Board of County Commissioners on 2023-06-20 9:00 AM - Jun 20, 2023

23, I will call our Board of County Commissioners meeting to order. We have a lot of things going on, a lot of moving parts this morning. But before we get into any of that, I will ask our friend Pastor Stanley Allen Jr. from Redeemer Lutheran Church to come forward for an invocation. That will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by Mr. Ted Rittberger, a Vietnam veteran from the Marine Corps, who will do the pledge. And then when he is done, he'll share with us a little bit of his background. So if you would all please rise. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good morning, Pastor. Good morning. Let's pray. Merciful Father, we are so very thankful for this day, another day which you have given to each of us to serve. Thank you for this great joy and this great blessing. Lord, we also thank you for the various gifts which you have given to each one of us. And today we are especially thankful for the gifts given to each of our county commissioners, that they would serve the people of Martin County with wisdom, compassion, and joy. And Lord, I pray for guidance and strength for our commissioners as they discuss the matters brought before them, and that you would be with them as they carry out their work with a spirit of joy, enthusiasm, and humility. And Father, we are also so thankful for all, all who work in and for this local government here in Martin County. May their service to each of us, to the people of Martin County, be joyful, and I ask that you would bless them. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Good morning. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good morning, sir. Thank you so much for being with us. My name is Ted Rittberger, or Carl Theodore Rittberger. I'm a farm boy from Ohio, a little tiny town, and Dan has asked me to share some of the funny stuff. I was 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines, Regimental Landing Team, Vietnam. And how you get from a little tiny town of Zanesville, Ohio, to Southeast Asia and Vietnam was kind of strange to me. I was playing football at Finley College in Ohio, year-to-year scholarship. Got a little crazy after the last game and was drafted in the United States Marine Corps. This is the part Dan likes. In Zanesville, I'm about 150 miles from Cleveland. There was 300 of us that went through that facility that day to be worthy and healthy to go to Vietnam. Well, the reason I was on a one-to-one, year-to-year scholarship, I have an inch cut off my clavicle. And so they cut my full ride and year-to-year. So I knew I was going to have a deferment, and I didn't really want to go to Vietnam, I've got to tell you. And so 300 of us went through. They pulled 12 of us out, and I knew this was to tell me that I was unfit for military duty. And they took us in a room, and swore us in as private to the United States Marine Corps, marched us across, I'll never forget the street, to a hotel, put a guard at each end, allowed us to call home, and flew us out the next day. And it just gets crazier from there after Camp Lejeune and after Pendleton. We got a break after Pendleton, and the airlines went on strike, and they called us back after three days, and then we loaded ships 24 hours a day for three weeks. I was a scout. We would land in DMZ, Fubai, Kantian, Wei. And we were the first into that one area, and that was my first. First, you would have elephant grass, and it was my duty to get out of the helicopter first. And on flat grass, it could be 18 to 24 to 36 inches off the ground jumping out. I had a radio man behind me, and I had an M79, a .45, and a machete. And I worked hard to get that position because I didn't want to be back and somebody in front of me missing a landmine or missing something else. And my first introduction was that, you jump out, you don't know, in elephant grass, you don't know where the ground is. And so I got quick exposure. The M79 is a 40-millimeter projector that lobs a grenade, and the first thing you're doing is to the villages, and then you've got to walk through and see what you did. Anyway, we'll go back to happy stuff. After I was in the hospital at a little called, well, it was a hospital. It was a canvas roof in a plywood hospital outside of Da Nang called Dogpatch, and General Walt was in charge there. And after I got that, I do have good memories to overrule what I see and what I seen and what I did, was I got to teach in a Buddhist and Catholic village. Now, this guy is from Zanesville, Ohio. My English sucks. But these kids, who've never had anything, we actually, me and the villagers, built an outhouse for them because they're squatting, and we thought that would be good. Well, we built the outhouse, and they squat over the hole. So I'm telling you good things that helped me to stay away from the ugly stuff. And Sister Rose, I built her a little shack. But yet, in that village, they had nothing. And the chief of the village would invite me over to his place, which was grass floor, dirt roof, dirt roof, grass roof. And where they took their dumps, they brought out the raw fish. And compared to what I was in, you would eat that fish. And I was midevaced after everything from the hospital to losing 40 pounds. And I went from there to, first stop was the Philippine Hospital, and then Okinawa, you know, Yakuska, Japan Hospital, and then Okinawa Hospital, and then I got out of country. I'm going to leave the rest to Dan. I thank you so much. Maybe I will leave something. I was sitting next to the pastor. Something rubbed him. I don't know whether it was his hand or just a thought. And I know him pretty well. So he's had his own stuff with 9-11 and fighting in 9-11 to save people in the North Tower. But you folks make decisions. And your decision is not always happy for everybody. But it's the right decision for the government and for our county. And all I ask is anxious and nothing, prayerful and everything, thankful for anything, peace. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Okay. Thank you very much. We have some agenda housekeeping to do. We have an additional item this morning, Departmental No. 4, approval of the collective bargaining agreement between Martin County and the International Association of Firefighters for fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2027. There are no consent agenda polls. We have a couple of requests to withdraw. One is public hearing quasi-judicial No. 2. It was a public hearing to consider an amendment to the Martin County Zoning Atlas to change the zoning district classification for the Maureen T. Atkin property from A2 Agricultural to AR5A Agricultural Ranchette. And we also have a request to withdraw a public hearing No. 5, a legislative public hearing to consider adoption of a comprehensive plan amendment, CPA 23-2, Hobesound Storage. And public hearing quasi-judicial No. 1, public hearing to consider amendment of the Martin County Zoning Atlas to change the zoning district classification for CPA 23-2, Hobesound Storage. With that, I'll entertain a motion from Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I would move approval of the agenda with the consent agenda. And I'll try to get – I was taking notes as you were going through all that. So if I get it wrong, please. Would the withdrawal of quasi-judicial hearing item No. 2, public hearing item No. 5, and item No. 1 under quasi-judicial hearings to both be withdrawn? Correct. Thank you. Just for clarification, because I think that there are a number of people who are here for the storage, please tell us what withdrawal means. In simple terms, what it means is they've withdrawn it from today's agenda for having the public hearing, and if it is to be brought back to the board, it will require re-notice and an advertisement, again, for it to be – and then re-scheduled for a future meeting if they decide to bring it back. So it's not being continued. Correct. It's being withdrawn. So if they want to bring it back, do they have to make a new application? No, they just need to re-advertise. They're withdrawing it from today's agenda, but they will be able to re-advertise. But, again, it will not be without the same notice that everyone received for today's hearing. And if they do bring it back, does it have to go to the LPA again? No, we don't believe so. We already have had the LPA hearing. Okay. Thank you. And the reason that the public hearing quasi-judicial number two, which was the zoning atlas change, was the – the reason was no quorum at the June 15th LPA meeting. So that's got to go back to LPA, I assume. So with that in mind, we have a motion by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington for the agenda as it was presented. