROM THE TEMPORARY LABOR COST
CENTER TO PERSONNEL SERVICES – TO TRANSITION TO A
MORE STABLE AND PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE IN LIEU OF
TEMPORARY LABORERS WITH A HIGH TURNOVER RATE
Item #16F4
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX PROMOTION AND
MARKETING FUNDINGTO SUPPORT FOUR UPCOMING
NOVEMBER 2017 SPORTS TOURISM EVENTS UP TO $27,700
AND MAKE A FINDING THESE EXPENDITURES PROMOTE
TOURISM – FOR THE WINTER NATIONALS SENIOR
SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT NOVEMBER 7-12, 2017; THE
PARADISE SHOOTOUT LACROSSE TOURNAMENT
NOVEMBER 11-12, 2017; THE RED BULL PRIVATEERS
PADDLE BOARD COMPETITION NOVEMBER 17-18, 2017
AND THE PARADISE COAST FASTPITCH SOFTBALL
INVITATIONAL NOVEMBER 17-19, 2017
Item #16F5
USING EVENT & ATHLETIC APPLICATION FOR SPORTS
TOURISM IN AN EFFORT TO ASSIST IN THE SPORTS
TOURISM PROMOTION FOR COLLIER COUNTY STAFF AND
EVENT ORGANIZERS ALIKE AND AUTHORIZE THE
COUNTY MANAGER OR HIS DESIGNEE TO EXECUTE THE
APPLICATION – WILL AID IN THE PROCESS OF
COLLECTING DATA, FORECASTING PERFORMANCE, AND
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IMPROVE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY
STAFF AND EVENT ORGANIZERS
Item #16F6
THE 2017 FOOTBALL UNIVERSITY (FBU) EVENT
OPERATING AND PROMOTIONAL EXPENSES SUPPORT
BUDGET OF $372,000 AND $140,000 FOR MEDIA EXPENSES
USING TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX PROMOTION FUNDS,
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO EXECUTE THE
FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT WITH ALL
AMERICAN GAMES, AND MAKE A FINDING THIS EVENT
PROMOTES TOURISM – A NATIONAL EVENT SHOWCASING
THE BEST SIXTH, SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE
FOOTBALL TEAMS AND STARS FROM AROUND THE
NATION THAT WILL TAKE PLACE DECEMBER 17-21, 2017
Item #16F7
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT
OF $34,500 FOR CONTRACT #17-7229-WV – SPORTS
FACILITIES ASSESSMENT WITH HUNDEN STRATEGIC
PARTNERS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW
AMATEUR SPORTS COMPLEX AND MAKE A FINDING THAT
THESE EXPENDITURES PROMOTE TOURISM – HUNDEN
WILL PERFORM TASKS WITHIN AN AGREED UPON SCOPE
AND WILL PRESENT ITS FINDINGS MONTHLY TO COUNTY
STAFF, WHO WILL IN TURN REPORT THOSE FINDINGS TO
THE COUNTY COMMISSION QUARTERLY
Item #16F8
October 10, 2017
Page 230
THE FORM OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BOARD AND
APPLICANTS PARTICIPATING IN THE IMMOKALEE IMPACT
FEE INSTALLMENT PAYMENT PILOT PROGRAM
(PROGRAM) ADOPTED BY THE BOARD ON JULY 11, 2017,
ALLOWING FOR PAYMENT OF IMPACT FEES BY AN
INSTALLMENT PROGRAM, AND TO ESTABLISH AN
INTEREST RATE, TERM LENGTH AND ADMINISTRATIVE
FEES FOR THE PROGRAM – AS DETAILED IN THE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Item #16F9
THE USE OF $250,000 IN TOURISM DIVISION EMERGENCY
ADVERTISING RESERVES FOR A POST HURRICANE IRMA
ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS RECOVERY PLAN,
AUTHORIZE ANY RELATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS, AND
MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS PLAN PROMOTES TOURISM
Item #16F10
AN AGREEMENT WITH FRIENDS OF THE FAKAHATCHEE
FOR A WAYFINDING PROJECT THAT INCLUDES TRAIL
SIGNAGE, PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS, ADVERTISING, PR,
DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION OF THE TRAILS
NETWORK AT THE FAKAHATCHEE STRAND IN THE
AMOUNT OF $46,720 AND MAKE A FINDING THIS
EXPENDITURE PROMOTES TOURISM – THE PROJECT
SUPPORTS ONGOING EFFORTS TO PROMOTE ECOTOURISM
ACTIVITIES FOR VISITORS TO THE COUNTY
Item #16F11
October 10, 2017
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CONTINUED FROM SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 BCC MEETING.
