Brevard County Board of County Commissioners on 2025-05-20 9:00 AM - Regular - May 20, 2025

If you wish to speak to any item on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting, please fill out a speaker card. Each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card. The chair has the discretion to determine or alter the time limits on any agenda item. The Board of County Commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comments section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to county business that are within the board's control, authority, and jurisdiction. Good morning again. Welcome to the May 20th regular County Commission meeting. We have a quorum I'll call the meeting to order. We have an invocation today by Reverend Jeffrey Gross with Cocoa Beach Community Church. Sir, you're recognized. Let us be in the spirit of prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give thanks for this day and for the opportunity to gather in service to our community. Be present among us as we consider matters that impact the lives of our neighbors, families, and future generations. Grant wisdom and discernment to the commissioners and all who serve in leadership. May their discussions be marked by collaboration, integrity, and compassion. Help them to listen with open hearts, speak with honesty, and act with justice. We are grateful for the gifts and diversity of our county, for all those who live and work here, for those who labor daily to make it a better place, strengthen our unity, and inspire us to care for one another with kindness and humility. In a spirit of peace and shared purpose, we offer this prayer. Amen. Thank you, sir. Very much. Commissioner Goodson for the pledge. Please write. Mission for God. In the liberty of justice. Okay, commissioners. We do not have minutes for approval. We have two, I should say I have two resolutions today. We're going to get right to it. The first one is for National Public Works Week. That's it? Should be about half the audience. Okay. Okay. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of Brevard County. And whereas these infrastructure, facilities, and services could not be provided without the dedication of these first responder public works professionals who are responsible for rebuilding, operating, maintaining, and protecting our nation's transportation, drainage, water supply, water treatment, water quality, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other essential facilities, and whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in Brevard County to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their communities, and whereas the year 2025 marks the 65th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association and Canadian Public Works Association, and whereas the Brevard County Public Works Department maintains 1,150 miles of paved roads, 82 miles of dirt roads, 717 miles of sidewalk, 909 miles of curb and gutter, 952 miles of drainage ditches and swales, more than 19,000 drainage pipes, 48 bridges, over 65,000 signs, 370 traffic signals, 667 streetlights, 190 traffic warning beacons and school zone flashers, and 4.4 million square feet of county buildings while overseeing over 750 active projects, and whereas the Brevard County Solid Waste Management Department handles 4,000 tons of solid waste daily disposing of 1.2 million tons per year and diverting more than 1 million tons annually through recycling efforts, and whereas the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department sweeps more than 6,000 lane miles of curbed streets, maintains 485 stormwater treatment facilities, removes millions of pounds of nutrient-rich aquatic vegetation from stormwater ponds, and conducts hundreds of inspections to protect local water quality and eco-systems, and 4.4 million tons, and whereas the Brevard County Utility Services Department works to ensure compliance with all federal and state environmental laws while maintaining and upgrading essential water, sewer, and reuse systems for the safety and benefit of current and future residents, and whereas we recognize and honor the people, purpose, and presence of these first responder public works professionals and encourage all citizens to celebrate their essential role in safeguarding health, safety and quality of life. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida does hereby designate the week of May 18 to the 24th, 2025 as National Public Works Week. Done ordered and adopted in a regular session this 20th day of May. Is there a motion? Move to approve. So we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney. We have a second by Commissioner Altman. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. Congratulations. Mark, you're recognized. Thank you, and good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for your support for the resolution recognizing National Public Works Week and to Commissioner Feltner for sponsoring it. By supporting this resolution, you're honoring the men and women who keep our county functioning. I speak today on behalf of the directors of the primary county departments that perform public works functions and the more than 700 employees who serve our community each and every day. Now in its 65th year, this celebration honors the vital infrastructure and services that keep our community safe and functioning. This year's theme, people, purpose, presence, reflects the dedicated individuals who show up daily driven by a shared mission to serve. Our teams manage the daily operations of roads, stormwater, wastewater, solid waste, and much more. During emergencies, they're often first on scene and typically the last to leave. Their quiet dedication is why public works is often called the silent arm of public safety, and President George W. Bush formally recognized public work professionals as first responders back in 2003. Thank you again for your continued support and for recognizing the essential work of public work professionals across Brevard County. And to those listening here online, if you want to make a difference, visit BrevardFL.gov. From mechanics to engineers to scientists to admin staff and everything in between, we are hiring. Thank you. That's great. Good pitch. I think we should all take a picture with, okay? One, two, three. One, two, three. Okay. I also have a resolution for EMS. Chief, anybody you want to bring with you today? Okay. Whereas emergency medical professionals and volunteers provide medical care to victims of sudden, life-threatening injuries and illness, often under stressful conditions and in high-risk situations to save lives, and whereas the 2025 National Emergency Medical Service Week theme, EMS Professionals, We Care for Everyone, reminds us that Brevard County's residents and guests benefit daily from the knowledge, skill, and judgment of paramedics, emergency medical technicians, firefighters, dispatchers, educators, administrators, emergency physicians, emergency nurses, and others who encompass the emergency medical services system, and whereas emergency medical personnel must rapidly assess, manage, and effectively provide care in unpredictable situations requiring life and death judgments, and whereas Brevard County's EMS teams unselfishly serve on the front line of healthcare when responding to man-made and natural disasters at the local, state, and national levels, and whereas a recognition is due for the emergency medical services system for its accomplishments and contributions to improve public welfare through healthcare, medical transportation, injury prevention, education, disaster response, homeland security, and other initiatives that reduce healthcare costs and save lives, Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida does hereby unanimously proclaim the week of May 18, 2025 through May 24, 2025, as Emergency Medical Services Week, done ordered and adopted in regular session this 20th day of May. Is there a motion? We have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. We have a second by Commissioner Goodson. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Fountner? Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. You're recognized, Chief. Thank you. Thank you, Chair, Commission. Thank you so much for your recognition and support. There really are no words, are not enough time for what we owe our men and women that are out there. Ever since the pandemic, how the world of EMS has changed and continues to change every day within our community, within our nation, is just amazing. And the way they have stepped up to the challenge every day and responded to our folks throughout the county is amazing. And I'm greatly appreciative of the hard work and dedication that they show up every morning and continue to run those calls. And I appreciate Director Mark Bernath's plug at the end. And I will say, if anybody from Public Works would like to transition and drive fire trucks with ambulances and sirens and go in fires, send me an email. We'll take your call. But I'd like to turn it over to EMS Chief Orlando Dominguez for some other words. Good morning, Commissioners. Well, as we look back to 2024, Brevard County Fire Rescue, our men and women, responded to requests for emergency services more than 80,000 times. Out of those, they transported over 52,000 patients to the hospital. There's no doubt that Brevard Fire Rescue is one of the most progressive EMS systems, not only in the state, but throughout the country. And let me explain to you just briefly why. Number one, our paramedics and EMTs are now able to administer antibiotics in the field. That's pretty much unheard of to reduce that time to treatment, reduce the mortality rate for septic shock patients. They're working and trialing now ultrasound, point of care ultrasound, to be able to detect fluid, blood in areas that the naked eye can't see. They're able to detect through their assessment if a patient is having a big stroke or a small stroke and taking them to the appropriate facility. They're able to identify what part of the heart is being affected during a heart attack. And as we're all very familiar with, they're extremely resilient. During the past couple of weeks, we know that we've had to deal with the closure of the second busiest hospital in the county. And I got to tell you, no one skipped a beat. They went ahead, jumped in, and did what they had to do to take care of our community. And they're doing an amazing job. So with that and many other more examples, I feel honored and humbled to be part of their team. Also, I want to thank, and I want to thank them. Where did he go? Oh, there he is. I want to thank our fire chief for allowing us to continue to be innovative as it pertains to patient care and moving the organization forward. And to all of you for allowing us to do what we enjoy and truly love doing, and that's taking care of our community and our residents when they need it most. Thank you. All right, Commissioners. I think we also need to all take a picture with our EMS staff. Thank you. Okay, Commissioners. On consent, we had one item removed just this morning, and that was F-8. Just so that you know, is there anything else anybody wants to take off of consent? F-5. F-5. Resolution and county deed related to the land donation request from the city of Titusville. Okay. All right. Is there anything else? Let's do this. Let's vote on the rest of consent. Is there a motion for? Move to approve. Consent minus F-5. Okay. Is there a second? I have a second. So I have a motion by Commissioner Delaney. I have a second by Commissioner Goodson for consent minus F-5. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Fountner? Yes. Let's go to F-5 then. Okay. We didn't. Sorry. Let's go to the card. Oh. Sorry about that. Actually. Go ahead, Senator. But let's go to questions. Do you have questions for staff? No. Okay. Let's go to the card then. Before you heard me. Okay. So I want to talk about F-17. So this is an allocation appropriate up to $20,000 per county commissioner to tourism. And as you're probably following, Brevard's own representative Monique Miller helped sponsor a bill, HB 7033, to – that would allow putting the bed tax to offset some of the property tax up to 75 percent and also 25 percent to public safety, hugely important. So before you go deciding to spend money on things that might not be – might be more of a want than a need when we have – you just honored our EMS here, but you don't have a contract with them since October of last year. Maybe the focus should be on public safety at this point. As quoted by a Jacksonville rep, we have a local affordability crisis. And so when we look at the allocation of these funds, there may be more important places to put them. So I would – I would ask that you reconsider that allocation of $100,000 in light of this bill that has been passed by the Senate and the House and is moving to the governor to sign into law. Okay. Okay. Commissioner Delaney on F5. Sorry about that. I would like to make a motion to approve with one change to the deed. On paragraph 6, line 3, it says, or public use. I would like to have that language stricken from the document. And that way, if the land is no longer in use by the DAV, it would revert to the county. If the DAV doesn't use it, what's the concern there, just for my own information? I know that lot. I've worked in North County. Sure. I've dropped stuff off to the DAV. Is it that you don't want it to turn into boat storage temporarily for a year while they're deciding what to do with it? Is that – I just want to make sure that this property, which is a valuable piece of property, is being used for the intended use and not for other uses. Okay. And I definitely want to make sure that our veterans have use of it. So I totally approve this other than I would really love it to just specifically be used for the veteran services. Okay. Now, we do need four votes on this, Commissioner, so that you know. So is there any reason, Morris, why we can't adopt that with that amendment? No. Okay. That amendment would be fine. That's your motion, Commissioner Delaney? Yes, sir. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Delaney for F5 minus the language that – Or other public use. It's got to be for public use or it reverts to the county. Okay. Is there a second? We have a second by Commissioner Altman. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. That passes 5-0. Thank you very much. Okay. Do we have anyone from the supervisor's office here today? Yes? Okay. We're going to go to your item because I intend to save you time. We're going to – I'm sorry, Commissioners. We're going to go to J-4. State your name for the record and explain your item to us briefly here today. I'm Maria Mayer from the Supervisor of Elections Office. So this item is that we had to run a special election to – for two seats that were open. And the Department of State will reimburse us for these items. And we need the items in advance from the board. Okay. So the request is for $795,000 for the special election. Yes. Right? Are there questions – Commissioner Goodson? Yes. Was there a formula that you used for the $795,000 or is that just something you did? So this number is actual. There's no formula for this number. Because the primary special election has already occurred, this number is a pretty exact number. We're probably just about $5,000 below this number at this point. Chair, question? Yes, sir. Time of the state – how much time will it be for the state to reimburse us? It's a hard say? Unfortunately, they don't give us the time. So what we have to do is submit the reimbursement request, and it's a first-come, first-served basis. The positive thing is that I have all the items that they need. We actually have a three-inch binder full of all of the items that they say they need in order to reimburse us. But we're ready to submit that right now for the primary special election. So it will be submitted within this week. Okay. How long they take – I can't really say how long they will take. We will have to come back here and ask the board once we do the general election, which will be held on June 10th, for the same request. Would it be a fair statement to say that we likely wouldn't get this reimbursement before the end of the fiscal? I would say potentially for the primary that we are already requesting now, that's possible to get it before the fiscal. But once we have to do the request for the general, I would say that probably not. Okay. Because the general is on June 10th, and part of the requirements are being able to provide everything that we've done for the election, also being able to prove that any checks that we wrote to the vendors were cashed by sending confirmation. So maybe not for the June 10th, but possibly for this. It is on a first-come, first-served basis, though. Okay. Any other questions? I mean, I think regardless, we have to conduct a special election. But part of the requirements in the language from the Department of State is that we are to ask the board for the dollars. So we are to submit it to both the board and to submit it to the Department of State. Do we have any cards on this item? Okay. All right. In discussion, is there any discussion on the item? Okay. Is there a motion? So moved. We have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. We have a second by Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. Thank you for being here this morning. Thank you. Just because we have an order of operations situation here today, let's go to J2. So Troy, is Troy here? Mr. Chair, that would be me to introduce him. Oh, you're going to do this for Troy. Okay. We're requesting the Board of County Commissioners approve the economic assistance and interlocal agreement using TIF funding from the City of Titusville not to exceed $2,400,000 for the Sears Town Mall property. The City of Titusville has already approved it. Under the interlocal we have with them with the agreement and the ordinance, funds above $500,000 must receive concurrence from the Board of County Commissioners. Okay. Are there questions for Jim? Commissioner Delaney? Just for the public knowledge, is this money coming from the TIF from the City or the County? It's all from the City TIF. Thank you. Okay. I do have four cards. Sandra Sullivan? So we have an order to agenda for a reason. And skipping around, you know, it's hard to have papers ready. On this particular issue, the idea is that we end embeds. Okay? That's the intent moving forward. And this has been moved before because you're about to take a vote on whether to end embeds. That money goes back to the respective parties. So I sent you guys an email from a spreadsheet that I got from the Clerk of Courts of all the transactions for embeds. It specifies in there how much money has been received into embeds from the City. And I don't think there's enough money in there to put $2.4 million to give from the monies coming from the TIF from the City to this project. It is bad optics. Okay? And until there, I looked at the accounting. I looked at their last, their financial report and what was unassigned and what was left. And it's not enough to cover this. So this, the optics of this does not look right. $2.5 million, $2.4 million coming out of the TIF portion that is in the Brevard Fund. But that money, whatever is left after you allocate and you pay the fees and everything. And I don't think you fully have done that analysis. And the question I have is, you know, at the last meeting, they approved another project, which is in the City. It's up to half a million dollars. And it says that we expect that we're going to have continued money in future years when they approve this at the last embeds meeting, knowing full well from this commission the intent to end embeds. So does that commitment end? Or does that money coming out of there? So until you've done a full fiscal analysis, you have no business voting on this. $2.5 million when most years, it's only in the last two years that the TIF has reached a million dollars coming out of the City of Titusville. It's been small amounts. So I put the B.S. card on this. Okay. Thank you. Chris Patterson. Chase. Chase Patterson. I have three other cards here. Let's just. I go first. My name is Jesse Wright. And then I have the speakers coming up. I have a card card. Since Chase didn't come up, I don't have a problem with that. Go ahead, sir. You can go if you like. Okay. No, you can agree amongst yourselves. That's fine, sir. Go ahead. My name is Jesse Wright. I'm the developer and the sponsor for the project. I do have a few pamphlets here. May I approach you to pass it out? Sure. Good morning. This project has been at work for nearly about two and a half years. 22-acre project with runoff going into the lagoon. We came in and we've taken out 12 acres out of 22 acres. And we are putting retention, stormwater retention there to be able to take care of the runoff. The project was evaluated earlier on by the board. And it actually does bring in jobs to the community of about close to about 1,500 people. And it will add 28.6 million to the North Brewer County GDP. It does have a hotel, about 153 units. And I have the GC here to discuss the hotels, Cambria Hotel. It does have assisted living for about 100 seniors, 25 memory care, and 75 assisted living. And just to remind the board and the public here, some eight years ago or so, Miracle City Mall was demolished. That was a 31-acre project. An amount of $7 million was granted to that project. It was the JCPenney there. And so as a result of this, this project is in two phases, phase one and phase two, as you see in the pamphlet. Phase one, 12 acres, we have 240-unit apartment complex and also the hotel and the assisted living with two restaurants in the front. We're going to go into the second phase in about three or four years. And at that time, we will then create a live center there, mainly medical offices and retail. The city TIF is being used. It's been approved by the city council. It's been approved by the mayor and the city attorney. And again, this is not something we just came up with a couple of days ago out of the sky. This has been at work for nearly about 20 and a half years. It's a complex project. And I think some of the people that may be opposed to it do not understand the project. And it's difficult to explain it in about three minutes. But I'll be happy to answer any questions. Are there any questions for Mr. Wright? Okay. Chase Patterson. Hi. Chase Patterson, 2787 East Oakland Park Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'm with Patterson Construction Group, the general contractor for the ALF, the assisted living facility. I believe that this money, obviously, that Titusville had already approved should be allocated to Mr. Wright in this project. Not only for personal interest, but for the fact that the developer has put about $2 million worth of work into the much outdated infrastructure already. And the addition of the assisted living facility and the hotel would bring in immense tax revenue and create jobs. And, you know, would be great for the North Brevard area and Titusville, city of Titusville as a whole. Thank you. That's all. Question for Mr. Chase. Yes. Commissioner Goodson. Is that a portion of the contract or just a portion of the contract that's being worked on now? Just the assisted living facility. Right. A different contractor is doing the site work at the moment. Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Chase? No. Okay. Dale Parsons. My name's Dale Parsons. I'm the architect for the Cambria Hotel, 1615 Edgewater Drive in Orlando. I just wanted to make the point that Mr. Wright, in the developing of the concept for the Cambria Hotel, 153 units or room keys, is really outside of the prototype. And that he has really put a lot of emphasis into the community amenities that can be offered. It's going to be a tremendous location for wedding venues, meeting groups coming from out of town, family reunions, that type of thing, which is totally outside of a normal prototype for a Cambria Hotel. The other thing that Mr. Wright alluded to earlier was the infrastructure that has been put in is sensitively designed to be not only pollution abatement, which right now it's wall to wall asphalt prior to Mr. Wright's infrastructure improvements. But the retention itself, the pollution abatement, is all done in an enviroscape planted area. It's not just a big body of water with a channeling fence around it. It's all integrated into the landscaping, which is really quite expensive. So I think that's a very nice attribute towards a project like this in the city of Titusville, and I would encourage you to support it. Thank you. Any questions? No? Okay. That was the last card. Any other questions? Follow up? Yeah. Okay. Mr. Goodson. Thank you, Chair. What's the name of the board was said in this meeting? Regarding the city TIF funds that are available, according to the Clerk County Finance, as of yesterday, the cash balance in city of Titusville's portion of the TIF Trust Fund for the North Brevard Development District is $4,164,825. Staff, Troy Post, has assured me that there are existing funds available within the city portion of the TIF to fund this if approved by the county. This has already been approved by city and by the Zone Board. And if this is not approved by the county, the revenues in the city TIF fund will not be recaptured by county general fund. Those will all go back to city of Titusville. Okay. Other questions? Okay. We'll move into discussion. Discussion on the item? I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion to approve by Commissioner Goodson. We have a second by Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. And we'll show that approved. Okay. Commissioners, thank you very much. We're going to go to J3. Billy, I'm going to let you introduce this one. We do have one card. So J3 is a request for legislative intent and permission to advertise amendments to Chapter 62, Article 9 of Brevard County Code, having to deal with signs. Specifically, it's designed to address a specific issue in our code where community development districts are not able to permit for signs in zoning other than GML, such as PUDs. So basically, it falls into a donut hole in air code, and that's what it allows us to address this. It would go back to two advisory boards, Billy Construction Advisory Committee, and Planning and Zoning before it returns to the board for a final adoption hearing. Okay. Are there questions for Billy? I do have one card. You have a question? Go ahead. Billy, in our briefing, we kind of talked about the idea when I – it's a big sign if it was just one, can we add some sort of language that talks about not – one single sign not to exceed a certain reasonable size? Absolutely. That's exactly the kind of input we were soliciting at this point. Yep. So, for example, the board could say no single sign bigger than 50 square feet or 75 square feet with a total amount not exceeding 150 square feet. And I honestly don't know for sure what I would suggest, so – And if this is going to go back to Planning and Zoning, that's something that they could take up, and that board could discuss that issue? Sure. We can investigate it. I will say, you know, some – you know, one of the CDs, the sign that they're requesting is in the neighborhood of 40 square feet. So that gives you a ballpark of what people are looking for. Yeah. I think if you said a maximum of 75 square feet, we would probably cover everything. Okay. Rob Dale. Sir. Morning, Commissioners. My name is Rob Dale. I am the vice chair of the Viera ECDD. We are the governmental entity on the east side of Viera that represents the 12,000 residents, roughly, that live on that side. I'm here to speak in favor of this amendment to the code. Essentially, what we're looking for is something that enables us to be able to communicate with our residents. We – I don't like putting it this way, but for a lot of intents and purposes, we're kind of like a mini city council over where we're at. We have parks. We have the Mark Pilock Dog Park. We have hundreds of acres of nature preserve. We have 84 lakes. We have a golf course. We have farmer's markets. We have farmers markets. Just all sorts of things that we're doing over there, and we would like the ability to be able to communicate with our residents. The other thing that we offer as part of this, we have our master HOA that is part of this that we'll be able to utilize. We will make the offer to the county if the county would ever like to put something up and cross-use our signage that we're looking to do. I don't believe the location that we're looking to do this is going to impact any homes. At most, the closest home we're looking at is several hundred feet away. There's a wall of vegetation in between. So I don't think you can get any resident complaints about it. I think it's a fairly pragmatic solution to change the code, help people out. Thank you. If anybody would have any additional questions. Any questions for Mr. Dale? Okay. That was our only card. We'll go into discussion. Is there any discussion on the item? Is there a motion on the item? Second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. We have a second by Commissioner Altman. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. Thank you for that, Commissioners. Let's go to J5. I see Adam making his way to the box here. You recognize, sir? Good morning, Commissioners. Item J5 is to construct an access taxiway and infrastructure improvements to a site that was purchased utilizing FDOT funds in 2020. The estimated project cost is $1.2 million. It is an 80-20 matching grant, and no general funds are required for it, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Adam? Do you have a question? Oh, Commissioner Atkinson. Adam, I just wanted to ask you, so I know this came to us pretty late, and I know that staff hasn't had a whole bunch of time to really get the details that I feel like we need, but I also know that there's a time frame that we're working towards, correct? Yes. Can you explain that to me? So, we were sent this grant last Friday, so our time frame to have it executed is by the end of June, and being that this is the last board meeting, we had to bring it to this meeting. Got it. Yes. So, another question, because for me, community input's going to be a big deal for this thing. If we accept this grant money, which I would like to do, and we decide that maybe we can't do it in the best interest of the community, or for whatever reason, perhaps we think this isn't going to be right for our community. Can we give that money back? Yes, we can. I know that sounds crazy, but I don't want, are we committing ourselves by taking that money? We can give the money back through, I believe it's a termination agreement. Any other questions for, okay, we don't have any cards on this item. Is there a discussion on the item? Is there a motion? Second. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. We have a second by Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Fountner? Yes. All right. Commissioners, we're going to go to the GE comments. We have four cards. Brent Wallenberg, sir. Good to be here. Nothing people put in their mouth when they eat is toxic. How is it after the food is digested and comes out of your body? This is all toxic. In a septic tank, the high pH ammonia and the low pH gastric acid are reacting together. When these two chemicals leave the septic tank and go into the calcium carbonate drain field, the gastric acid reacts with a high pH calcium carbonate, releasing dissolved oxygen into the pee and poop, speeding up the reaction, and creating harmless calcium chloride salt. So, a good septic tank drain field is not hurting any of you. What we have now is a statewide fake chemistry, fake media, and a government hell-bent on falsely accusing people for financial gain. Now, how do we turn this ship around? I mean, all you're developing, man, is our historic lagoon, before they even removed the shell on the shore. I remember vividly, 60 years ago, the foam blowing across US-1. Well, now that foam's on the beach, turning our sand to liquid. I'm getting too old to do the work. I can tell you some of the things I've done. I catch the muck all built up in a corner last fall, and I put calcium carbonate sand in, and it made it where the plants could absorb their nutrients, and I got seagrass growing for miles. I'm working at the fish cleaning tables. Sebastian used to be trout capital of the world, and I fished three months, and I haven't caught one single speckled trout. So, the catfish are overwhelmed at fish cleaning tables, and I release blue crabs to run the catfish off. Well, this should be done statewide. It's an obvious imbalance. I mean, for all intentional purposes, a speckled trout is extinct in Sebastian. But, okay, well, I'm glad y'all got your ear. I'd love to be able to come up here and say what I've got to say. Thank you, sir. Mark Gunter. Commissioner, I've got a pamphlet here. Can I hand out? Sure. What I'm here to speak about is some of the restoration work that's being done at the Malabar Sweep Sanctuary, particularly the west side. Now, that parcel that I actually want to talk about, I don't want to talk about the east, but the west, and that's this little yellow finger up here, okay? That is split by Briar Creek Road, okay? To the north of Briar Creek, there's 6.3 acres, and below is approximately about 8 acres. If you were to draw a line directly across from Cameron, straight across. Now, the bottom side has been complete. They've already took the trees, mowed it down, put the fire break in. And I didn't think they were going to hop the street and do the west side, which is just 6 acres. Now, we all know that for the scrub jays to be successful, they need 22 to 24 acres per family. That's what it takes. That's a requirement. We also know the reason that they take the trees down is because of the Cooper Hawk. And they have dimensions, and that's all stated in the FWC, optimal 1,000-foot perimeter all the way down to 300-foot. And if you took these guidelines that are in their documents, the 300-foot, the math doesn't add up for the parcels that they're destroying. So they've already done, like I said, they've already done the very east side of Briar Creek, and they've already jumped across the street. I didn't think they were going to do that small 6.3. If you look at the back section there, you can see I have a picture of that. It's 6.3 acres. And they're going to destroy that, bring it down for just the scrub jay. So I don't know how all that adds up. I mean, why not? You know, who's the oversight? Who looks at this and says, does this make sense to really remove all these trees for 6 acres? You're not going to put a family of scrub jays in there and expect them to survive. You're still going to have the big trees. You're still going to have the predator, the birds of prey, the hawks, the owls. So scrub jays aren't going to survive. The same thing can be said for what they already completed is that little 8-acre section. And all you have to do is go down there and park and see what I'm talking about. It's not pretty. It really, truly isn't. Thank you, sir. Christina Fleming. I think next after you is John Dacco. Good morning, Commissioners. Christina Fleming, District 3. I stand before you not just as a concerned citizen, but as someone deeply invested in the safety and well-being of our community. In 2024, Brevard County Fire Rescue experienced a staggering loss of 100 firefighters, approximately 20% of our workforce. This exodus is primarily due to the low starting pay, which hovers around $15 per hour, but that includes a Medicare supplement, so it's really $13.11 if we don't get that Medicare supplement. This is significantly below neighboring counties. Consequently, remaining personnel are overworked, leading to burnout and diminished service quality. The mandatory overtime is out of control, and despite what some people have said, it is not just from sick leave usage. It is being used for all approved codes and the 90 vacancies that we have. I do believe it's 92 now. While the Commission has approved a motion to explore increasing the fire assessment fee, this measure alone is insufficient. A comprehensive, aggressive approach is needed, one that includes competitive wages, improved work-life balance, and strategic recruitment efforts. Without these, we risk falling further behind as neighboring counties continue to attract and retain top talent. The current situation is unsustainable. We are still short. Fire departments across the state are graduating classes of 25 or more, while we had six. Six. This disparity highlights a critical gap in our training and staffing capabilities. I urge you to act decisively. Implement the proposed fire assessment increase of the 37% since that's your maximum. We could have had more, but that's okay. We still have more things to choose from. I'm good with that. Pick the 37% all the way to the top. The motto on our trucks right now is providing care for a better tomorrow. We need to implement that in all of our life. Provide the care for our future. We're overworked at home. It's causing issues with marriages. There's kids that are losing their wives. They're getting their children taken away from them. They're getting overworked at work. That's a safety issue for not only them, but it's a safety issue for you. It's a safety issue for your constituents. We're downing vehicles right now. Right now, there's an engine that has two people on it. That's it. Two. My referendum that I voted in 1998 says I have to have three. Now there's two. That's less service that I'm paying for. Our firefighters, residents, and visitors deserve more than just the minimum. They deserve a future where they can thrive, and so does our community. So just take that into consideration today, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Christina. Lieutenant. Commissioners, my name is John Dacco. I come to you today because we currently have a private ambulance company that is now transporting patients to local hospitals in the county. So with that said, I respectfully submit and strongly urge this board not to pursue the privatization of EMS services in Brevard County. While outsourcing EMS may offer short-term financial relief, the long-term consequences both operationally and fiscally are well-documented and overwhelmingly negative. Brevard County does not need to reinvent the wheel. Municipalities and counties across Florida have already demonstrated that privatization fails to meet the standard of care, accountability, and responsiveness that our residents deserve. Private EMS providers are driven by profit, often resulting in longer response times, fewer available units, and reduced services in lower revenue in rural areas. By contrast, Brevard County Fire Rescue-based EMS model delivered by highly trained firefighter paramedics ensures countywide integrated response through a dual-role system capable of handling medical, fire, and technical emergencies. This model prioritizes patient care, not profit margins. And is accountable to the public, not shareholders. We are already witnessing the strain caused by private EMS providers in our county. Coastal health systems, a private provider responsible for inter-facility transports, consistently fails to meet demand. Brevard County Fire Rescue is frequently forced to fill the gap, removing ALS units from their designated run areas and compromising emergency response readiness. This is not sustainable, and it illustrates in real time how privatization can weaken a system rather than striking it. Further, EMS Chief Orlando Dominguez has demonstrated that a county-operated BLS transport system can and does work. The framework is in place and needs to be staffed and fully funded. Leveraging the experience integrated and commitment of trusted VCFR employees to grow and operate our EMS system is far superior than funding funneling public dollars into private corporations. That lacks local accountability. Florida counties such as Citrus, Leon, Sumter, Orange, and Marion have all privatized EMS and have reversed courses. Cities such as Orlando in 2012 took back EMS services. Their experiences reveal the same pattern. Initial cost promises gave way to service breakdown, workforce instability, and a greater taxpayer burden as public systems are rebuilt under crises. Recognizing these issues once back under full public control, these departments reported improved response size and better patient outcomes. Brevard County can and should learn from these failures. Privatization is not a solution. It's a proven mistake. Instead, we are exploring responsibility and a sustainable option of proposed one-cent sales tax. While this is in its early stages, the initiative would provide dedicated funding to offset the burden on property owners while eliminating fire assessment and impact fees and ensures the long-term sustainability of fire and EMS services without sacrificing quality or public control. Public safety is a core responsibility of government, not a business venture. The residents of Brevard County deserve a reliable, resilient, and locally managed fire and EMS system built on professionals and public trust. First, I urge the commission to reject EMS privatization and invest in proven, accountable, and community-focused model that Brevard County Fire Registry has built and continues to lead with distinction. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, commissioners. Let's go to J1. I think we can do that one fairly quick, if you don't mind. Sorry. Ian's making his way to the box here. Ian, you're recognized. Thank you, commissioner. Good morning. Item J1 is a request for approval and the board to authorize the chair to execute a professional services agreement with the Conservation Fund Charitable Trust for a term of five years, an annual fee of $75,000 a year, and a contingency on purchases. This was done at the RFP that was done was through purchasing at the board's discretion or direction on March 12th of 2024 to seek qualified applicants to provide the services. Staff is available for questions. Questions for Ian. We also have, so that you know, Rebecca Perry from the Conservation Fund here for questions. Okay. Questions? I have discussion. Okay. I don't have any card. Ms. Perry is just going to be available for questions. So with that, let's just go into the discussion then. Commissioner Delaney. Thank you. I had originally asked for this to be pulled from the consent during my briefing, and it was mainly because I was just a bit uncomfortable with spending $75,000 a year for up to five years for real estate services. And so as I talked to staff more about this and asked them, you know, what process we went through to pick the, to pick this company and more about that, I found out there was only two bids and that it was only out for a couple of weeks. And I was wondering what, how was this advertised? How broadly was it advertised? Did we truly go and solicit? And I don't know if, I just feel like there's got to be somebody that is willing to do this for a commission, a 3.5 commission on, you know, on, what did we approve? Not we, but the last board approved $3 million. Is that what was approved? Yes, Commissioner. Yeah. So, you know, that's quite a bit of money for land acquisition. And I just feel like there's got to be a company out there who is, who, who has either gone through this process or who understands the division of state lands. And yeah, I just, I just feel like we should put this back out and see if there's somebody else and, and try to solicit more broadly to see if we can save the taxpayers. So that's 75,000 per year. Okay. And discussion, Commissioner Goodson. Ian, can you tell us how long you put it out, how you put it out, who do you put it out to, and how many responses says I'm not interested? So the, the process was through the purchasing department, through procurement. It was out for, I believe, 21 days. It went out through, I believe, VendorLink, as well as we provided, I believe, five agencies to potentially reach out to and solicit. And as the commissioner stated, we had two responses. One of those responses was not very responsive. And so the conservation fund trust was deemed the best to move forward with. As for the cost itself, if I could just speak to that real quickly. If it takes the agency, well, they don't have five years. Once the funds were bonded, a timeline started of three years to expend funds. We have about two years left. I would have a concern about trying to go back out for another procurement with that short timeframe. I will say that if they are able to spend the $3 million or purchase $3 million worth of properties within one year, that would be about $180,000 that go to them with the contingency. I will say that back in 2010 or so, when we last did this, there was no contingency, but the annual fee was about $280,000. Just to be clear, you're saying that there's only two years left? If I understand the math correctly, once you bond the funds, you have three years to expend. We're now a year into having the funds bonded, so that leaves two years to expend the funds. So we've got two years left. Correct, sir. Could we just alter this that instead of it being five years, it's two years? Well, I think the idea for doing five years was with the anticipation that the board might at some time contemplate bonding additional funds that are authorized. And so this would allow us to have an agency in place to start moving as quickly as possible without having to go back out for another solicitation. However, there is language in the agreement that if those additional dollars are bonded, that contingency fee does reduce as more dollars are bonded and put out and purchased. Okay. It almost seems to suggest that by adopting this for five years that, you know, the board needs to approve the next round of bond funding maybe before it's ready to do so. Yes. Just from my perspective. Mike just mentioned something to me that I also want to make the board aware of, which is that if there are no funds available, so if we're in year two and all the $3 million has been spent and there's no additional dollars, the annual fee is suspended. Commissioner, does that answer any of your concerns? If they've got to spend the money in two years, the current bond funding, and after they're done doing that, that essentially puts an end to... Correct. Unless the board authorizes the bonding of additional funds within that five-year period. So if we say they run out of the time to spend the money, would it be as simple as the board vote to start that time limit over again? I would have to defer to Kathy, but I don't think it is that simple. I think that that time limit is not a board-initiated time limit. I believe it is by the federal government, either through the IRS or another factor. Yes, that is a federal requirement, that we spend the funds within a certain period of time. And so what happens if we don't? Then we've got an arbitrage problem, and we could have to forfeit the funds. So the funds would... Well, we sold the bonds. We sold non-exempt bonds to shareholders. And so we said that we were going to expend it for a 20-year period, and then we are now saying we're not going to do that. I just think that there would be a problem. It could be a stain on Brevard County if we do not spend the funds like we said we were going to when we sold the bonds. Okay. If the board supports this, I would like to make a compromise. I'm still not comfortable with this, but if we could change it to two years, I'm happy to compromise that. I will do that with you, okay? You go ahead. That's your motion? Yes. Okay. All right. I'll second that, okay? Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? No. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Fountner? Yes. I'll show that passes. 4-1. Okay. Thank you for that, Commissioners. We'll go back to the H items. I have a request for a break. We want to take, can we take, we'll take until 10-15. Can we do that? Okay. All right. Thanks, everybody. We'll get started. We're going to start, sir. All right. We're getting started. Yeah. All right. Mark, you're recognized on H-1. H-1, everybody. Good morning again, Board. H-1 is a petition of a-cated portion of three public utility easements, two of which are required to be able to remove an encroachment required for final permit finalization, both the side lot line easements. The rear is not needed for that. So, this is requesting up to the three public utility easements. The wall was built without a permit and is in code enforcement. I understand that one of the neighbors may be here to talk on this. Actually, I have three cards on this item. But first, are there questions for Mark? Any questions for Mark? Not yet? All right. Let's go to the cards. Albert Wilson. Was there a third one? Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Albert Wilson, and I am a resident of Brevard County. I've been here since 1977, and it's a beautiful county, and I want to help keep it that way. I've been called to come up before you by my brother. I say brother because we feel like we're brothers. We've known each other for several years. I spent time at his home. And the reason why he asked me to come up is because he is having medical problems, and he's asked me to talk on his behalf. Okay? So anyway, in 2020, when the Barons, this is the gentleman that's talking about this wall, he and his wife were looking to purchase a home in Brevard County. They visited many homes, and they fell in love with the view at this home in Diana Shores on Merritt Island. This was the main reason why they purchased this home, and for about four and a half years, they've had one of the most beautiful views in the county. They are at their retirement age. Then came a seven- to eight-foot wall, and we lost our picturesque view. And the wall has some drain pipes that push water on our property. We have many soft spots on our property. These are notes that he's listed for me to talk to you about. The reasons that I said seven- to eight-foot wall is because some dirt was hauled in to put at the bottom of the wall to make an appearance that it wasn't as high or try to lower the structure. You know, it reminds me of the cookies that my mom used to make, and we couldn't grab any of those cookies, or we'd be punished. We'd have consequences. And so I got to the point where I'd rather just go grab one of those cookies and suffer the consequences. And I think that that has been done here. I mean, where is the contractor? Why isn't the contractor being reprimanded? You know, why does a person just feel like they're able to just build a structure and block a beautiful view on our island? My wife and I find it offensive that anybody builds a structure without properly getting the permits and clearing with the local authorities. And the other thing is, that he mentioned was, if we allow this, if we allow anybody to just come and build a seven- or eight-foot wall next to our properties, what's going to be next? A 10-foot wall? A 20-foot? What is our island going to look like as a result of all this? Thank you so much for listening. Thank you, sir. Have a wonderful day. You too. And thank you for all you do. Thank you. Thank you. Steven Barron? Okay. You'll wave. Anna Polo? Good morning. I am the other neighbor on the other side where there's also a wall. And I support the petition to vacate because I don't want that wall taken down because it would just open everything up between the two houses. And on my side of the property, that's what keeps us, that's what gives me my privacy at my house, my pool area, my back of my house. Without that wall there, it would be wide open and both houses would be, you know, I really don't want that. And I'm trying to sell my house to top it off. And that would just not be a good thing. And so I would really appreciate it if we just didn't take my wall down, like this side of the wall. I don't really care what happens on the other side or with the rest of the, you know. All right. I'm sorry. Commissioner Goodson has a question for you. May I ask you a question, ma'am? Yes, sir. I rode out there and looked at the house. And it's hard to see the wall because the wall goes, I guess, southwest to south, you know, toward the canal. But down the whole street, there's fences of some sort, right? Is that correct? You know, PVC, plastic fences? Yeah. Privacy fences. My privacy fence is around my house as well. So the view would only be restricted if this gentleman looked right or left. As far as looking at the canal, the view is still there for him, correct? He could see the canal is there and he could see the houses along the canal. Right. But as far as looking left or right out of his back porch to see you and your pool, he wouldn't be able to, correct? He can't see me in my pool. Correct. I didn't think so. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Kimberly Edwards. We are the owners of the property. And the walls on both sides were put up to replace dilapidated fences. And the wall is only six feet high. And our side is all concrete. So we couldn't have put wood, dirt or whatever, to raise it up. It's only six feet high. The end of the wall closest to the canal still has the original chain link, which is what the wall replaced for a good six-foot section. So we are not obstructing any view. We have no greenery or whatever at that end. We actually have a table. It's the neighbor that complained we were obstructing his view that has all the greenery on his side. So we have put in a lot of expense and a lot of stress to meet the requirements for this vacate. And we have done what was necessary. And I really hope that you go ahead and approve it because we did follow the rules. We did not get a permit when the wall was built because we thought we were replacing an existing fence. And the wall on the other side, Kathy's husband, actually paid for half of it. So it's not just our wall. And it is for the privacy. On a canal, you don't get a lot of privacy except on the sides because your back is all open. to people driving by and houses across the way. So that's the only privacy we have. So if the vacate gets approved, then we go forward and get the permit for the walls. And I understand we're a step behind and our apologies for that. But we are doing everything we can to rectify that. And the other thing is that wall has been up for four years. It wasn't just put up. It was put up four years ago, like a month before the Barons purchased the property. So it was there when they moved in. Thank you. Commissioner, do you have a question for your constituent? Okay. Okay. Thank you. No questions? Okay. That's the end of the card. You did put in a card. I'm sorry. It's okay. You said the other gentleman was speaking on your behalf. Okay. Okay. It's two years. Okay. And it's been that he keeps building and building and building. The property is 100% concrete throughout the whole property. All his water is draining on my property and making my property soft. And it's just been over and over the same thing. I tried to talk to him. We tried to work out an agreement. But he feels that whatever is on his side. And when she says six foot, I took a picture for the building department of myself with the wall going up two feet higher than me. It's about seven and a half feet. It's not six foot. There's no way. Thank you. Okay, sir. Okay. Are there any follow-up questions based on that? Commissioner Goodson? No, I'd just like to make a motion to approve the vacating of the easements on either side of the house. But the easement along the back on the waterfront stays. Okay. Are we clear on the motion by Commissioner Goodson? Okay. And we have a second by Commissioner Atkinson. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. And we'll show that approved. Okay, Commissioners. We're going to go on to H2. Mark, you're recognized. H2 is a petition to vacate a portion of a public drainage easement. The property is located in Melbourne, west of North Wickham Road, in South Aurora, in District 5, seeking to vacate a portion of the public drainage easement lying on the north side to allow a shed to be built on top of an easement. In this particular case, there's a plat note that requires the HOA to replace the pipe under the shed if it were to fail. And so by vacating the public easement, we have no concerns. Okay. Any questions for Mark on this one? We don't have any cards on this one. Is there a discussion? Commissioner Altman, this is your district, sir. Second. We have a motion to approve by Commissioner Altman. We have a second by Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. We'll show that approved. Okay. We're going to go to H3. Gentlemen, you're recognized. Good morning, Commissioners. Item H3 is the final approval for the fire assessment rate adjustment. On April 22nd of 2025, the board approved a public hearing for final consideration of the fire assessment adjustment. For this public hearing, the department has met all statutory requirements for notification for public notifications. Fire Rescue is requesting consideration for two actions this morning, and both actions would need a motion and a vote if so approved by the board. Action one would be to approve an adjustment up to 37% to the current fire assessment rates. Those funds would be then effective in fiscal year 2025-2026. Second action we're asking the board to consider is to authorize the chair to sign the attached proposed fire assessment rate resolution at attachment one, and that rate resolution has been coordinated with the county attorney's office. I'll turn it over to the chief then now for the specifics of the fire assessment. In the agenda report, you will see table one has noted as option one is you're up to 37% option, and that also includes the general fund revenue requirement to match that fire assessment commitment. Option two would represent anything that the board may choose, and it's notated at 0% on the table. 37% increase would capture capital and infrastructure requirements and address future station and crew needs not identified in the previous seven-year plan. Accounts for inflation losses from year 2021 to 2025 and covers exhausted, non-reoccurring ARPA funds. The option includes a 6% annual inflation rate for capital and infrastructure. Adjustments would use the current approved fire assessment methodology with annual increases equal to CPI rate or 3%, whichever is less. This option provides the county's proposed one-year contract, including subsequent increases for three years thereafter, with STEP, CPI, and aggressive additional wage adjustments. Also, during this last 20 days, we sent out the mailer, and we received 369 calls, emails, and letters from the community. Of that, 70% were in favor, 10% were indifferent, and 20% were against the fire assessment increase. All right. Questions for Chief or Colonel Wallace? Commissioner Atkinson. Just very quickly. So we're talking total $25 million increase with the general fund? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Other questions? Okay. We'll go to the cards. We have 26 cards. If anyone wants to wave in support, now would be the time. Okay. Thomas Boyd. I bought my house about 11 years ago for $130,000 because when I retired, I knew what I could afford and what I couldn't afford, so I set a budget. The county decided somewhere along the line that my $130,000 house is now $330,000 house. So I've got to pay $277 for the fire assessment, and they're wanting to raise another $102, so a total of $379. Money needs to come from somewhere other than homeowners. I don't know where you plan on getting the money, but we homeowners are tapped out. I don't get a 37% pay raise every year. I'm done. I have a 24-hour care son that I have to take care of. If I'm not there to support him, then he goes into a home because I'm his only provider. There's other ways of getting money besides taxing the homeowners. Why don't you tax these video arcades that are popping up all over the county? I know the sheriff knows where they're at because I've seen sheriff department cars parked outside doing their paperwork. Take the money away from public libraries. We don't need 20 public libraries in this county, almost 20. I think there's 17. Once we buy our house, that's what the taxes should be. It shouldn't go by whatever somebody says that it's worth. My house is a $130,000 house until I decide to sell it for more, which I won't. So that's all I've got. Thank you, sir. Cheryl Ward. Hi, everybody. My name is Cheryl Ward. I am a mother, a wife, and a business owner. I'm also a daughter. My husband, Miles Ward, right there, he is a deputy with the sheriff's department, and he was previously a firefighter. I wholly support entirely that firefighters need increased raises, and they need good equipment and firehouses. And I also didn't let you know that I'm an attorney. I'm an attorney. I primarily practice elder law. I'm on the board of helping seniors of Brevard. The seniors are important to our population, and I'm sure you guys have heard of the saying, you can't take blood from a rock. Unfortunately, a lot of them are on fixed incomes, and they can't afford this increase. Where else can we find funds? Impact fees. I know that Katie Delaney looked, proposed the idea to see whether those should be raised. And I am aware, as you guys are, that we have one of the lowest impact fees and assessments. I think out of 22 counties, we're on the 20th right now. So we are now looking at taxing our residents before seeing where we can get money from elsewhere. Impact fees may be another source to generate the revenue that the firefighters need. And just like I'm here advocating for our seniors, they do need these resources. They do need firefighters, 100%. But where can we get the money from? We are now just doing a survey to assess where we can get the money from. But we're already voting to take blood from rock? That doesn't make sense. I propose that what you guys do is hold off until we can see what the results are from the impact survey. See if we can get money from business owners. As we've heard from developers that are coming from South Florida, Miami, wherever. We're putting their interests above the residents. I went to middle school here at Delora. I went to high school at Satellite High. I feel very comfortable speaking on behalf of the community. Don't stick it to us first. I'm also a homeowner. I got the notice in the mail. And like I said, I fully support. But let's see where else we can generate money from. So I propose we hold off, see where else we can get it from, perhaps from impact fees, which should raise, just like the assessments to the residents should raise, see where we can collect money, and then reassess how much do we really need to increase to meet our goal. I understand it's a $5 million deficit. That may or may not be accurate. How much, from what I read, it appears like we may be able to increase $10 million from impact fees, where the residents don't even have to be impacted. So that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. I hope we can hold off until we get more information to make a better decision for our community. Thank you. Christy Hawes-Thompson. Hi, I'm Christy Hawes-Thompson, and I thank the Board of County Board of, Brevard County Board of County Commissioners, for giving me the opportunity to speak on the proposal of Brevard County Fire Service Special Assessment Rate. I will start off by saying I do believe that our fire department should be paid for their services. I do support them, and I thank them for their services. My objection is on the way this letter is going about funding our firefighters. On the second paragraph, second sentence states, The fire service's special assessment is an existing non-advalorium assessment that is annually assessed. Definition. Non-advalorium assessment role means a role prepared by a local government and certified to the tax collectors for collection. Key characteristic of the non-advalorium is the assessment amount remains constant, regardless of the changes in property values. On the second paragraph, fourth sentence states, Also proposed is an annual increase to the fire services special assessment equal to the consumer price index, CPI, or 3 percent, whichever is less. Definition. Consumer Price Index, CPI, is a statistical measurement of how prices for a basket of goods and services change over time for urban consumers. It's a key indicator of inflation and is used to analyze the economy. The CPI is calculated an issue to analyze the economy. The CPI is calculated by averaging price changes with weights that reflect their importance in consumer spending. The basket includes items like food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and utilities. According to the definitions of non-advalorium and consumer price index, neither one of them have anything to do with the appraisal of my property's values of today's market, which is changing daily, up and then down. The purpose, the proposed increase is 37 percent, not 3 percent. This is an unacceptable, as your letter states, it is, can go up annually. The last sentence in this letter states, Pursuant to the chapter 197, Florida Statutes, we are required to notify you that failure to pay the assessment will cause a tax certificate to be issued against your property and may result in loss of title. This is a threat and intimidation, since this is not a bill, and it is still in planning stages. Respectively submitted, Christy M. Hawes-Thompson. Thank you. Thank you. Kelly Gibson. Good morning, commissioners. I'm Kelly Gibson. I reside in Port St. John. I understand the need for our county to pay comparable wage rates to maintain our county fire rescue fire operations employees. It is my understanding the county lost approximately 100 employees last year and is on track to lose an additional 100 this year. With that said, I also understand the county makes an investment in new employees with the cost of training and maintaining the employees' various certifications. Upon receipt of the notice for today's hearing, I reached out to the Brevard County Fire Rescue via phone and was informed the assessment will fund more staff, trucks, and better equipment to meet the growing demands within Brevard County. I also had the opportunity to speak with Tom Klein, the deputy chief of Brevard County Fire Rescue Fire Operations. Upon receipt of the letter, reading through it, and then seeing the agenda item today, Nowhere in the letter, except within the calculation of the increase, does it indicate 37%. It refers in various sentences there that this is on an annual basis going forward, proposes the annual increase equal to the consumer price index or 3%, whichever is less. For each fiscal year thereafter, the rate will increase by CPI or 3%, whichever is less. The amount of the fire services special assessment to be applied against each parcel will be based upon the property use code designated by the property appraiser and square footage ranges, which, as has been mentioned previously, that goes up and down. Currently, the proposed increase for me is the 37%. So, that is not doable for me, not on my income. I want to take this opportunity to request each of you to review the budget and to propose other avenues that can make the situation a win-win for both the county, fire rescue, fire operations, and the taxpayers. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ben Pristina? Did I say that right? Yes, Ben Pristina. I live in 5287 Mansford Place. I'm a constituent of Kim, actually. Okay. So, commissioners, this increase here that I, the letter that I got, is completely unacceptable. Just because our houses have appraised in value, it doesn't mean that I can just simply reach into the walls of my house and grab money out of it. That's not how that works. Between the tariffs, inflation, we've got also pressures on all sides. And on top of that, from what I understand from the letter, which I briefly read because I'm a regular person, I've got things going on, it sounds like they want to increase our taxes every single year after that, beyond unacceptable. And just to make it clear, the rest of us don't get automatic raises. I actually have to work really hard to get a raise or even take a chance and switch jobs. And, I mean, I don't have all the answers here for what to do about the fire department. And I didn't know that the fire department was in trouble until I just heard that here. Okay. But that's not my job. My job is to write software. My job is not to come here and take time off work and complain about this and be stuck here. But here I am. And thankfully, I'm in a better financial situation than a lot of people who spoke before me. You know, I had no idea that some people just simply can't even afford it. At least I have a good salary. But I shouldn't be, have to pay this anyway. The, when I, when I bought my house, I bought it at a much lower rate in, in, in 2016. Just because my house is worth a lot of money now, it doesn't mean that, that gain is realized. I, I would, I would also like to mention that I'm, I'm not sure where the chief got the 20% from. The 20% people are, are against this. I, I don't think that's true. Uh, many people, everybody, nobody at work wants this tax increase. But none of them are here because they all have, uh, projects to meet. They all have deadlines to meet. They all, all have kids to meet. And I actually had to take time off to come here to do this. Uh, but there is literally nobody that I know who, who is for this increase. So, uh, the lady over there earlier spoke, uh, about the constituents during G. Well, I'm those, one of those constituents. And I say, don't increase our taxes. Thank you. Bruce Fletcher. Bruce Fletcher. I live at 26A VIP Island Grant. And, uh, I want to thank you for having the meeting and listening to everybody. And I want to commend the fire department for everything they do. We, we certainly know that they need money and that the money needs to come from somewhere. I don't know if the tax is the right way to do it or not. But what I am concerned about is that I haven't heard any proposals as to where the money goes other than a general, general statement. And on VIP Island, we're very inadequately covered for fire protection. We, it's an island, has no access by road. The fire department didn't even have a boat until just the last couple of years. And that boat is nothing more than a fishing boat with two harbor freight pumps on it. We maintain equipment on the island ourselves that we paid for. And my concern is, is that the money would never, we'd never see any of it. We'd get, we'd get a tax. We'd have a rate increase. And again, we would, we would continue to be in the same situation we're in right now. We are the first responders on the island. We pay, when we are, have bought and paid for equipment ourselves, which is minimal. But we've done more than what the, what the county has done to help protect us on the island. We just want to know that some of that money is going to go to help improve our situation. And not only is it a health and welfare situation, I myself have been canceled by insurance four times in the last year. Number one reason was fire protection. So we would just like to see that some of that money, wherever it comes from, I don't know where, is the best way to go. But some of that money can go to the outlying areas that are, that are hard to take care of, that we can get something to help us in-house protect ourselves because we're the first ones to get there. And I'd just like to thank you for everything and let you know that we're all for the fire department getting what they need. And I know that the fire department does as much as they can. We have a great communications line and we communicate back and forth with them. They call us. When they get a call on something, they will call us. We'll check it out. We work together really well. I know that their problem is they're restricted on their money and who's controlling that money. So if they don't have it, they can't do it. So money needs to be there somewhere. I just don't know if this is the right way or not. I can't make that decision. I just know that money is needed. It's needed in many places and we're one of them. And we'd like to see something improved. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Pauline Burke. Morning. I'm Pauline Burke. I moved to this county in 2018. I live solely on Social Security. This is a fabulously wealthy county. It has utterly exploded with businesses and new homes. I do not understand, comprehend, why the fire department has not been allocated better funds. These people save lives, your lives, our lives. Why hasn't the county seen to it without this assessment to fund the men and women in our fire department? This is disgraceful. I don't believe we should have this special assessment. I think you need to dig into your pockets and come up with this money with all of the new building, the new businesses that are going into this county that make it great. We need to make our fire department great. You should not tax us individually. Most of us are barely making it. I think you should not pass this now, but sit back and reassess where this money can come from within the funds that you have. Thank you very much. Will Burda Bright. After her, we'll have Pat Reamer. Good morning. My name is Will Burda Bright. I lived in Brevard County many years. In fact, I went to elementary, junior high, high school, and college in Brevard County. And then, of course, state universities. This is a terrible thing. There's so many people that so many people are going to be affected by raising the taxes each year to take care of something that should be taken care of in each city. And we have all these businesses, as this woman just spoke before me. Impact fees. All these big buildings coming up. All these apartments and homes. Those impact fees will make a difference if we just use that as the avenue in which to take care of our fire department. They're precious. My husband's a retired fireman. I'm a retired state employee in the Department of Corrections. My son is a retired deputy sheriff. So we've all served this county. But we need, as a lady said before, to dig in and find out a better way other than raising the taxes. Too many people will be hurt. Thank you. After, Ms. Raymer is going to be Jim Schilling. Hi, my name is Pat Raymer. I'm a resident of Scottsmore. I have no problem with the one-time current proposed 37% special assessment. What I do have a problem with, however, is the proposed annual increase equal to the consumer price index or 3%, whichever is less. The increase is, in essence, a perpetual tax until the commission takes further action. The commission should do their job and review the budget needs annually and determine what the fire services assessment needs to be, not a perpetual increase in assessment. That's unreasonable, and I know my income will not be going up by even 1% to 3% for the next however many years. So I understand the need for the 37% special assessment. I have no problem with that. But the annual increase that is not reviewed or determined why it's needed is unacceptable. Thank you. Thank you. Jim Schilling. We'll have Claudette Ish afterward. Go ahead, sir. My name is Jim Schilling. I'm from Satellite Beach, South Patrick Shores, north of Satellite Beach in the county. You can call this whatever you want to call it. But in my legal definition, it's based on the use of the property, the size of the property, and the value of the property. And I will pay it as a property tax, and that's what this is. The state limits it to 3% a year. You have to call it something else to go to 37%, and I don't agree with doing that. I think it should come from the impact fees on all the new construction. I have a limited income, and a lot of that goes to help my son-in-law was severely injured in Army combat. I can't afford this. Y'all really need to call it what it is. It is a property tax, and if you call it anything else, you have to call it something else to be able to get it past the 3%. I'm not for it. I'm for the firefighters, and I think if you go to the increase in impact fees, you can cover them. Any questions? I'm Claudette Bish, District 2, and I'm retired, and I'm from North Merritt Island. I moved up here in that area because it was such a beautiful country atmosphere. You are developing it like crazy. We only have one way in, one way out on Courtney. The traffic is horrendous almost all day long. The bridge goes up, we don't get off. The problem is, if we have a fire out there, who's going to help us? We have one fire station out there that has suffered from black mold. The guys have had to live in mobile homes and that stuff. When are we getting our new fire station? I heard it's on plan. It's supposed to be on Courtney and Hall. The dirt's still there. Nothing has happened. You have development all over the place. Go after the developers. They're the ones that are making the money, and they have the money to pay. You have not increased the developers' fees for years. Go after them and not the taxpayers. We're on fixed incomes. We need the services. We don't get it out on the island and that stuff. Please stop forgetting about us. Thank you. Georgia Bicknell. After Georgia, we'll be marked door. Good morning. I'm Georgia Bicknell, and I've lived in the county since 1968. I currently live at 4455 Rayburn Road in North Cocoa. And I am on a limited income now. I've retired from federal service after 35 1⁄2 years, and I have only my Social Security, my retirement, and a small TSP account. I have 4.91 acres. If this is a property tax, it's going to hurt me. I have seen taxes go up every year since I bought the property back in 1981. Can you please find another way other than our property taxes? Thank you. Mark Doerr. Andrea Turner. Ms. Andrea Turner. I've been a resident here in Brevard County for 11 years now, and our taxes do nothing but go up. And when I saw that this rate assessment was going to possibly go up 37 percent next year, we're going to be retired and be on a fixed income. And this will definitely hinder our retirement. You're looking at people that are of average income. They cannot afford a 37 percent increase. And I know that in the future, since we have unlimited resources there, that we're just asking for another way for you to find and fund this tax assessment. And I was going to suggest maybe you could get it from having the developers pay for these tax increases instead of the average citizen that lives in Brevard County because we're not all wealthy. And thank you for your time and hearing my voice. Thank you. Sandra King, Anthony Balzanto, Zantio, will be next. Hi, I'm Sandra King, and I live in Verona in Titusville, a new subdivision. And we were one of the first houses to build in there, and they told us there were going to be 1,100 houses in that development, which is right on Grissom Road across from the municipal airport. And why couldn't that money come from impact fees from all those houses every week when we're seeing people come from all these different states and buying houses in Verona? Why can't they come from there? I just, it just, my husband isn't even, he's 72 and he's not even retired because he, you know, he loves his job at the space center. Crazy, I know. But anyway, I feel like, are you not retiring because you think we're not going to make it because things are going to keep going up and up and up? And I know he's worried about it. And we're going to be on a fixed income. And it's like so many, are we going to be able to survive? Are we going to have to sell our house because, oh, and then what house would you buy? You know, because everything is going up. So, with more and more development happening and more, and even all of these apartment buildings that are popping up everywhere, why can't the impact fees from that be part of where we're getting the money instead of raising our taxes and hurting people that are trying to retire and that are already retired and are on fixed incomes? Thank you. Your Anthony? Yes, sir. Good morning, Commissioners, Honorable Chairs. Appreciate the time. I don't think there's anyone in this room who would not like more money. I think you can ask everyone here. If everyone would like a little more money, we'd all say yes. But the homeowners are strained. We're feeling it on all sides. Prices are going up. Walmart just announced the price increases. Everybody's hearing about tariffs. We're seeing costs of services go up in the county. We're seeing materials go up in the county. Even if you try and do it yourself and you go to Home Depot, the prices have gone up. We're strained. It's not an endless resource. But when you look around the county and you see the explosions that have happened in the last 10 years, and you see the amount of money that flows through this county, not just in retail, but we're talking large corporations coming here. We're seeing other things. Corporate income taxes. There's so many different funding mechanisms through the county. We hear impact fees, but we've also seen, years ago, a half-cent sales tax incentive put with the Indian River Lagoon for that project restoration. There are many different funding mechanisms. The homeowners should be the mechanism of last resort, not the first hit. Appreciate your time. Thank you. I believe it's Sally Hoey. Good morning. Thank you for pronouncing my name correctly because there are a lot of people that make mistakes and call me silly, and I have a hard time. I live here for 45 years, and I had to deal with a lot of stress because of that, and I appreciate your question. Well, I think it's phonetically spelled, so good job. Thank you. Anyway, I moved here because of divorce. This is the only place I came from the north. The only place my money could buy after a divorce, a long divorce, and I didn't keep a lot of money because of being lawyers, and being with my ex-husband for 33 years, he decided to keep the money, and it was really hard to get away from this divorce. I finally divorced, and I moved to Florida, not having a lot of money. I had to move to HOA, and I thought the taxes would be low because the ex-owner had, he was paying $400-something, but when I had to pay, it was $500, and the next year was over $1,000, and then more than, I think it was about $15,000, around $1,500. I have, I am retired. When I divorced, I was already 66 years old, and now I'm almost 66, now I'm almost 68. The HOA tried to raise the price for the third year, right now I pay $481, they are trying to raise for over $500, which is a lot. I have a fixed income, I only make $1,000, over, I have to pay Medicare, and I have to keep a car because otherwise I can't, I have to use a car. I have to pay tax, I have to pay home insurance, car insurance, I have to eat, I can't rent a room to hire my income because it's not allowed. It's a lot of bills, I don't, I'm sorry to tell, a lot of people are having problems, and I cannot afford another place because these places, the HOA is the lowest price I can, I could find. I'm having a hard time with bills, and this month, my, this month my car broke. I have a light on my car, engine light. To bring to the shop, they charge, where I live, they didn't charge for each coat. Here, they charge $135 for each coat. I don't know how many coats, it looks like I have more than two coats, and then I don't know what I have to fix on my car. I came, I drove here with the lights on. I can't afford more. I can definitely afford more. I don't, I, I, I live here for 45 years. In my mistake from how I can speak, but I cannot write well in order to keep a good job. So, if I get a job, like, two years ago, I was trying to, I was not retired yet, so I was trying to leave with the little amount that was left. And, but. I, we appreciate all of that, ma'am. We have a lot of cards, I'm sorry. Okay, I just want to say that I cannot afford. I, I understand. I, this really got me on surprise. And if you, if you stop by AutoZone or possibly discount auto, they'll come out and read codes for you. Uh, they used to do that. Oh, I've been checking everywhere. Well, I, I, I'm a car guy. They, uh, they, uh, they used, they used to do that. So, so check on that, okay? Okay. Oh, that might save you some money. Okay. And please consider not to race me because I can't afford. I, I would be out of home. All of our costs are going up here, too. We're, we're trying to find a better way to pull it. Please believe me. Uh, B.C. Schubert, did I say that right? And after B.C., then we'll have Stefan Glista, or Grista. Thank you for your service. 57-year resident of this beautiful county, disabled Army veteran. Um, I think the 37% is the part that's really hanging everybody up. If you could find a way to mitigate that, say 7, 8% per year for the next five years with a cutoff, I think it would go down very smoothly. But the 37%, it's just a non-sequitur. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir, very much. After Stefan, we're going to have John Orzek. Good morning. Um, my name's Stefan Glista, 11540 Dragon Point, Barrett Island. I, uh, appreciate the chief summary of where the money was spent. I think that should have been in the letter that was sent out. That would have been helpful. Uh, I have a question about, uh, Station 64. Uh, cost was estimated for the repair and updating of $2.6 million in 2021. It went to $7.5 million in 2025. Uh, you said a 6% increase on, is going to be budget, is projected for the basis of this, uh, allotment. Why is it a factor of three different? And the contractor is not publicly known. I asked the county attorney, is it, uh, knowable for us who is the contractor on Station 64? Does the, is $5 million overrun? Does the board, can you say who was the contractor that had a $5 million overrun? Sir, I'll tell you what, we've got, let's, let us get through, I think we've got about seven or eight more cards. And then we'll have, uh, the chief and Colonel Wallace speak to the, the cost there. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And so, uh, my question would be, uh, on the cost containment. I understand engines are more expensive, all the tests are more expensive. But this needs to be discussed of what you're going to do to stop a factor of three overrun. And if your impact, if you cannot estimate your impact fees, if they're being, then you need to increase the fire department's impact fee by a factor of three. If that's as good as we are at projecting what it's going to be worth. And I move, I would ask one of the councils, the fire department says, but they have no standing on impact fees. That has to come. Okay. The homeowner has standing. So this request is coming not from the fire department. They can't make this request. So all these homeowners up here are saying, and I'm asking one council member to come forward and say, we're going to increase the percent of the impact fee for the fire department by a factor of three, because that's what our history shows we need. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Is it Mr. Orczak? Good morning. John Orczak, Brevard County. Everything's been said, but I was going to say, but I think you're right. We need to increase impact fees. It's ridiculous putting all this on the homeowners. You've got increased property taxes every year. You get increased homeowners insurance every year. Increased HOA fees, maybe not every year, but continuously. It's just the money has to be found from someplace else other than taxes. And I just don't see how you can continue to do this and chase people out of the county that can't afford it. You've got people here that are young to buy a house. They've got a mortgage. And the following year, they get their mortgage payment. It's up $500 more because their insurance went up. And now this is another one that we're adding to it. And it just has to happen. I think you guys got to find someplace else, whether it's an increase in sales, property taxes, but definitely impact taxes. Or maybe we've got to bring Eon Musk down here and find out what's wrong. Find out what's wrong with the boat. Thank you. Philip Cohen. Hi. Thank you, commissioners. I'm Philip Cohen. I've lived on Merritt Island since 1976. The costs of living in this county are just going outrageous. I think you've heard pretty much from everybody. And I feel the same way that these increases shouldn't go on the backs of the homeowners or the property owners. There's many different ways, whether it be impact fees, whether it be part of the sales tax out of the general fund, these short-term Airbnb rentals that are popping up in all of our neighborhoods, which nobody really likes. And a lot of people are getting away with doing that outside of the rules and regulations of the county. But bottom line is, I'm entering my retirement years now, and the same thing. You know, my income is not going to be going up 3% every year. These guys are asking for 6%, 27%, 37% increases. We need to find a different way to fund the FIRE assessments. These things started, I think, around 2007, 2009. And when they first started putting the assessments outside of the FIRE in the general fund on our taxes, I thought it would be for two or three years, and then it would go away. It hasn't gone away, and it keeps going up every single year. And it's to the point where the FIRE assessment alone is more than what my tax bill used to be on my property. And it's just out of control, and I urge you guys to look at different ways to fund the FIRE department needs some help, but it shouldn't be on the backs of the property owners and the homeowners, especially when the majority of us in the county now are starting to enter our retirement ages. There's nothing we can do. You can't draw blood from a stone. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Sandra Sullivan. And she'll be followed by Lorraine Day-Montee. Sandra Sullivan, South Patrick Shores. So we all know Brevard County has a fiscal crisis, and that crisis extends well beyond our FIRE and EMS. You have, as a county commission, been irresponsible and kicked the can down the road on impact fees for 25 years. I've been coming before this county commission for six years. With that resounding message, now I'm glad you're going out for a study, but there's no assurance you're going to approve it no more than what they did in 2016. We don't know. There's been no fiscal analysis of what that is anticipated to bring in that would offset this. And the 37% is just part of the story because, as we well know, there's a 55-45 split between FIRE and EMS. What you're not talking about is the intention for the general fund side. So this isn't the end of the text. So you've discussed taking that out of the FIRE control MSTU, which is only unincorporated for that 45%, which is going to put the burden on unincorporated residents and not sharing it equitably with city residents. But there is, aside from impact fees, there is another revenue source rather than putting all the burden on we the people. Because we see what you do. There's always enough money for we the money special interests. There always is, just like we saw $2.4 million today. I came and complained about the $1.71 million for a study for Space Florida, or $1.2 million for Brightline for the Quad Arms that they are responsible for, or $10 million to Brightline, or $30 million to Driftwood, and on and on. Or how about giving away $8 to $10 million to the Sarno land? There's plenty of special interest money that you give away. What we need to do is tax space. By state statute, they are exempted on only the land value and not the improvement value. I've been coming here before this, the big secret. Shh! Space Florida. Okay? This county is in a fiscal crisis from a $2.2 billion deficit in transportation that matches your entire budget for the county. It isn't just fire. How are you going to climb yourself out of this hole? Oh, I know. Ms. Atkinson came to a meeting earlier this month and proposed, let's do away with the 3% tax cap. Let's keep putting it on we the people. Let's keep putting it on we the people rather than equitably looking at the sources that should be paying, which is the special interests. And stop giving money to the special interests while you're putting more taxation on us. Lorraine? Are you Lorraine? Okay. How do you say your last name, ma'am? Okay. Lorraine DeMotney. DeMotney, okay. And I'm from Meco and a Brevard County resident since 1977 also. So, I received this letter, and I don't recall seeing this in recent years. So, my proposed increase is going up by $153 plus. So, my total assessment will be $569.65. So, I thought, wow, that's a whole lot. I think I need to probably put something on social media, try and get my other nearby residents rallied up, come to the meeting. That's a lot of money. So, in the social media posts, I was seeing people come back, well, mine's only going to $47. I'm like, what? That doesn't seem equitable. So, I started looking into it a little bit deeper. And, of course, it says it's based upon square footage is the metrics used to, I guess, come up with this number that they've come up with. And similar – so, the square footage doesn't take into effect the construction materials, doesn't take into effect the age of the home. It's really no better than a Zillow's estimate. So, I don't know how that's going to be equitable to other people. So, I feel like I'm carrying a little bit more of the burden than my neighbors around me. I looked into when this initially started, this special assessment, which seems like it would be something that would be temporary, but apparently it isn't. So, I went back and I looked at all my previous tax bills to see what I was paying. And starting in 2007, I paid $212. And then, for the next 10 years, I paid $266.81. And then, in 2018, it crept up. And then, it has crept up every year since then. I don't remember getting this letter every year that that went up. And it's a special assessment. Why was it going up? And nobody ever stopped it. And now, we have the proposal for the 3% automatic or CPI. So, I felt coming all the way up here from MECO would, might be a waste of my time because I feel like it's probably a foregone conclusion that you're already going to pass it. And I'm challenging you to prove me wrong. Put this on hold. Do a deep dive on the budget. Find somewhere else to get the money. Because we're tired of being nickel and dimed to death. And there's already a fire control MSTU in place that is attached to the value of a property and not the square footage of our property. So, I think this is a little clever lever that has been used to extract money from us taxpayers without having to uphold that Save Our Homes cap. So, please hold off and investigate other ways. Thank you. Jackie Buscemi? No. Stephen Thompson and then Regina Harris. Good morning, Council members. I appreciate your time. And I thank all these people for their time. I'd like to say I'm opposed to this increase. I hate to protest, but for fire special services that are valuable people to have around. My family has lived in Brevard County for over 50 years since the 70s. And I am disabled on fixed income. And year after year, my taxes go up. And the last five years, the tax bill has increased potentially. I don't doubt the fire services need this money. All I'm saying is they need to find a better way to get the cash. If it's alleviate a park or whatever it takes, impact fees, it should be done. And thank you very much for your time. Thank you, sir. Regina Harris. Hi, I'm Regina Harris. I live on VIP Island in Southern Brevard. As you can see, we have a few of us here. We have a great relationship with Brevard County Fire Rescue. They try to support us as much as they can, but their hands are tied. And we have a new fire boat two years ago that they bought. It's a fishing boat with two, as Bruce said, two Harbor Freight pumps on it. And we don't have 24-7 fire coverage. We, if we have an issue, we have to take care of it ourselves. If a friend of ours said, if a pickup truck drove up to your house with a fire engine on the side and a shovel, would you consider that fire services? So there's the analogy to what we have. A special assessment, a one-time assessment, we're all for getting more money. But, or I'm all for getting more money, but this continual assessment that's not really an assessment is really something that I think we need to find a better way, as everyone else has said, to achieve that goal. Thanks. Okay. Is there anyone else who wants to speak who didn't put in a card? We had a lot of cards. Let me make sure that we didn't miss anyone. Okay. Commissioners, that's the last of the cards. Chief, before we go into discussion, are there any items maybe you can address that you heard earlier? I think we had a question about cost of a run on a station. Yeah. I'll say I appreciate everybody's. I think there's an undertone of support for the fire department in everybody's message. But the station 64 issue specifically, it's not currently, it's in the projected plan. And it's not currently, we don't currently have a builder for that project. So when we started in 2021, price per square foot for a fire station was around $200 a square foot. Our last fire station, Station 49, that we built was $600 a square foot. So just like our fire trucks have gone from a half a million dollars to a million dollars, you know, everything has gone up tremendously. Just, you know, the same reason everyone is here today. Everything has gone up. And also there was a redesign in Station 64. So Station 64 sits on Spessard Holland. Lessons we learned from the hurricanes that happened on the west coast a year or two ago. This would be a station that would be a two-story station. And if a Cat 3 or greater hurricane was coming in, we would literally open the bay doors. No electronics, no power, nothing would be on that first floor. And for all purposes, we would let the ocean flow into the river and the fire station would still stay there. So lessons learned, trying to do the right thing for the community and allow those firefighters to stay on Spessard Holland, that South Melbourne Beach area, when we do rebuild that firehouse. Question. Question. Chief, the station in Vieira, the new one, it's relatively new, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Can you explain to the board, or either tell the board, who bought the seven recliner chairs that are unbelievably like TV chairs with your emblem on them? Mm-hmm. Who bought those? Who bought those? And what was the cost of those? Off the top of my head, I'm not sure. You could get it for the board? Yes, sir, I could get it for you. And what was the purpose of buying those chairs? Are they for relaxation or meditating? Well, to sit in the afternoons. I mean, the guys and girls, they have dedicated work times. They have things they have to do during the day, but they do live there 24 hours a day. Okay. I didn't know. There must be a reason. It's their house. And those chairs, they're not, you know, up until not that long ago, we had furniture called cargo furniture, and it was very uncomfortable. So this was a nice upgrade for the guys and girls, and it's special fire department furniture that lasts longer than a regular, you know, department store chair. Okay. Now, thank you, Chief. I have one other question for Jim. Okay. For Jim? May I ask? Could you tell me, sir, if you took every trailer, every house, every business in Brevard County last year, do you have the number of new buildings that would be? Do you know the number? No, I do not know that number, sir. Okay. Then would you say right now, could you tell us, on an average, what is the impact fee per house, per trailer, per business? Or I know it might depend on square footage, I guess, but does anybody have a number? There's a number. I pulled it up for you guys. There's a number of different ones. If you combine EMS and fire rescue together for a single-family home, it's right around just under $90. Multifamily, it's about $80 a unit. And then there's a couple other calculations between $50 and $70, depending on what type of multifamilies they are. If you were going to raise the impact fees, and I would assume that's on new construction, correct? Correct. Okay. Then could you get back to the board and tell us how many units, you know, I know there's no way to be exact, but how many units would you need, and what would the increase in impact fees be that would need to get the money that we're proposing with the fire assessment fee? And another thing that everybody needs to realize, and you keep saying, don't impact, don't charge the people. Don't put it on the back of the people. But if you know anything about a developer building a house or selling a hamburger, if he has a fee that's raised, he's going to pass it on to you, to people. No, it's just part of it. I may get myself in trouble here, Commissioner. We're looking at a special impact fee, about $14 million a year. Our current impact fees are $380,000, somewhere in the neck of the woods for fire rescue, $380,000. So $14 million divided by $389,000, that would be the percentage increase. Yes. Yes, sir. Helper's going to yell, you're killing construction. And there are state requirements on how that's part. We're doing the study now. The study will come back next year, but there are state requirements on how and how much you can raise impact fees. You can use the impact fees for infrastructure, but you can't use them for operational costs like firefighter salaries. Oh, well, that doesn't help, then. Does it? It would help with some of the equipment and, you know, capital costs, but not with the salaries. Right. And, Morris, if I may, those fees can all be used for new equipment, like new emerging equipment for the new service areas. Impact fees are related to capacity increases. Gotcha. Okay. So you'd almost have to have both. Yes. If you're going to fund it properly down the line, you'd have to have the variance and then the impact fees, correct? Yes. That's what I said. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. Other follow-up questions for staff? We're in discussion. Sir, we're in discussion. Okay. I'm sorry. In discussion. Commissioner Delaney, in discussion. I just wanted to address some of the stuff that was being said, and thank you so much, everybody, for coming down and sharing with us your thoughts and feelings about this. And just know that this is, and just know that this is, I know how hard and how heavy this has weighed on me. I have spent pretty much every day, I have spent pretty much every day of my life since I've been elected to go through this budget and tear it apart. Our staff, our staff, Keith and Jill, I talked to them a lot to try to try to, I looked through every single thing you could possibly look through. And the fact of the matter is, is that for the past decades, millage rates have been rolled back over and over and over again. And while property values have gone up, that's why your taxes keep going up, even though the millage rates keep going down and down and down. But that's why things haven't been keeping up, because the millage rate keeps going down and our growth has exceeded that amount of money. And so because impact fees haven't been updated in all that time, the people have bared the brunt of that growth. And so we are working, like it was said, we are working on getting an impact fee study. Unfortunately, the state makes us do an impact fee study before we go forward and look into raising those impact fees. But that process has started. And like our county manager said, it'll take, you know, a little bit of time for that to come back. Um, I just want to say something, um, the $2.4 million that was allocated before that we voted on, that was not county money. That did not come from county dollars. And so I just want to make sure that people know that, um, that that money would not have come back to us if we would have not approved that. Um, it would have gone back to the city of Titusville. So it wouldn't have helped the situation. It was just, we were basically just a, another check, check and balance for the city of Titusville for that money. Um, I just want to share my heart a little bit about this because I know that people in my district are going to be affected. I'm going to be affected. Um, you know, I'm a, I'm a mom of three, you know, like I, we're not independently wealthy. Um, so it's, uh, really important. But I know that, you know, for me, I live in Canaveral Groves and, um, every time there's a fire out back, I call up one of these people in the yellow shirts around here and I say to them, um, do I need to get my horses in a horse trailer or you guys got this? And they, they tell me, thankfully they got it. Um, so I, I, uh, completely understand, um, the hardship that this is going to be on some families and some people. Uh, some of the things that are changing over the next year, um, the state has just, hopefully if Governor DeSantis signs it, has just allowed us to use some of those tourism dollars, 25% of the tourism dollars on public safety. I personally, I, I would have to get board approval, but I personally would like to use that to the fullest. I would also like to look into, um, a, seeing what we can do with a sales tax and we can only have so many sales tax, um, so many pennies. And so, um, we would have to look into and get, you know, public input on what do we want our penny sales tax to look like? Can we even fund public safety out of it? Um, what would that look like for Sorrel? Because we have to balance all these needs of the community and, you know, we have to decide as a community what we want to fund out of those sales taxes. We can't just make as many as we want. The, the state puts a lot of restrictions on us. And so, what I would love to see is the state to not restrict our dollars so much, um, so that we could move things around like a normal budget. But it's just, um, when we have, uh, items on our budget, that money can only be used in that pot for that specific thing. And so, there's only very little, um, and it's very strange that I always talk in millions now. I never thought that I would be speaking in millions. Um, but where there's only so much money to go around, um, that's not already allocated in a particular spot. And so, um, while this is a large increase, and I, I, I understand that, our fire department is in a situation right now because that can has been kicked for so long. Well, I just got elected in November, so, um, that, that can has been kicked for so long that here we are. And, um, right now we're down about vacant, 100 firefighters. And we're about to lose, we're on track to lose the same amount this year. And so, if we don't do something right now, we are going to be put in a situation where ambulances won't come because there's no firefighters, because there's no paramedics. And what I would like to see is this for, board, is for this to not be a forever thing, for us to commit to the community that we will look at these other funding sources that are coming available, hopefully, once Governor DeSantis signs them in July. So, if you guys want to put all this energy into also emailing our, our great governor and telling him, please sign these bills so that our county government can fund itself properly, that would be really helpful. Um, but I would like to see this be a temporary thing. Um, but, you know, again, that's a board decision. We, I can't imagine that we wouldn't do everything in our power to, um, alleviate the struggle of added taxes. Um, but for right now, we have to stop the bleed. And so, um, I just wanted to kind of share my heart on this a bit and, uh, put that out there for everybody. Thank you. Commissioner Atkinson, I saw you reach for your light. Yeah. Hereafter. Many of you have not been here very often. Um, I was also just elected in November. I often sit very quiet because I do a lot of thinking. But for those of you who don't know, I am the one who made the motion for the 37% increase. I'm also one of the ones who voted against a 50% increase and a 70% or 75% increase that was motioned were made up here. So we are doing our best to mind your tax dollars and your pockets because it's my pocket too. I work two jobs. It's very important to me that we spend your tax dollars wisely. But I can promise you that 50% and 75% is unacceptable. Commissioner Goodson. I have no comment. Um, Commissioner Atkins said it correctly. Okay. Is there any other discussion on the item? Commissioner Altman. Well, I, I, um, really appreciate everyone who came up here and spoke. It's important that, uh, government officials are held accountable, that we have to face you face-to-face, to vote, to hear what you have to say. And I think it's important that property owners, I'm a property owner, pay a lot of taxes, um, are heard out and, and they need to advocate for, for their taxes to stay low. I mean, this is what makes this country great. We just can't unilaterally increase fees. So I applaud you. And, and I agree with the effort. Although just this morning, I was talking to a family member of a firefighter who gets up and drives to Palm Beach County two or three times a week and saves lives, runs on equipment that's much more modern and has more paramedics and MTs per run and can say, and communicate how they save lives because they have that extra support. Brevard County has phenomenal fire department, the best training in the, in the state of Florida. And the rest of the state knows that. And that's why they're hiring our people. I talked to another individual who had numerous friends whose family members were firefighters and they drive to Orlando every day. As the commissioner said, we're down a hundred positions and we're getting to a point where, and this is what keeps me up at night, is a time when an ambulance does not respond and somebody dies or has a life long condition that could have been prevented because of the inability to get paramedics to that call quick enough or a structure that burns down because we couldn't get a pumper there in time. And when we start seeing those response times to those structural fires increase, you start looking at insurance companies that then reassess what you pay in property tax, in insurance, fire insurance fees. And we know how expensive insurance costs are. And this may cost us more, and I say us because it affects me as much as anyone else, more in the short run. But in the long run, it may save us money. So my heart goes out to you, and I appreciate you being here. But I think that we need this and probably a little bit more if we're going to really, really provide that basic life safety service, which is the most basic of all things that we provide. Commissioner Atkins is right. There was controversy here at the last meeting, and there were even firefighters that got mad because we did not raise the rate higher, which I supported. But this commission voted 3-2 to be very careful, and they were looking after your interests. So it's kind of a thankless job, isn't it? You get people up. Both sides are angry, which happens a lot. But so I don't want you to think your voices are not heard. I don't want you to think that you didn't have an impact, because you do. But we are in a very serious public crisis at this point. It's a life safety crisis. I've been involved in public service for quite a long time, and I think this is probably one of the most critical, maybe the most critical life safety issue I've ever seen. And we throw on top of that, a hospital closes, which increases response times and takes more of our paramedic and EMT resources and transport resources. So it's a life-threatening situation. I think we're going to have to do something here. And it's not an easy thing. It's something that's enjoyable. But we must provide the public safety for it. I've been in homes. I've had family members who had first responders. I've seen the professionalism of these firefighter paramedic EMTs. I've watched them save lives or attempt to save lives, and I know how difficult their job is. And this is what we're facing right now. It's a public emergency. Any other discussion on the item? Is there a motion on the item? Is that option one, sir? I think it's 37. Okay. Can I have a question about that? Is that with the 3% increase every year or just the 37%? That's how it's written. Option one is. Can we amend that question? Mr. Chair, the option one includes the 3% CPI or whatever is less. CPI or 3%, whatever is less. Is there a friendly amendment to not include the annual increase of 3% or CPI? Are you asking me? No. That's for staff. Go ahead. Somebody answer the issue of 3%. Where does that put us next year? If it's not in there, so simply the board would take it up next year? Yes, sir. When we calculated out for the three-year option on option one, we included that as part of our calculus in years two and three. So if you read in the agenda, it says aggressive contract for years two and three. That was part of the core funds that would be available for years two and three. So if we do just no CPI, then we would have to go back and re-look at the calculations to see where we would be and what funds would be available then for those out years. So for the contract that we're hoping to get done with FIRE, right, and we'd all like to get to a three-year contract. That's what we're hoping for by October. We would have to revisit things. We would have to do recalculations to see what funds would be available. Yes, sir. Can we do it so that it's the 3% for only those three years? Would that make the math work? Well, it's also whatever's less. So up until just a few years ago, and Jill would know the numbers better than me, but up until a few years ago, it was never 3%. A lot of years, we were in the 1.8, 1.9, 2%. So the 3% is the cap. Yes, ma'am. And if you did it, capped it at three years, then that would be outside the current contract period or the contract period we're trying to get to. Yes, ma'am. So that would, the calculations would be good. That's what I guess is what I'm trying to say. Well, we would have to go back and work on the seven-year capital and equipment side. to rework that plan if there wasn't the three years beyond, if there wasn't the 3% beyond the three years. Correct. We'd have to relook at that in year four in three years down the road. Okay. Could I suggest a friendly amendment to only include the CPI rate or 3%, whichever is less, for just the three years? There hasn't been a second yet, right? So there's not a motion pending. So you can just make that as a motion when the chair is ready to entertain a motion. I'll second the motion. Okay. Your motion is for the 37% with? I'm seconding. Did we second? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. Okay. She was asking about amendment. Okay. He has a motion for option one. And I second. Yes. Okay. Commissioner, I think we're ready to vote. All right. We have a motion for option one by Commissioner Goodson. We have a second by Commissioner Allman. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. We'll show that pass as 5-0. Commissioners, we're going to take a five-minute break. And when we come back, we have a couple of items. We need to pick up the pace a little bit. We're going to be on H4. H4. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll take your conversation outside, please, we're going to get started. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get restarted. Morris, you're recognized on H4. Thank you. So this is the District 3 Commissioner's item as directed by the board at a prior meeting, I believe your April 20 meeting. I prepared an ordinance that would have the effect of dissolving the North Brevard Development District while also honoring the commitments and obligations of a contractual nature of the district. It would recapture for the general fund the annual tax increment payments that are transferred from the general fund into the North Brevard Development District trust fund. One of the commitments that would be honored, as an example, was what was approved earlier today, the Searstown Mall Redevelopment Project. That would be paid out of funds that exist within the city portion of that trust fund, but otherwise it would provide for a termination of the interlocal agreement between Brevard County and Titusville relating to the district. And I'm happy to answer any questions about the ordinance. All right. Questions for Morris on the ordinance? Commissioner Atkinson. Just a clarification about where that $3 million will go. So that will return to the general fund, and the board has given direction to use that in developing the budget to fund the general fund side of Brevard County Fire Rescue needs. Other questions for Morris? We've got eight carts, I think. So if we don't have any questions, we'll go to the carts. Jesse Wright. Afternoon, though. Commissioners, we're almost. My request is please do not throw this baby with the bathwater. With the bathwater. Killing the in-bath is the same thing as killing the dreams of the entrepreneurs. These are the entrepreneurs that actually make businesses. They bring jobs to the communities. They create revenues for the city. And killing this board is almost like killing all those dreams. Businesses need incentive. Without the incentive, they cannot start. I'll give you an example. Back in 2010, I purchased a property in Jackson, Mississippi. 37-acre property, 327,000 square feet. The reason I purchased it is because President Obama at that time wanted to give incentive to the businesses in South Jackson, Mississippi. This property is located at I-20 and I-55, the largest outdoor mall that actually existed. The incentive that he promised did not work out. We were not able to get the businesses in. I paid $2.5 million for the property. I ended up losing it at about a million. So my request to the board, to the commissioners, is that leave the board the way it is. You can always kill the project as they come along and take a look at them deeply, see if this really makes sense or doesn't. We're building multiple projects. And this is the picture of the Cambria, as you see here. We're bringing businesses there. And I'm really talking to you on behalf of those businesses that are coming online in about two or three years. And if you cannot give them the incentive to start out, how are they going to survive in an economy that we're in right now? And it's not going to get any better. So that is my request. And thank you so much for your time. Thank you, sir. Bart Gatchins. Good afternoon. My name is Bart Gatchins, chair of the zone. So tax problems, economic development seems to be a cure. During our last meeting, I expressed my concern about an economic iron curtain, which starts at the beach line north to the county line. It reminded me of an entity that runs parallel to the beach line. It carries passengers through our county, but it doesn't have plans and may or may not stop in this county in the future. Local and state representatives have expressed their frustration with this entity for ignoring this county and our leaders. This is exactly how North Brevard, the business community, and perspective relocating or expanding companies and corporations felt about North Brevard before the zone was created. The county seat residents felt ignored and neglected, and the perception was all our money flowed south, bypassing the county seat. I heard a commissioner state that we seem to be doing fine and that North Brevard is back on our feet. Truth be told, we are just starting to stand up. I love dollar stores and car washes, but don't confuse these businesses or new residential subdivisions as economic growth and good-paying jobs and careers we so badly need. I offer to each of you my personal invitation to visit District 1 and District 2 with me, and I'll happily provide you with a tour to see our districts in person to see the need for continued economic development to address just some of the infrastructure needs. My fear is that without the zone and the creation of good jobs, over the next few years, we will once again see the re-emergence of that economic iron curtain. Without job creation and a tax base to support an aging infrastructure, North Brevard could soon be in the same shape of disrepair and neglect as is currently the case with I-95 in the north end of the county. I ask for your consideration to find a way to keep the zone in operation for a finite period or to find a way to provide some type of badly needed economic relief in North Brevard. I thank you for your time and service. God bless our fire rescue first responders. God bless you, and God bless Brevard County. Thank you. Sandra Sullivan. After Sandra will be Robert Jordan. Okay? Let's see if we can speed this up a little. Sandra Sullivan, South Patrick Shores. This binder is from the Brevard Coalition. It's filled with a lot of facts about embeds and a lot of the controversies, including when it was first started, right in the initial documentation is the intent to do bonds. But you can't do bonds unless a special district is formed by referendum. So the whole thing from the beginning is a lot of stink. I'm looking at a budget from three months ago. Balance forward was $10.6 million. Currently, that number is $5.766 million. Pertaining to the city portion, I do records requests to the clerk of courts. The total coming in from the city portion from 2013 to present to 2024 was $5.8 million. And the available budget, according to their financials as of their last meeting, was $461,000. North Embeds was presented and sold to Brevard County as an enterprise zone, but never was because you have to get state approval for that. And in the documentation, with regard to FIRE, it was said that Brevard County does not use general fund millage rate to fund public safety, and MSTU is in place for the county residents to pay for public safety services. That is a lie because you had a 2004 lawsuit that required you to do it, not from the FIRE MSTU. So, embeds, good, bad, and ugly. Last meeting, we had former Commissioner Robin Fisher and lobbyists come here and speak. And in response to that, there have been some concerning changes, including that the funding is not going to the general fund now. It's not until it says all contractual obligations and commitments of embeds have been done and costs associated in contractual obligations, which doesn't sound like this is going to happen sooner than later. What happened to the discussions of it going to FIRE Rescue? So, and then the asset management is being done by the county manager and not through the economic development department and asset management. And then the final thing is, I did records requests for the tax increment documents from the clerk of courts and compared it to the financials, and embeds was overpaid by $6.5 million over and above the TIF, and I think that money is due back. I think we need doge. We need to doge embeds. Robert Jordan. Mayor Connors will be after him. Robert. Commissioners, Robert Jordan, 1605 White Drive. You have the power in your hands to help out your fellow citizens or handicap them. To help us out of this hole that has been in the making for a very long time. We all know it takes years for anything to improve. It takes time to nurture ideas and plans, to consider the pushback from distractors, and to always, in your mind, just do the right thing for the people in this county. The right thing, in my humble opinion, is to allow the board to continue his dedicated efforts to help his fellow man, to bring those who want a better life, a better housing, better services, better opportunities to live their life to the fullest. I have been serving for a very long time. Chairman of the school board, president and chairman of Vieira Charter School, chairman of Parrish Medical Center, board of directors, council member, vice mayor of the city of Titusville, and president and CEO of my own company. I, and we on the board, volunteer for the opportunity to help others meet their dreams and wishes to afford homes and hopefully to keep their taxes lower. We need our first responders. We need our fire, health care workers, and we need our security. We need economic development. We need better schooling with a reputation for excellence, for pushing our kids to the highest potential. We need a reputation in North Ravard to being equipped to stand strong and stand together. Our preamble simply states that we, the people, our states, and states, the governments intended to serve the citizens. The preamble also lists the goals of the Constitution, which include forming a more perfect union, which reflects the goal of unity and cooperation among the states and, I will argue, among the district and this county. Establishing justice, which creates a system of fairness and equality for all and ensuring domestic tranquility to ensure peace, order, and stability within the county, which includes this county, providing for the common defense. Promoting the general welfare, which means to foster the well-being and prosperity of society as a whole, its citizens specifically, and securing the blessings of liberty, which means to guarantee and protect the benefits of freedom, not just for the current generation, but the future generations as well. My words are simple and direct, and I respect your position and respect that you have the power. I also respect that hard work, focused approaches to challenges, consistent processes, a little bit more time, and accountability will always rule at the end of the day. Our board, as you know, are not paid. For years, we have dedicated ourselves to doing the right and legal things to promote growth and prosperity. We're only as strong as our weakest link, and I submit to you that North Brevard, with all its challenges, is its weakest link, and we deserve and hope that you will support us. All right. Thank you, sir. Mayor Connors. After the mayor, we'll have Holly Carver. Honorable chair, commissioners, sorry, I'm used to saying council members, I stand before you, not just as a resident of North Brevard, but as a duly elected mayor and spokesperson for the city of Titusville. And, yes, we've had our challenges, but we are moving forward. I'm excited about what the future has. But, unfortunately, in terms of some of the challenges that are out of our control, Enterprise Florida doesn't exist. Texas is spending billions of dollars of steel space away from us. This is Brevard County's only incentive. We need to have the opportunity to attract and retain what we have there and to grow on it. Because while it is called the North Brevard Economic Development Zone, the investments that are made in North Brevard ripple out throughout the entire county. We can change the name. That's fine. But I would humbly submit to you that the city of Titusville would love to be partners and continue our relationship as we look to grow Brevard County so that we have economic development, so that we can pay firefighters, so that we can work on infrastructure. These things go hand in hand. And while I understand the challenges sitting up there looking at budgets, trying to figure out where you can cut, how you're going to balance it, are we putting the burden on our residents, you know, I'm a big fan of just trying to get more revenue. And I think we can do that through economic development, and that will come. But we've got to work on it every day. It's like working out. But guess what, guys? I don't work out. I just try to do economic development. Yes. The one day I went to the Y, I ended up on the board, and now I raise money for them. But I appreciate your guys' time. I know somebody else went over, so I won't take up much more. But I appreciate everything that you guys do for our county and our community. And like I said, we're here to be a partner. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Holly. After Holly, it's going to be Edna Wilson. Hi. Holly Carver, 5095 South Washington Avenue in Titusville. I've lived in Brevard County for over 35 years and worked most of my career in nonprofit government relations, economic development, even as a legislative aide to the commission office. So got the inside scoop on all of the ways that you have to manage money in the budget. In that, I now serve as a – work as a commercial real estate broker, and our mission with my partner is to improve our community. We've tackled a lot of blighted properties in the north end of the county and helped bring in new business and development. And some of those clients have used zone funding. For the past several years now, we've started to see some consistent growth and positive changes. But I agree with Mr. Getschens that we're just starting to get our feet under us. Large companies have opened and relocated and thousands of jobs and headquarters that but for the zone funding would likely not be in North Brevard. So the funding that you're talking about, possibly transferring, would not even have been there if the zone hadn't incentivized those businesses to come in. We've seen blighted properties replaced with new development. The first project of the zone was the redevelopment of Miracle City Mall. And I know that since 1981, many, many years before that happened, we had tried multiple times to get developers or someone to come in and invest and redevelop that property. And without that public-private partnership, it would not have happened. And that also was a huge environmental project, like Mr. Wright mentioned. That was 32 acres that went directly into the lagoon with all the toxins every time it rained. It's now got a complex stormwater capture system, a mile of underground pipe, 12 baffle boxes. And it went from being about a $4 million property on the tax rolls to now in the multimillions on the tax roll that's creating future tax revenue coming in. The public-private partnership, in what I've seen in my career, is that it's an effective machine. New development, commercial development, increases the value, increases tax revenue, and improves infrastructure, creates jobs, the need for housing, creates new revenue, new impact fees. It's just a cycle of development in that process. The return is solid. I've heard all morning that we do have a revenue problem, which is not new. The zone is a proven long-term revenue generator that will continue to multiply tax revenue in the long term and will pay for itself many times over. So instead of dismantling that progress and what we've seen happening in the north end of the county where we live and raise our families, and please don't dissolve the zone. Let's come up with another solution and at least keep it active in some way so that we can create that legacy for a going future. Thank you. After Edna, this can be Robin Fisher. My name is Edna Wilson. I live at 24, 15 DeWitt, and I am a little nervous. This is my first time speaking to you guys. So I do serve on the zone board, and I'm very excited to do that. I wanted to tell you a story because I thought that's my best. I have a story. And so I lived in Titusville my whole life, never lived anywhere else. But my daughter went to open a little indoor play place. And so we looked all over Titusville, everywhere, for a decent place for little toddlers to come and play. And we ended up in Titus Landing because it was the only decent place that there was. There wasn't mold going up the walls. It was beautiful. It was well done. And the day that they handed me the keys, I thought, this is in Bez, right here. And now we have four employees that we get to hire. I get to have people come into our little play place, and they spend money at Firehouse. They spend money at the movie theater, at Salsas. And I look around and just go, thank you, Mr. Fisher, for really charging this, right? And Holly was right there with him the whole time. And I thought, this is what we do. And I think it's so short-sighted to dissolve a board like this that creates jobs, that creates revenue, because you pour money into that, and then you end up having more tax base, right? You end up people moving here, and you have all these great companies that are having people move, and they buy houses, and they pay taxes. And I just hate to cut off this little tiny revenue source that might actually be a really big revenue source for our entire county. And so thank you so much for what you do. It is not an easy job. It's been a real eye-opener to sit here, and I really appreciate how hard you guys work. Thank you so much. Thank you. Robin. Chairman, County Commission, Robin Fisher, 1625 Garden Street. I think a lot of people have said what I wanted to say and have already said, but I'd like to tell you a story. Actually, playing football in my old days, that, and Mr. Goodson probably remember that, maybe even you, Rob. It made, football made me a better player. And I say, and it made me a better commissioner is what I'm trying to say. And why did it make me a better commissioner? Because I can remember going to FSU, Mr. Goodson's favorite school, and I remember going to Tennessee and Alabama and all these other universities, and we always met in the middle of the field before the game, and we shook hands as players and as coaches. Did the same thing. At the end of the game, we also met in the middle, and we shook hands again. And what I found out is you didn't go to the right-end zone because you were playing an away game or you didn't make the other team go to the left-end zone. You just always played in the middle and met in the middle. And that's why I think I was a better commissioner, because I always ended up in the middle on these items that were very important to the community. And I think the middle is not a bad place to be. Matter of fact, I think it's where we ought to be in government all over, in Tallahassee and in Washington, D.C., for that matter. So I think I talked to some of you, and I mentioned last time, that compromising and not getting rid of the zone is really what I think is the right thing to do. And I think it could be done. And if I was in your shoes and I had a chance to come up with a compromise for the community and you've got 150-something thousand people that live in the north end, one is I probably would change the rules and the business plan that the zone has to something that would make sure that this board, not the previous board or the board that I was on, that you're funding things that you think is important to this board. The next thing I would do is I would take the allocation from 90% to 40% because that would match the City of Titusville allocation. Then the next thing I would do is I would also take that additional dollar, and if you could put it in general fund and help the firefighters, then I would do that. And the next thing I would do, if it's possible, I would make sure that we are basically spending money where you want us to spend money, and we're meeting those kind of goals. So I think that's a compromise. I think it makes sense. And the zone does have some reserve dollars, and I would also ask the zone board to send back half of those reserve dollars. So where do we end up? We're compromising. We're in the middle. We've gotten half the dollars back, sir. We're making sure they're spending money on the game plan that you guys put together. And at the same time, you reduce the allocation, so you've got 50% more dollars coming back to the general fund for the county. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Sorry for the over. I have a question, Robin. Okay. Mr. Chair, may I? Yes. I want to clarify one thing. When he met us in the middle of the field, usually he was fighting. It's not shaking hands. Okay. Let's get that straight. Okay. All right. Robin, why wouldn't you form a CRA if this gets voted away today? Why would you not go with a CRA in Titusville? Well, because, one, you can't expand the CRA the same. Titusville has a CRA in a downtown. You can't expand it to the same area that, you know, like the CRA from, first of all, I'm not sure this board would form another CRA. There would be three votes for that. But you can't put it at the same level, at the same distance that the zone is. The zone basically goes from 528 to Scottsmore. So that's, and Titusville, the county, you know, if you're forming a CRA in Titusville, I think all the dollars will go to Titusville and have to stay in Titusville, and you can't fund other, you know, nor provide projects. And remember, the zone also funds your district, space, out of space, Florida. That's not my district. My district, again, is before it gets there. That's Representative Delaney's. No, sir, because when I was a commissioner, one of the things I did was expand the zone so it did in District 2, which would be, that's what Blue Origin is actually your district, sir. Thank you. I get blamed for a lot of stuff then. Thank you. Now, the other, may I have one other question, sir? Mm-hmm, sir. The other question, 2001, you are aware of the fact that you funded, meaning you, meaning InBeds, funded $400,000 to the Great Outdoors for our sprinkler system? In 2001? 2001. Yeah. $394,000 for a sprinkler system. Is that economic development? That's before the zone. Sir, I think the zone was formed in 2011. I think it was, well, maybe I'm wrong with my date, but you did fund. It was the date, but I think the point is you did date. I think that the zone was, had a business plan put in place, and that business plan put in place was established by the zone board and the current county commission. And one of the things that business plan had was that golf course or sprinkler was one of the eligible things that both, that was available in the business plan. So that's why one of my suggestions was that I might think it might be important in the future that previous boards might have had a business plan that doesn't match up with today's business plan of this board. And so changing it, if you don't want those type of things to be funded, you know, create a business, allow the zone board to come back with a plan that's going to be approved by this board. Any more questions for me? Okay. Thank you, Robin. We appreciate it. Okay, commissioners, that was the last card discussion on the item. I would like the opportunity for our board to discuss the possibilities of doing some of the things that have been mentioned, you know, like reducing the percentage from 90 to 40 percent, giving back half of the reserves. I think that that is a fair compromise. And what I would ask is that, you know, while I support our firefighters 100 percent, I have more constituents than just firefighters. And this, getting rid of this will dramatically hurt my community. And so I'm asking that we can come up with some kind of compromise. Other discussion on the item? Commissioner Altman. Yeah, I agree with that. I, I, maybe, maybe a compromise is something we should look at for, it's better than doing away with completely. I, but I, I, I know when we heard this before there was public input that, you know, we created, embed, we created the North Pavard Economic Development Zone after losing shuttle and it's worked. And we've responded and we don't need it anymore. But we just found out that under the president's proposed budget, they're cutting the Artemis program after three launches. Artemis generates 1.7 billion economic output supported by 11,500 jobs. Most of that impact will be felt here in Brevard County. I even read one account that said that the cut in Artemis may have a bigger impact on Brevard County than the loss of the shuttle. So here we go again. We're not done. And, and, and I, I, I think Doge is a good thing because I believe in competition and I'm, I'm not going to debate whether we should have Artemis or Starship. I think we need both. We have to have multiple launch vehicles and I'm hopeful that Artemis can survive. But I'm also excited about Starship, but we're competing with Texas. I love Texas. I went to college in Texas. It's a great place, but I love Florida more. And this is where we should have our, our launch center. And we really are competing with them. And we must to be, to be competitive, we must have economic development. We must have good fire service. We must have good infrastructure. We must have good education because these entrepreneurs are going to look at those communities that are vibrant, that can attract young engineers and good jobs, that can support a very risky, very risky industry. I mean, we're in good times now, but a couple of explosions, they could be over. We all know that well here being on the Space Coast. So I think we need it more than ever. I think we're facing many of the same challenges. There are different challenges and probably even require economic development and community development even more so because there's so many launch companies out there and there's so much competition. I've had people tell me, yeah, you're going to lose to Texas. They get $22 billion in reserves and they're spending money and they're building new space centers. FAA just gave Starship 22 launches approved. But we know they really want to come here. We know what we have is so special and so unique. But we have to be competitive and we have to develop what we have and create an atmosphere that makes us competitive or we will lose. We will lose some of these great economic opportunities. And these are jobs, $80,000 to $110,000 a year. I mean, this is not people making widgets at minimum wage. These are extremely high-paying jobs, not to mention it's who we are as a community. It's what makes us who we are and we need to be. So I support keeping this economic development zone in place. We need it more than ever because we are facing some serious, serious challenges. And so my position hasn't changed a bit. It's probably even stronger as a result of some of the cuts that we see coming down. Thank you. Commissioner Atkinson. I would just like to say that I think that the going away of Artemis, hopefully, will encourage more private sector growth. That's my hope. I would also say that I think we heard during our budget presentations that NBEDS actually was getting away from supporting space. So I am still confident and resolved in this action. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. I thought he was reaching for it. Go ahead. Commissioner Delaney. I think that, you know, not only do we have to support space, but we also have to diversify because that's part of the issue is that space is the only thing, for the most part, that my district has. And so it's the diversification that we need to support a healthy economy up in North Brevard. And in a perfect world, I would love to not touch it and to let it, you know, do its thing. It's bringing us as a county far more than $3 million a year. And so I would like it to not go away, but if I have to make a compromise, you know, I'm open to that. And I would hope that this board would meet me in the middle. Well, Commissioner Altman, were you reaching for your light again? Oh, I love the example about how InBev created a place for kids to play. If you're talking about to be competitive, those are the things that really make a difference. What kind of schools, what kind of recreational facilities, what kind of parks, how can you raise a family? And these jobs are young, young engineers. This is where we were in the 60s, where the average age is 25, 27 years old. They are family communities. Gosh, I have family here in Vieira. I used to live in Vieira. What an amazing place to go and see all the kids and the family and the restaurants and the parks. We need to have that countywide. We need that north of art as well if we are going to be competitive. I meet and talk and work with a lot of these young space entrepreneurs, and, you know, they're looking seriously at Wallops in Virginia. They're looking at New Zealand. They're looking at other countries. They're looking in New Mexico. This is not a given thing, but I do know we have the edge, but we could lose that edge very, very quickly. So I think this is important. I spend a lot of time in Titusville. I work up at the Space Center, and I know that community well. And it is not just Titusville. It is still Brevard County. We're one. I can't tell you how many people who work at the Space Center that live down here. And it's a rise in tide floats all boats, and we have a need up in North Brevard, a serious need. We also know that one area of the county can absorb those needs as well, with transportation, infrastructure. This is important. This is important for Brevard as a whole, and I think it's exciting what can be done in North Brevard. And you go to these communities that are just vibrant, and that's what industry is looking for. They're looking for those vibrant communities that have great opportunity. And we learned also a lot when we were battling for the Space Force site, and we lost to Huntsville. Huntsville is an amazing place. And I think we do have Star Command now. We have one part of that. But these are things that we want. It's the kind of growth that we want. It's the kind of growth that's going to protect our quality of life. It's going to protect our revenue source. It's going to protect our environment. It's economic development works. If we're going to preserve this community, I think we need to have this program. Okay. Appreciate that. Commissioners. I'd like to make a motion. Okay. To dissolve embeds as written. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson to dissolve embeds as it's written. Is there a second? I have a second by Commissioner Goodson. Clerk will call the roll. I have an amendment to the motion, Mr. Chairman. Okay. I'd like to make an amendment to the motion that we don't dissolve embeds, but we restructure it. We reform it and restructure it in the way that Robin Fisher brought to our attention. If I can remember, I think one of the key components was a 40% match requirement. I think that's been spoken about. It's on the record. Yeah. I think we remember. Okay. Okay. Commissioners, you made the motion in the second. Is anyone amenable to that? I am not, simply because if I decided to change the motion, I would need more time to think about it. Okay. So, I'm going to put it forward as is. I would agree with Kim. All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. We have a second by Commissioner Goodson. The clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? No. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? No. Chairman Keltner? Yes. We'll show that passes through, too. Commissioners, we have speak up Brevard item that we're going to go to, item I-1, and I think Rachel is going to help us with some slides. After that, we're going to take up Mr. Stewart, okay? So, try to at least move you up one slot. Okay? All right. So, I-1, just real quick. Who's going to introduce? Jim? Go ahead. All right. Good afternoon, Commissioners. So, this year's submittal period for the speak up Brevard was January 1st to the 30th. We received 77 recommendations from 65 individuals. As you know, we held a workshop on March 3rd. The 77 recommendations, documents, as well as staff analysis and staff recommended actions are part of this agenda item. We, as the staff, spent a significant amount of time to review, consider, and respond to each recommendation. All the responses were sent to the commission office. They were posted on the county website earlier this month. And, in addition, all the individuals that submitted SEERS received an email or notification that we've received it and responded with our answers. And so, we're ready, you know, how the board would like to proceed. There are many that I would like to pull for discussion. Okay. Okay. On the, I think on the discussion part of that, that's one thing. So, let's, let's do questions first. We have 11 cards. I know people have been waiting a long time. So, let's do questions first. Are there questions for staff? Okay. Commissioner Atkinson. One quick question, if I may. So, staff, I know it took a whole bunch of time to go through all of this. When you came across items that were not under our jurisdiction, what happened to those things? Yeah, I apologize to the board. I had a note right here. Of the 77 recommendations, one we recommended accept. 18 we recommended accept with revisions. 45 were recommended rejections. And then 13 were administratively rejected. So, the example I use is somebody spoke about Gleason Park and Indian Harbor Beach. That was not in our jurisdiction. So, we rejected it and then we sent notification on to the city. There was several that I recall that had to do with the animal shelter. So, we sent that on to the sheriff. So, that's what we do with those that were up. We send them wherever they can be dealt with. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for staff before we go to the cards? Okay. And, Rachel, I think you're going to have to help with this first one. And, Jean Higgins, after Ms. Higgins, it's going to be Ms. Terria LaPlante. And I have copies for you all. And so, I'll get my blood flow in here. So, are we ready? Okay. You might want to pull the mic down to you a little bit. Oh, sorry. I'm having a little trouble. There you go. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Hello, County Commissioners. Good afternoon. I wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to share my input with the Speak Up Brevard process and your support of the staff to provide their replies. I know we all love Brevard County, and my Sears submission was based on my passion for identifying ways to preserve and protect our natural habitat for today and for future generations. As a board member of Conradina, native plants are a critical component of preserving and protecting our natural habitat, and I'm trying to get that information out to whomever I can. It was not our intent to imply that the county is not doing LID, but rather to work together to continually improve current LID efforts and offer assistance in updating them. I spoke with Amanda Elmore yesterday, and she shared that it's been at least 10 to 15 years since the last update of some documents, and as a lot has changed in the understanding of native plants in that time. So we're going to go through not this whole presentation because I don't have time for that, but slides two and three are from the April 8th presentation just there for your reference. So we're going to start here on slide four, which was also in April 8th, but I wanted to make sure we went over it a little bit more because there is a big difference between Florida-friendly landscaping and Florida native plants. Florida native plants are part of Florida-friendly, but they provide much more benefit to the wildlife and the local environment. They sequester water and filter pollutants, and they support the local wildlife, and that's the only thing local wildlife can eat. Whereas Florida-friendly landscaping, although it does require less water and fertilizer is really just there for aesthetic value, and I know last time you asked for examples. I do have examples of both of those if we have time later on in Q&A to go into that. The next page is my particular SEER number 47, which was exactly like 11 other LID SEER submissions, so you're pretty much addressing all of them. Here's my citizen recommendation and the staff recommended action, which was basically accept with revisions and to propose potential ordinance changes. So what I'd like to do is all of my back and forth with the staff, which is on the subsequent pages of this presentation for you, can be super summarized into three areas. One is using more native plants rather than Florida-friendly, and let's get that into the LID ordinances. Two is to request status on how current LID is being monitored, and three, request information on how our LID ordinances compare throughout other municipalities and the state. What I'd love to also request is a modification to the staff recommended action to request a meeting between appropriate staff and the SEER submitters to understand current, I see I spelled that wrong, sorry, current LID practices and opportunities to collaborate. I think that'll save the staff a lot of Q&A back and forth time as we all continue to learn more about this. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yep. Any questions? We've got to move on, ma'am. I'm sorry. I don't know how to make this go away, but I know. It's okay. Will you repeat that second one? I'm so sorry. The second request? You gave us a list of four. This one? Yep. So to request status on how current LID practices are being monitored. Thank you. Yep. Thank you very much. Terry. Good afternoon. Question? I submitted a request to ask you to direct the Waste Management Department to stop submitting chemical fragrances over our landfill, and the request, it was SEER 2025-030, was rejected by the staff, which stated that what they were doing is required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Now, based upon the information that I was able to find, this is not true. So I am requesting, again, the elimination of these chemical fragrances. The staff analysis stated that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection requires a remediation plan for offensive odors, and that they are using a misting system to neutralize the odors using a product called Cherry-O deodorant. I must dispute the response to my complaint that this product does not contain any substances considered hazardous to health. The company discloses that they use a cherry fragrance to mask odors in addition to odor neutralizers. The chemicals in this fragrance are a known allergen, and they are designated as asthma gins. In other words, they trigger asthma attacks. The company also discloses that these chemicals are known endocrine disruptors, which are linked to breast cancers. I don't know when chemical companies started manufacturing and selling chemical fragrances to mask odors, but this is the odor that I am complaining about. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, if a complaint is received about an offensive odor coming from the landfill, a remediation plan is required. So my complaint may well justify a revision of the current strategy being used to manage odors. I personally use odor eliminators and odor neutralizers in my home, and I have no issue with the county using these sorts of products. I am requesting the elimination of the chemical fragrance being used to mask the odors as I cannot breathe outside my home when the wind is blowing in my direction. Not only is the fragrance offensive, but it causes allergy and asthma problems and a host of health issues related to endocrine disruptions. In fairness, I would say that this is only an issue when in rainy season, and apparently from the reports from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, water exasperates problems with odors. So it's not a day in, day out. And the report that I have from the FDEP gives many suggestions for the remediation of odors, and they do not, they do not require the use of chemical fragrances. They offer many, many ways to solve this problem. Thank you. And I do have a second request. So are you going to call on me again for the second issue? Or do you want me to go ahead and knock that out? I have a question on that. Okay. Let's go to his question first. So just more maybe of staff. So I would think that I would not disqualify this request because if we felt that the application of these chemical, this odor suppressing or masking, which would be even worse, chemicals could be ineffective, and it was deemed that it was being mandated by the state or the feds or DEP, we still could incorporate that by, let's say, hypothetically putting it into our legislative agenda that we could have our lobbyists or we could seek and work with other counties to change the law. In other words, it doesn't mean it wouldn't be a part of our county government that we would incorporate your request. It may require us to take it. We may not be able to do anything legislative from our local ordinance, but it would put into our public policy, and we would attempt to change it through working with our state and federal partners. That's sort of my thought that we should include it, but that may be the only thing we can do. Well, may I respond to that? Yeah. I mean, it could be the report I have by the FDEP is dated, but, again, out of all the remedies that they suggest, using a chemical fragrance was not one of them. Yeah, I understand. So it doesn't appear to be a requirement by the FDEP to use a chemical fragrance. They can use odor neutralizers, all these other things, but not that particular one. So let's go to your other item, Terry. Okay. It's been years since I last spoke to the commission about the issue regarding the mowing over of the garbage on our, well, right-of-ways. It's unfortunate the last time I was here and we spoke on it, that we thought that we had worked out a solution with Keeper Barbe Beautiful, that they were going to be able to get volunteers to pick up all this trash so it wasn't mowed over. And from what I gather, that has failed. And so here we are again facing the fact that we are mowing over garbage that is then swept away into our stormwater system, clogging up the baffle boxes and polluting the Indian River Lagoon and the St. John's. Given the expense and efforts being put into saving the Indian River Lagoon, I argue that we can't afford to continue this practice. I urge the commission to create a task force to find a creative solution to end this practice. And I'd be happy to serve on that and be happy to work with you on the chemical problems. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Susan Connolly. After Ms. Connolly, we'll have Alexandra Mott. Hello, commissioners. I'm here to talk on SEER 2025-010, titled Department Budgets. The submitter is not myself, actually. It's Lisa Cullen, the Brevard County tax collector. The staff analysis was to reject this SEER. My comments right now are to ask for you to review this SEER and vote with accept with revision. Who is Lisa Cullen? What got my attention is Lisa Cullen, tax collector, one of the most respected people, one of the longest serving elected officers, officials, and outstanding for her experience and integrity. What was her SEER about? Two of the largest issues facing Brevard County. Budget cuts to spending that maintain the 3% cap for the purpose of funding fire departments. Why this is important to me? Because she presented clear, actionable items that can be repeated throughout all government departments with achieved success. The staff recommended that it be rejected based on these things are already being done. My question, though, is if things are already being done, what she recommended in the way she recommended, is it effective? Why do we still have the problem? I think there also can be some additional benefits by continuing the review of this SEER. The additional benefits could be that the SEER process itself could be reviewed for its effectiveness and efficiency so that all submissions have an actionable response with a resolution similar to what Mr. Commissioner Tha Altman was doing. I think another result could be the budget process in its totality could be reviewed for efficiency and effectiveness while reviewing current fiscal policies of the 3% cap. Thank you for your time. Thank you for this program. Thank you. Alexandra Mott. Good afternoon. I'm T. Alexandra Mott. I'm a resident of Vieira. A few years ago, I noticed erosion problems along the buffer zones that border the detention pond in my backyard. The buffer zone abuts my property. I reported the problem to the VRE's Community Development District, the VECDD, and the VECDD went to provide natural resources to request assistance in educating our community about best management practices for stormwater pond maintenance, which includes planting vegetation along the pond's literal shelves to prevent erosion of the shorelines of the buffer zones and also to filter pollution, polluted stormwater runoff from entering the St. Johns River from our 85, that's 85 detention ponds in my community. Provide Natural Resources decided to apply for a $50,000 grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection so that they could create a stormwater education program for the Vieira East residents so they would not object to vegetation being planted along the shorelines of our ponds. My suggestion in the Speak Up Brevard program was for the Brevard Natural Resources to form a task force of the entities in Brevard that had already created a stormwater education program so that we could share their resources with Brevard Natural Resources. By taking this action, we could save a $50,000 grant from the state DEP. And it didn't appear that asking for that money to create a new stormwater education program was a good idea. Brevard Natural Resources declined my request. However, there is good news here that it appears that due to the Speak Up Brevard program suggestion, the entities that I mentioned to get together to form a task force to share their resources have agreed to do so for the first time in seven years, which is when I started this project seven years ago. So we have an education, a stormwater education program scheduled for October 18 in Vieira East at the Clubhouse Park Pavilion, and we expect this to launch a new training program for our community. So what I really wanted to, so in fact we are saving $50,000 for the state. And I have, I'm really here to say two things. I'm a, currently a student of systems management, a very old student of systems management. And this is one incident that saved the state $50,000 because we took a look from a linear perspective to a systems approach in how we can look at what resources were already available to what we, what we can use. So I want to thank you for the State Speak Up Brevard program, for enlightening this community, and for your stellar leadership. Thank you very much. Any questions? I guess not. I think it's Ashley Lorenzana. Did I say that right? Lorenzana. Lorenzana. Sorry. Thank you. Thanks. Would you prefer to put them under the... I have two for here. You can also put them up there. And then if I have permission to approach, I would like to pass photos. We have John do after... Yes, thank you so much. Afterward. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on an issue that deeply affects families like mine here in Merritt Island. The need for greater inclusivity for our special needs community, specifically through the installation of an ADA accessible swing in our public parks. I'd like to begin by presenting a series of photographs I've compiled. These images are of Rotary Park. In Merritt Island, one of the photos highlighted a metal... Has a metal bracket highlighted on the photo. I would not be... I'm sorry. You may be wondering if the bracket is there, why isn't there a swing? To come to find out, not only is this any type of bracket, this is a special bracket for an ADA swing that is just sitting there with a space inside the park. I speak to you as a member of this community, a special needs advocate, yes, and most importantly, a mother to multiple children with special needs. For years, I've searched for a local park in Merritt Island that could safely accommodate my family. My children, like all children, just want to do what their peers can. Swing, slide, climb, and play. When I submitted my concern, I hoped for solutions. What I received were suggestions. Drive 22 miles to Sandpoint Park or 15 miles to Space Coast Sports Complex or consider what's been done in Melbourne Beach. But what I didn't hear was a plan for Merritt Island, for the families who live here and need inclusive parks right here in our community. Did you know that right here in Merritt Island, there's a private school called FACES. It serves students with autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. My youngest son is a student there, and yet they had to build their own playground behind the school because no public park could meet their accessibility needs. As a community, we have the power and the responsibility to change this. All residents, regardless of ability, deserve the chance to enjoy our public parks safely, fully, and fully. Parents and caregivers shouldn't have to drive a half an hour away for something as simple as a swing. How could we expect a child with a physical disability to enjoy the park if they can't use the equipment? Shouldn't we be ensuring inclusive play for all? Imagine a park where every child, regardless of ability, can swing, slide, and climb together. That world should be our reality, but right now it's not. Many children with disabilities face challenges like poor muscle tone or coordination, making typical playgrounds or activities difficult or impossible. But a swing, just one ADA accessible swing, can offer those children the joy of movement and play. It's a small gesture that carries an enormous impact. This raises a difficult but necessary question. Should we continue to bring our children to the park while separating out the ones who can participate? Or should we take this opportunity to do better for everyone by installing one ADA swing? Thank you for your time today. Thank you very much. Now, is it John Doe? Is it you? Well, I don't think you put the rest of your name. So, okay. 2-0-2-5-0-2-0? All right. Lieutenant. Okay. Good afternoon, Commissioners. It's been a long day. You guys are all here and you're all awake and bright-eyed. My SEER recommendation, 2-0-2-5-0-2-0, to identify a sustainable funding source for fire rescue is denied. I came here today with two possible speeches. One that vents years of frustration and another that builds a path forward. I'm choosing the latter, but I want you to understand where that frustration comes from. Commissioner Goodson. In 2014, the 1998 firefighter referendum, a voter-approved mandate to ensure two paramedics on every rescue unit, was quietly dismantled. The system shifted to one paramedic and one EMT. At the same time, EMS Chief Dominguez introduced the pit crew response model, inspired by King County's Medic 1 system, which I've studied in depth. That's where the idea for my SEER recommendation began. A plan to sustainably fund a high-performance EMS system without burdening residents through regressive property taxes or inconsistent fire assessments. Also in 2014, then Chief of EMS Orlando Dominguez initiated a BLS trial. It showed early promise, but it was disbanded due to insufficient funding and staffing. This was the first of several efforts to implement the BLS transport system that we see today. Basic life support system reduces unnecessary ALS transports. Each time gaining traction, it vanished when funding ran out or staffing shortages prevailed. And here we are again in 2025. Finally, seeing that this system is gaining support, not because of proactive planning, but because of a hospital closure and the worsening crisis in funding and employee retention now facing Brevard County Fire Rescue. The issue has never been vision. It's been funding. And the urgency cannot be overstated. Every day of delay puts public safety at risk. Lives are on the line, and we can no longer afford to wait to secure the resources of our fire rescue system that it desperately needs. The slow erosion of the system has left ALS units overburdened, staffing stretched thin, and public trust weakening. Brevard County Fire Rescue hasn't been fully funded since 2011. Leadership bears responsibility, but more importantly, leadership has the power to fix this. As the policy-setting body, the Board of County Commissioners, and the county manager who executes those policies plays a central role, your decisions are integral in building a long-term solution. If this proposal is to move forward, it will need your backing, your leadership, your guidance to reach voters in 2026. Your role is not just important. It is indispensable. The SEER recommendation I proposed is not a radical idea. It's modeled after a proven voter-approved system that worked in King County, Washington, since 1972. I'm not asking for immediate change. I'm asking to work collaboratively with staff, municipalities, and the public to shape a ballot-ready plan, one that provides reliable service, lowers residents' costs, and strengthens our public safety infrastructure. In closing, I ask that we not let this idea die due to process. Let's keep the door open, begin the necessary groundwork, and show the residents of Brevard County that we are planning boldly, responsibly, and we're using their safety as the top priority. Thanks for coming to meet with me on your item. Yeah, no problem. I appreciate it, sir. Hopefully we can get something worked out. All right. Senator Sullivan. Senator Sullivan. So I want to talk about SEER 10. And first, I want to talk about a little background on this Speak Up Brevard. So this was brought forth by the Brevard Citizens Coalition that got a charter change. And so they implemented this process as a way for citizens as individuals or organized groups of individuals to submit recommendations for efficiency, enhancement and efficiency of Brevard County government. So it was called the Citizens' Efficiency and Effectiveness Recommendations. So call that DOGE, which is the Department of Government Efficiency. So to that point, and I'll come back to SEER 10, we are, Governor DeSantis, a couple of months ago in April, he came out with inviting cities and county leaders across Florida to join Florida's EOG DOGE team with his executive order. And that team sent letters to local governments asking them to disclose information about their financial health, which I think ties in very well to SEER 10. So one of my first questions as a conservative board is, why is Brevard one of the counties that has not joined DOGE? Given that our charter, and let me read from the charter, 2.9.10 of Brevard County's charter is the Board of County Commissioners shall develop procedures that will provide a mechanism for individual or an organized group of individuals to submit a formal written recommendation to the enhancement of the effectiveness and efficiency of county government. So I would submit that DeSantis' DOGE is very in alignment with the Speak Up Brevard and with SEER 10. So SEER 