BCC Minutes 06/24/2010 B (Budget Workshop)
June 24, 2010
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, June 24, 2010
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
WORKSHOP SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN: Fred Coyle
Jim Coletta
Donna Fiala
Frank Halas
Tom Henning
ALSO PRESENT:
Leo Ochs, County Manager
Mark Isackson, County Manager's Office
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........
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
Notice is hereby given that the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County will
conduct Budget Workshops on Thursday, June 24,2010 and Friday, June 25, 2010 if
necessary at 9:00 a.m. Workshops will be held in the Boardroom, 3rd Floor, W. Harmon
Turner Building, Collier County Government Center, 330 I East Tamiami Trail, Naples,
Florida to hear the following:
COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
FY 2011 BUDGET WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Thursday, June 24, 2010
9:00 a.m.: General Overview
Courts and Related Agencies (State Attorney and Public Defender)
Public Services
Administrative Services
Growth Management
Public Utilities
Debt Service
Management Offices (Pelican Bay)
County Attorney
BCC (Community Redevelopment Agencies, Airport)
1 :00 p.m.: Constitutional Officers:
Elections
Sheriff
Clerk of Courts
Other Constitutional Officers requesting to address the BeC
Public Comment
June 24, 2010
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Ladies and gentlemen --
MR. OCHS: You have a live mike, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of
County Commissioners' meeting is now in session.
Would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
GENERAL OVERVIEW
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you.
Okay. County Manager, it's all yours now.
MR. OCHS: Thank you, Commissioner. Good morning,
Commissioners, and welcome to your fiscal year 2011 budget
workshop.
Commissioners, this is the first step in a multistep process that
the state prescribes that will culminate the adoption of your 2011
budget. These, of course, are your budget workshop sessions that will
be held today and, if necessary, tomorrow.
The next milestone will be the delivery of your tentative budget
to the board on July 15th as prescribed by Florida Statute. Then on
July 27th during your regular board meeting, the board will be asked
to set the tentative maximum millage rate.
The property appraiser will then take that information and
development the TRIM notices that will go out around mid August.
Then, finally, the board will hold two public hearings in September on
-- evening meetings on both September the 9th and September the
23rd, finally, to adopt a final budget.
So that's the process that we will follow as we work through the
next three or four months here toward a final 2011 budget.
Commissioners, you have your budget packet that was delivered
several days ago. We'll follow the outline of the presentations as they
appear in your book. I'll begin, with the board's permission, with a
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quick overview this morning.
Commissioners, we're pleased to present to you the proposed
fiscal year 2011 budget. Your net county budget is $843,395,500,
represents a 9.7 percent reduction from your fiscal 2010 budget. Your
operating expenses are down 5.3 percent, and your capital
expenditures are down 19.7 percent.
This reduction in your net county budget continues the trend that
began three years ago in 2008. And you'll see on the slide that since
2008 the county net budget has been reduced by a total of $465
million in the last three years.
The budget you have in front of you for 2011 contains no
property tax increase, no new service charges or user fees, no
significant reductions in front-line services, no planned facility
closures or reductions in operating hours; we have no planned layoffs
or furloughs in your 2011 budget.
Couple of notes on your personnel complement. Your funded
FTE positions in the county manager's agency is down 4.2 percent
from current budget levels. Funded FYll position count has been
reduced 17.8 percent from the 2009 authorized levels, which
constitutes 359 fewer FTE. And there are no expanded position
requests in the county manager's agency for fiscal year 2011.
This eye chart, Commissioners, gives you the detail of the 2011
position count summary. Again, I would just point you down to the
bottom of your net reduction for the county manager's agency; 4.2
percent from your FYlO funded position count.
Also, this budget fully funds your annual debt service, and it is
compliant with the board's debt management policy. Your total
annual general governnIental debt service payments equal $56.1
million. That represents approximately 9 percent of total bondable
general governnIental revenues, and that is well within the 13 percent
cap that the board has established in their debt management policy.
And you can see in the bar graph there the progression of your ratio of
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debt to bondable revenues over the last several years.
Now we move into your general fund. The proposed FY2011
general fund budget is 313 million, 601 dollars -- excuse me --
-601,90l dollars. This represents a 6.2 reduction from current
FY20 1 0 general fund expenditures.
FY20 II represents, in fact, the fourth year of taxable value
reductions which began in fiscal 2008. You can see in the bar charts
both the history of reductions in taxable values. On the left is your
countywide general fund. On the right is your unincorporated area
general fund. For 2011, again, we have a 12.1 percent countywide
reduction in taxable values and 13.5 in the unincorporated area.
This is another chart that points out the magnitude and dollars of
that reduction over the last four years. You can see that since fiscal
2008, countywide taxable values have dropped more than $20 billion,
more than 25 percent. And in your general fund -- excuse me,
unincorporated general fund, $15 million, a decrease of over 28
percent.
As I mentioned, this budget proposes no increase in your general
fund or your unincorporated area general fund tax rates. You can see
that depicted here, that we have the same millage rate for FYll as we
have in current fiscal'l 0 in both your general fund and your
unincorporated area general fund.
The average reduction, as I just pointed out, in the county -- the
county portion of your tax bill -- I'll emphasize that again -- the county
portion of the tax bill in 2011, based on an average countywide
reduction of 12.1 percent in taxable value, you will see for
non-homestead and commercial properties, on average, can expect a
12.1 percent reduction in the county portion of their tax bill.
Unfortunately, for homestead property owners, they're likely to
see an average increase in the county portion of the tax bill of roughly
2.7 percent, and that is due to the recapture provision in the Save our
Homes statute, which this board has no control over.
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And again, just a reminder, this is kind of a typical breakdown of
an unincorporated area resident's tax bill. And what's notable here is
that the county portion of that bill is roughly 28.78 percent; 71 --
better than 71 percent is controlled by other taxing authorities.
So when I say that a non-homestead or a commercial property
owner will benefit by a reduction in the county portion of their bill, I
don't want them to be confused that they think their total bill will go
down. That's largely dependent on what happens with the other taxing
authorities at the end of the day.
I wanted to briefly go over the history of the general fund
expenditures and how we got to the budget that's in front of you today.
We actually began the process in the current fiscal year. We
knew we had a buildup beginning fund balance to an appropriate level
in fiscal year' 11 in order to give us an opportunity to bring you the
millage-neutral budget that you directed under the guidance.
In order to do that, we made several reductions in our capital
program. You can see those highlighted on this slide. Road capital
funds, stormwater capital funds, and your general government county
funds were reduced by a total of $23.6 million.
Moving into 20 ll, we also, as a result of the reduction in taxable
values and keeping a millage-neutral budget, needed to reduce the
FYll budget by $31.9 million, and in general terms, we've
accomplished that through a 5 percent reduction in operating budgets.
Those were targeted, not across the board in every case, but in most
cases, and we reduced the transfers out of your general fund to several
of your capital programs, transportation, stormwater capital, again,
general governmental debt, and also the transfers to constitutional
officers are down, thanks to the good work that they did in their
budget. We also have a beginning draw on your fund balance in 201l
of3.6 million.
Your unincorporated area general fund budget highlights. As I
said earlier, your unincorporated area budget is $42,369,100. It's a
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l6.7 percent reduction from the current fiscal year. In order to keep
millage neutral in the unincorporated area general fund, we cut
operating expenses 5 percent and also shifted the funding for
transportation operations more heavily towards the general fund,
which we have done in the past.
You will see that we have an overall 5 percent reduction in
transportation operations funding. We have shifted the allocation
between general fund 001 and your III unincorporated area fund.
Let's talk for a minute about your revenues in your general fund
for 2011. This pie chart shows the largest portion of your revenues
obviously being your ad valorem taxes. We built up your beginning
balance and, of course, you have state sales tax and state shared
revenues.
As I mentioned, your ad valorem revenues for 2011 in your
general fund are down $31,956,800. Your sales taxes, we're
projecting, will -- your collections on sales taxes will be slightly
higher by less than a percent than they were in FY10, but that's still a
positive trend in state sales tax. State shared revenues are estimated to
be almost 3 percent above 2010 activity.
And we talked about a few other revenues that are important that
we monitor closely. Your gas taxes are estimated to remain
essentially flat in '11 versus where they are in 2010.
Your impact fees, as you all know, because of the economic
recession, continue to drop. And since fiscal 2007, which is your peak
year, your impact fee revenues are down more than 80 percent.
And finally, your FYlO interest income is substantially below the
FY2009 activity and also is, at this point, trending below budget for
'10 and will remain low in 2011. Interest rates on investments are not
obviously what they used to be.
Commissioner, I want to end by just talking about a couple of
areas of concern for me and for your staff as we move into fiscal year
'11 and actually beyond, in '12 and '13 . We've been able to maintain a
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millage-neutral budget in '11, and that's been achieved primarily with
the heavy reliance on reductions in nonrecurring capital expenditures.
This same kind of approach will be less available to us in fiscal year
'12 and '13 and going forward if -- if your taxable values continue to
decline and if the board continues to maintain a millage-neutral
guidance in your budget policy, what that means is we'll have to look
harder at the operating side of the house, and that will be a challenge
to maintain current services as we cut deeper into the operating areas.
But we will -- we will continue to monitor that closely as we
move out of' 11, and we'll talk about that, I'm sure, at some length
during budget guidance discussions next February or March.
The other caution that I wanted to point out was, while we're
making progress in reestablishing a proper general fund reserve level,
we're not all the way there yet. We're still below the budget policy
level of two and a half percent of operating expenses, but we are
trending in the right direction. The current year we have .97 percent
of operating expenses in your general fund reserve. In 2011, we've
been able to bump that up to 1.9 percent.
Also we've, over the last three years actually, begun some
deferrals in your fixed asset preventative maintenance and also
equipment replacement. We think that that is still manageable for us
in fiscal year '11. But obviously, just like maintenance on your home
or your automobile, you can only defer some important maintenance
so long before you run the risk of larger breakdowns or more costly
repairs over time.
So again, while I believe we can manage that in 2011, as we go
forward in '12 and '13, again, we've got to monitor to make sure that
we're still able to maintain the fixed assets and the infrastructure that
you've all funded and put in place for this county.
Then finally a reminder that we're heading into our second year
where we have no salary adjustments or merit bonuses. They've been
deferred for all of your employees despite some increases in cost of
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living over that period of time. And we'll need, again, to monitor that
when the market does begin to kick back up and employees become
more mobile and have more choices; we want to certainly make sure
that we remain in a competitive position and we're able to maintain
and retain the best talent that we have here in the county government.
So Commissioners, that concludes my opening remarks. Subject
to your questions, we can begin to call on the rest of the presenters.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Halas has a
question.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: County Manager, you did a superb
job in presenting the budget. One of the major concerns that I have is
the lack of reserves. And do we have reserves adequate enough if we
have a wind event here in this county?
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, yes, we do. We don't have those
available like we've had in past years in your general fund reserves as
a contingency. We've talked about that at the stafflevel and what we
would do in the event of a storm event.
All of your capital funds have mandatory reserves. Most of our
-- of our large cash is in our capital fund reserves, and we would first
go to those while we're waiting and processing our FEMA
reimbursements. So we do have adequate reserves. We would just
have to draw them out of our capital funds instead of out of our
general fund contingency in fiscal '11.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: But aren't a lot of our capital funds
now being diverted to pay the debt service?
MR. OCHS: No, sir. I wouldn't say most of those. And
remember that in a storm event, typically you have a lot of debris to
clean up. Debris mission is one of your first responses. That's in your
-- it's an enterprise fund. Mr. DeLony keeps adequate reserves in his
solid waste fund that we could access if we had to begin with the
debris mission and then seek reimbursement from FEMA with those
funds.
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COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. I just want to make sure that
we can -- if something does happen, that we have the adequate money
supply to take care of the event and get things up and running quickly
and go through the process of trying to get our money back from the
federal government.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: May I have an electronic copy
of your presentation?
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. We have hard copies, too, that we can
hand the board, if you'd like. But I'll make sure you get an electronic
copy.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thanks. Yeah, I don't need a
hard copy.
MR. OCHS: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I would just like to make a couple of
remarks. I, too, think you've done an excellent job, County Manager,
and for the entire staff, would like to express my appreciation for their
willingness to make some very difficult decisions in order to reach a
millage-neutral budget.
It -- that gives us some flexibility with respect to how we
continue with this meeting today, I think. We gave you budget
guidance. You and almost all of the constitutional officers and other
agencies have adhered to that guidance and have met the goals of
maintaining a millage-neutral posture in Collier County.
And we have the option now of either making the decision that
you have met the goal and we can give preliminary approval of the
budget, or we can have each of the division heads come up here and
answer any questions that the commissioners would like to pose to
them.
And so I'll ask the commissioners, what is their preference? Do
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you want to go through this division by division, or do you want to
make the decision that achieving millage neutral with these reductions
meets your earlier budget guidance?
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I think that we can declare that
the budget guidance was met, but I think it would be important for the
public to understand each division and their goals and objectives for
2011, just a--
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Just a brief --
CHAIRMAN COYLE: All right.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: We have to be here in this
afternoon's session, and also be here for public comment, and that's a
-- that's right after the constitutional officers, I believe, this afternoon?
MR. OCHS: Yes. And thank you for reminding me,
Commissioners. We didn't know how long we would go today, so we
did set a one p.m. time certain for the constitutional officers to be
present to present their budgets. But nevertheless, you could, you
know, reconvene at one p.m. if you wanted to, or we could make calls
and see if they could come sooner if you wanted to expedite the
process. Your pleasure.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. You still have the issue of public
input, but that can occur at the end of any meeting.
MR. OCHS: Right. Whenever you're finished, we'll take public
comment, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Just like we do at the Board of County
Commission meeting.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. Ijust want to say that, on
behalf of all the constitutionals and also the staff here under the Board
of County Commissioners, or the county manager's jurisdiction, that I
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want to thank each and every one of you for the hard work that it took
to come to this budget. Obviously there's been many, many hours of
stress that was put into this by everyone.
