BCC Minutes 11/14/2023November 14, 2023
Page 1
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, November 14, 2023
LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as
the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such
special districts as have been created according to law and having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in
REGULAR SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present:
Chairman: Rick LoCastro
Chris Hall
Dan Kowal
William L. McDaniel, Jr. (via Zoom)
Burt L. Saunders
ALSO PRESENT:
Amy Patterson, County Manager
Daniel Rodriguez, Deputy County Manager
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Community Redevelopment Agency Board (CRAB)
Airport Authority
Agenda
Board of County Commission Chambers
Collier County Government Center
3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor
Naples, FL 34112
November 14, 2023
9:00 AM
Commissioner Rick LoCastro, District 1; – Chair
Commissioner Chris Hall, District 2; – Vice Chair
Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3
Commissioner Dan Kowal, District 4; – CRAB Co-Chair
Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5; – CRAB Co-Chair
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS MUST
REGISTER PRIOR TO PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE
ADDRESSED. ALL REGISTERED SPEAKERS WILL RECEIVE UP TO THREE
MINUTES UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIRMAN.
ADDITIONAL MINUTES MAY BE CEDED TO AN IN-PERSON SPEAKER BY
OTHER REGISTERED SPEAKERS WHO MUST BE PRESENT AT THE TIME
THE SPEAKER IS HEARD. NO PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL BE HEARD FOR
PROCLAMATIONS, PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLIC PETITIONS.
SPEAKERS ON PRESENTATIONS ARE LIMITED TO 10 MINUTES, UNLESS
EXTENDED BY THE CHAIRMAN. ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON A
CONSENT ITEM MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO THE BOARD’S APPROVAL
OF THE DAY’S CONSENT AGENDA, WHICH IS HEARD AT THE
BEGINNING OF THE MEETING FOLLOWING THE PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE.
ANYONE WISHING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON PUBLIC PETITION
MUST SUBMIT THE REQUEST IN WRITING TO THE COUNTY MANAGER
AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE MEETING. THE
REQUEST SHALL PROVIDE DETAILED INFORMATION AS TO THE
NATURE OF THE PETITION. THE PUBLIC PETITION MAY NOT INVOLVE
A MATTER ON A FUTURE BOARD AGENDA, AND MUST CONCERN A
MATTER IN WHICH THE BOARD CAN TAKE ACTION. PUBLIC
PETITIONS ARE LIMITED TO A SINGLE PRESENTER, WITH A MAXIMUM
TIME OF TEN MINUTES, UNLESS EXTENDED BY THE CHAIRMAN.
SHOULD THE PETITION BE GRANTED, THE ITEM WILL BE PLACED ON A
FUTURE AGENDA FOR A PUBLIC HEARING.
ANYONE WISHING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT
ON THIS AGENDA OR A FUTURE AGENDA MUST REGISTER TO SPEAK
PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC COMMENT PORTION OF THE AGENDA BEING
CALLED BY THE CHAIRMAN. SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO THREE
MINUTES, AND NO ADDITIONAL MINUTES MAY BE CEDED TO THE
SPEAKER. AT THE CHAIRMAN’S DISCRETION, THE NUMBER OF PUBLIC
SPEAKERS MAY BE LIMITED TO 5 FOR THAT MEETING.
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD
WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDING PERTAINING THERETO,
AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD
OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE
TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 2003-53 AS AMENDED BY
ORDINANCE 2004-05 AND 2007-24, REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS
SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE
BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT.
IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY
ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING,
YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN
ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY FACILITIES
MANAGEMENT DIVISION LOCATED AT 3335 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL,
SUITE 1, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112-5356, (239) 252-8380; ASSISTED
LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN
THE FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DIVISION.
Lunch Recess scheduled for 12:00 Noon to 1:00 P.M
1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
A. Invocation by Reverend Kirt Anderson, Naples Community Church
2. AGENDA AND MINUTES
A. Approval of today's regular, consent and summary agenda as amended (Ex
Parte Disclosure provided by Commission members for consent agenda.)
B. October 3, 2023, Board Workshop Minutes
3. AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
A. EMPLOYEE
B. ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
C. RETIREES
D. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
4. PROCLAMATIONS
A. Proclamation designating November 2023 as National Hospice and
Palliative Care Month. To be accepted by Mark Beland, Community
Liaison, Avow Hospice, and other distinguished guests.
B. Proclamation designating November 15 - 22, 2023, as Farm-City Week in
Collier County. To be accepted by Russell Budd, Event Chairman, and
other distinguished guests.
5. PRESENTATIONS
A. Artist of the Month
B. Presentation of the Collier County Business of the Month for November
2023 to Regions Bank. The award will be accepted by Cynthia Valenti
Smith, Market Executive, Alon Naftali, Commercial Banking, Eric Trevino,
Branch Manager, and Lisa Shuryn, SBA Commercial Loan Manager. Also
present is Bethany Sawyer, Vice President of Membership and Investors,
Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.
6. PUBLIC PETITIONS
7. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE CURRENT
OR FUTURE AGENDA
8. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
9. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
10. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
11. COUNTY MANAGER'S REPORT
A. *** This item to be heard at 11 AM. *** Recommendation to accept the
Water, Wastewater, Irrigation Quality Water, and Wholesale Potable Water
User Rate and Fee Study and direct the County Manager or her designee to
advertise a resolution amending Schedules One, Two, Three, Four, and Five
of Appendix A to Section Four of Collier County Ordinance No. 2001-73,
the Collier County Water-Sewer District Uniform Billing, Operating, and
Regulatory Standards Ordinance No. 2001-73, as amended, with effective
dates of January 1, 2024, October 1, 2024, and October 1, 2025. (Joe
Bellone, Public Utilities Finance Director) (All Districts)
B. Recommendation to approve an Agreement for Sale and Purchase with 1)
Dredge Management Associates, LLC; 2) Clair Williams; 3) Scott Kent
Bailey and Christopher Roger Bailey (“Bailey); and 4) Thomas Mooney,
William L. Mooney, Jorja V. Thomas-Murcia, Marie McDavid, and Carmen
M. Hankins-Colon (“Mooney”) under the Conservation Collier Land
Acquisition Program, at a cost not to exceed $1,665,525, expand the
Winchester Head Preserve multi-parcel project area boundary to include the
Bailey parcel, and authorize budget amendments to recognize carryforward
of $8,800,000 in Conservation Collier Acquisition Fund (1061) and
$515,000 in and Conservation Collier Maintenance Fund (1062). (Jaimie
Cook, Development Review Director) (District 1, District 5)
C. Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid No. 23-8147, construction of
the Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park Phase 2A Access Road, to Quality
Enterprises USA, Inc., in the amount of $9,028,810.55, and authorize the
Chairman to sign the attached agreement. (District 5)
12. COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT
13. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
A. *** This item to be heard at 10 AM. This item continued from the
October 24, 2023, BCC Meeting. *** Recommend that the Board of
County Commissioners endorse the United States Department of Justice and
United States Department of Treasury combined Equitable Sharing
Agreement and Certification through September 30, 2024. (All Districts)
14. AIRPORT AUTHORITY AND/OR COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
A. AIRPORT
B. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
15. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
A. Public Comments on General Topics Not On The Current Or Future
Agenda By Individuals Not Already Heard During Previous Public
Comments In This Meeting
B. STAFF PROJECT UPDATES
1) Recommendation to accept the November 2023 Project Update For
the ‘Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension’. (Project 60168) (Jay Ahmad,
Transportation Engineering Director) (District 5)
C. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
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16. Consent Agenda- All matters listed under this item are considered to be routine and
action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion of each item. If
discussion is desired by a member of the Board, that item(s) will be removed from
the Consent Agenda and considered separately.
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A. GROWTH MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve a resolution amending Ordinance No.
2004-66, as amended, which created an Administrative Code to
establish the Rules of Decorum for Neighborhood Information
Meetings and provide an effective date. (This is a companion to Item
17.A) (All Districts)
Resolution 2023-200
2) Recommendation to approve an amendment to Resolution No. 2021-
193, the Growth Management Community Development Department
Services Fee Schedule, with an effective date of January 1, 2024, to
comply with Florida Statute Section 553.791, Section 2(b). (All
Districts)
Resolution 2023-201
3) Recommendation to direct staff to advertise and bring back an
Ordinance amending Ordinance 2004-58 as amended, the Property
Maintenance Code by amending Section Six, compliance with
housing standards to reduce the minimum square footage
requirements for multi-family dwelling units. (All Districts)
Ordinance 2023-52
4) Recommendation to approve final acceptance and accept the
conveyance of the potable water and sewer utility facilities for
Esplanade Golf and Country Club of Naples Hatcher Parcel,
PL20200002660, and authorize the County Manager, or designee, to
release the Final Obligation Bond in the total amount of $4,000 to the
Project Engineer or the Developer’s designated agent. (District 3)
5) Recommendation to approve a Resolution for final acceptance of the
private roadway and drainage improvements, and acceptance of the
plat dedications, for the final plat of Esplanade Golf and Country Club
of Naples, Application Number PL20120001261, and authorize the
release of the maintenance security in the amount of $436,726.39.
(District 3)
Resolution 2023-202
6) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer facilities and accept the conveyance of the potable water and
sewer facilities for Ventana Pointe, PL20210002167. (District 3)
7) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer facilities and accept the conveyance of the potable water and
sewer facilities for Valencia Trails Naples - Plat Four,
PL20230010707. (District 3)
8) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $112,940, which was posted as a
development guaranty for an Early Work Authorization (EWA) for
work associated with Del Webb Naples Parcels 307-310,
PL20220003778. (District 5)
9) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $114,460, which was posted as a
guarantee for Excavation Permit Number PL20190001437 for work
associated with Del Webb Way Extension. (District 5)
10) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $24,320, which was posted as a
development guaranty for an Early Work Authorization (EWA) for
work associated with Lido Isles, PL20220006478. (District 1)
11) This item requires that Commission members provide ex-parte
disclosure. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve for recording
the final plat of Grove Bayshore (Application Number
PL20210002029), approval of the standard form Construction and
Maintenance Agreement, and approval of the performance security in
the amount of $2,131,189.72. (District 4)
12) Recommendation to approve a resolution authorizing the temporary
closing of a portion of State Road 29 and determining the closure
necessary for the Christmas Around the World Parade & Snow
Festival hosted by the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce. This
recommendation is to fulfill a requirement of the Florida Department
of Transportation (FDOT) temporary road closure permit application.
(District 5)
Resolution 2023-203
13) Recommendation to approve the Conservation Collier Red Maple
Swamp Preserve Final Management Plan under the Conservation
Collier Program. (All Districts)
14) Recommendation to approve a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)
between the State of Florida, Department of Health, and Collier
County for Onsite Sewage Treatment and Disposal Systems (OSTDS)
plan review, fee collection, and reconciliation. (All Districts)
15) Recommendation to approve and submit the 2023 State Housing
Initiatives Partnership Incentive Strategies Report to Florida Housing
Finance Corporation and Florida Housing Coalition as required by
section 420.9076, Florida Statutes. (All Districts)
16) Recommendation to authorize the Office of the County Attorney to
initiate foreclosure proceedings pursuant to Section 162.09, Florida
Statutes, in relation to $164,041.18 in accruing code enforcement
liens, arising from the Office of the Special Magistrate Case Nos.
CEPM20170012229 and CENA20220004669, titled Board of County
Commissioners, Collier County, Florida, vs. Yolanda Fonseca Est.
(District 5)
17) Recommendation to approve an after-the-fact payment in the amount
of $25,502.00 to Johnson Engineering, Inc., for work performed
related to land use petition and Land Development Code amendment
review in excess of the original Purchase Order No. 4500220490
contracted amount of $187,616.00, issued under Agreement No. 18-
7432-CE, and make a finding that this expenditure has a valid public
purpose. (All Districts)
B. TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise, and bring
back for a public hearing, an Ordinance which would create the
unpaved private road emergency repair municipal service taxing unit
by authorizing a levy of not to exceed one (1.0000) mil of ad valorem
taxes per year. (District 1, District 3, District 5)
2) Recommendation to approve the recently updated intersection design
for the Pine Ridge Road Congestion Corridor Study and direct staff to
pursue the Jughandle Intersection alternative at Pine Ridge Road and
Livingston Road, a conventional intersection at Pine Ridge Road and
Whippoorwill Lane, and the Diverging Diamond Interchange at the
Pine Ridge Road/I-75 interchange. (Project No. 60201)
3) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a
Supplemental Agreement to the Local Agency Program (LAP)
Agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to
increase the grant award from $1,693,376 to $2,508,376 for
construction of a ten-foot multi-use path on County Barn Road from
Rattlesnake Hammock Road to SR 84 (Davis Blvd.); to adopt the
accompanying resolution formally approving and authorizing the
chairman to execute same on behalf of the Board; and to authorize the
necessary budget amendments, FPN 438091-2-58-01. (Project 60254,
Fund 1841). (District 1, District 4)
Resolution 2023-204
4) *** This item continued from the October 24, 2023, BCC
Meeting. *** Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid ("ITB")
No. 23-8130, "US 41 (SR45) North Landscape Irrigation Renovation
Improvements," to Hannula Landscaping and Irrigation, Inc., in the
amount of $267,205.86, and authorize the Chairman to sign the
attached Agreement. (This item was continued from the October 24,
2023 meeting.) (District 2)
5) Recommendation to approve administratively approved Change Order
No. 3, adding sixty (60) days under Agreement No. 20-7735 with
Quality Enterprises USA, Inc. for the “Design-Build of Whippoorwill
Lane and Marbella Lakes Drive Connection” project, and authorize
the Chairman to sign the attached Change Order. (Project No. 60219)
(District 2)
6) Recommendation to approve administratively approved Change Order
No. 2, adding thirty (30) days under Agreement No. 21-7857 with
Thomas Marine Construction, Inc. for the “Design-Build of Golden
Gate Parkway Over Santa Barbara Canal Bridge Replacement”
project, and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Change
Order. (Project No. 66066 (District 3)
7) Recommendation to approve Second Amendments to Agreement No.
18-7254 “Airport Pulling Road Landscape Maintenance, Agreement
No. 18-7255 “Pine Ridge Road Landscape Maintenance,” and
Agreement No. 18-7257 “Vanderbilt Beach Road Landscape
Maintenance” with Superior Landscaping & Lawn Service, Inc.
extending the agreements up to six months, and authorize the Chair to
execute the Amendments. (All Districts)
8) Recommendation to approve Second Amendments to Agreement No.
18-7253, “Goodlette Frank Road Landscape Maintenance,” and
Agreement No. 18-7256, “Golden Gate Parkway & I-75 Landscape
Maintenance,” with Superb Landscape Services, Inc. to extend the
agreements for an additional 180 days, and authorize the Chairman to
sign the attached Amendments. (All Districts)
9) Recommendation to Award a Work Order for a Request for Quotation
(“RFQ”) for Project No. 60143 - Sanitation Road Culvert
Replacement, Under Agreement No. 20-7800, “Underground
Contractor Services” to Coastal Concrete Products, LLC. (dba Coastal
Site Development), in the Amount of $524,824 and Authorize the
Chairman to Sign the Attached Work Order (District 5)
10) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving and authorizing the
execution of an amendment to the Public Transit Grant Agreement
(PTGA) 450306-1-94-01, Contract Number G2692 with the Florida
Department of Transportation to extend the end date to June 30, 2024.
(District 5)
Resolution 2023-205
11) Recommendation to approve a Resolution and execute the FY24-25
Public Transportation Grant Agreement (PTGA) with the Florida
Department of Transportation (FDOT) in the amount of $2,383,262
providing for State funding for eligible Collier County fixed-route
transit administrative, management, and operational expenses in the
amount of $1,191,631, approve a local match in the amount of
$1,191,631, and authorize the necessary Budget Amendments. (All
Districts)
Resolution 2023-206
12) Recommendation to approve and authorize the County Manager or
her designee to submit grant applications for the Federal Highway
Administration flexible funding in the amount of $3,000,000 for FY
21/22 and $2,500,000 for FY 22/23 to assist with the construction of a
new Transit Operations and Maintenance Facility through the Federal
Transit Award Management System and to accept the award and
authorize any necessary budget amendments. (All Districts)
C. PUBLIC UTILITIES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation that the Board approve a Temporary Construction
Easement and Perpetual Access Easement to the Board of County
Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, as the Governing Body of
Collier County and as Ex-Officio the Governing Board of the Collier
County Water-Sewer District, to permit temporary construction
activities for upgrades to existing Pump Station 304.03, and perpetual
access for necessary maintenance and collection activities. (District 4)
2) Recommendation to award Request for Professional Services (“RPS”)
No. 23-8060, “Design Services for MPS 309 Force Main to Western
Interconnect” to Q. Grady Minor & Associates, P.A., in the total
amount of $1,884,968.00, and authorize the Chairman to sign the
attached Agreement. (Project 70217) (All Districts)
3) Recommendation to approve a First Amendment to Agreement No.
19-7653RR, “Crane Rental Services,” with Maxim Crane Works,
LLC, to incorporate a revised fee schedule to better align with market
rates as consideration for the first one-year renewal term under the
Agreement. (All Districts)
4) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 1, authorizing the use
of the owner’s allowance in the amount of $70,751.75 and providing
for a time extension under Construction Agreement No. 23-8058, with
Accurate Drilling Systems, Inc., for the Golden Gate City
Transmission Water Main Improvements – Phase 1A – Golf Course
project. (Project No. 70253) (District 3)
5) Recommendation to terminate for convenience Construction
Agreement No. 22-8008, “South County Regional Water Treatment
Plant (SCRWTP) Front Entrance Improvements,” with Fort
Construction Group of Naples, Inc. (District 5)
6) Recommendation to award Invitation for Bid (“ITB”) No. 22-8050R,
“Scale Preventative Maintenance and Repairs,” to Scale Calibrators,
LLC, as primary vendor, and Superior Processing & Weighing, LLC,
as secondary vendor, and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached
Agreements. (All Districts)
7) Recommendation to accept a project update to NCWRF Pretreatment
Facility Project No. 70149 currently under construction with Poole &
Kent Company of Florida under Agreement No. 23-8116. (District 2)
8) Recommendation to execute Grant Agreement LPA0495 with the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection for “Palm River
Public Utilities Renewal Project – Area 4” under Project 72057, to
accept the funding in the amount of $3,000,000, authorize the
Chairman to sign the attached agreement and approve the necessary
budget amendment. (Fund 4016) (District 2)
D. PUBLIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve Revenue Generating Agreement No. 23-
029-NS, “Amateur Soccer League for Adults,” with the Gulf Coast
Adult Soccer League, Inc., as a single source provider of adult soccer
league services. (District 3)
2) Recommendation to approve a Resolution superseding Resolution No.
2016-224 and all prior rate resolutions and schedules for the Florida
Department of Health in Collier County allowing the health
department to establish the proposed Fee Schedule. (All Districts)
Resolution 2023-207
3) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign the
Fourth Amendment between Collier County and Collier Health
Services, Inc., d/b/a Healthcare Network for the administration of the
Community Development Block Grant - CV program by extending
the period of performance from April 1, 2021, to June 30, 2024.
(Housing Grant Fund 1835) (All Districts)
4) Recommendation to approve an "after-the-fact" submittal of the
Retired and Senior Volunteer Program 2024-2025 application to
AmeriCorps Seniors for $125,254 and allow the County Manager or
designee to serve as the authorized representative for the grantor’s
electronic submission system, eGrants, throughout the grant period.
(All Districts)
5) Recommendation to authorize the County Manager or designee to
apply for the PetSmart Charities Adoption Partner Program and
Adoption Rewards Program, and to authorize the County Manager to
execute any and all documents to effectuate entering into this
Program, including but not limited to an Adoption Partner Agreement.
(All Districts)
6) Recommendation to approve a pro-rata reimbursement payment in the
amount of $2,169.14 to Paradise Property Management Inc., from
General Fund (0001) for Century Link Telephone and Internet
services it maintained for the County’s benefit during the
concessionaire operations transition period. (District 1, District 2)
7) Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) No. 23-8131,
“Purchase of Off-Road Vehicles and Heavy Equipment for Parks and
Recreation,” to Love Power Equipment, Inc., and Monmouth
Solutions, Inc., in the amount of $280,927 for a one-time purchase to
replace damaged heavy equipment due to Hurricane Ian and authorize
the Chairman to sign the attached Agreement. (District 2)
8) Recommendation to authorize the necessary Budget Amendments to
reflect the estimated funding for Calendar Year 2024 Older
Americans Act Programs in the amount of $1,440,000, and the
estimated cash match of $154,222.22, of which $49,815.99 is met
through local vendors. (Human Services Grant Fund 1837) (All
Districts)
9) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a
Landlord Payment Agreement between Collier County and TEEN
LLC, allowing the Community and Human Services Division (CHS)
to administer the Rapid Re-Housing and Homelessness Prevention
Program through the Emergency Solutions and Rapid Unsheltered
Survivor Housing Grants Program. (Housing Grant Fund 1835 and
Housing Match Fund 1836) (All Districts)
10) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a
Low Income Pool (LIP) Letter of Agreement with the Agency for
Health Care Administration (AHCA) in the amount of $568,000 to
participate in the Medicaid Central Receiving Facility Low Income
Pool Program, and generating $785,000 in federal matching funds,
and an annual State Mandated Match agreement with David Lawrence
Center, Inc., in the amount of $1,967,339 for FY24; and to ratify an
”after-the-fact” AHCA LIP Letter of Agreement signed by the County
Manager and authorize necessary Budget Amendments. (Fiscal
Impact $2,535,339) (All Districts)
E. CORPORATE BUSINESS OPERATIONS
1) Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) No. 23-8110,
“Filters for Fleet Vehicles & Equipment,” to Sunbelt Automotive,
Inc., and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached Agreement. (All
Districts)
2) Recommendation to ratify Property, Casualty, Workers’
Compensation and Subrogation claim files settled and/or closed by the
Risk Management Division Director pursuant to Resolution # 2004-15
for the fourth quarter of FY 23. (All Districts)
3) Recommendation to approve an Assumption Agreement assigning all
rights, duties and benefits, and obligations from Olive App, LLC, to
UnaCasePro LLC, concerning Agreement #21-024-NS, “Case
Management Software System.” (All Districts)
4) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign 32
Settlement Agreements and Releases by and between Collier County
and employees in revised position classifications, allowing for
reimbursement of actual wages earned but not paid to certain
employees from October 8, 2020, to October 7, 2022, as a result of the
County’s reclassification of status under the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA). (All Districts)
5) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to sign
twelve (12) Settlement Agreements and Releases by and between
Collier County and employees in the EMS Battalion Chief II position
classification, allowing for reimbursement of actual wages earned but
not paid to certain employees from July 3, 2021, to June 30, 2023, as a
result of the County’s good faith misclassification of status under the
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). (All Districts)
F. COUNTY MANAGER OPERATIONS
1) Recommendation to approve an Office Lease Agreement with Fifth
Third Bank, National Association for temporary office space for the
Tax Collector at 650 East Elkcam Circle located in the City of Marco
Island while the Winterberry Drive location undergoes reconstruction
due to damage caused by Hurricane Ian. (District 1)
2) Recommendation to authorize the Chairman to execute twenty (20)
Deed Certificates for purchased burial rights at Lake Trafford
Memorial Gardens Cemetery and authorize the County Manager or
the designee to take all actions necessary to record the Deed
Certificates with the Clerk of the Court’s Recording Department.
(District 5)
3) Recommendation to authorize staff to take all action necessary to
repurchase a cemetery plot no longer desired by the deed certificate
holder, in accordance with Cemetery Policy adopted by Resolution
No. 2017-17. (District 5)
4) Recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise and bring
back for a public hearing an amendment to the Collier County Citizen
Corps Ordinance, in order to add a membership category for The
United Way, remove Civil Air Patrol and replace with Collier Ready –
Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD), and revise
quorum requirements. (All Districts)
5) Recommendation to approve a Florida Emergency Medical Services
County Grant Application and Request for Grant Fund Distribution
Form for the funding of Training and Medical Rescue Equipment in
the amount of $78,658.02, accept the award, approve any necessary
Budget Amendments, and approve a Resolution confirming the grant
funds will not supplant the EMS budget. (Fund 4053) (All Districts)
6) Recommendation to renew the Certificate of Public Convenience and
Necessity for Advanced Life Support (ALS) non-transport services for
one year to the City of Naples Fire-Rescue and authorize the
Chairman to execute the Permit and Certificate. (All Districts)
7) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a
First Amendment to the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the
Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA) for the County to
identify County-owned land for donation to the Board of Trustees of
the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida for the
“State Veterans’ Nursing Home” project. (All Districts)
8) Recommendation to approve a Third Amendment to Agreement No.
15-6409, P25 Digital Radio System, with Communications
International, Inc., and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached
amendment. (All Districts)
9) Recommendation to approve a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)
between Collier County and the Florida Division of Emergency
Management for the purchase of Weather Stations and or ultra-low
power radar in designated locations for hyper-local real-time weather
data. (All Districts)
10) Recommendation to approve a Resolution and updated Statewide
Mutual Aid Agreement between Collier County and the State of
Florida Division of Emergency Management. (All Districts)
Resolution 2023-208
11) Recommendation to approve the First Amendment to Agreement No.
18-7469, "CEI Services for Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park" to
WSP USA Environment & Infrastructure, Inc., in the amount of
$1,874,779.10, authorize the necessary Budget Amendments, and
authorize the Chairman to sign the attached First Amendment.
(Project No. 80039.1.3). (District 3)
12) Recommendation to approve Change Order No. 2 to increase the
value of Task 3 - 30% Construction Documents in the amount of
$37,335.25, add a time extension of 231 days associated with that task
under Agreement No. 21-7911, “Design Services for Collier County
Mental Health Facility” project, with RG Architects, P.A., and
authorize the Chairman to sign the attached change order. (Project No.
50239) (All Districts)
13) Recommendation to approve administratively approved Change Order
No. 10, providing for a sixty-one (61) day extension under Agreement
No. 16-6622, “Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park,” with Q. Grady
Minor & Associates, P.A., and authorize the Chairman to sign the
attached change order. (Project No. 80039) (District 5)
14) Recommendation to approve administratively approved Change Order
No. 10, adding sixty (60) days under Agreement No. 18-7469, the
“CEI for Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park” project, with WSP
USA Environment & Infrastructure Inc., and authorize the Chairman
to sign the attached change order. (Project No. 80039.1.3) (District 5)
15) Recommendation to award Request for Professional Services (“RPS”)
No. 22-8033, “Design Services for Hardening and Expansion of the
Collier Senior Center Building," to Harvard Jolly, Inc., in the total
amount of $597,888 and authorize the Chairman to sign the attached
Agreement. (District 3)
16) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Federally Funded Subgrant Agreement to accept the annual
Emergency Management Performance Grant G0449 (EMPG) in the
amount of $112,208 for emergency management planning, response,
and mitigation efforts and to authorize the necessary Budget
Amendments. (Fund 1833; Project No. 33877) (All Districts)
17) Recommendation to approve a request for direct funding from the
Southwest Florida Healthcare Coalition to Pride-Prison Enterprises-
Heavy Vehicle and Equipment shop for the conversion of a transit bus
to a mass-casualty and re-hab vehicle for the Emergency Services
Division. (All Districts)
18) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendment
(appropriating grants, donations, contributions, or insurance proceeds)
to the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Adopted Budget. (The Budget
Amendments in the attached Resolution have been reviewed and
approved by the Board of County Commissioners via separate
Executive Summaries.) (All Districts)
Resolution 2023-209
19) Recommendation to award Invitation to Bid (“ITB”) No. 23-8156,
“Water Treatment Services,” to U.S. Water Services Corporation and
authorize the Chairman to sign the attached agreement. (All Districts)
G. AIRPORT AUTHORITY
1) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners, acting as
the Collier County Airport Authority, approve a First Amendment to
Collier County Airport Authority Leasehold Agreement for Hangar
Construction with the Global Flight Training Solutions, Inc., related to
its construction of aircraft hangars at the Immokalee Regional Airport.
