Brevard County Board of County Commissioners on 2025-07-22 9:00 AM - Regular / Tentative Millage - Jul 22, 2025

2-1-4-7-3-7-7-7-0. You're always welcome to visit our website at www.helpingseniorsofbevard.org. Thanks so much for your help. It does make a difference. 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 comment 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 and welcome to the July 22nd regular meeting for the Board of County Commissioners. We have a quorum. We'll call the meeting to order. Today we have an invocation by Pastor Lucian Gandolfo of Beacon Baptist Church. Sir, you're recognized. Thank you for this honor. Before I offer a prayer, I just want to read a couple of verses from the Old Testament. Solomon was the successor of King David, who became the standard bearer for kings that followed him. And as a result of his humility before God, he was granted unparalleled wisdom and much prosperity. So the reason for that extraordinary favor on him is found in 1 Kings 3. So I just want to read verses 6 through 9. It says, I just want to commend this commission for recognizing the importance of seeking God's help and the humility that comes with that. And so let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your blessings. We thank you for our nation. We pray, O Lord, for our federal government, our president, our Congress, our state government, our governor, our legislature, Lord, our county, and even this board of commissioners. Lord, I pray that you bless them as a body, that the decisions that they make, Lord, will be guided by your wisdom. I pray, Lord, that you give them unity and understanding and clarity and integrity. And, Lord, I pray for them individually, that you bless them, protect them, put a hedge around them, bless their families, Lord, and cause them to prosper as they serve you with and with their integrity and their wisdom that you give them. We ask you these things with thanksgiving. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. We greatly appreciate that. Commissioner Altman for the pledge. Okay, commissioners, we do not have minutes for approval today. We'll move into resolutions and presentations. Today we have two presentations and we have one resolution. I'm going to go to E2 first for Commissioner Atkinson. You have a resolution today. Thank you. I would like to ask Waste Management, anyone associated with keeping our county safe and clean to please come up. Jordan Chandler, Tom Mulligan, come on up because we appreciate all of you guys. Commissioner Atkinson is going to read the resolution. We'll make a motion and we'll pass it and then you'll be recognized to speak. Okay, so you can stand right here. It's okay. Where are you going? Jordan, I don't know if you'd be on camera if you go over there. All right. Commissioner Atkinson. I would just like to say that Waste and Recycling Workers Week was actually June 17th, but because we didn't meet in June, we're bringing this forward now. So, thank you. Whereas the Brevard County Solid Waste Management Department's mission is to protect public health, by providing an efficient and environmentally sound solid waste management system. And whereas the Department handles 4,000 tons of solid waste per day, disposing 1,200,000 tons of waste per year, in addition to over 1 million tons per year diverted for recycling and provides recycling outreach information for over 8,000 students and members of civic organizations per year, and whereas waste management, waste and recycling workers also play a vital role in maintaining the health, safety, and cleanliness of our communities, and whereas the dedicated service of all these individuals ensures the proper collection, disposal, and recycling of waste in varying weather conditions, and whereas their daily commitment and professionalism fosters positive engagement with community members that help build connections and strengthen our sense of community, and whereas it is imperative that our community continues to support and show gratitude for these essential workers, recognizing that their efforts are fundamental to a thriving, safe, and clean community. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners hereby recognizes June 17th, 2025, as the start of Waste and Recycling Workers Week to honor and celebrate these hardworking individuals, acknowledging their commitment and invaluable service to our county. done, ordered, and adopted in regular session this 22nd day of July 2025. Thank you. And you had a motion, Commissioner Atkinson? I make a motion. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I think I heard a second from Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. Congratulations. And, sir, you're recognized. Jordan, you're recognized as well. Good morning, Mr. Chair, County Commissioner, staff, Jordan Chandler, Government Affairs Manager for WM. First and foremost, let me say thank you to Commissioner Atkinson for thinking of it, not robbery, to honor the sacrifice, the selflessness, and the commitment of these essential workers who provide an essential service to our community. We know it's more than just about trash and recyclables and garbage routes. It's about creating a more vibrant, a more healthy, and a safer community for all. And so we thank you once again for recognizing the contributions of the countless men and women who represent this out of the waste department and who also represent WM. So thank you so much. Commissioner Atkinson has a resolution for you. Sure. Okay. Commissioners, we're going to go to E1. We have a presentation today. And Juanita is going to introduce the item for us. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. We have briefed some of you and scheduled with the rest on the Brevard County Opioid Abatement Marketing and Education Program. It was requested for CT Social to provide a preview of the upcoming marketing campaign that will launch on August 21st. We will start with a brief introduction of how we got here. We can pull up the first slide, please. May 18th, 2021, the Board of County Commissioners authorized Resolution 21-017, which committed the county to participate in the Opioid Settlement Florida Plan, which would enable the county to receive funds once settlements were reached with opioid pharmaceutical companies. On October 26th, 2021, the Brevard County was approved as a qualified county to receive opioid abatement settlement funds. It is estimated for the county to receive an estimated $44 million over the next 18 years if all the pharmaceutical companies pay out their full settlements. Qualified counties are required to follow the state guidelines regarding expenditure. or funds on the core strategies and approved uses included and required reporting for our department. On November 21st, 2023, the Board approved the first year of opioid abatement services to include marketing and education contract with CTS after the approved RFP process. Now, I'll hand it over to Greg with CTS. Good morning, and thank you for having us. When we started on this project, we conducted a large amount of background research, accessing publicly accessible reports, going on to online forums and social media to see public sediment, and also reviewing government data that we had available to us. We performed community listening, which entailed seven town halls across the county, and a community survey that we distributed as well through the government and also through advertising. We performed stakeholder interviews, which consisted of talking to county and city leadership, to different staff members from EMS, law enforcement, parks, libraries, and also to non-profit service providers in this sector. What we found was that there's a large burden on different systems in the community. From law enforcement, while they're pursuing traffickers and DWIs, they're also responding to a high number of overdose calls, in addition to first responders and health care, there's a high volume of calls that's placing a strain on the system and a large number of emergency rooms being taken up for people that are overdosing. And from community workers, the parks and libraries and transit staff, they've seen people overdosing and intoxicated in their facilities, to the point that a park worker even said that they got stuck with a needle while changing out the toilet paper rolls in the parks. And the only thing that they could say was that, thank goodness, it was them and not a child. Non-profit providers have said that they require additional funding to serve the growing need of those that are overdosing and to provide treatment and beds. The child welfare system has seen a larger number of children entering the foster care system because of caretaker drug abuse. And families struggle to know how to help those that they're connected to when they are struggling with opioid use disorder. From our survey, some of the key takeaways. About 82% said that they feel that this is a concerning issue in Brevard. 46% said that they've been personally affected by this issue, whether it's themselves, friends, or family. And a large number of people believe that it's 30 and under that are most at risk to opiate overdose. Our research found that it's actually 35 and over that have the most risk of dying from fentanyl overdose. So some of the messages that we put together or the priorities that we're going to be messaging upon is reducing the stigma so that way we can help encourage people to seek help. We want to offer accessible resources to family members so that way they can talk to loved ones and hopefully provide them the support that they need. We want to make sure that navigation is easy to find treatment and resources for those that are ready and willing. We want to focus on youth substance use prevention. We've heard for the diversion program of children as young as six getting admitted because they were found with a vape that had THC in it. We want to also make sure that we promote life-saving knowledge and tools such as naloxone and MAP programs. A lot of people don't understand what medically-assisted treatment is, and we want to make sure that we can outline that for them if that's a correct choice that they can go down. Through this campaign, we've identified different audiences that we're going to pair with these messages so that way we can make sure to get the right message to the right audience using the correct platform. So we're going to engage those audiences through print media, digital media, television, social media, and also partnerships with youth outreach and local nonprofits. Our current timeline is currently we're still doing stakeholder meetings. We're designing these concepts and brand guidelines. We're creating a website with the county that will be owned directly by the county, and we're prepping launch for August 21st, which is Fentanyl Awareness Day. And from that point, we'll have a media campaign going on all of these mediums that we talked about, and we'll make sure to have all the media buying before October finalized to run for the rest of the year and prep and planning for year two. Thank you very much for your time. Okay. Commissioner's questions. Commissioner, or, uh, Colleen, sorry. I don't have a question. I just wanted to say thank you. Is that, is now okay? I just wanted to say thank you so much to you and your team, and Juanita, you and your team, for coming and meeting with me, and I'm really excited that this is getting going, and I can't wait for these funds to be available for the public, or for the nonprofits to help people that are, you know, needing this help. So I just really thank you all so much for the hard work you've put in to prepare this. Thank you. It's a privilege. Thank you very much. Any other questions before we go on to the next one? Okay. Sir, thanks for coming today. We appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Commissioners, we're going to go on to item E3, and Commissioner Delania, I think you're going to introduce this one. Thank you. So I had a really great meeting with Second Harvest. You're welcome to come up if you'd like. And one of the things that, you know, I've been involved in some different food bank situations and whatnot. I volunteered with FarmShare and some of these different things, and I realized there's not really, there wasn't really a whole lot going on in District 1, and so I just really wanted to just bring awareness to, you know, food deserts, food needs, and let people know that there are services out there that provide food for people who are needing it. And with that, if you'd like to present, thank you so much for coming today. I have something for everyone. Good morning. My name is Stephanie Palacios, and I am the Director of Government Relations at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Has anybody been to either our previous facility in West Melbourne or our brand-new facility in Melbourne? I know Commissioner Delaney has. So a little bit about Second Harvest Food Bank. We are the largest hunger relief organization in Central Florida. This map up here shows, and it's actually on the back of your folder as well, this shows our service area. We have five locations. Our headquarters, main warehouse, is in downtown Orlando, but our newest location is in Melbourne. We have a brand-new facility in Melbourne that I'll talk about in just a minute, but our service area is seven counties, and in these seven counties, we distribute 300,000 meals every single day. And how do we do that? How do we get food out to our community, and who is that community that we're serving? So Second Harvest is a member of Feeding America as well as Feeding Florida. If you look at this little map of Florida, this shows our sister food banks throughout the state. Feeding Florida covers every county in the state of Florida, and we all work together. So why that's so important is in times of disaster. If we're hit by a hurricane, while we're not first responders, our infrastructure already exists. We can get our trucks on the road as soon as roads are safe, and we do that. We actually hold state commodities, disaster commodities, in our warehouses throughout the state to partner with the state of Florida to support our neighbors who are food insecure after disasters. So with our new Brevard facility, we actually have even more emergency and disaster relief supplies here in Brevard County. This network, through Feeding America, which is the largest hunger relief organization in the United States, we can source food from all over the country, but most of our food actually comes from Florida. Last year, 75% of the produce that we distributed was Florida-grown, and that was 34 million pounds of produce. Our agricultural partners are essential to the work that we do. Now, what does hunger look like? Who is hungry in Central Florida? One in seven Central Floridians is food insecure. That's a big number, and the number is even more staggering when you think about one in six children is food insecure. And that kind of hits us at home. You know, these are babies that may not know where their next meal is coming from, and if they're not in school, they may not be getting that meal over the weekend. And that's something that we really take to heart at Second Harvest, and we try to address. So over half a million people in our seven-county service area are food insecure, and either seek assistance through one of our pantries or through one of our hunger relief programs. Now, last year, Second Harvest distributed over 82 million meals in our seven-county service area. And as I mentioned, our cadence for distributing meals is 300,000 meals a day. This is a higher number than it was back in 2020. We are seeing more people come to our pantries for assistance than we were back in 2020, and we're seeing that number continuously go up. And how are we distributing these meals? Now, Second Harvest, I like to say, is kind of like the Amazon of food pantries. These smaller food pantries, which we have about 800 community partners in our seven-county service area, they go to one of our warehouses to get food. We source food from all over different, in fact, one of our biggest partners is Publix, Walmart, Winn-Dixie. We're getting food from our retail partners as well as our agricultural partners. And not only are we providing food, we're providing nutrition education, cooking demonstrations so that if a neighbor is getting some sort of produce that they're not sure how to use, we can help them learn how to use it. Now, how do we get food? We have 25 trucks, and they hit the road every morning to go to our retail partners to pick up that extra food. So let's say you go into Publix and you see some ground beef that may be approaching its expiration date. You and I aren't going to pick that up to buy it. However, it's perfectly good ground beef. What Publix does is they freeze that ground beef, and one of our trucks will pick it up. All of our trucks are refrigerated, and they will bring it to our warehouse. Our volunteers will sort through it, make sure it's not compromised in any way, and it goes out to our community for free. We're making sure that we are eliminating some waste because otherwise that food is going to get thrown away. But it's getting out to families who need it. Additionally, we purchase food. Our philanthropic work, a lot of it is to make sure that we can purchase those healthy options so our pantries have them to distribute to our neighbors. And like I said, our over 800 partners are the people who are on the ground distributing straight to our neighbors in need. What else do we do? We have a culinary training program through our Orlando warehouse. This is a free 16-week workforce development program that teaches our neighbors who are mostly food insecure the essential skills that they need to work in hotels or work at Disney or work at Universal or work anywhere in the culinary arts. Additionally, we have our school partnerships program that is here in Brevard County as well. This is where we provide school markets and farmers markets at schools so that our students have access to those healthy options at school as well as their families because that's one thing that we see. If we're feeding a student, it's likely that they're sharing that food at home with their families. Additionally, we provide SNAP assistance. In fact, that is my team that reports up to me. And we have two specialists that are based here in Brevard County that assist neighbors in registering for SNAP. This program is unique that we have a contract with DCF and we act as DCF. So we do that very first interview with the neighbor who is seeking SNAP assistance. Now, our brand new Brevard branch over in Melbourne, we have been operating in Brevard in some capacity since 2000. Our previous location was in West Melbourne, but it was much smaller and we were outgrowing that location. So we expanded to a 23,000-foot facility in Melbourne, and that's a picture of it up there. And we opened in 2024. We have increased capacity by over 60% since we moved into our brand new Melbourne facility. And this is all food that is going out to Brevard County neighbors. And like I mentioned, we do house our disaster supplies. In fact, that picture where you see Hope, the second level is all disaster supplies, and that's where I took that picture from. Now, Brevard County numbers. I mentioned that we have partner agencies all throughout our service area that help us distribute food. In Brevard County, we have 92 smaller nonprofits who get a majority of their food through Second Harvest. These are diverse pantries that are maybe the size of one room or the size of a small warehouse. But they're serving neighbors directly, and they're all within our network. Last year, we distributed over 8.8 million meals to Brevard County residents. And our school partnerships, we have 11 school partnership sites. Currently, we actually have a discussion tomorrow with the Brevard County School Board, again, to expand our school partnership sites here in Brevard County. And as I mentioned, we have that SNAP application assistance. I have two specialists who are dedicated to Brevard County. Now, that's just a really quick overview of Second Harvest. I would like to invite each of you to come to our Melbourne warehouse for a tour and a discussion if you'd like to learn more about our partner agencies and how they're supporting constituents in your district. My information is there. My business card is there. If you ever have questions or have a constituent who is seeking food assistance, please let me know, and we can connect them. We're here as a resource for you. Thank you so much for having me. Just real quick. Anyone have questions? Any other comments? Go ahead, Commissioner Delaney. Thank you so much for coming today and presenting for this important topic. I really appreciate your time. Of course. Thank you so much. Anytime. Okay, Commissioners. We