Board of County Commissioners on 2023-06-06 9:00 AM - Jun 06, 2023

Welcome. Today is June 6, 2023. I welcome you all to our Board of County Commissioners meeting. I call the meeting to order. This morning we're going to have an invocation which will be a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and we have a special guest here to lead us in the pledge. So if you would all please stand for a moment of silence since we've just had Memorial Day. Let's take a moment to remember all those who sacrificed their lives, not just the people that did it, but their families to allow us to be here today to have this meeting. Thank you. Now it's my pleasure to introduce Timothy Wojanar to lead us in the pledge. Sarah, welcome and good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Fellow commissioners, thank you for having me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You'd all please be seated. Mr. Wojanar, we are thankful that you are here this morning with us. Can you just take a moment and give us a little bit of your background, sir, and what brought you here this morning? Yes, I will. Bring the mic up a little bit. Born and raised here in Martin County and after high school I decided that I needed somewhere to go. So I joined the United States Army and I spent four years in Europe overseas. And on my way home, Iraq invaded Kuwait, so that kind of changed a lot of things. So I ended up in the Middle East for about a year and a half during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. And I served with the 101st Airborne Division. When I got out of the Army, believe it or not, I started my career for Martin County Parks and Recreation in 93. I did four years here for Martin County, then I transferred down to West Palm Beach where I finished out my 30 and recently retired from Parks and Recreation and started at the bottom and went all the way to the top director. So it's been a good career. I love Martin County. It's a great place and thank you for what you do. And especially thank you for what you guys do for the veterans of this county. Your VSO officers are all top notch. Thank you. Thank you for your service. 30-year career already. You look like you're 30. If you'd stay, we'll take a picture. We're going to do some other proclamations and then we'll take a photo with you. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. We don't give those away for free. You have to earn them and you have. So we appreciate you. Okay, so we have the agenda to discuss and then we'll get into some proclamations and some special guests. We're going to have a couple of presets. Let me put my glasses on so I can see what this says. There they are. We have a couple of presets at 915. Our sheriff will be here to discuss trends in his office that he is experiencing and cases related to mental health and the capacity of the jail. At 945, we're going to have a Martin County Mental Health Court presentation. At 1015, we're going to have golf course best management practices. We've had some folks in the past that have asked questions about golf courses, existing golf courses and proposed golf courses and what ramifications would they have on our natural environment and some folks from the golf course industry will discuss how their industry has changed from what most people might think were the old days of fertilization and pesticides and things like that. At 230, we have a request for a private attorney client session concerning the case of R. Eric, LLC versus Martin County, case number 23-14109, CIV, Canon. And then at 905, in the morning, we have public comment as well as at 505. We have one additional item. It was a consent agenda. Number 14, request for approval of an impact fee credit agreement, right-of-way dedication, and various easements to support the construction of the extension of Southwest Cargo Way to Southwest Citrus Boulevard. There are no consent pulls. And we've had one request to be withdrawn from the agenda, which was departmental number five, commercial industrial land use analysis. With that, Commissioner Smith. I move on approval of the agenda. With the consent agenda, the additional item of consent item number 14, and the request to withdraw agenda item, department number five. Thank you. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith to accept the agenda as presented, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. We have two proclamations this morning. The first one is National Garden Week, and it will be presented by Ms. Laura Beaupre. Ms. Beaupre, good morning. You are recognized. Good morning, Commissioners. Gardeners seek to add beauty, splendor, fragrance, and nutrition to our lives through the growing of herbs, vegetables, foliage, and flowers. Gardeners advocate the importance of all creatures, large and small, that share our world and their roles in a balance and productive ecology. Gardeners work to preserve our country's traditional spirit of independence and initiative through innovation and hard work. Further, during National Garden Week, June 4th through the 10th, the board acknowledges the importance of gardening and the numerous contributions of our gardeners. And here to accept, we have Rosita Aristoff, who is president of the Garden Club of Stewart. Well, I'm already a gardener. Why don't you say a few words, and then we take a photo. Good morning. The Garden Club of Stewart is among as many as 5,000 garden clubs across America affiliated with the National Garden Clubs, which are currently celebrating National Garden Week. It is an opportunity for us to encourage pride in our communities and to work with other like-minded groups involved in the areas of Florida-friendly plantings, native plantings, floor design, and in generally sharing knowledge about gardening. Speaking of sharing knowledge, the Florida native Salvia mistela, also known as creeping sage, is an aromatic, low-growing ground cover which thrives in low-light conditions where grass cannot grow. It attracts pollinators, and both the fresh leaves and its tiny blue flowers are edible. In anticipation of Garden Week, recently club members, in cooperation with keeping Martin beautiful, participated in the Great American Cleanup at Memorial Park and throughout the Ripple Stormwater Echo Art Project in Old Palm City. And as in the past, this week we have placed floral arrangements at each of Martin County's public libraries. So on behalf of the Garden Club of Stewart, I thank the Board of County Commissioners for recognizing with this proclamation our efforts to beautify the community. In closing, I will leave you with this quote from Abraham Lincoln. We can't complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. Thank you so much. Our next proclamation is declaring National Safe Boating Week in Martin County, Florida. A significant number of boaters who lose their lives by drowning each year would be alive today if they had worn life jackets. Flotilla 59 of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, based in Martin County Sandsprit Park, participates in the annual National Safe Boating Week campaign to promote boating safety and encourages the boating public to wear life jackets when enjoying the region's waterways. The Board commends the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 59 for their efforts in furthering the goals of the National Safe Boating Week campaign and their year-round efforts to promote safe boating. And here to accept, along with a lot of folks, we have Marcus Kiriaco, who is the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 59 commander. That's a mouthful. Thank you to the commission. Flotilla 9, we were established in 1942 here in Stewart, Florida, and through all these years, our mandate has been recreational boating safety. Along with your guidance and participation throughout the years, hopefully we've been able to save at least one life and make it safer for everybody here in the county that enjoys our wonderful waters to be safe and to enjoy their time here with us. And for your assistance and all the guidance that you give us, we're very grateful, and thank you very much. Thank you. Will everybody come down? Everyone down, we have some life jackets. We don't have them anymore? No. We've got them, but we didn't know that you wanted them. I would, you know. They're floating my car. Yeah, no, that's it. Take the picture. No life jackets. No life jackets. Everybody wants a store. The docket. Build the docket. Four more to get in. Tighten it up. Order's here. We're going to lose you behind this. Get everybody out of the way. All right. One more. Oh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Don't lose your ribbing. No. No. Who's talking? In one office. You're just not all about your job. Yeah. They're so awesome. They have those. I haven't made some of them. I don't have to do that. Right in the middle. Can you do a retirement? Retirement's overrated. What? No, I'm living for that day. All right. Everybody smile, please. One, two, three. Smile like we're paparazzi. Thank you very much. Yeah. Nice to meet you. We got a spot. What do you know about golf courses? Too young to retire. Could have had you sing. Yeah. Years ago. I have no intention of retiring. We use Diane Fiennes. Although it doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Jesse Helms. Thank you very much. I'd also like to welcome, we have a group of scouts here this morning that are learning a lesson on civics. Why don't we have Judge Steele come up and give us a little update on who's here and about the troop. No. Fantastic. Katie's gotten much taller since the last time I've seen her. It's nice to see everyone here today. We're part of Troop 43-2, the first all-girls troop in Marnon County. There you go. We're the first all-girls troop in Marnon County. And we're here today to learn about citizenship in the community because we want to be a more active part. Thank you. That's fantastic. Thank you. So we, oh yes, coming up. No, not just yet, right? When a judge starts walking towards the front of the room, you let her speak if she wants to. So we went from the Coast Guard flotilla, a group of fine Marnon County citizens wearing uniforms, to the first female troop wearing uniforms, which is a fine group of Marnon County citizens, to now a remarkable group of individuals wearing uniforms that we will hear from in a little bit, our sheriff and his members of his department. We welcome you. We have several requests to speak forms. If you would like to speak this morning, either on a general topic or on an agenda item that you won't be able to stay for later in the day, you can fill out one of our request to speak forms and give it to our bailiff, who's right there, and then we will add you to the list. If you do speak this morning on a topic that we're going to hear about later, you cannot speak again later. So you could decide if you want to speak at the agenda item or this morning. You'll have three minutes to address us, and at the two minute and 45 second point, you'll hear a tone. It doesn't mean to stop. It means that you have 15 seconds to sort of finalize your thoughts so we don't just cut you off. Some folks do like to take longer, but as in fairness to those that are behind you, we try to keep it to the three minutes. If you do address an issue, our staff has your information, and although we sometimes do immediately respond, quite often we try not to to keep the meeting moving along, but our staff can always reach you after the fact. Our first request to speak form is Mr. Richard McDonald. Good morning, sir. No, first speak into the microphone, otherwise people at home can't hear you. I've got a few judges, and I know everybody up here too. So, okay, so good morning, County Commissioner, the sheriff, and the judges, and everybody else. You know, I was told once before I got to start the dialogue on something, so it's like the fairgrounds. Okay. So, you know, when somebody says Martin County, what do you think about? I think about good families, great families. And during that, you know, me and my wife, we raised three kids here. They're grown now. During that time, we did the motocross. We met more great families. Recently, I went to KTM and spoke to Joe, and I asked him about what was going on with the track at the fairgrounds. He said it was on hold for like $2 million or something. He had to raise that. And I said it should be no problem. You know, it's not really a lot of money. Jeff Bezos made $175 billion in one month, so $2 million is not a lot. And, you know, it brings Martin County families together. It brings, it's a great sport. You know, we could put a dog park there, picnic tables, a concert stage. Christ Fellowship is down the block, country artists to make it a family event type of thing. And we probably only need like 10 donors in the area for like $200,000 each. You know, I would put up some money. So there's our first $200,000 right there. Well, I'm close. When my wife finally kicks me to the curb, I'll have $200,000. We don't want it. So until that happens, she doesn't want to, you know, sometimes she wants to get rid of me, and then sometimes she doesn't. She drags me back. So, you know, so, you know, and people say, what am I going to get out of it? And, you know, I want to believe the Bible's true. So it says, what I do for others, God will do for me. So that's why I try to do these things. And if anybody sees me on TV and they want, then they're afraid to come up here, I would be happy to speak for them. As long as it's not going to get me locked up or put up in front of the judges, I'll be good to go. And that's it. Thank you, sir. Our next request to speak for him is Mr. Tom Pine. Mr. Pine, good morning and welcome. I'm sorry I missed my, good morning. I'm sorry. My name's Tom Pine. I live in Jensen Beach. I'm sorry I missed the presentation by our county administrator on the way Martin County pays its bills as per the chairman of the board requested. He stepped on many of the checks and balances that are in place to protect for the proper paying of our bills. I believe the presentation was directed at me. In fact, I have no problem with how Martin County pays its bills. The problem I have is how our county government manipulates the consent agenda to hide from we, the taxpayers of Martin County, where our tax dollars are being spent. It's that simple. In reality, the presentation was no less than a first class dog and pony show. I would rate it a triple A because it was recorded, so it didn't include any of the typical innuendos and double talk that many dog and pony shows do. The objective of a dog and pony show is to try to change the narrative. The commissioners won't directly answer my complaints about the improper use of the consent agenda, and I will never stop bringing it up until a court of law intervenes. I recently bought the latest edition of Robert's Rules of Order to see if there's any exceptions for things like special deals for your friends in the Martin County Chamber of Commerce for rent of county-owned buildings or office space. I didn't find any. I'd like to see if putting cost overruns of county projects like the county golf course was permitted to be put in the consent agenda. I didn't find anything. Hidden in today's consent agenda, Agenda Consent 1 will award a contract for $745,601 to car construction for intersection improvements. This is not a routine expenditure. Therefore, it does not belong in the consent agenda. It's that simple and plain. Democracy dies in darkness, and our county government is moving full steam ahead on this issue. It's that time of year again, graduations everywhere. I listened to actor Tom Hanks give the commencement speech at Harvard. I would encourage everyone to check it out. He was his typical brilliant self. Once again, the Martin County Chamber of Commerce wins big. The rural lifestyle was approved with the help of our governor. Sad but true. I wasn't surprised since I watched the Costco project get approved only a couple days after one principal made a large donation to the governor's political campaign. What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Our next request to speak for Ms. Patricia Jones. Good morning. Good to see you. Good to see you all, and thank you for all that you do. I'm Patricia Jones, and I came today, along with some of my neighbors, to make sure that you are aware of a violation on our beach on Hutchinson Island. The two homes across from the public store have gone ahead and installed a post and rope fence barrier for a long distance along the beach. And I have been talking with your great staff. Every time I call the county, they are very responsive. May I pass these pictures out so they help you understand why I'm here? I walk the beach, live on the beach, very blessed to do so. And I was so surprised when I saw this. And I called the growth management department, and they were not aware of it. And it was done without the benefit of a Martin County permit. And I understand, and violation letters are attached that were sent. And this installation was to be removed by April 24th, and the owners did not remove it. Now they have an attorney dealing with the staff. And I understand these things need to be due process. People need, so the staff is dealing with it. But I wanted you to be aware of it, because if this is allowed for whatever reason, and the staff says it really, they certainly hope to get compliance. But should that not happen, it sets a very dangerous precedent. There, as you know, so many properties along the beach were recognized for our pristine, beautiful beaches and our unique wildlife and environment. And something like this, with these heavy posts, even impede the sand, the natural buildup and height of the dune, it's the turtle nesting can be impacted by it, or the procedure affected for the turtles. So just wanted to bring it to your attention and hope for your support, should it get to your level, to uphold our codes and support keeping the beaches free of any fences or impediments such as this. And thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, ma'am, for bringing that to our attention. Appreciate it. Our next request to speak for Ms. Milana Miller, or Millar? Good morning. Was it Miller or Millar? Milan, that's an N at the end, not an R. My parents, you know, Milana, Milan. Go figure. Milana, Milan. Well, now we know. Well, thank you for allowing me to speak. After Patty's presentation, I don't know how much more I can say because she gave you all the facts and a lot of the reasons. And yes, I too live there on Hutchinson Island. And my biggest concern is that I understand that we're blessed to live there and that it is a public beach. That's important. We have public access and public parking. We should be proud of that. Or do we want to be like Sarasota? No parking? Limited access? I live next door to public access. And yes, the public comes in. They fill the beach. They're respectful. They're enjoying our wonderful natural resources. It's, yeah. Do we have people that have, on occasion, come up on our dune looking for bathroom facilities? Yeah. Do they go away? Yeah. Are they respectful when they understand they can't go into the dune? Yes. And as Patty said, I'm concerned about the turtle nesting. We have so many nests there. Just two weeks ago, I went out and we had literally 10 nests right next to our access, our crossover. You looked up and down the beach and there were hundreds of them. Something for us to be proud of. So I understand that your hands may be somewhat tied at this point and that you are working on it. And I want to thank you for doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate your comments. Our next request to speak for Ms. Dottie Lancey. Ms. Lancey, good morning. Good to see you. Guess what I'm going to speak about? I'm Dottie Lancey and I live on Hutchinson Island, too. And I'm a member of a group that we have formed. I'm not speaking here for the group. I'm speaking for myself. But I am a member of a group that's over there called the Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative. And we formed a couple years back in order to preserve the natural beauty of Hutchinson Island. And I've come here to speak today on this issue of constructing fencing in the dune and in front of private houses there. It seems that there are two adjacent properties that have recently done so, the first ever in the island's history. And that is because Martin County has very strict rules governing this. The residents have abided by the rules and actually love these rules because for many different reasons, I'm not going to go into all of them, but people have been very respectful of these rules and they are grateful that we have them. And we have such wonderful beaches that have such a wonderful reputation. In our state, people come from south to spend the weekends up here because it is so lovely. When I was fortunate to build my dream house on the ocean almost 20 years ago, it took me three years to accomplish it because I had to deal with the county, with the state, and with the federal regulations. All of them applied to coastal construction. I had to meet the requirements of all the government entities. When I learned of the fences, I spoke to an official in the State Environmental Protection Agency. And I asked about the state regulations and requirements for fencing in the dunes and if their rules superseded the local ones. She said, definitely not. State and local governments work together and homeowners are subject to all of the rules, federal, state, or local. If that's the case, I'm here to ask the commission to enforce our local rules that prohibit fencing in the dunes. I do not own the beach and neither does anyone else. I may own land bordering the beach, but because it is such a precious resource, I can't do anything I want with it. I have to abide by the rules and I'm happy to do so. So, Martin County does not allow me to put up a fence on the dune. Please heed that the county rules are enforced and that our beaches remain a natural enjoyment for all of our residents. Thanks for listening and I hope that you will follow through on this. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I'm to our last request to speak form. If anybody else would like to speak, please let me know. Sir, come forward. Please state your name for the record, sir. My name is John Canavan. I also live on Hutchinson Island. One easy fix to this problem is replace the keep off the dune signs that we lost during the winter storms. Requests have been put in before. Sarah helped us about three years ago. My understanding is it's Department of Parks. Please get them to move on it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Anyone else? This is your time. With that, I go to our last request to speak form by Mr. Len Susi. Mr. Susi, good morning and welcome. Good morning, Mr. Harris, please. Thank you. I've been a resident of Martin County for 17 years and been involved in your affairs and our affairs all that time. I would like to discuss to you my view of the future of Martin County in regards to what I see going forward. My guide is through the lens of competitive advantage. That's a term that's a term by Michael Porter, one of my professors at the Harvard Business School. And you look around the world, you'll see that Italy has a competitive advantage in leather. The production and sales of leather, 70% of those items touch Italy at some point. Holland has a competitive advantage in cut flowers. New Zealand produces the cheapest milk in the world, and their competitive advantage is the export of powdered milk. So the question I ask myself is what is our competitive advantage, and that is it's closest to the Gulf Stream. And knowing that, the residents in 1892 cut the first canal in access to the ocean, and that changed the St. Lucie River from a river to an estuary. That gave birth to the marine industry, and it's been growing ever since, very successfully. And then I look around and I say, well, what else is happening? And I see what is happening in our golf course industry, and I see a second competitive advantage. There's a critical mass being formed and is being enhanced. That, too, began quite a while ago with the development of Seminole in 1929. That was followed in sequence by Jupiter Hills, Lob Lolly, Medalist Bears Club, and MacArthur. So I see a foundation here for a new competitive advantage for Martin County. That has now been enhanced by recent applications to the county, to your staff. Grove 23 would be one. MacArthur 2nd 18 would be another. Atlantic Fields would be another. Apogee with three courses would be another. And Rolling Sands is the most recent submission that I'm aware of. These five parcels total over 5,000 acres, and at a fair value of 17,000 an acre, that's $88 million, have been invested by third parties into our county. We thank them for their vision. Those seven courses will be built, and there are great opportunities, one, for water farming. I think that should be emphasized. There should be great enhancements that can be done. Future tax revenues will be between $35 million and $40 million a year. Jobs will be created at all levels. Local charities will have a new list of donors to attack and to address and support. I think we can become the golf capital of the world. Mr. Sousa, your time is up. And I think we should support the golf. Thank you. Sir, I'm sure you were aware that this morning we're going to have a presentation on some of those golf courses that you mentioned, and so I would invite you to stay, if you can. Mr. Sousa was our last request to speak for him. If anyone else. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. I don't know if the clapping was for the last speaker form. Yeah, I'm not sure if they were happy that we're done with the public comment or my pearls. Commissioner Smith. Yeah, thank you for our residents bringing forward this thing. Don, yeah, this thing. Is there, and if you can just say yes, maybe, is there, so is there an active lawsuit that has been filed? No. Okay, thank you. Don, do you have any just initial thoughts? Obviously, it's going through our code enforcement process. We had this happen once before at Batta Beach, and we were successful in having it removed. I would expect a similar outcome here. There is a due process issue, but certainly with Turner and Lessing seizing and the Endangered Species Act, there is some potential that this may bring on other federal actions above what Martin County has. So anyway, I have not been engaged in it at this point, but certainly will ensure that staff is moving forward on this. I guess what I'm interested in, and Sarah, you're poised to comment, so I'm trying not to say anything that puts us in a bad way one way or the other. I assume that anything east of the dune is public. Yes, Mr. Chair, but the issue here is the – how do I say this? The property owners have retained counsel, and they are taking a creative interpretation to some of our codes. We strongly oppose that. We have our staff engaged in it. So we are actively involved in it, in opposing this. Do we have an estimated timeline on something like this? I'll be happy to check and report back by the end of the meeting. That would be great. Thank you. I just – it's really fascinating that someone would do this. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. I think, separate from the conversation that just took place, I think the recommendation and suggestion of reinstalling keep-off-the-dune signs wouldn't adversely affect the process that you're going through, Ms. Woods. I would request that our parks and rec or sign department, whoever does that, you know, people that are not familiar with the beaches and the dunes set up or folks that are and just don't care, the signage is important. And I think that's separate from the conversation that was had. So I would recommend or request that we go ahead and get those signs that say keep-off-the-dunes, intersperse the full length of our beaches from south to north. Sir. Certainly at the public beaches, we can do the full length of the beach. I would like to report back on the ability to do that. But certainly we can do it within our provisions and may be able to encourage it in front of other private properties. I agree. So within the limitations allowed by law, we will... With a couple of judges and the sheriff here, yes, I agree, within the limitations of the law. But I would also offer it as a service to private property owners because I'm assuming they don't want people in the dunes closer to their homes either. So there you go. That's that. We will go to Commissioner Comments before we make the sheriff wait any longer. Commissioner Smith. I'm all set. I'm just... I'm... I've been here a long time. I don't ever recall ever seeing anything quite like this before. You know when they say pictures... Are a thousand words. A thousand words. That picture right there with this on the beach, that's a thousand words. Is that it? That's it. Commissioner Hetherington. All set this morning. Thank you. Thank you very much. Commissioner Jenkins. I'm good, too. Thank you. Wow, good. Commissioner Hurd. Set. I will also be set on that regard as well. Mr. Donaldson. For me, sir. Ms. Woods. My Cracker Jeff staff has just advised me that we're trying to schedule this, the issue on the island before the code enforcement registrate in July. Thank you very much. The case will be, is bringing for an enforcement. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. It would still be helpful to understand the, regardless of how it's being interpreted by someone, some group, it would be interesting to know purely on the turtle nesting issue have we, I mean, if we were to have gone out and done this in Martin County, I'm assuming somebody would make us remove it immediately as a result of turtle nesting. I mean, we can't do beach restoration work during turtle nesting season. We can't do anything out there during that season. So I think what would be helpful is some kind of feedback this afternoon, a little bit deeper than it's been scheduled for July, because that's now a month and a half from now. Right? We're June. So I'll find out whether or not the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has been notified of this and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. If they have not, then we'll make sure that they have been. That would be super helpful. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. We will go to our first item of the agenda is reports and proposals. Number one, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder would like an opportunity to do a presentation on the trends his office is experiencing in cases related to mental health and the capacity of the jail. And with that, it is my honor and pleasure to welcome our Sheriff William Snyder. Sarah, welcome. And your team. You can take these seats right here if you prefer. You're more than welcome to sit or stand. Whatever the boss says is acceptable. Chairman Campy, good morning. Chairman Jenkins, Commissioners Hurd and Hetherington Smith, thank you so much for allowing me an opportunity to come up here and just share with you some observations that we have. Before I start, I would like to report on the last time I was here, we talked about body-worn cameras. You all were very gracious, saw the need, moved to what I think was the best position for all of us. And now every first responder in Martin County is wearing body-worn cameras. I actually have one on this morning. It's off, so you don't have to worry about that, but you'll see it right over there on Deputy Pine. He's got it right in the center of his vest. They have turned out to be a marvelous asset for officer safety and just for a myriad of other reasons. So thank you so much for doing that. Before I start, I do want to make note that we're going to give you a presentation that includes some photographs of injuries that have occurred in our correctional facility as a result of this phenomenon that we're going to talk about. I'm not sure, but I think we have some young people back here. So if you're with the young people in the back and you're their chaperone, be warned that some of these pictures are graphic, nothing sexual in nature, but they are injuries and they are very disturbing pictures. But I thought it was only fair to the commissioners that you have kind of a sense of what we're talking about. So if they want to take a break until the next step, that's up to them. Why don't we stop for a moment and I'll allow them, if you would prefer, that they're – thank you. So they're behind me, they're staying. Okay. No, they're stepping out. Oh, they're stepping out. Yeah, I think that was the right choice. I have with me today our corrections major, John Cummings over here, Captain Perkins. I think behind me is Captain McHale, who's right there. And then you see Chief Budenseek behind me and the rest of some of my staff is also here. I think our Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Youngblood, is sitting back there if we have any questions. What we want to talk about today is trajectory. I want to talk a little bit about where we are today and where I'm afraid we're going and where I think we should be. And whenever you talk about trajectory, I'm always thoughtful of a shooting analogy. If I go to the range and I'm at three yards and I draw and fire and just miss the very center by a meter, very small amount, a couple inches, I still get a five. It's a full hit. If I move back to the seven-yard line, I fire and I miss the same proportion. Now it's about four inches. I still get five points. At 15 yards, the exact same trajectory that got me right on the money at three is now missing the center of the target. So I paint that picture because I think it's important for us this morning to get an idea of a trajectory, not so much where we are today, but where we are today as it indicates where we are heading. Mental illness is the issue that we see over and over again in the national news and state news. Matter of fact, there isn't probably a sheriff's office that manages a jail anywhere in the state of Florida that couldn't come up and make the same statement that I'm about to make. We are the single largest mental health care provider facility in the county and who's ever second is a far-distant second. We have a tremendous caseload and challenge with people that are having mental illness crises. So with that, let me tell you where I think we need to be based on what I'm seeing now. I think we need a new facility at the jail, a new pod, designed specifically for people with mental illness. Currently, we have this kind of this in-between area. If somebody is having a mental health crisis, they're out in the front yard, they've ripped off their clothes, and they're screaming, but they've committed no offense. We have a Baker Act. You know what the Baker Act is. We involuntarily commit them to a local facility for a period of time not to exceed 72 hours. Most of our mental health crisis calls result in that configuration. The problem we run into and the reason we have mentally ill people inside of our correctional facility right now as we speak is because oftentimes people that are having a mental health crisis commit a crime. So maybe that person, instead of just screaming in the front yard, stabbed his mother or stabbed his father. Matter of fact, one of my neighbors, in the last few weeks, inexplicably, without any warning, the dad went out just to say, hey, we're going out to eat, and he thought, who knows what he thought. He came out and stabbed his father in his throat. Thankfully, he survived. What do I do with that person? Clearly, I'm having a mental health crisis, but he's committed an aggravated battery. I can't take him to a receiving facility. There's no way. He has to go to jail. He's committed a violent felony. So that's the conundrum we face day in and day out. People that are clearly having a mental health episode commit a crime. Now, obviously, if it's a low-level crime, it's a trespass. The same person in the front yard runs into the neighbor's front yard. Now they're screaming, and we get there 10 out of 10 times. We will bankrupt that person, even though there's a minor trespass. Or maybe they've gone into a store, lost their mind, and pushed over a shelf, and they're just clearly not a vandal. They're having a mental health crisis. That person would get Baker Act. But if the same person at the CVS picked up a bottle and threw it and hit the clerk in the face and broke her tooth out, now I have an aggravated battery. So I think I wanted to set the stage, because I do think it begs the question, what in the world are mentally ill people doing in a correctional facility? That's the answer. They've crossed the line, committed a crime serious enough that we have no alternative. I can't go out and say, okay, by the power invested in me, by the voters, I declare you mentally incompetent, you're going to a receiving facility. It just doesn't work that way. So that's why we've had as high as 30% of our jail population at any one given time. It's not that high today. It's a little lower than that. We've gone up into the 30 percentile range where they are on 30% of the inmate population are on psychotropic drugs. They're being treated for mental illness. Either they came in pre-diagnosed and were following a doctor's order, or they come in and a doctor diagnoses them. So that's the setting. That's what we have today. Let's take a look now at the slide presentation. I'd like to thank Captain Perkins, who worked very hard on this. We are not currently equipped or set up to properly care for mental health inmates. The reason the jail is not set up for it is it was built in the 80s. None of you were commissioners then. But when that jail was built, When it was built, there was nothing like we see today. This is a whole different day. So it wasn't built around the concept that up to 30% of the inmates would need mental health care. It just wasn't. It was built for people driving on DUI and shoplifters and violent felons and spouse abused people. Fast forward today, that same facility does not work. We are tasked, we're challenged with legal standards. Take a look at those. We'll go through them real fast. Misdemeanors will be separated from each other. We don't have a choice. And this is the beginning point for what we have to talk about, and that's classification. Whenever I talk about classification, I'm talking about what we are legally required to do to keep inmates apart. Males and females will be separated. Sentenced versus non-sentences should be housed separately. We currently, well, we're going to see in a minute. Did we have the slide that shows the checks? Okay. High felons versus low felons should be housed separately. Mentally ill inmates should be. This is, oh, I love you for the rest of my life. Thank you. That was me, Sheriff. That was me. At least until the end of this meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. C-I-A-N-P-I. Gray Sonata. Mentally ill inmates should be provided special housing, and juveniles must be completely separated where they can't see any adults or hear adults. So you see what the conundrum is? I am obligated by law to classify people properly so that I don't put a 15-year-old who's committed a violent felony in with a 40-year-old gang leader. I