BCC Minutes 06/16/2022 BPage 1
June 16, 2022
Notice of Public Meeting
Notice is hereby given that the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County will
conduct Budget Workshops on Thursday, June 16, 2022, and Friday, June 17, 2022, if
necessary, at 9:00 a.m. Workshops will be held in the Boardroom, 3rd Floor, W. Harmon
Turner Building, Collier County Government Center, 3299 Tamiami Trail, Naples,
Florida to hear the following:
Commissioner Taylor joining telephonically
COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
FY 2023 BUDGET WORKSHOP
June 16, 2022
Thursday, June 16, 2022
9:00 a.m.: Immediately following the Special Meeting for the Hiring of the
County Manager:
General Overview:
Given By OMB Director Ed Finn:
Budget Guidance
General Government Operations
Millage Neutral Operating Tax Rate
Expanded Service Requests
Capital Investment/Reserves/Debt
CRA Funding
Landscape Maintenance Program
Countywide Taxable Value
Stormwater Funding
Capital Funding/Investment
FY23 Position Count Changes/Compensation Adjustment
Net Budget – General Fund
General Fund Reserves – Debt Management Policy
MSTD General Fund
Budget Challenges
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June 16, 2022
Courts and Related Agencies (State Attorney and Public Defender):
Given By Chuck Rice, Court Administrator for the 20th Judicial: $7.2M Budget;
$4.6M Capital Budget; Recruitment/Retention; Recognizing Circuit Judge Brody;
Recognizing Clerk of Courts’ Crystal Kinzel; Problem Solving Courts;
Recognizing Judge Martin; Public Defender’s Office Budget Requests; State
Attorney’ Office Budget Requests
Growth Management Operations:
Given by Jamie French, GMD Operations Department Head: Ken Kovensky,
Division Director & Rady Edreva, Finance and Operations Manager
Budget and Division Update
Enterprise Based Funds Well Established – 90% Self-Funded
New Construction, Permitting & Inspections Up
Online Services
Floodplain Management
Staffing Efforts/Needs
Public Services:
Given by Tanya Williams, Public Services Department Head, Kim Grant, Division
Director:
Budget and Division Update
Host 2.8 million visitors
Big Corkscrew Island Park
Domestic Animal Services
Management Offices (Pelican Bay):
Given by Dan Rodriguez, Deputy County Manager:
Operating Funds and Division Update
2241 Current Employee’s
31% Over Last Year in Tourist Increase
New Fire Station/EMS Stations
IT and Cyber Security
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June 16, 2022
Neil Dorrill (PBSD) – MSTBU Update
Transportation:
Given by Trinity Scott Transportation Services Management Department Head,
and Gene Shue, Division Director:
Budget and Division Update
Transportation and Stormwater Updates
Airport Operations Updates
Debt Service:
Given by Ed Finn, OMB Director:
Debt Service Update
1:00 p.m.: Constitutional Officers
Supervisor of Elections:
Given by Jennifer Edwards, Supervisor of Elections and Melissa Blazier, Deputy
Supervisor of Elections:
Budget and Elections Updates
Clerk of Courts:
Given by Crystal Kinzel, Clerk of Courts, Raymond Milum, Recording and
Accounting Manager, and Derek Johnssen, Finance Director:
Budget and Services Update
Sheriff:
Given by Kevin Rambosk, Sheriff:
Budget and Services Update
200,000 priority 1 calls
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June 16, 2022
School Safety Conference – Awarding Collier Sheriff’s (July)
Other Constitutional Officers requesting to address the BCC
Public Utilities:
Given by George Yilmaz, Department Head; Amia Curry, Director of Water Sewer
Finance and Ed Finn, Facilities Management Director:
Budget and Services Update
County Attorney:
Given by Jeff Klatzkow, County Attorney:
Budget Guidelines and Staffing
Board of County Commissioners:
Given by Ed Finn, OMB Director
Public Comments
Becky Kokkinos – Brookside Stormwater Project
Deija Hinojosa – Retaining County Employees, Permitting, and
Public Services
Ashly Jenkins – Retaining Employees and Infrastructure
Commissioner Comments
Commissioner LoCastro – Congratulations to Ms. Patterson and thanks to
staff
Adjourn
June 16, 2022
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, June 16, 2022
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 9:30 a.m., in BUDGET
SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples,
Florida, with the following members present:
Chairman: William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Rick LoCastro
Burt L. Saunders
Andy Solis
Penny Taylor (Telephonically)
ALSO PRESENT:
Amy Patterson, Acting County Manager
Ed Finn, OMB Director
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
June 16, 2022
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MS. PATTERSON: Mr. Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You have to hit the right button.
MS. PATTERSON: Yeah, that would help. Start off on the
right foot.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: There we go. As a duly hired
county manager, you have to hit the right button.
MS. PATTERSON: I've got to practice.
Chairman, Commissioners, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good morning, everybody. And
now we are about to proceed with our workshop for our budget.
This is not a time -- for the folks that are here, this is not a time
where this board necessarily makes any decisions with regard to our
budget. We receive information, ask our questions, and if there are
decisions that are made, those will be done duly at an advertised
public hearing where folks have an opportunity to weigh in,
ultimately, on the decision.
So just to move us along here, I do know that Commissioner
Taylor is -- I don't think we have to take another vote on this to allow
her to participate remotely, so -- and we do have the technology
available to -- she can raise her hand and let me know that she's
looking to speak. Troy can see it, so we will not be just waiting on
Commissioner Taylor to say something.
So with that, let's proceed on with the next part of our day.
GENERAL OVERVIEW
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, up on the screen we have
the agenda for today. We'll be starting with a general overview
presented by Ed Finn and myself, moving on to the courts, and then
through our various departments and divisions. Then we will start
up at 1:00 p.m. with the constitutional officers, and you can see the
June 16, 2022
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order there listed.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: So with that, I'm going to move over to the
podium, start with some opening comments, and then hand it on over
to Ed to get into the real technical parts of the budget.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, Commissioner Taylor has her hand
raised.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Taylor. Forgive
me, I didn't see your name pop up, so...
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. I just was unsure whether you did need a motion. And
just so you know and for the public to know, that I had Mohs surgery
on my face yesterday. So I'm sitting listening to with you an icepack
on my face; otherwise, I would be there.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah, how you doing? You and I
talked about that on Tuesday. Are you doing okay?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: I'm good. Great. Thank you
very, very much. We have a lot of talented people in Collier County
to do this kind of thing.
But as long as I can -- as long as -- because I will be asking
questions. I will be making comments. I will be representing my
district in this budget process, so I wanted to make sure that it's
legally okay for me to do that if we don't take a motion at the
workshop to allow me to do it. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You're welcome. You weren't in
the room, but I verified before we went on, just so you know, that we
are within the bounds of our purview to be able to do what we're
doing.
So let's go forth and persevere.
MS. PATTERSON: Absolutely.
Commissioners, I would just like to say, and I would be remiss
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not to, is it is an honor to be standing here at this podium, but this is
very much Mark Isackson's budget process of the last decade-plus,
and he participated all the way till, essentially, this budget was ready
to go. So a nod to our former OMB director and our former County
Manager, Mark Isackson. Big shoes to fill for Ed and I here
standing at this podium today. I hope we can do him proud.
So you have the budget timeline in front of you. You know we
start with budget policy back in February moving to where we are
today with the budget workshops where we're going to talk about all
the things contained in that budget. You'll hear from your various
constitutional officers and your departments and divisions throughout
the county.
By the 12th of July at your board meeting, you'll adopt your
proposed maximum property tax rates to be levied in FY '23, and Ed,
I'm sure, will touch on this a little more.
We'll move through August into September for our budget
hearings where the budget will be finalized, and then our TRIM
compliance in October.
So this budget conforms with the Florida Statutes for our annual
budget; as presented, is balanced. It does provide a flexible planning
tool consistent with our financial and budget philosophy over the last
many years. We have sufficient budget to conduct business of
government, and it reflects the best efforts of your staff to maintain
and enhance our levels of service for the benefit of our residents and
visitors.
Our budget approach is conservative, and it allows us to prepare
for many things like natural disasters, changing economic conditions,
the changing local and state policies, to provide funding for the
desired level of service, and, obviously, to support our capital
projects and our capital infrastructure.
As we all know, we have a very positive economic landscape
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currently; extremely low unemployment. We have a very high
median home price, not to suggest that that is positive, but it does
reflect the favorable economic conditions.
But moving forward, we have to look at what is going on. We
continue to have above-average permitting. While slightly down
from this time last year, permitting and activity over in our Growth
Management Department and Community Development continue on
at a very aggressive pace.
You'll hear later from Mr. Finn an explanation of our taxable
values which are up 13.09 percent for the 11th consecutive year, and
our countywide tax base value is now $118.4 billion.
Let's talk a little bit about what else is going on out there. As
we know, we have increasing energy prices, increasing food prices,
we are experiencing an increase in inflation, interest rates are rising.
So these are all things that we're carefully considering and watching
as we move forward and look at the economic landscape.
And with that, I will hand it over to Mr. Finn, who's going to
dive into the details of the budget.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Ms. Patterson. Congratulations.
Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Edward Finn, OMB director.
Pleasure to be here this morning.
As I kick off, I'm also going to extend my thanks to
Mr. Isackson. He's had a steady hand on the financial tiller here for
many years. Many of the best things that you'll see in this budget in
terms of increasing reserves, modest tax rates, solid planning for
future capital, and a focus on the priorities that I think we all consider
priorities, that being public safety, transportation, stormwater, are all
a testament to his efforts. And just maybe a little unusual today, I'm
going to, up front, thank staff for their hard work on this budget. It
is a fairly long process. There's a lot asked of staff as they go
through that. The budget office staff themselves were particularly
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burdened this year, and I want to thank them up front and thank
you-all for your attention to this and your involvement. Thank you
very much.
I'm going to go over some highlights, and we're going to get
through this really fast because I barely have 30 slides here. And I
know we're all going to be excited to go through them.
This first slide kind of outlines our budget guidance. Budget
guidance generally was a tax-neutral policy; that is the same taxes as
the prior years. What that means is for the General Fund that was a
millage rate of 3.5645. Conservation Collier on a millage neutral
remains at .25. The unincorporated area tax rate is much smaller,
dramatically smaller than the General Fund, at .8069.
Expanded service requests, the budget you're going to look at
today does include some critical expanded service requests, a total of
52 new FTEs in a number of important areas: DAS, Parks, Facilities
Management, Transportation, Stormwater, Code Enforcement,
Community Development, EMS, Airport, Fleet, and Utilities. Those
total 5.5, and those, as you can see from the list of important
departments, they are kind of in the critical components or critical
sector of our budget. They represent about $5.5 million.
Clerk -- Clerk of Courts has some modest expanded requests as
well that you'll have an opportunity to review.
Again, getting back to kind of legacy of this budget, we talk
about reserves. The General Fund reserves have increased again for
many, many years. We have a slide going forward. I can show you
the history of that. And the last thing is an important addition to our
capital -- capital program, our capital reserve increase of $15 million.
Capital expenditures. Capital expenditures embodied in the
budget total $700 million. That is a slight increase over the prior
year, but it is an indication of our commitment to the capital
infrastructure and maintaining continuity with the growth that takes
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place here in the community.
Debt issuance. The budget itself does not include any specific
debt budgets but, as you know, we have some projects that are going
to require some debt as we move forward through FY '23.
Transportation projects come to mind and the important government
operation business park project.
Another major, major component of this budget is additional
investment in our workforce. There's 10 or $11 million set aside for
the next phase of the adjustment to the pay plan and the salaries of
our employees. The environment we're in, it's all we can do to retain
the people we have. As you well know, recruitment is very, very
difficult. We're hoping that that's going to give us an opportunity to
address that.
General government operations. The millage-neutral operating
tax rate in the General Fund resulted in a $48 million increase in the
funding available to us. That total property tax levy is 421 million.
In the unincorporated area, the neutral tax rate resulted in $60 million
in tax revenue. That is actually bifurcated between the -- between
the Transportation Median Beautification Program and General
Operations. Of that 60 million, 53- goes to General Operations, and
almost 7- goes to the landscape function.
Millage neutral Conservation Collier tax levy resulted in a tax
levy of $29.6 million. That is an increase over last year of
$3.4 million.
Constitutional officers expanded requests include two FTEs for
the Clerk, Inspector General, and recording, and some additional
funding for our critical -- critical accounting software support.
Those totaled $429,000.
I'm going to go through a couple -- we already talked about the
Phase 2 of the new classification and compensation plan. There's
funding in here for the policy-driven affordable housing initiatives,
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funding for -- substantial additional funding for the EMS Department,
and another critical -- critical area is our infrastructure, our ITE
infrastructure and network security. Additional funding to support
stormwater maintenance, that was really reinitiated at the Board's
direction in 2020.
Continued funding for economic initiatives and policy-driven
development, including funding for the Golden Gate Golf Course
included in the budget as well as the Great Wolf Lodge economic
incentives, realigning the '23 budget when necessary and prudent,
transfer dollars to support the industry standard stormwater program.
We're moving in that direction. There's an enhanced funding of
about $2 million overall in the program this year.
I mentioned earlier that one of our initiatives here is the
continued capital investment in the community. Capital investment
this year includes Sheriff's auto [sic] fingerprint system, additional
two and a half million dollars for various improvements in Sheriff's
facilities, continued improvements to the transportation network,
stormwater, and the park system, facility repair to the general
government facilities, buildings and facilities, funding for the
financial accounting system upgrade, libraries, Golden Gate Golf
Course, as we mentioned earlier, and the Government Operation
Business Park.
Also included in the budget is funding for the various
CRAs -- CRAs and Economic Development Zones. The Naples
CRA increased by 900,000 to a total of $5.6 million. Our internal
CRAs and economic development areas increased by $1.1 million.
Enterprise operations are a big component to the budget. They
include the Collier County Water/Sewer District and the Solid Waste
Department.
Water user rates in your budget are up 4 percent, and those are
consistent with previously authorized increases.
June 16, 2022
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Wastewater rates are up 5 percent; tipping fees, 3.25; waste
collections fees for District 1, mandatory collection are up 2 percent,
and District 2 mandatory collection, 3.2 percent.
If there are any questions as I go along, feel free to sing out.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: They will sing out.
MR. FINN: There you go.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And just to -- just for the public's
edification, the Board has already seen this information.
So, Commissioner Solis -- you asked and now you get to
receive.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. No, I think it's probably
good. I asked you this question when we were meeting one on one
about the budget. In terms of the FTEs, we talked a little bit about
having a deeper bench. And so just to be clear, the additional FTEs
that we're referring to in the budget, that's not currently open
positions, right? I mean, we're talking about in addition to where we
want to be in terms of staffing up the necessary departments, right?
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. The 52 positions, memory, those are in
addition to the staffing that currently exists. Some of those
expanded requests are what we call a hardening of existing contract
employees, and that is a recruitment and retention tool in and of
itself, having them be an employee versus a contract employee. But
the additions to EMS, for instance, are just that; they are additions to
the current staff.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. And then also the number
that you referred to, this almost 6 and -- 6.7 million that's going to the
landscape, the Median Landscape --
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- Fund, that's a slightly lower
number than it's been in the past, right? I kind of remember a 7-,
$8 million number. And I guess my question is, this is a budget
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hearing, so maybe this isn't quite the place, but it seems to be a
smaller number, and that was, number one, my first question, which
is good, because we've -- we all know we've hemorrhaged money in
that area, and -- is that a smaller number?
MR. FINN: No, sir, it is not a smaller number.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It's not a smaller number?
MR. FINN: Not in terms of the annual funding, the -- no.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Oh, the annual funding.
MR. FINN: Right, the annual funding.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. So it's about the same
number in terms of the annual funding. What we spend is,
theoretically, a different number?
MR. FINN: That number we looked at would be up that
13 percent that's represented in the increased tax base.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. So the amount that's being
transferred is actually going up 13 percent.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: All right. Thank you.
MR. FINN: Very good. Appreciate that.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Hang on. Commissioner
LoCastro. You opened the door.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just so I know, so this
budget, across the board, everything -- one giant umbrella is going up
13 percent higher than what it was in FY '22, correct, or less?
MR. FINN: I think if we look at it all in, it's up 6 percent on
the net.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: About 6 percent, okay.
Even though I know we're all going to be guilty of sort of asking
questions sort of out of order, this is about budget. I just want to go
on the record. Six point seven million for landscape's a lot of
money, and it's great. We do some great things with it. We also
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have misused it at times. We sat in here in a meeting several months
ago that we want to make sure we're reaching out to other
organizations who can really help us spend that money or guide us
more appropriately, and one is the Botanical Garden. I spent half a
day with them, and when I met with their CEO, she said, gosh, we
could really help you guys. That's not really the conversation in
here, so I'll just end it there.
But whoever's watching in the staff that gets control of this
money, it's not just approving the budget, but it's about making sure
that every year we spent these taxpayer dollars wisely. I always say,
there's no such thing as county money; it's taxpayer dollars.
And I agree with Commissioner Solis, you know, 6.7 can buy a
lot of landscape. It could also buy a lot of junk and put it in the
wrong spot if we don't do it properly. So I know a lot of people are
watching. We've got, you know, a lot of folks in the room here.
But the people, then, that when we leave this room get control of this
money and start to spend it, let's not waste it. And we've been guilty
of doing that in certain -- at certain times.
But -- okay. But going back to my original question, like you
said, the overall -- I'll just repeat it again. The overall budget, if we
had to just say how much has it all gone collectively as an average,
you said about 6 point --
MR. FINN: 6.7.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Six point seven, okay.
MR. FINN: Yep.
When we talk about the landscape maintenance program, we
have to keep in mind that the investment in landscape is -- while
it -- obviously, it can be characterized differently than the investment
in roads or stormwater infrastructure or buildings, nonetheless, it is
an investment, and it does need to be maintained. To a great extent,
that's what we're looking at when we look at that funding is the
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maintenance.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well -- and that's my biggest
concern. You can plant a beautiful tree, but then if in the budget we
don't have irrigation, cutting it, trimming it, and all that -- but I'll also
just say, just as an aside -- and I think we all agree here. When we
talk about a deep bench, I don't know about the other commissioners
but, you know, Ed spent I don't know much time in my office. You
literally can grill this man on anything, and he has the answer.
So I know we've got the right guy overseeing the budget. He
has a calculator with fresh batteries. He's got pencils that are
sharpened. And I just want to say, Ed, how impressed I was with
how we went through this budget, you know, in painstaking detail,
some stuff that we're going to get to later and how impressed I was
with your knowledge just right off the top of your head, so thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Anything? I can ask him
anything. Yeah, when's it going to rain and how much?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: He'll tell you.
MR. FINN: It's going to rain soon, and it's going to rain a lot.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Fifty percent chance.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: All right. Let's proceed on.
MR. FINN: All right. Commissioner, thank you for that. I'm
a little embarrassed, but thank you nonetheless.
This chart provides kind of a historical look at the increase in tax
rates. What's kind of interesting about this year, the increase this
year is in the 13 percent range for both the General Fund shown on
the left-hand side and the unincorporated area shown on the
right-hand side. What's interesting is if we go back to '07 before the
crash, we had very, very substantial increases in our tax rate, and
those were followed by a pretty dramatic drop-off. And in the
middle of these charts you'll see a similar trend that occurred in the
'17 area where we had a 10 percent increase, and that was followed
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by a pretty significant drop-off in the value after that. When we look
at this year's increase in value, we fully anticipate those rates to -- the
rate of growth to drop off going forward. The state has suggested
that going forward the rate of increase will be limited or more likely
to be in the 5 to 7 percent range rather than the size increase that
we're looking at this year.
Next slide gives you a sense of the millage rate history. On
the -- again, on the left-hand side is the General Fund. The General
Fund millage has been the same millage rate at 3.5645 for 13 years
now. Similarly, the Unincorporated Area General Fund, or Fund
111, side has been at .8069 for seven years. Interestingly, the uptick
in that rate in '17 coincided with the earmark for that roadway median
maintenance money.
This slide just gives you a sense of the overall funding for the
stormwater program. What's important here is that this is up
2.1 million over the prior year.
This is -- a little difficult to read this chart, but this gives you a
sense of the capital funding coming out of the General Fund and the
Unincorporated Area General Fund. For '23 in particular you'll
see -- I'll just hit a couple highlights. The Sheriff's automated
fingerprint system at the top. The Sheriff's facility improvements
and renovations. Next line down, going down a little further, I'm
seeing GOBP funding, General Operation Business Park funding,
about $5 million; golf course funding of 7 million; an uptick in the
capital reserve of 15 million. A little further towards the bottom,
transportation capital funding totaling $14 million. And while we
just talked about stormwater in this chart, you'll see stormwater is the
best part of $8 million.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And I just want to exemplify a
comment that he breezed over, and that's the uptick in capital
improvements, capital funding. It's not just an uptick. It's a direly
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needed past due appropriation to our reserves for capital assets,
maintenance, and replacement, way past due. And it's up from five,
from three years ago, to 15, and still more to come.
I mean, we're in the final stages of our data entry with regard to
our aggregate amount of assets. We're pushing 2 billion, with a B,
pushing $2 billion worth of assets, and we have to start budgeting for
the ultimate replacement and then, therein, the maintenance of as we
go along.
So just -- he breezed straight over it just as an uptick, but it's a
pretty happy uptick as far as I'm concerned. It's -- so, there you go.
Thank you, Ed.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It gave me an
opening. I will take a moment on that. A theme running through
this budget is, in fact, a substantial, significant, and a focused
attention to our capital investment both from a maintenance side and
new facilities that are necessary.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you. I've got a couple of
lights up here. So first Commissioner LoCastro, then Commissioner
Saunders.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Sheriff Rambosk, sir, this
county funds our police and Sheriff's Office, and I hope you feel that
way. I hope you're happy with what you see in the budget. When
we see so much tragedy happening across the country, I just want to
say thank you for what you do. And speaking for all of us here, we
fund our Sheriff's Office. We're proud of what you do. We want to
make sure you have every single thing you need at your disposal, and
you've really used a sharpened pencil to make sure money isn't
wasted. Thank you. I hope you're sitting here pleased with what
we're doing as a county to support our men and women in blue.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: He is. He's going to get to say
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that twice.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I know you've got time at the
podium later.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I was just going to say, remember
all that for this afternoon.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
I'm just curious, in terms of the capital projects that you've got
listed here, the 80 million in total, how much of that is from the
one-cent sales tax?
MR. FINN: That's a good question. These -- the funds we're
looking at here are all from the General Fund or Fund 111. The
sales tax is a different program. That is in Fund 318, and that
essentially was established at 420 million all in. That program is
still ongoing, but that is not reflected here.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: None of that's contained in
this chart, but we will be discussing that, I assume, at some point?
MR. FINN: Yes, it is for sure in the budget, so we can look at
that, yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you.
MR. FINN: You're very welcome.
Commissioner Solis had kind of asked a question about the
position count. This sheet gives us another chance to look at those
position counts and where they're going. The column entitled
"changes" are, in fact, positions that the Board has reviewed on a
case-by-case basis so far this year and has authorized those. The
expanded column for '23 are the 52, 54 including the modest request
from the Clerk, all in, that are added -- additive to the current position
count going into the '23 budget.
