If you wish to speak to any item on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting, please fill out a speaker card. Each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card. The chair has the discretion to determine or alter the time limits on any agenda item. The Board of County Commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comments section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to county business that are within the board's control, authority, and jurisdiction. I'd like to introduce Seth Phippen. Did I say that right? He's with Teen Missions International to give us the invocation. Thank you. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you for these leaders in our community. We pray for the salvation of all of our leaders, that they would know you and submit themselves to you. We ask for your will to be done here as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, I ask these things with full confidence that you hear me because he died and rose for me. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I'd like to ask Commissioner Pritchett to lead us in the pledge. Okay. I don't think we have Commissioner Gitson on. We're having a phone line issue, but we'll go ahead and proceed. Hopefully we can get him added on as soon as we can get the phone working. Okay. First item in the agenda, D1, approval of the minutes for August 4th. I want you to approve. Second. And added the September 8th minutes. Yes, sir. Approval of the minutes for August 4th and September 8th. All in favor say yay. Yay. Carried unanimously. Thank you. Consent agenda. We don't have any resolutions or awards. First item, the next item is the consent agenda. Do we have any items in the consent that need to be removed? I'd like to pull J1 for a little bit of discussion. J1, sir? Well, no, that would be J1. That's not consent. I make a motion to approve it. I'll second. So my item would be F1. F1? Yes, I have J1 written here. One from the board policy? Nope, that's it. I got confused here. All right. Yeah, there's a motion. Is there a second? I second. Second on the consent. All in favor say yay. Yay. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. We have two public comment cards. First one is Michael Bromson. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Michael Bromson. I'm the president of the Brevard County Firefighters Union. I approach the commissioners to express concerns about the current state and future of public safety in Brevard County. Before I continue, I'd like to extend a gratitude and thank you to everybody who participated in responding to the flooding concerns and the recovery efforts that continued moving forward. We also pray for those people who were affected by these floodings who incurred damages and the loss of life. I bring the attention to the Brevard County, bring attention to Brevard County public safety, not just as a person tasked to represent the workforce, but a person who has deep anxiety for the ability to provide the community public safety's needs. I speak for my position and not for the fire department. The financial restrictions of an increased homestead was concerning, but offered some great opportunity for communication. But the rumor that the state may go one step further to restrict assessments is a cause of great concern and great anxiety. We are not in a position here in Brevard County to have our financial restrictions enhanced. We are operating very thin. Now, I'm not defending any part of the budget, I'm not discussing any items, and I'm not in a position to speak on the details of operations, even though I did thank everybody for their operations. But I can speak on the ongoing issues that we just don't have enough EMS ALS transport units in the county. There are a lot of short-term fixes that were put in place, and these were to assist with ocean rescue, including some budgetary issues. And there were some short-term issues to compensate for the hospital closing. These short-term issues have completed their design, and we need to move forward. We were healing in the public safety crisis of 2024. We were healing from these hospital closures, and we were healing from many tragic and large-scale events, including flooding, hurricanes, north-end flooding. We were working on resolving the 2025 staffing crisis. As a metric, the county continues to be in a position that requires mandatory additional hours to meet the needs of the community, and in some cases, our partners have downsized or suspended their services where the county has to step in. So the crisis still continues, but there has been some great improvements. I also have concerns of misinformation and misrepresentation of the needs. So I offer that any person, organization, or group, including any commissioner, would like to see the data that I work off of, please reach out. I will do my best to make every effort to meet anybody who requests to meet with this union. I also want to encourage the board to stay true to their commitment towards public safety in Brevard County. I do wish the staff and the commissioners good luck on navigating these uncharted waters. Please feel free to reach out if you guys need anything. Thank you. Well, thank you, Michael. I appreciate your offer of support, and just deeply appreciate it. And thank you for what you do. Thank you. Okay. Daniel Arista. Speed read through this, so I'll apologize in advance. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Dan Arista. My family and I live on the ninth hole of the Legends Golf Course in Sun Tree. Landscaping maintenance crews routinely reach the area right outside my home around 540 a.m., seven days a week. During a recent tournament, they arrived at 440 a.m. on multiple consecutive days. I spoke directly with the Sun Tree Country Club's director of agronomy, who told me that maintenance began at 3 a.m. on holes 1, 2, and 3 during said tournament. Routine maintenance begins at 5 a.m. or earlier. During our brief conversation, I learned that as a golf course, they are exempt from the county's noise ordinance. I am also sure you all know that county noise ordinance was substantially revised in 23 to make noise restrictions easier to enforce. Then, in 2024, at Sun Tree Club's request from relief from said ordinance, the commission gave a special exemption for, quote, regular maintenance of Green's Fairways practice areas and the like on golf courses at all times. In practice, regular maintenance of a golf course is a large-scale commercial operation employing a fleet of industrial heavy machinery, including literal tractors, towing trailers that themselves are machines, including industrial turbine blowers, pump-driven spraying equipment, large area mowers, and so forth. This is in addition to the commercial ride-on