(District 5)
H. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
I. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE
J. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
1) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners provide
approval for the State of Florida E911 Board/E911 State Grant
Program and for the Chairman to sign the grant application. (All
Districts)
2) To record in the minutes of the Board of County Commissioners, the
check number (or other payment method), amount, payee, and
purpose for which the referenced disbursements in the amount of
$60,598,226.40 were drawn for the periods between October 12, 2023
and November 1, 2023 pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06. (All
Districts)
3) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public purpose
for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions as of November
8, 2023. (All Districts)
K. COUNTY ATTORNEY
1) Recommendation to approve a Third Amendment to Agreement for
Legal Services with Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson, P.A. for specialized
legal services, extending the term and providing the first increase to
fees for bond issuance services since 2003. (All Districts)
2) Recommendation pursuant to Collier County Resolution No. 95-632,
that the Board of County Commissioners authorize the County
Attorney to help select and retain outside counsel at County expense
to represent Commissioner McDaniel, who is being sued by Naples
Golf Development, LLC in a public records dispute, and in addition to
exempt the selection of outside counsel from the competitive process
as permitted under section four, subsection seven of Collier County
Purchasing Ordinance No. 2020-28, as amended. (All Districts)
3) Recommendation to appoint a member to the Immokalee Local
Redevelopment Advisory Board. (District 5)
Resolution 2023-110
L. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
1) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners (BCC)
and also the BCC acting in its capacity as the Community
Redevelopment Agency Board (CRA) approve an Economic
Development Initiative (EDI) Community Project Funding (CPF)
grant agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) in the amount of $987,000 for the construction
of the Immokalee Sidewalk Phase III Project, authorize the Chairman
of the BCC and/or the Co-Chairman of the CRA, as appropriate, to
sign the grant agreement, and authorize necessary Budget
Amendments (Fund 1027). (District 5)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. SUMMARY AGENDA- This section is for advertised public hearings and
must meet the following criteria: 1) A recommendation for approval from
staff; 2) Unanimous recommendation for approval by the Collier County
Planning Commission or other authorizing agencies of all members present
and voting; 3) No written or oral objections to the item received by staff, the
Collier County Planning Commission, other authorizing agencies or the
Board, prior to the commencement of the BCC meeting on which the items
are scheduled to be heard; and 4) No individuals are registered to speak in
opposition to the item. For those items which are quasi-judicial in nature, all
participants must be sworn in.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Recommendation to approve an Ordinance amending the Collier County
Land Development Code, to establish Rules of Decorum related to
Neighborhood Information Meetings. [PL20220008172] (This is a
companion to Item 16.A.1) (All Districts)
Ordinance 2023-53
B. This item requires that Commission members provide ex-parte
disclosure. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve an Ordinance
amending Ordinance No. 2022-13, the Golden Gate Golf Course Mixed-Use
Planned Unit Development (MPUD), by changing the allowed multi-family
use on the Residential Tourist (RT) Tract to a maximum of 215 rental units
with some affordable housing and to reduce the minimum floor area per
multi-family rental dwelling unit to 250 square feet on the RT Tract. The
property is located on the southwest corner of Golden Gate Parkway and
Collier Boulevard in Section 27, Township 49 South, Range 26 East, Collier
County, Florida, consisting of +/-171.6 acres. PL20230012392 (This is a
companion to Item 17.C) (District 3)
Ordinance 2023-54
C. Recommendation to approve an Ordinance amending the Government
Services, Residential Tourist, and Commercial Subdistrict of the Golden
Gate City Sub-Element of the Golden Gate Master Plan Element of the
Growth Management Plan to limit the uses on the 6.16± acres identified as
Parcel 2 by allowing hotel/motel or timeshare or multi-family or commercial
uses; and increasing the multi-family use on Parcel 2 to a maximum of 215
rental units with affordable housing. The subject property consists of 20.1±
acres and is located on the south side of Golden Gate Parkway
approximately ½ mile west of Collier Boulevard in Section 27, Township 48
South, Range 27 East, Collier County, Florida [PL20230012389] (This is a
companion to Item 17.B) (District 3)
Ordinance 2023-55
D. Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendments
(appropriating carry forward, transfers, and supplemental revenue) to the
FY23-24 Adopted Budget. (The budget amendments in the attached
Resolution have been reviewed and approved by the Board of County
Commissioners via separate Executive Summaries.) (All Districts)
Resolution 2023-211
E. This item requires ex-parte disclosure be provided by the Commission
members. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve an ordinance
rezoning property from a Rural Agricultural (A) Zoning District with an
Airport Zoning Overlay to a Residential Planned Unit Development (RPUD)
Zoning District with an Airport Zoning Overlay for a project known as Rock
Creek Estates RPUD to allow development of up to 15 unit single-family
dwelling units, a private recreational amenity, and a boat ramp with up to 12
private boat slips on property located west of Airport-Pulling Road, on the
south side of North Road, across the street from Terminal Drive to the
Naples Airport, in Section 2, Township 50 South, Range 25 East; consisting
of 11.36+/- acres. [PL20220001779] (District 4)
Ordinance 2023-56
F. This item requires that Commission members provide ex-parte
disclosure. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve an Ordinance
amending the North Naples Medical Park Planned Unit Development (PUD)
to allow for a hospital for special surgery; to increase the maximum gross
floor area from 150,000 square feet to 205,000 square feet; and to adjust the
Floor Area Ratios (FAR) for Lots 1, 5, 6 and 7. The property is located on
the north side of Immokalee Road immediately east of the North Collier
Hospital in Sections 22 and 23, Township 48 South, Range 25 East, Collier
County, Florida. (PL20230003895) (District 2)
Ordinance 2023-57
G. Recommendation to adopt Ordinances amending the Collier County Growth
Management Plan relating to affordable housing initiatives, specifically the
Future Land Use Element, the Golden Gate Area Master Plan Element, the
Immokalee Area Master Plan Element, and the Transportation Element to
allow affordable housing by right in certain commercial zoning districts with
a sunset date, to allow an increase in density for affordable housing, to
establish a Strategic Opportunity Sites Subdistrict, and a Transit Oriented
Development Subdistrict; and directing transmittal of the adopted
amendments to the Florida Department of Commerce. PL20210000660 -
Affordable Housing Initiatives GMPA (All Districts)
Ordinance 2023-58
H. Recommendation to adopt Ordinances amending the Collier County Growth
Management Plan, specifically amending the Future Land Use Element and
Future Land Use Map and Map Series to create the US 41 East Overlay to
allow certain economic development uses within the Corridor segments,
allow increased height and density, and allow certain economic development
uses in Regional Centers and Community Centers through incentives; and,
specifically amending the Transportation Element and maps to expand the
South US 41 Transportation Concurrency Exception Area, furthermore
directing the transmittal of the adopted amendment to the Florida
Department of Commerce. PL20230000930 - US 41 East Overlay & TCEA
Expansion GMPA (District 1, District 4)
Ordinance 2023-59
I. Recommendation to approve an Ordinance amending the boundaries of the
Radio Road Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MSTU) by amending
Ordinance No. 96-84, as amended, and direct staff to reestablish the
MSTU’s millage rate at 0.1000 when preparing FY25’s budget. (District 1,
District 4) (27113)
Ordinance 2023-60
18. ADJOURN
INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD’S AGENDA SHOULD
BE MADE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE AT 252-8383.
November 14, 2023
Page 2
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Good morning, everybody.
THE AUDIENCE: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: How are we doing?
All right. Let's go ahead and get rolling here. We're going to
have an invocation, and then I've asked Dave Heinz, who's here from
our military museum here in Naples, and he's here with several
veterans. I've asked them to lead us in the pledge after the
invocation. So, sir, when that time comes, if you'd come to the
center here, and I know you know it.
Item #1A
INVOCATION BY REVEREND KIRT ANDERSON, NAPLES
COMMUNITY CHURCH - INVOCATION GIVEN
REVEREND ANDERSON: So let's pray together.
Dear Father, season. We know your love for seeds. In season
and out of season, you've seen your reign on the righteous and the
rest, but our roads are backing up. Gas lines at Costco and Sam's are
obnoxious. Restaurants hand out those buzzer things because we
have to wait.
Remind us all, Dear Lord, that just because we can perceive the
problem doesn't mean that we can perceive the solution. At best, our
solutions are personal [sic]. They mitigate, but rarely solve.
So may we extend to these servants the grace and understanding
that they need for clear thinking and open deliberations. They are
one of us, our neighbors and our friends. Give them the
perseverance and strength to bear the burdens we pile on them as they
proceed to provide governance with both discretion and daring.
We pray in honor of your incarnate love. Amen.
November 14, 2023
Page 3
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
MS. PATTERSON: Troy, do we have Commissioner
McDaniel?
Added
MOTION ALLOWING COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL TO
ATTEND THE MEETING VIA ZOOM BY COMMISSIONER
KOWAL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS –
APPROVED
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel, can you
hear us loud and clear?
MR. MILLER: Yes, we do.
MS. PATTERSON: All right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, good morning.
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, we need a motion to allow
Commissioner McDaniel to participate by phone.
COMMISSIONER HALL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Movement and second.
All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: (No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. It passes unanimously.
Commissioner McDaniel, can you hear us loud and clear?
November 14, 2023
Page 4
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I can hear you loud and clear,
sir. How about you?
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. Perfect. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning.
Good morning, everybody.
Item #2A
APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR, CONSENT AND
SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX PARTE DISCLOSURE
PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT
AGENDA.) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER KOWAL APPROVED
AND/OR ADOPTED W/CHANGES
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, changes for the Board of
County Commissioners' meeting November 14th, 2023. On the
change sheet we originally had moving Item 17E to 9A. It is going
to remain as Item 17E at Commissioner Hall's request. This is the
Rock Creek item.
County Attorney, do I need to read the whole title into the
record?
MR. KLATZKOW: No.
MS. PATTERSON: Okay, all right. Thank you. So it will
remain as 17E.
The next item is move 17A. This would have been 9B; it will
now be 9A. This is a recommendation to approve an ordinance
amending the Collier County Land Development Code to establish
rules of decorum related to neighborhood information meetings.
This is a companion item to Item 11D, which is formerly 16A1.
That's a recommendation to approve a resolution amending
November 14, 2023
Page 5
Ordinance No. 2004-66, as amended, which created an
Administrative Code to establish the rules of decorum for
neighborhood information meetings and provide an effective date.
These two items are being moved to the regular agenda at
Commissioner LoCastro's request.
Move Item 16K2 to 12A. This is a recommendation pursuant
to Collier County Resolution No. 95-632 that the Board of County
Commissioners authorize the County Attorney to help select and
retain outside counsel at county expense to represent Commissioner
McDaniel who is being sued by Naples Golf Development, LLC, in a
public records dispute and, in addition, to exempt the selection of
outside counsel from the competitive process as permitted under
Section 4, Subsection 7, of Collier County Purchasing Ordinance
No. 2020-28, as amended. This move is at Commissioner Saunders'
request.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, if I might
explain just real quickly why I've asked that to be removed.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I have no problem with the
county hiring outside counsel to represent any of us at any time, so
that's not the issue. The issue for me was I was curious as to why
the County Attorney's Office isn't handling this, because it seemed to
me to be a fairly routine public records question. And I know that
sometimes when you hire outside counsel, even on a routine item like
this, fees can get up to the hundred-thousand-dollar range pretty
quickly. I've seen that on many of these public records cases.
And so I guess the question that I had for the attorney was, why
can't you handle this as opposed to having outside counsel? Because
I think it's a fairly routine public records case. After that
explanation, if that's satisfactory, then I would just simply ask that
this stay on the consent agenda. But that's my concern.
November 14, 2023
Page 6
MR. KLATZKOW: We are co-counsel with Greg Woods on
litigation involving -- a Bert Harris litigation involving a golf course.
This is the same issue that Commissioner McDaniel is involved in.
There is potential for a conflict. I don't know what that conflict
could possibly be, but there's that potential for conflict, and it would
be detrimental to get halfway through the litigation only to find
ourselves not having to be able to pursue that litigation anymore.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So that's your -- because of
the potential conflict?
MR. KLATZKOW: Potential conflict.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I understand. Then I will
just request that this stay on the consent agenda.
MS. PATTERSON: Okay. Thank you. So it will no longer
be 12A. It will remain 16K2.
Finally, we have add-on Item 15B2 is a staff update on the
Legend concert series at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, and this
comes to the agenda at Commissioner Saunders' request.
Agenda notes: Item 13A will be heard at 10 a.m. This is the
U.S. Department of Justice and Treasury combined Equitable Sharing
Agreement and Certification County endorsement.
And Item 11A will be heard at 11 a.m. This is the water,
wastewater, irrigation quality water, and wholesale potable water user
rate and fee study.
We have court reporter breaks set for 10:30 and again at 2:50.
County Attorney?
MR. KLATZKOW: Nothing else. Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, ex parte on the consent
and summary agenda or any further changes, including 17E.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner Kowal, do
you have anything on consent, summary, and 17E?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I have nothing on consent, but I
November 14, 2023
Page 7
do have, on summary, on 17B, meetings and emails, and 17E,
meetings, emails, and calls for summary.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: No changes to the agenda.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have no changes to the agenda. On disclosure, the only
disclosure I have is on Item 17B dealing with the Golden Gate Golf
Course mixed-use. I have meetings, emails, and phone calls.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: No changes. On 17E, I've got
meetings, emails, and calls. 17B, I have meetings and emails.
Other than that, no disclosure.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Good morning. No
changes myself, and I'm the same with meetings and phone calls on
17E and B.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. And I have no changes. I
have meetings and emails on 17B; meetings and emails on 17E.
Okay.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, we have a couple of public
comments on consent and summary.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. MILLER: Your first public comment is for 16F4, Mary
Alger.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. MILLER: She will be followed by Rae Ann Burton who
was going to be 12A, but that's now 16K2.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. 16F4 is the first one.
Okay.
MS. ALGER: Good morning. My reading glasses are intact
November 14, 2023
Page 8
this time. They didn't fall apart on the way here.
I wish to speak about 13A in regard to the civil asset forfeiture.
I spoke on that last time, and I'm also registering my --
MR. MILLER: Ma'am, this is 16F4. You'll speak again for
13A.
MS. ALGER: Oh, excuse me.
MR. MILLER: And could you please state your name.
MS. ALGER: Oh, hold on. So this is for 16 -- oh, you know
what? My notes are in my purse. Can I just go get them real quick?
MR. MILLER: Yes.
Rae Ann, did you want to come up and speak on 16K2?
MS. BURTON: Good thing I left early this morning. Okay.
Why don't things work right?
All right. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Rae
Ann Burton. I live in Golden Gate Estates, Rural Golden Gate
Estates.
I want to thank you for removing Item K, No. 2, from -- County
Attorney, from consent, placing it on regular agenda, 12A, County
Attorney's report.
This item should never have been on consent. It should have
been on regular agenda to begin with. Why should a 30-day
extension be approved when document request initially was made in
April 2023, not September, as alleged by County Attorney. Citing
family crisis in September, but would respond upon return but didn't,
hence the lawsuit.
Counsel should be covered under insurance if it's a direct
connection as County Commissioner; however, it is alleged that
Commissioner McDaniel attempted to negotiate the purchase of
Naples Golf as alleged in the golf course ordinance lawsuit and
depressed market value of Naples Golf.
Additionally, Commissioner Bill McDaniel claims to live in
November 14, 2023
Page 9
District 5, but the summons is addressed to a Logans [sic] address,
which is District 3. Which is correct?
Why should taxpayers be burdened with the expense of an
outside attorney to deal with Commissioner McDaniel's lack of
transparency and promptness? It appears he ignored requests. Why
isn't it the attorney -- County Attorney defending? Is that not his
job, to defend the county and commissioners, or is it a conflict of
interest since the County Attorney is hired by the county
commissioners?
The agenda states payment by county -- Collier County
purchasing ordinance. That is still taxpayers' money. We the
taxpayers deserve all the facts and the truth. No one, not even
commissioners, are above the law.
Taxpayers should have timely notifications and access to all
documents regarding this lawsuit, and I have been told that I, as one
person, cannot speak for the people of Golden Gate Estates. But I'll
let you know that the response from NextDoor was over 700 people
that were concerned about this issue.
You guys are not above the law. You are a representative of us.
You're supposed to protect us. Please look into this and settle it so
we know what is really happening. Be truthful, be honest. You're
hired to do that. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is now Mary Alger on 16F4.
MS. ALGER: Yes. Mary Alger, Marco Island.
I'm here to speak against amending the Collier County Citizen
Corp ordinance to add a category for the United Way and remove the
Civil Air Patrol and replace it with Collier Ready and community
organizations active in disasters and to receive -- revise their quorum
requirement. They pose it for two reasons. One, when I look up
Collier Ready, I see that its goals are of its strategic partners to make
it a significant and sustained organizational investment in the
November 14, 2023
Page 10
collective. I look up "collective." It's a shared value by groups, not
the individual. I'm never for the collective, as it eliminates the
individual.
It appears all Collier Ready's goals all have to do with
education, which do not translate to disaster help.
Number 2, I do not want a local organization, such as the Civil
Air Patrol, replaced with a global bureaucracy who wishes to revise
the quorum requirement, making decisions on the ground at a local
disaster.
In 2014, the data I found in regards to how United Way spends
their money, out of 80.2 million, here's the breakdown: No. 1,
26 percent went to compensation, employee benefits, payroll taxes,
and 5.5 million to the president and CEO; No. 2, 9 percent to
undefined paid consultants; No. 3, 5 percent travel, conferences,
meals, and speakers; No. 4, 5 percent in office expenses; No. 5,
3 percent to miscellaneous expenses.
So 48 percent was spent on the top five categories. Of the
remainder, 37 percent was given to organizations outside the U.S.,
5 percent was given to organizations inside the U.S., 10 percent stays
inside the organization on their balance sheet. If you want to know
what 10 percent looks like, go look up the United Way's new
headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. You'll be shocked to see how
huge it is and what luxury there is in their headquarters.
Then I'll ask yourself -- then I ask, who in Collier County or
anywhere else, for that matter, want to cede control to the United
Way and their collective partners over our Civil Air Patrol and
trained organized citizenry in time of our local disaster? Not me.
On the way here, there was an accident on Collier, and I saw a
man park his truck quickly and get out and run towards the accident
to help. That's the kind of local citizen we need. We need to be
trained by our local firefighters for CPR, for, you know, emergency
November 14, 2023
Page 11
disasters, not giving this over to the United Way who will just only
enlarge its headquarters. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: That was all of our speakers on consent and
summary, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, on that
particular item, I, at one point, had thought about pulling it off the
consent to get more of an explanation from staff as to what that
committee does, and maybe that would be a good idea just to hear a
little more.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. I mean, I just sent a note to
Ms. Patterson and just said, who can give us deeper dive so that we
answer the citizens' concerns but also maybe educate us a little bit
more that the details in here might not be fully transparent.
MS. PATTERSON: Mr. Summers.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: So if you-all would like to move it, we can
place it on the regular agenda. It would become Item 11D.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Would he be able to be
here or call in, or how would we -- you'll try to reach out to him, or is
he here already?
MR. SUMMERS: I'm here.
MS. PATTERSON: There he is. He's in the back right now.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: What took you so long? No, I'm
just kidding. Thanks, Dan. And, you know, like I always say, we
appreciate citizens, I mean, bringing these kind of things, you know,
and looking at the agenda so closely, and we'll get clarification on
that. And if it's something of concern that we're not aware of, then
we will act accordingly.
MS. PATTERSON: Would you like it pulled, or would you
like to talk to Mr. Summers now?
November 14, 2023
Page 12
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No, I think he's here now. Let's
talk now.
MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, good morning. For the
record, Dan Summers, director of your Bureau of Emergency
Services and Emergency Management.
Your citizen corps advisory group is a post 911 evolution, if you
will, that was recommended by the White House following 911.
That group is strictly an information exchange group. We use them
to let the local mitigation strategy be vetted, we use them to share
programming between agencies for disaster preparedness, disaster
response, disaster education. It is simply a coalition for information
exchange related to disaster preparedness and response and other
public safety programming.
Unfortunately, we have been working with Civil Air Patrol for
over a decade and have not found them to be -- to maintain interest,
and they have withdrawn their membership just because they were
not interested in or could not provide the personnel to attend
quarterly meetings; however, the meetings are publicly advertised,
they are open to the public, and they're an information exchange
forum that we vet programs, projects, and our community partners
share information.
There are no funding transactions that take place. It is strictly
an information sharing opportunity. It's an opportunity for
Emergency Management to let the public also know and its partner
agencies know new initiatives that are going on, engage
public/private partnership and disaster.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I just want to make it clear. The
way I read the thing is this is just recommending the County Attorney
to bring this back for public hearing where we can talk about it.
MR. SUMMERS: Correct. This is just a tweak to the
November 14, 2023
Page 13
ordinance, correct.
COMMISSIONER HALL: And I would like to see some other
options besides the United Way or besides, you know -- I would like
to see somebody locally or somebody that's got interest locally as
options to come forth and replace the Civil Air -- I certainly
understand why the Civil Air Patrol is out, but --
MR. SUMMERS: We are open. This is just an opportunity
where we have had to kind of struggle with membership and some
routine engagement with these folks. The United Way, as you
know, is under new leadership, has a much greater interest in
long-term and short-term disaster recovery in our community,
something that we haven't seen in quite some time. So this is
reenergizing local recovery and long-term recovery, that we really
need these public and private agencies to continue to support
long-term recovery.
COMMISSIONER HALL: As information only.
MR. SUMMERS: Oh, it's strictly an information forum, that is
correct.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. When I saw it on the
agenda, like I said, and similar to Commissioner Hall, it wasn't us
agreeing necessarily to something concrete. It was bringing it back
for discussion --
COMMISSIONER HALL: Discussion.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- and hearing. So when it comes
back, I just say, you know, I think that our citizen speaker had a lot of
merit in her concerns that I think I would like answers to. So when
it comes back, let's just make sure we do the deepest dive possible
and explain in as transparent of a way and, you know, we'll figure it
out. If it -- we'll decide if it's the right thing to do or not, or if there's
other options, so...
MR. SUMMERS: We'll bring back some more detail --
November 14, 2023
Page 14
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. SUMMERS: -- at the next hearing on the --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank
you.
MR. SUMMERS: Very good. Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that will remain, then, as
16F4.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay, thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Troy, that's all the speakers?
MR. MILLER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: The way Commissioner McDaniel
has called in, are you able to tell if he's got a question, or should I just
periodically go to him? I mean, obviously --
MR. MILLER: I do not see his hand raised. Commissioner
McDaniel, do you have your hand-raise function available to you?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do, and I have no
comments. And if I do -- and that's a good way, Troy, if it's okay --
MR. MILLER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- when I do want to say
something, I'll raise my hand.
MR. MILLER: Yes, sir. And then we'll alert it on the
push-to-talk system here.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do have one quick
correction, if I may. 16K, the agenda item that Commissioner
Saunders -- it has to do with that lawsuit. I do have disclosures there
as well. I do certainly have meetings and phone conversations on
that item as well. I neglected to say that in my ex parte, so forgive
me.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. We'll add that.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 2A,
November 14, 2023
Page 15
which is approval of today's regular, consent, and summary agenda as
amended, and our ex parte disclosure provided by commission
members.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Do I have a motion to
approve the agenda?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Move to approve.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion to
approve from Commissioner Hall, a second from Commissioner
Kowal. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
*****
Proposed Agenda Changes
Board of County Commissioners Meeting
November 14,2023
Move Item 17E to 9A: This item requires ex-parte disclosure be provided by the Commission members. Should a
hearing be held on this item, all participants are required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve an ordinance
rezoning property from a Rural Agricultural(A)Zoning District with an Airport Zoning Overlay to a Residential
Planned Unit Development(RPUD)Zoning District with an Airport Zoning Overlay for a project known as Rock
Creek Estates RPUD to allow development of up to 15 unit single-family dwelling units, a private recreational
amenity, and a boat ramp with up to 12 private boat slips on property located west of Airport-Pulling Road, on the
south side of North Road,across the street from Terminal Drive to the Naples Airport, in Section 2, Township 50
South,Range 25 East; consisting of 11.36+/-acres. [PL20220001779] (Commissioner Hall's request) (26488)
Move Item 17A to 9B: Recommendation to approve an Ordinance amending the Collier County Land
Development Code,to establish Rules of Decorum related to Neighborhood Information Meetings.
[PL20220008172] (This is a companion to Item 11D formerly 16.A.1)(Commissioner LoCastro's request) (26488)
Move Item 16A1 to 11D: Recommendation to approve a resolution amending Ordinance No. 2004-66, as
amended,which created an Administrative Code to establish the Rules of Decorum for Neighborhood Information
Meetings and provide an effective date. (This is a companion to Item 9B formerly 17.A)(Commissioner LoCastro's
request) (26488)
Move Item 16K2 to 12A: Recommendation pursuant to Collier County Resolution No. 95-632,that the Board of
County Commissioners authorize the County Attorney to help select and retain outside counsel at County expense
to represent Commissioner McDaniel,who is being sued by Naples Golf Development,LLC in a public records
dispute,and in addition to exempt the selection of outside counsel from the competitive process as permitted under
section four, subsection seven of Collier County Purchasing Ordinance No. 2020-28, as amended. (Commissioner
Saunders' request) (26988)
Add-on Item 15B2: Staff update on the Legend Concert series at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
(Commissioner Saunders' request)
Notes: .
TIME CERTAIN ITEMS:
Item 13A to be heard at LOAM: US Department of Justice and Treasury combined Equitable Sharing Agreement
and Certification County endorsement.
Item 11A to be heard at 11AM: Water, Wastewater,Irrigation Quality Water,and Wholesale Potable Water User
Rate and Fee Study.
11/14/2023 8:45 AM
November 14, 2023
Page 16
Item #2B
OCTOBER 3, 2023, BOARD WORKSHOP MINUTES - MOTION
TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER KOWAL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER HALL – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 2B is approval of the Board
workshop minutes from October 3rd, 2023.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Do I have a motion to
approve the minutes?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion from
Commissioner Kowal, a second from Commissioner Hall. All in
favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
Item #4A
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING NOVEMBER 2023 AS
NATIONAL HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE MONTH.
ACCEPTED BY MARK BELAND, COMMUNITY LIAISON,
AVOW HOSPICE, AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED GUESTS -
November 14, 2023
Page 17
MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER KOWAL – ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: That moves us to Item 4 proclamations.
Item 4A is a proclamation designating November 2023 as National
Hospice and Palliative Care Month. To be accepted by Mark
Beland, community liaison, Avow Hospice, and other distinguished
guests. Congratulations.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You're welcome to say anything at
the podium if you'd like. It's totally up to you.
MR. BELAND: I want to thank the commissioners. This is
the seventh year that I've been with Avow, and each year you allow
us to have the proclamation, so thank you. And I want to thank the
community for the support Avow has received for the past 40 years
that Avow has been serving the community. And just, lastly, it's an
absolute honor. I could speak from our leadership, which we have
several of them here today, and our staff and volunteers, that it's an
honor to provide the hospice and palliative care and grief support for
all of those who need us in the community. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN LOCASTRO: THANK YOU, SIR.
Item #4B
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING NOVEMBER 15 - 22, 2023, AS
FARM-CITY WEEK IN COLLIER COUNTY. ACCEPTED BY
RUSSELL BUDD, EVENT CHAIRMAN, AND OTHER
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER KOWAL- ADOPTED
November 14, 2023
Page 18
MS. PATTERSON: Item 4B is a proclamation designating
November 15th through the 22nd, 2023, as Farm-City Week in
Collier County, to be accepted by Russell Budd, event chairman, and
other distinguished guests. Congratulations.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Barbecue time.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Anybody want to take the podium
and give a commercial for the barbecue, or -- don't miss the
opportunity.
MR. BUDD: Thank you, Commissioners.
As I'm sure most people know, Farm-City Barbecue is a Collier
County tradition held every Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So
we look forward to seeing you all there next week.
The Farm-City barbecue is a fundraising effort for five different
kids' charities, which I hope to remember them all right now: 4H,
Leadership Collier Kids, Kiwanis Kids, Immokalee Foundation, and
Junior Deputies. And it's run by volunteers. The tickets are $30 for
a 10-ounce strip steak, ear of corn, Immokalee salad, baked beans,
and great fellowship and networking for the citizens of Collier
County. And most, if not all, of our county commissioners will be
among the celebrity servers serving the meal next week. We look
forward to seeing everyone there.
(Applause.)
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, if we could get a motion
to accept the proclamations.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So moved.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I've got a motion from
Commissioner Saunders, second from Commissioner Kowal. All in
favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
November 14, 2023
Page 19
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
Item #5A
ARTIST OF THE MONTH – AMERICAS MILITARY & FIRST
RESPONDERS MUSEUM – PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 5A is our Artist of the Month. It is
America's Military and First Responders Museum located at the
Naples Airport. Dave Heinz, president of the museum, is here to
share information about the museum and its mission. Welcome.
(Applause.)
MR. HEINZ: Good morning. My name is Dave Heinz. I'm
the president of the America's Military and First Responders
Museum. I believe I've met with all the commissioners except
Mr. Hall, and a pleasure meeting you.
I do have a few of our members, which I'd like to recognize, that
attended with me. Our board of directors is Matthew -- is he still
present?
(No response.)
MR. HEINZ: Oh, he must have -- Tim, would you please stand
up? And John.
(Applause.)
MR. HEINZ: I'd like to thank the county commissioners for
allowing us to post a few of our posters we have. We have
November 14, 2023
Page 20
approximately over 100 posters and pictures at our museum, and each
November they allow us to post these posters here, and they range
from World War I all the way up to the Civil War. And we have
some newspapers at our museum, original newspapers from the Civil
War dated 1863.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: How'd that turn out? What does it
say in the paper? I'm just kidding.
MR. HEINZ: Unfortunately, it says the Union won.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I knew you were going to say that.
I've known Dave a long time. I knew he was going to have a
comeback.
MR. HEINZ: And, fortunately, we recently received over a
hundred Civil War original artifacts from a collection of a guy that is
in ill health, and he had given us a couple items over the years, and
he gave us his entire collection. Unfortunately, our remainder of our
posters and all this collection of Civil War, plus 5,000 artifacts from
World War II will have to be placed in storage because of our
confined space, that we've -- we've been guests of the airport for 12
years now, and we appreciate it.
You look at the airport. You think there's a lot of room out
there, that they could do something, but it's for the airport only,
though.
We are hoping we come under the umbrella of the Collier
County Museum system next year, and we are working with the
County Manager's Office, and hopefully -- we've been working with
the commissioners in regards to what we need. And, you know, if
we can find a building or property to put something in there -- we
need approximately a 10,000-square-foot building to hold all of our
artifacts.
Plus, we've got so many interests of having a hangar attached to
our museum. The USS Florida submarine, which is on a float -- I'm
November 14, 2023
Page 21
sure you've seen that in parades -- the Iwo Jima float that the Marine
Corps League has, and we have a Jeep. We have a gentleman that's
got a World War I biplane, no engine or anything, but he would like
to hang it in the hangar for us.
So we have some big plans, but we've got a lot ahead of us. So
with the help of the county, we hope we can get something going and
get under the museums system and, you know, to display all this
information to our veterans and the ones that's made the ultimate
sacrifice.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, Dave.
(Applause.)
Item #5B
PRESENTATION OF THE COLLIER COUNTY BUSINESS OF
THE MONTH FOR NOVEMBER 2023 TO REGIONS BANK.
THE AWARD WILL BE ACCEPTED BY CYNTHIA VALENTI
SMITH, MARKET EXECUTIVE, ALON NAFTALI,
COMMERCIAL BANKING, ERIC TREVINO, BRANCH
MANAGER, AND LISA SHURYN, SBA COMMERCIAL LOAN
MANAGER. ALSO PRESENT IS BETHANY SAWYER, VICE
PRESIDENT OF MEMBERSHIP AND INVESTORS, GREATER
NAPLES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE – PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 5B is a presentation of the Collier
County Business of the Month for November 2023 to Regions Bank.
The award will be accepted by Cynthia Valenti Smith, market
executive; Alon Naftali, Commercial Banking; Eric Trevino, branch
manager; and Lisa Shuryn, SBA commercial loan manager. Also
present is Bethany Sawyer, vice president of membership and
November 14, 2023
Page 22
investors, Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.
Congratulations.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You're welcome to speak if you'd
like.
MS. SMITH: Well, myself and our team here representing
Regions, we want to thank you, County Commissioners, and also
Naples Chamber, who we work closely with, for the
acknowledgment. We greatly appreciate being part of the
community, obviously, as well. We have five local branches here,
and we serve our community, not just on the retail side, but on the
investment side, the mortgage side, and our commercial side as well.
We're very involved within the community, so this is why this is even
a more blessed acknowledgment for us. We work closely with the
PACE Center for Girls, the Guadalupe Center, Big Brothers/Big
Sisters, and we do a lot of work with financial wellness within the
community. So it's just part of what we do, and we're happy and
pleased that we're fortunate to do it within the county. So thank you
very, very much.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Great. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Did I read this wrong? In
recognition of your award, new-home interest rates are down to
1.5 percent just for today?
MS. SMITH: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Did I -- I don't know if that was a
typo.
MS. SMITH: BOGO.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Was that a typo? Oh. It's
BOGO, oh. I'll be right back. I have to go to Regions Bank. I've
got little forms to fill out.
Congratulations again, and same to Avow.
November 14, 2023
Page 23
Item #7
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, Item 7, public comments
on general topics not on the current or future agenda.
