county are so important i'd like to thank our many area sponsors businesses and medical providers who support the mission of helping seniors that help us carry the cost of our media efforts if you'd like to join us either as a business partner or simply donate as an individual we welcome your call at 321-473-7770 you're always welcome to visit our website at www.helpingseniorsofbevard.org thanks so much for your help it does make a difference wish to speak to any item on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting please fill out a speaker card each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card the chair has the discretion to determine or alter the time limits on any agenda item the board of county commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comments section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to county business that are within the board's control authority and jurisdiction okay um i'd like to ask everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance i'll do it okay okay our first item on the agenda is yeah i don't see it was i don't see do we have a do we have a pastor here for yes good okay all right it was a separate piece of paper all right this is pastor tim franklin from freedom christian center is going to lead us in the invocation today thank you father we thank you for your presence here and we know that you also rule in the affairs of men and as you have declared in your word the house is built by wisdom and by understanding it's established and so we just say come by the power of your spirit fill this place with your wisdom let there be understanding the lord at the end of the day let there be peace on each one's heart we ask all this in your precious son's name amen amen amen thank you thank you tim thank you for commissioner atkinson for bringing that to my attention okay our first item is d1 minutes for approval november 18th 2025 i'll make a motion to approve second motion second all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries oh by the way we have commissioner goodson with us on the phone and we just heard him chime in emotion yes i'll make a second i'll make the motion for commissioner goodson to participate by phone there's a motion and a second to authorize commissioner goodson to participate by phone all in favor say aye aye opposed carries thank you thank you appreciate you joining us okay now um item e resolutions awards and presentation we have none um f consent agenda we do have one card from a member of the public that wants to be heard on the consent agenda f4 so we'll pull that one off is there any other items on the consent that the board wishes to remove seeing none a motion on the consent would be in order there's motion second motion second all in favor say aye aye motion motion carries okay we will revert back to the one item that we have a card on and that's item oh that's questions only questions only okay that's what it says questions only okay does anyone have any questions on f4 i'd like to make a motion to approve okay there's a motion i'll second second to approve all in favor say aye aye motion aye motion carries okay okay we are now on item g which is a public comment portion of our the first public comment portion on our agenda do we have any public comment cards we have no public comment cards on item g h1 public hearing none i unfinished business approval for transfer of parcels um like to let staff introduce the item good morning commissioners back in december the board voted and directed the eels program to look at the transfer of these parcels to their management they subsequently did and the selection of management committee also reviewed it made a unanimous motion to uh recommend the transfer before you have an agenda item that would approve the transfer as part of the smc's approval they did a request to waive transfer fees so to honor that request you have an option of either uh waiving those fees or moving forward with just transfer fees of about fifty seven thousand two hundred and seventy dollars to pay the general fund back what was paid to utilities back in 2014 third item is to authorize eels program to enter into a friends of agreement with the not-for-profit fourth is to authorize the parks and rec director to sign set agreement renewals modifications and fifth is to authorize the county manager to execute all necessary actions to complete the transfer okay do we have any questions no i'll just say uh you do i just what i wanted to do i was going to say this is my item so i'll close on it okay after the cards okay sir all good we have anita and tom unrath might as well call you together y'all can come on up thank you very much for considering this um start off with a couple of things one i'm a pastor and uh as i mentioned at the very beginning of this whole thing uh nine years ago um god created the world i believe and said take care of it and so thank you for the opportunity that you have given us and especially the previous members of the bard kurt smith uh especially and uh back at that time there was uh margaret mead anthropologist said never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world indeed it is the only thing that ever has we hope that we've been able to be part of that tradition but uh we could not have done it at all without help of a lot of people especially virginia barker we really thank she was assigned as our point of contact with the county and she has done an absolutely phenomenal job we want to thank her and her staff most especially as well as mike knight and his staff the selection and management committee that came out looked at the property and then made the recommendation that we move forward to transfer the property to eel and there's a guy who's not here uh will not be it here physically at all his name is george rosenfield he died at 100 years plus but he was here speaking 10 years ago saying that he thought that this property should be set aside for uh this kind of purpose that eel is is doing he said his his phrase and that was in perpetuity uh so thank you for allowing him to see from wherever he is that this is is going forward and we appreciate all that you have and and will be in a moment doing do i get my three minutes anita unrath um i would like to thank our board members past and present we have had 20 people in the past help us they've moved to places like north carolina alaska gone in the coast guard and one is an army veterinarian now she was on our board when she was a student at eastern florida college here for two years another is in going into environmental engineering i encourage you also to please vote in favor of this agenda item as tom said it takes a village and we do have this wonderful team we've also had some wonderful contractors that i would like to tell you about because they did some awesome work one is roberto belotti of sun tree landscaping he mowed the trails for us these past nine years another is rick cockrell of superior aquatics he has sprayed the category one invasive um kogan grass we didn't know anything about kogan grass we knew about brazilian pepper trees but kogan grass could have taken over all of hundred acre hollows and he's been out there at least twice a year you have to spray it twice a year to make sure it goes away it unfortunately it grows by underground rhizomes and so um it may come back in other areas but we've tried what we to do what we could to cut back the kogan grass the gopher tortoises need their grass and kogan grass would totally take over we want to thank lew construction for cutting back and pulling out invasive brazilian pepper trees three