will move into consent. Is there anything anyone wants to take off in consent? I do have three cards, I think. Okay, we'll go to the cards. Sandra, you have three. We'll just do it in one shot, okay? Good morning. Sandra Sullivan. Okay, so the first one I want to talk about is the legislative intent and permission to advertise amendments to solid waste. And I just want to just encourage, you know, what the public wants is more transparency and accountability. And so there was a recent item on the agenda on going out for some bonds and how it was allocated for that bonding and what it was specified. And I came up here and I said, you know, that there was, that it didn't correspond with what VendorLink was showing, which was a $33 million project. So last night I was reading the budget and the cost for the new 192 dump is now up to $83 million. It was supposed to be around $30 or $35 million originally. So we now know that number. And so my ask of you is just more transparency to the public. Like, what is going wrong? Why is it such an aggressive cost overrun, et cetera? So the second item is about the Community Redevelopment Agency annual reports. And specifically, I want to talk about the O'Galley CRA. It has been the position of our state legislators to try to push to do away with CRAs to no new debt and to eliminate them by 2040. And I think that that pushed that direction, and particularly in light of the budgetary constraints this county is indicating it has a fiscal crisis. That, and when you read that CRA, they have in their, they've been collecting CRA and the county funds, not expending money per the agreement. And they're up to about $5 million now. But the parking garage was to not exceed $6 million and change. Well, they're up to over $8 million and change. So now you have a cost escalation. And I'm just going to say, you know, this should be addressed right now because that is not compliant with the agreements. And I sent you all an email with very detailed all of the agenda items from the past for this and the attachment of the agreement to not exceed $6 million and change. And so that should be discussed here now, in my opinion. And then the third item, and I want to just add something on there. You know, who is, who this parking garage and who the developer is, you know, when you see that they give to PACs that help elect people up on this commission, does not have good optics either. And then the third one is the audit reports for the fiscal year 2024, which I was looking for those repeatedly and was happy to see that they came out. But there's, what I don't see in them is an explanation and more detail, and this board has not discussed this either, is that for the first time ever in February and March of this year, there was no write-off on the agenda item for ambulance. Now, what we do see is there's like $7 million and change as a loss. And usually there's about $23 million net with, after the write-offs. So I think some explanation with transparency and accountability to the public is in order on that item. And thank you, and have a blessed day. Thank you. Okay, I already asked, are there any items anyone want to take off of consent? We're done with the cards. Is there a motion for consent? Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. I 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. We'll show that. Passes 5-0. Okay, Commissioners, thank you. On the G section, public comments, we have two cards. Sandra? Recycle that. Lieutenant Dacco on the last one. Good morning. I've got a couple things. Can I can't you guys? Absolutely. Beautiful. So, what I have here is my SEER recommendation that was supposed to be denied, and then I have like four days that may be something that can be addressed here for funding sources. Let me see if I can find my notes here. The back of this SEER recommendation is the staff analysis, which is kind of what I'm going to address today. So, if I could start here, I'm here today to address the SEER recommendation I submitted, 2025-020, which was recently denied. I reviewed the staff analysis in detail and wish to clarify a critical misunderstanding. While the correct Florida statute was indeed cited, section 212-05508, its application of potential were, in my view, not fully recognized. This recommendation clearly authorized counties, particularly charter counties like Brevard, to propose a 1% discretionary sales tax via ordinance for a referendum for emergency fire rescue operations and EMS advanced life support ALS transport services. Contrary to the conclusion of the staff memo, this initiative is not outside the county's authority. In fact, the statute lays out a clear and legal path forward, one that other counties have already successfully walked. Here's what the statute allows. The sales tax, the sales surtax would replace fire and EMS-related property tax and assessments, easing the financial burden of business owners, developers, and homeowners. Funds can be distributed proportionally to all participating municipalities or retained for county-wide capital improvements, such as building or renovating fire stations, purchasing life-saving equipment, and staffing ambulances. Unused or declined shares from the municipalities can legally revert back to the county and be used exclusively for fire rescue and EMS-ALS operations, managed, and a dedicated fund with oversight and audits. In other words, the county can structure this program to ensure every dollar collected stays in Brevard County and serves Brevard County Fire Rescue and its EMS-ALS transport system. That flexibility is built into this statute. And yet I'm reading between the lines that the staff recommendation that this is too ambitious, that the coordination with municipalities is too complex, and that this initiative may be too politically difficult. If that's truly the case, then we are failing in our duty as stewards of the public trust, saying it's too hard, it's not leadership. Commissioners, the departments you oversee remain underfunded and overstretched, particularly fire rescue and EMS-ALS transport services. I presented a legally sound, photo-driven and sustainable funding mechanism to fully support these vital operations. Chairman Feltner, we spoke four or five months ago. You acknowledged the merit of my proposal. You said that you actually had something similar as well. I asked how we could move it forward in that moment. I hoped that you would provide me guidance. I hoped for leadership. Now I hope for action. Proposal directly aligns with the very initiative that our governor, Ron DeSantis, is working to implement, shifting the burden of funding critical services away from property owners and towards a broader, more equitable base. A sales surtax like this does exactly that. It ensures that the millions of tourists and visitors who enjoy Brevard County also contribute to maintaining the high-quality emergency services they expect when they are here, when people visit Brevard. They expect excellent infrastructure, rapid emergency response, and well-equipped professionals. Cunning funding from one department just to provide a lifeline to another is not leadership. Presenting critical needs is a crisis while failing to explore viable funding solutions is not leadership. And breaking the 3% sales tax cap instead of developing sustainable funding sources is not leadership. This pattern that we're in right now is reactionary. And the short-term fix has gone on for far too long. It needs to stop. Hopefully, this board right here will stop that and find a creative funding source to fix our needs. Let's be honest. The real obstacle here isn't legality effort. I mean, it's not legality. It's efforts. It will take interlocal agreements. It will take time. It will take public agreement. But it's all possible. And more importantly, it's necessary. In closing, leadership means making hard decisions. It means making. It means doing what is right, not what is easy. It means being bold when the people we serve need it most. Brevard County needs leaders who are willing to step forward. Hopefully, you guys will be those leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. That's okay. I didn't know DACA was going to speak. So, Sandra Sullivan. And I want to talk about and continue on with what he was talking about. Okay, the first page is the 2025 local discretionary sales surtax rates in Florida counties. As a county, Brevard County is allowed up to $0.03 sales tax. As DACA said, there is an appetite at the state level to move from property tax to sales tax to lift some of the burden on the people because, quite frankly, things are getting unaffordable. And so, as you see on this, it shows the existing taxes you already have and what is available. So, there's a specific category for emergency fire rescue services to where this could be funded. Now, you'll also see – sorry, I didn't give you all – there's two more here. Also see that we have, according to TDC, we have 24 new hotels coming online in the next three years. That's a lot of tourism. And so, basically, if you look at fire and EMS, they are doing calls to the beaches, they're doing calls to the port, they're doing calls to the hotel. And, quite frankly, a lot of the costs that Brevard has with regard to the beaches and, you know, EMS responses and so on, means that it is a very fair and equitable thing for that cost to be shared and offset. So, you know that a half-cent sales tax brings in about $600 million over 10 years. And it was also the recommendation by transportation to have a half-cent sales tax to cover transportation. We have a huge deficit, $2.2 billion, that we have no way to cover and that crisis is increasing. And then there's some talk about SB 180 and maybe you can't even increase impact fees. That's a question. And then, finally, you know, you have SORO, which I think most people are not in favor of anymore. And we'd like to see the sewage system taken and restructured into. So, I'm going to request that you guys consider doing this now. You have until August 19th to draft ordinances, to do sales tax, because kicking this can down the road another year when you have a fiscal crisis is just setting us up for you guys wanting to do away with the 3% tax cap. And, yes, Ms. Atkinson, you came to a meeting and made that pitch. Thank you. Okay. That's the end of the G portion of public comment. We will go on to H1, Juanita. Good morning again, Commissioners. H1 is the final public hearing for our 2025-2026 annual action plan. This is the second and final public hearing. The first public hearing was on May 6th and it opened a 30-day public hearing requirement. Per our citizens' participation plan, Housing and Urban Development HUD requires jurisdictions to hold two public hearings and one public meeting under the annual action plan. The public meeting was held on May 20th during our Community Development Block Grant Citizen Advisory Committee meeting. HUD requires recipients of home and CDBG funds to prepare annual action plan using the goals and priorities established in the five-year consolidated plan. We are estimated to receive $1.3 million in CDBG dollars and a little over $1 million in home funds. We advertised in Florida Today, Ebony News, Aldea, our department website, press release on the county website, social media, press release on Spectrum News 13, and we received five public comments. Are there questions for Juanita? Any questions? I don't think we have any cards on this one. Commissioner, we're in discussion. Is there any discussion on the item? Is there a motion on the item? Move to approve. I have a motion by Commissioner Delaney. Is there a second? You're reaching. Okay. Commissioner Atkinson seconds. 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 passes 5-0. Juanita, you're recognized on H2. Thank you, Commissioner. H2 is the approval for the CDBG Substantial Amendment. This action moves unencumbered funds from various years to the current fiscal year to pay off the Health Department Section 108 loan and fund installation of speed humps on Schoolhouse Lane, Lucas Terrace, Mini Street, and Myrtle Ave. Questions for Juanita? I don't think we have cards on this one. Commissioners, we're in discussion. Is there any discussion on the item? Is there a motion? I have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. I 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. We'll show that passes 5-0. Thank you. Okay. On H3, and Morris, you're going to, and I think someone might be here from BCSO. Sure. H3, I see that Under-Sheriff Waller is here, and he may want to speak to it, but H3 is just permission to participate in and accept the U.S. Department of Justice Edward Byrne Memorial Grant. That is for countywide transportation of prisoners. There's an agreement between the law enforcement agencies in the county that these funds are used so that the sheriff can send someone to transport prisoners to the county jail complex so the municipal departments don't have to take an officer off the road to drive them up there. Okay. Morris, having explained the issue, are there any questions on the item? I don't have any cards on the item. Commissioners in discussion, is there any discussion on the item? Is there a motion on the item? Second. 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 Feltner? Yes. And we'll show that passes 5-0. Thank you, Commissioners. I see Commander Bernath in the box. Mark, you're recognized on H-4. Thank you, and good morning. I have three different petitions to vacate. The first is a portion of two public rights away, Bellawood Estates. It's in Titusville, located west of US-1, north of River Park Boulevard. Petitioners requesting vacating to make ownership contiguous, which will allow the continuous development of the current property. We have no objections. Okay, Commissioners, just so you know, I think we have property owner here for questions, and we do have a couple other cards. Before that, though, are there questions of staff? No staff questions? Okay. Let's go to John Wurtz. Sorry, John Wurtz for H-4. Okay. Kim Rizanka, do you need to speak? If not, okay. All right, Commissioners, is there a discussion on the item? Is there a motion on the item? Move to approve. We have a motion by Commissioner Delaney. Is there a second on the item? Second. I think Commissioner Altman was a second on that item. Clerk will call the roll. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Gibson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. We'll show that pass as 5-0. Thank you, Commissioners. We'll go up Mark on H-5. H-5 is another petition to vacate. This is a portion of two public utility and drainage easements and a portion of a stormwater retention easement in Indian River Village, Merritt Island, south of 528, west of North Courtney Parkway. The petitioner is requesting to allow for the construction of a garage-slash-workshop. We've received no comments or objections. Okay, questions for staff. Commissioners, I have one card just from the owner. Questions only. Are there any questions of the applicant? No. Is there discussion on the item? Is there a motion? Motion moved. We have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. 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 pass as 5-0. Mark on H-6. H-6 is a petition to vacate a portion of a public utility easement at Barefoot Bay Mobile Home Subdivision. The petitioner is requesting the vacate to allow the replacement of a screen enclosure on the porch, which was purchased with the home but blown out during a hurricane. And in order to remove the encroachment, this vacate needs to go through. We've received no objections. Okay. Questions for staff. I don't have any cards on this. Commissioners, we'll go and discussion. Is there any discussion? No. All right. Motion to approve. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I 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 one pass as 5-0. Thank you, Commissioners. See Peter's getting in the box there. We will go to H-7. Peter, are you recognized? Good morning, Commissioners. H-7 is a change to the Tourism Development Tax Ordinance to allow the clerk of the courts to begin collection of the Tourist Development Tax beginning in October. Commissioner's question on the item. I don't have any cards on the item. Is there a discussion on the item? Commissioner Atkinson? I just wanted to say thank you to our clerk of courts for taking on this responsibility. Same. We have a ditto by Commissioner Delaney. Okay. Is there a motion on the item? Move to approve. May I ask, can I request that any motion include a provision that the county attorney's office can correct any Scrivener's errors prior to transmission to the state through the clerk? I think I may have noticed one capitalization that might need to be changed. Not entirely sure, but just in case. Okay. I'll amend my motion to include that. Thank you. Very good. We have a motion by Commissioner Delaney including Scrivener error corrections. Is there a second on that item? Second. I thought I heard that. Okay. 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 Feltener? Yes. We'll show that passes 5-0. Thank you, Commissioners. All right. We're going to move to H-8. Okay. Good morning, Commissioners. In this agenda item, staff is requesting that the board set the fiscal year 25-26 proposed millage rates. And the agenda attachment provides details on the 24 individual taxing districts that Brevard County is taxing authority over. These millages align with the proposed budget that was presented to the board and posted on our website on July 15th. All of these millage rates have been established within the Brevard County charter cap limitations. So as the property values increase, which they increased by approximately 7% this year, because we are limited in the ad valorem growth by 3% or CPI, which was 2.95, all of the proposed millages have decreased from the current millage rates. So that's a 1.32% decrease from the current aggregate rate. But while the millage rates have decreased, the aggregate millage rate is higher than the rollback rate. Therefore, according to the state requirements under this proposal, the final budget hearing would be advertised as a tax increase. Florida statute requires that we provide the property appraiser with proposed millages no later than August 4th for inclusion in the trim notice. The trim notice is what notifies the taxpayers of the tentative millage rates and also serves as an announcement for the first budget hearing in September. We are also requesting in this agenda item that the board meeting calendar be changed to reflect the tentative budget hearing date as September 10th. We had initially scheduled the first hearing for September 9th. However, according to Florida statutes, we cannot schedule a hearing on the same day as the school board. They have scheduled their final budget hearing for September 9th. So we're requesting to move it to the following day, which would be the 10th. And we are able to answer any questions the commissioners may have. Commissioner, questions? Do I have two cards? Sir? Thank you. If I can just add on to Jill's. In my budget message, we had in there for the public service tax, we've discovered a thank you to the sharp eyes and the staff confirmed it, that that is a utility tax. And under Section 2.99 of the charter, that would have to go to the voters. We just can't vote on that and implement it. So I just want to make you all aware of that. I called around yesterday to make sure you're aware, but I also want to make it aware to everybody in the public. So I apologize for that. Okay. We appreciate that clarification. Any questions? I just have a procedural question for the chair. I have an item later on in the agenda talking about different possible revenue sources. Would we rather talk about all this at one time or just keep going as the agenda is put out? I don't personally mind talking about it after this item. I think we need to adopt the millages. We have to absolutely do that today for the sake of the property appraiser and sending trim notices and those sorts of things. So it would be my preference that we finish this item and then we could go to, I think it's J-8. Is that your item? Sure. If I remember. Is that amenable? Definitely. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I have questions. Sir? Yeah, I had a similar question, whether we're going to have some dialogue of what our options are, how much we roll the millage up or down or not. Also, I did have some questions related to the EELS program that we may want to provide a millage adjustment in EELS so we would have the ability to do additional bonding on that program if we so desired. If we don't do that today in the adoption of these preliminary millages, that might preclude us from taking action for an entire year. So that was some discussion I wanted to have as well. Well, we'll definitely have discussion. We're just on questions now, but I appreciate that. We'll come back to that in just a second. We have two cards that we'll go to and then we'll have discussion. Okay, good. All right. Sandra Sullivan. After Sandra, we'll have Vince Lamb. Sandra Sullivan. So where is all the money going? And so this is about a 200% increase since 2014. This is from the property appraisers from a presentation she made. And so since the county has fiscal constraint, my first question is, why did you not do doge? We had the two cities do doge. Why didn't you do doge? Why didn't you get the help of the state to come in and help with that process? So, and then I want to talk about, you have before you a state statute 125271, which is about EMS. And it says a county that adopted an ordinance authorizing the imposition of an assessment for emergency medical services prior to January 1, 2002, can put the EMS assessment below the line. Now, I do know, you know, there was a lawsuit with Palm Bay. However, the legal opinion, which you guys have had several times via email, is dated 2012. There were other lawsuits. The law changed, and they came out with a legal opinion that you can move EMS assessment below the line. And I don't know why you don't, why you don't do that. So to be clear, when you're rolling back and it's not enough to keep it under 3%, I presume that was very craftily worded to mean you were busting the cap this year. Am I, is that clear? Can you clarify that to the public at large watching this meeting? Um, and it goes to, again, um, this graph, which is in your transportation budget, is looking at options for other means of income, which I think what we're looking at. So all this pink on the counties that are doing really well for transportation, that's coming from a transportation sales tax, which, you know, I don't know. We just do not do proactive management. We wait until a dump runs out of space before we start building one, and we don't even know how long that's going to take. It was supposed to be five years. Who knows? Um, so according to the budget report for transportation, we have over $2.2 billion. The critical needs, uh, this year is $251.6 million, but we have, I think, about a quarter of that, um, from what I read, um, $61.4 million is what is in the budget report. You know, you guys have a crisis, and you're going to kick this can down the road. I'm betting you're going to kick this can down the road yet another year. You delayed the, uh, impact fee study to the ones you could have got out early and done milestones, because I called the contractor. And instead, you're going to wait until the whole thing is in, so that, you know, some of our locals here that are connected can go up to Tallahassee and lobby so that we can't update, we can't increase impact fees. So, I, you know, I don't know about 180 on that, but, um, I'm just going to say here that what we should be doing, in my opinion, proactively for 2026, we should move the EMS assessment below the line, and, um, the reason I feel that we don't do that is just like lifeguards. It wasn't legal to put, use, use the TDT money for lifeguards. They gave you the legal opinion, but we changed the law this year. It's now legal, so we did it. We got that fixed. But the cities don't want to pay their share of EMS, and if you look at the last few years, the portion of EMS, the general fund, was not enough to cover that. So, you have a 37% increase in fire, you have a corresponding 30% increase in EMS, and taking it away from other services paid by the county residents is not fair and equitable. Put EMS assessment below the line, please. Okay, thank you. Vince Lamb. Morning, Commissioners. I learned that today is essentially the last opportunity to increase the bond limit on the EEL program, my conservation land purchase, so I thought I would come speak and ask that I think most of you know that I served as a political action committee chair to get the referendum passed in 2024, and it not only passed, it got more than 70% of the vote, and I can assure you that Brevard voters knew what they were voting for on that. So, here we are, three years later, approaching three years later, and we really have not initiated a meaningful conservation land program. I also want to remind you that this conservation land program is very much focused on the lagoon. It was a preference for properties that will benefit the lagoon. There's even some information on requiring information about how much they benefit it. So, the lagoon right now, I believe, is making progress, but it needs all the help that we can provide, and this is an important way that we can provide it. So, I ask you to please consider increasing the bond limit to something significant at this meeting. Thank you. Thanks, Vince. Okay, Commissioners. That was the last card on that. We're in discussion. Discussion on the item. Yes. Go ahead, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would propose that we do raise the millage rate that would allow us to bond under the voter-approved billage. It's a very small impact on a $250,000 home. I think it's like $18 a home or something per year. I know I talked to staff. What would that millage rate be? What would be the change if we were to do that here today? At least give us an option to have the public discussion when we go to the public hearing. So, the voter-approved millage on the environmentally endangered lands is .1465. We have that separated by the debt portion and operating, but together, the proposed rate is 0.0531. So, there's still a balance there. The additional levy on an average taxpayer, it would be an additional $18.68 annually. That would be based on an average taxable value of $200,000. So, the millage rate we would need to achieve, that would be what? Not including the annual maintenance, but the actual capital. So, give me one second. We ran some numbers yesterday just to look at. So, we issued, a bond was issued in 2024 at just over $6.2 million. So, the remaining amount that could be bonded is about $43.8 million. That's in accordance with what the voters approved of up to $50 million. And then you would have 17 years to pay that off. We did just a quick estimate on an amortization schedule. The required debt millage to pay, that would be around $3.3 million a year, plus what we're currently paying, it would be $0.0521 would be the additional debt required. And that's just an estimate. $0.0521. Okay. Correct. Well, I would love to see us at least advertised for that, so we're not foregoing that opportunity and closing off that program. Just to clarify, Commissioner, what you're suggesting is that we bond the remaining $43 and change million? Well, today, that we at least, when we advertise our millage, that we have the ability to have that discussion in the public hearings in the future. I'm not trying to convince the board in any way, shape, or form to bond those additional dollars here today, but at least have the ability to have the public input and have the discussion of that in the future in our budget hearings. Okay. Appreciate the clarification. Other discussion? I have a similar request for the fire control MSTU. Joe, if you could help, the voter-approved millage was .6-something. What was the whole number? So, in 1998, the voters approved a referendum with the voter-approved millage for fire control MSTU at 0.6431. And the reason why I feel like it might be a good idea to have this as a possibility for us is because while we did do the fire assessment, that really gave us the funds that we needed to get a good contract for our people, but it didn't really leave a whole lot for infrastructure and other needs that the fire department desperately has. And so, I just feel like it would be a good idea to make sure that they have the funding that they need to do the job that they have to do. What does that do for exceeding charter cap or any of those kinds of things? So, since that is a voter-approved millage, the charter cap limitation doesn't apply to those voter-approved millages. Okay. Others? Commissioner Atkins. So, I have a procedure question. I just want to make sure I know what I'm talking about, so please forgive me. When we're talking about the voter-approved millage rates from 1994 and 2000, and I look at the numbers, we're not close to what the voters approved, you know, 25 years ago. So, while I don't think we shouldn't consider changing those millage rates, what I am concerned about is over 25 years have people's thoughts shifted. So, what I don't want to do is to preclude us from being able to adjust these. I would like to have resident input. 25 years ago, people said, yes, please. What do people think right now? And I guess I don't exactly know the best way to do that. So, if staff has any thoughts about how we get that accomplished, finding residents' thoughts without today stopping ourselves from being able to make that change later. Hopefully, that's a sensible question. Whatever the board adopts today will be sent in those trim notices, which will notify the taxpayers of what their potential property taxes will be on those individual levies. So, the board can always lower those, and that's what happens in September at the tentative and the final budget hearings. Those millage rates can be lowered. They cannot be increased after the trim notice goes out without a significant cost sending out additional mailings and things of that nature. So, let's say we suggested the idea of just going to half of what voters approved in 2000 and 1994. That would go out to residents, and then we would hear, probably, how they feel about that. Is that a safe assumption? They would be notified in the trim notice, and it would also provide the date of the tentative budget hearing where we would be discussing those rates. So, there would be a notification to those taxpayers. And I think that that might just elicit some thoughts from people who are looking at their notices. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Other discussion on the item? Okay. Commissioner Altman, interesting on the eels. And I can appreciate where you're coming from. I'll tell you, I think the prior board, my recollection is that we didn't want to bond the whole amount out all at once because, obviously, the market changes. Other things change. It's my opinion. I may be wrong in this, that there'll be a cooling off of the market, and there'll probably be better buys in the future. That's what I think. These things are cyclical. And buying at the highest value today might not be the best way forward. So, I have a little angst going out there for the whole Monty. If you were to get somewhere maybe that matches what the prior board did, I could get, and that's a lot less than what you want, but I could potentially go there with you on that one. That's my opinion. What did the prior board do? Well, it went up to about $6 million, I think, right, Jim? It was about $6.2 million, the first half of that, $3.2 million, was for operational capital needs, and then the $3 million was for land acquisition. I think if I could suggest here, you know, you're going to pay that back over the next 17 years, I think I heard, in payments, right? That one is over 20 years. Right. But, so, over the lifespan of this whole thing, let's just say this EELs lasts for 20 years. They'll, you know, maybe not tie the hands of future boards right now, today, and give them a little flexibility. So, that's where I am today on that issue. I appreciate that. I, we could go, I don't know if $6 million would be enough. Here's the, here's the crystal ball. You know, interest rates are a little high now. Property values are high. We could wait and not pay the higher interest rate, but property values could continue to appreciate at a higher level than the interest rate. But, I think your analysis that things may cool off probably is a valid analysis. So, maybe my motion, when we get to that, would be for not 100% bonding, but a lower amount. Maybe we're talking about, what, $14 million? Maybe. Maybe, no, it would be more than that. It would be, I know Jill helped me a little bit here. I'm thinking maybe half of what I would request, that we could at least bond half of it, given future board ability to come back. I know we now have a consultant on board that's helping us with the acquisition. That would also be a good opportunity to get their feet wet and get started. So, I'd be willing to make a motion for less than the full amount. I just don't know exactly how much would give me comfort. Six million might be a little low, but I'd be willing to do a substantial cut in what I'm trying to get. Because, I think right now we're looking at $44 million, would that be, since we have six million out? Correct. Around $43.8 million would be the balance of the $50 million that the voters approved. Mr. Chair, if it helps with Commissioner Altman, I do want to remind the board that whatever the amount is that you bond, that we need to spend that bond amount within the first three years. So, we're good with whatever the board says, but just be aware of the pipeline, how much we get out now. I'm sure I'm not speaking out of turn with Mike. You could have a large property that might cost $6 million, or you might have 100 properties at $60,000. But we have to spend that money within the three years of the issuance of the bond. And that doesn't mean you can't go back out and bond more afterwards. Let me crunch some numbers. I don't know if you're looking for me to make a motion on this now, but I'd be willing to lower that. And let me see what number works. And, Commissioners... And this is not Betts and Stones. This is only what we advertise. I'm sorry. I didn't mean... Oh, no, no, no. No, sorry. So, I don't mean... Whatever numbers you give us, she hates when I say this, but we'll do some public math for you and then give you those millages back so that you have something. If you give us a target, we'll work on it for you guys. Okay. Other discussion on the item? Okay. Commissioner Atkinson? Yeah. Thank you. I did just want to mention, having gone over all of this for days, I said a few meetings ago that we would have to start making some tough decisions, and many of you don't have the privilege of having this list in front of you, but thank you for giving us a balanced budget. But we had to cut a lot of stuff. I mean, public works, transportation projects, facility stuff, there's a lot of stuff that got cut so that we could balance this budget. Now, I just think it's important to note that having a balanced budget is really important, but we're giving up a lot here. So, that's why this discussion of where can other money come from is uncomfortable but necessary. Okay. Anything else on the item? I would just like to say that I would also support expanding our EELS program as well. Okay. Jill, walk me through how we need to do this today. What are we looking for? First motion and et cetera. All right. So, the proposed millages in the agenda are based on what we included in the proposed budget. If there were requests to change some of those millages, we would just listen to those and, as Jim said, take a little bit of time to calculate what those millages would be based on whatever revenue was required or millage rate. So, I guess if the board wanted to do them one by one or there were certain ones that you wanted to look at and say, hey, you know, what would it be at this rate? What revenue would it generate? Do that. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you could vote for them as is or vote for them with suggested changes. If you have suggested changes, we just ask that you give us a few minutes to calculate that for you. And then the, and I got to do the second part. I know it's just bureaucratic, but to make sure we have a motion to change our meeting date to September 10th. Okay. Well, let's, let's do the easy one. I'll make the motion to change the meeting date. Okay. Second. I have a motion to change the meeting date in September. I have a, by Commissioner Atkinson. I have a second by Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll on that motion. Commissioner Delaney. Yes. Vice Chair Goodson. Yes. Commissioner Atkinson. Yes. Commissioner Altman. Yes. Chairman Feltner. Yes. We'll show that adopted 5-0. Okay. All right. On the millages. So I think what I'm hearing from all of you is that you're okay with what staff has provided here, with the exception of EELS and EMS. Is that right? I'm interested in these, the recreation special district, the previously voter approved. Would it, would it be ideal if we did separate motions on just those millages and then the rest of it together? You can want us to go one by one. You could adopt them as a whole with just changes to those, but I think staff needs some direction on where you want to go with those so that Jill can calculate the millages for those if there is going to be an adjustment. Let me ask you a question. Okay. We have a question by Commissioner Atkinson. Sorry. So in order for me to make a motion, I would really, if possible, like to know if we moved the voter approved millages just up to half of what the voters have already approved, what number would that look like? And I mean that for Port St. John, Canaveral Groves, North Brevard, Merritt Island, and South Brevard. Excuse me, Commissioner, and the number you're looking for is the number, because the millage would be half, but the number you're looking for is the additional proposed revenue that it would generate? Yes. Thank you. Yeah. If the board would give me a few minutes to work on that, I'd be happy to do that. Thank you. Let's do this. Let's give her some suggestions of what it is that you want, each of you, and then we will take a short break, or we could do a couple other items and come back. A break? That's part. A break now would be good. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's give Jill some answers here, and then we'll take a break for her. Okay? Okay. So let's just go down from the other end. Commissioner Delaney, what is it you're looking for from staff? Um, I'm just looking for the fire MSTU, um, to roll that up to the point four, uh, point six, four, three, one. All right. Very good. Commissioner Altman, sir. I agree with Commissioner Atkinson, what she's trying to do in Parks and Rec, to go to half a voter approved. And in the spirit of that, what I'd like to do is go to half of the voter approved for the EELS program. Um, and when she works on those numbers, that would give us, I think that's a reasonable measured approach. Okay. We're clear on, on that? Yeah. Uh, the way I'm understanding, fire control up to 6.4, 6.6431 will show what revenue that generates. Half for Parks and Rec will show the revenue for that. And then half for EEL, it would be half of the millage rate, so we can show what the revenue and kind of take a stab at what that might be finding. But at least what we can do is give you the millage now, and then we can bring that back to the board to talk about the bonding amount. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Atkinson. Just one point of clarification. I'm, in my request, I'm not including the Recreation Special District Operations, um, because they are already at half. Okay. I'm sorry, which one were you not including? The recreational, sorry. The Recreation Special District Operations and Maintenance District 4, which was approved in 71. Not that. Okay. All right. We're, we're, we're clear on that? Okay. Uh, so, what do we need, 10 minutes? Ash, yes, thank you. Okay. Well, let's just do this then, 10.30. Okay? We'll be back at 10.30. Thank you, everyone. How should we proceed from here? Uh, Mr. Chairman, if I can jump in. Yep. Um, if you give us a few moments, she's, she has the spreadsheet, but, uh, what we'd like to do is put it together and print it out so you have it in front. Hold on. Can we take the conversation in the, in the lobby, please? We're going to, we're going to try to power through this. Please do it again, Jim. Okay. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, uh, if you just, uh, maybe go on to the next item. Um, they've worked out the numbers or they've got them double checked, but they would feel more comfortable if we can print them out for you. So you have them in front of you that everybody literally will be on the same page before you do the vote. All right. We, we'd appreciate that. Okay. Commissioner, so that objection, we're just going to come back to this one. Okay. Um, so what's that? Okay. The Kathy here. Okay. Let's, we will go to I one and commissioner will come back here soon. Maybe I hear him. Okay. Kathy, you recognize the I one morning, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. Uh, this is a request for the board accounting commissioners approve the selection and negotiating committee. Number one, rank firm approval of a five-year contract to include professional services fee of $75,000 for the first 12 months or, and after that, it's the lesser of 3% or CPI, whichever is less and requests, authorize the chairman to execute a professional service contract. We had three, uh, proposals on this, uh, this, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, lobbyists. It was Chris Fully Consulting LLC, Ronald Book PA, the Southern Group of Florida Incorporated. Questions on the item? Questions. Senator Goodson. Okay. Thank you, chair. Kathy, could you tell us what, what prerequisites or what line items each one offers you and how to get to choose ron book ron book's proposal um indicated that he had a lot of governmental contracts um more so than the other two and chair man yes sir and that's what was the deciding factor that was one of the deciding factors another factor was that what they have done for the county in previous years okay chair man the other two had never done any business with the county before okay um i don't know you tell me this year as far as the uh the uh funding from the state of florida was kind of slim would you say slim or non-existent would you say so do lobbyists he's he's operating off of his laws from years ago right at the time that he was selected we didn't know exactly what was going to be recommended correct or what was going to be approved in the budget and then we commissioner we added several items that were vetoed too so right oh yeah um chrisville is local born here so would chrisville have a better outlook on the county as far as performing or would ron book being from broward county well i'm a brevard county girl too so um you know i'm a little biased about brevard county but um you know i i really couldn't answer that question okay uh commissioner atkinson so i understand um i'm also brevard county girl um i also have understood recently that um mr chris of fully's firm just got our sheriff's department um a fairly sizable chunk of money do we know anything about that or is there anybody who can speak to that i have just heard about it um and i don't know the details of that um i hate to trespass on this hospitality but we do have an undersheriff here um would you be able to speak on that item sir thank you chair commissioners can i manage your staff i i can speak to this i'm a bevard county boy as well so i i can comment um i i've been blessed with 39 plus years with the sheriff's office i've walked those halls in tallahassee it's a very unique animal i've walked them with commissioner altman i've walked them with commissioner goodson and i have truly walked him with uh with a speaker of the house steve chris foley we engaged the sheriff asked me to engage with uh mr chris foley last year about this time and we were able to aggressively approach and discuss with the legislative body both both houses both the house and the senate um we had jim boyd from the senate we had tyler soroy from the house which were co-sponsors and we were able to accomplish a 10 million dollar fee towards the new west precinct and regional training center i i don't believe a lot of people understand how that animal works up there and it is a minute by minute hour by hour daily routine that you have to be there i can't be there the sheriff can't be there but you have to be on those hallways you have to be in those committee meetings you have to have the discussions and steve was a a very unique person because he has the relationships to brevard county and he has relationships to the actual legislative body up there it was very successful for us most importantly what a lot of people 10 million dollars means a lot to brevard county but on the other hand it also is a connection to bills that are associated commissioner goodson was the sponsor of the revenge porn bill if it wasn't for his efforts there there was an incredible opportunity to pass good legislative actions commissioner altman was very important on some of the frs actions years ago to return the three percent and to assist public safety so his efforts were greatly appreciated and you know with without relationships and a uh consultant such as steve chris foley i think we miss out on golden opportunities any other questions for the undersheriff uh on this item no okay um very good commissioners we do have one card if unless you have other questions are there other questions i'm sure i think you have a question um i in my briefing i i had some of the these same concerns about you know what um what our appropriations looked like this year and so i would definitely be open to um something different okay uh let's go to the card sandra sullivan sandra sullivan so i follow the appropriations very closely and some of them i provided information to our state reps on a few things um but what i would say like the biggest red flag that i saw this year was 57 counties and cities made appropriations sizable ones for sewage plants because of the growth coming from the mandates from the state bevard made none okay so and i look at your appropriations and i i don't think you did a good effort uh from a county perspective of what you made appropriations for ron book has done an extraordinary job for this county for years and the monies that he has brought in um so i would point more to this to this board on that impact a few items were line item by by by by the uh governor um but what what concerns me is since um the chair felter got on this commission this is the third time he's brought forward changing the lobbyists um and so to be clear for the audience uh the number one who who is not doing government is is um uh is chris foley um and i feel it's a red flag that uh we just had a meeting uh i think two three meetings ago here where he was representing health first and he represents there's a conflict there with with his clients here locally it sat there for an agenda item where um the improper notice was given and the notice was given for the eighth and the meeting was held on the third because the big beautiful bill was going to was moving faster it was signed that afternoon and then the video for the facebook live was clipped and the statements made by the chair were clipped out that this was made faster and put on the state because of the big beautiful bill moving faster and then the other concern is when you look at campaign contributions to packs and mailers that supported chair feltner getting elected of tens of thousands of dollars and then as soon as he's on this dais here this is the third time trying to change the lobbyists so i think there's an agenda here and i think that you need to talk about one the conflicts of interest with the numerous clients that he represents locally i mean how do you represent the county and come here before the county commission and lobby for your clients and big clients at that thank you okay commissioners that was last card on that item discussion on the item i'd like to make a motion i'd like to make a motion i have discussion i think all three firms are fantastic uh they're very very capable and no matter which firm we go with i think it's going to be a good decision i think it's good that we have somebody they're representing us and engaged um and i've worked with all three of them for decades so um i and i think each one has its own strengths and weaknesses i i would be inclined to stay with the book firm since we've used them for many many years and they're firm that has they have some pretty deep roots here um and so that's i want to have discussion first i'm not making a motion but that's kind of where where i i would lean okay i'm hearing motion from uh two folks here so maybe maybe you're thinking mr goodson okay um thank you chair thank you commissioner i'd move to reject the committee's rankings and select chris fully llc as our new um lobbyist and for you to go back and negotiate with him for a first year of 60 000 and three percent increase with cips therefore in a five-year contract that's my proposal i second that motion okay do we have anything else in discussion before we go to that commissioner johnny's you want to say no okay all right so we have a motion by commissioner goodson we have a second by commissioner atkinson we'll call the roll commissioner delaney yes vice chair goodson yes commissioner atkinson yes commissioner altman yes chairman feltner yes and we'll show that one passes five zero um thank you for that commissioners i'll tell you what just to give staff a little more time um i think that we could go through j1 to j3 pretty quick and maybe get some folks on their way here so let's billy i hate to do that to you without notice but let's go to j1 good morning mr chair j1 is for a waiver of subdivision requirements for banyan cove related to application 24 sp 00039 is for four waivers to brevard county code in accordance with section 62-2849a brevard county code of ordinances okay uh i have cards but only on questions are there any questions on this one commissioners no um is there a discussion discussion on the item is there a motion for j1 move to approve a motion by commissioner delaney 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 j1 passes five zero thank you very much billy go ahead on j2 j2 is also for a waiver of subdivision requirements for sykes landing at winter creek related to application 24 sp 00026 also located in district 2 um also for four waivers okay i also have cards uh just for i guess the property owners are there questions on this one commissioner hackinson i just wanted to clarify something that we discussed in my briefing about um the infrastructure is that something that the county is going to have to to pay for and maintain or is that going to stay private the board could make clear in its motion that the the infrastructure is to be privately maintained so if that's a concern of the board i would suggest that include that in this motion and i would also ask that the board make the motion contingent on being implemented consistent with the site plan okay other questions on this item okay uh we're in discussion any discussion on the item is there a motion on the item j2 i'd like to make a motion um that the infrastructure stay private and that it's consistent with the site plan as in the agenda understood is there a better way to say that billy i think that's perfectly understandable okay thank you all right i have a motion by commissioner atkinson is there a second second i 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 passes 5-0 thank you um okay uh mark and joe we're going to go to j3 i don't think we have any cards on that okay joe commander you're recognized good morning again commissioners uh j3 is a contract for sale and purchase uh from better line for the 72.35 acre jefferson marsh tract for mosquito control located east and on the west side of south courtney parkway merritt island we are proposing fair market value as confirmed by two independent appraisals for 543 000 there is a grant for 452 500 with the balance being split between natural resources and mosquito control okay are there questions on j3 i don't have any cards on j3 we'll move into discussion is there any discussion on the item okay is there a motion on the item sir your district all right we have a motion by commissioner goodson i 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 passes 5-0 thank you very much okay are we ready to go back to h8 okay commissioners we're back okay we've got something printed here chair can i ask a procedural question sure go ahead um would would it be possible um since we're talking about changing some of these things to allow for public comment on the discussion that we've had i'm open to that let's uh let's let's explain it and um questions from commissioners then we'll we'll take it like we're doing cards again okay that's fair okay uh commissioner so what we passed out in the highlighted section those were the millage rates as proposed in your agenda package so that's what's in the yellow highlighted section that's in the agenda in the the blue font in the middle of the sheet is the adjusted millages so um those are based on the board direction before the break to adjust bring the fire control mstu up to the voter approved and then adjust those parks and rec to provide for half of the voter approved referendum so and then off to the far right column that shows the increase in revenue and the change in millage for each one of those that were adjusted so if you'd like me to kind of go down the list for the fire control mstu at the adjusted rate of point 6431 that would generate an additional five million five hundred and fifty seven thousand two hundred and fifty one dollars and that's a change in millage of zero point one five nine eight and then you go down to those recreation districts so the port st john canaveral groves that new millage rate zero point zero four five eight would generate an additional four hundred and fifty two thousand eight hundred and nineteen dollars the north brevard special recreation district the adjusted millage rate of zero point three one nine two would generate an additional nine hundred and thirty thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars the merritt island recreation mstu the adjusted millage rate of zero point four zero zero zero zero would generate an additional one million forty five thousand two hundred and three dollars and then the south brevard recreation district adjusted millage rate of zero point three zero zero zero zero zero would generate an additional three million seven hundred sixty five thousand six hundred and ten dollars and then down in the debt section is where we put the environmentally endangered lands the half of the millage outside of what's levied in the operating section that would be zero point zero two seven five and that would generate an additional one million four hundred seventy eight thousand four hundred and thirty two dollars in the debt millage questions commissioner atkinson i just want to be clear so what we would be doing here is sending a notice out to the residents saying this is what we're considering doing we would hear back from them possibly and that at further point in time we'll be deciding what these millage rates would actually be set at and if we approve higher amounts that would in fact release some general funds to be used in some of the places that we're cutting is that accurate so the what you're doing today is setting the proposed millages that will go in the trim notice that's correct and the board can always lower those later on at the tentative or final budget hearings in terms of allocating the dollars since these are voter approved for specific purposes for example the fire control mstu would be allocated to fire operations and then the parks and rec those millages stay within those districts and then it it would be up for the board to decide if there are general fund dollars currently allocated to those programs that they wanted to reallocate to a different area thank you and those discussions could be had between now and those budget hearings as well thank you questions if the board adopted these changes today just again because those are voter approved that wouldn't put us in a exceeding charter cap situation that's correct and i just i think it was said once or said a couple of times already but um remember that we're going to come back and we'll adopt final uh millage later so this is this is the maximum um that you have to adopt today for the purpose of the trim notice you can always go down from there but we can't go up is that right yes that's correct okay all right very good i had a request that we uh take cards uh again for anybody else sander sullivan it's the only one i have sander sullivan so i i want to um clarify a couple things here for parks and rec being this was voter approved so this was in 2000 and 2006 and specifically there were a dollar amount of that which was for debt for specific items that were being funded um and there were some questions about what had happened between 2000 and 2006 and uh helen bolt said had requested uh and an audit be done so um i just want to say here that i think that is very important to get a legal opinion on this since the debt portion is retiring in 2026 and that debt portion i don't think you can just go oh we're gonna you know extend this uh without specificity and the voters approving it so just like in in 2006 you the voters couldn't just you couldn't just go oh we're just going to expand this and fund this additional amount you had to come back to to a referendum in order to make that possible so i do not think you can do what you can do what you're proposing the second thing the mstu fire control again to go back to 2007 with the palm bay lawsuit and what happened at that time i think probably the fire control mstu should have been eliminated but the ems assessment which was below the line went up into the general fund and fire assessment was created at that time and so the at that time with the change in fire control it became only unincorporated residents paying that tax where before it had been countywide so what in effect you are proposing is putting the burden on unincorporated residents to pay a disproportionate share hence why what i think you should really be considering is is putting the ems assessment below the line now for this year for this coming year and going to referendum in november and letting the people decide to do a sales tax in lieu of the fire and ems assessments and let's solve this problem because you're not solving the problem you're just kicking the can down the road in my opinion and then for the proposal of just arbitrarily picking half out of the air on the millage rate we've had a 200 percent increase over 200 increase in our property values and so to do that properly math wise you would want to do the rollbacks and figure out what that equivalent tax rate should be but um i think i think putting we're going back putting the disproportionate share on unincorporated residents to pay for fire trucks and other things uh is not a solution commissioners that was the only card okay fence that slam i i want to share with you my enthusiasm that if we can get the bond limit for the eel program up to the 50 percent level you will make a lot of people happy uh and i will i can also assure you with confidence that the selection and management committee will go to work on uh on trying to find the absolute best conservation land properties available around brevard county so that we can make this a great success so thanks for considering it okay you had a request that we take comments a second time and uh those are the two that i have just before we move on is there anyone else okay very good uh in discussion commissioners anything else in discussion okay how jill morris how do we need to uh proceed forward with um what the board's asked today and get get the motion in the proper posture jim i could jump in the counselor can tell me if i'm wrong or not um we're asking you for the adopt the millage and millages as presented um and if you want those changes that were suggested it would be adopting the millages as presented at your desk and then you know we'll get advertised properly but but i would read into the record um the new proposed millage rate for any of the ones that are changed from what was put out with the agenda maybe maybe it'd be easier and just cleaner if uh we just go through every one jill could read them we could take a motion second vote on it and i know that probably seems tedious but for clarity's sake and the record um we could just do that um and i and i'll i'll say this i'd be willing to you know work with you here as a compromise to let that go and be advertised i'm going to reserve the right um to vote differently though when when the time comes so i think we've got a future discussion ahead of us on on where we land there okay so i'll just in full candor uh say that to you today so with that jill is that good we'll go see you want me to read each individual taxing district and what that millage rate is i think i think that's probably just the cleanest way for us to get to get through this okay is that is that uh amenable by okay i know that's a lot for the clerk you had donuts today so we're we're we're good right all right very good okay so for the brevard county bcc operating uh general fund the adjust the proposed millage rate would be 2.8643 okay do we have a motion on that second i have a motion by commissioner atkinson i have a second by commissioner delaney clerk will call the role on the brevard county bcc operating commissioner delaney yes vice chair goodson yes commissioner atkinson yes commissioner altman yes chairman feltner yes i'll show that one adopted go ahead jill the brevard county free public library district proposed millage is 0.3242 so moved second i have a motion by commissioner atkinson i have a second by commissioner delaney clerk will call the role on the brevard county free public library district commissioner delaney yes vice chair yes commissioner atkinson yes commissioner altman yes chairman feltner yes i'll show that one passes five zero the brevard county mosquito control district proposed millage is 0.1340 so moved second got a motion by commissioner atkinson on the brevard county mosquito control district i have a second by commissioner delaney clerk will call the role commissioner delaney yes vice chair goodson yes commissioner atkinson yes commissioner altman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that passes five zero the fire control mstu proposed millage is 0.6431 so moved second have it in the fire control mstu i have a motion by commissioner atkinson i have a second by commissioner delaney clerk will call the role commissioner delaney yes vice chair goodson yes commissioner atkinson yes Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. We'll show that. Passes 5-0. The Recreation District 1 proposed millage is 0.4173. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson on Recreation District 1. I 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. Passes 5-0. The Recreation Special District Operation and Maintenance District 4 proposed millage is 0.4948. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I have a second by Commissioner Delaney on the Recreation Special District Operations and Maintenance District 4. 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. Passes 5-0. The Titusville. The Titusville-Coco Airport Authority is proposed millage is 0. So moved. Second. I am. On the Titusville-Coco Airport Authority, I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I believe I 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. Passes 5-0. The law enforcement MSTU. The law enforcement MSTU proposed millage is 0.8531. So moved. Second. On the law enforcement, I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I 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. Passes 5-0. The road and bridge maintenance district 1 MSTU is 0.4863. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson on road and bridge maintenance district 1. I 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. Passes 5-0. I guess you got some caffeine. on that break. Yeah. I'm going back to sleep now. All right. Very good. Okay. Road and bridge maintenance district 3 MSTU proposed millage is 0.1855. So moved. Second. Okay. On road and bridge maintenance district 3. Got a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. 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. Passes 5-0. Road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. Proposed millage is 0.2176. So moved. Second. On road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. Got a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. Got 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. Passes 5-0. Road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. Proposed millage is 0.2887. So moved. Second. Okay. Got on road and bridge maintenance district 5. I got a motion by Commissioner Altman. I 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. We'll show that. Passes 5-0. Road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. Proposed millage is 0.1842. So moved. Second. Okay. On road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. North Beach is got 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 Feltner? Yes. We'll show that. Passes 5-0. So. Road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. Proposed millage is 0.0964. So moved. Second. Okay. On road and bridge maintenance district 4 MSTU. Merritt Island South. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I 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. Passes 5-0. So. Environmentally endangered lands 2024. Operating proposed millage is 0.0458. So moved. Second. I have a motion on environmentally endangered lands. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I 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. Passes 5-0. So. The Port St. John Canaveral Groves Recreation District proposed millage is 0.4500. So moved. Second. Got on Port St. John Canaveral Groves Recreation. I got a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I got 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. Passes 5-0. The North Brevard Recreation Special District proposed millage is 0.3192. So moved. Second. Okay. On North Brevard Recreation Special District, I got a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I got 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. Passes 5-0. Okay. This is you again. The Merritt Island Recreation MSTU proposed millage is 0.40000. So moved. Second. Okay. On Merritt Island Recreation, we have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. We have a second by Commissioner Delaney. Clerk will call the roll. I'm sorry. It was Atkinson. It was me. I seconded it. Sorry. It screws me up a little bit, too, when he jumps in there. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. I'm a second by Atkinson. We have a second by Commissioner Atkinson. Sorry about that. That's okay. Now 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. Passes 5-0. Okay. The South Brevard Special Recreation District proposed millage is 0.3000. So moved. Second. On South Brevard Special Recreation District, I got a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. 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. Passes 5-0. Okay. Moving into the debt millages, the environmentally endangered lands, voted debt 2024. Proposed millage is 0.0275. So moved. Second. Okay. On environmentally endangered lands, the voted debt, we have a motion by Commissioner Altman. 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. We'll show that. Passes 5-0. The North Brevard Recreation Special District, voted debt. Proposed millage is 0.0808. So moved. Okay. On North Brevard Recreation Special District, voted debt, I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I 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. Passes 5-0. You're up again. The Merritt Island Recreation, voted debt. This debt is being paid off in the upcoming year, and the current fund balance is adequate to fund that. So the proposed millage is 0. So moved. Second. Okay. 0? Do you think you mean nothing? Merritt Island Recreation District, or Recreation, voted debt. I have a motion by Commissioner Goodson. I 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. We'll show that. 5-0, and then? And the South Brevard Recreation Special District, voted debt, similar to the previous one, the debt is going to be paid off, and there's adequate fund balance, so the proposed millage is 0. So moved. Okay. On South Brevard Recreation Special District, voted debt, 0. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Commissioner Altman seconds. 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. Passes 5-0. Okay. Is that for the item? Yep. All right. Thank you, everyone, for getting through that. We appreciate it. It takes care of H-8. We'll go on to J-4 and let Juanita get up here. Good morning again, Commissioners. Item J-4 is new appointments and reappointments to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee is a state-mandated board by Florida Statute 420.9076, which allows Brevard County to receive state housing initiative partnership funds, or SHIP funds. The AHAC makes recommendations to the board on allocation of funds from SHIP and home HUD grants. The AHAC consists of members who represent specific categories per statute. We currently have seven vacant positions. We have received seven applications and have three actions for the board today. The first action requires a super majority vote for a reappointment of two members that have exceeded their term limits. Those two members are Corey Lancaster, member since 2008, resident who is representative of those areas of labor actively engaged in home building in connection with affordable housing. And Cynthia Matthews, member since 2016, resident who represents the area of essential services personnel. Okay, now we're going to have four action items here. So, four different motions, right? Yes, that's correct. And the first one, we need super majority vote on that one. I understand. Now, we don't have cards on this. So, commissioners, let's do this. Questions on action one. Do we have questions for staff? Go ahead, Commissioner Delaney. This board has term limits, right? That's what we're voting on here, is because they've exceeded their term limits? That's correct. Okay. I guess I have more, but it's discussion. Any other questions on this for staff? I'll ask a question, I guess. For the two people who have exceeded the term limits, you know, I'm very sensitive to boards having quorum because I think one of the hard things is, obviously, you get together for a board meeting and then you don't have a quorum because enough people show up. So, for those two people, are they active participants? Do they miss a lot of meetings? Yes. What's the, yes, kind of? Yes, they're active. Okay. All right. Sorry. Thank you, Tim. You know, I think it's, you know, it's a tough thing when the salary for these things is zero. It's hard enough to get people to work for the county. Doing it for zero is hard. So, okay. Discussion on the item. Commissioner Delaney, you wanted to discuss the item? Sure. I just feel like there's, there seems to be a lot of participation. People are wanting to participate more, it seems to be. And, you know, I just figured I'd bring up, you know, maybe it's time to let other people participate. But, um, I'm, I'm not dug in either way. For a follow-up question, Commissioner Goodson. How many people applied for, uh, the, uh, Action 1? Was there more than these two people? So, um, Commissioner, we did advertise, um, all the seats and the vacancies that we had. We had seven applications. The applicants, they select what seat, because each seat has a specific category. And the applicants select on the application the seat that they're applying for. So, we didn't have an application for the two seats that we're asking for the reappointments. You had, other than those two people, that was it. Thank you. That's it. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chair. Okay. Uh, further discussion on Action 1? No. Is there a motion on the first item? I'd like, oh, second. Okay. Sir, did you have anything else you want to say on that? No, sir. Okay. I'm scared to dance up here now. Okay. We had a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. We had a second, um, by Commissioner Delaney on Action 1. 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 those two approved. Thank you. Action 2. Okay. Thank you. Action 2. It is requested that the following individual who is currently serving on the AHAC be reappointed to a new two-year term, and that is, uh, John Hoppingarden, member since 2022, resident who is actively serving on the county local planning agency. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner's, uh, on Action 2, uh, on Action 2, uh, we don't have a card. Is there any discussion on this one? Is there a motion? Move to approve. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Delaney on Action 2. 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, and we'll show that one approved 5-0 on Action 3. Thank you. Action 3 is requested that the board appoint the following applicants to fill the vacant seats to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for a period of two years, and the following are Steve Birch, resident who is actively engaged in home building industry of affordable housing, Myesha Carr, resident who is actively engaged as a not-for-profit provider of affordable housing, and Emily Harkins. Resident who represents employers within a jurisdiction. Are there questions on this item? And these are all, they come to the meetings and participate and everything, right? These will be new members. Oh, these are new ones. But I think they'll come. We have one to send the audience today. Okay. All right. Okay. Commissioners, any discussion on this item? Is there a motion? Move to approve. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Delaney. I have a second by Commissioner Altman on Action 3. 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. Approve 5-0. All right. Action 4. Thank you. Action 4. It is requested that the board review the following applications and resumes and elect one applicant to fill the seat that represents the actively engaged real estate professional in connection with affordable housing. William Russler, resident actively engaged in real estate. Nancy Scheer, Debbie Strahan, and Sandra Sullivan. All of those were applications for real estate professional active engaged in affordable housing. That's fine. You're here. Just give one to Kathy afterward for the record. Sandra Sullivan. So I've been to numerous of these affordable housing meetings as well. I have attended all of the affordable housing summits that have been hosted by Brevard County. So I'm very well informed that the primary risk we have is with our elderly. They are the highest rate of homelessness. And so I'm very informed and follow legislatively ship and sail as well as live local. Thank you. Okay. Jim. I'm jumping in for Mr. Counselor here. He will remind you to make sure that you put your name on your ballot. I think. Not to vote for the seat, but your name. I typed all their names on the ballot. You're welcome. My pleasure. Linda and Juanita were ahead of you there. Okay. So what do you want us to do? You want us to fill these out, pass them forward? Select one, and then we'll collect them. Should we come back to this in a few minutes after you tally them? Yes, sir. We could go on to the next item. Is that good? And we'll come back? Or what do you want to do more? Just wait two minutes? I mean, there's only five votes here. That's fine. I just want to make sure that after staff tallies them with the names, make sure you get those to the clerk of courts. So the, or clerk to the board so that the votes can be on the record and it's not a secret ballot. Thank you. For all the folks for fire, we're trying to get there. We cleared some other things earlier, low-hanging fruit to get there. So we're doing it. Okay? We're coming up next. Now will be the time for a bathroom break if you need one. Okay. Good morning, Commissioner. Oh, okay. We're on the item. I didn't see Pat and Melissa get in there. Okay. We are going to come back to that on the last one. Okay. All right. All right. Good. Very good. All right. On item J5. Go ahead. Good morning, Commissioners. The negotiating team successfully reached a tentative agreement. Therefore, I'm requesting that the board vote to ratify the three-year contracts with the firefighter's unions, unions, excuse me, both the fire, excuse me, the rank and file and supervisory units. The union ratification went to, completed their ratification vote on July 15th, and it was overwhelmingly supported by their membership. So we're asking for the board now to approve it. If you have any questions, we're here to answer this. Okay. Melissa, having explained the item, are there questions for staff? I've got two cards. If you want to go to the cards. Okay. Sandra Sullivan. Good morning. It's been a long morning. So, and it's been a long uphill battle to get to this point, and I hope that you will all ratify this contract today, and we truly have something to celebrate and leave here today, because they have worked so hard, and the community has worked so hard to get to this point. Thank you. Thank you. District Chief Tommy Neider. He had to leave. Anyone want to speak on his behalf? Anyone else? No? Okay. That's the end of the cards. Commissioners, in discussion. Is there a discussion on the item? Commissioner Delaney. I just wanted to say thank you so much to the staff and to the firefighters, and this has been a tough hill to get over, but, you know, we're making good progress, and I think that this was a great first step, and I hope that we continue to make this even better. I'm going to say the forbidden word, Kelly Days. I'm going to keep saying it until we have it here in Brevard County, but that is, I hope, the next step in this, but I'm going to support this. Our people support this, and so, yeah. Thank you. Other discussion? Is there other discussion? I'm ready to go. A discussion, sir? Yes. You have something in the discussion? Okay. I just want to thank everyone involved, from the firefighters, the public, to the staff, who's done an amazing job, but I really want to give a thanks to this board. It takes a lot of political courage and commitment, and you've really risen to the occasion, and I don't know if you'll ever get the credit, but it's a very courageous thing you did, and I've served on a lot of boards, and this is, I think, one of the more significant things I've seen elected officials come together to do the right thing for their constituents. Other discussion on the item? I'll say something real quick. I appreciate the negotiating team for both the union and for the county. It's been a lot of work to get us here today, and I want you guys to know I saved my last kidney stone to make sure that we get through this before you guys, you know, potentially put me in the big red box. So, with that, is there a motion? I would like to make a motion to approve. All right. 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 Feltner? Yes. I'll show that pass as 5-0. Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you for everyone who waited on that one. Commissioners, what's the pleasure? Do you want to take a quick five-minute break and then come back and clean up the others? Is that good? Oh. All right. Let's get that one done. All right. Juanita, we're going to finish on J-4. Okay? Okay. Let's do that real quick and then we'll take a quick break. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. Okay. Do I just read the vote of each commissioner and to just read off the winner? You can announce the winner, but you have to provide the ballots to the clerk to the board so they can be made part of the record. Okay. So the winner is Sandra Sullivan. All right. Congratulations. Okay. They need a motion to... I'm sorry. All right. We need a motion to accept the results of the election. Is that what we want to do? Okay. 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. We'll show that one. Passes 5-0. Okay. Commissioners. And we're done with J-5. We're going to come back on J-6. So let's just take a quick break. Let's try to do 11-35. Okay. Please? Okay. All right. Thank you. I gave you the card already? I got the card. And just wait here one second. And then Morris, you're going to be recognized here. That's pretty good. All right. Morris on J-6. All right. This is a request by the Savannas at Sykes Creek Homeowners Association that the board approve an amendment to the agreement between the county and the HOA that will allow the HOA to convey the Savannas golf course to a third party. Historically, the county had operated for some time and maintained the Savannas golf course as a public course. Back in 2018, the county abandoned the Savannas golf course and by agreement with the HOA, the HOA accepted title to the Savannas golf course and they agreed to continue to operate and maintain it as a public golf course for a minimum of 10 years, which expires on May 22, 2028. As part of that, there was talk about the HOA forming a CDD and getting some funding from county. That never happened. So no monies actually went to them, but they still have that obligation to maintain it as a public course through 2028. I've reviewed an agreement between the Savannas HOA and a third party buyer that would require the third party to operate it as a golf course for 15 years from the date of closing. The agreement incorporates the existing requirement of the county and HOA agreement specifically that it be a public course at least through May 22 of 2028. In order for that sale to happen, and the HOA represents that the buyer is going to make investments in the course that HOA can't, out of 286 homes in the community, 185 voted on the issue, 158 voted to approve the issue. So without the board's approval of the sale, the sale can't happen. So it's up to the board just to decide whether to approve or not approve the sale. If you don't approve, again, that requirement that it be maintained as a public off course expires on May 22, 2028. And after that, the HOA will be able to do, you know, whatever it's legally able to do with the property as the owner with no more restriction. Okay. Commissioners, now I do have someone from the HOA. They say questions only. So are there questions for Morris? Commissioner Altman. What happens after the 15 years? Anything can happen. They're the... I mean, they can... There would be a third-party owner, so they could sell, transfer. They could come in, you know, to request... The Homeowners Association or the private company they hire? Well, the private company would own it at that point. They're not hiring them to operate it. They're actually transferring it to the operator. So the operator will actually own it and operate it as a golf course. Anything can happen after the 15 years. But honestly, sir, right now, after May 22, 2028, anything can happen anyway, regardless of whether we approve the sale or not. Would they be able to private owner? Would they be able to develop it? Potentially. I don't know what restrictions might be on that property. Now they might need to come in for various land use approvals or changes. I'm not sure what they would need. But again, that can happen right now after May 2028. So what this would do is push that out, that it at least has to be a golf course for 15 years from the date of closing. Yeah. But my concern was 15 years. Was there something negotiated in that agreement to protect the homeowners in the 15 years? And I think that's a good question for the Homeowners Association. That agreement is between the Homeowners Association and the third party. I can only speak to the agreement currently between county and HOA, which they're asking to amend. And again, we have absolutely zero ability to restrict them from doing whatever they want with it after May 22, 2028. So it appears that if the county allows this, at least there would be some extension of the guaranteed life of the property as a golf course for an additional approximately 12 years beyond what we have currently. But I think the question about the HOA's agreement with the seller is best posed to whoever is here to answer questions for the HOA. But I do have a copy of the agreement. Okay. Here comes the lead. Okay. We've got to – let's go to Commissioner Atkinson's question, and then we're going to come to you in just one – because you might get both questions answered here. Just real quick. I just want to be clear. 