BCC Minutes 01/27/2026 (Draft)January 27, 2026
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, January 27, 2026
LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as
the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such
special districts as have been created according to law and having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in
REGULAR SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present:
Chairman: Dan Kowal
Burt L. Saunders
Chris Hall
Rick LoCastro
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
ALSO PRESENT:
Amy Patterson, County Manager
Ed Finn, Deputy County Manager
Heidi Ashton-Cicko, Assistant County Attorney
Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller
Tom Eble, Meeting Coordinator
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January 27, 2026
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Community Redevelopment Agency Board (CRAB)
Airport Authority
AGENDA
Board of County Commission Chambers
Collier County Government Center
3299 Tamiami Trail East, 3rd Floor
Naples, FL 34112
January 27, 2026
9:00 AM
Commissioner Dan Kowal, District 4 – Chair
Commissioner William L. McDaniel, Jr., District 5 – Vice Chair
Commissioner Rick LoCastro, District 1
Commissioner Chris Hall, District 2
Commissioner Burt Saunders, District 3
NOTICE: PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON AN AGENDA ITEM MUST
REGISTER PRIOR TO ITS PRESENTATION. SPEAKERS ARE LIMITED TO
THREE (3) MINUTES UNLESS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIR. TIME MAY BE
CEDED BY OTHER IN-PERSON REGISTERED SPEAKERS WHO ARE
PRESENT AT THE TIME THE SPEAKER IS HEARD. PUBLIC COMMENTS
ARE NOT HEARD FOR PROCLAMATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, OR PUBLIC
PETITIONS. PRESENTATIONS ARE LIMITED TO TEN (10) MINUTES
UNLESS EXTENDED BY THE CHAIR. TO COMMENT ON CONSENT
AGENDA ITEMS, REGISTRATION MUST OCCUR BEFORE THE BOARD’S
ACTION ON THE CONSENT AGENDA, WHICH IS HEARD FOLLOWING
THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.
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January 27, 2026
REQUESTS FOR PUBLIC PETITIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN
WRITING TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE
MEETING. THEY SHALL PROVIDE DETAILED INFORMATION AS TO THE
NATURE OF THE PETITION. PUBLIC PETITIONS MUST ADDRESS
MATTERS NOT SCHEDULED FOR A FUTURE AGENDA AND CONCERN A
MATTER IN WHICH THE BOARD CAN TAKE ACTION. IF GRANTED, A
SINGLE PRESENTER MAY SPEAK FOR UP TO TEN (10) MINUTES,
SUBJECT TO EXTENSION BY THE CHAIR, AND THE PETITION WILL BE
PLACED ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR A PUBLIC HEARING.
FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA TOPICS,
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED BEFORE THAT PORTION IS CALLED.
COMMENTS ARE LIMITED TO THREE (3) MINUTES; TIME MAY NOT BE
CEDED. THE CHAIR MAY LIMIT THE NUMBER OF SPEAKERS TO FIVE (5)
FOR THE MEETING. APPEALS REQUIRE A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS,
WHICH MAY INCLUDE THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE ON WHICH THE
APPEAL IS BASED AND MAY BE REQUIRED TO BE VERBATIM.
LOBBYISTS MUST REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE
BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT PER COLLIER COUNTY
ORDINANCE 2003-53, AS AMENDED.
ALL DIGITAL AUDIO AND VISUAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED BY THE
PUBLIC VIA EMAIL LINK OR ATTACHMENT OR TRANSPORTED ON
EXTERNAL DEVICES FOR BROADCASTING AT THE BOARD MEETING,
MUST BE IN A COMPATIBLE FORMAT AND RECEIVED BY THE COUNTY
MANAGER’S OFFICE BY NOON ON THE DAY PRECEDING THE BOARD
MEETING TO BE SCANNED FOR NETWORK SECURITY THREATS.
DIGITAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED AFTER THE DEADLINE WILL NOT BE
ACCEPTED.
IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO REQUIRES
ACCOMMODATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE
ENTITLED TO CERTAIN ASSISTANCE AT NO COST. CONTACT COLLIER
COUNTY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT LOCATED AT 3335 EAST TAMIAMI
TRAIL, SUITE 1, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112-5356, (239) 252-8380. ASSISTED
LISTENING DEVICES ARE AVAILABLE.
A LUNCH RECESS IS SCHEDULED FROM NOON (12:00 P.M.) TO 1:00 P.M.
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January 27, 2026
1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. AGENDA AND MINUTES
A. Approval of today's Regular, Consent, and Summary agenda as amended
(ex-parte disclosure provided by Commission members for Consent agenda.)
3. AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
A. EMPLOYEE
1) 20 YEAR ATTENDEES
a) Colleen Karlen - Code Enforcement
2) 25 YEAR ATTENDEES
3) 30 YEAR ATTENDEES
a) Gloria Herrera - Fiscal & Grant Services
b) Nancy Gundlach - Zoning
c) Marian A. Rhyne - County Attorney's Office
4) 35 YEAR ATTENDEES
4. PROCLAMATIONS
A. Proclamation designating February 6, 2026, as National Wear Red Day. To
be accepted by Tracy Duhaney, Board Chairperson, American Heart
Association SWFL Day. To be accepted by Tracy Duhaney, Board
Chairperson, American Heart Association SWFL
5. PRESENTATIONS
6. PUBLIC PETITIONS
7. PUBLIC COMMENTS
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January 27, 2026
8. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS
A. This item requires that ex-parte disclosure be provided by Commission
members. Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are
required to be sworn in. Recommendation to approve an amendment to the
Collier County Growth Management Plan for the unincorporated area of
Collier County, Florida, specifically amending the Rural Golden Gate
Estates Sub-Element of the Golden Gate Area Master Plan Element and
Golden Gate Future Land Use Map and Map Series to change the
designation of the property from Estates-Mixed Use District, Residential
Estates Subdistrict to Estates-Mixed Use District, Orangetree Bible
Subdistrict to allow a conditional use for a church up to 12,000 square feet.
The subject property consists of 4.20± acres and is located at the northwest
corner of Shady Hollow Boulevard East and Immokalee Road in Section 10,
Township 48 South, Range 27 East, Collier County, Florida; furthermore,
directing transmittal of the adopted amendment to the Florida Department of
Commerce; providing for severability and providing for an effective date.
[PL20240013798] (This item is a Companion to Item #8B)
B. This item requires Commission members to provide ex-parte disclosure.
Should a hearing be held on this item, all participants are required to be
sworn in. Recommendation to approve a Conditional Use to allow a church
on property zoned Estates (E) pursuant to Section 2.03.01.B.1.c.1 of the
Collier County Land Development Code, on property located at the
northwest corner of Shady Hollow Boulevard East and Immokalee Road, in
Section 10, Township 48 south, Range 27 east, Collier County, Florida,
consisting of 4.20± acres. [PL20240012938] (This item is a Companion Item
#8A)
9. ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. This Item was continued from the December 9, 2025, BCC Meeting
Recommendation to approve a Resolution relating to the Capital
Improvement Element of the Collier County Growth Management Plan,
Ordinance 89-05, as amended, providing for the Annual Update to the
Schedule of Capital Improvement Projects, within the Capital Improvement
Element of the Collier County Growth Management Plan based on the 2025
Annual Update and Inventory Report on Public Facilities (AUIR), and
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including updates to the 5-year Schedule of Capital Projects contained
within the Capital Improvement Element (for Fiscal Years 2026 – 2030) and
the Schedule of Capital Projects contained within the Capital Improvement
Element for the Future 5-year period (for Fiscal Years 2031 – 2035),
providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.
[PL20250000000]
10. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
A. Recommendation to adopt a Resolution establishing a framework to
constrain County spending at current fiscal year baseline levels for Fiscal
Year 2027, applying to County funding allocations including those for
Constitutional Officers; authorizing limited annual increases for operating
and capital costs; and directing the preparation of an annual long-term
capital and asset management analysis.
11. COUNTY MANAGER'S REPORT
A. This Item to be heard at 10 AM. Recommendation to accept the
Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Governance Restructure Study
Report; make a finding that the recommendations therein promote tourism;
provide staff with direction as to next steps, which may include the drafting
of any proposed tourism promotion agreement, private sector transitional
plan, updates to the Collier County Code of Ordinances, and other necessary
transitional documentation for review of the Tourist Development Council
and Board of County Commissioners. (John Mullins, Division Director -
Communications, Government & Public Affairs)
12. COUNTY ATTORNEY'S REPORT
13. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
14. AIRPORT AUTHORITY AND/OR COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY
15. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
A. Public Comments on General Topics Not on the Current or Future
Agenda by Individuals Not Already Heard During Previous Public
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Comments in this Meeting
B. STAFF PROJECT UPDATES
1. DAS Update (James French, Department Head - Growth Management
& Community Development Department)
C. STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
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16. Consent Agenda - All matters listed under this item are considered to be
routine and action will be taken by one motion without separate discussion of
each item. If discussion is desired by a member of the Board, that item(s) will
be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered separately.
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A. GROWTH MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation for the Board of County Commissioners to receive
and approve the Collier County Floodplain Management Plan 2024
and 2025 Progress Report
2) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities for St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church.
[PL20250008634]
3) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of a portion of the
potable water utility facilities and appurtenant utility easement for
Siena Lakes West. [PL20250012269]
4) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of the potable water
and sewer utility facilities and appurtenant utility easements for
Summerlit Phase 1 and 2C. [PL20250005843]
5) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of a portion of the
potable water and sewer utility facilities and appurtenant utility
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January 27, 2026
easement for Extended Stay America Naples. [PL20250008401]
6) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of the potable water
and sewer utility facilities for Valencia Sky – Phase 5.
[PL20250008673]
7) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water,
irrigation quality water, and sewer facilities and accept the
conveyance of the potable water, irrigation quality water, and sewer
facilities for SkySail Phase 4 Townhomes. [PL20250007303]
8) Recommendation to approve final acceptance of the potable water and
sewer utility facilities and accept the conveyance of a portion of the
potable water utility facilities and appurtenant utility easement for
Pelican Bay Community Park. [PL20250010717]
9) Recommendation to approve a Resolution for final acceptance of the
private roadway and drainage improvements, and acceptance of the
plat dedications, for the final plat of Windward Isle, Application
Number PL20140000741, and authorize the release of the
maintenance securities in the amount of $656,975.44.
10) Recommendation to approve a Resolution for final acceptance of the
private roadway and drainage improvements, and acceptance of the
plat dedications, for the final plat of Isles of Collier Preserve Phase 4,
Application Number PL20140001091, and authorize the release of the
maintenance securities in the amount of $47,069.33.
11) Recommendation to approve a Resolution for final acceptance of the
private roadway and drainage improvements, and acceptance of the
plat dedications, for the final plat of Manatee Cove, Application
Number PL20150001677 (PPL) and PL20190002421 (PPLA), and
authorize the release of the maintenance securities in the amount of
$316,875.55.
12) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $86,503.20, which was posted as
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January 27, 2026
a guaranty for Excavation Permit Number PL20130001954 for work
associated with Hacienda Blvd. Phase One.
13) Recommendation to recognize and appropriate revenue in the amount
of $334,066.74 for the continued operation of the County-owned
Marinas – Cocohatchee River Park Marina, Caxambas Marina, and
Port of the Islands Marina – and authorize all necessary Budget
Amendments.
14) Recommendation to approve a Resolution related to the Stewardship
Sending Area 15 – Restoration Credits (CLH & CDC SSA 15) in the
Rural Lands Stewardship Area Zoning Overlay District (RLSA) and
to award Restoration II credits to Collier Land Holdings, Ltd. in
accordance with the approved restoration plan.
B. TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Local Agency Program ("LAP") Grant Agreement with the Florida
Department of Transportation (FDOT) for the “Shadowlawn
Elementary Safe Routes to School” project, reimbursing the County
up to $761,516.00 for the construction of a 6-foot sidewalk on the
north side of Linwood Ave between Linwood Way to Shadowlawn
Drive, and a 6-foot sidewalk on the south side of Linwood Ave from
Shadowlawn Drive to Airport Pulling Road; execute a Resolution
memorializing the Board’s action; and authorize the necessary Budget
Amendments (Project #33974, Fund 1841), FPN 446550-2-58-01.
2) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Local Agency Program ("LAP") Grant Agreement with the Florida
Department of Transportation ("FDOT") for the “Goodlette Frank Rd
Sidewalks at Various Locations” LAP project, reimbursing the County
up to $1,505,623.00 for the construction of four sidewalk segments
west of Goodlette Frank Road on Frank Whiteman Blvd., Cooper Dr.,
Illinois Dr., and Wisconsin Dr.; execute a Resolution memorializing
the Board’s action; and authorize the necessary Budget Amendments
(Project #33975, Fund 1841), FPN 448126-2-58-01.
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January 27, 2026
3) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Local Agency Program ("LAP") Grant Agreement with the Florida
Department of Transportation ("FDOT") for the “Pine Street from
Becca Ave to US 41” LAP project, reimbursing the County up to
$265,511.00 for the construction of a five-foot sidewalk on Pine
Street; execute a Resolution memorializing the Board’s action; and
authorize the necessary Budget Amendments (Project #33976, Fund
1841), FPN 448128-2-58-01.
4) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a
Local Agency Program ("LAP") Grant Agreement with the Florida
Department of Transportation ("FDOT") for the “Naples Manor
Sidewalks at Various Locations” LAP project, reimbursing the County
up to $2,341,880.00 for the construction of five-foot-wide sidewalks
in Naples Manor on Sholtz St. from Floridan Ave. to Hardee St.,
Holland St from Floridan Ave. to Carolina Ave., and Caldwell St. from
Floridan Ave to Warren St.; execute a Resolution memorializing the
Board’s action; and authorize the necessary Budget Amendments
(Project #33953, Fund 1841), FPN 448129-1-58-01.
5) Recommendation to approve an Interlocal Lease and Donation
Agreement with the District School Board of Collier County to
convey a portion of the Immokalee Community Park, located at 321
N. 1st St., Immokalee, Florida 34142, to support continued joint use
and facility improvements to be funded and maintained by the District
School Board, estimated to exceed $5 million.
6) Recommendation to authorize the Clerk of Courts to release a
Performance Bond in the amount of $3,223,344.44, which was posted
as a guarantee for work associated with Agreement No. 23-8154 for
“County Barn Rd Pathways Local Agency Program (LAP) Project”
#43091-2-58-01 with RJ Engineering Construction Corp.
7) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to execute
documents necessary for the conveyance of a Utility Facilities
Warranty Deed and Bill of Sale to the Collier County Water-Sewer
District for potable water infrastructure on County-owned property
located at Pelican Bay Service Division Maintenance Facilities
(“PBSD Maintenance Facility”), at no cost to the County.
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8) Recommendation to approve the Temporary Farm Lease Extension
with Meloy Hay Company, Inc., for property located at Williams
Reserve in Immokalee, and authorize the Chair to execute the
extension on behalf of the County to allow continued operations
pending development of a standard form lease.
9) Recommendation to approve the Resolution authorizing the Chair to
execute Section 5311 Public Transit Grant Agreement (FPN 410120-
2-84-25) with the Florida Department of Transportation to accept
Federal Transit Administration grant funding in the total amount of
$860,522 to provide transit service to the rural area of Collier County,
and to authorize the necessary Budget Amendments.
10) Recommendation to approve the Resolutions authorizing the Chair to
execute Section 5310 Public Transit Grant Agreements (FPN 448810-
1-94-25 and FPN 448810-2-84-23) with the Florida Department of
Transportation to accept Federal Transit Administration grant funding
in the total amount of $1,032,204 for the purchase of five paratransit
cutaway vehicles, five radios, five wireless routers and five tablets, as
well as paratransit operating assistance, and to authorize the necessary
Budget Amendments.
C. PUBLIC UTILITIES DEPARTMENT
1) This Item was continued from the January 13, 2026, BCC
Meeting. Recommendation that the Board award Request for
Proposal No. 25-8412, “Disaster Debris Removal and Disposal
Services,” to Ashbritt, Inc., Ceres Environmental Services, Inc.,
Crowder Gulf Joint Venture, Inc., DRC Emergency Services, LLC,
and Phillips Environmental, LLC, and authorize the Chair to sign the
attached Agreements.
2) Recommendation that the Board of County Commissioners, as the ex
officio Governing Board of the Collier County Water-Sewer District,
award Request for Proposal No. 25-8401 to Raftelis Financial
Consultants, Inc., for Financial Consulting Services and authorize the
Chair to sign the attached Agreement.
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D. PUBLIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT
1) Recommendation to (a) approve the after-the-fact electronic submittal
of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program 2026-2027 Continuation
Application to AmeriCorps, under the Corporation for National and
Community Service, in the amount of $100,000 (b) allow the County
Manager or their designee to serve as the authorized representative for
the grantor’s electronic submission system, eGrants, throughout the
grant period and (c) authorize the necessary Budget Amendments
(Housing Grant Fund 1835 and Housing Match Fund 1836).
2) Recommendation to approve an extension of Tanya Williams, Collier
County Library Director, as the Board’s representative to the Early
Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida (ELC of SWFL), amending
the term to January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2029.
3) Recommendation to approve and authorize the Chair to sign the
Second Amendment Subrecipient Agreement between Collier County
and Collier Health Services, Inc., d/b/a/ HealthCare Network, to
amend Community Development Block Grant Agreement #CD-
CV21-09 to revise the project scope, components, and payment
deliverables (Housing Grants Fund 1835, CDBG-CV Project #33674).
E. CORPORATE BUSINESS OPERATIONS
1) Recommendation to award Request for Proposal (“RFP”) #25-8407
Collier County Medical Director Employment Physicals and Drug
Testing to Advance Medical of Naples LLC and authorize the
Chairman to execute the attached Agreement.
2) Recommendation to approve modifications to the 2026 Fiscal Year
Pay & Classification Plan which consists of four new classifications,
one reclassification, and one classification title revision from October
1, 2025, through December 31, 2025.
F. COUNTY MANAGER OPERATIONS
1) Recommendation to approve the selection committee's ranking and
authorize staff to begin contract negotiations with the top-ranked firm
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January 27, 2026
WSP USA Buildings, Inc., concerning Request for Professional
Services (“RPS”) No. 25-8370, “Design Services for Immokalee
Improvement Projects” so that staff can bring a proposed agreement
back for the Board's consideration at a future meeting (Project Nos.
33813 and 33814).
2) Recommendation to approve and execute the grant agreement with the
Florida State Courts System, Office of the State Courts Administrator,
reimbursing the County up to $1,000,000 for the renovation and
expansion of the existing switchgear and automatic transfer switch at
the “Courthouse Annex Building L1” (Project #33979).
3) Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendments
(appropriating grants, donations, contributions, or insurance proceeds)
to the Fiscal Year 2025-26 Adopted Budget.
G. AIRPORT AUTHORITY
H. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
I. MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE
J. OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
1) To record in the minutes of the Board of County Commissioners, the
check number (or other payment method), amount, payee, and
purpose for which the referenced disbursements in the amount of
$41,182,848.66 were drawn for the periods between January 1, 2026,
and January 14, 2026, pursuant to Florida Statute 136.06.
2) Request that the Board approve and determine valid public purpose
for invoices payable and purchasing card transactions as of January
21, 2026.
K. COUNTY ATTORNEY
1) Recommendation to approve a Stipulated Final Judgment in the
amount of $75,000 plus $19,389 in statutory attorney and experts’ fees
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January 27, 2026
and costs for the taking of Parcel 1296FEE required for the Vanderbilt
Beach Road Extension Project No. 60249.
2) Recommendation to approve a Stipulated Final Judgment in the
amount of $105,000 plus $27,139 in statutory attorney and experts’
fees and costs for the taking of Parcel 1361FEE required for the
Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Project No. 60249, and delegate
authority to the County Manager or her designee to process payment
of additional statutory attorney’s fees for supplemental proceedings, if
any, as authorized by Ch. 73, Fla. Stat., but not to exceed $4,000.
3) Request that the Board set the balloting date for the recommendation
of members to the Pelican Bay Services Division Board by record title
owners of property within Pelican Bay
4) Recommendation to appoint three members to the Land Acquisition
Advisory Committee.
5) Recommendation to authorize the County Attorney to file a lawsuit on
behalf of Collier County Board of County Commissioners against
Orchid Cove at Port of the Islands Condominium Association, Inc., to
discharge a series of liens totaling over $800,000.00 recorded with the
Clerk of Court for allegedly unpaid assessments (along with related
fees and costs) imposed on two properties comprising of 2.37 acres of
residential property, that the County obtained by escheatment tax
deeds in September and October 2022.
6) Recommendation to approve a Stipulated Final Judgment in the
amount of $120,000 plus $31,295 in statutory attorney fees, expert
fees, and costs for the taking of Parcel 1299FEE required for the
Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Project No. 60249.
L. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
M. TOURIST DEVELOPMENT
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17. Summary Agenda - This section is for advertised public hearings and must
meet the following criteria: 1) A recommendation for approval from staff; 2)
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January 27, 2026
Unanimous recommendation for approval by the Collier County Planning
Commission or other authorizing agencies of all members present and voting;
3) No written or oral objections to the item received by staff, the Collier
County Planning Commission, other authorizing agencies or the Board, prior
to the commencement of the BCC meeting on which the items are scheduled to
be heard; and 4) No individuals are registered to speak in opposition to the
item. For those items which are quasi-judicial in nature, all participants must
be sworn in.
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A. This item was continued from the January 13, 2026, BCC Meeting &
further continued to the February 10, 2026, BCC Meeting.
Recommendation to adopt an Ordinance amending Ordinance No. 2003-37,
as amended, cited in Chapter 110, Article II of the Collier County Code of
Laws and Ordinances, which regulates construction in the public rights-of-
way, to add additional right-of-way permit requirements and a section
regulating excavation activities within the public right-of-way. Section 10,
Township 49 South, Range 27 East, Collier County, Florida.
[PL20240005691]
B. Recommendation to adopt an Ordinance amending the Collier County Land
Development Code related to Floating Solar Facilities as a land use.
[PL20250000235] (First of two hearings)
C. Recommendation to adopt a Resolution approving amendments
(appropriating carry forward, transfers, and supplemental revenue) to the
Fiscal Year 2025-26 Adopted Budget.
18. ADJOURN
INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD’S AGENDA SHOULD
BE MADE TO THE COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE AT 252-8383.
January 27, 2026
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MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right, everyone. We're going to
bring this Board of County Commissioners meeting to order today,
so...
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We're going to start with an
invocation by Reverend James Baird of the Covenant Church of
Naples followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by Golda Trantham,
U.S. -- I probably just messed up her name -- sorry -- U.S. Women's
Army Corps 1974 to 1976, member of Operation Vet Help, chairman
of the Southwest Florida Woody Williams Gold Star Families
Memorial.
REVEREND BAIRD: Let's bow our heads together.
Dear our Lord, father, son, and holy ghost, today we ask that
you would bless this meeting.
Lord, we come to you with great gratitude for the servants that
you have installed over us. Lord, we thank you for governors and for
rulers, and we pray that you would give them the wisdom, the love,
and the strength that they need for order and justice to prevail in our
county.
Father, we ask that they would discern their divine calling, Lord,
to care for those under their authority, to pass laws that advance your
kingdom, Lord, to create a realm where piety and faith and justice
and prosperity would wash over the people of this place with great
blessing.
Lord, we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus and by the
power of the Spirit. Amen.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I believe, Golda, you wanted to say a
few words.
MS. TRANTHAM: Thank you. I just wanted to bring attention
to the fact that we are in the process of bringing a memorial to honor
January 27, 2026
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our gold-star families in Southwest Florida. We're hoping to -- we've
already started the kick-off, and all we wanted to do was bring
everybody's attention to the fact that we have one of the largest
veterans populations in Southwest Florida, but we don't have
anything to honor our gold-star families.
And at this time -- look for us. We'll be around letting everyone
know what we're doing and where we're going with it.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, Golda.
Ms. Patterson.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
Item #2A
APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR CONSENT, AND
SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX-PARTE DISCLOSURE
PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR CONSENT
AGENDA) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
KOWAL - APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED
Agenda changes for January 27th, 2026, first we have an
add-on, Item 10B, which is a discussion regarding the veterans'
community center. This is being added at Commissioner Saunders'
request.
Continue Item 16G1 to the February 10th, 2026, BCC meeting.
This is a recommendation to approve updates to the airport leasing
policy, airport minimum standards, and airport rules and regulations.
This is being continued at staff's request.
We do have an additional continuation that is not on the change
sheet, late breaking, and we'll update the change sheet accordingly.
That is to continue Item 16D1. This a recommendation to approve
January 27, 2026
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the after-the-fact electronic submittal of the retired and senior
volunteer program 2026-2027 continuation application to
AmeriCorps under the Corporation for National and Community
Service in the amount of $100,000, allow the County Manager or
their designee to serve as the authorized representative for the
grantor's electronic submission system, eGrants, throughout the grant
period; and authorize the necessary budget amendments. This is
being moved at staff's request.
We do have a couple of agenda notes. The agreements for Item
16C1 were uploaded on January 23rd after the agenda was initially
published. And a correction for Item 16B7: The recording fee will
be paid by Pelican Bay. Funds are available in Fund 3041.
We do have a time-certain item, Item 11A, to be heard at
10 a.m., and this a recommendation to accept the CVB governance
restructure study and direct staff on next-step actions.
We have court reporter breaks scheduled after the time-certain at
10 o'clock and again at 2:50, if necessary.
With that, County Attorney.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Good morning. I have no changes.
Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I have no changes and no
disclosure.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: No changes and no ex parte.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Same; no changes, no ex
parte.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Same.
January 27, 2026
Page 5
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Same.
Well, I have no changes, but I do have on, Item 8A and 8B,
meetings. I'm sorry, wrong time for that.
MS. PATTERSON: That's okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Rookie.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Rookie.
All right. All in favor of approving, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: That passed unanimously.
*****
SEE REVERSE SIDE
Proposed Agenda Changes
Board of County Commissioners Meeting
January 27, 2026
Add on Item 10B: Discussion regarding the Veterans’ Community Center. (Commissioner Saunders’ Request)
Continue Item 16G1 to the February 10, 2026, BCC Meeting: Recommendation to approve updates to the
Airport Leasing Policy, Airport Minimum Standards, and Airport Rules and Regulations. (Staff’s Request)
Continue Item 16d1 to the February 10, 2026, BCC Meeting: Recommendation to (a) approve the after-the-
fact electronic submittal of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program 2026-2027 Continuation Application to
AmeriCorps, under the Corporation for National and Community Service, in the amount of $100,000 (b) allow the
County Manager or their designee to serve as the authorized representative for the grantor’s electronic submission
system, eGrants, throughout the grant period and (c) authorize the necessary Budget Amendments (Housing Grant
Fund 1835 and Housing Match Fund 1836). (Staff’s Request)
Notes:
• Agreements for Item 16C1 were uploaded on January 23 after the agenda was initially published.
• Correction for item 16B7: the recording fee will be paid by Pelican Bay; funds are available in Fund 3041,
Project (50211).
TIME CERTAIN ITEMS:
Item 11A to be heard at 10:00 AM: Recommendation to accept the CVB Governance Restructure Study Report,
and direct staff on next-step actions.
1/27/2026 2:18 PM
January 27, 2026
Page 6
Item #3A 1
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS – EMPLOYEES – 20 YEAR
ATTENDEES – ALL PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 3,
Awards and Recognitions. We have several today. First, our 20-year
attendee, Colleen Karlen, Code Enforcement. Congratulations, 20
years.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Everybody thinks Code
Enforcement are these big, mean people, you know. I mean, she's
Code Enforcement. Look, they're very nice. They're very nice.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Oh.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Get her a plaque.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: There you go. Sorry about that.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Take it for your own word.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good catch.
Item #3A 3
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS – EMPLOYEES – 30 YEAR
ATTENDEES – ALL PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Next up are our 30-year attendees. First
Gloria Herrera, Fiscal and Grant Services. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Who's running the office?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Everybody's here.
MS. HERRERA: My peeps.
(Applause.)
January 27, 2026
Page 7
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Come on, guys. Take a picture with
her.
MS. HERRERA: Come on, guys. I asked permission.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I don't have plaques for everybody,
so...
THE PHOTOGRAPHER: We're going to need two rows.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Also, the taller people in the back.
Congratulations.
(Applause.)
MS. PATTERSON: Next up, as they're going to their seats, we
have Nancy Gundlach, 30 years, Zoning. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
MS. PATTERSON: Let's -- Nancy -- whoa. Let's get the
Community Development -- Mike, come on up. Let's get our
Community Development folks up to get a picture with Nancy.
Nancy, come back.
Our final 30-year attendee is Marian A. Rhyne, County
Attorney's Office, graduations.
(Applause.)
MS. PATTERSON: Once we get her picture, if the County
Attorney's Office staff wants to come up and get a picture, come
on -- come on up.
(Applause.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Group photo.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 4,
proclamations.
Item #4A
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING FEBRUARY 6, 2026, AS
NATIONAL WEAR RED DAY. TO BE ACCEPTED BY TRACY
January 27, 2026
Page 8
DUHANEY, BOARD CHAIRPERSON, AMERICAN HEART
ASSOCIATION SWFL – MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 4A is a proclamation designating
February 6th, 2026, as National Wear Red Day, to be accepted by
Tracy Duhaney, board chairperson, American Heart Association
Southwest Florida. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: If one of you would like to say a few
words.
MS. DUHANEY: Good morning, Collier County
Commissioners.
As the Southwest Florida American Heart Association board
chair, I want to thank you for recognizing National Wear Red Day
and the lifesaving work of the American Heart Association.
Each year, on the first Friday of February, communities across
the nation join together for National Wear Red Day to support the
"Go Red for Women" movement. This year we invite Collier County
to stand with us on Friday, February 6th, by wearing red and raising
awareness of the No. 1 health threat facing women, cardiovascular
disease. Why does this matter so deeply? Because losing even one
woman to heart disease or stroke is one too many.
Today nearly 45 percent of women over age 20 are living with
some form of cardiovascular disease. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer
of women, and it is also the leading cause of maternal mortality,
taking the lives of new moms during what should be the safest and
happiest time of their lives.
Women are less likely than men to receive bystander CPR and
less likely to survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. And while
January 27, 2026
Page 9
research saves lives, women make up only 38 percent of participants
in cardiovascular clinical trials in 2020. This is why awareness is not
optional; it is critical.
On National Wear Red Day, the American Heart Association
encourages everyone to know your numbers; your blood pressure,
cholesterol, blood sugar and BMI, because these are the key
indicators of your risk for heart disease. Knowledge is power, and
these are numbers every woman deserves to know.
There are many ways our community can take action. Wear red
on February 6th to spark conversations and inspire others to prioritize
their heart health; give by setting up a fundraising page or visiting
wearredday.org; learn hands-only CPR. You don't need medical
training; just courage, willingness, and 90 seconds. Again, women
are less likely to receive CPR during an emergency, and learning this
simple skill can save a life. And practice self-care and emotional
well-being, because heart health is physical and mental health.