lawnmowers, backpack blowers, and other equipment one might expect. These machines are routinely deployed together in close proximity, such that even with functional stock noise suppressors, arrestors, sorry, they create a very loud operating environment. As just stated, at all times, in practice means these machines are deployed as early as 3 a.m. for multiple consecutive days a year and routinely at 5 a.m. or earlier. Note, the earliest available tee time is 7.30 a.m. I then brought this issue before the Sun Tree Master Home Association, and in my request, they provided a letter supporting the county consideration of this issue, identifying over 570 homes directly adjoining a Sun Tree golf course. I am very confident that the majority of Sun Tree Country Club members do not live on any of those golf courses. To be clear, I fully appreciate the Country Club has a fair interest in asking for more time to prepare the courses ahead of play. I am strictly asking that it be balanced with the residents' interest to the quiet enjoyment of their homes. I am here asking a commissioner to sponsor a legislative intent item to reconsider the language in Amendment Chapter 4-6, Article 4, Section 4-6-129, Subsection 9 of the County Code. I also respectfully ask that all interests be articulated and discussed publicly to provide all affected parties an equal opportunity to both be heard and to respond before decisions are made to achieve a lasting balance of the community's inclusive interests. Thank you. All right, 18 seconds. Sir, I'll say something as you were commissioner. First of all, I'm very empathetic about noise. I live with noise, too. I live at the corner of Pineda and Wickham, and I hear it all night. Drag racing. I don't like it. I'm sick of it. Through 2-3 in the morning. I hear you. I'm done with it, too. My parents lived in Eagle's Landing and on the golf course for more, I think, 24 years. They lived there. And I'll tell you, there's a new concern. So I think there is a balance, and you're right. And I talk to the country club also. But one of the concerns that I had at that time was we were rezoning past clubs and golf courses in the north end of the county where they were building townhouses. Now, I voted against one of those because I thought that was unfair for the residents who bought a home there. And I have to tell you, in all honesty, I would be horrified if something like that happened in Sun Tree. So I work as much as possible to make sure that the club is successful, all of these golf courses in Vieira. They tell me that they have to get out there early in order to be ready, as you say, for the early tee times. I'm not a golfer, but I think I understand their business. So if you'll make a meeting in my office, we could talk about this more and see if we can find a way with the club. I find Rob Stone a good guy, and he's listened to all the concerns that I've brought to him about not just noise, vegetation, all kinds of things. Right. Yeah, I very much appreciate that because I reached out to them first. I tried to do everything at the lowest level, and their response was, consider yourself lucky you don't live on the first, second, or third hole because we started at three. And I was like, that's not what I was hoping to hear. So I went to the HOA, and they didn't even know the exemption existed. So, again, I just want this to be public. So I'm happy to have a private meeting and try to resolve this, you know, privately. That's fine. But I really do hope that all the residents get to have a chance to kind of weigh in on this because I know for a fact the majority of the golfers don't live on the golf course. Many do, but many don't. And I would say it's probably more than three-quarters don't. You know, I know some that live in Valkaria, right? So I just – I think finding some way for it to be quiet in the morning but also where they can continue to operate as a golf course. I think a lot of it is just figuring out. So I know that, you know, they got a new manager, Mr. Stone. He came in. He asked for this exemption. Then he went and bought a fleet of John Deere stuff. It was in the paper, right? I think there's just certain machinery that really shouldn't start before 630. There's a lot of stuff you can do at literally any hour. It won't matter. You know, there's guys with headlamps out there, and they're doing stuff, and, you know, it's quiet. So I think it's just – I think we could certainly be worked out. I just want to make sure it's worked out formally. Yeah, if they let me go out there and work for an afternoon with a scooter muffler, I bet I can make some of them quieter, too. So I'm sure there's a way. Okay. All right. All right, sir. Thank you, sir. I wonder if a question for me. Yes, sir. Has this been addressed elsewhere? I mean, surely there's other communities who's had to address. And whether it's technology, electric mowers, or whatever, somebody, I'm sure. Well, I think – If not, we'll – I'm just kind of curious. I went through the public record. I did some research. You know, my discovery, it's – a lot of this is like – comes down to stock noise suppressor. Right? That's how the law reads. You know, so a backpack blower is actually louder than some of those tractors. Yeah. Oh, they're irritating. Believe it or not, right? So decibel-wise, right? So, again, I think it's just a matter of just saying, hey, you know, look, let's manage this because there's – I'm sure there's a way to easily have them have a maintenance routine that will lead to everyone's interest being met. And then – yeah, and that's funny. You can narrow the fairways and make more roughs. We could do that. Golfers like me – Actually, the rough – the rough track – that's where the tractors come in when they clean up the roughs, right? So – but, yeah, I think in general, not all golf courses are on a residential community, right? Right. Oh, I'm sorry. And, you know, so there's, you know, a little bit of – but, yeah, I got the impression a little bit from talking to the head of agronomy that I wasn't the first person to complain. I got the impression, talking to the home association, I wasn't the first person to complain. So I think that might answer your question. The question also – I appreciate it, Shabin. It's a fascinating issue, and, of course, we love our Sun Tree golf course. It's – It's not fascinating when you're woken up at 4 in the morning. I know. I know. I have to know. I – but – and hopefully we can fix that. Yeah. The other question I have – I'm not – I'm just curious. Anyway, do you have the new modern impact-resistant windows? No. And they are amazing. Now, I don't know if we can buy you new windows. I've been thinking about some – I know there's a 3M film that you can apply to your windows that – but at the end of the day, you know, I have two layers of blinds, or I have, you know, vertical blinds, and then I have blackout curtains. Because it's just the proximity – The amount of sound reduction is mind-boggling. Mind-boggling. That would probably fix your problem. When I lived up north for a little bit in the military, we had those insulating windows that you needed for the cold, and those were great. Somehow we could do an incentive program. Anyway. Oh, there you go. All right. We feel your pain. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Mr. Feller, how do I set this up? If you'll see a young lady waving her hand over here, a brown shirt. Okay. I'm sorry. I have one more question while you're here. Yes, sir. Is it every morning, or how many – What are we looking at in how many times a day, how many times a week? So, you know, it's – I've been in this home for almost seven years. With the change of management, things started, you know, slowly going. You'd call. I had neighbors that actually bought next to me and then moved when they realized what was going on. And they would go to – you know, stay in Suntry, and they were members of the country club. But they were like, I'm not living in this country, you know. So, they would call, and then you'd get a relief for a couple weeks, you know. And then what I've learned by talking to management and golf management, say, oh, yeah, this is what we do. We just – you're on the ninth hole, and you're complaining. Okay, well, now we'll start over on the sixth. And we'll, you know, we'll, you know, shuffle things around. And when they start complaining, we'll come back around. And then, you know, and they play that game. And it's just, you know, it's been two years. And then when they had this special event, I was just – I was – I couldn't believe it. I heard this. And I thought, you know, because we have the Blackhawks fly over once in a while. I'm like, what the hell is going on? And I look out my window, and there was literally six tractors and, like, four carts, blowers. I mean, they had a whole fleet going, right? And so I went out there, and I asked the guy, I said, well, what the hell are you guys doing? He's like, oh, no, it's a special event. I'm like, who authorized this? And he goes, you know, Nick Garibay. And I said, okay, I'm not going to blame this guy for doing his job, right? But so I – and then when I called, that's when I learned, you know, oh, yeah, we have this exemption, you know, and cool as a cucumber, you know. And I said, can you send that to me? Sure, what's your email address? And I never – still haven't got it, but I found it myself. So, you know, I'm – it's a routine thing. And, you know, they start at five as far as I know from what I could find. But I had someone on our – on the HOA and the Master of Century Master HOA, one of the board members, when I made the complaint or when I brought it up, he's like, oh, yeah, they show up at 440, and they congregate outside, and they're shooting the stuff. And they're, you know – and it's, like, right outside his master bedroom – bathroom. So there is – you know, it's routine. Certainly a routine thing. You know, you might get a little relief for, you know, a week or two, and then, you know, it's back around. That's tough. Well – I think it could be fixed. I think it's just a matter of certain equipment. It shouldn't start until probably 630. Other equipment and other maintenance tasks. And here's the other thing. If you're going to have routine – you know you're going to have a tournament, and it's a shotgun thing. You have 36 holes. That's not easy to, you know, to pull off, right? So there's nothing stopping them from coming out at 5, 6 o'clock and getting ahead of it, you know, the evening before. And, you know, so maybe there's – you know, maybe there's some staffing issues. You know, there's all kinds of things. I'm more than positive that this could be fixed without them having to, you know, fold up and shut down the business, right? You know, I want to support small businesses. You know, I know a lot of friends, a lot of folks that enjoy that course. I enjoy living on it, you know, but – except for this noise problem. It's just gotten out of hand, I think, with, you know, post-exemption, post – with this new management, I think they need to be – yeah. Well, you're in good hands with Commissioner Felton. I'm sure he'll get on it. So – Yeah. If you ever want us to meet out there, he'll provide the coffee at 3 in the morning. Yeah. He can hang out a mile and a nine and watch the crew go through. Right. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Okay. That is the last public hearing card we have for that – public comment card for that section. Next item is H1, petition to vacate. All right. Good morning, Commissioners. H1 is a petition to vacate a portion of a 25-foot drainage and utility easement east of Grissom Parkway and south of Perimeter Road. This is at Titusville Cocoa Airport Authority in District 1, and as to allow for the development of the Space Coast Innovation Park, there were no objections. Motion to approve. I'll second. Motion to second. All in favor, say yay. Yay. Chairs unanimously. Unfinished business, none. J-business. This is the item that I was talking about, J-1. Approved memorandum of understanding between the Bavard County Parks Recreation Department and the East Coast Zoological Society. We do have one rep that would love to talk about this issue a little bit. If she can come up. This is a happy issue. We need more happy issues, don't we? Thank you for being here. I'd love to be a little bit happy. Yeah. So, hi. My name is Kim. I'm here from the East Coast Zoological Foundation, specifically Bavard Zoo. We have been really grateful to be able to join with our parks department and kind of get a partnership where we're able to source food for our animals at the zoo. So, we have many, many animals that eat a lot of browse. I actually specifically oversee our Africa area, which includes all of our really large megafauna, like our giraffe, okapi, and all of these really big animals that eat primarily browse. We then are sourced with trying to figure out how to find all of the food to feed all of our animals. While we have our budget, we have our commissary, we have all of that food that's provided to us, these animals really need a natural source of food as well. So, we get that through browsing. We have a senior keeper who's in charge of all of our browsing here at the zoo. She makes sure that our people are trained. We know what to feed. We know how to source it and where to source it. But where to source it tends to get a little more difficult as we start getting more and more into trying to give our animals the things that they really need, which is that browse. It's the best thing for