years ago and they all gave us a good non-profit price so thank you very much to all of them we want to thank other people have helped us alishan and yuliang wong yuliang was a young man who did our app to geolocate the gopher tortoise burrows that we've used over the years and there have been many people who have volunteered to cut down brazilian pepper trees and vines there have been numerous people who have supported us financially we've been supported by individuals and some grants the organizations that have supported us are the california turtle and tortoise club in our first year they saw us online and sent us 250 dollars which was such a gift at that point when we had like no money and we've also had help from the space coast audubon society planting a garden in the south the cape brevard beautiful grant we did another garden and a rain pavilion with rain barrels the gannett foundation gave us money a grant one year we got recycled plastic picnic tables and benches and recently the community foundation for brevard for the mobi mats that we just installed and the gopher tortoise council for an educational grant that we received we've had five eagle scout projects and three girl scout projects out there they made kiosk benches educational signs and bat houses and i also want to thank the brevard zoo which has been an amazing partner they bring out home school groups every year and they also cut brazilian pepper trees for the giraffes and the goats so thank you so much to all of those people who helped us and we hope that you will vote in favor of this and we hope that you've made us that we've made you proud that a small group of people could do such a thing to help our county thank you very much thank you for all your good work uh commissioner feldner thank you mr chair uh commissioners this has been a long time in the in the making um i've certainly accelerated it since since i've been here um and since we have the eels program i think the the season was right to do this so i appreciate your support today i'm going to go ahead and make a motion if there isn't other discussion um so first to approve the transfer of the identified parcels um part of my motion will be to pay the fifty seven thousand two hundred seventy dollars uh to general fund and i think that's the probably the best land deal uh in this century uh that we're gonna we're gonna have for uh for 114 acres authorize eels to enter into uh agreement with the friends of 100 acre hollows and then authorize parks and recreation department director to endorse um the agreements and um any amendments that need to be made and then finally authorize the county manager to execute all uh necessary budget amendments that's second that okay motion in two seconds um so uh any discussion any questions uh all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries unanimously aye thank you that's good thank you all right okay our next item is uh j1 good morning uh commissioners uh j1's a resolution authorizing the county manager to execute all necessary documents uh to request a release of entry uh for exploration of phosphate minerals metals and petroleum uh reservation and rights from the board of trustees of the international improvement fund of the state of florida uh back in july uh the board approved the purchase of a uh 72 acre wetland within the jefferson marsh mosquito impoundment area in merritt island uh during uh the title search an exception came up uh that there was a 1940s deed restriction which um has this uh mineral rights uh requirement and so what we're asking now uh is to submit an application to the state to uh release that right of entry not the underlying uh rights themselves it effectively uh means that um the state will not come in on the property but we can't uh mine for uh these materials uh and uh finally uh we proceeded with the uh purchase uh in consultation with the county attorney's office because the uh minimal risk but uh looking for uh your permission to uh request this release at this time okay all right um any questions any discussion a motion would be a motion motion second motion second all in favor say aye aye aye no comment oh okay okay good all those in favor say aye aye motion carries aye okay uh next item j2 might staff to present this uh item all right this is an item that has evolved a little bit since it was added to the agenda um it involves the saint john's heritage parkway and um a potential of a support of palm bay and the acquisition of a segment of the future parkway extension that ultimately will connect it from its terminus out west on malabar road now um down south to babcock um somewhere north of where micco is um the city of palm bay took this up at their meeting thursday night and they unanimously proceeded with a resolution proposed by the applicant on it um as you all know the saint john's heritage parkway is a regionally significant transportation corridor intended to improve east west mobility enhance emergency evacuation capacity and reduce congestion on parallel arterial roadways including babcock street there is an ace study alternative corridor evaluation study evaluating potential parkway alignments between babcock street to malabar road the proposal before you would involve the most the westernmost segment of that alignment um just west i'm sorry the easternmost segment of that alignment just west of babcock street it's within the jurisdiction of the city of palm bay now the original proposal before you was a joint resolution that that purports to be an agreement where the county and city agree to certain terms and it states that resolution if adopted by the county and city would become an agreement between them and between a private party who's going to fund any potential imminent domain action that might need to be taken to acquire that property just last night i received an email from scott knox who represents the private party rolling meadows ranch that's proposing to uh provide the financial backing for this acquisition and he stated and i i would agree that because the subject property lies within the city of palm bay the county's approval of this resolution is not necessary for the city to proceed and exercise its condemning authority palm bay has the absolute authority to condemn the property in the event statutory offer negotiation process called for in the resolution does not result in a negotiated purchase of the property without the county what they're really asking for is a show of solidarity and support from the county so my recommendation if the county commission is interested in proceeding and thinks this is a good thing to do and secure that segment of the future alignment of the parkway would be to consider directing me to prepare a resolution um similar to the joint resolution put forth in your agreement but modifying it to show that it's not intended to be an agreement of the county as far as a contractual agreement but rather a show of support for palm bay's ultimate acquisition of the parkway segment um i'm happy to answer any questions you might have about this item and if the board approve that uh you know approve and authorize the chair to to execute the appropriate resolution okay um i think it would be appropriate that we show solidarity with the city it is a regionally significant roadway and this is good news that we're working together with the city to make it happen it also has a significant impact on a potential future school site which is a public benefit as well so this would encourage uh then to proceed so i think a motion would be in order we do have one card yes we have one card if you wanted to say a few words i'm here