10, how much time do I have, is about, is looking at the fiscal crisis that Brevard County has and looking at the budget and looking at areas that have increased and finding ways to cut. And I would say, you know, one of the very first areas I would look at are the monies from embeds as one of those categories. But there are several others. Thank you. Thank you. Bill Hodge. Sarah, you're going to be after him. Oh, people are bent over. So we can see our grandkids. Anyway. Okay, I'm here to talk about the consent agenda. There are sometimes more than two dozen items of county business that are voted on a single meeting under the consent agenda. These consent agenda items are not read out loud. The public has no idea what is being voted on by listening to the meeting or when viewing it on the streaming platforms. I propose the following changes to the consent agenda. The county manager or the county attorney should read each consent agenda item out loud into the record as it's done at the local meetings, including Titusville and Cocoa Beach. The dollar amount of each action item should be clearly stated during the consent agenda reading and on the written agenda, as well as a total dollar amount of the items being approved under the consent agenda. Fewer items should be placed on the consent agenda, as consent agenda items are defined as being routine and non-controversial in nature. Commissioners that are voting no should pull items. Commissioners should more frequently pull items to add visibility and publicly raise the concern that many items do not belong on the consent agenda and should be placed on a regular business agenda before the meeting. A brief statement could be read out loud at each meeting and placed on the projector that informs the public that background information for each agenda item is available online and on the county website. With a new commission, there's an opportunity to improve the handling of the consent agenda and to make more transparent to the public. These proposed revisions would make a difference for residents and can be implemented immediately. And if you can't do all of them, you can at least do some of them. Anyway, thank you for my chance. Thank you, sir. We appreciate you yielding back a minute. Hi, commissioners. I'm very thankful for the speak-up of our workshops. Many important issues are brought up by the public that you may not have heard of, and the information helps you make the right decisions for the county. My comments that I presented on the March 3rd workshop, please put the county public records online. We're not considered in the staff response and that the SEER rejection, I believed, is unwarranted. Staff should be looking to see what more they can put online instead of justifying why they can't put all the records online. I think saving money by having fewer records requests would be a huge benefit to the county in a time when you are trying to find the budget money. This would be a benefit for everyone. Residents deserve easy, convenient, and no-cost access to their public records. Please put the county records online and make them easy to locate for residents. I, along with many others, will keep advocating to put the county public records online so that the public will be able to have access to their records. There is a lot of support by the public for this to be done, and I thank you for your consideration of this, ma'am. Thank you very much. And then Lynn, I don't want to butcher your last name. You'll tell us when you come up. But I don't need that up yet, so what do I do? So he controls it from the box. Oh, I can leave that up there then, I guess. Okay. Hi, my name is Lynn Raglia, and I appreciate this time to speak. My SEER was rejected for jurisdiction. Brevard Animal Services is currently managed by the Sheriff's Office, and it's funded by our county budget. My SEER suggests that the county accept bids from other parties to manage the animal shelter part of the animal services, as it will provide improved services to the community, better accountability, and cost savings and financial efficiency. We have two respected nonprofit organizations that currently run animal shelters in Brevard, the SPCA in Titusville and the Brevard Humane Society in Cocoa. If either of these were managing the county shelter in Melbourne while still managing their current shelters, one of the immediate benefits would be expanded housing in that the lost or stray animals found in the more northern parts of the county could stay in a facility up in that area rather than go down to Melbourne. And this would help owners who want to claim their pets sooner, sorry, as getting to the Melbourne shelter from the northern part of the county on a workday isn't usually feasible. This would also help reduce the current overcrowding that is experienced at the Melbourne shelter. When the county shelter in the north was closed, there were no accommodations made to handle the increase in intake at the Melbourne shelter. This results in overcrowding, and some of the dogs spend days or weeks in a small area, which is in the picture, to eat, sleep, and defecate. This is because of the overcrowding. Also, in a contract with either one of these organizations, you could require built-in performance measures in order to ensure more accurate data, more transparency, and better data analysis. I don't know how to get to the next one. The reason I bring up accurate data is because I've shown you some reports that come out now, and what you'll see if you look at the top line, beginning animal count, under feline, there's a negative number of cats. That's not possible. The one on the next sheet shows over that these, again, negative numbers. Again, not possible. In the next sheet, which I don't know how to get to, that will show you that the beginning count for one month does not equal the previous ending count for the previous month. And that's why I feel that bidding would improve some of the items that I mentioned. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. That was the end of the cards. So, Commissioner Delaney, you said something about pulling something or other items you wanted to discuss. Yes. Thank you. The first one that I wanted to talk about was SEER number 8. I'm not going to read the whole number, but number 8. And that's the one that has to do with the swing. So, when I first saw this request, I was happy to see that it had been accepted. But then, when I looked into it further and read the whole staff report, I realized it was not accepted. It was rejected. And that preceded me to go and reach out to staff and talk to them about it. I spoke at length with the parks and was troubled with the responses that I was met with. I asked if they were willing to reach out to the mom who had brought this forward. They declined. So, I directed my personal staff to reach out to this mother to see exactly what she was looking for and what the needs were. At that time, she explained, while there may be some accessible playground equipment in the county, there are no high back swings within the county. Only wheelchair accessible swings and some other accessible equipment. And while it's great to have those, it doesn't serve the needs that she has. And I just feel like this is such a small request. When I had asked my staff to briefly look into this type of a swing on a quick Google search, it showed multiple options, most ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. And that is for a high back swing that even special needs adults could use. And I just believe that this is a really small ask that would greatly benefit not only this mom of five kids, but many other parents in the community. And I would like to make a motion to purchase the swing to put at Rotary Park and accept this year, truthfully. Okay. Discussion on that? Commissioner Goodson? Commissioner, do you have a cost on the swing? I don't know if it costs $1 or $10,000, but do you know? If it's just the swing, just from a quick search, we looked at they range from $7,800 up to $2,000, $3,000. Okay. Now, Ian, Commissioner, is that with a post set up, concreted in, ready to swing? That's just for the swing. But like the speaker showed, there is currently room right now at Rotary Park with space available that we could put this swing. Okay. All right. I got you. Ian, can you tell us the cost on buying the swing, installing the swing, so everybody can swing? Commissioner, we did a very rough quote to add that type of swing to Rotary Park. Luckily, that space that had housed a tire swing, which had deteriorated and been removed, could potentially house this type of swing. However, the playground itself has never been set up for ADA accessibility, so it would actually be a price tag of probably just under $17,000 to include a pad, as well as the access needed through sidewalk. What do you think is that? I know we need to swing, but right now, are you not in kind of a staging area to do these in parks as you go through this year? We are. One of the things that we're doing is we are, as we have the funding availability, looking at when we remodel playgrounds, when we add or replace playgrounds, adding in these type of elements, we don't have the funding, typically, to do whenever anybody comes and has a request to do everything everybody wants. Yeah. We created this process to try and address some of these issues moving forward. It can be a very expensive process. The idea is to look at doing it at our larger facilities, larger parks, our regional parks first, and then branching out. Sir, may I have one more? Go ahead. Okay. On Merritt Island or anywhere, what's the nearest ADA swing in reference to Rotary Park? I'm not sure that if there is any on Merritt Island. I don't know, having not looked at any non-parks related. You had said to me that there are none. I have it in the email. Okay. All right. So the nearest one would be – I'm sorry, Chair, may I? Yes. So the nearest one to Rotary Park would be Field of Dreams in Melbourne? I actually think the one at – what's in here? I'm going to jump in. Space Coast Community Sports Complex might be the closest. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Ian. Thank you. Is that one of these, one of the high back seats, or is that a wheelchair accessible swing? I believe it's a glider swing, which would be the wheelchair. So it would not be used for a child with autism that can't fit in a baby seat, that needs a back? Correct. Right. Or adults. I mean, this is a small thing that – I mean, I don't have kids with special needs, but I have friends who have kids with special needs. And I see the struggle, and the park is one of the few places that they could go to help let their kids blow off some steam. It's good for their disability, the swinging motion. And this is something that is a tremendous need to this community, and I just feel like if we could prioritize a $200,000 floor in Isaac Campbell Park out of nowhere, then we can prioritize one swing at one park. Can I ask a question for clarification? It's just the swing literally hanging from the current swing set. But it's not necessarily ramps and concrete and all of that? Correct. Is that what I understand? Yes, just the swing. I'm sorry? If we're just talking about the swing itself, how can it be $17,000? Right. Okay. My question to Ian, sorry. If we're just talking about the swing, and it's hanging from the existing fixture, and it's not going to have a concrete pad and a ramp and all of those things, what kind of costs are we talking about then? So, Commissioner, the swing itself, I think, that was quoted out was either $1,300 or $1,500. Okay. The issue is that this, the SEER, is not the process to bring a service request, which is what this is. Service requests follow a different process. Per the board's policy, if I had treated this just as a service request as opposed to trying to treat this as a generalized system question or issue, it would have had to have been rejected. I understand. Jim? Yeah. Let me jump. Thank you, Mr. Chair, if I can jump in. And I've got to do a little bit of my background with transit. I have a, it'll kill me, but I have a kid on the spectrum. I have a good friend that's disabled, so I'm familiar with this. I've done a lot of stuff with disabilities. We looked at it as a general response. That's why accepting. You've got to realize there's a bunch of different disabilities that you, we just talked about glider versus a high back swing. So, one solution isn't going to fit every single park. So, Parks and Rec already has it in here where they're working on the bigger parks, doing different types of accessibility. They've gone through the last couple of years, we've been putting pads in to make parking spots accessible, pass accessible to them. So, that's where the accept goes. If the board would like to see the swing at the park, we'll have to take the motion. We'll go from there. Because you can't, how do I put this? It would be very difficult to accommodate every single disability at every single park. I understand that. And I think that's part of a larger conversation. And I grew up with a disabled parent, so, you know, I have, I'm very empathetic. Anyways, okay. Can we get there on the one swing? We have a nearby neighbor. If the board wishes it, we'll get it done. I'll go here with you if we can, if we could also speed some things up today. Can we do that? Yes. Because we've, we've, we've still got some things there today. So, I'll tell you what. Go ahead with, you want to make that motion? I'd like to make a motion to, um, accept this year and add a bucket style adaptive swing to Rotary Park. Okay. This, this swing and this picture, we're going to put at Rotary Park. We're clear on that? Okay. We're clear? Okay. I will second that. Okay. So, we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney. We have a second by the chair. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. All right. Now, on the rest of I-1, is, is there a motion for, or any other discussion on the rest of I-1? I'm so sorry. I do have other discussion items. Um, I, I know that we're all trying to get through and get to the next thing, but this is something that the citizens have been looking forward to for months now. And I just really feel like we need to give them their time and have some serious thought and discussion. They deserve our discussion. And I just feel like we need to do that. Um, one of the next ones is the, um, number 10. And that one, I just feel like even if, even if this particular questionnaire isn't applicable, I think that something, something that we could, um, I'm looking for ideas on, um, what we could do to have something that shows the public that we're looking through the departments and that they're, they're justifying some of these purchases. One of the things that I, um, that I'm pointing to is, um, the vehicles. So, we have a lot of large trucks, um, 2,500 and 3,500 Silverados. Um, those trucks are massive and need, you know, their use is for pulling, you know, huge pieces of equipment. And while I understand we need some trucks that can do that job, I don't think that, I don't know if the need is really there for as many of the vehicles. Those vehicles as what is asked for and what we currently have versus say a Colorado. I understand that trucks are, are helpful because you can just throw things in the back and when you're working, you know, um, public works or parks or, um, eels or any of these things, it's, it's, um, ideal to have a truck in those situations. But do we, can we get the, you know, $30,000 truck versus the $80,000 truck? And, um, so that, this is something that I would, even if we reject this today, it's something that I would like to bring forward in the future that I'm hopeful that we can talk about as, as a board to see what we can come up with to, um, make sure that all of the tax dollars are being spent, um, properly. Okay, okay, Commissioner Altman, sir. Well, I think we should get cyber trucks. You don't have to charge them, there's less maintenance, they're, they're, I don't know. Elon, if you're listening, we're taking donations. If we're going to get into these. Maybe they burn up a lot. But I just, that's a detail if we're going to get into that, I'm going to give my opinion. So I like the electric one, it's okay. I'll, I'll, uh, um, Commissioner, I, I don't disagree with you, um, but I think that's something we would need to talk to all the departments about. I wouldn't make a decision on that today without talking to all of our folks that use those trucks, um, daily. I'm personally a small car advocate, and so it's getting harder to even buy a small car, um, these days. So, um, you know, that's, that's me. So I don't, I don't disagree with you on that concern. Is there, sir, uh, Jim? Thank you, Mr. Chair, if you indulge me. I, as departments, um, and I'm looking at, I'm out there, and I, you know, department director for a long time. Um, there is a lot of review of equipment, budget, everything, or equipment and different capital items that go on the budget. You will see in our budget book that all the trucks are listed, all the vehicles with the prices. Um, what you have is, I'll pick on Mark since I see Mark there, but he'll have his North Brevard program manager saying, I need this, this, and this. Mark will sit down with his finance folks, decide what they need and what they don't need. Then they send it on up to the assistant county manager. Assistant county manager looks at the budget, and then they often come to the county manager and justify that. And I've been through the process where we've rejected trucks, where we've lowered the prices of them. So it's a pretty intensive process. You may not see it out in the public, but you're going through a number of levels, and we do take special care on the type of trucks we buy. Um, the other example I can tell you, you know, we talk about four by fours. I've been out on eel. We weren't pulling anything heavy, but I got my feet wet, um, just going through some of the malabar scrub with the, came up above the running board. So, yeah, I trust the staff in buying the vehicles they need to do, and they're recommending it. And so I think it's a pretty good process right now that we're doing to get it into the budget. I think that the thing that we're looking for is for things to be more publicly facing, because people are wondering why we're raising their property taxes 37% on the fire assessment. They're looking for where is the money, and it's, I think that this is a simple thing that would be a tool for us to use to show people where the money is and why. I think that's probably a future agenda item. Go ahead. If you want to show the public where you're using your money, maybe we should all be accountable, right? And then maybe you should answer $92,000 to remodel an office in Dinosaur. Okay. All right. Well, if you were to look into that, I didn't spend $92,000. Okay, 90? No. Excuse me. What'd you spend? Not even close. Excuse me. Oh, Lord. Maybe you shouldn't get your news from tabloids. Thanks. Okay. Is there anything else on I-1? We do want to take up Mr. Stewart, and then we have the contract ahead of us. Is there anything else on I-1? The next thing was I-14, or I'm sorry, C-14, the records. And while I understand, you know, I think the word was Herculean task, I understand that that is a huge task to put all of the records online. And we don't necessarily have the funding or the ability with our servers and things like that. But I'm asking for some changes to be made. And, for instance, a low-hanging fruit would be to put our policies and our administrative orders online. And, Logan, I don't know if you could go to that slide to show what our beach looks like. Back a couple. There we go. So the slide, the picture on the left shows what the public puts in when you search for policies. The one on the right is what we see internally. And if you could go to the next one. This is the public-facing site that the school board uses. It's right on their website. It's three clicks in, and you're at all the policies. And I think that this is a simple thing that might even cut down on public record requests. That if we could put our policies and administrative orders out there for people to learn, it would cut down on, you know, knowing how the government works. And I have a list, and if it's needed, I could come back with an agenda item. But I have a list of recommendations for changes to our record access for citizens. And during the budget workshop, I asked about our record requests and how many requests do we get in, how much money gets invoiced out, how much money is actually collected from those public record requests. Are we charging equitably? There's, people are really wondering what is going on with our records. And I think that it is, you know, the public's entitled to these records. And while I understand it takes an immense amount of staff time to produce records, if we could make more records accessible to the public, it would cut down on that. And I really feel like we need to create performance metrics for increasing the number and types of public records available online, update on that progress each year in the budget book. And I think that we need to revise our administrative order to revert to the 30-minute staff time at no charge to the citizens versus the current 15 minutes that got changed right before, shortly before the board changed over. I think that it's fair that we see the amount of money billed to residents and that we see the money collected from residents because that way we can assure people that we're not overcharging for records to limit their access. Soliciting citizen feedback regarding the process because maybe there's a bug that we don't know about that they're running into. And I think that the key term there is solicit, which is a key term that got taken out of this very program last year. I just really believe that we need to go after that citizen input as much as we can. And I'll move on to the next one. 24 and 60, they both were about the doging the community or the county, I should say. And I think that with how the state is already overstepping in many ways in how we operate, I feel like I'm very torn about giving over that mechanism to the state. But I think that we can do a really good job in-house, even updating our citizen budget review committee to task them to doge because they pretty much just go through the budget. It's not, it's not, they don't necessarily get down to the nitty-gritty of taking things apart and asking all of the, all of those questions like how I mentioned about the trucks. The next one, and again, I'll, I can bring this forward to an agenda item if I have to, but this, this is suggestions about the consent agenda. And, um, I've gone to many government meetings, um, across the county and at the state level. And it just is really helpful for, for a resident to, um, when we're hearing the consent agenda, um, to, to get a brief understanding of what that is and to know the dollar amount. And it just helps with the transparency and the accountability of, you know, how much money is, is being, um, passed with one vote without much word. And so I think that these are, um, some fair suggestions. It was a lot of, uh, what the speaker had spoken about, um, uh, in his suggestions while he was speaking. And, um, I had on here as well, uh, number 30, the stop the air pollution. And I just want to mention that I talked to Solid Waste about this and I've asked them to compile some other possible products that are out there. And so he has, um, uh, agreed to do that for me. And I'm happy to share that with the board and the public, um, once I get that. And then the next one is, uh, number 44, a summit of leaders. Um, I, I think that this is a great idea, not only, um, to do a summit meeting, but also, um, maybe even a state of the county meeting. Um, that way we can put out to residents and stakeholders on a yearly basis, um, what's going on, what, what, what we've done this year. What are some things that we're going to do in the future? What are some challenges, um, just to keep that conversation going and to bring more people in, um, to the conversation. And then number 58, how many more do you have? This is it. I promise. This is it. Okay. We're going to take a three minute break here as soon as you're, as soon as you're done with that. Okay. Um, acknowledging speakers. So I just really feel like, um, being somebody who came to government meetings and you go before a board and then, you know, you, a lot of times people are met with nothing, um, other than thank you. And it's, uh, I don't know what we can come up with, but I'm sure we can come up with something that can help residents feel like we have heard them, heard their concerns and follow up with any, um, questions they may have. And that's it. All right. Is there anything else on I-1 by anyone? All right. We're going to take a three minute break and then we're going to take up Mr. Stewart's item. I think we need to clarify something on I-1. Please, ladies and gentlemen, quickly. Um, I'd like to move to accept the staff recommendations with the exception of SEER 20-25-008, which the board acted on separately. Separate. Just a second. All right. We have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. We have a second by Commissioner Altman. Clerk will call the roll. What were those SEERS? I'm sorry. The number is 20-25-008. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. We have a second by Commissioner Altman. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? No. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. We'll show that adopted. All right. We're going to go to I-3 and then we're going to come back to I-2 to finish up. Okay? So, I-3. Morris? All right. This is a request from the applicant, Larry Stewart, who is represented by his attorney, Nathan Maloon, today for waivers from Section 62-102C Brevard County Code of Ordinances to allow for the construction of a house on a property that is located on a county right-of-way but not a county-maintained road. When a property is located, in order to pull a building permit for a single-family residence, you must be located on a county-maintained road. There is an exception that allows for something called an unpaved road agreement. If you are located on a county right-of-way that is not maintained by the county, typically that requires a right-of-way of at least 50 feet in width. Mr. Stewart is located on a right-of-way or his property is located on a right-of-way that is only 30 feet in width. There are various other requirements of the ordinance, and I won't read them all, but they're laid out in the staff report, but there are about four requirements specifically that Mr. Stewart has indicated he does not wish to comply with and wishes the board essentially to waive that whole section of the Code 62-102-C. Are there questions for staff? All right. Mr. Stewart. Hello, Commissioners. So I'm here because I'm homeless. I've been homeless for four years. I haven't been able to live with my sons for four years because I've been stuck in a camper because of the atrocious action, attempted extortion, really, attempted against me from Brevard County. I've read your agenda briefing prior to this meeting, and I don't really know what it is. I believe that you guys are getting all the facts. In 2021, I sold my family's home, beautiful home, had a good family, had my children living with me part-time, as I am divorced, and I bought a piece of property, five acres, fee simple, in a dirt road community where I was raised up in Mims. I was led to believe that I'd be able to build a home on this property. According to Florida State Statute 95.361, roads presumed to be dedicated. The roadway coming to my property, because it exists on a plat dedication, signed by the chair of the board and the clerk to the board and filed in the county where the plat exists, it is considered statutorily dedicated. As far as the worry or the concern about it not being county maintained, there is numerous common law rulings that say that when a roadway exists on a plat, when a roadway on that plat gets accepted and maintenance begins on that roadway, any other roadway, if it's open and in use, falls under what's called implied consent. It also becomes considered county maintained. In 2007, you guys actually lost a case on this very issue. It was case number 05-2007-006251. And the court ruled in favor of the applicant based on that existing common law decision. I should have been, when I asked about building a home on this roadway, that keep in mind, two other homes use as their only access to their properties. I should have been given the application to name the roadway based on Bavari County Ordinance 22-313. Although, I do have a map that I purchased out of Public Works' own ready books that show this roadway already named. I was instead directed to 62-102, which is this waiver that you're hearing today. In that waiver, it was supposed to be approved or denied by the county manager prior to coming to the board. The only way it should have come to the board is if I would have filed a written appeal. That never happened. I was railroaded directly to this board. I've always questioned why that happened. You know, nobody can answer that question. And I see I'm out of time, but I still had quite a bit to say. I'm fine with yielding him a couple more minutes. Everybody okay with that, sir? I came before this commission, Commissioner Pritchett namely, October 26th of 2021. She tabled my application. Actually, the whole board tabled my application. And basically, ever since then, have refused to take any more action on this waiver application that I should have never been, you know, forced to comply with in the first place unless I build this road to some county standard that's going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars that was not required for either of the two properties on this roadway. It's been going on for four years. Where is my protection? The other two properties were never required to do any of this. Where is my equal protection of the law? Why am I being required to build something that already exists when other properties weren't required to? Florida statute 125.022 is very clear on limits on development applications. 