their digestive system. It keeps them the healthiest and the happiest. And so, for our giraffe specifically, they eat 40 pieces of browse a day. We can hold about 140 pieces for our giraffe herd, but it is a lot to source. Our primary source that we look for is Brazilian pepper, which is an invasive species here. But we also feed live oak. We feed wax myrtle, willow, and lots of other species that are found here natively. But our giraffe and a lot of our other species, including tapirs, our deer, primates, and many other animals at the zoo, really like that Brazilian pepper. And so, we've been really fortunate to be able to work with the parks department and be able to get a really great understanding of what we can do to help, one, get rid of some of the invasive species at the park, which helps us and hopefully helps you guys as well, by being able to find all of this food for our animals. So, about four to five days a week, we have to go off property to source browse. So, that way, we can continue to give our animals the best that we can and really excited to kind of get this going. Okay. So, you harvest the vegetation from the county parks? We will. Is that how it works? Yeah. Okay. Is there – I'm fascinated. I know we talked about the Brazilian pepper trees. That wasn't the first time I heard that because I think we joked about having giraffes go out there and just let them loose and eat them all. So, is that extended to the EELS program, Ian? So, I would like to recognize Faith Ward. She actually came to us originally with the suggestion or the request to do it just at Wickham Park. And so, as we had our back and forth in our discussions, we expanded it. And so, we are looking at all regular parks locations as well as EELS locations. So, I mean, not very far from them, the 100 acres. I know they had a lot of Brazilian pepper trees out there for a while. I think we've got it cleaned up now, but – We actually worked with 100 Acre Hollow before, I think, the parks took it over. So, we're quite familiar with them. They were owned by a family friend of one of my keepers, and they kind of hooked us up, and we were able to work with them for quite a bit. And there's some conservation on the other side of Vieira Boulevard also. So, okay. Well, that's great. Do you need a motion, sir, or yes? Okay. If there's no other questions, I'll make a motion to approve. I will happily second it. Motion, second, approve. All in favor, say yay. Yay. Yay. This is absolutely wonderful. We need more giraffes, it sounds like. Oh, don't worry. We got them cooking. Let me just have one board. I wonder how many giraffes it would take to eat all the Brazilian peppers at Brevard. So, if we are able to provide 40 pieces a day, which is at the max of what we're actually capable of being able to provide and also store, if we had an ideal situation, our giraffe would fully be eating that entirely. We provide a grain, a pellet that is great for their overall nutrition, but the more brows we can give them, the healthier their rumen and their bodies stay. So, more is better, and sourcing it has been challenging up until now, so we're really grateful for this opportunity. I mean, how about when the kids feed them, do they give them brows, or is it just the... So, Brazilian pepper is in the same family as, like, toxic mango, and so we don't do that. We did actually do a whole trial of feeding mulberry and doing a mulberry feeding with our giraffe, and they love it, but when mulberry goes out of season, they basically revolt, and they refuse to take anything but lettuce. So, we do a romaine feeding with our guests, and that's the way that we're able to provide that one. Well, I have a granddaughter, and she loves giraffes, and they're wonderful, so anything we do, this is great. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Appreciate your time. Maybe we should just let them go, right, and have giraffes and wild and eat all the peppers. One in every park. Yeah, right, one in every park. Okay, J2. All right, good morning, Commissioners. J2, we're asking for the approval of the 2027 Board of County Commissioners meeting schedule. A couple notes on the agenda item, the cover itself, there's a mistake. It says the organizational meeting will occur and will not have regular business items. Well, that November 27, you will have regular business items on that organizational meeting. You see the notes in there and the requirements we need to make sure we, in my words, thread the needle on how we put the dates in to meet the tentative millage, the tentative budget hearing, and the final budget hearing, along with working with the school board on the dates. All the other major change that you see from this year, as we put on the calendar, we reserve, with your approval, six different budget workshops starting in January through May, and that's in reaction to Amendment 3. The general idea is, depending on when the legislature implements Amendment 3, the idea is, like, maybe the first meeting, first budget meeting in January is an overall we can talk about impact, and then I could see us requesting spending time with you all just to have specific meetings on fire rescue, parks and recreation, public works, missing somebody else, and then some other generals, because if Amendment 3 is going to take effect like we think it might, we need to have some pretty tough discussions on how we want to fund everything. And so you see that on there, so they're basically every third Thursday of the month. So we're asking for the approval of the meeting schedule, and if you have any changes, we'll make the changes. We did put this on new business after some discussions. I know that you might want to talk a little bit about Amendment 3 immediately, talking with our lobbyists. There's nothing permanent or decided yet on a special session, but we're hearing that it might be next year before they talk about implementation, either during a committee week or during the regular sessions. That was the latest news as of yesterday afternoon. So what I heard you say is if we do these budget meetings, we might actually be able to get ahead of some of the things that they might do. We might be able to tell our legislators, hey, this is what kind of works for us? If they go past, if they don't start until January, yes. And thank you, Commissioner. We did send down, and after speaking, we put together just a bullet list of potential discussion topics because there are certain things that we don't have clarification for on what Amendment 3 will do to the budget. I mean, the obvious thing is the taxable values will go down with the homestead of $150,000 this year and then next year, in two years, $250,000. But one of the big things is what's the definition of core service because that was spelled out in