mean, we just can't do that. So traditional classification model levels, and some are not feasible. Real quickly, the top three we do, but look at the bottom three. Sex offenders and predators are currently having to be mixed in general population. Program inmates, those that are deemed lower risk and are actually doing other things within the jail that are kind of helping them. They're getting a GED, or they're mixed in, and then misdemeanors and felons are also mixed in. The law does not mandate those three be separated, but they should be, and a healthy jail and a safe jail would do that. Next. We have 11 classification levels that need to be separated. I'm not going to read all those, but just take a real quick look. Look, this is, again, speaking about the classification challenges that we have every day. You can see them. It's just, when you go to jail, we have to figure out, do you have a contagious disease? Are you a member of a gang? Are you an adult? Are you a juvenile? Do you have mental illness? Are you violent? Are you part of a gang? Are you part of witness protection? It is one of the most complex jobs we have in our industry. Currently, as we speak, or when you did the slide yesterday, I assume if there's a change here, it would be notable. Because of classification requirements and because of the pressure that trying to keep our mentally ill inmates housed separately, we have 17 inmates on the floor right now, sleeping on the floor. Now, they're not on the hard concrete floor. I think you, I know you all came to the jail. They're in what we call boats. They're little kind of tent-looking things with a cushion. We have three inmates on the floor that are misdemeanors. We have 15 inmates on the floor that are either high felon, sentenced to DOC, lockdown, or special security mails. Fifteen of those people are on the jail. Look, these are our hardcore people on the best day. Give them a clean cot, plenty of food, and good TV. They are still problems. Put them on the floor, and they really become problematic. And then A4, mental health inmates, we don't have any of those on the floor. Over in pod B2, we have 19 inmates on the floor. That would be female, female trustees, female programs, lockdown and such. And then our kitchen help, which is an overflow, we have 13 on the floor. That's not good. We're managing. It's not safe. So the jail layout with the new pod, if you take a real quick look there, what we would have, this is what we would want. This would be the best layout. We would have a transient zone for first appearance and low-level felons. Misdemeanors would be and sentenced misdemeanor trustees and juveniles in A2. High felon sentence DOC holds its Department of Corrections and special mails. Then we would have a high and low felon. So I won't finish it off there, but that would give us a very fine-tuned classification purposes, which would keep the inmates safe, and more importantly, it would keep my correctional personnel safe. So you see what we're trying to do there? We're trying to defuse the conglomerate that we have now. Here's our purpose. All mental health inmates should be in one place. All 18% of the inmates on psychotropic and medications, which we have right now, will be monitored in one area instead of various areas of the jail. Imagine this, spread out throughout the whole jail. So as our nurses are going to give out medications, they're going to A1, B2, A3. They're all over the place. We want to put them in one place so that one nurse with a medication cart can go, I see them, I go over there, and they're pushing these carts all over the jail. So mentally ill inmates would have treatment and a plan of action. It would reduce the tension and anxiety among the mental health inmate population, and the mental health clinician will be on the site with them, space available. Right now, they're spread out, and there's no separate space for staff. So they're over temporarily, or probably until this gets rectified, they're over in the medical wing, and they're back and forth all the time. This would be what the new step-down idea for a mental health unit would look like. I'll let you take a look at that. But you can see what we're doing there. They come in zone four, so they start. That's when they're having their crisis. They're the most decompensated. We're going to show you some pictures in just a bit. These are men or women that are coming in screaming, trying to bite their tongues off. They're completely decompensated. This staff, these are not mental health professionals. These are cops doing the best they can. Once we've got them calmed down, we can move them into zone three. That's for treatment. And we try to get them back, give them back some of their items, get them on their meds. In zone two, we would start integrating inmates together. That's critical. Right now, unfortunately, we have some mental ill people that are with others that are not mentally ill, and you're going to see some pictures in just a minute. And then at the end, if things go well, we would move them into zone one, which would be the general population for mental health. We're going to show you some pictures of what that housing would look like, and I'm trying to be very sensitive of your time this morning, but I think this is an issue that you'll probably want some facts on so you can get some direction. Then we would have a veteran zone that had PTSD. PTSD, I think if a man or woman has served their country and is diagnosed with PTSD, we owe it to them, if we can, to get them into their own place. They speak their own language. They understand each other. We think it would go a long way towards helping them come back out of that dark spot that they find themselves in. And then zone six would be a lockdown unit and segregation. That would be the ones that would be the hardest to deal with, right? Just to give you an idea of the trend line, in 2022, there were 569 Baker Acts, and this year so far we already have 228. So the amount, that's not directly bearing on the jail, but it gives you an indication of how much mental illness is going on in the community. Fortunately, these people did not end up in jail. Mental health court, take a look at that staggering figure. In 17, 18, there were 29 diverted. In 18, 19, 87. In 20 and 2021, 172. So when I tell you that the problem is not going away, but moreover getting worse, it's getting worse. It is absolutely getting worse. I don't know where the trend ends up, but it's not going in a good direction. We'll go, let's pass that one up. We've kind of talked about that. This is a picture of Indian River County. They're doing the best they can with what they have, but you can see right there, they're doing what I kind of had a vision of doing, and I'm not sure where I would, I'm not tempted to go in this direction, but I believe there's a lot that can be done for environmental design that would help people coming in, having a mental health crisis. If you've been in our jail, it's very foreboding. It looks like a dungeon. I mean, it's a concrete bunker with gray walls and gray bars and harsh lighting and lots of noise. I don't know about you, but when I go home at the end of the day, I want some quiet and some peace, some quiet music. I want to, you know, we all do that. We all try to find a place where we can calm down a little. These people cannot calm down. They come into a mental health crisis, and the lights are blaring, and the doors are clanging, and people are screaming. There's no sound deadening. We're trying to, my vision would be to have a mental health pod where we mitigate that some. This is a Hillsborough County Jail. Look what they've done on the left. They have a military place for the vets, where you see it on both sides, and I think that, I love that set up. These guys, all gals, guys and gals, they speak their own language. Okay. Sheriff, if I can just say one thing. Can you hear me? Okay. With the mental health population that we have, it did decrease a little bit, and the sheriff already had spoken about that. We have had upwards of 32% of inmates on psychotropic medication. It did decrease, but the reason for the decrease is because they go to DOC. They get sentenced. It's not that they're rehabilitated and gone back out. They've been committed to a state hospital. They've just been released from our custody, but they're still in our community. So we had one person recently who was released two or three days ago, and he came back last night. And he was with us for quite some time. So it's not that it's a decrease. It's just when it's going to come back around again. Thank you, Captain. The pictures are next. And the pictures go, we're going to go through these pretty quick. I think you'll get the idea, and then we'll wrap this up. Clearly, a mentally challenged person wanted to be the joker, and you don't have to stare too hard to see it. He cut the side of his lips wide open. This inmate, who's not mentally challenged, was beat up by a mentally ill person having an episode. This fellow cut his head because of the voices he heard. You can see that's a nasty gash behind his right ear, trying to get the voices out of his head. This person does not belong in a jail. He belongs in a psychiatric facility. And even if we get to build the pod, we will not take the place of a psychiatric facility, but we'll do the best we can. This fellow bit a hole in his hand, for whatever reason. This guy thought there was a computer chip in his head, and he needed to get it out. That's a pretty nasty cut, obviously needing us medical attention. This fellow just cut his wrist. I mean, I say just. This one is gruesome. He sewed his mouth shut so that we would not be able to do life-saving measures if he was to attempt suicide. Inmate was not on suicide watch. We had no idea. But you can see what he's done. He's taken those metal. Where did he get that from? You told me. He took the lighting apart and clipped his lips together so we couldn't save his life. He ultimately killed himself in another correction facility. All right. Play a quick video. Manly ill person. That's the best we could do for him. He was in segregated housing, kept him away from everybody. And he figures out some way to start a fire. That fire's coming from inside his cell. It caused a smoke damage and was very disruptive. Clearly, clearly out of his. This is a mentally ill person who charged past a nurse who was giving her meds, I think. Now she's in the open and nothing but trouble is about to happen. They're going to do the best they can with her. This place is not set up for this. Look at those. Look at the hard cracks on the corners of the walls. All that metal. See if she's beating her head on the wall. This woman needs to be in a special unit with rubber on the wall so we can protect her from getting hurt. They're doing the best they can, but all right. This one is pretty nasty. Can you, before you start, point the mouse to the offender so they'll see it coming. So leave the man with the basketball. And then I believe it's this gentleman right here. So keep your eye on this gentleman. Yeah, just watch the guy she just shows. Right here. Mind his own business. Boom. He's completely out. We cut the video short. They show him, get him out of the way so they can keep playing and put him up against the wall. Which one was the mentally ill one? The one who did the punching? Yes. The puncher? Mentally ill. Should not have been in there. And this one shows the distinct, the present danger to our deputies. He comes, this guy comes out fighting. Those are two big corrections, guys. But this is the danger to our people. They can go over that rail. And our personnel are hurt all the time. This goes on day in and day in. These are not anomalies. I could show you films. The deputy ended up getting stitches. And the inmate did verbalize that he was trying to throw him over the railing. And we have deputies that are not quite that large. We could have been in trouble if two of our, you know, point out before we start. The gentleman's sitting right here. His target is on the gentleman that is on the phone. And he slices his neck with some sort of a weapon. He's mentally ill. No idea it's coming. And this gentleman right here. These people should never have been together. Fortunately, he didn't kill him. I think, what, do we have one more? Sheriff, while you have that video, if you could just show the boats you were talking about, those gray things that look like shelving units, that's the beds, correct? These are the beds, yes. Inside the general area where everyone is, you know, normally it's those rooms up above or those cells up above. Some people are sleeping on those right in the open with everyone else. And there's also, like the sheriff was talking about, the boats that actually go on the floor, too, to keep them the six inches above the ground. We utilize those as well. And then the last picture. This is what the Dallas County Jail has a mental health unit. Look at a different feel. This is really the most important. Everything is softer. The curves on the walls. That is, when you look at that, you don't think you're looking at a correctional facility. It looks like a mental health facility. That's what we want right there. Look at the lighting. It's much more subdued. The paint on the walls is different. That would be my goal, where we could get these people out of the general population. Was that the last one? Commissioners, I want to be very sensitive of your time. I'll stop if there's a question I can answer. I'm glad to. All I wanted to do today was to share with you this challenge that we have and maybe all of us together. I know Channel 12 picked it up last night, started on the agenda. If we don't do anything more than begin a discussion, I know this is extremely expensive. I never come in here asking for $5, but I owe it to the community. I owe it to you, and I owe it to the men and women in the jail and then my correctional deputies to share with you what we're seeing. Thank you, Sheriff. I appreciate it, and I know that some people were wincing at the photographs, but I think it was important and appropriate that you showed them because I think most people that are just, look, that's your goal, that people live in our community and not worry about these things on a daily basis. But they are happening on a daily basis, and for you to show them, the five of us were invited by you and your staff, and I appreciate the tour. You know, you think you understand what a jail situation might be like because you've seen it on television, even if it's real jails that you see on television. Until you walk through that facility and the clank of that door, even though you know you're not staying, it is shocking. And then when I saw the pictures and was there in the control area watching down, there is, in my own mind, you know, dozens of ways that that could turn out terrible every minute. You could just be in for an offense, and you're in that room, that guy that was on the phone. We have no idea why he was there, and, you know, so you could be just a victim of a violent crime in there when you were in for something else, as well as the fact that our staff, your staff that's there, God forbid that corrections officer was thrown over the railing. I don't know if you live from that, you know, diving off the top there, getting thrown onto the concrete below. Then it'll be a story in the newspaper, and everyone will look at you all and us to say, how did you allow that to happen? So for you to come forward and share this urgent alert with us, and I get that it's expensive. It was probably expensive five years ago. It's more expensive now. It'll be more expensive five years from now. It's not a situation that people would want to necessarily pay for. I know you don't have a specific number, but I'm sure you have some idea. So if you could share with our residents, ballpark, what are we talking about to do this? Chairman, I'm afraid to even do that because with today's construction costs, I can tell you I've been in close communication with our state rep, District 86, and he's promised me that he will try to get funding from the state. So if the budget stayed good in Tallahassee, we may be in the best position we're ever going to be, especially if they will match us. Right. Understanding that the money would come from a variety of sources, but we're talking tens of millions of dollars. Did you have a ballpark, Captain Hunt? I believe, well, that was in 2006, probably like 30. Yeah, we're just tens of millions. Okay. So it's not like a $5 million fix. Oh, no. People are like, oh, we're going to struggle to find $5 million. This is millions and millions and millions. Right. The problem we have is we have to build it to jail standards so it has to be concrete and reinforced and, you know. Well, we would want you to. So I just think that we already are aware, our staff is aware, that this is something that is going to be discussed, not just a conversation because that's terrific, but it doesn't really accomplish much. It doesn't help your staff if it's just a conversation without a result. So I think it's important that our public starts to become familiar with the fact that this is in the near horizon. You do have the space on the facility yard, correct? So it's a process that you're not just bringing this up for the first time today. We have several lights, and we'll just start left to right. We'll start with you, Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Chair, thank you. And your staff, thank you. And thanks for the tour, sort of. It's my second time in there. I just don't want to ever go back there again. So this Dallas facility, if that is the model that you're looking of some shape, form, and fashion, do you have, like, capacity-wise, how big was the facility? Any thoughts on what this thing is that we're looking at? We were just kind of looking. Lean in on the mic a little bit. I'm sorry. We were actually just looking at different types of facilities. There's different types of mental health facilities with different construction. We weren't really – this was appealing to the eye, and it's – like the sheriff says, it was very non-correctional. When you look at it, it doesn't really look like a correctional facility. As far as the capacity goes, I think it all depends on what the numbers are as we move forward. Okay. I'm just curious. It would appear that there's a huge gamut of choice where you can go with this thing. And so hopefully we can work with you, our staff can work with you, and understand what that looks like. And is it for 150 inmates? Is it for 50 inmates? I mean, that's sort of – We're looking more towards maybe 300, actually. In the mental health facility? Yes, because it will be six zones. So you have the step-down program, and then you'll have the veterans and then the lockdown. So we're looking around maybe 300. Remember, it's like water. It will seek its own level. If we can divert enough people into that, then we don't have to turn around and try to expand the rest of the jail. And I've also already begun conversations with engineering firms that do nothing but design mental health facilities for jails. So we've started moving kind of philosophically towards a goal. So hopefully during budget we will have a better framework of what that looks like maybe so that we can at least start having that conversation during budget. Because clearly if it's in the – it will be in the tens of millions category. It's not something that we will just have sitting in a pocket somewhere of cash. So we'll have to figure that out. And if the state can help us, that will be great. On a much lighter note than this entire presentation, congratulations, and what an honor for the facility and the naming of Place of Hope. Thank you. With you and your family, that was really a very special event, and it was very fitting but also a really nice, well-done event. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Hetherington. Thank you for being here to educate our public today. And I, too, was able to take the tour. It's not a place I would like to find myself in again. But kind of touching on what Commissioner Smith talked about with capacity, the slide that you showed in 2017, you're looking at, you know, 87 cases or so. And then 2020-21 went up to 172. It seems like if that trend were to maintain itself, then, you know, you've got kind of a challenge in forecasting how big of a facility do you want to build in order to, again, if that trend continues, you're going to, you know, be full before you know it if you build that today or even next year's numbers. Commissioner, not to get too far into the world of philosophy and metaphysics, if we don't do something as a community to bend that curve, we're all in trouble. This cannot continue. So whatever's not right in a society that's producing these numbers, wherever it is, I'm not preaching, whatever it is, that's the real issue. Housing these people that are broken is putting a Band-Aid on metastasized cancer. As a society, we've got to make some course correction. This is not the answer. I'd like to see a whole other presentation on what, you know, what the professionals feel that are kind of impacting these trends, because that's a significant number from 2017 to 2021. Thank you. Scary number. Well, the interesting thing is, is immediately following this presentation, we are going to have some bright news about some successes that are happening in our community with our mental health court presentation, which will immediately follow this one. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, Sheriff, I certainly understand the need for this facility, and I certainly support you. However, I don't think that that's my decision to make. I think it's the decision of your funders to make, and I think you need to make that case to your appropriators. I think you need to make that case to the taxpayers. Fortunately, we have an election coming up, and there is a compelling need. I think I'm confident that you can make that compelling need known and get support for this facility, and I think that that's what you need to do is you need to reach out to the public and ask them to fund this facility. I agree with you 100 percent, Commissioner, and we're 100 percent in step with that, and I'll do everything I can, whether it's town halls, Facebook, any kind of meeting. We talk about it when we go out now. If we go out to HOAs, I talk about it. People will always ask me, what's your number one problem? They always think I'm going to say car burglaries. No, the number one problem is mental health. You can do it. I'm absolutely confident that you can get lots of support for building this facility. It's going to cost, between capital and operational expenses, it's going to cost $100 million. We can't make that decision. I can't. No, I get it, Commissioner, that the funding is the ultimate challenge. I know that. And you have a terrific relationship with our state representative, but you just said that every county has the same need. The state can't afford to build a mental health facility in every county. No, but our pitch is going to be this will be a pilot. The other facilities that we saw here in Florida are just they've kind of cleaned out one area and done something with it. We're intending to build a ground-up, revolutionary-style, humane facility for people in need. So I'm hoping that will be the call that will get Tallahassee's acquiescence. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins. Just because everybody else has already said something and I haven't. The one challenge you have in my frame of mind is I had no idea of the scope of what we're talking about until I physically went inside that facility. So everybody in the room that's in uniform and the rest of us up here that actually put eyes on it, experienced, smelled it, it's completely different than somebody on the street. So I would encourage, and I agree with Commissioner Hurd, is reaching out to the public, but somehow coming up with a, I don't know, a video or something to immerse them in the experience, right? I just, it was, you know, and I really appreciate you guys spending time with Colleen and I doing that. But it was really a, and I can't stress this enough, a huge eye-opening experience from somebody that's never stepped foot inside that facility to what I saw. It was an awe moment. So people aren't going to appreciate it as much as what somebody that's actually stepped foot in it and taken a tour of it, right? So somehow doing something like that would be. Well, what we deal with Commissioner all the time is out of sight, out of mind. You can drive by 800 Monterey Road, see the barbed wire fence, and know there's a jail in there. You have no idea what's going on. And I understand that, and I appreciate that. And just the less people that know what goes on in there, the better. That means they haven't been inside, and they haven't been in trouble. But I will do my best to what Commissioner Hurd said. We'll put together a presentation, maybe, and I just got an idea of listening to you, maybe we'll start bringing community leaders, chambers of commerce presidents, HOA presidents. You know, we'll do short little walkabouts. We have to be careful with security. They're not in a zoo. You know, we don't like to put them on display. This is where they live. And I never believe that a jail should be a place for punishment. I think a jail is a place where you transition from being an innocent person to being found guilty and being sentenced and going to DOC or being released back into the community. So we feed them as good as we can. We give them all the rights they can. We don't torment our prisoners. And for those that may want to run to my right and think, no, you should be mean to them so they don't come back, go try it for a while. Go be mean to these people and see what happens. Commissioner Smith? You know, Commissioner Jenkins brings up a really good idea. And then with what you just said, I guess there's a fine line you walk between how much you show, how much you don't show or can show. But even for the legislature, what might be really helpful is to put together like a walkthrough video to what you can show. I mean, in other words, the second you walk in and the first thing you hear is the really loud shutting of a very heavy door, you know. And I think if there was a 30-second, 3-minute version of a video of what actually is involved, then when we go to legislators, you go to legislators, and we're asking for something, it's something you can show. You can't show that. You can show things in the sand like that. That's very impactful. You cannot show what you just showed on a still photo and really get the knowledge of what it feels like to be in that place, which is not a good feeling. And so that way maybe you don't have to bring the HOA folks there. You can take it to them like you did to us. But you can expand that a little bit in a well-done sort of a documentary of, you know, the day and a life, life and a day of a deputy in the jail. So this is a great idea, and we have a professional videographer who we can engage. All these are great ideas, and we're going to do a little bit of all of them. Thank you. To wrap it up, I would tell you that I agree with what my colleagues said, and there is something to be said for the, you know, the impact of having it be there. But I think most residents are tuned in enough to understand it's a challenging place. And for us, I, you know, having been there, my first priority is to protect your staff from a catastrophic injury or fatality. The second is to protect the, quote-unquote, innocent, what do you call them, inmates? Innocent inmates from violent inmates. And then work our way through the mental health issue. You can open any newspaper in any city and always hear about someone's mental health through someone on the subway tracks. Or there was a video that's going around this morning on all the news of a woman that lost her mind in a park and started attacking innocent victims, a woman with a baby. So that's all happening. If you need the money to build this facility, it's our responsibility to get it for you. Now, if you're able to go out and do a community engagement, terrific. But the residents elected you for your expertise in protecting them, and they elected us to sort of oversee the purse strings. So I don't mind you doing all of that. But, you know, at the end of the day, we're going to do it, not just because we're friends with you and you made a compelling argument this morning, because we all understand, not that that's not true, but we all understand that you don't have to really educate the population on that this is a crisis. And what you're dealing with is the tip of the spear of that crisis. So we appreciate you very much. You get the final word, sir. Thank you for your time, Commissioner. I'd just like to take one second and thank your new county administrator, Don Donaldson, who's been a real gentleman to work with. We've enjoyed him. It was a tough act to follow, Chair and Crystal, but we love him and we thank you for letting him work with us. Terrific. So we'll let him stay. Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you to your team that you brought. Ladies and gentlemen, what I'd like to do is we take about a 10-minute break for our closed captioning people that are typing everything we say, and when we come back at 1045, we will take a Martin County Mental Health Court presentation. It'll give you another sort of aspect of what this issue means to our community. Thank you very much. We'll be back at 1045. I hit the gavel in honor of our esteemed guest this morning, the Honorable Judge Jennifer Waters, who will lead us off in our next agenda item, which is, we're only one hour late on the preset. I apologize, Your Honor. Preset RNP number two, Martin County Mental Health Court presentation, and, Your Honor, you are recognized. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Good morning to all the commissioners, and I want to thank you all for the opportunity to be here today to present to you. I think all of you know, but just to introduce myself, my name is Judge Jennifer Waters. I am a Martin County Court judge, and I run our mental health court program. I have a lot of people here in support of this program, and everybody who's here in support of this program, can you guys stand up for me so that our commissioners see? I want to let members of our team actually introduce themselves. My name is Katie Alonzo. I am an attorney with the Public Defender's Office. Thank you. My name is Yuri Parag. I am the mental health court coordinator for the county. And we have a great number of people who are here supporting us today. We couldn't make this work without our partnerships with law enforcement and the community. So real quickly, and I don't want to take too much time, but real quickly I want to recognize the people who are here. Law enforcement support, we have Sergeant Andrew Watson and Captain Josh Kloster who are here. Come out for me. I have members of probation here, Lisa Nebling and Cola Gibson. Thank you for being here. I was supposed to have a representative from Project Lift here. They made the awesome green shirts. I don't know if anybody made it because Bob Zacchio was out of town, but they made the excellent green shirts that you see people wearing here, so I wanted to give them credit for that. They're my next-door neighbors in my regular job. I will tell them that they got recognized. Thank you. I have representatives here from Coral Shores, including the CEO, Stephen Quintine. Stephen, will you stand up for me real quick? And then I have a bunch of people here from Health and Human Services, including Michelle Miller, who is the Director of Health and Human Services, and Joanna Green, who is the Human Services Administrator. And I know other people were walking in as I was trying to make sure I got everybody. So I have- We're familiar with them. Yeah, I didn't get everybody. I'm really sorry. Elisa Snyder, stand up for me, too. Elisa Snyder is the jail-licensed mental health counselor. So when Sheriff Snyder did his presentation, Elisa is the person who is working one-on-one every day with the individuals who were housed in the jail who need mental health treatment and medication. So thank you for being here. And for anybody that I forgot, I'm really sorry. I apologize. I'm very glad to follow Sheriff Snyder after his presentation. It was an excellent segue for me because now I get to talk to you guys about some happy news and some positive experiences and how great mental health court is in bringing people back into the community and being stable. And on that note, Thursday morning, we have a mental health court graduation. We do them quarterly. If you guys are available, we would love to have you join us. Our court starts at 1030. We recognize our graduates, and we'd love to have you there. Okay. And you can zoom in. And you can zoom in. Yes. Okay. Excellent. All right. I'm going to start with a short video that just gives you a quick overview of what our mental health court program is. We started mental health court in 2007 in Martin County. And the reason is because when people get arrested, they go to traditional court. But with people with mental illness, that really is not appropriate all the time. And the objective was to take people with mental illness, with diagnoses, out of traditional court system and put them in mental health court. When someone comes in, when we get referred a case, we have a case manager who does an assessment, and she does a whole needs assessment. Then she makes recommendations. They will have to come to court. The judge meets within a staffing situation before court, and we all give our input as to what's happening with each client. Then we go on the record, and the clients come in, and the clients come up and talk to the judge. We have people on the A-team, which means they're doing really super well, and they get incentives and accolades. And if someone's not doing so well, if there's been issues, then she talks about those too, and then there can be sanctions. So why are we doing this, and does it do any good? We've been researching statistics and trying to really make sure that our program is successful, and it is doing what it's supposed to do. And our main goal is not only stability for the client, mental health stability for the client, but also community safety because that is also a really big factor. And I want to thank your IT and Martin County TV because they put that together, and it's been airing on Martin County Television in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, which was in May. So first I want to give you some basic Florida facts surrounding mental illness in the state of Florida. Unfortunately, we are last in state funding for mental health services. We are third highest in the nation for people in custody. A quarter of those people at least are mentally ill. You heard Sheriff Snyder say that at one point he had 31% of his inmate population taking psychotropic medications. So generally we say a quarter, but that number is often higher. We have 176,000 Florida citizens currently incarcerated on a general basis. And one in four of those people have some kind of mental illness. It costs about $140 a day to house a mentally ill individual at the jail versus on average about $80 to house somebody without mental illness. So you can see that there's a huge cost associated with that, and I think that Sheriff Snyder's presentation really put that in perspective for you all. So why mental health court and what does it do? When a person in the community is not stable, law enforcement often gets called, which is what Sheriff Snyder was walking you through. And people generally either get arrested or they get hospitalized and Baker acted. When an offender is arrested, they're generally put in traditional criminal justice court, where the purpose is implementation of punishment and establishment of guilt. The traditional criminal justice system does not work for mentally ill individuals. It's not equipped or designed to help the mentally ill to receive treatment and to achieve a long-term period of stability, which is what our goal is. We knew we had to do more to help this type of offender, not only for them but for the safety of the community. So can I just say, I think that Sheriff Snyder really kind of put an exclamation point on this, right, when he told us about his neighbor, and that person is clearly mentally ill. The parents are probably not seeking punishment. So the question is, what happens to that person? And they may have to go to the state hospital and stuff like that, but I think it's clear to everyone that the criminal justice system, the traditional criminal justice system, is just not appropriate for everyone. You know, there's a lot of mentally ill people. We saw some of them at the jail. And, by the way, the videos we saw in the jail, I think were all in general population. So we have Ms. Elisa here who works in the mental health section, and I'm sure she has much more significant stories that she could tell. So anyway, I just wanted to kind of link that. So after years of meetings between the judiciary, the state attorney's office, the public defender's office, local mental health agencies, and law enforcement, mental health courts in our circuit were born. Martin County saw its first mental health court client October 31st, 2008, and we've been in existence since that time. And I'm really proud to be the mental health court judge. I've been doing it for about three years, and I really, really enjoy it. So I think you saw a little bit about this in Katie's presentation on MCTV. But in mental health court, we place our defendants on a specialized docket, and we remove them from a traditional criminal docket. They're monitored closely through weekly court appearances. They're drug tested on a routine basis, and it can be as frequently as daily, depending on the circumstances. And we ensure that our participants are getting the treatment that they need, including treatment from a psychiatrist, as well as mental health and substance abuse counseling, if it's appropriate. It wasn't long, though, before we realized that a lot of our clients, it was difficult for them to access services in our community. So we enhanced the Martin County mental health court team, and now we have a really excellent program that I'm really proud of. We have a case manager, and that's Yuri, and she's here today. We have a peer, and he's here today. Case manager. There's our peer, Jennifer. We have a psychiatrist and a nurse practitioner that work with us and see our clients on a weekly basis so that they can receive medication quickly, consistently, and they're seen on a consistent basis. So if they need a medication change, it happens immediately. It doesn't take months and months and months to get in with a psychiatrist. I can just say, too, I work in all of our circuit-wide mental health courts, and Martin County is the only court that has that, which is huge because, as you know, as you can imagine, people really struggle with getting stabilized, and if they don't have that quick doctor appointment, it's impossible. And so we have waits in some of the other counties of six weeks even. Martin County, they see them almost immediately. So that's a really, really big thing that we are able to do. Which is really helpful because if we have somebody who's been in jail and incarcerated, we can get them out of jail and immediately have them see a doctor and get on the right medications starting from day one. So they're not out in the community for a period of six weeks without the appropriate medications that they need. We also have, and this is really critical, we have developed, or Yuri really helped develop, a transitional home specially for our mental health court clients, which is key because stable housing is the bedrock to ensure stability. And I want to introduce Donnie Selby, who's here, and he runs the transitional group home for our mental health court clients. And I want to thank him for being here. We also have therapists that work with our clients, both providing therapeutic services for mental illness and substance use disorder. Statistically, 75 to 80 percent, is that right? 