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. We have two proclamations. Now, for the folks that were here for any of those items, if you put a request to speak form in, you are still more than welcome to make public comment about your – what your feelings were for today. As Commissioner Hurd and our attorney, Ms. Woods, had mentioned, a withdrawal is not like, hey, it's going to be heard to – at the next meeting. It's withdrawn for them to decide what their strategy would be, change it, bring it back the same way, whatever. So I appreciate that you would come to share your thoughts, so you're more than welcome if you're in this stack. We do two proclamations, and then we go directly to the public comment. And for the group that I believe is here from New Monrovia, I will take that item immediately following the public comment so that we don't make you sit here all day long, even though I know you'd love to. But we'll take that. So to our staff, we'll be taking the Monrovia. So if Mr. Emerson and Phil Keithley need to come over from utilities, have them come over, please. And with that, we have a proclamation declaring Ocean Month in Martin County, Florida, and it will be presented by Ms. Laura Beaupre. Ms. Beaupre, you are recognized. Good morning, Commissioners. World Oceans Day, celebrated on June 8th, gives us the chance to reflect on the importance of our ocean and what we must do to protect it. The ocean, our planet's life support system, provides 95% of the living space here on Earth and contains 98% of the water on our planet. During Oceans Month, the board commends organizations such as the Florida Oceanographic Society for their continuing diligence in providing education, research, and conservation to secure the future of our world's ocean. And here to accept this proclamation, we have Mr. Mark Perry, who is the executive director and CEO of the Florida Oceanographic Society. Come on up, Mark. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for recognizing the World Ocean Month and World Ocean Day in June. It is special because our community in Martin County is pretty much surrounded by water. We're in the coastal communities, as you know, and Martin County's done a stellar job in trying to understand and protect and preserve our coastal environments and ocean habitats. And, you know, as we know, the ocean is under a lot of siege because of global climate change and our activities on land have created a lot of pollution, which runs off not only in the form of nutrients and runoff and pollution, but also in plastics. And over 65 million pounds a day of plastics and debris go into the ocean. So it's hard to understand how we can stop this pollution from happening. It's also causing global change. As you know, since 1970, we've seen that the ocean temperatures rise by one degree. It doesn't sound like much, but that one degree has caused bleaching of our coral systems and also thermal expansion. The ocean absorbs 90 percent of the Earth's heat, and by thermal expansion, we've caused sea level rise. So since 1950, we've seen about eight inches of sea level rise, which continues to, of course, confront us right here on the front line here in South Florida. Our coral reefs are also in jeopardy by a lot of this coral tissue loss disease, which is apparent, started in the Keys and has tracked all the way up the Florida Reef Track, which Martin County is at the head of the north end of the Florida Reef Track under this, you know, conservation area that this ecosystem is vital to our county and our state. And you all have recognized it and have really done a lot to help stop this pollution from running off into our county areas to try to curb that activity that we have. You're also addressing things like shore protection down along Hutchinson Island and those kind of things. You understand the critical need of our environment in the ocean-coastal connections right here. And I just think hats off to Martin County because we've done such a great job in doing that. Florida Oceanographic is continuing to do a lot what we can. 64,000 people a day come through the Coastal Center, which has been now in operation for over 25 years. And so we're really excited about working to continue that and continue working that. Tonight is we're having an International Ocean Film Festival right here at the Blake Library. It's free from six to eight. There are seven different films like Blue Carbon, Seagrass, different kind of topics. So I encourage you to come. There are seven short films. They're great as part of that Ocean Film Festival. And we'll continue this awareness through the month of June. So thank you very much for recognizing it. I also wanted to pass out a copy for you all. Great. Thank you so much. Our next proclamation is declaring July 2023 as Parks and Recreation Month in Martin County, Florida. Parks and Recreation programs and facilities are an integral part of communities throughout this country and encourage physical activities by providing space for sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and other pursuits designed to promote active lifestyles. During July, recognized as Parks and Recreation Month, the board acknowledges the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources, commends the department's work on and encourages citizens to take advantage of the amenities and programs offered in Martin County. And here to accept, we have Kevin Abadde, Parks and Rec Director. Good morning, Commissioners. So since 1985, people in the U.S. have been celebrating Parks and Recreation Month in July to promote parks and recreation. And ironically, that's when I started my career in 1985, going on 38 years. By hand, we have Kevin Kerwin, Deputy Director. He's also 33 years in parks. Nancy Johnson, eight years in parks. Jessica Ballish, over a decade in parks, all in Martin County. And, of course, Todd Fowles, 16 years also in parks. So we have a lot of great knowledge and a great team here for the Parks and Recreation team. We've been accredited since 2000 for over 23 years through the National Accreditation for Parks and Recreation. In the last two accreditation cycles, which happen every five years, we've received a score of 100% over the 154 national standards. So I hope that you're proud of that. Some of the activities that are going on this summer, obviously this summer of parks, super busy everywhere. All of our summer camps are all free, courtesy of the Children's Services Council funding. We have four programs happening right now. We also have free swim lessons, over 500 lessons and 200 scholarships, also happening over at Sailfish Splash Water Park. Just finished its first 10 years in the county. I can't believe we've been around for over 10 years. Our amazing free senior programs have been happening all year long. And just this year, we've had over 3,200 participants at the Log Cabin Senior Center. We also have the free teen programming. We had 18 teen events, and we've had attendance of over 700 for our local teens in the county. We've had 16 special events in the past year, especially at the Mansion of Tuckahoe, the concert series, with attendance of over 10,000 that have attended. And just the various programs through the swim meets that we've had, the summer swim meets that are coming up. We've been cutting ceremonies for the Palm City Community Center. And also, we hosted, soon to post again this summer, the Babe Ruth World Series. So we are a very busy department in the summer. Those are just some of the highlights. But I do want to thank you for your support over my 13 years here in Martin County. And as I approach a long, last year's 40 years in parks, I'm proud and still energized to work to make this a wonderful place for the residents of Martin County. Thank you. I was younger than that. How old was he? In 50? Yeah. I was only 13 when he started. Yeah. Thank you. Good. Okay, we'll take public comments now. How this works for some of you that might not be familiar with how our process for public comment goes. I'll call your name. You'll come to the front. You'll have three minutes to make a public comment. At the two-minute and 45-second mark, you're going to hear a tone. That doesn't mean to stop. That means there's 15 seconds left for you to sort of sum up your thoughts so we don't just cut you off. And then also, if you are going to speak during the public comment portion on an agended item, you're more than welcome to do that. However, later in the day when that agenda item does come up, you can't speak to the same item again. And I think that's basically how it works. If I'm going to – I'm assuming some of these folks are here for the storage issue that was – the