So as we go forward today, I would hope that we don't end up
having this as a public flogging, because I think people worked hard
enough to make sure that they tried to cut where they can, and I think
we should move forward and, if anything, commend the people who
worked hard on this budget to bring it in the guidance that we gave
them to personally thank them for all their hard work and effort and
still maintaining the service level that we have here in this county.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Now, we have a number of
representatives of other agencies here. I don't think it would be proper
to ask them to wait while we go through all of our divisions. Can we
begin with the courts and related agency, state's attorney, public
defender, and other public services?
MR.OCHS: Yes, sir. They're actually number one on your
agenda this morning.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
MR. OCHS: Mark?
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Good morning, Mark.
COURTS AND RELATED AGENCIES (STATE ATTORNEY AND
PUBLIC DEFENDER)
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: I'm Mark Middlebrook. I'm the Senior
Deputy Court Administrator for the 20th Circuit, Chief of Operations
here in Collier County. I have -- from the courts today we have our
County Administrative Judge, Judge Pivacek, and the Administrative
Judge for the County Court, Judge Turner.
MR. RUSSELL: And Steve Russell, State Attorney, with me,
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my Executive Director, Ray Rhodes.
MS. SMITH: And Kathy Smith, Public Defender. Thank you.
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: It was a very difficult budget year for
us, as for everybody. We actually had to layoff, for the first time in
our history, three employees, dedicated, loyal employees, but we -- it
was necessary in order to meet the budget guideline, and we were able
to achieve our reductions through a cooperative effort with both the
Sheriffs Office and, of course, with the county manager's guidance.
So we thank him and the sheriff, and we're ready for any questions.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioners, do you have any
questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We appreciate your participation in the
process and willingness to make difficult cuts. Without the
cooperation of all the other agencies, we could never have reached the
goal. So thank you very much.
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'd just like to make a comment.
Thank you for your participation. I think this is one of the few rarities
whereby all the constitutional officers and everyone got behind this
effort to bring in a budget of this nature.
I want to thank each and every one of you. For the people that
left your agency, we're sorry, but obviously they have to realize that
we're in tough times. Thank you.
JUDGE TURNER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yes.
MR. RUSSELL: Actually, likewise I wanted to thank the board
for your early guidance in the process through the county manager,
and particularly the county manager and the staff. It was a very good
working relation to get to a difficult goal. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yeah. Thank you very much for your
help.
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MS. SMITH: And I will echo those sentiments as well. You will
see there was a slight increase in our budget, and I really appreciate
the court's cooperation and the state's cooperation in helping us make
the judgments. Those were costs that were associated with moving to
the new building, which were out of our control, water and sewage
and electricity where there was an underestimate, so I really
appreciate everybody's cooperation in helping us be able to keep the
same level of service, and I appreciate being here today.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much.
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Have a good day, and good luck. We'll
see you next year.
MS. SMITH: Thank you.
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: Thank you.
PUBLIC SERVICES
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, that takes us next to your Public
Services Division.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
MR. OCHS: Ms. Ramsey and her staff.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And we're going to call each division
head up here and given the commissioners a chance to hear a very
brief presentation and then ask questions as you see fit.
And what did Marla do with her hand?
MR. OCHS: That's what happens when you don't make your
budget guidance, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Did you take the entire finger, all the
fingers?
MR. OCHS: No, we left one.
MS. RAMSEY: Left one.
MR. OCHS: We left one for her for '12.
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June 24,2010
MS. RAMSEY: My pinky mouse this morning. Just remember
never take the pizza stone out of the oven with a wet oven mitt, and
you will never have to experience this.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Oh, really?
MS. RAMSEY: So that was fun.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, I failed to mention in your budget
books, in each -- after each tab, the first couple of pages, as we had
promised you during your budget guidance, there's a compli- -- what
we call a compliance overview that shows how they arrived at the
reductions of 5 percent in operating and a brief explanation of the
impacts of those reductions on operations.
So if you have any questions on those, we're prepared to answer
those as well. But Marla, as always, and her staff, have done an
outstanding job in bringing their budget in, not only at guidance, but
actually above and beyond the guidances in FYll.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
MS. RAMSEY: Commissioners, I did just want to point that out,
that the staff has gone through the budgets and they did come in with a
5.6 reduction in both the 001 and the 111 funds, a little bit better than
we were requested to, and a lot of it has to do with circumstances like
VSIPs and things like that that have vacated us.
Weare down about 22 percent in our employment.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Marla, could I stop you for just a
moment.
MS. RAMSEY: Yep.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Is there a way to turn the volume up on
their mikes or --
MR. OCHS: The volume is fine, sir. You all need to get close to
those because they're kind of voice activated. So when you do talk
into them, you've got to get close.
MS. RAMSEY: Is that better?
MR. OCHS: Is that better, sir?
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June 24, 2010
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yes.
MS. RAMSEY: Okay, thank you.
I was just saying that we were -- through the VSIPs and the
reductions in staff, we're at 22 percent reduction in our staffing
patterns since 2007.
A couple of things that I just wanted to highlight this year that
we've done. One is underneath the Housing and Human Services and
veterans. With the retirement of Peter Kraley, we reduced that
position from a director to a manager, and we took that three-person
department and we added it to the Housing and Human Services
Department.
One of the reasons for doing that was to provide better service to
our veterans. I was able to take all of the administrative element off
that position and move that over into Marcy's side, and thus allowing
that position that Peter was in to have more face time with veterans.
So it is 100 percent client based now rather than maybe 30 or 40
percent department business based, so I think that's a very good move
for the veterans. They're very excited about that, and we're wishing,
you know, Peter a very successful retirement.
Also to point out is the David Lawrence Center. I know you hear
from him periodically. We did not reduce his budget again this year.
He's at the same amount he was last year, as he was the year before.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, I want to just reemphasize what
Marla just said. She absorbed that reduction in other areas of her
budget. To her credit, we didn't want to reduce the vital services of
mental health that are provided by David Lawrence. But Marla and
her staff were able to absorb that cut as well.
MS. RAMSEY: One good-news item that I think gets
overlooked a lot has to do with the Sun-N-Fun Lagoon. Every so
often, if you read blogs and various things in the newspaper, you hear
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Who reads blogs?
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June 24, 2010
MS. RAMSEY: It's kind oflike the Blackberry, sometimes it's
addictive. But there's a misperception out in the community that the
Sun-N-Fun Lagoon is a tax-supported operation, and it is not.
Sun-n-Fun Lagoon is totally self-sufficient, and all of its expenses are
paid through user fees. And I did want to put that on the record today
to make that clear.
It is a wonderful recreation activity that we have here in Collier
County, and it does pay for itself. Doesn't make much money, but it
pays for itself. I think we made $3,000. At least it's in the black.
MR. WILLIAMS: That's right.
MS. RAMSEY: I think that each of the department directors
have done a really good job. As you know, we are doing -- our staff is
doing a lot more than they've done before, and they've been a little
stretched. And sometimes maybe they're stretched a little bit too thin,
but I do want to commend the departments and their staff for the
amount of work that they're taking on, things that they haven't had to
do before and the fact that they are working really well together, that
if there is a need in another department, they're able to step up and
help as they can. So I think that's a great testament to the quality of
the employees that we do have.
So with that, I'll open it for questions for you with each of the
department directors as you wish.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Just a comment. The Sun-n-Fun
Lagoon for Father's Day was a big success.
MS. RAMSEY: Great.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I just wish it was opened up a
little bit earlier than 10 o'clock. Of course, I'm sure you've studied
that.
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. I appreciate your comment. I'm
glad that you did attend. Knowing that you're a father, that was a
good.
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June 24, 2010
We have looked at the hours of the Sun-N-Fun. In the first year
of operation we did an extensive study on where we thought we could
do best in terms of maximizing the expense associated with the
facility.
You're correct though, an early, we have looked at that because --
and particularly in the summer, with the summer rains, that becomes
an issue for us, so I appreciate your comment.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. No other questions? I would like
to thank all of you for the wonderful job that you have done to get us
to this point and for your work to carry us forward.
It's going to take a lot of initiative and hard work to get through
this economic recession, but we will get through it, things will be
better, and we appreciate your help in getting us to that point. So
thank all of you.
MS. RAMSEY: Thank you, Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I would like to add also that you
know that this is -- you're going through some very difficult times.
One thing I think is very, very important is making sure that the
people that are here, that their morale remains high. And whatever
you can do as leaders to make sure that we move in that direction. It's
very important, because once the morale starts to fall, then the
productivity falls, and I've seen it in the past, and it doesn't work.
So please make sure that you spend time with your employees
that are there and make sure that they under- -- and hopefully they'll
understand the economic times they're going through.
I do disagree with Commissioner Coyle that this is a recession.
This is a damn depression. And as soon as people come to this
realization, they'll have understanding. We've never had home values
drop like this since the Great Depression, so thank you so much for
everything you're doing.
MS. RAMSEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much.
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June 24, 2010
MS. RAMSEY: Thank you.
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
MR. OCHS: Thank you.
Commissioners, your next division is Administrative Services,
Ms. Price and her staff.
Go ahead, Len.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, Len.
MS. PRICE: Good morning, Commissioners. I'll try to keep my
comments brief, but I would just like to highlight a few of the things
that our division has done to cut costs agency-wide. A lot of the
things that we do don't necessarily just impact our budget, but
everyone's budget across the agency.
One of the things that we did was we converted to red dye diesel
which allows us to pay less taxes on your fuel. We've extended the
life cycles on our vehicles and the preventative maintenance
schedules. We've tried to do that in a way that was fiscally
responsible but also helps to reduce costs across the agency.
We have rebid a number of contracts, consolidated them. We've
gone from 350 down to 286 trying to get volume discounts across the
agency. We have made huge reductions to the property insurance by
making good strategic decisions, and we've been able to reduce
workers' comp through our extraordinary safety program.
We were also able to reduce the fleet maintenance rate because
of savings that we had in that organization, and we passed that on to
the entire organization.
Weare also operating at about 15 percent attrition in our division
across, and in a few of our departments, HR and IT, we're down over
20 percent, and yet we still strive to keep the same levels of services,
and I think we're doing an admirable job.
One of the things that I heard earlier was employee recognition.
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June 24, 2010
We made sure not to make drastic cuts in our employee recognition
program, and we try real hard to find ways that we can recognize our
employees that are low and no cost but remind them that we see the
hard work that they're doing every day, and try to be able to call that
information out.
And with that, I will ask you if you've got any questions of us.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Any questions by commissioners?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Great job.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I don't see any. Thank you very much.
And I'd like to extend the same words of appreciation to you as
we have to the previous organizations, and thank you very much for
what you do for Collier County.
MS. PRICE: Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, these are your back office folks
who, you know, you don't see very often, but when you're out there on
the front line, if you don't have the right equipment or tools or data
processing services or the proper insurances and bonds in place, we
can't get that work done. So they do a great job in relative obscurity
day in and day out, but I don't get a chance to thank them as often as
I'd like to, but I'd like to do that publicly today. Thank you.
MS. PRICE: We strive on obscurity.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: In this business, that's the best position
to be in.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT
MR. OCHS: Yeah.
Commissioners, that brings us to your Growth Management
Division, Mr. Feder and his staff.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I don't know ifthere's enough
chairs.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Is that why they call it the Growth
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June 24, 2010
Management Division, they've grown so much larger?
MR.OCHS: We got a bigger table for them this year.
MR. FEDER: No, actually, Commissioners, for the record,
Norman Feder, transportation --
MR.OCHS: Norman, excuse me. Get close up to that mike so
the board can hear you.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: We want to hear that baritone
VOice.
MR. FEDER: Well, I've got a nice head cold, so in don't hear
. ,
you, It s --
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Don't get too close to us then.
MR. FEDER: Exactly. Interestingly enough, what you've got
here is the new Growth Management Division. Formerly you had
Community Development and Transportation.
And in reality, you have not only -- as is noted on Page 12, I
believe it is, on Page 12 -- not going just from two divisions to one,
you've gone from departments -- it shows here, from ten down to
seven -- but actually you've gone from ten to six.
So the original transportation was five, same in CDES, so you
have almost half the number of departments because we're not
covering on the building director; going to make that a manager.
Position reductions. Just over the course of this year, you're
down 35 positions in the combined division. If you look at it from the
prior year in '09 versus '10 to '11, '9 to '11, you're down 38 percent in
the new combined division.
And the interesting item is going from 2003, about the time
transportation services was just formed, Community Development was
just starting to ramp up for the growth issues in this county, we're
down 37 percent in operating budget and down 30 percent in staffing
from 2003 levels. So there's been significant changes in the operating
budget.
As was noted previously, there was a provision of 18.6 million of
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June 24, 2010
that reduction, and fiscal year '10 came out of the capital program
predominantly in roads and stormwater to try and help work towards
the balancing budget, as was major reduction in our capital program
these years, recognizing the fact that we've slowed in growth, and the
need is to maintain what we have out there today.
Your positions, I already noted, are down. Your operating budget
is down about 3.3 percent, but that's with the municipal service taxing
units. And the municipal service taxing units represent almost 27
percent of the combined, now Growth Management Division's,
budget.
And so if you remove that issue, we're down 7.2 percent. So
we've gone beyond budget guidance. In the all-important areas of the
0012 ad valorem and the 111 general fund provisions, we're down a
total of$I1.5 million, which is a reduction of 18.35 percent, which is
well beyond guidance, as an effort to try and respond. A lot of that,
again, came out of the capital area.
If you look at it, capital program went down in roads by 55.8
percent, in stormwater by 43.4 percent. Combined capital is down
54.3 percent within the division. We're up a little bit in small areas
within our planning and regulatory portions responding to the new
software and some of the needs to address some issues in that portion
when we brought it into the new division.
Capital and operation and maintenance without the MSTUs in the
total is down 36.9 percent. With that, I'll open it up.