the act specifically. How will the legislature interpret that? But, yeah, if they don't get started until sometime late January or February, we'll get a little bit in front of it. Or if you guys would like to speak about it sooner, then we can arrange a meeting even sooner than the January 2. So that first budget workshop, we'll be talking a lot about the budget, and we'll be talking a lot about a lot of cuts and freezes. There's no choice. It's not even a debatable item. So, Commissioner Feldman? I'm sorry. Just based on something said here real quick, have they said when their delegation meeting is going to be? Yes. I'm not aware of their delegation meeting date. We haven't received anything. I'll bet good money they're not going to have delegation meeting before they have the special session. Commissioners, just as a side, staff will be bringing you legislative priorities the first meeting in December for you to look at and then approve in the second meeting in December. So at least we'll be ready on that. That would be non-amendment three items. All right. So do you need a motion to approve the calendar? Yeah. Is that what you need today? If there's no other questions, I'll make a motion to approve the calendar. I'll second it. Motion and second to approve the calendar. Motion and second to approve the calendar. All in favor say yay. Yay. Yay. Motion carries unanimously. Yes. If I may. Commissioners, I wanted to ask, I know this is, I've brought it up a couple of times, and I don't know if we can discuss it or what we want to do about it, if nothing, possibly. But we have, we're spending a lot of money on stuff that we don't have to do. That was the list I brought last year, whatever. And I think that the votes that happened in November, I just want to have a quick discussion about our crossing guards for paying, what, $800,000 a year. And I don't know, maybe the school board is in a position where they can take some of that responsibility. I don't know if we want to talk about it now, if now is the time or the place, or I'm just throwing it out there. Well, I certainly have under my report to talk about Amendment 3, but we can do it right now. We can do it right now, right after the board, after this discussion. I think, but go ahead. That's all. I just wanted to bring it up and see if we want to have any kind of conversation about it, see where people, what their thoughts are. I think we need to have a conversation ASAP today. One is to take a look at those services that we provide for other organizations that might have the financial resources or should provide. That's an example. They got a big slug of revenue coming in, plus they're exempt from Amendment 3. So they're not facing the restrictions that we've had to face. So I think we may be direct staff to look at all those services that we're providing that could be provided elsewhere. And I think we are going to have to look at a broad and flexible definition of core services. Maybe, and I don't know how much flexibility the legislature has in the core services, that might be something that's not as bound under the Constitution as the other things. For example, Mesquite Control, is that still not a core service? That is not a core service. The commissioners, just real quick for everybody, you know, core services, I'm going to paraphrase, A is public safety law enforcement, B is education and schools, C is finance and refinance infrastructure, including road and bridge, stormwater control, D is finance or refinance natural resources projects, including flood control. Excuse me, I said that twice there. E is local bonds, issue local bonds to make debt payment for existing obligations. F is meet obligations to retirement benefits of local government employees. And then G says fund the operations and administration of county officers and commissioners established on our Article 8 and municipalities and the expenditures approved by such county officers or county and municipal governing bodies except those expenditures prohibited by general law. So we don't know what that definition exactly means. I'll just be straight out blunt. If, you know, if the legislator decides that that is what you guys put together as a budget and, you know, all the departments we operate, then you're just looking at cuts across the board. If they stick to general core services, then you may have some services that we can't use general funds for, like, transit or parks, a couple, I'm just saying a couple of extension services, housing. So we'd actually be eliminating some services. So if the legislature makes it broad, then we're just, I know this sounds weird to say it, then we're just cutting as opposed to eliminating. So that would help make a difference if we can get that defined a little bit better by the legislature. Now, these core services definition, that's not bound by the Constitution. Those are, well, this is a constitutional amendment, so I don't know if the exact language is in the Constitution that way or that's the law attached to the Constitution. Because to not include mosquito control as a core services is a huge oversight. It's irresponsible. Mosquitos have killed more people than any other living organism on the planet. And I just saw the paper, Florida Today, mosquito-borne illnesses were under the gun right now with the storm. And that just shows a lack of understanding on behalf of the legislature. And I think we tried to change that. We, during the session, we brought that up. Because we had issues with MSTU generally, but we also brought a mosquito control specifically. Two things on that, Commissioner. You know, as you pointed out, I also add there's been several hundred, I don't know if Joe's out there, several hundred dengue fever issues in Hillsboro and Pinellas. They asked for our help, so we sent staff over there. Because our staff is, unfortunately, very good at mixing up the chemicals needed for that. So I, you know, so mosquito control is a big issue. And one that we haven't had a chance to check on, too, is we fund the health department. You know, it's health department, of course, service, too. So there's no definition in there for the health departments across the state. But, and those things that are going to be killing people, that are making them very ill, we need to fund. But that means those other things that may be more administrative by nature that we should, we can't fund. And I think we need to look at all of our departments and our constitutional officers and tell them we're living in a different world. And we need to look at either, and no increases or across-the-board cuts. We have no choice. It's not a choice. So, but that definition of core services is extremely important. And then I think it's good for us to have an understanding of the things that