On National Wear Red Day and throughout American Heart
Month, we invite Collier County to go red for mothers, daughters,
sisters, coworkers, and friends. Together, we can create a healthier,
longer, brighter future for all women. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. Can I get a motion to
approve the proclamation?
COMMISSIONER HALL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I have a motion and a second. All in
favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
January 27, 2026
Page 10
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: It passes unanimously.
You're welcome -- thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
(Applause.)
Item #7
PUBLIC COMMENTS
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 7,
public comments.
MR. EBLE: We have one registered speaker on Zoom, Emma
Ochoa.
Emma, you should be receiving a prompt to unmute yourself.
Emma Ochoa? One last call, Emma, if you can unmute.
(No response.)
MR. EBLE: I'm not getting an unmute, so apologies.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. Is there one in person there?
MR. EBLE: No, sir. No there's no one in person.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. County Manager --
MR. EBLE: We'll see if Emma comes back.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: -- move on to the next item.
MS. PATTERSON: Very good.
Item #8A
ORDINANCE 2026-05: AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLLIER
COUNTY GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE
UNINCORPORATED AREA OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA,
SPECIFICALLY AMENDING THE RURAL GOLDEN GATE
ESTATES SUB-ELEMENT OF THE GOLDEN GATE AREA
January 27, 2026
Page 11
MASTER PLAN ELEMENT AND GOLDEN GATE FUTURE
LAND USE MAP AND MAP SERIES TO CHANGE THE
DESIGNATION OF THE PROPERTY FROM ESTATES-MIXED
USE DISTRICT, RESIDENTIAL ESTATES SUBDISTRICT TO
ESTATES-MIXED USE DISTRICT, ORANGETREE BIBLE
SUBDISTRICT TO ALLOW A CONDITIONAL USE FOR A
CHURCH UP TO 12,000 SQUARE FEET. THE SUBJECT
PROPERTY CONSISTS OF 4.20± ACRES AND IS LOCATED AT
THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF SHADY HOLLOW
BOULEVARD EAST AND IMMOKALEE ROAD IN SECTION 10,
TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 27 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY,
FLORIDA; FURTHERMORE, DIRECTING TRANSMITTAL OF
THE ADOPTED AMENDMENT TO THE FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE; PROVIDING FOR
SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
[PL20240013798] (THIS ITEM IS A COMPANION TO ITEM #8B)
- MOTION TO APPROVE W/CHANGES BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL –
ADOPTED
Item #8B
RESOLUTION 2026-35: A CONDITIONAL USE TO ALLOW A
CHURCH ON PROPERTY ZONED ESTATES (E) PURSUANT TO
SECTION 2.03.01.B.1.C.1 OF THE COLLIER COUNTY LAND
DEVELOPMENT CODE, ON PROPERTY LOCATED AT THE
NORTHWEST CORNER OF SHADY HOLLOW BOULEVARD
EAST AND IMMOKALEE ROAD, IN SECTION 10, TOWNSHIP
48 SOUTH, RANGE 27 EAST, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA,
CONSISTING OF 4.20± ACRES. [PL20240012938] (THIS ITEM IS
A COMPANION ITEM #8A) - MOTION TO APPROVE
January 27, 2026
Page 12
W/CHANGES BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED
BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL – ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: That moves us along to Item 8. This is the
Board of Zoning Appeals. We do have Items 8A and 8B, which are
companion items. First up, 8A is a recommendation to approve an
amendment to the Collier County Growth Management Plan for the
unincorporated area of Collier County, Florida, specifically amending
the Rural Golden Gate Estates sub-element of the Golden Gate Area
Master Plan Element and Golden Gate Future Land Use Map and
Map Series to change the designation of the property from Estates
Mixed-Use District, Residential Estates Subdistrict, to Estates
Mixed-Use District Orangetree Bible Subdistrict to allow a
conditional use for a church up to 12,000 square feet.
The subject property consists of 4.20 plus/minus acres and is
located at the northwest corner of Shady Hollow Boulevard East and
Immokalee Road in Section 10, Township 48 South, Range 27 East,
Collier County, Florida. Furthermore, directing transmittal of the
adopted amendment to the Florida Department of Commerce,
providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.
Its companion item is Item 8B. This is a recommendation to
approve a conditional use to allow a church on property zoned
Estates pursuit to Section 2.03.01.B.1.C.1 of the Collier County Land
Development Code on property located at the northwest corner of
Shady Hollow Boulevard East and Immokalee Road in Section 10,
Township 48 South, Range 27 East, Collier County, Florida,
consisting of 4.20 plus/minus acres.
With that, we'll do ex parte, and then we will -- and your
disclosures, and then we'll swear everybody in.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. Well, this is where my paper
comes in.
January 27, 2026
Page 13
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's right.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have meetings and some correspondence in reference to both
8A and 8B.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman.
I have meetings and calls.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have meetings and emails.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have meetings and calls on both 8A and 8B.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: And I also have -- I have meetings
both, A and B.
MS. PATTERSON: Very good. If all participants could please
stand to be sworn in by the court reporter. That includes any that will
be giving public comment.
THE COURT REPORTER: Do you swear or affirm the
testimony you will give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth?
(The speakers were duly sworn and indicated in the affirmative.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Tom, how many people do we have
registered for this particular item?
MR. EBLE: We have eight registered speakers, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: All right. We'll begin with the applicant.
MR. DELATE: Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. My
name is Mike Delate from RDA engineers, and I appreciate your time
today to go over this project.
I also want to thank the neighbors, frankly, for being involved in
January 27, 2026
Page 14
this process. I think they've enlightened us to their concerns through
this. And then staff's -- appreciation for staff in providing support
and direction in presenting this.
So from there I'll proceed. Just an introduction again, I'm
Michael Delate. I'm a professional engineer with RDA Consulting
Engineers. With me is Richard DuBois, another engineer here with
RDA. We also have our transportation planner, Jim Banks, who
you're familiar with, and our biologist, Marco Espinar from Collier
Environmental.
Additionally, the pastors Mark Hustedt and Mark
Mincey -- actually, Dennis Hustedt and Mark Mincey are here as
well. And Dennis will give a few words at the end of the
presentation.
Just a little background, Orangetree Bible Church is a local
church. Their parent church is Faith Bible Church, which is located
near Immokalee Road and I-75. And they had a lot of church
members that lived out in the Estates that needed to have a church
closer by for them, as anybody would want to that goes to a church.
So they started meeting out and meet there right now at the
Corkscrew Middle School, but they're outgrowing that facility and,
obviously, want to have a place, their home.
So most of the church members are from that area of the
proposed church location. And with their own growth internally and
also as the Estates grows out even more, they needed a place of their
own.
And they've -- they looked around quite a bit -- and Rich will get
into that in the presentation -- for a suitable location. They had many
concerns. Obviously did not want to intrude into neighborhoods, so
they looked for locations on a major road that would be more
convenient for the churchgoers and also not intruding into
neighborhoods. With that, they want to become a good neighbor to
January 27, 2026
Page 15
the community that they're moving into and hope that the community
understands that.
With that, I'll pass it over to Richard, and he can go over what's
proposed for you-all to review and hopefully approve.
MR. DUBOIS: Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you all
for taking the time today to hear this potential project.
My name's Richard Dubois with RDA Consulting Engineers
here to discuss the church. Mike summarized the project. So to go
into a little bit more detail, the proposed church is going to be capped
at 299 seats with a maximum gross square footage of 12,000 square
feet.
With this project, working with staff and working with the
neighbors, we are proposing enhanced landscape buffers along all
four sides of the property going above and beyond what the code
requires for code minimum landscaping.
In addition, some of the additional items that we're adding for
this is that the services will be limited to two days a week:
Wednesday afternoons and two Sunday services.
With this project, our clients have agreed to provide the
50-foot -- 50-foot-wide right-of-way reservation along Immokalee
Road for future expansion, and the building would then be set back
from that reservation as well.
One thing I do want to mention is with this project there are no
daycare facilities proposed. This is purely for a church use for the
congregation to be able to meet closer to home, not necessarily need
to drive as far to attend their church services.
To give you a brief summary of the property and how the
proposed church will sit on the property, on the right-hand side is
Immokalee Road, to the south is Shady Hollow Boulevard, and the
church abuts a vacant parcel to the west and to the north, and the
closest home that's been developed is the next parcel over, to the
January 27, 2026
Page 16
west, about 430 feet from the edge of the home to the edge of the
proposed church building and about 165 feet to the edge of where the
parking will be with the enhanced buffer between the parking area
and the property line.
This is the summary of the site plan that we've included with
these applications. This provides the required preserve landscaping,
stormwater management, parking. Based on the seat count, we'd be
proposing about 128 parking spots with this -- with this church, and
we would be utilizing grass parking as well for a substantial amount
of the parking on site in order to help keep the costs down for the
church. We'll also be maintaining some open space on site.
I did list all the conditions of approval across this slide and the
next two slides. We've already talked about them a little bit, and you
guys, I'm sure, have read through them. The main key topics here
that I would like to just touch base on quickly is the services
committed to only being Wednesday and Sunday, the cap of the 299
seats, the cap of the 12,000-square-foot gross area, and the principal
and accessory uses that are being proposed on site are the main
church building, the patio behind it, and then a small playground for
children as well. Those are the only uses being proposed at this time.
Based on discussion with staff, we have committed to having a
traffic officer on site if necessary if it's determined that the inflow of
traffic is impeding existing traffic, so we've already made that
commitment as well. One other thing that we've added to this
property throughout discussion with the neighbors after the NIM and
after working through it with staff is a turn lane off of Shady Hollow
Boulevard into the site. That turn lane is not required based on our
traffic count, but we have added it in order to be a good neighbor and
help mitigate and minimize, as much as possible, the traffic on Shady
Hollow Boulevard.
And the last thing I'll touch on in the conditions of approval, the
January 27, 2026
Page 17
lighting on site, we have made the commitment that it would be Dark
Sky compliant lighting and that the pole heights would be capped at
15 feet height in order to help minimize impact to any neighboring
parcels. Again, that is above and beyond what the code typically
would require for a development like this, but we're trying to come in
and be good neighbors with the properties that are next door.
To touch quickly -- touch base quickly on the location, our
clients looked into many locations for this development. In this area,
as we all know, most of it's zoned Estates, and any zone -- any
Estates-zoned property would require the same conditional use and
GMPA process in order to develop a church on that property.
One thing that's continued to come up throughout our NIM and
throughout our planning application meeting was that there was a
parcel to the east on the other side of Immokalee Road that would be
suitably zoned for this development. We talked through it with staff,
and we obtained a zoning verification letter as well. That parcel is
also zoned Estates. And that parcel would also require a GMPA and
a conditional use to be developed.
Unfortunately, there's a sign on it for sale that claims
commercial. Unfortunately, that's a real estate sign that may or may
not have been 100 percent accurate.
So we did look at other properties. That property in particular, it
was extremely low and quite wet. That was one of the many reasons
that property was not chosen. So this parcel was chosen due to its
location on Immokalee Road. We're not trying to expand a mile deep
into one of the neighborhoods and build a church there. We're trying
to stay as close as we can to a main road.
And the proximity with the local church members, as they're
continuing to grow their congregation, there's quite a few members
that live out in this area.
Just to give you guys an idea of what we're looking to build, this
January 27, 2026
Page 18
is a proposed rendering of what the church could look like. The
pastors and the church are looking to build a nice structure that they
can be proud of and to call home. With this application, we're not
looking to propose a barn or any kind of structure that would be
unsightly.
Just a general summary of the floor plan as well of what it may
look like.
Now, the next slides here, as of last weekend, the 18th, we did
have a videographer go out and capture the traffic just to understand
what the traffic patterns look like throughout the morning on a
Sunday. One thing I want to note is that this is during peak season,
right, middle of January. We do understand that the Bird Rookery
Swamp at the end of Shady Hollow Boulevard may be closed, but I'm
the traffic --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Hold on, sir. Your video's not playing,
and it's -- yeah, and it's -- people are thinking a plane's flying into a
building, so...
MR. DUBOIS: No worries. Let's mute it. That's even better.
Perfect. No planes, hopefully.
So just to quickly summarize. I'm going to show you guys some
quick clips, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, and then just before noon of what
the traffic looks like along Immokalee Road and Shady Hollow
Boulevard as well. This isn't cherrypicked videos. We're here
providing videos on the hour. The traffic overall is quite light, and
this was on a Sunday.
One thing that I did want to mention is that peak-hour traffic
from this development would be once church lets out at the end of a
Sunday service. The typical peak-hour traffic on Immokalee Road
does not coincide with the traffic that would be seen from this
project.
Just a quick summary as well. I can skip through it quickly.
January 27, 2026
Page 19
This is just a quick minute of traffic on the hour. I watched the video
myself sped up. It was pretty -- it was pretty much the same
throughout the three-hour stretch where it was all extremely light
traffic. No stand-stills. Vehicles would be able to make turns off of
Shady Hollow Boulevard onto Immokalee Road either going
northbound or southbound with minimal problems.
And that's our presentation today for you-all. So thank you very
much for considering our application.
Pastor, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask
a question.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I assume it's appropriate to
ask a question of the -- at this time.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Um-hmm.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. You had indicated
that -- there were a couple things that kind of struck me here. This is
what you said, that there's no plan to have a daycare facility -- or
there's no other uses planned at this time. And I don't know if that is
intended to indicate that there may be other uses down the road. I'm
assuming that that --
MR. DUBOIS: (Shakes head.)
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- what you're presenting
today is what you want to have --
MR. DUBOIS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- which is the two days of
services, and no other activities.
MR. DUBOIS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And the reason I raise that
question is there are -- and this is a question for the County Attorney.
There are opportunities to engage in activities or have other services
January 27, 2026
Page 20
that are compatible -- I'm not sure if that's the right word -- where
you don't need to come back for a change, and I want to make sure
that we are limiting this to the uses that have been outlined today, that
there's not going to be an opportunity to come back and say, well,
we -- you know, a daycare facility -- and I'm not saying you would do
this, but just, you know, down the road 20 years from now there may
be somebody else that's running the show there -- that they can't
come back and simply say, well, a daycare is a compatible or
customary use of a church, and therefore, it's a use that is permitted.
I just want to make sure we're limiting this.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: There's no limitation in there that I saw
in my quick read on daycare. So I would recommend adding a
condition that, you know, only the uses specified in this conditional
use are allowed and any changes would need to go back to -- for
public hearing.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Well, that's the reason
I brought that up. If you could make sure that we have that language
in there, that this would require some either -- either another rezone
or some process to do anything else other than what's specifically
permitted, if this is approved today.
And then the other thing, you mentioned that there would be a
playground area, a small playground area for kids. I'm assuming
there's no intent to have outdoor -- you know, a pickleball court or a
basketball court, anything of that nature. This would be just for small
kids.
MR. DUBOIS: That's correct. Yeah, it would be small
playground that children could use after service, directly after
service, and then go on with their day.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. And if we could make
sure that the documents reflect -- reflect that. The reason I mentioned
that, it's a little bit silly, but we did have a church in one
January 27, 2026
Page 21
neighborhood where they had a couple basketball hoops set up and a
light, and kids would be out there 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night making a
lot of noise and playing basketball at the church, and the neighbors
would constantly complain and ask the church folks to eliminate that,
and they simply wouldn't do it. They wanted their kids to be able to
play basketball at 10 or 11 o'clock at night.
And so I want to make sure that there's no unnecessary noise
associated with that if this is approved.
MR. DUBOIS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. And I'll wait till the
end, because I think we're going to have staff and then public
comment, and I do have some questions for the applicant, but I'll wait
until we're all done.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. I assume -- they still have part
of their presentation, or are they done with their presentation? He
said something about the pastor saying a word.
MS. PATTERSON: Are you all -- okay.
PASTOR HUSTEDT: My name is Pastor Denny Hustedt and
along with Mark Mincy a few rows behind. We co-pastor Orangetree
Bible Church.
So thank you, gentlemen, for allowing us this opportunity to
present our request to have a church building on the corner of
Immokalee and Shady Hollow Boulevard. We are grateful to you.
And if I may divert just for a couple of seconds, I want to just
say thank you to our church family. We have a number of our people
here, some who I see have given sacrificially to purchase the
property, and I want to say thank you for being here to support this.
When our nation was founded, the Founding Fathers realized
that they needed churches if a fragile form of government was going
January 27, 2026
Page 22
to survive, such as a republic. If there was going to be democracy
and freedom and freedom of speech and civil government, they
needed churches to provide a moral compass for the nation, and so
churches were encouraged. The necessity of the 10 Commandments
being taught, Christ's words being communicated to them, was
absolutely essential in order to keep the public from deviancy, from
criminal activity, from chaos. What I think we see in Minneapolis
today is an example of intrusion into the church, public chaos when
there's an effort to replace democracy, freedom of speech, liberty
with communism.
So as a church in our region we want to join with the Founding
Fathers in seeking to advance human flourishing in our community.
We want to be there to present ourselves as a beacon of hope, a place
where people can come who are anxious, who are emotionally or
spiritually depressed, who are hurting. We want to be there. We
want to provide counsel and care.
Our Lord told us to be salt and light into our world. We want to
do that. We want to be able to communicate the truth that is found in
the Bible, and we believe that a Christian foundation in our
communities is essential for human flourishing. So we think we
serve a vital role, as the Founding Fathers thought, to be lights into
our communities.
In a practical way, we want to long -- as far as we stay with the
Sunday/Wednesday format, but we want to be available for people
who want to use the church perhaps for a public event, and if there's
the need for tutoring, if the County requests a bus stop on our parking
lot, we want to be available to listen and see how we can be of
assistance. If there's anything that we can do in our community to
help and to flourish the community, we want -- we want to be there
for that.
So we want to say thank you for the privilege of being able to
January 27, 2026
Page 23
communicate our desire, and if I may say, I think our community
right now of Orangetree area in the Estates is very short of churches.
We have very few in the area, especially public buildings. It's very
light, and so we want to be a lighthouse into our community. And I
am thankful for your consideration. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. And does that complete
your presentation as the petitioner?
MR. DELATE: (Nods head.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. How about county staff?
Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: Mike Bosi, Planning and Zoning director.
Staff, as indicated within the executive summary, is supporting
the petition, recommending approval of both the GMP and the
conditional use.
Of course, in the Estates, a church is a conditional use, but
because of the location restrictions, it requires a Growth Management
Plan to move forward under that conditional use that's allocated
within the Estates zoning district.
The Planning Commission did hear this, made a
recommendation against, of denial to the Board of County
Commissioners 6-0. Their main concern was the public testimony
that they heard described the activity of the Rookery Bird Sanctuary
that sits to the west of the parcel at the terminus of this -- of Sleepy
Hollow [sic], that we can be in the active -- the most active time for
those facilities. That, with the local traffic and the church traffic,
was -- there was concerns about ingress and egress.
Staff did take those into consideration in speaking with our
transportation planners. We haven't had an opportunity to do
operational analysis. That would happen during an SDP. But
from -- from our overview, we do think that there still can be a safe
condition.
January 27, 2026
Page 24
And we looked at that rookery -- the bird rookery, and there's
roughly about 30 to 32 parking spaces at that location. We don't
think that that is a volume that was going to create a great public
concern or traffic safety.
There was a number of modifications that came out during the
Planning Commission. The applicant's team mentioned it. I think
one of the most significant was the turn lane on Immokalee Road into
it, a decel lane that they are volunteering, as well as originally the
setback from the 50-foot right-of-way that is being requested for a
future Immokalee expansion as well. They're going to be providing
that but also being set back 75 feet from that.
For those reasons, staff is recommending approval, and we
would -- any questions that you may have directly related to our
executive summary.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders, you have a
question.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yes, sir.
Pastor Hustedt indicated in his comments that this would be,
obviously, a very nice public facility for the churchgoers there, but he
also mentioned a venue for public events. And again, I'm concerned
about opening the door here. You know, it's one thing to say this is
going to be a church that has a service on a Wednesday from 5 to 9
and a service on Sunday from 9 to 1 or 2, whatever the hours would
be. But then to add to that, open for public events, that raises a little
bit of concern.
And so obviously, there are going to be weddings and all those
things that go along with the operation of a church. But I'm a little
concerned about the general term "public events." And maybe -- it
may be one of those things where Pastor Hustedt might have to kind
of define that a little bit, but I don't want this to be opened up to
where there could be events anytime, any night, any day, for quote,
January 27, 2026
Page 25
"public events." So how do we make sure that that doesn't happen?
MR. BOSI: And as you, in your earlier discussion with the
County Attorney, related to -- you know, the -- having an additional
restriction, a Condition No. 19, that states that activities related to this
conditional use are only those activities that have been identified
within the conditions of approval, meaning that the hours of
operation become Sunday 7:30 to 2:00 and on Wednesday 5:00 to
6:00, those are when the church activities can move forward.
The normal days of operation will be Sunday and Wednesday.
Those will be the days that they're restricted to. Anything beyond
that would -- they would be eligible for related to some
temporary-use events. Any facility such as this would be eligible for
42 temporary-use events throughout the year, but that requires an
application to Growth Management, coordination with the safety
service providers to let them know that it's going on. And there's
restrictions in terms of how long those events could happen.
So there are inherently restrictions that could -- that are being
incorporated to the conditions of approval. Anything beyond what's
within these conditions of approval, outside of a temporary-use
permit or a temporary event, would not be authorized by this -- by
this ordinance or by the resolution.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And it's the County staff that
issues those permits --
MR. BOSI: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- for special events; those do
not come to the Commission?
MR. BOSI: No. Those are issued by Growth Management, yes.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: Commissioner, in light of the
conversation, I would also recommend, under Condition 5, at the end
it identifies that the other organizations and clubs can use the facility
during the hours of operation. So we would add at the end of No. 5
January 27, 2026
Page 26
"during the hours of operation," which would tighten it up to make
sure it would be -- there's no wiggle room.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Bosi, what is the allowed density now for the residential
mixed per acre?
MR. BOSI: Within the Estates zoning restrict, it's one unit per
2.25 acres.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Okay. And the mixed-use would
be, you know --
MR. BOSI: Well, currently right now the mixed use is not a use
that's allowed within the Estates zoning district.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I was wondering about that, because
it says that they wanted to change it from residential subdistrict to the
mixed use. Okay. Got it. I misread it.
And then, secondly, I certainly don't want to be the event police
for a church, but, you know, weddings and funerals and an occasional
revival could certainly be expected. I understand that the revivals
would be, you know -- have to come forth for the week's use, but I
don't see where weddings and funerals would have to have special
permission, because that's a normal use of the church, and it's
certainly not traffic intensive, but it's something that's special to
people, and they want to use their church for those -- for those events.
And so I don't -- I don't think it's going to be necessary -- I don't
want it to be necessary where we have to be the big -- the big event
police for what society wants and what people are expecting from
their church. I just wanted to -- what's your thoughts on that?
MR. BOSI: I would say weddings, funerals, those may happen
outside of the Wednesday and Sunday, because right now as it's
written, the hours of operation are strictly for this -- for the church for
January 27, 2026
Page 27
activity to happen there is Sunday and Wednesday. So if they want
churches [sic] and weddings to happen, say, on Saturdays as an
appropriate, that would be -- that should be added to this -- to this list
of activities that weddings and funerals can happen on a Saturday or
various other days what you're -- because those are customary -- or
activities that are associated with a church. But the way that these
conditions have been -- have been crafted, they really say they restrict
the activity. It's is only Sunday and Wednesday that activity is going
on within that church in terms of the public accessing.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I personally would like to see that
added as just a normal use to where we don't have to be determining
whether somebody has the right to get married or somebody wants to
bury their loved one. That's just a normal operation of the church,
and it's certainly not going to be traffic intensive. I understand what
Commissioner Saunders is saying about, you know, the public use.
That could -- there's a ditch on both sides of the road. He's talking
about one side of the ditch. I'm talking about the other. There's
balance in both of them, and that's what I'd like to see happen.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I -- I think the pastor leaned out over his skis a little bit in an
endeavor to be nice. There's no need for an additional public facility
in the area. We have the IFAS facility right down the street in front
of the -- in front of the fairgrounds. We have the Big Corkscrew
Regional Park right around the bend with a whole bunch of
public-use space. It was suggested maybe about a polling station or
something. We don't need those things.
I think the restriction of ancillary uses just during named
business hours is a bit restrictive. I think the language that was, in
fact, in there that allowed for normal church activities with
permission, if the pastor gets a notice from one of the parishioners
January 27, 2026
Page 28
that want to do a wedding on a Saturday, then they apply to the
County and tell -- those are known events.
Now, if somebody passes away, that's a little different story.
You don't have near the lead time. But I think if they codify their
commitments on their ancillary use -- I'm calling them ancillary uses.
They're actually primary uses of a church. But if they codified those
within the development order and then ask permission when an
extra -- extra event comes along, I think we've sufficiently protected
ourself.
I have no interest, as Commissioner Hall stated, in being the
church police and minding whether or not an activity -- additional
activity, in fact, transpires.
I do have two questions -- or one question for you, and then at
the end I'll ask the applicant another question. But who makes the
determination on traffic control and the necessity thereof? Is there a
trigger of trips that tip that over, or is it a sufficient amount of
complaints from the neighborhood or...
MR. BOSI: The latter. And, excuse me, I didn't mean to
interrupt you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Let's address that before we're
done today. Do some -- marinate on that thought process a little bit
and share with me some of your thoughts as to how we can better
manage that without tripping up the neighborhood, people that are in
the area with the potential of congestion and how we can better
manage that.
MR. BOSI: Well -- and I can tell you off the top of my -- off the
top of my head, I don't think we're going to have a trip count that's
going to be associated with the actual events on Wednesday and
Sunday. We would rely upon the neighborhood. If they feel that
there is a problem with the -- with access and they feel that ingress
and egressing their street during the church hours has become
January 27, 2026
Page 29
problematic, they would call, they would call Code Enforcement, and
Code Enforcement would coordinate with staff and with the church to
alleviate that problem specifically. And the first step would be, make
sure that you've got a Sheriff's officer representative to help with
traffic control.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Let's think about that a little
bit before we're done today.
MR. BOSI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm not -- I'm not interested in
allowing for a use change and then having the neighborhood have to
police the activities that are, in fact, through our Code Enforcement
or Sheriff and along those lines. So I think there may be a different
way to get there other than how we've always done it in the past. So
that's all my questions for now, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: And I'm going to piggyback on
Commissioner McDaniel, because when I heard the petitioner talk
about traffic control and what measures and if they need to have a
deputy there, or, you know, depending on the severity of the traffic
issues, and I'm more concerned about the Immokalee Road side of it,
if they have a lot of people at one time trying to turn and blocking
lanes -- you know, traffic or congesting traffic on Immokalee Road,
which is already heavily congested.
The thing is, in reality, though, you don't -- you never want to
call a deputy off the street to come and take care of a problem that
you've created, because then that takes one deputy off the street to
respond to actual emergencies. Typically what happens in these
situations, they go to a detail deputy program, and those guys sign up
for this work through detail, the church pays for the deputy, and those
type of things, so the public's not paying for them while they're
creating that traffic issue.
So it's hard to -- you just can't call them up and say, "I need a
January 27, 2026
Page 30
detail deputy." It's done in advance. You know, weeks in advance
these guys sign up for these details. So I think once it's determined,
if this is an issue, they should be on some sort of regular basis have
the access to detail deputies in advance, especially if they're going to
have a big wedding or something like that that they know is going to
happen, because you can't just expect them to just drop everything
and come and deal with the traffic when these guys need to be on the
road and not be dictated to, you know, respond to something that's
created by the church itself. So that's why that program exists.
So I think we really need to take a deep dive if this is going to be
something that they may have to, on a regular basis, participate with
the Sheriff's Office on, so...
Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I agree with Commissioner Hall and Commissioner McDaniel in
terms of weddings and funerals and things that are standard events
that you have at a church. My concern was just the description of
public events. And as long as we have some way to make sure that
that's -- if it's going to be some sort of a public event, there has to be
some sort of a process to approve it. And when I say "public events,"
I'm talking about, you know, if there is a decision to have a carnival,
for example, those types of things, I'd be concerned about that.
Weddings and funerals and other standard things that you would
expect in a church, I agree, we don't want to be in the business of
policing that. I just want to make sure we're not opening the door too
broadly in terms of other types of events.
MR. BOSI: And, traditionally, the festivals would be something
that is associated with churches, but we do -- we would require -- if
they were proposing one, they would need a temporary -- a
special-event permit from GMD. And like I said, that requires
coordination with EMS, the Sheriff's Office, and Fire, as well as
January 27, 2026
Page 31
general purpose government with that permit.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: If I remember correctly, you made a
statement that there's so many that they can request throughout a
year?
MR. BOSI: There's 42, 42.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Up to 42 a year?
MR. BOSI: Throughout the calendar year, they're entitled to
special events.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: In this particular conditional use, it
limits the special events to two per year.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Special events.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Special events.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: So we can add language that says that
the funerals and weddings are not --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Not considered --
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: -- are not subject to the day and hour
limitations. But the special events, as proposed, are two.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. We have public speakers.
MR. EBLE: Yes, sir. We have eight public speakers on this
item. As a reminder for our speakers, you have three minutes, and
you'll hear a beep with 30 seconds remaining. Our first public
speaker is Peggy Wyness.
MS. WYNESS: Good morning, gentlemen.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning, Peggy.
MS. WYNESS: When I found out I had three minutes, I had to
condense because I'm from Chicago, so I'm very long-winded.
But I'm here to represent the spiritual aspect of our church. If
you look at our logo, it is -- it says "Orangetree Bible Church." So
our main function is to be able to reach out to our community, friend
or foe, to teach them God's word, to enlighten them.
January 27, 2026
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And also it says "Jesus proclaimed." Number 1 focus is always
on Jesus. He's our savior, our Lord, and he came and died for us.
That is the reason why we have this beautiful country and this
beautiful community to live in.
So basically we're a very simple church. We're not going to
have a carnival that I know of anytime soon.
We are good neighbors. We care about people. We will be
praying for our community. We will be praying for peace, and we
will be praying for tranquility. We will be praying for the goodness
of God to be surrounded in Orangetree Bible Church. I prayed three
years for a church to come to that community, and God answered my
prayer. He answers my prayers, and I have divine favor, and so does
our church.
And so I really believe that no one -- it's something that's a
win-win for everyone. We are here to do good, to love our neighbor,
and also to try and teach our children the moral aspect and to just be
the light that God has called us to be.
And so -- just so you know, gentlemen, I will be at the church
praying for our community and for our people and for peace and for
goodness and for gentleness and for kindness and for mercy and for
love and for longsuffering and for self-control for our community.