for the friends of the parkway and our group started working on this actually in 1982 we worked hard to run the parkway from the airport to malabar road and we'd like to see it continue because it's going to be needed as a transportation connector and corridor it's a critical thing and we almost didn't build wickham road when it was first built it was called the road to nowhere really people laughed about it you need transportation and people in the south county need to get to i-95 this is a critical plan and the interchange is there this will connect to the interchange goes right across babcock street it's a critical thing to happen and uh we support it and mr machado got caught in traffic um john satori's here we have a lot of support for this and a lot of support in the in the south county area so i'd really appreciate uh your support on this because palm bay has agreed 5-0 to support the thing because it's really needed thank you and i appreciate your time thank you kind of ironic isn't it they couldn't make the meeting for a palm bay parkway project because he got stuck in traffic in south provar makes a real statement okay uh commissioner feltner i think i saw you did you have a no sir i i uh i had said earlier to talk it's been a long time since we've seen each other but uh when i worked for the legislature um and you were there too i think nine nine or ten session um the legislature appropriated money for the st john's heritage parkway so it's it's been many many years in in the making commissioner x so um this is down my way and i've had an opportunity to talk to um a lot of people that i know down there about it and one of the things that kept coming up was an evacuation route everybody thinks that it's going to be a real positive thing for for lots of reasons but that in particular so um i would like to make a motion to approve and yes just for some clarification i would recommend that the motion uh be that the the county commission adopt a resolution showing support of the city of palm bay's action to move forward with acquisition of that property in partnership with the private party rolling meadows ranch and direct me to prepare a resolution to that effect and authorize the chair to sign thank you so moved there's a motion is there a second i'll second second by commissioner feltner um yes it's been a long time coming gracious i can remember way back when charlie chris was governor he approved i don't know 10 15 million dollars thank you charlie for that it's been a team effort with a lot of different organizations and um this is a big step forward for it so okay uh any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries aye thank you commissioner thank you tuck and um next item on the agenda will be j3 opponent of a member of titusville coco airport authority we have one card uh john hopping garden and another card just for questions from time more yeah let's have staff give a presentation before you get started to frame the uh go right ahead i have a bad habit of just jumping in you know good morning mr chair and commissioners this item is to appoint a member to the titusville coco airport authority who is appointed jointly by county commissioners district one two and four and if i may uh mr chair i had an opportunity late yesterday to do a little research and it looks like in 1995 then commissioner truman scarborough actually asked for an attorney general opinion construing the language in the special act jointly appoint or or that they be appointed jointly by those commissioners uh there's certainly a reading of that that would require a consensus or no dissent or unanimous approval but uh attorney general at the time bob butterworth issued an opinion in response to commissioner scarborough's inquiry and opined that the at-large member of the titusville coco airport district who is to be appointed jointly by the county commissioners for districts one two and four should be chosen by a process in which all three commissioners participate but the member need not be selected unanimously so you know whatever is the board's pleasure when it comes time it's just those three members that would be involved in this election uh it could be either by consensus if they're all in agreement or it could be by a vote it doesn't need to be unanimous to appoint a member to that at-large seat i have a question yes go ahead so does that mean only three of us are voting yes only only one two and four thank you okay go ahead john hoppingarden you all know me from my wonderful uh political career and also from my being on the planning and zoning board but i'm here today about the appointment for the titusville coco airport a lot of you don't know that i spent many years in aviation as a project manager for numerous airport projects i i started when i was in the air force and where i'm a decorated combat veteran and i'm a graduate architect and i was the construction manager and designer for numerous airport projects nationally and internationally i'll give you some examples hobby airport in houston bush intercontinental in houston el paso in texas logan airport in boston cleveland airport in ohio santa barbara airport california ben-gurion airport in israel and stay dove airport in israel the projects ranged from million dollars to 650 million dollars i worked on the design for hangers terminals passenger gates hard stands aprons maintenance facilities baggage handling runway extensions concession areas storm drainage fire protection and detection docking systems for visual gates apron lighting cathodic protection for fuel systems earthworks loading bridges i could go on and on and on i've done it all under the um the y accords in in the middle east i was um assigned to do two training facilities for the israeli air force for f-15s and the blackhawk helicopter systems with um um with uh stimulators flight simulators we were putting those in also i also did a training school for scandinavian airlines for all their management personnel besides all that i've done warehouses i've done office buildings industrial parks uh parking garages and hotels all air force related um administratively i was country manager for uh parsons brinkerhoff a large engineering firm back in the day at 12 000 engineers and i was also the procurement agent for getting two airports in cyprus under a bot a build operate transfer program which is like a private public partnership uh let's see designed a computer system oh boy i'm running out of time um i'm a licensed real estate broker commercial and i'm out of time but i just wanted to say if i can take two seconds that i made a lot of money doing all this kind of work i'm offering it to you for all this knowledge that i have for free so please consider me for this position thanks for your vote thank you so much okay um i think that those uh we have a one card for questions only uh with time more so i'd like to make a motion if there's no discussion yeah commissioner goodson yes i'd like to make a motion sir oh okay i'd like to nominate time more runs a business out of merrill island is a young gentleman and that's what we need to promote since all of us are getting older point of order okay i was just wondering since i was i i mentioned i wanted to make a motion first if that what the order of that would be um well since the commissioner was on the phone i wanted him to give an opportunity to make a comment when he mentioned it um so we have two commissioners wanting to make a motion why don't i think you go to her i think you go to her motion first parliamentary procedure the person who mentions it first so um i would i think i take up her motion and