Nick, did you want to say anything on the --
MR. CASALANGUIDA: No, you've covered it all. We started
this process in January with the direction of the county manager to
make sure our l13 and 131 budgets were starting to not go into
reserves anymore and be stabilized, so we're at that point now.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Good, thank you.
Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: One of my major concerns is -- and
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June 24, 2010
I think we've -- I've talked with you, both Nick and Norm, in regards
to maintaining a level of service on the infrastructure of the roads that
we have. With this drastic cut in maintenance, road maintenance, can
you give me a quick snapshot of, if we continue to go in this direction,
where we're headed?
MR. FEDER: Okay. I think the county manager gave you a
good preview in his overview slide as well. Essentially we're in the
fourth year, actually third year of reduction, specific reduction, and we
can handle what I will call the major needs right now.
Some of your preventative maintenance is getting deferred.
Some of your minor maintenance is getting deferred. But we're in a
situation where the major concerns and the issues to the public, we
will prioritize and get those addressed.
The most significant cuts were in the capital. We're down some,
but that doesn't cover some of our maintenance issues as it did in the
past. We have more to maintain, whether it be signals or roadway
lane miles, but they're newer. But over time, that's going to be harder
for us to work so.
So we are making some deferrals, much like the taxpayer out
there is having to decide where to spend their money right now and
not doing some of the things that they might like to do. The longer we
do that, the harder it's going to become. So I need to make sure that
we note that on the record that we are creating some level of deferral.
But as far as the public's concerned, we'll prioritize the major needs.
And, again, in this fiscal year, we feel we can do what's necessary to
keep situations going.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I have one final question. In
regards to the legislation that was passed up in Tallahassee this year
where they increased the loading on bridges, is that going to have a
drastic effect for us in trying to maintain the structures of these bridges
that we have in the county?
MR. FEDER: While we reduced a little bit the bridge program,
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June 24, 2010
we still maintained a decent dollar in that for operations. Noting that
we won't know the impacts of that until we get the bridge studies
coming out of the state, and they do all the bridge inspections every
two years.
As you know, we had some. We started our bridge program
recently because a lot of our bridges are getting at that 50-year range.
We had some sufficiency issues. We've attended to those, are in the
process of attending to others, and we feel we have a program that will
allow us to respond, not necessarily get ahead, but to respond to the
issues hopefully as they may come up.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much. No other
questions?
I would like to make the observation that this reorganization and
consolidation is probably the greatest example of improvement in, not
only cost savings but efficiency, that I have experienced in Collier
County .
You've done a wonderful job, you're doing it with fewer people,
and you're getting rave reviews from the people you're servicing. I
have not heard a single complaint since you began this process, and I'd
like congratulate all of you for the wonderful job that you're doing.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: If I may add?
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Sure. Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you. It's just been
absolutely remarkable, if I may echo Commissioner Coyle's comments
there. Diane Flagg, I appreciate so much how you have brought so
much peace and tranquility to the area that I represent on how you've
been handling code enforcement.
We went from an agency that was into enforcement to an agency
that was working for compliance. It's been remarkable. And the lack
of complaints has been absolutely remarkable. Thank you for that.
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June 24, 2010
Nick, my personal thanks goes to you for bringing the business
community together rather than an adversary who challenged us on
everything we tried to do as a group of people that's been extremely
supportive and working with us in a partnership to be able to bring our
economic development issues going forward, to be able to streamline
our code -- not -- our permitting, to be able to get everything going
forward. It's remarkable.
Norm, the nicest part about what you're doing is you don't have
that much to do at the moment. Hopefully --
MR. FEDER: Nothing at all.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: But thank you so much for
pulling the last of what we're going to be doing for a while in the form
of Oil Well Road and how well you responded to the concerns of
citizens out there. Your working with Waterways is so much
appreciated, and how you took an adversarial position -- they took an
adversarial position to begin with. Everything smoothed out,
partnerships have been formed, and it looks like a final agreement is
very near, if not there, for the moment, and how fast you responded to
the need of the school children out there when the contractors were
impairing their ability to get to school. You all have been remarkable.
Jamie French, you're going to be coming to us shortly with
Commissioner Henning's idea and showing us how we might be able
to provide all sorts of amenities out there for the people that are
getting cable now or wireless, what might be able to be done to be
able to bring their costs down or even offer free services, and you're
working with the Eastern Collier County Group to be able to see how
they can also go forward with a special grant to bring that forward.
Thank you for that.
You've just been absolutely remarkable, our transportation issues.
As far as the bus, who's had a complaint about buses lately? I mean,
really a serious complaint? Very few. Michelle, you've been
wonderful. Thank you so much for keeping everything on track on
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June 24, 2010
that.
When you don't hear an awful lot from people, obviously they're
happy with what they're getting in the way of services. But every one
of you have been truly remarkable. Thank you so much.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And with all the wonderful work you've
been doing in Commissioner Coletta's district, are you doing anything
for the rest of us?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I thought you were going to say
limerock roads.
MR. FEDER: We hope we are.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I was waiting for the opening,
but you didn't say it yet.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We're waiting for our share now. Okay.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, just one comment, if you'd allow.
I really need as well to recognize this group. As you all know, change
is hard. It's very difficult, it's very uncomfortable, and the natural
tendency is to resist change.
So when Norman and Nick and I sat down and talked about this
concept several months ago, you know, the -- you could either fight
this or you could embrace it and try to make it as good as it could be.
And to their credit and the leadership of their directors sitting on each
side of them, they have really grabbed this concept and made it truly
better than I had even hoped it would be starting out.
And that's a real credit to them, because they've got a lot of folks
that are used to the old way, and changes, as I said, you know, come
slow.
And we've turned this in fairly short order, thanks to the board's
support, and -- but I wanted to recognize the leadership of Norm and
Nick and this staff sitting right here, because they've done a
remarkable job, in my opinion, of forming a, you know, new division
out of two of our very large operations and have done it keeping their
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June 24, 2010
day-to-day business first rate as always, so thank you all.
N ow get out of here and go back to work.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I got one comment.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you, County Manager, for
working with these two great leaders to get this -- these two divisions
combined as one unit. And I've also noticed that your hair has turned
a little bit grayer, too.
MR. OCHS: At least it's still on top of my head, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yeah. At least his hasn't fallen out.
MR. OCHS: Best I can say for it at this point.
MR. DeLONY: Hey.
MR. OCHS: Oh, sorry, Lex Luthor.
MR. DeLONY: Hey, hey, hey.
MR. FEDER: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thanks a lot.
PUBLIC UTILITIES
MR. OCHS: Right on cue, sir. That's Mr. DeLony and his team
coming forward from Public Utilities.
MR. DeLONY: For the record, Jim DeLony, Public Utilities
Administrator. Commissioners, my remarks will be very brief.
We have met your budget guidance. We continue to provide in
this budget, and as we speak, compliant life-sustaining services. All
of our operations, as stated in the budget, are cost contained and
revenue centric.
And at the end we have benchmarked ourselves both internally
and externally to ensure that we continue to deliver the promise of
best-value services.
And that concludes my remarks other than your questions.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: That was brief.
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June 24, 2010
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Questions on solid waste
management.
I know that the tonnage -- historical tonnage is not going to be in
here, that's in our AUIR, but I'm trying to figure out your services
versus your budgets.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What -- is your tonnages going
up on collections?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your Solid
Waste Management Department director.
The tonnage is increasing slightly. It's projected to increase
slightly this year by about 2,000 tons, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What percentage would that be?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: At the landfill we receive about 260,000
tons, subject to slight variation. But countywide it's over 700,000 tons.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What do you attribute that to?
Because I see less people in the community.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Over the last three years we've seen a trend
of tonnage decreasing for C&D materials, horticultural wastes, things
like that; however, your municipal solid waste, which is your
residential and your commercial, is actually consistent. The residents,
over the last three years, it's been stable at about 92,000 tons, and your
commercial is in the neighborhood of about 127,000 tons.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So if C&D and horticultural
wastes have gone down and the residential waste has maintained,
where is the increase that you're projecting?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: The increase that we're projecting in our
budget is a 5 percent increase, and that's roughly about $500,000. Of
that, $286,000 is for the increase in hazardous waste that we're
collecting. Just this year alone the hazardous waste collection has
increased about 40 percent. It costs more to dispose and process
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June 24, 2010
hazardous waste.
In addition to that, your landfill is still getting bigger,
Commissioners. Even though it's stabilized the waste stream to the
hill, you're still bringing in, on an average day, 3,000 tons. So with the
expansion of the landfill, the expenses increase as well.
Leachate production is up $139,000.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Well, correct me in'm
wrong. I'm looking on Page 31 of my budget book, and I'm seeing a
17 percent increase.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Yes. What you also see there,
Commissioner, if you're referring to Page 31, the capital program last
year, we did not fund the capital program from the disposal site
because of the decrease in tonnages; however, this year, be it through
cost containment, we are able to put some money towards the capital
improvements, as outlined in our integrated Solid Waste Management
strategy.
As I mentioned earlier, we're still taking in tonnage at the
landfill. We need to improve the infrastructure, replace leachate lines,
pump stations, capital improvements, so that we can meet the demand
of the community, not only today, next year, but also for the next 30
years.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Am I correct that your overall
operation is going up 17 percent, or am I reading this wrong?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: No. Actually, Commissioner, if you turn to
Page 34, the Solid Waste Disposal Fund 470, the operational budget,
which is the first section there, is increasing by 5.1 percent. The other
section there that shows the increase, that's actually your capital. It
also represents your reserves, as the county manager mentioned
earlier.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. But overall, it's
increasing, your total budget?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: The total solid waste program as a whole is
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June 24, 2010
increasing because it incorporates not only the collection, but also the
disposal, but also the implementation of your integrated solid waste
management strategy, which is required through the Growth
Management Plan and the AUIR. So yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I had a comment a couple weeks
ago about the maintenance of the egress and ingress of the landfill.
Person thought it could be maintained better, and I was just thinking
myself, well, what does the landfill really do?
I mean, so -- you know, I haven't been out there for quite a while.
Is it Waste Management's responsibility as far as the operation costs of
the roads out there, or is it part of our budget?
MR. RODRIGUEZ: That's a very good questions.
Commissioner, we have a very unique landfill operating agreement.
It's like a marriage. They are responsible for certain aspects of the
operations of the landfill, including cell construction and the roadways
beyond the scale. The county, however, because we maintain the gate
rate and control the contractor, we maintain leading up to the scales
and shortly beyond that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. And I think this was
after the scales where the problem is at the landfill.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Okay. And was it a complaint that you
received of the condition of the roadway?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Weare addressing that as part of our capital
program with Waste Management.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Waste Management is
addressing that in their capital program --
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- I would assume. When are we
going to start the construction of the recycling park, or --
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure. The resource recovery park, which
you approved just recently, we're in the process of developing a Site
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June 24, 2010
Development Plan, and that's probably about a six-month process with
the help ofCDES. We'll get that to you here soon.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It's coming back to us for
approval.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Actually, no. It's part of the Site
Development Plan process.
MR. DeLONY: What will come back to you is features. Within
that is, we need capital to develop those. But the overall concept of
that plant was part of that approval, and we provided that. But each
one of those features will require your support and your direction as to
when and how much we spend to develop the features of a materials
recovery facility or a diversion, any other additional diversion
facilities that were encompassed in that concept, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What kind of user input is being
-- to develop the site plan, or is there any?
I know we have great expertise, but you wouldn't want my
opinion because I couldn't be using it as much as -- because
everything I use goes in the recycling bin at the --
MR. DeLONY: We're an open book on that, sir. We really are.
We -- I would tell you, on a recent basis, we get input from a variety
of sources as people look at alternative ways to handle the waste
stream. And so, I think that in the concept of getting input, we're
getting excellent input both from the community and from the industry
and other interests as well.
We'll coalesce those into a best fit with regard to your direction
that we call the integrated solid waste management strategy, and we'll
bring that to the board for discussion and for direction, and that's
where we stand right now.
You bring up the budget as part of the discussion. We will bite
this one -- this elephant one bite at a time as we're able to either
generate funds or provide for public and private agreements like our
landfill gas to energy agreement which, by the way, we're on the cusp
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June 24, 2010
of issuing the notice to proceed for.
So I would think then the go-ahead plan, sir, and the -- as I see it
in the next five to ten years, that that's the mix and match we'll be
looking for. And so your question is right on the mark with regard to
ensuring that we're listening and we're participating with the
opportunities as they're presented by third parties with the public.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you for your response.
Mr. Rodriguez, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. Some of the meetings that
I've had with your staff, Jim, in regards to the cost of producing
freshwater, the cost of wastewater, what are these costs? How are
they being addressed at this point in time? Can you give me a quick
rundown of cost?
MR. DeLONY: I'm going to put something up on the
teleprompter that I think -- that will answer the question in graphic
form and what we're faced with in ensuring that we're providing a
best-value ser- -- a compliant best-value service, and also I have one
other chart that I'll put up.
The first chart -- and I'm sorry, but if you'll just look at it in
concept. The blue represents what is the national average cost on an
annual basis for compliant -- for providing and providing compliant
services in the water business, and that would include water and
wastewater service on a national average.
Your scale on the left is a percentage increase, and the top is 10
percent, and then at the bottom, of course, is zero, and there's actually
a minus one in that chart.
The -- and I -- you know, remember, I'm colorblind, but I believe
that's like yellow or gold something, the other -- other than blue is
what has been the national cost of living, the COLA, national COLA
adjudicated by the federal government during that same time frame.
And you're seeing that the inputs to providing the kinds of
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June 24, 2010
services Dr. Yilmaz and Mr. Mattausch are famously providing for us,
the inputs in terms of their actual cost has outstripped, you know, any
measurement that we're seeing in COLA.