we are mandated to fund. There's some of these that do have appellate procedures that we can look at. And so that was my main, that we as a body communicate to staff and communicate to all of our stakeholders that they need to, and partners, to, to, they need to provide budgets that are going to be within the cuts that we have, we have to provide. Yes. So does that mean that, can we ask staff to, to go and look at the things that we don't have to, that we're not mandated to provide? I don't know that I know, I certainly don't know everything that we do that we don't have to do. Well, I think if we were to take a look at this, we should. We should look at those things that we don't have to provide. We look at those things that have a public, a public health safety impact. I think we should mention to our constitutional officers, we need for them to come to us with zero increased budgets or cuts to our partners there that work with us. And, and, and, and everybody, and I'm looking at cuts in my own office that we, this is a very serious matter and we can't print money. We, this is a different world that we live in. I don't agree with it, but the less the people have spoken and, and to respect the voters, we need to follow up. Yes. I would say something about the schools. First of all, they just had an election also. So you have two new school board members that are coming. So I think we would do well to let them be sworn in and, and find their way. But there are, you mentioned crossing guards. There are, there are several things that overlap with the school. So it's, this is not just that. And, and I'm talking to them. So we'll, and I, and I think, I think they understand our situation. But as you know, they're also going to get a new superintendent and it looks like a new CFO. So there's going to be a lot going on over there. And I think sending them something today with our list of, of what we want them to take over is, is, is probably a bit premature. So we'll just let them get settled and then we'll follow up. I would agree that doing it now, right. The second is, is premature because they do need to get settled in. But I'm just saying, I would like to know from our staff, the thing, all of the things, not just school, but all of the things that we do that are not mandated. So, but I can find that out. I'm sure I can get a meeting with Jim. Yeah. We, I'll be honest, commissioners. We already been looking at stuff like that. So we can start putting a list together for everybody. You know, I think if we send the message to all these stakeholders that are funded with, with local government tax dollars, that what we're, what we have to do in terms of cutting to let them know and put them on notice so they can start, they can start planning for, for the cuts that are coming. I, I don't know if it's possible, if there's ways that we can cut immediately, because the sooner we start, the easier it's going to be in the long run. That also said, is I think we need to look at other revenue sources as well, that the cut side is one thing, but we need to also look at what options that we have to fund critical services. I know the state's limited our ability in many, many ways, but there are other revenue sources, because I think Brevard County already is cut to the bone and operating very efficiently. That would apply to all of our county, constitutional offices as well. But, but, so, but maybe it's going to be a combination of both cuts and alternative revenue. And when we go through the process of the public hearings, we, you know, we got a lot of work ahead of us. I was thinking about moving to workshop earlier, but January 21st is pretty, right around the corner. So, we can start prepping for that. One idea, we were, I'm having a discussion yesterday, and this will, this will be whatever y'all want to do, but the conversation came up of the, the camper, campsites. And they're all pretty much breaking even or losing money. And I, I'm not sure we should be competing with the private sector. One, and I think one of those properties, Manatee Hammocks, right on the water, if you guys sold it, it'd be a good amount of money coming in. And then it takes it off of staff, too. Down the road, you won't need as much staff. So, that's one idea for you guys, if you want to think about it, so. Well, I tell you, I think any idea is on the table. You know, I don't think we need to close any option. I think also anything that we can do to use technology to be more efficient. We're, this is probably one of the biggest challenges that local government's had, I know, in my lifetime. And it's, we're living in an entirely different world. I don't want to call it, it's one of the biggest challenges. I don't want to call it a disaster yet, but hopefully we'll be able to rise to the occasion. But it's going to require a lot of teamwork, effort, and working together. And then, the sooner we get this information, the sooner we can appeal to the legislature. Because it's not us doing these cuts. It's the legislature that has forced these cuts. So, they're willing to live with the circumstances they create. We'll see. Okay, we'll go to reports. First item, Commissioner Pritchett. Thank you, sir. I'm sorry, I skipped over staff. I think, yeah. County Administrator. Okay. Thanks, Commissioner. Thanks, Mr. Chair. If you could give me a moment. As you know, we face historic flooding all throughout the county, just not unincorporated. West Melbourne, Melbourne, Palm Bay were hit pretty bad, along with Grand Valcaria, Malabar. I have at least a little summary that, if you let me read off, for the public and for you all to know the efforts we've been doing. You know, the rainfall total wasn't just in the south area. We received 6 to 10 inches in North Brevard. Some parts in South Brevard, particularly south of 192, received. Localized rainfall exceeding 25 inches. Our EOC was activated at level 2 early Monday morning. I will tell you, my first phone call I got from John Scott was 3 in the morning. So, I mean, they were up moving quickly. Trying to get the response out to keep the residents. The weather service was out putting out the flash flooder work. Our fire rescue worked closely at the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and the other public safety partners. We conducted over 200 high water rescues in the first 24 hours. Schools ended up being closed for three days. Water treatment facilities. Everybody, just not just county, experienced significant impacts from the record rainfall. As you know, we had some boil water notices both in Melbourne and Palm Bay. Hundreds of roadways and neighborhood streets were inundated. Residents throughout the county experienced significant flooding, particularly severe impacts were reported in Lamplighter Village in