agenda item that was withdrawn. So I might call some names and those people might have already left. Our first request to speak for him is Mr. Michael Serkis. Mr. Serkis, good morning. Good morning. Thank you. My name is Michael Serkis. I'm a resident of Palm City. In the last more than half decade, I've had the distinct pleasure and the occasional pain of working with literally hundreds of public officials throughout the state of Florida, throughout many of our 5,000-plus municipalities at the state level, the federal level. And I once even engaged in a roundtable discussion with the entire Italian delegation to the European Union, which was quite an interesting event to have. Needless to say, I've talked to a lot of people, and I can tell you with a fair amount of confidence that our county administrator is pretty darn good at what he does. You may not agree with everything he does ideologically, but he's efficient. He's a good leader. He knows what he's doing. Having said that, he's not a perfect man. County staff, they are not perfect. Department leadership's not perfect. I am not perfect. And none of you are. And I know this with 100% confidence because there are two universal truths in this world. Nobody is perfect. And second is that if we can't introspectively look at our actions and ask a serious question of what we could have done better, we will never become even close to perfect. So imagine my disappointment and my shock two weeks ago as I listened to not one, not two, but the majority of the board say that county staff was absolutely perfect in the preparation and execution of contract with the concessionaire for the Selfish Stands Golf Course. Now, don't get me wrong. Concessionaires screwed the pooch. They agreed something. They did not hold up their end of the bargain. That doesn't make us perfect, though. We have a lot of serious issues in this county. Let's be honest. We spent hundreds of hours last year talking about the affordability crisis in Martin County. I would speculate you probably spent several dozen hours preparing the less than 30-minute discussion on the mental health crisis two weeks ago. We have a school board employee whose house has been habitually flooded for over a year because of failing stormwater infrastructure adjacent to our property. We have serious problems that need addressing. If we can't take a look inward and say, where did we make a mistake or what can we do better? Then I sincerely doubt we're going to solve any of those serious problems. Now, I ask this, and I ask this rhetorically. I wonder how many of you before voting last meeting for $655,000 for 12 weeks, roughly 12 weeks of operation for the golf course, how many of you recognize that's 150% of the entire 12-month budget for stormwater rehabilitation that's projected for 2024? Probably not a whole lot because that's a pretty macro thing to take a look at. Now, the majority of constituents in the county voted for you and put you in your positions because they believe that you have the cognitive ability to form substantive questions to the material staff puts in front of you. They believe that you have the moral fortitude to put the needs of your constituents ahead of legacy building. And they believe that you have the leadership to tell staff, this is how we need to get things done. So the ball's in your court to either prove them right or prove them wrong. It's up to you. Do it by action, please. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Our next request to speak for him is Ms. Jennifer Dodson-Cody Kemp. Okay. Yes, please. Thank you. Our next request to speak for him is also for that specific agenda item, unless, Mr. English, you would like to speak now or wait. Thank you. Susan Rezevdez. Susan. Mr. Tom Pine. Good morning, sir. My name's Tom Pine. I've lived in Martin County for 50 years. I presently live in the Jensen Beach area. At the last county commission meeting, Sheriff Snyder gave a chilling presentation on the need for a new wing at the county jail. He had also had some profound words to say of the reason for the new wing. If we don't do something as a community to bend that curve, we are all in trouble. He's referring to the mental health crisis affecting us in Martin County. This cannot continue. So whatever's not right in our society that's producing these numbers, that's the real issue. Housing these people is just putting a bandage on cancer. As a society, we must make some course corrections. This is not the answer. While the commissioners talked about the presentation on the new wing for the jail, not one commissioner broached that part of his presentation that spoke to the core problem, mental health. I feel wage inequity and questionable spending habits by our county commissioners are the major contributing factors to this problem. Our county commissioners are spending millions and millions of our tax dollars that have absolutely nothing to do with government operations. For example, in 2011, we built a community center in Jensen Beach for $1.5 million. And now that same building is operated by the Mountain County Chamber of Commerce. Or the millions and millions of tax dollars we spent on two mooring fields. Or the millions of dollars we spent on the bar, restaurant, and high-end hitting bays at the Ghani golf course that many residents can't afford to use. Or the water park. Or the massive RV park. Or the two restaurants on the beach. How many county employees are now working in jobs that should be operated by the private sector? This is exactly what communist socialism looks like. All of these projects add to a major tax burden to Martin County residents, especially those that earn the median wage or less. There is constant fear of losing their home, food insecurity, not enough money for medications and clothing. All because the majority of our commissioners can't control their spending habits. Hidden in today's consent agenda is a contract for $692,180 to move and replace fencing at the county park. I believe this money came from the federal government CARES Act. This is not a routine expenditure and therefore does not belong in the consent agenda. What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. LaJudice, if I pronounce that correctly, you are here for public hearing number nine, correct? That's the end of the general... Yes. Sir, if you would like to come forward now, you can. You can just state your name for the record and then drop off a form with our bailiff. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Mason Brown, and I'm a general contractor, and I'm building a new home in the new Monrovia section over in Port Salerno off of Southeast 47th Avenue. And I've got approved permits, approved septic plans, and all of the above. I went to the water utilities, and now they're indicating that I have to hook up to the water and sewer. Well, the sewer, I already had to hook up to the water, which is going to cost my customer a significant amount of money that if I have to go into the sewer system, that when I initially started this process back in last October, I was told that that wasn't going to happen until maybe two or three years down the road. So I'm wondering if, number one, are we required to hook into the sewer system, and number two, if so, by me representing my client and I'm financially responsible for my client as a general contractor, will those funds be reimbursed back to me or my client if we don't have to go ahead and pursue with the septic system that we've already paid in advance, the permitting fees, the site surveys, and all of the things that we've had to do in advance? So my question, I guess, is two-part. Do we have to hook into the sewer system, number one? And number two, can there be financial restitution back to the taxpayer moving forward? Thank you, sir. Are you complete? Yes, sir. Two things. One, your first question is a general question that we will take up during the agenda item for everyone that's behind you. Your second question is more specific. I don't personally know the answer to that, but you're going to stay for the item? Yes, sir. After the item, I would recommend that you speak to some of the folks that are here from our utilities department. That sounds like a unique scenario that I am aware of, so I don't know the answer, but stay for the meeting, and then they will address that specific portion. But the first portion is more of a general conversation that will be taken up during the agenda item, which we will take up following our comments this morning. Okay, thank you for listening. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you. Anyone else like to address us before we move on with the agenda? Seeing none, I will turn it back to our commissioners, and we will start with you, Commissioner Hurd. I'm set. Thank you. Commissioner Jenkins. The only thing I want to apologize in advance for my coughing, I've been fighting a sinus infection for five or six weeks now, and if I become a distraction, I'll try to walk off. If I give you like a boost. Yes, get out of here. Not contagious, whatever you're fighting, right? No. Is that it? I have a spastic sinus, apparently. I'll leave that one alone. Commissioner Hetherington. No, I just want to bring up something we talked about at the MPO transportation meeting yesterday. I don't know if anybody else, it is the 7-10, 7-14 alignment, and DOT was here and presented some options, of which the board, you know, yesterday preferred the realignment option, so we need to have a discussion at some point today about having a meeting with the Okeechobee County Commissioners, because DOT said that District 1 and District 4 had, you know, that, had an agreement together, and they were working together, but they needed some guidance, direction, and some, maybe a memorandum of agreement between the Okeechobee and the Martin County Commission to proceed forward with that option of the realignment. So, whenever you think is appropriate, we could have that discussion today. Okay, four of the five of us sit on the MPO. Were the four of you there yesterday? Yes. I gave up my seat on the MPO for my colleague, Commissioner Hurd, to be magnanimous. That being said, and then I gave up that portion of my district, Commissioner Jenkins, under duress. But that being said, I have worked on that for a long time with some of the residents and the very primary landowner out there who would have to participate. So, I would need to hear what that conversation was. So, I guess, since the agenda is fluid today, maybe we could take that up before the end of the day and someone from our staff can give us, the public and myself, some idea of what those strategies were. Do you want to add an additional item? Sure. Move to add the additional item to discuss the realignment of 714 and 126. Thank you. Thanks for bringing that up, Commissioner Hetherington. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Mr. Donaldson, at some point today, if we could have whoever is going to discuss that. Yes, I'll have public works available. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is that it, Commissioner? Yes. Commissioner Smith? I think Commissioner Hetherington just covered my comments from yesterday, so I'm all set. That's it? I would just say that this weekend, you know, there's always things happening, a lot of events and things like that. But on June, Saturday, June 24th, at the Jensen Beach Beach, Operation 300 and the Aaron Vaughn family will be having their 12th annual Frogman swim and a 5K. You can go to Operation 300's website to, if you are, you know, brave enough to participate, it's an ocean swim or a 5K run. But even if you don't, like me, it is a wonderful event. It's for a fantastic cause. Even if you're just going to be a spectator, it starts very early in the morning. I think 7 a.m. is when it kicks off. But it's just a really great event. They have several different things. There's vendors, there's other organizations that are represented, and it's beautiful out on the beach early in the morning in Commissioner Smith's district. And so I would encourage everyone to, if you're interested in doing something Saturday morning, come out and see what's going on. Commissioner Hurd, you were first. Yeah, just another heads up. We were informed yesterday that Brightline is going to begin intensive testing in Martin County tomorrow through Thursday. They're going to be, I think it was said that it was going to be kind of hourly. Lots of fast trains going up to 110 miles an hour being tested through Martin County the 21st through the 23rd. So be aware, be safe. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. When you mentioned Aaron Vaughn, I just wanted to say kudos to you on Map Road, the spotlight of the veterans on the banners. It looks fantastic. So if you haven't had a chance to ride through there, it's just amazing. I look forward to walking it so I can actually see all of them. Thank you. Any way that we can support and highlight veterans is my honor to do it. That's very nice of you to bring it up. And with that, Mr. Donaldson, Ms. Woods. Okay, we're going to go directly now to public hearing number three, a public hearing and final assessment resolution for the Port Salerno, New Monrovia Wastewater Municipal Service Benefit Unit. It will be presented by Mr. David Duncan, Sam Emerson, and Mr. Phil Keithley. Gentlemen, good morning. You are recognized. Good morning, commissioners. For the record, Phil Keithley, chief project manager for the Utilities and Solid Waste Department. Mr. David Duncan, one of our project managers, is going to be making the presentation today. Pull that microphone towards you a little more. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. For the record, my name is David Duncan, project manager for the Utilities and Solid Waste Department. Next, Donna. There we go. As you see in this exhibit, it's Port Salerno, New Monrovia, the vacuum gravity sewer project area. In 2015, the board directed the staff to acquire services of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute to perform a study on the effects of septic discharges into the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon, specifically in regards to nitrogen and phosphorus loadings. The final report suggests significant contributions of nitrogen and phosphorus to the St. Lucie Estuary watershed, primarily from on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems or septic tanks. Groundwater nitrogen and phosphorus levels, concentrations were significantly higher in the residential communities. And as the board is aware, the Utilities Department has been working towards the design and construction of a wastewater collection system for Port Salerno, New Monrovia for many years. As part of this endeavor, the Florida legislature approved an $8 million and also a $500,000 grant in 2022. Another $2.2 million was budgeted from state revenue sharing funds. Franchise-free fees and utility contributions add an additional $2.1 million for a total of $12.84 million in contributions. The proposed assessment includes 952 properties at a total of 966 equivalent residential connections. As indicated on the slide, the total project cost is $24,358,921. With $8,500,000 from legislative appropriation grants, state revenue sharing and local contributions of $4,340,777, the assessable cost is reduced to $11,518,144. Therefore, the sum is divided by 966 equivalent residential connections for an estimated taxpayer amount of $11,924 per connection. And that equates to an annual payment of $749.17 per unit amortized over a 20-year period at 1.34% interest rate plus standard fees. Martin County Utilities serves approximately 36,000 water customers, and the average residential customer uses approximately 6,000 gallons per month. The wastewater rate per 1,000 gallon is $4.82 plus a base rate charge of $19.73, which would make the average residential wastewater customer pay approximately $48.65 per month. With approval of the final assessment resolution today, the department anticipates commencing construction in September of 2023 and estimates a 23-month construction phase with completion in August of 2025. The lump sum payment of the assessment by property owner would be due by August 15th of 2024, and any payments not received by that date would be shown on the annual property tax bill starting in November of 2024. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much. Questions from the Commission for Staff. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, I'll go back to the public comments this morning. First of all, is hookup mandatory, and when is it mandatory? And if a house is under construction, septic permits have been received, and perhaps septic system has been installed, what recourse does that homeowner builder have? If we commence construction in September and we take about two years to build it, it's by mandatory policy of the board that we would then send out a letter letting all residents know that it was available for connection. And by Florida statute, they would have 365 days to physically connect to that system. So if they have an existing septic tank, it will have to be removed and connected to the new sewer system. Okay. So it's mandatory after 365 days of availability. Yes, ma'am. And what about if the case that the resident talked about this morning, there's a house under construction. He believed that he was going to have to use a septic permit, applied for a septic permit, received it. Um, there's, there's a new septic system that's been installed that's never been used. What recourse does that resident have? In the state of Florida, every property owner has the right to have a septic tank if there isn't public sewer supply available. So even once we start construction on this project, property owner can still go in and apply for a septic tank permit and they will be granted even though we're under construction. So it's up to the property owner, um, and the health department, honestly. Okay. Mr. Donaldson. I was just going to say that Mr. Keithley, isn't it, um, and the practice though, that if you had a new system that until it fails, you, they, they have, if the connection didn't happen, uh, typically right away in a lot of these communities. In the case of the special assessment areas, that is not the case. Um, in the case of our grinder systems where we put in the, uh, low pressure sewer mains, yes, they would continue to operate on their septic tanks until they failed or applied for a repair ticket. And then Martin, our, um, Martin County Health Department would not issue a repair ticket. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any other commissioner comments? I have one. So is the, the connecting in 365 days, is that state statute or is that board policy? Cause I, I thought I recalled too, that you wouldn't have to connect until your septic, until you had to replace your septic tank. It's actually board policy for these special assessments and it complies with Florida statutes. Okay. We have two requests to speak forms. And if you are interested and you hadn't filled out a form, you're still more than welcome to come up, uh, and make your comments. Uh, and then I will ask Mr. Amerson to come forward. Who's the head of the department? Um, why don't we do that first, Mr. Amerson? So maybe that'll alter the trajectory of some of the comments. I had received a couple of phone calls last week, um, cause with concern on this item. Now I would tell you the folks that are here and those listening that the commission is sort of like stuck between a rock and a hard place because obviously our goal, uh, is to try to get as many, um, septic systems off, you know, people off of septic, uh, onto our sewer system. Uh, and then of course, if there's water and then we come in and rehabilitate the roads and, and the sidewalks and curbing and everything. It's sort of like a universal package and it has worked very, very well in many communities. Uh, the goal originally was all of our septic systems in 20 years. And then I think we, I know, and then we switched it to try to get all of our septic systems done in 10 years. Uh, as the gentleman from the Florida ocean graphics this morning said that, uh, most, you know, it's a blessing that most of Martin County has some, you know, connection very close to water bodies. Uh, we also then at the time you heard Mr. Keithley say, or Mr. Duncan say that we had a study done in 2015 by, uh, Harbor Branch to figure out like where is the most, um, environmentally sensitive communities that should be first top of the list. And then we looked at systems that were older. Now, the tricky part is, is that the older communities quite often are the, uh, the more well-established communities, uh, and folks that don't necessarily have a tremendous amount of expendable income. Um, like a lot of us don't have a tremendous amount of expendable income. Those are the neighborhoods that need to get done first. So, you know, the good news is, is that, you know, these neighborhoods are entitled to have these services. The bad news is, is that the government doesn't pick up the tab completely. If you could go back to the slide that showed you the initial cost versus how much we knocked down. We're going through the same issue in Old Palm City from east of Map Road to the river. Um, as well as the fact that as the years progress, everything, everyone can realize everything is getting so much more expensive. Had New Monrovia, had Old Palm City been done, you know, several years ago, the cost would have been less. That being said, we, our staff has done a very good job of trying to go out and find state grants, federal grants, and things like that to, to, to lower the percentage that the residents would have to bear. Um, our project in Palm City was delayed well over a year because the project had been bid. We figured out how much it would cost per resident, and then the, then the actual bids came up, millions of dollars more. And so we had to go back out and try to find additional money to keep that number more reasonable. The two concerns that I had heard on the telephone, one was that a good portion of the residents didn't completely understand how the process was unfolding prior to today. Now, that doesn't mean that our staff, who's done this many times, has a very set policy, they do this and then this and then this and then this. Um, and there's always going to be people that either weren't aware, uh, or misunderstood, uh, what we presented, the information that we presented. In this particular case, from what I had heard, and can somewhat see already, is that maybe every community is not the cookie cutter community that certain strategies of public outreach have to be different depending on the community. Uh, so that would be first, and that's something for the future, not necessarily for today. The second thing is, is that, um, Mr. Amerson, who runs our department, and Mr. Keithley, have been at this a long time. Mr. Keithley, do you have any idea what number community conversion this is for you? Number eight. Eight. But you've done thousands of homes in the, in the conversion. Uh, in the water, in regards to waterline extension, yes. The bulk of the assessments were done, approximately either seven or eight sewer assessments. Okay. The bulk of our customers, our water customers, to the utility over the years have come through the special assessment process. Since the board gave the mandate to switch as, as rapidly as possible to switch over, how many have you done? We've switched thousands. This would be, um, North River Shores one and two, Golden Gate, and now this one would be number four. How many total houses? More than four, I bet, right? Yeah, you're looking at, um. 1,200? 1,200, 1,300 homes. Okay. Um, Mr. Amerson, I asked you a question, like, is there anything else that we can do? Do you have any rabbits? And, um, the conversation was, and, look, every, every circumstance, every community is unique. Uh, can you share with the group what you had explained to me? Sure. For the, um, for the record, Sam Amerson, Utilities Department Director. Um, I'll share with you that the SHIP program is one alternative to assist homeowners, uh, whether it's improving the home for roof repair or replacement, um, uh, improve energy efficiency through windows, et cetera, air conditioning. Um, they also provide funding for septic to sewer conversion and also for connecting to the water system. Um, so, for example, in North River Shores, we had a couple of customers at our surprise. They met the income, uh, requirement and also the number of persons in the home and SHIP paid for the entire assessment in full up front and also for the connection to the sewer system. Um, and we've had several since then in Palm Lake Park, uh, that they've paid for the, the water system connection and also the sewer connection and the assessment. So, uh, or I'm sorry for that one was grinder. They paid for the complete grinder install. So no cash out of pocket for the homeowner. So that's one alternative. My understanding of talking to the department, uh, Michelle Miller, uh, that they're getting funding in July through the state. Uh, I don't remember the amount, 2 million or plus dollars, uh, but a portion of that can go for connecting the homes. Okay. So what I'd like to explain to the folks that are here or listening is that the SHIP program is handled through a different department than utilities. And as Mr. Emerson said, now I want to be clear, that doesn't mean that everyone can leave here thinking we got it paid for. There are certain qualifications that need to be met and they're not, uh, I sit on the, at, um, affordable housing advisory committee. And, uh, with that in mind, there are, you know, there is money available and that money sort of fluctuates year to year. Sometimes it's not much at all. Sometimes it's a, it's a terrific amount. And I think we're heading into, and Ms. Miller's not here currently, but I think we're heading into an area where there will be some substantial funding available there that can address this. And that is above and beyond what you saw in this, in