MR. MILLER: We have three registered speakers for this item.
Your first speaker is Robert Thurston. He'll be followed by Michael
Rinaldi.
MR. THURSTON: Good morning. Hello, my name is Robert
Thurston.
To summarize, today marks my fifth appearance before the
Board of County Commissioners. My other appearances can be seen
from July 25, August 22nd, September 12th, and October 10, 2023.
I discussed the deep state here in Naples, Florida, and something
called the Targeted Individual Program. I feel like I covered a lot of
ground in these discussions, and if you have been following along, a
picture of what happened to me is starting to emerge.
In the Collier Board meeting on October 10, I gave my account
of how I was accosted while getting medical care back in 2011.
Over these last 13 years, I've endured literally thousands of different
daily harassments, both large and small, as a victim of the deep state
and the Targeted Individual Program, and let's not lose sight of the
crucial fact that I'm not involved in any crimes.
It's the cruel primary goal of the Targeted Individual Program
that the target commits suicide. Other desirable outcomes the deep
state wants for the targeted individual, including incarceration,
institutionalization sometimes due to the Baker Act. Other goals of
the deep state for the target include making a target move from their
November 14, 2023
Page 24
home, making the target unemployed and/or destitute. Make the
targeted individual persona non grata.
Often these goals are accomplished by constant provocation and
entrapment. And for what -- people who often are not involved in
any real crimes, these are your tax dollars at work. These are your
tax dollars in the hands of criminals. The deep state will, I think,
certainly expand on the Targeted Individual Program to include more
and more people as time goes on.
One of the great uses of writing and public speaking is that they
can be used to persuade. I hope my words reach you and that people
will write their local, state, and federal government to demand
government immediately cease all participation in this miserable
program. I feel that in the future there will certainly be laws that
criminalize the Targeted Individual Program.
So today, in the remaining time, I want to tie up a few loose
ends from my earlier discussions and point you in the direction of
some reference material that supports some of the claims I've been
making before the Board. First, I should have mentioned the
MK-Ultra and COINTELPRO programs. You can Google these
terms. MK-Ultra and COINTELPRO were forerunners of today's
Targeted Individual Program, and one can see, more and more,
people have been ensnared in these illegal programs over time.
I also hope you can read the excellent Tampa Bay Times article
called "Targeted," written by Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi, about
the abuses of the Pasco County sheriff located just up the road from
here. That newspaper article echoes many of the accounts I provide
in the online documents I've made available.
Finally, have a look, if you will, at the Newsweek article from
2021 by William Arkin called "Inside the Military's Secret
Undercover Army." That article reveals for the first time the facts
about a secret 60,000-man force, many deployed here domestically,
November 14, 2023
Page 25
that are the engine -- that are the engine behind the Targeted
Individual Program. These are the kind of things that represent a
threat to free societies.
May I have 30 more seconds to finish up?
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir.
MR. THURSTON: So last I want to give, again, the link that
tells the story of the people involved here locally in my illegal
targeting at targetedindividual4.wordpress.com. That's
targetedindividual4, the number, .wordpress.com.
Also, this past month, I started to reach out to Florida senators,
Geraldine Thompson, Perry Keith [sic], Tina Polsky, and
Congressmen Byron Daniels -- Donalds to ask for their assistance in
sponsoring Collier's law which would criminalize participation in the
Targeted Individual Program.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Michael Rinaldi, and he
will be followed by Tyler Wood.
MR. RINALDI: Good morning. I'm Mike Rinaldi. I've lived
in Collier County for 25 years. I'm here to speak about a failure or
problems with the CAT para transport service for the blind.
Picture trying to get home from a doctor's appointment and
being on the bus for over two and a half hours, having no idea where
you are because you can't really see well.
I'm one of the fortunate ones. I had a stroke about a year and a
half ago, and I can still see a little bit, plus I have a wife that takes
really good care of me, so I'm lucky; I'm not dependent on the para
transport service. But I've recognized the true need that's out there
in the community. And we're kind of invisible because we don't like
to go anywhere because, you know, we can't see, we run into things,
and we fall down. All of us have stories about that.
Blindness can affect the young people, but most that I've run
November 14, 2023
Page 26
into are seniors that have had genetic conditions or strokes, and then
they become impaired. And I became aware of this because I was
going to a support group at the Lighthouse, which is a non-profit for
the blind. They run seminars and support groups because we all run
into quite a bit of difficulty adjusting to our limitations, and that
group helps us a lot. Many of the folks arrive by the CAT service,
and they all have stories about being late and having problems getting
home.
We had a CAT meeting with folks at the Lighthouse. Brian
Wells and Mari Maldonado came, and we spoke to them for a little
over an hour to try to understand why we're having so much
difficulty.
And the first thing I want to say is that the drivers are all
excellent. Everybody feels like the drivers really have a lot of care.
And Brian told us that they're fully staffed, so it's not a problem with
the drivers. I think that they all get an excellent review from the
users because they can see the true need. They can see how
damaged the people are and how much help that they need, so they
really go out of their way.
Scheduling; we discussed a scheduling request. That system
seems to be operating well. The real problem seems to be in routing,
and that's partly because our area is so diverse and people are coming
from all over and, really, the only way to solve the problem seems to
be we need more buses. Brian said that they only obtain buses
through grants, and I guess I would like to ask that you find
additional dollars, maybe from impact fees. But apparently we have
12 buses on order, but it's only six net new buses. That's not enough
for the need that's out there. And, you know, I can write things, but I
can't read them too well.
I guess I'm here because, you know, I just see how desperate the
people are and how -- you know, like, I have resources. I can go to
November 14, 2023
Page 27
Uber. I have my wife. I have family here. But so many of the
people that are blind, they're, like, on their own. They're older.
Their spouses have died. They don't have the resources, so there's a
real need there. And like I said, I think we're kind of invisible. So
try to consider that, and try to find more money for CAT paratransit
buses. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Sir, let me ask you a question. So
the problem, as you're identifying it, is when somebody is picked up,
the reason they're on the bus for two hours is because the bus has to
make several other stops to pick up other people and eventually get
them to their stop, correct?
MR. RINALDI: Right, but it's a lot of confusion because you
could have road problems, you could have backups. And, you know,
you're covering a diverse suburban territory. We're not like a city
where people are concentrated. So I think the routing is the
problem, but that's because they don't have enough resource, which is
the bus. They're trying to do too many trips with too few buses.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Because I've addressed this
with -- I had a couple constituents that had a similar complaint and,
you know, trying to find the equal balance. Every bus can't be a
private limousine. And so -- and I want to have a healthy
conversation on this. And Trinity Scott is in the back; our top
transportation person is right here. So I don't want you to leave
without talking to her, because I discovered some of these things
through my constituents. And we did improve their arrival time, but
one of the things they also admitted to was they realize that one
vehicle couldn't personally pick them up and bring them from Point
A to Point B and get them there in 40 minutes or 30 minutes, because
there's other people that needed help.
And so, you know, one bus per person -- and I know you're not
suggesting that, but finding that balance. So I do appreciate you
November 14, 2023
Page 28
voicing this, because this has come to my attention from some people
in my district, and not just blind. Handicapped people that needed a
special ride, and they got home super late, or they got to their
appointment late because, as you said, everything worked perfectly
but ran into a bunch of traffic, and there were three more stops along
the way which, in one particular case, the person didn't realize they
were going to have -- they were going to be stopping at all these
places, so they were -- the spouse was, why is my husband on the bus
for two hours? And it's like, well, he didn't get picked up at Point A
and go immediately to his location. There's other people that need
the same -- needed the same transportation and, you know, we're
trying to maximum the use of the bus. Like you said, they're not
limousines.
And so -- but we've talked about smaller vehicles and things like
that. We actually don't want to buy more buses if we want to have
more personalized service. We want smaller vehicles that wouldn't
have to make five stops.
But having said that, I'm just going to ask Trinity Scott, before
you exit, to speak with you to get as much feedback as we can from
you, because we're continuously tightening, changing, improving the
system. Nobody's sitting up here, you know, saying we don't want
to, you know, buy more buses and things like that. But from my
own personal experience, it wasn't so much that we needed more
buses, but some of our smaller vehicles would be a bigger help, and,
of course, the price of a bus, you could buy maybe five vans instead
of, and that would be a bigger impact, so...
MR. RINALDI: I think that would be a great solution to have
vans that are less expensive and --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But please talk with Trinity,
because you're a customer, and you're also -- I'm getting feedback
from people that are out there that might not be coming to us. So
November 14, 2023
Page 29
this is of great value to us. And it's something that we actually have
talked about. And for the constituents I represented, we made the
change that made it a little bit or a lot better for them, but it might not
have fixed the whole process. So, you know, you're continuing to
shine a light on something that we're trying to figure out and not just
throw money at it, but buy the right resources.
So Trinity will get with you as you exit so we can make sure we
get a full download and not just, you know, the three minutes that
you touched on now. But everything you just said had merit on
things that we are already addressing, and it sounds like you can
bring even more feedback to us.
So I really appreciate you being here.
MR. RINALDI: Yeah. You would get other feedback, but
people have difficulty going anywhere.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. Okay. Okay. Well,
Trinity will get with you, and we'll continue to --
MR. RINALDI: Just think, you're on the way to the doctor's
office, they got you there on time, but then the doctor has you sitting
there an extra length of time, so your pickup time gets screwed up,
too.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. RINALDI: So it just snowballs.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Got it. Thank you, sir.
MR. RINALDI: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Mr. Chair, your final registered
speaker for Item 7 is Tyler Wood.
MR. WOOD: Hey, everybody. Tyler Wood, Naples resident
for 20 years.
I'm the director of circularity with Gravitas Infinitum and
Carbotura.
We just got awarded, for the second time, top 50 most
November 14, 2023
Page 30
innovative companies in the world out of 130 companies -- 130
countries.
And we have now 10 billion dollars of funding commitments.
So I went from, basically, looking for cash to now I'm looking for
trash. And thankfully there's a lot of that out there. And,
interestingly, there's a lot of discussions around trash and waste, but
nothing really going -- talking about waste to value and billable
materials. Water, graphite, graphene, China just -- they produce
about 90 percent of the global anode-grade graphite, and they just
restricted the export of the highest grade anode-grade graphite for
national security reasons.
So imagine the national security of not producing any graphite at
all. The United States hasn't produced, you know, graphite since the
1950s.
So we -- I'm a lobbyist. I've registered as a lobbyist now to just
be more engaged with everybody here. We submitted an RFI to
invest $289 million into Collier County in two locations to process a
thousand tons a day, collectively, of waste into critical raw materials
and advanced materials.
And it's pretty exciting. But at the same time, it's a little
challenging, because you have these incumbent waste management
companies that think, like, you know -- you know, a 35 percent
recycle rate is efficient. Well, when I was in school, you know,
65 percent was a fail, and we're talking about 100 percent recycling
of all waste with zero emissions, and zero waste. So it's a big, big
transition from this kind of monolithic obsolescence that we're kind
of looking backwards at from the standpoint of our comprehensive
materials management strategy. And that's what we're providing,
and that's what we wanted to just keep you aware of.
We got selected to be considered -- BloombergNEF Pioneers
award for next year. We got invited for Phase 2 to be considered
November 14, 2023
Page 31
finalists for the X prize with Elon Musk.
So there's a lot of recognition that's going on around us. I just
wanted to share that that recognition is coming to a company that's
headquartered here. It would be wonderful to have a facility here
where we are headquartered, but, you know, we've got the first of
five deployments going off to India. I've got to fly to Saudi Arabia
and Bahrain because they have trash, and they're coming to us saying,
hey, let's get this done, and I want to get this done here as well. So
thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Mr. Wood, thank you. So what's
the ask?
MR. WOOD: Give us your trash, and we'll create -- we'll
invest $289 million. We'll save you about $14 million a year in your
waste management costs, and we'll donate to about -- about
$8 million a year in community funds.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Have you had discussions with
Dr. Yilmaz about the --
MR. WOOD: Yep, he's aware. We submitted an RFI, but
there's some other people that submitted an RFI. Most of it's all
waste to fuel or incineration, and those are very, very inefficient and
very costly strategies.
COMMISSIONER HALL: So you just need trash? Any kind
of certain trash?
MR. WOOD: Yep, just trash, and we've got $289 million just
burning a hole in our back pocket.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: When did you submit your RFI?
MR. WOOD: August.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Do we have any update on
it? Anything you want to comment on or something you can give us
an update on, all the commissioners, at another time?
November 14, 2023
Page 32
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, of course. We can -- we'll look into
it and get you some information.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Thank you, sir, for
bringing it to our attention. Appreciate it.
MR. WOOD: Thank you very much.
MR. MILLER: That's all of our speakers under public
comment, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. County Manager, so we're
moving to 9B?
Item #9A – Formerly #17E, kept as #17E per Commissioner Hall’s
request; Item #17A moved to #9A and is Companion to
Item #16A1 now #11D
ORDINANCE 2023-63: RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE AN
ORDINANCE AMENDING THE COLLIER COUNTY LAND
DEVELOPMENT CODE, TO ESTABLISH RULES OF DECORUM
RELATED TO NEIGHBORHOOD INFORMATION MEETINGS -
MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER HALL;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS – ADOPTED
Item #11D – Moved from Item #16A1 (Per Agenda Change
Sheet) Companion to Item #9B (moved to #9A)
formerly Item #17A
RESOLUTION 2023-211: RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE
A RESOLUTION AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 2004-66, AS
AMENDED, WHICH CREATED AN ADMINISTRATIVE CODE
TO ESTABLISH THE RULES OF DECORUM FOR
NEIGHBORHOOD INFORMATION MEETINGS AND PROVIDE
AN EFFECTIVE DATE - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
November 14, 2023
Page 33
COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS – ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, which is actually 9A since 9A went
away.
MS. PATTERSON: This is the companion items, 9A, formerly
17A, and 16A1, now 11D. This is recommendation to approve an
ordinance amending the Collier County Land Development Code to
establish rules of decorum related to neighborhood information
meetings, and its companion item is a recommendation to approve a
resolution amending Ordinance No. 2004-66, as amended, which
created an Administrative Code to establish the rules of decorum for
neighborhood information meetings and provide an effective date.
Mr. Mike Bosi, your Director of Planning and Zoning, is here to
present or answer questions.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, I just pulled this for
transparency. Anytime we talk about neighborhood information
meetings, it gets a lot of attention, because, number one, we have had
a lot of them, and we've had some that weren't so great, and so we're
trying to make the process better and add, you know -- I don't want to
say tighter controls, but more professional guidance. And so I didn't
want it buried in the consent agenda where it looked like maybe we
were sneaking in something. Because one time when we had it in
there and we had pulled it, we had a few speakers that didn't know we
pulled it, so they came to the podium and said, you're taking way our
right to speak, oh, you know, and that -- and it wasn't that at all.
So, you know, to be completely transparent, this is something
that's important to us, important to citizens, and so anytime we talk
about it, change it, adjust it, question it, you know, I think it's -- it's
smart to have, you know, us at the podium here to, you know, clarify
what we're doing and, most importantly, what we're not doing.
November 14, 2023
Page 34
So, Mr. Bosi, it's all yours.
MR. BOSI: Good morning, Commission. Mike Bosi,
Planning and Zoning director.
And we're here to discuss modifications to the Land
Development Code as well as the Administrative Code regarding the
NIM rules of decorum. This started back last year, a county project
with a five-acre proposed rezone at Collier Boulevard and Vanderbilt
had some negative reaction at a neighborhood information meeting,
and we had to end up canceling the meeting. Based upon that, we
described what happened to the Board of County Commissioners.
You guys said, go out and make some modifications so we could
better address this situation.
We've been to the DSAC, we've been to the Planning
Commission twice on this, and we're going to present these proposed
modifications. And the first slide is the only modifications we're
going to propose related to the Land Development Code and,
basically, we set the rules of decorum. The purpose and intent of a
NIM is to provide the public notice of an impending land-use petition
and to foster communication between the petitioner and the public.
To promote increased participation and convenience in the interested
members of the public, all NIMs shall be conducted at a physical
location to allow for in-person attendance and virtually utilizing
video conferencing technology. The expectation is that NIM
attendees will conduct themselves in a manner that their presence will
not interfere with the orderly progress of the meeting.
The petitioner is encouraged to provide a licensed and qualified
security detail for in-person meetings, which will be at the petitioner's
expense.
If the petitioner or staff determines the NIM cannot can be
completed due to the disorderly conduct of the members of the
public, the petitioner shall have the right to adjourn the NIM but
November 14, 2023
Page 35
required to conduct another duly advertised NIM either in person or
via video technology or at the petitioner's discretion.
So what is, you know, the NIM? The NIM is the first
opportunity for the developer to talk to the community, and it really
is that opportunity for the issues to be kind of put on the forefront,
and hopefully those issues could be addressed before we even get to
the public hearing so we can make some movement in terms of where
the neighbors have expressed concern.
And these modifications just put on a higher notice in terms of
what the expectation of the -- the public in attendance and how they
conduct themselves.
And then the next couple slides that I have here is the specifics
that we put into the Administrative Code. Once against, the purpose
and the intent of the neighborhood information meeting is to provide
the public with notice of an impeding [sic] zoning application and the
foster communication between the applicant and the public. The
expectation is that all attendees will conduct themselves in a manner
that their presence will not interfere with the orderly progress of the
meeting.
And it's -- the applicant must arrange the location of the meeting
to promote increased participation and convenience to the interested
members of the public. All NIMs shall be conducted at the physical
location to allow for in-person attendance and virtually utilizing
video technology. And I think that participation with the video
technology allows from -- we can have neighborhood information
meetings that maybe are held outside the seasonal months and still
have our seasonal population attend if interested.
And it really is, you know, a technology that we've perfected
over the last couple years, influenced by the pandemic. But I think
most people are very comfortable now engaging in that type of a
medium.
November 14, 2023
Page 36
Conduct of the meeting: A Collier County staff planner or
designee shall attend the NIM and record all commitments made by
the applicant during the meeting while remaining neutral and
providing clarification regarding the next steps the petition [sic] must
follow in the review process, including the anticipated future public
hearings that are asserted with this petition.
This is a change. The prior code said that the county staff was
the facilitator of the meeting, but this is really the -- this is really the
applicant's meeting. We're there just to, like I said, record any
commitments that are made to the neighborhood but also to provide
them information on the procedural steps and what the next steps are
regarding the petition.
The applicant will make a presentation of how they intend to
develop the subject property. The applicant's required to record the
NIM proceedings and provide an audible audio/video copy to the
Zoning division, including a written summary. When
videoconferencing is in use, it must have the capability to capture the
written comments from the attendees. These written comments will
be included in the written summary.
Finally, once again, we reiterate the decorum within the
Administrative Code. Expectations, that all NIM attendees conduct
themselves in a manner that their presence will not interfere with the
orderly progress of the meeting. For in-person meetings, the
applicant's encouraged to provide a licensed qualified security detail,
which will be at the applicant's expense.
If the applicant or staff planner determines the NIM can't be
completed due to disorderly conduct of the members of the public,
the applicant shall have the right to adjourn the NIM but be required
to conduct another duly advertised NIM either in person or via video
technology or both. We're going to give that option. The first
meeting we require a physical presence as well as video
November 14, 2023
Page 37
conferencing. If the meeting gets disrupted because of disorderly
conduct, the applicant can choose to have another physical meeting in
person but also have the videoconferencing option as well or only a
videoconferencing only if they felt that that was in the best interest of
moving the project forward.
And, finally, the county staff planner or designee shall promptly
post written summary and audio/video recordings of the NIM to the
county website for public inspections at the completion of those
NIMs. And that's the completion, or that's the end of the proposed
modifications.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I'll go to Commissioner Hall in one
second. I just wanted to say, so I think these are all good additions
to better clarify, specify, and add some other things to the
neighborhood information meetings. One of the things I just wanted
to say -- and it's really an attaboy, I guess, for lack of a better term, to
you, Mr. Bosi, is in my own district, in the three years I've been a
commissioner, because we have -- we, the county, Mr. Bosi, even
myself, and as a team effort, when you have a good relationship with
not only the citizens but the developer, if you believe that you had an
unsuccessful NIM, if the NIM isn't scheduled in the right location, if
it was -- you know, it's not scheduled on the right date, there's a lot of
latitude here, but people have to get involved. And I've just got to
say, all five commissioners here, I believe, have, you know, exercised
that latitude to work with the county staff when we weren't happy
with something.
You know, in my particular case there was a NIM for Treviso
Bay that was a bit premature. There was a little confusion on the
location and the date and, you know, maybe in the past it was too
bad, so sad. You know, we had the NIM, four people showed up, it
counted, boom. We don't do that anymore. So, really, hats off to
you. I mean, I know in my particular case, you immediately reached
November 14, 2023
Page 38
out to that developer and were able to -- you know, I don't want to
say "convince them." I think they knew what the right thing to do
was, and then we -- you know, we had a NIM in -- maybe it was last
year. In my district that just doesn't -- it went fine, but it just seemed
like they needed another one, you know, to really make sure that, you
know, we're covering all the bases.
And so I think this is really great guidelines with more
specificity but also, too, the one thing that's sort of not mentioned in
here is the latitude that we have to talk, communicate, speak with the
citizens, speak with the developer, you know. And if a developer
wants to have a successful project and all the citizens are upset, you
want to have a NIM. If the NIM doesn't go well, the developer
wants to have, in my opinion, another NIM and be able to then come
here to the podium and say, look, I met with the citizens three or four
times. You know, the first NIM, we didn't get good turnout or it
ended quickly. We went above and beyond.
So I mean, it's a team approach. But I've seen a lot of
improvements in the NIMs. We had a few that, you know, could
have been on 60 Minutes, what, a year or so ago. But I think the
ability to also use technology -- and -- it seems like, correct me if I'm
wrong, the Zoom option now is more directive and a little less of,
well, you could sort of do it, that now we're -- am I right, that --
MR. BOSI: Yes, Chair. We are requiring -- that first meeting
has -- you know, has to have that virtual --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. BOSI: -- option available.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Because a lot of times we hear
from citizens, oh, you need to cancel the NIM. It's off season,
nobody's here, so you have to push it back six months. And, I mean,
sometimes that's not realistic. So, you know, you can live in
Wisconsin and Zoom in and still -- I mean, we've had NIMs where
November 14, 2023
Page 39
more people were on the Zoom than were there in person, and I think
that was a good thing.
I know Commissioner Hall lit up here. Sir.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Mr. Bosi, I like the changes. You
know, obviously we want to engage the public and allow the
petitioner to talk, you know, pros and cons. But what -- what kind of
unnerved me a little bit is when the public is the one that are being
disruptive, the applicant has just as much right to be able to
communicate as the public has the right to hear what he has to say.
So if the public is disrupting the meeting and then the applicant
decides to do another meeting and the public disrupts it again, I
would like to see the petitioner say, look, we're done. We tried. I
think that they deserve as much respect as the public does as well,
and that's -- I didn't see that kind of written in here. And another
thing that I was wondering about, it said that the size of the facility
needed to be sufficient to accommodate the expected -- I mean,
sometimes that's hard to expect.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MR. BOSI: And, Commissioner Hall, I would agree with that.
It's the responsibility of the -- we are putting the responsibility on the
developer to make sure that the facility has the accommodation, and
if it doesn't have the size to accommodate the crowd that shows up,
that's when we will -- we will postpone that NIM and find another
facility.
So there is a little bit of risk, I think, and that's within the
development industry. There is risk associated with it. If you
underestimate the demand that's going to be placed upon your
facility, you may be forced to find a different location. So that -- we
think that's just part of the cost of doing business.
COMMISSIONER HALL: What about the case where the
public is so disruptive that the NIM can't go on?
November 14, 2023
Page 40
MR. BOSI: If it would be the direction of the Board of County
Commissioners, we could put a provision that says if the NIM is
interrupted and can't be -- can't be moved forward at a second time,
that could satisfy the requirement.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I would like to see that. Because
the public needs accountability just like the petitioner does as well.
And it's like that old -- you know, that statement Tommy Lee Jones
made in Lonesome Dove: I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't
tolerate it. I hate to see the public be rude to the petitioner to the
point that they can't communicate.
MR. BOSI: And if there's a consensus amongst the Board, we
could add that additional provision, that a second failed NIM because
of the disruption from the public, you know, we would consider the
NIM could be satisfied.
I don't know. I mean, I just feel like, at least with the
experience I've had, we've always had that latitude to sort of take
them one at a time. And if it -- you know, the one NIM I'm thinking
in particular where the public went ballistic, in the end, when we
peeled back the onion, it was a small group of people, and even the
rest of the people were upset that this small group was trying to
disrupt the NIM and force it to be postponed when all the right
people were there to have a good one.
But I'm for adding anything in here that's going to give more
specificity, but I think the unwritten things that are in here -- and, you
know, maybe it should be written -- is that at any time all the
commissioners here could make a motion and say, hey, I know that
the NIM, by statute here or by words, should have sufficed, but we all
agree it didn't, or vice versa, and I think we've done that once or
twice where we sort of looked at all the moving parts and then
directed that another NIM take place or that it counted or -- because, I
mean, I think in one of the NIMs a large group showed up because
November 14, 2023
Page 41
they basically knew that the venue was too small. So they showed
up, even people that didn't even live in that community, I believe was
what people suggested, to artificially postpone the NIM and, okay,
maybe that was a strategy.
But I don't know what anyone else thinks. I'm for adding
anything that maybe clarifies or specifies a possible option. It's not
maybe 100 percent directive, but it allows, you know, that option.
You know, when I read this, nothing jumped out at me as being
missing. I liked the specificity that was added but, I mean, does
anybody else have anything?
I mean, Commissioner Hall, what specifically -- you know, what
wordage do you think would make this even a more, you know, solid
of a document, to add what?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Maybe in the notice saying, you
know, if the public disrupts the meeting to where it's not able to go on
and that happens more than twice, then the NIMs -- then the
neighborhood information meeting requirement will be satisfied.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Or could be -- I would say "could
be satisfied."
COMMISSIONER HALL: Could be satisfied.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Because you might have the
commissioner from that district that would say, look, there's other
moving parts you didn't know, so maybe it would be a -- it would be
something that would have that flexibility.
Commissioner Kowal, did I hear you just push your button?
Oh, I'm sorry. Commissioner McDaniel's lit up. Go ahead, sir,
and then I'll go to Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I -- you know, in reading
this -- and I agree with Commissioner Hall, both the applicant and the
community need to have an opportunity for their say-so, but I think
adding the virtual component in the event that an in-person NIM is
November 14, 2023
Page 42
disrupted by the public, the virtual component allows for public
participation and comment, but they have to do it in writing and
they -- and those comments are then held as a matter of record. And
I think having that virtual component, if an in-person meeting is
disrupted, then the applicant has that right to go to a virtual-only
meeting and still allow for community involvement, community
input, but the disruption then held at bay because of the --
COMMISSIONER HALL: Virtual component.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- the virtual component
aspect -- thank you, sir.
So I think the way we have -- or the way that Mr. Bosi has made
these adjustments will give us -- this is a really good start on
managing these neighborhood information meetings and should give
enough flexibility for both the applicant and the community to have
their voices heard before it comes forward.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: And I will point out, as Mr. French and
Mr. Johnson kind of conveyed to me -- to my attention, is we always
can qualify these NIMs to provide a description of what happened
and a number of times. If it's a second NIM and we had to -- we can
bring that to the Planning Commission and the Board for you to make
an evaluation if you agree that the NIMs have been -- the requirement
has been satisfied.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Bosi -- or this might be a question for the attorney, too.
But is the NIM -- is that required by statute?
MR. BOSI: No, it's not. It's a local --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So there is no state statute that
governs that we have to have a NIM or not?
MR. BOSI: No.
November 14, 2023
Page 43
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: All right. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But, boy, they're valuable,
especially when you get, you know, professional citizen turnout and a
developer or landowner, whoever -- you know, whoever makes -- is
part of the team who takes it seriously and comes there. A lot of
good has come out of some NIMs and even major changes to the
project.
So, you know, we don't want to just sort of check the box. And
I think this gives us a lot of latitude to force a second NIM, make it a
Zoom. And if we think if -- and we always have the latitude here of,
as I said earlier, that if none of this worked and we thought there was
something above and beyond, the commissioner in that district could
certainly make a motion saying, you know, I don't think it -- I think
there was, you know, something that wasn't met and another NIM is
required. It should be Zoom, or what have you, and then we could
always go that route, so...
Any other inputs?
COMMISSIONER HALL: I'm good with it.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So I think we're good with
it as-is. Does it require a vote?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
MR. BOSI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So all in favor of these
changes that have been made here.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I make a motion.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Or, I'm sorry, do I have a
motion that all these changes that are --
COMMISSIONER HALL: I'll make a --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- made are sufficient?
Commissioner Hall?
COMMISSIONER HALL: I'll move to approve.
November 14, 2023
Page 44
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner Hall makes
a motion to approve. Do I have a second?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Second from Commissioner
Saunders. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. I'm saying aye, and
you're not hearing me.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Passes unanimously.
MS. PATTERSON: That was for Items 9A and 11D.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes.
Item #13A
RECOMMEND THAT THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS ENDORSE THE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY COMBINED EQUITABLE
SHARING AGREEMENT AND CERTIFICATION THROUGH
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024 - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: All right. Commissioners, thank you.
That brings us to our time-certain item. This is Item 13A.
This item was continued from the October 24th, 2023, board meeting.
This is a recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners
November 14, 2023
Page 45
endorse the United States Department of Justice and United States
Department of Treasury combined Equitable Sharing Agreement and
Certification through September 30th, 2024, and we do have Sheriff
Rambosk here in the audience to speak to this item and answer any
questions that you may have.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Good morning, Sheriff.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good morning, Chairman and
Commissioners. Kevin Rambosk, Collier County Sheriff.
To just give you some background, the equitable sharing
program began -- well, it's been in place for about 39 years. As I
understand it, we have been affiliated with it for most if not all of that
time period.
Originally, I believe the intent was pretty clear. You know, it
removes the tools that criminals use to proliferate their criminal
activity. More importantly, I think, it removes the proceeds of
illegally gained profits from the operation of crime.
In doing that, even though there has been significant changes
made to it and limitations, particularly over the last couple of years,
which I think are good to make it define -- more defined in its -- how
you obtain it, how you use it. It allows it to be given back to victims
in some cases to replace properties that were gained from an illegal
operation. And I think one of the things -- one of its intents was, you
know, in -- whether you're talking about -- and this focused on drug
operations, major financial crimes, things like human trafficking in
today's version and how we stop that, because in our particular case
here in Collier County, these cases grow out of investigations that we
start. And we've done a number of them. And what typically
occurs is we start an investigation, and the jurisdictional requirements
for us to continue to investigate go beyond the county border, beyond
the state border, beyond the United States border, for which we have
limited ability to investigate. Certainly, no official authority for law
November 14, 2023
Page 46
enforcement action beyond Collier County. So this mechanism
would allow that.