This slide just gives the Board a sense of the magnitude of the
June 16, 2022
Page 16
compensation adjustment that's embodied in the reserves contained in
this budget. I've said before that it's really a critical component of
our ability to recruit and retain personnel, but it is an important thing.
That's going to be coming forward in the near future to the Board for
consideration and finalization.
The management of our health insurance program is one of
those quiet successes that forms the foundation of our financial
stability here. The ratio of 80 percent employee -- employer to
20 percent employee cost is going to continue. This represents the
10th consecutive year of no premium increase. The program is
appropriately funded and reserved, as are all our insurance programs,
and it's a tribute both to the previous management and Mr. Walker
over the years running, really, a phenomenal operation.
This chart kind of gets to the question on the county's total
budget. You can see there the net -- this is the net budget after
netting it for internal transfers and things that really don't count, is
$1.8 billion, and that represents a 6.7 percent increase over the prior
year.
We're getting down to it. I told you we had, what, 40, 50
slides?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You said 30.
MR. FINN: We're at 22. We're doing well.
General Fund highlights, total budget is $613 million. That is
kind of consistent with the tax value increase, 13.7 percent increase.
This chart shows you kind of the year-to-year delta, so that
would be the comparing -- straight comparison of '22 to '23. The
total increase looking at it this way in property tax is $48 million.
So that revenue side of the house is shown on the right side of the
chart.
On the left-hand side is where those funds have been utilized in
the budget. We looked at the chart a little bit earlier showing the
June 16, 2022
Page 17
$20 million increase in capital funding, and that is, by far, the
largest -- largest line on the left-hand side of the chart.
The other -- the other way to look at this comparison would be
the delta or the change from the Board-approved policy -- the policy
that was approved in February compared to where we are today, and
that delta on the revenue side is about $38 million, and where those
funds were utilized is shown on the left-hand side of the chart in
terms of the increases relative to policy.
General Fund reserves, I'd kind of given you a little preview of
that. General Fund reserves are one of those major success stories
that quietly props up our financial house. If you look back to the
2010/2011, you can see that the amount of reserves in the General
Fund were woefully inadequate. They created problems both in
terms of beginning of the year cash flow. It did not do us any favors
with the rating agencies, and it did not provide sufficient capacity to
deal with natural disasters. When you compare where we were then
to where we are today, all I can say is thank you. Thank you for
your foresight. Thank you to Mr. Isackson as well.
This is a little chart of why these reserves are so important.
Clearly, the reserves contribute to our financial stability. They are
the core general government cash flow engine. They protect our
beginning cash balances. They fund unforeseen mandates and
emergencies, natural and manmade, and they fund constitutional
officer reserves.
I'll tell you a quick example -- there's a bunch of words on this
page, but the long and the short of it is when Hurricane Irma hit, our
debris collection cost was $62 million. We paid out $48 million to
vendors quickly. Our first FEMA check, our first rebate from the
federal government came in 10 months later, and it was $9.8 million.
That means that the difference between 62 million and 9.8 was
funded by cash in-house. Some time later, a year and a half later, the
June 16, 2022
Page 18
second check came in at 34 million. So you can see the requirement
to carry -- to cash carry a natural disaster, a major natural disaster, is,
in fact, a real -- real and present concern on the financial side.
This is a little chart of our outstanding principal debt. You can
see that, again, from '08 through '18, there was major refinancings
saving us both interest and paying down our principal debt. Since
then, with the need to continue on with our capital program, the debt
has come up -- come up a little bit more, but it's still well within our
capacity.
This slide basically indicates that the debt that I just -- that we
just looked at represents 5.9 percent of our bondable general
government revenues. Our policy-driven cap on that is 13 percent.
So we are comfortably, comfortably within that cap.
These slides -- don't have to spend a lot of time talking about
them, but generally they show positive trends in all our core revenue
sources. Gas taxes, impact fees continue to be solid. General Fund
carryforward continues to be solid. That is partially driven by
revenues that are slightly better than we thought as well as that
reserve that we talked about.
The Unincorporated Area General Fund is the other important
general government fund that supports programs in the
unincorporated area. Road maintenance, landscape operations,
Zoning, and Comp Planning, Code Enforcement, natural resources,
community parks, and substantial capital transfers. This fund, too,
we have an increase in reserves of almost $700,000.
This is a similar chart to the one we looked at in the General
Fund which is showing you the delta year over year to the prior year.
The growth in this fund overall on the revenue side is $7.1 million.
Relative to policy, that same delta is 5.2. And as I had noted before
on the left-hand side of the chart, it gives you an indication of where
those funds were actually distributed in the budget.
June 16, 2022
Page 19
I'll quickly go over some of the budget challenges that continue
to exist and, in all likelihood, is going to exist as long as I'm here.
Significant reliance on property taxes does not provide the kind
of flexibility that we'd all like in our revenue sources and how our
operations are funded. Nonetheless, combined with our diligent
evaluation of the other revenue sources, it certainly is a workable
solution. Certainly in an environment of rising -- rising tax values, it
allows us to do that, but at the same time those rising tax values
translate into additional demand for services.
So our goal is to reach a point where those two things are
balanced, which is why when those tax values go up, we need to,
essentially, make sure that we take the funding we need in order to
provide the level of service that's required for the growth that's
driving those tax increases.
Continued conversation about diversified revenue structure. Of
course, balancing competing priorities for capital, asset management,
expanding service delivery, new program initiatives will continue to
pose a challenge to your management team. We need to monitor
continue the state tendency to shift programs to us without funding
sources.
Future capital burden in the unincorporated area has the
potential to get a little bit worse in the event the communication
services tax is eroded. And, of course, the balance and need for
reserve growth, growth in operations with the future asset
management and replacements in mind.
So with that, our agenda starts off with the courts. And if
Mr. Rice could step up with his team and introduce them.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Ed, just real quick question
while they're getting ready. Is there anything still sitting out there
from FEMA from Irma? And I know that might sound crazy, but
sometimes, you know, there's something that we're still negotiating
June 16, 2022
Page 20
with them, and oftentimes sometimes after a Hurricane Katrina
checks are still coming in from different agencies. Is there anything
that we are hoping for, expecting either from FEMA or other
agencies, or we're done with Irma?
MR. FINN: Well, Commissioner, when you said hope, it gave
me hope.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. Is there something
that's still a possibility because --
MR. FINN: We're always hoping for more money. Hope is
always --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But is there something that
we're actually -- that we actually filed for that didn't get paid that's
still a possibility or no?
MR. FINN: In order to provide you with a good question [sic],
let me circle back and be -- and give you --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You don't know that -- Bill, I
stand corrected.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: That's two.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's two.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: He was ambiguous on the --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No, because sometimes there
are some weird things. And I was -- just more of a hypothetical,
because if there's something sitting out there, I was just curious what
we would do with it.
MR. FINN: If I'm forced to give an answer, I'm going to tell
you that, yes, I'm sure there are some dribs and drabs that are still
coming in. I don't know if it's material, which is why I wanted to
double-check.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. I think that's worth
addressing at one of our future County Commission meetings. It's
nothing that has a tight timeline but, you know --
June 16, 2022
Page 21
MR. FINN: Happy to do it.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- I'm just curious. It could
be something of significance. Thanks.
MR. FINN: Thank you, sir.
COURTS AND RELATED AGENCIES (STATE ATTORNEY
AND PUBLIC DEFENDER)
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. Good morning.
MS. FOX: Good morning.
MR. RICE: Okay. Good morning, Mr. Chair, Commissioners.
For the record, my name's Chuck Rice. I'm the court administrator
here in Collier County.
I'd like to make some introductions. We'll start from the right
at the table and work our way to the left. Representing the public
defender, we have Ashlie Bogner. To her left we have State
Attorney Amira Fox.
MS. FOX: Good morning.
MR. RICE: And to her left we have Sheriff Kevin Rambosk.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You jumped in here just so you
can do this twice.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
MR. RICE: I'd also -- you talked about a deep bench. Well,
I'd like to just recognize three people that are really our starters in the
court system, and our court system wouldn't run without them, and
they're sitting in the front row. We'll start from left to right, your left
to right. Carrie Hickson's our director of operations, Debbie
Morevic (phonetic) is our director of our civil division, and Jeff
Nichols is our criminal division director. And let me tell you,
without them, the courts would not function as smoothly as we do.
June 16, 2022
Page 22
And talk about the people doing the heavy lifting; it's certainly them
and not me, so...
With that being said, we're here to present a $7.2 million budget.
Budget compliant as far as operating expenses. I believe with Ed's
eraser he marked out a few things. So he sharpens his pencil, but he
has a big eraser, too, sometimes. We also have about a $4.6 million
capital budget.
With that being said, we thank the Commissioners and the
county and the budget office, Ed, Lauren, Susan, for their continued
support in helping this process.
And we're all faced with the same challenges of recruitment and
retention. That's an ongoing thing that I think we're all faced with,
but I do want to highlight some of the positives. I don't want to go
on the negatives. And then I'll turn it over to the people at the table
there.
First off, one of our -- I'd like to recognize our Circuit Judge
Brodie. She received a very distinguished William Hoeveler
Judicial Award which recognizes strength of character, service, and
competence. That's throughout the state.
Also, Clerk Kinzel I know is in the back. I'd like to -- the
Supreme Court of Florida has recognized her and her staff for being
the first in the state to come up and have the first uniform case
reporting data up and running. While other clerk's agencies
throughout the state made excuses, asked the Supreme Court for
extensions, her and her staff dug right in and got it done along with
the help of Debbie Morevic, our civil division director. So great job
there.
Shannon McFee, our circuit judge, has truancy court up and
running; a great thing for the community. When these students
aren't going to school, the school can reach out to the courts and get
them in front of a judge. And it's a lot like our problem-solving
June 16, 2022
Page 23
courts. We try to get the proper resources to the parents and
whatever they need to try to get them -- their kids in school. And it
has a little bit of teeth in it, so it's a great thing for the community.
As you know -- Troy, if you would put that up, the
problem-solving court. Thank you.
You always like to hear about our problem-solving courts which
consist of our drug court, our mental health court, and our veterans
court.
If you would, Troy, go to the next slide. Thank you.
Just to give you some data, our drug court for this past year
ending June 30th, we had 66 participants with a graduation rate of
70 percent. For our mental health court, 51 participants; a
graduation rate of 74 percent. Our veterans court, seven
participants; graduation rate, 100 percent.
I'd also like to recognize Judge Martin -- if you go to the next
slide, please -- for the second time received a mentor courtship from
a national association, which there's only nine across the United
States that receive these mentor awards. This is the second time that
we received that. And that's not only a nice compliment to Judge
Martin, but the Sheriff's Department, the State Attorney's Office,
David Lawrence Center, all the stakeholders make this work.
And I'd just like to finish with, you know, we're still facing a
backlog for COVID, but we were the only -- one of the few, I should
say, to be safe, judicial systems that never shut down court during the
pandemic. And that is -- I mean, thanks to the cooperation and
collaboration from the Public Defender, State Attorney's Office, the
Sheriff's Department, and the Clerk's Office.
You know, the Sheriff's Department has done a lot in the jail
helping us with paperwork, stuff they didn't have to do, not required
to do, but they do it anyhow. The clerks, a lot of things they didn't
have to do, but they did it anyhow. So thank you all for that.
June 16, 2022
Page 24
I would like -- Judge Foster, our administrative judge, is usually
here. He was here. He'd like me to apologize. He had to go to
court, but he thanks you always for your support and apologizes for
having to cut out.
With that being said, I'll turn it over. We'll start to your left
with the Public Defender's Office. Ashley.
MS. BOGNER: Hi. Good morning, County Commissioners.
I'd just like to say thank you for your time and consideration of our
budget request this morning. We certainly appreciate your
continued support of our agency and entire judicial system. If you
have any questions, we are happy to answer them.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Be careful what you ask for. So
far nobody's lit up.
MS. BOGNER: Hey.
MR. RICE: And then we have our State Attorney, Amira Fox.
MS. FOX: Thank you. Thank you, Commissioners. Good
morning.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good morning. Good morning.
MS. FOX: I'm sure you'll see on your paperwork here that we
are making a little bit of an unusual request this morning for us.
We're usually not asking for large increases, but this budget year we
are asking for some increase.
We have some increase in our IT expenses for ransomware and
an increase in storage. That's due to body cameras, which we
tremendously support and appreciate, but it does cost us more in
storage. We also had a slight increase in electric.
But the main increase in our ask is an amount of $249,100 to
staff a felony narcotics and vice unit in Collier County. And the
reason for this is twofold. Number one, thank you so much for your
funding for us of our problem-solving courts. As you can see,
June 16, 2022
Page 25
they're tremendously successful. You already know this. Collier
County has the lowest crime rate in the entire state of Florida.
There's a reason for that. It's because of the great support of law
enforcement -- our great support of law enforcement and our great
law enforcement that we have here, and I'll address that in just one
moment.
But there is a reason for that. It's because you fund us with the
problem-solving courts, and they work. We treat people. We try to
get them better. We stop the revolving door of the jail. What we
found over time is that it really is a twofold process. And I want to
just, here, give a gigantic shout-out to Sheriff Kevin Rambosk who
has joined me here during my presentation in support, and I support
him tremendously this afternoon ahead of time for his presentation
because there's a reason you have the lowest crime rate, and he's
sitting right here beside me.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Are you going to come back this
afternoon when he's up, too?
MS. FOX: I'm saying it now, Commissioner.
I have death penalty motions this afternoon in Lee County, so I
want to get that in now.
But the Sheriff is sitting beside me in support of my ask for a
narcotics and vice unit because we've modeled our new circuit-wide
task force, which is called Net Force, our narcotics enforcement task
force, after the Sheriff, Sheriff Rambosk's narcotics unit which
showed, in my opinion, the rest of us how to do a large-scale
long-term drug trafficking investigation that works its way up the
ladder and gets to the kingpin of drug distribution, and that helps all
of us.
So you have to have it on both sides. You have to have the
treatment courts helping those who are using and become addicted,
but you also have to have on the front end the interdiction of drug
June 16, 2022
Page 26
trafficking, which, very unfortunately, we see and goes through our
community particularly with the advent of fentanyl into the mix.
So what I'm asking for is I would like in the State Attorney's
Office to form a circuit-wide approach to vice and narcotics, and I
would like you-all to help me do that. That would be by one
assistant state attorney assigned to the unit within our felony division
here in Collier, one investigator, and one support staff, and they
would work on Collier County cases, both those that come out of the
Sheriff's Office or the police departments here that are in Collier that
are outside of our Net Force operations but also those that are inside
of our Net Force operations.
And we have arrested, over the course of our two large-scale Net
Force investigations, during the first one, 23 bigtime drug traffickers
here in Collier, and last time several drug traffickers in Collier.
And I would like very much to be able to just focus on those
cases with a dedicated unit. We've already started it in Lee County.
The County Commission there did fund us for three assistant state
attorneys, an investigator, and a support staff. That county,
obviously, has a little bigger population, so we needed a few more
ASAs, but I think it's fair here to ask for one assistant state attorney,
an investigator, and a support staff.
So that is the crux of our additional ask. And I very much
appreciate Sheriff Rambosk being here in support, and we could not
have done this without his partnership. In fact, he's been my role
model for doing this, so I thank him for doing this tremendously.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Oh, no. All right.
So good morning, Commissioners.
Yes, I am a big part of the problem in providing persons for the
State Attorney, our great State Attorney, the best in the state of
Florida as far as I'm concerned. And all of the individuals here from
the Public Defender, to the Clerk, to the court system, you know, we
June 16, 2022
Page 27
have a very unique circumstance in Collier County in that -- and I
know you know this. Everybody works together for a common goal,
and we have the best results. And this afternoon I am going to give
you some incredible results for crime and safety in Collier County.
So I'm here to support each of these groups because, without
them, we couldn't do our job.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely.
Commissioner LoCastro has a question.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. Well, I just wanted to
add that Ms. Fox and Sheriff Rambosk and I all serve on the Public
Safety Coordinating Council, and so some of what you're going to
hear today is abbreviated. In our meetings we do a really deep dive,
and I can't tell you just how proud I am at your results, how you have
supported those with evidence. They're not just sort of numbers on a
slide. We'll gloss over some things very quickly here, but as you
know, we meet regularly.
And so the things you're asking for to plus up, to beef up, and
then the stats that you're going to be briefing here today are just a
small little snippet of what we do on that council, which is a much
larger group of people from the David Lawrence Center, more people
from your staff, Ms. Fox.
So I just wanted to echo there's much more behind the brevity
that you're going to hear today, and that council is a big part of where
we all work together.
I do want to say as an aside, Sheriff Rambosk educated me a
long time ago, well before I ever even ran for County Commissioner.
It's not the Sheriff's Department. It's the Sheriff's Office. And he
explained to me in great detail why that is. So I always think of you
whenever I misspeak. But am I correct, right? I'm correct, right?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes, sir, you are correct.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. So you were an
June 16, 2022
Page 28
incredible teacher and mentor because I thought, well, why isn't it
Sheriff's Department? And there's a reason for that. And if you
don't know the reason, ask Sheriff Rambosk, and he'll teach you.
But thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, just thank you for all you're
doing and, certainly, I mean, for me, personally, I think that request
makes sense, total sense to me.
But I was wondering whether or not just -- if somebody's going
to provide a little more information about the problem-solving courts.
And I don't want to start asking questions if the Sheriff -- if you're
going to cover any of that, because the only question I had -- and I'll
just throw it out now -- was I think the last presentation we had, the
recidivism rate was incredibly low in terms of -- so, I mean, that
seems to be part of the great success that you-all are having with that.
Is it still that way?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: It still is that way. I don't have the
current numbers, because I wasn't prepared to discuss that right now.
But, again, you know, the investment that you-all make, and
particularly the investment that you've made in mental health in
leading that change and the treatment courts, the outcome of those
has always been positive.
And, you know, Janeice Martin, Doctor -- Dr. Martin. I call her
Dr. Martin. Judge Martin is leading the effort in that. So -- but I
will check on them and bring them back this afternoon.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Well, thank you. It's -- it
really is -- we are lucky that we have -- well, I shouldn't say "luck,"
because luck has nothing to do with it. But the cooperation that
everybody continues to show in terms of the problem-solving courts
is just fantastic, and so thanks for everything you're doing and how
you're doing it, because that really makes it work.
June 16, 2022
Page 29
MS. FOX: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. I've got a
couple questions and comments first with the Public Defender's
Office. Public Defender's offices around the country are typically
way underfunded. You haven't indicated any particular problems. I
want to make sure that your office is properly funded. I assume
from the fact that you haven't complained that your office is
satisfactorily funded.
MS. BOGNER: We are very happy with what we have. As
you will see, we do have two increases in our request, one for salaries
for our staff funded by Collier County due to retention as well as
some legislative increases from the state, and our other request is for
our IT department.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. I certainly have no
problems with the increases that you're asking for. I just want to be
sure that you weren't being shy, that you're getting what you need.
MS. BOGNER: Yes. In this request, we are, yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. And then in terms of
one of the comments that the State Attorney had made concerning the
fact that we have the lowest crime rate in the state, I don't know that
that word really gets out that much. I'm going to try to make sure
that it does. But, obviously, there's no accident to that. You
have -- we have great law enforcement. So I want to thank you for
highlighting that statistic. I'd ask you where Lee County is in terms
of that statistic, but I won't do that. The important thing is Collier
County has the lowest crime rate in the state, and that's what's really
important to me.
MS. FOX: Commissioner Saunders, if I can say it, it's
something I boast about frequently, because it's actually -- if you take
the five counties of the 20th Judicial Circuit which, of course also
June 16, 2022
Page 30
include Lee, Charlotte, Hendry, and Glade Counties, that five-county
area has the lowest crime rate in the entire state of Florida, our circuit
does. I mean, it's just, like you-all said earlier, a team effort and just
terrific law enforcement, and we're really proud of that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And thank you for that.
And then just for Sheriff Rambosk, a couple things. We've
always funded your budget I think pretty much to 100 percent of
what you generally asked for.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And we've had no hesitation
doing that, and we'll have no hesitation in doing that now.
Obviously, keeping our folks safe from crime is the -- has to be the
most important function of government.
So this afternoon I'm going to ask you some questions about
school safety, so I just wanted to alert you to that. With some of the
recent school shootings, some folks are nervous, and I know Collier
County has taken the lead in making sure that our schools are safe.
So this afternoon if you could focus a little bit on that, not so much
for the Commission, but for the people that are going to be listening,
because I know that a lot of parents read about what's happening
around the country, and it's -- it causes a lot of concern, but I don't
believe we have that problem here in Collier. And so spend some
time later this afternoon kind of elaborating on what you do and how
effective you are in keeping our children safe.
Mr. Chairman, that's all I had. I just wanted to indicate that I'm
fully supportive of the budget for all three of the folks that are here
today.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Well, I appreciate that. I
appreciate everything that you're doing for our community, all of
you, all the way across the board.
The effort that's been put into the court system to assist with that
June 16, 2022
Page 31
reduction in recidivism is spades in regard to benefits for our
community. Commissioner LoCastro's serving with you as our
representative now, and I know the Sheriff and I have had this
conversation. There's little to no rehabilitation that comes with
incarceration, and our efforts that are put into in advance to take
people out of the system and reduce that recidivism is key to success
in allowing us to have the budgetary flexibility to be able to put
assets where they need to be put in order to help continue on your
great work.
So from me to you, from a community to you, thank you.
MS. FOX: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And Commissioner Solis has come
in and went out and come in and went out twice.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: One more question. Just in terms
of the funding that we provided in the past for -- I think it's -- it was
three FTEs at the beginning for each of -- the court system, the State
Attorney's Office and the Public Defender's Office to run, essentially,
that problem-solving court. Do you see that -- obviously, you
haven't asked for anything else in that regard, but I'm just wondering,
do you see -- do you have enough for the future for the next few
years? I mean, I know you don't have a crystal ball, but I just want
to make sure that whatever support that you need in that regard you're
getting because it is such a successful program.
MS. FOX: Thank you, Commissioner Solis. It is a
tremendously successful program, and we appreciate that funding.
We are, like the Public Defender, asking for some cost-of-living pay
equity to equate with the state cost of living and pay equity and
minimum wage positions for those three positions that you do fund.
We do not see for this upcoming budget year that we need
additional staff there. We very much need the additional staff on the
other side of it, the interdiction, so we can follow through and really
June 16, 2022
Page 32
get results on the cases where we arrest the drug traffickers that are
leading to all the people who need drug court, mental health court,
sometimes veterans treatment court.
So we see it as actually benefiting those treatment courts asking
for the positions in a slightly different way this time.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MS. FOX: But thank you so much for that question.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And I would just jump in and say, for
the future it is our goal and our objective to give the State Attorney
much more work in the treatment courts.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Outstanding. Thank you, Chris
[sic].
MR. RICE: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank all of you, by the way.
Thank you very much.