75 to 80 percent of individuals with a mental illness have co-occurring substance use disorder issues. So generally, we need to have therapists that can provide both of those services for our clients. And that's 75 percent of the people in our court. I don't know in the general population, but in our court, those are the people. So this is basically what we do. We go to court, our individuals go to court weekly, they're assigned a case manager, they receive the counseling that they need, they get medication management, and they live in transitional or group housing if appropriate. Some also live in assisted living facilities if that's appropriate for them. So our clients, our participants, get incentives for positive behaviors. If they're doing things well, we do things for them. We have some clients who they don't want to have to miss work. And being employed is critical in our program. If our clients are employable, we want them to be employed full-time by the time they graduate from our program. They also are required to have stable housing. They're also required to have a consistent support network. So when they graduate from mental health court and there's no longer court supervision, we know that they have the tools to reach out to somebody if they're going through a difficult period of time. And we also know that they can be self-supporting and positive members of the community. So some of the things that we do for people who are doing well, we let them appear on Zoom so they don't have to miss work. We reduce the number of their court appearances. We give them applause. For a while, we were picking client of the docket, and we do other things to encourage really good behavior. We also have enforcement power, which is important in a court situation. In the event that people are not acting appropriately or doing things that are violations of our rules, they can serve jail time or do community service hours or they do essays or other things that are narrowly tailored to their specific situation and whatever the issue is. We had one client one time that we had to do a research paper on the effects of drug use for somebody who wanted to get a nursing license so that that person understood this is going to impact what your dream is. And so we made them do all the research, and we made them do research on brain chemistry and the effects of drugs on brain chemistry. And it was a really important project for them. And as the assistant public defender, I feel compelled to say that we really try not to use jail time. We know that it's expensive. We know that it causes trauma. We've all been there. We've seen the videos. It's not usually a good situation for our clients. That being said, you know, sometimes community safety overrides that, and sometimes, you know, a quick stint is necessary, but we really do try to avoid that. So the keys to success are we identify issues and needs of the particular defendants that we're dealing with. Again, as you've heard, it's a therapeutic and not punitive setting. The goal is not to punish. The goal is to get help. We have ongoing regular monitoring and status conferences to prevent problems, and if we find out that there is a problem, we try and fix it immediately and address the issue right away. And it works. And we have two people here today who are going to tell you their own personal stories of how it has worked, and I'm really proud that they're here, and I'm really proud that they're going to tell you their own personal stories. And statistically, we know that it works. Generally, the rate of reoffending individuals who have gone through the Florida Department of Corrections is about 58%. People with a mental illness reoffend about 51% of the time, and it's even higher if you have serious mental illness. And probably none of this comes as a surprise to you. But individuals who have successfully completed our mental health court program, the recidivism rate goes down to 12%. And some stats have that even lower. So we're really, really, really proud of that. We try and help people so that they can come out and be productive members of society, and they're not going through the hamster wheel of reoffending. From 2019 to 2021, we have saved jailbed space dollars in excess of $180,000. We're also really proud of that number. And then I just wanted to give you some quick statistics about the 19th Circuit in Martin County, and then I'm going to let you hear personal stories. Martin County, we've had 524 individuals. 265 people have graduated. Right now, we have 96 active clients. And the people in mental health court come from both misdemeanor court and felony court. We have people who are conditions of probation, which is why it's really great to have our probation officers here. We really do work as a team. And we have 16 people who have been found incompetent or insane. In our mental health court, the main diagnosis that we see is schizoaffective disorder, followed by bipolar and paranoid schizophrenia. But we have had, we've run the gamut. We've had dementia, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, major depressive disorder, intellectual disabilities, autism, and more. Most of our clients are between the ages of 18 and 34 or over 55. A vast majority are men. And then I told you the statistic before. 75 to 80 percent of our mental health court clients have co-occurring substance use disorder along with their mental health issues. And then I want Max to come on up. Come here, Max. Max is a client of mental health court right now. And Max wrote a song for us that I'd like to share at least a portion of with you all. You want to say something real quick? Yes. Hello, all judges. Morning. Commissioners. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's okay. Commissioners. I thought they were judges. I'm sorry. It's okay. Yes, I am Max Pierre, commissioners. How about I play the song? Yeah, play the song. Okay. Water always tell me never give up. Yeah. Yuri always used to tell me I believe in you. I see the best in you. What you go through. I'm always here for you. So call me anytime. You're always on my mind. I'm trying to see you do good. I'm trying to see you proceed. I'm trying to see you succeed. Me and the support team. We trying to see you make it. To have a better life. So you can make it right. Cause I don't want to give up now. I don't want to give up now. And I don't want to let them down. I don't want to let them down. I don't want to give up now. I don't want to give up now. And I don't want to give up now. So anyways. Wellington. We can get you guys the whole song. I was going to say, that should be your theme music. Whenever you enter a room or something, you start to play that. It's great. And his song got picked up by various mental health court programs throughout the country and have been played in national conferences. Wow. So yeah. We're really proud of Max for that. Thank you very much for your attention. I want to also introduce our two speakers, Daniel Collins and Arthur Strickland. They're going to talk to you a little bit about their personal experience. And again, I'd like to invite you to graduation on Thursday if you'd like to come in person or by Zoom. When you're done, Commissioner Hetherington has a question. Oh, certainly. And thank you all so much. Yes. Thank you. That was a great presentation. I think we had an opportunity to meet with you. So this only, you only qualify for mental health court if you're an adult of 18 ages, 18 or older. Is there a similar program for minors that maybe the schools could adapt to? Currently, we do not in our circuit. We haven't started a juvenile mental health court at all. We did kind of talk about it, and it's one of Yuri's dreams, I think. So we would like to kind of explore that and see. But it's really important to have services in place, and I think that was kind of our problem before. You know, we can't, although Yuri's done a great job, we can't just make up services. You know, we're not treatment providers. So those services have to be out in the community. And when we looked at starting it before, we had some trouble with that. So we are definitely willing to look at it again. There's only one county in Florida, which is Hillsborough County, that has a juvenile mental health grant. They've had a lot of success. Just watching, you know, as my kids have aged up, one just graduated and one will graduate next year. I could definitely see, you know, the need in, you know, minors having this kind of program and how that might reduce, you know, some of the incoming for your program as well. So I would be highly supportive if we could have a program that would adapt to minors, too. So would I. Commissioner Smith. I agree on that. I think there's as much an issue in our younger kids as there is in 18s and ups. I went to a program years ago at Chainsaw Beach High School, and it was really telling how much struggle there is going on there. And it was really eye-opening. Like, there's a huge problem. And I think to the sheriff's comment this morning, I think getting to where the problem is coming from in the first place is as important as all, and not that what you're doing isn't super important, but getting to the root of what's causing so much of it is a huge issue. Max, you have a great future with your writing. Did you write all that? Or is that just out of your... Max, do you want to... I just like to express it. A lot of people saw it. Well, Max, my, my, my, over here, my, my... No, no, no, no, no. No, it's okay. My, our oldest son does rap, and he is a really amazing writer, and he's a great performer and so on. And what you just did, what we just saw, is really amazing. And so follow your dream, because it's a great talent you have. It's not, it's not something that everybody can get up and do. And congratulations, that was really well, really well done. That's great. It's great stuff. Follow your dream, okay? Good job. Thank you. All right. You have a couple of questions? Did you have someone else? Did you? We do? Yes. I don't... Who wants to speak first? Come on. Good morning. Hello. Good morning, everyone. My name is Arthur Strickland. I'm here to share today, to share about my mental health court. Mental health court. I have been a client since September 2021. I came to mental health court from the start of my program. I was very unstable, showing signs of psychosis, had delusional thinking. My diagnosis is bipolar 2, and also the substance use disorder. The team quickly acted and got me the help that they needed. First was hospitalized, next, medicine management, mental health, and then mental health and management, obviously, following the housing. And since I graduated the PHP program, that's the patient's hospitalization program. It's an aftercare, after the hospitalization. I showed signs of improvement, more stable, less anxiety, less psychosis, better sleep, and eating healthier. At this point, early last year, I started understanding how important it is to stay on top of mental illness and manage it by properly taking my meds and having a stable environment with the team's support, improving my life skills, and with self-worth, doing everyday tasks, including service work and volunteer work, helping others that way I can be selfless and not selfish. I also believe that I showed signs of progress, being more grateful. The mental health team recommended me to therapy. Yuri, my case manager, herself found a great therapist for me that I still see, and I still have goals to continue seeing. My medicine is overseen with the help of professionals, doctors, nurse practitioners. My life turned out to be better than my wildest dreams, happy, joyous, and free. I also have learned to master to be calm when needed. I have mastered hobbies, building of a motorbike, and mechanics. Mental health court teaches me time management skills. The team also works with New Horizons. They are still helping me and still improving me with my progress. There are so many things to be available to all types of people with mental health issues. Programs that teach and show others how to work in a program called Project Lift. I am thankful to see others turn their lives around and get well from this program. There is also special needs housing, transportation. The team helps other moves from current living into independent housing development. When I mention current living, my experience with the housing recommendation is halfway house program called Dove's Nest. Owner Hugh Dove runs a great program. I started a mental health house that Donald Selby manages, and I was a resident there for 15 months. There, I was followed the rules and learned to listen and do as told by my peers with compliance. Now I'm at a regular halfway house at Dove's Nest. It's taught me how to better my thinking scales, change of my old behaviors, and accountability. I would like to talk one more thing today on the topic of mental health. There are so many people that have mental health issues today around us anywhere that don't even know that they have them, and others don't have the means to get them the help they need. I hope that these people find out and get the help they need. Mental health court is one of the best programs for people who struggle with mental health problems. Others do have ways to get help, and they can be noncompliant by avoid taking their medicine or avoid seeing a doctor. That's just from my experience. The program taught me that I must continue my mental health management even after I graduate. That's why it is so important that people in need of this program learn about this process and get them the help they need. I am very thankful for all y'all's time. May y'all have a great day. Thank you. That was very well done. You know, it's very difficult for people to come and speak at the podium in front of us. You were articulate. You were clear. You did a fantastic job. And then I have Daniel Collins, who's going to speak, and it is nerve-wracking to be up here, by the way. Yeah, I get extremely nervous being up here, but I want to say that I'm truly grateful to be afforded the opportunity to be here today. According to statistics, I should probably be dead or life in prison. Nelson Mandela once said that you never truly know a nation until you've been inside its jails. Don't judge a nation based on how it treats its lowest citizens or its highest citizens, but judge a nation how it treats its lowest citizens. I spent much of my adult life inside and out of these jails. Those pictures that Sheriff Snyder showed, I lived. Hearing Max's song, it really touches my heart. When I was a kid, I never had dreams of being a career criminal. I told my little league coach that one day I wanted to grow up and play professional baseball for the Atlanta Braves. At 19, I signed with the Braves. By the age of 23, I was homeless. By the age of 26, I was in prison. I spent 10 years in prison. I witnessed the stabbings. I joined a gang. I know what it's like. That was never my dreams. As you can see here, we heard earlier many of the testimonies of people about what's going on with the beachfront properties, but I don't see those same amount of people that are here for the mental health, and it shows that not too many people in the community care about us, and our voice needs to be heard. 20-plus years in and out of the system, and I never received help. 19th Judicial Circuit, in and out of these jails, and this is the first time that I got offered mental health court. Sheriff Snyder talked about trajectory. Most people don't start out as convicted felons that are robbing somebody or stabbing somebody. Most of the time, it starts out with something innocuous like disorderly intoxication. That was my story. It progressively got worse because it was never treated. In America, we treat crime, but we don't treat people. It's a humanity issue. I'm so grateful for the team that has been put in place to save my life. People have no idea what's going on inside my head, the things that I've experienced, and to be able to have somebody that truly cares. An entire team of people, we have peer specialists, we have case managers, we have a judge who cares. First time I'm in front of a judge that actually cared. It's nerve-wracking being up here at a podium because I spent so many times in front of judges, and it was never good. We're not bad people who need to become good. We're sick people who need to become well, and that's treatment. We talk about the increase in mental health numbers. That's a good thing. That means more people are getting help. If we got higher numbers in mental health court, that means more people are part of a diversion program instead of being in jail where there's absolutely no help, no rehabilitation. We have a punitive system. There's no restoration. Restorative justice restores people to themselves, to their family, and to their communities, and we need more of that. When we saw the officer earlier talk about the Dallas Center and said that, I know this isn't what corrections looks like. No, that is what corrections look like. The programs we have now, the jail we have now, that's not what corrections look like. That's what punishment looks like. The punishment is separation from society. Anything above that is just, it's unnecessary. If you look at Western European nations, you look at Norway, you look at how they treat their inmates. They treat them as human beings with dignity and respect. Most people that end up in those positions, they come from broken families and broken backgrounds. They need love and compassion and empathy no matter how bad it looks. Our responsibility as a society is, once we remove the threat and we apprehend them, is to start mentoring them and guiding them, restoring them, not making fun of them. There's a growing trend amongst Florida sheriffs to make fun and humiliate people on social media that they apprehend. What does that do to keep our community safe? It does nothing. We've got to help these people. And I know sometimes it seems that the behavior is barbaric and some people seem beyond redemption. But if we always operate from that position, then that's what we're always going to get, those same results. We've got to operate from a position of love no matter what. Our job is to elevate people, not to stoop to that level with the way we treat them. So I'm extremely grateful for Yuri. I'm extremely grateful for Judge Waters, Jennifer, Kevin, you guys for this opportunity. I'm glad I made it through it because I have a really hard time speaking in front of people. But we definitely need to do more to help people. And that money for that facility will be great. More money for the mental health program will be great. More resources. And I appreciate you and thank you for your time. Judge, before you continue, I happen to know Mr. Collins. I had an opportunity to meet him at his job in Palm City where he works for a company that is manufacturing shipping containers into affordable housing units. And there was a whole group of us there, some from the business community, some from our staff. And I know you're not the owner there, but you did such a remarkable job that when the group of us left you and we stood in the parking lot to talk about it, we were talking about you. We thought that it was remarkable. I get choked up over it. What you just said is probably one of the best public comments I've ever heard anyone make. So you should never tell people you're not a good public speaker. You're an excellent public speaker. You did more for this program right now than you could even imagine. Congratulations. Good for you. You should speak nationally on what you just said about justice in America. Thank you. And in closing, I just want to thank all of you. And I really want to thank our partners in the community who are here today in support of this program. It gives me such pride to have law enforcement here, Coral Shores here, our trial court administrator's office here. We just have people who really believe in this program, and I'm really grateful that everyone's here. And if you guys have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer questions. Questions from my colleagues. Anyone from the general public looking? Oh, sorry. Judge, so what is the direction? Where do you go next for younger, under 18? If there was a starting point, not that you haven't started, but what is the ask? What is the direction? Where do we go with it? We haven't even opened that door. I can tell you that our juvenile justice system is supposed to have a therapeutic component to it, which incorporates the philosophy of mental health court, which is in part why I think a juvenile mental health court has not taken off. That's not to say that it couldn't in the future, but as of right now, I mean, our juvenile justice system really is designed to incorporate therapy and counseling much like our mental health court program. So the theory is there. But I have to say, with this interest, we will definitely look into what we need to do. Like I said, when we were trying to do it before, we didn't have resources. So it was whatever is already there, and that was lacking. But if we have resources behind us, I think that's a whole different ballgame, and I think that's something that we can really do. If you guys want us to do it, we can do this. I don't want to really call out the thing that we were at at Jensen Beach High School because it's an amazing program that's there. But there were 30 kids or so that got up and did poetry or did rap and did stuff. If you listened to what was being said, there was a lot going on, like a lot. And I looked at the administrators of the school, and I'm like, dear God, folks, I hope you're all listening, like what they're telling you. Because they were, as Max was telling us what he wanted to tell us, they were telling us what was going on. And every single one of them needed help, every single one of them. I mean, it was really tough to listen to. So, Commissioner, one of the things that I've learned from this job that I've been privileged to do is that every one of us are one crisis away from being on the other side of the bench. And I would think that Daniel would agree with that. But it takes one family crisis. And we all, it's humbling, and it's important to keep that in mind. Keep going. Yeah. I think the program and the presentation this morning were perfect. I've had the opportunity to be with you a couple of times on this, but today was really compelling. I like what Commissioner Hetherington and Commissioner Smith said about a juvenile. You had mentioned that there's only one county in Florida, Hillsborough County. I think you get enough support from us up here that we should at least be the second county in Florida for that, as well as the fact that not to divert from your program. But I think if you can have an earlier impact, if you could have this impact that starts at 18 and older, some of the stories that we heard from your excellent speakers, maybe they didn't have that trajectory. Maybe it wouldn't have gone that way. I also am a strong believer that the violence that we see in schools, which is exploding, not just the shootings, but there's tremendous violence of students against educators and school staff, students against each other. Some of that could be corrected in a juvenile mental health court before they become eligible to be in your mental health court as adults. So I'm completely in favor of that. We do have some remarkable organizations. Coral Shores is here. Project Lyft was mentioned. We do have some of those kind of needed. You can't just say, hey, we got this great idea, but we have nowhere to send you. I think in Martin County we're fortunate enough to have a couple of places to send. And if their facilities or programs are not large enough or can't handle any additional, then that's another area that we could potentially come in to help. Bob Zacchio is a visionary. I know. He has done unbelievable work in our community. His operation is next door to where I work. I see it every single day. You also have PAL is my next-door neighbor in Palm City. So we do have the organizations in place to at least have this conversation because we're going to pay up front now or we're going to pay $100 million to help the sheriff and his team build a place to house them. And so this morning between the sheriff, this could not have worked out better, if I do say so myself, in terms of how we've set the agenda for today. I was thinking when he was talking if he was saying things. I saw some of your people sort of bristle at some of the things he was saying. But it's true. He's living it. And then to have you follow up gives it a little more of a hopeful kind of a conclusion for the day. But it's only hopeful if we can only knock some of them down. And the point if even if we could save two or three people, because it's not just the folks that are sitting here. It's their parents, it's their grandparents, it's their siblings, it's their spouses, it's their children. The ripple effect of affecting positively one single person is dozens of people. So congratulations and good for all of you. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you all very much for your time. I wouldn't want to be the next agenda item that has to follow that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Your Honor. Thank you. We have one more presentation, completely changing gears, but probably good to do that, is our conversation on Golf Course Best Management Practices, Department No. 6. Chairman, John Mayle, Martin County Ecosystem Division Manager. I'm going to tee this one up. Oh, that's clever. Let's see how many golf metaphors we can put in. While our presenters are coming forward, this is why I'm sitting here, this is... Why don't you just let a couple of minutes to allow the room to clear and bring our presenters up. I hope your presenters are ready with a rap or a poem or a song or something. Take a swing at it. Oh, good for you. Doug's very funny. It's par for the course for you, Doug. I have a hundred, so be prepared. Okay, first on the tee, Mr. John Mayle. Sir, so in April, the board requested a presentation on the environmental considerations around golf course development and operation. And in order to provide kind of a robust, holistic perspective on this, we have recruited some panelists to provide that presentation. The first one who comes to us from Jacksonville today, or not Jacksonville, Pensacola, all the way from Pensacola, is Dr. Brian Unra, who it didn't take us long to figure out that Dr. Unra is the authority, best management practices for the golf course industry, not only in Florida, but apparently in the United States. He led the effort to get BMPs for golf courses implemented in all 50 states in the country. He's done a lot of traveling to that effect. He helped to establish Florida's best management practices for golf courses, and he is responsible for administering the certification and training program for golf courses in Florida. He's done a lot of legislation that was passed and signed into law just last year. It was House Bill 967, and Dr. Unra is the usher of that, if that's the right nomenclature. And then following him, Mike Davis, who is a golf course designer and former CEO of the United States Golf Association, is going to provide some contextualization of the golf course industry and how design considerations include best management practices and environmental factors, and then batting cleanup. That's not- You mean rounding out the foursome. Rounding out the foursome. Thank you, sir. I don't do golf. Thomas Barrett is coming to us from MacArthur Golf Club as their director of agronomy. He's going to provide some perspective on implementation of best management practices and daily operations and how that can affect water quality for us. So without further ado, Dr. Unra is going to lead off. All right. Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be here, and as was said, that is a tough act to follow. And 11 years ago, my wife and I embraced foster care and started fostering, and our very first foster child we adopted, he turned 11 last week. And my son is in corrections and works that life. And so I'm often saying that, you know, there's really not a lot of eternal significance in growing grass. But I grow people who grow grass. And so my research, as was kind of teed up, was really focused on water quality and water quantity issues. And as was said by John, my work really has been wrapped up in golf course best management practices, green industry best management practices, side production best management practices. And our success here in Florida within that realm of BMPs led my team to be selected nationally to develop the BMP initiative for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. And it was said in a previous presentation this morning, you know, a picture is worth 1,000 words, and we see a picture like this of a golf course that's nestled in a concrete jungle of development, of urban development. And we see that these are functional spaces that do a lot more than just provide for a game. And we think about carbon sequestration and improving soils and providing habitat. Really, that is what the BMP program is designed. And so in 2015, the Golf Course Superintendents Association put out a request for proposals. And my team was awarded that contract. And we spent most of 2016 developing that content in this national platform. And we kind of dub it the TurboTax of BMPs. And our goal was for all 50 states to basically have a manual similar to what we have here in Florida. And Florida's manual is kind of the backbone of the national initiative. I launched that at the 2017 Golf Industry Show here in Orlando. And, again, our goal was for all 50 states to cross that finish line in three short years. And they did. All 50 states now, and you can see from these, are just some of the covers of the manuals that are out there. And, again, a pretty Herculean lift to get 50 states to do something. And these weren't, these are Golf Course Superintendents that sat around the table and took the content that we developed and tailored it to their very specific state. That was phase one of the initiative. Phase two now, which we're in the middle of, is for superintendents like Thomas to log into this portal that we've created and take the content that is in their individual state manual and then to tailor it to their specific facility. So it is quite a tool. And I'll show you a few pictures of it there. In the manual across, really, the country, there are 12 major categories of these best management practices. And I'm just going to touch on a couple of these today because we don't really have time to litigate a 275-page book. But we go up about 50 miles north of here. And we see kind of up in the Indian River Lagoon up above Vero Beach. You can see up there, and I don't have the ability to touch. You see the golf course in the upper left there, and you see this is nitrogen in the water. And you see the picture on the left, picture on the right, on the right. If you notice those two fingers that are sticking up in there, we see water quality is not nearly as impaired as what we see down in and around other areas within the lagoon. And so we know golf courses do a tremendous job of filtering the pollutants. And we know the ability of grasses to function as vegetative filter strips. I mean, it's pretty well documented in the research literature. And we, in agricultural fields, we very intentionally plant these grass filter strips to intercept pollutants that are moving down through there. And the reason that grasses are so effective at that is because of this massive root system that is there. And that is what then captures these nutrients and keeps them from ending up in our waterways. This is kind of looking into the hood, under the hood, so to speak, of this BMP tool. And you can see on the left there, regulatory considerations, site selections, watershed, wetland drainage. And so these are categories. These are sections within this BMP manual. And then we see here the best management practices that our superintendents, our golf course designers use to design, to build, and to maintain these beautiful facilities that we have. And we see that one of the best approaches to stormwater treatment is this treatment train approach. And so we're moving impaired water through an approach that ultimately gets it to no longer be impaired and filtering those pollutants out. And so, as was said in an earlier presentation as well, as I said, you know, that a picture's worth a thousand words. And we see, you know, images such as this on golf courses where the green grass isn't right up to that water's edge. And so BMP is implemented where we have these higher-growing plants, these littoral shelves that are in place to capture these pollutants that are moving across the system. Here, again, we see just, you know, where the game is interwoven into water bodies and natural and built environments as well. Naturalized areas alongside these golf course water bodies, these are pictures from golf courses here in the state of Florida where we've employed these BMPs to be able to address these water quality concerns. More recently, I've been working with the EPA on their Endangered Species Act. And a presenter this morning mentioned, or one of you mentioned, the Endangered Species Act as it relates to the sea turtles. And so we're working through, the EPA is now tasked with really embracing full head on the Endangered Species Act. And so literally two weeks ago, I was in Washington meeting with the EPA. And these 14 categories are their proposed mitigation standards. And 11 of those 14, with the red checks beside them, are things that we do regularly, day in and day out, on a golf course to address water runoff and soil erosion. Again, you can see back into the BMP tool that the contents that there, we talk about water quality monitoring. So pre-development monitoring, so before the facility is ever even built, all the way during that construction process, monitoring water quality, and then post-construction monitoring. Take you over to the other side of the state in Naples. I'm working with a group of superintendents over there, and this is the Gordon River Greenway that is impaired. And if you pull that plane up, you see really a lot of golf courses that are literally next door to each other. And so I'm working with five golf course superintendents over there on a voluntary basis, where they're going in on the north end there at the Country Club of Naples and sampling the water quality there. And then as the water exits the golf course and enters into the next one, all the way down to the yellow pin that you see there, that is the headwaters of that Gordon River Greenway. And so we voluntarily are monitoring the water quality. Now, Collier County heard about this and so have come in, and we've shared some of the data from this voluntary water quality monitoring program and identifying areas where improvements can be made. Back to the fifth interim ecological mitigation dealing with spray drift. These are concerns that are from an Endangered Species Act. And we look at golf courses, and precision application is commonly used when we do golf course management. You notice there's a number of BMPs there. For one, we're not flying aircraft over the golf courses. For two, our booms are really low to the ground, and so the risk of movement, of off-target movement of these pesticides. And then you'll notice that the sprayer that that gentleman is pushing there is hooded, and it's got the curtain on it. And so making sure that those pesticides that are applied are staying exactly where they are supposed to. Big issue within the Endangered Species Act is the impact on pollinators. And we notice there the advisory language dealing with insect pollinators. One of the points there is best management practices for pollinator protection. We actually have an entire chapter within the BMP manual that deals with pollinator protection. And we have in the golf industry now programs that are in place that focus solely on that pollinator habitat. And many of our golf courses now are integrating pollinator habitat, not just butterflies, but other pollinators that aren't quite as pretty looking. But incorporating that type of habitat into these golf courses now is a big part of what we do. Over at the Sanctuary Golf Club on Sanibel, pre-storm, we say that they had a very active program where they're working and sharing with their members and their guests about all the different wildlife habitat that finds itself as residents of the golf course on Sanibel Island. So lots of different species that are there as well. Habitat restoration. Many of our golf courses across the country are actively engaged in restoring habitat that was denuded in development process and bringing back things like the bobwhite quail as well as other species that are endangered. One of the things that's often overlooked for golf courses is the fact that reclaimed water on golf courses, especially in the southeast and the southwest United States, about 78% of all reclaimed water is going into golf course environments. And so they're not just pretty to look at. They're very functionally. They are a spray field that is taking the water that is being generated and returning it back to be recycled back into the system. So it's interesting to me that on the one side, we very intentionally use reclaimed water in a recycling capacity, but oftentimes we'll have folks that tell us that golf courses are polluting. So which is it? Are we claiming the benefits over here of the turfgrass system for returning this reclaimed water back to the environment? Or are we polluting? And so it's an interesting dynamic that often gets put out there. Golf courses frequently use controlled-release nutrient sources, very different than other sectors of agriculture, and part of it is just because of the high value of the industry affords the golf course superintendent the opportunity to use products that have a lot of technology behind them that, of course, have a higher price tag. Back in 2005, the golf course industry started benchmarking where they were with water and nutrients and pesticides. And I am one of the two scientists now working on the third iteration of these golf course environmental profiles, these surveys that, again, benchmark what's