So thank you very much. And by the way, we are taking
donations for our building committee. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Your next speaker is Jacqueline Mia.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MS. MIA: Good morning. I agree with what the staff has
recommended, and I ask for approval to build this house of worship
for our community. I support having the location and not having to
drive to the parent church, Faith Bible Church, located at Immokalee
and 75, as mentioned earlier, which I was a member at for many
January 27, 2026
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years.
I reside in the Estates. And this would benefit all of us,
including myself. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: We'll have speakers queue up at both podiums.
Our next public speaker is John Snowball, and he will be followed by
Colleen Araujo.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. SNOWBALL: Good morning. My name is John
Snowball, and my wife and I are in favor of the church being built at
this location for a number of reasons. First of all, we've learned this
morning that the traffic at this location on Sunday mornings is very
minimal. Secondly, it's an established fact that churches contribute
greatly to healthy communities. And so we think it's imperative that
good churches be established to help anchor the community to values
that contribute to human flourishing.
My wife and I came to support Orangetree Bible Church from
its beginning, and it has been a pleasure to serve this young church
which has been a source of great encouragement for both of us.
Knowing the people that worship there, we believe that this
church will be a huge benefit to the community. Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Your next speaker is Colleen Araujo. I hope I'm
getting that name right. I apologize.
MS. ARAUJO: Close enough.
MR. EBLE: And our next speaker will be Daryl Kniep.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Just for logistical reasons, when he
says that, he wants the next person to kind of stage over by the
podium so we can keep moving. So whoever he called after you,
ma'am, would you please, that individual, go to the other podium, just
so we can keep the ball moving. We've got some time-certain things
coming up.
January 27, 2026
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So thank you, ma'am. Good morning.
MS. ARAUJO: Good morning. Thank you for the time.
I am the house that lives right next to the church. I'm not a foe.
I am a Christian. I waited 23 years to have a house in the country
with animals sanctuaries, birds, trees, everything that goes with it.
No parking lots, no businesses, no disruptions. Twenty-three years.
If you waited that long to have a home and you were so happy
when you got there, you didn't buy a home in a commercial area, you
bought a home on a residential street that has a sanctuary at the end
of the street -- I feel it's very unfair. It's breaking my heart. It hurts
me every day.
I'm a Christian. I have nothing against a church, but I don't
think a church needs to be at the corner of a residential two-lane
street that -- by the way, the sanctuary is closed now. That's why
there's no traffic. I live there. Every day I live there. I watch the
traffic come. I watch the traffic go. I'm out in my yard every single
day. Every one of my neighbors knows me because I work in my
yard.
It's -- God gives me that gift to relax and enjoy life. I worked
very hard to get there, and now someone wants to come and take that
all away. I don't think it's fair. I don't think anyone who waits that
long to build a home to get a home deserves to have it all changed.
And I don't care how many barriers you put up, there's still going to
be a parking lot right next to my street -- right next to my home. I'm
going to have to hear weddings, funerals, churches, everything that
goes on.
I have dogs. Do you know if you have dogs, when you have
dogs, every time a car door closes, dogs go out off.
I have to -- I don't understand why this is even -- why this has to
be an issue. I didn't build my home -- I didn't buy a home in a
commercial area. I bought it on a quiet little two-lane street, and I
January 27, 2026
Page 35
really would like it to stay that way. Really, with all my heart and
soul I've invested in this, and I want to stay there, but I just can't even
see where the property would have any value now because the whole
structure would be ruined on that street. It's not a quiet residential
street anymore. It's a busy mess.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, ma'am.
MR. EBLE: Your next speaker is Daryl Kniep, and he'll be
followed by Mike Pyles.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Sir, you could have just used that
podium. That's the whole idea. We have two podiums. Mike, go to
this one. I'm your traffic director.
MR. KNIEP: Good morning, gentlemen. I'm Daryl Kniep, and
I've been a resident in Collier County since 2000, and my wife
Angela, she's been a resident here since 1985, '86.
I want to respond to three of the objections I've heard at
previous hearings, mainly traffic, noise, and location.
As far as the traffic, we've heard a lot of ready, but it will -- the
traffic will be very minimal during weekdays, and the church isn't
even open during the week. So as we've heard before, it's only going
to be Wednesday evenings and Sundays, Sunday mornings on a
regular basis.
Besides that, there would be very little time, except for these
special occasions like you men have talked about.
Right now, if you drive into Corkscrew Middle School parking
lot, when they meet now you'll see 25 to 40 cars, and you won't -- and
you won't hear anything. You just notice that they're there.
So that brings up the subject of noise. So it's going to -- it's
going to be very quiet. You know, you don't -- I believe -- I'm a
member of Faith Bible Church also, like John Snowball, and we have
our doors closed. I don't think you can hear anything going on in our
January 27, 2026
Page 36
church. And I doubt whether you will hear anything going on in
theirs either. So noise is not even an issue at all.
And you can compare that to the noise now generated by dirt
bike enthusiasts which apparently go out there whenever they want
to, and probably most likely on weekends, but that would be quite a
bit more noise than what you're going to get from the church.
The location that -- which is another objection, at one of the
meetings I was at, they said, "Why do you want to have a church in a
residential area?" Well, to any observer looking at where the
churches are now located in Collier County, you're going to notice
almost all churches are in a residential area. So in my opinion, none
of the objections that I've addressed here are any reason to deny the
church position to be able to build a building that is residentially
aesthetic to the area and which it will not be a big building with a tall
steeple. So that was one of the objections once, too.
Thank you for hearing me. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Our next speaker is Mike Pyles, and he'll be
followed by Charles Norman Pulliam.
MR. PYLES: Good morning, gentlemen. I'm a resident on
Shady Hollow Boulevard. I live at the house at the end of the road as
the road enters the bird rookery.
I'd like to make a couple comments on the video that supposedly
demonstrated the traffic condition. First, there was no video, as I
understand it, of Wednesdays, which a Wednesday evening service, I
think all of you probably know what's happening to the volume of
traffic on Immokalee Road. It is bumper to bumper. It travels fast at
that stretch of the road. This intersection also has a turn lane that is
used as a U-turn because the street immediately south of Shady
Hollow doesn't -- you cannot turn onto that residential street off
Immokalee Road. You have to come up to our street, make a U-turn,
January 27, 2026
Page 37
and drop down a block.
As for Sunday morning, the CREW sanctuary is closed right
now, and there's a reason it's closed. They're undergoing an
expansion. When I bought my lot out there about 12 years ago, they
were getting about 30,000 visitors a year into the Rookery. The
current numbers we've seen have been around 50,000. Most of that
traffic is on the weekends.
The Rookery is closed right now because they're reconstructing
the boardwalk entrance into the Rookery. They're also expanding the
parking lot. There was a mention there are 32 parking spaces there.
The CREW sanctuary had objected to the expansion of the
parking lot because they did not want to increase the traffic into the
rookery because of the birds and all the wildlife, but the County
prevailed upon them to expand the lot because of the number of
traffic lined up parking along the ditches on the dirt part of the road
on the weekends because of traffic overflow.
I used to walk on Shady Hollow Boulevard for exercise, and
I -- there are no sidewalks or anything, so I would walk on the
pavement. And one of the things I would do to occupy myself during
this walk was to do a car count. On weekends, I would hit averages
of a car every two minutes coming down that road in or out of the
rookery over the course of my walk.
One of the things that turned the tide with the Planning
Commission to vote against the staff report was one of the
commissioners is a weekend -- regular weekend visitor to the rookery
and is personally familiar with the traffic encountered out there. Not
only does traffic peak on the weekends when the rookery is open, it
peaks around midday because people, particularly during summer
heat, they go into the rookery to do their walking in the morning, and
they head out before the afternoon heat. So there's an -- there's an
exit from the rookery along the time of day church would be letting
January 27, 2026
Page 38
out.
We get a lot of traffic on that road. Fish and Wildlife is out
there almost daily. SWFWMD trucks are out there constantly.
Sheriff, fire, ambulances are out there for drills. My lot has the
easement that provides the vehicular access to the bird rookery. So
they do frequent emergency exercises there. They also periodically
go in and have to remove people from the trails who are in distress
usually because of -- not animal attacks, but some sort of heat stroke
or medical condition.
So we see a lot of traffic. This is not a typical residential street
as it is, and now you're talking about an additional use --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Sir, I just want to remind you, your
time was up, but I'm letting you kind of complete your thought, so if
you want to --
MR. PYLES: Okay. Well, one last thing. I don't actually know
the situation of the lot across the street. I saw the sign that used to be
there saying specifically it was approved for church construction. It
was actually one of the Planning Commission members that raised
that issue at the hearing in December. He was aware of that, and he
asked the church, "Why did you not buy that lot? It's still on the
market."
There was no comment about, "Oh, it's not yet suitable. We'd be
having to go to the same -- we'd be having to go through the same
process."
Their comment was we looked at it, and it would have been
more expensive to build on because of the additional site work
required by the wetlands. So basically --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Once again, sir, your time's up. I don't
want to be rude to the other people, but you got your three minutes,
so --
MR. PYLES: Thank you, sir.
January 27, 2026
Page 39
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Our next registered speaker is Charles Norman
Pulliam. He'll be followed by our final registered speaker, Robert
Davenport.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. PULLIAM: Good morning, Chair, Commission, and staff.
I'm a property owner in Collier County and a full-time resident.
I am not requesting any special consideration or treatment today.
I believe -- I am requesting you approve this project based on the rule
of law, not opinion or emotion, federal, state, and county laws. Our
nation is a nation of law and order, rule of law.
This church will provide -- if approved, will provide essential
services for the community. I'm in favor of approval today. If there's
any condition that needs to be added, you could continue this meeting
to add it and give us another bite at the apple.
Thank you for your time today and the opportunity to speak.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, sir.
Good morning.
MR. DAVENPORT: My name is Robert Davenport. I've been
a resident of Collier County since 1965. In 1965, I drove all the way
to Naples in 35 minutes. Yesterday I come from Immokalee. It took
me two hours to get here. We do have traffic challenges, but this
church will not change the traffic patterns out there very much.
There is going to be traffic challenges, but your staff has said
that it's workable. So your staff has recommended approval
stipulations, and I would ask that you approve this proposed project,
and if it's -- amendments has to be made, well, maybe we could make
those.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, sir.
Was that the end of the public speakers?
January 27, 2026
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MR. EBLE: That's all for public speakers.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
I didn't ask any questions because I did a deep dive with the
church, and also I read some of the citizen feedback, and also I
looked at the transcript from the Planning Commission and their
recommendation. I think a big part of their recommendation against
was, as everybody said, the lot across the street, and you've already
sort of debunked that.
Part of our professional procedure up here, at least the way I
think, is this possible church is in Commissioner Saunders' district,
and I always think it's a courtesy that the commissioner who has the
project in their district be the one to make a motion for or against, not
us sort of step on each other's toes. But I just want to make my
thoughts known.
I'm in approval of this project. Two hundred ninety-nine seats
doesn't mean 299 cars, so that's one thing. This is one of the least
impactful things on that property, and we've said in this room before,
be careful what you wish for because, you know, you say no to a
church and then in three years our replacements, or even us, are
sitting here, and we're looking at something, you know, much more
intensive. And everything that creates a little bit of traffic isn't a
rubber stamp "no." Growth is inevitable. So people that do buy in
areas where they say, "Oh, I bought here, and then I want to live here
the rest of eternity and never have anything change," it's not realistic.
I don't think the church is asking for anything above and
beyond. I love all the things that my colleagues added to make sure
that, you know, you're not having a carnival three times a week.
You're not having -- the baseball courts is a perfect example, because
I remember that conversation.
So regardless of what motion is made, I'm for approval. I think
January 27, 2026
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it fits on the piece of property. I think the neighbors will make it
work. I think some of the neighbors will wind up attending the
church. We found this before where -- I said to somebody yesterday,
when people were against the Baker Senior Center and we approved
it, then we heard, like, a year later that a large percentage of the
people from the community were using that.
I think you're building a structure that's not overly huge. I don't
think it's a giant parking lot right next to a house. And so, you
know -- and I also, if you think about traffic, there's always a
concern -- and Commissioner Kowal brought it up perfectly, and he's
a former sheriff. You know, if you had one hundred cars all one lane
trying to make a left-hand turn, I think he was -- he was mentioning
that. But these cars are going to come from all different directions.
There's not going to be 150 cars all lined up on one lane trying to
make a left-hand turn.
And so I'm for the project. I think the church has also gone
above and beyond in landscaping, setbacks, and all of the things that
aren't even necessarily required, but as I said, to be good neighbors
and make this the best project.
And I would just tell the citizens that maybe have an issue with
that, not everybody that could put something on this piece of property
would do that or have to do that.
So I think it's a great fit, and I hope there's a motion to approve,
and I certainly would second it.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, thank you. Mr. Chair,
and I apologize I wasn't playing -- Vice Chair wasn't hitting the
gavel. The little thing on the end of my pen was loose while you
were talking, and I just hit it, so...
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: You hit it on your head.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, hit it on my head.
January 27, 2026
Page 42
I, as well, am in support of the project. I do have a question for
the applicant, if I may.
I heard early on about the -- because it's a known fact we're
going to four-lane Immokalee Road clear up to the blinking light for
that -- for that -- I think they call it the Immokalee Road Rural
Villages. We know -- we know that four-lane is coming. Is
there -- and I heard about a reservation and a dedication, but I didn't
hear about a donation. Is that 50-foot going to be attributed to that
four-laning at no expense to the government?
MR. DUBOIS: So, no. The 50-foot right-of-way reservation is
being set aside, I believe, and the County Attorney can confirm this,
that the purchase price will be locked into the values at when the
GMPA conditional use was approved; is that correct?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: It's actually the date before approval is
the valuation --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: -- is the valuation.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Get in a huddle over there and
talk about the donation as well as the -- as well as the dedication and
reservation. That, I think, would be a very good thing for the
community at large. We all know there are issues out there.
I happen to serve on the executive committee and the board of
trustees of the CREW. I do know that the bird sanctuary -- rookery
sanctuary is closed right now, so your recent filming isn't real with
regard to what's going on. There is traffic that is on that road. And if
anybody hasn't ever gone on that walkabout, go. It's a wonderful
walkabout. A true stomp in the swamp right in amongst them, so it's
a wonderful facility.
So my next suggestion is to -- as we're going through this,
preliminarily, I don't want to have to trigger a code enforcement issue
for a sheriff to come and manage the traffic. I think that ought to be
January 27, 2026
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part of the operational aspects of the church.
And then at some stage, and -- I know there's an expense
associated with that, but that's going to help mitigate the traffic, that's
going to help offset the unknowns once that rookery -- the bird
sanctuary rookery gets opened back up, those issues can be mitigated
and handled in advance.
So I think that the -- as you said, Mr. Chair, I've done it in my
other businesses. You can apply for -- the fellows sign up for it. You
don't have to have a deputy with a gun standing there. It can be one
of our community service officers that's managing it, and you just, in
fact, do that. Minimumly -- I'd like to see it initially while the church
is open and minimumly on the additional events, weddings, funerals,
so ons and so forth. I think that would be a nice thing.
I didn't really think that the County Attorney's suggestion on the
limitation of the additional events in No. 5 was requisite. I think, if I
understood you, you were suggesting that we limit all special
activities to their hours of operation?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: That's just for other organizations,
nonchurch organizations.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yeah, just other organizations.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I think the fact that if we
codify the normal church uses in the development order, that will
suffice. We don't have to -- as Commissioner Hall said, we don't
have to be the church police as to what you can and can't do and
when you're going to do it.
If it's outside of normal business, normal church operations,
then -- then you have -- you have to get an event permit, and off you
go. So I'm -- I'm good with that as long as we codify it the -- codify
it in the development order.
So those are my comments for now.
January 27, 2026
Page 44
MR. DELATE: Commissioners, Mike Delate.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders.
MR. DELATE: Sorry, before that.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Oh, I'm sorry.
MR. DELATE: Per your request regarding the donation versus
reservation, we did speak with the pastor, and they agreed that they
would donate that -- what's called out as a reservation on the plan
now will be a donation.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. Sorry.
Commissioner Saunders, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
have a couple questions and then a couple comments.
These are very difficult things for me, and I'm sure they're
difficult for the rest of the Commission, kind of weighing the balance
of the interest of the folks that are going to be members of this church
and then the impact on the neighborhood.
The young lady that spoke from the heart concerning her home
certainly had an impact on me. A lot of these types of developments
I like to say, you know, would I want this in my neighborhood? And
general speaking, churches are in residential neighborhoods.
There's -- I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that.
But I also understand that the neighbors have -- have certain rights
also and relied on a Comp Plan and on zoning when they made their
purchases, and this is a change to what the rules were.
And so we do change the rules, and we may change the rules
today in reference to this, but I have a couple questions and perhaps
some recommendations.
Commissioner LoCastro, this is not the least impactful use of
that property. The least impactful use of that property is what it's
already zoned for. So we're changing this, and we're making it a
much more impactful use. It may not be as impactful as a
January 27, 2026
Page 45
drive-through restaurant, but it's still an impactful increase.
And so the one house that's adjoining I think raised a legitimate
concern about noise and also potentially for lights. If they're open till
9 o'clock at night, there are going to be lights from the parking lot.
What is the distance from the parking lot -- you had a slide up. I
think it was 160-some-odd feet from the parking lot to the neighbor's
yard, or was that to the neighbor's house?
MR. DUBOIS: Yeah. So it was about 164 feet to the neighbor's
home from the edge of the parking lot.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. And how far from the
parking lot to the lot line of the neighbor?
MR. DUBOIS: They're 75-foot-wide lots. So it would probably
be 28 feet or so, I would imagine, from the parking lot to the
property.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. And how wide is the
buffering going to be? And what kind of buffering are you going to
have there?
MR. DUBOIS: So the buffering on that side, on the west side,
we are maintaining 75 feet of native vegetation and then adding
buffering plantings to those. I believe it's a Type B buffer. If I recall
correctly -- I could pull the slide back up as well, but I believe it was
six-foot-tall shrubs at the time of planting.
And one thing I do want to summarize -- if we could pull the
presentation back up really quick -- the location here for this -- so
here is the exhibit we show. So that 165 is measured from the
parking lot. We have this lot -- empty lot between us and the
adjacent neighbor that's built. So there is a lot here as well, and then
that home is there. So that buffer --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That lot that's in between,
that's a single-family home?
MR. DUBOIS: There's a single-family lot as well in between
January 27, 2026
Page 46
the church property and the existing home that's developed, correct.
So there is -- there is a lot as well between this project and the closest
home.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Is there any potential -- I
don't want to run up the cost for a church, and none of us like to vote
against churches. Is there any potential for a wall along that side of
the property to buffer the existing house and the future house from
the light and noise from the parking lot?
MR. DUBOIS: I don't believe the church would be opposed to
that. Regarding the landscaping -- so the landscaping to the west will
have the 25-foot Type B buffer material, and shrubs will be
maintained at a minimum of 72 inches in height.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right.
MR. DUBOIS: So, typically, when we're doing enhanced
landscape plantings plans, which is what we're proposing here today,
at the time of installation, the opacity would be very similar to a wall
itself.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. I appreciate that, but it
won't be the same as a wall, and the noise resistance won't be quite
the same as a wall as well.
MR. DUBOIS: We would have no objection to either a solid
wall or a solid fence, some sort of actual solid material.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: A solid wall along that
property line, is that -- so you would agree to that?
MR. DUBOIS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right.
Mr. Chairman, Members, I -- I don't like -- I've gotten to a point
where I just don't like changing the Comprehensive Plan. People rely
on it, and we've done that a lot, and I've voted for it quite a few times.
We've looked at the public benefit, and, generally speaking, it's been
a lot of workforce housing that's come along with these
January 27, 2026
Page 47
comprehensive land-use changes. Churches are -- I think, are a real
positive, and I think -- with the addition of that wall along that
property line, I think that does alleviate a lot of the concern that was
raised by the property owner.
So with that additional condition, I will -- I will support this.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, Commissioner.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Do you want to make the
motion for approval, or do you want me to?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Well, this is in your district, correct?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, it's in his.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No, it's in his.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Oh, Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Was that a motion?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Was that a motion?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That was not a motion, but
obviously, it's going to pass 5-0, so I'll make a motion to approve
that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. And do we need to have that
language that we were discussing?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: With those stipulations that
we talked about, about the donation of the right-of-way --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- the requirement of the
Sheriff's Department maintaining traffic, and all of the other
commitments within the --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All of the --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: And the Condition 5 for the nonchurch
people for activity.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll second that.
January 27, 2026
Page 48
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Now, the wall, I think, would
be, what, a 6-foot wall, I think. Is that pretty standard, what we
talked about?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: That's standard.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. So I have a motion and a
second. All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Opposed, same sign, same sound.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: It passes.
All right.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's all right. Go.
MS. PATTERSON: At your pleasure, Chair, court reporter
break, and then we'll start our 10 o'clock time-certain.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yes, yes. Let's make it a 10-minute
break. So we'll be back at 10:36.
(A recess was had from 10:26 a.m. to 10:36 a.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. All right. This meeting is
being brought back to order, so if everybody will please take their
seats. And we have a time-certain, which we're a little over, but -- it
was 11A, correct?
Item #11A
January 27, 2026
Page 49
ACCEPTING THE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU
(CVB) GOVERNANCE RESTRUCTURE STUDY REPORT;
MAKE A FINDING THAT THE RECOMMENDATIONS THEREIN
PROMOTE TOURISM; PROVIDE STAFF WITH DIRECTION AS
TO NEXT STEPS, WHICH MAY INCLUDE THE DRAFTING OF
ANY PROPOSED TOURISM PROMOTION AGREEMENT,
PRIVATE SECTOR TRANSITIONAL PLAN, UPDATES TO THE
COLLIER COUNTY CODE OF ORDINANCES, AND OTHER
NECESSARY TRANSITIONAL DOCUMENTATION FOR
REVIEW OF THE TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL AND
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. (JOHN MULLINS,
DIVISION DIRECTOR - COMMUNICATIONS, GOVERNMENT
& PUBLIC AFFAIRS) - MOTION TO APPROVE THE REPORT
AND MOVE FORWARD BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. 11A is our 10 o'clock
time-certain. This is a recommendation to accept the Convention and
Visitors Bureau Governance Restructure Study Report; make a
finding that the recommendations therein promote tourism; provide
staff with direction as to next steps which may include the drafting of
any proposed tourism promotion agreement, private sector
transitional plan updates to the Collier County Code of Ordinances
and other necessary transitional documentation for review of the
Tourist Development Council and the Board of County
Commissioners.
Mr. John Mullins, your division director of Communications,
Government, and Public Affairs, will begin the presentation.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning, John.
MR. MULLENS: Thank you, sir.
To begin this presentation, I'd like to briefly outline how this
January 27, 2026
Page 50
study came about, and just as importantly clarify what it is and what
it is not at this stage.
In October of 2024 and at their request, County Manager
Patterson and I met with the representatives of the Florida Restaurant
and Lodging Association to discuss operational challenges within the
tourism division. Those discussions focused on issues such as travel
approvals for industry events, procurement processes, staffing levels,
and hiring and other day-to-day operational constraints.
And as the County Manager explained, that many of these
functions are governed by the same policies and procedures that
apply to all county divisions. That lead to a broader conversation
initiated by the manager about how our tourism operations and
organizational structure compare to other Florida destinations and
peer markets nationwide.
The fundamental questions became whether we're competing
with private-sector destination marketing organizations with one arm
behind our back secured by bureaucratic red tape and whether there's
a better way to optimize tourism development performance and
increase market responsiveness.
As a result of that discussion, the County Manager authorized a
study to examine alternative governance models for tourism
optimization in the marketing and promotional realms including the
potential benefits of transitioning from a government-based tourism
division to a hybrid or private-sector DMO. And Mr. Wert and
Mr. Lambeth will speak in greater detail about those findings here
shortly.
Now, as you know better than anyone, local government
administration requires many hats: Ensuring public safety, delivering
essential utilities, managing growth and infrastructure, providing
services to residents and visitors, and overseeing programs that
support our seniors and veterans.
January 27, 2026
Page 51
Local governmental bureaucratic management of national and
international marketing campaigns may not be the best-fitting hat. In
fact, on a whim, I reviewed the course offerings for a public
administration degree at FGCU and found no course work focused on
the topics of tourism, marketing, or promotion. Those disciplines fall
under an entirely different academic track called hospitality
management, highlighting the specialized expertise required in this
highly competitive field. If the Board agrees with the study's
recommendations, today represents the first of at least two
discussions on this topic.
As outlined in the executive summary, our purpose today is to
present the study results, discuss the perceived benefits of the
recommended model as compared to our current governmental
structure, and gauge the Board's interest, and directing staff to take
the next steps. Those steps would involve developing materials,
policies, and procedures necessary to potentially transition only the
marketing and promotion functions of the tourism division.
Should the Board be receptive and with your guidance, the next
phase would address key implementation questions including what
would a private sector governing board look like, and who would
serve on it?
When could a new DMO realistically become operational?
What would startup costs and operational funding mechanisms
entail? How would the physical and operational transition be
managed? What administrative actions and Board approvals would
be required? What performance measurements should be included in
any contract for services with a new entity? And how would
transparency and accountability for TDR expenditures be maintained
or even enhanced?
Now, while some of these questions may venture into unfamiliar
territory, they are not uncharted. State and national models already
January 27, 2026
Page 52
exist, offering proven best practices. We can also seek guidance
from leaders who have successfully navigated similar transitions and
apply their experience and hindsight to our advantage.
If the Board agrees with the recommendations in the executive
summary this morning, we will continue to work with our contractor,
engage industry stakeholders, and consult with the County Attorney
and the Clerk to develop these components and return to both the
TDC and the Board for review and final consideration.
And with that, I'll turn the presentation over to Mr. Wert and
Mr. Lambeth, the researchers and authors of this study.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, John.
MR. WERT: Thank you, John. And good morning,
Commissioners. Very nice to be with you this morning.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. WERT: For the record, Jack Wert. I'm a 20 -- almost
25-year resident of Collier County here. My company, Wert
Marketing Group, is based here in the Naples area, and I'm just happy
to be able to show you the results of the study that we did on behalf
of Collier County.
Also, you heard John Lambeth's name. John and I partnered on
this project together. He and his company, Civitas, has done a lot of
work around the country on exactly the same kind of study that we've
done and the process that this might lead to.
So, John, why don't you just lead it off here, if you could -- he's
joining us online here -- with some background on Civitas and how
you fit into this whole project.
MR. LAMBETH: I thank you very much, Jack.
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the Board. Thank you
for letting me join virtually today.
Just a bit about our background. Our company, Civitas, is really
the nation's leading firm in working with destination organizations
January 27, 2026
Page 53
primarily focused on two issues: Funding, we do a lot of work in
helping destinations achieve their funding goals, and organizational
structure.
We have worked around the world with destinations. We've
worked in all 50 states with over 200 destinations and this year are
celebrating our 30th year in existence. And we were very excited
when Jack approached us to help with this effort, and we'll be very
pleased to share some of our findings and some of our results today
with you.
MR. WERT: Great, John, thank you.
Through John's introductory remarks, you kind of know where
we -- how we got to where we are right now. This was a study that
was initiated by the County Manager back in March of last year, and
John Lambeth and I have worked on the project ever since going
through a number of different steps.
The overall scope was really to look at exploring alternative
governance models. And you'll hear me refer to the tourism division
sometimes as the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is what
they are. They are a sales and marketing organization, the official
destination marketing organization for Collier County. So those
terms DMO, CVB, are kind of interchanged in the industry, so you'll
sometimes hear one or maybe both of them in part of my
presentation.
The all purpose -- overall purpose of the study, as I've said, is
looking at other governance structures, addressing the benefits of
possibly transitioning from a nongovernment destination marketing
organization to something else, and then to provide some
recommendations to improve efficiency, flexibility, responsiveness,
and engagement with our tourism partners here in Collier County.
Early on, as we started our study, we identified several benefits
that could happen as a result of moving away from a government
January 27, 2026
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model to a non-government model. First and probably foremost, we
wanted -- and everybody is -- in the industry is looking for ways to
optimize visitor spending in our community, streamline and improve
operations.
Another benefit is transferring some of the functions that
government currently provides to the tourism division. Staff time for
legal, accounting, human resources, procurement, those services are
currently provided to the division and paid for by tourist tax revenue,
the time spent by county staff.
We saw a benefit of continuing the current transparency and the
accountability that the Tourism division currently follows and a lot of
oversight related to expenditures of the tourist development tax.
We saw another benefit in really enhancing and improving the
engagement that the division has with the tourism industry here in
Collier County. As they bring visitors to the community and those
people spend their hard-earned dollars on vacation time here or
maybe attending a group meeting, they bring a lot of positive
economic impact to our community.
We saw a benefit of actually making sure that the industry was
engaged, that they were able and had many opportunities to be a part
of what the tourism division does in promoting the destination.
We saw a greater flexibility specifically in times when we are
really challenged with a crisis of whatever it might be. We certainly
have seen issues related to hurricanes, to wildfires, to oil spills all
over many years. The Tourism division has responded to that, but it's
becoming more difficult to react quickly and overcome any
misinformation that's in the marketplace about did our -- are we still
in business. Did our area be hurt as much as many of the other areas
of Florida have been hurt in crisis situations?
And we also saw some opportunities to diversify
future -- finding future funding opportunities beyond just the tourist
January 27, 2026
Page 55
development tax.
The Tourism division is now and has faced a number of
challenges in the past. One of the things that's been very troubling is
the reduction in the number of staff positions in the division. It's
gone from a high of 13 to nine FTEs currently despite rising numbers
of visitors coming to our destination every year. It's the job of the
Tourism division to service those people to make sure that they have
a good experience while they're here, and that's hard to do if your
staff continues to reduce.
Recruiting has been a challenge. So when we did try to replace
the organization positions, we found that the wage scale for Collier
County positions is not competitive in the -- with the public sector,
and that's where the majority of the people would come from. Not
from other government organizations, but from the private sector.
And the other thing that was troubling was that the job titles for
people in the tourism division don't really match up with the private
sector. So somebody who's looking to transition from the position
they're in to a Collier County Tourism position, it doesn't say what
they do, and many times we lose good candidates because they
simply aren't seeing that the -- that what we're looking for is their
profession and what they could bring to Collier County.
We all know that there's been a number of processes going on at
the federal, state, and local level as well of reducing the size of
government. So it's hard to grow a tourism-based organization in a
government sector with keeping up with the growth in the tourism
industry and the changes in that tourism marketplace.
I've mentioned the slow response, and we've -- we've really seen
a number of situations where we should have been able to turn more
quickly, make sure that the messaging was changed to meet the
situation.
And there have been growth pressures in the past. What has
January 27, 2026
Page 56
been wonderful to see over the years is that, for instance, our
international visitors have in the last 10 years gone from 10 percent
of our visitation to 20 percent. And our meetings market, that group
meeting market that so many of our larger hotels depend on, has
grown from 10 percent 10 years ago to 30 percent of the visitation.