see if there's a second okay but only among the three who vote on the side right i'd like to make a motion to approve john hopping garden to the seat okay there's a motion is there a second and remind it would be the only three commissions from the north blavard okay motion dies for like a second commissioner goodson you have a motion i'd like to nominate time more it's a motion for time more is there a second i'll second there's a motion and second i'd like to have discussion discussion um i i have a lot of concern about this because i didn't really see a whole lot of experience and when you have somebody who's put their name in with i mean decades and decades of experience um i think that it would put our airport in a much better situation to add this type of experience onto our board um with mr hoppengarden and um i i'm i understand i mean i i'm the young one on this board so i understand bringing youth into these situations but i'm oh i'm also highly in favor of making sure the most qualified person is put into these positions um and i would have to believe that uh mr hoppengarden is that person okay is there any further yes i'll just i'll say something there uh so known ty a long time i think i first met him when he was four i think he's a very impressive young man um i'd appreciate what what you said about experience um i i would note that it's it's an accomplishment to have 800 flight hours uh in a cockpit he is he is working towards his multi-engine uh rating and hopes to be an instructor as a as multi-engine pilot and is running a small airline so i i think he's i think he's got a very interesting perspective um and i appreciate uh the experience that that he he has and uh in in his education i think he'll he'll be a great addition to the board if i if i may um i while i understand that it's we have a lot of pilots on this board already and so it would be in my opinion it's it would be better to diversify the type of experience and knowledge we have on this board um you know especially with all the growth and expansion and whatnot um flying a plane is great and it's you know obviously extremely you know accomplished and um that's a fantastic skill um but it might be a good idea to have somebody on this board who has decades of experience with expansion and with um revitalizing airports and i just want to put it out there because it needs to be put out there um you know this person's father is kendall moore so you know i'm curious about this and you know especially this airport i understand it's a joint appointment but this airport is in my district and you know i would never step on your guys's toes in your district well what all airports are under the the tyco coco airport authority i think i think so too isn't merit island aren't there two out of the three though in district one it's arthur dunn tyco and merit island airport right two out of the three are in district one i believe okay i think merit island is the equally significant part of the whole tyco apparatus so i appreciate the space coast regional is is the biggest it's the you know it's ty do you fly out of uh titusville on a regular basis like yeah absolutely please good morning ty moore and uh i originally did not prepare comments but uh if there's time available i definitely like to make some and i'm available for questions oh well good morning ty moore um i did originally apply for the position on the board i'm a patron and a user of both merit island and titusville airport for probably the last 18 years now i am an aircraft owner i have an aircraft at merit island i also manage two additional family aircraft at merit island as you know professionally i own a company that buys sells and manages embryo jets predominantly so when we ring clients in for embryo tours or they're looking at purchasing real estate in the county uh we do do use space coast regional and give karsten and wendy businesses they've been really good to us at space coast executive jet center over the years um in addition and this isn't to speak negatively on the other candidates but um i can add something that the other candidates don't currently do the board or the other candidates have skill sets that the board has already demonstrated to be fully competent at one um a highly experienced commercial real estate developer whereas the board has demonstrated their competency in one of the most recent developments the river flying condos a collaboration and the hangers that they intend to build at merit island and the other applicant uh an airline pilot um at jet blue i believe which mr craig who is on the board who is also a pilot um already has that position but what i can add one as uh commissioner goodson mentioned a perspective from the next generation which is something that the board currently does not possess and two we have general aviation covered we have airlines covered we have the commercial real estate covered but on the business aviation side i don't believe there's somebody that currently sits in that position and business aviation is an integral part of growth at in any airport ecosystem especially at smaller airports which i have experience operating in and out of those are my comments and i'd be happy to take any questions okay great thank you so much appreciate you should be in here okay thank you okay those are all our cards we'll bring it back to the board we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion debate if not all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye aye well i can't vote we can't vote can we i'd have it okay there's a motion uh nay uh two in favor commissioner feltner goodson and uh one against so commissioner delaney against that passes uh two to one okay okay our next item is j4 uh annual investment performance report year end in september 30th uh 2025 and county finance department department thank you for being here good morning chairman and commissioners um mark peterson with bevard county clerk of the circuit court and comptroller county finance department and i have here with me today um richard bengali with public financial management and our chair of the investment committee and one of our employees here is andrew walcott um this item is requesting the board to accept the bevard county annual investment report um this report has been prepared by the county's investment advisor and county finance as required by the county's investment policy bcc 49 which is in compliance with florida statutes and approved by the county's investment committee which is comprised of citizens of the county they approved it at their last quarterly meeting the county's earnings um in 25 was as you can see here was 63 million dollars in 24 we earned 50 million um a large part of that is because where interest rates have been interest rates are starting to to decline so it's not promising that we'll continue to get that but we've earned 63 million dollars and that 63 million dollars has been allocated amongst the various funds so whatever cash is um in whatever funds be it soil or fire rescue or solid waste or utilities that money goes back to those respective funds that had the cash balances so it's we're not taking the money and putting in one area it's out being allocated amongst 160 different funds um and board departments do budget for this on an annual basis that is part of their their budget so in earning 63 million dollars it helps to keep costs or replace basically revenue that normally depending upon where the markets were um would be affected in their budget um we have in the portfolio the county's portfolio is is broken up into three areas we have the short-term portfolio we have the