55% of the current homeowners were approving of this transfer. Am I reading this correctly? So actually, 55% of the entire community – Entire community. But only 185 voted out of the 286. Right. So out of the people who voted, 85% approved. But that's 55% of the community, if you count the ones that did not vote at all. Got it. Thank you. As no's, right? Commissioner Altman, you have a follow-up question for staff. Now, you're Mr. – is it Hallam? Did I say that right? John Hallam. Okay. Sir, since you're here, you want to speak to the item real quick, and then we'll see if commissioners have questions for you. It's my understanding that the agreement has a clause in there for the new buyer to transfer the 15-year on after, if they want to set it, if it doesn't succeed. That's my understanding of the agreement. Also, picking up on the points of the voting, there was only 27 people that voted against the sale out of the homeowners. And I do believe – and, again, I don't want to get in the business of interpreting the agreement too much between HOA and the buyer, but there is a provision, in addition to the restriction that it has to be used as a golf course for 15 years, there is a right of first refusal if the property is sold, that the HOA has the right of first refusal to purchase it. It's slightly unclear to me whether that extends beyond the 15 years. I think it does as written, but, you know, is that absolutely clear? You know, I wouldn't want to render an opinion on that, but – That would be a good provision. And I would assume if they tried to develop it, they would have to get a land use amendment or rezoning. They'd probably have to come back to this board. I believe so, because probably all of their approvals were premised on that being, you know, open space and recreation. So, I'm sure they would need certain approvals through here, as with, you know, past golf courses that have closed, had to go to the various appropriate local government bodies for those kinds of approvals. I have a question of the – Yes, sir. I'm wondering. What is your handicap? Just joking. Awful. Oh, yeah, mine. It's not as bad as mine, I can assure you. Mine's worse. I – how – the job really opened this up, that you look at different companies. Tell me a little bit about the process of getting to where you were. So, basically, we – when we inherited the golf course, it wasn't making any profit. It was losing money, and it has done for several years. We've appointed a GM, an excellent GM, who's managed to turn it around to get it to nearly a break-even point. However, we just don't have the funds or the appetite as homeowners to invest in the into the investment that the golf course needs. It needs new greens. It needs new cart paths. It needs the ponds dredging. It needs a new clubhouse refurbishment. The toilets are existing. I can go on. And we just can't physically, you know, continue with that type of funding for it. So, we started opening up, and we had – well, we've been approached by a number of people. I think four or five companies have approached us. The first one that we approached, just four goals, refused to accept the non-development clause. So, we discounted that one straight away. We had another celebrity that was interested in it, but they were a little bit slow. And then we came across the current buyer, who's operating out of two locations already and successfully taken one over in Venetian Bay and done a very good job. And we went up there to have a look at what they did there, and it's very impressive. So, we were very confident in this particular organization. So, that's pretty much how we've gone through the due diligence of the different courses that people have approached us. I take a little bit of interest because I was here on the commission when we approved the Savannas, and when we approved the golf course, I was there for the grand opening. I think it may have been pounder played a half a round of golf during the big ceremony. It was an exciting time. It was a beautiful, beautiful course. And so, I really hope it works out. I know – so, I guess part of this is my fault, as you could say, but I hope it really works out. As you can tell from my accent, I wasn't around here when it was – Are there other questions? Okay. Commissioner Delaney, I think Morris might want to say something. I was just curious. You guys feel, as a homeowners association, that you have put in this contract the protections for your neighborhood. Because, like, if this golf course were to get redeveloped into a community, I'm sure it would affect the drainage in your community. It would just change the whole atmosphere of the Savannas. And so, do you guys feel comfortable that this is – Absolutely. I mean, we've had various meetings with this organization, and they are so excited about it. I mean, even before we've closed on the opportunity, they've already been up there and decorated the clubhouse externally, because they're so keen to try and show the homeowners that they have got their best interests at heart. Great. Thank you. I'll ask a couple of – first of all, I hope every golf course is able to survive. I know it's incredibly competitive. It's not my game. But I'm very empathetic to neighbors who live along golf courses, and then they don't work out. That's not necessarily what they anticipated. So, for that reason, I hope they all succeed. Your clubhouse and your course, you know, are other people able to play from outside, surrounding area, non-members, that kind of thing? Absolutely. And your clubhouse, do they – is that a catering facility? Somebody can rent that? There is, yes. We've got current caterers in there now. Okay. Because, I mean, they have some golf courses in District 4, as you might imagine, and I think they are pretty – I mean, you know, we can go over to Duran for lunch today. Yeah. And I – What time do you want to go there? Okay. Okay. So, but I – you know, in the very east, they do that, they do that, too. And you've got to do what you've got to do to survive, right? So, well, okay, it sounds like you've – I've got a question. Okay, Commissioner Goodson. Yeah. How's your hog population doing? Well, when I first moved in there, which was two years ago, I saw one being caught, and I haven't seen any since. Good. That's great. You know that if they're in your yard, you can legally shoot them, okay? Sadly, I'm not legally allowed to own a gun. Yeah. Well, you might want to buy one, because they'll be coming back. Because you're British? Okay. Yeah. I'm on an E2 visa, so I'm not one until I get my green card. Okay. Bow and arrow, two? Sticks and stones. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Any other questions for – the gentleman here has been so generous, Commissioner Atkinson? No. I apologize. Okay. Okay. I think we don't have any other cards. Any discussion on the item? Okay. We're all – through, all done. All right. Is there a motion on the item? Motion to approve. I have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson. I 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 pass as 5-0. Sir, thanks for coming today. Thank you very much. Clearing that up for us. Okay. Commissioners, we're going to go to J7. Commissioner Delaney, this is your item. We do have some cards, just FYI. Thank you. Okay. Go ahead. Commissioners, I'm looking for support to go for legislative intent on our ordinance that has to do with our – sorry, let me pull it up. For chickens. I'll just say it like that. Okay. We are one of the few counties that has such harsh restrictions for unincorporated. In the agenda item, I added some attachments. One of them was a table that I put together from Indian River, for instance. They allow six chickens. Marion County, they allow six chickens. Osceola, Charlotte, and Hillsboro, they allow six chickens. And then Seminole, they – depending on some other things in the language, Charlotte, Hillsboro, and Seminole, they allow four to six chickens. Again, this is legislative intent, so it would go through the process of going to P&Z, getting lots of citizen input in that situation, and then coming back to us again. So there would be plenty of time for citizen input to make sure that we get the right ordinance together. That would make sense. And the reason why I brought this forward is because constituents in my district are having issues regarding our restrictions, and so I just was doing this to try to alleviate those issues. Okay. Commissioners, questions. Commissioner Wilson. Question. Tad. Sir, can you tell me, in the last year, how many code enforcement cases you had concerning chickens? So I think in the last five years, we've had an average somewhere of about 20 cases each year. Okay. And what were they – Chair, may I? Yes, sir. What were they – what were the reasonings of their complaints? I think it varied from, you know, the number of chickens to the chickens were there with other matters that the officers were on. So we're investigating. Okay. Okay. Now, I think if I'm – okay. That's enough for now. Okay. Thank you, sir. Other questions? Okay. Let's go to the cards. Sandra Sullivan. Sandra Sullivan. So I'm absolutely for this. And I'm going to tell you why. So you go back to after World War II, and you – have you guys heard of Victory Gardens? So there was a big thing, you know, when you have food shortages, you allow people to be able to support their families. Now, we just had – we just had this, like, massive shortage of eggs. You could go to the store, and they were not to be found for a while. Or when they finally get some, they're really expensive. So that Victory Garden concept, which was, you know, to feed your families, is a very huge thing. And we're all for freedom, right? Let people do with their properties. Now, in terms of rules, bring up the point about if somebody had – wasn't containing the feed the right way, then, you know, that would be, you know, one of those code violations, potentially. It – you know, that's part of the rules of how you maintain chickens. So that's not an issue. And then, you know, I want to just say that on this egg shortage thing, just remarkably, my family in Canada, they didn't have a shortage, and the people in Mexico didn't have a shortage. But avian flu just sort of stopped at the borders. You know, you kind of have to scratch your head at that one. But anyway, so I'll just put that some years ago I bought – and I have a chicken coop building and the intention, but I spend so much time coming to these meetings, it just sits there. One day I'll get my chickens, and hopefully I can have four to six chickens. You know, I have a family of five. So I really commend this. Other cities have done this, and certainly there are legislatively enough other areas to refer to that have – that allow six. And if you've ever – like, I can tell you, there's lots of people in my community, no names, that have chickens, and you never know that your neighbor has them. They are not a problem. So I hope that you will allow the discussion with the public to come, and certainly no decisions are being made today other than letting the people weigh in. Thank you. Okay. Jennifer Harris. I'm going to wave in support. You want to do that? Just Jennifer Harris. You just want to support? Well, you know what? You're all related. They're all Harris's. So I guess you can decide amongst yourselves. So I have Jennifer, I have Joe, and I have Luke. Who'd like to come next? Joe. Sorry, you're recognized. Hi, my name's Joe Harris. I live in unincorporated Brevard County in Mims. So as you know, as Ms. Sullivan said, yes, back in the early 1900s, from 1900 up to about 1950, almost the 60s, most people had chickens in their yard. Didn't matter the lot size. Because they knew, they kept them regulated, they kept them clean, and it wasn't until about after World War II that people started getting into more processed foods, more unhealthier options, and they started getting away from the gardens and chickens. Well, as we progress now, as egg prices do increase, and if you go to the stores, I'm sure you see that a decent dozen eggs, not just the ones you grab for $3, but the ones that cost $6, $7, that have a better flavor, a better yolk, are expensive. And so I did some research. Other cities, Titusville, Cocoa, Melbourne, and quite a few city municipalities in Brevard County allow four chickens in the city. Now, we are in unincorporated. So as being an unincorporated Brevard, we don't have the major roads in our neighborhoods. Not our neighborhoods are not quarter acre lot, cookie cutter, all over. So we do have more area. And if you go to the store and you look, there's a certain brand. It is called Pete and Jerry's. And on the box, on the egg carton, it says 108 square feet per chicken, and they are considered pasture-raised. That's a 10.4 by 10.4 foot area. My yard is 0.39 acres, and I did rough math on it. I have about 0.24 that is all backyard. But that is ample, according to that company, for me to have at least anywhere from four to six chickens. So please consider this, and let's put it out for public opinion. I understand there might be a lot of people who sit there and go, it doesn't affect me. That's great. But one day it might. With the amount of people we have moving in to Brevard County from other areas, we will start having issues with people having more complaints about people wanting to just live, feed their families, and enjoy their lives. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Who wants to go next, Jennifer or Luke? Our process of elimination here. I guess it's good afternoon now, as it's noon. My name is Luke Harris. I'm Joe and Jennifer's son. I wanted to first address board member Atkinson's commissioner's concerns from the last meeting about chickens bringing rats and how you said about neighbors and whatnot. From personal experiences, the rats are a natural cause and effect from the chicken feed, and other rodents as well can be caused, raccoons, mice, rats, and et cetera. They can also be caused from dog food and cat food, from improperly maintenanced storage and improperly distribution of the food. Any time when we would feed our chickens, they stayed inside the pan was where they were fed. That's it. We never put the food outside, and we have never had rodents' problems ever. Actually, a lot of times, if it's properly distributed, the opposite effect happens where you'll start noticing less rodents, and you'll start noticing less bugs as well as they eat ticks and other bugs that just can be affecting to your dogs, your cats, and whatnot if they're outside. I also want to talk about the psychological effect on chickens, as I know they're animals, but they do have feelings in some sort. With loneliness, just from an early stage of development, when you go to a store to buy chicks, you can't buy an adult chicken that's already laying an egg. You just can't. So from the early development, when you buy them, they're about three weeks old sometimes. When you get them and you take away and you buy only one, as we allow right now, one chick, what you're doing is you're actually causing them to have a significant impact on their psychological effect, as there's plenty of studies that show, that talk about this and how it affects their adrenal glands and the hormones that they produce out. It makes them to be less chicken-like. They don't roam. They don't really feel secure. They actually are more susceptible to predators, which means you're more likely to lose that one chicken as there's no other companions to help them out. And what is it? There's been a few studies, and I've done some research on it, and actually it also lowers egg production. So as with six chickens, you'd get maybe five eggs a day on average. If you had just one chicken, you're likely to only get one egg every two or three days because the egg production can go down significantly. So I just wanted to bring those concerns as well. I hope that we're able to get this up to four or six chickens. Six would be great, and I feel like it is a very safe number for unincorporated povard. Thank you for your time. Well done, sir. Ms. Harris, do you want to speak now? Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to bring this up again on the agenda and for hearing us. Commissioner Atkinson, I personally want to address you in this matter. Last meeting, you had said that you had some problems with some rats from your neighbors, from chickens, and that it caused your dog to have some medical problems. And I just want to personally tell you that I had lost a dog about 10 years ago who had seizures, and I completely understand what you're going through, and I'm very sorry about that. The fact is that what my son brought up is about containing the food properly. If you contain the food properly, Commissioner Goodson, I would like to address you personally as well. You had brought up the fact of predators. If you do address it, the food, and keep it contained properly and keep your chickens contained properly as well, it won't bring in new predators. In fact, coyotes will steal cats and dogs when you let them out at night sometimes. Chickens are usually contained in a pen or a coop, you know, so it wouldn't be as big as a problem. So, excuse me, thank you very much. I just wanted to address the predator issue that you had. Also, back in 2020, there was probably a lot of eggs available for customers to go to the grocery store and buy. Since 2020, we've had a lot of inflation, shortages. We've had just eggs unavailable. We couldn't go to the grocery store during COVID, so if you wanted to feed your family, the grocery stores are closed. You can't do it. I believe that Second Harvest Food Bank spoke first for this agenda today, and they really pointed out some very important issues. She mentioned Ms. Stephanie with Second Harvest had mentioned that one out of six children are actually starving in our county. They do not have any food security. One out of seven in people that live here don't have food security. This would be such a great thing to provide security. Also, can't we just bring up our, that's the word I'm looking for, can't we bring up our standards to the cities? Because we live in unincorporated, and that's outside the city limit. I just believe that we should be able to have the same amount as them as well. So, just to continue, do you guys have any questions for me before my time is up? Okay. Commissioner Goodson for a question. Did I not understand your husband say you live on an acre and a quarter, correct? No, sir. We live on .39 acres. .39 acres. Yes, sir. Okay. How many chickens do you have now? We have zero. You have zero. How many chickens do you want? You don't want me to honestly answer that. Well, no. I mean, I don't know if there's chickens. How many code enforcement officers come by your house looking and counting chickens? I've had code enforcement called on me before, and we've had to get rid of our chickens before. How many did you have? We had six. Six? Yes. All right. At the time we had code enforcement called, we had two. Okay. I think he has a question for staff. Yeah. You must have. Did you have a rooster? No, we did not. Okay. Is this a big code enforcement problem that people ride in the county of MIMS and count chickens out their door that work for you, Tad? Commissioner, you know, we respond to complaints. We don't have any proactive code enforcement for that. As I mentioned, we have about an average of about 20 cases a year that involve chickens, and that's probably out of, I'm going to say, somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 cases that we look at a year just in general. That's not relating to chickens. That's just to give you an idea of, you know, the volume compared. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Chair, one more question for me. Yes, sir. I'll follow it. Did you have a neighbor that didn't like you behind you, and she's now moved to New York with her chickens, and you could have chickens and be happy? No comment. Thank you. Thank you, madam. Thank you, sir. Any other questions for Ms. Harris? No. Okay. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. That was it for the cards, commissioners, and discussion on the item. Commissioner Atkinson on the item. So 0.39 is a lot different than 0.24 of an acre, and the thought that one day it will affect me is absolutely true. If we increase the number of households that have chickens on smaller lots, the proximity is going to be smaller, and we're going to get more complaints. That's just the nature of doing this. Who's going to police whether you're keeping your feed properly stored or not? I have had contact from residents in unincorporated District 3 and District 1 who have asked me to not support this. So this is something I won't be able to support because of them, but also because of my experience living on a, you know, 0.24 lot. Okay. Other discussion on the item? Um, one of the requests was that, uh, I'd be a little bit more specific about some of the things, and so it was, um, changing it to up to six chickens, uh, allowing on a residential lot, um, I'm putting in there that there must be a 10-foot setback, um, from the property lines, um, and that feed must be stored securely. Uh, there are things that, you know, get policed all the time with code enforcement, and so I don't think that this is, um, out of the ordinary, and we have, you know, places like Satellite Beach, for instance, which that's a pretty comparable community, I would imagine, to, um, the areas that you were concerned with, and, um... I don't, just as a point of clarification, I don't think we can impose on Satellite Beach that they would end up having six chickens. No, no, I'm, I'm just saying that it's comparable to, um... In size a lot? No, their ordinance is, is comparable, and so Satellite Beach, I know, has a large group of, um, residents who, um, you know, garden, have chickens, all of that stuff, and so I just brought Satellite Beach up because it's a similar community to Melbourne Beach, um, but I just really felt like this is, um, something that is being brought up a lot, and, um, I'm hoping that we could give the public the opportunity to weigh in on this, and even the people who don't agree, that they can come and they can share their thoughts and concerns and all of that, that way we can make the fairest, best, um, ordinance that we can. Commissioner Altman? Um, I'm going to support this at this time, but this is why we have a planning and zoning board, and I think your point of the smaller units is, is a very valid one, and maybe this will give them an opportunity to vet it. It's going to be interesting to hear what they come, come up with, but as it goes through the process, because the rats, I can understand, I'm comparing my, my love of those adorable little chickens to rats, you know, and seeing them run across your fence. I was hoping maybe it was one of those endangered beach mouse, but. It was not. It was not one of those cute beach mouse, but, um, it'd be interesting to see, so I, I can support, at least let this go through the process, and, um, we'll see what they come up with, maybe they can get creative, but I really appreciate your concerns. Okay, I, I have a thought here. Um, you know, I'd split this with you if you just wanted to do this in the north end of the county, just as an idea, and then you could, you could see how this goes, and you come back sometime in the future, and consider that for the rest of the county, um, but otherwise, I, I, I can't vote today for, um, backyard chickens in portions of unincorporated district four. I would be amenable to that. So, if that's where you are, um, you know, you might, you might find support from the board today. That's my two cents. Comment, sir. Sir. You know, I get totally confused, because you're one county. You're governing, you're put up here to govern Brevard County, not MEMS, not Titusville. So, you know, if you want to do this, heck, let's vote today to make the whole county. Let's put them in Suntree and Baytree. I'm not. I'm sure they'll be happy with that. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. That's my point. You're not? No. But you're going to, you're going to do north for more? I think you have a lot more rural area in the north end of the county. I think that's, I think that's. What do we need to include in it? What, Valkyria? A lot of, I can land out there. We just won't have chickens in the middle. You got an unincorporated, you got an incorporated area down there, Grant Valkyria. And this would not affect HOAs. So, um, you know, HOAs. We can't impose this on an HOA. Right. They've got their own deed, they have their own deed restrictions, and so, you know, they can also tell you in an HOA that you can't have short-term rental. Yeah. All right. Uh, with that, I would like to make a motion to go to legislative intent for our chicken ordinance, um, for the north end. I second. And when you say north end, are we talking county commission district one? Yes. Uh, from staff, is that, can that be done? Well, I'd, just give Morris a chance to answer. We can do that occasionally with redistricting, district lines change, so it's not always great to make a regulation that's made on political boundaries of a district. So maybe if we could come up with some description of, like, a rural north Brevard area that it could cover, something like that, perhaps. Some, from Cape, uh, from Canaveral Groves north? I would, I mean, I said. I would, um, want to include the district one portions of Coco, because, um, there's a lot of, uh, rural areas in there as well. How, how can she, how can she craft that, um, Morris, to, from, to what is the current, um, uh, bottom, uh, boundary of unincorporated district one north? If, if the board is willing, if, I think we can just take direction to work with the district one office on that, maybe if you want to give it any specific direction the board might have, like, I don't know if you want Port St. John, which has some smaller lots to be in or out, but, um, if we can get some general direction like that, we can work with the district one, uh, office on getting that boundary. I just, I wouldn't want it to see it follow the district line, which can change. Question, Chair. Yes, sir. Madam, have you had a town hall meeting, and how many people are this concerned about chickens and chicken eggs? Can you give me a number other than this group we've seen twice? Is it multitudes coming out of the, you know, out of the river, or what? I've, I've had multiple conversations with- Multiple? Yes. You get six, ten? I've, I can't even count, that's how many. Okay. So a lot. Have you had a town hall meeting to get these people in there to talk about the ones that are far and are against it, or only your comment is people that are far the chickens, right? I'm not talking, I'm talking to her. I- Your comment is only for the people that are with the chickens, right? I'm not understanding. The people you've had conversation with- Right. Want the chickens. Correct. So you had none with people say, I don't want chickens? Well, what I, while I haven't had a town hall, what I have done is I've put it out on social media. I've, it's been advertised in the agenda multiple times, um, and nobody, uh, has contacted me saying that they're not for these changes. Um, I didn't specifically have a town hall in my community because I felt like originally this should be a county-wide, um, ordinance change. But, um, if I only have support to do this in the North End, I'm happy to do that. But this legislative intent gives the public the opportunity to come and, and tell us their concerns. I'll tell you a story, and it goes back to this lady talking about it. They don't, uh, promote predators. Uh, Monday night, a person in West Cocoa, in your district, has a beautiful chicken coop, beautiful chickens, no roosters. One got missing, and the next night he looked out there, and there was a 40-pound bobcat eating one of his chickens. Well, you know, so it does, predators come to chickens. Rats come to chicken food. You can say I store my feed. You can't. The chickens eat out of a pan and dribble feed all around the yard. So I hear you, and I'm glad you want to do this. I cannot vote for this. I cannot agree that we're going to take half of Brevard and turn it into a chicken coop on the North End, but yet we're not going to do it on the South End. If we're going to do it, let's do it on the South End, too, or let's put it in Sun Tree also. I think it'd be wonderful. Would we have your support to do that? No, Sun Tree's not an HOA. Commissioner, will we have your support to do that? Because I'd rather it be an issue. Yeah, I'll support that. Okay. The whole county? The chairman here represents that. I'll help him out. Is that your motion, sir? The whole county? Chickens? Yeah, just turn them loose. Is that your motion? Same thing with ducks. If we can hunt ducks openly now, let's get some ducks involved. I think we, okay. I'll second that. I have no motion, Chair. I think this, if we don't have any more to talk about chickens, I'm about to have a heart attack, so let's hurry up. Okay. Commissioner Delaney, I think that was a joke. So go ahead and restate your motion. I would like to make a motion to go out for legislative intent for, I'll leave it general for legal, for the North End, for our chicken ordinance. All right. Question on the motion. On the motion. Question. Does Coco have a chicken ordinance now? City of Coco? I believe so. Well, you better believe so, or you better know so, because you don't want to try to infuse something on them that they've already got a policy. This is only for unincorporated. I don't know. I don't think she can. So we ain't going to the city. She can't. How's that? I think the city needs it, too. Let's talk to them. I'll talk to them. Then you don't negotiate that with the city. Okay. Just a, what is our zoning ordinance now? Is it, does it have to be, do we allow them at one unit per acre? Does it have to be rural, residential? What is the status of the ordinance now? Lot size. So it's, it's based on lot size. So the, if you're under a half acre, you're allowed one chicken. If you're over a half acre, you're allowed four chickens by conditional use. And then when you get into the agricultural zoning classifications, then, then there's unlimited chicken. Okay. I see you have that in the staff report. I should have read that, but. Yes, I. Commissioner Delaney has a motion. Is there a second on the motion? All right, Commissioner Delaney, I think you can continue to work on that. Let's go. Is there a motion? Yes. I'll second the motion. I'll second. Okay. 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. No. Commissioner Atkinson. No. Commissioner Altman. Yes. Chairman Feltner. Yes. And we'll show that pass as 3-2. Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you. J8. Commissioner Delaney, that's your item. Thank you. I think we have a card. I wanted to bring forward a discussion item because, and I guess I'll start this by saying thank you so much to our staff. We had pretty extensive budget workshops. And if you haven't gotten a chance to watch those, they are full of information. And they just did an incredible job of really giving a clear picture of the challenges that we're facing as a county and the opportunities that we have to, you know, fix some of the things that are going on. And so I really just wanted to give us an opportunity because we didn't have that chance to talk about some of the revenue streams that were presented to us. And with that, we could, I don't know if we're going to go to cards or if we want to discuss. I have a card, but let's do, are there questions, questions of the sponsor or possibly staff? I'm going to go to the card. Okay. Sandra Sullivan. Sandra Sullivan, South Patrick Shores. So the fiscal crisis that we are in was avoidable if we'd been more proactive. And by kicking the can down the road just on impact fees, let's just say that one, for 25 years. And so that's one of the funding options is the impact fee. So in 1997, when we had the fire or the EMS and fire referendum, the study recommended $305 for impact fees. It's still at $97 or $87. Anyway, so we're at a junction right now where action can be taken by this board, but time's ticking and you only have until August 19th as that deadline. To put a referendum on the ballot, yes, you would have to pay for the cost of doing that, but it's a cost of doing business. If it costs a half a million dollars to put something out on a ballot initiative and you do a couple of them and for each half cent you're bringing in $600 million, that number is going to go up. That's a number, what it would be now, $600 million over 10 years. So you were given a sheet of paper, and this is the key option right now because you're putting a Band-Aid right now, but you don't have enough money to fund the fire department now. You're taking from other budgets. You don't have enough money in year two and year three in order to get ahead of this so that next year a referendum would go into play and would be on next, you know, would be bringing in that money. So you have on this sheet of paper here, you can do a regional transportation surtax, and they showed a chart where the counties that have their transportation figured out are doing that. That was from the budget workshop. That was presented by your director as having a fiscal crisis for transportation, $2.2 billion. You have a quarter of the money you need to fund critical needs right now, just on the critical need portion, not on the total needs. We have, why it makes sense is we have 24 new hotels coming on board. Tourism plays a part in those costs. So I'm pleading with you to take action this year and not kick the can down the road for another year. It's going to be seven to nine months because we didn't do milestones for some of the studies for impact fees, so that relief isn't coming. So I strongly urge you for transportation and fire to do sales tax. Thank you. Thank you. Morris, I think you were going to say something on that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to point out to the board, because we've heard this many times now, but to be very clear, Florida Statutes 212.055, which governs the discretionary sales surge tax for things like infrastructure or the fire service one we've heard talk about, none of those can be placed on a ballot other than a general election ballot by referendum. So the earliest you could have it appear on a ballot would be the 2026 general election. You cannot do it in a non-general election year. So even numbered years only, essentially. So the August date we heard about and a November 25 election, that's impossible by statute. I have a question about that. Okay. Does that include if we were to do a special election? You can't do a special election. You can't have a special election referendum. It has to be a referendum on a general election ballot. Okay. Let me say something about that real quick, because in 2003, the county did a special election for infrastructure, and it ended up losing 2-1. The state came back some years later, and Commissioner Altman, you were probably there at that time, and said that you have to put it before the voters when the greatest number of voters would be voting, not in the special election. So that's the situation with a referendum on a tax question. So just as a technical issue there. Okay. That was the last card. Are there... I just had some... In discussion, Commissioner Altman. Yeah, and I appreciate this item being on the agenda, because I think it's healthy that we do discuss these options as much as possible. And a lot of these options cannot... Don't necessarily have to be looked at as revenue-producing taxes, but they could be looked at a way of making the tax system more just. In other words, some of them can be used to reduce property taxes, because that's the most evil of all taxes. You know, they're penalizing people for achieving the American dream. And I know when we raised the gas tax in the 80s, we took a pretty good portion of that to lower the MSTU road and bridge property taxes. And we could demonstrate that we were able to generate significant revenue and at the same time, reduce property taxes. And it made the distribution a more equitable... You know, one thing that Bavard has is we've got this great revenue producer. It's called I-95. It's 72 miles... The longest county in the state, by the way. A lot of people have to stop and gas up on their way to Miami or on their way north. And so that's generating a lot of revenue for our roads, but it's not necessarily being borne by the Bavard County taxpayers. So I do think gas tax is a more equitable and fair way. And I know some of the service charge fees that we were talking about, again, it's more consumption-based. I'm a big fair tax person. I believe in consumption-based taxes more than taxing income or property. And that makes the tax more avoidable. And taxes that are avoidable are better taxes that are non-avoidable, because I don't like paying taxes. I think it's the American way. We know we have to have them. But if we have them in a way that consumers have a little bit of choice, it's more equitable. So I think it's a healthy discussion. I hope we continue that. I know I'm interested in pursuing some of these options. And hopefully we can do it in a way that will diminish the tax burden on Bavard residents, also make us a more attractive place to live. Say something there, Commissioner, on a couple things that you said. You know, local option gas tax, you know, it was easy when that first came about. And, you know, the guy who owned the gas pump was the tax collector. It was real simple. But those, that's changing. Not necessarily everyone who drives on the road pays that tax. And that's a dilemma. And you'll hear that at TPO when you go. They've had FDOT folks. They've had someone come from federal transportation agencies and spoken on that issue. The state's going to take that up sometime in the future to figure it out because, you know, gas taxes for everybody, whoever collects it, will continue to decline. I mean, that's a good thing, right? Cars are more efficient. I mean, you know, cars are certainly more efficient than they were 50 years ago. And so that's going to continue to be a problem. On some of the other taxes that are collected across the county in terms of a sales tax, some of those things I think you have to split with municipal governments. So it's not quite as clean as Brevard County's going to get it all. So I look forward to continuing the discussion. But I think that's all that's probably going to happen today. Commissioner Jolini. The ones that I was mostly interested in was the gas taxes and then the sales taxes. And like Commissioner Altman said, you know, consumptive taxes are definitely more ideal than property taxes. You know, and that way we can have the people visiting Brevard County contribute to our tax base even more and lessen that burden on the residents. And I would even be interested in, you know, as much as we could do through sales tax because that would, we could, like Commissioner Altman said, we could reduce our property taxes, you know, with the money that we generate from these other sales taxes. So that's kind of where my head's at. I agree that with Lieutenant Dacko, even if it's not the EMS sales tax, doing something to have a designated source of revenue for our fire department, I think that that's really important. But I think that the sales tax would be a good thing because then the tourists would be contributing when they call 911. You know, they're part of their spending will go towards their ambulance ride or their services that they get