AN UPDATED REQUEST FOR CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC
CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY (COPCN), FOR JUST LIKE
FAMILY CONCIERGE MEDICAL TRANSPORT SERVICES,
LLC., D/B/A CONCIERGE MEDICAL TRANSPORT (CMT), TO
PROVIDE CLASS 2 ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT (ALS) INTER-
FACILITY TRANSPORT AMBULANCE SERVICE FOR A
PERIOD OF ONE YEAR – THIS ITEM WAS DEFERRED TO A
LATER BOARD MEETING DUE TO THE DEATH OF OWNER
ELISABETH NASSBERG; ONE HUNDRED PERCENT (100%)
OF THE OWNERSHIP OF CMT WAS TRANSFERRED TO
JACOB NASSBERG ON JULY 14, 2017
Item #16F12
RESOLUTION 2017-189: APPROVING AMENDMENTS
(APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS
OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2017-18
ADOPTED BUDGET
Item #16F13
ADDITIONAL FY 2018 BUDGET AMENDMENTS COVERING
POST HURRICANE IRMA CLEAN UP AND RECOVERY FOR
THE COUNTY- WIDE DEBRIS REMOVAL MISSION, FUNDING
FOR EVERGLADES CITY PURSUANT TO THE RECENTLY
APPROVED INTER-LOCAL AGREEMENT AND CERTAIN
CASH FLOW REQUIREMENTS IN EMERGENCY DISASTER
FUND (003) – THREE ADDITIONAL BUDGET AMENDMENTS:
$30,000,000 TO CONTINUE FUNDING THE DEBRIS REMOVAL
MISSION; $250,000 ESTABLISHING BUDGET FOR
October 10, 2017
Page 232
EVERGLADES CITY ASSISTANCE PURSUANT TO THE
INTER-LOCAL AGREEMENT; $50,000 TRANSFER FROM THE
GENERAL FUND TO EMERGENCY DISASTER FUND (003)
FOR CASH FLOW PURPOSES
Item #16F14
A FY2018 BUDGET AMENDMENT IN EMERGENCY
DISASTER FUND (003) IN THE AMOUNT OF $400,000
INTENDED TO PROVIDE BUDGET TO PAY FOR GOODS AND
SERVICES INCURRED PRIOR TO AND IN THE AFTERMATH
OF HURRICANE IRMA. FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $500,000
WERE PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED BY THE BOARD ON
SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 BUT THESE FY17 FUNDS WERE NOT
ENCUMBERED BY FISCAL YEAR END AND THUS THIS
BUDGET DID NOT ROLL FORWARD BECAUSE FUND (003) IS
NOT A CAPITAL FUND
Item #16F15 – Continued to the October 24, 2017 BCC Meeting
(Per Agenda Change Sheet)
RECOMMENDATION TO RENEW AND APPROVE THE
ANNUAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE, INC. AND
COLLIER COUNTY IN CONTINUED SUPPORT OF THE
ESTABLISHED PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP DESIGNED
TO ADVANCE THE COUNTY’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
EFFORTS
Item #16F16– Continued to the October 24, 2017 BCC Meeting
(Per Agenda Change Sheet)
October 10, 2017
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RECOMMENDATION TO RENEW AND APPROVE THE
ANNUAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTNERSHIP FOR
COLLIER’S FUTURE ECONOMY, INC. (“PARTNERSHIP”) AND
COLLIER COUNTY IN CONTINUED SUPPORT OF THE
ESTABLISHED PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP DESIGNED
TO ADVANCE THE COUNTY’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
EFFORTS
Item #16F17 – Continued to the October 24, 2017 BCC Meeting
(Per Agenda Change Sheet)
RECOMMENDATION TO RENEW AND APPROVE THE
ANNUAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN ECONOMIC
INCUBATORS, INC. AND THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS IN CONTINUED SUPPORT OF THE
ESTABLISHED PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP DESIGNED
TO ADVANCE THE COUNTY’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
EFFORTS
Item #16H1
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING OCTOBER 10, 2017 AS TZU
CHI FOUNDATION DAY IN COLLIER COUNTY. THIS
PROCLAMATION WILL BE HAND DELIVERED BY
CHAIRMAN TAYLOR
Item #16H2 – Moved to Item #10A (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
Item #16H3
PROVIDING A LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR A GRANT
October 10, 2017
Page 234
APPLICATION FROM THE SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL TO THE U.S. EDA TO
FUND A DISASTER RECOVERY COORDINATOR POSITION –
SWFRPC HOPES TO FUND THE POSITION THROUGH A
$250,000 GRANT; THE COORDINATOR WILL ASSIST IN
ONGOING EFFORTS TO FULLY RECOVER FROM
HURRICANE IRMA, PARTICULARLY TO IMPROVE