long-term portfolio and the macum portfolio and each of them has its unique um characteristics the short-term is investments that are that are less than a year which is at year end at september 30th was for almost 420 million dollars that's what we use to meet payroll accounts payable and make make i mean weekly payments the interest that we earned last year on the short-term portfolio was 4.11 percent then we have the long-term port and also the short-term portfolio portfolio is managed by county finance we manage that and dealing with the daily banking the long-term portfolio is in the one to three year area um we had 589 million and it earned 4.47 percent that portfolio is overseen by pfm our investment advisor they've got the expertise they've been doing this for a number of years they only work with governments which is an added benefit because governments are very unique in what we can do then we have the macum portfolio which is multi-asset class management portfolio this gets into index funds equities um at year end we had 148 million dollars there we earned 12 percent which is a lot greater than the both the long-term and short-term where that benefit came in is because of the equities um probably about eight years ago this commission approved um us to go and start investing in macum and it was to try to beat inflation if we're inflation is four percent five percent and we're only earning three percent and four percent we're behind and so having the adding this macum portfolio actually helps us be competitive it's a small piece of the total 149 million out of the billion dollar portfolio so we're not throwing everything into one area which also is a benefit in that when the economy is good we might have short-term out outperforming the benchmark if we're long term there i mean things go like a roller coaster it's up and down we never know where things are going to go but we're trying to protect um the public's money the short-term portfolio i mean everything is diversified we see here in the the pie chart to to the left um it's in local government investment pools it's in banks it's in cds so we don't have all the money in one area the long-term portfolio they're in the upper right corner you see we're in u.s treasuries corporates agencies so we're very diversified so any one area depending upon the economy might get hit harder than another but generally one area will do better one area is less so it compensates for that and let me let richard say a few words as far as i wanted to show show you here's kind of the history of this last year rich is going to talk about where we think some of the factors that we're having to weigh in on in this coming year with the markets thank you mark commissioners um so uh as mark said uh kind of using different words you know the past performance over the past fiscal year was uh very good and in fact over the past couple years we've seen uh pretty good uh performance uh driven by uh a fairly strong uh and growing uh economy uh and underlying that uh has really been a strong um uh consumer about two-thirds of the u.s economy is driven by uh consumers and consumer spending so when we're thinking about the outlook from here uh and what we expect in the coming fiscal year uh we really pay attention to what the consumer is looking like and what the outlook is uh for the consumer among economists and and um uh and businesses uh and also what uh business conditions look like for for corporations um and both of those look fairly strong uh consumer balance sheets as they are now uh look uh look look fairly strong uh the same thing with uh with uh corporate uh corporate balance sheets um we're getting a lot of earnings information uh recently uh and that continues to support this idea that uh companies are in a good place and their outlook is good uh in uh in in the near term so we um don't uh really forecast and economists and market participants don't forecast that uh we'll have the same strong uh performance that we've seen kind of outside performance that we've seen in the past three years but that uh things uh look uh good at least uh for the next fiscal year uh in terms of how we're positioning your investments um we have a neutral uh positioning uh on uh you know on your portfolios given that sort of moderate uh kind of outlook uh in uh in in the near term so with that um pass back to mark let me introduce you to i'm sure many of you know bob socks is the chairman of our um investment committee so i've asked him to come and say a few things excuse me thank you very much i uh just briefly want to thank uh mark peterson andrew walcott the uh county uh brevard county clerk of the court staff and pfm asset management for the success that we have had i have been on the committee for six years was elected chairman last year very proud to present these results to the commission uh i think the results are excellent and we appreciate your support thank you and i'll finalize before the board um approves this um clerk sat off uh could not be here today she had a previous um appointment that she couldn't make it but she was she really would have liked to have been here um but she just sends her regards so that's the report if there's any questions that we can that we can answer um entertain that do we have any questions chairman if i may yes i don't have any questions but i just wanted to say thank you so much to mark and your team for um coming today when when we got this uh briefing i really felt like this was information that the public would like to know it's a question that i get all the time is what are we doing with all the money that we have are we investing it and you guys are doing an incredible job and i just wanted to get this out there for the public to see this is some great stuff that we're doing here so thank you guys so much not only for your hard work but for doing this presentation thank you and it's a lot of money uh any other questions question i have do we invest in bitcoin no one year i did have a question from from a commissioner said uh can we invest in gold it's like no we don't take on anything speculative um so the things that we have i mean the primary thing in our policy is um safety that's number one and then liquidity and then return and it's in that that order so we're not going to take on assume risks that would jeopardize the the county's investments i know that uh being involved with the state government and we have investment strategies and what have you it's a big chunk of money um we've made some decisions not to invest in certain countries that uh promote terrorism anti-semitism apartheid other things uh do we are we involved in that do we follow the lead of the state on those type of decisions or do we have a sort of a not laissez-faire private what how are we different in that regard the the board's policy which again complies with florida statutes um indicates that we have to identify here's the things that we are allowed to invest in and over over the years there's been times that we've come back to the board after the the investment committee has done lengthy vetting of the process and said yes we we want to invest in this then we would come back before the board and via an ordinance we would then be able to to invest in something um again the the speculation the getting in some some governments or dealing with some entities i know i believe there's some governments that actually invest in foreign bonds richard can address that um so so we don't invest by policy company policy any of the companies that are on the scrutinized company uh list that the state puts out um again you know because we only invest