You need staff to be able to handle that kind of growth.
We looked at some possible solutions. And requesting
additional staff positions could be a possibility. We'd go back and
suggest that during the budget cycle that we look for additional
positions into the Tourism division. These services could be
contracted out, and that is certainly a possible solution. And also
continuing the study that we were doing to looking at additional or
different government -- government structures.
So how do we go about finding the best alternative? And
frankly, the likelihood that we saw in the study of adding new
positions is probably not realistic. The -- so contracting, very -- it's a
less effective, I guess, the way to say it, than having a full-time
position. They aren't -- that hired-on position is going to work
virtually all the time on that while as a contractor may not. They may
have other resources.
So the best return on investment that we saw was exploring a
new government structure, a nongovernment structure.
And our earlier recommendation was to look at it transitioning
out of where they are right now -- the Convention and Visitors
Bureau is part of county government -- to go to something else;
looking at the benefits such as optimizing visitor spending;
improving agility, that flexibility thing, to turn on a dime, if you will;
and better stakeholder engagement.
And we -- we saw that going to a different structure didn't really
hurt accountability or transitioning -- or transparency at all. It really
is the same thing. You report on a regular basis exactly as the way
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the tourism division currently does.
So what I'd like to do now is have John Lambeth go through,
and he'll be able to show you some of the research findings that are in
our -- your packet there, but also I think it's good that he -- because
he really headed up the findings and some of that research.
John.
MR. LAMBETH: Thank you so much, Jack.
When we took a look at this, we really wanted to get a national
picture, what is going on around the country and what is going on
around Florida with respect to these structures so we could provide
that information to you. And we looked at several different kinds of
models. We looked at what we call government-run, which is
essentially internal department within the county government such as
you have today in Collier County.
We looked at what we called quasi-government structures where
there are separate legal authorities, government authorities that are
charged with managing destination organizations; hybrid, meaning
some inclusion of non-profit but heavily essentially government run;
and by far the most common which is a private non-profit
corporation, running a destination organization.
By the way, we -- in addition to the work we do for destinations,
we do a significant amount of research on the industry, and we track
1,412 destinations across the U.S. Those are both government and
non-profit. For the non-profits, we pull all of their 990 information,
which is their tax return information. And if you're familiar with the
tax returns that non-profits have to file, about two-thirds of that
information is financial, but there's a significant amount of
nonfinancial information that's included, and we categorize all of
that. We have that in a very large database. It gets updated every
month with new filings with the IRS, and so we can track with great
precision what kinds of organizations are out there, how they're
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structured, and how they continue to operate.
Of course -- well, you can see on the chart, there are 84 percent
of U.S. DMOs, and about half of Florida DMOs are non-profits. The
government DMOs across the U.S. are really concentrated in several
states. Florida is one of them. There are a handful of other states that
have a large section of government DMOs. All the rest of the states
are by and large predominantly non-profits, and within that non-profit
category, there are three different choices that might apply to a DMO;
a (c)6, which is what the IRS calls a business league; a (c)4, which is
a social welfare, sometimes referred to as an issues corporation; or a
(c)3, which is a charitable organization. And by far, the most
common of that are the (c)6s.
In fact, of all DMOs across the whole country, 75 percent, so
three-quarters of them are 501(c)6. Very few (c)3s and (c)4s. Six
percent that are (c)3s, and 3 percent that are (c)4s. And the reason for
that is those organizations tend to be more charitable in nature. They
really are about the public welfare, public good, where (C)6s are
more focused on industry promotion, industry, health as
organizations.
We did take a look at two case studies, both that have made this
transition from a governmental constituent entity to a private
non-profit, and in both cases they chose (c)6s. These are some of the
things that they told -- I interviewed both CEOs that went through
this process, including the CEOs that have since moved on but have
been in these organizations. Both cited improved speed to market
and talent recruiting, blending very well with what Jack had
described as some of the current challenges.
They recommended the need for strong support for the
transition, very good outreach and communication with stakeholders
and government entities, and the last one I'll say is really the one I
would emphasize the most, that there be solid transparency and
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accountability built into these districts.
And the (c)6 model, one of the reasons it has worked so well is
that there is transparency and accountability typically built into those
systems. Transparency in the frequent reporting -- and we would
expect if you did go this direction that you would have frequent
reporting both to the TDC and to your board, both as you have today.
Of course, annual reports.
And in addition, you would have an agreement with this
organization and would have very detailed performance standards
involved in that, such that you could keep this organization very
accountable and make sure that it's reporting.
And of course, on top of all that, the organization's financials are
reported out each year. They're 990s, their tax returns are all public.
So the information about how they spend the money is public.
Where they got money is public. The salaries of the top employees
are public. So there is a significant amount of transparency and
accountability.
Following that advice, as part of this process, Jack really led a
great effort of reaching out to a lot of folks. Hybrid sessions where
we did both in-person and Zoom meetings, people could attend either
way; 12 steering committees through the process; one-on-one
discussions with TDC members. And, of course, we've been going
through this hearing process for a while in terms of a committee, the
TDC's ResourceX, all of these things, and now before your board to
make sure this was a very open and accountable process.
I only have two more slides, and I'll move through them quickly
to keep this all moving. As part of our database, we did a research of
organizations with similar budgets to your destination organization,
and you can see them now here up on the screen. And we identified
not only their budget, what state they're from, but also what type of
organization they are. And you can see this is fairly representative of
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the rest of the country. You've got a few government organizations
in here. You've got one (c)4 and one (c)3, and the rest are (c)6s. So
it sort of bears out, both within your revenue range that your current
DMO is at, how these structures compare to the rest of the country.
And finally, let's look at Florida in particular. Here we've
identified several destinations around the state with varying budgets
but trying to get the best comparable set we can. And you can see in
Florida we have more government organizations.
By the way, I think that's a trend that is likely to change over
time. I think because of the success of the (c)6s, I think you're likely
to see -- you've seen several organizations in Florida already change.
And I think you're going to see more of that into -- likely into the
future, but this just gives you an idea of how those organizations are
organized, what their budgets are, and ultimately, what their
organizational structures look like.
So with that, I will turn it back to Jack, and, of course, we'll be
available for questions from the Board.
MR. WERT: Great, John, thank you.
So let's look at what our research indicated and how the current
revenue and the responsibilities might change going from a
nongovernment organization. The County would retain the funding
and the responsibility for beach renourishment, beach park facility,
the sports complex, the county museum operations, and the
administration of the Tourist Development Council.
The TDC itself would continue its role as your advisory group
on all tourist tax revenue expenditures, looking at each of those and
bringing back recommendations for your consideration.
And the new destination marketing organization would continue
as it currently is as the County's official destination marketing
organization handling marketing, promotion, group sales, events
around the community, through a contract with the County.
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This would require the new organization to put together bylaws,
articles of incorporation, policies and procedures, IRS reporting, and
audits.
So we looked at, then, possibilities of future funding. Right now
the only revenue that the Tourism division has is the tourist
development tax revenue. What we see in a new nongovernment
setting is that it opens up a whole number of new revenue
opportunities: Expanded co-op marketing opportunities, partnering
with our tourism partners, hotels, and attractions and so forth in
advertising, going to trade shows and so forth.
The issue on that has been -- we've been doing that, but the
revenue that comes back from the partners goes into the General
Fund. It does not go back to the tourism funds to reimburse
expenditures.
Membership or partnership, that's not something that's possible
under a government entity. You could get revenue from that. And
we've explored that with the industry through those hybrid meetings
and so forth that we've had, and they seem very much interested in
doing more with the tourism bureau.
The opportunity to apply for grants, again, that's something that
the current organization under county government cannot do. And
also special-event revenue. The same kind of thing as we've
experienced and seen in our research through co-op is that that
revenue is going into the General Fund, not back to the Tourism
funds.
There's also a possibility of forming in the future a tourism
improvement district, something that John's company has been
working on all over the U.S., and a couple right here in Florida. To
get additional marketing funds or in the case up in Seminole County
they are using it to actually build a new indoor sports complex. So
that's a possibility for the future or perhaps a destination marketing
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fee that would be a voluntary fee that would support additional
marketing initiatives.
And finally, we know that the increase to 6 percent for the
tourist development tax is going to be on the ballot this fall. That
could be another potential source of revenue, although most of that
would be going to completing the sports complex.
Staffing of the new entity, the current staff would be offered
transition to the new entity or they can stay with county government
in another position. We do see that expanded roles in marketing,
sales, and engagement in operations could be possible and probably
will be needed to at least replace those positions that the division
has -- has lost and -- but we would recommend outsourcing, at least
initially, human resources, legal, IT for efficiency and cost control.
And we talked a good deal about transparency and
accountability, but that really comes from the same regular reporting
to the TDC, the County Commission, and the tourism industry
stakeholders. Same things they've been doing now, and now the new
organization would do the same.
The new organization would adopt the recently approved CVB
strategic marketing plan, maintain the performance metrics, things
like tracking tax collections, visitor spending, social media
engagement, group meeting leads, and so forth, and maintaining the
return on investment measurements that were -- that the organization
is already using: Direct visitor spending, economic impact, average
length of stay, marketing.
And that whole measurement of the investment in marketing,
bringing people to the destination and the resulting visitation that
comes from people who were influenced by that -- that marketing
effort. So all that -- that's the gist of our recommendation from the
research that we did.
And our final recommendation is that -- to form a non-profit
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501(c)6 destination marketing organization contracted with Collier
County. The benefits that we saw early on in the study, and as we
finished it, really bore out the optimization of visitor spending;
agility, to change quickly; flexibility, to bring new direction to
marketing efforts very quickly; and the transparency measures.
So we've already been through several steps in this process.
Early on we provided the county administration with our initial
findings, that -- that was approved to move forward. We presented to
the Productivity Committee and got a favorable recommendation
from them. They had some suggestions that were very helpful, and
we added it to the overall results of this study.
We also had a presentation to ResourceX which they highly
recommended, and you do have in your packet a memorandum from
Chris Fabian with ResourceX supporting this, as it really does seem
to meet pretty much exactly what they are trying to do here in
improving efficiencies here in Collier County.
We took the findings to the Tourist Development Council, and
on December 12th they recommended for your consideration, and
we're here today to hopefully get your support of the results of our
study and to give us some direction on where we might go in the
future toward the possibility of adding and forming a new non-profit
destination marketing organization here in Collier County. And I'll
stop there.
And John and I are certainly here to answer any questions you
might have. Looking toward a positive recommendation from all of
you. Thank you, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Well, thank you. Commissioner
McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You know, I can hold my
comments until after -- I think -- do we have public speakers?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: We have public speakers, correct?
January 27, 2026
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll hold my comments till
then, if -- do you want me to re-light back up or --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Is the Board okay --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Let's hear public comment.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Also public comment, or would you
like to --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, just one quick
comment -- a question in terms of a timeline. That last slide you had
was consideration by the County Commission first quarter of 2026.
We've got a lot of work to do. When do you expect the final product
to come back to the Board for final approval?
MR. WERT: With favorable direction today from the Board, we
can move very quickly. A lot of the nuts and bolts of forming a new
organization like this we researched. We looked at the best of the
best and the not quite as good, and we have a really good feeling of
where the contract needs to go, how the board would be formed. We
haven't done any of that, but we've got all of that data ready to go.
So I think -- within the next two months, I think we could be
back before the TDC and all of you with the plan that -- that we see
moving forward, and then we'd come back to the Tourist
Development Council and to you for final -- for final work.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Mr. Mullins, do you want to finalize
the staff?
MR. MULLENS: Yeah. Just to add to that -- and I think
Bartles & Jaymes said it best in the 1980s. "We sell no wine until it's
time." So we'll take whatever time it takes to get this right, to get it
into a position that the County Attorney, the Clerk, and others are
comfortable with it, and then we will take it back to the TDC and to
the Board for final recommendations, edits, and approval.
So there is no rush to do this. It doesn't have to coincide with
the beginning of the next fiscal year or anything else like that. We
January 27, 2026
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will do it when it's ready.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
Tom, how many public speakers do we have?
MR. EBLE: Mr. Chair, we have nine.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Nine?
MR. EBLE: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Do you still want to wait?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Either way. Either way. I can
make my comments now or wait till afterwards, whichever you
prefer, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Well, you just lit up again. I thought
maybe you wanted to talk.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. I thought we were
going into communication, so I'm -- I'll un-light. How's that?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. We'll go ahead and start
with public speakers.
MR. EBLE: I will ask the speakers to queue up at both
podiums. Our first public speaker is Dianna Dohm, and she will be
followed by Clark Hill.
MS. DOHM: Good morning, Commissioners, Dianna Dohm.
I'm the executive director for the Marco Island Chamber of
Commerce.
Tourism is not optional to the Marco Island business
community. It is foundational.
Visitor spending sustains our hotels, our restaurants, our
retailers, our attractions, our professional services, directly supporting
thousands of jobs and providing a reliable revenue stream that keeps
small businesses open and thriving.
These dollars are -- these dollars also reduce the tax burdens on
residents by funding public services, infrastructure, community
amenities all that benefit Collier County.
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To protect and grow this economic engine, Collier County must
maintain a strong, private non-profit convention and visitors bureau.
A private non-profit convention bureau promotes tourism that is
strategically driven, data driven, and insulated from competitive
priorities. It allows for nimble decision-making, consistent long-term
planning, and targeted marketing that highlights the distinct identity
of Marco Island and our county as a whole; this market where
destinations that fail to invest strategically are quickly left behind.
A well-resourced private non-profit CVB delivers measurable
returns on investment and drives year-round visitation and supports
the sustainable tourism that aligns with the community values and
quality of life known to Marco Island.
Weakening or restructuring this independence risks economic
instability for local businesses and undermines one of Collier
County's most powerful tools for job creation and revenue
generation. For the continued success of Marco Island, and the
broader Collier County community, tourism must remain a priority
for all of us. And in private non-profit, CVB must be the cornerstone
of our economic development strategy.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Your next public speaker is Clark Hill, and he will
be followed by Kevin Smith.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. HILL: Good morning. Clark Hill. Thank you very much
for the opportunity to speak to you today. It's a privilege and an
honor.
I've been a resident of Collier County now for 25 years. I
opened the Hilton Naples Hotel and Shula's Steakhouse in the year
2000 so -- and I'm interested in tourism, but I'm also interested in our
community.
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And I've been on the Tourist Development Council I think it's 17
years. I'm not positive. But I've been on the Tourist Development
Council for a long time. It's been -- certainly been a privilege for me
to serve in that capacity, and I've learned quite a bit, but I've also
come to appreciate the leadership that we have in Collier County and
how we make decisions.
I'm here to express my support for the change in the way the
CVB operates. I think it's going to be very beneficial to the tourism
industry. I think it will be beneficial to the community. As a whole,
I see many, many advantages to -- to proceeding that way, and I'm in
favor of it.
Thank you again for your time.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Our next speaker is Kevin Smith, and he will be
followed by Amanda Pearson.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. SMITH: Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for
this opportunity to speak in support of the governance restructure of
the Collier County CVB. My name is Kevin Smith, and I have the
pleasure to serve as director of major gifts at Artis-Naples. And as
part of my role, I oversee our tourism grants and reporting.
Artis-Naples is one of Collier County's largest cultural
institutions, and we see every day how essential a strong CVB is to
sustaining the cultural vibrancy that draws visitors to our beautiful
community.
While organizations like ours do actively promote our own
programming, the CVB provides a different essential function by
presenting a unified destination voice. That countywide perspective
brings together our lodging, dining, arts, and local businesses in no
single way a cultural organization can accomplish, which elevates the
entire tourism ecosystem.
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In my previous roles with cultural organizations in Palm Beach
and Broward Counties, I worked closely with this structure and saw
firsthand the benefit of a DMO organization. From my standpoint,
the proposed restructure is both timely and necessary. It would
provide a strong strategic destination marketing, continued
partnership with arts and cultural organizations, efficient, timely
promotional support, transparent stewardship of our tax dollars.
Tourism supports more than 27,000 jobs in our region, and
cultural institutions like Artis-Naples plays a meaningful role in why
visitors choose us. To stay competitive, we need a DMO structure
with tools, flexibility, and the responsiveness our peers across the
state already enjoy.
Thank you again for your time and consideration.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. Good morning.
MS. PEARSON: Good morning, Chair and Commissioners.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm Amanda Pearson.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Sorry.
MS. PEARSON: Did I --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: He usually announces your name
before you start speaking.
MR. EBLE: Your next speaker is Amanda Pearson, and she'll
be followed by Sharon Lockwood.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MS. PEARSON: I was very excited. Good morning. Amanda
Pearson. I'm a member of the UAC Council, and I just want to, you
know, continue the comments today. But I will speak quickly
because it sounds repetitive after what I've heard today.
So tourism is not just an economic driver in Collier County, it's
one of our most vital industries. It supports more than 27,000 local
jobs, fuels our small businesses, and provides revenue that helps keep
taxes lower for residents.
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And it's important to remember hoteliers don't create the tourist
development tax, our guests do. Hotels simply collect on Collier's
behalf. Without hotels filling these rooms, these tax dollars would
not exist.
During the fiscal year, industry will again generate millions in
tourist tax revenue. That revenue is why this conversation matters
and why we must ensure these dollars are working as hard as possible
for Collier County.
The independent study spoken about today makes one thing
clear: Collier is failing behind its competitive set. While we -- while
we rank third in tax collections among our peers, we spend just
22.8 percent of those collections on advertising, compared to a
44.3 percent average among our competitors. At the same time,
we've added over 1600 new hotel rooms between 2024 and '26 with
more coming. Increased inventory without increased promotion puts
occupancy, jobs, and revenue at risk.
Under the current government-run model, the CVB is
understaffed, under-resourced, and constrained. Staffing has dropped
from 13 to 9 full-time employees since 2022. Payments and
approvals are slow, and opportunities with Visit Florida, including
the 200,000 in matched advertising funds after Hurricane Milton we
missed due to structural limitations, not the lack of need. This is why
it's important to act now.
So across the county, 84 percent of DMOs -- across the country,
84 percent of DMOs operate as non-profit organizations, including
many of our closest competitors like Sarasota, Tampa, Miami, and
Palm Beach.
A non-profit DMO would deliver a greater efficiency, faster
marketing response, and improved agility during storms and market
shifts. It would reduce the County's administrative burden by shifting
staffing, procurement, HR, accounting to a specialized entity and
January 27, 2026
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allow public dollars to go further.
Transparency would not be lost. It would be strengthened
through audits, IRS filings, county reporting, and commissioner
oversight.
Most importantly, this model allows us to diversify our funding,
enhance partner programs, and create real collaboration with industry
and community stakeholders without increasing pressure on
taxpayers.
Our expectation of the new DMO is simple: Be nimble, be
accountable, be competitive, and be effective so Collier remains a
premier destination, not a complacent one.
I respectfully urge you to support the transition to a non-profit
destination marketing organization and invest in a structure that
protects tourism revenue, jobs, and our county's long-term economic
health.
Thank you for your time and leadership.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
I just want to remind people that you have three minutes, and I
know it's compressed and you're trying to get through it fast. We do
have a court reporter that's trying to capture all your words, so just
keep mindful of that. So the cadence may have to be -- but, thank
you.
MR. EBLE: Our next speaker is Sharon Lockwood, and she
will be followed by Randy Smith.
MS. LOCKWOOD: Good morning, Commissioners. I'm
Sharon Lockwood. I'm the area general manager at the JW Marriott
Marco Island, but I'm here today as both an industry representative
and someone who participates in the steering committee to explain
why this study matters to the tourism industry and why its
recommended direction aligns with today's marketplace, especially as
you consider a vote on this initiative.
January 27, 2026
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This is not about changing Collier County's mission. It's about
strengthening how that mission is delivered. At its core, this is an
optimization question. The County has done good work, but the real
question is whether the current structure remains the best tool in an
environment where destination marketing is more competitive, more
specialized, and moving faster than ever.
The study gets this exact -- the study gets this exactly right. The
governance model is a means to an end and not an end itself. The
market reality is clear. Tourism is not standing still, and neither can
we. We compete daily with destinations that can hire specialized
talent quickly, pivot in realtime, and respond with agility when
conditions shift.
Increasingly those destinations operate, as we've talked about,
through a non-profit DMO structure not because they're less
accountable, but because they're built to move at the pace of the
market. This isn't unique to Collier County, as we've heard. It is
across all of Florida and the country.
Structure matters because the demands have changed. Modern
destination marketing requires speed, flexibility, and deep expertise,
especially in digital performance, media strategy, crisis response, and
real-time reputation management.
Our current structure includes built-in constraints around
staffing, job classifications, and rapid response during disruptions,
and those are structural limitations, not a criticism of the people who
are doing the work. And that's why it's equally important as what
does not change.
The County retains full control of the TDT funds. The Tourism
Development Council continues its advisory role. Transparency,
reporting, and accountability remain intact. Public oversight stays
exactly where it belongs. From the hotel industry's perspective, this
isn't about shifting control. It's about aligning tourism promotion
January 27, 2026
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with a structure that can operate more effectively while remaining
fully accountable to the public. The goal is simple: Strengthen
Collier County's competitiveness, protect this vital economic engine,
and ensure our tourism mission is executed at the highest possible
level. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Your next registered speaker is Randy Smith, and
he will be followed by Meg Stepanian.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. SMITH: Good morning, Commissioners. My name's
Randy Smith. I'm CEO of Naples Transportation and Tours, in my
36th year in hospitality serving Collier County. I serve as the Vice
Chair of the steering committee that organized to support the
governance study and help explore the formation of a potential
non-profit DMO. I'm here today speaking as the designated
representative of the committee. And I'm here with the industry
partner perspective and to support the work product that was
developed through the County's governance study.
As mentioned, the study reviewed multiple governance models.
Input was gathered across the tourism ecosystem, including hotels,
attractions, transportations, arts, sports, cultural partners, many here
today in support of these efforts, and the intent is to optimize the
CVB's performance, simple as that, while preserving transparency
and public oversight.
As you've heard today -- I'll make it quick -- throughout the
study of the process, the same themes came up again; staffing
constraints, market responsiveness, talent recruitment challenges, and
crisis response speed.
A key takeaway was how much emphasize the study places on
accountability. In one of those measures, we're going to have a new
CVB board of local industry experts to -- for direction and more
January 27, 2026
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accountability.
So we encourage you to accept the study and to allow staff to
move onto the next phase of developing an implementation plan for
your consideration. The next phase gives the Board concrete
information to evaluate before making any final decisions.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. EBLE: Our next speaker is Meg Stepanian, and she will be
followed by David Lindberg.
MS. STEPANIAN: Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Meg
Stepanian. I'm the executive director for the Fifth Avenue South
Business Improvement District. Appreciate your time today and
both -- and as well with our colleagues through the past weeks
hearing this issue yourselves.
I am here today in support of the privatization of this -- of the
CVB. I come to you today with a unique perspective. The Fifth
Avenue South BID is a special taxation district. We're beholden to
the property owners, we're beholden to the City of Naples, and
beholden to the 250-plus businesses. So all in, we serve more than
280 businesses and property owners. We're our own little micro
DMO, and we do it with checks and balances; audits, 990s, the things
that you've heard discussed here today.
My colleagues, I know I speak for all of us, we support
transparency and accountability. As stakeholders, we know what we
need and how we need to represent our market. We're -- we work
tirelessly every day to serve this community and the hospitality
industry and our visitors.
There are priorities that often compete with that of a
municipality, especially during a time of crisis. I know that from
firsthand experience. It's usually all hands on deck, and we're
handling, you know, advanced marketing, let's say, within the BID,
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and I'm able to be nibble and put that message out there with the
resources that I have, and the City is able to clear the streets and the
trees and all of those sorts of things. So we all pitch in, but we all
have a way to do it.
As in everything, there are exceptional examples and those that
are not. I impress upon you-all today, we have exceptional leaders in
our community, and we have here -- within hospitality, and we are
beholden to one another. As stakeholders, we've been meeting
together, and we know -- and I'm going to steal Sharon's line -- you
know, rising tides do lift all ships.
Why this is needed now, a lot of -- everybody has already
spoken to, you know, how things are changing, the need for co-op
advertising, website advertising, new programs and initiatives that
come up. And I do know that through the years there have been
missed opportunities. And most recently in the season with Milton
and Helene, we did lose out on some revenue. And again, through no
fault of anybody's own, but the engine works a little bit differently.
And again, you-all have different priorities perhaps when there are
storms that come through or weather situations that happen at
economic times that we need to be out there marketing, "Hey, we're
open." So, again, it just allows us that opportunity.
This market continues to say fall behind its competitive set, and
those families serving within the hospitality industry, your
constituents, we need to be able to protect and grow this essential
resource effectively for our community. And thank you for your
consideration.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, ma'am.
MR. EBLE: Our next speaker is David Lindberg, and he'll be
followed by our final registered speaker, Chris Lopez.
MR. LINDBERG: Good morning, everybody.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
January 27, 2026
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MR. LINDBERG: Thank you so much for the time here today.
My name is David Lindberg, and I am the sales director and
tournament manager for the Chubb Classic presented by ServPro, the
PGA Tour Championship event that's taking place here in just a little
less than two weeks at Tiburon Golf Club.
As you can imagine, we are ramping up for the tournament but
wanted to stop on down here for a little bit to just voice our support
for the change for the CVB and for the organizational structure for it.
We have been partnered with the CVB for many, many years as
part of the tournament, and we're able to partner together through a
vast majority of different assets throughout the tournament such as
we host a First Tee champions challenge where, in conjunction with
the CVB, we're able to invite out kids from different First Tee
chapters. The First Tee is a youth golf organization that's spread out
all throughout the country. And with the CVB's help, we're able to
pick some different key markets that are key for their marketing
efforts such as New York, Minnesota, Chicago, Philadelphia, and
also Massachusetts to help promote, "Hey, Naples is open. We're
ready to roll." And it's a phenomenal experience for the kids to come
on down and experience this.
In addition to this, we also, in part to our title sponsor, Chubb
Insurance, and are presenting sponsor ServPro. There is a large
economic impact to the area during tournament week where, you
know, the Chubb team will come in and they'll buy out the whole of
Ritz-Carlton properties down here and in addition, because of that,
we also have ancillary hotel needs that partners such as Naples
Grande, Home2Sweets, and a few others as well. So we definitely
see, you know, the firsthand impacts of having and working in
conjunction with the CVB.
Overall, during tournament week and throughout the whole
process, we're able to generate approximately $25 million in
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economic impact that we have found through various studies from
our side just because of the event.
Overall, we're very supportive of this change for the
organizational structure for the CVB and looking forward to seeing
what the next steps are for it.
Thank you so much.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
MR. LINDBERG: Have a great day.
MR. EBLE: Your next speaker is Chris Lopez.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Good morning.
MR. LOPEZ: Good morning, Chair and Commissioners.
On behalf of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association
and the Collier County chapter of said association, I'm the regional
director for FRLA here in Southwest Florida.
We request your support on this initiative at this point in time
and hope to continue working through the process with our partners
across the community and across the state. And I put my notes away
because I cannot do a better job than that accomplished and diverse
group of supporters that spoke here today.
Thank you so much.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. All right. Questions from
the Commission.
That was our last speaker, correct, Tom?
MR. EBLE: (Nods head.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm stuttering right now. I'm -- Randy and Sharon came and
visited with me last week and talked to me about this, but I'm -- I'm
not -- I'm not really thrilled about this process. I'm not seeing the
rationale for what, in fact, can be accomplished with what we
already, in fact, have.
January 27, 2026
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You've delineated -- we've spent money on the study. There is
more money to be spent on the study. The circumstances that were
brought up as deficits currently with the compression of government,
the lack of FTEs and so on and so forth, all I'm seeing is another
group of people coming and asking for more money and more FTEs
and more expenditure.
And -- now, I'm inclined to move this forward based upon my
meeting with Randy and Sharon last week to be able to physically
identify measures and milestones and how this can, in fact, be
accomplished.
I understand the rationale of being nimble. I take exception to
some of the representations. I think we spend an enormous amount
of money in advertising for our community. We have
appropriated -- I know for a fact we appropriate five, six million a
year just to get out of bed, and we have appropriated another five
million a year for the last two years, which, relatively speaking, is
semi discretionary money that can be spent in the event of an adverse
event, weather related, so on -- emergency, so on and so forth.
And so I'm recommending that we don't form a 501(c)6 yet
because that then gives the illusion that this is a foregone conclusion,
because I don't perceive it to be a foregone conclusion.
I believe that the suggestions that have been brought forward by
the steering committee, and your work, immeasurable, can be a huge
benefit. And I'm just -- I'm inclined to believe that these suggestions
can be brought to our existing staff that we can, in fact, effectuate the
positives that are being represented that can come with this
privatization, but I'm not skippy about the privatization aspect of it. I
think that the staff that we have is doing an admirable job. I think the
engagement by the community is really good, and we've learned
some -- some -- some things that could be accomplished with our
existing staff.
January 27, 2026
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But I see this as a -- as another bureaucracy and
another -- another avenue to be coming at the TDT money and the
TDC board itself to be able to come in and effectuate other things.
So I'm going to support moving this forward if, in fact, it is the
wish of the Board to do so just to get those -- the balance of that data
so that I can see the transparency, so I can see the measurables and
milestones, so I can see the accountability.
I don't think we have non-accountability now. I don't think we
have the circumstances that have been represented here. I think
actually, Jack, in that one slide you showed that our tourism is up in
the international markets. And so I believe the efficacy -- now, can it
be better? Eh, maybe. It potentially could be. I'm not saying that it
can't be.
But I'm inclined to take the recommendations and implement it
with the current staff that we, in fact, have and not be moving to
another organization, which is -- which is what's, in fact, being
represented.
MR. WERT: If I could just answer part of the -- one of
the -- just to be clear, really what we're looking for today is a
recommendation -- is a recommendation from you to accept the
results of the study. The study itself is complete.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, I got that.
MR. WERT: What we're looking for -- first of all, accept what
we have right now, and then give us some direction as to what you'd
like to see next, and we'll go back and jointly work together with the
staff and so forth to deliver that. So we'll come back to you with
what you ask in addition to just accepting this study today.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand. And forgive me
for interrupting, Jack. I didn't mean to interrupt you.
MR. WERT: That's okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was told we were coming to
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accept the report as it has, in fact, been done and then -- and then
move forward with the next steps. And part of next steps was the
formation of a 501(c)6 and some other things that were in there, not
just an acceptance of the report. So -- I said what I said already.
MR. WERT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
I'll just start off with two little light-hearted things, because
sometimes it just feels very tense in this room. Number one, you can
tell Jack is semiretired because he's not wearing any socks, so that's
one thing.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He has socks on. He's got
little footsies.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The second thing is I hope the
Ritz-Carlton bosses were listening to the young man who came to the
podium, because -- did you see how he worked in a huge
advertisement and all of sponsors. He sounded like a Nascar driver,
you know. I'm really Mobil, Chevron, McDonald's, Burger King,
you know, Ford, Mustang. So great job there actually squeezing
those in.