All right. We're going to transition now to Growth
Management. Do you want to take a quick court reporter's break
before we -- or how you doing, Terri?
MS. PATTERSON: Maybe we can take the break after
Community Development -- Growth Management/Community
Development.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS
MR. FINN: Very good. We'll bring up Growth management
and Community Development, Mr. French, Mr. Kovensky,
Ms. Edreva.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And then we'll take a court
reporter's break after Growth Management's presentation.
MR. FINN: Thank you. Very good, sir.
MR. FRENCH: Commissioners, good morning.
June 16, 2022
Page 33
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good morning, good morning.
There you go.
MR. FRENCH: I put the -- our more senior, smarter staff on
the right because they are simply amazing.
For the record, my name's Jamie French. I'm your department
head for Growth Management and Community Development.
First, thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue to
serve you. Congratulations to our new county manager. And we
honestly look forward to serving to the betterment of the community.
So we are a -- we're very lucky to be here today.
Some high-level overview of Growth Management. Our
Growth Management Department is currently -- last year we were
six, so we talk about efficiencies. We are currently comprised of
five division directors: Building Plans and Review and inspections
headed up by Rich Long; Code Enforcement, Mr. Ossorio, Mike
Ossorio; Development and Review, Ms. Jaime Cook; Operations and
Regulatory Management, and one word should be added, Financial
Operations and Regulatory Management, and that's headed up by Mr.
Kovensky; and, of course, our Zoning Director, Mike Bosi.
The development services budget is approximately $76 million
primarily funded of enterprise-based funds. Those are dollars we
collect. We have a very, very limited dependence on the taxpayer
General Fund. Our budget is comprised of about a 90 percent
Enterprise Fund; 10 percent, as Mr. Finn identified, which goes
towards Code Enforcement and our long-range planning efforts.
Those sections funded by the General Fund have met the budget
guidance outlined in the County Manager's Office and by the Board
of County Commissioners. Reserves in our Enterprise Funds are
well established, as business does continue to be consistent over the
previous years.
Our reserves include the appropriate allowances for fees prepaid
June 16, 2022
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for future services owed. So in other words, when we collect the fee
up front, or throughout that process, sometimes that development or
that permit can go on for years. And we have an obligation by
statute to carry out all of those services without the ability to collect
any additional dollars.
So currently we've identified those, because we look at
those -- from an accounting point of view, that is a liability against
our books. Those are services owed, money collected, so we have
allocated those, and with Mr. Finn and Mr. Isackson, Former County
Manager Isackson's help over the years, we have set aside roughly
about eight-and-a-half million dollars for future services that we owe
to this community and to the property owners or developers.
For the last two years the county has processed better than
58,000 building permits annually. We continue to experience a high
volume of new construction throughout unincorporated Collier
County. And to give you some examples, one- and two-family
growth.
So for the period of June of 2020 through May of 2021, we saw
about 3,700 new single-family homes. That same time period only
from '21 to '22, it was about 3,800. It's only about a 2 percent
increase, which really falls in line to what we're seeing in the overall
population of our growth of about two-and-a-half percent per year
from our last census; however, with the changes in floodplain
management, complexities in the Florida Building Code, new
legislation, hardening of homes, it has required an additional number
of inspections by state statute.
And so how that would reflect is that same time period from
June of '20 to May of '21, we were roughly about 261,000
inspections.
In June of 2021 through May of 2022, we rose to 304 thousand
inspections, '855. It's almost 305- inspections. That's better than a
June 16, 2022
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17 percent increase that we saw just in inspection activity. Now, this
is not reinspection. These are required inspections in order to move
those structures forward.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I was going to say, you weren't
padding your numbers because you're having to go back out again or
anything, were you?
MR. FRENCH: Sir, we don't have the luxury of staff. You
keep us lean and mean, and we appreciate that.
To meet the continued rising demand and changes in state
requirements, recently you -- and we thank you for this -- you
recently approved nine new enterprise-funded FTEs for addressing
permitting demands on March 8th of 2022. In addition to the
additional FTEs, staff continues to work over time. We strategically
support alternative contract labor from Board-approved contracts, and
these really lend itself to a staff augmentation program as well as
temporary staffing agencies, and I'm going to highlight, short-term
solution. We've been doing this now for about five years.
And, roughly, we run somewhere between 60 and 70 temporary
or staff-augmented services. For the last five years we've run these
numbers, and it's been a good program, but it does enable us to
have -- if we see a dip in the economy, it allows us to cut back that
service so it protects our bench.
And so if you remember during the recession, when
Mr. Casalanguida and I laid off about 140 employees, it was a tough
time. We believe we've strategically placed ourself to where we've
got a healthy reserve budget, we can support our core values, we can
support our bench, and if we have to we will reduce this level of
service by cutting back these staff-augmentation-type efforts.
We continue to evaluate the change in the community and
market demands to ensure appropriate long-term solutions and best
position us to maintain our statutorily required expectations. We
June 16, 2022
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continue to offer 100 percent online services. Now, we're still very
busy on North Horseshoe, as well as our other locations. We still
see a great deal of walk-in service, because many clients want to have
that interaction, and we continue to offer that.
And our 100 -- and our online solutions, just so you know, they
also include the most recent Board-adopted short-term vacation
registration program. So whether it's your Building Department,
Planning and Zoning, and Development Services review,
participating in a build back after a major event, video inspections
that we rolled out about two years ago, and they're doing great, or a
water heater replacement in a condominium, staff is focused on
improving the customer's experience.
Our Code Enforcement Division remains committed to life
safety and the well-being of our community through education,
cooperation, and compliance.
The team continues to conduct community meetings,
educational meet and greets, community cleanups with, of course, our
partners over at Solid Waste.
Our Floodplain Management group within the Building Division
is paid for by the Building Division within this Enterprise Fund. It's
committed to maintaining the county's CRA Class 5 rating. We are
only one of a few Class-5-rated communities in the entire country.
We maintain over 70,000 in force NFIP flood insurance policies.
That classify of rating gives the constituent a 25 percent discount off
market rate. We do that for the community at no charge.
That 70,000 -- we're No. 2 to Miami-Dade, by the way, and
we're recognized in the country. And, by the way, we are better than
90 percent special flood hazard area. We're the only Class 5
community in the country that holds that status with that level of
special flood hazard area. So we've very proud of the efforts that
we've initiated over the last few years. They've paid off for our
June 16, 2022
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community. So that equates to more than $8 million in savings, as I
said before, over 70,000 policies.
In January of 2021, the Heritage Bay Government Center, which
is our fourth satellite office, was open for business providing for a
walk-in -- walk-in customer service, which provides also permitting
and plan review needs. Same thing that we offer at our North
Horseshoe location.
As a result of staffing this new location and continued growth
and demand, we've programmed in four Enterprise Funded positions
to staff this office, and that's identified within your budget.
Additionally, staff has programmed in two senior Code
Enforcement inspectors that will be dedicated to working nights and
weekends. The Sheriff and I just had a conversation about this.
Fingers crossed. The focus is primarily on all Code Enforcement
concerns, but it will have enhanced knowledge and training on
property maintenance, amplified sound violations, and short-term
rental registration violations.
Our budget is adequately sized to accommodate upcoming
land-use activities, including current and future studies, peer reviews,
master plan implementations, and, of course, LDC amendments.
There have been no requests or approved increases in any of our
fees since 2019. Instead, your Growth Management and Community
Development Department -- and I don't want to brag too much about
this, but we've actually continued to implement fee decreases.
One of the things that I'm so proud to say, Mr. Kovensky sitting
to my right, he's much like me. We're both certified in lean six
sigma, not black belts. But Ken is also -- he's also worked for major
companies like M&M Mars, Johnson & Johnson. He was an SAP
programmer. My former life, this is what I did. We look at
efficiencies.
So, Commissioner LoCastro, thank you. When you talk about
June 16, 2022
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finding efficiencies and taking that sterling model type of approach,
we're on board, and we've been doing that for years. So we're very
proud that Mr. Isackson was able, as well as Mr. Ochs and
Mr. Casalanguida over the years, has been able to support us with
that, so we're appreciative of that, and it works.
The industry continues to provide us with challenges. Clearly,
as labor has become scarce, as well as materials, we start to see costs
rise. People need permits faster, or they need to get moved into their
home. We recognize our place in this economy. We recognize that
we've got -- let's say 10 percent of your local GDP is impacted by
development, contractors, your do-it-yourselfers, your supply houses,
and we also recognize that it represents about 20 percent of your
workforce in this county. Now, that's just a direct impact.
The indirect impact, the residual effect, we also recognize that,
because that takes money out of the economy. We saw this during
the recession. We're very mindful of that in all of our decisions.
But we're also very mindful that we are a regulatory body, so we are
neither for or against development. You entrust us. The State of
Florida through the Building Code, the Community Planning Act,
they identify what our job is. We're simply focused on customer
service.
We remain committed to the resiliency and long-term protection
of our natural and built resources, of our environment, through
professional planning efforts, application of existing code, and
well-thought-out approaches to unique environmental and economic
challenges.
Thank you for your time this morning. Mr. Kovensky -- Ken,
Rady, and I are here to answer any of your questions.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You're not going to let them speak.
MR. FRENCH: And so you know --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: She's over there hitting the panic
June 16, 2022
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button.
MR. FRENCH: -- Commissioner LoCastro earlier said
recognize talent. Mr. Kovensky -- I met Mr. Kovensky working for
Dan Summers making copies at the EOC. He was a job banker
during Hurricane Charley.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Wow.
MR. FRENCH: And I don't know what I did, but
Mr. Kovensky, like many of us, we started at the bottom,
and -- started in the records room with me. And we're big believers
that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And so we
have -- I've really had the pleasure to call Ken not just a colleague but
a friend for many years, and he will -- he will always keep me honest.
And not that I need much help with that, but I'll tell you, he and Rady
are great.
So, Ken, anything?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Ken told us a whole bunch of
different things about you. He doesn't feel the same way.
MR. FRENCH: We just don't put them on the record, Boss.
MR. KOVENSKY: Mr. French is way too kind. Just to set the
record straight, I was, in previous life, a program/software developer,
many years ago working for both private and public entities. I was
not a super-duper SAP programmer, in case anybody's looking for
one right now; that was a minor part of my resumé.
But I have enjoyed the road, along with Mr. French, and I was
lucky enough to pick up Rady Edreva as my -- first as a senior budget
analyst, and then she was promoted to the manager of financial
operational support, and she has been my right-hand woman along
the road and really kept us on the straight and narrow. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Outstanding. Thank you.
Thank you, Rady.
Commissioner LoCastro.
June 16, 2022
Page 40
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Let's get into the nuts
and bolts of some things. So we've got a big lovefest going on. We
all love each other. Amy's great. She's going to do fantastic.
Let's talk numbers. Mr. French, you and I had talked about
FTEs and the challenges that your department has. FTEs are great.
We can approve a thousand FTEs right now, but warm bodies are
what matter. How many empty slots do you have in Growth
Management right now that are still not filled?
MR. FRENCH: I would defer to Mr. Kovensky because he's
also our HR rep.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. KOVENSKY: We monitor this weekly. We currently
have about 30 positions that are vacant out of 296 that are approved.
We also, as Mr. French alluded to, have a strong presence of
temporary staffing agencies which run between 60 and 70 positions at
any given time, but we are always looking for more temporary staff.
It's a revolving door with that group. It's difficult to keep them long
term, and we are constantly requesting more resumés to fill positions.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I remember, Jamie, last time
you and I spoke when we attended a different meeting at the
Horseshoe, and I promised you that we would -- we would have HR a
little bit -- a lot more focused on your department, because in some of
those cases where you have empty FTEs, empty slots, you actually
have people applying for the jobs but also it takes time to interview
and do all the things required.
The last I talked to Mr. Rodriguez -- and I don't want to be
putting people on the spot, but we're here to talk about budget -- I
was told you were getting that help from the HR office, that you were
getting either some dedicated help or just more air speed or whatever,
but one of the things that we talked about -- and we're not here to
keep anything a secret -- you have 30 empty slots in a department
June 16, 2022
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that we really want to make sure is fully staffed. We don't want you
just hiring whoever walks through the door.
But one of the things you had told me when we really had an
honest conversation is, hey, in some of those empty slots, we actually
have had people that have applied. It's just hard to drop everything
to get to those resumés, to interview those folks, and do all of that.
Have you gotten more help since that time, and are we digging
through some of those applications?
Because we want to make sure we don't lose superstars who go,
wow, you know, I applied to this job for Collier County in Growth
Management, never heard back. Now I work at Arthrex, so don't
bother calling me. We suffer that here at the county at times, you
know. Social media's full with "come work for the county; we're
hiring like crazy."
We have a few departments that a lot of people have
applied -- and, you know, this isn't anything different than other
companies. But we want to do it better, faster, cheaper, smarter here
at the county.
Has anything improved since the last time that we discussed?
And if it has or hasn't, you know, we're here to help and figure out
how we can best use our staff. So, you know, saying that we've got
FTEs and empty slots or whatnot, if we also have a stack of resumés
and you've got superstars here that, you know, can obviously wade
through those but you also have a really big job, you know, tell us
honestly how we can help you, or tell us that we are -- we have done
something different, you know, in the last few months since we
spoke.
MR. FRENCH: I certainly appreciate that, Commissioner
LoCastro, and I believe -- and you and I did have conversation after
the DSAC meeting you attended. And so your Development
Services Advisory Committee brings this up to me all the time
June 16, 2022
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because they're also -- it's interesting, because not only are they
seeking for staff, but so are we. And typically what we find is after
we train somebody, it's the industry that hires away from us. So then
they turn around and say, well, why don't you have enough staff.
Well, stop hiring them. Well, we can't do that.
I would tell you this: So Ms. Lyberg and I have had a number
of conversations. And Ken really is -- just so I correct the record,
he's our liaison. We have a centralized process. No
other -- directors don't have necessarily conversation. All hiring, all
fleet, all budget, it all goes through Ken's office. So he is our
centralized point of contact, and that information that Ken
gathers -- and he's tracking that for a reason, because he reports on
this to the Development Services Advisory Committee.
But to answer your question, yes, what's recently occurred is
that we've been able to really have some good conversation and
recognize that some of these positions, we may have minimum
qualifications that may be more than what the state requires. So
we're conflicted in a way because the State of Florida continues to
rise to the level of expectation to acquire certain licenses.
You had a recession. What happened during your recession?
Well, I know what happened is that I stopped hearing the Cam Tech
Construction School commercials on the radio. It's because the
industry shifted. People got out of construction, and they went into a
different line of work.
And so there was no vocational effort because there was no
interest. And outside of Theo Etzel with Continued Air at the time,
only because he funded it was the only reason why vo-tech could
probably afford to continue on with that program, because there was
some industry contribution.
And the rest of the industry -- because we've had this
conversation with CBIA. And now we're all sitting back across the
June 16, 2022
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country saying, we don't have more young men and women that are
interested in this because it's only taught at a handful of schools to go
for a construction management degree.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Let me ask you this: Are
you sitting on a lot less resumés and applications now than you were
three months ago? I mean, we always have empty seats, and I'd
rather see nobody hired than the wrong person, so I'm not here just
saying start filling seats. But when you and I spoke you said, you
know, we have people that are applying for these jobs, and that's
when, you know, I met with Mr. Rodriguez. I think I even spoke
with Ms. Lyberg and said, you know, let's sort of shift a little bit
more help to Growth Management, and then I was told that we had.
So I just want to make sure that, you know, we're not sitting on a
bunch of applications of superstars that are about to be hired away
from these other companies because we didn't have the time or the
people to do the interviews and whatnot. So it's really a simple
question: Are you sitting on less applications now than you were
three or four months ago?
MR. FRENCH: I would tell you this, is that the County
Manager's Office has dedicated focus, as well as Ms. Lyberg, to
reducing -- not necessarily -- they still have to meet the minimum
qualifications --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. FRENCH: -- but looking at alternative approaches to look
how we can relate that experience into what we do in Growth
Management. And it's been a good move, and we've recently seen
some successes with that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. FRENCH: And so we think -- we know we're on the right
track. We're going to continue to push, because we recognize our
impact on the community, whether it be the homeowner or whether it
June 16, 2022
Page 44
be the current resident or the new resident or the new business or the
current business. We recognize that we've got to get these seats
filled. So the answer is, sir, we only see fewer resumés because
there's fewer people applying.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, absolutely. But we had
a much deeper conversation -- okay. But you've answered my
question.
My second question deals with Code Enforcement. You know,
that's an important part -- all the pieces of your department are
important. But, correct me if I'm inferring this incorrectly. So
you're increasing Code Enforcement by 6.9 percent for Fiscal Year
2023? That's the financial plus-up across the board in different
areas? I mean, I'm sitting here looking at the chart. So do simple
math for me here; is that correct?
MR. FRENCH: Two employees, sir, for senior investigators to
be able to -- because the Board has had a number of conversations,
and also with the new rental registration process, we struggle in the
evenings and on weekends because we've got 26 officers to cover the
entire county.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well --
MR. FRENCH: So this would bump us up by two
investigators.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So what I would leave you
with is much like Chief Butcher came in here, you know, at one of
the commissioner meetings and said, wow, I need some more FTEs.
You guys are very fluid, really a moving target. Through the year so
much has changed; you just outlined it and said, you know, how
Code Enforcement -- other things are being added and whatnot. So
as your mission statement starts to change or just your workload,
don't be shy about talking to this commission. Code Enforcement is
a big heavy-lifting piece that often we get a lot of complaints on, and
June 16, 2022
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then sometimes it's, hey, I only have so many people or whatever. I
don't think we'll ever please anyone.
But, you know, if you need the help from HR, if you need the
help in the way of FTEs or funding, don't be shy about it. And it
doesn't have to be a once-a-year ask. I mean, you can come in here
at any time and say, you know, we've done a deep dive, and a whole
lot has changed in the last three months, or we lost some really key
people.
But, you know, we want -- like you said, if customer service is
paramount, this is one part of your department and, obviously, I don't
have to tell you that where, you know, we either have great customer
service, or we don't, and also it provides a very important mission for
the -- for our county to make sure that we don't have, you know,
sloppy things all over the county that we keep driving by and we're
wondering why, you know, we're not taking charge of it.
So I'm very impressed with the way that your department is run.
I liked everything that I read in here. But you and I have had a lot of
one-on-one conversations. And, you know, I speak for the whole
board when I say we want to make sure, much like the way we
promised Sheriff Rambosk, and are delivering, if and when you need
something, if applications are sitting here, if we're losing good people
who are walking out the door because they're getting, you know, a
15 percent bump working for another company, please talk with us
on a regular basis or, you know, obviously, work through the County
Manager as well.
But we're here to, you know, fully support you all, because
what's here on paper is a lot of heavy lifting of what's right about the
county but sometimes what can go wrong in a hurry.
So I'm glad to hear that -- I did hear correct from Mr. Rodriguez
that we have done something different --
MR. FRENCH: We have.
June 16, 2022
Page 46
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- more accelerated support
to you. That was my key, you know, desire. And so if that
changes, you let us know.
MR. FRENCH: Most certainly. And, look, we really have got
a wonderful working relationship with Amy Lyberg and her team.
We recognize that there's increased demand across the Manager's
agency, and much like the County Attorney's Office or the Sheriff's
Office, we value those partnerships because, really, they are our
support services. We can't do the job without them, and we really do
appreciate them, and we appreciate your kind words.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. French, I want to talk a little bit about Code Enforcement as
well. We're all out in the community, and probably -- there are two
or three things that I hear from all the meetings I have. One is
complaints about noise, another is complaints about traffic, and the
other was Code Enforcement.
You can't do anything about traffic other than not issuing any
more building permits and, obviously, you can't do that. So I want
to focus with you on Code Enforcement. I know you have the two
FTEs. How many people do you have in Code Enforcement now?
And forgive me if you said that in your statements, but I don't recall
the numbers of people you have in Code Enforcement right now.
MR. KOVENSKY: We have 40 full-time employees in Code
Enforcement.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm sorry; 40?
MR. KOVENSKY: Forty.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: How many of those 40 are
out in the field doing inspections and responding to complaints?
MR. FRENCH: With job bank staff, it could fluctuate, but
June 16, 2022
Page 47
we're right at about 26 for the entire county.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. And if you go
back, say, just before the economic problems in 2008/2009, prior to
that, do you have any idea how many Code Enforcement folks you
had out in the field? I'm just trying to get kind of a sense of where
we are compared to --
MR. KOVENSKY: I think the high number prior to the
recession was 48 or 49.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That were actually in --
MR. KOVENSKY: No, in Code Enforcement.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't know that you have
enough -- even with the two FTEs, that you have enough folks out in
the field, because that really is becoming the number -- not the
number-one complaint, because traffic is that, but I hear it
everywhere. People are concerned about -- you know, there are a lot
of neighbor disputes as well, and we, obviously, can't get into
disputes between neighbors. But there are a lot of code enforcement
types of issues that are raised constantly.
And so I know you've got two FTEs here. Give that a little bit
more thought as we go through the process. If you need more than
that, then I think that the Board probably would be supportive of that.
You just indicated that you have, I think, 26 in the field now,
and at one point in time you had 40. So we have a much greater
population now, and so maybe we need to increase that number.
MR. FRENCH: And so you know commissioners, I'd be remiss
if I didn't say, so your Code Enforcement office also processes all of
your Domestic Animal Services complaints as well as your park
ranger complaints. Your Hearing Examiner is -- that contract is
administered -- your Hearing Examiner, that is -- I just want to
reiterate that we are their staff. So we use -- we review, we process,
and we take to trial, with County Attorney's Office, all of their
June 16, 2022
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complaints or violations that they may have as well. So we're a very
centralized function that does support, as well as Public Utilities; they
also have their own Code Enforcement group for those type of
violations that exist.
So it's -- the 14 that we may have in office, it's not just working
on the 26 in the field. It's also supporting the rest of the county as
well.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: My concern is the number of
people that are out in the field, especially on weekends and in
evenings.
MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You know, you may be
where you need to be, but over the next couple months, as we're
going through the final approval of the budget, if you need more, then
I'd like to know that.
MR. FRENCH: We'll work with Mr. Finn and Ms. Patterson.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes, I agree. I think we ought to
have that discussion at some stage, maybe even have some discussion
by Board direction as to the efficacy of our code enforcement. We
all know that they are complaint driven and by no means virtually
proactive. We send them out to take care of a violation of an illegal
rental circumstance in Golden Gate Estates, and they drive by 50
violations that I see when I'm on my way that they don't stop and talk
to folks about.
We know we want to work with our residents and let them know
what the rules, in fact, are. Maybe we can -- maybe we can move
over into a little bit more of a proactive stance and get more efficacy
as we go, so...
Commissioner Taylor, and then Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you very much. One, I
echo both Commissioner Saunders' and our chairman's comments on
June 16, 2022
Page 49
the number of Code Enforcement folks -- employees we have in the
community. I think as we grow, I think there's nothing that would
be more important in terms of a quality of life to make sure that codes
are being followed. They're there for a reason. I don't need to tell
you that, Mr. French. And I am very supportive of you looking at a
way of becoming more proactive rather than reactive.