And you can tell just on the scale basis how that's playing out
nationally. Now, we're not exempt from that. In fact, I've got to be
honest with you. In times I think that we're even higher than national
because we are at the end of a long, as I often refer to, cow trail to get
down here. There's not a lot of synergy with the kinds of chemicals
and the demands for services that we have here in our community. I'll
bet the diversification of this board and our economy is looking at
that.
So I think this is a good representation of what we're confronted
with and just the cost of doing our business, and then normally you
would look to me and us to provide those at some rate. If there is an
increase, you want to keep that rate as something people understand,
and it's been difficult.
You all have been excellent in providing us the guidance and
resources to meet this challenge. And every one of the rate studies
we've provided, you've provided us great guidance and direction and
support to move forward with the great program we sustain today.
But this is -- this is the past. And I believe if you'll look at the
lighter blue, which is the out years starting in 2010, 'll, '12, '13, the
picture is not a good one, and primarily it's because of the competition
for commodities, chemicals, electricity, and others that are raw
materials to any process. And I would tell you, when the turnaround
comes, we're going to see a spike in the demand for those, and then
the competition's going to raise the price at 10callevel.
We have another chart that we can show you that talks about,
over the aggregate time since two thousand and, I believe, two or --
what is that chart -- 2002, how over the year, by -- year by year of the
compounding cost of the major inputs to our product line is, and that's
commg up now.
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June 24, 2010
It's just, it's going up every year. And our job is to ensure we
address that forthrightly in terms of minimizing the impact to our rate
customers.
And some utilities are really not having the success with it that
we are right now, and it goes back to the way we began. And I
believe, Mr. Coyle, you gave us this guidance four or five years ago,
says, look I want you to smooth this -- smooth this out. I don't want to
see these spikes on an annual basis. And that's the reason we've been
coming at you with multiyear rate increases.
Tom, if you'll put up the chart. Some utilities approach has been
different to address your question specifically, and I'm going to put up
now what is the benchmark, and that's kind of an eye chart. If you
could blow that up a little bit for me, Bob, if you would, or Leo.
Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Where do you want to go?
MR. DeLONY: You'll see that -- you'll see that folks are really
out there with rate increases coming up this year -- in may, Tom. I
want to look at this specifically. One utility in Davey is going to ask
-- is getting -- has been approved for a 34 percent rate increase this
year.
Across the board, it appears that the aggregate is somewhere
between 7 to 12 percent. We're only -- we're at the fourth year of a
rate study you approved, and we're at 2.7 to address the concerns that
I've spoken to earlier.
Now, I don't know in answered your question. Maybe I
overanswered it, but I tried to give you as broad a picture of what
we're confronting in the cost area, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Right now, where do you see the
greatest cost increase coming from, FP&L or from the--
MR. DeLONY: Bob, if you'd put up the chart.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- chemicals that you're buying --
MR. DeLONY: The--
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- or is it a combination?
MR. DeLONY: In a single commodity area, the largest single
area -- I mean, when you -- you know, like you go to the store and you
buy a basket of groceries, and one item's more expensive than others.
You need all of them to make a good meal.
Chemicals, pure and simple; pure and simple, chemicals. I
actually spoke to a -- you know, we have a very unique community,
and I was -- just met a guy that happens to be a chemical broker all
over the world. He lives in Naples. He can live anywhere. And I
asked him, I said, what's the future? He says, double digit on
chemicals, because we aren't putting any more refining capacity on
board, they aren't making any new factories that make it, and then the
world market is going up in terms of demand, both in our country and
in the third world.
And so that's my answer, chemicals. But, you know, it's part of a
market basket of chemicals, electricity, steel, plastics, instrumentation
and so on. And we have those in this chart here that shows you how
we've been benchmarking them over the last seven years, eight years.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. How is the electrical rates
going? What kind of increases have you been seeing on those?
MR. DeLONY: Let me see the chart, in can. You got -- go
ahead, Tom. Go ahead and answer.
MR. WIDES: Commissioner, up until this year we were seeing
constant, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent increases on electricity. This
year it flattened out. There was actually no -- we saw no real increase
in the cost per unit of electricity; however, you know, we look into the
future years and we kind of have pegged it -- I shouldn't say kind of--
we have pegged it at a COLA-type increase, but that's not what we've
seen traditionally. So we're trying to be conservative on the future;
however, we just don't know what's out there.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So your biggest cost for producing
potable water and taking -- and taking care of wastewater is basically
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June 24, 2010
chemicals and electricity?
MR. DeLONY: Chemicals and power are the two largest cost
drivers. Over time we've seen, you know, spot pricing in terms of
construction and repair parts. Right now we're having a problem
finding some repair parts and -- but the pricing has been consistent
with last year's pricing.
But I fully expect that as we make this recovery that this
country's going to make and the demand for those services go up, until
the capacity catches up with it, we'll see spot pricing going up in those
scarce commodities, valves, pipe and so on.
F or the pipe repair for the south reverse osmosis wellfield that we
spoke to at the last board meeting, I believe that pipe -- Paul, correct
me if I'm wrong. That pipe came from Utah?
MR. MATT AUSCH: It was, I believe, South Dakota.
MR. DeLONY: South Dakota. That's how far we had to go to
bring that 30-inch pipe in. So it -- you know, the capacity, you know,
it's supply and demand.
And what we've done is to, working with Mr. Carnell, is to try to
make sure that our acquisition strategies are consistent to finding that
best price, and he's been really excellent, and his staff, in ensuring
we're working to that end within our procurement policy.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you.
MR. DeLONY: Sir, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Coletta?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. Mr. DeLony, two
questions. One, there was an effort underway to convert the landfill
gas to electricity and sell it. Where are we with that particular project,
and how will that affect future budgets?
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, sir. The landfill gas to energy
project is in its last stages. We have an agreement approved by the
board, a contract, with them and us. We have now explored the cost
of delivery. We know -- and in may take a moment. That contract's
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June 24, 2010
set up as a risk reward contract. They take all the risk. We share in the
reward. And we are doing our due diligence now to ensure that in
terms of their initial first cost, which is a deviation from their initial
cost, that it is at best value, and we're in the final throws of that.
I would believe that in the next 15 to 20 days, I'll be able to issue
at -- because you gave me the authority to do same -- the notice to
proceed.
Construction should be six to seven months. Let's say it begins
the first of July. We would be up and operating sometime in
February, March at the latest, and then we would see where we stand
after that in terms of sharing the revenue windfall.
Let's be cautious about that. One of the -- the critical way to
making money is the power purchase agreement with FP &L. We had
a pro forma that stated what we thought the power purchase agreement
would be two years ago.
Right now, because of the economy, FP&L's not paying as much
as they used to pay for those types of agreements. So we've had to
take a step back. And we're actually not -- have not consummated or
completed the power purchase agreement with FP&L yet. We're
trying to get a better market for it, because once we get that, that's a
long-term agreement, five or ten years. And so we want to make sure
we market time that correctly.
But, sir, to answer your question directly, it's going to be
positive. Today we have zero revenue coming in, and once that is up
and running and reliable, we'll have more than zero. The -- my job is
to ensure that that is as big as -- as far from zero as possible.
We had projections of half a million dollars a year in the first pro
forma. I'm not sure we'll achieve that because of the constraints of the
power purchase agreement market that I spoke to, and also the
increase of construction associated with the initial first cost.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: My other question, sir, has to do
with, the cost of water is in direct relation to how much we have to put
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June 24, 2010
through reverse osmosis versus how much freshwater we have to mix
with it.
Back in 2005 we made a Settlement Agreement with the state
and the Water Management District regarding access to water in the
Picayune. Whatever happened to that? Is that something that's still up
for litigation, or have we come to some sort of agreement?
MR. DeLONY: Actually, it was a lot later than 2005. It was
about a year ago that we sat down and negotiated that.
We're exactly where that settlement left us with essentially our
ability to access, under the current permits, the freshwater mix that we
have now.
Paul, if you'll speak directly to our current mix in terms of
permitting.
MR. MATTAUSCH: Yes, sir.
For the record, Paul Mattausch, Director of the Water
Department.
We currently, on constructed capacity, have about 54 percent of
our constructed capacity is reverse osmosis. You're exactly correct
that that's more expensive to operate; however, in June of2009, one
year ago this month, we received the additional allocation that we had
requested. It was a three-year process to get that water use allocation
permitted to have enough freshwater to be able to operate our existing
constructed capacity on freshwater.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you.
MR. DeLONY: In may close with that comment, sir. Our goal,
as directed by this board, continues to be 50/50. That -- you know,
that we are a utility that will be 50 percent leveraged on access to
freshwater and 50 percent alternative water to that freshwater, and that
continues to be the driving force behind our capital plan as well as our
operational plans.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: But once again, the more
freshwater we have access to, the lower the cost will be for the
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June 24, 2010
consumer.
MR. DeLONY: Absolutely. And I got to tell you, I don't know
if Paul spends more time in Collier County or in West Palm, quite
frankly, on this issue.
And he's -- I want to take a moment to let you know that he's
considered the best, period. There's no one else that can articulate or
provide the explanations of why it is responsible to have a mix of both
fresh and alternative water.
There are many people -- and I know you -- why you're asking
this question -- that -- believe that we should take no freshwater. And
to be frank with you, as long as we can do it and demonstrate it as
being responsible, we should, and pass that cost -- that lace cost on to
our consumers.
Paul, last word to you on that issue.
MR. MATT AUSCH: Jim, and Commissioner, it's certainly been
a long process, but with your -- at your direction to sustain 50/50 on
freshwater and brackish water, it certainly is the intent of the county to
be responsible both to the environment and to our customer, and it is
the right approach to blend the two waters together.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Well, we think it's the right
approach, but let's talk about this just for a moment. We think it's the
right approach, meanwhile, the majority of water that's -- we get
through natural rain and everything is expelled out into the Gulf of
Mexico. We only capture a very small amount. We've demonstrated
over many years of droughts that we have done nothing to influence
the level of the water table of any remarkable amount. It has not been
an Issue.
So what we're doing, in order to be able to satisfy a certain
amount of the -- what do you want to call it? I want to make sure I
don't insult anybody -- but the environmental friendly crowd. We're
spending a fortune in electricity that burns oil and coal to be able to
generate water, saltwater into freshwater to be able to save freshwater.
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June 24, 2010
I don't understand where we're going with it.
I think we need to keep an open mind on it in the future. And if
the opportunity comes for us to capture more freshwater without doing
any harm to the environment, we owe it to the taxpayers of Collier
County and the users to be able to do so. Just keep an open mind. I
don't think we should be bound by anything as far as 50/50. That
makes no sense. It just doesn't make logical sense.
MR. MATTAUSCH: Agree.
MR. DeLONY: Sir, we could not disagree with that, and we will
take that as reinforcement of the position of best value at a responsible
-- at a responsible level.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: A word of caution. This is one
comm1SSlOner.
MR. DeLONY: I understand.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay, thank you.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I'm going to just finish it up by
saying, I've been very fortunate in the past few weeks to do some
visitations to the landfill, to the water plants, to the pump stations, to
the facilities, even to the water projects that are ongoing right now,
and I just want to say that the reason you have such a great budget is
because you run such an efficient operation. Places are so clean you
could eat off the floor. People seem to be working together as a team,
not fighting one another. And everybody's working diligently toward
the goal of keeping our expenses down, and I just want to congratulate
you. Thank you.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah. One area that I think that the
utility department worked diligently at, and that was constructing ASR
wells. And then after we got it constructed, we can no longer use
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June 24, 2010
them.
So I think that's probably where Commissioner Coyle was talking
-- or Coletta was talking about in regards to trying to capture this
water so that we could use it when we have a drought.
And I would hope that the regulatory commission on these ASR
wells would come to an agreement on how we should use this so that
we can protect our natural resource of water.
MR. DeLONY: Sir, in might -- and I know there wasn't a
questions there, and I run the risk of getting the ire of both my
manager and the chairman. I'd like Dr. Yilmaz to have one
one-minute soundbite as to his results of his meeting with FTP as
recent as last week on this very issue.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Fantastic.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Who's operating the timer?
MR. DeLONY: Like I said, the ire of the chairman and the
manager.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Go ahead, George.
MR. DeLONY: One minute, George.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you, sir. For the record, George
Yilmaz, Wastewater Department Director.
And we were able to work with our regulatory agency and move
to more regulatory to utility toward partnership. They have agreed to
issue a permit without an administrative order and/or short consent
order for us to continue to move forward with our ASR site.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes.
MR. YILMAZ: And the permit will include ability for us to be
able to go below ESTW, that means areas considered for drinking
water resource. And rules of engagement is different, regulatory
framework is different, and we're looking at probably 2- to 400 feet
deeper than where we originally planned.
What we have on the site, one out of five wells -- that's the only
one we have built -- full-scale pilot project demonstration project. Not
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June 24, 2010
only we have lessons learned, but we have -- aboveground assets can
be used for one out of four wells that we can move forward.
Any action in terms of construction, we'll bring it to you in the
form of a contractual and/or project approval process.
But as our administrator indicated, we're moving forward and
we're making best out of our current investment. This is, frankly,
investment for the future, not only for next five, ten, 15 years, and we
have five wellsites, and one permitted. For all the good reasons at this
time, we're looking at best value option, and then we want to revitalize
that wellfield.
So it was a good meeting. We're moving together with
regulatory agencies to make our ASR site for the future resource.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Wonderful.
MR. DeLONY: It's a long climb, but we're on a positive slope.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's the greatest news I've heard
since I've been here as commissioner. Fantastic.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, sir.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, again, if I could, just real quickly
while I have the opportunity. As Commissioner Fiala said, this
leadership team you're looking at here is truly responsible 24/7,365
days a year for providing truly essential health, safety, welfare
services, and they do an outstanding job, from their production and
distribution facilities to the stewardship they show over the
environment, to the stewardship they show over the financial affairs of
the utility, and the good care down there that Joe takes of all his
customers, particularly in difficult economic times. I would put this
utility up against any in the country and be proud to follow them into
battle.