Now to the -- the meat. I'm not stuttering, okay. I think coming
back gives us a deeper dive. And so, you know, I think we'd be
foolish to hear this study and then go, eh. And I've talked with
both -- people on both sides, and I don't disagree necessarily with
what Commissioner McDaniel said, but as you reiterated, Jack, this is
to move forward to give us that deeper dive.
And I actually think you're going to come back with information
that's going to make it at least even more favorable to me. You
know, one of the things that I asked is, are we inventing the wheel
here or reinventing it? And the reality is, there's a lot of -- you guys
have done a lot of work to show that other counties are way ahead of
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us and have done this and have had success.
Now, that doesn't necessarily mean apples to apples. So you
might come back with details where we say, "You know what, it's
been awesome for other counties, but for us this wouldn't be better. It
would just be different." And sometimes different is great to try, but
I want to hear that next level. So, you know, I'm not, you know,
confused or uncertain. I fully support this.
I don't think it's about what we spend. And, you know, to the
point that was made is, like, you know, we spend enough. You
could -- you could overspend, but the reality is what are we spending
it on? And I think this -- taking this to the -- to the level that you're
briefing us on, if it -- if it comes out with a favorable vote, if you
wind up coming back in a couple months, I think this gives us a more
strategic position to not just spend money, but -- I've used this term
before. I don't want to spend money. I want to invest it.
And I think somebody said there's missed opportunities.
Nobody's fault, but I think when you come back it would give us that
increased data that I'm sure we're all looking for, and that's what this
meeting's about.
I agree we're doing an admirable job, but I don't want us to do an
admirable job on anything. I don't want to do an admirable job when
we fix a road. I don't want to do an admirable job when we approve
affordable housing. I don't want to do an admirable job on beach
restoration. I want to do a phenomenal job. And if we're doing
admirable on anything, that's why we re-examine it.
So, you know, to use an example, we voted at our last meeting
that we're going to do a deep dive on the sports complex. We all
agree. Wow, FC Naples, and we have the boss right here. What a
great first season. Everybody's happy. The stands are full. But was
that admirable, or was it phenomenal?
So just like with any business -- and I look at this as a business
January 27, 2026
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venture -- you take a report card, you take a look, and if it shows
we've done a phenomenal job in tinkering it with any way, it might
not be an improvement. Okay. We're smart enough, then, to take a
look at it.
But I'm looking to accelerate what we're doing, maybe not spend
more money, but just spend it in smarter ways and in different areas.
And I think that other counties have already benefited by
restructuring themselves.
So I'm in full support of it. I think it's worth the effort.
Sometimes we sit here and say, "You know, continuing the
examination process is lengthy, and it takes a lot of work, and, you
know, we don't want to dump a lot of work on people for something
that we probably are maybe on the fence with," but I'm not on the
fence on this. Although you might come back in two months, if it's
passed now, and I could be concerned thinking, "Well, I actually
thought, you know, there would be a little bit more meat on the
bone." But I think it's worthy of exploring and to have an end result
that would be even doing a better job than what we've done.
And I agree, I think we've done an admirable job across the
board, but I think there's potential to catch up and leap over some of
these other counties that I think right now are kind of lapping us, but
because we're Naples, it just always feels great around here. We live
in paradise. But really, when you drill down, that can change very
quickly if we're not on the ball.
And I think you guys are headed in a good direction to give us
better feedback for an actual vote on if we want to move forward
with sort of this reorganization. So I fully support moving forward.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman.
I, for one, like the idea of getting out of the marketing business
as a government. I've had a lot of discussion about this topic, and I
January 27, 2026
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was glad to see that the study's finished. And I was really glad to
hear that we don't -- if we do this, we don't have to create the wheel,
that it's already been done by other government entities.
I would like to take -- if we do this, I would like to take what
works well for them and use that, and then take the weaknesses and
eliminate them, and I think that we can do that.
I would -- if we do move forward, in the discussions in talking
with the Clerk, there has been room for fraud in these type of entities
across the state, and I would like to take a real deep dive into what
was allowing -- it's like mail-in ballots, there's -- or it's like passing
the football. There's three things that can go wrong -- or three things
that can happen, and two of them are bad. So I'd like to take a look at
that and make sure, in moving forward, that we address that.
In the spirit of smaller government, I like this idea of merging
and creating an entity that would get us out of doing something that
we don't do best. And I think there's a lot of room for discussion.
And I am not a fan of bureaucracy. If we do go forward and we do
let this be created -- there's a rule of thumb that I use in business, and
I've said it before, but it applies here. You can have control or you
can have growth, but you can't have both.
So in doing this, I'm willing to relinquish some control that we
have as a government to get something that's in a better -- in a better
capacity, trusting the growth that could come, but I wouldn't be
willing to give that control up willy-nilly. I would really want to see
it well thought out, see the contracts drawn up, see what the rules are,
see what -- you know, we as the government, we have the
responsibility for public funds for the tourism tax dollars. That's not
going to change. That's state statute. So we're not going to be giving
up control with that.
I -- just because this is different doesn't mean that it's
determined. I have a -- I'm having a hard time -- you know, we've
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been pitched by eight people that came up here, nine people that
came up here, and I really don't know what the motive is yet. There's
a motive, but -- it's not clear to me, but I know that there is one.
We have the control with the TDT funds, but there's also going
to be private money that's going to be raised and the private benefits.
How that -- how that's going to be determined, and how that's going
to be -- you know, whenever I hear the word "accountability,"
"transparency," those are all buzz words that don't mean a whole lot
to me, but they're all sales words. Those things are going to be
automatic. We're not going to relinquish this or create anything
without transparency, without accountability. Another word is
"collaborative." Whenever I see that word, I know that AI created
the narrative.
I'm all for getting out of the marketing business and turning it
over to someone who does it better than us, but at the same time, I
don't want to do it naïvely, I don't want to do it without major
discussion, without being involved so that we can maximize the
strengths and eliminate the weaknesses. And to have further
discussion to create something brilliant, I think, is warranted. Done.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: First I want to thank the folks
that put all this together at this point and for the presentations from
everyone. It was very professional. It was very persuasive.
I'm going to support moving forward with completing some
documentation. I understand that we will have one more bite at this
apple before a final decision is made. And so as a part of that, I do
understand that there has been some fraud in some other jurisdictions.
I'd like to make sure that when this comes back, that we do have
some information from some of the communities where this has been
successful just for comparison purposes. And I know that's part of
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the study, but just part of the presentation in terms of the
documentation. I think this is going to be a much more efficient way
to proceed. And again, I thank our staff and the other folks that have
put this together.
I'm going to take off on a little bit of tangent. I'm going to
reserve the right to do that.
Jack Wert sort of opened the door to this. He doesn't know what
I'm going to say, but he doesn't know what door he opened. But on
one of your slides you had more revenue, the sixth penny tourist tax,
so I want to spend a minute talking about that, because I think that's
important going forward for a lot of reasons.
This board has made three votes in reference to that tax. The
first was to pass a resolution indicating that we would finish the fields
at the Paradise Coast park, work on trying to get the field house
completed. So this sixth penny is going to help finish that economic
engine that I think is very important to a lot of people.
The Board also voted to put the sixth penny on the ballot, and
we're in a kind of a no tax era, but the Board voted to do that 5-0
recognizing that the tourists pay that tax, and the likelihood of it
passing in a referendum is, I think, pretty great.
Then the Board did a third thing, which is the most critical part
right now, and that is the Board appropriated $150,000 for an
educational campaign to educate the public on the benefits of the
passage of this referendum.
There has to be a campaign to make sure that this passes. And
I've asked the Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Restaurant and
Lodging Association, through Chris Lopez, if they would be
interested in helping fund a campaign, an advocacy campaign. We
can say, "Here are the benefits of voting for this. Here's some of the
stuff that we will do with this," but we can't say to the public, "We
want you to vote for this."
January 27, 2026
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The Chamber of Commerce, the restaurant association, private
organizations can do that. There are folks in this room that can raise
some money for a campaign, and I think we need a couple hundred
thousand dollars in addition to the 150- that the County has to run a
really good campaign to make sure this passes.
What that will generate is over $11 million a year into the
distant future, a substantial portion of which can be used for
advertising, beach renourishment, as well as completing these types
of projects that will help generate more tourism.
So what I'm issuing today in my little tangent on a different
topic is kind of a call to action. There are folks in this room right
now, there are folks that are going to listen to what has occurred
today in reference to the expenditure of tourist dollars for advertising,
are also going to be the people that can help fund a campaign and
make something happen in that regard.
I'm going to start with a couple meetings at the end of February
in my office just putting together a small group to talk about
coordination, but I would urge the private sector to come together,
see if you can raise some money and run a professional campaign to
make sure that this tax passes.
And with that, Mr. Chair, I support moving forward with this.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. If you would, whoever's
running the slide show, bring up your recommendations, because
those recommendations that were on that slide look to be different
than what's been recommended by our staff.
Yeah, I don't -- I like the recommendations that have come
forward from our staff, not these. I think this is premature. I think
there's more data and analysis that needs to be done before we start
moving into these recommendations.
January 27, 2026
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The recommendations that came from -- on the agenda item that
I have talk about moving this forward, assimilating more data,
bringing forward agreements, bringing forward initiatives as to how
these judgments can, in fact, be made, but I think some of these
things are out there a little bit more than what are in this
recommendation that came to me from our staff in this agenda item.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman.
I wanted to -- I got some feedback from Chris Fabian at
ResourceX. Actually, I got a lot of feedback from him, and I just
wanted to kind of go over just some of that as the highlights.
When it comes to creating this thing or getting out of the
marketing business for us, it aligns with priority-based budgeting's
core philosophy that says, "Govern where we must, enable where we
should, and outsource where it increases value, and partner where it
expands impact." And as we move forward, I want to keep that in
mind where we can partner where it expands impact.
One of the things is it expands available resources with the
private sector. We've mentioned that. Priority-based budgeting also
supports the shift because it directly enables better service outcomes
at a lower cost and with greater strategic flexibility. And as looking
at the chart, when I looked at Sarasota, they have the same amount,
basically, of TDT funds that we collect, but yet their -- their budget
with the 501(c)6 structure was they were almost $5 million cheaper
than what we were in their budget, and that was encouraging to me.
One of the other things that he said -- that Chris when he
said -- he said a risk -- there's significant staffing constraints, which
we've addressed that, with our current model, and this would allow
strong contractual oversight, which I mentioned that earlier. And
from the -- from the PBB lens, from the priority-based budgeting
lens.
January 27, 2026
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Accountability's not dependent on whether our staff are public
employees, but it's rather if the performance metrics, the reporting
structures, and the oversight mechanisms are robust and enforceable.
And I want to make sure, going forward, that if we do this, that we
have enforceable actions based on the contracts that are coming up.
I don't -- I kind of get excited about creating this, but at the same
time, I'm very -- I'm very reserved and cautious moving forward,
because I think us as a Board, I think the tourism committee, and I
think the staff that we have, I think that we're all very capable, along
with the Clerk's Office, of working together and really coming up
with something that's halfway decent.
So basically, in best practice of responding to operational and
environmental realities, we meet two of the challenges that Mr. Wert
mentioned a while ago. These highlights in the study says that we
can reduce our staff and we can become increasingly competitive in
the talent environment when it comes to destination marketing. And
I just wanted to kind of highlight some of the -- I just -- I mean, he
gave me five pages of stuff that basically all says the same thing. But
ResourceX was very -- very pro moving forward in this but at the
same time being cautious with different -- different items to think
about.
So, I'm finished.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
To just piggyback on what Commissioner Hall said, I agree
being cautious, and I think that's what our next meeting's for in a
couple months. And I can tell you I will be cautious. My colleagues
here have all raised important concerns and even corrections.
Jack, I was going to have this same slide pulled up just for
clarification, and if this does pass, to make the presentation maybe in
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a couple of months even stronger.
The final recommendations really aren't for this meeting. And
so there's a few things that are a little discombobulated on here. No
fault of anyone. But if this does pass and you come back in a couple
months, that's where I'll really be looking for, like, hard-hitting things
that are the final recommendations from what you've done, so -- but
this was still very helpful.
And I mean, unless anybody else is lit up, I mean, to keep things
moving, I'll make a motion that we approve for you-all to move
forward.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I have a motion and a second. I would
just like to add --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have a comment.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I just wanted to add that, you know,
I'm not a big fan of -- I never was a big fan of growing government,
expanding government. I was always on the side of downsizing
government, being more efficient in operating.
And, you know, when I first saw this how many months ago,
and I thought, well, here we go, creating another
bureaucratic -- bureaucratic level of government that, you know, is
going to create more -- I don't know -- more things that we have to
follow other than just the -- what we already have on our plate when
it comes to tourism and how we do the money and how we spend it
and the statutory strings attached to it.
But my colleagues up here today, and, you know, what they
said, and Commissioner Hall -- because when I saw the ResourceX
kind of chimed in and, you know, two and a half years ago we
brought them on board to do exactly what I -- my mindset was to do
to our county government, was to downsize it, make it more efficient
January 27, 2026
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operating and save money where we can. And then seeing through
their wisdom -- and that's what they do for a profession, and they
kind of, you know -- Commissioner Hall kind of brought it home for
me because I didn't know the exact details of what they felt behind
this particular thing, and to me it makes sense, and now it's kind of
opened my eyes to.
But the one thing that I really, really want us to emphasize is
that history's great. You know what's great with history? It's already
happened. We can factually check it, and there has been some fraud
in other government agencies where these things have been
implemented.
And what I'd like to see is those exact frauds, those things
identified the next time we meet, and we have a deep-dive discussion
how that fraud happened, what happened to the people that
committed the fraud, and how do we safeguard this organization and
safeguard this county from that fraud happening if we move forward?
Because that's -- I really want to talk about that. Because we
can talk about the good all we want, but all it takes is one bad apple
to just really -- you know, everything we do from there on out is
just -- you know how the public is, and you know how we will be.
You know, I'll put up a safeguard. I'll never let it happen again.
So the reality is that that, I think, is very important, for me
especially, and I think my colleagues might agree on that, that those
are something we need to identify, especially moving forward.
I know Commissioner McDaniel wanted to make a comment.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, just a comment. And
it's more of a clarification on the motion. I mean, the motion is for
the recommendations that are put forth in the executive summary, not
the final recommendations and such that are up here.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Right.
January 27, 2026
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I -- as I said at the
beginning, I'll support that. I get the gist that we need to move
forward with this, accept this report, and then, in fact, come back
with the specifics as to the -- how this is all going to work. So I just
wanted to clarify. That's why I asked this slide to come up.
Somebody can take it off the screen if they want to to make me feel
better.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yeah. So it's not like we're voting on
them exactly.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Because I know -- I know you
all want to make me feel better, so...
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: So I had a motion from Commissioner
LoCastro, I believe.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: (Nods head.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: And second by Commissioner
Saunders. So all in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Opposed, same sign, same signal.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: It passes 5-0.
Thank you. Look forward to hearing your report.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: We've got a Go Me [sic] fund
for Jack's socks that I just put up on --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He's got socks on. He's
wearing little footsies.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: He's got socks?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: He's got a -- he's got little
January 27, 2026
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shorties, yeah. That's where retired -- he's retired. He's semi-retired.
MR. WERT: Semi-retired.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: County Manager.
MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to our advertised public
hearing, Item 9A, which is the AUIR. After that, we have two
commissioner items. I feel like -- it's at the Board's pleasure. We can
probably get through the AUIR fairly quickly.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: If the court reporter needs a quick 10
minutes, I'd like to take that. And if the rest of the Board's okay, if
we can just work through this and maybe forego a lunch.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Really? I haven't eaten in
three days. I'm joking.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. So let's go ahead and take
the -- 12:11.
(A recess was had from 12:00 p.m. to 12:11 p.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. Back from break. Bring the
meeting back to order, please.
Item #9A
RESOLUTION 2026-36: APPROVING A RESOLUTION
RELATING TO THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT ELEMENT OF
THE COLLIER COUNTY GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN,
ORDINANCE 89-05, AS AMENDED, PROVIDING FOR THE
ANNUAL UPDATE TO THE SCHEDULE OF CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS, WITHIN THE CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT ELEMENT OF THE COLLIER COUNTY
GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN BASED ON THE 2025
ANNUAL UPDATE AND INVENTORY REPORT ON PUBLIC
January 27, 2026
Page 92
FACILITIES (AUIR), AND INCLUDING UPDATES TO THE 5-
YEAR SCHEDULE OF CAPITAL PROJECTS CONTAINED
WITHIN THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT ELEMENT (FOR
FISCAL YEARS 2026 – 2030) AND THE SCHEDULE OF
CAPITAL PROJECTS CONTAINED WITHIN THE CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT ELEMENT FOR THE FUTURE 5-YEAR
PERIOD (FOR FISCAL YEARS 2031 – 2035), PROVIDING FOR
SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE
[PL20250000000] – MOTION TO APPROVE AS
RECOMMENDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 9A.
This was continued from the December 9th, 2025, BCC meeting.
This is a recommendation to approve a resolution relating to the
Capital Improvement Element of the Collier County Growth
Management Plan Ordinance 89-05, as amended, providing for the
annual update of the schedule of capital improvements projects
within the Capital Improvement Element of the Collier County
Growth Management Plan based on the 2025 Annual Update and
Inventory Report on public facilities and including updates to the
five-year schedule of capital projects contained within the Capital
Improvement Element for Fiscal Years 2026 through 2030 and the
schedule of capital projects contained within the Capital
Improvement Element for the future five-year period, Fiscal years
2031 through 2035, providing for severability, and providing for an
effective date.
Mr. Mike Bosi, your director of Planning and Zoning, is -- I'm
not sure -- is here to beginning the presentation.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You're the boss.
MR. BOSI: Thank you. Thank you, County Manager. Mike
January 27, 2026
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Bosi, Planning and Zoning director here to present the 2025
AUIR/CIE, Annual Update and Inventory Report/Capital
Improvement Element related to the GMP.
This was heard by the Planning Commission in November. It
was recommended unanimously for a recommendation of -- for
approval from the Planning Commission to the Board with no
modifications as presented.
What is the AUIR? It's the annual one-year snapshot in time for
projected needs and required capital improvements for the next five
years based upon the projected population increases against BCC
adopted levels of service. It should be noted that the snapshot
changes as changes in the demand equation evolve.
Basically what it's saying, we are looking at a five-year window.
We have population projections for that five-year window. These are
the -- these are the improvements we need to maintain the levels of
service with all of our Capital A and Capital B facilities to maintain
the infrastructure and the services that are provided by the County.
So what are they? Category A, they make up your concurrency
facilities: Roads, drainage, potable water, wastewater, solid waste,
parks and recreations, and schools. Those are all tied specifically to
the Capital Improvement Element. And then you've got your
Category B facilities; they're your non-concurrency facilities: Jails,
law enforcement, libraries, EMS, emergency services -- medical
services, and government buildings. And as I mentioned, they make
up concurrency, the Category A facilities, and those are facilities and
services needed to maintain the adopted levels of service, make sure
their standards are available when the impacts to development occurs,
which are contained in the CIE policy of the Land Development
Code.
We're one of the only counties within the state of Florida that
still maintains concurrency on the majority of our Category A
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facilities. The State has allowed for counties to only provide for the
public utilities as a Concurrency Management System. We maintain
the original Category A facilities of parks, of schools, transportation,
stormwater, and public utilities. So this is -- this is something that
we've been doing. I've been personally involved with it since 2006.
So close to 20 years have been presenting the AUIR/CIE, and it's
what helps maintain the level of infrastructure so our growth -- our
growth within the infrastructure can keep up with our growth within
our population.
So how do we arrive upon our population requirements? Based
upon the year-round population projections, the University of
Florida's Bureau of Economic Business Research, we're at a medium
range. Prior to the -- in the aughts, we were at a high population
range. We made the switch in 2010/2011, right at the impact to the
Great Recession, and since then we've been at the medium range.
But we also have our seasonal population, which we're in the
midst of right now. As you know, the county, on average, increases
about 20, 20 percent. We have verified this number on an annual
basis. That number has been 20 percent since I've been doing -- or
I've been involved in the AUIR. It has served us well. And I'll get a
little bit more in terms of some other modifications or special
adjustments that are made by some of the other departments in terms
of making sure we have the capacity that we need.
Here's your AUIR permanent population projections. It's kind
of an eye chart. What I would say to you, that after the decennial
census of 2020, our population has been reset a bit, and it shows up in
the difference between the 2021 and the 2022 projections, whereas
2021 we were expecting -- we expected -- we had 394,424 people,
and the following year after the influence of the decennial census, we
recalibrated at 388,906.
But what I would also say is when you look at the column for
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your average annual growth, when you go -- the difference between
2021 and 2022 was the '21 -- or 2019, '20, '21, we were all around
7,000 every year of new population growth. Since 2022, it's been
right around 6,000. So when we hear that our -- the population is
exploding and our growth is unbridled, there's nothing that could be
further from the truth.
Since -- since 2010, our annual population, which is the final
column on there, your annual growth rate has been under 2 percent.
Now, what we're finding is since 2002 that population annual growth
has been down to 1.5 percent. What -- we're doing is we're maturing
as a county.
Commissioner McDaniel is very familiar with the Collier
Interactive Growth Model. It's a tool we still utilize for allocating
future land uses/populations throughout the county for infrastructure
master planning.
And within -- within that CIGM, there was always a term that
we referred to as the inflection point, and the inflection point is as
you're growing, as you're -- as that steep level of increase is
maintained, you hit an inflection point, and that rate of growth starts
to decline. We are right around that point where -- of inflection, and
the population that we're receiving is a little bit slower in its
accumulation.
And I think you see that the areas of greatest growth that we are
going to have is going to be in the Rural Lands Stewardship Areas,
the Ave Marias, the Town of Big Cypresses, the Corkscrew Grove,
which will -- another village that we're going to be bringing to you in
the next couple months. Those projects take decades to build out.
Ave is a great example. Ave is a little bit past their halfway point
from a population standpoint. Nowhere near close in terms of the
total square footage from commercial, industrial, or civic, and they
have a long way to go, and they've been around for 20 years.
January 27, 2026
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So our growth has slowed somewhat compared to what we saw
back in the aughts and the later of the teens.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And could I ask Mike --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Mr. Bosi, just a quick
question.
MR. BOSI: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just go back to that slide.
MR. BOSI: Sure.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And I apologize if you said it
maybe earlier as I was trying to look at all the numbers. So for -- just
the sake of argument, in 2025, the estimated population was 413,000,
right? I mean, that's what that number is.
MR. BOSI: Correct.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Is that the entire county,
municipalities, everything?
MR. BOSI: It includes --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's all of Collier County?
MR. BOSI: It includes the municipalities, the two -- our three
municipalities.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. BOSI: Our City of Naples, about 22,000; Marco Island is
about 19-, 20,000; Everglades City is 572,000. So you're talking --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: 572,000 in Everglades City?
MR. BOSI: 572, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Wow, that place has really
expanded.
And then, just my follow-up. Do we have an idea of an
estimation that when we're in the thick of season how many
nonseasonal [sic] people come here? So, like, what our -- how many
boots on the ground as we say in the military we have, like, in the
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seasonal period? Because, like, on Marco, the number we always use
is full-time residents, about 15,000. In the height of season,
50-plus-thousand. Do we have a guestimate of that in the county of
how that 113,000, you know, changes, plus or minus, you know?
MR. BOSI: Well, we projected a 20 percent -- a 20 percent --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: A 20 percent?
MR. BOSI: -- increase. So you're right around 82,000 to
85,000 additional people --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, I gotcha.
MR. BOSI: -- any one time.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. We get asked these
numbers a lot, and, you know, they fluctuate a little bit, but this
is -- you know, like you said, this is -- this is pretty close.
MR. BOSI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I have a follow-up question to that
also, then. Are you considering what we refer to as snowbirds,
people that already have homes here, already have residences here
but come here on a part-time basis, is that the 20 percent, or are we
talking overall visitors to our hotels --
MR. BOSI: That includes -- that includes your seasonal
residents. Anyone who spends less than six months here would be
included within that seasonal increase, as well as our trip -- your
traditional vacations and other visitors.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay.
MR. BOSI: So, yeah, it includes -- includes everybody above
permanent population, the folks that live here over six months of the
year.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: So you're saying, like, 80,000, then?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It adds 80,000-ish, you know.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Ish.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Plus/minus.
January 27, 2026
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COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay.
MR. BOSI: Yes. That's our numbers, and our numbers are
verified through water usage, sewage disposal, trip counts on our
road system. We use that every year to verify that we are at the right
ballpark utilizing that 20 percent.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. I think it's a little more
than that, but --
COMMISSIONER HALL: Why does it feel like 80 percent?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Because, I mean, on Marco,
they talk about how they explode from 15- to 50- ish.
MR. BOSI: Marco's much different than -- Marco's much
different than Collier County as a whole. Marco has much more
seasonal held residents than Collier County as a whole.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But like the Naples --
MR. BOSI: They will -- they will have almost a doubling of
their population just because of the uniqueness of that -- of that
population. The City of Naples not quite as great but has
similar -- similar type of tendencies.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Quick question.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Go ahead, Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And maybe you're going to
get to it, but how do the -- you were the one that brought up the
CIGM. How do these numbers match with it, and are we staying as
current with the CIGM data as we possibly can? So those two
questions.
MR. BOSI: We utilize the CIGM data more for the
long-range -- or the long-range planning aspect of not only
population but land-use accommodations. We don't bring the CIGM
down to the five- and the 10-year windows. In a sense we do -- we'll
January 27, 2026
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do a comparison, but we don't utilize the CIGM to influence these
numbers. We're obligated to utilize the BEBR numbers unless the
Board of County Commissioners propose to the Department of
Commerce an alternative methodology, which we've talked about at
various points in our discussion with the Board of County
Commissioners.
But it's somewhat comparable. The CIGM has allocated
probably about a 5 to 10 percent higher number over the -- a
five-year -- or 10-year period than what the BEBR median numbers
have progressed, but not a huge disparity.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Five or 10 percent of 400-'s a
lot. And the second part of my question was, is are keeping the
CIGM up to date?
MR. BOSI: Yes, we are. We updated -- the last updated it was
2023, and I know that there's been -- there is an update that's
currently working within the Water and Sewer District, you know, for
their purposes and their projects moving forward.
And I just spoke with Mr. Farmer, and he's -- I'm anticipating
another proposal that's going to be coming in within the next
couple -- couple weeks. So I'll be able to brief you on that as well.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. BOSI: All right. So how much do we build? I always like
to use the libraries because they're really straightforward and easy.
It's -- what's our new population, what's the level of service, and
what's the capital improvement needed?
The population is 29,700 people projected over the next five
years. The level of service is .33 square feet per person. You
multiple the 29,7- versus the .33. That answer is 9,801 additional
square foot is required within our libraries. That's -- that's how we
maintain to make sure that we're -- our infrastructure and our services
are providing for.
January 27, 2026
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Now, some of them are a little bit more detailed and
complicated, but the libraries provides a good example of how we
track and how we measure our population expectations against our
levels of service to determine how much improvements that we do
need.
But it's not only population, like I said, but it is the key metric
within the level-of-service standard. Exceptions, roads and bridges,
traffic counts collected multiple times a year, also we've got a trip
bank reserve capacity in terms of what makes up that concurrency
management system.
Your water and wastewater, it's historical demand usage plus
population projections, plus some additional capacity reserve. Back
in 2000/2001, we had an incident of overtaxing our sewage -- one of
our wastewater facilities, and because of that, the Board directed
Utilities staff, and Utilities staff had always put in a little
extra -- extra capacity to make sure that we always have that -- that
necessary service available.
Stormwater is -- the basin studies of the water management plan
would set the baselines. And of course, Solid Waste is your landfill
disposal capacity, which we know within the next -- 10 then 15 years
is going to be something that's going to be talked about very
frequently with this Board of County Commissioners.
So far this is what the outcome of your Category A facilities are
with those population projections. For the next five years, we expect
a $3,092,419,800 proposed CIE. And just to -- for full transparency,
it's about $712 million shy of what we need for the -- that total
$3 billion project.
So we are a little short on funding, but that is not unusual for
function within the CIE/AUIR. And what that is is -- what that's
saying is the projects that are sitting in our fourth and our fifth year,
there is going -- there's going to be a need to identify additional
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revenue sources, but as they become closer, we make sure that that
revenue source has been identified for them to maintain their
position.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall, did you want to
ask a question about this slide?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yes, just real quick.
MR. BOSI: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Mike, how is -- how is level of
service determined? Like, is it -- is there a level-of-service book that
you pull out of, or is it something that we, when started doing this --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's an app.
COMMISSIONER HALL: -- we just --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There's an app on your phone.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I don't have that app.
MR. BOSI: The Board of Collier County Commissioners, you
guys set the level of service for every single one of these facilities.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: No. Bad answer.
COMMISSIONER HALL: That's not what I'm asking. How
did it -- how did it originate? Did we take the population that we had
when we just -- we figured out that we were going to go this route
and divide the library square footage by our population and come up
with .33 or --
MR. BOSI: It's -- that's -- that's a good approximation. It was
established before I was here, and I started in 2002. You're talking
back in the '90s. And 1989 this was the adoption of our plan. So the
'90s is when the formation of our Capital Improvement/AUIR started
where they started establishing levels of service. Now, the levels of
service for anyone -- any road segment has changed over the years.
Levels of service for EMS has changed over the years. There's been
multiple modifications to the levels of service over time.
So for any one category, I think you'd have to look at it, and we
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could probably do a deeper dive in terms of what was it 15 -- or 10
years ago? What was it 20 years ago? And you could have an
evaluation. That might be something that the Board would find
useful for the -- say, next year's AUIR to give you a little bit better
understanding of how often each one of these components have
changed and where they migrated to or where they migrated from.
COMMISSIONER HALL: So it's kind of a swag?
MR. BOSI: Yes.
MS. PATTERSON: If I may, it really depends on the category.
So when you look at something like water and wastewater, there's a
science, and there's been changes to those levels of service due to
technology.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I hear somebody talking in the
background.
MS. PATTERSON: Due to technology and water usage,
obviously, our appliances today use less water than appliances of 20
years ago. So that one there's a lot of science.
The newer established levels of service, things like law
enforcement, general government buildings, the original levels of
service were established based on an analysis of what we had at the
time that those levels of service were created for the population at
that time. And so that's continued to be the adopted level of service.
The issue with level of service specifically for those facilities
that we also collect impact fees is there's, again, a relationship
between the impact fees maintaining the level of service, not
improving it, but not allowing degradation of the level of service.
And so the fees that people pay are based on an expectation of
delivery of capital improvements in infrastructure consistent with that
level of service.