The reality of all of this is the equitable sharing dollars that the
county -- our county sees is relatively small, less than one half of
1 percent of our budget, to kind of put it in perspective. In the past
five years, I looked at the numbers, and we have been the recipient of
about $500,000. About 349,000 of that was a pill mill operation that
was perpetrated by a Naples doctor, so it's right here. It's affecting
our community directly and the costs, the impact, the ability to
provide prevention information, investigative ability for what some
of those limited uses would be for here in Collier County have been
put back into the community to fight, you know, fentanyl trafficking,
human trafficking, particularly, you know, coming from outside of
the country.
So the basis for the program makes a heck of a lot of sense.
But I will tell you that, that we are not dependent on these funds
almost in any way, with less than one half percent of our budget.
We particularly pride ourself on being -- to be as self-sufficient as we
can potentially be, and I've mentioned that on a number of occasions.
And I think it's really important that I recognize you as the Board for
supporting law enforcement to enable us to deliver those services
without outside support. That is critically important.
So we are not wanting for anything. So this is not a money
issue whatsoever, and it has just been in place. It has been available.
There is a check and balance with the requirement that -- before we
expend money, that you take a look at that and confirm that it is in
concert with what the requirements are.
Beyond that, I would open it up to any questions that you might
have.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Are you hearing any concerns? I
thought I remember when this was on -- correct me if I'm wrong.
November 14, 2023
Page 47
This was on an earlier agenda. We had some citizens that came to
the podium and expressed some concern, and that's why we pushed it
back, because we wanted the Sheriff to be here personally.
What were those concerns, or has something -- anything, sir,
come to your attention where citizens see this and maybe they don't
fully understand the way you just explained it or they think there's
something, you know, nefarious or deeper in here that is being hidden
somehow?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well, as I recall, over the years there
have been a lot of discussions nationwide about the potential impacts
and uses of this type of process, particularly as it looks at federal
government overreach.
We are very, very cognizant of those questions, and since many
of these investigations are based right here and impacting our
residents directly, I don't have the concern that anyone else is coming
into our community and/or are holding us hostage to these dollars,
because I can assure you that we have never operated outside the law
of the State of Florida, the Florida Constitution, or the United States
Constitution. We will never operate outside of any one of those.
And I don't even care if it's another law enforcement agency that asks
us to do it at a state, local, or federal level. We're not going to do it.
And as I've mentioned publicly, if someone else does it and they
violate the law and we observe it, they're going to jail.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I know we have public comment.
How many do we have, Mr. Miller? Let's hear from the public
comment that we have.
MR. MILLER: Your registered speaker for this item is Mary
Alger.
MS. ALGER: Mary Alger, Marco Island. Thank you, Sheriff,
for clarifying all of that. I appreciate that, very much so.
I'm still hesitant to allow this only because of that great
November 14, 2023
Page 48
government overreach that we're seeing. They've just approved a
budget for the FBI to have their headquarters larger than the
Pentagon. Okay. If that's not scary to everybody here, I don't know
what is.
But just as a -- like an anecdotal example, my husband had a
trucking company. It was in Illinois. And they noticed sometimes
in the morning, their trucks when they were backed in, they were just,
like, put back oddly. So, you know -- and they had procedures for
all of that. But then somebody else noticed that somebody, because
of the transponders, was out at 2:00 in the morning, and they don't
deliver freight at 2:00 in the morning, so they're trying to figure out,
well, who the hell has the truck out?
Well, they were being stolen at night and being used in crimes
and then returned before they started work in the morning. So they
didn't even know. So these particular trucks, then, could have
actually been held, you know. They could have been impounded
because they were being used in a crime which they had no
knowledge of, none whatsoever. So there is that, you know, ability
for abuse. Also, if you have a rogue employee that's doing things
behind your back that you do not know about, you know, certainly
that could bring, you know, a seizure or impounding of, you know,
your ability to conduct business. So those are the two things that I'm
very concerned about.
And also, again, the overreach of our federal agencies scarce the
hell out of me. So thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Sheriff?
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I completely agree with the concern,
and certainly, as an additional victim with the trucking. The process
that we always follow, obviously, as a civil process, is not only do we
make a criminal case, but then we have to go into civil court, and we
would have to prove that those entities knowingly were involved and
November 14, 2023
Page 49
prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.
So in our community, we would take all those steps to ensure
that you're protected as a business. I can't speak for the rest of the
country, but we would do it here.
MS. ALGER: That was Illinois, by the way.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, I think the beauty of Collier
County and, certainly, you know, the five commissioners up here,
regardless of how, you know, votes have turned out in the past, but
we've passed some things to show that, you know, our checks and
balances here, I think, are something that we're much more proud of
than maybe in some other states where some stuff might be
happening and then, you know, they're dealing with it, you know,
after the fact or whatnot. I think we've passed some things here that
show that we're extremely proactive. We have the protections in
place. And, you know, we have a Sheriff leading a team of
professionals that isn't asleep on the job or waiting for the federal
government to force feed something down on us and then we'll cry
about it afterwards.
So, you know, I just tell all citizens out there, including you,
ma'am, keep us informed of things that you're concerned about, you
know. The FBI building being larger than the Pentagon isn't
something we're going to vote on here.
I definitely -- it is an eyebrow raiser, but the things that we can
control here in Collier County, I think, are -- I don't think, I
know -- that our sheriff and the elected officials here and especially
our involved citizens, I think, have a really good handle on.
So I appreciate the clarification and also the citizen input and
concern. We share it.
So I've got a couple commissioners lit up here. Commissioner
Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
November 14, 2023
Page 50
I can speak on experience that when I was with the Sheriff's
Office and I was involved in an investigation that we conducted back
in 2014 that it initiated -- started out as just a local drug dealer that
was selling heroin, and before you know it, six, seven months into it,
everybody was working on it, it was getting read in, and, I mean, it
increased the multi jurisdictions from Miami, Tampa, and we were
actually leading us towards Atlanta.
And at the time, you know, having this tool in the toolbox to,
you know, ensure that if it got to that point, and there was seizure
done, like the Sheriff said, seizures, we have to prove that in civil
court. That's separate from the actual criminal case, and we have to
prove that, you know, these proceeds and that was obtained through
their criminal activity, having that tool, and then to subsidize
sometimes the hours and days that we spend doing surveillance and
operations, you know, when it comes to the end of the day, we have
an opportunity to recoup a little bit of that, you know, just by being
part of this program, you know.
So I think it's truly a benefit, and it's been used in the past. And
you can see how organically and how quickly it can expand an
investigation, and if we don't have that agreement or that type of
working relationship, it can hinder us at times. So I just wanted to
put that out there.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Has Commissioner McDaniel got
his hand raised or anything?
MR. MILLER: He does not.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Great. Well, I would like to make
a motion that we approve the resolution for this equitable sharing.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion to
approve from Commissioner Hall. Do I have a second?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second.
November 14, 2023
Page 51
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a second from
Commissioner Saunders. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
Thank you, Sheriff, for coming in, and thank you for the citizen
input we got previously and this morning. Thank you, ma'am, as
always.
We got something quick we can do and then have a break or –
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, the next up would be
Item 11B, which is the Conservation Collier item.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Let's take a break now,
because that one's -- let's just hear that one start to finish. So we'll
come back here at 10:35. How about that?
(A brief recess was had from 10:23 a.m. to 10:36 a.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Conservation Collier,
we're buying more lots, or we'll see if we are. Ms. Cook, the floor is
yours.
MS. PATTERSON: Come on here. Let me read the title in.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, yeah, that's right.
Item #11B
RECOMMENDATION TO APPROVE AN AGREEMENT FOR
SALE AND PURCHASE WITH 1) DREDGE MANAGEMENT
November 14, 2023
Page 52
ASSOCIATES, LLC; 2) CLAIR WILLIAMS; 3) SCOTT KENT
BAILEY AND CHRISTOPHER ROGER BAILEY (“BAILEY);
AND 4) THOMAS MOONEY, WILLIAM L. MOONEY, JORJA V.
THOMAS-MURCIA, MARIE MCDAVID, AND CARMEN M.
HANKINS-COLON (“MOONEY”) UNDER THE
CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION PROGRAM,
AT A COST NOT TO EXCEED $1,665,525, EXPAND THE
WINCHESTER HEAD PRESERVE MULTI-PARCEL PROJECT
AREA BOUNDARY TO INCLUDE THE BAILEY PARCEL, AND
AUTHORIZE BUDGET AMENDMENTS TO RECOGNIZE
CARRYFORWARD OF $8,800,000 IN CONSERVATION COLLIER
ACQUISITION FUND (1061) AND $515,000 IN AND
CONSERVATION COLLIER MAINTENANCE FUND (1062).
(JAIMIE COOK, DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DIRECTOR)
(DISTRICT 1, DISTRICT 5)
1) DREDGE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES, LLC –
MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
LOCASTRO; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS - APPROVED – (COMMISSIONER
KOWAL AND COMMISSIONER HALL OPPOSED)
2) CLAIR WILLIAMS – MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER KOWAL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – APPROVED
3) SCOTT KENT BAILEY AND CHRISTOPHER ROGER
BAILEY (“BAILEY) – MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – APPROVED
4) THOMAS MOONEY, WILLIAM L. MOONEY, JORJA V.
THOMAS-MURCIA, MARIE MCDAVID, AND
CARMEN M. HANKINS-COLON (“MOONEY”) –
MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
November 14, 2023
Page 53
SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
KOWAL – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 11B is a recommendation to approve
an agreement for sale and purchase with, 1, Dredge Management
Associates, LLC; 2, Clair Williams; 3, Scott Kent Bailey and
Christopher Roger Bailey; and, 4, Thomas Mooney, William L.
Mooney, Jorja V. Thomas-Murcia, Marie McDavid, and Carmen M.
Hankins-Colon under the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition
Program at a cost not to exceed $1,665,525; expand the Winchester
Head Preserve multi-parcel project area boundary to include the
Bailey parcel; and authorize budget amendments to recognize
carryforward of $8,800,000 in Conservation Collier Acquisition Fund
and $515,000 in Conservation Collier Maintenance Fund.
Ms. Jaime Cook, Development Review director, is here to
present.
MS. COOK: Good morning, Commissioners. Jaime Cook,
your director of Development Review at Growth
Management/Community Development.
The four parcels before you today were approved as part of the
Cycle B Active Acquisition List.
Troy, this isn't working.
MR. MILLER: Let me see if I can help you. It should be
better.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
The Cycle B Active Acquisition List was approved by you-all in
February of 2023 and includes these four parcels, which are all
expansions of existing Collier County Conservation Collier
preserves.
The first parcel, Dredge Management, which is located off of
Collier Boulevard, is adjacent to the Conservation Collier Shell
November 14, 2023
Page 54
Island Preserve, which you can see in the dark green right here, the
Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and it is just
north of the Deltona settlement conservation areas that surround
Fiddler's Creek and Marco Shores.
This parcel is 18.73 acres of unimproved land. It is primarily
wetland habitat that provides forging habitat for listed wading birds.
Panther and black bear telemetry points have also been identified on
this site, and alligator trails have been identified.
The only upland portions are along this portion right here. It
was a historically -- it was historically a canal that's been filled, and it
is zoned RSF3. The parcel, additionally, provides for storm surge
protection. And the purchase price of $1,512,875 is 95 percent of
the average of two appraisals that are required because this lot is
valued at over $500,000 in cost.
Commissioner, I believe one of the questions that one of you
had asked was, is the lot developable? All lots are developable.
They would just have to go through mitigation with probably the
state as well as U.S. Fish and Wildlife prior to commencement of any
kind of construction on the site.
The second parcel is located adjacent to the Nancy Payton
Preserve, which I do not believe we've discussed with you-all before.
The Nancy Payton preserve is located in the North Belle Meade area
of the Golden Gate Estates, and it is directly east of Golden Gate City
adjacent to the Golden Gate Canal and north of the Hideout Golf
Club.
The Nancy Payton Preserve consists mostly of pine flatwood
habitats but does have some pockets of wetlands and provides listed
species habitat. Red-cockaded Woodpecker, gopher tortoises,
panther, and black bear have all been observed within the preserve
boundaries as well as on adjacent parcels. This preserve has public
access with hiking trails that has been quite popular with the public.
November 14, 2023
Page 55
The Williams property, which is .5 acres of pine flatwoods,
would connect the southern portion of the preserve to the parking lot
area. So the parking lot area, you can see on the screen, is this -- is
in this small parcel that is part of the preserve. So this
parcel -- acquiring this parcel would allow better connectivity for the
parking lot into the main portion of the preserve and trails to be
established.
Gopher tortoise burrows have been identified on site, and some
of the vegetation on site, some of the taller palmettos, do provide
denning habitat for the Florida panther.
And the final two parcels are adjacent to the -- adjacent to or
part of the Winchester Head Preserve, which is located in the
northern Golden Gate Estates east of -- I'm sorry -- west of the Sky
Sail development. This area is a depressional storage area that has
been included in water management models by the Big Cypress Basin
of the South Florida Water Management District, and it has been
identified for potential watershed improvement projects by Collier
County. Habitat for listed wading birds, including wood stork and
panthers, have been identified on the site within the preserve through
the use of wildlife cameras that exist on the preserve.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Decipher this photo for us. So the
dark green we already own, right?
MS. COOK: Yes. So the dark green --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It's already part of -- blue is what
we don't own?
MS. COOK: We do not own.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. And then the fluorescent
green, there's only two of them, those are the parcels being --
MS. COOK: No.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- or the yellow ones are?
MS. COOK: The two fluorescent green parcels are actually
November 14, 2023
Page 56
owned by the Collier County Water and Sewer District.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, okay. So the yellow ones are
the ones that are --
MS. COOK: The yellow ones. So this one down here and this
one in the northwest corner are the two that we're looking at today.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Show me again with your thing.
So it's not all five yellows?
MS. COOK: This one and this one. The other three yellow
that are more central have already been approved by the Board for
acquisition. They're going through the purchasing process.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So they're about to turn
green?
MS. COOK: Yes.
The first of the two parcels, the Bailey parcel, is adjacent to the
southeastern boundary of the existing preserve. And, Commissioner
Kowal, I believe you had asked yesterday why wasn't this parcel
originally included. The original boundary was very arbitrarily
drawn and meant to include the deepest wetland areas of this region,
but the ecological characteristics, including the habitat, the soils, and
the listed species quality, as well as the management, are the same for
this parcel as they would be for any of the other parcels within the
existing preserve.
This parcel is 1.59 acres of forested and scrub-shrub wetlands.
It is 100 percent hydric soils. And the purchase price of 38,500 is
97 percent of the appraised value. Again, this would expand the
existing preserve by one parcel to the -- to the southeastern portion of
the preserve.
And the fourth property, the Mooney parcel, is in the
northwestern portion of Winchester Head. Very similar
characteristics to many of the other parcels. Forested wetlands,
hydric soils, and the -- and it is surrounded by properties that
November 14, 2023
Page 57
Conservation Collier already does own both to the east, west, and
south. The purchase price of 39,800 is 100 percent of the appraised
value of the property.
So acquisition of these four parcels would add 20.82 acres to the
Conservation Collier Program, again, all of which are a part of or
adjacent to existing Conservation Collier properties.
With that, staff is recommending the approval of the four
purchase agreements to acquire the properties as part of the
Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Program at a cost not to
exceed $1,665,525, to expand the Winchester Head Preserve
multi-parcel project area boundary to include the Bailey parcel, and
to authorize budget amendments to recognize carryforward of
$8,800,000 in the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Fund, and
$515,000 in the Conservation Collier Management Fund. Both of
those are monies that were left over from Fiscal Year '23.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So all of these are off of the
priority A list. You wouldn't be bringing us things from B or C,
right?
MS. COOK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean -- you know, I mean, one of
the reasons why I'm supportive of these is, you know, we're looking
for your team to do the homework and not bring us parcels that -- and
it doesn't mean the parcels you bring us we're going to rubber stamp,
but I know there's a whole bunch on the list that didn't make the cut.
So these are the ones that you're, you know, not recommending just
because they're the next four, but these are ones that we've done a
deep dive on. This is why the program exists. These are things that
meet all the criteria.
I mean, in the end, we have the latitude to say, hey, we don't
think that the juice is worth the squeeze. But, you know, you're
bringing us the 98 percent, you know, approved solution.
November 14, 2023
Page 58
So there -- obviously, if there was any reservations, they
wouldn't be on the list, correct?
MS. COOK: Correct.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So -- okay. I've got some
commissioners lit up. Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Ms. Cook, can you go back to the
map of the Williams property, please.
MS. COOK: This one?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes. What did you say about a
parking lot; this would help with a parking lot?
MS. COOK: So there is an existing -- this small green one
down in the southwest corner, there's a parking area along here for
people who want to hike and visit the Nancy Payton Preserve. So
this -- by adding this Williams parcel, that would help provide greater
connectivity that we would be able to put in a trail through there to
get from the hiking area to the main preserve.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Gotcha. Okay. Can you go back
to the Dredge property for me, please.
MS. COOK: Sure.
COMMISSIONER HALL: So that's 18 acres. It's Residential
Single-Family 3 right now?
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HALL: And it's mostly wetlands.
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HALL: You know, I asked the question, is
it developable. I understand all properties are developable. My
question is: What is the likelihood?
MS. COOK: I believe that in conversations with -- with
Conservation Collier staff, the owner had looked into potentially
developing all or a portion of the property. Staff wasn't supportive
of splitting it, so that is why they did not decide to move forward
November 14, 2023
Page 59
with it. They wanted to move forward with Conservation Collier.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Well, I would, too. If I was going
to get a million-and-a-half dollars for something that have -- that
would be difficult to do, I'd choose that as well.
The way I look at this is we're going to take 11,000 -- almost
$12,000 off of the tax roll every year. And in addition to that, we're
going to add 8,500, not counting the first year of 1,700.
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HALL: So, basically, that's a
$20,000-a-month [sic] change for purchasing something, not to
mention the million and a half for purchasing something that's
basically functioning as habitat for wildlife right now.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: One of the things I always
say -- and then I'll go to -- I've got Commissioner Kowal and
Saunders lit up here.
I fully appreciate everything that Commissioner Hall is saying,
but one of the things I've always added when we look at these lots is,
whether we agree with it or not, the way Conservation Collier works,
it's not really real estate, or it's not just a real estate program. It's
also buying those lots to preserve if there's turtles, alligator crossings,
panther, I mean, all the things that you mentioned.
And so I just want to make sure that, at least in my mind, I never
lose sight of that piece. So it's not a matter of, wow, we're buying up
real estate to, you know, make sure that no homes go here. It's more
of there's things on this lot that could always be relocated. We've
talked before, hey, if there's two turtles on 18 acres, rather than spend
a million and a half, somebody grab those two turtles, put them in a
box, and put them on a piece of property that we've already
purchased.
And that's where I look for your expertise. I mean, like you
say, I mean, nobody thought Marco Island could be buildable. You
November 14, 2023
Page 60
know, Hammock Bay and Fiddler's Creek sit on mangroves, or what
used to be mangroves.
So you already got some dwellings that are sitting there on the
edge that, you know, could continue to go out. But I look at, is the
things -- the wildlife, the vegetation, the -- hey, it's a crossing for
something. I look at that value, because whether we voted for
Conservation Collier or not, it's a program that exists, and that's what
it's really for is to protect, you know, land that has those things on it.
There is a big misconception out there by citizens who -- I
mean, we've all gotten emails from citizens that said, Conservation
Collier should buy that big, giant lot next to Hacienda Lakes so that
more homes don't crowd our community, and it's, like, no, that's just
a big empty field. It has -- yeah, it has no -- you know, I mean,
anything could have an environmental value, but that's not
the -- that's not the mission and vision and purpose of Conservation
Collier.
You know, this is one of those ones where you sit here and
say -- trying to juggle the value. I mean, the tax rolls is a part of it,
but I think the overarching thing is Conservation Collier is supposed
to identify lands that we want to continue to see wildlife and
vegetation habitats thrive, you know. That's the biggest thing.
You know, I had some -- I had a few concerns, really, about all
of these, but really no reservations to vote to approve.
But I've got everybody else lit up here. Commissioner Kowal,
then Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
I echo what Commissioner Hall was saying about this particular
property. I'm pretty familiar with that area down there in the Port
Au Prince and the trailer park and the other establishments that are
back off that road.
But my other question is, you know, we get these A list, B list,
November 14, 2023
Page 61
and I know I asked -- I expressed this in our private meeting, you
know, this particular parcel, the Bailey parcel that's outside the
boundary of what was set by Conservation Collier. I mean, how
does that become an A list if it was never even considered to be part
of what the original boundary was?
MS. COOK: Well, again, it was -- it was an arbitrary
boundary, but it does -- it does meet all of -- it does meet all of the
criteria that staff considers when looking at these individual parcels.
Native habitats, listed species habitat, listed species on site,
hydrological benefit to the county that it provides floodplain
retention -- floodplain storage and flood control. So it does meet the
characteristics. And then when staff accumulates these properties as
part of their acquisition lists, staff provides a recommended ranking,
the CCLAC provides a recommended ranking, and, ultimately, we
bring that to you for a decision and final ranking before we move
forward with the parcels.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So they don't look at the original
study they did and saying this is the footprint we need?
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: They don't take that into
consideration. They just -- I just -- I guess what I'm trying to -- I just
don't want to start setting a precedence that people are on the outskirt
of these footprints, that a lot of thought went into -- to make these
footprints, and we're going to change that on the dais here with no
real information on why we would change it or not change it or
shrink it down or increase it just because somebody wants to
participate in the program now.
And then you look -- a separate set of eyes looks at it and says,
oh, yeah, that's similar to what's in the boundary. It's an A list. You
know, I just don't want us to be the ones up here -- because what I'm
trying to say is, I rely on the Board, and I rely on the professionals
November 14, 2023
Page 62
that create the boundaries and say these are the important properties.
And for me to make the decision to buy it, am I now extending the
boundary without that professional, you know, view on that? That's
all I'm asking.
MS. COOK: Well -- and staff would recommend the approval
and the expansion of the boundary. And it could -- it would be
managed along with the rest of the project of -- along with the rest of
the Winchester Head Preserve. So the management goals,
objectives, timelines, everything would be the same.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. Like I said, I just don't
want to be setting a precedence that now everybody's going to come
forward and say, well, we're close to the boundary, and the property
would qualify, and then we make that decision up here to buy it, and
now we're kind of defeating the purpose of having them set
boundaries to begin with.
MS. COOK: I completely understand and appreciate that.
And I think -- Conservation Collier staff, just like all the other
staff looking at these projects, looks at them on an individual basis
and would make a recommendation on each individual parcel.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. You really want to buy
this lot, huh?
MS. COOK: That's up to you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: One of the things I said, even
though the recommendation is always, you know -- is they
recommend all four, I mean, I think every time these come to us, we
should vote on each one separately, which we have been doing. So
we know your recommendation is to purchase all four, but
we're -- you know, we're going to continue to talk about these
separately and take them one at a time.
Commissioner Saunders, and then Commissioner McDaniel is lit
up.
November 14, 2023
Page 63
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. I've got a
couple issues.
On the -- Commissioner Kowal raised a good point in terms of
the boundary, but my assumption is -- and correct me if I'm
wrong -- is that obviously the boundaries you indicated were set
somewhat arbitrarily. When this particular parcel -- the Bailey
parcel was considered to be included in the acquisition list, even
though not within the original boundary, the same criteria, I assume,
are being applied to that parcel to make sure that it's an
environmentally sensitive piece of property that adds to the preserve.
And who makes that determination? Is that the committee?
How was that property evaluated for that purpose?
MS. COOK: So when a property owner applies for the
program, staff does go through the criteria that are listed in the
ordinance, the different habitats, listed species, public access,
geographic regions, hydrological benefit, and if it -- under the
current, which we'll bring back to you hopefully next month, under
the current ordinance, if two of the -- two of the criteria are met, then
it can move forward to the CCLAC for further consideration. This
does meet at least four of the criteria. The one that it doesn't meet is
being in another agency's acquisition area.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So the key component of
what you just said is the CLACC does take a look at the parcel --
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and makes their
recommendation based on those criteria as well. So this has been
fully vetted by our committee --
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- even though it was
not -- okay.
MS. COOK: Yes.
November 14, 2023
Page 64
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. That was the first
point.
The second point, if you'll go to the Dredge Management, LLC,
property, the 18 acres, I believe is what it was. And, again,
Commissioner Hall makes a good point that is very difficult to
disagree with, even though I will disagree to a point here, you have a
piece of property that would be at best very difficult to develop, and
that's in 2023. Currently, this would be very difficult to develop, but
we're buying properties that have environmental value for the
long-term future.
And so there are houses -- as Commissioner LoCastro has
pointed out, there are houses on what appears, I guess, is the -- I'm
not sure if that's the eastern boundary or the southern boundary. I'm
not sure which way this is oriented. But if you look at the long-term
future, that property probably becomes more developable as there's
development in the area.
And so I would just point out that even though this may be a
piece of property that would be difficult to develop today, we are
looking at the long-term future. It's not just what can be developed
today.
So I support the acquisition of that parcel based on the
evaluation of the CLACC and staff on that.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I've got Commissioner McDaniel,
sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.
Thank you.
On that note, on the property down on 951, the question I had
was, as a part of the appraisal process, are an estimate of the
mitigation costs associated with the development taken into
consideration during the appraisal?
MS. COOK: Commissioner, yes. So if there are listed species
November 14, 2023
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on this site or wetland impacts, those are taken into consideration and
typically reduce the appraised value of the property.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I didn't have an opportunity
to actually look at the appraisals that were done. I just wanted to
make sure that we were -- we were giving consideration to those
expenses, because that will, you know, add up to, you know, some of
the concerns that Commissioner Hall expressed with the capacity for
it to be developed at all, and as long as those are being accounted for
in the value necessarily as a value reduction, then I can -- I can be
okay with it.
I just -- I just wanted to make sure that we're just not paying the
appraised value or 95 percent of the appraised value without giving
due consideration to those costs that the property owner has the
rights. As you said at the beginning, every piece of property is
developable; it just depends on how much money you want to put
into the mitigation aspects of setting aside environmentally sensitive
lands.
The second I wanted to -- the second point I wanted to make
was on that Bailey piece, maybe we should have a look at -- with
regard to Commissioner Kowal's concern -- because I know we
established Target Protection Areas and boundaries for Target
Protection Areas for us to be soliciting acquisitions and make sure
that the -- make sure that the Target Protection Areas that we
establish are geographically within the bounds of the delineated
environmentally sensitive areas.
And just to assure -- because I agree with Commissioner Kowal,
the way the Conservation Collier ordinance reads, we can -- you
know, Conservation Collier and the Board of County Commissioners
can buy whatever they want as long as it's deemed
environmentally -- environmentally sensitive, but we just don't want
to arbitrarily be expanding bounds even though the original boundary
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of that Winchester Head was -- somebody drew a circle on the map.
It's not hard to see that that's a -- that's somewhat of a depression and
can have a lot of value for flood protection, floodplain management,
and so on and so forth.
But I just wanted to re-ask that the Target Protection Area is
visited regularly just so we know we're not just throwing darts and
hoping that people are wanting to come and participate in the
program.
The third point that I have is under the current ordinance, I think
the development rights for any lands acquired by Conservation
Collier are extinguished. And it's certainly my hope that we cannot
have that in the revision to the Conservation Collier ordinance that's
forthcoming. I want those development rights -- they should
be -- those development rights should inure to the benefit of Collier
County to be utilized in a manner for the benefit of the Collier
County taxpayers that are funding Conservation Collier's efforts to
make these acquisitions.
So if these acquisitions under -- are under the old ordinance,
which calls for the extinguishment of those development rights, I
would ask that we -- as part of the motion for approval, that we don't
extinguish those development rights. There could be -- there could
be utilization for PHUs, gopher tortoise mitigation and such. There
could be benefits that the county could have at a later date, and I
wouldn't care for those to be extinguished.
MS. COOK: Understood, sir. And we will be bringing the
ordinance back to you in December.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand that. But
does -- and maybe my question's for the County Attorney. If the
current ordinance calls for the extinguishment of those property
rights, can we -- can we include that portion of the ordinance that's in
effect today for these acquisitions?
November 14, 2023
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MR. KLATZKOW: I think the better approach, sir, would be
that when staff brings back the Conservation Collier ordinance, that
the Board considers whether or not they want extinguishments to the
right. If the Board says they do not want it, it would be retroactive,
if that's what the Board's pleasure is.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So we can go
retroactive if we do make an adjustment next month on the actual
ordinance?
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Then I'm fine with it.
Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Can you bring back up the Collier property -- or the Collier
Boulevard 18 -- 18.7. I just want to draw attention to that lot. And
you had mentioned it, because there's a high -- there's a strip that runs
through it that's high soil, and that used to be a ditch --
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- or swale that ran through the
property. And if you look to the right of that picture, that's where
the trailer parks are on the offshoot streets, and they had some
makeshift canals behind their properties there. And I think at one
point that a lot of their stormwater drained through that property in
that canal, but now they have the larger canal to the south that pretty
much takes their water now.
And the reason I'm pointing this out is because I think what
happened was that's a manmade wetland. That was never a wetland
by nature. That was -- what happened was they used the earth
around that trench to fill it. And when you filled it, now when it
rains, the water is -- depressed areas are around the outskirts of the
trench, and it has nowhere to go. And at one point when the trench
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was there, there was never a wetland. It was just high and dry like it
was supposed to.
So I just want to, you know, understand if these are truly by
Mother Nature, and we're trying to preserve them. Is this what we
really have in this case, or is this actually something that was caused
by man by altering what was there before?
MS. COOK: From my understanding of the topography of this
area, most of this area was wetlands and has been mangroves, swamp
forests, et cetera. And a lot of the areas where there is development
in this area were the areas that have -- were fill's been brought in.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. Well, I'm just
saying -- because I know along the edge where the canal is -- because
there's some brackish water that leaks over there. They do get some
natural mangroves growing in there. But in the center of that lot
itself, I don't know if there's so much growing in there because of
the -- just -- it's pretty much just rainwater. It's not --
MS. COOK: Yeah, it's very wet during rainy season.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I will tell you, before I go to
Commissioner Saunders, the part I put a lot of stock into -- so, you
know, it's listed here, but in future times coming here -- is really the
wildlife. You know, a lot of times these lots have exotics, and they
need to be removed but, you know, to me the really -- the thing that
really pushes Conservation Collier, it's the wetlands and how the
water flows and everything. But more often than not, you know, we
zero in on spending millions of dollars because it's filled with turtles
or it's a passageway for different animals to either, you know -- I
mean 18 acres is a lot. I mean, I don't want to connect apples to
chairs here, but, you know, all the videos we've been getting about
the bears wandering around on 5th Avenue, I'm not saying buying
this lot is going to stop all that, but a lot of times when you get a big
chunk of property here, there is a lot of wildlife on it that has made it
November 14, 2023
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home.