So thank you all.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: That's exactly right. The responsibility
of providing water and sewage treatment facilities and solid waste
disposal and all of the things you do, those are absolutely critical
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June 24, 2010
services, and there's not another division of Collier County
Government that is in such good financial condition as you are to
provide those services, and you've gotten there by exercising fiscal
responsibility and by planning well in advance and informing us of the
need with sufficient lead time to respond to the impact.
So you're all to be congratulated, and thank you very much, Mr.
DeLony, for your leadership in getting us there.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, sir.
MR. OCHS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We have another comment.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Just one quick comment. Thank
you all for your leadership, and I think the biggest thing is to make
sure that we keep the morale at the highest level so that productivity
remains at the level it is, and that's a difficult time (sic) in this time, in
the environment that we're in.
But anyway, thank you, each and every one of you, for all the
hard work you put into this. Thank you.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, sir. Thank you, Commissioners.
MANAGEMENT OFFICES (PELICAN BAY)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: County Manager, can we get through the
next one in ten minutes or nine minutes?
MR. OCHS: Oh, yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: You think so?
MR. OCHS : Yes, sir.
If we could call our management offices up, please.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'll keep my mouth shut.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Well, if we can get four other
people to join you, we'll be okay.
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, we skipped over debt service
quickly to bring our management office group up to the table.
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June 24, 2010
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Oh, this is going to take a lot oftime.
MR. OCHS: Again, we'll start just quickly with Mr. Torre, and if
you-all just have a, you know, very brief summary of your budget, any
highlights, and then we'll move forward.
MR. TORRE: Good morning, Commissioners. The
Communication Department budget did meet budget guidance this
year, but as indicated in the narrative on Page 12, one FTE was
transferred to the department, which is why you see a slight increase
in the overall budget.
And with that, I can answer any questions you might have.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioners, any questions?
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Jack, with the TDC funds,
with the Marco Island Museum, I understand that there was a little --
Marco Island Museum had submitted a request for $150,000, and
apparently there was a misunderstanding as to whether they were
county owned or whether they were on their own, and so staff had
recommended, because of this misunderstanding, not to -- not to fund
that amount.
And what it was was, you know, left over from the last time yet,
and what they're trying to do is just make up that difference.
And I guess Colleen -- I don't know where Colleen Green is, but
Colleen had submitted then a letter to us saying no, that it was
allowable. And I was just wondering, has that been discussed or is
this going to be on here, or when will that be discussed?
MR. WERT: For the record, Jack Wert, Tourism Director.
The -- when the TDC reviewed those grant applications, the
feeling at that point was that the Marco Museum, by the time the new
fiscal year started or soon after, that museum would, in fact, be a
county-owned museum. So by ordinance, it could not be funded out
of that category C2, which is noncounty-owned museums.
The other possibility, and I think what the county attorney might
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June 24, 2010
have been looking at, too, was that the Historical Society indicated
perhaps they could apply for those funds and be the recipient of the
funds and, therefore, work on getting the new exhibits.
And that certainly is true, but it would not then be a museum
grant. It would need to come out of category B as a marketing grant.
It would need to come out of our funds somewhere else. We're pretty
strapped as it is, but it would come out of a different fund if that were
the case because they, themselves, are not a museum. They are a
society representing a museum. It's somewhat complicated.
But then the TDC did go through and allocate those limited
dollars that they do have in C2 to those organizations that are
noncounty-owned museums and did seem to fit all of the guidelines of
those -- of the grants in that category.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: How are we going to then make up
that difference that we weren't able to fund them last year but we had
kind of promised them to do? I mean, that was the agreement when
they were going to be opening the museum, that we would fund this,
and we haven't been able to do that. How are we going to meet that
commitment?
MR. WERT: The commitment this current fiscal year was
$100,000. That was the only commitment to my knowledge that was
made to the museum.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Initially what the county had agreed
to was to pay for all of the display cabinets and displays themselves
and, of course, we didn't do that. I wonder how we're going to meet
that commitment.
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, we have a $100,000 appropriation
in the museum capital budget earmarked for displays for the Marco
Island Museum in fiscal year' 11.
The agreement says that we will fund the displays as the budget
allows, and that 100,000 is earmarked, Commissioner, for that
museum display and exhibit acquisition for' 11.!
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's kind of going then toward
trying to make up our original contract; is that it?
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am, along with the money that was set
aside by the board this year and the money that was brought forward
by the Marco Island City Council.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, yeah. But I'm not talking
about Marco Island City Council.
MR. OCHS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'm just talking about our agreement
with them. So tell me again now, what -- this 100,000 is going toward
that commitment to them in their contract?
MR. WERT: Yes, sir.
MR. OCHS: Yes, ma'am. There's 100,000 going forward from
TDC funds in '10, and there's another 100,000 from TDC funds that
fund the museum that are earmarked in '11 towards those exhibits and
displays.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Finished, Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Any other questions, Commissioners?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much, and we offer our
appreciation to you for the fine job you've done, and pulling together
to keep our budget under control.
MR. SUMMERS: We do our best.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And to keep the hurricanes and oil away
from us.
MR. OCHS: Yes.
MR. WERT: Doing our best.
MR. SUMMERS: Very much, so.
MR. OCHS: Thank you.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We're going to take a ten-minute break.
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June 24, 2010
MR. OCHS : Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Be back here by at 10:37, maybe 10:40.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Make up your mind.
(A brief recess was had.)
COUNTY ATTORNEY
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Ladies and gentlemen, we're back in
session. Bring the next victim forward, please.
MR. OCHS: Yeah, we're getting candy here for Commissioner
Fiala's sweet tooth, sir. There's a method to getting these budgets
approved, you know.
The next group would be the County Attorney's Office, Mr.
Klatzkow.
MR. KLATZKOW: Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Boy, you look lonely up here.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah. There's not much of us left these
days.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: You've got a skeleton crew.
MR. KLA TZKOW: Well, we've met budget guidance, and I'm
just here to answer any questions.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Obviously.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Are there any questions,
Commissioners?
MR. OCHS: You were brilliant, Jeff.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah. I just want to say thank you
very much for how you've consolidated your office and the direction
that we're going; I think it's very, very positive. And we're still
working at a -- your office is still working at a very high, efficient
rate, and we appreciate everything you're doing.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yeah.
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June 24, 2010
MR. KLATZKOW: Commissioner, I appreciate that very much.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you very, very much.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yeah. We appreciate what you're doing.
I think you do it very efficiently. You're very responsive, even with
the reduced staff.
MR. KLATZKOW: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Keep doing it.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: So thank you.
BCC (COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCIES AND
AIRPORT AUTHORITY
MR.OCHS: Commissioners, next up is the BCC, including your
community redevelopment authorities and your airport operations.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Ah, the BCC is the one I want to get.
MR. MITCHELL: I wasn't going to come up.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yeah.
MR. OCHS: Penny, you want to begin?
MS. PHILLIPPI: I thought we would let Ian begin, if you go
don't mind.
MR. OCHS: Pardon me?
MS. PHILLIPPI: Yes, sir.
Good morning. For the record, my name is Penny Phillippi, and
in this -- at this particular moment I'm acting as interim Airport
Authority Director. And the Airport Authority has followed your
budget policy and decreased the loan from the general fund by 5.5
percent.
As you know, the majority of the revenue for the Airport
Authority is for sales and fuel and, therefore, the majority of our
operating expenses for the purchase of fuel.
We have three projects that we're lining up to get rolling in 2011.
And as you know, one of them is the taxiway at the Marco Airport,
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June 24, 2010
close to just -- just over $7 million project which, by the way,
Commissioner Fiala, the application is ready to be transmitted today.
We're ready to go forward with that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, that's great. And on time, right?
MS. PHILLIPPI: Absolutely. Well, it isn't due until June 30th,
so we're well ahead of the schedule.
And a couple of other projects that we have going on. The
important thing is that through the genius of Debbie Mueller, sitting to
my right, we have enough match money accumulated among the
different budgets to provide the match to the three projects that we
want to take forward during 2011.
That's all I really have for you. If you have any questions, I'll try
to answer them.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Coletta has a question.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. I -- well, first I wanted to
recognize the efforts for the Marco Island runway expansion. Donna
Fiala's been playing a big role in that, along with John Norman. And,
you know, lots of times people think these things happen on their own
initiative, and that's not always so.
Where are we with the future expansion of the Immokalee
Airport runway?
MS. PHILLIPPI: Well, as you know, the land has not been
purchased. We don't have -- we don't have that land for 2011. It is
budgeted. Funds are budgeted for that project. We've used some of
them for -- some of those funds for some other projects, but we're in a
position to put those monies back into the Immokalee fund.
We're doing some environmental testing and things like that right
now, but we don't have that scheduled for 2011. It's in the five-year
plan, but it's not coming up in the upcoming here.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: But I want to express my
appreciation to you and your staff for taking the airport and turning it
around in a direction that the community is starting to buy into it.
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June 24, 2010
Where there seems to be, in the recent past, a lot of division
within the community, I've seen a uniting behind the airport to try to
get things done, and I compliment you and your staff for doing that. It
means a lot when we have everybody aboard.
MS. PHILLIPPI: Well, thank you very much. I want to say that
Bob Tweedie to my left is the airport manager, and he's taken over the
duties of managing all three of the airports simultaneously. We're
doing a lot of restriping, paint up, clean up, fix up, landscaping, and I
think you'll see all of these airports with a new face, you know, within
the next couple months. I think Bob has been doing a really good job
at keeping everything up and running and moving.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Good work.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I will relay a conversation, what
I had with one of the users of the airport, is concerns about the fuel
cost in Immokalee not being competitive with like operations such as
Sebring and that. And I relayed this to the former director of the
airports.
I was informed yesterday that aviation fuel at the Naples Airport
is approximately a dollar a gallon less. This person feels that if the
Immokalee Airport was more competitive with its fuel prices, we'd
receive a lot more business.
MS. PHILLIPPI: Thank you, Commissioner. I know that at the
last advisory board meeting Chairman Meade asked Debbie Mueller,
who is our fiscal guru, and Jim Murray, who is one of the advisory
board members, to complete a fuel analysis and bring that summary
back to their July meeting. They don't typically have a July meeting.
But that was brought up at the meeting, and we're taking a really
close look at that to figure out -- you know, even LaBelle may be less
expensive than we are, and how can we kind of get in line with our
competition. We realize we're in a competition.
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MS. PHILLIPPI: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah. I believe that a lot fuel costs
relate to the gallonage that you sell. And obviously, if you're trying to
compete against Naples Airport, they buy a whole lot more fuel, and
they obviously get a cut in regards to the amount of fuel that they
purchase.
So I'm sure that you have a difficult task there to try to figure out
how low you can go on fuel costs and still make money, because you
have -- you have to come up with making sure that you're -- that you
take care of the bills, and unless you can find someone else that will
sell to you at the rates, even though you have low gallonage compared
to the other airports such as Marco or the Naples Airport, I think that's
probably your biggest contributing factor.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I would -- first of all, I'd like
to just say hats off and a salute to John Norman for his monumental
work in getting that changed around and getting the dollars available
for the Marco Island Airport. He did a -- he did a yeoman's job, and
you were right there working with him, and I appreciate both of you
because of -- now you're going to have safety at that airport, which we
have not had, ever. And so that's a wonderful thing.
Second thing I wanted to know was, how is the construction
coming along for the parking lot at the Marco Island Airport? And my
third question is, if we sell gas at the -- fuel at the Marco Island
Airport -- do we even sell it? I don't even know that.
MS. PHILLIPPI: We do.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Are our fuel sales there pretty
substantial?
MS. PHILLIPPI: They certainly are. I'm going to ask Bob
Tweedy, the Airport Manager, to address those questions, particularly,
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June 24, 2010
fuel sales. And the parking lot, you'll -- the expansion, when you
drive past there, you're going to be very pleasantly surprised.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was going to go there this
morning, and I didn't have a chance. I was on Marco this morning at
7:30, so I didn't have a chance to stop by there.
MS. PHILLIPPI: I think you'll be very pleased.
MR. TWEEDIE: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record,
Bob Tweedy, Airport Manager, Collier County Airport Authority. To
answer your first question first, the parking lot project is proceeding
on schedule. It's expected to be complete by the end of July.
They're just finishing the site preparation work for the parking lot
portion, which has to be completed first. They're going to be paving
within the next couple of weeks, and we expect the parking lot to be
open within the next three weeks or so, and then we'll be able to move
forward with the apron portion, and everything is on schedule.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Are we going to be adding -- I know
we have a waiting line for hangars there. Are we going to be adding
more hangars? That airport right now is a cash cow. That would be a
wonderful benefit, I would think.
MR. TWEEDIE: Not in this project, but in future projects
associated with the construction of the taxiway and apron expansion
we'll then -- once we have that apron expansion complete, we'll have
the sufficient land to be able to construct future hangars, which we
have programmed in our five-year Capital Improvement Plan in a later
phase in one of the outer years.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Because those dollars can help then
the Immokalee Airport, and that's a wonderful thing, because we can
see that as the new rising star, and we want to do everything we can to
support that airport. Thank you.
MS. PHILLIPPI: I think also you'll be encouraged to know that
there are quite a few events being planned at the airport in partnership
with the casino where we're having fly-ins and we're having to bring
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June 24, 2010
staff from Marco to bring the gas truck and the tug -- the tug to pull
airplanes. We're expecting, August 7th, a pretty substantial number of
airplanes to come in, which will, of course, increase gas sales in
Immokalee.
A hot-air balloon event is upcoming. So we're starting to see
people view the Immokalee Airport as a destination, which -- and, of
course, with all the marketing we're doing, we're hoping that it will
continue to do so.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Coletta?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes, thank you. In may, I need
to clarify some of the issues regarding fuel. Fuel -- you purchase fuel
at a different price for each airport?
MS. PHILLIPPI: I'm going to ask Debbie Mueller to address the
details of the fuel.
MS. MUELLER: Debbie Mueller.