So while there have been changes to some of these levels of
service over time, just to decide to change a level of service without
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underlying data and support is not something that's encouraged
because, again, you have everyone that's paid into the system for us
to deliver parks or libraries at a certain level, and their bite of
capacity has been paid for.
So I hope that helps. The level of service for government
buildings was established in 2004, law enforcement in 2005, jails in
1999, all based on master plan studies and financial studies
supporting those levels of service.
And we do revisit them. The Board has directed in the past
several times for us to go and look at these levels of service and make
recommendations where they can be adjusted. That did happen to
regional parks in the mid 2000s based on the Planning Commission's
acknowledgment of the amount of state and federal lands that are
available for recreation purposes.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I think every time I see that one slide
that you show for the last three years with the library and the
.33 -- and I probably make the same comment every year is you said
that was back in 2002, 24 years ago, with .33.
The technology since now and today -- I mean, my wife reads
two to three books a week, and she hasn't been in the library in 10
years. She has a Kindle, you know what I mean. She gets her books
through a Kindle. She reads them. I mean, so I don't know where the
.33 comes from, but I think we need to take a deeper dive at some
point because -- just like anything else. You know, we had the big
e-bike thing, and we talked about it, and government doesn't keep up
with technology sometimes when it comes to their practices, you
know. And things overnight just change with somebody inventing
something or something like that. And, you know, I don't know if the
.33 is an accurate thing in today's day, in this world we live in now.
So if it comes from us, then I think we need to take another look.
MS. PATTERSON: Yeah. It's a timely conversation because
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libraries is approaching the place for the first time in 15-plus years
where we are going to contemplate the next improvements for
libraries. That's an appropriate time to review those levels of service.
There have been changes, to your point, with books. We used to
have a level of service for books as well, which is -- which has gone
away and been blended into the existing level of service -- those
costs. But we can certainly take a look at these as we start to
schedule improvements.
EMS, for the first time in more than 20 years, has actually gotten
themselves out of a deficiency position, so it's interesting how these
levels of service have evolved. But we can definitely provide you
more data, particularly as we go to master plan. I'm looking to
strengthen those master-planning efforts across all public facilities
and then try to align some of these levels of service.
And again, I've talked to each of you about this, is we're looking
at the way we develop public facilities out into the eastern lands,
which also is going to inform some of this with these levels of service
tied to square footage, because we don't need to build a community
center and a library and right next door build a, you know,
community room and a park. Trying to merge some of these together
and then figure out how we account for that in level of service.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yeah. And I don't want to sound like
I'm picking on libraries, but I just -- it's the easy one because it's
always the slide we use as an example.
MS. PATTERSON: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: We live in a unique environment
situation where we live here in Southwest Florida because not too
many other jurisdictions in the country other than similar ones like
ours that -- like, our EMS, our fire, our law enforcement, you know,
six -- four to six months out of the year the population increases
almost 100,000, and they still respond to calls. These people still
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require these services, and it's stressed on these agencies that we don't
over-hire, we don't over -- you know, we kind of run at a level that
we feel our normal population is, and they just get stressed in these
months that -- then they're dumped on with these additional people in
this county. So I think trying to figure out all aspects of this moving
forward here in the near future to be more efficient in this.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. If I may, with EMS, part of this,
now that we've found ourselves in a much better position with
our -- level of service is exactly what you're describing, is looking at
how we might put up seasonal units, 12-hour units, in order to
balance the system rather than the traditional put up
ambulance -- build a station, put up an ambulance, is how are we
collocating, where do we have opportunities to place units, and also
looking at a different way, whether it's the MIH, the community
paramedicine, or it's a 12-hour truck. So we're finding ourselves now
staffed and in a position to be able to do some of these things that we
have not been able to in the past.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. If you'd flip back one
slide, because, you know -- and on the slide that you were just on, it
looks like we're pretty good with potable water and wastewater and
parks, but when you flip back to the previous slide, that one, these
items are exceptions to the AUIR. And I find that curious. I'm
curious about how roads and bridges end up being an exception to
our AUIR.
MR. BOSI: When I -- we use the term "exception," I would say
that they utilize population but other additional factors to measure the
demand that's placed against them so -- whereas, libraries just use the
population as the straight barometer as to how many square footages
that they're going to need to satisfy.
Road and bridges not only uses transportation -- or the
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population projections, but they look at, you know, the actual
utilization of the roads and the volume, the capacity that's associated
with them to make the determinations of what the demand is and
what the needs are going to be.
Utilities, the same way. They have the, you know, historical
demand usage, population, as well as some additional capacities to
make sure that those facilities are available.
So maybe not -- not exceptions, but there's additional factors
that are utilized that make them unique. Maybe that's probably the
better way to put it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And on that note, I guess, you
know, when we -- when we go back, I'm just wondering -- and you
know what, I'll reserve the balance of my comments until you're done
with the presentation, because I've got a couple of thoughts that I'd
like to put forth just to have as a discussion.
MR. BOSI: And what -- the last slides here, the Transportation
and Utilities compromised -- or comprises over 75 percent of that
CIE, so I just want to put some major projects that we're going to
move forward.
The first three are construction projects that are going to be
moving forward in 2026. You have Airport Road between
Vanderbilt Beach Road and Immokalee. That's a road widening.
Collier Boulevard road widening between Green to City Gate north,
2026. And Vanderbilt Beach Road, 16th to Everglades, is also
for -- designated for construction.
And then 2027, you've got Randall/Immokalee Road
intersection phased in, with the Veterans Memorial Phase 2 in 2027,
as well as the Everglades Boulevard, Golden Gate Boulevard to Oil
Well Road. That is right-of-way in 2026/'27, and then mitigation and
construction in 2028.
And then the Immokalee/Livingston Road flyover in 2028.
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That's construction mitigation. And then the last two projects, Oil
Well Road between Everglades and Oil Well Grade, design in 2026
and then construction in 2028.
And then Goodlette Road between Vanderbilt Beach Road and
Immokalee, the expansion is 2028 as well.
And then your major public utility projects on potable water, a
new 10 million gallons-per-day Northeast County Regional Water
Treatment Plant is anticipated to be online in FY2031.
Wastewater, the South County Recreational -- the South County
Reactional -- or Reclamation Facility expects an increase in capacity
by 5.1 million gallons per day. Then the wastewater for the
Northwest Water Service Area, a new treatment capacity and
additional treatment capacity placed into service through the plant
construction expansion in 2025, 1.5 million gallons average daily
flow.
And then in 2031, an increase from -- or 6.3 million gallons for
the Northeast County Water Reclamation Facility for new sewer
service.
And then finally in 2028, related to the wastewater, the Golden
Gate City Central Service area's anticipated to expand when needed
to accommodate flow from current and future development in
Activity Center No. 9 and surrounding area north of 75. That's a
3.5 million-gallon expansion resulting in a 5 million-gallon net
facility.
And what we're asking the Board to do, recommendation: To
accept and recommend approval of the attached document as the
2025 Annual Update and Inventory Report on public facilities, accept
the recommendations within Category A and B facilities related to
project and revenue sources, and include those projects in Category A
for the CIE schedule of improvements.
And with that, any questions that you may have. We've got
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representatives from most of the Category A and B facilities. If
you've got any specific questions you'd like to go over, we'd be happy
to try to address them.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Do we have any public speakers on
this?
MR. EBLE: No, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Let's start at the -- how
many counties in the state of Florida actually utilize an AUIR?
MR. BOSI: As the County Manager referenced, in 2008 we did
a level-of-service study comparison, and out of the 67 counties, we
are the only ones that performs an Annual Update and Inventory
Report where we talk about Category A facilities and Category B
facilities.
The Category A facilities, most jurisdictions have to because
there used to be a financial requirement within the state of Florida
that their CIE is transmitted to the State. That ended in the 20 -- after
the 2011 Community Planning Act that the legislature passed, and
that made that an optional component.
But as far as I know, we are the only ones that gets to this level
of detail related to our Category A and Category B facilities.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And if one weren't doing an
AUIR on an annual basis, which is what the acronym stands for, what
would one do to account for these levels of service in these
necessary -- and really, when you get down to it, that's one of the
things that I found is when you refer to those exceptions in the AUIR,
those are -- those are an integral part of the quality of life of our
community, and what would we do if we didn't do this AUIR? What
do other municipalities do to account for these assets?
MR. BOSI: I think that they probably are a little less informed
in terms of identifying the needed facilities over the next five and 10
January 27, 2026
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years in planning in that robust and overall countywide way.
They may take each one of the facilities from -- I'll use Lee
County as an example. Transportation Planning may make
presentations in terms of what they need over a five- and 10-year
period to the -- to the Lee Commissioners but not in a holistic way.
So I think you would run the -- or you would run the possibility
that your growth of your infrastructure wasn't parallelling the growth
that you were experiencing from a population standpoint, and
because of that, I think you would -- you could run into some
deficiencies and find yourselves at areas where -- where those
transportation deficiencies, those public utilities deficiencies, park
deficiencies start showing up and impacting your population in ways
that -- I'm sure that would have your emails and your phones ringing
from your constituents letting them know in terms of their
perspective and how they feel about those types of situations and the
capacities available.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One of the thoughts that I had
was -- well, one more question. Are we statutorily required to
conduct and perform the AUIR?
MR. BOSI: No.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And so -- and today it's
done. We're going -- I'm going to vote to accept it and move it
forward and do the things as has been proposed in the
recommendation, but I would like some contemplation on how do we
get there from here. We already have deficiencies. You've shown
close to $700 million in deficiencies in what I perceived to be as
necessary quality-of-life circumstances. And while we're looking at
these alternative methodologies to make these -- to make these
determinations, I think maybe we need to rise up a little bit other than
to just the population of Collier County. We get beat upon on a
regular basis because of housing affordability and the influx of
January 27, 2026
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population that come here every morning and leave every night. Are
we accounting for that additional traffic with regard to our congestion
management systems?
MR. BOSI: And that's a great question. That's why -- that's
why we utilize trip counts. That's why we utilize the volume and
capacity.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did you see he said -- he said
that was a great question.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: He said that was good.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did you notice that?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just sucking up. That's not a
great question.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Strike that from the record, please.
MR. BOSI: But it does, because if you would have just done
population and population alone and, say, a 20 percent markup, we
would be able to accumulate [sic] our seasonal guests, but you're
not -- you wouldn't be -- you wouldn't be evaluating and
understanding the impacts that -- the 63,000 people that have to travel
from outside this county to come inside this county to occupy their
job and leave every day, you wouldn't know what that imprint was.
You wouldn't know what the impact was on your -- on the capacity of
your road system. That's why we utilize extra measurements in
certain components of our AUIR to make sure we're getting the full
impact of demand that's placed upon them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I would contend that we're
not. I would contend that we've been direly deficient, and especially
in our road construction and infrastructure with regard to that.
I mean, obviously, we're okay with our potable water and so on.
And we have -- we all -- you've shown some very what I perceive to
be as fairly dire deficiencies in our transportation system as well as
our stormwater system.
January 27, 2026
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So as we're going through that -- and we have a budget hearing
coming up in February. I think we're -- we can have another dis- -- I
don't know if it's an actual hearing or if it's a workshop.
MS. PATTERSON: It's a strategic planning workshop, but we
will touch on the some of this.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I won't beat on it any more for
now. We'll belabor it until then.
MR. BOSI: But once again, you set it up. This is the whole
purpose of the timing of the AUIR and when we present it to you in
November, December, and January of the year, because we know in
February you start those preliminary discussions with the County
Manager and Chris' staff specifically so you can be informed of what
were the capital obligations related to growth and then the other
issues that are, obviously, you know, associated with your budgeting.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Thank you. And if
nobody else has a question, I'll make a --
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yeah, I do have a comment.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman.
I appreciate the question of why are we doing it. I mean, it may
be the very best -- very best option that's out there, but our phones are
ringing. "Commissioner, when are you going to stop this? When are
you going to stop that? When are you going to do this? When are
you going to do that?"
And it's kind of like -- the way I look at it, it's like the lady
that -- the daughter asked the mom, said, Mom, "Why do you cut of
ham [sic] off every time you make a ham?"
She said, "Well, it's because my grandma did." She said,
"Grandma used to cut the ham off" -- the ends off.
So when they asked grandma, they said, "Grandma, why do you
cut the ends of the ham off?"
January 27, 2026
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She said, "Oh, it's because the ham wouldn't fit in my oven."
So just because we've always done it the way we do, the way we
do it, I don't know that that's the very best way. It may be, but I
appreciate the comment that Commissioner McDaniel made because
when it comes to improving our roadways, we've got several things
in the works. Expanding these roads, expanding that road.
But once we get those roads expanded, we're landlocked.
There's really -- it's going to be hard to expand those roads again
unless we just build roads over those roads. And when it comes to
wastewater, you know, we're $300 million behind. When it comes to
maintenance and facilities, we are -- not wastewater, stormwater.
And when it comes to facilities, we're hundreds of million dollars
behind in needs.
So I think it's going to warrant a great discussion amongst us
and amongst you-all to determine whether the AUIR process is the
smartest way to do it. I understand it. I don't want to change it. I
don't want to just, you know, create another thing. But if we're the
only county that does it -- some of the other counties, I mean, they're
a lot bigger than we are. They've got to have some method to their
madness as well. So I appreciate the question.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
Kind of a little story, but it's sort of indicative of what we've
been able to accomplish in Collier County. This is going back a
century ago, and I happened to be on the Board at the time.
We had the AUIR, and we had standards for parks. And one of
the commissioners felt, well, let's -- "We can change the definition of
what's a park, and therefore, we don't have to build any more fields or
as many fields." So the idea there was, well, let's just say our
beaches -- our acres of beaches are our parks, and therefore, we meet
our AUIR. Of course, if you're a soccer player or baseball player,
January 27, 2026
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that doesn't do you much good.
And I think that, you know, the fact that we're the only county
that does this -- I'm sure other counties must do something. But I
think the AUIR and this whole process of having levels of service has
really made this a nice community to be in, even though we do have
some traffic issues, and that's been our guide to get there. So if we
are going to replace it, that's fine, as long as it's replacing it with
something better. Because you take a look around the state -- and
this is just up to Lee County. I don't think that in terms of the
facilities they have can match what we have here. And I think a lot
of it is has just been a lack of keeping up with the needs, and that's
what we do down here, so...
I appreciate the question also. Maybe there's a better way to do
it, but I think that until we find a better way, I think we're doing
pretty good.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Yeah. We're going to stick with it.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And on that point,
Commissioner Saunders, data is easily manipulated. You mentioned
that somebody figured out we could build less parks if we counted
our beaches into the LOS for -- the level of service for the parks and
we wouldn't have to build as many parks. And then there was
another group that came through, and they changed the level of
service on community parks in rationale to regional parks, which then
allowed for less funding being appropriated into the community parks
and more into regional parks.
And so then our community parks started to get not as much
funding as they needed for maintenance and so on and upkeep. And
so the question that I'm asking is -- not throwing rocks at anybody
because we've been doing it this way forever -- is I would
like -- when we have our budget hearing coming up in February, I
January 27, 2026
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would like to hear how some of these other communities, in fact,
manage these what I perceive to be as critical life-sustaining
quality-of-life assets that the County, in fact, owns.
So I'll make a motion for approval as recommended.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, if I may, we do have Chris
Johnson here with some slides on our debt; however, if you'd like us
to hold those until we do the strategic planning workshop, that's
obviously an option for you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Did you want to lump it in now, or do
you want to do it after?
MS. PATTERSON: We had it queued up for now, but we can
certainly do it at the strategic planning workshop. There's no urgency
to this, and we're in a really good debt position. It was more of an
informational item.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: You know what, I'd like to hear from
Chris.
MS. PATTERSON: Okay.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. Sorry.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You're the Chair.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You get to do it.
MR. JOHNSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners.
Let me just pull this up real quick.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just remember you're between
me and a sandwich.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: He ate a brownie; don't worry about it.
MR. JOHNSON: I will go as quick as possible through this
today. Give me one second here.
All right. For the record, Christopher Johnson, your director of
Corporate, Financial, and Management Services.
As Ms. Patterson kindly pointed out, today I just -- we're talking
about the AUIR. You saw the stormwater, the road deficit that Mike
January 27, 2026
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had put up there. You saw the planned utility capital CIE at about
almost $2 billion in the next five years.
So I wanted to go through quickly kind of our debt history, our
current outstanding debt as of the end of the fiscal year last year, the
uses of debt, our debt policy limits, our creditworthiness, and kind of
our capital program funding and financing approaches.
And again, I'll go through it quick, because I know that
sandwich is probably looking pretty good at this point.
First off, I'll start with the debt history. This slide here, in blue
there you'll see the outstanding principal at year end from the
Year 2000 to last year, 2025. In orange there you'll see the -- that is
the interest liability at that point in time as well.
Our debt peaked there in FY 2007 at $788.2 million in principal,
and currently we are at $561.5 million in principal. And you can
kind of see the shift there. As there was kind of that boom going on
in the early 2000s, you see the principal, obviously. There were
bonds issued on all ends, our general governmental and our Collier
County Water/Sewer District, increasing that there, and then there
was a period of time when we went through recession as it was being
paid off, and again, we're kind of ramping it up and paying it off here
from FY '19 on to FY '21. And we're working our way back down,
but looking at the AUIR, you can tell moving forward this might be
an option for us.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just one quick question.
MR. JOHNSON: I saw you looking at me, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. I was trying to get his
attention, and you saw him.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I heard the button.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I just wanted to ask, too -- I
mean, we're extremely strategic in our borrowings, and so the
correlation to the growth that was transpiring, that growth had ceased
January 27, 2026
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by 2008 when we reached our peak, but they -- but if my main brain
serves me correctly, we were in the -- we were in a very favorable
interest environment at that time.
MR. JOHNSON: You are correct. And I'll skip on as well to
our current outstanding debt here and just give you a little -- a little
background on that.
In 2010, the County embarked on a strategic, I would say, debt
refinancing plan. And through that time period till today, we've
refinanced over $531 million in general governmental debt, which
has resulted in a cost of borrowing being reduced by over $3 million
a year to the general governmental funding sources. So that money
can now be utilized for pay-as-you-go capital.
And, again, this slide here just shows the current outstanding
debt by instrument. You can see when you look -- when you go
through that, there's general governmental. At the bottom, you'll see
Collier County Water/Sewer District. A lot of those are refunding
bonds, which is exactly what we were doing with those.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: They're debt, but they really
don't count.
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Any questions on that at all before I
move on?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Uses of debt. According to our
debt management policy, debt should be used for acquisition,
maintenance, replacement or expansion of assets within useful life of
greater than five years. The term of the debt, typically we try to
average the useful life of the projects being financed for the term,
which this kind of provides a fair allocation of those costs between
the current and future beneficiaries of what we are building.
Our current debt portfolio consists of debt for many projects.
This is just a short list of some of those projects that we are currently
January 27, 2026
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paying off. I'll just touch on a couple of them. You have the
courthouse annex, you have a water and wastewater infrastructure,
EMS land, transportation network improvements, Golden Gate Golf
Course, and one -- another one on here is the sports complex.
Moving on from there, I'll just briefly go over our debt policy
limits. General governmental debt limits -- and this is a self-imposed
limit to the Board's debit policy -- is less than 13 percent of bondable
revenues. The chart you see here is the history of that -- of that
percentage. Again, in 2011 you can see we were up at 11.1 percent.
We're currently at 5.1 percent of our bondable revenues for general
governmental debt.
Questions on that at all?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: Moving on, for enterprise debt, which
would -- currently all of our enterprise debt is with the utility. There
is no policy maximum, but bond covenants provide that required
coverage. This chart you see below here is our current bond
coverage. As you can see, we peaked in 2018 on this chart, and we're
at about 8.17 -- our bond coverage is about 8.17, which is
817 percent. Required -- the requirement by bond coverage is 125
percent. So we're well over. We're well over the revenues that are
required for our Collier County Water/Sewer District bonds.
Any questions on that?
COMMISSIONER HALL: Basically that's our debt coverage
ratio?
MR. JOHNSON: That is our debt coverage ratio, correct.
And we'll talk about our creditworthiness. As you see here, this
is the bond ratings by three different agencies. Fitch Rating Service,
Standard & Poors, and Moody's Investor Services are the main three.
These rating agencies have professional analysts to analyze the
potential risk for an investment to invest in particular -- sorry -- for
January 27, 2026
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an investor to invest in a particular bond. They apply different
parameters to assess the quality of the bonds through the bond rating
chart depicted here. And I just want you to pay attention to the top
here where you see the AAA, AAA, AAA, and the second level here
which is AA1, AA Plus, and AA Plus, because the next slide here,
according to our bond policy -- I'm sorry -- our debt policy, the
County seeks to maintain the highest possible credit rating without
compromising the delivery of our services.
Our current bond ratings by agency are depicted here. As you
can see, AAA, AAA, AAA. Our tourist development bonds are that
one tier lower. Again, that's just due to the volatility of tourist
development tax, and then our water/sewer district, again all AAA.
And that's very important, because that provides the County with the
ability to borrow at lower interest rates, therefore saving the
taxpayers money.
Any questions on that before I move on?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: All right. Capital program funding and
financing. We kind of briefly touched on this earlier. There's kind of
three approaches that we can utilize, or two and then a mixed one, I
guess. You have your pay-go, pay as you go. We have the cash. We
have the budget. We're going to move forward with the project. You
have debt. We're going to go out and finance the project. We have a
hybrid approach, which is what we've been using recently where
we -- where we use a bit of both.
Through the Finance Committee, we've been employing this
approach. Some examples, the Board has advanced lines of credit for
stormwater, transportation, and the water utility through commercial
paper. This has allowed us to move these projects forward -- move
these projects forward without actually borrowing the cash until we
need it, therefore saving interest for the taxpayer.
January 27, 2026
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Two examples of this: We borrowed $30 million for Vanderbilt
Beach Road extension, and we borrowed $50 million to move the
North Collier Water Reclamation facility's pretreatment facility
forward. Both of those projects have since been covered with pay-go
money without having to draw on those lines of credit.
Any questions on that at all?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: And we'll continue to look at that. We have
regular finance committee meetings once or twice a year, and it will
probably be picking up here a little bit with all the new -- the new
capital improvements moving forward. But we'll keep you up to date
on that.
And then finally, my last slide here is new financing scenarios.
This kind of gives you an idea of the debt service related to
borrowing based on -- if you look at that right under those columns
there you'll see 50 million, 75 million, 100 million, and 150 million,
and then the terms going down in the different colors.
So for instance, on this chart, if we go all the way to the -- to the
right, you'll see to borrow $150 million over 25 years currently would
have an annual debt service of $10.2 million. Now, to put that in
perspective from a general governmental standpoint where we are
currently at 5.1 percent debt ratio, with our limit of 13 percent, that
allows us, I guess, capacity for between 540 million and
$925 million, depending on the term and the rate.
Any questions on any of that?
(No response.)
MR. JOHNSON: All right. That was all I had. Thank you,
Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. Thank you, Chris.
All right. So I believe you were going to make a motion, or you
did make a motion.
January 27, 2026
Page 120
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: For what?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: For the AUIR report.
MS. PATTERSON: To accept the AUIR.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm sorry. Yeah, I'll make a
motion for acceptance of the AUIR report as recommended.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I have a motion and a second. All in
favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Opposed, same sign, same sound.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. The ayes have it; it's passed.
Item #10A
RESOLUTION 2026-37: A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A
FRAMEWORK TO CONSTRAIN COUNTY SPENDING AT
CURRENT FISCAL YEAR BASELINE LEVELS FOR FISCAL
YEAR 2027, APPLYING TO COUNTY FUNDING
ALLOCATIONS INCLUDING THOSE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL
OFFICERS; AUTHORIZING LIMITED ANNUAL INCREASES
FOR OPERATING AND CAPITAL COSTS; AND DIRECTING
THE PREPARATION OF AN ANNUAL LONG-TERM CAPITAL
AND ASSET MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS - MOTION TO
APPROVE AS PRESENTED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER KOWAL – ADOPTED
January 27, 2026
Page 121
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 10A.
This is a recommendation to adopt a resolution establishing a
framework to constrain County spending at current fiscal year
baseline levels for Fiscal Year 2027 applying to County funding
allocations, including those for constitutional officers, authorizing
limited annual increases for operating and capital costs, and directing
the preparation of an annual long-term capital and asset management
analysis. This item is brought to the agenda by Commissioner
McDaniel.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: You have the floor.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Fine gentleman from District 5.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: This resolution is something
that I -- it was -- I've talked about with several of my friends along
the way. The suggestion here -- and the advent for this is really the
discussions that are going on in the -- we -- four of the five of us had
last week while we were in Tallahassee.
As you all know, there's a large group of media that's out there.
A lot of politicians are talking about a referenda to eliminate ad
valorem taxation in its entirety. I've still yet to hear a plan for how
those revenues can be utilized or replaced because of the essential
services.
You know, people look at our budget, and they see a 2.4,
$2.6 billion budget and think we have money coming out of ears
when, in actuality, it's about 700 million that this board actually has
something to say about, and our Sheriff's Department consumes in
excess of 50 percent of that.
And so I have -- I have -- plus/minus. I'm not picking on the
Sheriff. I've said regularly, I mean, there's a reason why we're No. 1
in low crime in the entire state of Florida, and I'm going to continue
January 27, 2026
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to service -- support our law enforcement.
But the thought process I had here was to implement -- make
this suggestion that we hold spending at this year's levels that were
recommended and -- plus 3 and 5. Three on O&M and five on
capital. And then -- and having that come as direction from this
board.
And then, secondarily, as of -- as also part of this resolution was
far more -- what I perceived to be as a far more critical item, and that
is the analysis of our assets. Collier County was not prepared for the
management of our assets, the analysis on our assets, the useful life
of those assets, where -- what the monies that were requisite for
theoretical replacement -- or for maintenance and/or the inevitable
replacement of assets when they had expired and reached their useful
life.
And I was told back in '19 when we established that 301 fund
account, that data and analysis was, in fact, being performed. That
was another administration, and we always blame the previous
administration. The current administration's now sharing that that
data and analysis hasn't actually been being performed, and I think
that is a critical component of how we manage this government.
And so two parts. Rein in spending. No matter what happens in
Tallahassee, no matter what they decide to do with the ad valorem,
holding our expenses at these recommended levels, I think, is an
extremely prudent move for us, irrespective of what they do. If this
Board chooses in July, August, whenever we -- September when we
set the budget, if we do, in fact, remain at rate neutral, the spread
between these expenses and the revenues that are associated with it
can be plowed over into reserves. It doesn't take the money away
from our constitutionals. It doesn't take it away from our
administration. It just provides a mechanism for those additional
requests to come back to this board for ratification as we go. So
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the -- those are -- that's the quick synopsis of the -- of the two
proposals that I put into this resolution.
Anybody got any questions?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I don't see anybody lit up.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Nobody's lit up.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Nobody's lit up. Uh-oh. I got a light.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: You waited too long to call
for a vote.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders. Huh?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I just wanted to ask Chris
Johnson, what will this ultimately mean as we go through our budget
process?
MR. JOHNSON: What this will do -- and let me just -- I
thought I had something here, but it looks like it disappeared. Oh,
here it is.
Can you pull up the PDF?
Essentially what we'll do is as we move forward through
our -- yep, that one right down there, the timeline draft, if you don't
mind. Thank you. I knew there would be an opportunity to pull this
up, so I felt like I had to.
The -- we will take the 3 and the 5 percent moving forward as
we go into our Strategic Planning Budget Workshop on
February 17th. We'll have further discussions on this, because I'll be
able to put it into kind of my spreadsheet that pushes everything out,
and we'll be able to tell you guys where that will leave us as far as
planning goes, and from there, when we go in to adopt the budget
policy, it would become part of that policy. We would base the
policy around this resolution.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So we are basically
setting budget policy?
MR. JOHNSON: A portion of it, yes, a piece of it with this
January 27, 2026
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resolution.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't know that I have any
particular problem with it, but it seems like we would want to do that
at the budget workshop.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Budget workshop, yeah.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I mean, I don't -- that's why I
asked the question. I don't know if this ties our hands a little bit
without us really knowing it or just exactly what it does. It sounds
like it does impose some restriction in some way. But we have a
budget workshop in three weeks.
MR. JOHNSON: And -- I mean, it would provide me with
direction. I would have to look at legal to understand the difference
between a resolution and a policy. I don't know if you can trump a
resolution with a policy or -- if something were to change. But it
would provide me the guidance moving forward. But I can -- I can
take that just from a couple nods of the head to move into our budget
policy workshop and budget policy as well, so --
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: The resolution would establish the
policy.
MR. JOHNSON: The policy.
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: It can be changed. It's not law like an
ordinance.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And it's just for one year. It's
this year. We haven't ever done this as a board before in my tenured
nine years, and Commissioner Saunders, you're in excess of a
century. The policy --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: It's only a half a century.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Half a century, okay.
The policy -- or the budget initiatives have come from staff to
us, and then we give them back with, up until recently, little to no
adjustments that become policy that, then, he disseminates out to our
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departments. This is us establishing that policy in advance.
And, again -- and I'm fine if Chris rings the bell and says, "We
need to do something different." Again, we're not -- we're not -- all
we're doing is fencing off the money so that -- with these parameters
to be established. And then if the Board chooses to remain at rate
neutral, then that will plow those excess additional funds -- I don't
want to call them excess funds. But it will plow those additional
funds over into reserves and make the -- make the departments
and/or -- and/or constitutionals come and talk, so...
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you.
I'm all about limiting -- or setting the limit on our spending as
far as O&M and capital, but I do not want that to be misconstrued as
any budget policy direction.
I've -- this is going to be my fourth year, and I've just about
figured this out that when we set budget policy, it happens, and I am
not going to be a proponent of that. I want to have a real budget
policy conversation and whatever we decide to do, but I don't want to
give any direction as far as creating budget policy based on this
resolution, on the lower end. I want to take the resolution as a
maximum. I'm looking to do something less than that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, it -- can I speak?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yes, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It carefully was worded "up to
3" and "up to 5," so -- and it's for this year. And so it doesn't mean it
has to be 3 and 5. And because you're short tenure and not the half
century or my quarter century -- I could go into a history here where
this board received the budget initiatives, then put it back as policy,
and there was no adherence to it whatsoever. I remember asking
Father Ed one day at the podium how many of the 19 departments
adhered to the policy, and he happily looked at the floor and said,
January 27, 2026
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"None, sir."
So this is -- this is my -- this is my suggestion for us to be
setting these parameters now, and then if staff comes back to us and
tells us that we need to be doing something different, then okay.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I'm looking at you because I just --
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: So you can -- you can establish the
policy through this resolution, and you can change the policy later
and amend the resolution if you need to. It's -- it's not an ordinance.