So anything you can do to bring us, you know, as much
information as possible. Sometimes it's easier to see the topography
and the vegetation, but, you know, just saying, you know, hey, a
panther once a year walked through this area, you know, that's one
thing. But as we heard the last time we bought a bunch of lots at our
meeting, wow, there's, you know, 50 gopher tortoises that call this
home. There's, you know -- and you've got a lot of different species
of wildlife that have been spotted or are calling this 18 acres home.
That, to me, is heavy evidence that I like to consider the purchase,
because regardless if it's a man-made ditch or not or it doesn't have
the right kind of vegetation, it looks like there's a whole bunch of
stuff living there. And so, you know, that's part of what the program
is supposed to protect.
Commissioner Saunders, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. And, again,
two points, in reference to what you were just talking about in terms
of the type of property and making sure that it has some existing
environmental value, what I think is really important is where the
property is located. And so, for example, a piece of property that
has been farmed doesn't really have a whole lot of environmental
value at that point, but, again, we're looking at acquiring properties in
the right location for the long-term future. And so a farm field today
certainly can be whatever would naturally grow there over a 20-, 30-,
40-year period.
So I think you're right that we need to be careful to make sure
it's got good environmental value, but I think we have to look at what
is the potential future of that property in terms of environmental
value based on the fact that it's located in an area maybe that natural
habitat would flourish there even if it was an impacted farm field, as
an example.
November 14, 2023
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And then the second thing, Commissioner McDaniel raised a
good point in terms of the development rights, but I think it's -- and
this is a question for the County Attorney, because I think this gets to
be rather complex. It's not a simple we have development rights on
a piece of property we just bought, we're going to keep those
development rights; we have to do something with those.
And so don't we have to -- if we're going to -- isn't that like a
transfer of development right type of an issue where you buy a parcel
that has development rights on it, you're going to sever those
development rights from that parcel, but what are you going to do
with it? Don't we have to have a receiving area, just like we've set
up with the existing programs?
And so I guess the question is, if we make a decision that we
want to keep those development rights, don't we also have to make a
decision as to what we're going to do with them at the same time?
MR. KLATZKOW: I think the Board's going to have a lot of
consideration because this is a conservation program. And if we're
going to add back development rights to these properties, it changes
the complexion of what the program is, and it's going to take us into a
lot of different directions, including TDRs and are we going to set up
receiving areas, of which we're going to have to spend quite some
time trying to figure it out.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So I just wanted to
point out that it sounds simple to keep the development rights, but
when you start to implement that, it becomes a little bit more
complex, and that's --
MR. KLATZKOW: Well, it's simple to keep the development
rights. What's hard is, what are you going to do with them?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. Well, I'd like to have
some idea -- if we're going to do that, some idea of what we're going
to do with them as we keep them. I think that that would be
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important.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I don't have anybody else
lit up here. Why don't we just take these one at a time. It just takes
a majority vote, not supermajority, correct, County Manager?
MS. PATTERSON: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So let's just start with this
one right here. So I'll make a motion that we purchase this Dredge
Management 18 acres. Do I have a second?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I got a second from Commissioner
Saunders. All in favor?
Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. It passes 3-2.
Next. Nancy Payton property.
MS. COOK: Williams.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: We're going to Williams. Okay.
So do I have a motion to purchase the Williams property?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Motion.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I've got a motion from
Commissioner Kowal. I'll make the second. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: McDaniel?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye. I said "aye." I'm
November 14, 2023
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sorry.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, okay. Opposed -- well, it
passes unanimously.
Okay. The Bailey property. Do I have a motion to approve
the purchase?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll move to approve that,
Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion to
approve from Commissioner Saunders. I'll second it. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
The Mooney property, do I have a motion to approve the
purchase?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So moved.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion from
Commissioner Saunders. Do I have a second?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Second by Commissioner Kowal.
All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I think I heard him.
November 14, 2023
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye, aye, aye, aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
Okay. I think those are all four.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. No one can say we aren't
moving forward on Conservation Collier and that we don't have a
robust program. We bought more things in the past two months than
we bought maybe in two years.
Okay, next?
Item #11A
RECOMMENDATION TO ACCEPT THE WATER,
WASTEWATER, IRRIGATION QUALITY WATER, AND
WHOLESALE POTABLE WATER USER RATE AND FEE STUDY
AND DIRECT THE COUNTY MANAGER OR HER DESIGNEE
TO ADVERTISE A RESOLUTION AMENDING SCHEDULES
ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, AND FIVE OF APPENDIX A TO
SECTION FOUR OF COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO.
2001-73, THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT
UNIFORM BILLING, OPERATING, AND REGULATORY
STANDARDS ORDINANCE NO. 2001-73, AS AMENDED, WITH
EFFECTIVE DATES OF JANUARY 1, 2024, OCTOBER 1, 2024,
AND OCTOBER 1, 2025 - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER KOWAL – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to our
11 o'clock time-certain, and this is a recommendation to accept the
November 14, 2023
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water, wastewater, irrigation-quality water, and wholesale potable
water user rate and fee study and direct the County Manager or her
designee to advertise a resolution amending Schedules 1, 2, 3, 4, and
5 of Appendix A to Section 4 of Collier County Ordinance
No. 2001-73, the Collier County Water/Sewer District Uniform
Billing, Operating, and Regulatory Standards Ordinance, as amended,
with an effective date of January 1st, 2024, October 21st, 2024, and
October 1, 2025.
Mr. Joe Bellone, the director of Public Utilities Finance, is here
to begin the presentation.
MR. BELLONE: Thank you. Ms. Patterson.
Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity
today and, for the record, Joe Bellone, Utilities finance director.
I thought it might be good for us, before we dive into the meat
of the rate study by our consultants, that I'll provide for you, as the
governing board of the Water/Sewer District, and actually for the
general public and our customers a brief overview of the
Water/Sewer District.
Thanks.
The Water/Sewer District is a special district established by the
Florida Legislature and, as such, it must follow the requirements that
are set forth in that special act. The utility is a highly regulated
enterprise with regulations and requirements that are established by
both federal and state agencies, the EPA, DEP, South Florida Water
Management District, just to name a few.
It's important to note that user fees that we're talking about today
actually are a fee for service. Customers pay the fees that represent
a direct benefit to the user of the system. They're not a tax. You
use a thousand gallons of water; you pay for a thousand gallons of
water.
User fees are the only source of revenue for the district to
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operate and maintain. We do have one other source of revenue;
that's impact fees. Those are intended to allow growth to pay for
growth. So if we're talking today about operating and maintaining
the infrastructure, then it's user fees and user fees only.
I want to note that there are no General Funds involved in
financing the Water/Sewer District. So, therefore, no actions that
you may have taken regarding the General Fund budgets would have
impacted this rate study.
I want to direct you to this one. Once customers pay their bills,
I think it's important for them to understand what we do with that
money. So in the -- sort of in the center of that is an orange square
called "transfer to debt service." So once those revenues are
deposited into the Operating Fund, our Priority No. 1 -- and Mr. Finn
would not let me get away with this -- is to transfer funds to pay
or -- pay our mortgage -- that's our principal and interest -- on our
user fee debt service. We do transfer, to note, impact fees into that
fund to pay for growth-related debt service but, again, this is just the
operating portion.
On the left side, the box, once we establish our budget for
operating the utility, and that would include our salaries and benefits,
operating expenses like electricity to run our pumps, chemicals to
treat water and wastewater and control odor, utility parts, property
insurance, taxes that we pay to the General Fund, and transfers to the
General Fund for services that we actually do utilize, like HR,
Procurement, Fleet, and et cetera, and reestablish reserves both per
the Board policy that you approve, generally, in February or March
for cash and contingencies, but also they're required by the special
act.
There's a yellow box there. We do transfer some funds to what
we call a motor pool account controlled by Fleet, and that's to ensure
that we have adequate funding for vehicle replacements. You can't
November 14, 2023
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get out to the field to maintain the assets if you don't have the
vehicles to get there.
So almost at the end of the equation, what we have left is what
we transfer to the two boxes on the right side. Those are our water
and wastewater capital repair and rehabilitation funds, and that's to
repair and rehabilitate or replace aging infrastructure, existing aging
infrastructure.
Okay, thank you.
So why are we here today? The last board action on a rate
study was back in July of 2021. In June of this year, you, as a board,
as the governing board, acted to implement an interim rate
adjustment as Step 1 until such time as we had the rate study
completed.
You should note that that prior rate study that you approved in
'21 really did not contemplate any of the inflationary increases in
materials, construction costs, et cetera, that resulted from supply
chain issues and many other issues.
So our rate consultants have completed the rate study and are
here to present their findings, their conclusions, and their
recommendations to you. I'll note that Raftelis is a national
organization specializing in utility rate setting and have been our
consultants forever, since -- at least since I've been here.
Next one.
I talked a lot about maintaining and then repairing our
infrastructure, and I think sometimes a picture is worth a thousand
words. We've got 2,582 miles of pipes. They're buried
underground, you know, sight unseen; out of sight, out of mind. If
you laid them end to end -- and you can see all the kinds of pipes that
we have. Lay them end to end, and they would go from Naples to
Bozeman, Montana.
Imagine driving that, and on that -- on that road, you would have
November 14, 2023
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to stop 35,000 times or more to turn all the valves which are required,
system valves/control valves required by regulatory agencies, to
exercise them at least once a year.
I then mention manholes and lift stations; those are the -- those
are the vehicles we use to transport wastewater from our homes and
businesses to the wastewater treatment plant. Both gravity
lines -- don't -- we have a lot of flat land here in Florida, so a lot of
force mains, which require pumps, which require electricity, and
wastewater, as you know, may smell a bit, and so we use chemicals
for odor control.
On the water lines, we have close to 85,000-metered
connections, and we've got to read those once a month for billing
purposes. We've got to maintain them to ensure they're providing
accurate reading for billing, and if they're not, then we have to
replace them.
Each of those connections has a cross-connection control device
you may -- you may know that as a backflow preventer, and DEP
requires those to protect the public water supply. Those have to be
inspected annually as well. So I'm trying to lay out even -- at least
for the infrastructure that you can't see, the drivers that require
staffing, maintenance, electricity, chemicals, utility parts, and the
other ones that are important outside of just the treatment plants.
Bottom line, the recommendation, you can see the
recommendations, to steal the thunder from the consultants -- sorry
about that, guys -- that they're recommending today, but what does
that mean to the average user? The average use is a single-family
home with a three-quarter inch meter uses 5,000 gallons a month.
That would equate to a $10.96 a month increase, or 36 cents a day.
I was kind of curious to see what that meant for other things that
you may spend money on these days. I Googled the average
monthly electric bill in Florida, $130; cable bill, $111; cell phone bill,
November 14, 2023
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166; compared to essentially life-sustaining services of water and
sewer for $128.65.
Last page for me, the recommendation is as in your executive
summary, and if this rate study is approved today, Commissioners,
I'm going to bring back a rate resolution for you in December at the
December 12th meeting for approval to have the first round of rates
adjusted effective January 1st of 2024.
And with that, if there are any questions for me...
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Sir, are we voting on the rate
increase, or you're bringing --
MR. BELLONE: You're voting on accepting the rate study and
the recommendations of the rate consultant, which are reflected in the
resolution that's attached to that rate study, which I will then bring
back. I will advertise it and bring back to you in December, and
that's when you actually will approve the resolution to put those rates
into effect January 1st.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. And I already know the
answer to this, because I asked you in my office, but this doesn't
pertain to any of the municipalities. So Marco --
MR. BELLONE: No.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- City of Naples, Everglades,
right? They set their own rates?
MR. BELLONE: They set their own rates. This is just the
Collier County Water/Sewer District, and our rate consultants will
give you a little picture of what other utilities have done --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. BELLONE: -- recently.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Questions, Commissioners?
(No response.)
MR. BELLONE: Okay. Commissioners, we have here today
Rob, the executive vice president, Raftelis, and Justin is here as well.
November 14, 2023
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He's maintained an incredibly sophisticated rate model for us, and
I've asked him to run numerous scenarios for me on how I can
maintain the utility and keep up with repair and rehabilitation of
aging infrastructure.
And with that, Rob, it's all yours.
MR. ORI: How do you do the --
MR. BELLONE: Troy will do it for you.
MR. MILLER: There's a keyboard over there, or I can advance
it for you, sir.
MR. ORI: That's fine. Go ahead and -- next slide, please.
Yes. Hello. Good morning, Chair, members of the
Commission. It's good to see you all again. It's been quite a while
since I've stood before you since -- I guess it's probably prior to
COVID. So I'm pleased to be here today. Also with me is Justin
Rasor, with our firm. We did a lot of work on this project, so I want
to make sure that you guys recognize him as well.
What I'd like to do the next 15, 20 minutes or so is talk about
some of the objectives and tasks with the reasons for the rate
adjustments. And, you know, obviously, Joe has already given you a
pretty good overview of the rates, but talk about that again in
comparison with other utilities, what's the industry doing right now in
rates, and then talk about the rate implementation plan.
The objectives: We wanted to develop a financial forecast of
the operations of the utility through 2028, and we do that because if
there's any need for rate phasing, identify trends, whatnot, that gives
you a chance to look at that over a multiyear period. We looked at
revenues and expenses, your Capital Improvement Plan, which is
significant, and also your fiscal position; where do you stand fiscally
as if a bond rate agency was looking at you? We look at coverage
and liquidity and how much debt outstanding on your books that's
there and whatnot in this analysis and bring it all together to get a
November 14, 2023
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balanced program for you.
You may hear the words "revenue requirements" mentioned by
me several times. That's your funding requirements from rates.
It's -- that's -- so if you're wondering what this is, that's your O&M
expenses, your deposits to reserves, funding to capital, what has to be
funded from rates. So if you hear the word "revenue requirements,"
think of expenditures and outflux, just so you know.
Next slide, please.
So let's talk a little bit about what's driving rate adjustments
today. And we all know about inflation. The last study was done in
Fiscal 2020 prior to the high inflation rates we had. Back then, we
were looking at 2 percent inflation rates, 2.2 percent. It was
preCOVID. And if you kind of -- if you look at the chart here on the
bottom right, the rate study back in 2020, which set the rates for '21,
'22, '23, '24, or '21 through '24, the inflation rate was about
12.4 percent. If you look at the CPI index published by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics for the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, that was
21 percent from Fiscal Year '20 to '23, and the -- and if you look at
the expenses actually incurred by the county, these are the facts, it
was over 29 percent. Now, that would include growth and things of
that nature as well.
But the utility industry, the primary expenses, personnel, power,
chemicals, sludge disposal, and they have been impacted significantly
by inflation, as you can see.
In fact, at the bottom part of that chart, that change from '20 to
'23, these are your actual expenses. You can see where impacts have
occurred. Chemicals is a big one. Labor is a big one. And we're
seeing -- starting to see now a lot of adjustments to salaries -- like we
just did here -- across-the-board increases just to retain people and
increase the income of -- or wages of all the employees.
Hernando County, for example, just adopted a 10 percent
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across-the-board increase on wages. That's just one example.
Hillsborough County did the same thing.
So you're still seeing these effects; I wanted to mention that.
The chart on the right, the pie chart, that kind of shows you the
relationship of what makes up your expenditures. And if you look at
the Carolina blue and the black, that's chemicals -- chemicals, power,
and personnel services, that's, what, 56 percent of your total
expenses, just those two items alone.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Can you go back and
compare -- you know, one of the things I had asked Joe yesterday
was make sure that it doesn't look like we're doing this in a vacuum
in Collier County that -- and I'm not saying we raise rates just
because all the other counties have done it. But all across Florida,
they're suffering the price increases on things related to water. But I
also want to make sure it's apples to apples. And just let me give
you an example, and then I want you to then give the correct answer.
Let's say, hypothetically, you said, Hillsborough County just
raised their rates 10 percent. We're only going to raise it 9 percent.
But if Hillsborough County hadn't raised that rate in 30 years and
we've raised the rates every year 9 percent, then that's not apples to
apples, you know. And that's totally hypothetically.
MR. ORI: No, that's a good question.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So what I was just -- wanted a little
bit of a better comparison across the board. Have we kept -- and
have other counties either kept pace with us, we kept pace with other
counties, we've -- you know, we've --
MR. ORI: We've got --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- pound for pound, dollar for
dollar it sort of made sense? You know, you see my one example of
saying, well, you know, we're 1 percent lower than a certain county,
but, I mean, we raised these rates last year as well, is my
November 14, 2023
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understanding, 7 percent, I think it was -- a little over 7. Now we're
asking for another 9. I'm wondering across counties that are similar
to us that are also suffering these price increases on things related to
water, you know, what -- what they exactly did, so just --
MR. ORI: If you'd like, I can address some of that now. We
have a graph that will kind of show you that a little bit.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, okay. Great. Okay.
Perfect.
MR. ORI: But let me go back to your question. That's a very,
very good question, because if you haven't raised rates for 10 years,
you know, with these conditions -- and you look at the dotted line
chart here, you know, yes, that's going to be a big -- a different
increase. City of Melbourne is that example. They didn't raise rates
for three years. They just had a 14 percent rate adjustment
immediately because they had the effect of the inflation, and now
they're looking at 9 percentage thereafter. Others have tried to keep
up with rate adjustments like you have.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. ORI: But if you look at your blue line here on what
you've done, you know, the rate study started here and -- do I
have -- I don't have a cursor, but we had lower rates than what was
recommended back in the study because of COVID, which was, I
think, a very good customer service thing to do. There was a lot of
uncertainty then, and a lot of people did that.
Inflation all of a sudden rose because of supply chain issues,
change in the -- everything affected it, and that's the pit -- the salmon
color line. Oh, I can touch it? Oh, okay. It's right here.
So what did you do? You did the 7 percent rate adjustment
right there, which is with a PSC index. By the way, that was the
highest PSC index in probably 30 years, like, if you think about it,
because it's usually been averaging between 1 and 2 percent.
November 14, 2023
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We're right here right now. We had another rate adjustment
planned for '24. We did not do that. And if you think about it,
we're right back almost at square one again, and that's kind of one
reason why we're here.
But your observation is very, very good. So when we get to
this chart, I want to come back to you with that, if that's all right with
you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. ORI: Next slide, please.
Another major driver is capital investment, and you know this.
I mean, water and sewer utilities is probably one of the most capital
intensive businesses you can be in, and my understanding of all the
utilities, electric, solid waste, et cetera, stormwater, water and sewer
has the highest infrastructure rate per person served. And part of the
reason for that is you deliver in pipes. You don't run wires on poles.
You've got to go underground to deliver pipes. That's a lot.
As of 2023, you've got $1.7 billion -- this does not include
construction work in process -- $1.7 billion of investment on your
balance sheet right now. That's significant, if you think about it;
that's a lot, but it's 50 percent depreciated as well which says, you
know, of all those assets, which indicates there's a lot of R&R,
renewal and replacement coming, you know that, that's the big issue
facing Florida. We've been a growth state for a long time. Now
we're starting to mature.
Look at the West Coast of Florida -- I'm sorry -- the East Coast
of Florida, West Palm, Miami, Fort Lauderdale. They are faced with
large renewal and replacement budgets, and that's what's starting to
happen here as well. You're there.
The CIP -- Capital Improvement Plan, excuse me, or CIP, is
$850 million, which is inflation adjustment, that 3 to 5 percent.
That's a lot of money.
November 14, 2023
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Hillsborough County is $3.4 billion. Sarasota County is over a
billion. Manatee is over a billion. These are their CIPs next five to
10 years. That's what we're seeing. Lee County, I think, is
900 million or something like that. It's -- every county from
Hillsborough to you-all has significant, significant capital programs
that need to be funded.
I could go on, but if you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
too, give you an idea. The construction materials index has risen
41 percent since 2020. That's steel, concrete, that type of thing. I'm
hearing construction bids 60, 70 percent higher than what was
planned, and I think you probably have that, too. So that's an issue
facing utilities today.
Next slide, please.
And there's a couple projects you see. These projects listed
here are about 50 percent of the total CIP, to give you a feel. But
what's the financing plan? You know, you -- I will compliment the
county. You've tried to maintain a very balanced funding plan: Pay
as you go capital, capital reinvestment, which links to existing
customers, R&R, and expansion capital through debt to allow the
growth to occur, the impact fees to be received, to pay that -- for that
cost of construction. You've done a very good job trying to balance
that, and it shows. You're a Triple A rated utility.
As you can see on the graph here where we continue this
program, about, you know, 42 percent of your -- of the plan has to be
funded from operations rates. That's renewals and replacements.
There are some renewals, replacements, and additional bonds that
need to be issued because the magnitude of the program will have to
do debt financing, to kind of give you a feel what that is.
Next slide, please.
In terms of debt financing, this accounts for about 41, 42 percent
of the total $850 million. You can see this curve here. That's the
November 14, 2023
Page 85
debt plan that we have in the financial plan right now. Two series of
bonds being issued, one in Fiscal '25, about a year from now, and
then potentially one in 2027, depending on how the program goes.
And why I like the debt, because you can stagger that based on
the plans, the timing, whatnot. When those -- the time comes to
issue debt, your financing committee, your county's financial advisor,
bond counsel, they'll all work together, you know, the timing, the
size, the structure of the debt. We've kept it, you know, pretty level.
We didn't want to get too aggressive on this. We could have, you
know, tried to wrap debt more often and do some of the things but,
no, we want to keep a straight arrow right now. Then we come back
when that time comes. That's what we really should do.
So that's the amount of debt we have coming on. You can see
that yellow is the increase. That's about, gosh, 20, $24 million over
time. It's a lot. And so we've got to be ready for that fiscally and
whatnot to be ready to have to issue bonds, keep that Triple A rating
to get the lowest interest rates possible.
Next slide.
So the observation is to meet this plan, fund this capital
program, to maintain a strong financial credit, and recognizing rates
and fees driven through the utility, our only source of revenue, we'll
need to raise rates over time. The rates will not be sufficient to do
this plan unless you defer capital, whatnot.
If you maintain a strong plan, again, we have lower interest
rates. We assume 4 and a half percent, 25-year debt right now. If
we -- if the rates drop back down to the 2, 3 percent range like they
were five years ago or so, this would -- it would obviously look
better. That's why we wanted to phase in debt issues. But the
inflation on the operations of maintenance expenses, the capacity
expenditure is high, and we need to adjust rates.
Next slide.
November 14, 2023
Page 86
This is the recommended rate plan that we've identified. Oh,
can you go back a couple -- can you go backwards?
MR. MILLER: Sure.
MR. ORI: One more, please. Go one more. One more.
Sorry. Okay. That's perfect.
I wanted to show you something else. I forgot to do this. If
you look at the chart on the left-hand side titled "capital needs," you
can see that most of the projects in terms of dollar volume are
wastewater based, not water based. And you can see on the right
side how much is expansion versus non-expansion in that capital
plan. But I wanted to point out the capital needs slide, and that's
why the rate adjustments for sewer are higher than water, because the
capital needs is skewed more to the sewer side right now. Just to
kind of give you an idea.
Thank you for going back. I appreciate that.
So when you look at the rate adjustments, we're recommending
a 9 percent adjustment in '24 and then continued 7 and a half percent
is for wastewater, the water drops down to the 4 and a half percent
range for the next five years.
Since most of your customers have water and sewer service, the
effective or combined rate is about 6.1 percent '25 through '28 and
around 9 percent for '24. So when you look at those two together,
it's about a 6 --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But in '23, it was 7, right? I
mean --
MR. ORI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- what's not shown on here is we
approved 7.
MR. ORI: Yeah, you got that. Yes, that already occurred.
This is over and above that.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And the reason why you have this
November 14, 2023
Page 87
going all the way out to 2028 is you don't anticipate any of the price
increases that you're using to justify this are going to change, right?
MR. ORI: We've assumed assumptions for the forecast, like
you said. I will tell you this: They're going to change. That's why
we don't recommend five years of rate adjustments. This is what
we've identified. We recommend the smaller adoption period --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And see what happens?
MR. ORI: -- and see what happens. Because let's say interest
rates drop to 2 percent. We're not going to issue 4 and a half percent
debt. Your debt service improves --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. ORI: -- and all of a sudden you've got a little bit different
mix there. Let's say inflation on O&M drops, which I think it's -- I
think it's going to, personally. It's just when. So let's say we have
improved net margins. Well, we can -- let's revisit that, and I'll put
our customer hat on and lower those rate adjustments or defer them
or what works best for you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: The other thing I want citizens to
know -- and, I mean, I asked this in my office yesterday, so I know
the answer, and I'm sure the other commissioners do as well. But
we're not sitting here talking about the rate adjustments because of
any changes we made to the recent budget where we changed the
millage rate --
MR. ORI: No.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- and we moved some money
around to try to work harder to manage taxpayer dollars better. This
is totally separate --
MR. ORI: Totally separate.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- from that, correct?
MR. ORI: Totally separate.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean, I know that it's correct, but
November 14, 2023
Page 88
I wanted to just make that clear that we're not sitting here bumping up
water rates because we somehow took money out of the other side of
the bucket --
MR. ORI: No.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- for other things. This is -- this
is a totally separate thing. It has nothing to do with the budget
discussions that we already had and voted on.
MR. ORI: That is -- that is absolutely correct.
Next slide, please.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel isn't lit
up, is he?
MR. MILLER: No.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I don't have any questions
from any commissioners yet, so keep going, sir.
MR. ORI: So if you adopt the rates, obviously, you know,
you'll fully fund the revenue requirements of the needs.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. ORI: I want to get back to your -- to your earlier question
about what other utilities are doing, also. If you'd --
Next slide, please. Oh, it's up first.
If you do do this, this is the plan, the debt service coverage.
This is one of the key financial metrics used by the rate agencies.
You're very aware of this. And this is the ability, after you pay all of
your operating expenses, how much dollars are left over to pay your
debt service.
And the plan is you're very strong right now. We do the bond
issues. They're fairly significant. You'd be around that two times
coverage, which is still very, very strong. But it is going to drop, but
I think over time it will eventually rise again, as well, but the key is,
is maintain a strong metric there.
Next slide, please.
November 14, 2023
Page 89
Joe also showed you this with these rate adjustments. The
average change to the bill is about 9 to $10 a month for each year of
the forecast, or about 25 to 36 cents a day is the adjustment.
With this rate adjustment, you look at today's rates right
now -- you're the blue and black -- you would move to the -- your
rates are a little bit in the higher end, but I will tell you a lot of these
rates are changing in the next, you know, six to 12 months, and I'll
talk about that in a minute, but they're all changing.
But if you also look from about Sarasota County over, they're all
fairly grouped together, and a lot of the -- again, a lot of these utilities
are raising the rates. One that's not on here is the Immokalee Road
Water District, and their rates right now are about $117 or so, just to
kind of give you a feel. I missed that one for some reason, but next
slide.
But what is going on out there right now? And I wanted to
show you, these are -- is a graph. Let me explain this graph to you.
But these are generally approved rate adjustments or presented rate
adjustments made by these local governments, most on the west coast
of Florida.
When you look at the numbers down below where it says Fiscal
Year '24 through '28 and cumulative, the green means they've been
adopted; these rate adjustments have been adopted. The gray color
is they've been disclosed. They've been presented. I presented
them to you, so now they've been disclosed to the public.
The yellow is undisclosed, and that's only Charlotte County, and
I personally know that there's rate adjustments coming, but they
haven't even gone public or been presented, and so we showed N/A
for that.
But to kind of give you a feel, you can see what these approved
rate adjustments are. And let me go back to Hillsborough County
again. They have been raising their rates every year. They are not
November 14, 2023
Page 90
one of these that, Commissioner, you mentioned earlier. This is
more like you-all. They've raised rates every year for inflation.
They just adopted continuation of the price indexing plus a 4 percent
fixed-rate adjustment through 2032.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Why is Charlotte County, you
know -- and maybe the N/A is because you don't know the answer,
what they're going to do in the following fiscal years. But, I mean, if
all these price increases on the cost of steel and pipes and
construction, and, you know, all the other things that are affecting
this are affecting everybody, you know, how are they absorbing it?
How are some of these other counties as such a small level -- and I
realize it's not apples to apples. We're a large county. Our
infrastructure's probably more aged than maybe some other counties.
And I'm sure there's a lot of factors. So what are those, to get that on
the record.
MR. ORI: Relative to Charlotte County, they have not publicly
announced rate adjustments.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So then we sort of discount
them --
MR. ORI: Exactly.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- because we can't make an
analogy. But, like, on the others, is it more of, we have a little
bit -- not only more infrastructure, but we have significant
infrastructure that's coming up for repair --
MR. ORI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- all of those things?
MR. ORI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean, that's obviously a big part
of the algorithm.
MR. ORI: I can tell you in Sarasota County they're adopting
5 percent rate adjustments on sewer for as far as you can go. They
November 14, 2023
Page 91
are in desperate need of water rate adjustments that they have not
done.
But Brevard County, I wanted to put them in there because they
didn't -- they had a five-year adjustment, and they were doing -- in
fact, prior to the 2024, they were in the 7 percent range, and they've
adopted 8 and a half percent through 2026, roughly, and then
indexing.
I just mentioned Hillsborough earlier. Melbourne did the
emergency increase at the end of 2023 of 14 percent, and because
they did that right before the fiscal year, they didn't do anything in
'24. They've got 8 percent coming again, another 5 percent, and then
11 percent in '27, for example.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall's lit up here. I
think you had a question?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yeah, I do.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Rob, could you go back to that
screen that shows the dollar amount over the years.
MR. ORI: That one?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes. So the change in bills for the
next five years, in 2028, it's basically going to be 5 bucks to the bill
total?
MR. ORI: Above the existing?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes.
MR. ORI: Yes, if you adopted all of them based on the forecast
that we have today.
COMMISSIONER HALL: So this year it will be 11, next year
it will be 8, it would be 18, and so forth and so forth?
MR. ORI: Right. And that's why we want to stop it in '25, '26
to reevaluate if things in -- you know, conditions improve, costs drop,
revenues are higher for some reason as conditions change, then let's
November 14, 2023
Page 92
recalibrate and true up.
COMMISSIONER HALL: That's not set in stone. That's just
like a guess in time?
MR. ORI: Yes, that's our forecast as of today.
COMMISSIONER HALL: We do have an election coming up.
MR. ORI: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Okay. I just want to make sure I
understood that.
MR. ORI: So let me go back to the slide prior. A couple other
I wanted to mention here. Lee County just adopted five years of
8 percent; those are adopted. The one on the very far end, Fort
Lauderdale, I wanted to mention that one to you; that's one that has
significant R&R needs. They're going to move their water
plant -- they have to move their water plant, and they just adopted
two years of water plant -- water rate adjustments 22 and a half
percent for those two years. That doesn't include sewer at 9 percent,
and that continues on. You can see the -- the relationship over there.