MR.OCHS: No, Debbie. Please get a little closer to that mike--
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Move it a little closer.
MR. OCHS: -- or pull it closer to you. Give it a yank. There
you go.
MS. MUELLER: Debbie Mueller.
MR. OCHS: Closer.
MS. MUELLER: Closer yet?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Like you're a rock star.
MS. MUELLER: I've never been a rock star.
MS. PHILLIPPI: She's shy.
MS. MUELLER: Any -- the fuel pricing, yes. The price varies
by airport. It's close, but it's always a few pennies different, and that's
basically because of the freight cost that's included in our fuel.
Obviously, it's -- when it comes over from the Port of Everglades,
Everglades City gets a lower price than the Marco Airport would, so
that's where the biggest difference comes.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. Then let me take it one
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June 24, 2010
step further. Naples Airport, do they get a lower price than we get?
MS. MUELLER: They may. Their volume is much greater than
ours.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's right.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I understand. Now, here's a
thought. In the state, we have an agreement with all the municipalities
and county governments whereby if someone buys something at a
certain price, everybody gets it at that price. Now, it probably doesn't
apply to airports, it probably doesn't apply to fuel, I don't know, but
maybe something could be done to form a consortium so everybody
can get a low price. And why not look into it just as a possibility?
You know, we could be done on the whole thing. I mean, right
now you're being held hostage by the fuel delivery people, the
vendors. Let's see if we can take the initiative. Maybe Naples Airport
might be interested in working with us. We can come up with some
cooperative, collaborative agreements, possibly even reach up to
Sebring and start networking this idea forward.
MS. PHILLIPPI: Can Bob talk to that for a moment?
MR. TWEEDIE: I think we can definitely look into that. One of
the issues we have to be concerned with is that since these are
essentially retail operations in the sale and distribution of fuel, we
have to be concerned with price fixing issues.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: No. We're not talking price
fixing. You can set the price for what you buy it. What you sell it --
you're not going to negotiate with any other airport all to sell it at the
same price. I'm not suggesting that. I don't want to --
MR. TWEEDIE: Talking about the purchasing end?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'm talking about the vendor
itself where you're buying it from. You're free to come together and
conclude on how you're going to be able to get a better price. Am I --
county attorney isn't here right now, but ifhe was, he would agree
with me.
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June 24, 2010
MR. TWEEDIE: No, I understand where you're going with that.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I don't know ifhe would or not,
but I thought I'd give it a try.
MR. TWEEDIE: We will look into that.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you. I appreciate it. Oh,
and by the way, your last -- I attended your last meeting of the
advisory board, and it was -- it was wonderful. It was so great to see
so many people from the community taking an interest. It must have
been what, 20, 25 people there --
MS. PHILLIPPI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- in the audience? I mean, it
was quite remarkable. More people than we have in the audience here
right now. But it was very well run. It went very well. There were
some very good suggestions that came from the advisory board, and
everybody seemed to be working as one cohesive unit.
MS. PHILLIPPI: Thank you. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Thank you very much. Goodjob.
MR. OCHS: CRA--
CHAIRMAN COYLE: But you have to stay here for David and
for Ian, right?
MR. OCHS: Go ahead, David.
MR. JACKSON: Thank you. David Jackson, Executive
Director of the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle CRA.
First off, I'd like to say that the advisory board chair and the
advisory board committee members last meeting wholeheartedly
wanted to send a message to you as the CRA board and as the Board
of County Commissioners of your support for letting the community
look at their 2,000 acres and develop it into what they want it to be in
the future.
They've taken a proactive stance, you've supported that, and as a
result of that, energy begets energy; so good things happen, more good
things continue to happen in the area.
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June 24, 2010
Basically my budget concerns is, this is the third year in a row
that we've had a decrease because the millage is set, and then we have
decreasing property values. We live within that budget. We took a
significant hit this year, greater than last year.
We adjusted the budget accordingly, we covered our debt
service, and then we took the rest of the funds, either put it in the
capital improvements to fund the projects or to do operating costs.
Everything in our budget meets Florida Statute 163, allocations
for funding of projects, and it also meets the criteria to meet the
redevelopment plan.
And I'm here to answer any questions, if there are any.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Well, I'd just like to make a statement
concerning both CRAs. More has been accomplished since you,
David, and you, Penny, have been in charge of your respective CRAs
than I think at any time in Collier County's history with respect to
those areas that are in need of redevelopment.
You've done an excellent job, and despite the current economic
recession/depression, we are -- you're still doing well, and it has
slowed you down a bit, but it certainly isn't stopping you. And so we
appreciate your commitment to that and your hard work.
We finished with CRAs now? Okay.
MR.OCHS: Penny, do you have anything on the Immokalee
CRA you want to go over with the board?
MS. PHILLIPPI: Well, I could say ditto. The only thing I would
tell you is that we have started our stormwater master plan. We did --
we were able to acquire a $3 and a half million grant to begin --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Could you speak up a little bit?
MS. PHILLIPPI: We did acquire a $3 and a half million grant to
do our stormwater master plan through our hous- -- CDBG, county
CDBG entitlement, and we have got our business incubator started.
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June 24, 2010
We've put the infrastructure in with Mark Isackson to set up a cost
center, so we'll see -- hopefully we'll see that little incubator start
some new businesses generated out into Immokalee.
We're continuing our facade grants. And as you know, we
recently won a huge award from the Florida Planning and Zoning
Association for our public realm and form-based guidelines.
So I really thank you for the compliments, and I really am
pleased with the staff, Brad Muckel and Christie Betancourt. I mean,
they -- it's really small staff, but when you think of the things we've
accomplished, I'm really, really proud of them, and I regret that there
isn't a cost-of-living increase in our budget for this staff.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We all regret that.
MS. PHILLIPPI: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Ian, are you next?
MR. MITCHELL: I am, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
MR. MITCHELL: Sir, the budget for the BCC office is showing
an increase of almost 6 percent, 5.7 percent. The challenge with the
BCC office is that the personnel service of a budget of $1 ,060,000, a
million dollars of that is for personnel services, and there has been
some dramatic increases in that portion this year that, sort of, we
haven't had any affect over.
With that, the retirement element for the commissioners rose by
$23,000. We have VSIP payments of$II,OOO, another retirement
element of$5,000. So altogether in personnel services, we had an
increase of $47,000.
Within the operating expenses -- our operating expense budget
for last year was $42,600, and this year it -- as it stands presently, it's
pegged at 58,000.
I removed $8,000 from the budget, which was areas that I had the
ability to do that. We removed any storage costs, we've removed post
and freight and printing and photo processing, and office supplies
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June 24, 2010
we've reduced by 50 percent.
One of the elements of that that I did do was, last year during the
budget session, three commissioners surrendered $9,000 of their travel
expenses, and in this year's budget, I actually reinstated that because
that's a district cost, and that's actually a commissioner's decision on
whether that money's going to be surrendered again.
And then on top of that, we took a capital allocation from IT of
$2,600 and telephone access charges of $5,800.
So with those increases, that reflects overall an increase of 5.7
percent.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Questions, Commissioners?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ian.
MR. MITCHELL: Thank you, sir.
DEBIT SERVICES
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, your last item this morning--
thank you all-- is your debt service review.
Mr. Isackson will take you quickly through that.
MR. ISACKSON: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, Mark Isackson with the County Manager's Office.
We were before you in January with a pre-comprehensive report
on your general governmental debt service structure, which is what's
behind the debt service tab in your budget book.
At that time we mentioned to the board the need to refinance our
12 commercial paper loans. Before you on the 22nd of June were the
final documents that were necessary in order to move that process
forward.
We will be executing those documents in closing on July 22nd,
and the transfer of funds will occur on the 23rd of July.
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June 24, 2010
You will recall in the county manager's overview, that the
savings associated with that refinancing is roughly $4.9 million. That,
I think, is an important first step as we continue to manage and look at
our debt structure.
As we mentioned earlier, this is general governmental debt. The
total outstanding at 9/30/09 was $500 million. The annual principal
and interest is roughly $51 million on that -- on that obligation.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Is that it?
MR. ISACKSON: That's all I have, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Where is the breakdown of that
half a billion dollars worth of debt?
MR. ISACKSON: Sir, the only thing you have here is your
annual principal and interest on each one of those that are situated in
the funds that you see within that tab.
MR. OCHS: What page?
MR. ISACKSON: Under the debt service tab, sir, if you're there.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
MR. ISACKSON: You'll see that the numbers there simply
reflect your annual principal and interest payments. On Page 2 up on
top you'll see that. If you look at the notes for each one of the funds,
you'll see a number outstanding, debt outstanding, as of a certain date.
The number I quoted you is as of September of '09. The estimate
that we have as of September '010 is within each one of the notations
on those debt service funds, and you'll see that.
For example, on Page 6, the 2002 capital improvement bond.
Principal outstanding as we protected to be at 9/3012010, is $27.7
million. And you'll see that and -- that type of notation going forward
for each one of those funds.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What is our total debt?
MR. ISACKSON: Total debt outstanding, sir, the audited
number as of 9/30/09 for all funds, $765 million.
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So approximately 50 percent of
the debt is other than general operating -- general government
services?
MR. ISACKSON: Well, if you take the -- you make 500--
you've got about 265 million that's related to your enterprise
operations.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And we have two enterprise
operations. How does that break down per operation as far as the
debt?
MR. OCHS: Solid waste and public utilities.
MR. ISACKSON: Yeah, I'd have to get that detail for you, sir. I
don't have it off the top of my head.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Well, it's fair to say that
we have $250 million of debt associated -- most of that would be
public services, I would imagine?
MR. OCHS: No, public utilities, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Public -- yeah, public utilities.
MR. OCHS: Yeah. It's either in your water and sewer capital
debt service or your solid waste.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And the only debt service that
we have in growth -- new community -- growth management, new
division, would be the outstanding for the building, the loan -- I think
a million and a half loan, parks and rec.
MR. ISACKSON: Yeah, we -- the -- sir, the enterprise fund data
is all within what we call Fund 410. I have a detailed sheet here, if
you want to slap that up on the --
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, I misspoke also, but Ms. Usher
corrects me. There is no debt in your solid waste funds. Those utility
debts are in your water and sewer.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Water and sewer, yeah. Yeah.
We actually have a surplus in solid waste.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
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June 24, 2010
MR. ISACKSON: And remember, this is existing debt, sir. We
have no new debt issuance other than our refunding issue that we're
pursuing right now.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. But I seen in the -- we
got a capital reserve in utilities of $60 million.
MR. ISACKSON: Well, that's -- those are two different animals,
sir. The debt service tab relates to our general governmental debt.
What you're referring to is our enterprise debt.
MR. OCHS: Yes, yep.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And this is -- this is utilities
right here?
MR. ISACKSON: That's your--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Oh, okay. So we got $260
million worth of debt.
MR. ISACKSON: Outstanding for your enterprise.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Outstanding debt, and we're
using 21 and a half million to service that?
MR. ISACKSON: That's to service that debt, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. And then we have $60
million worth of reserve capital within Mr. DeLony's budget?
MR. OCHS: Jim?
MR. DeLONY: For the record, Jim DeLony. I'll wait for the
question, sir, but I have some explanations, if you'd like them.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. Reserve capital, Page --
your capital, Page 1. Reserve capital last year was less than $30
million, and now you have a $60 million capital reserve.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So you're doubling your
carryforwards?
MR. DeLONY: Right.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And what was your debt on --
MR. DeLONY: Our debt load--
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Historical debt?
MR. DeLONY: My annual debt load, all end, both user fees and
impact fees, as Mark said, about $21 and a half million, all end. We
have to make those -- that's my -- I did the annual mortgage payment
on that debt.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right there.
MR. DeLONY: Right. That's the annual mortgage payment on
that debt.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. DeLONY: And that has to be paid out of user fees or
collection of impact fees. Those dollars have to come in every year.
Just like you have your home debt, that's the debt on the utility.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. And user fees, because
the impact fees are not coming in, you're relying more on user fees?
MR. DeLONY: Well, not this year, and in not -- and in this
budget we anticipate having to use a minimum amount of impact fee
augmentation by user fees. But I can promise you that in the lay down
that you have in front of you and the budget we presented, we see --
anticipate years '12, '13, '14 being different, that there's a high
likelihood that that debt service for those impact fees will be borne by
the user fee -- by the user fee funds because we don't have the impact
fees coming in.
Mark, is that consistent with --
MR. ISACKSON: I would concur with Mr. DeLony, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I would, too. We don't have the
growth.
MR. DeLONY: And so our -- it is very important that we
understand why these reserve funds that you spoke to remain where
they are, because of the criticality of what I spoke to, and those funds
represent the cash that we use as outlined in our budget for the
go-forward, pay-as-you-go funding of all of our capital infrastructure
with no new debt incurred.
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So just so I understand,
you're holding that money anticipating that impact fees are not going
to come in like they are historically, and you want to use this money
to pay future debt?
MR. DeLONY: That's just one of the uses of that money.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How much -- what's the
percentage of the use of that money that's going to pay for debt?
MR. DeLONY: It's a depends answer, because I'll have to -- in
make a zero -- in make a worst-case assumption starting in year '12,
'13, '14, we don't receive the $30 million aggregate that those three
years demand in terms of mortgage payment, then half that money
will go to pay that mortgage.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Did you prepare for worst-case
scenario?
MR. DeLONY: I prepared for, I think, the most probable-case
scenario, not a worst-case scenario.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Probable.
MR. DeLONY: Most probable whereby, I believe we project our
impact fee revenues somewhere between 1 and $4 million over each
of those four -- three years, and then we'd back that up, and we've laid
it out that way.
The purposes of that 60 million though is much greater than just
paying down debt. It's -- that's the money we use to fund all of our
capital program. That's the money we use that our -- that is set aside
per bond covenant for a statutory (sic) or reserves which are indicators
of the economic health of the utility.