It doesn't have to be advertised, you know, in order to make a change.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Why do we have to establish policy
with a resolution? Why can't we just have a recommendation and
a -- that we're resolved to stick our spending to 3 percent and
5 percent -- up to 3 percent and 5 percent without establishing policy?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Or a resolution, like you say,
which is, like, the next level.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yeah. I just don't know if it's too
early, because we're going to have another meeting here in February
or --
MR. JOHNSON: Yeah. We'll have the workshop in February --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Budget meeting.
MR. JOHNSON: -- and then we will adopt the policy document
and the budget policy that goes out to the divisions in first meeting in
March.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I mean, we could have the same
discussion then and then put pen to paper to have a resolution and
have to change the resolution if we have a deeper discussion or dive
at that time. You know, I think the Commissioner gave his ideas,
which I think some of us kind of understand and agree with, but at
the same time, you know, there may be more meat on the bone at the
other meeting that may drive us to do something different once it
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actually comes time to create policy. So I don't know if it's timing
more or less.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well --
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I -- here again, now is the
time to be doing those things. Perceptively, we aren't short on what
we have been spending, what we already allotted in this particular
budget year for the allowable expenses. This just -- this just sets
those parameters for this year.
And I don't see -- I don't see a problem in doing this right now.
It gives direction to staff to initiate those budget initiatives that will,
in fact, come to us with all of the data and everything, and we can
have further discussions in February, and if we need to adopt the -- or
amend the resolution, then great.
But secondarily, probably more important than this holding on
expenditures is the second portion of the resolution which is the
analysis requisite for the two billion in assets that we have where we
don't have a good handle.
Now, solid waste, wastewater, roads, we have a decent handle
on the useful life of those things, but our surficial assets, our
buildings, our space, so on and so forth, we're way out there as far as
the analysis. And I keep wanting to call it an actuarial because that's
the way my brain thinks, but I was informed that that wasn't a real
good terminology.
So the useful life of our assets is imperative for us to be able to
make any kind of future financial decisions. I mean, we're -- we
really don't know what we need to have set aside in reserves in order
to maintain these assets that needs to come out of general operating in
order -- in order for us to secure the future.
So the second portion of this resolution is, I think, critical, and
the first part is easily amendable and gives direction to staff to
January 27, 2026
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actually develop these budget initiatives.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Would you like to make a motion?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll make a motion for
approval as presented.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Second.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Okay. I have a motion and second.
All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Opposed, same sign, same sound.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: The ayes have it.
MR. JOHNSON: Thank you.
Item #10B (Added - Per Agenda Change Sheet)
DISCUSSION REGARDING THE VETERANS’ COMMUNITY
CENTER. (COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS’ REQUEST)
MOTION WITH DIRECTION TO STAFF TO START
GATHERING BID PACKAGES AS REQUIRED BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO – APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to our
add-on item, 10B. This is a discussion regarding the veterans
community center. This is brought to the agenda by Commissioner
Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
January 27, 2026
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I think we've all gotten word from Congressman Mario
Diaz-Balart that the $9 million that has been requested for the
reconstruction of the veterans community center over at the old
Golden Gate Golf Course is in the House budget. It was in the
agreement with the Senate. And so Congressman Diaz-Balart was
fairly confident that this money would be forthcoming.
We've now learned that there's a potential for a government
shutdown over DHS funding, but even regardless of that, this budget
will ultimately go through. It's just a question of whether it's going to
be January 30th or it's going to be some short time thereafter.
And so what I'd like to do -- just for a little bit of history, a
friend of mine donated this building to the County a number of years
ago, and when we did the one-cent sales tax, we had $15 million, I
believe, for an educational facility, kind of a training facility for the
School Board. And the School Board picked this particular building.
They thought that this would be a great location for it.
The County hired an architect, and design work was being done.
And I'm not sure if it was a year later, but it was sometime later the
School Board decided that this was not an adequate facility, and
they're looking elsewhere.
In the meantime, I had met with folks and started talking about
some sort of a veterans -- military museum or some other function so
it would be in conjunction with the nursing home, and we all came up
with the concept of a veterans community center.
Mr. Mullins and I and Alexander Scardino started working on
what goes into a veterans community center, because there are
different types of veterans community centers around the country,
and they're all different.
And so we met with different veterans organizations. We met
with the VFW and came up with basically a list of what types of
offices and things would have to be in this veterans community
January 27, 2026
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center to fully serve the needs of veterans in our community along
with open meeting space and for -- I'll give you an example where I
think we're all familiar with the breakfast that's served at the
Fleischmann Park on Saturday mornings by one of the veterans
services groups. They're looking for a home. This would be a
perfect location for that because they're -- as you may know, there's a
large open space in this building that would be ideal for large
meetings and for that type of thing.
So in response to the fact that we are fairly assured -- there's
never a 100 percent guarantee, but at this point we're fairly assured
that that $9 million in funding would come in. I'd like for the Board
to direct staff to begin to put together the bid documents and things
that are necessary to retain another architect and engineers and
ultimately a contractor so that when this funding does become
available, that we won't be sitting here six or eight months later still
looking for an architect.
And so I wanted to ask the Board to give the staff direction to
move forward with complying with the details of this grant -- this
federal grant program, putting together a bid package as required, and
being ready to submit that for review by potential architects and
bidders. It's really just kind of a direction to staff to move forward
with this to let the staff know that this is a priority of the Board.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: One of our priorities.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I got a motion and a second. All in
favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
January 27, 2026
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CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Opposed, same sound, same sign.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: All right. Staff has their marching
orders.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 15,
staff and Commission general communications.
Item #15A
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA BY INDIVIDUALS NOT
ALREADY HEARD DURING PREVIOUS PUBLIC COMMENTS
IN THIS MEETING – NONE
MS. PATTERSON: Item 15A is public comments on general
topics not on the current or future agenda by individuals not already
heard during previous public comments in this meeting.
MR. EBLE: We have no registered speakers.
MS. PATTERSON: Very good.
Item #15B
STAFF PROJECT UPDATES - DAS UPDATE (JAMES FRENCH,
DEPARTMENT HEAD - GROWTH MANAGEMENT &
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT)
PRESENTED AND DISCUSSED
MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to staff project updates. At
the request of the Board, we do have Mr. French here to give you a
brief update on DAS.
January 27, 2026
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MR. FRENCH: Good morning -- or good afternoon,
Commission. Jamie French, your department head for Growth
Management and Community Development.
In speaking with the Board members, especially Commissioner
Saunders, we do appreciate your interest in Domestic Animal
Services and some of the steps that we've taken forward.
Over last 20-plus -- 20-plus months, not years -- getting back to
that population of Everglades City, Commissioner LoCastro. They're
going higher, not wider.
This board entrusted me and guided me along with the County
Manager's Office and the administration to go forward with one
direction: Go fix it. And I really appreciate the trust and the
opportunity that you've enstowed [sic] into me as well as the
leadership group that I've been able to work with and help assemble
over that period of time.
During that time, the facility has undergone significant
infrastructure, facility, and operational improvements to really
enhance the animal welfare, the safety of our employees, the safety of
our volunteers, the cleanliness, and really more so the efficiency.
The shorter period of time that we can keep an animal in that facility,
the more adoptable they are and -- in which case what it does, it
creates a savings overall to your budget, and that's really what we've
been focused on.
So without further ado, we do have a presentation with the
thanks and help, of course, of Meredith McLean, your DAS director,
and Mr. Brian DeLony. As Mr. DeLony -- senior DeLony says, best
engineer in the state of Florida. Yep, I got a thumbs up.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Behind that big screen back there.
MR. FRENCH: We do appreciate the partnerships that have
existed over -- over this time. And I'll have a -- I think we've got a
little bit of a surprise at the end of this as far as some of the additional
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features that we'll be offering within DAS and our Parks and
Recreation group.
Meredith.
MS. McLEAN: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you.
I'm excited to give you this presentation.
I do want to say I have only been here, you know, a year and, I
think, four months now, and a lot of this was in the works before I
came in, so I just want to thank the administration for focusing on
Domestic Animal Services. I did spend some time there before I
came into this position, so I know how critical these improvements
were to the organization, and I'm excited to tell you about how some
of these great improvements have actually led to some really great
outcomes in numbers for Domestic Animal Services.
So Building 1, many of -- I think all of you have been there
since I've been there. That's our main building. That's where we see
our cat adoptions, our administrative buildings, space for our staff to
take a break.
You know, we have new exterior improvements there. I don't
want to read all of this, but, you know, the bigger things were the
installation of the turf; lots of shade canopies; fencing. Important
barriers on our fencing, which is really important for our dogs; more
waste stations. As you know, animals produce a lot of waste. And
then a small dog play yard where we have lots of big dogs, but we
also have a lot of small dogs, and we wanted to improve their safety
and give them a little bit of space for themselves.
We updated our HVAC systems which are great for climate
control, but they're also really great for our, you know, health and
safety of both our humans and animals. You know, when we have
better HVAC systems and separate spaces, we're able to control our
disease, which ultimately controls spending.
Interior painting. New lights. We revamped our office space.
January 27, 2026
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We installed new countertops. We upgraded the bathroom. I know
these sound, you know, small, but they really do make a difference in
working there every single day. We got a new refrigerator for our
staff, which they really appreciate. We updated all of our furniture,
and then we updated our cleaning standards and procedures.
So that not only helps the safety and well-being of our staff, but
also the animals. As Mr. French said, the cleaner we are, the
healthier our animals are, which means they stay with us less time.
The other thing I want to point out there is in all of these
improvements, we've seen a lot of great feedback from our
community, and where people sort of thought we were that Sarah
McLaughlin commercial and they didn't want to come into our
facility, they come in now, and they say, "Wow, it's such a clean
environment." So we have more people coming through our
buildings, which also leads to higher options and outcomes for our
animals.
Building 2, we have a very large sallyport, which is where we
keep all of the things we need, and we need a lot of those items. So
we were able to organize that, upgrade it. Staff knows where to go.
They're spending less time looking for things. It's much easier to use.
We got new washers and dryers. HVAC was added there. We
did have some oxygen tanks that were -- sort of needed to be in a new
area to come in compliance with what we needed in our vet clinic.
And then we were able to do the vet clinic and recovery to be
located -- sorry on that one. We -- let me come back to that one at
the end, actually, because that's a further improvement there.
Like I said, we updated the yards adjacent to our Building 5.
We added additional gates and fencing. So when you used to come
out to our play yards, it used to be one open yard. There's now a
catch pen there, which is really important. If an animal starts to run,
we have a secondary barrier, and you want to see that throughout all
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shelters within any organization, so we were able to do that.
Again, I keep hitting on the HVAC. We live in Florida. It's
really important. But also for that communal disease. Stop.
Lighting floors. We added acoustic blankets to the walls, so that
really helps with the sound. So animals are really overstimulated. So
when we're able to reduce that sound and kind of overstimulation, it
does give them a little bit better quality of life. And when they're not
as stressed, they're more highly likely to be adopted there.
Storage, we added card access to all of our building. We added
bite panels at the bottom of our doors. So that's not -- it is to help
humans, but dogs tend to redirect when they're in a small, confined
area, so we added a panel at the bottom of the door that they can't see
each other as we're moving through the building.
We reinforced our guillotine door, so that's a door that
separates -- one of our buildings has these where you can move
animals from back -- one side to the other, so those are really
important if we're dealing with any dangerous dog cases or if we
have any disease control that we need to look at. So if we have a
large outbreak, that building can actually be split into two, and we
don't need to move animals in and out as frequently, which spreads
that disease. So that's one really great key thing that we were able to
do to Building 5. We could also use that -- as you know, we're
all -- we all have a case right now. We can separate that and keep
that staff only so we are there and we can keep those animals out of
the view of the public.
Here's just some pictures for you. You can see there, you know,
we needed a lot of improvement to the kennel walls themselves. We
did a lot of concrete restoration there. All of our insulation needed to
come out for many reasons. New flooring. New systems within our
plumbing. You know, all of these good things that we need. And
then also paint; it seems very simple, but, you know, colors are really
January 27, 2026
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important to animals. And they say that blue is a little more soothing
per the studies, so we were able to give them a little bit -- we call that
the Zen Den in there.
Here are just some more pictures for you. You can see that
sound-proofing barrier in Building 5, the upgraded lighting.
Okay. So exterior, we removed exotic plants species from the
preserved land, and that is out to bid. We did a code blue emergency
communication box outside of admissions. So admissions is our area
where animals are coming in and out. A lot of times we had multiple
people coming through without a stop, which, you know, could lead
to different animal fights and things like that. So we were able to
install that out there. So it's for Code Blue, but it also allows us to,
you know, manage our flow as animals are coming into the system.
We installed a license plate reader which is important for many
reasons, but unfortunately, we do have some people that will drop
animals and run, so we're able to gather that information and pursue
charges if necessary.
All of our cameras are linked to CCSO. We transitioned from
national -- natural gas to propane. We identified and corrected
deficiencies in our roof gutters, and we updated directional and
identification signs campuswide. That's really important as you're
moving animals through, because we want to make sure everybody's
going in the right directions to prevent many things.
And we did repair our irrigation.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So there's no more breaking
our dogs out in the middle of the night when they get locked up?
MS. McLEAN: No, there has not been any of those.
We improved our electrical -- I hate to read from slides, but we
did -- it's a lot of stuff, so it's really important. We improved the
electrical. We upgraded our drinking fountains. As you-all know,
not only do we have staff, we have volunteers who roughly give us
January 27, 2026
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25,000 hours a year, which is a big number in terms of staff time that
we're not paying for, and we want to make sure that they're well
hydrated while they're with us.
We upgraded our IT server equipment, which is great, because
moving forward we have lots of different things that we have planned
to make our operations more efficient with our staff. We upgraded
our fire alarm, our flooring. We put a lot of rodent-proofing
measures into place. We did that for a couple reasons. We don't
want those guys in there. But as you know, animals eat a lot of food,
so rats tend to be attracted. So we put that in to prevent them from
coming in. We also moved -- I think it might be on another slide, but
we moved our food into a new storage container with that barrier as
well, and it is climate controlled to make sure that the inventory that
we have coming in is taken care of.
So here's just some more of that HVAC. You can see sort of the
older ones and then the new ones that are on the buildings.
MR. DeLONY: That was the temporary and the permanent
installation of HVAC.
MS. McLEAN: Yes.
All right. So outside of -- there used to be three dog buildings,
and when you got to the third dog building, there would be a "no
access to the public," that's very barrier preventative to people
coming in and looking at animals. So that gate was actually taken
down, and that allowed both the public and volunteer access. And
that matters, because if we keep animals out of view unless
somebody is coming to look for their animal, they're not seeing those
animals, which means they could stay with us longer. So why not put
them on view, explain what the difference between a "stray," "wait
and available" means, and allow the public to see all the animals that
are in our care. But also, we're not trying to hide anything. We want
to be very transparent about what we're doing and have more
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community conversations, so we were able to remove that gate
barrier there.
Like I said earlier, we added our, you know, volunteer and staff
break areas. There's some outside, and then we improved the one
inside. Additional parking spaces. If you have come over to DAS,
you understand that our parking is tight, so we were able to expand
some of our parking spaces there.
We installed hard-surface walking paths from staff parking area
into community cat housing areas. We implemented and improved
daily campus cleaning and maintenance standards, and we built
portable kennel wash stations behind our dumpster area so that we
were cleaning so that we have an area that we can specifically go to
as we're going through things.
Okay. So volunteer improvements, we already sort of talked
about those, so I'm going to go through that there. I think most of
these we touched on, outside of our livestock. We did, you know,
some improvements to our stable area. So here's just some of fencing
and the play yards. That's the food storage that we were talking
about. It used to be behind Building 5, and now it's up further with
air conditioning and that safety barrier. Here's the interior of the
sallyport. It's better than reading slides. Pictures are much better. I
think most of this we talked on.
Let me just -- I just want to touch on numbers a little bit because
I think that's really maybe what we want to hear here is -- so the
capital improvements really reduce operational bottlenecks, they
expanded usable space, and they enabled us to kind of put placement
options in place for animals because, like I said, the public is gaining
trust in us and partner agencies were maybe things weren't the
greatest before were willing to come in. And because of that, the
numbers I kind of want to touch on is we've seen adoptions increase
60 percent from Fiscal Year '24 to '25, our transfers have increased
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by 44 percent, and our return to owners increased by 3 percent. So
those are really great numbers.
And then just in terms of our live release rate, which really
means the animals that make it out of our facility with a good option,
have raised from 88 percent to 96 percent all while taking in about
800 more animals. So all of these capital improvements really
allowed us to do better for the animal welfare in our community, and
we're grateful that the support was there to provide these.
Do you want to talk about Purr and Play?
MR. FRENCH: Yes. Just very quickly, one of the things,
Commissioners, that I think I've touched on with each of you is that
part of this collective impact that we've taken with Growth
Management is that we've really utilized both the services we had
intact in the former Growth Management and Community
Development group to combine those with Parks and Recreation as
well as our DAS staff.
So you -- at any given time, you may see a Parks and Recreation
vehicle and trailer over there mowing the cow pasture. We've
already got the equipment. We've already -- we're already paying the
staff. There's no specialty. Some of these things we don't want to
contract out. We can control the outcome of this as well as the
scheduling a little bit better around the volunteers and so that the
animals aren't startled.
We can put a crew in there at 6:30 in the morning versus a
contractor showing up at 8, 9, 10 o'clock in the afternoon or perhaps
even taking their lunch there. So we've put our own destiny in our
own control, so to speak. And as -- this collective impact includes
North Collier Regional Park. So I've really advanced some of the
talks between James Hanrahan and Meredith McLean and even some
of your economic development housing folks on how we look at
everything from vending machines to what other amenities can we
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put in place to actually better advertise DAS, some of the services we
provide, but also show amenities there.
So that's where the concept of kind of a cat cafe or purr and play
comes into place. These are very popular throughout the country
where people actually pay to go in there with shelter cats, and there's
an outside seating area. Meanwhile, they go in there and they
socialize with these very adoptable cats.
The good news is ours is free. You're not -- it's already an
amenity that we offer at Collier County. It's a free location for you to
visit and schedule for your time for those people that really are
looking for a cat or just want to go spend some time with some of
these cats.
We're partnering with the Humane Society of Naples for
those -- we want friendly cats, friendly adult cats in there, and we
utilize space in the exhibit hall. Now, the exhibit hall was a fairly
underutilized building at North Collier Regional Park. I used to joke
and say, "I hear a -- I hear a sound, a vacuum sound when I drive by,"
and it was because it was an empty building that was fully -- fully
refrigerated with nice A/C, and it was never -- it was very rarely
occupied.
This is really going to promote more walk-in traffic. We're
looking at expanding some of the services at that exhibit hall to
include almost a quiet area for people to go and actually get a cup of
coffee, to get fresh fruits, vegetables, whatever that they may desire
out of our vending machines through your newly approved vending
machine contractor. And this is all at no charge to the taxpayer.
They actually just paid the vending for this.
We went into there -- and really does offer relaxing, feel-good
experience at no charge, as I said. It raises awareness for our DAS.
For the cats, it provides additional daily socialization outside of a
cage, and it improves the behavior of that animal, confidence, and the
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adoptability right there.
It also enhances our ability to attract more volunteers from that
North Naples area that may not want to trek all the way to Davis
Boulevard to that location. And it also -- as I said earlier, it does
support both your Domestic Animal Services and your local shelters.
Here's just some pictures of that room. All of this furniture,
some new, some recycled. In the event that this venture doesn't
work, all of this material can be put right back into DAS. But again,
you see scratch-proof chairs. It will host up to about 10 people that
would schedule in there for about 40 minutes, 45 minutes per visit.
And we would encourage walk-in as well, should you not have
people scheduled in advance.
This would be -- there's an animal care specialist that will be
dedicated to this eight hours a day, five days a week. And these cats
will live cage free. There will be cages there in the back in the event
of emergency or in the event that we have to move these for their
safety and for movement.
This was the -- if you remember, this was the old microscope
kind of a lab that sat there empty that on occasion they would have
there some after-school care or care classes, but for the most part, this
room was fully underutilized.
Currently exists -- as you can see, we put in a catch pen. These
are just typical furniture design panels that you would get from any
furniture company, only they're clear. That does not allow the cat to
escape. Doors would close, person would enter, and it's all badge
access so it would not be available -- it's locked all the time.
Emergency access and fire code is a high priority, so you would
always be able to escape.
These catch panel areas, those are doors. They do not lock. It
would be your exterior doors that would lock.
This is the -- if you've ever been to the exhibit hall, when you
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walk in, you'll see now much like you have at pickleball, some
high-top tables, free WiFi. There's some comfortable seating areas.
So in the event that we even schedule the exhibit hall, what you
would see there is you would actually have a waiting area before you
went in for -- whether it be a wedding, a corporate retreat, or
something like that, all within this building right across from your
fitness facility.
Building was fully scrubbed. I think we removed better than 20
pounds of dust out of the ceiling. So we've completely sanitized the
building. And we've utilized this building even for your community
vaccination clinics in the past, and it worked very, very well for your
community members.
That's it in a nutshell. I'm sorry it took so along. I know that
there's a lot of effort that was put into it, but I will tell you is
that -- again, thank you for the opportunity to serve, but really the
credit all goes to the staff that worked on this. It's a lot of hours;
nights, weekends, holidays. We rolled up our sleeves, and hopefully
you and the community will be more than pleased with this, as well
as our DAS facility.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you, Jamie.
Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, I want to thank our management and our staff for
really a good-news story. I had asked Ms. Patterson to make sure
that we had a good thorough presentation. Sorry it kept us from a
late lunch, but I thought it was -- this is just such a good-news story,
because the animal rights people in this county are very vocal. And
2024, when this process really got started, our DAS facilities were
really sad, really pathetic.
You mentioned -- you mentioned rats. Well, there was one
building that was overridden with rats, and it was just a horrible
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situation. And Ms. Patterson and our staff really came together to
make this a really good-news story.
You think 20 months, that sounds like a long time, but there was
just so much that needed to be done out there. And so thank
you -- thank you for that.
I want to ask a couple quick questions. Ms. Patterson, we were
dealing with the privatization of our animal -- some of our animal
control operations. I know you've been working with Love of Cats
and some of the other organizations. What's the current status of our
privatization efforts?
MS. PATTERSON: So to supplement the -- specifically
activities out in the public for community cats, the trap, neuter, and
release, we've prepared an ITN to put out to be able to bring some
partner agencies on. It's ready to -- as promised, we would have it
out on the street by January. It's ready to go. It may be at
procurement now. I'm looking at Jamie. If not, it's ready to get there.
And that way, For Love of Cats, SNIP, anybody in the community
that's interested in partnering with the County would be able to apply
under this ITN and be able to assist with that trap, neuter, and release
program with the cats.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. And I think the effort
has been to improve the efficiency of the County, but by using
private organizations that are out there capturing cats and dogs and
neutering them, we're not increasing our budgets to accomplish this,
but we are going to more wisely spend County funds. So this is a
really good-news story, and I just wanted to get the word out.
I think -- in terms of your 96 percent rate of success in getting
animals out -- is that what I understood you to say, it went from
88 percent to 96 percent?
MS. McLEAN: Yep. So the live release rate is animals that
make it out with an outcome whether that be adoption, transfer, you
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know, placement within the organization, or at Purr and Play. Yes,
that's 96 percent at this time.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm going to ask you a
question that you're not prepared for, but I'm just kind of curious if
you might have a guess. How does that compare to animal services
in Lee County in terms of successful release rate?
MS. McLEAN: So the national standard is we want to be over
90 percent. Collier County is over 90 percent. Lee County is not
there.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I just mentioned that because
we do a lot of things right here in Collier County, and this is one of
them.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That was a very politically
correct answer.
MS. McLEAN: I'm learning.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
I agree with Commissioner Saunders, this is a good-news story,
but it's only a good-news story if it gets out. So this room's empty. I
guarantee all the reporters that were Zooming in and cared about the
first couple of things that we voted on have all Zoomed out.
I still get emails from volunteers who work at DAS and I don't
think fully appreciate the improvements that have been made.
So one of the things I would say, Meredith, is when a new
volunteer comes on, before they come with preconceived ideas that
they got off of Facebook, this might -- you know, the information in
here might be great as part of their orientation, and maybe it already
is. I don't know if this is something you get out in a media release or
whatever, but it's really not worth the paper it's printed on if only 10
people in here sort of hear about it.
January 27, 2026
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And I can tell you the minute you walk outside this door, unless
I'm the only commissioner that is -- has heard from the public, I still
hear people that have no idea we've done all this. They're still talking
about stuff from five years ago. "Oh, the place is infested with rats.
Oh, you still haven't added air conditioning."
So, you know, I think some sort of marketing launch or
however -- whatever you think is the best way. And sometimes the
best way is through the people who actually work there and maybe
some of the new people that don't realize, you know, they're walking
into a facility that was way worse.
It's great to walk in today as a new volunteer and go, "Oh, I see
five things that need improvement." It's like, "Well, we improved
100 things." And we can do anything, but we can't always do
everything. But we've done a lot.
So I think this was a great overview of things that a lot of us
already kind of know, having talked with the staff. It was more
valuable, I think, to all of us because it was packed in one thing, and
you really see, wow, all this stuff didn't happen in a day. But when
you put it all together, you know, some of the comment out there,
like, "Oh, DAS is in shambles, and the staff doesn't care, and they're
not doing anything" -- so, you know, I think the challenge is, make
sure the board -- I mean, I'm still hearing from some board
members -- and, you know, because I cc'ed you on my reply to
certain board members who still say the sky is falling in many
different areas. And maybe they don't have a full appreciation for
how far we've come when it comes to DAS.
But I really applaud all that's been done out there. Certainly,
this group of commissioners hasn't been sitting on our hands and
doing nothing and not caring.
And, you know, in my comments afterwards, one of the big
things that -- I'll just say up front, those of us that went to
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Tallahassee, one of the -- one of the big hot topics up there is animal
cruelty and raising the penalties, and so we're all about that. Because
if the State does something to raise those penalties, then we can
immediately piggyback on that. And so I think those of us that went
were really encouraged by what we heard.
And I'll have more on that later, but, you know, this is packaged
really well and is truthful with what you've done. So I would just say
the more you can get it out there to those that are within the building
and even those that are outside the building, I think it would be very
valuable to separate rumor from fact.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chairman.
Jamie, I've been out there before, and I saw what a mess it was,
and I've been out there after. And just kudos to you and your staff for
all of the hard work that has gone out there for the creativity and the
implementation of the Purr and Play thing. I mean, you've just done
a fabulous job, and I just wanted you to know that as a Board we
really appreciate it.
MR. FRENCH: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just so you know, as far as
getting the word out, you've been invited to my town hall coming up
here in a couple of weeks or a week and a half.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Bring the slides.
COMMISSIONER HALL: Bring a cat.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I want to see this, and we
want to have a discussion about adoptions and how we do what we
do and so on and so forth. It's all about -- it's all about spreading the
news, so --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: If you can email this to us, I
bet some of us could -- would pull some things out of it for, like, our
January 27, 2026
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newsletters and things like that. Because you've put it all in one spot,
and very valuable. So I'd love to have a copy of this, I'm sure
everybody would, to use it either in town halls, newsletters, or just to
have the data at our fingertips.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I was going to make it mandatory that
she goes to all the town halls.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, perfect.
MS. McLEAN: I do love to give a presentation.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I've got one tomorrow night
you probably don't want to come to.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: I see no more questions of the Board,
so I guess just good job. I appreciate it. And like Commissioner Hall
said, I echo -- I went out there at the worst of the worst and saw what
it was like. And, you know, the hard work, everybody should be
really proud of our staff and what you guys have done. So thank you.
MR. FRENCH: Thank you, Commissioners. Just a last word
on this is please feel free -- we have reached out to those, and I know
that your chairman at your Domestic Animal Services Advisory
Committee is here. I don't know if you wanted to get a few words
from him, but I will tell you he's also a very long-term volunteer as
well as a member of your Bayshore Community Redevelopment
Agency board. And I will tell you is that if there's something wrong,
whether it's night, weekend, or holiday, Al is very quick to call me on
my personal phone, it doesn't matter what time of day or evening.
But I would tell you, it really does come down -- I'm very blessed to
have a great group of colleagues that I get to work with.
And I know, Commissioner LoCastro, you think he may be a
fictitious person, but I will tell you, as far as our cleaning efforts at
any of our parks, at our building at Growth Management, and even at
DAS, Mr. John Benoit, he is a key -- he is amazing.
And I know, Commissioner McDaniel, you've known John
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coaching basketball for a long time, as have you, Commissioner
Kowal. But he is a -- you wouldn't have thought a retired New York
City police homicide detective would be as instrumental in this
operation as he and his colleagues are, and we're so very lucky to
have John Benoit, James Hanrahan, and all of our group. So thank
you for the continued support.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Thank you. And I did see that friendly
face sitting in the audience since 9 a.m. So -- all right.
Item #15C
STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that does bring us to Item
15C, staff and Commission general communications.
The only thing I have for you -- and I'm sure you're all
aware -- we did implement the burn ban. It's likely going to stay in
effect for the foreseeable future in light of our cold and dry weather.
We did get a little bit of rain but not enough to do anything. So we'll
keep you posted on that. We take our lead from forestry and the fire
districts. But we got to the drought index numbers that we needed,
and I think Lee County actually has followed suit.
With that, County Attorney.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: That's funny that -- because that day
John called me and says, "Hey, Commissioner, are you available?
We're going to implement the burn ban," and you need a signature.
And it just so happens, you know what, it makes sense; cold weather,
dry air, low humidity.
And then my phone started blowing up. "It's cold. I want a
bonfire." I want to -- you know, everybody's like, "How can you do
it when it's the coldest day of the year? And I want a bonfire
January 27, 2026
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tonight." And I'm like, "Oh, God." You win some, you lose some, I
guess. But just -- some of the phone calls we get, just let the public
know.
MS. PATTERSON: County Attorney?
MS. ASHTON-CICKO: I do not have anything.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't have anything. Just
again, thank you, and look forward to our meeting in February.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner Hall.
COMMISSIONER HALL: I have nothing. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I've got a few things.
I don't know if you remember at our last meeting, we had seven
hours of testimony about a dying orange grove. You guys remember
that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Really. Would you care to
reiterate?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just thought I would -- I just
wanted to give you a follow-up. So I talked about, and
Commissioner Saunders did as well, like, hey, let's chair a meeting
and see if there's an environmental type of solution that could be
explored. That meeting is this Friday. And all the right people have
been involved -- have been invited. You know, some outsiders that
all of a sudden want to sort of pile on -- and what I've said is "the
folks that have been involved from day one."
So, of course, we'll have the orange grove owner, his counsel,
and then all of our key staff: You know, Jaime Cook. We've got the
Audubon Society invited. And so, you know, we'll brainstorm and
see if something's going to come back to the Board here. You know,
that's what we voted on was, 3-2, was to give the owner at least the
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opportunity to come back with something or not, and it's completely
his choice.
But everybody's accepted the invitation to have a discussion.