Well, the point I'm trying to make is those that have large capital
needs are after the COVID period with supply chain issues, et cetera,
are experiencing some significant adjustments, and that's where we
are.
I can tell you others, but the other point I'm trying to say is,
we're not alone either. Everyone -- like your question earlier, they're
experiencing this, and these utilities have adjusted rates annually.
It's not like they -- except for Melbourne, they've been adjusting rates
annually.
So that's what's kind of going on in the marketplace and
nationally, by the way, as you can well imagine.
Next slide, please.
With that, you know, conclusions. It is a financial forecast
based on what we know today, what you're -- based on your most
November 14, 2023
Page 93
recent budget you just adopted, we would recommend, knowing that
the rates will not be sufficient to meet those needs in the capital
program as identified, that you consider looking at, you know, a
three-year adoption of rates. You can always come back and modify
that.
The good thing about adopting the rates is that when you go to
the bond market, the rates are in effect, and it provides a lot of surety
to the creditors that the bonds can be paid. That's very important to
have the rates in effect prior to any issuance of bonds, and that bond
issue, the first one, again, is a year away. It's not tomorrow. So I
wanted to mention that to you. It's very critical to have those rates in
effect as you go to the bond market.
The other thing we'll be coming back to you very soon on is
impact fees. If you've got these kind of capital costs, the impact fees
should probably rise, too, and help fund all that, and that will help
this as well. You know, growth can be very cyclical, so we make
sure that, you know, we're in a good position on that as well.
And that's really about where we are, again, with these rate
adjustments is an effective rate at about 6 percent with water being
lower than sewer, but as you saw, the sewer needs are there, and
that's the reason for the increase.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I don't have any other
commissioners lit up here, so I guess, you know, I'll just ask for a
motion to approve these recommended rate increases for water,
unless I have a question.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. Commissioner
McDaniel just put his hand up, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Too late.
MR. MILLER: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. I don't have any
November 14, 2023
Page 94
questions for our consultant, but I'd like to ask a question of
Mr. Bellone, if I could, please.
MR. BELLONE: Yes, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Joe, my question is, is -- you
know, it's nice to have comparison about what other communities are
doing and whether they're raising the rates or not, but we don't -- to
me, that really is almost inconsequential, because we don't know how
those folks have been accounting -- they've been budgeting, they've
been reserving for capital repairs and replacements. We don't know
what those folks have been doing.
My question to you is, are we accounting appropriately for the
$1.7 billion worth of subsurface infrastructure? And it was shown
that it was 50 percent depreciated. Are we accounting appropriately
for the repair and replacement of those assets as we're going along?
That's the first question.
MR. BELLONE: Okay. For the record, Joe Bellone.
Yes, Commissioner. This utility is going to be here 50 and 100
years from now. I think the question before us is, is to ensure the
fiscal stability long term for the utility, and that requires the
adjustments we heard today.
The expansions that we're contemplating for developments that
you've approved in the past, to me, are an investment in the future
revenue stream. That infrastructure will be brand new. They'll be
paying users fees that we'll use to repair and replace lift stations in
the urban area years from now.
So we're contemplating the revenue stream that we'll get, you
know, from an average of 1,600 new connections a year, along with
these rates, assuming that consumption behavior stays the way it is.
If rates go up, do people start to maybe use less water? I don't know.
We've got a tiered rate structure that hasn't really impacted our
consumption very much.
November 14, 2023
Page 95
So to answer your question directly, yes, we are looking at long
term. This is why Rob and the consultants recommend a five-year
look in user rates. And when they bring back the impact fee rate
study, they'll look at -- they'll have a 10-year financial plan.
And Derek Johnssen, who's the financial director for the Clerk's
Office, he and I specifically talk to the bond rating agencies, and they
will ask us for 10-year financial forecasts, and that's why Rob and his
staff are looking at -- at least for user rates for five years, and they'll
come back to you shortly for impact fees that we'll be able to provide
to the rating agencies to demonstrate to them the fiscal stability of the
Collier County Water/Sewer District.
They look at flexibility in adopting rates, and they look at your
ability, as Rob said, in terms of the debt coverage. When we take
out a bond, we pledge all revenues. They don't care where the
money comes from. As long as the money is there, they want it.
And that -- that provides us the best rates to provide the future growth
for the utility.
I don't know if that answers your question, Commissioner
McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, you summed it up
pretty well. And I -- you know, and as Commissioner LoCastro
says, most of the time you know the answer to the question before
you actually ask it.
I just -- I just wanted to make it clear that we are budgeting, and
we are accounting for the repair and maintenance and replacement of
our -- of our aging infrastructure. So thank you for that answer.
My second question to you was with regard to the issuance of
the debt. Is the issuance of the new debt to support the expansion of
the district and the inclusion of the Golden Gate wastewater/water
system that we took over?
MR. BELLONE: Yes. As a matter of fact, the first bond
November 14, 2023
Page 96
issuance that we're contemplating, as Rob mentioned, in 2025, would
be to expand the Golden Gate system. You're all well aware of all
the growth in the Activity Center 9. We're talking about building on
the Golden Gate Golf Course. We've got Great Wolf Lodge. We
can't send much more wastewater to the south plant. It's close to
capacity and in season, you know, we push that to the limits. We
have less operational flexibility with the south plant. That's going to
be critical.
Rob mentioned we don't have a crystal ball. We don't know
what's going to happen with growth. You've approved villages in
the northeast. We bought the site back in the early 2000s
anticipating there would be growth there.
If the economy slows and I don't have to borrow to build those
plants and build that capacity, we won't. But, then again, that
will -- and I won't make that decision alone. Rob mentioned that
we've got an incredible finance committee here in Collier County.
Our county's financial advisors are incredibly smart, smart people,
and our bond counsel that I've known since I've been here for 20
years all play a part in the timing and the kinds of debt that we issue
and the structure of that debt so that we're not causing spikes in any
of the rates, either in user rates or in -- or in impact fees.
And I do want to mention that I anticipate that once -- if this is
approved today and once I can see that that these revenues are
generated, perhaps in March I may come back to you and ask you to
recognize this incremental revenue that we anticipate these rate
increases to provide, and I have every intention of putting a good deal
of that amount into the headworks project at the North County Water
Reclamation Facility so that I don't decimate the wastewater capital
plan for Fiscal '25.
If I can get 15 or $16 million out of this rate increase in this
fiscal year, I want to put that into that capital plan so we can then
November 14, 2023
Page 97
rehabilitate lift stations, lots of -- I was talking to Matt this
morning -- I don't know if he's still here -- a lift station that we could
rehabilitate five years ago for 200 grand is now 800- to a million, and
we've got lift stations all across the county that are in desperate need
of rehabilitation. So that's why Rob is talking about wastewater
rates being higher than water, because we have to put more focus on
the wastewater R&R capital program.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Joe, Commissioner Saunders has a
question for you, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. And I'm not sure if
you're the right person to answer this or not, but the City of Naples,
you had their rates up. I'm curious, how much are they charging for
their customers outside of the city that are in their water/sewer area,
the county residents -- I'm just trying to get a bit of a comparison of
what is charged to those customers and what's charged to the rest of
our county.
MR. BELLONE: I know they've changed it since Mr. Mudd
was our County Manager, and there was no way in heck he was ever
going to pay 25 percent, and we did all kinds of machinations to get
rid of that for at least county payments, but they charge 25 percent to
customers outside of their city limits even though they provide the
service.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So 25 percent over
their published rates is what they're charging?
MR. BELLONE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And wasn't there some new
legislation that put some limits on what cities could charge outside of
their jurisdictions?
MR. ORI: There was legislation introduced, but I don't think it
passed. And, Commissioner, I will tell you, about every other year
or every two years this issue is coming up for the questions you're
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Page 98
asking, because you don't charge a surcharge. You know, the county
is the county.
And a lot of municipalities charge up to 25 percent, and you can
go as high as 50 with justification, but 25 percent is --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Those customers on the city
system that are in the county, how do their rates compare with that
25 percent increase compared --
MR. ORI: Twenty-five percent higher than what we show in
that graph, for example.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And I don't know what that
number is. I'm just --
MR. BELLONE: Yeah, we can put that.
MR. ORI: We can provide it to you.
MR. BELLONE: But I will tell you that --
MR. ORI: $15 maybe.
MR. BELLONE: -- they are -- they are lower, but things
that -- things that actually impact rates are where do you get
your -- what's your water source? What kind of treatment do you
have? We have lime softening, which is probably the least
expensive to produce. It produces sludge, which we have to haul
out. We have R/O, and we have membrane treatment. You've got
to go deeper in the aquifers to produce that. The City of Naples
doesn't do that. They have a lime softening plant. And I'll tell you,
if -- I don't want to be in their position in terms of their wells being
infiltrated with saltwater, because lime softening is not going to do it.
So I think the county's well positioned in terms of balancing the
water production, in terms of using the different aquifers, balancing
that with the South Florida Water Management District restrictions
on the withdrawals from each those aquifers in order to produce the
highest quality, safest water, at the most -- at the most economical
rate. It may be higher than what it costs the City of Naples to do it,
November 14, 2023
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but that's -- that's the nature of the county and its treatment processes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. BELLONE: Sure.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I had one other point I
wanted to make, and that just was the -- with the expansion of the
northeast regional wastewater/water facility, is that -- is that facility
not already interconnected with our north and south plants?
MR. BELLONE: The interim wastewater facility is.
Everything -- everything in the north -- on the northeast site is or will
be connected. It is a -- right now, it's a subregional. It will be a
regional facility.
We haven't begun to operate. We're still in the testing phase on
the intra-facility we just built on the northeast site, correct? But we
are operating the Orange Tree plant for that four square mile square
for the Orange -- the old Orange Tree service area, and we will get
that operating shortly. But right now we -- I'm looking at Craig.
We're sending the flows from Sky Sail back to the north plant.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So with the
expansion of the northeast regional plant, then, that's going to lift the
pressure off the south plant and then the north plant?
MR. BELLONE: Yes, sir -- yes, that's our plan.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. That was the point
that I was -- I was looking to get to there. And a portion of the debt
structure that's being proposed is to consummate -- or complete or
move forward on the -- on the construction of that northeast regional
plant?
MR. BELLONE: That's a little bit further out in the future, but
yes. Wastewater is sort of at the -- towards the end of this fiscal
planning stage, this five-year plan, but both wastewater and water
November 14, 2023
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plant expansion in the northeast will be included in the impact fee
rate study that you see. That's in the 10-year planning horizon.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Very good. No further
comments. Thank you.
MR. BELLONE: Okay.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Do I have a motion to
approve the recommendation for the rate increase?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll make that motion,
Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion from
Commissioner Saunders. Do I have a second?
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I have a second from
Commissioner Kowal. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
Okay. Thank you for the in-depth --
MR. BELLONE: Thank you for your support, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- analysis and for meeting with all
of us yesterday, too, as well.
MR. BELLONE: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Ms. Patterson, what do we
have left? I mean, I'm sitting here sort of doing the math and just
wondering if we should just keep pressing.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir, we have one item left on the
November 14, 2023
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regular agenda as far as the County Manager's Report, we have two
staff reports, and commission communications and public comment.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean, we normally would take a
break around noon. Is there anything that we can knock out quickly,
or do you want to take, like, a 10-minute break, come back here, sort
of give all of us a chance to just rehydrate, and then we'll just keep
pressing?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. I don't think it will take long
after we come back.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Let's come back here at
12:10 and keep moving along.
(A brief recess was had from 12:00 p.m. to 12:10 p.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I'm the only commissioner, so I've
got about three motions I'd like to make. All in favor? No, I'm just
kidding.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel, are you
at least there still?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I am. I was seconding your
motion for --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Excellent.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- getting things done.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Now they're all here. Just
kidding.
Okay. County Manager, going on to Big Corkscrew, right?
MS. PATTERSON: Yep.
Item #11C
RECOMMENDATION TO AWARD INVITATION TO BID NO. 23-
November 14, 2023
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8147, CONSTRUCTION OF THE BIG CORKSCREW ISLAND
REGIONAL PARK PHASE 2A ACCESS ROAD, TO QUALITY
ENTERPRISES USA, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $9,028,810.55,
AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HALL –
APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 11C is a recommendation to award
Invitation to Bid No. 23-8147, construction of the Big Corkscrew
Island Regional Park, Phase 2A, Access Road, to Quality Enterprise
USA, Inc., in the amount of $9,028,810.55, and authorize the
Chairman to sign the attached agreement.
Mr. Tony Barone -- Tony, you'll have to tell them your title,
sorry.
MR. BARONE: Absolutely. Good afternoon, Commissioners.
Tony Barone, principal project manager with our Facilities
Management division.
I have the opportunity today to bring to you a recommendation
that will let us move forward with the first segment of the Phase 2 of
Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park, which includes our access road
and the associated utility corridor that will connect Oil Well Road up
to the NESA plant that was just discussed earlier.
This recommendation is to award Invitation to Bid 23-8147, this
construction project, to Quality Enterprises, who was deemed the
lowest qualified bidder for this project, as our County Manager
stated, in the amount of $9,028,810.55.
We additionally have a few slides prepared for some
background on the project and a few slides pointing out the
completion of our Phase 1, if the Board is interested in seeing those
as well.
November 14, 2023
Page 103
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, let's see it. I mean, big
dollar amount.
MR. BARONE: Absolutely.
Our project's history, our Big Corkscrew Island Park, it's been a
nearly two-decade effort to add a regional park to Eastern Collier
County in the Golden Gate Estates area. This part is part of one of
our core campuses which includes our Station 10 for our EMS folks,
our CCSO substation at Orange Tree, our University of Florida
extension office, the Collier County Fairgrounds, and the Tim Nance
Recycling Center, along with that new NESA plant under
construction.
Phase 1 of the project is now complete and fully open to the
public and contains various fields, basketball, multipurpose fields,
soccer fields, hard courts, walking paths, a playground and a
community center, as well as our aquatic facility, which was recently
opened.
Phase 2 is being designed and constructed in three main
subphases. It starts with this access road down at Oil Well Road just
east of Palmetto Ridge High School and includes -- it is a joint
project with our Public Utilities folks and includes a utility
connection that will go from Oil Well Road all the way up through
the park and connect to that new NESA plant.
Our main project objectives for this contract is to construct this
first segment of the Big Corkscrew Road, which connects the
regional park to Oil Well Road, to complete the first segment of this
NESA utility corridor serving the northeast service area plant and the
associated well points for that plant, and to meet the terms of a
developer agreement approved by the BCC last year in February,
supporting the access and utilities for the commercial parcels along
Oil Well Road that we bisect with this new road.
As you know, our Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park, just east
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of Immokalee Road there at the end of 39th and soon to be connected
to Oil Well.
Our full project boundaries here, and you can see on the top left
is our Phase 1 that's now complete. In the center is Phase 2, which
will be that Phase 2B, actually, that will be our next phase of this
project, and down here on the bottom right is this Phase 2A. It is the
road coming from Oil Well up to the southeast portion of what is the
next phase of our construction and actually will serve as a west
entrance to the Orange Blossom Ranch as well once complete.
Again, a quick look back at Phase 1, which has recently
fully -- it is fully complete, it's fully open to the public. We've got a
little bit of time to work with the contractor to reconcile some of the
authorized changes on the project and get through all the final
paperwork. We will be coming back to the Board in the next couple
months, probably January time frame, with a final closeout for that
project and recommendations from staff.
But some of -- some pictures and some features in that park, as I
mentioned, are playground that's being enjoyed by the public now
and has been for a while and, again, our recently opened aquatic
facility that a couple of you were at the new ribbon cutting a couple
weeks ago.
Again, Big Corkscrew Phase 2A, just some information on here.
It is that main entrance at Oil Well Road. It includes a roundabout
on the north end serving as a west entrance to Orange Blossom. It
includes those utilities, and it has a follow-on project in Phase 2A
that will include an intersection improvement at Oil Well and the
introduction of a signal -- a traffic signal there as well.
We are expected to start construction next month, if this contract
is approved, and complete it in September of next year.
Phase 2B is our next phase. This is the larger park. This is the
continuation of that road through that larger property connecting to
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Phase 1. It is also the continuation of that utilities corridor that will
make the connection in the middle and actually connect it up to that
NESA plant. It will include the reshaping and surface excavation of
the existing bodies of waters. It will include a stormwater control
structure, a master weir at the eastern end of the boat canal as well,
various park amenities, shade structures, a dog park, walking paths,
things like that.
Our design is expected to be complete the very beginning of the
year, and we intend on moving into bidding and getting into
construction by the end of next year.
Again, our recommendation is to approve this contract with
Quality Enterprises for the construction Phase 2 access road, as they
are the lowest qualified bidder.
And I'm here if you have any questions.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just a couple quick
questions. What is the funding source for that -- for this particular
project?
MR. BARONE: For this particular phase, the funding source is
parks impact fees. Additionally, we have an agreement with the
developer that I referenced that provides a contribution from them for
a portion. It's a big complex, but it's a portion that covers the gravity
sewer associated with their commercial lot, the cost associated with
the entry apron, so that commercial center, and they'll be paying for
about 25 percent of the intersection improvements. Additionally,
our public utilities fund is covering the full cost of the utilities
corridor as well.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. BARONE: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel, if you
have no questions, would you like to make a motion to approve this?
November 14, 2023
Page 106
It's in your district, and I know you're very proud of it, as we all are.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Troy didn't notify you
that I had my hand up there, but yes --
MR. MILLER: Oh, yes, I did.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: He did notify us, but we put it
down. No. Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I would like to make a
motion for approval of this. This is a much-needed infrastructure
improvement for all that we were talking about in the previous
agenda item along with the interconnection to our park and the lit
intersection on Oil Well Road to help for pedestrian traffic,
everything across the board. So move for approval.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a motion from
Commissioner McDaniel to approve. Do I have a second?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Second.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I have a second from
Commissioner Hall. All in favor?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It passes unanimously.
Get to work.
MR. BARONE: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Next?
Item #15A
November 14, 2023
Page 107
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA BY INDIVIDUALS NOT
ALREADY HEARD DURING PREVIOUS PUBLIC COMMENTS
IN THIS MEETING
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to
Item 15A, public comments on general topics not on the current or
future agenda by individuals not already heard during previous public
comments in this meeting.
MR. MILLER: We have no one registered under that item.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: All right. Item 15B, staff project updates.
Item #15B
STAFF PROJECT UPDATES
MS. PATTERSON: Item 15B1 is a recommendation to accept
the November 2023 project update for the Vanderbilt Beach Road
extension.
Mr. Jay Ahmad, your Transportation Engineering division
director, is here to present.
MR. AHMAD: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'm Jay
Ahmad, your Transportation Engineering director, for the record.
We're here to update you on this project, the largest construction
for transportation in Collier County. It started last year, about a year
ago, and we are doing actually really well. The project is
progressing on time and with the funding that is being spent,
construction -- in construction activities is on track, as we see it.
In the photo that you see on the display, part of the project is to
November 14, 2023
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relocate approximately a mile and a half of Cypress canal, and that's
taking shape. Approximately 60 percent of the canal is dug to date.
A lot of material coming out of that canal to build the roadway, the
embankment part of it, and, essentially, that canal on the left side or
on the north side of the roadway will be filled, and the roadway will
go on top of it.
The construction duration is approximately three years. We're
about a year in the construction, and the activity that you see out
there -- I mentioned the canal, the embankment, they're doing
drainage and also they're building bridges. I'll move on.
Again, pictures of the canal being constructed, being dug
between 15th and 29th Street. Embankment is being laid. Material
mostly from the canal and also digging the pond sites, the stormwater
detention, the retentions for the project. That material's taken and
mixed with other material to make sure that we meet standard -- the
standards and also the specifications of the project.
Bridges, as I mentioned, being constructed. The first one you
see on the left is actually completed. It's -- that canal over Cypress
Canal -- that bridge over Cypress Canal. The other bridge is also
taking shape. Approximately 30, 40 percent of the abutments and
the piling and the beams coming up, and Curry Canal next. So
construction of the bridges.
This is a critical activity, as the project is divided by this
waterway, the canals. So once -- they see this as a critical path
element of the project so they can proceed from one end of the
project to the other. And construction activity is taking shape all
over the 7-mile project.
And once these bridges are constructed, it will be easier to build
this project and bring material from one side to the other without
going on Golden Gate Boulevard or Randall Boulevard.
Major -- all the drainage -- the project is drained into pond sites
November 14, 2023
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or stormwater pipes taking that water from the proposed roadway,
and it's all buried underground in concrete pipes, as you can see, and
it's taking shape, so these trunk lines are being constructed. They're
facing rock, solid rock in some areas, and construction is -- for this
activity is slowed somewhat by that hard rock in Golden Gate Estates
that they're facing. But they're aware of it, and they actually -- Sacyr
Construction have these equipments that can dig this rock in a faster
method.
I also have -- you heard last meeting during the October 24th
from a resident in the area and a citizen who is a professional
engineer -- and I am as well, and my team who's in charge of this
project are also professional engineers -- about a few subjects: The
maintenance traffic and signing -- construction signing. He
presented to you other elements of the silt fencing, so I'm going to go
just briefly through some of those issues and address some of these
comments that were made.
The first one is maintenance of traffic and, you know, that's
directly to safety. We take safety the utmost. We spend a lot of
money, frankly, in construction to maintain traffic and make sure that
traffic is traveling safely through our projects.
As this project, frankly, is behind most -- you know, it's between
10 and 12, and in areas where there's really not much traffic other
than the existing Collier Boulevard itself, east of -- not Collier.
Collier and Vanderbilt, existing Vanderbilt east of Collier.
So the project temporary control plan is incorporated into our
project, and we follow the state standards. The citizen complained
to the FDOT, they came on site, and they confirmed that we are per
standards. So we are in full compliance of that.
We have discovered one of the issues that was mentioned that
some of these signs are not exactly to the spacing that are per the
standards, but the standard also says we are flexible on these
November 14, 2023
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spacings. If you see a sign that says construction a thousand feet and
if you have a driveway or something underground, you don't put it
exactly a thousand feet. There is tolerance in the standards. You
could move the sign up or down.
And the insinuation that we move the signs because of concern
about safety, that absolutely has no validity. Frankly, the issue of
safety that was mentioned is irrelevant, in my view, because Collier
and Vanderbilt Beach Road, there's no construction. If you travel
there today, the construction hasn't reached that intersection, so there
is no safety issue that I see.
The staff monitors the signs, the drums, all these
construction -- temporary construction signs. We monitor daily, and
we see that as our major function. You have in-house -- we talked
about CEI insourcing and outsourcing. This is actually a project of
staff -- your staff, or my staff, they're monitoring construction
activities, and they're making sure that the construction is -- all the
signage is in place per standards, and we hold the contractor by
in-house staff rather than outsourcing.
The second subject that was mentioned is the silt fence erosion
control, the plan. That's also a passion of ours. You know,
we -- water quality -- the purpose of a silt fence is to make sure that
no dirt goes onto the adjoining properties and so we don't impact
water resources or water quality if adjoining canals or -- the -- we
follow -- all standards for the silt fence, essentially, must follow the
FDOT standards, the FDEP standards, and they're all pretty much
universal. They say that a silt fence has to be inspected, and we do
inspect the silt fence every week; a report is created about the silt
fence.
Much had been said, and displays were provided to you about,
you know, 2-inch by 4-inch. Actually, he had -- the gentleman had
in his hand a 2-inch by 4-inch versus a 1-inch by 1-inch posts. In
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Florida, we have very harsh environment on those pine 2-inch by
4-inch, and they, frankly, deteriorate pretty quickly, so the standard in
FDOT, and for years -- it's probably since late '90s, they moved into
hardwood oak 1-inch by 1-inch. It's actually 1-inch and 1/8th by
1-inch and an 8th. And it's incorporated into their standards. That's
an equivalent. It's actually more expensive than the other softwood
that you'd buy. And, frankly, you can't even find that product in
Florida. It's -- FDOT doesn't use it. We haven't used it for, frankly,
years.
And so -- and that's -- the display in front of you, essentially,
shows from the -- the manual on -- in the FDOT that that is what you
use, and that's what's being used by the project.
And here's photos of our project. For example, the bottom one
shows Vanderbilt Beach Road silt fencing, and this is a project in
Everglades City, frankly. It's an FDOT project that they use the
same silt fence. It's what they call a Type 3 fabric with the
hardwood that doesn't deteriorate. And even if it does deteriorate,
because it does -- the fabric does not last too long, the
quantities -- the reason the quantities is large in the project, because
the project is three years, and we are required by the permitting, and
we are required to replace it. As I mentioned, we inspect it weekly,
and we document to the permitting agency that if there is -- you
know, as construction activities happen, you could have an
equipment kind of knock a fence down, you know, one of these. So
we go out and install it, and we pay for material that is damaged due
to weathering and replace due to age of the fencing.
So the quantity assumes -- the insinuation was there's a lot of
money in this project for sediment. It's because we are going to
replace those as needed during all these -- the duration of the
three-years project that we have. So replacement of the damaged silt
fence is included in the contract and will be done by the project, and
November 14, 2023
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our inspectors make sure that that silt fence is in place and provides
the controls that we demand that we don't mess up with water quality
on adjoining properties or our water quality that goes to the gulf
eventually.
There was also discussion about tracking devices. Those things
that -- as trucks go in and out of public roadways, they track a lot of
mud and a lot of dirt and so forth. So there -- there actually exists on
every intersection -- you can see them on some of these -- on top, and
we also have these brooms. The contractor brooms at the end of the
day, or even if we see silts, we broom it. So the project, as you get
onto the public roadways, does not have the silt and does not have the
dirt on it.
So they do exist. I'm not sure if he had actually inspected
lately, but they do exist out there, and I've seen them. Here are the
pictures of the top one. I think there are a total of 14 soil tracking
devices all over the project limits.
Embankment. There was mentioned that trucks -- it was
witnessed by trucks delivering material to the site and not compacted.
There's tons of -- I believe over half a million cubic yards will be
hauled to the project, and not every truck that comes to the project
you'll have a compactor behind them. You lay that dirt, and when
that phase comes in, you install those -- embankment or dirt in foot
layers, with the exception of the top lift of 6 inches and every
after -- every foot, you roll it.
So you've seen photos in the early pictures of dirt being actually
compacted. And, yes, we do have a lot of dirt still. Those are
things being dug out of the canal and the pond sites where you would
lay them for future compaction.
So I can assure you we will not have a project or dirt that's not
going to be compacted to better than the specifications. You know,
the roadway will not last if we don't do compaction. We don't -- you
November 14, 2023
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know, we test them. And that's the discussion I've had with you
about CEI job to do is to make sure that dirt is compacted per
specifications so the roadway, when we get to the asphalt layer of it,
it has solid base and compaction.
So all materials per specifications. There's no violation of
specifications. We have -- we document every activity, every foot of
the roadway, every inch of the roadway to the highest standard and
better, and there's no, actually, issue with that, as I see it.
I am open to questions if you have any, and I hope I answered
the questions that were raised by this gentleman who is an engineer
that had some issues on the project.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, that's putting it mildly.
Any questions from any commissioners? Commissioner
Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I just want to thank you for
addressing those questions. You know, the 2-by-4's that were
brought in and things of that nature, I think you addressed that very
professionally, very well, and I will communicate with Mr. Loewer
and let him know that those issues have been addressed properly,
were being addressed properly in the first place, that it's not
something that you just reacted to. It's something that had been in
place from the very beginning, so I want to thank you for going
through that detail.
MR. AHMAD: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you.
MR. AHMAD: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No questions. Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Do we need to approve that?
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No, I don't think -- that was just an
update, yep. What's the next update?
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, this is add-on Item 15B2.
November 14, 2023
Page 114
This is a staff update on the Legend Concert series at the Paradise
Coast Sports Complex. This is brought to the agenda by
Commissioner Saunders' request. And we have Mr. Moses and
Mr. Adams here from our management company as well as
Mr. Rodriguez to give an update and then answer your questions.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Take it away. Did you
have an opening comment? I'll turn it over to Commissioner
Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Let me -- as everybody
comes to the podium, let me just explain what my objective is in
putting this -- asking for this update.
I attended the concert. I believe Commissioner Kowal and
Commissioner LoCastro were at the concert as well, and it really was
a very nice evening. The weather was perfect. The music was
wonderful. Everything was really well set up, but there were a
couple issues that were raised that really deal with service to the
public, and that's the business we're in. We want to make sure that
people enjoy the events there and want to come back.
And so there were a couple issues that -- where -- that I spoke to
a lot of folks that there was some unhappiness, if you will. For
example, there was a line for people to buy beer, and people were in
that line for over an hour. And I went over to the line, and I talked
to a bunch of people that were there. So that was something that
folks were saying that they just weren't going to come back because
they just didn't like having to wait that long, and they wanted to have
a beverage. And then -- but that's -- I think that's an easy fix.
Then over in the what they call the VIP area, they were serving
food there. And I hate to be critical, but I got the chicken sandwich
which, quite frankly, was almost inedible. I mean, I hate to say that.
And so I know folks were concerned that that was just not a very
good quality meal, if you will. And there was nothing else with it.
November 14, 2023
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So there were complaints like that, I think, that are easy to fix.
There were bathroom issues that I think are easy to fix.
And then the bottom line is, I would -- just from my personal
viewpoint, would love to see these concerts and like this, really, in
the stadium area. I think that's just better controlled and that sort of
thing. But I understand there's issues there, but that's why I wanted
to have some kind of discussion as to some of those personal services
issues, and can these concerts be in the stadium.
I did hear a lot of folks saying they wanted to go back to
Sugden, and that would be the last thing that we would want to do
was have -- we'd be competing with ourselves at that point. So that's
why I wanted to have some discussion about that and see if there's
anything we can do to facilitate this service to the community.
And I will tell you, people I talked to -- and, of course, the three
of us were there -- people were having a really wonderful time, so it
was nice to see that. But those were some wrinkles that I wanted to
see if we could kind of iron out.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the
record, Dan Rodriguez, your Deputy County Manager.
And absolutely, Commissioner Saunders, you're exactly right.
It's all about customer service. And, as you know, I was there at the
concert as well, along with other staff members, and Commissioner
Kowal was there as well as Commissioner LoCastro.
And there were some hiccups -- there were serious hiccups as it
relates to managing the event and staffing it to the level that it needed
to be. There's probably nobody in the room more than all of you,
including myself and the County Manager, who wants to see this a
success, not only because it's a great opportunity to bring
entertainment to the community who've asked for concerts, things
like this, but, most importantly, to make sure that we maximize the
use of the facility.