this, uh, information here. So that is a step in the right direction. You know, you, one of the callers asked me, well, why don't you just, why can't we just put our neighborhood, you know, like push it off the front of the line? I'm not an expert on this, but I would tell you, you don't really want to do that because you could then be pushed back years and years and someone else, what? And then the grants would go somewhere else or potentially we would lose the grants or could we? Very likely. Okay. So then, then if, if four or five years from now, when it becomes much more of an urgent concern and you're ready to do it, I would tell you as a person that has to pay bills like everybody else, there's no great time to ever take on this. There are some advantages. Do they have, uh, this is purely a sewer issue, not a water and sewer issue, correct? So hydrants and everything else are already there. Actually, the community development agency paid, funded all of the water main extensions over the past two years into this area. Yeah. So no, no cost for that where some neighborhoods have a cost for that. The only cost for that would be connection charges payable to the utility when they choose to connect to the system. Okay. And that's different than, you know, if you have a legitimate, well, you don't have to necessarily connect. Okay. With that, I will now take some public comment. I hope that sort of conversation might, I'm sorry, Commissioner Smith, I didn't see your light. I just, I think if you could go one step further with SHIP and explain what SHIP is and how you, I, it's a state program, SHIP is. Yes, it's a state housing improvement initiative, uh, partnership rather. And the state provides funding, uh, through all the counties, um, and they make funds available, like I said, for home improvement, for energy efficiency, a re-roof. And, uh, Sam, how, how would someone apply for SHIP funding? Is it to us? Is it to the state? Who facilitates that? And it would be to, uh, I think it's health and human services, Jill Miller's office. Okay. And we'll get that name to anybody that's interested and, and that phone number and contact them if, if, if that's of interest. Um, I think that'll be helpful. Yeah, we can, um, either put it on the website or you could call any of your, any of the five of us, our offices, and we can get you directed. Michelle Miller, who handles that department, health and human services. Um, plenty of people apply all the time for these grants for, as Mr. Emerson said, re-roofing. Windows, weather-proofing, uh, garage doors, air conditioning units. What we're talking about today would fall into that category. And, um, and the, the requirements to, uh, to be granted that funding, I think most of this in the community. Oh, Mr. Graham is here. Good morning, Commissioners. Matt Graham, Assistant County Administrator. Phil, can you bring up the, if a homeowner doesn't connect, what, if, is there any consequences? Can you talk about that a little bit? After the 365-day period, as per policy of the board, um, if they haven't physically connected to the system, we would start charging the resident our flat rate sewer charge on a monthly basis until they physically connected to the system. That's the penalty. Okay. And can you explain what the cost is on a monthly basis, please? About $19.34, I think, presently. So, I, thank you, Mr. Graham. I guess what the point he's trying to make is that there would be another option if you wanted to not participate. I know it's $19 a month to not have to spend $750 a year. So, as, as, maybe as a stopgap, you know, as a thing, as the minimum payment there. So, it's not a, a tremendous, I'm not saying that $19 a month that no one wants to spend money, um, it's a Netflix or, uh, some kind of one of those things you signed up for and you can't get out of. Uh, it would be one of those. So, it's, but that being said, I think ship, um, is the way. Mr. Steve English, you are first. Mr. Chair, if I may, real quick. Yes. A couple clarifications. One is, um, the program is mandatory as we follow the state statute, the board policy follows state statute. When the project's complete, it's placed into service, released by DEP to put into service. We notify every resident that's on the assessment that service is available. And by statute, they have 365 days to connect. That's mandatory. However, the county and utility staff does not enforce that and make a mandatory connection. That's enforced by the health department. And the health department historically has allowed people to maintain their septic systems to the point or stay on and use their on-site systems until the point that they have a failure and they need to make a repair. The health department will not allow a permit for a repair. And at that point, they must physically connect. And so, that's enforced through the health department. And then one other clarification on the base charge. If they haven't connected in 365 days, that $19 in change is charged per month to the resident. They still have to pay the assessment, either in full in August of 2024, or they can pay on their tax bill each year. It can be paid off in full at any time in the 20-year amortization schedule. So, I just wanted to make a clarification on that. And then, I guess, the important distinction is the septic systems, the whole process of reviewing them and permitting them is handled at the health department. That building is located on Willoughby, across the street from Sailfish Splash, which is not a Martin County health department. It's the state health department located in Martin County. Sir, I appreciate your patience. Mr. English, you are. Hi. Yeah, I'm Steve English. I'm a Porcelona resident, and I may ask one question to clarify what he said. If you don't connect to the sewer system, do you start paying the $15,000 on your tax bill, even though you're not connected? Or does that come in when you connect? No, it starts in August of 2024. You can pay it in full. I believe it was $11,900. Back to that slide. $12,000. $11,924. That's correct. And you can pay that in full, or you can be assessed, if you don't pay it at that date, in full, on your tax bill, you'll see $749 each year. Whether you're connected or not. That's correct. That's what I need. So there's no mitigation for that. Okay. Start his time now, please, Mr. Donaldson. I'm Steve English. I'm a Porcelona resident. I'm here to object to this project as it stands. The cost is too much. It's way too much for this area compared to other projects. The cost is not $12,000 for this project. The cost of this project to each homeowner is $17,000. It's $15,000 because nobody can hardly afford to pay for this thing out of pocket. So it's $15,000 plus $2,000 to connect. That's $17,000. And if you hook into the water, you're looking at another $2,500. So we've got $19,000 per household that we're going to be expending for this. And you will make it mandatory to hook in for water eventually, so I'm told. So that's the actual cost of this system. It's not $12,000. It's $17,000. The problem we have, too, is if you have vacant lots that you don't intend to build on that are part of your property, but they were deeded separately, you pay the same amount for those. So some of us are on the hook for not $15,000, not $45,000, $50,000, $60,000, $75,000. Our Methodist church in Port Salerno will be billed $75,000 because of the way their property is set up. The church cannot afford this. That is too much. It's wrong. Had we known prior to a week ago about what all the parameters were of this, and we asked, we asked, we asked over and over at meetings and different people, what are we going to do, who's going to be charged, what properties, how's it going to be done? We could get no answers. And then we had a meeting one week prior to y'all making your decision. And in that week, we've got to try and figure out what's best for us on our properties, and we can't do that. We don't have the time. So for that reason, you should postpone this until we have time to go through this and do the right thing. People this work, this Port Salerno, New Monrovia area, we're all working class folks. We don't have that much money, contrary to what people believe. We don't have that much money. The average citizen in this locale, you're looking at one-third of their yearly income to pay for this system. How many of y'all will take one-third of your annual income and put it into the sewer system? That's not right. That's too much. I've looked at other areas or tried to come up with numbers on other areas. I've got three so far. That's all I've gotten out of all the projects. Port St. Lucie, their residents pay $5,000 to hook into this system, including