Also, we did have a fairly direct discussion the other day about
the fines that we charge with Code Enforcement cases. I'm not
asking you to comment on them now, but I am concerned that there
may be more inequity in that, because if you are an Enterprise Fund,
your Code Enforcement officers, I believe, Mr. French, are funded
from the amount of fines you take in; is that correct?
MR. FRENCH: No, ma'am. They are General Fund. That
does not show as a revenue source within our group. That is -- next
to Comprehensive Planning efforts, that is the only General Fund
activity that exists within our organization.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: It would be a direct conflict.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It says it right here.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: It would be a conflict?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah. Think about having
funding coming to an officer who is administering a fine. That
would go a long way to not be a happy circumstance.
MR. FRENCH: So much like we do -- I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: No, go ahead, please.
MR. FRENCH: So much like we do in the Enterprise Fund, the
rationale behind having a centralized financial process -- so Rich
Long, your building director, they don't see any additional funds.
That's all monitored by Mr. Kovensky and Mr. Finn and their staff, as
well as the County Manager's Office and my office with regards to
June 16, 2022
Page 50
making sure that the directors focus on what their job is and not on
the money.
So Mr. Ossorio and his crew or his department -- I'm
sorry -- division, they are not -- they don't receive additional dollars.
You set the budget, and so -- as to whether or not -- and the Board
determines the fine.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You good, Commissioner Taylor?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you. And then -- no,
not yet. One more question.
Mr. French, you are, I consider, a statewide expert on flood
issues and flood insurance. And I'm not asking you to stray beyond
what you feel comfortable with. But as we move forward with the
action by the state, what are the things we have to look forward to?
What can you tell our community we have to look forward to in
terms of the ability for -- to obtain flood insurance?
MR. FRENCH: Thank you, ma'am. And I know that you've
been very involved with the studies being done by FGCU and
Dr. Savarese.
So in April of this year, the federal government instituted what
they called Risk Rating 2.0, and what -- Risk Rating 2.0, it's an equity
approach to flood insurance policies.
And so rather than looking at what the base flood elevation is of
a structure in comparison to what it should be, that's where the rate
was identified. Now it's based off of location to water, location to
storm, type of construction. And so -- and my conversation most
recently in the last few weeks with a gentleman named Jim Judge
from Fannie Mae, we're starting to see an insurance gap, meaning
that flood insurance policies are more than doubling, and so that's
why we're very happy to be a classified rating because at least it
offers some relief. But we believe that as these flood insurance
policies start to renew, you as a board will hear people -- it will move
June 16, 2022
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from hurricane and fire and theft protection to what are now -- there's
a -- there's a really big impact on what the cost to insure a structure
is, especially if it is below the base flood elevation.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Solis.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Very quickly. I heard the number
of 44 FTEs currently in Code Enforcement.
MR. KOVENSKY: Total number is 40.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Forty.
MR. KOVENSKY: We're asking for two more.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: You're asking for two more. But,
again, I just want to make sure I understand what that number means.
That's -- 40 is the number of FTE positions that you have funding for.
So what is the staffing level? And if it's 40, then I just want to make
sure that I understand. Because we talk about the numbers of FTEs,
but that's not necessarily how many people you currently have
employed, right?
MR. KOVENSKY: Code Enforcement is traditionally almost
fully staffed.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MR. KOVENSKY: They've had several vacancies in the last
several months. I would say there's two or three that just began
working for Code Enforcement.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MR. KOVENSKY: And they only have one or two vacancies
right now that are being actively recruited.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. Well, that's important,
okay.
And then I think this idea of having more coverage on nights
and weekends -- I mean, I get the same complaints, and with the
advent of short-term rentals and things, it's becoming more of an
June 16, 2022
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issue, certainly in District 2.
But in terms of the sound complaints, right, and noise, does the
staff, especially the ones on nights and weekends, are they going to
have whatever technology they need handy to be able to make
decisions on the spot?
MR. FRENCH: Thank you, Commissioner. Yes, sir, that's
why we're asking for senior staff versus entry level. So we would
use current existing staff. We would offer them the opportunity to
move into that night-weekend shift. They would be trained and
certified in taking sound readings --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MR. FRENCH: -- as well as --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: But they have the sound reading
machines.
MR. FRENCH: Absolutely, absolutely. So if there was a --
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. I just want to make sure
that you've got --
MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- in terms of the equipment, what
you need.
MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
MR. KOVENSKY: And I'd like to add also that within the
Code Enforcement budget this year we have a capital item to
purchase an additional noise meter.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just, lastly, every department
has empty spots as people turn over. I think I heard you say you
have 30 vacancies right now, more or less. I would like you to keep
us updated at how you're chipping away at that. You know, 30
June 16, 2022
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might not sound like a big number. It sounds like a huge number to
me, especially with the importance of your department.
Anybody that thinks it's just sort of business as usual -- imagine
if you had those 30 people today, 30 experts, you know, that walked
through the door today. So we want to help you get that.
MR. FRENCH: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And so, there again, I'll echo,
we don't -- we're not just hiring the first person that walks in the door.
Like I say, I'd rather have nobody in the seat than the wrong person.
But I'd like some sort of an update for us, and it can even just be
an email from our County Manager saying, you know, the latest
update from Growth Management is in the last 30 days they filled 10
of those 30 slots. We really need to put a priority on that, because
every one of those positions is critical. A lot of those are people that
could be out in the field and things like that.
So I agree with Commissioner Solis; FTEs doesn't mean people.
And if you've got 30 FTEs that are looking for bodies right now, get
that word out. Much like we're doing in affordable housing, you
know, let's start advertising aggressively the positions, the salary, the
benefits. And if you are getting a lot of applications and you're kind
of, I don't want to say sitting on them, but haven't had the time or,
you know, HR can help a little bit more, then let's increase that air
speed as well, because, you know, I'd like to hear that we're chipping
away at that 30 number and getting those people out into the field or
in their offices or to work in a department that is just -- is so critical
to the -- you know, the care and feeding of this county.
MR. FRENCH: We appreciate that. And just as a final note
from staff, I just want to recognize our continued partnerships with
our Facilities Management. We're very, very lucky to have the
partnership that we have with Ed Finn who's been heading up
Facilities as well. We don't brag, but I'm going to take just a second
June 16, 2022
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to brag about our staff. Pickleball, water park, Great Wolf
Lodge -- Great Wolf Lodge, there's only 19 in the country. There's
none in Florida. It's 535,000 square feet under air with six
swimming pools. There's nothing been built like that in the state of
Florida.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Ever.
MR. FRENCH: And our staff has to figure it out.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: We will.
MR. FRENCH: Where Uline is being built, and we do our
darndest, and we do a bad job at not bragging. But I'd like to take
the opportunity, because we try to stay off your radar. That's our
goal. We want to continue to instill the confidence in both you, the
Manager's Office, and our County Attorney so that you don't have to
get those complaints, and we recognize that you do, and that's why
we're so dedicated when you do get them, or the concerns or the
invite to a community.
So thank you, and thanks to our staff for being able to do what
they do to support this county.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes, thank you.
Commissioner Saunders has one more question.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just one more quick
question. The question is going to have 17 parts, but it's only one
question. I'm complying with the rules of --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Did you see that camera swing
right at my face when I went like this (indicating)?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You've got the 40 openings.
Are you using contract employees to kind of fill those gaps? The
question really is, in terms of processing applications, doing
inspections -- I know you do those very quickly, and I'm assuming
that even though you have 40 positions that are open -- or was it
30 -- yeah, whatever that number was, about 10 percent, about 30
June 16, 2022
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positions, I'm assuming that a lot of the workload that those folks
would have is filled with contract workers; is that accurate or totally
inaccurate?
MR. FRENCH: So we augment -- whether or not the position
would be filled or not, there's still the need to have the contract
service.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Right.
MR. FRENCH: So when we go down -- when we're down 20,
15, we're down 15. As Ken mentioned, we're constantly looking to
add on. But in the interim, if we had a hard-to-fill position that we
had to use one of these contract services, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I just want to make sure that
the services are being provided even though there are open positions.
MR. KOVENSKY: And Code Enforcement right now has
about -- they average between six and eight temporary staff from the
agency. And just so you're aware, many of these temporary staffing
people do eventually get hired full time by the county, so that's what
happened with Code Enforcement as well as just recently.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And I would make one
comment to our new County Manager. Obviously you've heard
from all of us that Code Enforcement's important, so I know that a lot
of those ultimate decisions come across your desk. But we're all
interested in making sure that Code Enforcement gets what it needs
in this process.
MS. PATTERSON: Understood, and we'll work with the folks
at Community Development to make that analysis.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: All right. Thank you very, very
much.
MR. FRENCH: Thank you for your time.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: We are going to now take a court
reporter's break and be back at -- nine minutes, 11:20.
June 16, 2022
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(A brief recess was had from 11:11 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.)
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good afternoon -- it's still good
morning. If we keep going on at the pace we're on, it will be this
afternoon. And I'm going to say out loud that the constitutionals are
a time-certain starting at 1:00. So for whatever departments we don't
get to between now and then, we'll move you to the end after the
constitutionals, so...
MS. PATTERSON: We're prepared to pick up the pace a little
bit here.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. Very good.
PUBLIC SERVICES
MS. PATTERSON: Next on your agenda today is Public
Services Department: Ms. Williams, Ms. Grant, Mr. Newman, and
Ms. Lopez.
MS. WILLIAMS: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, Tanya Williams, your Public Services Department head.
And it's a pleasure to speak with you this morning -- we are still
in the morning -- regarding all the wonderful services that your
Public Services Divisions provide and touch on some of our budget
highlights.
With me to my right, I have our financial and operations
director, Kim Grant, along with Jeff Newman and Maggie Lopez, our
financial and operations managers.
Commissioners, we've met your budget guidance, including
meeting debt service obligations and maintaining healthy reserve
levels where needed. We also very much appreciate the cooperation
and coordination with our partners in the Office of Management and
Budget and the County Manager's Office and supporting our
June 16, 2022
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operations and consideration of several expanded requests to allow us
to meet key service levels.
In Fiscal Year '23, the department will continue to provide a
wide variety of high-quality public services to all of our residents and
visitors of the county. Some highlights include planning to host over
2.8 million visitors to our parks, libraries, and museums. And we
will also expand or park's offerings this year with the first full year of
Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park featuring aquatics, playing
fields, amenities, as well as complete dozens of capital maintenance
projects throughout our parks, museum, and library facilities.
Additionally, the public services will continue to serve our
community by maintaining a stellar animal l-i-v-e release rate of over
95 percent and enforcing our animal ordinance, by delivering quality
agricultural programming in concert with University of Florida, via
assisting over 3,000 veterans and their dependence in completing
their benefit claims with the Veterans Administration, and by
partnering with the Florida Department of Health to support a vital
and healthy community.
Here in Public Services, our focus every single day is on
improving the quality of life for our residents and visitors. And I
can confidently assure you that we will continue to do so even with
the challenges we all face as, we've already discussed today,
increasing operating costs, staffing shortages, and in meeting the
customarily high expectations of our citizens.
And at this point in time, I'm available and my staff's available
for any questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you for all you do. I don't
have any questions. Does the -- you know, you're an integral part of
the frontline. There, again, there were none, now there are two.
You're our frontline for our community. And I really appreciate the
efforts that you folks are putting forth in that regard, and that's from
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me to you.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, sometimes our
questions here are really just to -- I don't want to say just to go on the
record, but as Commissioner Saunders had said, a lot of people are
watching, and so sometimes what's in our head or what we talked
about in private doesn't get heard, and then people say, well, I wonder
this.
A big piece of your department is DAS, Domestic Animal
Services. I know in the interest of time -- and we've had plenty of
discussions -- they need to continue to be on your radar in a really big
way. I mean, you and I recently traded some emails with a long list
of things that have gotten done under your leadership and previously
under Mr. Rodriguez, which are great. You'll never please
everybody. But that area of our county, that piece of your big, big
puzzle here, you know, please keep it right at the top of your list.
And much like I said to Mr. French -- and I think I'm speaking
for us all here -- if you need something, don't wait for a big special
meeting. You know, go to our County Manager and say what you
need, come talk to us, whatever the right protocol is.
But DAS needs a lot of care and feeding and -- because you
have so many volunteers there, you have so many fresh sets of eyes
that all think they have the answers to everything, and sometimes
they're a little bit off base, but the amount of feedback we get, much
like code enforcement, is ginormous.
And my exact words to you in a recent email is, everything I've
just sent you has merit. I mean, I took out all the stuff that was very
personalized. But when people start saying, this is what's
happening, this is what's not happening and whatnot -- so, you know,
please continue to keep us informed as to what you may need or what
you're not getting or things you're telling us are coming, the X-ray
June 16, 2022
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machine's final getting the software it needs and all those things that
we've conversed about, if it's not happening, then, you know, let's
regroup and figure out why.
And I can't stress this enough, but you personally being as
visible as you can at their big meetings -- you don't have to sit down
there, you know, and walk the dogs or whatnot. But when they have
their big, big meetings, Mr. Rodriguez made that a point to be there,
and people were just flabbergasted. I showed up at some meeting,
and they're like, we don't ever remember a commissioner being here.
It does mean a lot if you're our eyes and our ears when they have
big board meetings so that you're there to represent the county but
also to bring us back information as well. So that's one piece of a
huge Parks and Rec and everything like that. But I just wanted to
mention that. All of us are very focused on DAS and really care
about what's happening down there, and we want to make sure we're
not operating on a shoestring budget or -- you know, what a lot of
volunteers tell me they commonly hear from leadership down there,
well, it's at the county, but they don't have money for it. We have
money, and we know what our priorities are. We don't want to be
throwing money at just squeaky wheels. We want to throw money at
priorities.
So let us know when those things are not getting taken care of,
and please keep this, you know, very high on your list to continue to
improve that operation down there. And I know you are.
Thank you.
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you, Commissioner LoCastro.
No, DAS is a critical need, and it is getting mine as well as
OVS's staff's utmost attention. They have all of our attention and,
actually, all of our resources right at this moment.
HR, Amy Lyberg and her team, have been working with us to
help hopefully alleviate some of the staffing issues that we're seeing.
June 16, 2022
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So we're guardedly optimistic as we continue to move forward.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
I want to focus on parks for just a quick moment. First of all, I
want to thank you and your staff for the presentations you made to
the Productivity Committee dealing with parks. That was one of
their major focus points for this whole year, and they're coming back
with a report at our next meeting on June 28th outlining several
suggestions that they have such as more 311 signage, things that will
help get repairs and things in the parks more -- reported more quickly
and fixed more quickly.
So I just want to make sure that you've got their report and that
you'll -- part of your operations will sort of incorporate what they're
looking at. The Board -- hopefully the Board of Commissioners will
approve that report at our next meeting.
And the reason that I'm focusing for just a moment on parks is
that that's probably one of the most visible functions of government
where people really interact, and if the bathrooms aren't clean and
that sort of thing, we hear about it. I know you hear about it.
But it sounded like they were literally -- there were a lot of
repairs that need to be made in different places. I'll give one
example: A boardwalk that partially -- was partially closed because
of the need for repairs, and it was partially closed for over a year.
This -- what the Productivity Committee is trying to do is make sure
that you're alerted to those needs as quickly as possible and that
there's a process to repair that. So I know that you're working on
that. I just wanted to focus for a moment on that, because we have a
lot of people that, as you said, interact with our park system.
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you, Commissioner.
Yes. And staff and I both look forward to the presentation at
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the June 28th BCC meeting from the Productivity Committee. It
was a really good group of men and women to get to know. I think
we've developed a very good working relationship with the
Productivity Committee now, and I look forward to their
recommendations and then us putting them into play with the Board's
support. So thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: It's an appropriate time to bring up,
too, our eyes and ears are our community, and if you see something
that's going on that you think is government related, 311. It's easy.
Dial it. Nine times out of 10 you get a real body, and real people
help you with the circumstance and/or point out what's, in fact, going
on.
So with that, thank you very much.
MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, if I could, if I could beg a favor, a little change in
the order. Would it suit you if we brought up the County Manager's
Offices right now? If you don't mind.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I don't think it matters which order
we're in. We have a published order, but I'm fine with that. And I
know that Neil's here, and we want to get him in and out as well, so
thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: As well as Chief Butcher, so we can let
them go.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Sure.
MR. FINN: Thank you. Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Dorrill will
present the budgets and provide a brief presentation.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Good morning, Commissioners. Thank
you for the opportunity.
As you know, the Executive Management offices of the County
Manager manages certain divisions directly. And over the last
year-and-a-half, they've been successful in managing -- some of those
June 16, 2022
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offices include, obviously, our Office of the County Manager; our
corporate and compliance internal review section certification; the
Office of Management and Budget which, by the way, continues to
do an outstanding job to get you a great budget; the grants and
compliance section; the impact fee administration; as well as Pelican
Bay Services; tourism; economic development; Community
Redevelopment Agencies, including your CRAs for Immokalee and
Bayshore; as well as the Emergency Management Services, which
also includes the EMS division, which is one of your largest divisions
under the County Manager's Office. A total of about 500
employees.
Behind the scenes there are those 500 employees doing great
work day in and day out and, fortunately and unfortunately, they
couldn't be here in the chambers because of the size, but that's okay.
If I could just give you some highlights, we'll start with Fleet
Management Division. We have one of the best-run Fleet
Management Divisions in the state of Florida, if not the nation,
thanks to Dan Croft, who's been with our county government over 15
years, a retired lieutenant colonel, also a five bronze star awardee, if
you didn't know that, from Vietnam.
But we continue to run one of the most efficient Fleet
Management operations. He's asking for two expanded employees,
which probably should have came to him several years ago because
of the downtime of our vehicles. It's running about two weeks for
some equipment, depending on the equipment. And as you know,
that impacts all of our divisions, whether it's utilities, Parks and
Recreation. For without those tools, we can't get our job done.
So one of the emphasis of Mark Isackson, as well as Amy
Patterson and the other team members, is to really look at the needs
and demands of the divisions and get those met.
In addition, Fleet Management is experiencing increased costs,
June 16, 2022
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as we all know. Some of the commodities are increasing due to
inflation. There's a -- the parts are budgeted at about $2.5 million.
There's an 18 percent increase in our parts expenses, and the budgets
reflect that as well.
As you know, the county purchases fuel. We purchase about
1.5 million gallons a year. That's been $8 million worth of fuel.
We were budgeted at $4. That is going to increase to 5, and it will
increase our annual budget by about $1.5 million.
In addition to that, we're buying 93 vehicles. The total cost of
those vehicles are estimated at $5.2 million. We have one of the best
recovery programs in the county government that was started back in
the mid '90s, and that's where you have the recovery fund so that you
can put money aside by division so that you can replace that vehicle
on a regular cycle. That cycle's based on the cost of the vehicle, the
age, and also the value. And you get those three components in
there, we have some of the highest values when we go to sell our
vehicles thanks greatly to Sandra Herrera, your purchasing director,
for all her great work to get those auctions online in a professional
hand as well.
So with that, just a word of caution: Some of those vehicles,
especially the heavy-duty ones, are going to take up to 18 months to
get and receive just due to demand, so it's interesting.
On another good note, your Risk Management Division, well
run by Jeff Walker and his teams of professionals who through the
years have really saved the county millions and millions of dollars.
Just to give you a good example, your health care has been the
same for the last 10 years. That's phenomenal. That has something
to do greatly with his ability to negotiate with his adjusters but, also,
this health program that he rolled out several years ago, it, literally,
saves lives, county employee lives, but also gets us to the doctor and
gets our annual inspection [sic], so that's a great thing.
June 16, 2022
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In addition to that, his property rate insurance increased
only -- just below 1 percent. That's tremendous. For all county
facilities, the assets that we have, to get that minimal increase is good
when you're seeing across the board, as the Chairman stated in our
last meeting, property insurance rates continue to skyrocket.
With that, Human Resources, they continue to do a very good
job, excellent job. Just to add to Commissioner LoCastro's
comments as well in answer to the question that was asked, they're
doing a lot of work to get employees in here. Currently, your county
government, we have about 2,231 employees. We have about 230
vacancies. That's about a 10.7 percent vacancy rate. Compared to
the national average, we're probably below. But in the industry,
that's not a terrible number, but for us it's bad because every vacant
position is a level of service that we could add.
What has Human Resources done in the last four months?
Thanks to Amy's support, Mark Isackson's direction, we fast track
applications. They've increased the advertisement for positions.
They've adjusted the qualification slightly for education and
experience so that we can take advantage of some more local talent as
well as employees that are here, and it seems to be working. What
we need to do a better job is break down those silos so that
communication about those deficiencies and things like that come to
your County Manager's Office, and we can effect change
immediately, and we're working on that.
And with that, let's go on. My apologies, Paul could not make
it here. He had a personal issue pop up, but he sends his regards.
He just wanted to pass on some information about the tourist
development group. Year to date the visitors have exceeded
1.1 million visitors. That's a 10 percent increase over last year. The
economic impact is exceeding $2.1 billion. That's 31 percent over
the previous year as well. In the context of us coming out of the
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COVID pandemic and whatnot, that's tremendous news. And thanks
to the guidance by the Board and whatnot to facilitate businesses here
in Collier County.
Also, the tourist development tax collections is $37.3 million.
That's a 42 percent increase over the previous year.
With that, thanks to Commissioner Saunders as well as
Commissioner Taylor; you both recommended and wanted us to have
an emphasis on sports management here in Collier County
Government to capitalize on the sports complex, which we are doing.
With Amy's help, we are in the process of re-classing a position.
That will come to you on the 28th for your review, further guidance.
But this is a good example of where we're maximizing existing
positions. We're not asking for additional FTEs. We're taking an
existing one, reclassifying that to give that specialty so that we have a
coordinated effort throughout Collier County on sports events so that
we don't schedule every event on a certain weekend or a holiday
weekend but, more importantly, so that we can spread out over the
year, and then also allow the residents here in Collier County in their
leagues to participate as well at the sports complex at a fair rate that's
reasonable as well. So we're excited that -- a sports director, yes.
One of my favorite divisions is the EMS division because they
truly save lives on a daily basis. Thanks to Tabatha and her team
and your support on the April 12th budget, you've added 12 FTEs to
that division, and in this budget we're adding another 14. The 12,
obviously, were to fill the shortage that we've had for several years,
at least five years.
But I have to make comment, a special remark, special thanks to
the paramedics that work the frontline because they've been working
under some very tough conditions. Many of them have been
working mandatory overtime, and they have been sacrificing time
with their families. And the County Manager's Office, including
June 16, 2022
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Amy, Mark, as well as the Commissioners, heard that cry, and now
we have them staffed.
So the 14 positions for next years, seven FTE/paramedics for
East Naples, and also seven for the De Soto and Golden Gate new
fire stations coming online.
So with that, another division I would like to highlight is your IT
division. Thanks to Jeff Dunham, he's done a tremendous job over
the last nine months to really restructure IT. It has become
more -- there's been more emphasis on customer service but also
cybersecurity and infrastructure. To that point, they have a $5.7
thousand -- I'm sorry -- 5.7 -- $5,700 investment in new servers, data
space, and they're also bringing on new software to manage and help
prevent cybersecurity issues.