November 14, 2023
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So with that, right after the event, we brought the delivery teams
together, both Mr. Randall, as well as our county staff, as well as our
contractor, and we began the process of an after-action review.
And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Adams and
Mr. Moses, and they're going to cover that for you.
MR. ADAMS: Good afternoon. Jack Adams, for the record,
Sports Facilities Management. And I've got Adrian Moses with me.
We are not -- I can shorten some of our answer. We agree with
you about the food. We agree with you about the bathroom lines.
We agree with you about the beer lines. We're going to do better.
So we're going to get into a little bit about how that happened
and how we're going to make it better, but all of the things that we
could have -- that happened were in our control, so we have the
support and the tools to fix them, and we'll just share a little bit about
how we're going to do that with you.
We sort of allowed in the VIP tent a budget to drive the food,
and what we should have done is we shouldn't have said -- we
shouldn't have sold the broom closet at the Hilton. We should have
said, here's the -- you know, here's the suite. Here's the room.
Here's what these things cost, or if you would like an outside caterer,
we can do that as well. So here are your options. But we tried to
manage to a budget. We won't do that again. We'll make sure we
have that standard of quality.
We had a staffing problem with the beer stations. We should
have had more, and we didn't have enough people. We'll fix that.
With respect to the restrooms, there's a perimeter to a concert,
and the perimeter -- you don't want people coming and going.
There's a bunch of reasons for that. They can go out to their car and
have -- consume something that we're then liable for how intoxicated
they are. For example, we weren't in control of how much they were
served. They can get angry at someone within the concert, and they
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can come and go and bring something back in. There's a bunch of
reasons you wouldn't want to break the perimeter.
What we did is we created a perimeter that we didn't want to
break; we didn't have enough bathrooms in it. And what we should
have done is we should have an X amount per person of Porta Potties
rented and then bill the operator. That's just part of the cost of doing
it.
So those are some of the solutions that we have in mind. I'm
happy to get into anything more specific. But we know how to fix
that. We were in control of it. We'll do better.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay.
MR. ADAMS: Do you want to run through the -- would you
like to dig into that a little bit more, or were there --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I personally would not. I
just wanted to raise the issues, and I really appreciate your looking
into those.
The only other issue was whether or not these can be held in the
stadium, and maybe that's not the best location for it, but it just seems
to me that that would be a really great location for something like
this.
MR. ADAMS: We have done events in the stadium. We
would like to do events in the stadium. There is a complex cleanup,
and we had the stadium rented the next morning for $60,000 worth of
activity before we set this date, so that just wasn't -- we weren't able
to turn that over in time to execute. When we have open dates, we
will, and, you know, that's an ideal, like you said, contained area.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I was just going to say, one of the
things I thought I remember in the earlier discussions is let's say the
stadium wasn't blocked the next day, is that setting up the stage and
all those things on top of the field was of concern, and so protection
of the field -- and we might have talked about this another time. It
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might have had nothing to do with Legends. I mean, I personally
think we should make the investment in that protection, because I
think it would attract a lot people. That's a big budget, but if we
bought that, whatever the covers are, it's wood, it's some sort of
protection, and we had it in the warehouse somewhere, and
somebody wanted to come in and do a big, giant concert, and that
stuff's reusable over and over and over, it would pay for itself.
And not to say we couldn't put a little fee on that but, you know,
having somebody wants to do a concert one time -- Legends is
multiple. But let's say somebody wanted to do a concert one time,
and we said, yeah, you've got to buy all the protection for the field,
we'd lose that contract because they'd say, well, it's not worth us
doing. But if we had it in the closet, and we figured out, hey, you
know, you have to pay a $5,000 fee or whatever, you know, worked
out, and then we sat there and did the equation and said, man, it's
going to pay for itself 10 times, and we might be able to attract a lot
of onesie, twosie things -- I mean, I agree with Commissioner
Saunders.
I think also, too, there was a -- being able to utilize the field or
figuring out how to do that was also better control of people.
Everybody in their little beach chairs and wandering around and
everything, where the stadium, it seems like it's meant for that. And
then also, too, the screens. It just seemed like we had a lot of
resources that weren't really being utilized as we shoehorn this thing
into a small field where, you know -- but I can appreciate what you're
saying, too, is being able to control the restrooms and things. But it
just seems like that field is ground zero of all the best stuff, and we
were sitting there sort of shoehorned into a small area looking at this
amazing field where the concert could have been.
And, granted, maybe we didn't have all of the right materials,
you know, to do it. But I would just say, in the -- in your
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after-actions, maybe exploring that. Because it's not just about
Legends concert. There's lots of other things we could attract, and a
lot of them would just be, like, one-time things.
And I think we would lose a lot of contracts if we said, well,
you've got to protect the field on your own. You have to pay for
this. You have to pay for that. They'd say, forget it. I'm not going
to do that. So just a thought.
And as Commissioner Saunders was saying, this was just to
raise this. I don't know that we needed to do a deep dive here.
You-all are talking on your own. Maybe, you know, at a future
meeting you could bring us back sort of a plan before this next
concert or any other big events that are coming up maybe between
now and this next one, but I'm sure that -- I mean, the next one's
in -- is it December or January?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: January.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, so we have some time.
So, you know, I think we'll all probably be there again. We'd
love to see, you know, the improvements and, you know, your ideas.
We don't have to brainstorm it here now, but I think, you know, we're
all paddling in the same direction.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely, and very good points.
The good news is, I did see -- Mr. Randall did advise it being at
the sports complex, so he is coming back so -- this morning.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay, good.
MR. ADAMS: We agree with all that. We love that stadium.
It's a beautiful complex. It's a beautiful stadium. We love the
additional fields. The more that complex gets built out, the more
we'll continue to use it. I think you saw the revenue go from a
million to $2 million. That's because we're packing that facility.
We're making use of it, and we're doing it with a reduced -- and
reduced and further reduced subsidy and operating costs.
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So we're trying to be good stewards of your asset, and we're
happy to program it. It is a really complex operation, a concert. So
setting it up and tearing it down, just, you know, when something's
already booked, we don't want to jeopardize what somebody's already
got a deal.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. My expectation was
that if, you know, we could use the stadium, the majority of people
would be sitting in the stadium stands, just like you do if you -- you
know, I just saw the Rolling Stones last year at Raymond James, and
I didn't bring a beach chair, you know. I sat in the stadium.
And then there were VIP people on the field, and it was a much
smaller group. You know, they were close to the stadium, but it was
almost, you know -- like, if you use the stadium, it's already 90
percent set. And I don't know how the sports complex is laid out,
but at big sports complexes, the biggest restrooms, the highest
quantity are around the biggest venue, which is the giant field, so,
you know, you sort of maybe solve that problem a little bit. And
then, of course, using the big giant jumbotrons; they're not sitting
there dark. You have the best sound and all that. It just seemed like
it would be a little bit more obvious to try to figure out what moving
parts between now and January.
But, you know, overall, I mean, I thought it was 51 percent
good, you know, or higher. I mean, you know, like Commissioner
Saunders said, all these things are fixable, and you've echoed it as
well.
I don't know. Anything else?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I would just -- well, I'll just
wrap up by I appreciate your willingness to look into those issues and
help us solve those.
MR. ADAMS: Of course.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: County Manager, what's next?
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Item #15C
STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, we're at Item 15C, staff
and commission general communications.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: Just start with we have an announcement.
In conjunction with our community partners, there will be a
workforce housing property dedication ceremony beginning at
10 a.m. on Monday, November 27th, 2023, at the Golden Gate Golf
Course property. A media release will be going out tomorrow with
more details and event location and a parking map. Feel free to
reach out to John Mullins with any questions that you may have.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: What date was that?
MS. PATTERSON: Monday, November 27th, 10 a.m.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Okay. What else?
MS. PATTERSON: Enjoy your Thanksgiving. That's all I
have.
Mr. Rodriguez?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Just briefly, as I mentioned before, that we
are doing a national search for a replacement for our TDC director,
Mr. Paul Beirnes. He's taken an opportunity in Amelia Island. So
we're putting a committee together with some representation both
from the TDC committee, and we'll give you an update at the next
board meeting.
In addition, we'll be bringing you an update to the Caxambas
project at the next board meeting as well and an update as well on our
commercial permitting activity going into the 2024 season.
MS. PATTERSON: County Attorney Klatzkow.
November 14, 2023
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MR. KLATZKOW: Nothing. But Happy Thanksgiving to one
and all.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Mr. Miller, anything?
MR. MILLER: Happy Thanksgiving.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I'm going to go to
Commissioner McDaniel. Sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I, first of all, want to
thank you all for indulging me in my absence today and allowing me
to participate by Zoom and wrapping up my family members. And
with that, I want to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: We nominated you to five
committees when you were off of Zoom, so we'll get you all those
details.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: A couple things.
We have -- County Manager and I have had four different
Zooms with outside vendors for the budget process. It's coming
along very well. One of them recently asked us for some more
information before they could give us cost estimates, and they sent
that yesterday, and we've responded to them. And we should have
that back very shortly and hopefully something to come back to all of
y'all with to get started on this before -- sometime in December. So
that's going very well. I wanted to update you publicly on that.
And the other thing, I've got a favor to ask. I had a guy reach
out regarding the Vineyard Park. It's a little county park that sits
over there in the Vineyards, and there's some -- oh, five to 10 kids
that have been meeting there for a year, and they meet twice a week
for an hour at a time. And a pro boxer volunteers his time, and they
do some little exercises, and it helps the kids' confidence, and some
of those kids are challenged. And it came to their attention that they
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were going to have to provide liability insurance and to pay $20 an
hour for the use of the park. They meet in a pavilion, so they don't
meet inside anywhere.
I reached out to Parks and Rec, and they said that they didn't
have the ability to waive the -- he asked us -- excuse me. He asked
us, if the parents provided the liability, could we waive the $20 fee?
And I said, I'll check with Parks and Rec.
Ms. Edwards said she didn't have the ability or the authority to
waive those fees, to bring to y'all. So I'm asking if it would be okay
for us to agree to waive those fees for those kids. It's 40 bucks a
week. And the parents will provide Parks and Rec the liability
insurance.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I certainly don't have any
issue with that, but I'm not sure I understand. When you say the
parents are going to provide the liability, I don't know what that
means.
COMMISSIONER HALL: They're going to provide the
liability insurance for the guy that's doing the -- in case somebody
slips and falls and they say it's our fault or whatever.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. I mean, I have no
issues at all with that.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I would just say we need to get
documentation of that so that if something happened, there's not some
miscommunication or whatnot.
But I've brought this up once or twice for some other unique
groups where it was like, you know, we were nickel-and-diming them
for -- you know, they were not-for-profit or things like this. So I
mean, if it takes, you know, commissioners voting to waive and then
we figure out how to absorb it -- if any commissioner brings
something to our attention that they think is a worthy cause.
November 14, 2023
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But, you know, the small fee is of great impact because it's a
small group. I'm all for, you know, leaning forward and supporting
citizens.
So, I mean, Ms. Williams, do you have something to add?
MS. WILLIAMS: I have a question to ask. For the record,
Tanya Williams, Public Services department head.
Commissioner Hall, I'm not fully aware of -- I have a little bit of
visibility on it but not full visibility. I have a real quick question. Is
this gentleman charging the students for the services he's providing,
or is he providing them completely free of charge?
COMMISSIONER HALL: No, he's volunteering his time.
MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. In regards to liability and the fact
that he's actually training on public property, I'd have to make
sure -- I'd have to double-check with Mr. Quigley in our Risk
Management Department just to make sure that what the parents are
offering is agreeable and acceptable, and then I'd be more than happy
to sit down with the gentleman, and we could have that discussion.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Sure. It was my understanding it
was a little boxing-related thing where the kids punch hand-held
pads, and the confidence and the demeanor of the kids have really
improved. I told him I would bring it forward. I told him that if the
park was ever reserved for somebody that was paying or, you know,
like a wedding or something like that, that that would trump his
efforts, and they completely understood that. They --
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners --
MS. WILLIAMS: Absolutely, I agree.
MS. PATTERSON: -- we'll gather up all of the pertinent
details and make sure we get you -- we'll get you-all an update at our
next meeting. But we'll move this forward.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So we're not going
to -- we're not going to approve it because you've got a couple things.
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But we're approving, definitely, looking into it, and if it seems like
you've got all the T's crossed and I's dotted, and it seems legitimate --
MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you for bringing this up.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- let us know.
Okay. Anything else, sir?
COMMISSIONER HALL: That's it.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Just everybody have a good
Thanksgiving, and we'll see everybody in December.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Are we still having those
meetings in Tallahassee on December 4, 5, and 6? Is that still set?
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Other than that, Happy
Thanksgiving to everybody as well. Look forward to seeing
everybody at the barbecue and then again in Tallahassee.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Yeah, and I would
encourage everybody to -- I don't know if we've all RSVPed. I'm
obviously going to Tallahassee. It sounds like Commissioner
Saunders is.
I think it was very impressive when all five of us went. So if
you're able to go, I hope that we can have 100 percent attendance
unless you have a conflict that you can't move.
But having said that, just indulge me for a minute. I do have a
few things here to just bring up. Not big, long discussion.
First one is the one-cent tax. So Ms. Patterson and I spoke
about it. So we got a letter from Marco talking about how they feel,
like, the advantage of continuing the one-cent tax. I guess what
some people don't know but we do is if that was something that we
had an appetite for, it has to go back on the ballot. Citizens would
have to vote on it.
November 14, 2023
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But, you know, we're getting close to it sunsetting, and so we
have to be able to decide, are we taking a position? I'm not taking a
position on it, and I don't think anybody here -- we're not asking
anybody to. It's just a matter of, you know, we've had a lot of citizen
inquiries on it as well as the City of Marco has sent us a letter. So
having said that, I just didn't want it to die on the vine without
discussion.
So, County Manager, give us the short-to-medium version of
what we should be talking about.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
So the County Attorney actually produced this timeline for us.
You can see it kind of -- I'm not the best user of the visualizer. But
it walks you through the points in time where we would need to be
doing things. It actually mirrors pretty closely how this moved
forward back in 2007 and 2018. So there are targets that we have to
hit in order to be able to get to the ballot, and so you can follow that
timeline there.
But, basically, we're right in that window of time where we
would need to be thinking about this, talking to the stakeholders,
making sure that projects that might be eligible for the surtax are ones
that we're interested in actually meet the criteria for the statute, then
beginning on developing the ordinance and ballot language. So, you
know, we have time but not a lot of time.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Is it the five of us that decide if we
want it to go back on the ballot after much discussion?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean, it's our decision after
hearing from our constituents and other outsiders?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. And so what's -- I mean,
just looking there, so what's the time for us to decide that? Should it
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be on the next agenda, and we actually take a vote, or what am I
missing here?
MS. PATTERSON: We really need to be underway by
January. So if you want to have a conversation about this at the next
agenda, it may be timely only because you're going to be looking at
the AUIR, which would be the place from where many of your
capital projects would come from, and there are some funding
challenges both within transportation and stormwater in the AUIR.
So we could certainly put together an executive summary to
partner with the AUIR where we could have a more in-depth
discussion, including, obviously, the support of the -- it appears, the
support of the municipalities.
There's been some conversations from the fire districts how that
would work out. I need to speak with the County Attorney about
their eligibility or what that would look like. And then community
priorities. The Chamber of Commerce has been asking about this a
little bit when I've been at some meetings and, you know, we haven't
had a specific answer, but that we were still working through the
sunset of the current sales tax, and the future of this one remained
unknown at that time.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, I think it would be
advantageous to put it on the next agenda, obviously.
MS. PATTERSON: Sure.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And then I would just say to my
fellow commissioners, start taking a temperature a little bit of your
constituents, if you have any town hall meetings that are coming up
or you're putting something in your newsletter, or whatever you think
might be appropriate so that maybe we have the best feedback
possible.
Obviously, when -- if it's an agenda item and we word it
properly, I think we'll get a lot of citizen comment. So let's make
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sure that we -- we feed that, because that's what we want.
But in the end, the voters are going to decide. So, I mean, I sit
here, and I don't prematurely want to make a decision. But to me,
you put something on the ballot and see if the voters -- you know,
what they think. We already know we're getting a little bit of, like
you said, citizen inquiry, and at least what little bits I've heard, people
seem to see the advantage of what the tax did, the positives of this.
But, you know, it's like anything else; you know, do you just continue
to keep doing it?
So anything we can do to bring as much information to our next
meeting would be valuable. Like you said, we're within the timeline.
We're not voting on it today or even at the next meeting, but we're
marching towards either doing nothing or making a decision that it
goes back on the ballot and see what the citizens decide. In the end,
we don't decide it. So we just decide if we want to support putting it
back on the ballot, correct?
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. There is a number of steps that
we would need to take in order to put it onto the ballot. But because
we have had those inquiries from folks about whether or not that's
even going to be a topic of discussion, it seems prudent to at least
have the conversation.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. Okay.
COMMISSIONER HALL: How many years does that run?
MS. PATTERSON: The last surtax ran -- to a maximum of
seven years or until we achieved the dollar amount. So we made it
for just about five years, a little bit less. It was -- it sunsets early
because we achieved the dollar amount.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: The next thing I just wanted to
bring up was you might remember a few months back we voted on a
new vendor for marinas, basically, that were mostly in my district.
You know, it was Goodland, it was Port of the Islands, and you
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remember that whole discussion. Could they rent kayaks and -- so
that.
One of the things that came out of that meeting is we voted to
only have this new vendor accept credit, no cash at all, because as
we've been sort of monitoring, cash sort of disappears quickly at
times. And it's not to say, you know, you can't have a process to
accept cash. I mean, you know, Publix has figured out how to
accept cash, and they might lose a little bit out the back end, but
they -- you know, a lot of businesses have a tight system.
But at the time we were trying to get the vendor in place, we
knew that across the board at a lot of our county businesses, to
include the marinas, that cash was a little bit loose and sloppy. We
weren't here accusing anybody of anything. But, you know, as part
of our audits, we knew that cash is hard to manage. So we approved
that the new vendor would start with credit only.
But one of the things I've been talking to Parks and Rec about is
we need to be consistent. So, I mean, I have citizens that are using
these marinas saying, why is it credit only at, you know, the marinas
in District 1 but then the other marinas, they figured out how to take
both? And it's because we are possibly wanting to gravitate to credit
only across the board, but some of those contracts haven't come up
for renegotiation. So we've got a little bit of an inconsistency right
now.
So I don't know that -- you know, that might be something else
for the next meeting, because I know I met with Ms. Williams, and
we're talking about it. So I don't think we have to build a watch right
now. But I wanted just my colleagues to know that we have some
inconsistencies out there. I'm probably hearing the brunt of it.
I asked Ms. Williams to give me just some details on are we
losing business at the marinas that are credit only? Because I get
emails from people, this place is a ghost town. You won't
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believe -- you know, because you don't accept cash, nobody's using
the marina, and I don't think that's true. I mean, 99 percent of the
people that fill up their gas tanks use their credit cards. I can't
remember the last time I saw somebody at Publix whip out a
checkbook or a -- you know, or their wallet, you know, to pay cash.
But on the flip side, we want customers to have options. And I
don't -- I don't think I want to ever use it as excuse, well, we don't
accept cash because it's too hard to control. I mean, you know -- and
so we just default. But on the flip side, a lot of things have gone to
credit only, right? Like, our parking -- our county parking lots, I
think they used to, maybe way back when, you could suck in a dollar
bill and park your car. Now it's credit card only. So it's not unheard
of.
But my overall thing was I just want to -- I think that we all
want consistency so it's not we're penalizing one group of people
because it's a different contract.
So I don't know if you had something to add. I didn't really
want to make that a big discussion, but I think, you know, you're
gathering the data. I just want to make sure that we're consistent
across the county.
MS. WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
For the record, Tanya Williams, Public Services department
head.
As Commissioner LoCastro said -- and we have talked -- staff
are going back, and we're reevaluating that, just as we always
reevaluate processes that we put in place.
And in regards to consistency, as far as your marinas are
concerned and your marina ship stores, those are cashless systems as
per the contract that we entered into with Blue Water. Some of the
other smaller things that you might find at our beach access points,
those are different vendors. Those are different contracts.
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As contracts expire and they come up for renewal, you know,
we have been looking toward moving them as cashless as well. But
at the direction of the Board, we can always continuously look at that
and bring recommendations back.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Well, let's talk about it at
the next meeting after you flesh out a few things, because I don't -- I
don't want to feel like people in my district are penalized because
they have the freshest contract but the other ones that are dated
contracts where -- they accept cash and credit, and then if one of our
assessments is cash seems to sort of disappear, okay, well, then, are
the old contracts that are accepting cash losing money?
You know, we have the ability to amend a contract. We don't
have to wait for it to expire. So if we think cash is not a smart thing
to do and we want to go to credit across the board, then we do have
the ability to do it and even amend a contract. I mean, it's a little
more complicated, but that's for another meeting. I really wanted to
just, you know, bring up the topic. So I appreciate it.
Mr. Klatzkow, the lien on that house in Goodland, you know,
the one that's sort of the garbage dump, and we finally, you know,
took aggressive action, do you have any kind of update on that? I
just -- I didn't get a chance to talk to you yesterday. I just wanted to
take advantage.
And it's important to talk about it here, because it might happen
in another district. We did something that the county hasn't done in
a long time, which is move forward in a much more aggressive way
against a citizen that was sort of playing games with us for many
years. So what's the timeline on that lien, or where are we in that
process?
MR. KLATZKOW: You authorized this office to commence
foreclosure proceedings --
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right.
November 14, 2023
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MR. KLATZKOW: -- against that property. At the current
time, we're doing a title search so we're certain of who the ownership
is, at least as of record. And once we get that, we'll be filing.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: What do you think the timing
would be on being able to file? Too soon to tell?
MR. KLATZKOW: No. A month or two, tops.
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Maybe just continue to
keep me posted. And it's something to talk about in here, because
any commissioner could have this issue, you know, in their district
where they -- you know, they have a citizen that's not sort of
following the rules and creating a problem, so -- okay.
Let's see what else I had in here.
And then, lastly, I'll end on a little bit of a tongue-and-cheek
note. But it's come to my attention that Terri Lewis, who makes the
brownies and the coffee cake for us every two weeks -- I don't know
if you guys knew this, but she actually is making it for the Planning
Commissioner which I think -- I know, I know. I think it's a total
foul.
So, listen, this is supposed to be our thing, right? So I make a
motion that Ms. Lewis -- and also to cut on her workload. She's very
busy. And so now that she's baking for all these other
commission -- this is our thing, okay.
So I make a motion that Ms. Lewis only make desserts for the
Board of County Commissioner meetings and no other groups. Do I
have a second?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Can I maybe ask for an
amendment to that motion?
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Then I could support it, that
she provide whipped cream for the brownies here and continue to
make brownies for the other committees but no whipped cream.
November 14, 2023
Page 133
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Hmm. That's interesting. Yeah,
you wonder -- but it's adding to her cost level. I don't know.
Maybe we'll table it for the second meeting. So we'll chew on that
for a while, and then when we come back for our second meeting,
we'll be giving you direction on what you're providing.
So I just thought it would be funny when she said that.
Planning Commission? Those guys don't get anything. But thank
you, you know, for that.
Any reattacks here? Anything else to add?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Thank you. We're
adjourned.
*****
****Commissioner Hall moved, seconded by Commissioner Kowal,
and carried that the following items under the consent and summary
agendas be approved and/or adopted****
Item #16A1 - Moved to Item #9D (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
Item #16A2
RESOLUTION 2023-200: AMENDMENT TO RESOLUTION NO.
2021-193, THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT SERVICES FEE SCHEDULE,
WITH AN EFFECTIVE DATE OF JANUARY 1, 2024, TO
COMPLY WITH FLORIDA STATUTE SECTION 553.791,
SECTION 2(B)
Item #16A3
November 14, 2023
Page 134
DIRECT STAFF TO ADVERTISE AND BRING BACK AN
ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 2004-58 AS
AMENDED, THE PROPERTY MAINTENANCE CODE BY
AMENDING SECTION SIX, COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSING
STANDARDS TO REDUC THE MINIMUM SQUARE FOOTAGE
REQUIREMENTS FOR MULTI-FAMILY DWELLING UNITS.
Item #16A4
FINAL ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF
THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES
FOR ESPLANADE GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB OF NAPLES
HATCHER PARCEL, PL20200002660, AND AUTHORIZE THE
COUNTY MANAGER, OR DESIGNEE, TO RELEASE THE
FINAL OBLIGATION BOND IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF
$4,000 TO THE PROJECT ENGINEER OR THE DEVELOPER’S
DESIGNATED AGENT - A FINAL INSPECTION WAS FOUND
SATISFACTORY BY THE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW STAFF
ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
Item #16A5
RESOLUTION 2023-201: RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND
DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS, AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE
PLAT DEDICATIONS, FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF ESPLANADE
GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB OF NAPLES, APPLICATION
NUMBER PL20120001261, AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE
OF THE MAINTENANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF
$436,726.39 - A FINAL INSPECTION WAS FOUND
November 14, 2023
Page 135
SATISFACTORY BY THE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW STAFF
ON OCTOBER 3, 2023
Item #16A6
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF
THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER FACILITIES FOR
VENTANA POINTE, PL20210002167
Item #16A7
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER FACILITIES, AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF
THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER FACILITIES FOR
VALENCIA TRAILS NAPLES - PLAT FOUR, PL20230010707 - A
FINAL INSPECTION WAS FOUND SATISFACTORY BY THE
DEVELOPMENT REVIEW STAFF ON AUGUST 8, 2023
Item #16A8
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $112,940,
WHICH WAS POSTED AS A DEVELOPMENT GUARANTY
FOR AN EARLY WORK AUTHORIZATION (EWA) FOR WORK
ASSOCIATED WITH DEL WEBB NAPLES PARCELS 307-310,
PL20220003778
Item #16A9
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
November 14, 2023
Page 136
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $114,460,
WHICH WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTEE FOR EXCAVATION
PERMIT NUMBER PL20190001437 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED
WITH DEL WEBB WAY EXTENSION
Item #16A10
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $24,320, WHICH
WAS POSTED AS A DEVELOPMENT GUARANTY FOR AN
EARLY WORK AUTHORIZATION (EWA) FOR WORK
ASSOCIATED WITH LIDO ISLES, PL20220006478
Item #16A11
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF GROVE BAYSHORE
(APPLICATION NUMBER PL20210002029), APPROVAL OF
THE STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION AND
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT, AND APPROVAL OF THE
PERFORMANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF
$2,131,189.72
Item #16A12
RESOLUTION 2023-202: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING
THE TEMPORARY CLOSING OF A PORTION OF STATE
ROAD 29 AND DETERMINING THE CLOSURE NECESSARY
FOR THE CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD PARADE &
SNOW FESTIVAL HOSTED BY THE IMMOKALEE CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE. THIS RECOMMENDATION IS TO FULFILL
A REQUIREMENT OF THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
November 14, 2023
Page 137
TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) TEMPORARY ROAD CLOSURE
PERMIT APPLICATION
Item #16A13
THE CONSERVATION COLLIER RED MAPLE SWAMP
PRESERVE FINAL MANAGEMENT PLAN UNDER THE
CONSERVATION COLLIER PROGRAM
Item #16A14
A MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT (MOA) BETWEEN THE
STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, AND
COLLIER COUNTY FOR ONSITE SEWAGE TREATMENT AND
DISPOSAL SYSTEMS (OSTDS) PLAN REVIEW, FEE
COLLECTION, AND RECONCILIATION
Item #16A15
SUBMIT THE 2023 STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES
PARTNERSHIP INCENTIVE STRATEGIES REPORT TO
FLORIDA HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION AND
FLORIDA HOUSING COALITION AS REQUIRED BY SECTION
420.9076, FLORIDA STATUTES
Item #16A16
AUTHORIZE THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO
INITIATE FORECLOSURE PROCEEDINGS PURSUANT TO
SECTION 162.09, FLORIDA STATUTES, IN RELATION TO
$164,041.18 IN ACCRUING CODE ENFORCEMENT LIENS,
November 14, 2023
Page 138
ARISING FROM THE OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL MAGISTRATE
CASE NOS. CEPM20170012229 AND CENA20220004669,
TITLED BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, COLLIER
COUNTY, FLORIDA, VS. YOLANDA FONSECA EST
Item#16A17
AFTER-THE-FACT PAYMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $25,502.00
TO JOHNSON ENGINEERING, INC., FOR WORK PERFORMED
RELATED TO LAND USE PETITION AND LAND
DEVELOPMENT CODE AMENDMENT REVIEW IN EXCESS
OF THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE ORDER NO. 4500220490
CONTRACTED AMOUNT OF $187,616.00, ISSUED UNDER
AGREEMENT NO. 18-7432-CE, AND MAKE A FINDING THAT
THIS EXPENDITURE HAS A VALID PUBLIC PURPOSE
Item #16B1
DIRECT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO ADVERTISE, AND
BRING BACK FOR A PUBLIC HEARING, AN ORDINANCE
WHICH WOULD CREATE THE UNPAVED PRIVATE ROAD
EMERGENCY REPAIR MUNICIPAL SERVICE TAXING UNIT
BY AUTHORIZING A LEVY OF NOT TO EXCEED ONE (1.0000)
MIL OF AD VALOREM TAXES PER YEAR
Item #16B2
RECENTLY UPDATED INTERSECTION DESIGN FOR THE
PINE RIDGE ROAD CONGESTION CORRIDOR STUDY AND
DIRECT STAFF TO PURSUE THE JUGHANDLE
INTERSECTION ALTERNATIVE AT PINE RIDGE ROAD AND
November 14, 2023
Page 139
LIVINGSTON ROAD, A CONVENTIONAL INTERSECTION AT
PINE RIDGE ROAD AND WHIPPOORWILL LANE, AND THE
DIVERGING DIAMOND INTERCHANGE AT THE PINE RIDGE
ROAD/I-75 INTERCHANGE. (PROJECT NO. 60201)
Item #16B3
RESOLUTION 2023-203: THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A
SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT TO THE LOCAL AGENCY
PROGRAM (LAP) AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) TO INCREASE
THE GRANT AWARD FROM $1,693,376 TO $2,508,376 FOR
CONSTRUCTION OF A TEN-FOOT MULTI-USE PATH ON
COUNTY BARN ROAD FROM RATTLESNAKE HAMMOCK
ROAD TO SR 84 (DAVIS BLVD.); TO ADOPT THE
ACCOMPANYING RESOLUTION FORMALLY APPROVING
AND AUTHORIZING THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE SAME
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD, AND TO AUTHORIZE THE
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS, FPN 438091-2-58-01.