the unincorporated Melbourne area, Barefoot Bay, and then the deer-run subdivisions. After the life safety threats were addressed, we switched to helping our impacted residents. As of Tuesday morning, we've received a reporting form was put out. We received just under 2,700 residents self-reporting their damage throughout the county. The American Red Cross, together with Parks and Rec, established an emergency shelter that was up in the Cocoa area. I will point out that it was an interesting day to open up a shelter because we had lots of places that were underwater, inaccessible, so you can't open shelters in the area. And then we also had an election on Tuesday morning, so we had a lot of centers close for the election. Tuesday was election day, so we worked with the supervisor of election to make sure that all the polling places that were in county facilities were available if you could get to them. The supervisor did a really nice job of opening some alternatives. Even I voted at a different location on Tuesday. As the rain stopped, floodwaters began to recede. The emergency operations centers shifted recovery. We were doing a lot of work with the St. Johns River. Our Parks and Rec, our public work staff and our natural resources worked very hard looking at the modeling, working with the St. Johns Water Management District, Army Corps Engineers, Sheriff's Office Fire Rescue. They were able to assess the impacts and the damages. And we determined that the flooding at St. Johns would be mostly in the pasture land. Commissioner Altman was at EOC as we were going through the different models and having to shift on the fly of what our plans were. But everyone really came together and worked that out. We are now waiting to hear from FEMA. I heard from local state legislators. I sent you a bunch of emails yesterday. I heard from Congressman Herodopoulos and our lobbyist, Speaker Christofoli, that the governor did sign the declaration and the paperwork he needs, so it will be now in FEMA's hand. That is important because for individual assistance, you need FEMA to make the declaration. That's how we can help our individual citizens. We're working on what we can do on recovery. So far, we've had over 200 residents who submit requests for assistance from volunteer groups. Brewer County Solid Waste has done a wonderful job. Debris pickup will start today, focusing on Barefoot Bay, Grand Valcaria, Malabar, Melbourne, Palm Bay, and West Melbourne, the unincorporated areas. The landfill would normally close tomorrow. We're keeping it open tomorrow, not only for debris but for regular garbage pickup. That will help all the waste haulers get everything in and get caught up. We have flood cleanup kits at four different libraries. I know yesterday a couple libraries we ran out of them, so we're putting more on there. So we're still working with the necessities in the state. I do want to remind everybody we had a number of our own county employees that were impacted by the flooding. Despite the challenges at home, these employees continue to play an instrumental role in the county's response to recover efforts. They all came in. I only can do my personal. I was on the phone, and luckily when I got out in the morning, that was probably the last minute I could have got out of my house. I was able to get home that night. But we had employees that couldn't get home. I can tell you, transit was doubling up at houses for the drivers so they can sleep at their coworkers' houses, get back out on the Tuesday morning. So everybody worked really good, worked hard together. So just a reminder, over 200 rescues we conducted. We had 25 inches of rainfall. The St. John's Cresting is a top-five flooding event and more than 2,000 reported impacts. So I just want to thank everybody who worked together, including 2-1-1, American Red Cross, Department of Health, Team Rubicon, Division of Emergency Management, Florida Wildlife Commission, Brevard Extension Services, United Way Space Coast, all the municipal governments and the fire rescue departments, along with the Florida Department of Transportation. It was a tough event we're still working in, but just want to let you know that we're still out there trying to help the residents. So thank you for letting me read that off. Thank you. A very, very informative report. I know I was there, spent a lot of time in the EOC. I just can't say enough about our staff and the incredible professionalism and the hard work and the commitment. I mean, we were staffed 24-7, and I'm so thankful that the legislature was able to fund a new EOC because I spent a lot of time in the old one, and wow, what an incredible facility that is. And we'll need to use every bit of that, and I understand that we had the disaster, but when the president was here, the Secret Service then came in and staffed that. Yes, they were also in the building, too. So it was an amazing experience to watch. I'm hoping Commissioner Atkinson can be the one to spend some time in the EOC next time. But we hope for no disasters, no disasters. I came close to escaping the disaster right at the end, but we really appreciate this. This storm dropped more water than a lot of major hurricanes, so it was pretty serious. Okay, county attorney? We have no report, Mr. Chair. Okay, Commissioner Pritchard. Thank you, sir. This is my last meeting, and I want to take a moment just to thank everybody for all their hard work and kindness. I want to start with my husband. He's always such a – he's my best friend. And he's – so giving, and when these things come up, and he's such a good partner, too. I'd like to thank Marsha Newell. She is just an incredible person. And when this opportunity came up and the question was asked, we were – my husband and I were praying about it, and we weren't really kind of thinking we should do it. And I said, well, you know, when Marsha's got this, it's running well. He goes, oh, if Marsha's there, we can do it. So Miss Marsha is really, really smart. She loves Brevard County, and she takes really good care of the people, and she would make a great pastor, too, by the way. So I just thought I'd throw that out. And I'd like to thank John, too, for all of his work. And I want to thank the county staff. You guys are incredible. And I was telling – I told you guys yesterday, but I was telling the county attorney a few weeks ago, I said, you know, have you ever had those dreams where you're, like, back in high school and all the feel and the smell is there? And I said, this is kind of what this feels like, is I left high school, and then all of a sudden I'm back in it. And it was just an interesting analogy, but it's kind of what it felt like. But it's been so good getting to see all my old classmates and friends, and it is such a great staff. You guys