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BCC Minutes 12/11/1998 E (Sheriff's Budget Appeal)December 11, 1998 Page EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, December 11, 1998 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 3:45 p.m. in EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Collier County Government Center, Administration Building, Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRPERSON: NOT PRESENT: Barbara B. Berry James D. Carter John C. Norris Timothy J. Constantine Pamela S. Mac'Kie ALSO PRESENT: Item #2 David C. Weigel, County Attorney Robert Fernandez, County Administrator RESPONSE TO THE SHERIFF'S BUDGET APPEAL - DOCUMENT ACCEPTED AND STAFF AUTHORIZED TO FORWARD AS A RESPONSE TO THE APPEAL; CHAIRMAN AUTHORIZED TO EXECUTE A TRANSHITTAL DOCUMENT CHAIRPERSON BERRY: I'd like to call to order the Emergency Meeting of the Collier County Board of Commissioners relating to the Sheriff's appeal to the Governor for some type of resolve regarding his budget. If we could stand, please, for the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRPERSON BERRY: This meeting was called as an emergency meeting. Unfortunately, Commissioner Constantine, I believe, is out of town, and Commissioner Hac'Kie could not be reached. So at this time we have the three commissioners present, Commissioner Norris, Commissioner Carter and myself. Mr. Fernandez? MR. FERNANDEZ: Madam Chairman, the reason for calling this as an emergency meeting is due to the fact that the Florida Statutes, particularly Section 30.49, requires the Board of County Commissioners to respond to the appeal from the Sheriff within five days. That's five calendar days, not five working days. And, given the fact that we received this petition at 4:30 on December the 9th, our feeling was, the most appropriate time for us to consider this was this afternoon. That would give us Monday to transmit any documents to the State. This meeting is to consider the response to the appeal, which consists of an eight-page petition, which you have before you. That's the legal-sized document, and voluminous exhibits comprising a total of 551 pages. So the original appeal is a very voluminous document. The response addresses each point that was made in the petition and presents a response based upon previous actions of the Board in their deliberations over the budget. In -- in the response we cite various public statements, statutes and correspondence to support the positions that are asserted in our response. If you haven't had a full opportunity to review the response, rather than my attempting to read it into the record at this time, Madam Chairman, I would ask to pause for a moment and give you a chance to do that, to review the document. Ready? CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Go ahead. MR. FERNANDEZ: Madam Chair, just to very briefly summarize for the record, there are two issues that are raised in the Sheriff's appeal. The first is $2,982,100 reduction in Sheriff's reserves which have been appropriated in the county general fund and not in the budget of the Sheriff, as proposed by the Sheriff and as required by Chapter 30.49(7) of the Florida Statutes. That's the Sheriff's contention. Of course, our response addresses the manner in which we budgeted the appropriate reserves and make them available in the event that reserve funding is required to supplement the Sheriff's budget. The second point has to do with the $1,053,100 reduction for law enforcement services to be provided to the City of Marco Island. The Sheriff contends that this amount is vital to the orderly and effective execution of his constitutional and statutory assigned duties as sheriff. In our response we -- as I said earlier, we cite budget policy, we cite the basis upon which the Board of County Commissioners made that change from the Sheriff's proposed budget, and we go on to support that with documentation from various sources, as I said, in presentations at public meetings, correspondence, as well as statutory basis. If the Board approves this presentation today, I would ask that you authorize that we compile this response essentially in the form and content provided to you today with an appropriate transmittal document from the chairman. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. Are you looking for a motion for official action? MR. FERNANDEZ: Yes, Madam Chairman. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Madam Chairman, I make a motion that we accept this document and authorize staff to forward that as a response to the appeal. Is that the proper term, Mr. Fernandez? MR. FERNANDEZ: Yes. MR. NORRIS: Okay. MR. CARTER: I'll second that. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any further discussion by any members -- MR. FERNANDEZ: Madam Chair? CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Yes. MR. FERNANDEZ: To clarify the motion, does the intent of the motion include authorization for the chairman to execute a transmittal document? COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Yes, it does. MR. FERNANDEZ: Thank you. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. Commissioner Carter, do you have any comments on any of this information? COHMISSIONER CARTER: No. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. Commissioner Norris? COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Not at this point. I think it's pretty self-explanatory. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. I agree. I think -- I think you very concisely stated, you know, in the responses to the Sheriff and the appeal, certainly the position of the Board of County Commissioners, as has been maintained for many, many months, actually, since, what, February or March, in some instances. MR. FERNANDEZ: March. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: This goes back in that period of time, and certainly has been the feeling of the Commission, in its entirety, at that point. MR. FERNANDEZ: That's fine. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? (No response.) CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Motion carries 3-0. MR. FERNANDEZ: Thank you. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Mr. Weigel? MR. WEIGEL: Thank you. As a postscript to the meeting, I would like to indicate for the record that notice had issued reasonably, in light of the circumstances of working very quickly to bring this matter to a Board of County Commissioners' meeting, and notice has gone to the media. We do have media present here today. It's been provided throughout the campus and in typically the form that we do for notices generally for any other meeting that we would have. Thank you. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay. If there is -- is there any other business, Mr. Fernandez, to come before this Board? MR. FERNANDEZ: No, Madam Chairman. CHAIRPERSON BERRY: All right. Hearing none, I'll adjourn the meeting. There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned at 3:58 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL ATTEST: DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK BARBARA B. BERRY, CHAIRPERSON These minutes approved by the Board on as presented or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING SERVICE BY: ELIZABETH H. BROOKS, RPR