60 to 240 days, based on your interpretation, there should be a decision on an application, whether it's an approval or a denial, it's been four and a half years. And I'm here still fighting for the same thing, to put my family back together in a home. During this process, there was a takings application that was filed in front of this commission under 62-507. The county manager's office dropped the ball, didn't schedule that hearing like they were supposed to. One problem that I really have is March of 2023, when my attorney had to come to this commission after eight or nine months and not get a decision on a takings claim, and begged for the hearing, Commissioner Pritchett sat up there and talked about ignoring my emails to her, pleading her for help, and then laughed and offered $100 to help. This is wrong, and I need this fixed. Thank you. Are there questions for Mr. Stewart? Any questions? Do you have a card that you're submitting? Is that what you want to do? I do. I had it ready in case I needed to speak. I'll submit it and give it a brief. Okay. Nathan Maloon, 1990 West New Haven Avenue, Melbourne, Florida. I'm the attorney for Larry Stewart. Mr. Stewart spoke and hit most of the points. He did submit this waiver criteria, which our opinion is not necessary because this is not a subdivision. This was merely one into two. But when you look at what he's requesting, it's just to use the platted right-of-way as legal access. This is on page 248 of what's in your agenda packet for today. And he goes and mentions the not injurious because the other two properties use this portion. And then there's also a number of pictures that show this. There's three properties up in the north county. Two of them already use this for their property as their only means of access. This would just be allowing a third. This wouldn't be creating a precedent merely because, essentially, Mr. Stewart would be using this property as the other two neighboring properties use that are similar. And so we would ask the board to grant the waiver. Thank you. Commissioner Goodson for a question, sir. When he purchased the property, did he know the issues he was getting into? Commissioner, I think that's a loaded question because I think there's – he knew that there was an issue with needing a waiver and was led to believe – and I think we can have Mr. Stewart come up and speak to that if that would be helpful. He knew that there would be some issues and he would have to get this, but he was – he was led to believe that they were routinely granted. He didn't know that he would run into the issues that he did, which I believe were due to because who the seller of the property was. He was led to believe by who? I'll let him answer that. So I was led to believe by Brevard County staffing, probably namely the Public Works Engineering, when I called and I started the process asking, hey, what would I have to do to build a property or to build a home? I was already into contract and purchasing the property. I'd already sold my family's home. Had I not purchased the property, I would have lost it. Now, how many times have you sued the county and lost? So I've only filed one lawsuit in my entire lifetime. I typically don't believe in lawsuits. And you lost that one of the county, right? Well, I wouldn't necessarily consider it being lost, sir, based on the grounds of why the judge dismissed the case, and I feel more comfortable that – Well, if you'd have won, you'd be building your house by now, right? Yes, sir. Okay, so I understand. All right. Thank you, Chair. Morris. Just a few points I'd like to elaborate on based on the comments that were made. First of all, the board action specifically back in 2021, it wasn't just to table it. There are actually a number of waivers being required, and a lot of the focus is been on the road with the difference between the 50-foot and 30-foot, but there are other requirements of the code section that Mr. Stewart has indicated he's not interested in complying with any of them, primarily constructing a road to county standards within the existing right-of-way. But what the board actually did in 2021 when they tabled it was they did that to give Mr. Stewart time to bring back information so that staff could administratively evaluate the waiver request. The reason that this came to the board instead of the normal process was that information had never been provided so that staff could sufficiently evaluate the waiver request. Staff was in a position where its only option would be to deny it, and the issue was forced to the board for a decision outside of the normal process. What the board specifically directed or suggested that Mr. Stewart do in order for staff to process that request was tabled to give him time to show how the road could be constructed within the 30-foot right-of-way with additional easements of the right-of-way, including necessary improvements, road drainage, and utilities. And this will provide staff the administrative authority to review and approve the plans if appropriate, including a waiver of engineering standards. That has never happened. As recently as a few weeks ago, Mr. Maloon indicated that no engineering or design would ever be forthcoming from Mr. Stewart. So part of the reason we're still here four years later is nothing that was requested at the board's action back in 2021 was done. With regard to the other two residents you've heard about that use this as access, those actually front a county-maintained right-of-way called Dixie Way. The unmaintained right-of-way intersects with Dixie Way. They were able to pull building permits based on fronting Dixie Way. They have constructed driveways onto the unmaintained right-of-way, but they do have legal access to Dixie Way, so they meet the code criteria. And then finally, with regard to precedents, a big reason we're here on staff just cannot approve this is because there are hundreds, potentially thousands, of similarly situated properties that if we were to say none of the code applies, go do what you want without complying with one single thing within the code, it would be very difficult to say no to all of those other very similarly situated properties. I would like to hear the attorney respond to that. Yeah, so first, to Commissioner Goodson's question, the case was dismissed without prejudice based on a lack of ripeness, which is why we're here this afternoon to kind of get it to a point where it's ripe and the court would have subject matter jurisdiction. I view the without prejudice as essentially as a, look, this is a jurisdictional issue, it's not an on-the-merits issue. Second, this information has not been required of anybody else. Essentially, what was requested goes outside of what the code requires. And what's being requested in Mr. Stewart is outside of the code. I could get into it, but it's in our, we have hundreds of paragraphs of allegations that we've alleged in the amended complaint that, again, was dismissed due to a lack of ripeness. So we'd love to sit here and essentially litigate the issues, but I think that's why we have the hundreds of pages of complaints, and I think that we'd go well into the evening if I went into all of those today. I appreciate that. Mindful of the time, I don't want to do. I have a question, though. Okay, I think she reached for a light next. Okay, so Commissioner Atkinson and then Commissioner Altman. I'm not sure which staff this is for, but just if we said yes to this request, are we violating our own codes? I think it's extremely inconsistent with the code, yes. I mean, it's different than the waiver, the type of waiver he's asking for is not contemplated in our code. Okay, thank you. I can add to that, Commissioner. So this is not a one-off, and it's not peculiar. We spent a lot of money on sorrel, and to blatantly just move forward with an untreated, unpermitted road is, I think, in the face of many of our requirements. And, you know, we are amenable to waiving certain requirements, but not the entire code, as was previously stated. There's a 50-foot minimum requirement explicitly in 62.295.6, as well as Exhibit 10. And it says all road types require an engineering analysis prepared by the engineer record. They are blatantly not wanting to follow that. We believe that we can get to a solution, but they have yet, in four years, provided a single piece of information that staff has requested so that we can evaluate it. Commissioner Altman. I think that answers my question. How long is this road to get to the house? I'm just curious. Approximately 630 feet. 630 feet. Yes, and the code allows the waivers as long as it's less than, I believe, 1,320. So we're under half. Not a mathematician, but I think that's about half. Eighth mile? 660 is an eighth mile, right? I believe so, yes. Have you all priced it out, what it would cost to build a county standards? I believe it was in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands, and that was back in 2021. Prices have only gone up since then, so it would likely be in at least the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do you pass other privately held properties to get to your house? Get to this lot? Let me, you might be a better answer for that. I'm sorry, sir. You said do I pass other privately? Right. I pass two other properties. When you turn off of Dixie Way, which is the county-maintained dirt road, there are two other five-acre parcels. Both of them use this roadway for their sole means of ingress and egress to their homes. They don't use Dixie Way. One of them is completely fenced off, so to answer your question, yes, sir, I passed two others. And I did provide some level of engineering. I had a nuclear density test done along this roadway that showed the compaction or an LBR value, and it met or exceeded the existing requirements. As far as, can I talk about 30 feet? As far as the issue between 30 and 50 feet, this is a roadway that was platted and accepted in 1937, April of 1937, and has been in use since the mid-60s. I've got aerials to document that. Maintenance of Dixie Way didn't begin until the 70s. The 30 feet to widen it to 50 feet, at my expense, I would have to have my neighbors agree to sell 10 feet by 600 and some feet, dedicate that back to the county. I don't have the powers of eminent domain. If it needs to be widened to 50 feet, that's on you guys to do that, not me. To follow up on that as well, I think if the concern is about emergency vehicles accessing Mr. Stewart's property versus the other two, they're going to use that same road that they access rather than Dixie Way in doing that. I apologize. I can't turn that off. So essentially that these emergency vehicles would use the same road to access these other two properties, and if that's the concern, they'd also be able to reach Mr. Stewart's property. Are there other questions or comments? Now, talk about his ability to vacate. So if he got his neighbors to agree and it could be a drive and then it's not, or a driveway and not a road, can we should answer this for a second? Yeah, just to address one point where Mr. Stewart said that it has to be 50 feet, staff has said that it can be likely built in 30 feet. He just needs to demonstrate how. So that is inaccurate. But to your question, the county can vacate this as a road, and he can have a joint use agreement with his neighbors and consider it a driveway. The permitting from St. John's would be less of a requirement, and we would not be forced to maintain it as a county road. So also to point out, we have never maintained this road, and what the county is signing up for if they agree to this is that ultimately the county needs to come in and improve the road because there's millings there, which is not approved by the board in our code. We would spend about $200,000 and then $10,000 annually, which we don't have. We just spent a long time today talking about money that we don't have. We don't have that money so that he can basically circumvent our code. Sir, what about that possibility of getting the neighbors to agree with him to take this as a driveway as opposed to a county road? Then the county doesn't have an interest in it anymore, and that makes things a lot less expensive for us here. It can't be done? So he doesn't have the ability to force his neighbors to do these things? But is that something that you've approached with them? Yes, and about purchasing land to widen to 50 feet. My neighbors do not agree to that, so I can't force them to agree to that, to be able to vacate. I think his answer is that, and correct me if I'm wrong here, we've looked into that, but, however, the neighbors have not agreed in any way to do that. Isn't there a way that we can come to some kind of agreement that we aren't responsible for the maintenance of this road? Isn't there some kind of contract or something that we could put together that would make Mr. Stewart liable for the road? Not effectively. We've done that before. In the past, there was a form that property owners would sometimes sign prior to the unpaved road agreement ordinance, which stated they wouldn't request that the road be maintained, but because the road is county-owned inevitably, if not that sometimes, in some instances, the same people who signed the form would come in and request their district commissioner do something about the road because potholes had formed or it was too dry or too wet. In other cases, it was the successor and interest who purchased from them, even though that document is recorded of record, they would still request it. But frequently, it's actually service providers like waste management, the mail, others that use those roads that make complaints to the county when there are issues with the lack of maintenance by the private owners along the roadway. What if we came to some kind of agreement where this is Mr. Stewart's and we could come to some kind of agreement where, say, he has to agree to allow those two properties have access and the county to have access? We can't do that because the way the law of vacation works, the vacated road would go to those abutting property owners adjacent to Dixie Way, not to Mr. Stewart. If I could just add, though, you know, while we would do that, and Mr. Stewart had mentioned that, you know, he can't get 50 feet, when it's a driveway, you know, that wouldn't necessarily be a requirement. So he would be asking his neighbors to come up with a joint use agreement as a driveway, maintaining that existing 30 feet, so not expanding it. The requirement for what a driveway is versus a road is much less, less permitting, and also the drainage requirements are less for St. Johns River Water Management District. I hear you when you say that agreements haven't worked in the past, but legally, would that protect us if we came to some kind of agreement where we are not going to maintain this portion of the road? Probably not, not the type of interest we're talking about. And if I could just add to that, you know, the board, through many actions over the years, starting back in 1990, we had significantly less roads that we maintained in the county, and in July 1990 and August 1990, we effectively doubled the amount of roads because the pressure your predecessors had of, as Moore said, too wet, too dry, too something, and they were not, they didn't meet code at that point, and we are suffering the consequences today not being able to bring them up to standards, certainly costing us more to maintain than we do in the past. So it's a cautionary tale, even though the board had, at the time, thought that it wouldn't be an impact. It's been a tremendous impact, especially to District 1, where we have the most amount of unpaved roads, but certainly we have them across the county. I guess the frustration that I'm having is that we have roads like this all over Mims and Scottsmore that are county-maintained, that, you know, we're not talking about a satellite boulevard type of road here. I mean, this is a very short piece of road that has been kept up by the residents of that area. And so it just, it's, not everything is the same. This is not the same situation as hundreds or thousands as, I just don't believe it. I'd have to see that this is the exact same situation as hundreds and thousands of other properties in the, in the waste, in the, in the curtain just waiting. I feel like it's a boogeyman, and I don't think that it's fair. And when we allow, you know, neighborhoods like Sherwood to get passed, but here's one family with one house on a five-acre lot, it just doesn't make sense. Commissioner Atkinson. I just want to understand timing. So Mr. Stewart was purchasing the property, hadn't purchased it or had, when he came to staff and was asking about this information. Commissioner, he had not purchased it. I believe he was under contract. This was when he came to the board in October 2021. Staff had already met with him, and my engineering team explicitly told him what was needed, despite what is being said today. He then purchased it on 12-3-2021, several months later. Okay, thank you. If I may further respond to that. Actually, his first documented contact with staff about the issue where all of this was first laid out was December 3 of 2020, which was a year to the day before he closed on the property. Commissioner Goodson. I'd like to make a motion to deny the request for the waiver. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Goodson to deny the request for a waiver. We have a second by Commissioner Atkinson. The clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney. No. Vice Chair Goodson. Commissioner Atkinson. Yes. Commissioner Altman. Yes. Chairman Felder. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I clarify just before they leave. My assumption would be that if they did provide the information necessary for staff to administratively approve the waiver request, that they still have that option. Does the board agree with that? Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. All right. We're going to I-2. Kathy, you waited very patiently. Mr. Chairman and commissioners, in April, the board approved the advertisement of a consultant to conduct a nationwide search for the county manager's position. The solicitation was advertised. The county received three proposals from the following firms. Colin Binzinger and associates, DMNA, and Reptelis. The selection committee held a public meeting on May 12th to review and discuss the proposals. After the discussion, the committee scored and ranked each proposal. The committee unanimously ranked Colin Binzinger and associates as the number one firm. It is requested that the board approve the selection committee's recommendation on the number one ranked firm and authorize the chairman to execute the professional service contract. The consultant is here if you have any questions. All right. Questions on the item? I have a question. Okay. Commissioner Delaney. On page 15 of the proposal, second paragraph, they talk about tools that could be used, but they would be at an additional cost or fee. And I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing that with us, what those tools may be and what kind of fees we're looking at. Some of our clients want to have psychological assessments, things like that. Frankly, over the years when we've used those tools, they've validated our recommendations. By the way, Colin Binzinger, Colin Binzinger and associates, I apologize. So we don't feel that they're worthwhile. They're not a cost-effective add, shall we say. However, some clients want to have them. And if they do want to have them, then, you know, we are quite willing to facilitate their use. However, we don't want to pay for them. So if you want to use them, we're great with that. Okay. And so would that be even like a disk assessment? Is that one of those tools that you're talking about? Or would that? You know, we would be willing to look into whatever assessment you wanted to use. I don't think we need to. I'm not advocating for that. I'm just wondering what these tools may be. Frankly, it's been so long since we used one that I don't remember the name of it. But it was something like Profile something or other that we used. Okay. We've used Management Inboxes. We've used Myers-Briggs. It just depends on, you know, what our client, what particular issue our client wants us to address with the tool. And so then we go out and find the right tool. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. I don't have a card on this one. Is there a discussion on the item? Commissioner Delaney. I just wanted to, I'm not sure who put together the contract. But I just want to say thank you because I see a lot of my concerns have been put into the contract. So whoever did that, I appreciate you. And I'm in support of this. So I'd like to make a motion to approve. Okay. We have a motion to approve by Commissioner Delaney. Is there a second? Second. I have a second by Commissioner Altman. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney. Yes. Vice Chair Goodson. Yes. Commissioner Atkinson. Yes. Commissioner Altman. Yes. Chairman Feltner. Yes. We'll show that approved. Congratulations, sir. Well, thank you. We look forward to working with you. There's just one administrative matter I'd like to mention. And that is, I understand you're on break for June and that you'd like to have an administrator on board. By the 1st of October. We do like to start our process with one-on-one meetings with each of the commissioners. Would it be possible to do those next Tuesday? If not, I mean, we can do virtual meetings, too. I know I'm kind of putting you on the spot. Well, that's okay. We can each contact you with our schedule after this meeting. Is that we're all agreed? We'll get back to him quickly. I'm not going to be gone the next Tuesday. So I think I can make it work. But I can't speak for everybody, okay? I understand. And I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We'll make it work somehow. And thank you for the award. All right, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I have one card on public comment. Sandra Sullivan. Sandra Sullivan. Best to last, right? All right. So just to the comments that were made on NBEDS, we do still have, obviously, the EDC tax abatement to incentivize those businesses coming here. And I wanted to thank you three that voted to end NBEDS. That's a huge deal. So going back just a little bit on the history, in 2010, a contract was signed between Space Florida and the city of Titusville to provide the site planning and building permits. I did a records request to try and find out what they made on those services, and I was quoted like a $2,500 fee, remarkably. I was not able to get those records. So on September 26, 2023, after I put out this information, the city of Titusville decided to terminate that agreement. And so I did records requests to Space Florida and to the city of Titusville. Turns out they didn't terminate it. It's still being done. So here's kind of the question I have. Space Florida is obviously within District 2 in unincorporated, yeah. And this is in unincorporated Brevard jurisdiction, not the city of Titusville, which is on the mainland, right? Mainland city in a different district. Why are they providing site planning and building permits to an area within the unincorporated district? And this ties into NBEDS. Because you have to understand that NBEDS was created in 2011 in response to that agreement in 2010. And as soon as that NASA agreement was done, they moved Space Florida within NBEDS. So today was a huge day that that was taken out. But there's a second component of this, is that that site planning and building permits should be returned to the county. Because there's a lot happening. We had seven, just in one phase of Blue Origin, $7 million worth of fill brought in. And it is now from the hydrology report that was half a million dollar report paid for by the county, shows that it's no longer in the floodplain, shows that that is increasing the flooding in the area. And there's a meeting coming up with District 2 regarding the increased flooding in the Broad Acres area. And Space Florida doesn't want to pay for any of it. This is the county responsibility portion. And so I ask you to take the second step, because there's liability here for the county, according to your own incorporation study that the county paid for, that this is $5 to $10 million a year in unfunded liability coming from the increased flooding from Space Florida. So I ask you to take some action on that. And I thank you again for your vote today on NBEDS. Yay. Okay, commissioners, quickly in board report, and then, Morris, you have something for me. Okay. All right. Let's just, Jim, board report. No report, Mr. Chair. Mr. County Attorney. No report, Mr. Chairman. No, sir. Okay. Commissioner Atkinson. Thank you, just definitely. Okay. Commissioner Altman. Okay. Commissioner Delaney. No report. All right. Okay. Hold on. Let me read it just right. As authorized by Section 286.011, paren 8, Florida Statutes, the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners will now commence an attorney-client session discussing litigation strategy and settlement negotiations in Brevard County Circuit Court case number 05-2023-CA-015474-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Attending the attorney-client session will be the county commissioners, except for Commissioner Altman, the county manager, the county attorney, our outside litigation counsel, Alicia Gonzalez, and a court reporter. The attorney-client session will be held in the county manager's conference room on the third floor of this building. The estimated length of the session is one hour or less. Hopefully it's less. I will now entertain a motion to temporarily adjourn and reconvene in the county manager's conference room. Move to approve. What's that? Motion to approve. Okay. Okay. We have a motion. We have a second. We all agree? All right. We're going to see you there in 10 minutes. 2.30. Sharp. The opinions expressed by any member of the public during any period of public comment do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, Space Coast Government Television, or the program sponsor and are solely those of the presenter. The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, Space Coast Government Television, and the program sponsor hereby expressly disclaim any and all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements expressed by any member of the public during any such period.