What I like about IT that I've seen in the last nine months, not
only the staff they're bringing on and their new director, but they're
being very proactive in helping to shore that up, so we're excited
about that.
If I could mention also the sports complex. We're adding an
FTE, and that is for an accountant. As you know, we have a great
relationship with the Clerk, and she has a keen eye, especially on that
contract. So we want to make sure we put some more muscle there
to make sure that the invoices and the contracts that we're dealing
with with the sports complex pass with flying colors, and we're
excited about that position.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Neil if you have anything you'd
like to --
MR. DORRILL: Just very briefly, and I'll start by
congratulating Ms. Lyberg [sic]. She becomes the 10th County
Manager of Collier County in the last 100 years.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Patterson.
MR. DORRILL: I've talked to her during the break. And the
June 16, 2022
Page 67
fifth member of my staff who went on to become either a city or a
county manager.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: It's the other Amy. Amy
Patterson.
MR. DORRILL: I'm sorry, Patterson. I was right behind Amy
earlier.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Amy, during the break we
made a couple of changes. We move fast now. We move fast.
MS. PATTERSON: That's okay. Amy Lyberg will be really
happy, I'm sure.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No, she wouldn't.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Amy Lyberg's in the back hitting
the panic button.
MR. DORRILL: No, I'm coming to her. She's the second
bullet point for me today.
Amy becomes only the 10th County Manager in the history of
the county, following Harmon Turner, who was the Collier family's
civil engineer, who became our first county manager after a period
where he was the county engineer. Collier County has a wonderful
reputation for being a stable and progressive county throughout the
state. I'm equally proud that your other two internal candidates were
also part of my administration many years others. So
congratulations to all of them.
Getting to Ms. Lyberg and as it relates to the Pelican Bay
Services Division, thank you for the courage of seeing the Evergreen
Study through. In some ways, Pelican Bay Services Division is like
a village government. I will tell you three-quarters of my employees
are immigrant groundskeepers who have benefited greatly as a result
of your seeing that through with your Human Resource Department,
and I will thank you in advance for Phase 2.
Having said that, I will tell you, as you know, two sources of
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income, both ad valorem taxes and also a non-ad valorem special
assessment. Our non-ad valorem special assessment is increasing
substantially next year for several reasons, the first of which is the
heavy labor costs that we have and those that benefited as a result of
the study.
We had been burning cash. Because I have a very sophisticated
advisory board -- my chairman is a former finance executive with
PepsiCo. I also have Verizon executives and other Fortune 500
executives, and I have the general manager of the Naples Grande
Hotel. I have the general manager of the Club at Pelican Bay, and I
have the chief operating officer of the Waterside Shops. I say all of
that to say they're a very sophisticated board who spend a great deal
of time on balance sheets and profit and loss or statement and
revenue and expense reports. They've really drilled down into those
details.
So we've been burning off cash. The past year they were not
happy with the amount of the carryforward that was there. They
wanted to spend that before they raised new taxes.
For the coming year our assessment will be $873. That
represents about a $12-a-month or $146-a-year increase. The board
is very comfortable with that because they continue to reserve funds
for their own beach renourishment that they pay for in those areas
that are not eligible for tourist taxes and, in addition, have adopted a
pretty aggressive capital campaign schedule, not the least of which
just is starting now; a $7 million capital project to replace all of the
pathways in the community that are about 40 years old and, in
addition, have undertaken to replace the operations and maintenance
facility and ongoing issues with very expensive street signage and
streetlighting. You know, they have upscale architectural-style poles
and features. Used some FEMA funds to enhance the wind
mitigation of replacement features that are there. So big personnel
June 16, 2022
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burden.
Reserving cash for future beach renourishment work following a
beach renourishment project this year. Very intensive work at Clam
Pass. And we may cut more Floratam sod than anybody on the
planet. And so interesting community; well represented by your
advisory board there.
I should also tell you that one of the things we'll be looking at,
we were astounded when we received the assessed values from
Mr. Coldings -- Mr. Colding. There's another flashback.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Boy, oh, boy.
MR. DORRILL: Mr. Skinner's -- I live in the past,
Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah, we all do. I just -- I
actually sat with Wade yesterday in Immokalee, just so you know.
MR. DORRILL: No. I know him well. Were you at the
farmers market?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: No, sir.
MR. DORRILL: Almost a $700 million increase in assessed
value over the prior year; $8.4 billion in assessed value, almost an
8 percent increase. We had forecasted 3-and-a-half percent based
off some preliminary numbers.
That gets me to my second and final point. We also have a
revenue stream associated with ad valorem taxes, and I think we need
to take a little harder look at that, given what is, honestly, a windfall
that has occurred, a one-time windfall, almost 9 percent increase in
assessed values in one year. I've never seen anything quite like that.
And so our Budget and Finance Committee will drill down in
that, I would think, over the winter, and you may actually see them
promote some long-term millage-neutral or millage reductions going
forward given this big pop of value increase that really caught us off
guard.
June 16, 2022
Page 70
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you.
Commissioner Taylor, you want to go first?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Mr. Chair, that was from the
previous presentation. I have nothing to add to this conversation
right now. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Oh, forgive me. Okay. I'm
sorry, Commissioner Taylor. I didn't realize you wanted to speak
the last time. You just came up on my screen here for our Public
Service. Is that where I'm at? No, the Manager's Office. Forgive
me.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
One of the things I wanted to say about Amy Patterson -- well,
you sort of brought it up -- is it wasn't too long ago that some on this
board almost made the mistake of not letting internal candidates
compete. So I'm glad that we had a change of heart, and we got an
extremely strong candidate internally here. So I just wanted to add
that.
Mr. Rodriguez, out of the 93 vehicles, how many of those
vehicles are -- they're not 93 added vehicles. Some are replacing
older vehicles. Do you have any kind of guesstimate as to -- so what
is the delta? Are we adding 25 additional vehicles, or are those 93
replacing 93 old? I'm just trying to understand how much we're
growing by vehicles, which we need to, but I don't want it to be sort
of an improper number. Ninety-three is a lot, but I bet a lot of
those -- and here's our superstar right here.
Thank you for your military service, too. I got a chance to meet
you early in my tenure here. What can you tell me? Just short
version.
MR. CROFT: Commissioner, this is -- for the record, Dan
Croft, Fleet Management director.
June 16, 2022
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All 93 of those vehicles and pieces of equipment are
replacement.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. CROFT: All replacement.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So the delta is zero. We're
just getting newer vehicles.
MR. CROFT: That is correct, on that number.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. CROFT: There are a few that are in the division's budgets
out there that are growth vehicles that are going -- that are in their
budgets.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. CROFT: I don't have an exact count of that right now,
because I haven't seen all of their budgets.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. And I know some of
the vehicles, they give us increased capability because they're
replacing old ones that can't do as much and whatnot. So, you know,
that answers that.
When it comes to fire districts, we've already had some
discussions, so I'll keep that brief. We have serious neglect in
District 1, long overdue upgrades in our fire -- I visited three of the
firehouses. I won't be redundant, because we've had meetings. But
I want to go on the record saying I want to continue our aggressive
talks. And I realize that it's a partnership between the fire
commissioners and the fire chiefs, and there's all this, you know, very
complicated leadership, organizational chart of who's in chart of
what. But the bottom line is, I visited three fire stations in District 1
that I would be appalled to bring anybody through.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: This isn't about the fire district.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I know, but it is part of, you
know, what falls under your umbrella. So I just want to continue,
June 16, 2022
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you know, those talks.
Lastly, when it comes to the sports complex, this just goes
without saying. It's great the augmentation that the county's doing,
but we also hired a contractor. So I would just be remiss if I didn't
say, let's make sure we're holding them to every single, you know,
dollar that we're paying them and that they have a big bulk of the
responsibility that the taxpayers are funding to run that sports
complex and that we're not filling in the gaps with, you know, county
FTEs and additional staff. It's a team effort, no question, but --
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. And, thank you,
Commissioner LoCastro. And like you and the other board
members, everybody has their eyes on the sports complex, wants it to
be successful. And with this accountant, we get into some more
enforcement of the contract to have performance-based contracting
with them, and we are holding them accountable, and it will
be -- there will be more accountability coming down the road.
Back to the fire stations, as you pointed out, and --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I mean, I'm not remiss. It's
part of your package here, right, that you're talking about? Fire
districts is included?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: There are, because the county's
responsible for maintaining some of these fire stations; it's a
partnership, and Amy and I both heard you loud and clear. And over
the summer, on a parallel front, working with Facilities, Parks, and
all of our other facilities, we'll make sure that those fire stations,
EMS stations where they're shared, they get the best service and get
them up to par that are --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: We've done a lot of repair.
It's time for work. And I realize we don't put a shovel in the ground
tomorrow, but if you don't get it into the budget for replacement and
you keep kicking the can with paint, wallpaper, and replacing a roof,
June 16, 2022
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that's why you have a fire station, I think it's 21, that EMS and fire is
sharing that is grossly undersized and sits on a lot that has plenty of
room for expansion.
So it's a different conversation, but it's part of your presentation
here, and it's a main focus of mine, and all the commissioners up
here, but I can only speak for District 1. And we've been neglected
in that area for a while, or just maybe just haven't put enough
attention on it. But thank you.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: And that attention's going to come also
from the work order system that Ed Finn and James Williams are
going to roll out. It's similar to the one that the Transportation is
rolling out. And that's where you get that visibility that
Commissioner Saunders is looking for and Commissioner McDaniel
as well. So we'll get there pretty quick.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just a clarification, because
Commissioner LoCastro mentioned Marco Island, and they have their
own fire service.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And they -- didn't they just --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I didn't mention Marco.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Oh, I thought you
mentioned --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No, I was talking about the
three in District 1 that I visited and just --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I was confused. I just
wanted to make sure that we weren't.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Well -- and the point of
June 16, 2022
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clarification, just as you know, there's -- we share space with the fire
departments along the way, but as is important is the budgetary
constraints and maneuvers of the individual fire districts in
relationship to our participation and our exposure for things that may
or may not have been taken care of from a budgetary standpoint.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well, they have some work
to do.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: So having said all that, I didn't
mean to interrupt you there. It's just I -- there's more to that than just
us throwing money at maintenance.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I will just add, hearing there's
no delta in vehicle increases, great. You know, we need what we
need. But to Commissioner Saunders' point about boots on the
ground and getting folks out there, I mean, that's another one that if in
the future, you know, you're sitting here and you're short a vehicle
here or there, we're the people to talk to. County Manager is the
office to speak with.
So, you know, hearing the 93 number, I knew that that wasn't 93
additional vehicles, and hearing that the delta's actually zero, so it
improved the newness of our vehicles. But if we do need to increase
our fleet so people can get out there or we've had -- you know, this
county's not shrinking; it's growing. Then don't be shy about asking
for that because, you know, all the right people that can't, you know,
transport themselves around the county isn't mission
accomplishment.
MR. CROFT: Yeah. As I said, Commissioner, there are some
expanded vehicles that are budgeted in the different divisions out
there, and I just don't have a count of them right now.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. CROFT: But they're in their budgets, and we will be
June 16, 2022
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looking at those and ordering those.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir.
MR. CROFT: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you. Thank you, both
very, very much.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Troy, I'm not doing public
comment individually. The advertised public comment is at the end
of our entire workshop. I'm -- we're not going to be doing public
comment at each one of the divisions. I saw you pop it up twice, and
I took it away twice, so...
MR. MILLER: Thank you, sir.
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT SERVICES
MR. FINN: Mr. Chairman, if it pleases the Board, the next
group up would be the Transportation Management Services,
Ms. Scott and Mr. Shue.
MS. SCOTT: Do I get kudos if I get out before lunch?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Four minutes. Go.
MS. SCOTT: Good morning.
With the separation from the Growth Management Department,
we focus on continuing our coordination efforts with Mr. French and
his team.
With that, I'm Trinity Scott, the Transportation Management
Services department head. This department encompasses five
divisions: Capital Project Planning, inclusive of our Stormwater
Management and Coastal Zone; Road Maintenance Division;
Transportation Engineering and Construction Management;
Operations Support, which also includes the county's three airports;
June 16, 2022
Page 76
and over the last year we welcomed Public Transit and Neighborhood
Enhancement back to the Transportation Department.
PT&E oversees multiple municipal services taxing units and
both the fixed route and para transit systems.
With me today I have Mr. Gene Shue, our Director of
Operations Support.
Transportation Management services department currently
employs just under 300 staff members who dedicate their
professional lives to supporting the vision of this board as directed by
our County Manager.
Our funding sources are very diverse between utilizing tourist
development funds, grants, ad valorem, gas taxes, impact fees, as
well as the infrastructure sales surtax. This supports our roughly
$289 million total budget which breaks down to $97 million in
operating and $192 million of capital.
In this budget we have requested three additional staff members
to be added to our team. The first is a maintenance specialist within
our Traffic Operations section. They will be able to perform locates
for our fiber-optic network that's critical for our continued operations
of our traffic management center. Without that fiber-optic network,
I would not be able to stop Commissioner McDaniel at every traffic
light.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I have a big truck.
MS. SCOTT: We know.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And I tried to get Tabatha Butcher
to give me one of those little thingies that will turn the light green
when I'm coming up to it, but she won't do it.
MS. SCOTT: Well, sir, you can get one, but you can't program
it without me.
The second is an inspector for our stormwater section of road
maintenance. And as you will remember, during our recent
June 16, 2022
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workshop, I advised that stormwater is where it's at, and that's where
this employee will be.
Our Capital Project planning team has been working to recover
several critical ditches such as the Goodlette-Frank Road ditch,
corporate flight, and the new Freedom Park bypass, to name a few.
These areas are critical to the overall stormwater management
system, and continued maintenance and upkeep are imperative to
maintain water quality and flood control.
The third and final expanded request is for a line tech for the
Marco Island Executive Airport. The new terminal facility was a
significant expansion over the previous facility as well as the recently
completed addition of 11 commercial hangar facilities constructed by
a private entity.
With the completion of these improvements, we are seeing
increases in activity at the airport. As an example, our fuel sales are
up 50 percent since we opened the new terminal building. This line
technician is critical for continued safe and efficient airport
operations.
We prioritize maintenance activities by utilizing our county's
award-winning asset management team. We're continuing on the
prior year's efforts of carrying forward an aggressive stormwater
capital program which includes partnering with both the City of
Naples and Collier County Public Utilities to leverage our funds for
cohesive projects. And as discussed at the last Metropolitan
Planning Organization meeting, an additional value add that we are
incorporating is planning for future sidewalks for these projects and
incorporating them into the design to ensure that our improvements
today do not preclude the construction of sidewalks in the future.
These projects include Palm River, West Goodlette Phase 2, and the
Brookside area of Harbor and Holiday Lane.
We're going to continue to prepare several other major capital
June 16, 2022
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projects for construction, such as Pine Ridge Road, Airport Road, and
Collier Boulevard, while continuing a variety of bridge projects,
intersection improvements, roadway enhancements, and bus stops.
And, in fact, this year Public Transit and Neighborhood Enhancement
will procure and install infrastructure to support the county's first
all-electric Collier Area Transit bus.
The department's strategic focus remains on preserving our
infrastructure as we respond to this growth period where the demand
for new capital project execution is accelerated.
The department continues to anticipate challenges such as
supply chain delays, project cost inflation, and a stressed labor force;
however, we will continue to focus on scrutinizing bids, diligently
managing our contractors, and maintain tight fiscal controls which
have allowed many of our capital projects to be completed early and
under budget.
All the divisions have met the budget guidance outlined by
County Manager's Office and the Board.
And with that, I'll close my comments, and Mr. Shue and I are
here for questions. One minute over.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: That's all right. We won't dock
your pay. You're doing an amazing job. I can't -- I know my
colleagues share this opinion, but you have stepped in and just done
an amazing job.
MS. SCOTT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You and yours. Again, there's
292 people over there that you're going like this with, and thank you
to you both. I mean, all of us have had positive -- had positive
circumstances happen because of you and yours; you and yours.
Commissioner Taylor, I jumped in front of her, but I just wanted
to say that.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you very much.
June 16, 2022
Page 79
One question, Ms. Scott. If you could please repeat in detail the
stormwater description for the Brookside. The neighbors are very
concerned. I wrote an email yesterday talking about Harbor Lane,
and they need specifics. So if you could do that right now, I'd
appreciate it, and just get it on the record, the streets involved with
the stormwater improvements of Brookside. Thank you.
MS. SCOTT: Yes, ma'am. That is within Brookside.
Specifically we've been working on Harbor and Holiday Lane within
the Brookside area. We are partnering with the City of Naples
Public Utilities to also upgrade the utilities within that area, just as
we do with many of our other stormwater projects, as well as
working very closely with the neighborhood with regard to
installation of a sidewalk and as well as a recent request from the
neighborhood for us to go back and see if we could get other utilities
such as Florida Power and Light and Comcast on board with also,
perhaps, relocating the infrastructure while we have the roadway
opened up.
So we are going back and doing that at the request of the
community. And construction is anticipated for the next fiscal year.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And I'm going to say it out loud:
We're not in a rush today. I mean, we have all day and tomorrow
appropriated for these budget hearings, so I don't want anybody to
misconstrue what we're going on here. So I just stated early that we
are going to go at 1:00 with the constitutionals as advertised, and
we'll bring back the rest afterwards.
So any other questions for Transportation?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you again, both of you.
MS. SCOTT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: All right.
June 16, 2022
Page 80
MR. FINN: Ready to go on?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Well, I don't know. I want to talk
to my colleagues and see if they want to have a leisurely lunch and
come back and wrap up the rest after we're done with the
constitutionals or if you want to work on here a little bit until --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I mean, if we broke now and
then we started at 1:00 with the constitutionals, it just seems like that
sort of makes sense.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: How do you all feel about that?
Commissioners Solis?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's fine.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Saunders? Do you want to keep
working, or do you want to grab a bite?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Either way. I really don't
have a preference. Whatever, Mr. Chairman, you want to do is fine
by me.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Who do we have next?
MR. FINN: Next would be the Public Utilities Department.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: That's going to be a minute, I
would imagine.
MR. FINN: Okay. Well, if I could ask Dr. Yilmaz and
Ms. Curry to come up. Very good.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Do you want to --
MS. PATTERSON: Or if your preference is you want to knock
out another small one before we go to lunch.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Let's do that. Because we're
going to have some questions for you. We're going to have some
questions for you. Let's do one more, and then will take lunch break.
How about that?
DEBT SERVICES
June 16, 2022
Page 81
MS. PATTERSON: Next up would be Debt Service, so that
will be a good one to end with before lunch.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: That would be a great one.
MS. PATTERSON: Sorry. I'm giving Mr. Finn a run here to
juggle his things here by changing order constantly. Apologies.
MR. FINN: Appreciate it.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And you can just do it right from
there, Ed, if you want to.
MR. FINN: I appreciate that. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Amy.
Debt Service. We touched on Debt Service a little bit earlier in
the overview. We're in a good position debt service wide. We
talked about the capacity.
In 2010, when Mr. Isackson became the county budget director,
he focused a lot of attention on the debt portfolio. In 2008, the total
portfolio was $788 million in principal debt. Today that amount is
644-. That's a reduction of about $144 million, and that includes
issuing about $216 million of debt during that period as well.
In FY '23, the all-in debt service on an annual basis is
$66.5 million. On the utilities side -- so that would be all-in. That
would be both the enterprise debt and the governmental debt. On the
utilities side, it's about 25 million. On the general government side,
it's about $41 million.
The average all-in net interest across the portfolio has dropped
from 5 percent in '08 to about 3 percent today; substantial, substantial
savings. And as I had mentioned before, I'll mention it again, we're
well within our 13 percent policy cap on debt. We're well positioned
to deal with the challenges we have coming up in '23, including
funding, funding for some transportation network issues, as well as
some of the major, major -- setting us up with major projects going
June 16, 2022
Page 82
into the future; the Go BP (phonetic) job, and any other jobs that may
come along.
So right now we're working on resolutions to get us -- get us
sufficient capacity on commercial paper to deal with these funding
issues that haven't reached the economic quantity to allow us to go to
bonding, that allow us to accumulate that on the commercial paper,
and then set us up to go to a bond when we have something that's
properly sized.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. FINN: So if there are no questions --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have a quick question. So
you were saying under Mr. Isackson, you know, we had debt headed
in the right direction. It dropped, you know, by a significant
amount. What's your master plan to have that continue to go in that
direction? I mean, barring any unforeseen -- you know, I mean,
there's always things that have a go in the wrong direction because of
unforeseen emergencies. But what would you say, Mr. Finn, is, you
know, our master plan? If you're sitting here a year from now and
we have nothing that popped up and surprised us, what do you
foresee is our track?
MR. FINN: I'm going to try to give you a thoughtful answer.
When it comes to debt funding in government, there's two primary
schools of thought. One school of thought is pay for it now. You
burden the current users of that service for facilities that are going to
be in place for 30 years; that is a philosophy that exists. There's
another philosophy, and that says you bond the money so that as
people are using or benefiting from those, they're paying for it
incrementally --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Absolutely.
MR. FINN: -- and the next incremental user is paying their
share of it as it comes along.
June 16, 2022
Page 83
My philosophy is a little bit of both. I suspect that as we deal
with the transportation projects that are coming out and some of the
other things that we need to get done, including some of the
replacement of assets, I suspect that our total debt is going to grow a
little bit, but it's going to stay well within our capacity to handle and
well within the Board's policy on debt.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. And that's what I
wanted to hear. I mean, everybody up here understands you carry
debt for a variety of reasons. It's not a negative thing. You don't
always brag about, like, oh, we paid for it all now or debt zero. But
you said exactly what I was hoping to hear, which is, we're in the
sweet spot. You know, we're managing it properly, so it will shift a
little bit here and there, but we do it for a very specific reason. So
okay. I appreciate it. That's what I had hoped to hear.
MR. FINN: And I appreciate that question. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Very good.
MR. FINN: Very good.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: All right. Let's go have a bite to
eat. We'll be back at 1:00.
MR. FINN: Thank you, sir.
(A luncheon recess was had from 12:08 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.)
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You had your back to me when I
was beating the gavel.
MS. PATTERSON: I know. I was distracted. You have
a -- Commissioners and Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good afternoon, everybody.
Good afternoon, good afternoon. I think we're going to -- we are, as
advertised, going to go to our constitutional officers, and the first one
is?
June 16, 2022
Page 84
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. The first one would be Supervisor of
Elections.
MS. EDWARDS: Good afternoon.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good afternoon. How about a
smile? You were looking -- you got your -- okay, okay. That's
better. There's the Jennifer we all know and love.
MS. EDWARDS: For the record, my name is Jennifer
Edwards. I am honored to serve as the Supervisor of Elections for
Collier County. And to my left is Melissa Blazier. She is the chief
deputy of the elections office.
You have seen the packet for our budget. Just a high-level
explanation: Our budget has increased approximately
$600,000 -- and two things: We have a general election in this
budget and, as you know, general elections have higher turnout. So
we'll have more workers and more supplies, et cetera.