hooking in from their house to it, taking out their old Sepik tanks, redoing everything. $5,000 for an entire project. Thank you, sir. Your point was clear. Thank you. Our next request to speak for them is Ms. Jennifer Dodson-Cody Kemp. Ms., good morning. Thank you so much for the time. It's your time. My name is Jennifer Dodson-Cody Kemp. I was born and raised in this community. I've lived here on septic my whole life. And while I agree with the project, I think it's good for the community. It's good for the environment. The questions that I have, and you've spoken to this, Mr. Chairman, are the communications. I just found out about it. I own property here. My family still lives here. My family is part of the founders of this community. And the communication was very lacking. Once I got this letter, I started making phone calls. I spoke with Commissioner Hurd. I've spoken with Mr. Phil from Utilities, as well as some other people, some attorneys, trying to figure out another way. I was basically told, you know, you guys approve every assessment. You've never not approved an assessment. And while I understand that, I would challenge this board to be more solutions-oriented for this. This community has founding members that can't afford this. And SHIP is great. SHIP does the same thing that this lien will do. It's a tax lien. So in addition to having a lien on houses where developers can come in and buy these tax certificates and take over our properties, also, when you have a lien on your house, I'm sure you all know you can't do anything with it. You can't access equity. You can't sell it. You can't do anything when you have a tax lien. SHIP does the same thing as far as basically a lien. You have to stay in your house so many years. It's not that terrible because we have some families that are going to stay here forever. They're not looking to sell their property. They have laid claim to this community. They've given their souls to this community. And that's what we want to preserve. So, again, challenging you guys to try and find another option to help pay for this. Like Mr. Lewis just said, you know, there's not enough time. I mean, literally, this landed in our lap. I live in Fort Lauderdale, although my family still lives here. I drove down to the workshop last Thursday. I drove down here last night to be here this morning to speak. We need more time. And I have started petitions. I'm trying to get our community involved. And thank you so much for everyone coming out. We are going to petition, you know, Mass, Rubio, Snyder, Harold, these people that are offering funding for this project, which I appreciate. But you got Palm City got $10.5 million. We only got $8.5 million. So that's on us. We need more time to get these legislatures that are representing us to pay attention to us. And that's what we want. We just want more time. The project is a good project. I want the project. Everyone I've spoken to wants the project, except for a couple of people that have just built homes. Obviously, they've put all of this money in to septic. And we, you know, that's obviously something else that maybe needs to be worked out. But we will not be driven from our homes with a slick government land grab. I can promise you that. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Anyone else that would like you good morning? My name is Cecilia Smith. Born and raised here. Worked for the bus driver for 35 years. Lived in Jensen Beach. My mother still lives there. Now I live in Port Salerno. I'm a homeowner. My problem, it is good. One thing I would like to say, you said this project has been coming on foreign. I never received anything. I read my mail. I don't throw my mail. I never got anything in the mail about we were having this sewer thing. I totally do believe it is a good project. So that one thing, I never got anything until I got the one about the meeting at the library and then the meeting here today. I do know about SHIP because I've used SHIP before. I've also used SHIP for my aging mother and grandmother in Jensen. I have called SHIP. I have called SHIP all year long. There are no funds. I called SHIP when I left the meeting last Thursday. And she said, well, she couldn't even put my name on the list, as we were told. But she said, I'm in here, get your name on that list. Actually said to me that there are people on the waiting list now. Their funds will be available in July for those people that are already on the waiting list. And if there are extra funds, then you can fill out an application, but they will not be available until July 24. I'm hearing something about CDC that nobody bought up. They're supposed to be doing some kind of grant, so maybe somebody can help us out on that. Are we not understanding that homeowners insurance, my homeowners insurance has went up twice. That's on my taxes, because I have my stuff escrowed. It's not that I'm trying to get out of anything, but now $794 more. Yeah, I'm thankful. I'm God. I retired from the school system. So, you know, I'm a one-person income home. And that is a lot that I fear for, that my taxes go up, my mortgages went up. I'm going to lose my home that I worked hard for. That part does. I do have a problem with that. But, as you're saying that, if the question was asked about did we have the opportunity to opt out to this, in the meeting at the Rocky Point that we had and you were there, sir, it was said that, yes, we did. On Thursday night at the meeting where we were at the library, it said that we could not opt out of that, that everybody had to do it. I just feel like that we're not getting, we didn't, in that meeting, I left from there just as more confused than I was because I didn't get answers. There was a gentleman outside, one of you all that I don't even know his name, but I did hear him say that they didn't tell y'all everything. I need to know everything. I'm a detailed person. I want to see everything. What is going to cost me the $12,000, and if I find this, that's $15,000, as Mr. Lewis had said, plus to hook it up for my house, what's going to happen to my septic? Do I have to pay for that to be removed? I should get some credit for putting my septic in, even though I've been in my house. I had to pay for that, something. So, not here to try to bash this sewage, but just a lot of questions. And honestly, I mean, standing here right now, I cannot afford anything to go on my taxes. Is there any other option, any other way that we can pay this money? But we were told no, either pay it in full or it's on your taxes. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. Anyone else would like to speak to us on this topic? Seeing none, I had a staff dais light on. Was that an old light? No. Old. A lot of food for thought. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah. How long is this bid good? The bid is good for 90 days, and we're coming up against that window of time. Okay. Well. I absolutely sympathize with the people who were here today. They are in old, established neighborhood. There are low-income people for whom this is going to be a real challenge. And it doesn't look like there's any good way out. It is a good project. I want to see the project go forward, but I don't want to force people out of their homes, either. I would agree. I don't disagree with what we heard about, that normally the board approves these assessment requests as they come forward. We have some people that have said, you know, hey, look, it's a challenge here and there. But every community is completely different. When I got the calls probably Thursday, Friday last week, you know, it gives a different perspective. I very much appreciate you all taking the time this morning to come. We only know what we know, you know, and what we educate ourselves with, with the information from staff. Based on, you know, what I'm hearing and, you know, knowing the scenario here, I would have to say that one of my things, what my concern was, my fear was that if you step out of the line that I don't know where you come back in, because we've never had a neighborhood step out of the line of, you know, like the progression line of the projects, I think even if we delayed it to allow more community education and outreach and information, I don't think that changes the dollars and cents of what you heard. You just know more about it. So I, you know, I don't know about my colleagues, but I would tell you that I would be voting no on moving forward today. I think I can't with a straight face look at you and tell you that, yeah, this is okay. And, you know, Mr. English, you were not wrong. It's $12,000 to get you started on $749 a year for 20 years on your tax bill. And it is a lien. So you were right. And