in governments we you know are very uh aware of the headline risk uh associated with those so even though it's not a requirement that's a state requirement it doesn't flow down to the local governments we don't do it at that level uh and then most of those companies don't really issue large uh public debt um so they wouldn't even meet our criteria for uh the types of investments large public liquid investments that we invest in anyway and one of one other quick question i have to be my final one and i do appreciate you being here um i know in making investment decisions do we ever choose to invest on in areas that have a benefit for our region for example aerospace investment versus industries that might be in the other side of the country provide capital in those entities that are promoting our local economy is that ever a factor i would say no no it's not part of your policy okay if we wanted to make that a policy would we have the ability to do that that's that's a good good question on that so there was some legislation passed in uh 2023 um that um uh limited uh the uh sort of creating sort of extra criteria outside of purely pecuniary um factors um so that's sort of traditional credit metrics what's the financial stability of a particular type of company you know you know investment so you know what you're asking for local investment which may be a little outside of that so we'd kind of have to research that uh whether that would go in violation of it wouldn't necessarily be local but it would be if we prior space industry yeah high tech or it could be a company in well seattle there's one out there a couple of them but it has a role just a thought i'm not advocating anyway more if we have this brain's trust here i wanted to ask those questions jim i think did you grab for your mic when i he beat me to the answer i'm sure there's state standards and certain laws and investment guidelines you need to follow yeah yeah okay i'll just say something real quick appreciate you coming here today and doing uh doing this presentation and uh meeting with me earlier we had a discussion uh obviously inflation we're all we're all dealing with it uh it's an interesting thing when i talk with folks that there's consumer inflation we talked about this you go to the store you buy something it's a dollar more than it was a year ago that's consumer uh inflation but the inflation to local government is much higher than that so you think of the things that we must do that the market doesn't do roads bridges these these kinds of things and the cost of of those things year over year or even replacing equipment that's that's a that's a tough thing that we're dealing with so much higher and so i greatly appreciate that you've you've found ways to get us a better return on on our money it's it it isn't it isn't a nice thing it's a it's a necessary thing so i appreciate your uh your fiscal management for us thank you i'd make a motion sir if that's where we are second there's a motion second to approve the report and uh any discussion debate i just want to say thank you for the 63 million we certainly appreciate that and your work and time as well as our staff supporting it our counties and good financial hands so thank you all right all in favor signify by saying yay yay aye opposed motion carries unanimously thank you so much thank you we have no public comment cards on item k that leads us to board reports we'll start with the staff with jim less felt uh mr chair there i'm passing on a letter we sent on an email late let me pull anything uh sent on email late yesterday this is something that's been happening through the weekend i received a call on friday night from secretary tyler who's the dlt district 5 secretary um the deal the state dlt is statewide is applying for a grant which is the statewide advancement of future enhancements at intercity passenger rail crossings program um and so they've been asking for support um each of the districts have been going all the local governments asking for support this is a grant that's going to target about 900 crossings statewide and those those are railroad crossings that have passenger rail service so off the top of my head that would be bright line sun rail tri rail amtrak uh i'm not sure if the streetcar in tampa is in there um but you know so it's all throughout the state spoke to secretary tyler yesterday um mark and karina from public works have been on a phone call with city of coco and dlt uh georgiana from the tpo has also been speaking with dlt so this has been kind of going here and about um the way the grant would work would be if uh the state wins it or gets awarded they would it's 80 percent federal uh which is pretty typical 20 would be the local match dlt would provide their standard a local match they provide half as 10 percent secretary tyler said that they would be going to the railroad partners for half of that remaining 10 percent so our match would be about five percent so i asked the question you know what is five percent you know is that five million is that five dollars right now they're estimating that our local match be somewhere around 150 000 over five years um and we're still double checking because that's with 49 different let me make my notes 49 different crossings we already have some grants for some of the crossings so it might be a little bit lower number the letter you have there just talks about how we will work and support to come up with local match if necessary the other letter talked about a hard match i told him we couldn't do that um and i also told him we couldn't you know i can't commit the county to anything that we can't fund so the letter in front of you is just asking um how do i what it is asking you to support a letter to dlt for them for their grant application grant application is due february 6th so this is kind of moving fast thought about it the workshop but you know you can't take the official action at a workshop so the letter's there when you look you'll see there's the double x's on the number of railroad crossings because we're finalizing that if you approve this letter then i will have the finalized one for the chair on thursday or you can uh just if you decide you can have it where i have a copy where i can sign one and submit it on behalf you know behalf of us to the dlt quick question just to just to clarify anything that the um would be appropriated in and as part of the match from uh the county we would bring back to the board oh yeah yeah we're gonna have to have some we're gonna have to have some sort of agreement with dlt yeah so so this today in and of itself isn't isn't an agreement so much as we're we're saying we're interested in dlt yeah we're out and seeking the funds this does not commit us to expending or allocating any funds of our own at this point if there's not other discussion i'd make a motion for the chair to uh sign the letter motion second i'll favor say aye aye aye aye motion carries okay thank you thank you um so i just curious you know our county administrator is known for his very innovative dress he's a he's a furl in the fashion of the plow fashion uh please please show us your what you're wearing underneath your jacket i oh i i don't know if you can see on camera there we go that was awesome thank you so and i just have to say everyone at the clerk's office can now spell hoosier right so there you go okay thank you well we congratulate you on a wonderful win a storybook finish probably one of the most historic college football seasons ever really excited that indiana won and uh it's it's great to have a county administrator with such such roots and uh it's really