(PROJECT NO. 60254, FUND 1841)
Item #16B4
AWARD INVITATION TO BID ("ITB") NO. 23-8130, "US 41
(SR45) NORTH LANDSCAPE IRRIGATION RENOVATION
IMPROVEMENTS," TO HANNULA LANDSCAPING AND
IRRIGATION, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $267,205.86, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT. (THIS ITEM WAS CONTINUED FROM THE
OCTOBER 24, 2023, MEETING.)
November 14, 2023
Page 140
Item #16B5
CHANGE ORDER NO. 3, ADDING SIXTY (60) DAYS UNDER
AGREEMENT NO. 20-7735 WITH QUALITY ENTERPRISES
USA, INC. FOR THE “DESIGN-BUILD OF WHIPPOORWILL
LANE AND MARBELLA LAKES DRIVE CONNECTION”
PROJECT, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE
ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO. 60219)
Item #16B6
CHANGE ORDER NO. 2, ADDING THIRTY (30) DAYS UNDER
AGREEMENT NO. 21-7857 WITH THOMAS MARINE
CONSTRUCTION, INC. FOR THE “DESIGN-BUILD OF
GOLDEN GATE PARKWAY OVER SANTA BARBARA CANAL
BRIDGE REPLACEMENT” PROJECT, AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER.
(PROJECT NO. 66066)
Item #16B7
SECOND AMENDMENTS TO AGREEMENT NO. 18-7254
“AIRPORT PULLING ROAD LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE,
AGREEMENT NO. 18-7255 “PINE RIDGE ROAD LANDSCAPE
MAINTENANCE,” AND AGREEMENT NO. 18-7257
“VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE”
WITH SUPERIOR LANDSCAPING & LAWN SERVICE, INC.
EXTENDING THE AGREEMENTS UP TO SIX MONTHS, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO EXECUTE THE AMENDMENTS
Item #16B8
November 14, 2023
Page 141
SECOND AMENDMENTS TO AGREEMENT NO. 18-7253,
“GOODLETTE FRANK ROAD LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE,”
AND AGREEMENT NO. 18-7256, “GOLDEN GATE PARKWAY
& I-75 LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE,” WITH SUPERB
LANDSCAPE SERVICES, INC. TO EXTEND THE
AGREEMENTS FOR AN ADDITIONAL 180 DAYS, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AMENDMENTS
Item #16B9
AWARD A WORK ORDER FOR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION
(“RFQ”) FOR PROJECT NO. 60143 - SANITATION ROAD
CULVERT REPLACEMENT, UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 20-
7800, “UNDERGROUND CONTRACTOR SERVICES” TO
COASTAL CONCRETE PRODUCTS, LLC. (DBA COASTAL
SITE DEVELOPMENT), IN THE AMOUNT OF $524,824 AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
WORK ORDER
Item #16B10
RESOLUTION 2023-204: RESOLUTION APPROVING AND
AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF AN AMENDMENT TO
THE PUBLIC TRANSIT GRANT AGREEMENT (PTGA) 450306-
1-94-01, CONTRACT NUMBER G2692 WITH THE FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO EXTEND THE END
DATE TO JUNE 30, 2024
Item #16B11
November 14, 2023
Page 142
RESOLUTION 2023-205: A RESOLUTION AND EXECUTE
THE FY24-25 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION GRANT
AGREEMENT (PTGA) WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,383,262
PROVIDING FOR STATE FUNDING FOR ELIGIBLE COLLIER
COUNTY FIXED-ROUTE TRANSIT ADMINISTRATIVE,
MANAGEMENT, AND OPERATIONAL EXPENSES IN THE
AMOUNT OF $1,191,631, APPROVE A LOCAL MATCH IN THE
AMOUNT OF $1,191,631, AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16B12
COUNTY MANAGER OR HER DESIGNEE TO SUBMIT GRANT
APPLICATIONS FOR THE FEDERAL HIGHWAY
ADMINISTRATION FLEXIBLE FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT
OF $3,000,000 FOR FY 21/22 AND $2,500,000 FOR FY 22/23 TO
ASSIST WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW TRANSIT
OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE FACILITY THROUGH
THE FEDERAL TRANSIT AWARD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
AND TO ACCEPT THE AWARD AND AUTHORIZE ANY
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16C1
A TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION EASEMENT AND
PERPETUAL ACCESS EASEMENT TO THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COLLIER COUNTY,
FLORIDA, AS THE GOVERNING BODY OF COLLIER COUNTY
AND AS EX-OFFICIO THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE
November 14, 2023
Page 143
COLLIER COUNTY WATER-SEWER DISTRICT, TO PERMIT
TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES FOR UPGRADES
TO EXISTING PUMP STATION 304.03, AND PERPETUAL
ACCESS FOR NECESSARY MAINTENANCE AND
COLLECTION ACTIVITIES
Item #16C2
AWARD REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (“RPS”)
NO. 23-8060, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR MPS 309 FORCE MAIN
TO WESTERN INTERCONNECT” TO Q. GRADY MINOR &
ASSOCIATES, P.A., IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF
$1,884,968.00, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN
THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT (PROJECT NO.70217)
Item #16C3
FIRST AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 19-7653RR,
“CRANE RENTAL SERVICES,” WITH MAXIM CRANE
WORKS, LLC, TO INCORPORATE A REVISED FEE
SCHEDULE TO BETTER ALIGN WITH MARKET RATES AS
CONSIDERATION FOR THE FIRST ONE-YEAR RENEWAL
TERM UNDER THE AGREEMENT
Item #16C4
CHANGE ORDER NO. 1, AUTHORIZING THE USE OF THE
OWNER’S ALLOWANCE IN THE AMOUNT OF $70,751.75 AND
PROVIDING FOR A TIME EXTENSION UNDER
CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT NO. 23-8058, WITH
ACCURATE DRILLING SYSTEMS, INC., FOR THE GOLDEN
November 14, 2023
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GATE CITY TRANSMISSION WATER MAIN IMPROVEMENTS
– PHASE 1A - GOLF COURSE PROJECT (PROJECT NO. 70253)
Item #16C5
TERMINATE FOR CONVENIENCE CONSTRUCTION
AGREEMENT NO. 22-8008, “SOUTH COUNTY REGIONAL
WATER TREATMENT PLANT (SCRWTP) FRONT ENTRANCE
IMPROVEMENTS,” WITH FORT CONSTRUCTION GROUP OF
NAPLES, INC
Item #16C6
AWARD INVITATION FOR BID (“ITB”) NO. 22-8050R, “SCALE
PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS,” TO SCALE
CALIBRATORS, LLC, AS PRIMARY VENDOR, AND
SUPERIOR PROCESSING & WEIGHING, LLC, AS
SECONDARY VENDOR, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN
TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENTS
Item #16C7
PROJECT UPDATE TO NCWRF PRETREATMENT FACILITY
PROJECT NO. 70149 CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION
WITH POOLE & KENT COMPANY OF FLORIDA UNDER
AGREEMENT NO. 23-8116
Item #16C8
EXECUTE GRANT AGREEMENT LPA0495 WITH THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL
November 14, 2023
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PROTECTION FOR “PALM RIVER PUBLIC UTILITIES
RENEWAL PROJECT – AREA 4” UNDER PROJECT 72057, TO
ACCEPT THE FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,000,000,
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT AND APPROVE THE NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENT. (FUND 4016)
Item #16D1
REVENUE GENERATING AGREEMENT NO. 23-029-NS,
“AMATEUR SOCCER LEAGUE FOR ADULTS,” WITH THE
GULF COAST ADULT SOCCER LEAGUE, INC., AS A SINGLE
SOURCE PROVIDER OF ADULT SOCCER LEAGUE SERVICES
Item #16D2
RESOLUTION 2023-206: RESOLUTION SUPERSEDING
RESOLUTION NO. 2016-224 AND ALL PRIOR RATE
RESOLUTIONS AND SCHEDULES FOR THE FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH IN COLLIER COUNTY
ALLOWING THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO ESTABLISH
THE PROPOSED FEE SCHEDULE
Item #16D3
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE FOURTH AMENDMENT BETWEEN
COLLIER COUNTY AND COLLIER HEALTH SERVICES, INC.,
D/B/A HEALTHCARE NETWORK FOR THE
ADMINISTRATION OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK GRANT - CV PROGRAM BY EXTENDING THE
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE FROM APRIL 1, 2021, TO JUNE
November 14, 2023
Page 146
30, 2024. (HOUSING GRANT FUND 1835)
Item #16D4
"AFTER-THE-FACT" SUBMITTAL OF THE RETIRED AND
SENIOR VOLUNTEER PROGRAM 2024-2025 APPLICATION
TO AMERICORPS SENIORS FOR $125,254, AND ALLOW THE
COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO SERVE AS THE
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE GRANTOR’S
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION SYSTEM, EGRANTS,
THROUGHOUT THE GRANT PERIOD
Item #16D5
COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO APPLY FOR THE
PETSMART CHARITIES ADOPTION PARTNER PROGRAM
AND ADOPTION REWARDS PROGRAM, AND TO
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY
AND ALL DOCUMENTS TO EFFECTUATE ENTERING INTO
THIS PROGRAM, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO AN
ADOPTION PARTNER AGREEMENT
Item #16D6
PRO-RATA REIMBURSEMENT PAYMENT IN THE AMOUNT
OF $2,169.14 TO PARADISE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT INC.,
FROM GENERAL FUND (0001) FOR CENTURY LINK
TELEPHONE AND INTERNET SERVICES IT MAINTAINED
FOR THE COUNTY’S BENEFIT DURING THE
CONCESSIONAIRE OPERATIONS TRANSITION PERIOD
November 14, 2023
Page 147
Item #16D7
AWARD INVITATION TO BID (“ITB”) NO. 23-8131,
“PURCHASE OF OFF-ROAD VEHICLES AND HEAVY
EQUIPMENT FOR PARKS AND RECREATION,” TO LOVE
POWER EQUIPMENT, INC., AND MONMOUTH SOLUTIONS,
INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $280,927 FOR A ONE-TIME
PURCHASE TO REPLACE DAMAGED HEAVY EQUIPMENT
DUE TO HURRICANE IAN, AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT
Item #16D8
AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS TO
REFLECT THE ESTIMATED FUNDING FOR CALENDAR
YEAR 2024 OLDER AMERICANS ACT PROGRAMS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $1,440,000, AND THE ESTIMATED CASH
MATCH OF $154,222.22, OF WHICH $49,815.99 IS MET
THROUGH LOCAL VENDORS. (HUMAN SERVICES GRANT
FUND 1837)
Item #16D9
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A LANDLORD PAYMENT AGREEMENT
BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND TEEN LLC, ALLOWING
THE COMMUNITY AND HUMAN SERVICES DIVISION (CHS)
TO ADMINISTER THE RAPID RE-HOUSING AND
HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION PROGRAM THROUGH THE
EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS AND RAPID UNSHELTERED
SURVIVOR HOUSING GRANTS PROGRAM. (HOUSING
GRANT FUND 1835 AND HOUSING MATCH FUND 1836)
November 14, 2023
Page 148
Item #16D10
CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE A LOW-INCOME POOL (LIP)
LETTER OF AGREEMENT WITH THE AGENCY FOR HEALTH
CARE ADMINISTRATION (AHCA) IN THE AMOUNT OF
$568,000 TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEDICAID CENTRAL
RECEIVING FACILITY LOW INCOME POOL PROGRAM, AND
GENERATING $785,000 IN FEDERAL MATCHING FUNDS,
AND AN ANNUAL STATE MANDATED MATCH AGREEMENT
WITH DAVID LAWRENCE CENTER, INC., IN THE AMOUNT
OF $1,967,339 FOR FY24; AND TO RATIFY AN ”AFTER-THE-
FACT” AHCA LIP LETTER OF AGREEMENT SIGNED BY THE
COUNTY MANAGER AND AUTHORIZE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS. (FISCAL IMPACT $2,535,339)
Item #16E1
AWARD INVITATION TO BID (“ITB”) NO. 23-8110, “FILTERS
FOR FLEET VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT,” TO SUNBELT
AUTOMOTIVE, INC., AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT
Item #16E2
RATIFY PROPERTY, CASUALTY, WORKERS’
COMPENSATION AND SUBROGATION CLAIM FILES
SETTLED AND/OR CLOSED BY THE RISK MANAGEMENT
DIVISION DIRECTOR PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION # 2004-15
FOR THE FOURTH QUARTER OF FY 23
November 14, 2023
Page 149
Item #16E3
ASSUMPTION AGREEMENT ASSIGNING ALL RIGHTS,
DUTIES AND BENEFITS, AND OBLIGATIONS FROM OLIVE
APP, LLC, TO UNACASEPRO LLC, CONCERNING
AGREEMENT #21-024-NS, “CASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
SYSTEM.”
Item #16E4
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN 32 SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS AND
RELEASES BY AND BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND
EMPLOYEES IN REVISED POSITION CLASSIFICATIONS,
ALLOWING FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF ACTUAL WAGES
EARNED BUT NOT PAID TO CERTAIN EMPLOYEES FROM
OCTOBER 8, 2020, TO OCTOBER 7, 2022, AS A RESULT OF
THE COUNTY’S RECLASSIFICATION OF STATUS UNDER
THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA)
Item #16E5
THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN TWELVE (12) SETTLEMENT
AGREEMENTS AND RELEASES BY AND BETWEEN COLLIER
COUNTY AND EMPLOYEES IN THE EMS BATTALION CHIEF
II POSITION CLASSIFICATION, ALLOWING FOR
REIMBURSEMENT OF ACTUAL WAGES EARNED BUT NOT
PAID TO CERTAIN EMPLOYEES FROM JULY 3, 2021, TO
JUNE 30, 2023, AS A RESULT OF THE COUNTY’S GOOD
FAITH MISCLASSIFICATION OF STATUS UNDER THE FAIR
LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA)
November 14, 2023
Page 150
Item #16F1
AN OFFICE LEASE AGREEMENT WITH FIFTH THIRD BANK,
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR TEMPORARY OFFICE SPACE
FOR THE TAX COLLECTOR AT 650 EAST ELKCAM CIRCLE
LOCATED IN THE CITY OF MARCO ISLAND WHILE THE
WINTERBERRY DRIVE LOCATION UNDERGOES
RECONSTRUCTION DUE TO DAMAGE CAUSED BY
HURRICANE IAN
Item #16F2
CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE TWENTY (20) DEED
CERTIFICATES FOR PURCHASED BURIAL RIGHTS AT LAKE
TRAFFORD MEMORIAL GARDENS CEMETERY AND
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR THE DESIGNEE
TO TAKE ALL ACTIONS NECESSARY TO RECORD THE
DEED CERTIFICATES WITH THE CLERK OF THE COURT’S
RECORDING DEPARTMENT
Item #16F3
AUTHORIZE STAFF TO TAKE ALL ACTION NECESSARY TO
REPURCHASE A CEMETERY PLOT NO LONGER DESIRED BY
THE DEED CERTIFICATE HOLDER, IN ACCORDANCE WITH
CEMETERY POLICY ADOPTED BY RESOLUTION NO. 2017-17
Item #16F4
DIRECT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO ADVERTISE AND
BRING BACK FOR A PUBLIC HEARING AN AMENDMENT TO
November 14, 2023
Page 151
THE COLLIER COUNTY CITIZEN CORPS ORDINANCE, IN
ORDER TO ADD A MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY FOR THE
UNITED WAY, REMOVE CIVIL AIR PATROL AND REPLACE
WITH COLLIER READY – COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
ACTIVE IN DISASTER (COAD), AND REVISE QUORUM
REQUIREMENTS
Item #16F5
RESOLUTION 2023-206A: A FLORIDA EMERGENCY
MEDICAL SERVICES COUNTY GRANT APPLICATION AND
REQUEST FOR GRANT FUND DISTRIBUTION FORM FOR
THE FUNDING OF TRAINING AND MEDICAL RESCUE
EQUIPMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $78,658.02, ACCEPT THE
AWARD, APPROVE ANY NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENTS AND APPROVE A RESOLUTION
CONFIRMING THE GRANT FUNDS WILL NOT SUPPLANT
THE EMS BUDGET. (FUND 4053)
Item #16F6
RENEW THE CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND
NECESSITY FOR ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT (ALS) NON-
TRANSPORT SERVICES FOR ONE YEAR TO THE CITY OF
NAPLES FIRE-RESCUE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN
TO EXECUTE THE PERMIT AND CERTIFICATE
Item #16F7
CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE A FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE
MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT (MOA) WITH THE
November 14, 2023
Page 152
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS’ AFFAIRS (FDVA)
FOR THE COUNTY TO IDENTIFY COUNTY-OWNED LAND
FOR DONATION TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT TRUST FUND OF THE STATE OF
FLORIDA FOR THE “STATE VETERANS’ NURSING HOME”
PROJECT
Item #16F8
THIRD AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 15-6409, P25
DIGITAL RADIO SYSTEM, WITH COMMUNICATIONS
INTERNATIONAL, INC., AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN
TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AMENDMENT
Item #16F9
MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT (MOA) BETWEEN
COLLIER COUNTY AND THE FLORIDA DIVISION OF
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FOR THE PURCHASE OF
WEATHER STATIONS AND OR ULTRA-LOW POWER RADAR
IN DESIGNATED LOCATIONS FOR HYPER-LOCAL REAL-
TIME WEATHER DATA
Item #16F10
RESOLUTION 2023-207: RESOLUTION AND UPDATED
STATEWIDE MUTUAL AID AGREEMENT BETWEEN
COLLIER COUNTY AND THE STATE OF FLORIDA DIVISION
OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Item #16F11
November 14, 2023
Page 153
FIRST AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 18-7469, "CEI
SERVICES FOR BIG CORKSCREW ISLAND REGIONAL PARK"
TO WSP USA ENVIRONMENT & INFRASTRUCTURE, INC., IN
THE AMOUNT OF $1,874,779.10, AUTHORIZE THE
NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS, AND AUTHORIZE
THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED FIRST
AMENDMENT. (PROJECT NO. 80039.1.3)
Item #16F12
CHANGE ORDER NO. 2 TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF TASK
3 - 30% CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS IN THE AMOUNT OF
$37,335.25, ADD A TIME EXTENSION OF 231 DAYS
ASSOCIATED WITH THAT TASK UNDER AGREEMENT NO.
21-7911, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR COLLIER COUNTY
MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY” PROJECT, WITH RG
ARCHITECTS, P.A., AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO.
50239)
Item #16F13
CHANGE ORDER NO. 10, PROVIDING FOR A SIXTY-ONE (61)
DAY EXTENSION UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 16-6622, “BIG
CORKSCREW ISLAND REGIONAL PARK,” WITH Q. GRADY
MINOR & ASSOCIATES, P.A., AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER.
(PROJECT NO. 80039)
Item #16F14
November 14, 2023
Page 154
CHANGE ORDER NO. 10, ADDING SIXTY (60) DAYS UNDER
AGREEMENT NO. 18-7469, THE “CEI FOR BIG CORKSCREW
ISLAND REGIONAL PARK” PROJECT, WITH WSP USA
ENVIRONMENT & INFRASTRUCTURE INC., AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO. 80039.1.3)
Item #16F15
AWARD REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (“RPS”)
NO. 22-8033, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR HARDENING AND
EXPANSION OF THE COLLIER SENIOR CENTER BUILDING,"
TO HARVARD JOLLY, INC., IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF
$597,888 AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE
ATTACHED AGREEMENT
Item #16F16
CHAIR TO EXECUTE A FEDERALLY FUNDED SUBGRANT
AGREEMENT TO ACCEPT THE ANNUAL EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE GRANT G0449 (EMPG) IN
THE AMOUNT OF $112,208 FOR EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT PLANNING, RESPONSE, AND MITIGATION
EFFORTS AND TO AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENTS. (FUND 1833; PROJECT NO. 33877)
Item #16F17
APPROVE A REQUEST FOR DIRECT FUNDING FROM THE
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA HEALTHCARE COALITION TO
November 14, 2023
Page 155
PRIDE-PRISON ENTERPRISES- HEAVY VEHICLE AND
EQUIPMENT SHOP FOR THE CONVERSION OF A TRANSIT
BUS TO A MASS-CASUALTY AND RE-HAB VEHICLE FOR
THE EMERGENCY SERVICES DIVISION
Item #16F18
RESOLUTION 2023-208: RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS,
CONTRIBUTIONS, OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE
FISCAL YEAR 2023-24 ADOPTED BUDGET. (THE BUDGET
AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE
BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE
SUMMARIES.)
Item #16F19
AWARD INVITATION TO BID (“ITB”) NO. 23-8156, “WATER
TREATMENT SERVICES,” TO U.S. WATER SERVICES
CORPORATION AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN
THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT
Item #16G1
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, ACTING AS
THE COLLIER COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITY, APPROVE A
FIRST AMENDMENT TO COLLIER COUNTY AIRPORT
AUTHORITY LEASEHOLD AGREEMENT FOR HANGAR
CONSTRUCTION WITH THE GLOBAL FLIGHT TRAINING
SOLUTIONS, INC., RELATED TO ITS CONSTRUCTION OF
November 14, 2023
Page 156
AIRCRAFT HANGARS AT THE IMMOKALEE REGIONAL
AIRPORT
Item #16J1
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PROVIDE
APPROVAL FOR THE STATE OF FLORIDA E911 BOARD/E911
STATE GRANT PROGRAM AND FOR THE CHAIRMAN TO
SIGN THE GRANT APPLICATION
Item #16J2
TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER (OR OTHER
PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT, PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR
WHICH THE REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $60,598,226.40 WERE DRAWN FOR THE
PERIODS BETWEEN OCTOBER 12, 2023, AND NOVEMBER 1,
2023 PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06
Item #16J3
THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC
PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING
CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF NOVEMBER 8, 2023
Item #16K1
THIRD AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT FOR LEGAL
SERVICES WITH NABORS, GIBLIN & NICKERSON, P.A. FOR
SPECIALIZED LEGAL SERVICES, EXTENDING THE TERM
November 14, 2023
Page 157
AND PROVIDING THE FIRST INCREASE TO FEES FOR BOND
ISSUANCE SERVICES SINCE 2003
Item #16K2 - Moved to Item #12A (Per Agenda Change Sheet) then
moved back to Item #16K2 Per Commissioner
Saunders (During Agenda Changes)
PURSUANT TO COLLIER COUNTY RESOLUTION NO. 95-632,
THAT THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO HELP SELECT
AND RETAIN OUTSIDE COUNSEL AT COUNTY EXPENSE TO
REPRESENT COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL, WHO IS BEING
SUED BY NAPLES GOLF DEVELOPMENT, LLC IN A PUBLIC
RECORDS DISPUTE, AND IN ADDITION TO EXEMPT THE
SELECTION OF OUTSIDE COUNSEL FROM THE
COMPETITIVE PROCESS AS PERMITTED UNDER SECTION
FOUR, SUBSECTION SEVEN OF COLLIER COUNTY
PURCHASING ORDINANCE NO. 2020-28, AS AMENDED
Item #16K3
RESOLUTION 2023-209: APPOINT A MEMBER TO THE
IMMOKALEE LOCAL REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY
BOARD
Item #16L1
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (BCC) AND
ALSO THE BCC ACTING IN ITS CAPACITY AS THE
COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BOARD (CRA)
APPROVE AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE (EDI)
November 14, 2023
Page 158
COMMUNITY PROJECT FUNDING (CPF) GRANT
AGREEMENT WITH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING
AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT (HUD) IN THE AMOUNT OF
$987,000 FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IMMOKALEE
SIDEWALK PHASE III PROJECT, AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN OF THE BCC AND/OR THE CO-CHAIRMAN OF
THE CRA, AS APPROPRIATE, TO SIGN THE GRANT
AGREEMENT, AND AUTHORIZE NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENTS (FUND 1027)
Item #17A (Moved to Item #9B per Agenda Change Sheet)
Item #17B
ORDINANCE 2023-52: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. 2022-13, THE GOLDEN GATE GOLF
COURSE MIXED-USE PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT
(MPUD), BY CHANGING THE ALLOWED MULTI-FAMILY
USE ON THE RESIDENTIAL TOURIST (RT) TRACT TO A
MAXIMUM OF 215 RENTAL UNITS WITH SOME
AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND TO REDUCE THE MINIMUM
FLOOR AREA PER MULTI-FAMILY RENTAL DWELLING
UNIT TO 250 SQUARE FEET ON THE RT TRACT. THE
PROPERTY IS LOCATED ON THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF
GOLDEN GATE PARKWAY AND COLLIER BOULEVARD IN
SECTION 27, TOWNSHIP 49 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST,
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, CONSISTING OF +/-171.6
ACRES. PL20230012392 (THIS IS A COMPANION TO ITEM
#17C)
Item #17C
November 14, 2023
Page 159
ORDINANCE 2023-53: ORDINANCE AMENDING THE
GOVERNMENT SERVICES, RESIDENTIAL TOURIST, AND
COMMERCIAL SUBDISTRICT OF THE GOLDEN GATE CITY
SUB-ELEMENT OF THE GOLDEN GATE MASTER PLAN
ELEMENT OF THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN TO LIMIT
THE USES ON THE 6.16± ACRES IDENTIFIED AS PARCEL 2
BY ALLOWING HOTEL/MOTEL OR TIMESHARE OR MULTI-
FAMILY OR COMMERCIAL USES; AND INCREASING THE
MULTI-FAMILY USE ON PARCEL 2 TO A MAXIMUM OF 215
RENTAL UNITS WITH AFFORDABLE HOUSING. THE
SUBJECT PROPERTY CONSISTS OF 20.1± ACRES AND IS
LOCATED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF GOLDEN GATE
PARKWAY APPROXIMATELY ½ MILE WEST OF COLLIER
BOULEVARD IN SECTION 27, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE
27 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA [PL20230012389]
(THIS IS A COMPANION TO ITEM #17B)
Item #17D
RESOLUTION 2023-210: RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING CARRY FORWARD,
TRANSFERS, AND SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE) TO THE
FY23-24 ADOPTED BUDGET. (THE BUDGET AMENDMENTS
IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE BEEN REVIEWED
AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE
SUMMARIES.)
Item #17E
November 14, 2023
Page 160
ORDINANCE 2023-54: AN ORDINANCE REZONING
PROPERTY FROM A RURAL AGRICULTURAL (A) ZONING
DISTRICT WITH AN AIRPORT ZONING OVERLAY TO A
RESIDENTIAL PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT (RPUD)
ZONING DISTRICT WITH AN AIRPORT ZONING OVERLAY
FOR A PROJECT KNOWN AS ROCK CREEK ESTATES RPUD
TO ALLOW DEVELOPMENT OF UP TO 15 UNIT SINGLE-
FAMILY DWELLING UNITS, A PRIVATE RECREATIONAL
AMENITY, AND A BOAT RAMP WITH UP TO 12 PRIVATE
BOAT SLIPS ON PROPERTY LOCATED WEST OF AIRPORT-
PULLING ROAD, ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF NORTH ROAD,
ACROSS THE STREET FROM TERMINAL DRIVE TO THE
NAPLES AIRPORT, IN SECTION 2, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH,
RANGE 25 EAST; CONSISTING OF 11.36+/- ACRES.
[PL20220001779]
Item #17F
ORDINANCE 2023-55: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE
NORTH NAPLES MEDICAL PARK PLANNED UNIT
DEVELOPMENT (PUD) TO ALLOW FOR A HOSPITAL FOR
SPECIAL SURGERY; TO INCREASE THE MAXIMUM GROSS
FLOOR AREA FROM 150,000 SQUARE FEET TO 205,000
SQUARE FEET; AND TO ADJUST THE FLOOR AREA RATIOS
(FAR) FOR LOTS 1, 5, 6 AND 7. THE PROPERTY IS LOCATED
ON THE NORTH SIDE OF IMMOKALEE ROAD
IMMEDIATELY EAST OF THE NORTH COLLIER HOSPITAL
IN SECTIONS 22 AND 23, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 25
EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. (PL20230003895)
Item #17G
November 14, 2023
Page 161
ORDINANCE 2023-56; ORDINANCE 2023-57; ORDINANCE
2023-58; ORDINANCE 2023-59: ORDINANCES
AMENDING THE COLLIER COUNTY GROWTH
MANAGEMENT PLAN RELATING TO AFFORDABLE
HOUSING INITIATIVES, SPECIFICALLY THE FUTURE LAND
USE ELEMENT, THE GOLDEN GATE AREA MASTER PLAN
ELEMENT, THE IMMOKALEE AREA MASTER PLAN
ELEMENT, AND THE TRANSPORTATION ELEMENT TO
ALLOW AFFORDABLE HOUSING BY RIGHT IN CERTAIN
COMMERCIAL ZONING DISTRICTS WITH A SUNSET DATE,
TO ALLOW AN INCREASE IN DENSITY FOR AFFORDABLE
HOUSING, TO ESTABLISH A STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY
SITES SUBDISTRICT, AND A TRANSIT ORIENTED
DEVELOPMENT SUBDISTRICT; AND DIRECTING
TRANSMITTAL OF THE ADOPTED AMENDMENTS TO THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. PL20210000660 -
AFFORDABLE HOUSING INITIATIVES GMPA
Item #17H
ORDINANCE 2023-60, ORDINANCE 2023-61: ORDINANCES
AMENDING THE COLLIER COUNTY GROWTH
MANAGEMENT PLAN, SPECIFICALLY AMENDING THE
FUTURE LAND USE ELEMENT AND FUTURE LAND USE
MAP AND MAP SERIES TO CREATE THE US 41 EAST
OVERLAY TO ALLOW CERTAIN ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT USES WITHIN THE CORRIDOR SEGMENTS,
ALLOW INCREASED HEIGHT ANDDENSITY, AND ALLOW
CERTAIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT USES IN REGIONAL
CENTERS AND COMMUNITY CENTERS THROUGH
November 14, 2023
Page 162
INCENTIVES; AND, SPECIFICALLY AMENDING THE
TRANSPORTATION ELEMENT AND MAPS TO EXPAND THE
SOUTH US 41 TRANSPORTATION CONCURRENCY
EXCEPTION AREA, FURTHERMORE, DIRECTING THE
TRANSMITTAL OF THE ADOPTED AMENDMENT TO THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. PL20230000930 -
US 41 EAST OVERLAY & TCEA EXPANSION GMPA
Item #17I
ORDINANCE 2023-62: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE
BOUNDARIES OF THE RADIO ROAD MUNICIPAL SERVICE
TAXING UNIT (MSTU) BY AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 96-
84, AS AMENDED, AND DIRECT STAFF TO REESTABLISH
THE MSTU’S MILLAGE RATE AT 0.1000 WHEN PREPARING
FY25’S BUDGET
*****
November 14, 2023
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1 :06 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
RICK LoCASTRO, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST
CRYSTAL ' •t: 1. ZEL, CLERK
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These minutes approved by the Board on II& /A aDG. • ,
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 163