REGIONAL COMMUNICATION, AND IDENTIFY STATE AND
FEDERAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE RESOURCES
Item #16J1
EXTENDING THE 2017 TAX ROLL AT THE REQUEST OF TAX
COLLECTOR LARRY RAY – DUE TO THE VOLUME OF
VALUE ADJUSTMENT BOARD PETITIONS
Item #16J2
AN INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT FOR ELECTION SERVICES
FOR THE FEBRUARY 6, 2018, CITY OF NAPLES MUNICIPAL
ELECTION – AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BCC, AS
OWNER OF THE VOTING AND BALLOT TABULATION
EQUIPMENT, SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS, AS CUSTODIAN
OF VOTING AND BALLOT TABULATION EQUIPMENT, AND
THE CITY OF NAPLES, AS THE PARTY HOLDING AND
PAYING FOR THE ELECTION SERVICES
Item #16J3
TAX COLLECTOR REQUEST FOR ADVANCE COMMISSIONS
IN ACCORDANCE WITH FLORIDA STATUTE 192.102(1) FOR
October 10, 2017
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FY 2018 – REQUESTING 1/12TH OF THE TAX COLLECTOR’S
COMMISSION IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,230,375.83
Item #16J4
TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER (OR OTHER
PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT, PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR
WHICH REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS WERE DRAWN FOR
THE PERIOD BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 14 AND SEPTEMBER
27, 2017 PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06
Item #16J5
REQUEST THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID
PUBLIC PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE & PURCHASING
CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF OCTOBER 4, 2017
Item #16K1
RESOLUTION 2017-190: APPOINTING JOHN D. JENKINS AND
KERRU DERA TO THE PUBLIC TRANSIT ADVISORY
COMMITTEE AND TO TERMS EXPIRING MARCH 22, 2020
Item #16K2
A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND MUTUAL RELEASE IN
THE LAWSUIT STYLED SHARON AND LEE RUBENSTEIN V.
HANNULA LANDSCAPING AND IRRIGATION, INC. AND
COLLIER COUNTY (CASE NO. 16-CA-2045), NOW PENDING IN
THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE TWENTIETH JUDICIAL
October 10, 2017
Page 236
CIRCUIT IN AND FOR COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, FOR
$75,000, WITH PAYMENT TO BE MADE BY HANNULA’S
INSURANCE CARRIER AND NO CONTRIBUTION BY
COLLIER COUNTY
Item #16K3
A JOINT MOTION FOR STIPULATED ORDER OF TAKING
AND FINAL JUDGMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $9,000 FOR
PARCEL 427RDUE, IN THE LAWSUIT CAPTIONED COLLIER
COUNTY V. LEONDESE BICHOTTE, ET AL, CASE NO. 17-CA-
1443, REQUIRED FOR THE GOLDEN GATE BOULEVARD
EXPANSION PROJECT NO. 60145. (FISCAL IMPACT: $9,170)
Item #17A
RESOLUTION 2017-191: PETITION VAC-PL20170001877 TO
DISCLAIM, RENOUNCE AND VACATE THE CONSERVATION
EASEMENT DESCRIBED IN O.R. BOOK 5079, PAGE 1855 OF
THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA.
THE SUBJECT PROPERTY IS LOCATED ON THE NORTH SIDE
OF ELSA STREET, APPROXIMATELY ONE-QUARTER MILE
EAST OF SHIRLEY STREET, IN SECTION 11, TOWNSHIP 49
SOUTH, RANGE 25 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
Item #17B
RESOLUTION 2017-192: APPROVING AMENDMENTS
(APPROPRIATING CARRY FORWARD, TRANSFERS AND
SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2016-17
ADOPTED BUDGET
October 10, 2017
Page 237
Item #17C
RESOLUTION 2017-193: APPROVING AMENDMENTS
(APPROPRIATING CARRY FORWARD, TRANSFERS AND
SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE) TO THE FISCAL YEAR 2017-18
ADOPTED BUDGET
*****
October 10, 2017
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:38 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECI STRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
riglO
/i/1
PENNY T 7OR, (IAIRMAN
ATTEST
DWIGHT.E. BROCK, CLERK
C a, :.:, )
Asst as•to + .�.
signahire Only.;
These minutes approved by the Board on N uxl P t r v k tLcas
presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF U.S. LEGAL
SUPPORT, INC., BY TERRI LEWIS, COURT REPORTER AND
NOTARY PUBLIC.
Page 238