happening. And since 2005, the golf industry has reduced its water use by 29.1% nationally. That's a tremendous reduction in the amount of water use. We think about nutrients, 41% reduction in nitrogen, 59% reduction in phosphorus. Of course, nitrogen and phosphorus are those two big ones that we're most concerned about because of environmental impairment. And we see numbers like that. That 59% reduction in phosphorus is particularly important in Florida when we think about some of the world's largest phosphate mines are just north and west of here. So many of our Florida soils are naturally high in phosphorus, and so a lot of education going to reduce these inputs. Why is that important here? Obviously, this is a Basin Management Action Plan map, and we see in Florida we have a lot of BMAPs that deal with impaired water, and we have a lot of golf courses that are in those Basin Management Action Plans. And so that's where we come back with the BMP. We have the guide. We implemented a certification program in 2010, and that certification program was signed by Governor DeSantis into law last year. And so this is the language. It's House Bill 967. I think it's interesting to look down there at the very bottom left corner that Senate passed this bill unanimously, and in the House there was only one negative vote. And basically it memorializes our BMP certification program into state statute, then it affords those who are BMP certified a level of, and I'm cautious with this word, but a level of exemption that then allows the superintendent to utilize their education to be able to manage these assets in a proper way. And so we're pretty excited about this. I literally have trained 132 people in the last 40 days on golf course best management practices all over the state. We met with Governor DeSantis and talked through this, and he was supportive of that. And so with that, I put this picture back up there, and we'll turn the time over to Mike to talk about really the other aspects of that. John, I don't know if we want everybody to go and then pose questions, or how do we want to? I get to decide. Are there questions for the doctor? It was like a brief master class, and I appreciate that very much. One quick question. Are there certifications like Audubon certifications or any kind of certifications that are specific about what needs to be done in order to achieve this certification? Help me understand that question. And so clearly, Audubon and some of those are all voluntary, as is this program. I know. It's completely voluntary. And there are courses that will take those next steps and focus on those different certification programs. But I'm not sure I understand your question. Well, do you know if Audubon certifies any golf courses and says that these are Audubon-certified courses? Yes, absolutely. They are those courses, and they have different levels of those, signature, gold, different levels of certification. And it ultimately comes down to what types of practices are they implementing to get that particular certification. Okay. Thanks. Thank you very much. I have the pleasure of knowing, Mr. Davis, when John Mayle, who admitted he's not much into golf, introduced Mr. Davis and said he was the former CEO of the USGA. He's a golf superstar. My dad is a longtime pro, retired now. But when I told him that I was going to have a meeting with Mike Davis, he's like, not Mike Davis from the USGA. I said, yeah, Mike Davis from the USGA. And he sang your praises for a long, long time. So to have you here, not just this morning, but I know you're working on a project in Martin County, it's an honor to have you. Commissioner Campy, thank you very much. And to all the commissioners, to the staff, thanks for the time. And, by the way, you should tell everybody how many times your father has broken his age in playing golf. He's one of the very few that's done this. He's been breaking his age in golf since he was 63 years old. And when he's 87 years old now and when people say, oh, can he shoot his age, he would be disappointed in that score. And he also has 10 holes in one. He just got his 10th like a couple of months ago. Anyway, so good pedigree. Yeah. I don't play golf. Let me first start out by I am not a scientist like Brian, and I'm not somebody that's an expert on maintaining golf courses like you'll hear from Thomas. You know, as John gave my background, what I have is a long background with the game of golf. I was with the United States Golf Association 32 years. I'm currently doing golf course design work. And you'll hear from us this afternoon. You and I have been involved from the very beginning on the Three Lakes Project, which is off Bridge Road. But what I really wanted to do today was talk big picture about what golf does for the environment and what golf courses also do for the communities. Because there's a lot of things said that aren't necessarily based on fact. I mean, Brian talked a little bit about that. But I think that I share about the United States Golf Association because I think that, listen, it's the organization that runs national championships, like the Men's and Women's U.S. Opens, U.S. Amateurs, Girls, Junior. It even does a new championship for disabled golfers. It governs the game of golf, so it writes the rules, regulates equipment, the handicap system. But I always thought when I was there, the most important thing that the USGA does and has done since 1894 is it really helps golf courses figure out best management practices. And it figures out how golf can be sustainable and good to the environment long term. We spent, well, I said we, the USGA spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this research and education since its founding. It supports universities like the University of Florida. It works very closely with the Golf Course Superintendents Association. And at the end of the day, there are so many wonderful things to find. I mean, you just had Brian show you some stats. But, you know, one of the things in this education, research, development of grasses that use less pesticides and, you know, fertilizers is that what we're trying to do is shrink the maintained golf footprint of golf courses. We're trying to use less water. We're trying to make sure that the water that goes down into groundwater is, in fact, better than it was when it was up top. We're trying to use less inputs like fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, less fuel, be efficient with labor. And, folks, there are so many wins in this regard. I mean, you know, Brian just showed you that stat. Since 2006, we're seeing nutrient usage nationwide down over 40 percent, 40 percent. You're seeing golf courses – now, it's not as big a thing in Florida here where water is abundant. But you get out west of the Mississippi, and you're seeing water usage on golf courses since 2006 down 29 percent. And that's through grasses that use less water. It's through better, you know, technology of really measuring moistures and soils and only giving golf courses and grass water when they actually need it. So there's been so many wins, and, you know, that will continue. But it's – you know, I think the fact that you're asking these questions, knowing how much golf you have in Martin County, but there's a lot of projects on the docket right now, I think this is an important session. It certainly isn't as important as the session we just heard on mental health. I mean, that was a gripping session that we all should be proud of. But I think, nonetheless, this impacts the county, and I think that's what today's about. So let me just start out by saying golf is not perfect. It's not perfect environmentally. It uses inputs. It uses water. It uses energy. It uses fuels. It uses chemicals. But I would submit to you that it's done in a very responsible way. More responsible than, generally speaking, farming's done. Certainly more responsible than homeowners can – listen, there's things, chemicals, that homeowners can use on their lawn, on their landscaping, that golf courses can't begin to use. And really, I think one of the messages here is that these inputs are not inexpensive. So you want to use them in the best way possible to make sure. And, you know, Brian showed you some pictures, but the technology that's been occurring in recent decades is only helping in that regard. I mean, we're using – many chemicals that are applied on golf courses now are done with GPS. So you're not seeing an overspray on one area to make sure that everything gets done. And, listen, that, depending on the study you look at, you can see a 9% to 20% reduction in chemicals used. It's significant. And I think that, listen, that's not only good for the environment, but that – listen, if we're being honest, that's great for golf courses, too. Chemicals are expensive. And I think that the less we use and the more responsible we do it is a very good thing. So from an environmental standpoint, the green space has so many positives. Brian touched on it briefly. But golf courses improve air quality. They take carbon dioxide, and it ultimately, you know, it transfers into oxygen. You'll see golf courses that are near urban settings, oftentimes 7 to 10 degrees cooler than the urban settings themselves. Significant. I think one of the things that was most important to this, you know, commission was how golf courses absorb and ultimately filter the water runoff. And Brian talked about this. But golf courses are designed and they're built to take stormwater and filter it. Whether it goes into streams, lakes, the ocean, or whether it goes down to groundwater, they're designed to do that. And I think that – an important statement – stormwater runoff exiting a golf course is almost always cleaner than stormwater that came into it. That is a fact. That's actually – it's been – there's been all kinds of data that's been researched to that point. And I think that's really important. You should know that golf courses – this notion that we're polluting streams and stuff, that's just not based on fact. I won't say that there aren't accidents from time to time or mishaps. But in general, you're not seeing the way golf courses are designed and built, those chemicals getting into water. It's just – and listen, superintendents with best management practices, they're not applying these things right before a big rain. They're doing it when it's dry, and then they're watering it in slowly so these get in. I mean, it's in everybody's best interest. Golf courses provide hundreds of acres for natural habitat, and they're – as we talked about, pollinating, nesting, foraging habitat is certainly better than you see in residential, commercial, and industrial uses. In terms of golf's value to communities – and I know this isn't environmental, but I think this, as a commissioner, is it something you'd want to know, is that, you know, where is golf right now? Well, first of all, its popularity – we have 41 million golfers in the United States. That's its high watermark. We've never had that many golfers as we've had right now. Golf annually directly has a $102 billion impact in the United States. That's direct. If you take the indirect impact, it's roughly a quarter of a trillion dollars. It's a big industry. People – listen, in addition to that, I will say that there's notions out there that golf is a rich person's sport. It's a white person's sport. It's a unwelcoming sport. It's a sport that's expensive. Folks, the facts just don't back those statements up. I've heard some of those statements even in public hearings here in Martin County. And, you know, from an accessibility standpoint, golf's one of the most diverse sports in the United States. 74% of the roughly 16,000 golf courses are public in nature in terms of an expense. The average cost for an 18-hole round is $38. I mean, that's four hours of entertainment and exercise. You start comparing $38 to other things you spend money on, it's not as expensive as what people think. It's a game of a lifetime, so it's one of the few sports where you can play from a young age until you're aging. It certainly is a great form of socialization. It's a good form of exercise. If you walk 18 holes, you've walked five to six miles. And another interesting thing, it certainly impacts tourism. And I don't know what the facts are here in Florida, but I would guess Florida is probably from a golf tourism standpoint. If it's not number one, it's got to be top three states in the United States. And another interesting thing that I think oftentimes gets missed is what golf does for charity. And this is an interesting stat. In 2002, it was responsible for $4.6 billion of charitable givings. If you take football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, add them all together, it doesn't come up with that number. So it does a lot. And we'll talk a little bit this afternoon about our project. But I think that in closing, I would just say that golf isn't perfect, but you should be welcoming as a county for all it does environmentally and what it does economically and what it does for mankind. So with that, thanks so much for the time today, and I'll turn it over to Thomas. Mr. Barrett, good morning to you for a couple more minutes of morning. Just for folks, why don't you explain where MacArthur, what MacArthur is and where it is. Most people even that have lived here for quite a long time, it's quite the secret. MacArthur's in Hope Sound, Florida, right across from the New Publix. What district is it? We're a 36-hole facility now. We were 18 holes for, you know, until a couple years ago when we got approved for our new project. And I've been there for 15 years. So it's been a long time, and it's a great place to work. And they'll have to fire me if they ever want to get rid of me. That's normally how it works. It is, yeah. I like pitchers, too. So I kind of want to go into how we manage our surfaces at MacArthur. This is a typical picture of a fairway on our golf course. You can see it's not beautiful green. It's not dark, lush grass. You know, it has brown blemishes in it, and that's fine. And Mike Davis and the USGA did a great job of promoting fast and firm playability, and that's what we try to achieve. That's what our members want, which is fortunate for us. You know, with this practice, a lot of the best management practice Dr. Unri was talking about, you know, it goes hand-in-hand with these dry and firm conditions. You know, we don't overwater. We don't overfertilize. All that leads to is poor playability and makes us cut more grass, which the more grass we have to mow, the more wasted money. And, you know, our members, they'd probably fire me if our fairways were soggy and they hit a drive and the ball would just plop in the fairway with the ball mark right beside it. They want the ball to roll. They tell me every day they're not getting any younger, so make them hit 300-yard drives. So this is one way we do it. There's three hot topics, you know, that with the surface management, water being the first, fertilizer and pesticides, and I'm going to touch on all three of these. This is another picture of our second fairway during season. You know, it's brown. You know, there is green. The grass is healthy. It's just drought stress you're seeing, which is fine. You know, if you hit that fairway, if our members hit their ball in that fairway, that ball is going to roll a mile, and that's what they want. We do have to water it at some point. We do this, especially during the cooler months. We do it by hand. We have two to three guys that go around the whole golf course, all the fairways, and by the time Friday rolls around, they've hit everything, and usually that'll get the grass to the weekend, and we'll start all over on Monday. When it heats up, we will have to use the irrigation heads a little more, and, you know, a lot of golf courses don't have the resources to do this, so what they tend to do is before the golfers go out in the morning, they'll just spot treat areas. They'll pop up heads and making sure they're watering just the dry areas and not the wet areas. This is another picture of our 11th fairway. You can see the fairway, you know, has the brown tinge to it. I took this, you know, when I found out I had to do this presentation, I just went around and took pictures. This rough that you see on the right, we take the rough a little further. If our members, if they hit it in the rough, they understand they might not get a perfect lie. You know, it's rough. They hit it off target. It should be unpredictable, and, you know, that just helps us limit all the resources. We don't fertilize the rough as much, and, you know, the water it gets is very sparingly. We use these two moisture meters to measure moisture content in our greens, fairways, to make decisions on when we run water. The one on the left is an everyday use tool that the guys going around in the morning, there's probably three guys that go around to each green and probe areas, and every course has a different number. So say our number is 24, and they probe an area, and it's 18. They know they need to hit that spot. They need to get it back to 24, and then the wet areas, if it's like a 30, they'll leave it alone. They'll do this throughout the whole week, and eventually, when they find themselves watering the whole green, it's time to run the heads. The one on the right is actually pretty cool. It does the same thing, but it has a GPS built into it. So what it's able to do is map all the different moisture levels of the green. So if you do 100 samples on one green, you can see all the different, you know, the wet areas, the dry areas, and we can laminate these pitchers, give them to somebody that's never hand-watered before, and they can kind of get a general idea, all right, this is the areas I need to concentrate on. These red areas are dry. I need to go over there and work on those areas. So it's a great tool. It also measures salinity, salinity index, and soil temperature. We're not the only golf course implementing this fast and firm management strategy. This is a picture of medalists. I didn't go searching far for this picture. I mean, it's on the Martin County Property Appraiser website on their map. Jason does a great job. His members want the same thing. They want these firm, fast, sustainable conditions, and you can see right there. I mean, that's the proof. Jupiter Hills, same thing. Brandon Ritchie, Kyle Swilley, they do a great job here promoting these fast and firm conditions that require less water, less fertilizer, all the things that, you know, we get criticized for. Second topic would be fertilizer, so nutrient management. This is actually a picture of our 18th hole on our new golf course. That's not a dry fairway. That's actually a lean fairway, one that, you know, when we say lean, it's lacking nutrients. It's fine. It's not going to die. What we'll do is we will spray this fairway with just a minute amount of nitrogen, a minute amount of micros, whatever it needs, just to keep this status quo. We don't want it overgreen. We don't want it to grow like crazy. Like I said, that costs us a lot of money. We want to just, you know, a lot of times we're trying actually to prevent grass from growing. It produces better playability that way. Mike mentioned the GPS sprayers in his presentation, and, you know, they are amazing. They came from ag. All of our technology usually starts in ag and then migrates into golf. And what's great about these things is if you're spraying fairways, you map out your fairway, and each nozzle is individually controlled. And as you enter that fairway, it'll cut on as that nozzle crosses into the fairway. So nothing gets in the rough, nothing gets in the green, nothing gets in the water. And another great feature about these sprayers is you can make no spray zones. So if you have environmentally sensitive areas or areas close to lakes that you don't want your guys ever to spray, you basically put that feature on, and no matter what program they're using, they'll never spray those areas. And when they're done, we get a report that's emailed to us. So you can see exactly where they sprayed and the rate and the chemicals. It's a really cool, really cool technology. Tissue testing. We do this in the fall religiously on our greens weekly. And this just gives us a gauge of what we, you know, might put in the green spray or might take out of the green spray. It gives us kind of like a, it's just a tool. We don't live and die by this, but it's a great reference to know what's going on in the plant because it does change throughout the season. And soil testing, we do this two to three times a year. Soil testing, most of the time, just shows a reflection of the water you're using. But it is something you can change during your cultural practices in the summer. So I like to do one in the spring. And right here, it says we're low in phosphorus. So, you know, a good way to apply phosphorus is through organic fertilizers like manures or, you know, feather, any biology materials. And, you know, you don't want to use these organic fertilizers when you're trying to apply nitrogen. But if your phosphorus is low, it's okay. And you can see the reason the phosphorus is low, even though Florida has, you know, usually high levels of phosphorus is, it's a brand new green. Most of the greens are built with imported sand. Integrated pest management. So the biggest take for me with integrated pest management is not, you know, applying pesticides. It's choosing the right plant. This is a picture of the new course. You can see the plants that are in the sand and the non-turf areas. Those plants were harvested on site during the clearing. We took like a, we call it chunking, and it was, you know, taught to us by the architect. And you take a, you take like a skid loader and take a little bit of soil and the plants, and then you plop them on these dunes. And, you know, we'll never apply pesticides to these areas. And our irrigation system, we installed, we installed a certain way where none of these native areas will get water. When you start throwing water in your native areas, you get all the bad stuff. And then what's cool about having that little bit of dirt is they're seeding that dirt. So if we get a big drought, some of these plants will die. But then when we start getting rain again, new plant material will pop through. And we've seen that because we were in a pretty good drought this past spring. And the grass we choose is Celebration Bermuda grass. We love Celebration just because it's a, you know, it's got great disease resistance. It's, you know, as you see in the pictures, it's very drought tolerant. So, and it's also very forgiving for superintendents. If we do make a mistake and kill some grass, it's quick to recover. So, and during the season it ends up, you know, when it gets cooler, it ends up like this tabletop. It's very firm, fast, playing surface that our members, they love. When we do spray a pesticide, timing is everything. We've learned in the past that being preventative is much better than being curative. It seems like when these pests take a hold, they're much harder to kill. And, you know, you end up spraying more pesticides. So we use this software called Playbooks to record all of our pesticide applications, fertilizer applications. And also we, you know, we use the calendar to show, all right, you know, this is where that pest showed up last year. This is what time it showed up. If we get it early, then we'll spray, you know, we'll only have to spray a small area versus a large area. But it's a great forecasting tool. It also shows you, you know, pounds of active ingredient that you've sprayed throughout the year. And each label has a set amount of active ingredient that you're allowed to spray. And this gives you a warning when you're getting close. I've been fortunate enough this year to be part of a new golf course construction project. And it's been an unbelievable journey for us. And, like I said, I've been here for 15 years. And when I got here, this land had cows on it. There was old tomato fields. And to see the transformation of what's there now has been remarkable. This is a picture of the old tomato fields. So you can see it was clear cut back in the 80s, 90s. It ended up just with pepper trees, acacia trees, malaleucas once it was abandoned. So we knew all this had to be clear cut. And we knew we needed some fill. We knew we needed an irrigation pond. So this is what it looks like now. This is our irrigation pond. This is that same shot. We planted almost 4,000 trees, you know, well above the county's requirement on this project. And it's still under – we're still growing it in, especially the native areas. A lot of these dunes will be covered with a ground cover once we're done. But it's an unbelievable golf course that we're very proud of. This is something that was very important for the county. This is a slew that cuts through the two golf courses. This is a big drainage easement for the south part of Martin County. And also, you know, it provides fresh water to the Loxahatchee River. So you can see here there was a road cutting right through the middle of it. And the only thing allowing water through was a culvert, an old concrete culvert, I think, that was installed in 1986 that was probably undersized. And not enough water was getting through this area. And you can see all the vines that were taken over this whole slew, all the pepper trees that we took out. And this is what it looks like now. That's a bridge we installed. And, you know, we actually mitigated for the bridge in another area on the golf course where we created a wetland. But you can see all the vines are gone. Now water can free flow north to south. And this is going to be huge, not only for the county but for our waterways. And that's the last slot I have. And closing, I will say that what I've learned from this project is, like, when you build a golf course in Martin County, their staff and using their requirements, it not only enhances the land but also creates a net positive environment. The staff does a great job of making sure that we're doing the proper BMP practices. They basically follow Brian's book. And you can trust them that when these golf courses are being built, they're being built the right way. And then just to see the site go from an overgrown forest to, you know, a beautiful sanctuary for wildlife. And not to mention, you know, over 30% of the upland was converted to preserve areas. And in the end, we're going to create a nature trail for our members to go through these preserves and just see, you know, how beautiful this land is now. But that's it. That's fantastic, Mr. Barrett. I appreciate that, especially you're our local guy and been at this for a long time. I want to thank the three of you. This was a conversation, as Mr. Davis had said, as golf course projects had started to become more known by the public that they were coming this way. I like the concept of an epicenter of golf. I like the statistics that golf, a lot of people, especially those of us that have grown up in the game, you know, were already writing the obituaries for golf, that golf was completely dead and golf courses were done. We're about, especially for you, Dr. Unruh, first off, coming all over from Pensacola to meet with us today. I really appreciate that. That's remarkable. And, you know, especially with your level of expertise. Martin County, we've always said, and if you fly over and look at Palm Beach and St. Lucie and others, you can see when you're over Martin. And as we try to continue to keep Martin County different, but also balancing out the requirements of people wanting to develop their properties, we have an initiative to, first off, I'll compliment Commissioner Hurd and Commissioner Smith, who have been here for much longer than the rest of us. The county has had remarkable success in taxing itself, turning $1 of Martin County tax dollars into $3 or $4 through grants to purchase into perpetual conservation a tremendous amount of acres in our county that will never be developed, and they've done an excellent job for that. It's much more expensive to do that now. There's a private group that's organizing it. We've had conversation about, once again, asking our residents if they would be willing to tax themselves. All of that being said, that's requiring county employee effort and county resident tax dollars. What you all discussed today is neither of those things. It's private investment by private organizations and individuals to give us that buffer. So when people come to me and say, hey, look, we've got a potential golf course project, how do you feel? I feel good about it because I've always known that this was the life that you guys were living, and a lot of people just have the common misconception that it must just be dumping water and dumping all sorts of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, whatever, and that's just what it is because they didn't know. What I was thinking, as the three of you spoke, is that I will mark down the date of this agenda item, and when people in the future say, well, this is terrible, and this is not how it was, I will reference them back to this agenda item so that they can see. You know, look, you know, other than Mr. Davis, who was very upfront that he's working on a project, you're an expert in your field, and you're a professional, and you live this. This is what people need to know to be educated. We have folks that hate the concept of any development. Hopefully, we have, if not changed their minds, at least given them some cause for, not so much cause for concern. We'll start with you, Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, these, all three presentations were very inspiring. It's wonderful to know that golf courses can be marvelous sustainers, protectors, preservers of the natural environment. And obviously, Mr. Barrett has given us an example of one golf course in our community that's really doing a bang-up job of being a respectful, sustainable facility. My problem is that as we are seeing more and more and more applications for more and more and more private golf courses in Western Martin County, because we have such a critical water quality problem here, is how do we mandate that you'd be good conservators? And it doesn't appear that there's any way to. We have best management practices. Everything is voluntary. So how do we mandate that people be good stewards of the environment? I wish that there was a way. It doesn't look like, as yet, there is a way. There is a certification that you can get in order to mandate best practices. So I'm certain that we're going to continue to receive more applications for more private golf courses in Martin County, and I'm concerned that everyone has the approach that MacArthur is taking. Can I speak to that? Sure, of course. I think one of the things, you know, when a golf course is in that permitting stage, and obviously there's a tremendous amount of regulation that is imposed upon it at that point, on that slide that I presented with House Bill 967, the very last sentence on there speaks to the fact that if a basin management action plan is in place, then golf courses must adhere to those BMPs. And so it is a voluntary certification program that brings with it, that affords superintendents the ability to manage those facilities, but it doesn't just carte blanche exempt them. So if a basin management action plan is in place, then that golf course must comply with those rules and regs, as does anybody that's in that basin management action plan. So it doesn't give them a free pass to do that. Who's the enforcement? The FDEP. So which FDEP has then passed it to the local governments to, you know, implement water quality changes. And so it's a both. So there is regulation, and then there is the just doing the right thing. You know, to add to that, if you look at water usage for golf nationally, it's the usage of water that is the biggest issue for the game moving forward. And now it's not necessarily here in Martin County because there's plenty of water. But, you know, one of the things I think the research, not I think, it does show is that golf courses clean water. And I think that the challenge to the game nationally is just making sure it uses less and less water, particularly as you get out west. I mean, there are situations out west where because some golf courses can afford to irrigate, they irrigate versus, you know, acreage that would have been farming can't afford to irrigate. And that to me is it's getting grasses that use less water. I mean, you've heard both these guys talk about it, that when I started in the game, the grasses weren't near as good as they are right now. And that's not just playing, but that's how many inputs, including water, that's used. So I think that, you know, golf does a very good job cleaning water. It's, you know, its challenge globally is going to be using less water. And that's back to that reducing the footprint and doing all the things, only watering when you actually need to water. Mr. Donaldson? Yes, I was only going to say in response to Commissioner Hurd's question, the county does have on our stormwater regulations, they still have to adhere to our water quality standards, which are stricter than the water management district in our retention requirements. So even if they're not located in a basin management, they still need to comply with our water quality standards, which is a retention of, you know, up to three inches of water or more, depending upon the treatment technology. The other thing is, is that during the review process, we often engage with the applicant and seeing if there are some things they can do that may not be required by the code, but to benefit the community. And MacArthur's been a great example of it. That bridge crossing was not a requirement of our code, but they certainly did that. It helps Queen Santa Gardens and a lot of mud water that was being trapped in that area. So I think we do have some minimum standards that are quite strong, and even though that some of these applications are what you would call straight zoning or by right, oftentimes these applicants have traditionally gone above and beyond based upon folks like John Mayle having knowledge of the area or contribution to the Loxahatchee or wherever their landscape happens to be, we often ask them to add some additional components, which they have. And I just did want to point out that MacArthur's been a great partner in solving some problems for us in this particular part of the county. Commissioner Smith. Gentlemen, thank you. It was interesting, great. For me, I've got all sorts of thoughts about this whole conversation. I think this picture is probably the most telling. The millions of dollars that otherwise wouldn't be spent to restore the habitat that you're looking at is just one of many of the benefits that we see coming from these projects. I just, not to mention, you know, we have a transportation issue out on US-1 that got fixed or is being addressed as a result of some fixes with this golf course. I think the easiest answer probably for the question of who demands or maintains the idea that the quality that is being talked about is done and followed, I'm guessing the membership is probably the hardest litmus test of the entire process. I would imagine that the folks that are members of these courses care very much about what they've invested in and how they've invested and where their dollars go. And I have no doubt, not only from the distance at which the ball travels, but the expense at which it takes to manage and maintain one of these facilities, I doubt that most of the membership take that lightly. I would imagine that they care about every single aspect of everything that happens. I would also imagine that they getting to see a restoration project like this with the little causeway going through the center is probably pretty important to the membership. I just, I can't imagine that they don't see that as an environmental bonus and benefit to the overall complex that they're involved in. And that goes back to Michael and all the talent involved in putting together a course that the work and the effort and the thought process that goes into these things is enormous. And the amount of money that's being spent to get there is enormous. And so people don't tend to invest in something that is doomed to either fail or doomed not to operate well or doomed to be a blight on its community because that brand that they have decided to hook themselves to is a reflection of them. If that reflection fails, it's only on them. Now, yeah, there may be other consequences for all of us in that, but people at this level don't do things at a whim. I mean, this stuff is incredibly well thought. And I just, I really appreciate the photo. The before and after is incredibly telling. We are challenged a lot with the idea that, you know, this is taking up ag land and productive ag land. Well, your first photo shows a very dormant, longstanding, failed ag land, failed piece of agriculture that was even channelized. You could see the ribs running through where the irrigation ditches were. To put this back and to restore what you've done. And then, you know, in Harold's, yes, it's in Harold's district. But to allow the water to do what it should be doing, I think, is incredibly important. And the last piece I would add to this, you know, this really resonated with me when we were doing, when we were starting the Martin County golf course and we were doing the stormwater treatment area that's in back of where the school bus barn is. And when staff got super creative and decided to tap into what otherwise was being treated water that would eventually go to Willoughby Creek, we were tapping into that and feeding it over to the golf course and reusing it on our golf course. And I thought it was interesting, you know, is it environmentally the use of water good or bad? And the answer is, for us at least in Martin County, every time we get into a really bad water year where it's raining too much and the lake's discharging, there's not a soul in Martin County that wants a single drop of water coming out of that canal. Not a single drop. You guys are taking a bunch of it, cleaning it, using it, putting it back into the system better than when you got it, and Martin County didn't spend a dime to do that. It's brilliant. And so kudos. So thank you for coming all this way. Michael, thanks. Appreciate it. And great job down there at MacArthur. Really nice stuff. Commissioner Jenkins, you'll have the last word. Thank you for this. And, again, like Commissioner Campy said, I will definitely be noting the date and time of this agenda item because of my background in horticulture, anything golf course question, I probably get a little more volume of questions than most. So, and believe me, I'm no expert in golf courses. I will say that right up front. But what's happening in Martin County right now with golf courses just goes to, you always heard the whole thing, you know, I'm flying over. Palm Beach County is this big, bright spot, and then we got Martin County. Well, guess what? Golf courses aren't lit at night. Nobody lives on a golf course. It's open. Near it. Near it. Not on it. Not on it. It's wonderful. It's environmentally beneficial as far as I'm concerned. The BMPs may not be a mandate, but who is going to be fiscally responsible to, whether it's a family-owned golf course or a membership-owned golf course, fiscally responsible to their members or whatever by not following BMPs and costing two or three times what true, back in the old days the way things were done. I don't know. I've never heard that statistic. It would be interesting to see what, in 1960 dollars, in the 1960 way of doing business, what it would cost today. And I guarantee you it's a very large multiplier for what it is today, using, you know, hybrid grasses and all the technology with that. So I want to thank you for your presentation. You've done an outstanding job. Thank you so much. And that's the final word. And so with our thanks, please get home safely, and we appreciate it very much. We're going to take our lunch break. It's just about 1230. We will return at 2 o'clock. Thank you so much, everybody. It is June 6th. We are just back from our lunch break, and we are going to pick up our agenda at B&C No. 1, Drug and Alcohol Abuse Awareness Committee appointments. Anybody have their voting sheets that turn in? I turn mine in when I first get here. Fantastic. Nine bus stops. MacArthur Club. You're so mean. Donna Gordon for the record. Donna, welcome. You are recognized. There's two people for the one position for the drug treatment representative, the treatment facility representative, excuse me. And Dr. Athena DuPont received four votes. Move approval of Dr. Alethea DuPont. Second. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd to accept the Dr. Alethea DuPont for our Drug and Alcohol Abuse Awareness Committee. It was seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. I would recommend and encourage Ms. Dawn Havilland to reapply for something else. She had a fantastic resume. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Gordon. Appreciate it. Our next item is public hearing number one, legislative public hearing to consider adoption of a comprehensive plan, text amendment, CPA 22-07, county operations. It'll be presented by a group, but I believe led by Carolyn Grunwald. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Good afternoon. Welcome. If I may, Commissioners, I'd like to do a little introduction. Of yourself first. Yes, of course. Clyde Doolin, for the record, comprehensive planning administrator. The first public hearing that Carolyn's going to go over with you is a legislative public hearing. It's a text amendment to the comprehensive growth management plan. It's been through the local planning agency. It was transmitted off to the state. It's coming back to you for final adoption. There's no ex parte. It's simply a text amendment, and notice has been provided to surrounding property owners. It's different from this next public hearing, which will be a quasi-judicial discussion of the zoning, change to a zoning atlas. With that, thank you very much. Good afternoon. So, this is a site-specific text amendment for county operations. It's a board-initiated text amendment specific to removing this 29.8-acre parcel from a planned unit development requirement. It will still be subject to all of the requirements of that text amendment. I'm sorry, of that policy. Parcel shown here in red on Canter Highway, just south of 96th Street. So, here's the sub-area policy shown on the screen. Letter D is the exception for the 29.8-acre parcel. Staff recommends approval of the sub-area policy change to exclude the parcel from the PUD zoning district and development agreement, and all of the requirements of the sub-area policy will remain applicable to the entire 250-acre parcel identified. This concludes my presentation. Do you have any questions? Any questions for staff? Seeing none, anyone from the public looking to address us on this topic? Also seeing none, comes back to the board. Move to approve. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Jenkins to accept staff's recommendation. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed, that motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Our next agenda item is public hearing quasi-judicial number one, and public hearing to consider an amendment to the Martin County Zoning Atlas to change the zoning district classification for C-173-001, County Operations. It will be, again, presented by Ms. Carolyn Grunwald. Since it's quasi-judicial, I will ask some questions of my colleagues. Commissioner Smith, do you have any ex parte communications? Commissioner Hetherington. I do not. Commissioner Jenkins. I don't believe I do, but if I do, they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Hurd. If any, they've been filed. I have none. Anyone that's going to be offering testimony that's not an attorney, would you please stand to be sworn in? Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. You have to, did you need to submit any kind of return receipts, and if so, were they? Yes, they were just now. Okay. Layla, you got those? The record will show that you, Mr. Doolin, had submitted those receipts. Are there any interveners? No interveners. Is that everything? That's everything. Please present your presentation. Okay. This is regarding county operations rezoning, C173-001. Location of the parcel is shown here on the screen on Cantor Highway, south of 96th Street. It's north of Bridge Road as well. The current zoning on the parcel is light industrial. L-I. L-I. We're seeking general industrial for the parcel, as it would be the best use for the parcel at hand. Development standards shown here on the screen, if you have any questions about those. Staff has concluded that the requested GI is an appropriate zoning district with respect to the application of the goals, objectives, and policies of the comp plan, land development regulations, and county codes. So, we are seeking L-I to G-I. This concludes my presentation. Do you have any questions? Let's find out. Any of my colleagues have any questions? Ms. Elder? I just want to, for the record, Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney. So, this is a county rezoning of property, and since it's more than 10 contiguous acres, we have to have two public hearings. This is the first public hearing to consider the rezoning. We are not asking for the board to adopt the rezoning today. That we're asking the board to move that the board hold a second public hearing on June 20th, 2023, at 9 a.m., or soon after, as may be heard, by a majority plus one vote. That's the statutory requirement to have a public hearing before 5 o'clock at the next meeting. So, that's the motion for today. Thank you. We're seeking. Thank you. Since you are basically both sides of the issue, there's no other representation for this agenda item. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak to us about this agenda item? Seeing none, we have a motion by Commissioner Jenkins, as was stated by our assistant county attorney, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Ms. Grunwald, thank you very much. Thank you, members of the board. Doolin, thank you, sir. Pleasure. Our next item is public hearing quasi-judicial number two. Public hearing to consider adoption of an amendment to the Martin County Zoning Atlas to change the zoning district classification for Barron Landings, LLC, G076-007. It will be presented this afternoon by Ms. Elizabeth Nagel. I want to say Nagel, but Nagel. And it is quasi-judicial, so I will ask my colleagues. Commissioner Hurd, do you have any ex parte communications? If I have any, they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins? I do have some, and they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. Commissioner Smith? They've been filed. I have some, and they've been filed as well. If you are going to make any presentations or offer any testimony, would you please stand to be sworn in? Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Return receipts that are necessary. No proof of mailers were turned in at the LPA. Do you have a copy of your work history and the agenda item? I do. Thank you. Which we did not ask at the last one. It was turned in with the notices. Thank you. Any interveners? No interveners. Good. Okay. Please begin. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Elizabeth Noggle, Principal Planner. We're here today to talk about the request to rezone for Barron Landings, LLC. Request from PUD to GC zoning. Outlined here in blue is the subject parcel. Before you today, the future land use is commercial general. As you can see, this is fairly consistent with the surrounding properties to the west and to the north along this corridor of Cantor Highway, with the commercial zoning abutting some residential uses. To the south, some mix of medium density, commercial office, residential, future land use. Again, outlined in blue is the parcel. This is currently zoned PUDC. It's part of the Gulf World PUD. In 2022, the front portion of the site was rezoned to GC. And this parcel is the remainder of the Gulf World PUD and also from PUD to GC is the application for you. Also included with this application is a request to terminate the existing PUD. So there's two separate documents, the rezoning and a separate resolution to terminate the existing PUD. There are two standard zoning districts that implement general commercial future land use designation, those being CC and GC, community commercial, and general commercial. New PUD zoning is an additional option for applicants, but not part of the request. They are requesting to go to straight zoning GC. The staff report included these development standard tables. And I've included them here to outline the differences between CC and GC, which are the two available standard zoning districts. There are some differences between max building coverage, maximum height, and minimum open space, with the setbacks being exactly the same for the two zoning districts. With the application and throughout the staff report analysis were conditions analyzed to support the GC rather than CC zoning. And some of these included that the site has access directly from widened South Canter Highway, which was recently widened from four to six lanes. The parcel is surrounded by existing development along the South Canter Highway and I-95 interchange. It's about one mile from the interchange. It's an area of established employment centers, commercial plazas, medical centers, school and college facilities, which is consistent with the area and this corridor and the request for general commercial zoning. And as mentioned, the front 4.63 acre portion of the site was rezoned to GC last year. Although the PUD is being terminated, there is an existing valid preserve area management plan that was part of the Gulf World PUD. This was established in the early 90s prior to current regulations for PAMPS. So no legal description was provided. There was just a very general outline bubble on the plan and size and just some text that was on one of the landscape plans. So realizing that this is still an existing valid PAMP, the applicant will have to identify preserve areas on the first final site plan submitted on the overall 26.06 acre site, which is the Gulf World site. So even if the first final site plan comes in on the 4.63 acres, that will have to include an overall boundary plan that identifies preserve areas. Of course, following today's regulations with environmental assessment and full analysis by our staff. And this is my old presentation. So this I need to amend and I did amend and I apologize for that, that this is clarification from the LPA meeting that this is not an amendment, but actually a new PAMP. So this will be a new PAMP that comes in with the with the first application. I apologize because this is not the right presentation and I don't know what happens. Take your time. You're OK. I had a very important slide that was missing. So this is the local planning agency slide. This matter was heard before the LPA on June 1st of last week, and the LPA voted three to one to recommend approval. And with that, the recommended action is that to move that the board receive and file the agenda item and staff report as exhibit one. Move that the board approve the request to terminate the Gulf World PUD and move that the board approve the request to rezone from PUD commercial to general commercial. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Nagel. So, um, applicant like to make a presentation at this time. Before you do, Mr. Raines, any questions for staff? Commissioner Hurd. Yeah. Is this a mandatory, uh, rezoning? It is not a mandatory rezoning, no. Is there currently an application, a development application that's accompanying this? There is not. Are you aware that some years back that the neighborhood, uh, just to the north and the west of this project, uh, came to us with a request to down land use themselves from estate density to rural heritage, and it was approved? Thank you. Is that it? Mm-hmm. Mr. Raines, now it's your turn. Okay. Good afternoon. For the record, Bob Raines, a land use attorney with the Gunster Law Firm. Here on behalf of the applicant, uh, I would like, again, just for the record to reflect, as, uh, Ms. Nagel stated, we did return, uh, turn in our return receipts for the proof of notices to the surrounding property owners at the LPA hearing. Um, again, this is, uh, I'm glad to say that we do agree with the staff recommendation and Ms. Nagel's, uh, uh, report and presentation. Uh, again, this is, this property has an existing land use designation of general commercial, so, and it's been that way since at least 1992, and we're just continuing that. Again, the PUD that's existing on the property now is no longer really valid or appropriate because it was very site-specific for the previous use as a Golf World 76. So that's why we're in here asking for a rezoning. Uh, I'm going to have Mike Houston come up in just a minute. He'll give you a little bit more detail, but previously, a portion of this property was already rezoned to GC recently, and now we're just bringing in the remainder of the balance to bring it in to general commercial also. So, with that, let me ask Mike Houston to come up, make a, uh, quick presentation, and I'll make some closing remarks, and we'll be glad to answer any questions you might have. Uh, before we do, I do have a couple of questions for Mr. Houston. Uh, so first, if you'll introduce yourself. Sure, sir. Michael Houston with HGA Design Studio. And have you been sworn in, sir? I have. And can you identify the document that I'm showing you? I can. That's, uh, my, uh, resume. And that's a current... Or Erica's resume. Oh, I'm sorry. I gave you the wrong one. Yeah. Hold on. I got... See, you got two Houston... That's right. Yeah. Erica will be here shortly. Okay. So let's get the, uh, right one here. So... And let's use the left button. Let's make sure we get the right one. I saw the HG on there and just did that one, so... Yeah, no worries. I hate to see the presentation derailed for lack of a... Right. ...current resume. That's right. I've thrown people out for less. Uh... Deputy? There you go. You might want to escort these two. There you go. How about that one? That is my resume. And is that a current inaccurate resume? It is. Copy of your resume? Yes, sir. Thank you. I'd like to turn that in as applicants exhibit one. I'd like to get a look at that item. If the folks make sure that that's not Ms. Beitler's thing. So with that, Houston, you are almost there. Mr. Chair, members of the board, thank you for letting us come here and talk about this project. We've discussed this project for a long time. We are back with a commercial land use and zoning application. Part of that is because community input we got was to continue with what existed out there today. As you can see, the property is very close to I-95. It's been surrounded and inside the Urban Service District for many years. One of the more creative PUDs based on recreation uses, and that hasn't been in operation now for a year and a half. All public facilities are available. 4.3 acres that Liz talked about in the front is shown here. This is how the pieces kind of have been separated. That is moving forward as a separate final application with commercial uses. So we've been kind of planning these two pieces together, but that one going forward first. Land use designation, proposed zoning. This is the subject site. There is not related to today's hearing. There is a wetland on the property that will be related to the preserve aid management plan that Liz spoke about, and that will be coming in both with the commercial piece in the front as well as whatever subsequent applications are made. So Liz did a very good job on the staff report, and obviously one of the things that you have to do is go through the criteria for a rezoning. The criteria follows the standard, and then the review of the proposed amendment shall consider the following. Whether a proposed rezoning is consistent with all applicable provisions of the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, a key thing. This is, staff's analysis is, that the request of zoning the property is consistent with all applicable provisions of the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. B, whether the proposed zoning is consistent with all LDRs. Granting of the county does not exempt the applicant from the county's land development regulations. One of the confusing things that came up at the LPA last week was this question. We still have to have an application that still needs to meet all the standards of the LDRs. Whether the proposed district is compatible with the character of the existing land uses in the area. Staff's report suggests that it is compatible, and with development patterns in the area that have changed over the years, it is compatible. Whether and to what extent the documented change conditions, there have been substantial changes since 1992. Not just in the widening of the highway, but in the infrastructure that's available, the move of the urban service boundary along the south side of Cove Road, the commercial intensification at the I-95 interchange, et cetera, et cetera. Whether the proposed zoning would result in demands on public facilities. All public facilities are there. And whether the proposed zoning would result in a logical, timely, and ordered development pattern. The subject property and surrounding areas are part of a major transportation corridor, an area established in employment centers, commercial plaza, medical centers, schools, college facilities. The proposed zoning would accommodate development and scale in keeping with the surrounding area. I highlight that because that is a key part of our application. And then lastly, G, consideration of facts presented today. Thank you, and if you have any questions for myself, I'll be available. I just have one quick question, Mr. Houston. In your professional opinion, is the request before the board today consistent with the comprehensive plan and the land development regulations of Martin County? Yes, it is. Thank you. So, commissioners, I think, you know, we, again, we have a staff recommendation of approval. I think we have testimony from Mr. Houston as a planner that this is an appropriate zoning designation. Again, the current land use designation is general commercial. It's been that for quite some time. And we, therefore, respectfully request that you approve our requests for rezoning to general commercial. We'll be glad to answer any questions you might have, myself or Mr. Houston. Thank you very much, Mr. Raines. Questions from my colleagues for the applicants' representatives? Seeing none. Questions or comments from the public? Also seeing none. Come back to you, Commissioner Smith. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith to accept staff's recommendation as presented, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Opposed. The motion carries four to one with Commissioner Hurd dissenting. Thank you very much. Our next agenda item is public hearing quasi-judicial. It's preset for her. Is it 230 preset? For the, um. Is your person here? Yeah. Okay. Um, how long do you figure that'll take? Are you going to make a little announcement presentation? Yes. I'll, I'll, I have an agenda item to present. My vice chair has reminded me that we have a, let me go to it so I can say it exactly the way we're supposed to. For private attorney question. Request for a private attorney client session concerning the case of R. Eric LLC versus Martin County case number 23-14109-CIV, canon departmental number four. We're going to, uh, hear from our county attorney who's going to make a little intro. Yes, Mr. Chair. First, I'm going to, um, just describe that we're, on April 17th of 2023, plaintiff R. Eric, also known as Wags About You Pet Store, filed a federal lawsuit. The case is in the U.S. Southern District Court of Florida before Judge Eileen Cannon. On April 24th, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint. On May 10th, the plaintiff filed a second amended complaint, which is the operative complaint. The lawsuit challenges county ordinance of 1192 regarding pet stores selling dogs pursuant to the 14th amendment due process violations and violations of state statutes, namely Section 823.14, Florida Right to Farm, and claiming the county is preempted under Section 163.3162, Florida Statutes, regarding Farm Operations on Ag Land and Chapter 828, Florida Statutes, Animal Care and Control from Enforcement of the Ordinance. On May 18th, the plaintiff filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop the enforcement date, which is June 30th, 2023, by which the pet stores must stop selling cats, dogs, and rabbits. On May 22nd, 2023, the county filed its motion to dismiss. On May 23rd, the court issued an order directing the parties to be here before her for a preliminary injunction. The hearing was set for June 1st. We are asking that we hold an attorney-client session with the board pursuant to Florida law to discuss the current litigation and strategy. My recommendation is that the board agree to meet with Don Donaldson, County Administrator, Sarah Woods, County Attorney, Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney, Melissa Petrick, Senior Assistant County Attorney, in a private attorney session for approximately one hour or less in accordance with Section 286.011, subparren A, Florida Statute for a strategy session regarding litigation expenditures concerning the case of R. Eric, LLC versus Martin County, case number 2314-109-CIV-Cannon. And with that, I'd ask for a motion for staff recommendation, and then I will take up the script I must read. So moved. Second. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd for staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? I will tell you, those folks that are waiting, I don't see this taking more than a half an hour, if not less. Definitely not an hour. The board of county commissioners will now meet privately in an attorney-client session in accordance with Section 286.011, subparren A, Florida Statutes, in order to provide advice to the county attorney regarding pending litigation to which the county is presently a party before a court or administrative agency, specifically the case of R. Eric, LLC versus Martin County, case number 2314-109-CIV-Cannon. This section is expected to last approximately one hour or less. The people attending the session will be Commissioners Ed Campy, Chairman Doug Smith, Sarah Hurd, Harold Jenkins, and Stacey Hetherington, County Administrator Don Donaldson, Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney, Melissa Petrick, Senior Assistant County Attorney, and myself, Sarah Woods, County Attorney. Thank you. We will be back. Okay, we are back from, we are in the process of our agenda item for attorney-client privilege regarding the case, private, excuse me, private attorney-client session concerning the case of R. Eric, LLC versus Martin County, case number 23-14109-CIV-Cannon, departmental number four. Ms. Woods, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, please announce that the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners is now reopened to the public and that the attorney-client session in the case of R. Eric, LLC versus Martin County, case number 23-141-109-CIV-Cannon is now terminated. I will say that. The case that you just heard is now, our discussion is now terminated. We are back. And then I would now like to ask if the Board would consider a motion to allow the county attorney to consent to a court order granting a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of Ordinance 1181 as amended by Ordinance 1192 and codified under Section 9.87A.19 as to the existing pet stores until the conclusion of case number 23-14109-CIV-Cannon, titled as R. Eric v. Martin County. So moved. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd with the language that was mentioned by Ms. Woods, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Mr. Chair, I would like to ask if Mr. Doolin could come back to bring up the county's, is it the comp plan change? It's the rezoning. The rezoning for the county-owned property. I will allow it. We'd like the Board to reopen the public hearing, please. So moved. Second. Okay. We have a motion to reopen agenda item PHQJ1 by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The matter is reopened. Thank you, members of the Board. I apologize. The Board item incorrectly identifies June 20 as the date for the second public hearing on this rezoning, and the agenda item should reference July 11, 2023, as the second date for the second hearing of this rezoning, and we would ask that you'd make a motion to consider it on that date, July 11. Move the second hearing date to July 11. Before 9 a.m. Or at 9 a.m., before 5 p.m., the motion needs to state. It has to happen before 5. Does the motion maker agree? Yes. Does the seconder agree? Yeah. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd with the language that was presented by Mr. Doolin and Ms. Elders, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? We will hear that for the second time on July 11, 2023. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Woods, anything else from you on that topic? No, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Our next agenda item is public hearing quasi-judicial number three, request abandonment of portions of unopened platted right-of-ways lying within Port Salerno. It will be presented by Mr. Tom Walker. It looks like John Mayle is going to participate as well. Since this is quasi-judicial, let me ask my colleagues. Commissioner Smith, do you have any? I didn't ask yet. Do you have any ex parte communications? If I do, they're followed. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. Commissioner Jenkins? If any, they've been filed. Commissioner Hurd? If any, they've been filed. If any, they've been filed as well. I don't believe I've had any, but if they have, they have. Anyone that's going to be offering any testimony, please stand to be sworn in. Mr. Mayle, are you going to offer any testimony? Stand up, please. Otherwise, why are you sitting there? Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? You may be seated. Do you have a copy of your work history and a copy of the agenda item? I do, along with the affidavit of publication to submit for the record as Exhibit 1. Thank you. Any interveners? I believe not. I'm sorry. I just gave you the wrong one. I'm sorry. With that, please begin your recognized. All right. Thank you. Tom Walker, County Surveyor for the record, and good afternoon, Commissioners. Today, we have a request for petitioners Peter H. and Suzette Grin to consider an abandonment of rights-of-way. The requested abandonment consists of 42,750 square feet of platted rights-of-way, as shown in purple on the location map that's currently on the screen. These platted rights-of-way are not, nor have they ever been open road. Section 139.2 of the Martin County Code of Ordinances requires a privilege fee for abandonment and vacation of county property and roads. However, the board may waive the privilege fee upon a showing of good cause. The petitioner has agreed to donate six parcels described in the attached exhibits B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and B6, totaling 81,752 square feet to be used for the purpose of developing a proposed water quality project for the manatee pocket. These six parcels are outlined in yellow on the map that's currently displayed. The petitioner is requesting the board consider this donation as a showing of good cause, as provided in Section 139.2.D. of the Martin County Code of Ordinances, and to waive the required privilege fee. There are also utilities that are within these unopened rights-of-way described in Exhibit A, and the petitioner has agreed to provide easements for the continued use of those utilities upon completion of the right-of-way abandonment. And staff's recommendation is, one, move that the board receive and file the agenda item summary and all of its attachments for the record as Exhibit 1. Two, move that the board adopt the resolution abandoning portions of unopened, platted rights-of-way lying within Port Salerno, as described in Exhibit A, subject to the following conditions precedent. A, conveyance of land described in Exhibits B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and B6 to Martin County, and B, proper publication of notice of adoption of this resolution. Three, move that the board agree to waive the privilege fee, finding good cause shown by the petitioner through the conveyance of the parcels to Martin County. And four, move that the board authorize the chairman to execute all documents necessary to complete these transactions. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Walker. Questions for Mr. Walker? Is there an applicant representative for this? Yes. Mr. Sawyer, welcome. Tom Sawyer, for the record. Actually, the applicant, it's kind of a ditto thing. Um, we, uh, have requested the abandonments as part of this overall STA project, which is a very, very, uh, good project that we're very, very happy to be a part of. We are happy to have you a part of it as well. Questions for the applicant's representative? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. Any members of the public looking to address us on this? Seeing none. Commissioner Hurd? We have been pursuing this land swap for over a decade, and it's a great project. Mr. Sawyer is correct, so I'm delighted to make a motion for approval. Second. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd to accept staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed, the motion carries unanimously. Thank you to everybody who participated. I now understand that we're going to go to departmental number seven. See, Donna, how I did that? Approval and acceptance of an escrow agreement. Subsequent adoption of a resolution approving and accepting associated deeds and easements and finalization of landowner transaction related to the Manatee Pocket Southwest Prong Stormwater Treatment Areas STA project. It's a supplemental memo. It'll be presented by Zach Hughes and John Mayle. That's why you're sitting there. Gentlemen, good afternoon. You are both recognized. So just some context. This project, as Commissioner Hurd alluded to, has had many moving parts. The last agenda item that public hearing was one of those moving parts. The item we're bringing today is an escrow agreement that executes all of those parts once they are in place. And so Zach can describe that and the recommendation for the board. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Again, just to echo Commissioner Hurd's opinion on this project. Yes, it's been a lot of punts throughout the years, and I guess we are finally receiving that ball now. So moving forward, I'll act as the project manager for the actual project that's been moving forward for the Southwest Prong. And that's actually going to be the last tributary that will be treated by a water quality project that will lead into the pocket. So that's pretty exciting stuff. As far as the summary, this is a request of approval items related to the Manatee Pocket Southwest Prong STA project located in Port Salerno Community Redevelopment Area. Describing transactions necessary to allow for successful fulfillment of the project with approval and acceptance of an escrow agreement between Martin County and Peter Henry Grin and Susette Grin, landowner, whereby documents will be held in escrow pending final approval of the future land use map and zoning atlas amendments for certain properties owned by landowner, and adoption of resolution, accepting the deeds and easements necessary for the construction and maintenance of the project. So, yes, it's a mouthful. So it's just a good tool that we're kind of using before, you know, as far as I guess the best way to describe it, we're to not put the cart before the horse. So the cart's the escrow, and then we're going to set our horses up and move forward with those processes, the land processes. Let's go to Exhibit A. So, again, Tom touched on a lot of this already, but in short, in the yellow there, you see that those will be deed to the county. The purple will be the right-of-way abandonment, which Tom just went through, and then the green will maintain within Grin's ownership. But the proposed land use change, sorry about that, the proposed future land use designation and zoning clarification for the retained partials and the right-of-ways will change from CRA neighborhood to a CRA center and from detached to corridor, respectively. In addition, landowner has agreed to grant county a temporary construction permit access easement over a portion of the abandoned right-of-way that's necessary to construct and maintain the project. I'll jump in here. The parcels in green will be remaining with Peter Grin and his ownership, and the zoning change will be to make them consistent with the adjoining properties to the south towards Cove Road. That was part of the escrow agreement that we worked out with Peter and his attorneys, and that's the one piece that's left to take place. The escrow agreement will assure that nothing else gets executed until that's in place. So that will go to the LPA next month and then the board for the final approval for that after the LPA hears it. Well said, John. And then the construction access easements will be running across this purple right here, and then we'll have a permanent maintenance access for this area in here in the yellow that will be where the retention pond is and the biological activated media upflow filtration box. So with that said, I'll move forward with the recommendations unless there's other questions for me. Are there questions for staff? There are none. Okay, the recommendation is move that the board approve the escrow agreement and to move that the board adopt a resolution approving and accepting the temporary construction easement, access easement, and utility easements attached to the escrow agreement as exhibits F, G, I1, I2, and I3, respectively, and approving and accepting the deeds for the lots attached to the escrow agreement as B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and B6. And move that the board accept and approve staff obtaining any and all additional items necessary to complete this transaction in accordance with the terms and conditions of the escrow agreement. Obtain a same-name affidavit from both owners and ensure that all documents are approved by legal and writing prior to finalization and recordation. And to move that the board authorize the chairman to execute any and all additional documents necessary to complete the transaction with landowner. I missed part of that. Could you start over? Yeah. Approval. Thank you. Any public comments? Seeing none. We have a motion by Commissioner, an enthusiastic motion of approval from Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. This side is not a lot of motioning and seconding over here. Apparently we're not allowed to, so. You've got to jump in, jump in. It's not your first day. By Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Mr. Hughes, you were using football analogies. Today we're only using golf analogies. Oh, yeah. That's where I went wrong. I'm going to give you a mulligan for next time. Okay, now we're taking departmental quasi-judicial number one, request approval of the 19th Amendment to the Indian River Plantation Planned Unit Development, PUD, agreement including a revised master site plan and revised phase three final site plan, I-007-005, and it'll be presented by Allison Rosek. Correct. Thank you. I think they're hiring people now with names that are going to be challenging for us to. Noggle, Rosek, Walden. Snampy. Anyway, welcome back. It's good to see you. Do we need to be? Oh, yours is a quasi. Here we go. Commissioner Smith, do you have any? I do, and they're filed. If any, they've been filed. I do, and they've been filed. If any, they've been filed. If I have any, they've been filed. People are going to read this transcript, and it's going to look botches, you know, missing. Do you have a copy of your work history and your agenda item? I do. Thank you. It's never going to happen to you again. Never. Anyone that's going to be offering testimony, please stand to be sworn in and raise your right hand. This is why everybody was here. Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Is there anyone intervening? Not today. That's good. That was a plus. Do you have, were there any return receipts that were necessary? There was none necessary. Mailing to surrounding property owners was not required. Terrific. At this point, you are recognized to continue. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Campy and County Commissioners. Thank you for your time today to hear this presentation. I'm Allison Rozak, Principal Planner at the Growth Management Department for Martin County. I'm here today also as the project coordinator for the Indian River Plantation PUD 19th Amendment and the revised Phase 3 Final Site Plan. A copy of the agenda item in my work history has been submitted for the file. The applicant for the PUD amendment today is Mensa 2 Ocean Hotel, LLC, and the agent for the project is HJA Studio, LLC, whose representatives are here today. The Indian River Plantation PUD is 177.5 acres, located at the intersection of Northeast Ocean Boulevard and MacArthur Boulevard on Hutchison Island. As background, the Indian River Plantation PUD was adopted in 1977 and since then has had over 18 approved amendments and dozens of approved final site plans. The proposed development identified on the adopted master site plan today was built that originally was built in 10 phases. All such development has been completed to date. Similar to the project before you today, any future development proposed for the Indian River Plantation PUD will be one of redevelopment rather than new development. The main reasons for requesting the Indian River Plantation PUD 19th Amendment, including a revised master plan and a request for a public facilities reservation or exemption, is, number one, a private sector development team is proposing to redevelop two vacant commercial buildings within a hotel campus on Hutchison Island, requiring a master plan revision to accommodate the change in use for the buildings. Number two, staff has recommended that county property be removed from the PUD and rezoned to the proper zoning category of public service district. And number three, the timetable for development and the housing data on the master plan need to be revised to assign a new development timetable for the redevelopment in phase three and to update the total housing count of units built to date. The master site plan is being updated to change the proposed use of the site from office bank just to commercial, allowing the redevelopment for phase three of the Indian River Plantation PUD, and to remove the Martin County property, including the former sewage treatment plant and the new fire rescue station number 14 from the PUD simultaneously or right after this agenda item, rezoning the property to a more appropriate public service district. The required revised phase three final site plan, including the certificate of public reservation, is to renovate two vacant buildings into a restaurant and arcade, both ancillary uses to the hotel campus, yet open to the public. The former bank's drive-through lane is being removed and replaced with an outdoor patio and a seating area and increased landscaping. Additional windows are being provided along the first floor to increase transparency and the pedestrian feel of the building. Staff found that the proposed 19th amendment with the revised master plan and the proposed revised phase three final site plan is in compliance with the Martin County Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and all relevant land development regulations and ordinances. According to Article 10 development review procedures, a public hearing at a local planning agency meeting was not required for a PUD amendment nor a final revised site plan, and therefore the file did not go before the LPA and does not come with an LPA recommendation for such revisions. Staff is recommending that the board move to receive the file, the agenda item, and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1. Move that the board approve the Indian River Plantation PUD agreement, 19th amendment, including a revised master site plan and a certificate of public facilities exemption. And also move that the board adopt a resolution approving the revised phase three final site plan for the Indian River Plantation PUD with a certificate of public reservation. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much. Nice job. All the questions, no questions, the applicants, representatives, it's your turn. Good afternoon, commissioners. Once again, Bob Raines, attorney with the Gunster Law Firm. Here on behalf of the applicant, I'm going to have to teach Mr. Sawyer when he comes up to identify the law firm so he can plug us on TV when we do it. But I'll work on that. You're seasoned. Yeah. Where are you from again? What? Gunster Law Firm. Oh, so then give him a credit for that one. Anyway, we're pleased to be here today. We certainly agree with the staff recommendation as Ms. Rosick laid everything out. I want to say I'm extremely excited to be here on this project today. You know, for those of us who have been around Martin County for quite a while, and I go back to 1988, you know, this property has always been a jewel in Martin County. And it still is, but I think over the years, I think a lot of us could agree that it's, you know, needed some uplift, facelifting and improvements and stuff. And I can't tell you over the past few years how many people have had an interest in this piece of property and wanted to do things that probably weren't going to be within the scale and the scope of really what we wanted to see on Hutchison Island and with respect to this piece of property. So I was extremely excited when the applicant came in and hired us to help them and assist them with us because they are doing something and keeping this place in the scale and the scope and I think what people want to see on the island. But they're making incredible, I think, improvements. They have some tremendous plans. Some of those things aren't here before you today because it's just building permits and required. But I think it's very exciting and the right folks to come in and take this project over. So we're very pleased to be a part of that today. At this time, what I'd like to do is ask Erica Beitler to come forward just to do a quick, short presentation. And then I have a couple of questions for our civil engineer, and then we'll be glad to answer any questions that you might have. So I'd like to ask Erica to come up at this time. And hopefully I have the right HJA Design Studio employee before me today. Yes, sir. So can you state your name for the record, please? Yes. Hey, good afternoon, commissioners. I'm Erica Beitler with HJA Design Studio, as Bob mentioned. And Erica, have you been sworn in? Yes, I have. And can you just give us a quick, brief history of your education and work background, please? Yes, I graduated at University of Florida in 2016. The Gators? Yes. Motion to approve. And I've been working under Michael Houston since an intern in 2014, I believe. So great mentorship there. Shows you that internships work. They do. And lead to permanent employment. They can. And we have an intern with us, Ty Raymond, who is... At what firm? At the Gunster Law firm. So anyway, we're glad to have Ty monitoring this today with us. I don't know if this is going to encourage or discourage him, but we'll see how it goes for him. So anyway, so can you describe the document that I'm handing you, sir? Yes. Yes, well... I'm back to Mike Houston. Yes, this is in terms of what's on my resume or just... Is that your resume? Yeah, this is my accurate resume with many things I've been a part of. Okay, so it's current and accurate. Yes, sir. Okay, I'd like to... Many things in the couple of years she's done since graduating college. I'd like to make that applicants exhibit, one, and then also do right ahead, please. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you for the time. And I know it's been a long day, but we're on the stretch. So this is Indian River Plantation, as all of you are very familiar with. And as was stated, this is 177.5-acre PUD that's been around for a long while, since the late 70s. And this accommodates, you know, beach resorts, marinas, family vacation, corporate retreats, gathering, and golf courses, as we mentioned this morning. And, oh, I'm so sorry. And really what we're requesting is that the PUD 19th Amendment gets approved with the revised master site plan for the phase three final. We have new ownership at the Marriott Beach Mensa Ocean Hotel. They acquired the property in 2021, and they've undertaken comprehensive improvements and are beginning to do some great renovations throughout the campus of the hotel. Their affiliates are full-service luxury and upper-scale hotels throughout North America. In the next few slides, you'll see some of the improvements that are intended to happen in the next year. And the guest rooms, the pool bar, the lobby, the grill, all that stuff that has been pretty dated. So on your left, you should see the befores and then the graphic afters. So just to give you an idea of the facelift that this company is partaking in this hotel. So it'll be a nice place. So this is the overall PUD and the changes that are before you is the removal of the 7.5-acre county-owned parcel with the sewer plant and the Station 14 fire station, which looks really good, by the way. And then the change in use from office to commercial, I mean, from bank office to commercial, as seen in red there. And then the site data to this revised amendment to be applicable up-to-date to all the built parcels within this PUD. This is the site plan for the Phase 3, and it was a previous Wells Fargo bank, as you guys know. And here you can see renovations will be to the vacant buildings, which we're keeping the shell but facelifting those buildings to the restaurant, arcade, and market. The forced parking spaces were removed, but are now enhanced to an outdoor seating area for guests to enjoy the market food and just hopefully a sunset. There are three golf cart spaces to accommodate the golf course users and just the overall PUD people can come utilize this amenity. What was the drive-thru now is going to be covered seating, so it would be a really good place to hide from the sun. And then we're strengthening internal sidewalk connections, which this is, I think this was done in the 80s, so it needed to be up-to-date to ADA standards and really enhance that connectivity from all directions. And then, of course, landscape, got to spruce that up to match the great improvements that we will be having on this site. Here you'll see the internal footprint, which there's a lot going on, way more interesting than just a bank and a storage for the existing use. There's the arcade and restaurant to the building on the east, and then to the west is the market and restaurant area as well. And these are in black and white, but just so when you see them in person, they'll pop and you'll really be excited. And if you have any questions in terms of the design or intent, please feel free to ask. Terrific. Questions from my colleagues or – I've got just one other thing. I'm sorry. Very well. I just want to get Mr. Creech here, Rick Creech, to come up just very briefly. Sorry. We'll make it quick, sir. I know you guys have had a long day. Good afternoon. Can you please introduce yourself, sir? Rick Creech, Stewart, Florida. And you've been sworn in? Yes, I have. And can you please give us a quick description of your work history and experience? A quick description? Yes. I've worked in Martin County for well over 40 years, including civil engineering and a professional surveyor. And can you identify the document I'm showing you, sir? Yes, it's my current resume. Okay, thank you. I'd like to make that applicable. Sure. And just a couple of quick questions for Mr. Creech. Mr. Creech, are you familiar with the engineering plans and the civil drawings for this project? Yes, they were done under my direction. Okay. And you're also familiar with the Martin County Land Development Regulations and Comprehensive Plan? Yes, for the last 40 years. And in your professional opinion, does this project meet all those requirements? Yes, it does. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Now that completes our testimony and just dotting some eyes and crosses and tears. Absolutely. So we'll be glad to answer that question. Any questions for the applicants' representatives, any of them? Commissioner Smith? Good afternoon. Good afternoon, sir. So I guess I'm a little disappointed that we didn't hear anything about the question that I raised with you, so I'll raise it again. North Plantation Road. We have been trying to, with the previous owners and the new owners for over five years, work with the applicants to put a sidewalk in. At one point, we even discussed completely at our expense and so on. And to no avail have we had anybody that has wanted to work with us and agree to doing so. Have you had that conversation with the applicant? Yes, sir. And I applaud you. I thought you were going to bring it up, so I didn't. No. I didn't raise it, so. It would be easier if maybe you did and you'd tell us all the wonderful things that they were willing to do to help out our residents. Well, I can tell you. Well, let me just say, first of all, we've had a lot of discussions, not only previously with your staff, but also reached out to some of the HOA folks and actually, you know, tried to communicate with them a little bit more. But we're happy to and agreeable to do an easement and provide an easement in that particular area that you're looking for with the understanding that we would like to be able to do that as part of the post-approval for this project. We don't want it to hold up anything. And also with the understanding that we would still need to work out some of the details with your staff, you know, things such as the timing of construction whenever that might occur, because obviously we wouldn't want to be doing something like that during season. And some of the other issues, there are some drainage concerns and stuff that we would want to try to, for instance, make sure that are addressed. So we're happy to grant the easement if the county wants to construct the sidewalk there and be a part of the solution, but also, like, you know, again, to make that something that we can continue to work with your staff toward. So a little bit of background, Bob, and thank you for that. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. For the rest of the commissioners, unless you brief them all on what we're asking. No, sir. No. So commissioners, for at least five, maybe seven years, our residents, we have a couple of different associations out there that are part of this conversation. And you probably all can't see my thing, but there's the access road where you come to the four-point intersection, just as you head into heading east. And there's a partial sidewalk on the east-south side of the neighborhood, but not on the west side, and it doesn't connect all the associations. And we have been meeting for at least five, six, seven years, as I said, even with the prior owners, to get a sidewalk installed. If you've ever been out there, there are residents, there are visitors that frequently use the street for their sidewalk, and the residents are scared to death that someone is going to be hit or has been nearly hit. And as staff is drawing with their arrow, it is from MacArthur Boulevard on the west side along the golf course up to the north end. And if you can just take that cursor all the way up, keep going, up to there. And so what we have requested, what the residents have requested, is that we build a sidewalk on that portion, but we need an easement. There are some irrigation issues. There are some potential drainage issues. We have been back and forth with both owners over multiple years of trying to figure this all out. But my conversations with staff, and even at one point right before the sale, was to have gone through, this was going to happen just right before, and then they pulled the plug immediately before the sale and didn't want to complicate the sale, and here we are again today, a couple years later, and we still aren't there. So if staff is agreeable to this post-approval thing, I'm agreeable to that. But it has to be with every assurance that as soon as possible, Bob, that it gets built, because five, six, seven years for getting a sidewalk built for people that are very leery of their safety. And I've always thought about this whole thing the entire way, regardless of who owned the golf course or who owned the hotel. I would think the liability of something being hit on the road would be far more concerning to an owner than the worry about irrigation and our perspective from the engineering department's perspective on building the sidewalk. So to the point that as quickly as possible we can get this thing built before season, I think would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood before season comes back in November. Well, again, we're happy to grant the easement fairly quickly, I think, you know, and we'll work with your staff on whatever the timing is that they want to do since the county would be constructing it. But, again, we would, you know, I think our only question is just on the timing with the season and then, you know, happy to go over whatever we need to with the staff to try to actually get it. Considering logistics there, we need to have time to design and do the proper things. So we do have George Zama here who's aware of the situation, and maybe he can give us an idea how long that process might take. I don't want to speak for public works. And my guess, even before George says anything, but he can add to it, we've probably designed it three times that I know of. So I'm guessing it's sitting on a shelf somewhere because we've been that close, and all the reasons it was held up for were some sort of technical design change issue. But at the end of the day, it's a sidewalk. We're not building a tunnel. We're not building a bridge. We're not crossing A1A. It's a sidewalk. George Zama, public works deputy director. Were you sworn in, sir? Yes, he was. That's why he's here. To this point, the reference sidewalk is actually in the CIP. It is unfunded for design acquisition with any associated costs for what we call land acquisition, what would be with the easement and construction. So any design is not an engineered design that I'm aware of. There may be conceptual layouts of what it would, you know, what the proposed footprint would be for the pathway. But we would still have to designate funding, perform a design, and then coordinate our program for construction. It's a sidewalk. Don't look at me. I'm doing, we're granting the easement. So we could put the condition, the PUD agreement to add under F to add the dedication of the easement will be offered by the applicant in association with the design of the sidewalk. But then I don't know if you want to try and condition it to any timelines or anything. I shared probably seven years ago that I would fund the construction. We did everything in the world but to give it to them, and we still couldn't get there. So that offer, you know, we have hundreds of residents out there. They're taxpayers, and they have been asking for this for a long time. I'm still more than happy to fund it. I don't care what it takes to build it, you know, but it's got to get built, and we've got to have an easement. So that's great news, Bob. I mean, thank you. Okay, I think that sort of solves the point. You will grant an easement for the property. Our people will layer it into your PUD. Mr. Zama's team will design it, and Commissioner Smith will pay for it. Done. Anyone from the general public looking to address us on this topic? Not the sidewalk topic. I mean the whole topic. Seeing none, back to the board. Do you want to? Sure, I'll move approval. I'll make the motion including. Thank you. The easement that the applicant will grant, and then it will be funded by District 1. So I'll make staff's recommendation with that addition. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Hetherington with the verbiage that we've just heard. Is it seconded by the District Commissioner? Yes, sir. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much for your presentations, for the nice work. Tell the owners there that we're happy with their improved plan for a gem. The next item is Public Hearing Quasi-Judicial No. 4, a public hearing to consider adoption of an amendment to the Martin County Zoning Atlas to change the zoning district classification for the Martin County Fire Rescue Station No. 14 property, I-007-006. It will also continue to be presented by Ms. Allison Rosek. Ms. Rosek? Quasi-Judicial. Yes, it's a lot of that today. This is quasi-judicial. Commissioner Hurd, do you have any ex parte communications? If I do, they've been filed. Commissioner Jenkins? If I do, they've been filed. Commissioner Hetherington? If any, they've been filed. Commissioner Smith? Same. If I have them, they're filed. And if I have any, they've been filed. Do you have a new copy of your work history and the agenda item? Anyone that's going to be offering any testimony, will you please stand to be sworn in? Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Any return receipts necessary? We did not receive any that I know of. Turned in at the LPA. Oh, I'm sorry. That's what you meant to say. Turned in at the LPA. Yes, they would have been turned in at the LPA. Anyone intervening? Not today that I know of. Good. And with that, please continue. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman, County Commissioners. Thanks again for your time today. I'm Allison, Principal Planner, Growth Management Department. Copy my work history and the agenda item have been submitted for the file, as well as the affidavit of mailing submitted at the LPA meeting. The owner of the property is Martin County. The applicant is the Martin County Fire Rescue Department. And the agent for the project today is the Martin County Department of Growth Management, whose representative, Mr. Paul Schilling, is here today with us. The Martin County Fire Station property is located north of Northeast Ocean Boulevard and west of Northeast MacArthur Boulevard on Hutchison Island. The site is approximately 7.5 acres, consisting of approximately 2.9 acres for the fire rescue station number 14, and the remainder of the site occupied by the former Martin County Sewage Treatment Facility. The site's current future land use designation is Institutional General, of which the fire station is a permitted use. The site's current zoning designation is PUD, Planned Unit Development. The request today is to rezone the county property to a more appropriate public service district, specifically to the PS1 public service district. As a brief history of the property, the Indian River Plantation PUD was adopted in the 70s. As mentioned before, there's been 18 approved amendments and over hundreds of many final site plan approvals over the last 50 years. The PUD is fully built out. Most of the uses within the PUD are residential and commercial, including a resort, hotel, condominiums, gas station, commercial store, and former bank office buildings. The institutional uses include, in the PUD, the former Martin County Sewer Treatment Plant and the recently constructed Martin County Fire Station number 14. In June of 2020, during the final site plan approval process for the fire station, it was recommended by staff that the property owned by Martin County be removed from the planned unit development and rezoned to the public service district, PS1, a more consistent zoning classification. The private sector submittal of the development application to amend the Indian River Plantation PUD and revised the master and final site plan for Phase 3 for redevelopment of the commercial parcel, presented the county with the opportunity to facilitate the rezoning of our property. There are three public service districts, which include public service District 1, 2, and PAF. The PAF, however, is not available for the subject property, as it is a district specifically reserved for public airports. There is an additional option to create a new PUD, which offers design flexibility in exchange for additional public benefits. In the permitted use table from Article 3 of our land development regulations, the PS1 allows the least intensive use of all the public service districts. For example, those uses that are permitted in PS2 but not permitted in the PS1 that we are requesting are cemeteries, correctional facilities, halfway houses, solid waste disposal areas, kennels, shooting ranges, salvage yards, and trash yard processing. The development standards are the same in both of the PS1 and PS2 public service districts. The Martin County Comprehensive Plan and land development regulations require various factors to be considered when deciding on a zoning change. When considering these factors, staff concluded that the requested PS1 zoning designation is consistent with our comprehensive plan and all of our LDRs. The site is compatible with the surrounding parcels who have similar institutional and recreational uses. The development is located within the primary urban service district, promoting orderly growth, and the area development pattern is well established, and the site will be served the surrounding property owners with public safety and their service needs. The Growth Managed Department found that the proposed rezoning is in compliance with our comprehensive growth management plan, all relevant land development regulations and ordinances per Martin County Code. Staff concluded the zoning change is necessary. The PS1 public service district is consistent with the property's general institution future land use designation, and a certificate of public facilities exemption is appropriate for such zoning change request. In compliance with Article 10, Section 10-8, the item went before the LPA on June 1, 2023, and the LPA held a public hearing, reviewed the application for compliance with county regulations, considered the staff report and the public comments, and recommended the application to the board for approval. Staff is recommending that the board move to receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report, as Exhibit 1, move to adopt the resolution to change the existing PUD zoning classification for the Martin County Fire Rescue Station 14 property to PS1 public service district, and approve a certificate of public facilities exemption. That concludes my presentation today, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Very nice job. Questions for Ms. Rosek? Seeing none. The applicant, Mr. Schilling, do you have anything you want? You're representing the applicant? No, thank you. Understood. Any questions from the public on this issue, topic? Seeing none. Back to the board. Commissioner Hetherington. Staff's recommendation for approval. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Hetherington for staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Our next agenda item is quasi-departmental quasi-judicial number two, request for a revised final site plan approval for the Three Lakes Project B-115-007, presented by Mr. Peter Walden. Ms. Elder is here to assist, if need be. Again, quasi-judicial, so this time I will start with you. Commissioner Jenkins, any ex parte communications? I have, and they've been filed. Commissioner Hurd? If any, they've been filed. Commissioner Smith? I have, and they're filed. Commissioner Hetherington? I have, and they've been filed. I have some, and they've been filed as well. Mr. Walden, do you have a copy of your work history and the agenda? I do, sir. Thank you. Any return receipts? None required. Anyone that will be offering any testimony, please stand to be sworn in. Big group. Raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Any interveners? No, sir. Terrific. Okay, with that, I think we're ready to begin, and Mr. Walden, I would recognize you to start. Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Peter Walden, Deputy Growth Management Director. This is a request for a revised final site plan approval for the Three Lakes Golf Club. It's requested by Lucido and Associates with Morris A. Crady as their agent. There is already an approved site plan and construction underway for the Three Lakes Golf Club, as it was received approval on September 27th of 22. The site is approximately 1,216 acres. It's located on the east and west side of Southwest Canter Highway and is adjacent to the C-44 Canal. The approved site plan includes two golf courses, practice facilities, maintenance facilities, golf shelters, and an existing residence that is utilized for a temporary golf clubhouse. There's 131 acres of lakes to manage stormwater. Irrigation is provided through the C-44 Canal, and the open space provided is at 98%. The revised site plan includes a golf clubhouse of about 29,000 square feet, 14 golf cottages. The lakes are slightly modified to add about 10 acres. There is a CO phasing plan with the infrastructure that will allow vertical construction to portions of the property prior to the completion of the entire project. And there's also a request for a waiver for the on-site sewage and disposal systems to go to the 5,000 gallons per day. Open space is still at 97%, and the existing preserve area management plan is unchanged. And there is a parking rate adjustment requested as well, and all the increased parking is pervious as required. This is, there's an outline of the Three Lakes project. You can see South Florida Gateway under construction just to the north. This is the revised final site plan. It's a very large-scale project at 1,200 acres, but there is a clubhouse in this area with a few cottages. That's really the main changes other than some modifications to the lake. The east parcel is totally unchanged with this application. The LPA pursuant to Section 10.5, Table 10.5F9, a review of this application was not required by the LPA. Development and review staff have found the application to be in compliance with all applicable regulations and the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan as detailed in the attached staff report. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the revised final site plan and would move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments, including the staff report as Exhibit 1, and move that the board approve the request for the revised final site plan for the Three Lakes Project, including the parking rate adjustment, and move that the board approve the request for a utility waiver to allow on-site wastewater treatment and disposal systems cumulative flows not to exceed 5,000 gallons per day. That concludes my presentation. Be glad to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions for staff from the commission? None at this time. Applicant's presentation. Afternoon once again. For the record, Bob Rains with the Gunster Law Firm. Here on behalf of the applicant, we're pleased to state for the record that we do agree with the staff report and the recommendations and the conclusions in that report. You know, this is a great project. I'm always excited about the golf course projects, especially given my history and past experiences with the game. I particularly think this is a great project. At this time, what I'd like to do is have Mr. Crady come up and give a short presentation, followed by Mr. Davis, Mike Davis. So, Morris, if you'll come up, but very quickly, if you could go ahead and state your name for the record. Yes, for the record, my name is Morris Crady. And if you could give us a brief history of your work experience. Sure. I'm a senior partner with the Cedar & Associates and also a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners for the past 30 years and been doing land planning work in Martin County for over 40 years. And you can identify, please, for us, the document I'm handing? Yes. That's my resume. And the current. It's up to date. Yes, it is. I'd like to turn that in as applicants exhibit A. And to save time and for flow, I'd also like to submit, go ahead and submit, because Mr. Davis, Mike Davis is going to follow Mr. Crady, and I think you all are well aware of his experience and qualifications. So, I'd like to just turn his resume in as applicants exhibit two. Okay. It would be B. B. You said A. Well, you said A for the first one. Good evening, or good afternoon. Does this one work? I think so. Nice shot. Okay. So, I think you're pretty aware of the location of the site. As mentioned, we're just south of the South Florida Gateway PUD, and actually it's not labeled on here, but also the 30-acre county operations center, which is on the south border of the South Florida Gateway PUD. And we have about 500 acres on the east side of Canter Highway and about 700 acres on the west side along the canal is 500 acres, and on the east side is about 700 acres just north of Bridge Road. And this is a little older aerial. I think the aerial that staff had up shows the project site that's under construction. We were approved for two 18-hole golf courses in the practice facilities on 1,218 acres in September, and we started construction shortly thereafter in October. We're in the process of building those two golf courses and renovating an existing single-family home by the previous owner that will be used as a founder's house. It will be retained on site and temporarily used as an event center. We're constructing access, temporary parking, maintenance, building, and golf shelters, all in accordance with the approved site plan. This is the rendering of the approved site plan. You can see on the west course there's areas that were not developed around the practice area, and those are the areas where we're locating the cottages and the clubhouse. We're adding a permanent clubhouse and parking in that area. We're expanding the practice facilities and adding the 14 golf cottages, modifying the entrance road and expanded lakes, and relocated temporary parking closer to the founder's house, requesting also a temporary utility waiver for the septic tank systems from 2,000 gallons per day to 5,000 gallons per day. And this is what the revised plan looks like. If you just want to go back, you can see the areas that are being developed as part of this revised site plan. And I said it's a temporary waiver for the utility septic system because we have made application under Rural Lifestyle for a land use change, and we are going to be processing a PUD application that will include a third golf course on the east side of Canter Highway. And you can see that, again, the changes that were made from the previous includes the relocation of the entrance off of Canter Highway, and we expanded lakes in that area. We added actually 10 acres of lakes to this particular site, but ultimately we'll have over 180 acres of lake on the site when we build a third golf course. Let's see. I can't get it to go now. There we go. So those are the proposed revisions. Let's see if we're going in the right direction. Excuse me. I haven't operated this mouse before. All right. So the total area has actually been reduced to 1,216 acres because we donated over two acres of right-of-way on Bridge Road as part of the original application. The golf course area facilities have increased to 514 acres, whereas before it was 475 acres, and that's the area consumed by the golf cottages and the clubhouse facility. Lake area has been increased by about 10 acres over the original 131 acres. There's no change. The preserve area and the total open space is still at 97%. It was at 1,205 acres, which was 98%, so it's been reduced a little bit based on the new facilities and the impervious areas that were added to support the golf clubhouse and cottages. The project features remain the same. We're still taking nutrient-laden water from the St. Lucie Canal and stored on-site in our constructed lakes to irrigate the golf course and all the landscape areas. We'll ultimately divert more than 4.5 million gallons per day from the St. Lucie Canal from being discharged into the South Fork of the St. Lucie River estuary. We don't need any irrigation wells because of that, which helps protect the on-site wetlands and also recharges the aquifer. And we're providing enhanced water quality treatment, filtration, and aquifer recharge throughout the site by virtue of the course design. We're providing significant native landscape buffers along Ridge Road and Kenner Highway. We're more than 250-foot setback from the St. Lucie Canal. That hasn't changed. We've done an incredible job of relocating native trees and vegetation, and Mike will go into that in a little more detail in a moment. But we're using all of the existing oak trees, everything down to palmettos and grasses on the site and relocating them in areas where we're not building a golf course. All preserve areas are in the process of being enhanced and will be managed in accordance with the approved Preserve Area Management Plan. And we're enhancing wildlife habitat throughout the site. And, again, I think I mentioned before there will be no hunting on the site, which has occurred over the past several decades, and the neighbors are happy to hear that. Just people looking for birdies and eagles. That's right. That's right. So with that, I'd like to introduce Mike Davis just to give you his viewpoint from being on the ground and designing the south course and his experience while this has been under construction. Mike? Mr. Davis, welcome back. Thanks for spending the whole day. Commissioner, thank you again for the time. And to the staff, Don and I talked at a break. But you should know the staff has been so wonderful to work with. They've been helpful. And, I mean, I think that's the descriptive I would use. So thanks on behalf of the whole project for everything you've done so far. Good to hear we were unsure about that group. So I guess to start out with, what I really wanted to talk about were impacts environmentally and impacts from an economic standpoint of the project. And what I really want to do is I know today we've essentially what we're doing is proposing the two golf courses and so on. But the vision of Three Lakes, which, by the way, let me clear up one point of confusion. Three Lakes Golf Club is the holding company. It was created a couple years ago. The name of the club will actually be Apogee. So if you hear Apogee, that is the name of the club that we're all the way going. But there's been some confusion. So really what I wanted to do was talk about holistically when this project's built out, you know, what is it going to do environmentally? What's the impact? And what's the impact on the community? As you saw up there, I believe, at least conservatively, that we will have at least 95 percent green space, probably more like 96, 97 percent green space when this project's fully built out. And if you break that down, that means that well over 1,100 acres are going to be, you know, roughly made out of about 180 acres of lakes, a couple hundred acres of preserved native upland preserve, as well as wetlands. In fact, we're already on those two things, making some really nice progress with invasives and exotics in terms of remediation. But listen, when we have that much acreage, over 1,100 acres, it's great for stormwater filtration. It's great for wildlife. It's great for air quality. And at the end of the day, what is this club being built for? It's for really human enjoyment. And that's so I think, you know, one of the things and more than more than one commissioner has made this comment that this is roughly 1,200 acres that is being taken off the market and that will not be housing. It's really going to be, as I said, you know, at least 95 percent green space. And we really do hope in perpetuity, but certainly for a long time. Morris went through it, but we will be pulling water from the St. Lucie River, the C-44, for irrigation of both the golf courses and the landscaping. And I think when we looked at this property originally, we were so excited about it because, one, it was close to the river, but, two, it was a very sandy piece of property. And anybody that knows golf course design, any golf course in the world is better if it's built on a sandy, well-draining soil than heavier soils that just don't drain. The third thing was it had this plethora of beautiful, natural native trees, which I'll talk a little bit about. But back to the water, we are already pulling for the five lakes we've created water out of the St. Lucie. And if I showed you, we've already done testing of what our lake looks like water-wise versus what the St. Lucie, and the results are remarkable. If I took a glass of water out of the St. Lucie, it would be kind of a brown, tannish color. If I did the same thing out of the lakes, it's clear. And I think it gets back to what we talked about in this morning's session is that this is really a win-win. For us, we're getting better water than we get out of the ground. It's got nutrients in it. We will use less nutrients on the golf course because of this. And whether that water evaporates or whether it's used by the plant or whether it goes down to groundwater or in cases where you've got a storm event, it will go wherever it's going cleaner than when it first came out of the St. Lucie. So for us, it's a win-win. But environmentally, it's a great win-win. And I guess that's one of the very sexy parts of this property is it's up against the St. Lucie. Other environmental impacts. We have already transplanted thousands of trees, shrubs, native grasses. I'd love to bring all of you out there to see it because we're about halfway done with the first golf course. It looks like native Martin County. We've got sables that were native. We've got live oaks. We've got laurel oaks. We've got myrtles out there. We've got slash pines. And really, the only thing we're not transplanting are the big slash pines, which you really just can't slash, which you can't transplant. But when this is all said and done, we will have transplanted tens of thousands of trees. And right now, what the architects want and what ownership wants on this first course, it is just native plants. So that's all you see. The only plants we brought in so far, literally the Bermuda grass that we're planting for the fairways, and that was from a Martin County farmer. So it has this wonderful look and feel of Martin County. And speaking of, you know, we talked about roughly 180 acres of lakes per Martin County code. All those will have littoral shells. And when you sit and you do the math, we will be planting close to a million aquatic plants when this is all said and done. And it's, again, it beautifies, but it's a great thing environmentally, too. Something else that I think is a bit of a good surprise for us with a property, but when you're digging lakes and you do that, this property is, you know, you don't have to be told this, but it's almost dead flat. We are, we're about 19 to 20, 21 feet above elevation, and we want to make sure the golf surfaces are high enough so they're high and dry, so the balls bounce. You heard Thomas Barrett talk about this morning. So that's where you get your material to shape. That's how you make interest in the golf course. But one of the things we discovered is when you get down in this property about two feet, you start to find this orangish sand. Folks, this was a found surprise to us because when you do the testing on this sand, it perks about 9 1⁄2 to 12 inches of water an hour. It's perfect for fairways. You want them to drain, but you don't want them to drain too much so you can hold water nutrients in it. And we have literally mined that. And then in addition to that, when you start to go down deeper in your lakes and you get down to the grayish sand that has the shells in it, we're using that for road base. We're using it for base, for vertical buildings, for parking lots. So we're literally, we've brought, we've used so much on site that we've hardly trucked in and had to do anything, which is a, you know, that's good. It's good environmentally, but it's good from a cost standpoint for us too. In terms of maintenance machinery, machinery will be state-of-the-art both with our two maintenance facilities. We, some of our maintenance equipment will be electric and we'll be going electric as soon as that's, you know, practical. And that is happening in the golf industry sooner than later. You heard earlier this morning, our sprayers will be brand new. They'll be GPSed. I don't need to go into any more details. You heard it this morning. We already soil tests, so when we're putting down amendments, inputs, you know, things like nitrogen or phosphorus, it's only being done where it needs it. So we're not unnecessarily doing it. When I talked earlier this morning about how the game of golf is using 40% less nutrients than it did just about 15 years ago, it's because of this type of testing. And frankly, we don't want to use any more than we need it because there's a cost to it. In terms of wetlands, we have a wetland consultant that's working with us really on our planning, the remediation, and making sure we're doing all the right. This person's worked in Martin County for roughly 25 years. And then last on the environmental side, our golf course superintendent we hired at the beginning of the year. He is certified in the state of Florida and will be utilizing best management practices. He's also worked at a couple golf courses that were Audubon certified. This guy cares about the environment, and I will tell you our ownership cares about the environment. The ownership cares about wildlife. You know, one of our owners, Stephen Ross, it's like almost every time I'm with him, he asks about what's the wildlife going to be. And the wildlife out on this piece of property, by the way, is already very good. But we really believe that it will be better when we're all said and done. Some non-environmental things. The club, when it's fully finished, will employ hundreds of local residents. We already employ roughly 75 that are working on the construction of it. We're utilizing dozens of Martin County contractors and suppliers. And while I don't have the data, I'm fairly confident that we will be a net positive in terms of the tax base. We will be utilizing less services than the monies we pay in on taxes, which I think is a good thing. And the last thing I'll say, we've ownership, and I've been a part of it, have already met with a handful of Martin County charities. We plan to be very charitable. And as I talked earlier about golf nationwide, it is such a wonderful vehicle to raise monies. And I know our ownership is committed to that. So with that, I'll just stop there. But thank you again for your time, and thanks for your support. We appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Questions for Mr. Davis? Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, I recognize that a golf course can absolutely be an asset and beneficial, but where's the planting plan? Where are the requirements that the water quality is going to be monitored? Where is the habitat restoration promises? Where is the pollination protection promises? These things are all, those are good intentions, but they're not part of the plan. Yeah, well, Commissioner, I would say that some of that that you said is we have submitted that to the county in terms of what the landscaping plans are, the plans for littoral shelves. In terms of best management practices, as you heard this morning, they're not required by the states, but I can tell you it's this ownership's intention to do all the right things environmentally and for the community itself. Well, that's laudable. As I see Martin County being converted to one big golf course, that's just not enough. I need to be able to measure the success. Well, I think, you know, on water, because you brought up water, I think it's safe to say, and you heard it this morning, it's absolute factual. Data has backed it up numerous times that water coming, storm water coming into a golf course is almost always dirtier than when it leaves the golf course. So it's almost like in that sense, you don't need it. But we do test on a very regular test basis. The plans, if you hear this from our engineers, we will only discharge back into the C-44 in a very unusual water event. Most of it, once it comes out, it's going into our lakes, and it'll stay in our lakes, and it'll be used for irrigation. It'll eventually work away to groundwater. So data is going to show that the water we bring in is absolutely dirtier than the water that we put down into groundwater, or that might, you know, in that 100-year event, go back into the C-44. So, I mean, I think we're going to test, and we're not required to test, but we want to test. First of all, the reason you want to test water is you want to find out what's in that water and what do we have to add to it. So it's almost a necessity if you want a good, healthy turf surface. Thanks. So thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. I just have a couple comments. One I found this morning was so educational for me. I'm not a huge golfer, although I don't think I'm a terrible golfer when I do golf. But I find it very educational as far as the wildlife habit. I feel very satisfied with the water quality and how you referenced pulling out of the C-44, and I feel that it is a positive for the area. Many people would prefer nothing go here, but that's obviously not an option. I haven't had an opportunity to go on your tour, but I have heard that you using the native vegetation is really important to you. And I look forward to seeing that because it was always important for me to keep that Canter Highway a very rural highway and to keep native vegetation. I would cringe if I drove by and saw a bunch of, you know, un-native green palm trees everywhere. It would, to me, impact the character of Canter Highway. And then I just got very excited when you started talking about the jobs. And I was having a conversation last week in a small town up in Montana who they had lost a lot of their industry like we did here. We lost a lot of our citrus. And what citrus provided for us, not only was it farming, it was keeping all that land, that rural land, you know, busy farming. But it provided so many jobs for so many families here in Martin County. Not only the fields, you know, the farms themselves, but truck drivers, those that sold the chemicals, those that provided services. And many of those, those of us that grew up, we went to school, you know, with those families. We were friends. Now, many of those families had to eventually move because what happened when the citrus industry disappeared, they lost all those jobs. So one of the most exciting things I heard you say is that it would employ so many more local people. And I think we need that, Martin County, whether that be service, you know, on the course or auxiliary, you know, services that are related to golf. I think we've been missing that for a long time as farming has disappeared. And even though this is a different kind of service, but it still will provide many, many jobs. And I'm very excited about that. So I like the project. I like what you've done so far. And I know we're waiting for public comment, but pending any public comment, I will move staff's recommendation for approval. Commissioner, thanks for those comments. One thing I didn't point out is that this club will be open 12 months a year. I mean, some clubs down here are seasonal in nature, but this one, and that's not to say that the summer won't be slower with less golfers than the season, but it will have employees 12 months of the year. So thanks again for the time. Commissioner Doug Smith. Michael, mine's going to echo a lot of what Stacey just said, so I won't say as much as maybe she said. But, you know, the presentation this morning I thought was incredibly helpful, I think, for us but also for the public. Look, you know, we all talk about the economic impacts of something, whatever it may be and whatever's happening in Martin County. But, you know, the interesting thing about this, we could have, anybody could have spent a fortune trying to recruit business to come to Martin County to do something. And what I find fascinating about what's going on with this whole golf experience that's happening, we haven't recruited at all. I mean, we haven't done anything. We haven't spent anything. And you guys are doing this on your own at an enormous cost. And as Stacey said, the benefits of it are staggering. I mean, and you've alluded to all of them, I think. You know, the environmental side of it, the water side of it. But on the economic development side of it all, it's as big a picture, it's as big a story as anything else that there would be counties in the state that would die to have this happening in their county. You know, I think of when we go to Tallahassee and you're going through the sort of north on 75 and there's those million square feet warehouses on either side with thousands of FedEx trucks in the parking lot. Somebody probably recruited that. And for them, that was great, fantastic and good for them. Here, if we had had to come up with a CIP sheet to duplicate what MacArthur has done, what you guys are doing, what others are doing with water quality and native habitat restoration, we would never afford it. We would never do it. It would never happen. So we're getting all of that. We're getting, as Commissioner Hetherington said, fantastic job opportunity and a lot of local purchasing of a lot of different stuff that's going to benefit a lot of different businesses in Martin County. It's really amazing what you guys are doing. And I just, again, on the economic development side, if there was something that someone said in Martin County that we should be doing more of and trying to recruit more of, and that's going to cost millions of dollars to get from A to B, I think anything that we could have done to help you get there faster, and I'm sorry it's kind of taken so long to get where we are today even, I just, I wish it could happen faster. I wish you could, you know, I wish you'd already be playing out there, quite honestly, because of the impacts and in the most positive way. So to you and all the project people involved, fantastic, kudos, great job. And all of us probably can't wait to see the end product, or really can't, it's fantastic. Commissioner, thank you for the very kind comments. You know, one of the things I mentioned, I've traveled a lot nationally with golf, and I can tell you a project like this has not been done before. I mean, if you think about clubs that are multi-golf course clubs that have three courses, they're always tied to a real estate development, always. And, you know, that's where we're blessed with two wonderful owners who have done well in life, and they want to create a legacy project. They love this area. And because you've got to have, you know, a financial staying power to make this work because you're not underpinned by selling lots. But that's going to make this all the better, and they are absolutely committed, and that's why I think this is so exciting. And I just say, if you're not in the golf world, there is an incredible buzz to this nationally and even nationally. And we have been very quiet about this because we wanted to get through this process, but there are, you know, virtually everybody in the game knows about Three Lakes and Apogee. And so it's exciting. So thank you for the comments. We are very excited. Back to you, Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, I have some parking data questions and also some septic tank questions. Morris? Parking data. There are 199 parking spaces for the clubhouse. How many members is this club going to have? Well, initially, 60 members, based on the utility waiver, we couldn't do any more. But as I mentioned, the intent is to apply for Rural Lifestyle and connect to Water and Sewer, which is adjacent to the property, actually being extended to the county's operations center. So our intent is to increase the membership if we can tie into Water and Sewer. Two? That's undetermined. But at this point, the parking, as you can see, is identified on the site plan. If you want to pull that up. Well, there you go. And so the parking required is 296 parking spaces. Well, you can see the two 18-hole golf courses, by code, require 108. The nine-hole short course requires 27 spaces. The two driving ranges require 78 spaces. And the 14 cottages require 28 spaces. So we're required to have 241 spaces. We're providing 296 spaces. And all of the extra spaces are pervious parking, as required by code. So we're asking for a parking rate adjustment to allow for 50 additional spaces, with understanding that those have to be pervious parking. I'm just wondering, if there are 60 members, why you need 296 parkings? Well, we do expect there to be charitable events out here, even before the memberships. And, you know, those would be events that may require that additional parking. And also there are, there's a temporary sales center of 2,800 square feet. What are you selling? That's for marketing the memberships. That would be off of Bridge Road in this area. So it's just for marketing memberships and for welcoming visitors to the site. And the plan says that the cottages, total square footage is 34,496 square feet? For all of the cottages combined, yes. Right now there are 14 one-bedroom cottages. I got it. We've got a founder's house that's 5,400, and we've got cottages that are 34,496 square feet. Is that accurate? Yes, ma'am. Because if you turn to your later pages, pod B, which is 9, and pod A, which is 7 of 10, there are a total of 14 cottages, and the total of pod A is 21,830 square feet. Pod B is 22,472 square feet. The total square footage is not 34,496, but rather it's 4,508, which is right. They're on the same set of plans. Right. Well, we'll clarify that. Which is it? I'm not sure how to get with the architect, but we were given those numbers from the architect, but they're still representing 14 cottages. Well, the square footages are inconsistent. What else is inconsistent on this? Well, the actual floor plans are correct. They're shown on the site plans. Okay. Then the figure on the front building data is incorrect? We'll correct that if it is. Okay. I'd also like to ask some questions about the septic. Are you the one to answer those? Sure. Okay. So the waiver requests 4,565 gallons per day. Correct. The clubhouse uses 1,725 of those. Correct. The existing house, that's one house, that's one house that is 5,400 square feet. That's going to use 580 gallons per day. That's an existing septic tank system. So we just identified what's existing. Well, it's going to, according to the gallons per day calculations, that's going to use 580. Right. We had to account for that. North Cottages, which is pod A, which has seven cottages, 21,800 square feet of cottages, uses 20 gallons per day more. Because they're restricted to one bedroom only until such time. One is two and the rest are four. And you're saying the total of those seven cottages on pod A are only going to use as much as the founder's home. We're going to restrict the use, absolutely, to one bedroom for each cottage so that it doesn't exceed that requirement. Pod B, on the other hand, has seven cottages, I guess, and it's 22,000 square feet, and it only uses 800 gallons per day. That's correct. This doesn't... It meets the requirements with the health department, and we basically... There is no way that seven houses and eight houses, or seven and seven, are going to use the same as one. Well, we're hoping not have to build any septic tank systems except for the maintenance area on the west side, because we have made application on rural lifestyle, and we'll be coming in with a PUD application, and we'll be describing public benefits and going through that entire process with the intention of hooking up to existing water and sewer that's adjacent to the property. That's not the application that's before... That's correct. So we had to restrict... The one that's before us today is full of glaring inconsistencies. The only one you pointed out was with respect to the clubhouse or the cottages. And the cottages, yeah. Right, but it's still restricted to one bedroom, and the floor plans are shown on the site plan. That means that you've given us a gallons per day estimate that's not based in fact. It is based in fact. It meets the Florida Administrative Code under the health department regulation. Seven cottages do not use the same amount of septic. If you restrict the use, it does. And we have to restrict the use until we can tie into water and sewer. Also, the cottages, that's per day, gallonage? There's going to be long stretches where none of these cottages are even habited? I don't think that's how you're allowed to calculate that. I think you're going to have to calculate it upon however many bedrooms are there. Right, that's correct. Four versus a house that has four bedrooms uses the same as seven houses that have 15 bedrooms, 20 bedrooms. Again, each cottage is one bedroom, and we had to allocate 20 gallons per day per bedroom. That's not what your plans say. Your plans say that they're either two or they're four, all of them. There's not a one-bedroom cottage in any of your plans. I think the utility waiver restricts it to one-bedroom, though. Yes, the utility waiver is going to cap their usage at 5,000 gallons per day, and that can be monitored by the flow, flows generated. Way too many inconsistencies in your plan and in this application. We'll be back before you, hopefully, with another application for the PUD within the next few months. We should do away with all the septic tank systems. Anything else, Commissioner Hurd? That's it. Thank you. Oh, there is one more thing. According to the LDR's table, 3.11.1, these are permitted uses. General retail sales and services, limited retail sales and services, golf driving ranges, parking lots, and restaurants are not permitted uses in this land use. Are you done? I am. That's a conversation that we had about at our last meeting as well on a different project. I think driving ranges and clubhouse dining and pro shops are completely within the realm of what the golf experience in the golf world is. A couple of different things to break down. First off, Mr. Davis kept mentioning about a conversation we had this morning. Some people are tuned in now and hadn't seen the morning portion. There was some previous concern in the past about the proliferation of golf courses here in Martin County, and it was making some people concerned because I believe, in my opinion, they had an outdated opinion of what golf courses were like to the environment. And this morning we had an expert from the University of Florida, who's obviously a world-renowned or at least nationally-renowned expert on golf, and the process of making it really best management practices to make it an environmental benefit to a community versus something of a problem. We had a greenskeeper, the superintendent from a notable golf course here in Martin County, who had been netted for 15 years. So from the environmental aspects of the courses itself and the uses, I think it doesn't need further debate. I think it's a benefit. Our county being, you know, different than other areas and having always had a very restrictive throttle on growth and what the county would be like, we've seen legislation come down from Tallahassee that puts a lot of this, the potential of our green spaces, historic green spaces, into question. And adding golf courses is the perfect way to protect green space at someone else's expense, like I mentioned this morning. Two of our commissioners, our long-time commissioners, have been champions of purchasing, raising money through grants or the residents taxing themselves to purchase conservation land that is then owned by the county or some other entities, governmental entities. Coming completely off the tax rolls, and quite often having no then finances or plan to allow public access to a lot of those areas. So they're purchased and restricted. Or maintenance. What? Or maintenance, of course. Or then we're also responsible for the maintenance. Now, one of my colleagues said, hey, you know, Commissioner Hetherington, to make a point, said a lot of people would prefer that nothing happens here. Well, nothing happens here is not really an answer, because something does happen. They get strangled with vines and exotics, and the property becomes, you know, inhabitable to many wildlife. And it restricts water flow, and then it leaves itself open for people to trespass and ride motorcycles and four-wheelers. It just destroys the property. Left alone, it doesn't stay pristine. It needs a tremendous amount of work. Golf courses, in my opinion, are terrific. We've already discussed all the environmentals. This creates a green belt. This particular project, although three golf courses, has basically zero residential houses on it. We're getting into the proverbial weeds about 14 one-bedroom golf cottages and about a 5,000-gallon-per-day flushing flow means nothing, because this could have been developed if by right into hundreds of homes that would have generated thousands and thousands of gallons per site. This is 5,000 gallons on how many acres, grand total here again? 1,200. 1,200. I get the rules. And, you know, there's a way that you're looking at them one way. Our staff has looked at them, a whole group of staff, professionals that have all sorts of training, and then the applicant's professional staff and our legal staff feels that we're not breaking a rule. So I lean with our professional staff, although I respect your option to disagree. In terms of the golf and making this sort of the epicenter for golf, I was thinking while I was listening to some of the speakers, if I were to mention Ocala in Florida, most people know exactly what I'm talking about. We're talking about horses. And if I were to mention Wellington, everyone knows exactly what we're talking about. We're talking about polo. And if you want to keep going, you've got Cocoa Beach and Titusville, which is the Space Coast, and you have Daytona for racing, and you have Orlando for amusement parks, and you could do the Keys and everything else. I believe we are well on our way of making Martin County, when you hear Martin County, people will think golf. And, you know, if they're going to think something not just statewide or regionally, nationally, internationally, I'm perfectly happy for people to think of Martin County for golf. We heard Mr. Davis say this morning that golf as a profession, as an industry, has donated $4.6 billion or, you know, generates $4.6 billion in charitable donations, which is more than all of the other professional sports combined. And I've heard that statistic in the past. Now, how does that affect the locals? Because I will agree that this is going to be high-end golf. Most of our residents will never have the opportunity to play on these courses. I've never played at the MacArthur Club or at Sailfish or at the Medalist or at Mariner Sands, and most people don't. I also don't have any young kids in school anymore, but I still pay into the school system because it's part of the benefit of our community. What this group has discussed is the fact that they will open their facility a couple times a year to not-for-profits. All of us get invited. All the commissioners get invited to play in charitable golf outings. I think when you talk about charitable fundraising, golf outings is the premier issue. They all have their annual golf outing, and so for them to do that will be a huge benefit to our not-for-profits. The hundreds, if not thousands, of people that will be employed at every level of the employment ladder, from greenskeeping and wait staff to professional management to, you know, we know that some of this course maintenance requires almost like a Ph.D. in chemistry to operate these facilities. But that being said, this facility, which won't cost us as taxpayers or the county any money in terms of developing and building it to Commissioner Smith's point, we didn't have to send the Business Development Board and Ted Estalfi out there to, you know, beg this very well-known group of owners to come and invest millions of dollars in our community. They will also, these folks that will come here, they will donate to charities. I know for a fact that, you know, having grown up as a son of an employee of a high-end golf course up north, the members are extremely generous to the places that they live and work and play. So if they're from Ohio and they're playing golf or they're members here at Apogee and they hear about the Children's Services Council or the United Way or House of Hope, they'll also donate here. And then there's no hotels on this property. There's no, you know, there's dining opportunities, but I'm sure a lot of these people will dine in Hope Sound and come to Palm City and shop in downtown Stewart and go to the Lyric Theater and the Elliott Museum. I can't see a downside to this. So I would hope that you will all leave, especially the ownership and the representatives of the ownership, will leave knowing that we are very pleased that you've made this decision. I will speak for myself. My colleagues can speak for themselves. This is not, this is by no means a problem situation. It is you, from my perspective, are being welcomed to our community with open arms and thanks. And with that, we will allow Commissioner Hetherington to have the final word. I think you summed that up. I was just going to ask Pete if these are probably 21 to 20 now. Yes. The zoning. So if each one of those would be entitled to 2,000 gallons per day, is that right? So if you assumed 50 houses or so, then that's 100,000 gallons a day on the same piece. That's correct. So I feel very comfortable. That was all, Mr. Chair. Perfect. Anyone from the public looking to mention this? Back to the board. We already have a motion for approval of staff's recommendation from Commissioner Hetherington. Second. We have a second by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Opposed. The motion carries 4 to 1 with Commissioner Hurd dissenting. Yes. Let's take a 10-minute break for closed captioning and we shall be back. Go Navy. Okay. We are back from our late afternoon closed captioning break and we're taking up departmental item number one, Office of Management and Budget Items, which require board approval. There are nine items and they will be presented by Ms. Jennifer Manning. Ms. Manning, good afternoon. You are recognized. Good afternoon, Commissioner. It's Jennifer Manning, OMB Director. The first item on the agenda is permission to apply to the Federal Transit Administration for the FY21-5307 American Rescue Act Urbanized Grant. It's in the amount of $611,287 and the funds will be used for operating assistance. A small portion will be used for security and safety enhancement. There is no match required for the grant. Second item is permission to apply for the FY23 Water Quality Assistance Grant through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The grant funding is for $60,000 and the match dollars is $40,000, which is program in the budget. And this will be used to conduct a series of citizen science workshops on the best management practices for freshwater lakes function. Third item is permission to apply for the Children's Services Council after-school, out-of-school grant funding of up to $400,000. Those funds will help to pay staff salaries, supplies, programming, and maintenance. The areas that are covered is Golden Gate, Jensen Beach, and Port Salerno. The matching funds are budgeted in a park-operated budget. Next item is permission to apply through the Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources Special Category Grant. This is a grant that would be for $108,019. It requires a 50% match. Funds will have to be identified if that grant is successful. And they will utilize those funds to replace the roof and the gutters for the House of Refuge. What district's that in? Oh, one. Yeah. I don't know which district that was in. The House of Refuge and yours. Yeah. Those are the mansion at Takahoe. Everything, right? The arch in Raya. Item number five is permission to accept $532,454, which is a supplemental funding for the Southeast Indian Street Resurfacing Drainage and Improvement Project. And their matching fund is budgeted in the CIP. You know, it's not in District 1, that sidewalk on Plantation Avenue. Oh. Oh, yes, it is. It's going to be. Maybe. Okay. Item number six is permission to accept the Amendment number one for mosquito control agreement. This is an additional $9,800, which will be used to purchase additional chemicals. Item number seven is permission to accept the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Grant Funds for Coral Gardens Vacuum Sewer Project. This is an $8 million grant. Hooray. Nice money. The matching funds will be provided through various sources, which includes SRF, in-kind, and FP&L. Florida Power and Light. Okay. Item number eight is permission to accept the Clean Water State Revolving Funds for projects, which includes Portolerno, New Monrovia, and Western Extension sewer projects. And this is in the amount of $20 million. This is a State Revolving Funds loan, if you will, that will cover the costs of these projects. Item number nine is adjustments to the FY23 budget, and there are four items within that section. The first one is requesting a budget resolution approval to adjust various funds due to the post-fund balance adjustments that was made by the clerk. And that was done after the fund balance was done, so we needed to do some adjustments to align the budget. The second item, B, is requesting a budget resolution to allocate additional revenues for Seaside Cafe, and that is due to the high performance. And the staff anticipates an additional over $350,000 that's over the budgeted amount of revenues for Seaside Cafe. Can I stop there just for a second? Mm-hmm. First of all, what district's that in? One. All of our staffs do an amazing job at everything they work on, but I've got to tell you, our staff at our places on the beach, they're fantastic. They are doing a really great job. And what's fun to watch is they're incredibly competitive. They want to be able to do more and get more done. And it's just, they're nice, they're pleasant, they're helpful, and they really do a great job. So I just want to kind of give them a little bit of plug. And the revenue generated is clearly part of their performance in terms of how they're doing what they're doing out there. So anyway, just a little plug for our... I would echo that, Commissioner Smith. Whenever we have out-of-town visitors, we always take them there. And that's several bridges for me. But even when there's a huge line and, you know, I've actually run snack bars on the beach in my youth, it's very difficult. The facility there is not big, but it's obviously very well laid out, and they work as a fine-tuned team in there. Because if there's 15 people online, they breeze right through. It doesn't take a long time to get the food. They could not be friendlier. They're buzzing around, cleaning and wiping the tables and turning the tables. I'd have to think it's one of the best-performing operations we have in the county. And that's saying something, because we have a lot of them. So I agree with Commissioner Smith one time. One time. Really? Thank you. Okay, the next one is also approval of a resolution for revenues that is going to exceed the budget. And this is for Indian Riverside Park, which is requesting $70,750 increase and the corresponding expenses as well. Item number. The final item is that the utilities department is requesting approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $495,000, as well as a capital improvement sheet modification. And this is to order the automatic read meter replacement. And they need to order, there's like 11-month backlog, so they need to order them in advance so they're asking to move their, you know, funding forward so they can request those meters. And that concludes my presentation. Move approval. Dr. Decker. Eric. We have a motion to accept staff's presentation and recommendations by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed, the motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Ms. Manning, thank you very much. I see a pinch hitter coming in. Departmental number two, contracts that meet the threshold for board approval $1 million or greater, will not be presented by Palm City's own Christy Brotherton. But I'm Palm City resident. That's what we like to hear. Tasha Sapp, Martin County Purchasing. I just have one for your consideration. It is aerial photogrammetry, and it is maximum not-to-exceed value of $1,500,000 with a maximum not-to-exceed term of five years. Recommend action. Move that the board award the contract with GPI Geospatial Inc. and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute any and all documents related to this request. Move staff's recommendation. Second. That was like a split. We have a motion to accept staff's recommendations from Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you. I'll see you in the neighborhood. Okay. The one everyone's been waiting for. That's right. I won't be able to meet her by the bus station. Bus stop. Before we continue, let's wish Todd Faust a happy birthday to you, sir. Sixty years old today. Good for you. Catching up, Todd. I'd ask you to come and say a few words, but I don't want you to have to get up. This last agenda item of the day, Departmental No. 3, Sailfish Sands Restaurant Bar and Hitting Bays Operation. It looks like it'll be a whole team of people. It'll be one George and two Kevins that will make the presentation. You're all recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. George Stokas, Assistant County Administrator. Before I get started, I have Mr. Abate to my left, our Parks Director, and Kevin Kerwin, our Deputy Parks Director. But we had a lot of other departments assist as well, County Legal, various other folks in Parks and Rec, as well as General Services. Being one of the last items of the day, I'll try and be brief but brilliant for you. I'll give you a quick background as well as highlight the issues and where we need some direction. On March 8th, this body approved a public purpose lease for the agreement with La Martina Management Incorporated to operate the Sailfish Sands Restaurant and Hitting Bays. Last year. That was last year, March 8th of 2022. The operation of that facility actually started on October 20th of 2022, and the first monthly payment of $42,594 was due 30 days after continuous public operations. So this lease originally was set forth, it's a little bit backward, at least in my mind, usually you've got to pay and then you get to stay there. But in this case, you would stay there, run your business for 30 days, and then you'd pay the rent afterward, which on December 1st, that payment was made. However, the payment for December 1st from La Martina Management was not received until January 4th of 2023, and that would be the last day in which they provided a full rent payment. On January 4th, staff met with the officers of La Martina Management to discuss a resolution. The parties at that point were interested in seeking a seasonally adjusted rent or some other format where we could work with them. They did provide on January 30th a partial payment of $20,000, but did not include the sales tax. Our staff met to resolve with payment issues on that date, as well as ongoing negotiations with La Martina, including their request to make partial payments and enter into a seasonally adjusted rent program. We discussed their county's willingness to accept capital assets, i.e. restaurant equipment, in lieu of cash to meet their contractual rent. La Martina Management did provide the county with a report of that and told up to all those costs, including capital equipment, at $643,712. County legal staff assisted, as well as county admin, to ensure that those assets were free and clear and beyond any type of lien. On May 14th, however, La Martina Management surrendered their property to the county, and that was Mother's Day at 4 o'clock. Unfortunately, the county and La Martina were unable to reach an agreement to pay the obligated contractual rent. However, on May 15th of 2023, the day after, the county and La Martina Management agreed to transition the negotiations into a mutual termination agreement, which you'll find attached to this board item. At the end of the day, the La