And I want to brag and remind you that in the 2020 general
election, we had a 90 percent turnout, the largest in the state. So
we're hopeful that will happen again, that we'll have a larger turnout.
The other thing that we've done in this budget is we
implemented the new pay plan that the County Manager's Office
implemented. And thank you for that.
So those are my two comments. Do you have any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Taylor, is she back
with us?
MR. MILLER: I do not -- yes, but she does not have her hand
raised.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. FINN: Mr. Chairman, if I may, I don't know if -- I'm
June 16, 2022
Page 85
hoping all the board members have had an opportunity to visit
Ms. Edwards' building. Ms. Edwards' building is one of the nicer
buildings in our inventory, and if you haven't been there, I would
urge you to get an invitation and make your way over there.
MS. EDWARDS: Thank you. And we are so proud of our
facility, and thank you, all.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely.
MS. EDWARDS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you. Thank you for all that
you do. Good luck. I'll be seeing you soon.
MS. EDWARDS: Yes. Thank you for being willing to serve
as the chair of the upcoming canvassing board.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I'm the chair? I thought the judge
was the chair.
MS. EDWARDS: Well, that's true. He is the chair. But
because you're chair of this --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I'm the chair of this -- I'm the chair
here.
MS. EDWARDS: -- of this esteemed board.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You scared me. I thought I was
going to have to be in charge of that one, too.
MS. EDWARDS: The chair of the Board of County
Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And I am now certified to
recognize proper signatures.
MS. EDWARDS: Oh, good.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes. I got my little --
MS. EDWARDS: You got your certificate?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes.
MS. EDWARDS: That's important.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Did you do that yet?
June 16, 2022
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MS. EDWARDS: And thank you, Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm almost there.
MS. EDWARDS: Well, I haven't completed it either, but I
will.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I was just waiting for you to
finish it before I did mine.
MS. EDWARDS: Oh, okay. Well, I will. But thank you for
being willing to be the alternate, Commissioner Saunders.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes.
MS. EDWARDS: And I believe we have Commissioner
LoCastro --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I was going to say, what --
MS. EDWARDS: -- as an alternate.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Have you done yours yet?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, the training?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I'm close.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you, both.
MS. EDWARDS: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes.
CLERK OF COURT
MR. FINN: Mr. Chairman, the next constitutional up is
Ms. Kinzel, Clerk of the Circuit Court. She'll be accompanied by
Raymond Milum and Derek Johnssen.
MS. KINZEL: Good afternoon. Thank you. A little bit
closer. Thank you for the opportunity.
I want to start out by saying thank you to the county staff, the
budget office, as usual but, most importantly, all department heads.
June 16, 2022
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I want to congratulate Ms. Patterson, and I want to look forward to a
great working relationship with this board and the staff. I think in
the most recent months it's been exceptional. And I don't want to
jinx it, so I'll stop with that. But I look forward to working with
everyone. I think that staff is enthused and encouraged to do
improvements, and we're willing to work with you and help them in
anything they need to have done.
For this year's budget, as with the Supervisor of Elections, we
provided you a rather large book of all the detail of our operations
and our requests. While the Clerk's Office is 216 positions total for
2023, this board funds with your transfer only 98 of those positions.
There are 118 positions non-court, but the Clerk's Office provides the
funding through fees and fines for the Recording Department mostly,
but we offset the costs that would come to the Board as a transfer
amount with those earned revenues.
We are asking for two additional positions. One of those is
with our Inspector General Office. Back in 2008, our office had an
in-the-field construction and contracting person that tried to validate
and go to some of the larger projects and validate the progress on
those projects for financial statement purposes. We have not had
that lately, and I think it's sorely missing from our operational
process to make sure that the financial statements are as good as they
should or could be. So I would like to add that one.
And then also one of the positions is for the recording function.
We're seeing 55,000 pages per month in recording. So when you
heard about the permitting and the processing and you heard -- and
you're well aware of the growth in Collier County -- all of that goes
through our office.
And one of the things I wanted to do, not so much for you,
because I think all of you probably do appreciate or understand what
the Clerk does, but much of the public does not. And following all
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these other departments is kind of a great opportunity to bring that
out, because your Clerk's Office is kind of the backroom, so to speak,
of all of the operations. We serve as your Clerk to the Board. We
handle your minutes and records. We handle the processing for the
Value Adjustment Board processes. We pay all the bills for the
county. We do the investment according to your investment policy.
We prepare all the debt and financial reporting for the financial
statements of the county.
Derek's office in finance, we've handled those -- everything, the
custody of cash. We do all the bank reconciliations. We do all
those backroom accounting services through our accounting staff.
We also do audit, and -- but the Clerk to the Board is only one of
about the third of our processes because, as you heard initially this
morning, the courts. So the Clerk to the Courts, while you don't
fund those positions, we fund with the state -- and at the end I will
make a request -- but we service the courts by all the evidence
retention, custody of all their records, evidence. We process all the
docket information, all the orders. We handle all their fines, fees,
and remit to the state. So those processes are another great portion
of the Clerk's Office.
Then in addition, as I mentioned, the recording function. We're
the keeper of records going back to 1923 when the county was
created.
One of the things that we want to do moving forward is the back
recording or back scanning of all of those records. Right now our
records go back in recording to about 1981. Prospectively, when we
were able to scan and make them available digitally, we were able to
try to go back to 1923 and, as you can imagine, that's an incredible
task.
So we have procured an external company to come and assist us
with that back scanning and indexing to make the records even more
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available historically online.
But we have a pretty robust website. We will be launching that
this summer, a redo of the website, to give more information to the
public and help them be able to access as much as we possibly can
electronically.
Two other major component projects that I have to mention, as
they're meeting right now regarding the -- I want to say -- upgrade of
our SAP financial systems, and that impacts all of your staff,
everything countywide. We have had to upgrade the back platform
as well as we will be adding functionality, including, before I ever
retire, time and attendance. While we have a system of time and
attendance, we certainly can upgrade that and give more data and
information to track individual time, give your managers better tools
to manage, we're really looking forward -- well, I can't say they're
looking forward to the implementation. They'll stab me for that,
because it is a monumental task.
As you can imagine, each of your departments has financial
statements, whether it be for Domestic Animal Services, the libraries,
Utilities, all of that feeds to your main financial system, which is
SAP, so that we can prepare the financial information and reporting
for you, for the Clerk and the Board.
The other constitutionals also prepare their financial information
and submit that, and we consolidate all of that to the award-winning
financial statements that you see each year.
What we want to improve, I mentioned that. One of the other
things is the jury system. The jury system has, unfortunately, been
antiquated. You may or may not be aware; the courts want to add
two additional courtrooms. That is a good opportunity to better
serve our jurors as they come into the building. We've been working
with staff to improve the parking situation within the parking garage.
We're working with them to improve signage for the people coming
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to this campus, but mostly we're going to improve their accessibility
to the information, whether they're being called, filling out forms.
They can do all of that before they ever get here, and then we will be
able to manage those jurors, we think, more efficiently.
And as Chuck Rice pointed out, we are one of the very few
counties in the state of Florida, we did not shut our offices during
COVID. Because of e-filing and e-recording, our office stayed open
and was very robust in our activity with the things that were changing
hands and could be done remotely.
So those are the things to kind of update you on where we are
and what we're doing and what we're asking.
The transfer is an increase of 768,000 in our request primarily
due to the pay plan. And I do also want to thank you. Obviously,
we were behind market considerably. We followed the pay plan as
initiated by the county. We did not incorporate funds for Phase 2,
but the budget office is aware of that, and we will certainly work with
them to minimize the impact wherever we can with what we need to
do from the pay plan and to keep our people current.
We are experiencing the same lack of staff as everyone else.
The pay plan did help. We have 15 new employees starting within
the next two weeks, so it has enhanced our ability to recruit. As with
other department's statements, obviously, they're new people, so you
have all those training elements for everything that we do from
accounting to courts. The majority of our vacancies are in courts
right now.
And that will be the last thing I would please ask your support.
I might be coming back for lobby assistance. Right now Collier
County is a donor county. There are about 22 counties in the state of
Florida that help support the rest -- out of the 67. We routinely
contribute over a million dollars. And that sounds, oh, great, we're
making great money, but they continue to cut our budget here locally
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even though we are the fastest growing -- one of the five fastest in
cost of living, we need a new legislative construct for the distribution
of wealth.
We have things that we need to do here in Collier County with
the court funds that we generate and we earn, and right now they
reduce our budget and force us to send additional money that is then
distributed to other counties.
I don't know how those counties operate. I do know that we've
tried to be lean and mean, as they say. We have reduced our court
staff by almost half. Again, not a funding issue of you other than the
service to our community. We need to keep Collier County's funds
at Collier County.
I've made that known to our legislative delegation over the last
couple of years hoping that something would be approved by the
legislature, but we're in the third year, and you're seeing
significant -- we had 22 clerks statewide change. A lot of it is due to
the budget and our inability to keep doing what we need to do to
serve the public with the amount of funds that they've been giving us.
And it's particularly frustrating to me to continue to earn sufficient
funds and submit a balanced budget and have it reduced so that our
revenues go elsewhere.
So any help you can support with that, I really would appreciate
it, and the opportunity to just make that public, because a lot of
people don't understand our funding sources and how we operate.
But with that, we're here for questions. I shouldn't ask that,
though. I heard everyone else that said "are there any questions?"
got them, but go ahead.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You're correct.
MS. KINZEL: Go ahead.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Just when you -- as a suggestion,
one of the things I would like to really see happen -- the accountants
June 16, 2022
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in the room will understand -- debits on the left and credits on the
right. Establish a credit system so that when a contribution comes
from one county to another, there's a mechanism of some sort of a
debt instrument to be able to pay that back when future revenues
come to that municipality. Not to discuss it today. Just debits on
the left; credits on the right. And we'll talk further.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: A couple questions and
comments. So based on your last comment about how we donate
money to other counties that possibly the inference here is maybe
they're not as efficient, so we're getting penalized. How can we help
you with that? So it's one thing to just say, we look for your support.
You have it. So what can we do, specifically?
MS. KINZEL: Primarily, I would like to work with John
Mullins on the legislative approach, and we're also looking at several
of the clerks. Obviously, the majority of the donor clerks -- we're
not in the worst situation. We're at about 1.2 million over the last
year, but Orange County, for example, contributes 11 million, and
they have told her to go back to her commissioners for funding.
And she said, wait, how can I go back to my taxpayers and my
commissioners and ask for money when you're taking 11 million of
ours?
So I do have some other clerks on board, but it will primarily be
through a legislative action of the restructuring of the Clerk of Courts
corporation that was established by the legislature so that they do not
sweep.
I have a contention regarding the -- without getting into the
weeds, but there's some statutory -- there's some statutory language
that requires every clerk, each clerk in each county, to provide a
balanced budget. That's not occurring, obviously.
We are supplementing other people's balanced budgets, and
June 16, 2022
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while we've lived within all of the reductions that we've received over
past years since Article V, it is now harmful --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MS. KINZEL: -- to support our courts.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well, keep us posted on that.
I mean, Mr. Mullins represents us with a very strong position in
Tallahassee. So as you're making progress or if you get feedback
otherwise, I know that all of us would be interested in hearing that.
Like you said, your office sort of does a whole bunch of
different -- sometimes what seems like totally unrelated things. I
just want to tell you -- and it's not necessarily related to the budget,
but just to get it on the record here. I think one of the things that you
provide all of us as commissioners is really a strong, fresh set of eyes
to the agenda before every Board of County Commissioner meeting.
And I know that I just really appreciate the deep dive that you do, the
questions that you type on there for us to consider and whatnot.
That's very valuable. So I would say continue that.
I was really -- I don't want to say encouraged. I'd say I was
impressed by the last time you and I spoke, and I said how are things
going with, you know, our current leadership in the County
Manager's Office? And you were very complimentary of making
some headway on some things that maybe over the years stalled or
fell on deaf ears, or you were the last office to be called, or you were
never called. You were very complimentary about, you know, both
Ms. Patterson and Mr. Rodriguez in saying that, you know, that the
relationship is really -- has really connected in a way that maybe it
hasn't before.
So, you know, we look for that to continue and to, you know,
utilize the expertise we have of your team and their team to, you
know, make us all better. But, you know, you provide a very
important service to all of us, and I would hope that our County
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Manager's Office would see the value in that and, by your words in
my office, that -- I don't want to say "for once it's happening," but
you said a lot of positive things that certainly I liked hearing. So
thank you.
MS. KINZEL: Well, thank you. And I initially started that
summary for our own use so that we would be able to track assets,
track everything that we need to track that was happening in the
county, but then I thought, why am I not sharing that and sharing it
with management? We've made great headway in either pulling
some items and digging deeper, making sure that what comes to you
is probably the best we can get it. It may not mean that we never
have a comment to you as a commissioner, but certainly I think it's
built the relationship that we're trying to be constructive, not critical.
And the same with our audits; my goal is not to be gotcha or
critical. It is to identify where we all need to do better. And so I
hope it's taken that way. I think it is now. And so I look forward to
making great improvements. But thank you for the comments.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Sure.
MS. KINZEL: And I can't take that credit. As I said, I want to
thank my staff. These guys are great. They've been doing this for a
long, long time; 23 years, 24 years.
MR. JOHNSSEN: Twenty-five.
MS. KINZEL: Twenty-five years. I've been with the Sheriff
and here 30-some years. So we do have a good history. And if
people want to access that information, really, we welcome that.
And last thing I'll leave you -- I gave each one of you a PAFR.
Again, this is to compliment the Finance Department. This is the
first one produced by our county. It is a public -- Public Annual
Financial Report -- or popular -- Popular Annual Financial Report.
I'll get the acronym. It is to bring down all that we do and the
massive numbers and everything that we -- hopefully in a way that
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the citizens can see very clearly what we are doing on their behalf.
So as the first one, I welcome any comments. We've asked that
also of the public, and we hope to continue that, and we also hope to
get the GFOA award for standards, because we try to benchmark
everything that we do with our budget and with our financial
statements type of accreditation.
We have been awarded on the court side, again that you don't
fund, but I have to brag a little bit, as Chuck Rice indicated -- and
thank him very much for that. Working together with our partners,
we were the first county in the state to be able to meet the uniform
case reporting required by the legislature, so that's with Collier.
And, again, with that cut court budget, we were able to do that.
The legislature seems to continue to give us every type of
project data transparency and, of course, that causes system changes
for all 67 clerks in the state. So I was on the legislative committee
with the association. I think I'm on four other committees this time,
including budget. So I'm working from the inside out to try to
remedy some of our shortfalls, to make sure that Collier stays
stronger in what we're doing.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you.
MS. KINZEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Appreciate you all coming.
MR. FINN: Very good, Mr. Chairman.
SHERIFF
MR. FINN: Sheriff Rambosk and his team are up next.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good afternoon.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good afternoon, sir.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you for the opportunity to be
here and give you our annual update of highlights and, more
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importantly, talk about the budget for the future.
Now, this morning, as I was listening to you talk about the
community and what goes into that, it's important that we, as well as
you, are a part of the health, general welfare, and quality of life of
Collier County. And we talked a little bit about your support for law
enforcement. And I am going to recognize you and thank you for
the years of support that you have given us, but I always do that.
So, in fact, you have never wavered in your strong support for
law enforcement to keep our citizens safe. That's critically important
for everyone in this community to understand, because we can't do it
without your support, without the community's support. So in light
of that, I'm going to award and recognize each of you with an
identification badge and a coin thanking you for your support.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: How about that?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can I pull over speeders with
that, Colonel Bloom? Is that --
COLONEL BLOOM: No.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I want to know what the
authority is with this badge. Can I do anything?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: More importantly, can we
avoid getting tickets?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: How nice.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I was actually looking -- I was
looking at your star on your lapel today, and I was like, how nice.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Deputy Sheriff LoCastro.
As soon as I walk out this door, I'll be looking for all of you out on
U.S. 41, starting with you, Bloom. Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: All right. So a point of clarification
with that.
June 16, 2022
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COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's probably good.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Everybody wants one. By accepting
that, obviously you are accepting to work always and live within the
law and the Constitution, which I know you do. So, no, don't whip it
out if you get pulled over. You could try.
I'd like to thank the new County Manager and welcome her,
although she has been here for a long time and providing a lot of
great support to us and to this community.
I want to thank Mark Isackson who has done a fabulous job for
us up until this point and, really, each and every department of the
county -- because we work with all of them, and we have a
tremendous amount of programming. And I'm going to let each of
them know, without their help we would not be able to do the safety
prevention programming in this community that we are able to do, so
we thank you for that.
Most importantly, I want to thank each and every member of the
Collier County Sheriff's Office for their outstanding work, their
professionalism, their compassionate, their courageous acts. I want
to recognize them for putting -- them putting their lives on the line
each and every day.
And to give you just one example of that, as we were sitting in
here this morning, we received a call of a suicidal subject inside a
Walmart with a weapon slicing themselves up. They responded,
they did every deescalation action that they could in a matter of
seconds, unfortunately, because it was in progress, and they were
able to take that person into protective custody without further injury
to them or deputies.
That is a testament to everything they do each and every day,
and I thank them for it, personally. And this is my opportunity to
thank our members in public on the record, and I'm doing that this
morning.
June 16, 2022
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I brought with us some of our members today, and I'd like to
recognize them. Colonel Bloom is with us, Chief Spell, Chief
Middlebrook, Director Estes, and Director Driscoll.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Did Esties draw the short straw
back there? What's up with that?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We ran out of seats, but we all know
who's in charge.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Agreed.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well, both Stephanie and Dara are in
charge.
You know, our duty is simple and straightforward: Preserve
and protect the lives, property, and constitutional guarantees of all
persons. That's it.
So you might then ask, well, okay, Sheriff, so how well have
you done? Crime and safety is paramount. You've made it that
way. Our community expects it that way. And in 2021, again, we
have the lowest recorded crime rate in our history. Moreover, 2021
versus 2020, we were down 27.6 percent in Part 1 UCR crimes.
That is a fabulous place to be, and that is a credit to all of our
members and this community working together to hold down crime,
because we all do it together.
Now, this is the last year UCR will be in place, so we're going
out with a bang, pretty much. But we are looking at -- not we.
Nationally, they are looking at a new system called NIBRS. It's a
National Internet-based Reporting System. It is going to increase the
number of incidents that are reviewed, recorded, and reported. So
from this day forward, we're going to maintain the old UCR system,
but we're going to get into the NIBR system. And, by the way, like
almost everything else we do, we've been working with FDLE at the
state level, and we were the only agency to be compliant with NIBRS
this coming year, because it was supposed to be put in place this year.
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Nobody else is there. And, in fact, they're referring agencies to call
us to find out what the system's all about.
We're all learning, because it is very, very different, and -- but
we're going to keep both of those systems in place just so that we
know where we're at.
This year we implemented a new unified policing strategy. The
colonel leads that effort. And we had already expanded what we
look at, and we included traffic besides, because we have such an
interest in traffic safety.
So, you know, our deputies engage in heroic acts each and every
day. And if you look at the last 12 to 18 months, which is how we
keep our records, they were directly involved in over 100 actions that
saved lives of people who live in our community from drowning to
overdosing, traumatic emergency events, AED use for heart attack.
And you already know that Collier County is a heart-safe community
that was put in place by Dr. Tober and EMS years and years ago.
That pays for itself over and over and over. And, you know, we
wouldn't be able to do what we do unless we had a fabulous EMS
system and fire rescue support, because they are there with us on
each and every one of those calls.
In this past year, I've recognized 24 people with command
recognitions, 16 with team work awards, but probably one of the
more important awards is called the gallantry star, and I've awarded
10 of them this year, and it's for deputies who distinguish themselves
in the line of duty with their courage in the face of personal hazard to
save someone else's life.
They are not given out very often, but in this particular time, we
have gone into submerged vehicles; we have gone into burning
buildings. We don't want to do that; fire rescue's supposed to do
that. But when there's a life to be saved, they are going to go in.
They have and they will.
June 16, 2022
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So we've received many, many other awards and recognitions
I'm not even going to go over, but I'll tell you from state, local, and
national records, as we've mentioned to you over the years, we
continue to be a leader in law enforcement and corrections
throughout the state and the nation. I can tell you that. I speak with
the National Sheriffs Association around the country as well as
around the state, and with your support and the talent we have, we
have grown into an organization that I will put up against any -- any
in the nation right here in Collier County.
We often get asked, well, you know, do you use best practices?
Absolutely, we do. In fact, we have seven accrediting agencies and
commissions that review policies, procedures but, more importantly,
practice, how you do it from the national to the state level. And we
believe in it, we've been doing it for a long time, and we continue to
increase it.
Two of the things that have been recognized recently is there
was a mock prison riot in Moundsville. And our corrections team
won it. So that demonstrates that we're equipping, training, and that
we have the most professional people to respond to emergencies.
Our tactical teams went out and won first place and second place
up at MacDill Air Force Base on tactical emergency response. It's a
statewide contest. They won first and second place. That's how
talented your deputies in this community are.
Well, what about those who respond each and every day? Well,
last year, almost 200,000 calls of a Priority 1 or 2 were responded to
by our deputies. A Priority 1 or 2 is in-progress crimes, medical
emergencies, suicidal persons. So each and every deputy that's out
there is contributing to the safety of this community and responding
in a way that you would be proud. And I will tell you that I am
completely proud of the way they respond.
So there's one more, and it really has to do with school safety.
June 16, 2022
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And it's not yet an overview yet, because I have a little bit of that, but
the largest school safety conference in the nation will be held in
Orlando in July, and the School Safety Advocacy Council will be
there, and they are going to award the Collier County Sheriff's Office
the award of excellence for their innovative, unique, and effective
threat management program.
So I just wanted to read to you what they said rather than what
we said. Here is the statement. The Collier County Sheriff's Office
is leading the way when it comes to school safety initiatives, and
their program is a model for law enforcement across the nation to
learn from and to incorporate into their own school violence
prevention initiatives, the School Safety Advocacy Council. That is
a fabulous recognition.
But, you know, the more important part of all of that is doing
everything in our power to prevent an event of any kind occurring,
particularly on our school grounds. And there are a lot of things that
we do with that. Our Youth Relations deputies work it each and
every day, and they do an absolutely fabulous job. So we'll be
accepting that award in a few weeks, and we are very proud to accept
that.
We continue to have community engagement and partnerships at
the level that we have strong community support, because we are a
leading contemporary law enforcement agency, and we work hard at
it every day. One, to earn the trust of the community and of you;
and the other, to move into the future and build it even better than we
have it today.
We do have some challenges. You've talked about them all
day. Recruitment and retention of professional law enforcement
officers that we want to hire and work in Collier County, because I'll
tell you, not everybody gets a chance to do that. We are very
selective, and, you know, the entry selection process often leads to
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the other end of not much to do with regard to correcting behavior if
necessary. So we put a lot of time and a lot of effort into that.
Obviously, growth of the community, all of those impacts we're
facing, just like you are. But, you know, the bottom line here
is -- and I know you are, too, but I'm committed to ensuring that our
deputies have the equipment, the training, the support, and the
leadership that's necessary to move forward, because we're growing.