So having those funds in hand serve multiple purposes, and it
represents the go-to, outside of using a credit card, for any concerns
that we may have arising either out of an exigent situation, or let's say
there's a significant change of regulatory situation where we have to
have cash to address that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. You're saying -- you just
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June 24, 2010
told me that you're using this funds for capital improvements that
you're anticipating; is that -- is that a true statement?
MR. DeLONY: That is a true statement.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. It says, reserve for
capital. So you're not really reserving it. It's for reserve and
expenditures of capital. And you're telling me you have no other line
item for capital improvements within this budget?
MR. DeLONY: The budget that we have has a capital element
that's funded, and these are the funds above that capital element for
FYll.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What's your -- what's above the
$60 million that you use --
MR. DeLONY: It would be the budget that we have set up for
FYl1 in our capital fund, for example.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How much?
MR. DeLONY: Mark, you'll have to help me on that one. I don't
have that sheet in front of me.
I want -- I really wanted though -- if I may, sir, I just -- and we'll
get the number. Mark's looking it for me now.
These reserves are critical. We have a requirement to have a
cash on-hand reserve. We have to have a reserve for our
contingencies.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I want to understand the budget,
that's all.
MR. DeLONY: We have to have a reserve. Okay. Actually in
this budget, in FYll budget, there's 28.7 -- excuse me -- $28.4 million
of capital designated for our capital program. Some of those is new
starts, most of it is continuous starts on existing construction as we
have it now.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is a part of that $28.4 million, is
that within that 60 million?
MR. DeLONY: No, it's not.
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June 24, 2010
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So that's in addition --
MR. DeLONY: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- to -- so you have almost $100
million worth of either debt service -- see, I mean, I don't understand
why you want to break it down to reserve for capital and then you
have another item, but you told me that reserve for capital is for debt
service and capital improvements. Why can't you break it down into
two of them so we can really understand what you're doing with
these?
MR. DeLONY: We could do that. There's no reason why you
can't. This is the format we've chosen, not just this year but every
year, in terms of aggregating these reserve funds because they serve
multiple purposes. And you have the reserves earmarked, but not
committed, for those purposes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I understand that. Here's
my concern. Your fees have gone up. We have gone from impact
fees paying for your capital improvements to the existing user paying
for your capital improvements because growth hasn't been there. So
my objective would be -- is give the users a break when we can.
MR. DeLONY: And absolutely. I would not argue with that,
and that's exactly what we've done. I gave you as evidence, as best I
could, what's driving the cost of doing business associated with
providing the services we provide in my budget presentation earlier.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. And I remember you
saying -- you're saying your expenses are going up, your maintenance
expenses are going up. We're just talking about now your capital
improvement as reported.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir. All--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And the reserve for capitals, the
$60 million, I would like to have broken down.
MR. DeLONY: Sure.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I would like to know what
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June 24, 2010
you're going to have in reserves for future debt, I would like to know
what you're holding for capital improvements, okay.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MR. DeLONY: I could answer some of that now, but I could do
that offline at another time if you'd like.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I think it needs to be reported,
because I don't -- if -- God bless you if capital improvement or impact
fees come in, I don't want to make unnecessary capital improvements
when what we really should be doing is helping the citizens that we
serve.
MR. DeLONY: Sir, absolutely. I mean, that is -- that is a
position that not only I have, it's the direction I've been receiving from
this board from the day I joined this outfit eight years and 10 days ago.
My view is, is that we provide it at best value. These reserves are
critical to ensuring that we have the bond covenants that are required
by statute for the debt we have, to have the funds in hand that we need
to have as statutory promise for cash flow, they're critical to fund the
ongoing capital program that we have in our master plans, and they're
critical for contingencies associated with either unforeseen or
emergent or exigent situations.
We have worked hard to do that. We use national and --
benchmarks to do that. For example, the Fitch Rating Agency, which
is the rating agency that carries our bonding debt, says that we should
have 544 days of operating expenses for a triple A utility. Our rating
is triple A plus. That's about 399 days. This budget provides for 394
days so we can sustain that rating and provide for that assurance to
those bonding agencies that we are solvent, that we are responsible,
and that we are prepared to provide the business to the folks the way
you described it.
That's the purpose of these reserves. It's not to keep money from
people or have money we don't need. It's money which is needed and
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June 24, 2010
necessary to sustain this type of operation.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioners, what concerns
me, we have three quarters of a billion dollars in debt, and we have
diminishing revenues coming in, and -- but we keep on spending
money.
And we must be cognizant of the future and not get into a
position where we cannot provide services to our constituents because
we failed to recognize our debt and our debt services.
I've heard this year, especially this year, that we have less debt
than most other counties. We got to pay our bills.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: You finished?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Point of order.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I think we got a thing here that this
debt service didn't come overnight. This debt service was because of
the fact of direction from this board to build the infrastructure in this
community .
And I think when I first came on board, we had a problem where
we couldn't even meet the demands of the customers as far as water
and sewer. They've gone forward and put the infrastructure in that's
needed.
And I'm sick and tired -- and I said it earlier. This is not a public
flogging. I believe that if our utility has a triple A rating, that we're
doing a good job. And I believe those reserves are also going to be
used in case we have a wind event here that I asked earlier about
addressing this thing.
I'm tired of you, Commissioner, of sitting here and handpicking
each of these individuals. We've all very diligently --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You don't have to get angry at
me.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: -- in regards to this. Excuse me, I
got the floor, okay.
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June 24,2010
I'm sick and tired of the way that you handle yourself in these
meetings, and you take it -- and I said earlier, this is not a place for
public flogging. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I wasn't flogging anybody.
I was just recognizing the debt that we have and our obligations.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: All right.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Now, let me address that, if you don't
mind, and I'll relate it to our personal situations.
Who in this room who owns a home doesn't have a mortgage that
exceeds their annual salary? Okay. If you earn $50,000 a year, you
can afford $125,000 mortgage. If you earn $100,000, you can afford a
$250,000 mortgage and higher in some cases.
In comparison, Collier County's total debt does not exceed our
total revenue per year. That's like someone who earns $50,000 having
a $50,000 mortgage. Very, very conservative situation. Very, very
affordable. Very low risk. That's why our bonds are rated as highly
as they are.
So this idea that someone has been irresponsible in creating debt
in Collier County is ridiculous and misleading. We have been very
responsible.
And by the way, this debt was a result of building roads, building
water processing facilities, sewage processing facilities, all of the
other infrastructure that was lacking in Collier County when this board
took its seat here.
They've been very responsible expenditures. And to take a single
bit of information and try to transfer it into something that it is not is
simply not accurate.
So that's why we have a 9.3 percent debt ratio, and that means
that our annual debt service is only 9.3 percent of our total bonded
revenue, not even our total revenue, but our total bonded revenue.
Now, you tell me somebody who has a mortgage and the
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June 24, 2010
payment is less than 9.3 percent of their annual salary. Most people
aren't in that favorable position. So this is not an issue.
If we want additional detail about where your reserves for capital
really are and what you're planning on doing, that's fine, but it means
nothing. It's like setting aside a little money to get your children into
college, and then all of a sudden you lose your job. What do you do?
You might have to take some money out of that fund to pay your
mortgage. That's why we have reserves.
And you cannot anticipate all of the potential uses for those
reserves until you're faced with the circumstances that require their
use.
So if you would like to provide some additional detail about
where that capital reserve is, what capital improvements you would
expect, I am quite sure that there is money there for unexpected
circumstances. Right?
(No verbal response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Thank you very much.
Commissioner Fiala, were you next or was Commissioner
Henning?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I just have to chime in with
what the gentlemen just said, especially Commissioner Halas when he
stated -- and I remember doing this so well. When we took office ten
years ago and we had a stinking landfill, not just a bad landfill, but it
really stunk to the point where our eyes watered, and then we had the
seeping wastewater treatment plant where the state shut us down
because it was so bad, we all took office knowing that we were going
to assume a lot of debt to get that thing cleared up. We let taxpayers
know when we were running for office, we know we have to dedicate
the dollars to this, but we will fix it, and we will build the roads that
hadn't been built in many years.
And you've dealt with that, you've put us on the right side and put
us in an outstanding position where people look at us with a great deal
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June 24, 2010
of respect and send their people down to watch what you're doing, and
you've set aside money in case we have some type of a hurricane
event this summer. I'm not going to say wind event. I'm going to go
right for the hurricane, and -- because you're going to need capital
outlay immediately. You can't wait 'til FEMA reimburses you a year
later.
I think you've done an outstanding job, and I have no problems
with it whatsoever.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You know, I don't know why
somebody's taking offense to my comments about our debt and
revenues that are diminishing. And in fact, our total revenues are
$130 million less than they were last year. My comment is, we keep
on spending, and I just want you to recognize we have less revenues,
we're spending more, and we have debt, all right? That's all.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: All right. Well, then let me make a
statement about that. In fact, we have --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I don't mean to anger you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: We are reduced our expenditures by over
$400 million in the last three years. What is that? Is that not
expenditure reduction? Of course it is. All right?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Our debt -- can we get historical
debt figures?
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And the recent -- most recent audited
financial statement shows that it declined, I believe, $29 million from
'09 to '010. Does my memory serve me correctly?
MR. OCHS: Yeah. Mark?
MR. ISACKSON: We'll pull together the numbers for you, sir,
and we'll get the information out to you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Thank you.
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June 24, 2010
MR. OCHS: We could have that this afternoon if you'd like to
do it after your constitutional officer presentation. Very well.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we compare it to our
reduction of income?
MR. ISACKSON: We can present it any way you'd like, sir.
MR.OCHS: Yep.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. I think we're finished with that
portion. Is there anything else?
MR. OCHS: No, sir, I'm afraid not, until your one p.m. briefings
with your constitutional officers.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. We'll take a lunch break until one
p.m., and then we'll be back here and take up the constitutional
officers.
MR. OCHS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Thank you very much.
(A luncheon recess was had.)
MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, you have a live mike.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Thank you very much, County
Manager.
Board of County Commission meeting is back in session now.
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, we move now to the constitutional
officer budget presentations. We have three constitutional officers and
agencies that will present this afternoon, beginning in order here on
your agenda with your Supervisor of Elections, Ms. Edwards.
All three have met the board's budget guidance and submitted
their budgets. You have them for review.
MS. EDWARDS: Good afternoon.
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June 24, 2010
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Good afternoon, Jennifer. How are you?
MS. EDWARDS: I am good, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Good.
MS. EDWARDS: I have two comments to make, to share with
you. Number one, I'd like to thank you all for your support in
requesting the deferral of the purchase of new ADA equipment until
2016, and your active participation allowed us to reduce our request
for 301 funds by almost $700,000. So thank you. Thank you very
much.
And the other comment I have is that I, indeed, met the request
and reduced our budget by 5 percent.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And we appreciate that.
MS. EDWARDS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Does anyone have any questions?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: How can you question a good thing?
CHAIRMAN COYLE: That's right. We appreciate your
cooperation, thank you. With the help of all the constitutional
officers, hopefully we will be able to hold the millage rate right where
it is, despite the plunging appraised property values.
MS. EDWARDS: But we're pleased to cooperate for next year.
But please remember that when we move forward into 2012, that's a
big election year, so you will see an increase in my budget.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I'm only interested in this election year.
MS. EDWARDS: Understood, understood.
Thank you all so much.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: All right, thank you.
MR. OCHS: Thank you, Jennifer.
Commissioners, next up is Sheriff Rambosk.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: All yours.
SHERIFF
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June 24, 2010
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of
the board. I'd like to begin by thanking your staff, everyone up to and
including the county manager. I'll touch a little bit on why that's so
important for us this year. And you know, every year we seem to
think we have a better and better relationship and, in fact, we do.
I also wanted to recognize you as a board for your policy, your
leadership, and your strong support of public safety, because that's
very important to not only us but the residents of Collier County.
So I'm here with you today in accordance with Florida state
statute to submit a certification for the budget of 2011 in the amount
of $136,054,900, which is, in fact, a $7.2 million reduction from that
of the 2010 budget, and it's within accordance of concerns for our
dropping ad valorem tax values, which we are very concerned about in
our ability to continue to maintain safety in the county.
It also includes a number of millions of dollars that we have
absorbed in the budget to continue operations. So the actual savings
here is over $10 million for Collier County.
As you're aware, we know that the residents of Collier County
have been struck fairly significantly with this economic downturn.
Our deputies see it each and every day, as well as your staff. And you
know, I need to recognize them, because it was our entire organization
that really enabled me to sit here and review with you a budget that
will accomplish what I think everyone in Collier County wants to
accomplish.
So, you know, thanking each and every deputy, thanking our
management team, which is our lieutenant, our commanders, our
captains, who have taken on a lot more responsibility today because of
streamlining the organization, which is a nice word for cutting a lot of
command positions and taking over those responsibilities.
We have a terrific finance component, which again, you see in
the submission, and a great senior management team, and they're here
with us today, including Chief Jim Bloom, Chief Scott Sally, Chief
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June 24, 2010
Gregg Smith, Chief Jim Williams, and Director Stephanie Spell who,
without their work in operations and administration, I certainly
wouldn't be able to sleep easily at night. They can't, but I can,
knowing that they are there and provide such a terrific job.
You know, we have not only reduced the size but the cost of
operations in organization -- in our organization, and that's important,
but what we've not done is seen a reduction in crime and safety in
Collier County. As a matter of fact, we're coming up on midyear
statistics, and as far as we can tell, we're not quite there yet, a couple
of weeks off of that. But the men and women of the Collier County
Sheriffs Office, led by the individuals that are here, are holding the
line and stopping increasing of crime at this point, and that is
absolutely terrific, which they all need to be recognized for.
Not only that, but they have increased programming and they
have increased services going down this road, and I think you can see
that evidenced through the partnerships that we have, and that is the
way we're able to do this is look at a collaboration between
community, business, and other governnIent.