Martina Management owed $250,900.84 behind in rent as of May 14th. Ultimately, staff negotiated an equitable exchange for the obligated contractual rent at a value of $256,831.51. Staff is recommending that the board approve the mutual termination agreement, which is also attached on that. On May 15th of 2023, the county parks and recreation staff accepted control of the vacated property with assistance from county general services. We have pictures, if you would like, demonstrating what condition the facility was handed to us in. On May 16th, La Martina Management executed their end of the mutual termination agreement. I think it should also be noted that La Martina Management also agreed to assist with the transition plan and the reassignment of point-of-sale software, food, beverage licenses, and provided a list of all future bookings for the facility, which was a very important part and has saved county staff weeks in trying to resolve various issues. On May 18th of 2023, Parks and Rec staff began to evaluate the facility and began rehabbing the facility into a tenable condition for future public events. We did find out, once the tenant had vacated the property on May 14th, that the next weekend there was going to be a golf tournament that was promised to utilize that facility for both food and beverage, and La Martina Management was not able to do that. It did cost staff approximately $10,000 to clean the facility in order to pass a state inspection. And then I'd like to move on to the – that's really basically the history and a chalk point of where we're at, and that leads us into the issues. George, if I just uninterrupted, I think the staff has done a good job working with all those folks that had booked rentals to provide them the space and work with catering services so that anybody that's had booked a site has still been able to use the facility, even though it's not open to the general public. That's correct. And I'm hoping that when I go through these issues, I'll answer a lot of questions as it relates to it that have come up. The first issue is staff is seeking direction from the board regarding future operations of the facility. Staff is prepared to manage and operate the facility in the interim. We have researched, we have met with local business analysts to assist in how do we actually value the operation of the business and what would the local appraisal be regarding the value of the building. In our consultations with these meetings, the majority of the opinion is that you need a full year of operating revenue and expenses in order to provide an accurate picture for an RFP scenario as well as evaluation of business operations. If it's the desire of this board, we can move forward with running the facility in the interim and developing that data that would then later be used as an RFP to move forward to the private operator. And that RFP would have to come back to this body. So that's issue number one. Issue number two is if the board does desire for us to run this in the interim, we do need direction regarding the service of alcohol. Currently, the county restricts alcohol service to wine, beer, malt beverages, and pre-mixed drinks. The serving of traditional liquor has been prohibited from the county-run facilities. Staff is recommending that the Sailfish Sands Golf Course Restaurant Bar and Hitting Bays follow the same restrictions that you have similar to Seaside Cafe. This mitigates quite a bit of the liability that comes with traditional liquor. This recommendation is also made so that the facility will remain family-friendly and not place the county in any adverse liability position, as our county attorney has very often reminded me and educated me on. So that's issue number two is alcohol service. Issue number three is staff is also drafting a policy to allow for the tipping of contract, also known as resource government service employees at Sailfish Sands. The reason this policy is necessary and being drafted is because this would be the first facility where the county would be responsible for providing table-side service that follows a traditional model of compensation or a resort model. So either you add the tip on yourself, or if you're going to use a resort model, the tip is already added on at, say, 15% or 18%. That's also a traditional model that's used at other golf clubs. Staff is proposing that all transactions will be cashless that will allow for the tracking of what tips and fair, equitable distribution. And this will allow for all tips to be recorded and reported to the Internal Revenue Service and the Martin County Clerk and Comptroller. We were looking for your direction. The board-directed policy will be provided to you at a future date if this body does desire for us to run it in the interim. Staff has proposed that gift cards will be honored until December 31, 2023. The current outstanding gift card balance, as reported by Toast, point of sale, I apologize, I should have written that out, is $14,243.80. Gift cards will only be honored if a company buy a receipt of payment and register a transaction within the point of sale. Staff believes that honoring the commitments of the previous tenant will go far and the overall reputation of the county facility and the county operation and the court of public opinion. We saw quite a bit of questions and activities on social media as it related to this. If the facility were to remain closed, the county will still need to maintain an expense operating cost for our top tracer lease, elevator, life safety cameras, alarm monitoring, landscaping, irrigation, parking lots, AC maintenance, FPL, et cetera, which will furthermore, it will be an expense that we'll have to maintain while we're at least out for RFP or whatever the future of that facility is. It is estimated that developing a revised request for proposal, inclusive of the proper advertising, mandatory pre-bid meetings, selection committee review, and lease negotiations will take four to six months at a very quick pace. This does not account for new tenant startup items, which would be a new alcohol license, food and beverage license, point of sale implementation, hiring training, and et cetera, which could take up to four months just alone. So you could be looking up to almost a 10-month period just to open up from that perspective. And those are the issues. And then finally, you will, and I'll wrap this all up at the end, Mr. Chair, there is a budget resolution attached to the document, but staff is proposing that this will be a fee-neutral facility. In other words, it will not be, it will not cost money, it will break even. But we are anticipating approximately, our anticipated operating expenditures based on the data we have in our initial business models is approximately $485,000. We do project that the facility should generate a net profit of approximately 15% annually. I'm sure if there's more questions fiscally, Mr. Abate would be more unhappy to answer those questions. So I'm going to scroll down to the recommended actions. We're looking for this body to approve a mutual termination agreement. We're looking for direction to authorize staff to manage the facility for a period of one year and provide an update to the board in January of 2024. Authorize the county administrator to execute 4COP-11CG, which is a golf course liquor license, limiting the sales to wine, beer, seltzers, and pre-mixed drinks and malt beverages. Authorizing staff to run the facility as a cashless operation and direct staff to direct us to bring back a board-directed tipping policy. Looking for your direction as to how you would like us to honor all eligible gift cards through December 31st of 2023. We're looking for you to adopt the budget resolution, as well as looking for you directing us to develop a revised RFP to include performance bond and other means to ensure financial viability of future leasing. And with that, I hope I've done it justice and have kept it pretty brief and will be more than happy to answer any questions or comments you may have at this time. Thank you very much, Mr. Stokas. Mr. Abate, anything to add? Well said. How about that? Commissioners, questions, comments? I have some, but I'll allow you, of course, to go first. Commissioner Hurd. First of all, I want to say that our staff did everything right with opening, with creating the new course, creating the new clubhouse, doing the RFP planning. We did absolutely everything right. And it just, our leaseholder did not. So I want to just say that staff has been terrific. And I have absolute confidence in our ability to run the hitting bays and the clubhouse very successfully in the next year. I look forward to it. We're going to get critical information throughout the next year as we run this so that we'll understand when our highs and our lows are and where our revenues are, where our shortcomings might be. It's going to be a great learning lesson for us, and I have absolute confidence in our staff's ability to execute. So I'm happy to support all of staff's recommendations. Very nice. Appreciate that. Anyone else? Let me jump in. I agree with nearly everything the commissioner Hurd just said. I remember when the first time I had a meeting with our staff, February, I guess, that said that there was a problem. I had been there with family and friends during the month of December and a little bit in January. I actually went to a friend's wife. He hosted his wife's 60th birthday there, and a lot of people that were there for the first time ever thought it was remarkably well done. I'm disappointed in our leaseholder because I will tell you that I felt the times that I was there that the service was first rate and that the food was excellent. So when I originally heard from our senior staff that there was a problem, I was surprised and disappointed because I thought he was off to a great start. Having done these things on my own in my history in the past, normally there is a sliding seasonal scale. For instance, if you were to rent an ice cream truck up north in March or April, you might pay $25 a week for the truck, but in August you're going to pay $350 a week for the truck. That's how seasonal kind of businesses work. Florida is a little bit different. However, that being said, if the leaseholder couldn't afford to pay us his rent in December and January and February, he certainly was not going to be able to do it in June and July and August. That being said, also, Mr. Stokas, you didn't mention, and I know that you had access and Mr. Abate and his team had access to the point of sale data and information. It was part of the agenda item. I went very carefully through the entire thing. They made a tremendous amount of money there. It wasn't like we were there as the nasty landlord with a gun to the head of someone who was struggling. They were hitting home runs month after month just deciding not, as far as we could tell, deciding just not to pay the rent. I did also get a lot of feedback. I assume my colleagues did as well. There was a lot of pushback on social media that somehow made it look like we were the bad guys. To Commissioner Hurd's point, I think staff did exactly. We were, if we were going to critique our performance, we were exceptionally generous, exceptionally compassionate and patient and understanding. This was not a decision where we were trying to force someone out. He literally, he and his managerial team, forced themselves out. We gave them every benefit. The things that were a concern for me, and I guess the longer we're closed, the more difficult it will become, is I, and I mentioned a lot of this to Mr. Abate already, is hiring back any of the existing staff that worked there for the leaseholder should be, and I think it's important to offer them the opportunities to come back. Because this is not their fault that that happened to them. But the longer we're closed, the more difficult it will be to get any of them back. But I remember some of them were standout employees and fit very well into Mr. Abate's team. The tricky part for us taking it over right now is it's the summer season. And there's a summer season in golf as it is, but I think different than a traditional golf course, these hitting bays is not the same as summer golf. I think this is much more of a social event. It's much more of a recreational kind of get-together kind of a thing. I don't think you're going to see the summer slump that many golf courses potentially would see. I am perfectly acceptable with the running of it in the meantime. However, and I think most of us know, we have seen, in my opinion, sometimes unfairly, the criticism that the county government is operating in the private sector sphere. And that some of the things that we do here internally should be handled by the private sector. I did have a couple of restaurant owners and golf course owners reach out to me and ask if there would be an opportunity for them to participate in an RFP. I also want to remind the public that's listening now that when we originally did this RFP, and Mr. Abate, correct me if I'm wrong, there was only one person that applied. That's correct. And that was the La Mattia group. And I remember very well the day that he came. He had a background, and we won't get into his background, but he had a very stellar managerial background for a very well-known, very busy local restaurant. And I was impressed, even though he didn't have a tremendous amount of, you know, being the manager of someone else's restaurant is different than running it and owning it yourself. But I was very impressed the day he came to, we voted him in with him. And then we were there for the openings. I thought they were off to a great start. So I would recommend that we do an RFP sooner than later for two reasons. One, I think that there might be some interest, you know, now while it's still happening. And two, I think it would be odd and not necessarily fair of our staff to spend a year in-house running this organization, I believe very successfully, to then a year from now say let's do an RFP and then pull it away from you and your team, having run it for a year, versus let's see if there is genuine interest. I think Mr. Donaldson had mentioned to me once about inviting prospective proposers to come to the facility. I mean, shame on them if they're going to, you know, put a proposal in and having not been there. But invite them in for a little more of a behind-the-scenes kind of feel and let them know exactly what this entails. You know, very few people, very few people have experience in managing hitting bays with top tracer golf technology. This is not a driving range where you're hitting regular golf balls. It's much more of an arcade, social kind of an event. And also to have the restaurant. I think what you'd have to present is that the, and Mr. Abate and I talked about this even today, the restaurant, the actual dining room portion of the restaurant is not where the action is. The dining and catering and food and beverage is happening right at the bays. And so I think that, you know, someone would have to understand that. And a lot of people that were pressuring the commissioners into saying don't make this an in-house event again might not completely understand what it will entail. I am not a fan, and I've read all of the back and forth that you've had in emails and things like that. I'm not a fan of cashless. I get the concept of that. I don't like, you know, and I'll give you my personal opinion, I don't like that societally plenty of organizations, retail establishments, are not accepting cash anymore. I won't get into the conspiracy theories of a cashless society, but that being said, I think it's important. You've run plenty of organizations, have internally operations that have accepted cash. I know that some of the only criticism I get of the golf course, of the universal golf course operation, everyone raves about it except the fact that it's cashless. I've owned businesses. I've had to divvy out tips. We've all worked there or been there. Some people want to tip in cash. Some people want to pay in cash. I think that there's enough safeguards in place that you could still do that without it being a problem. I very much appreciate your policy on accepting existing gift cards. I'm shocked that it's $18,000 or $14,000 worth of outstanding gift cards. It just goes to show you how well they were doing there. They've sold $14,000 worth of outstanding gift cards. But I like the fact that as a community, as a county, we're going to honor them. And if you're taking it on the chin with some of these things, then I think we shouldn't blame the people that were nice enough to purchase gift cards, as well as the fact that they did not realize that they purchased those gift cards from an outside organization, the La Matia group. They assume they purchased those gift cards from us. And so my final, and I know that some people need to get to dinner, is the fact that I would definitely open it up as quickly as you could get your team in there in place. Some of the people that Commissioner Smith were talking about that run your operations at the beach are superstars, not just for us. They're like industry superstars for what they're able to accomplish. I think if La Matia group was operating the course very well, I think your team will operate it even better. And I would like to see you get it open sooner than later. I'm super disappointed that it was in such terrible shape and that it was so dirty, if you will, considering it was like six months old. The facility was brand new. It takes a while or complete carelessness and lack of effort to make a place that bad that fast. So I have, like Commissioner Hurd said, the utmost confidence in your ability to do it. I would put an RFP out to see if there's genuine interest. And the part about the RFP that's different this time than last time is last time the facility wasn't open. It wasn't running. It wasn't operating. There was no track record there. You have one now. And it was run by, you know, an operator that couldn't figure out how to do it. Wait until people see you all do it. Commissioner Smith. I agree with most of all that. I'm not in so much of a hurry on the RFP. I think staff needs the opportunity to run the facility and get it up and operational so that everybody can understand what it can do. I would say this much about the seasonal issue. Our staff out at Seaside told me two weeks ago that three weeks ago they broke their record for income out of season. And if you were out there during season, it was crazy during season. I mean, it was just busy, packed, amazing. And so my guess is you give people good service, you give people good food, you treat them fairly, you take care of them. Our staff will do an amazing job getting this thing back up and running. You know, just the fact that some of our staff went over and helped clean up when we took over was amazing, that they left their shift and went out there to help. And they're really committed to this. And, you know, at the end of the day, it still says Martin County on it. No matter who's running what out there, it's Martin County's facility. And our brand, it's important that that doesn't falter and that we provide our residents, our visitors with the best experience they can have. So, you know, if the RFP goes out sooner than later, fine. I would much rather see us get our staff there and get it up in operational, try to hire back as many people as we can get back. I heard, too, Ed, that there's a family through another family that we know was one of the employees, and they needed the job. I mean, that was an important thing to them. And they were really, really concerned that they were going to lose their job. So the sooner we can get it back up in operational, the best. And, you know, let's apply for what we've got to apply for. I, too, heard. I'm sure we all did. You know, I'm sure we heard from the different restaurants that are interested in doing it. They're great restaurateurs. They have a great track record. It's a complex program out there. So we just need to go in eyes wide open. But we at least now, I think, have a better understanding of what that place is and what it can do and what it can't do. And so in the RFP world, it will be easier, I say easier, it will be a little bit more clear to really know what we need to do to safeguard the best interests of the county. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah. I'm not eager to rush into an RFP either. I have absolute confidence in our staff, and I don't have confidence in anybody else. So I think that we learn a lot, do it for a year, and then make a decision whether we want to put out an RFP or not. And also just some facts. The gross sales in these six months with our lease were just under $2.2 million. That's how much money they made. And also the summer slide. It's not going to happen this year. Last year, the summer memberships totaled 70. This year, the summer memberships are 450. That's how well, that's just the golf course. And, Commissioner Campy, you're right, that the hitting bays are not a golfing experience. They're an arcade experience. So I don't think that we're going to see the summer slump that we might have anticipated. I think that the golf course and the clubhouse will continue to operate very successfully throughout the summer. And if I didn't make that a motion before, I will move staff's recommendation for it. And also, one thing that I'm willing to negotiate is cashless. I know that some people are not fond of cashless. So the only possible change I would make in the staff's recommendation is to reconsider the cashless transactions. Thank you very much. Commissioner Hetherington. I'm a huge, huge fan of Sailfish Sands. My kids and I, I bet you I've been a couple dozen times with my kids. They've been without me. I've been with friends. I've had after-hours events. It is an amazing facility. It's great for all ages of all Martin County. And the food was fabulous. The venue is perfect. The building turned out beautifully. So I am a huge fan. I think that I differ in some of my colleagues' perceptions. I don't think that I could sit up here and say that the county has no responsibility in this facility faltering. I mean, there are certainly, you can never put ownership 100% off to someone else. So I feel like we should sit up here and take some responsibility as a county, as staff. Number one, we had a new venue, which is fantastic. Philosophically, I'm not in favor of, you know, county-run facilities. I like private sector. When you have a road job, I like a private, you know, enterprise to do it. When someone bids on a road, you know, in my district or any district, there's only one bidder. I want to know, why is there only one bidder? You know, why is that sometimes we have to take that low bidder? Sometimes we've had to kick bidders off and take their bond and get a new bidder. We didn't have anything in place, you know, in order to replace one bidder. I'm a big fan of we should reject when we have, particularly when we're entering an unknown venue like this, I really believe we should have rejected the bid and probably did a little bit more investigating. Now we're saying, well, let's give us four or six months or a year. We probably, you know, we owed it to our public to know that right up front. So that I think that we could have certainly done better as a leadership, as a county. La Matina group, I mean, I think that they provided excellent food. They've got, you know, some good reputation throughout the county. Did they do everything that they probably should have in this venue? Probably not. I believe they entered into this also, not knowing exactly what to expect, as we all did. So I think it's somewhat unfair to put all of the burden on this particular vendor. As far, again, the RFP, I've heard some of the sales numbers. I've also heard in private meetings that we weren't getting all of the numbers from. So would the clerk, you know, would it be an audit? How do we get the proper numbers that we need in order to craft an RFP? Because if we didn't have them in there in the beginning, what is going to change in this next RFP? So when we were entering around, I believe, February or March, we contacted the, in the provisions of the lease, it allows us to do an audit of the books. And the problem is, is that La Martina management never fully complied in providing all the books and an accurate and full picture to our auditor. So I, and they did shut us off from point of sale system. So we had a 24-hour period where we were able to access the point of sale system. Our parks director did a fantastic job of forensically downloading every single thing he could. I might add he was on vacation when they think he did that. But there was not a cooperative effort by La Martina with our auditor. The difference is, is if the county staff runs it, we have no choice but to be, but to forensically allow them to audit us. No different than all the other operations that they do. That's why staff believes that at a minimum, a one-year run of the facility allows for a full open book. Here's your books. Here's the county running it. Here's the comptroller, excuse me, the clerk comptroller doing the audit and presenting that as a part of an RFP process. It's just merely a suggestion, but that's kind of how we got to that term length. And I got that from our legal staff and our auditor at the time. And that's where we came up with the one-year process. How, what did the bidder base their projections on then for this RFP? Did we give them information? And they had, I mean, I wouldn't think that they just threw a number up in the air. Somebody had to provide information. Well, we did provide them info, and Mr. Abate is going to provide that. But I think it's important to note that their initial bid number was exceedingly higher than when staff stepped in and said, are you sure your bid is accurate? It was then backed down considerably, and our county administrator had tasked me to come up with various scenarios in which how do you value a business? Do you do it based on capital construction costs? Do you do it based on fair market square footage value for a commercial retail site? So we ran a bunch of different models. And in actuality, the models that I ran, the $42,000 was right about right in line when you look at a net profit margin. But I think Mr. Abate can provide you more information, Commissioner, as to the information we did provide them. The benchmark for the RFP revenue projections was based on the same model as Vero Beach Big Shots. So they have 30 bays. We have 20. It turns out, I talked to one of the owners the other day, we actually outperformed them with 20, surprisingly. They're a very successful facility. They do really well. They pay a monthly rent of $35,000 a month. So if you look at what we've done, in terms of the negotiation in the lease, in terms of the RFP, we projected the revenue, it was just over $3 million. They projected in their RFP that they would do $6.2 million. So they came in brave. They came in with a very intense menu, casual dining experience. But the model was always developed on a very simple hitting bay model. I presented to this board in 2020 and talked about if you're just going to do a clubhouse, we're going to subsidize it. No doubt about it, we run it. Because clubhouses are loss leaders. They're service providers for golf. That's what they're there for. Throwing a 20 hitting base on the back, as you can see in the revenue numbers, they did quite well. The hitting bay experience. So they projected really high, and they spent a lot of money up front. And I think that was their downfall. They spent so much money up front on labor and capital, and I think they could never just recover from it. This is not different. When you look at the – and those are my assumptions. So when you look at what we provide on a monthly basis, you know, we pay – we negotiate – we pay 30 percent of the electric bill. We negotiated that. We negotiate – they negotiate the rent down to the $42,000 a month. We pay for 100 percent of the top tracer technology lease. That's $4,000 a month. We pay for all the golf balls, all the labor to pick the range, waste management, elevator, life safety. We provide the beverage cart at no cost, driving range maintenance, you know, labor. I mean, all these things we pay for. When you look at Vero Beach Big Shots and their model, they – that's part of their operating costs. They have to pay that. So we contributed, which would be – which would – somewhere around – if you took our rent payment and what we contributed monthly by those things that I just talked about, their rent payment's really around $28,000 or so because we wanted to be a partner in this. And we did a number of things to help them with their – a very vibrant menu that they wanted to do. We spent $35,000 in a change order to upgrade the electrical so they could have their equipment that they wanted. You know, we moved the dumpster from one location to the other for better service. We did all these things. So we did all these things to be a partner. And, you know, and, you know, so for us, you know, the RFP was fair. You know, we invited everyone that probably called you to a mandatory pre-bid to come out and look at the property, some of the best restaurateurs here, including Topgolf and Big Shots, to come out and see what this place looks and feels like while it was in the shell. And they came out. Are they the only one that attended the mandatory pre-bid? No, no others attended. But they're the only ones that submitted a bid. Did we ask any of the other ones why they didn't? We couldn't talk in the cone of silence. So after it was all signed and done, I talked to one of the owners of Big Shots, and he just said, I couldn't put something together during the Thanksgiving holiday time frame when you guys were ending our busiest time of the year. Have any of them reached out to you now to see if they would be willing to bid? I believe there's interest. You know, obviously you have folks that reached out to you. I reached out from an operational standpoint to see how well we did versus, you know, there's only one other facility like this, and that is Faroe Beach Big Shots. They're the only other model. Other than that, you go down to West Palm to the drive shack. That's 90 hitting bays. That's an entirely different operation. This is more like a boutique hitting bay. So the operation of this facility is not complicated. It's not more complicated than the water park, that's for sure. It is really about technology and golf. And to answer your question about the summer slide, there's no summer slide in this business for this Friday, Saturday night, Sunday, family day, in the evening when it's hot out and you have climate control hitting base. It is going to be at its capacity. That's why it's designed. So when the golf course – now, while the golf course is approaching 500 members, it'd be nice to have a place for them right now to go play, right? But obviously we're not there yet. So I think the RFP was well done. I just think that all these things I alluded to, we really tried to partner with them to spend some money on this, you know, very aggressive RFP projection of $6.2 million, which I thought was way over the top. And so obviously they thought they were going to be a – they had said in their presentation and they had a great presentation to the selection committee that they wanted to be a restaurant first and hit in base second. That's not the model, but this – you know, so – but we believe that they could learn how to run the hitting base, and they've done it. They did a fantastic job running the hitting base. There's no doubt about it, so. I think they did a fantastic job all the way around. Obviously the numbers just didn't add up, and I think that's the root of the problem. We need to know why the numbers are not adding up, you know, whether that be we need an audit. We need – we need something that explains to me why the numbers don't add up, and are they ever going to add up for the private sector? I – Phyllis, and I'll go down the list of the things that you asked for action. I don't believe that we should be running – I think Seaside Cafe is fantastic. I think our staff does a good job. I think this is a completely different animal all in itself. Like I said, if we were bidding on a road project and that contractor defaulted, we would kick them out, take their bond, move on. And I just think we misstepped, you know, as a – by the way, I have the utmost respect for our staff. I think, you know, we all have learned something in this process. So alcohol, I don't think that that particular venue succeeds without regular alcohol. The way it was invented, the way it was created, the bar, everything the way it was designed, you know, it is to be a regular alcohol. So it – to me, that's another reason why the RFP has to be – go out immediately. Cash, I believe, you know, cash, you really have to accept cash. I don't – I don't – we have people all the time that are complaining, you know, at the golf course when we weren't accepting cash or they thought we weren't accepting cash. So I don't think you could run the business without accepting cash. And our – there's no way it should take four to six months to me to get – And who – who authorized the advertising of the county hiring staff to run the facility? Because it's all over social media. This is the first time we've talked about it in public. But it's already being advertised that the county is hiring staff. So I just want to know who authorized the advertising of hiring staff. The commissioner, I did. Staff approached me and said if we wanted to get this operational in July, anticipating that the board may want to take it over at least interimly, that we would have to begin advertising for those staff. And it's for resource staff. So they wouldn't be actually county employees. They would be employees of our contract labor company. And with the caveat that any of those staff could not be hired until the board had this meeting. So I'm the one to blame for authorizing that. So – but that was only in anticipation that it was my thought that to recoup some of the funds that we will have to do to maintain it that at least operated in the interim would be in our benefit. So I took that risk. And I apologize if that was something – Well, I respect you, Dawn. I just – we – that we didn't have any direction. I would have said advertise the RFP at the same time, and we would go from there. So, again, I think this is something that we've learned. I think we need an item to come back because I want to see all of the numbers on the golf course before the RFP comes out. And the RFP should come out as soon as possible. Commissioner Jenkins. I'm going to second Commissioner Hurd's motion with taking cash. I agree the county doesn't need to be in business competing against business. We've just experienced something that was pretty horrific. I think we should actually run that, set the business model for somebody to take over through the RFP process. That's it. I mean, I don't really know. I mean, it's whenever. I mean, up to a year at this point right now, right? And, you know, in six months, if we feel that we've got exactly going on what we want going on, which is what we want somebody to take over, at that point then send out the RFP. But I don't know that right now we know exactly what we want. We need to get into it, right? We did a great job with Seaside. Let's do the same thing there. Let's set the tone. Let's put in an RFP, and let's give it to a private entity to run with specific goals and objectives, right? Commissioner Smith. You just said everything else I was going to say, so that's fine. Wow. Ooh. Yeah. I'm not opposed to the... Well, I was getting ready to stab him in the neck. Be quiet. So I'm trying to get us to the finish line. Very violent. Very violent. Well, I'm in so much trouble already, it doesn't matter. Yeah. We meet, this is the first time we've met in a month. Anyway, I do not disagree with the motion maker or the seconder. I think there's a little nuance there for me. I do want us to open it as quickly as possible, utilizing our staff. I do agree with Commissioner Hetherington that I'd like to see an RFP out there. The concept that we would design a working model in the restaurant and hitting bay business and then say to someone else, this is what we want you to do, I think that restricts the people that would be interested in doing it. And I also think it would be potentially unfair to you and the staff that if you ran it for a year and really made it successful, and then all of a sudden we'd say, okay, you guys have been great, but we're now going to put it out for an RFP. At that point, I would say, keep it. So for me, I would, and I know you can't rush it. The RFP is different now. The motion is January 2024. We're going to reevaluate, and we'll go from there. So that's six months. Yeah. Not a year. We're going to have a conversation about it in six months. No, but if you come up. You potentially can run it for a year with this motion, right? Well, it says to January 20, whatever. Your motion is for a year or to staff's recommendation, which is. Staff's recommendation. Staff's recommendation. But I also think that we need to run it for a year. See, that's where we're getting. We're going to get a report in January. I don't know. If you ran it for a year, why would I want to get involved then, and why would you want to give it up? So with that in mind, you know, this is an important decision we can't rush because someone's got to get out. I'm comfortable with everything that I heard. I would like that the RFP, when you feel that it's ready to be put out there, don't wait a year. I think you only just do yourself and your team a disservice to tell them now you're going to get a whole new, brand-new management team. It's not going to be us internally anymore. We have a motion by commission. One more? Commissioner Hetherington. I was just going to say, the longer that this facility goes in limbo, I was hearing months ago from people that didn't want to book the facility because they were hearing chatter on the street that the vendor was having a hard time. So until there's something very firm, which I believe is an RFP and someone bidding and taking over the facility, I think you're going to constantly, as a marketing standpoint, stay in limbo because why do you want to? You know, we've all already have to build back confidence. You know, if you're a vendor that wants to book for three, six months from now, even if you've turned it over beautifully, which I think our staff is great in Parks and Rec, there's going to be some hesitancy for people to buy in now. So we have to build confidence back. So I think that the quicker the RFP goes out, the better. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd for staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Opposed. The motion carries four to one with Commissioner Hetherington dissenting. Thank you. Thank you. We have reached the end of our meeting. If there is anyone that is a 505 or a 610 public comment, now is the time. Mr. Faust, happy birthday to you. I'm glad you got to spend it with us. It's exciting. With that, our next agenda, our next meeting is June 20th. Is that correct, Donna? June 20th. And until then, we will see you on TV.