Everybody knows who we are. Everybody wants to come here. We
welcome people, but we want to keep it as safe as possible.
And as part of that, we need to provide competitive
compensation to our deputies to get them through this economic
crisis of today as well as being able to do that in the future. And
that's really -- you know, when I prepared the certification letter to
you, we took all that into account. We knew we were facing future
economic issues and crisis problems with regard to hiring and people
that are unable to live here.
I'm going to tell you, from my perspective, if we're going to
recruit and select the best, I want them to be able to live in Collier
County if they're going to protect Collier County. It's getting very,
very difficult to do.
But my request incorporates an adjustment to help change that,
and it's fully annualized in the budgetary request. And we thought
we were doing well until the rest of the economic fallout and crisis
came because, as you know, we're in it again.
So just to make you aware, I am putting in a request for a budget
amendment to consider your approval for using our funds, our budget
funds, our reserves, because I want to move up that increase from
October until July 1st. I think our members deserve it. They've
stuck with us when times were really tough, they did a fabulous job,
and now times are tough for them.
So with that, I have one last thing, and you are absolutely a part
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of this, a key part of this, and that's really about the quality of life in
Collier County, which you have done such a fabulous job with. And
you want to know why? It's not me saying that, necessarily,
although I think you have. U.S. News and World Report said it two
weeks ago, let the world know -- out of 150 metropolitan areas,
through an analytical evaluation, placed and recognized and ranked
Naples and Collier County in a variety of areas: Twelfth best place
to live; ninth fastest growing. I'm not sure I like that much; fourth
best place to live for quality of life; second best place to retire;
second best place within Florida to live. That's saying something;
and, of course, my favorite, our favorite, number one safest
community.
We're here if you have questions. Thank you very much for all
of your support.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely. Thank you, sir.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir. Just a
couple of quick things. So NIBRS is replacing UCR, correct?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And we're going to keep both
online until we wean ourself off of UCR?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Across the state -- and this is
really just maybe spitball or guestimate, not putting you on the spot.
I know we lead the way in technology and whatnot, and that's an
example, and maybe I missed it. The other counties across the state,
is it a large percentage that is -- that are exactly where we are on
NIBRS and they're using both and so that, you know, the data
transfer can talk to each other county to county, or is the rest of the
state still playing catch-up and leaning on UCR and slowly
integrating NIBRS?
June 16, 2022
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SHERIFF RAMBOSK: The rest of the state is still catching up.
Most are not on dual systems. And we, our staff, our IT staff,
worked directly with UCR staff to try and implement NIBRS for the
State of Florida, and we were the first to submit live numbers.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Wow. What do you see as a
timeline just going strictly to NIBRS? And, obviously, we're
probably waiting on other counties because we don't want to shut
ours down if they're all still using UCR, but what would be your
guestimate, Sheriff?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well, we were supposed to be in it
already, and we were. We were compliant. I'm guessing a year
from now.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Are they compatible? Do
they talk to each other, or have you really double --
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: No.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's what I figured. So,
really, it's a workload on us to be able to keep both systems updated
and equal, correct?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: It is. But, you know, we're not going
to do it for long. We just want to do it through the transition,
because once we start with the first year full of NIBRS, then the
second year, we'll be able to come and tell you how well we've
performed. So -- but it will be like going back to 1971. But I will
tell you, we are going to build that NIBRS system and show you just
how great your deputies are.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Do you think NIBRS is better
than UCR or just different?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I actually think it's going to be better
for us. I mean, in the unified system that Jim uses for all of the
operations, we always broadened what we looked at. So we didn't
look at just the Part 1 crimes we talked about, any other evolving
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events, traffic. So for us it was really not a big deal, but for some
places it is going to be a huge change.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And in your budget you
already have everything you need IT-wise to keep both systems up
and also NIBRS fully functional, or is there more coming to us?
Because, I mean, obviously, it's a totally different system. Probably
more IT heavy. Do you have what you need?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Very IT heavy. My IT director will
scream when I say I believe we have what we need. But, you know,
you have always told us, if we need something, all we need to do is
come back and present it, and you will review it, you'll do your due
diligence like you do every time, and then give us what we need, and
working with your staff for anything we need. So we don't need it
now, but I suspect we'll learn more about how the system works as
time goes on, and we may very well need that help.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So that's something that's
obviously an improvement, a technology, you know, type of
improvement.
When it comes to body cams, you know, body vest cameras and
whatnot, obviously, we've seen a lot more use of that than we have in
years past, and it sounds like we are fully capable and you have all
the equipment you need.
What do you see is the foreseeable future and future budgets
coming to us? What's sort of on the horizon in law enforcement
that -- you know, a lot of the new things that are on the horizon tend
to be expensive -- I'm sure NIBRS wasn't cheap -- but such is the way
to make sure that we're fully -- you know, we're fully armed and
ready to protect our county. Is there something that your crystal ball
or that in your circle that maybe we're not aware about that you can
give us a little sort of a peek under the tent of some things that are
coming right behind NIBRS and right behind some of these new
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equipment type things that we've already, you know, funded to make
sure we have the best of everything?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: There are a couple of things, but I will
start by saying this: You have allowed us to be so far ahead of what
is coming in the future. We just had one of our members go to the
FBI National Academy and sat through a technology course, and
when they asked who's doing this, it was just us.
So No. 1, we're way, way ahead, but technology will continue to
grow. And we've got some plans coming up in the near future to
utilize that, so that will never go away.
We have a -- we are a leader in technology use, absolute.
Labor -- labor costs I don't think are going to dwindle. In fact, you
know, as we grow we'll come and ask for more positions. I've got
positions included in this, in the budget request we have.
But we have everything that other law enforcement agencies
want to go to. We have -- we just upgraded radio equipment. We
continue to upgrade our CAD system. We are -- in South Florida
we're the only advanced 911 system, 911 live, in that area. We were
the first to text to 911. The first to video to 911. You know, it's
great to go out and make an arrest, but that's not what we want to do.
We want to prevent the incident from occurring. That's how you
lower your crime rate. You enable us to do that.
So technology -- and my biggest, I almost forgot, mental health.
We, along with you, recognized that a long time ago. And you're
going to hear out of Uvalde what some of the problems were. And I
will tell you, there's a violence study that has been done. It's looked
back over the last 50 years of mass casualty incidents, active shooter,
and they're coming up with some not so surprising information and
some surprising information trying to get back to what is causing all
these issues.
So I've already ordered the research report. I've had a brief on
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that already. But we've committed even in addition to what you've
given us, to look back at mental health services, partnership with the
Collier County school system, them enhancing their services, and
what has been put in place since Parkland. Because when you look
around the country, the State of Florida has implemented protections
that many other states have not, and we've gone beyond that with
training and mental health, training for our deputies, training for
principals, teachers, students, providing them equipment.
The Threat Assessment Award we're about to receive is a
multidisciplinary committee that looks actively, proactively at
comments, concerns, behavior well before it gets to the point where
we have to go in and take action, and that's where law enforcement
needs to be. They need to be proactive. They need to be
preventative. They need to intervene and stop it, whether it be in the
schools or out in the street. And that's why we have the great
community we have, with your support.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just as a last follow-up.
We've said here to some other groups, FTEs don't mean people. Do
you have an excessive amount of vacancies in the Sheriff's Office and
out on the street in all the key positions? What kind of report card
can you give us? You know, you're always losing people, like you
say, to other departments that pay more, have a lower cost of living,
or all of the above. What's the report card on your empty seats?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We have, any day, between 20 and 40
vacancies.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Does that seem excessive to
you? Has that caused you concern? Is that a higher number than in
years past?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Any vacancy concerns me, because we
plan on effective law enforcement coverage; however, I will tell you
that our staff, those sitting right here and right here, look at all that
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and ensure that we have what we need to keep everybody safe. You
know, the problem is, we -- like you, we've lost many people to the
housing lottery. End of school comes, and we invariably get a half
dozen to a dozen retirements or resignations. So we're constantly,
constantly trying and actively and successfully recruiting. But, you
know, the environment of law enforcement over the last two years,
the failure of communities to support their law enforcement, is
driving people out of the career field. For us, with our community
support and your support, it is driving many people to want to come
here. But we are only going to hire the people that we believe fit
within our community.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you.
Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. I just want to
clarify. First of all, thank you and thank you to all the men and
women in law enforcement for keeping us safe and making this the
number-one safest community.
You had indicated that you want to roll the pay increases back
from October 1 to July 1.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And so I just want to say that
I'm fully supportive of doing all that. I suspect that the entire board
will be, and so that's -- I guess my question would be, would an
actual payment begin in July 1st, or would it just be in October when
tax collections start coming in that we would pay retroactively?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: It would begin in July, July 1st. Now,
there's a two-week -- just so that -- our people listening, there's a
two-week delay in when they get paid for that. But funding and
starting would begin July 1st.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So that would come out of
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reserves?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes, that would be our request, that
you support coming it out of reserves.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I fully support that. And
I'm saying that so that staff understands that I support it and I think
the rest of the Board would probably agree to that amendment to your
proposed budget.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And I just want to say personally,
thank you.
The -- you know, Commissioner Saunders has spoke regularly
about our school safety program, and you and I went round and round
when I first got elected with regard to the initiatives that you put in
place with cooperative efforts with our superintendent of schools.
The forethinking that was put into that was -- is absolutely amazing.
And I truly believe that it is one of the -- as you said, it's one of the
leading -- leading programs in the country, let alone the state of
Florida, and I personally want to thank you.
As I said, you and I had long discussions about it, because it was
a large amount of money. If I remember correctly, it's close to -- it's
close to 10 million or so.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I think the last -- it would be close to
that, the total program, not what we had asked for to increase it at the
time.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah, no, no, exactly, the total.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And, you know, in scope, what's
the local government's number-one duty, number-one job? Keep our
families and neighborhoods safe, period, the end. So from me to
you, thank you.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And if I could remind those in the
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public that may not have been here when that request was made, you
all supported it --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: -- fully and completely.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Before we go away, the mystery
commissioner who's not here, Commissioner Taylor, has lit up and
would like to make a statement or ask a question.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Sheriff Rambosk, we are in a crisis for housing, and affordable
housing has morphed into that crisis. And so my question to you
would be, how important is affordable housing to your ability to
recruit and retain deputies in your force?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I think I would answer it this way:
Each and every business, each and every organization throughout
Collier County is facing the same thing, and housing is a critical
element for us all to recruit and hire. So, yes, we absolutely need the
support in that. As you're aware -- and you've worked on a lot of
this with regard to there is some housing available. I know you're
working together with the school system.
And I don't know the answer to that, but that's why I'm going to
leave it to you as the Board of County Commission to come up with
that answer. And I say that tongue in cheek but, you know, we were
here in 2008, and we actually had some really good plans from
developers. I don't see them back today to put in that kind of
housing, but we absolutely need housing that our employees, your
employees can afford, and to be able to live in the community that
they serve.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Thank you.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And I have one last thing, because you
asked about -- I think, Mr. Solis, Commissioner Solis, you asked
about recidivism rates.
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Typically, they're done on a three-year cycle. I was able to get
two years together from 2017 to 2019. The new one will be
out -- the new three-year cycle will be out at the end of this year, so
we'll be able to tell you. But just so you have some sense of it.
Drug court recidivism rate was only 15.5 percent. Mental health
court recidivism rate, 9.6 percent. Veterans court recidivism rate,
15.75 percent.
So think about -- if we didn't have those services, think about if
we didn't work together to make that happen, you know, where all
those people would be. They would be in our facility, and it would
cost us a heck of a lot more money and angst than getting them
sufficiently reintegrated into our community. So, yes, they work.
Thank you for your leadership and your support on that.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. And thank you for
championing those courts as well because, yeah, that translates into a
lower crime rate, I'm assuming, too.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Absolutely, it does.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Folks that would be in trouble and
off the street. And so, again, thank you and everyone at the Sheriff's
Office for staying the course with all that. And it's great to see, and
those are amazingly low numbers for any kind of criminal justice
effort, right, I mean, in terms of recidivism?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It's amazing how effective they
are.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: So we're hoping that the new
three-year period will show the same thing. Again, Judge Martin,
fabulous in this effort. I didn't thank CCPS. I absolutely need to
for school safety. We do not do this by ourselves, we know that,
and, of course, thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You were lit up. Did that take
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care of what you wanted?
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, that was it. I just wanted to
say thank you, and it's -- you know, what a return on an investment to
the community for --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Amen.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: -- for getting people back into the
community, back working, supporting families, providing jobs for
other people. It's -- what a return, so thank you.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes, we have an absolutely fabulous
return on investment with regard to our deputies protecting this
community, absolutely fabulous. They do a great job. Thank you
very much.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Again, thank you. Thank all of
you.
MR. FINN: Very good, Mr. Chairman.
PUBLIC UTILITES
MR. FINN: We can circle back around. We can ask
Dr. Yilmaz and Ms. Curry to come up and talk about the Public
Utilities Department.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: None of our other constitutionals
wanted to come and say "good afternoon," I take it. Somebody get
ahold of the Tax Collector and tell him I want him up here. I'm
joking, Rob, if you're listening.
Appreciate your indulgence earlier. You were dutifully coming
forward when it was your turn, and I swayed you off. So I
appreciate you waiting.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you, Commissioner. We're here
24/7/365, so we don't count time. We're always on the watch. We
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appreciate your indulgence.
Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, George
Yilmaz, department head. First, congratulations to Ms. Patterson as
our new County Manager, and she has been partner to us, and we
have made a great, great team in the past. Moving forward, I think
we're going to make exceptional team and put Collier County on the
map as being one of the best-run counties in the state and nation.
Congratulations, ma'am.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you, Dr. George.
DR. YILMAZ: With that, we will provide you a brief overview
of the department budget. And very briefly, our recommended
budget meets the budget guidance established by this board,
including our reserves levels, debt and bond covenant requirements,
and continue to maintain -- most importantly, continue to maintain
Wall Street highest credit ratings from Fitch and Moody's. As
reaffirm, as good news, I want to share with our board, June 9th,
2022, we are still on the top of the game in Wall Street.
And I think that the proposed budget for all Enterprise Funds, as
well as General Fund, will meet the intent of the Board priorities
established by this board as we understood individually and
collectively, and definitely will fulfill expectations of our County
Manager's Office.
With that, I have Amia Curry, our Public Utilities finance
director, will speak to our Enterprise Funds, water/sewer district,
irrigation water quality, and solid waste District 1 and 2, and
hazardous waste management countywide with budget highlights.
That to be followed by Ed Finn, our Office Management & Budget,
addressing General Fund areas, mostly facilities, making sure that we
are here to fulfill Board's expectations on all constitutional and the
county government facilities to be top-notch.
We also have our chief engineer and chief engineering officer
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here. If there are any questions, he's standing by. With that, ma'am,
Amia.
MS. CURRY: Thank you, Dr. Yilmaz.
For the record, Amia Curry, the director of utilities finance for
the Public Utilities Department.
The Water/Sewer District is an enterprise fund. It's fully
funded by fees for services, and it is revenue centric. The
recommended budget achieves an appropriate balance of operating
and capital needs that supports the department mission to provide
regulatory-compliant and life-sustaining services to our customers, to
perform critical asset-management-driven capital maintenance and
replacement, add expanded operational resources needed to meet
mission requirements, and prepare and position the department for
the future.
Water/Sewer District revenues are set using Board-approved
rate adjustments which cover fixed cost, inflationary increases, and
include 4 percent for water, 5 for wastewater, and 9 percent for
irrigation-quality water.
The operating budget of 127.5 million includes 476 FTEs, and
it's set to produce 10 billion gallons of water, treat 8.25 billion
gallons of wastewater, and distribute 5.5 billion gallons of reclaimed
irrigation-quality water.
Expanded requests driven by system and customer growth
include three conversions of contract labor to FTEs, five new FTEs,
and one vehicle.
The Capital Improvement Program of 55 million is focused on
asset-management-driven renewal and replacement of our
$1.5 billion in aging infrastructure.
Unrestricted reserves of 31.1 million represent 58 days of
operating and capital funds.
At the beginning of Fiscal '23, current outstanding debt will be
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approximately $334 million with debt service of 25.5 million in that
year.
The Water/Sewer District is proud to have achieved and
maintained the Triple A rating from both Fitch and Moody's, and we
know you understand that maintaining these investment-grade credit
ratings benefits our ratepayers by allowing utility to borrow at
favorable interest rates when necessary.
Moving to the Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
Division, it is also an Enterprise Fund. It is fully funded by fees for
services, and it maintains no external debt.
Solid waste revenues are set using Board-approved rate
adjustments, which include 3.25 percent for tipping fees, and
2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, for the residential collection
assessment in Collection Districts 1 and 2. These revenues support
operating expenses primarily comprised of costs that are driven by
contracted CPI.
The operating budget of 53.6 million includes 47 FTEs, and it's
set to provide 14.4 million curbside collections, manage about
370,000 tons of municipal solid waste, and operate five major
recycling drop-off centers that dispose of 2.6 million pounds of
household hazardous waste.
Twice-weekly collection of trash and weekly collection of
recycling and yard waste, those services are provided to
approximately 400,000 Collier residents.
Capital program funding of about eight and a half million is
focused on improvements to the Immokalee solid waste facility and
the Resource Recovery Business Park. Unrestricted reserves of
15 million represent 83 days of operating and capital funds, and
restricted reserves for emergency debris removal total 9.8 million.
Now Ed Finn, our Facilities Management director, will speak to
the facilities budget highlights.
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Thank you, Dr. Yilmaz, Ms. Curry. I appreciate it.
Mr. Chairman, pleasure to address you today about facilities
management. I want to tell the Board what a pleasure it is to be a
part of the Public Utilities Department. George provides outstanding
leadership, and it's a pleasure to work over there. I want to thank
him.
Facilities Management's division mission is to deliver the best
value management and maintenance to Collier County facilities and
assets, best-in-class real property services, effective security systems
and security operations, appropriate energy management, timely
capital project delivery, and disaster support to all the agencies in
county government.
The operating budget is about $20 million offset with about a
million dollars in revenue. It includes 93 FTEs, more than 20
contract employees, and an additional 38 contract security
employees.
The responsibilities for almost 50 -- I'm sorry. Almost
five million square feet of space is the responsibility.
I will tell you -- Commissioner LoCastro, you were asking about
vacancies. I'll give you an example. We have four plumbing FTEs,
trades people; three of them are presently vacant, as an example. As
you might imagine, there's a little bit slippage in terms of our delivery
of service as a result of that and other things, both demand -- demand
for service, expanded square footage, and some difficulty in filling
positions.
I'm certainly not going to sit here and tell you that it's a crisis,
because it's not, but it is a challenge. It's a challenge that we will
overcome with your support. But I want to tell you that the
questions you're asking about vacancies versus FTEs are perfectly
legitimate questions.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Have we been going to
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contractors when we had something emergent and maybe didn't have
the plumbing support, you know, which is usually a lot more
expensive, you know, pulling a contractor off the shelf? Has that
been our go-to?
MR. FINN: Yes, absolutely. Most of our services are backed
up, and many of them are directly supported by contract services,
because contract services, as you know, oftentimes are more cost
effective than having personnel on board. So it's a balancing act
between --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Sometimes.
MR. FINN: Sometimes, not always. Well, it depends on the
level of expertise required. The heavy-duty HVAC stuff
is -- typically, the maintenance is handled by a contract.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Absolutely.
MR. FINN: Major, major electrical switch-out is, of course,
handled by an outside contractor, so those kind of things are typically
handled in that way.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MR. FINN: So, in any event, the other question you asked,
Commissioner LoCastro, had to do with vehicles, and I can assure
you that I do have some expanded requests in this budget. A number
of them are hardening or converting some of those contract
employees to FTEs. The reasoning for that is twofold. The first
one is recruitment and retention. We stand a better chance of
recruiting and retaining best talents if they are, in fact, employees
rather than contract people. Within that reason is they have been
contract employees of ours for, in some cases, 10 or 15 years. And
the other -- the other thing is, once they've been around for 10 or 15
years and/or even shorter and we've expended resources to train
them, bring them up to speed, it's kind of a shame to let them go over
a 2 to $3 per hour pay differential and/or the provision of health
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insurance or something to that effect. So it provides -- it provides
that, and it also provides a little bit of a reward for those employees
that have stayed with us for that long and have committed their career
to Collier County thus far.
Interestingly, we have a couple of additions in the project
delivery side, and one of them is a nuts-and-bolts accounting position
that's absolutely required given the workload that we have. An
interesting one, however, is the addition of a planner to provide for
some agency-wide planning capacity, not just for Facilities
Management, but rather for the entire agency, whether it be Parks,
Facilities Management, or whatever.
In any event, project delivery team, $42 million in projects next
year. We've talked about some of them already. Government
operations business park, Golden Gate Golf Course, video -- video
monitoring system. HVAC maintenance, of course, is a very big
one. We have a fair amount of funding this year to get ahead -- a
little bit -- catch up a little bit with some of our parking lot repairs
that are necessary.
We've talked about the Collier County Sheriff's Office projects,
and I managed to provide about $350,000 for some
ADA/accessibility improvements that are sorely needed.
Additionally -- and we might have a chance to talk about
this -- Facilities Management's also responsible for a fair amount of
the project delivery for the sales tax surtax program. A number of
projects are going to continue into '23. The Collier County Sheriff's
Office forensic evidence facility, the Collier mental health facility,
the campus, this campus chiller plant replacement, there's some
funding for DAS replacement, a hurricane enclosure at the ESC.
Some of the other projects that are kind of community interest
projects include the career and technical training center. That's
going to be done in cooperation with the school board. We also
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have some involvement with the Workforce Housing Trust Fund
that's part of the surtax program.
And, lastly, we have some planning and some assessment work
as well as our overlap with the golf course associated with the state
veterans nursing home project.
With that, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you
may have.
And Ms. Patterson has been kind enough to put up what is called
Exhibit A of the surtax ordinance, and that outlines in broad terms the
projects -- the surtax projects. The program overall is 420 million.
I think that's -- I don't have my glasses on. I can't really see it. That
is the right-hand -- right-hand column on the sheet you're looking at.
Towards the bottom is $90 million worth of the
community -- community priority projects, in the middle are kind of
some nuts-and-bolts general Facilities Management projects, and
towards the top is 191 million, excuse me, of Transportation projects.
The Board has seen these. The largest Transportation project up
there is the Vanderbilt Drive extension. It's 70-plus million dollars.
I'll be happy to field any questions on this if there are any.
DR. YILMAZ: And if I might.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
DR. YILMAZ: Commissioners, just to clarify, that
$420 million is what we take in as Collier County Government.
There are pieces all the way to $460 million that cities do get, and
city council decide within their jurisdiction what is best investment
and went through -- like we do, went through our surtax committee
fully televised and fully transparent in terms of validation process.
Currently, we have 23 projects validated, and most of them have
been approved by this board. And I think that not being optimistic
but realistic, next five years we will finish every single project on that
chart.
June 16, 2022
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CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I would concur with that.