We want to thank particularly all the public safety throughout
Collier County for participating in what we do, and particularly some
of the program partners that we have in Code Enforcement, Parks and
Recreation, Facilities Management, Division of Animal Services, and
Transportation, which, when working together with us, I think we all
provide Collier County greater service than anyone of us individually.
And you know, I probably, more than anybody in our staff,
realize the impact of ad valorem tax dollars, and particularly the loss
of it, having done so many budgets in that way. But I've got to tell
you, I'm going to continue our commitment to the community, to you
as the commission, and to our deputies to ensure that we are efficient,
effective, and overall safe, and ensure that Collier County continues to
be safe as we move forward in the future.
And I open it up to any questions that you might have of us.
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June 24, 2010
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much, SheriffRambosk.
It really is unusual, particularly in a period of economic hardship, that
you're able to maintain the crime rate at a very, very low level.
Generally crime rates increase under those circumstances, and to do
that at the same time that you're consolidating the agency and saving
the taxpayer a lot of money is a very commendable job, and we
appreciate the work that you and your staff have done. And
particularly, we appreciate your cooperation with respect to meeting
the budget targets.
It's been a real pleasure working with you. I know the staff has
been very complimentary of the work you and your staff have been
doing, so it's worked out real well. It always works better when we
work cooperatively.
So Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes. Sheriff, before we sat down
and started this meeting with you and your budget people, I made
mention of the fact that I'm really appreciative of all the efforts that
you and your staff have put forth.
One of the things that is in the back of my mind is that I've been
in situations myself in my prior job whereby when you start to cut
personnel, personnel that are left take on an awful lot of
responsibilities. And I hope we don't get to the point where things
start to fall off the table, because that's when we start to have failures
in the system.
So I'm not sure if we've reached that point yet, but I want to
thank each and every one of the officers out there that patrol this
community and keep a watchful eye on what's going on, that we
appreciate all their efforts, and we sure appreciate all the efforts that
you've put forth coming forth with this budget. But I just hope we
haven't pulled the rubber band too far. So let's -- we'll see as we work
through this process how things work out, because one thing that I
don't want to see is where we have people where we burn them out,
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June 24, 2010
and that -- when you do that, you don't get anything accomplished,
and then productivity starts to fall off.
So I want to thank you again, and we'll see how things work out
this coming year. Thank you.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And Commissioner, in response to that,
I couldn't agree with you more. We're tracking all of that on a regular
daily basis. And again, all of our management team, working
together, we're getting to the point where we would have to change the
types and quality of service if we have to make further changes down
the road.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yep.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Any other questions or
comments, Commissioners?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Sheriff Rambosk, thank you very much.
Thanks to all your staff and your men and women.
SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Has that ever happened before?
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Probably not. This is the first time, I
think.
CLERK OF COURTS
MR. OCHS: Commissioners, next up on your agenda is the
Clerk of the Courts, Ms. Kinzel. Good afternoon.
MS. KINZEL: Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Crystal Kinzel,
Finance Director with the Clerk's Office. And I have with me
Raymond Milum, who is the Operations Manager for the clerk's
activities.
And we would just like to start out and say, we did meet budget
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June 24, 2010
guidance. As with all the county departments, we've significantly cut
over the last couple of years in our staffing. I think we are doing
things more with less, and I hope we're doing them better and more
efficiently.
We'd also like to thank county staff. We work very closely with
the budget office, the County Manager's Office. We're working with
Kim Grant in the process management to make sure that we're
streamlining and working with county departments.
So with that, we are here to answer any questions that you might
have regarding our budget.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Any questions or comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. We appreciate you working with
us and--
,
MS. KINZEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: -- helping us meet our targets, and--
MS. KINZEL: We look forward to a positive year.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Good, good. Thank you very much.
MS. KINZEL: Thank you.
MR. OCHS: Thank you. Thank you both.
Commissioner, before we go to public comment, there was some
discussion before the break where the board had asked for some
additional information on your debt service. Mr. Isackson's prepared
to provide that information before we go to public comment.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay, good.
MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, in Mr. Ochs' opening
commentary, we spoke about, on the general governnIental debt side,
the fact that we have a management standard that we try to manage
around, and that is our 13 percent general management, or Growth
Management Plan cap.
You can see on the graph that the -- that ratio in '07 was 7.5
percent, grew to 8 percent, and now is hovering around 9.3 percent.
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June 24, 2010
We estimate it to be 9.4 percent.
If I can have the county manager throw on the visualizer --
MR. OCHS: Sure.
MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, this gives you some detail in
regard to how those ratios were calculated.
Commissioner Henning talked about the declines in bondable
revenue over the course of time. This is 2007, and you can see that
our bondable revenues, pursuant to policy, were $504,467,000, with
our debt service hovering around 37.8 annually to cover that -- to
cover the outstanding debt that we have on the general governnIental
side.
If you turn to fiscal year 2008, you'll see that the bondable
revenues have declined, trending downward; however, you notice our
debt service, that drops slightly down to 35.6 million.
And then if you look at 2009, you'll see that that bondable
revenue has dropped down to 401 million. Debt service creeped up a
little bit simply by virtue of how these bonds are structured in terms of
their payback schedules, to 37.4 million.
The interesting thing to note here -- and again, this is the general
governmental side. We're managing to our Growth Management Plan
debt service cap at 13 percent of bondable revenues. The fact that our
three sales tax bonds, which comprise quite a bit of that 37 -- between
35 and $37 million -- when you get to 2013 and '14, you're going to
see a substantial drop in this number to the tune of three and a half to
$4 million at that point in time.
My comments are relative to the general governmental side.
That's what we manage to. The Public Utilities side manages to a
different standard from their perspective. And I'll turn to Mr. DeLony
or Mr. Wides to offer some commentary on their particular element.
MR. DeLONY: Thanks, Mark. Thank you.
For the record, Jim DeLony, Public Utilities Administrator.
Really I guess I'm -- after that discussion, I'm really here for
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June 24, 2010
questions. Because I believe in terms of explanation of why we have
the reserves we have, what those reserves are earmarked or
programmed toward, either for debt payment or for contingencies for
reserves associated with cash and so on that I discussed before, and
also the fact that there is an approved master plan for our utility that
speaks to the need for about $40 million a year each of the next five
years for just maintenance, repair, and replacement of our existing
infrastructure -- and I spoke to you about the need for us to continue to
manage through deferrals as best we can so we don't incur any more
debt to our utility.
When you have a homeowners' association, for example, and you
have to replace the roof, you don't get the roof dollars all in one year.
Normally there is a set-aside associated with an accumulation for
those dollars, so at year three or year four, when there's sufficient
funds in hand to replace that roof, you do it, and you do it that way as
opposed to, have continuing annual assessments that would spike and
become burdensome to the ratepayer, because their water bill would
slide up and down or their assessment would slide up and down.
As I mentioned in my -- in our budget presentation this morning,
the direction I had received and the rate studies that you have
approved and the master plans should be, is to smooth this and
maintain a position to where we can address our capital needs without
going back and spiking those rates.
I showed you earlier what some other utilities are doing and have
to do in terms of adjusting rates. There was one -- and I know that we
did that very quickly this morning -- where over the next five years,
the utility's going to adjust the rates approved by their commission 130
percent. That's probably a function of O&M, operations and
maintenance, as well as ongoing capital expenses to bring facilities up
to the standards that we currently enjoy, and that's the reason we have
the debt we have. I mean, Ms. Fiala said that today.
So where we are is where we are in terms of managing reserves
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June 24, 2010
at a level which address the bond covenants that we must abide by.
They address the risk, as Mr. Coyle spoke to today, and managing our
mortgage. It provides us those dollars on a ready basis, cash and
carry, pay as you go, as we go forward in the upcoming next year or
two of capital expenses.
And then finally -- and I think this is the most important part --
we'll be back in here by Christmas with another rate study, and we'll
be looking at the go-forward plan. And certainly these dollars that we
have held in reserve will be addressed in their utilization in that
ongoing rate study, again, smoothing that need for dollars to operate,
maintain, restore the system that we currently have.
And so, I'll leave it at that other than -- with that introduction and
go to any specific questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The only thing that I need from
you is, where is the capital improvements within that capital reserve?
And you were going to provide that.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir, I will.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Don't need it today.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'm happy with the budget
overall. My only comment was -- and if we could see that graph that
was on the computer -- is we all know that we have less money
coming in, and I just want to make sure that we recognize that debt is
going up, we must pay that, and I hope that we don't have to cut
services in the future, and how we can do that is recognize that we
need to spend less.
And the county manager, I think, has done a fabulous job. In
fact, I think that we have a little toast to the fact that he has come in
millage neutral. And it's a budget I can support.
And I don't think I deserve somebody who is sick and tired of my
concerns of increasing debt and less revenue.
Page 79
June 24, 2010
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that's all.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: If we're going to toast this, who brought
the champagne?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It's not champagne, because
we're on a beer budget; is that right? Mr. Ochs?
MR.OCHS: We're on a light beer budget.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Light beer budget.
MR. OCHS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I'd take either one right now.
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I think maybe it was
misunderstood. I don't think we've been spending more. The way it
was said was, we keep spending more. Well, we haven't even had any
more money to spend. As you've shown with the budget, every year
the dollars are less and less and less. That means you have to spend
less and less and less.
And I heard accusations about spending more. How can you
spend more if you don't have any money to spend, for goodness sake?
We haven't gone into any more debt. We haven't even done anything
more with roads. All we're continuing to do is try and reduce our
budget, which I feel we've done very effectively.
And it -- I feel insulted when somebody accuses me of raising or,
you know, spending more, and I think that that's where it comes in.
We have tried diligently, and I have to say all five of us, have
tried diligently to reduce our spending and keep our community safe.
And we have always considered health, safety, and welfare while
we're reducing our spending, and I think it shows.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. We don't want to keep up this too
long.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. And I didn't -- again, I
didn't mean to offend anybody. But I will give examples.
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June 24, 2010
Last year we approved a contract increase from a half a million
dollars to two million dollars to study the flows in Golden Gate
Estates.
Just on our last agenda we had $1.9 million that two
commissioners were fighting for for parks. You know, that's -- those
are the things that I'm talking about is, we want to be in a position that
we can cover our debt and keep our services whole to all the public.
And the county manager, on that item with the parks, his staff
was -- gave us the whole piece, that in 2012 we're going to have no
money -- if we spend that $1.9 million, we are going to have a deficit
of those impact fees, so --
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Well, I don't want to rehash yesterday,
but -- that's been done. I think it's been resolved to the satisfaction of
all the commissioners.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I needed to explain where I
was coming from because that commissioner was confused.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: I understand. But it's -- I think we all
understand where we need to go, and I think we've been making the
right decisions, and the commissioners were unanimous in their
approval of the budget and what we need to do, right?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Just a little point. I don't think
the word fighting over is appropriate. We had a very active discussion,
and at that point in time --
CHAIRMAN COYLE: You called it a food fight.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I think we're all-- we were all in
agreement, the fact that we -- even though the needs are great out
there, we wanted to put that money into reserves to be able to protect
what we've got coming down. But it was a discussion that took place.
It wasn't a fight.
This has probably been the most agreeable budget session I've
ever seen because the county manager and staff have worked so hard
to make it that way. I mean, to have every constitutional officer come
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June 24, 2010
through and meet the staff gui- -- our guidance as far as what the
budget had to be and -- without any great pain and suffering.
I remember I used to see Don Hunter coming in, and he's wearing
his gun. And I'm saying, where are we going to go from here? In
fact, one day out in the hall I said, you know, I really feel intimidated
with you coming into these budget meetings wearing your gun. And
Don Hunter said to me, he says, you're not carrying a gun? And I
said, no, I'm not. He said, let's go outside and talk about it. The man
had a sense humor, just like we need to have.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Commissioner Henning, is your
light still on, or -- you have something else to say?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, I do.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I just want to thank our County
Manager, Leo Ochs, not only for this moment on a great budget, but
also changes you've made since you've been in leadership, and I'm --
it's a pleasure working with you.
MR. OCHS: Well, thank you, Commissioner. The credit goes,
as always, to the staff and to the constitutional officers who met the
guidance. You put us in a good position to succeed, and we appreciate
that.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Good. Okay.
MR. OCHS: Public comment, sir?
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Yes. Do we have any public speakers?
MR. MITCHELL: We have nobody requesting to speak.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Okay. Very well.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Just out of curiosity before you
close the meeting, is there anybody from the audience that represents
public and not special interests or the county itself? Is there anybody
out there?
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I don't think I've seen anybody
Page 82
June 24, 2010
all day. This thing has been put together, it's been vetted through so
many different channels, and there has been no opposition from the
public out there on this budget, which is totally remarkable.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: It is. It is remarkable.
MR. OCHS: Commissioner, in might make just one closing
remark, because I don't want to forget to mention the budget staff.
They've done yeoman's work with many long hours, and I can't even
begin to tell you how many evenings they're here putting this budget
together and going through all the detail, working it for months and
months, and I really want to thank the entire budget staff under Mark's
guidance. I think they've done a great job.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Here, here.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: It is truly amazing. This is a big job.
We're short on staff. We've got people pulling us in a half dozen
different directions. We've got lots of challenges, and the staff has
really done a wonderful job helping us develop solutions to these
financial challenges. So you have reason to be proud of the staff, and
we're proud of all of you.
MR. OCHS: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Thank you very much. Motion to --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So moved, motion to adjourn.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Motion to adjourn.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: And a second by Commissioner Fiala.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are adjourned until July the 27th.
MR. OCHS : Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: Is that correct?
MR. OCHS: Enjoy your couple of weeks.
CHAIRMAN COYLE: You're kidding me, aren't you?
MR. OCHS: I know we will. Thank you.
Page 83
June 24,2010
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1:28 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
'1uLW. ~
FRED COYLE, Chal an
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These I)}inutes approved by the Board on '2i-.J..~~,2l)'O, as presented
XA-- or as corrected .
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICES, INC., BY TERRI LEWIS.
Page 84