We're going to see what's feasible. It was said many times in this
room over seven hours, "There's a million other better ideas than
putting 400 houses."
So what I've responded to everybody by saying is, "Well, we
don't need a million ideas, but we need one that's actually feasible,"
or -- or it's feasible but the owner decides to not pursue it, and he just
continues with his farm.
But hopefully, you know, after Friday we might have a little bit
of direction. We're not going to belabor the point. You know, we
voted that, you know, the housing was not an option, or we discussed
that. This will be one last chance to see if we're missing something.
I had a conversation with Jaime Cook, which I said I really want
her to be the first speaker because if so many people thought
that -- and testified that that area was so environmentally important
and sensitive and there's panthers all over the place, and they were
showing us maps and everything, I want her to take another look
that -- you would think then it would qualify at the highest possible
levels for Conservation Collier. And if not, then we need some of
that rumor from fact, because we have a lot of people screaming on
social media that are all over the map. So hopefully Friday it will
concentrate, you know, the conversation a little bit.
I wanted to just give a shout-out to John Mullins and Bridget
and Lisa who, you know, took care of us up in Tallahassee, you
know, those of us that went. The big issues that were covered
were -- I talked about the animal cruelty fines already. We talked a
bit about e-vehicles. You know, we passed an ordinance here pretty
early in the game, and a lot of counties are kind of catching up.
I think I said at a previous meeting I think -- I don't think, but at
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a future meeting, you know, when we've got a little bit of room in the
agenda, I would like us to take a look at that ordinance and see if
there's anything that we need to add, or we might hear from the State
that they've released something that maybe we can incorporate. So,
you know, we're always keeping our eyes on it.
Commissioner Saunders got a chance to make some comments
on the floor there in the capitol about hands-free texting, correct, sir?
Was that your --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, that --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yours was what?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mine was the plainly audible
rule for noise.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: That's right, yeah. And so
that was great to get that exposure from Collier County, and
obviously, he's well respected up in Tallahassee.
But we did talk about hands-free texting. And Commissioner
Saunders and I, we all sort of divided and concurred. So it wasn't
that we were special or anything. But the two of us got to meet with
Senator Passidomo, and it was kind of interesting, at least the
comments that I heard.
She said she had a recent meeting with the governor -- and I'm
sort of paraphrasing here. But, you know, the front door to Florida is
pretty popular right now, and a lot of people are coming here. So the
question -- the discussion that she had with the governor is, "We've
got to really make sure we're keeping up with housing and
infrastructure and all these things because we can't lock the gate to
Florida."
And we're all proud of it being a popular state that people are
transitioning to, but, you know, some of the things -- some of the
tough decisions we have to make in here where people don't want
something in their backyard, you know, sometimes you've got to eat
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the spinach a little bit because our population isn't shrinking at all,
so...
But she was, you know, very candid in what might be coming
down from the State in the way of how growth and development
could be approved, where we might get some state direction, and
some of that we've said in previous meetings, you know, we'd like to
have as much decision-making processes as we can here at the
County. You know, we don't want to State to necessarily tell us what
to do. But if you guys remember from, what, maybe last year, she
looked at us and said, you know, "You might not get everything you
want." And so she sort of continued with that same sort of
discussion. But, you know, that was -- it was a great trip.
So, John, to you and your staff, and, of course, Bridget and Lisa
were -- you can just tell we have great representation up there, as
everybody in this room knows. But I just wanted to, you know, say
that on the record.
Lastly -- and, Commissioner Kowal and I were -- were sort of
chatting here at one of the breaks, so I won't steal the thunder but
maybe just set the table. There -- if you remember at the last
meeting, we talked about private roads that are not up to par, and we
had a big discussion about, you know, can we use funds and then
charge them a tax over time, and we heard from our Clerk of Courts.
The decision that was made -- it wasn't a decision -- was that we
would wait for the Attorney General's position on what we can and
can't do. Somehow you have some reporters out there that maybe
turned off the Zoom a little too early, or in the case of a couple -- and
I won't name them -- they put out a very sensational headline that
oftentimes on social media people don't click on and read. So when
the sensational headline says, "Commissioners just approved millions
of dollars to redo private roads," well, that's great to -- for sensational
headlines, but that's not what we did.
January 27, 2026
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And if you click on the article, then it sort of explains it, then, a
little bit, but most people didn't. They saw that headline, and then if
you read all their comments -- and there's hundreds and hundreds of
comments that say, "Idiot commissioners, why are they using my tax
dollars?" blah, blah, blah, and all of that.
We know what we did here, and hopefully somebody's listening.
But we're -- we'll see what the next steps are. But, you know, we're
concerned. Public safety is important, and, you know, we can't go
back in time and make people take care of their private road. But
when they don't, we can't just sit back on our hands. And I think we
were all in lockstep. We don't necessarily know the exact answer,
and that's why we look for legal.
But those were just the things that I wanted to mention, and, I
mean, Commissioner Kowal, I know he sort of picked up on the same
thing about the public-private roads.
So, sir, I'll turn it over to you, if you have anything to -- or after
Commissioner McDaniel.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Commissioner McDaniel, do you have
any final words?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Do you know how
Commissioner McDaniel gets all the positive things about, like,
"You're right, you're right. You're right"?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I figured it out.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: She's writing them down.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No. So he says something to
a speaker that's 100 percent true, and then they go, "Oh, you're
correct."
So like I could have Mr. French up here and say, "So are there
five districts and five county commissioners?"
And he'd say, "You're exactly 100 percent right."
January 27, 2026
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I figured you out. I figured you out.
But anyway, sir, I turn it over to you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm told I'm a rather complex
individual, so you got me figured out.
Two things: Brief update on the RPC. We're doing well. The
perception is -- and I'll have a better analysis next month, but we're
well past next -- or this coming September -- if you'll recall, when I
took over as Chair, we were done, last September, ran out of money,
and now we're plodding along.
We've reduced the staff down to two. Lee County's showing up.
They're not paying any money yet, but they're showing up.
And then Sarasota County missed a Zoom -- the commissioner
from Sarasota missed the Zoom with me last week. She didn't attend.
But they're leaning in as well.
So I'm conservatively optimistic that the RPC will be revived
and be able to have a nice, happy life.
If you'll recall, we -- we redid the MOU between the counties.
We adjusted the per diem. It used to be 30 cents a person per county,
and now we've reduced that down to 15 cents a person and split it up
in quarterly so that elected -- quarterly payments so that the electeds
had an opportunity to see the viability of the expenditure of the tax
money. So I'm conservatively optimistic with regard to the RPC.
The second thing I wanted to talk -- and I just wanted to see how
you-all felt. And Amy left us, so maybe we can get more done now.
I would like to see if you folks -- I've been approached by several
school board members and suggested a joint workshop with the
Board of County Commissioners and the School Board. I don't think
we've ever done that, Commissioner Saunders. I know I don't recall.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: A long, long time ago.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: A long, long time ago.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yes.
January 27, 2026
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COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So if you're in the mood, I
would like for us to pursue that, and I would also like to pursue one
with the City of Naples Council as well. And I don't want to preclude
Marco Island or Everglades, but minimumly be the City,
especially -- City of Naples, especially with the upcoming election,
the change of people that are coming in there and just enhancing the
overall communication with the municipalities that are within our
county.
So with a positive head nod, we can give direction to staff to
start tickling our calendars to get something -- get those things set up,
specifically with the -- with the School Board and the councils of our
municipalities.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can I piggyback on that for
one second?
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So I spoke with Amy
Patterson yesterday. You might remember many months ago I spent
about half a day up in Lee County meeting with Commissioner
Pendergrass, and jointly we thought of the idea of, you know, having
a joint session with Lee County Commissioners.
And I asked Amy Patterson yesterday, I said, I know you
reached out to your counterpart. Just wanted to make sure it didn't
fall off of the calendar. And she said, "No. You know, we're looking
for something, you know, in the spring. Maybe it's a March, April
type thing."
It doesn't have to be a full day. I mean, I don't think -- so, you
know, now that Amy's here, maybe one day we -- you know, if it -- if
it gives us enough time, we have sort a -- you know, a few hours or
whatever, a half a day with Lee County Commissioners. Then they
walk out. Then maybe the -- I mean, it's just -- I'm just -- I'm
spitballing. But rather than bring us in here three different times for
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really what would be half a day, since we see value in bringing these
different groups together, maybe it could be a workshop and they all
have a time-certain, and we see what we can accomplish. So just an
idea.
But she had mentioned yesterday, she said, "No, the meeting
with Lee County is something that's already been pursued." And I
also love this idea, but maybe it's something that we do -- you know,
it's a full day for us, but we cycle them through here, and there could
be some good cohesive discussions, you know, separately as the
groups. Not everybody all together, obviously, but just a thought.
But I love that idea.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We hold the first Tuesday of the
month for workshops, so if it works for calendars, we can -- we can
certainly schedule more than one topic through that day.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It was just a thought I had. I
mean, we've had several conversations in -- regarding impact fees.
We just had a big impact fee increase attributable to the school. Talk
a little bit more about that. We've talked about housing, housing
affordability and the properties that the school district owns.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So there's multiple subject
matters that we could -- and I'm sure the School Board has a couple
they want to talk to us about, so...
MS. PATTERSON: Do you -- would you like us to reach out
and speak with --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. We decided that while
you were off in the back there.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: And I spoke to you about this
yesterday --
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: -- because I was approached also by
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the new chairperson from the School Board.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: And we had a conversation.
MS. PATTERSON: We can try to coordinate. We'll coordinate
some calendar dates and see what we can get together along with Lee
County.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good. That's all, sir.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: Anything else?
All right. Well, Commissioner LoCastro was saying, you know,
it's just -- I read these thing all the time, and it's like -- and it's not the
average citizen or constituent out there. They just -- you know,
they're blowing off steam. I love it. You know, social media, get it
out there. And sometimes I read some of these things, and I
didn't -- you know, like, I take a deeper dive myself because, you
know, maybe it's something I missed or overlooked or something.
But it's just more or less on the lines of the ones that claim to be,
you know, like reporters or bloggers that have a designated blogging
site that they go on a regular basis and they talk about things we do
and other councils and stuff like that.
And over the past three years, I pay more attention to it now
because I'm in this position. And the more and more I read these
people that feel like they're these professional keyboard bloggers,
they get it wrong the majority of the time.
And you know what, this is an invitation. I'm very accessible
and approachable. And if you see something or you think you want
to report on something that we've done or said or whatever, and
before you actually put the finger to the keyboard, you can ask me
and get -- I can give you my opinion, because maybe you're not
seeing it the same way that we actually did it. And then that way
we're not -- you know, just so you're being more accurate. Because,
listen, I believe our Founding Fathers put that in the very first -- first
January 27, 2026
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thing in our Bill of Rights was, you know, the freedom of speech and
press and things like that.
And actually the press was -- you know, the reporting of that
speech was a fourth check and balance that our Forefathers felt that
was put out there to keep our government in line, but at the same
token, they didn't want false things put out there, because that
actually muds the system up even worse.
And it was to be back-checked and factually checked, you know,
before you actually put something out from a source or something
like that. It was credibly.
You know, it's just like in law enforcement, you can -- people
can tell you a lot of things that are going on and somebody's doing
this or doing that. Unless it's credible information, you don't act on
it, you know, because -- and then you just create a bigger problem
where, you know -- and I feel it's the same way, when people want to
report on us and back-check us, just make sure it's credible, you
know. And I don't have a problem talking to somebody. If they -- if
they feel like they want to put something out there on their regular
blog and they think they -- and a lot of times it's not accurate.
So other than that, I know that make -- I pushed you guys
through lunch. Commissioner McDaniel's very hungry even though
he ate a couple brownies back there. I watched him.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm gnawing on my arm down
here.
CHAIRMAN KOWAL: But I have nothing else. Thank you,
guys.
We're adjourned.
*****
January 27, 2026
Page 159
**** Commissioner Kowal moved, and carried the following items
under the consent and summary agendas by approved and/or adopted
5/0 ****
Item #16A1
THE COLLIER COUNTY FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT PLAN
2024 AND 2025 PROGRESS REPORT
Item #16A2
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES FOR ST. KATHERINE’S GREEK
ORTHODOX CHURCH. [PL20250008634] – FACILITIES HAVE
BEEN FOUND SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE AFTER
INSPECTION CONDUCTED ON OCTOBER 27, 2025
Item #16A3
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A
PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER UTILITY FACILITIES
AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR SIENA
LAKES WEST [PL20250012269]
Item #16A4
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF
THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES
AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENTS FOR
January 27, 2026
Page 160
SUMMERLIT PHASE 1 AND 2C [PL20250005843] –
INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED ON OCTOBER 21, 2025, AND
THESE FACILITES ARE SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE
Item #16A5
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A
PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY
FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR
EXTENDED STAY AMERICA NAPLES [PL20250008401]
Item #16A6
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF
THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES
FOR VALENCIA SKY – PHASE 5. [PL20250008673] – A FINAL
INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED BY STAFF ON SEPTEMBER
5, 2025, IN CORDINATION WITH PUBLIC UTILITIES
Item #16A7
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER, IRRIGATION
QUALITY WATER, AND SEWER FACILITIES AND ACCEPT
THE CONVEYANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER, IRRIGATION
QUALITY WATER, AND SEWER FACILITIES FOR SKYSAIL
PHASE 4 TOWNHOMES [PL20250007303]
Item #16A8
January 27, 2026
Page 161
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE CONVEYANCE OF A
PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER UTILITY FACILITIES
AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR PELICAN
BAY COMMUNITY PARK [PL20250010717]
Item #16A9
RESOLUTION 2026-20: A R ESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE
IMPROVEMENTS, AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAT
DEDICATIONS, FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF WINDWARD ISLE,
APPLICATION NUMBER PL20140000741, AND AUTHORIZE
THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE SECURITIES IN THE
AMOUNT OF $656,975.44
Item #16A10
RESOLUTION 2026-21: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE
IMPROVEMENTS, AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAT
DEDICATIONS, FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF ISLES OF COLLIER
PRESERVE PHASE 4, APPLICATION NUMBER PL20140001091,
AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE
SECURITIES IN THE AMOUNT OF $47,069.33
Item #16A11
RESOLUTION 2026-22: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND DRAINAGE
IMPROVEMENTS, AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAT
January 27, 2026
Page 162
DEDICATIONS, FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF MANATEE COVE,
APPLICATION NUMBER PL20150001677 (PPL) AND
PL20190002421 (PPLA), AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF
THE MAINTENANCE SECURITIES IN THE AMOUNT OF
$316,875.55
Item #16A12
THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A PERFORMANCE
BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $86,503.20, WHICH WAS POSTED
AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT NUMBER
PL20130001954 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH HACIENDA
BLVD. PHASE ONE
Item #16A13
RECOGNIZE AND APPROPRIATE REVENUE IN THE AMOUNT
OF $334,066.74 FOR THE CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE
COUNTY-OWNED MARINAS – COCOHATCHEE RIVER PARK
MARINA, CAXAMBAS MARINA, AND PORT OF THE
ISLANDS MARINA – AND AUTHORIZE ALL NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16A14
RESOLUTION 2026-23: A RESOLUTION RELATED TO THE
STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA 15 – RESTORATION CREDITS
(CLH & CDC SSA 15) IN THE RURAL LANDS STEWARDSHIP
AREA ZONING OVERLAY DISTRICT (RLSA) AND TO AWARD
RESTORATION II CREDITS TO COLLIER LAND HOLDINGS,
LTD. IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE APPROVED
January 27, 2026
Page 163
RESTORATION PLAN
Item #16B1
RESOLUTION 2026-24: A LOCAL AGENCY PROGRAM ("LAP")
GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION (FDOT) FOR THE “SHADOWLAWN
ELEMENTARY SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL” PROJECT,
REIMBURSING THE COUNTY UP TO $761,516.00 FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF A 6-FOOT SIDEWALK ON THE NORTH
SIDE OF LINWOOD AVE BETWEEN LINWOOD WAY TO
SHADOWLAWN DRIVE, AND A 6-FOOT SIDEWALK ON THE
SOUTH SIDE OF LINWOOD AVE FROM SHADOWLAWN
DRIVE TO AIRPORT PULLING ROAD; EXECUTE A
RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE BOARD’S ACTION;
AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
(PROJECT #33974, FUND 1841), FPN 446550-2-58-01
Item #16B2
RESOLUTION 2026-25: A LOCAL AGENCY PROGRAM ("LAP")
GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION ("FDOT") FOR THE “GOODLETTE FRANK
RD SIDEWALKS AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS” LAP PROJECT,
REIMBURSING THE COUNTY UP TO $1,505,623.00 FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF FOUR SIDEWALK SEGMENTS WEST OF
GOODLETTE FRANK ROAD ON FRANK WHITEMAN BLVD.,
COOPER DR., ILLINOIS DR., AND WISCONSIN DR.; EXECUTE
A RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE BOARD’S ACTION;
AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
(PROJECT #33975, FUND 1841), FPN 448126-2-58-01
January 27, 2026
Page 164
Item #16B3
RESOLUTION 2026-26: A LOCAL AGENCY PROGRAM ("LAP")
GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION ("FDOT") FOR THE “PINE STREET FROM
BECCA AVE TO US 41” LAP PROJECT, REIMBURSING THE
COUNTY UP TO $265,511.00 FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A
FIVE-FOOT SIDEWALK ON PINE STREET; EXECUTE A
RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE BOARD’S ACTION;
AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
(PROJECT #33976, FUND 1841), FPN 448128-2-58-01
Item #16B4
RESOLUTION 2026-27: A LOCAL AGENCY PROGRAM ("LAP")
GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION ("FDOT") FOR THE “NAPLES MANOR
SIDEWALKS AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS” LAP PROJECT,
REIMBURSING THE COUNTY UP TO $2,341,880.00 FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF FIVE-FOOT-WIDE SIDEWALKS IN
NAPLES MANOR ON SHOLTZ ST. FROM FLORIDAN AVE. TO
HARDEE ST., HOLLAND ST FROM FLORIDAN AVE. TO
CAROLINA AVE., AND CALDWELL ST. FROM FLORIDAN AVE
TO WARREN ST.;EXECUTE A RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING
THE BOARD’S ACTION; AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS (PROJECT 33953, FUND 1841), FPN
448129-1-58-01
Item #16B5
January 27, 2026
Page 165
AN INTERLOCAL LEASE AND DONATION AGREEMENT
WITH THE DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD OF COLLIER COUNTY
TO CONVEY A PORTION OF THE IMMOKALEE COMMUNITY
PARK, LOCATED AT 321 N. 1ST ST., IMMOKALEE, FLORIDA
34142, TO SUPPORT CONTINUED JOINT USE AND FACILITY
IMPROVEMENTS TO BE FUNDED AND MAINTAINED BY THE
DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD, ESTIMATED TO EXCEED $5
MILLION
Item #16B6
THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A PERFORMANCE
BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,223,344.44, WHICH WAS
POSTED AS A GUARANTEE FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH
AGREEMENT NO. 23-8154 FOR “COUNTY BARN RD
PATHWAYS LOCAL AGENCY PROGRAM (LAP) PROJECT”
43091-2-58-01 WITH RJ ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION
CORP
Item #16B7
EXECUTE DOCUMENTS NECESSARY FOR THE
CONVEYANCE OF A UTILITY FACILITIES WARRANTY DEED
AND BILL OF SALE TO THE COLLIER COUNTY WATER-
SEWER DISTRICT FOR POTABLE WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
ON COUNTY-OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED AT PELICAN BAY
SERVICE DIVISION MAINTENANCE FACILITIES (“PBSD
MAINTENANCE FACILITY”), AT NO COST TO THE COUNTY
(Correction: The recording fee will be paid by Pelican Bay; funds are
available in Fund 3041, (Project #50211) - Per Agenda Change Sheet)
January 27, 2026
Page 166
Item #16B8
THE TEMPORARY FARM LEASE EXTENSION WITH MELOY
HAY COMPANY, INC., FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT
WILLIAMS RESERVE IN IMMOKALEE, AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIR TO EXECUTE THE EXTENSION ON BEHALF OF THE
COUNTY TO ALLOW CONTINUED OPERATIONS PENDING
DEVELOPMENT OF A STANDARD FORM LEASE
Item #16B9
RESOLUTION 2026-28: THE RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING
THE CHAIR TO EXECUTE SECTION 5311 PUBLIC TRANSIT
GRANT AGREEMENT (FPN 410120-2-84-25) WITH THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO ACCEPT
FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION GRANT FUNDING IN
THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $860,522 TO PROVIDE TRANSIT
SERVICE TO THE RURAL AREA OF COLLIER COUNTY, AND
TO AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16B10
RESOLUTION 2026-29: RESOLUTION 2026-30: THE
RESOLUTIONS AUTHORIZING THE CHAIR TO EXECUTE
SECTION 5310 PUBLIC TRANSIT GRANT AGREEMENTS (FPN
448810-1-94-25 AND FPN 448810-2-84-23) WITH THE FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO ACCEPT FEDERAL
TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION GRANT FUNDING IN THE
TOTAL AMOUNT OF $1,032,204 FOR THE PURCHASE OF FIVE
PARATRANSIT CUTAWAY VEHICLES, FIVE RADIOS, FIVE
WIRELESS ROUTERS AND FIVE TABLETS, AS WELL AS
January 27, 2026
Page 167
PARATRANSIT OPERATING ASSISTANCE, AND TO
AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Item #16C1 – (Continued from January 13, 2026, BCC Meeting)
RECOMMENDATION THAT THE BOARD AWARD REQUEST
FOR PROPOSAL NO. 25-8412, “DISASTER DEBRIS REMOVAL
AND DISPOSAL SERVICES,” TO ASHBRITT, INC., CERES
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, INC., CROWDER GULF JOINT
VENTURE, INC., DRC EMERGENCY SERVICES, LLC, AND
PHILLIPS ENVIRONMENTAL, LLC, AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIR TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENTS
Item #16C2
AWARD REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO. 25-8401 TO RAFTELIS
FINANCIAL CONSULTANTS, INC., FOR FINANCIAL
CONSULTING SERVICES AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO
SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENT – TO PROVIDE
FINANCIAL CONSULTING SERVICES FOR COLLIER COUNTY
PUBLIC UTILITIES
Item #16D1 (Moved to a future BCC Meeting, during Agenda
Changes)
(A) APPROVE THE AFTER-THE-FACT ELECTRONIC
SUBMITTAL OF THE RETIRED AND SENIOR VOLUNTEER
PROGRAM 2026-2027 CONTINUATION APPLICATION TO
AMERICORPS, UNDER THE CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL
AND COMMUNITY SERVICE, IN THE AMOUNT OF $100,000
(B) ALLOW THE COUNTY MANAGER OR THEIR DESIGNEE
January 27, 2026
Page 168
TO SERVE AS THE AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE
GRANTOR’S ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION SYSTEM, EGRANTS
THROUGHOUT THE GRANT PERIOD AND (C) AUTHORIZE
THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS (HOUSING
GRANT FUND 1835 AND HOUSING MATCH FUND 1836)
Item #16D2
APROVE AN EXTENSION OF TANYA WILLIAMS, COLLIER
COUNTY LIBRARY DIRECTOR, AS THE BOARD’S
REPRESENTATIVE TO THE EARLY LEARNING COALITION
OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (ELC OF SWFL), AMENDING THE
TERM TO JANUARY 1, 2022, THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2029
Item #16D3
THE SECOND AMENDMENT SUBRECIPIENT AGREEMENT
BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND COLLIER HEALTH
SERVICES, INC., D/B/A/ HEALTHCARE NETWORK, TO
AMEND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT
AGREEMENT #CD-CV21-09 TO REVISE THE PROJECT SCOPE,
COMPONENTS, AND PAYMENT DELIVERABLES (HOUSING
GRANTS FUND 1835, CDBG-CV PROJECT #33674)
Item #16E1
AWARD REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (“RFP”) #25-8407 COLLIER
COUNTY MEDICAL DIRECTOR EMPLOYMENT PHYSICALS
AND DRUG TESTING TO ADVANCE MEDICAL OF NAPLES
LLC, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE
ATTACHED AGREEMENT
January 27, 2026
Page 169
Item #16E2
APPROVED MODIFICATIONS TO THE 2026 FISCAL YEAR PAY
& CLASSIFICATION PLAN WHICH CONSISTS OF FOUR NEW
CLASSIFICATIONS, ONE RECLASSIFICATION, AND ONE
CLASSIFICATION TITLE REVISION FROM OCTOBER 1, 2025,
THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2025
Item #16F1
THE SELECTION COMMITTEE'S RANKING AND AUTHORIZE
STAFF TO BEGIN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE
TOP -RANKED FIRM WSP USA BUILDINGS, INC.,
CONCERNING REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
(“RPS”) NO. 25-8370, “DESIGN SERVICES FOR IMMOKALEE
IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS” SO THAT STAFF CAN BRING A
PROPOSED AGREEMENT BACK FOR THE BOARD'S
CONSIDERATION AT A FUTURE MEETING (PROJECT NO. S
33813 AND 33814)
Item #16F2
THE GRANT AGREEMENT WITH THE FLORIDA STATE
COURTS SYSTEM, OFFICE OF THE STATE COURTS
ADMINISTRATOR, REIMBURSING THE COUNTY UP TO
$1,000,000 FOR THE RENOVATION AND EXPANSION OF THE
EXISTING SWITCHGEAR AND AUTOMATIC TRANSFER
SWITCH AT THE “COURTHOUSE ANNEX BUILDING L1”
(PROJECT #33979)
January 27, 2026
Page 170
Item #16F3
RESOLUTION 2026-31: A RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS,
CONTRIBUTIONS, OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE
FISCAL YEAR 2025-26 ADOPTED BUDGET
Item #16G1 – (Continued to February 10, 2026, BCC Meeting, per
Agenda Change Sheet)
UPDATES TO THE AIRPORT LEASING POLICY, AIRPORT
MINIMUM STANDARDS, AND AIRPORT RULES AND
REGULATIONS
Item #16J1
RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER (OR OTHER
PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT, PAYEE, AND PURPOSE FOR
WHICH THE REFERENCED DISBURSEMENTS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $41,182,848.66 WERE DRAWN FOR THE
PERIODS BETWEEN JANUARY 1, 2026, AND JANUARY 14,
2026, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06
Item #16J2
THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC
PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING
CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF JANUARY 21, 2026
Item #16K1
January 27, 2026
Page 171
A STIPULATED FINAL JUDGMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF
$75,000 PLUS $19,389 IN STATUTORY ATTORNEY AND
EXPERTS’ FEES AND COSTS FOR THE TAKING OF PARCEL
1296FEE REQUIRED FOR THE VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD
EXTENSION (PROJECT NO. 60249)
Item #16K2
A STIPULATED FINAL JUDGMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF
$105,000 PLUS $27,139 IN STATUTORY ATTORNEY AND
EXPERTS’ FEES AND COSTS FOR THE TAKING OF PARCEL
1361FEE REQUIRED FOR THE VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD
EXTENSION PROJECT NO. 60249, AND DELEGATE
AUTHORITY TO THE COUNTY MANAGER OR HER
DESIGNEE TO PROCESS PAYMENT OF ADDITIONAL
STATUTORY ATTORNEY’S FEES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL
PROCEEDINGS, IF ANY, AS AUTHORIZED BY CH. 73, FLA.
STAT., BUT NOT TO EXCEED $4,000
Item #16K3
RESOLUTION 2026-32: THE BOARD SET THE BALLOTING
DATE FOR THE RECOMMENDATION OF MEMBERS TO THE
PELICAN BAY SERVICES DIVISION BOARD BY RECORD
TITLE OWNERS OF PROPERTY WITHIN PELICAN BAY –
CONFIRMING A BALLOTING DATE OF MARCH 6, 2026
Item #16K4
RESOLUTION 2026-33: APPOINTING THREE MEMBERS TO
THE LAND ACQUISITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE – EACH
January 27, 2026
Page 172
TO A THREE-YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON FEBRUARY 11, 2029
Item #16K5
COUNTY ATTORNEY TO FILE A LAWSUIT ON BEHALF OF
COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGAINST ORCHID COVE AT PORT OF THE ISLANDS
CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., TO DISCHARGE A
SERIES OF LIENS TOTALING OVER $800,000.00 RECORDED
WITH THE CLERK OF COURT FOR ALLEGEDLY UNPAID
ASSESSMENTS (ALONG WITH RELATED FEES AND COSTS)
IMPOSED ON TWO PROPERTIES COMPRISING OF 2.37
ACRES OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY, THAT THE COUNTY
OBTAINED BY ESCHEATMENT TAX DEEDS IN SEPTEMBER
AND OCTOBER 2022
Item #16K6
A STIPULATED FINAL JUDGMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF
$120,000 PLUS $31,295 IN STATUTORY ATTORNEY FEES,
EXPERT FEES, AND COSTS FOR THE TAKING OF PARCEL
1299FEE REQUIRED FOR THE VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD
EXTENSION (PROJECT NO. 60249)
Item #16M1
THE PURCHASE OF A JOHN DEERE 6135E CAB TRACTOR
FROM DEERE & COMPANY UTILIZING COOPERATIVE
PROCUREMENT PIGGYBACK 411 “SOURCEWELL AG
TRACTORS 082923-DAC” USING TOURIST DEVELOPMENT
TAX FUND 1105 IN THE AMOUNT OF $116,292.81 AND MAKE
January 27, 2026
Page 173
A FINDING THAT THIS EXPENDITURE PROMOTES TOURISM
Item #17A (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
Continued from the January 13, 2026, BCC Meeting & Further
Continued to the February 10, 2026, BCC Meeting.
RECOMMENDATION TO ADOPT AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. 2003-37, AS AMENDED, CITED IN CHAPTER
110, ARTICLE II OF THE COLLIER COUNTY CODE OF LAWS
AND ORDINANCES, WHICH REGULATES CONSTRUCTION IN
THE PUBLIC RIGHTS-OF-WAY, TO ADD ADDITIONAL RIGHT-
OF-WAY P ERMIT REQUIREMENTS AND A SECTION
REGULATING EXCAVATION ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE
PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY
Item #17B
TO ADOPT AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE COLLIER
COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE RELATED TO
FLOATING SOLAR FACILITIES AS A LAND USE.
[PL20250000235] (FIRST OF TWO HEARINGS)
Item #17C
RESOLUTION 2026-34: A RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING CARRY FORWARD,
TRANSFERS, AND SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE) TO THE
FISCAL YEAR 2025-26 ADOPTED BUDGET
January 27, 2026
Page 174
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 2:06 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
________________________________________
DAN KOWAL, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST
CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK
____________________________
These minutes approved by the Board on ______________________,
as presented ________ or as corrected ________.
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF VERITEXT BY
TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL COURT
REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY PUBLIC.