from Brevard County. And our, I think that our transportation really needs to be looked at. As our public works director shared with us at the budget workshop, $2.2 billion in transportation backlog. And that cannot be solely on the backs of our residents here. So I think that it's something that we need to talk about extensively. And we need to, I personally feel like we need to make a decision within the relative near future on how we're going to bring more income into the county. Another discussion. Okay. I guess we'll continue to think about that. You know, with regards to any kind of sales tax that would potentially go before the voters, since that would be in 26, you do have time to continue that discussion. I just say that because that's, I mean, if it was to happen in 25, just as thinking about the calendar, you'd almost have to adopt something today to let the supervisor elections know. They have to know in August. And so anyways, just so you're aware of the calendar going forward as a matter of how that would work with the supervisor. I had a question for staff, if that's okay. Sure. Would, if we decided to do the fuel taxes, when would we need to have those discussions and decisions made by? Okay. We're going to let Kathy Wall come up. She's the expert on that one. Thank you. To make sure I don't misspeak. According to Florida statutes, they can be levied before October 1st of any given year to be effective January 1st of the next year. Thank you. Now, is that because that starts the new fiscal? And I think, as you mentioned the other day, you know, you miss out in two months of collection, right? And Department of Revenue needs time to notify the dealers that this is increased. So it's giving Department of Revenue time to notify it so everything can be updated for the new year. And I would just like to add, I was down in Fort Lauderdale over Christmas break and they have all of their fuel taxes levied in that area and their gas prices were the same, if not a couple cents cheaper than ours. So I don't necessarily think that if we levied these that it'll make our gas prices go through the roof or anything like that. I'm an expert on gas, but it may be that they bring gas through their port and we don't. I don't know if that's the issue there. There may be other things happening, but okay. Interesting. Okay. Anything else on this item? That's it. Thank you. Okay. All right. All right. I think we'll go on to J9. Is that right? Yes. Commissioner Delaney, this is your item. Thank you. I am bringing forward this policy BCC 43. I made some changes to my first draft of this to include getting rid of the state travel portion. Like Commissioner Feltner, you had concerns about that. That was in the previous policy. But just for the sake of your concerns, I struck that out. And Commissioner Atkinson, I struck out any of the talk about the budget department sending budget updates. And so I just left in there the update for the 2425 numbers to make that up to date. And then to, based on the recommendations that I've gotten from staff, leave in the facilities, we'll provide a written estimate for renovations of commission offices. Commissioner Goodson for a question. Yeah. Madam Commissioner, would you require a written estimate if you were doing a sidewalk in your district from construction? Yes. You would? Yes. Okay. Have you? Oh, you mean, okay. I misunderstood what you're talking about. No. No, I would not. You would not require one? No. Why not? Because the staff is, that's not my, I feel like those are two different things because this is something that's mine versus a county project. If it's two different things, then why did you not understand what you were doing in your own office? With all due respect, I asked multiple times and was promised and was not given estimates. And then by the time they told me that the work was beginning, it was pretty much done. Oh, really? And with all due respect, I was not sitting in the fourth floor of the six-story building and watching everything they were doing. I trusted that staff was, you know, doing what they would, what they told me that they would do. And I was busy catching up on, you know, I don't know about y'all, but I walked into my office with over 100 voicemails and no office furniture. I'm sure all of them were to the chicken, too. Let me ask you this question, okay? You recently bought a $740-something refrigerator, correct? Yes. Why did you not go to Scratch and Dent and buy a $400 one? Because there were none. I went. There wasn't. I went to Appliance Direct. Lowe's had even cheaper ones than you bought. Was it a color combination that matches your decor in your new office? No. Huh? It was, it was, it's a pretty standard, it fit the, fit the area. I think it's 20.5 cubic yards. That's a big refrigerator. You're going to be able to store a lot of boiled eggs. You're right. It was, it was standard. I can't support this because I think a commissioner needs to have a certain amount of knowledge with what they're doing. And I find it hard to believe that. What did you think your office renovation was going to cost? I was told on multiple occasions that it would be $20,000 or less. Okay. Chair, may I? $20,000 for new flooring, new desk, new security. Not new desk. You didn't get new desk? No, sir. I'm so sorry. I got no new furniture. I have all asset management furniture. All right. New flooring, new, did you get the curtains or the blinds? There were new blinds. Okay. And I guess, I just find it, if you know anything about the world today, $20,000 will not buy you crap. But maybe it's. I don't know. It's not a huge office, though. Well, it must have been. How much did you finally, how much did they finally spend? Off the top of my head, I don't know exactly that number. Okay. How much did they finally spend, sir? Do you know? I don't have the number off the top of my head. 102 is the number I saw. I believe you have still the flooring hasn't been the final price, and flooring hasn't come back yet. And that's because more flooring was added, was included than what my project required. So, which that flooring is going to, I believe, the Sheriff's Department. The Sheriff's involved in this, too? All right. Okay. All right. $102,000. I can't support this because I think a city commissioner needs to be able to handle his own business. All right. Thank you. Okay. Other discussion on this item? Commissioner Atkinson. I have a question for staff. So, this says the language revision was recommended, reviewed, and edited by county staff. Correct. I'd like to know if you actually recommended this. You know, I don't change commissioner's agenda, so that got pointed out to me. So, I did speak to Commissioner Delaney. I do believe she thinks that we recommended it. I spoke with Mark. So, I see where she's coming from. I'm sure it was miscommunication. But, I mean, as staff, we only provide advice on commissioner agendas and will help when asked. But, we don't provide recommendations to individual commissioners to bring items to the board. May I? For a follow-up. So, I'd just like to say that I'm not going to support this because I don't believe that I need to tell facilities to provide a written estimate. I can ask them to provide whatever it is I need. I don't know that we need to put this on them to obtain written approval. So, that's where I stand on this. So, I would like to speak on why I said recommend. I have multiple emails here saying this is from one of our staff members. And this is a quote. I proposed the above tweaks for several important reasons. Here's another one. I'm adding so-and-so to my proposed input below. As so-and-so stated in a previous meeting, the CMO mentioned a policy that is specific to commissioners and that could be adjusted to avoid this situation in the future. Multiple times here where the staff is recommending changes to this policy. This one says to codify further, you may wish to request the board to consider a policy change to BCC 43 as previously suggested. I don't understand what the issue is with adding a level of checks and balances and transparency because I'm glad for you that you got the respect and the word of the staff to provide you with those things, but I did not. And I also didn't get the benefit of using the construction crew, which the staff costs were not included in D3 or D5's estimates, which the staff time was included in mine, so why was I not being treated the same as the other commissioners? And then in addition to that, I didn't have the previous commissioner to make updates to my office prior to myself getting into office like D3 did. And I also had to go through my office furniture being given to another commissioner's office. So there is a reason why I'm asking for everybody to be treated the same and for some standardization in our processes and for transparency and accountability. And I own it. It's my bad for trusting that the staff was going to do what they told me to do. But I was not awarded that same respect. Any other discussion on the item? What's the pleasure of the board here? I'd like to move to approve to update policy BCC-43. I don't hear a second. Commissioner Delaney, you could continue to work on that one. Let's go on to J10. And Commissioner Delaney, you could explain your item there. J10. Sure. Thank you. So as you all know, I sit on the Eastern Central Florida Regional Planning Council. And I was recently told about a possible grant opportunity through Florida Commerce. And it is up to a $75,000 grant with zero match. And what this would be would be to basically look to the future for economic development in North Brevard. And I just thought with the dissolution of the North Brevard economic development zone that this would be a good opportunity to get some data and make a plan to go forward for economic development in my district. And I'm looking for support. Okay, I'm going to pass a letter here because I took your letter and made a couple of amendments to it. If you're friendly to it, I would feel more comfortable with this. In short, commissioners, Commissioner Delaney, the main thing I have in the letter here is instead of the Eastern Florida Regional, we have an economic development commission right here in Brevard County. They're working and have been working for many years to bring things to the north end of the county. I would feel better if we were working with them instead of a group from Orlando. So that's it. That's the short of my amendment to your letter. But whatever the pleasure of the board is. I would be amenable to that. Okay. Thank you. All right. I'll take that as friendly amendment. And so is there other discussion on this item or questions? I think it's a timely issue, right? Yes. You need to get this to them? By August 1st. All right. With that, Commissioner, you want to make a motion with the friendly amendment? Sure. I'd like to make a motion to send the letter that Commissioner Feltner amended to Florida Commerce. Okay. And I'll sign it today. All right. I'll go ahead and I'll second that for you, okay? Thank you. And so a clerk will call the roll on J-10. Commissioner Delaney? Yes. Vice Chair Goodson? Yes. Commissioner Atkinson? Yes. Commissioner Altman? Yes. Chairman Feltner? Yes. And we'll show that pass is 5-0. I'm going to sign this right now for you, Commissioner Delaney. All right. Is that okay? And then you can sign, you can send that off? Okay. Thank you, board. Very good. And hold on. We're almost there. We're almost there. We've got two cards on the public comment. Christina Fleming. Sorry. After that, we're going to have Paige Sassman. Did I say that right? Okay. Good afternoon, Commissioners. First, I want to thank you for voting to approve the recent contract. That decision didn't just support a group of employees, it acknowledged the value of their work and the challenges they've endured for far too long. I also want to thank you for now showing a willingness to consider future contracts more seriously and more promptly. This shift matters, and I hope it's a sign of continued progress. But I'd be negligent if I didn't speak honestly about how we got here. For months, in some case years, the facts have been brought before you and past boards. The stories, the data, the pleas from employees and residents alike. There were opportunities to act earlier, to fix issues before they became crisis, and for too long, nothing was done. This contract approval is a positive step, but let it also be a turning point. Let it be a moment where this board commits to not just listening, but hearing, not just reacting, but acting. Let this experience serve as a reminder to proactively address the needs of departments in our county that are still understaffed and underpaid, especially as new studies and reports begin to surface. Doing the right thing isn't always easy. Sometimes it feels risky, politically and personally. It might even be feeling like a career suicide. But in the long run, integrity and courage matter. When you choose to lead with truth, when you choose to listen, to be guided by facts and fairness, you set a new example. You show this community and future leaders that local government can be principled, that it can stand up for what's right, even when it's not convenient. So again, thank you for this vote and for what I hope is a shift in an approach of going forward. Let's build on this momentum. Let's not make people fight so hard just to be heard and respected. Let's make this board one that leads with honesty, with moral clarity, and with the people's trust. Thank you. Thank you. I'd just like to say a couple things. First of all, thank you for your kind comments. We appreciate it. On the issue of promptly, more promptly, I do want to highlight that even before, even when we were still at impasse, this board very promptly, with the staff very early, raised the fire assessment fee. A great, great political peril. And also, at the earliest possible date of setting millage, we established a millage rate. So we, I know it's, I know you're talking about past, and boy, there have been some problems. But this board has acted really quickly, so I hope we, I think we'll keep that up. But I thank you for your comments on that. Thank you. Thank you, Christina. Thank you. Paige. And thanks for staying to the end. Good afternoon. I came to the previous board, like I spoke at a previous meeting during negotiations when there was, as an employee, I'm here today as a previous employee eligible for rehire. Um, I think this contract has a lot of good in it, um, with still, you know, minor twerks and everything that you need to get worked out, but it is a positive. And I hope you guys understand that, like, there's a lot of people that have left that are now considering coming back because of this race, myself included. Like, this place is home for a lot of people, and I think that's something, that's why a lot of us took it personally when it took so long to get a contract. But I'd just like to say thank you, and I look forward to what the future holds. Yes, and we'll look forward to you coming back, or your consideration. How's that? All right. Very good. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, we're going to go into board report, um, and I have one item today. I think it'll be welcomed. Uh, so let's, let's go through these as quick as we can. Uh, Mr. County Manager, sir. No report, sir. Okay. Mr. County Attorney. No report, Mr. Chairman. Okay. None, sir. Uh, okay. Uh, Commissioner Atkinson. Okay. Commissioner Altman. Okay. Commissioner Dillian. I just have one, um, one thing to, to mention, uh, Logan, if you wouldn't mind putting up the slide for me. Um, I'm, if it's there. I don't know if it's, yeah. Um, oh, there it is. Okay. Uh, so I'm very excited to announce, um, Tom Statham Park is now going to be open and rentable for the public again. And, uh, everybody's invited for the ribbon cutting, um, July 25th at noon. And I just want to say thank you so much, um, to the Parks and Rec crew that, um, did such a quick turnaround on that facility. And they did it, you know, just a beautiful job. And, uh, I'm so glad that this community space is now going to be able to be utilized by the community again. So I just wanted to openly invite everybody to the ribbon cutting. Thank you. That's great. Now, now tell me, uh, how, if, uh, we were rent that for, you know, class reunion, wedding, something like that, how many, how many folks can you put in there? Just give you a little extra sort of pitch there. Sure. Um, Ian, you might need to help me with that. I'm sorry. No, don't, don't, don't. But it's, it's 4,600 square feet. 4,600 square feet. Yes. It's a large building and it's beautiful. It's right on the river. There's an awesome playground. Um, one of our living shorelines is at this park and there's a beautiful, um, deck over the water with, uh, bench or with, uh, tables and great place to eat lunch. All right. So if you're, if you're looking for a wedding venue, that's a good place to go and it's definitely, yes. Fresh coat of paint. Nobody's even scratched it yet. Okay. Very good. Um, and then, um, commissioners, um, Don's got something that we're going to do and I appreciate you giving him a couple of minutes here. Yes, sir. Communications Director, Don Walker, uh, thank you, Chairman Feltner and a good afternoon board. Uh, I would like to introduce you to Jeremy Fiala. Uh, Jeremy is a student at Eastern Florida State College and along with a fellow classmate, Amelia Smatana. Uh, they were both hired as summer interns, uh, to video and interview county employees for a recruitment campaign that we're kicking off today. Uh, this was done through a partnership with Space Coast Government Television and Human Resources, uh, and in particular, Leslie Jones, Career Development Manager, and Tassiana Raiders, who is our Employee Development and Volunteer Specialist. Uh, the effort, uh, which was guided by Space Coast Government Television Production Manager, Logan Hemingway, uh, did a spotlight on, uh, various county employees and what they do for the county and, uh, as a way to help, uh, entice other people to join our team here. Uh, and so we have our first video that they produced, uh, that we're kicking off our campaign with today. We're going to show that to you today, and we hope you enjoy it. Thank you. My name is Amy Newman. I've worked for Brevard County for six years, and my current position is project supervisor. Actually started on the ground, and I believe that's a place that everyone should start. I worked there for a year or so, learning techniques that they use, and then I worked up to HEO1, which was heavy equipment operator. I got myself up into a machine, where I finally mastered that, and was lead, and, uh, now I've worked up to project supervisor. I grew up on a farm, so I've always been on equipment and tractors and such at a young age, so I think that helped me here, but I've always liked driving big stuff. That's one of the good things about the county is if you do enjoy driving a dump truck, they will train you, get your CDL, and they will put you to work in a dump truck. Earlier you start here, the better it is for you, because you can be retired at the age of 50, and that's full retirement. If you start out early, not saying that we won't take people of all ages, I start here over 50, so there's definitely a job for anyone, any age. My favorite thing about Riverard County is the beaches and the waterways, because I am a boater, and we're always out there on the water. We ensure the safety and beautification of properties here at Riverard County. The county is the place for you, because it gives you a sense of purpose. After you have cleaned a ditch out and watched that water that was flooding someone's yard before, you've mitigated the flooding and watched that water go, and it is so rewarding to see that what you did really solved the problem, and you get a sense that it's a job well done, and you're excited about it. It makes you want to go do more. It makes you want to solve all the problems that people have. There's just anything you can think of, there is a job here at the county for you. We have so many different departments. Basically, any skills that you have, we can find a job for you. Get out there and get it done. Are you interested in a job like this? Apply today at www.brevardfl.gov. So I just wanted to add that they did 17 videos, and we're kicking it off with a social media campaign. These will be posted on our webpage. We'll also have them on YouTube, and hopefully we'll start getting some job candidates. And we'll see some future ones. We'll do the same thing on board reports. Yes, sir. They've completed all 17 videos. They're done and ready to go. So we'll be showing those. Very good. Thanks for ending on a nice note. So thanks for doing that today. All right. Yes, sir. That's it. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.