really fantastic to have a big ten representative here that uh that now i've become a family of the big ten my son working for illinois so we're we're gonna root for the big ten uh hopefully indiana will be second place next year there you go and i did look it up they're not playing illinois next year oh we have ohio state and there is a ohio state crowd yeah wow yeah really well represented here aren't we um but again it's been awesome appreciate uh appreciate your spirit and joy and i know it's great to have staff um so involved being being a big college football fan we have some staff from another school down burn the one you beat shellacked yes shrouded yes yeah it won't mention alabama so so thank you very much for that good report thanks mr chair county attorney morse richerson no report mr chair no report don't want to mention vanderbilt's no we won't go there so they had a great season by vanderbilt standards yes they did yes they did commissioner delaney thank you um i just wanted to uh give some upcoming opportunities for residents to stay engaged and for their voices to be heard our first budget um workshop is coming up january 29th that's this thursday at one o'clock and if you can't come it will be live streamed so you'll be able to watch that in the comfort of your home and if you don't want to sit through the four-hour meeting feel free to zoom over you know three hours in or something and um you know come and give us your public comments it's going to be a lot of really good information um i believe it's we're going to be talking uh public works storm water and utilities and so those are you know things that especially you know my district it's it is always a topic of conversation um and then on january 30th uh we're going to be well we aren't the fdep is going to be holding the public hearing for the blue origin wastewater discharge permit renewal um that is going to be at 36 96 lake drive in coco from four to seven unfortunately the fdep um decided not to move the meeting to allow for more um um people to come but luckily the county staff thank you so much you guys have opened up some overflow parking and um so hopefully we'll be able to get as you know many people as possible in that room and uh so that you can bring your comments to fdep um we also uh just recently had with fdot on february um oh i'm sorry no uh we just recently had a meeting with fdot about the 524 um expansion and that was incredible i mean we probably had 150 people show up to that meeting so thank you so much d1 for showing up to that and um you know really being engaged in that conversation your comments will be um you can still write written comments until february 2nd and i have a substack katie delaney substack that gives you all the information about the project and the links to where you can submit those um those comments to fdot also for the fdep meeting they have extended public comment to february 6th i also have a substack article on that where you can find all the links to get your written comments in if you can't get to this meeting um and then of course speak up brevard deadline uh is january 31st which is coming up as of today we have 34 submissions and um i just wanted to talk about uh i'll be bringing back up for consideration a workshop and um i just wanted to mention i'm sure that you know i feel pretty confident i i knew susan pretty well and um she would definitely be flattered with the naming of um the program after her but what in my opinion what would really what she'd really feel honored about is to make this program the best it could be and um so i hope that i get support for that in the future and um i was wondering if uh county manager if you had any updates about the uh pfos notification and the potential website and how that's going uh yeah yes commissioner we've had a couple meetings and we'll be ready to present to you guys a proposed website on the february 10th board meeting awesome thank you so much and uh i just wanted to let everybody know that i am going to be putting out um an article on substack uh following this meeting about pfos and where you can find more information the epa links um so that you can get more informed for the for the care of your of your families and uh i hope everybody has a great day thank you thank you okay district four commissioner goodson did you have a question three oh sorry he's two two i'm sorry two two i'm sorry about that commissioner goodson okay thank you i got confused it was l4 and i read district four it didn't help that i said three that's okay okay district three so i don't actually have a report i have a request so um it looks like um the fix 840 um it's kind of laying around the bill 1465 is not making it through its subcommittees um i've spoken to our state representatives a few of them not all of them and um all i keep hearing is there doesn't seem to be much interest so what i'm asking is that um any of our board members who have contacts relationships with our state representatives if you could just put a bug in their ear um because like we said before this this affects the whole county but specifically commissioner altman i wanted to ask you in the sunshine um you worked really hard to get the um area of state critical concern um done so if it's possible for you to think take some time and to think about what i as district three could be doing to help this process since i'm new think about it and let me know that would be fantastic okay well first of all i just want to thank you for your leadership and the great job you've done and advocating for the south beaches and brevard um it's abhorrent what the state has done to local planning and local governments with the senate bill 180 um i've always felt and i you know many call it a mistake i i don't very few things happen by mistake up there and i think it was a significant overreach of state government infringing upon people's ability to govern locally and it's hurting our state dramatically it's going to hurt our south beaches um i appreciate you bringing this up and i will personally reach out and just keep doing what you're doing um i'm surprised our governor hasn't become more active uh he's had a strong track right record of conservation in florida and hopefully he will he will step up and advocate for us i um he did sign the bill into law but maybe maybe he got some bad advice but um i i wonder and i was going to ask morris in relation to this if if our legislature doesn't come through for us and it could be that they do come through for us i don't want to prejudge because these things are are really intentionally held hostage up until the very end and become a significant negotiating point everybody in tallahassee is always looking for an angle and leverage and something to barter with it's it's um like a third world market uh best analogy i could think of but um so that could be happening as well so to continue engage but i was going to ask morris i know if this isn't resolved and we talked about this early on in the process but we wanted to give the legislature legislature an opportunity to resolve it but do we still have an opportunity to engage in the lawsuit that the i think it's a thousand friends potentially i don't know that we would necessarily want to engage in that lawsuit we have a unique circumstance with regard to the area of critical state concern so we might want to discuss doing something you know separately even that addresses our unique circumstances as well yes um i i know that the bill that commissioner atkinson that you referenced that one is definitely very important but i just wanted to kind of broaden this conversation