are just incredible people. You're smart people. And it is so good seeing what you guys have done as a commission. There hasn't been any cussing since I've been back, except one little fella. But it's been pretty incredible, all the kindness that's back into the leadership. It's really good to get to be with a bunch of grownups. And you guys are great people. You're so kind, and you're smart. And good job. I just want to thank you for your job, too. And it's really wonderful. I do know what's coming, and actually I'm kind of glad I'm not going to have to be in these parts with you. I'm going back to the babies to 14-year-olds. But you guys, you do have an incredible thing you're going to have to navigate. The landscape has changed, and you're going to have a lot of things you're going to have to get through. And I pray for each of you now, and I add Mr. Soros in here and Mr. Lloyd, that you would know how to seek God, know how to pray, and that you would have wisdom because there's a lot of good people in this county. And I hope that everybody will learn how to pray and seek God during tough times. He's really smart, and he'll help us get through the things. But you guys have got some things you've got to get us through because I'm out there with a lot of families, and it's tough. People are having a hard time paying for their groceries. I mean, it's getting pretty critical out there. And the cost of everything has jumped again over the last week or so after election. So I think you guys have got a lot to get through. But I know that you have the wisdom to do it, and I pray that you'll be quick to hear and slow to speak, and you'll know just the right words to say. And I've just fallen in love with you all. And thank you for all you do. Thank you guys for all you do. Thank you, Ms. Dana, for all you do. And I hope you guys are so blessed in everything you put your hand to with Prosper's. You put your hand to the things that the Lord calls you to put your hands to in Jesus' name. Well, I thank you for that. And I want to say, and I have a plaque here I want to give to you and maybe have everybody go down and we get a picture. It has been an incredible honor and pleasure to work with you and get to know you. I just cannot say enough nice things about you and what a great public service you are. And thank you for sharing a part of your life, and thank you to your husband for allowing you to come and do this job. You have really been very good. You have really been great for Bavard County and our residents, and I really appreciate you. We're going to miss you dearly, dearly. And I'd like to present this plaque to you for your service, and it reads, Bavard County presented to Rita Pritchard, an appreciation of exemplary leadership and dedicated service to Bavard County as the District 1 County Commissioner. And so I'd like to present. And if we get a photo, we'd like to go down and get one. Okay, thank you. I'm going to bring down the end. Yeah, same here. Let's do it in front of this. Come on, Ms. Kim. You're in the middle. I'm going to look at that. Let's do it in front of this. Mr. Chair. I've never seen politicians shot of photos before, so thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, that's a tough act to follow there. Commission District 2, I don't know if Commissioner Goodson was that we didn't have it. I know we had a reception with Commissioner Goodson, and he will not be on our board. I just want to publicly thank the commissioner for his incredible lifetime and legacy of public service, both the port commissioner and the legislature and county commission. Few have really had the record of dedication and lengthy public service, so we're going to miss him as well, and we wish him the best. Okay, Commissioner Atkinson, District 3. Just a couple of things from me. First of all, because of all of the crisis that we've had, we kind of forgot about the charity event that the county threw, and I just wanted to say I thought they would go easy on me because I volunteered, by the way, to help raise money, but they did not go easy on me. The hose was straight in my face, down the back of my neck. It was a disaster for me, but I don't know how much we raised. I hope it was worth it. Does anybody know? No. I think $1,600, I think, was the number. Am I about right? It seems like it should be more. I'm getting nods. It seems like it should be more. But the thing I really wanted to do was, yeah, staff has been great. We've come together in the crisis, but so did the residents. I had multiple people calling saying that their random neighbor or somebody they didn't even know, you know, pulled them out of a situation that they were in, came to their house to help them cut the drywall out. So I just want to say thank you to all the Brevard County residents who helped each other. And for those few that are being patient with us about picking up their couches and everything. So thanks for patience, and thanks for helping your neighbors, because that makes a big deal of difference for everyone. That's it from me. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner and District 4, Commissioner Feltoner. Rita, it's been a pleasure. And I appreciate you coming back and helping us through this, and as others have done before you. And you helped us out quite a lot this fall, and I appreciate it. And we've known each other a long time. And for Commissioner Goodson, maybe he'll watch this later. I've known him a long time since he was on the Port Commission, and, you know, he's one of those guys that he really doesn't, he has a hard time respecting you if you can't trash talk with him. So there's been many, many years of that, but he's a genuinely good guy, and I wish him well. And for everybody who was impacted by the storm and who helped each other in the storm, I saw a lot of that. And I'm very grateful. And to all of our first responders, thank you for helping the residents of the county. And I think we continue to prove that together we're very resilient. We've been through a lot of storms. We know how to pull together and help each other. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. And I, again, I want to echo my sentence, Commissioner Goodson. I want to thank him for his many, many courageous votes. I served him in the legislature and served here, and he always did what he thought was in the best interest of constituents, and even at times where it wasn't to his personal benefit. And that's true leadership and statesmanship, so we really appreciate that. And this board, this is the last time we'll meet collectively, and I can't tell you, I love this board and our fellow members. It's a unique group, and we really appreciate it and the staff that we have. So it's been a great honor, and with that, the meeting is adjourned.