Loading...
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 Page 2 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 Page 3 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 Page 4 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 Page 1 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 Page 2 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 Page 3 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 June 16, 2022 Page 4 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 June 16, 2022 Page 5 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 June 16, 2022 Page 6 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 June 16, 2022 Page 7 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, June 16, 2022 Page 8 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 Page 9 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 June 16, 2022 Page 10 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 June 16, 2022 Page 11 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 June 16, 2022 Page 12 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 June 16, 2022 Page 13 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 June 16, 2022 Page 14 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 June 16, 2022 Page 15 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 Page 34 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 Page 35 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 Page 36 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 Page 37 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 Page 38 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 Page 39 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 Page 41 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 Page 42 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 Page 43 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 Page 45 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 Page 48 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 Page 51 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 Page 52 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 Page 53 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 Page 54 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 Page 55 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 Page 56 (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 Page 57 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 June 16, 2022 Page 58 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 Page 59 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 Page 60 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 June 16, 2022 Page 61 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 Page 62 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 Page 63 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 Page 64 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 June 16, 2022 Page 65 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 Page 66 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 June 16, 2022 Page 68 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 Page 69 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 Page 71 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 Page 72 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 Page 73 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 Page 74 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 Page 75 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 Page 77 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 Page 78 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 Page 86 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 Page 87 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 June 16, 2022 Page 88 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 June 16, 2022 Page 89 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 June 16, 2022 Page 90 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 June 16, 2022 Page 91 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 Page 92 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 Page 93 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 June 16, 2022 Page 94 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 June 16, 2022 Page 95 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 June 16, 2022 Page 96 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 Page 97 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 Page 98 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. June 16, 2022 Page 99 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 Page 100 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 Page 101 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 June 16, 2022 Page 102 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 June 16, 2022 Page 103 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 Page 104 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 June 16, 2022 Page 105 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 June 16, 2022 Page 106 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 June 16, 2022 Page 107 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 June 16, 2022 Page 108 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 June 16, 2022 Page 109 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 June 16, 2022 Page 110 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. June 16, 2022 Page 111 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 June 16, 2022 Page 112 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 June 16, 2022 Page 113 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 June 16, 2022 Page 114 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 June 16, 2022 Page 115 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. June 16, 2022 Page 116 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 June 16, 2022 Page 117 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 June 16, 2022 Page 118 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 June 16, 2022 Page 119 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 Page 120 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 Page 121 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 June 16, 2022 Page 122 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 June 16, 2022 Page 123 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 June 16, 2022 Page 124 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 June 16, 2022 Page 125 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 Page 126 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 Page 127 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 June 16, 2022 Page 128 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 Page 129 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 Page 130 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 June 16, 2022 Page 131 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 June 16, 2022 Page 132 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 June 16, 2022 Page 133 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 June 16, 2022 Page 134 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 June 16, 2022 Page 135 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 June 16, 2022 Page 136 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