a little bit because there's a lot of bills up there right now that are targeting agriculture land especially making it extremely easy for um developers to come in and just do what they will um also there's a couple of bills up there right now that are targeting wetlands as well and so i think that all of these things together are going to really um change the dynamic of florida take away our home rule which is constitutionally protected um and so i would be in heavy support of doing whatever it takes to protect our our need could i ask a technical question yes the you mentioned 1465 uh i think that's the bill number right in the house um that that one's seems to be stalled if you will yeah but there isn't an exact senate companion but there is a senate version is is that is that moving forward i haven't looked recently is it the 840 yeah i guess that's it it was doing well i haven't looked at in the last couple days i don't know i mean because you know sometimes it is it is the situation that one chamber will do more work on on a bill sb 840 is advancing toward the senate rules committee that's going to be its final stop before the senate floor 840 is by far the preferable of the alternatives to the house bill but sb 840 seems to be the one momentum okay so that's that's ready for roles that sounds like that would be much better for our situation frankly 1465 as written now wouldn't solve some of our issues so so i just commissioner altman knows better than me he was he was he was up there but i worked up there and so they the senate's got their version ready to go we're in favor of the senate version it sounds like so far and uh when it comes over they they do a strike all and make a match up yeah done and that's a high probability that's the way it's starting to sound right now so well i appreciate the conversation thank you okay all right we have a very good delegation and i know they're working hard on it so i think there's a good chance we at least get the uh the area critical concern resolved hopefully and um i just hope that they do the bigger picture and they really really restore some of these planning um uh the planning authority local government has because it has serious negative impacts on our open space our wetlands our agriculture our green belt uh 100 counter to what the general public or this the legislature has been doing in recent years thank you for bringing this up okay district four commissioner feltner all right just what i said sir would be my report if you will so i appreciate it thank you thank you uh i have one item that um i know i guess it was the last meeting or two meetings ago we had a presentation on pace and we looked at the possibility of reinst implementing the pace program and i think which is something we ought to look at but we our tax collector received an incredibly negative and threatening adversarial letter related to pace um attacking her ability to comment and have public input really really attacking her ability and our ability to set the minimum amounts of what we charge overhead i was in disbelief where we put an olive branch out there trying to welcome this industry in lieu of all the past negativity and problems in the past and we hadn't even scheduled a public hearing or talk about it and they're already threatening and attacking and limiting our ability to have public dialogue our constituents ability to have the first amendment rights and we've always been very this commission has always been very supportive of diversity of thought and ideas and encouraging debate and i think we ought to just put this on hold until we resolve these attacks and these issues and these threats in this letter i know i've talked to morris about it um and i was going to ask the board to just to put it on hold until we resolve some of those issues i'd be in favor of that do you need that in the way of a motion or we just simply don't i'm just asking a technical question we just don't take it up um is it because we went to sort of legislative intent is that what right now i have direction to uh research consumer protection measures and prepare a resolution to bring back to the board for consideration for some me for me to pause that i would just want clear consensus direction from the board that i should stand down for now until the board directs otherwise i'd like to open up for cons well i'm i'm fine with that um personally if we're we're in discussion if it's her uh commissioner delaney's motion to i don't know if you want to say permanently table it or if or just do we want to withdraw our our prior um motion is that what do you what do you need whatever whatever that would be fine i just have standing direction right now to proceed so unless i'm told otherwise i didn't want to proceed to bring it back i didn't want to put a burden on staff and for us to incur the taxpayer incurring expenses when we're we're under a constitutional office and i say we because it is county government it's kind of under attack right now and um if we look at consumer protections probably the number one would be the things they're addressing the things that are brought up in this letter um i just thought it would send a strong message yes good question i haven't seen the letter um who's it actually from it's from the florida pace funding agency uh their attorney james dinkins it relates to prior litigation between tax collectors which our tax collector wasn't a party to but it really relates to um financing that they issued previously so the letter you know isn't so much about going forward but it was issued from and and that's the so the gentleman who spoke uh at your meeting at your last meeting chris peterson spoke on behalf of the same agency that the attorney represents that sent this letter to the tax collector i believe the next day after our meeting okay thank you wow and it eerily brought up issues that we talked about one of the things we talked about was what uh the clerk could charge an overhead cost to administer this program uh and uh was threatening her to to not have the statutory authority that she has and i say we because if she's incurring additional expense it's costing us so i i don't know we could um i just don't want morse to be working in one direction and expending staff precious time and resources uh knowing that we already are at odds with this this industry and they're already threatening and attacking them i think you had a motion by i'm sorry sir uh no good i think we're it sounds it sounds like we're in an agreement so i would second her motion to to pause this yeah that would be fine to stop here i would understand that okay all right so those in favor signify by saying aye aye um i passed this unanimously and we'll we'll wait and see what happens with okay thank you mr chair and i would just ask the clerk could you please just prepare a memo to that effect to me thank you very much thank you for bringing that up okay no problem thank you and that concludes my report and i think it concludes uh very good meeting thank you to the commission staff and the public meeting jern the opinions expressed by any member of the public during any period of public comment do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the board of county commissioners of brevard county florida space coast government television or the program sponsor and are solely those of the presenter the board of county commissioners of brevard county florida space coast government television and the program sponsor hereby expressly disclaim any and all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements expressed by any member of the public during any such period