Commissioner LoCastro's first.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Mr. Finn, drill down under
hurricane resilience. What are the big things under there? Are we
hardening facilities? What's in that line item?
MR. FINN: There's an effort there for generators and pumps at
lift stations.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. FINN: There's an enclosure that's validated at the existing
ESC.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. You mentioned that,
yeah.
MR. FINN: And I'm a little blind. I think there's actually
$8 million of that that is unvalidated at this point. There was
some -- there has been over the years discussion that that was being
held out in order to be able to provide hardening at various facilities
and/or at a facility, if one is built with local money. So that would
be added to the local money to provide the hardening component.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. The two questions I
had, the $1.4 million East Naples Recycling Drop-Beoff Center,
what's the latest timeline on that either you, Dr. George, or you,
Mr. Finn. Is there -- what can you educate me on when, if, how?
MR. FINN: I'm going to briefly speak to it. The nuts and
bolts I have some sense on the real estate, if you will. There has
been an ongoing effort to find a location for that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MR. FINN: Kari has been working with us pretty steadily and
pushing us along to find a location. We've been through a few
locations. George will be able to tell you how much more time she
has at the airport location. I think there's a little bit of time, but that
is an active on the real estate side.
June 16, 2022
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COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, I get asked that a lot.
And so the 1.4 is a little bit of a guestimate based on, you know,
wherever we find space. But, really, I just was curious, so what's the
latest update? Don't have a location yet but still looking. Any
other, you know, short story to where we are on that project
or -- obviously, it's finding the location first. But then what?
DR. YILMAZ: Yes, Commissioner.
I think East Naples Recycling Center is past due. It starts with
real estate. We're actively looking for best real estate we can find
that is large enough so that we can provide services growing the
community there, not just current. But we've got 6L Farms.
Southeast is our next northeast. It's just matter of time.
Next five to seven years, I think that we're going to see great
deal of movement where we have final crops, meaning rooftops
going into southeast.
So our next endeavor in terms of meeting the demand, getting
ready for our quality-intelligent development is going to be in
southeast. So everything we're looking for southeast, including site
for water reclamation facility is about, like, 250 acres plus, all
inclusive of Ed Finn's mission. Among others, go and find land that
is the beginning of the program and the project. Thereafter, you'll
see us coming in with project management plan, expedited execution.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So once we find the land, you
feel like we will have an accelerated build, you know, quickly?
Because like you said, it's long overdue. So, I mean, you know, you
can't build it without the land but, I mean, if we found the land
tomorrow, are we poised and ready to, you know, accelerate, you
know, construction at whatever rate, you know, we can and with
whatever expedience we can?
DR. YILMAZ: Absolutely, sir. We're working with our
Procurement Department, and our Procurement Department has been
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very diligent in terms of being open-minded to progressive design
build, design build -- traditional design build, and everything in
between, and they are open to change orders.
Now, I'm going to briefly mention about change order, because I
came from private sector. Change orders in private sector is the
best, most efficient way of making things better in the field without
paying for mobilization, demobilization, firing, hiring, or changing
the contractor and engineer. So I think that working with our
Procurement Department and working with our Clerk of Courts,
we're going to make sure that we have a great, well-understood
up-front rules of engagement so that when we hear "change order,"
that's not a bad word. In engineering construction project
management business, change order is one of the best, most effective
tools for us to expedite program project. Get it done.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Sometimes. We could waste
a lot of money on change orders, but anyway, that's a whole 'nother --
DR. YILMAZ: Concur, concur.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Totally different
subject. The last time you and I toured the water treatment plant, I
mean, I will just say -- and you remember me saying I was blown
away compared to, like, the military bases I commanded. I was
like -- I would have killed for -- I was just so impressed with the
polish, how we've kept them up.
I notice you have a million dollars in here for membrane
replacement, and I just -- I've got a long history with that just from,
you know, my previous life. When we execute that to stay ahead
and make sure that we don't have any kind of, you know, catastrophic
failure or whatnot, will there be any change -- that's a big swap-out,
but it seems like we had enough redundant capability that if we
change a membrane in one of our water treatment plant areas, it's
invisible to the customer, correct? I mean, that was the thing that
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just surprised me is how many redundancies in the things you had
and the quality of what we had.
But I just sort of noticed that when I was walking through here,
a million dollars for membrane replacement, which is something you
have to do, you know, out of a significant amount of time and
regularly. No change in customer service or whatnot? That will be
invisible behind the scenes when we swap out those membranes,
true?
DR. YILMAZ: You're right on, Commissioner. We make
everything invisible to customer in terms of water quality and
quantity, and I think that membrane technology is developing faster
and better.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
DR. YILMAZ: And we're making sure that we're not the
bleeding edge; we're cutting edge. At the same time, we go after the
best value.
One good news I can share with our board is that 80 percent of
our water supply is coming from Lower Hawthorn and Upper
Hawthorn aquifer system that is highly separated from surficial
freshwater aquifer system. What that means is that we're taking
brackish water, treating it to freshwater. And going into wastewater,
we're taking wastewater turning it into water reclaimed to the quality
of irrigation water quality. So in a sense, we're adding as much as
we're taking brackish water to our system freshwater. And we have
a saying, every day in Collier County it rains, even in dry season.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No change orders on the
membrane replacement, okay? We shouldn't get blindsided by
anything. But, okay, thank you very much.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I don't have any questions. I want
to thank you, Dr. George, and everybody within -- within our Solid
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Waste department -- Public Utilities Department, forgive me.
One of things that we all talk about, and you've listened to the
questions and comments that have come here today, and they're
largely instigated by the Board, by our constituents who have
complaints. What are you going to do about this? What are you
going to do about that? You know, we don't get complaints
regularly about your department. We don't get complaints with
the -- how many thousand trash pickups a day do we effectuate,
Amia? Do you -- you said that number, and I was -- I didn't write it
down. Forgive me.
DR. YILMAZ: Commissioner, yesterday it was 43,000.
Today is 41,000 trash and recyclable collections. In our world,
managing the risk against service, that's 40,000 opportunities for you
to get complaints. In addition to --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: A day.
DR. YILMAZ: -- 400,000 customers we serve, and list goes
on. Our job it to make invisible and smooth, and thank you for kind
words.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And one brief statement, if you
would, please, on the Northeast Regional Wastewater/Water Facility
and the rationale behind that. Just a brief synopsis, if you would,
with regard to the expense associated with that, the benefit to our
current users of the system in relationship to those that are coming. I
mean, there is a large misconception out there that we're building this
plant for all the new people that are coming.
DR. YILMAZ: Very good. Thank you for the opportunity.
Northeast Regional Water and Wastewater Plant is integral part
of our regional water/sewer district, which is about 110 square miles.
Water we're going to produce in northeast, and wastewater we're
going to treat and reclaim in northeast for that 120 square miles.
That includes all new customers and current customers within 120
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square miles. New customers include infill, increase in density, and
increase in -- through zoning processes, high-rises, low-rises. So
we're here to meet the demand district-wide. We do not build any
specific regional plant for a specific series of development. We
build it for the Collier County Water/Sewer District, 240,000
customers.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you. I appreciate you
sharing that. You and I have spoke at length about these things, and
it's -- you know, as much as anything, it's an opportunity for us to be
able to take our existing systems off-line and perform PM and the
like to continue to maintain that invisible service to the customers
that we already, in fact, have.
DR. YILMAZ: And, Commissioner, if I might, just to give
synopsis of what we're doing.
South water plant, most south water plant provides 20-plus
percent of the water all the way to north and northeast.
Eighty percent of north water plant provides water to the west and to
the east and to the south. Currently, our northeast
customers -- where we're building our regional water, northeast
customers getting their drinking water from our north existing
regional water plant. When we move to the future 10 years from
now, picture is going to be same. It's one network, one reliable
system, one quality, and standardized service level.
Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you. Thank you, all so
much. Appreciate it.
Are you ready? Okay. We're going to take a 10-minute court
reporter's break. Be back at 2:40.
(A brief recess was had from 2:29 p.m. to 2:40 p.m.)
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: We're going to have to have a little
talk about governing my children.
June 16, 2022
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MS. PATTERSON: You have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. It's live now. That
probably come across, didn't it?
Okay. County Attorney, I believe --
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, we have just two things
left. We have the County Attorney and the Board, the Board budget,
and then I'll just wrap it up a little bit with a refresher on the
schedule.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And our public comment. There
are some -- there were some folks that want to speak. Hey, how you
doing?
MR. FINN: Very good.
COUNTY ATTORNEY
MR. FINN: So the County Attorney's budget is wrapped up
with the Board's budget when it's actually grouped out. And if you
happen to be looking at the way that all rolls together, there's no
change in the position counts for the County Attorney nor the Board
offices. Those two budgets are in compliance.
If you look at the roll-up, the roll-up has some other things in it.
It includes juvenile -- some overhead budgets, that is, so it includes
juvenile detention payments, it includes the Naples CRA, it includes
centralized insurance payments, some corporate countywide costs,
and beach parking -- part of the beach parking payment to the City of
Naples. So that's rolled in there. So if you're wondering where the
increases that show up on that roll-up page are coming from, it's
coming from those overhead budgets, not the Board budget nor the
County Attorney's budget. With that...
MR. KLATZKOW: I hate talking about myself.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Well, we do it for you all the time.
June 16, 2022
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MR. KLATZKOW: No, that's fine. That's fine.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Which is unusual for lawyers.
MR. KLATZKOW: I talk all the time, but I hate talking about
myself. Something my parents drilled into me. Never talk about
myself.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: One of us could do the
talking. Who would like to go first?
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah. Anyway, just briefly. I've got on
my staff a total of 16 people: Eight attorneys, eight support staff,
predominantly paralegals. We have four people over at Horseshoe
offices to support Jamie and Mr. Bosi. That's been a very successful
partnership for many, many years; two attorneys and two support
staff over there.
The rest of my folks are in this building on the eighth floor
predominantly supporting Board activities and staff.
We always try to keep two open FTE positions, one for an
attorney and one for a support staff. It allows me the flexibility
when I find somebody really, really good to just hire them. Then
somebody who's not so really, really good winds up getting migrated
out of the office, and that's just the way we've worked the office over
the years.
So we've been able to maintain the same headcount over the
years but gradually improve the office that way. Everything is bell
curve. I'm always trying to shift the bell curve over to the right.
Anyhow, I'm open to any questions, and it's a pleasure to serve
this board, and it's a pleasure to oversee a really outstanding group of
people.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Agreed.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'll just -- I'll just add that the
amount of work that you get done with that number of attorneys is
beyond outstanding, I think. That's a small staff for as much work, I
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think, as we have.
MR. KLATZKOW: Thank you. I appreciate that. What I
learned a long time ago is the work quality you get from an A person,
you cannot fill with B people, and the work you get out of B people
you can't fill with C people. So you always try to have as many A
and B people in your office as possible. So you can do more with
less, it's just the quality of the people, and I've got very high-quality
people.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Thank you.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Ed, my question is, are the -- are
the employees for the Board of County Commissioners included in
the new potential merit pay program that we have coming forth for all
of our county employees?
MR. FINN: My gut feeling is that a no answer would be bad.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: They weren't.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: They were not.
MR. FINN: They were not.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MR. FINN: I don't know. We'll be sure that they are adjusted
appropriately.
MR. KLATZKOW: It is a Board policy, if that's what you
want.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah. So we'll have -- maybe
we'll have a discussion about that at an upcoming future board
meeting before we move into the finals on the budget just to make
sure we're treating equitably everybody.
MS. PATTERSON: If I may, we have HR working on that
now so we can provide you some information.
June 16, 2022
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COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: What was the thought
process to exclude them? Too soon to talk about it? I'm just
curious.
MS. PATTERSON: I don't know what the thought process
was, but I'm certain that HR will be able to provide that information.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I'd be very interested in
entertaining that one for fairness.
MS. PATTERSON: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: For whatever it's worth, my sense
of it was that past boards wanted kind of more control, even though
in this instance it's probably not good.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You know, there again, if there's a
flexibility that's involved with, you know -- again, I'm glad
we're -- I'm glad we're discussing it, and I'm glad it's going to be
brought up at a time when we can maybe make a policy decision and
give some directions, so...
MR. FINN: Terrific.
Mr. Chairman, I do have a quick -- I was going to wrap up on
the calendar with you, but if this would be an appropriate time to take
public comment, we can wrap up at the very end.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: That would be fine. Let's go
ahead and do our public comment, then.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
MR. MILLER: All right, then. Your first speaker is Becky
Kokkinos. Don't sit down, Becky. She'll be followed by Bebe
Kantner [sic]. I don't know if Ms. Kantner is still here. I'm going to
look out in the hallway for her while Becky's speaking.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: We can hear her if she is. I think
you can hear. Hello, Ms. Becky.
June 16, 2022
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MS. KOKKINOS: Hello, sir. How are you?
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I am well, thank you. You don't
have to stand on your toes. Pull the mic down. There you go.
MS. KOKKINOS: I don't usually talk like this, so...
Really -- my name is Becky Kokkinos, and I'm here to thank
you for including the Brookside stormwater project in your budget.
In full disclosure, I work for a local legislator, but I'm not here in that
capacity.
I'm here representing myself and my husband. We own a home
on Holiday Lane, and we've lived there since 1974. So I've seen a
lot of things change in Collier County, and most of them good. The
one thing that's changed is our streets -- our neighborhood streets
have really deteriorated, and the stormwater is difficult to deal with.
There's been several prior plans from Collier County to upgrade
the storm system going back as far as at least 2010, one in 2014, one
in 2020, and another one in 2022, but we just didn't quite get it over
the finish line. So it looks like we've got it there now, and I just
wanted to thank you all. I do appreciate it.
I'm well aware of the difficulty that you have as elected officials
to choose between the needs, the wants of all of the Collier County
residents, and I truly appreciate your service. It is a thankless job,
and it's done in a challenging arena in the public.
So thank you very much for what you do. And Brookside says
thank you, too.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely. It's good seeing you
now.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: God, who was that lady? Oh
my, God. That was amazing.
MS. KOKKINOS: Nobody ever says thank you. I wanted to
thank you all.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Somebody buy her a dozen
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roses.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Go ahead.
MR. MILLER: Commissioner Taylor has her hand up. I
didn't know if she wanted to comment to this person or not, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I don't know.
Commissioner Taylor, did you want to say something to
Ms. Becky?
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Yes, just briefly, that I think -- I
think Brookside should be very happy that it didn't happen in 2010.
MS. KOKKINOS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Because as frightening as it is to
see rising water coming into your front yard and then maybe
climbing up on the front porch, we are going to do a so much better
job coordinating with all the entities to make this a milestone on how
we go into communities. And we've learned a lot, and we continue
to learn.
So feel confident that this is not off our radar. This is priority
that we're moving forward on. Thank you.
MS. KOKKINOS: And Commissioner Taylor and the county
staff and Ms. Patterson have all been extremely responsive to the
residents' needs and their concerns, and they've gone back and redone
things. And it's a lot of work. And we really appreciate it. We're
really looking forward to the improvement. So thank you again.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yes, ma'am. Take care now.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, your next speaker is Daija Hinojosa.
She will be followed by Ashley Jenkins. I will call Ms. Kantner one
more time, but I don't believe she's here. I'll call her at the end.
MS. HINOJOSA: Good afternoon, Board. Just for the record,
my name is Daija Hinojosa.
I just had a couple of comments from a few different subjects.
One, the Growth Management Department stated that it's hard to
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keep long-term employees, but then he also stated that it is because
they have -- the state requires stringent licensing. But I was just
wondering, like what are the driving factors of recruiting and
retention? Is it pay? Is it workplace culture? You know, what is it
that we're not able to secure long-term employees? Because I know
that people don't leave jobs where they feel like they're happy, they
feel satisfied in their work, and they're also paid for their level of
expertise and their skill.
You know, with staffing challenges it does create a backlog,
increased workload, and a huge complaint that I always hear, as I'm
sure everyone else does, is that the permitting process is so horrible.
That's, like, one of the biggest complaints that I've found with
speaking with residents.
So if we can't find the people, my question is, how can we
innovate? How can we find a more streamlined process? If we
can't find the people, we've got to find a way to at least still be able to
deliver customer service.
The second one was for public services. I was just curious to
know more about what revenue the taxpayers can expect to see from
the parks, the library, the museum. Because as you know, when we
put a bunch of money into these projects and these capital
improvements, we've got to see some sort of return on it, because I
don't think the taxpayers enjoy paying for parks and libraries and
museums when they've having a hard time maintaining their
mortgage and their rent and things like that.
And then secondly -- thirdly, I wanted to say that, you know, we
do live in a world-class destination center, and I think that we should
be incredibly competitive with our salary. I know we've been
talking about that, especially for EMS personnel, officers, and also
for county staff. I've talked to so many county staff, and they said
that their biggest challenge is that they're understaffed, which then
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creates a huge workload on them, which then creates more stress at
their job.
And then, two, is just their pay. And I know that's been a huge
conversation today is increasing county pay. But I think that moving
forward we have to be really, really, really, really focused on keeping
our county staff. If not, then we have to figure out ways to innovate.
Again, shrink down government, shrink down departments, and find
ways that we can still deliver customer service and not be running
short-staffed. Because I know from the business world when you're
running two people on a sales floor in a retail a store and you're, like,
on Black Friday, that's, like, literally impossible.
So just something I would say to consider, please. And thank
you so much for allowing me to speak. I loved being a part of my
first budget hearing, and I'm looking forward to learning more about
the nuances in the budget moving forward. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Ashley Jenkins. She'll be
followed by BeBe Kantner.
COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Kanter.
MS. JENKINS: Thank you, County Commissioners and
faculty and staff who have stepped out, but for an epic presentation
from all of their departments that consciously considered asking for
the bare necessities in unprecedented times of inflation in our
country.
On Page 9 of the information materials that were passed out
before we started the meeting this morning, it stated that they were
postponing capital obligations like the extension on Vanderbilt Beach
Road, and I understand that's because you're getting another
assessment for that. Specifically, transportation networks,
improvements, and new bridges in the 1 percent local infrastructure
sales tax, and then a recall of 115 revenue bond that was to cover
stormwater infrastructure and maintain the park aquatics in many of
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the parks that we have.
In spite of having parks that we cannot pay to maintain,
incurring injuries from faulty infrastructure is simply something that
we cannot afford in Collier County, specifically to our residents, our
economy, or our precious environment.
Brookside has the clay pipes in critical condition, as we just
heard this woman speak to, and they're imploding underground,
which are linked to specific county infrastructure. This is causing
property damage, and what will this liability of this cost all of us as
the county when it occurs to other stormwater or plumbing
infrastructure in critical condition?
As you know, in October it was presented that we have
29 percent of our infrastructure in sewage that is currently in critical
condition and many approaching that level at present. Vanderbilt
Road extension would be wise, prior to building up, ensuring that
multiple lanes are secured before development and growth expand in
your district, Bill.
And the $115 million, though, in debt, is that really dangerous
when the cost of failing to be proactive could cost us more?
And then also when they were speaking about our beautiful
medians today, what about seeking clean options to offset fertilizer?
And I know Commissioner Taylor was present for part of the CRA
proposal for Quantum Growth on Monday, but she left before he
could give her his information.
Now, what about infrastructure that we could do proactively that
would decrease some things? And I didn't hear any of that today,
and so maybe that's not today's intention. But I do ask the
commissioners to reconsider these cuts and reevaluate the millage
rate to be proactive.
I'm really looking at what's the Murphy's law, like the "oh, no."
We have inflation coming that we do not know or we will not see
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until it's happening to all of us. And each department mentioned
opening with retention concerns. So I would ask you, with a
multi-billion-dollar budget, especially with learning so much about
faculty in our county and our city and our school board that are being
paid 30 to 50 percent of a livable AMI, that we deeply consider that
this budget did not allocate for that offset and we reconsider that
before you guys make a formal decision.
Thank you so much.
MR. MILLER: Your final speaker is Bebe Kanter.
(No response.)
MR. MILLER: And she's not here, sir.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. Now we'll have the -- we'll
have the wrap-up, sir. Ed.
MR. FINN: Wrap up. The big song and dance. All right.
Everybody ready? We have --
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Remember, this is okay
(indicating). This is not (indicating).
MR. FINN: Ms. Patterson went over the schedule for the Board
early on. I just want to bring it back up to give the Board a sense of
where we're going from here.
Our next budget actions are going to take place in July. First of
July we get the final -- the final taxable value information from the
Property Appraiser. We will roll that information into the budget.
That will have some slight adjustments to the ad valorem amounts,
and we will -- we will get the budget rebalanced with those new
numbers.
We will come to the Board on the 12th of July. That's an
opportunity for the Board to set the maximum millage rate. This is
common. Every year we do this. It's part of the TRIM process.
The Board is going to be asked to set the maximum millage rate, so
that would be the highest they can set for this budget year. We'll
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come to you with that information. And then a little later in the
month we will release to you the budget, the tentative budget, on or
about the 15th of July that will include or incorporate all those
changes you made.
When I talk about the maximum millage rate, the concept there
is the Board sets the maximum amount, because we cannot go -- we
cannot go up from there relative to state statute. That does not mean
the Board can't look at that again, because they have an opportunity
at the two public hearings in September, to adjust those millage rates
in a different direction than up if they elect to do so.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And that's important for the ladies
that were speaking from the public. You asked several questions
with regard to this process. And this -- pay very close attention to
that that's up on the screen right now. That is an answer to a lot of
your questions as to when this board will ultimately make the
decisions with regard to revenue and expenses and so ons all the way
up to our last budget hearing that is on the second Thursday of
September --
MR. FINN: Yep, 9/22.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: -- in the evening. And that's when
the hammer drops, and October 1st starts our new budget year.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir. That is all I have. Thank you for your
attention.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Anybody else have anything for
the good of the order?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: My only comment will be,
well done, all of you, for the presentation --
MR. FINN: Thanks.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and the material that was
delivered.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you, sir.
June 16, 2022
Page 137
MR. FINN: Thank you, sir. Greatly appreciate that.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: You want to say something?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
Amy, I just wanted to say, you know, congratulations again but,
really, to both you and Dan for stepping in at a time when we could
have never expected that our county manager would exit. And I
don't need to beat that up, but you-all invisibly just stepped into both
seats, and I think it's a real testament to what a true team can do, what
true professionals can do. You know, you heard me say that, you
know, everyone from Crystal to other folks have been so
complimentary of how you both have led from the seat and how
you've tag teamed.
Yeah, going forward after today, there's a bit of a change but,
like I said, take charge, and congratulations.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you so much. Thank you for your
support and the support of the staff as we move forward and over the
past year.
CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Very good. With that, we are
adjourned.
*****
June 16, 2022
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 3:01 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DIST DER ITS CONTROL
Ce)
WILLIAM . McDANIEL, JR., CHAIRMAN
ATTEST
CRYSTAL-K. IONZEL, CLERK
/IP
Attest as td hairman's ._,` fir'
signature only.
These minutes approved by the Board on J44 I', 2--40
as presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS
COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED
PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY
PUBLIC.
Page 138