then, but that just gets you started. It doesn't connect you. It doesn't do it. So now you're talking not $11,000, which, look, $11,000 might as well be $110,000 for some people. And for some people, it's $110. It's all relative. But there are additional costs. And, you know, in an effort to give you that level of quality service and to protect their environment, and you have to fit the bill, I can't, I could not vote today to do that. Commissioner Smith. Yeah, I think it would be helpful for staff to maybe respond. A little bit to some of the questions or the comments because I think there was stuff that was thrown out that I just think we need to confirm, not confirm some of the stuff that was said. So what is an actual unit cost to hook up? Her equivalent residential connection is the $11,924 or the option of paying it on the tax bill for 20 years. Right. And the dismantling of an existing septic tank, how does that happen and who pays for that? And is that part of that cost? In the case of Golden Gate area, staff went out to bid for contractors to do that physical on-site work. We also applied for grants, which we got. So in the case of Golden Gate, and we hope we're successful on this project as well when it's completed. For instance, bids came in that if a septic tank is located in the front yard out near the street where the connection is, up to 45 feet away, it was $1,850, I think. And then we had a grant for $1,000 to buy that down. So the cost to property owner was $850 for the connection. And staff, through our contractors, takes care of that connection, makes sure that it's done properly, septic tank abandonment, and then restoration. Okay. So now it's $11,000 plus $1,000, roughly? $850. $850. $850. So you're at $12,000. I'm sorry, what was that? Speak up. $12,50. $12,50. Okay. So are there any other costs associated with that? Not as far as the on-site connections. That takes care of everything. Okay, so if someone is trying to understand here today what is their cost of doing, it's $12-something. $12,774. Because there were some other numbers thrown out, and I'm just trying to confirm, is there something we're missing? Am I missing something else? No, sir. I had conversations with some of these people, and there was a lot of numbers being thrown around that I tried to correct for these people. But it's either disinformation or whatever the case may be. And the SHIP issue on funding with SHIP, what do we know about SHIP and what availability is there for SHIP and what kind of waiting list? Because that wasn't discussed relative to SHIP. I can tell you that at our staff-level workshop, we had a stack of flyers for the SHIP program at the table, and those were pretty much gone at the end of the discussion. Mr. Duncan here reached out to that program before we had our staff-level workshop. His understanding is they're receiving a lot of funding. We didn't hear what the exact amount is, that it would be available with this budget in July 1, and that the portal for signing up would be opened by July 24, I believe it is. Okay. So just to confirm or understand what all that just means. So the state's budget, which the governor just signed this week, last week, whenever that was, that goes into effect July 1? July 1. July 1, correct. So those funds that would be allocated to SHIP for this coming fiscal year would be available July 1? That's our understanding. And they'll open the portal on July 24 to allow people to sign up. And so those funds that would be able to be applied for a resident that were in this neighborhood, they'd be able to apply. But you're two years out or you're a year and a half out from those connection fees being realized. Yes. The payment, lump sum payment due would be next August of 24. Okay. So if they applied, they could apply for payment of that assessment, and it would be paid at that time, I presume. Okay. So just trying to outline the various options of what exists, but we don't know yet. I mean, I suppose we know what was in the budget for the governor's budget for SHIP. But, you know, in terms of how that all gets allocated, that's hard to say. What else was commented on? The funding for Old Palm City versus the funding for this, how does that work? Last June, we went out to bid for Old Palm City. We opened bids in early August. When we opened the bids, the bids came in $10 million over our engineer's estimate. We turned right around and immediately applied for a grant with the state of Florida for an additional $10 million. We rewarded that amount. The grant agreement is in-house and will come before this board on July 11th for acceptance of that grant for Old Palm City. Okay. And so for this project, we have received $9 million, $8 million? $8,500,000 plus the other contributions. Okay. And is there the possibility of getting more funding from the state for this project or no? I would defer, but I believe that at this point in time, all the funding is in place to try and get a grant. And with this short window for these bids that are open right now, to move forward on this right now, I don't see how we would get a grant for this. Okay. I'm just – like Palm City, I mean, if we had had – we had to go back out and find more for Old Palm City to make that happen. And so I'm just wondering what the likelihood or the possibility – one of the speakers talked about reaching out to our legislators and seeing if they were able to do something one way or the other, which at this point for this budget cycle, that would be done at the state level for next year, there's certainly the possibility to go get more. And I have no doubt that our staff will continue to research and go find more funding. I would share this with all of the residents. The amount of money that is being allocated to separate to sewer conversions statewide is unprecedented in terms of the state's funding allocations. There are federal dollars that are also flowing that we have not seen anything close to what is happening. So I can't sit here today and tell you I could guarantee you that we could get more money for the project, but the amount of money that is being allocated for these types of conversions is more than we've ever seen. And so whether this gets denied today or deferred today or not, we and our staff and your legislature will keep following the funds to find out where we can get more. And I think that's the best we can offer, I mean, at this point. I mean, if it gets put off, then it gets put off. And then I don't know what the answer is after that. Mr. Donaldson? Yeah, just in terms of the projects, the board has had a goal of keeping all projects at or under $12,000 per assessment. And so the project in Old Palm City was similar. Actually, unit price was similar. This was not Mr. Keithley. So our impetus for going for the grants was to have parity between one project to the other. Where we have had some differential, if you will, in projects is some of the grants that Sam has got from the Union River Lagoon Council on that $1,800 hookup. So I think the board has the ability to look at that hookup fee, which we've done in the past, which is not the hookup fee, but it's the tank abandonment. So you have Mr. Keithley pointed out that roughly $12,000 included all of the installation of the vacuum system plus whatever cost that you owe the utility to actually have that utility connection fee. So the only outstanding item is the actual tank abandonment and that last physical connection, which the last project was roughly $2,000, if you round up the last bid. So that's the area the board can look at in terms of if we were to, you know, delay the project and try to get more grants to get it to less than the $12,000. That would be slightly different than we've done the other project, but it's something, you know, to be a policy decision. And the other policy decision would be related to that last $2,000 fee, whether or not there's direction from the board to either seek grants or find a way that that piece can be solved. And the last thing I'll say is that this project is unique in that it's not unique, but the fact is that we're talking about the funding or the assessment costs not being applied to the homeowner for over a year from now. So the board, I think, ultimately in their policy decision is to defer action today and seek, you know, alternatives. Or if you approve action today and then provide staff with direction on your policy regarding that $2,000 or other fees that might be able to reduce it between now and August of next year. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Hetherington. I would disagree with some of these comments. I, as a single head of household, the insurance costs are killing me and many of us. So I certainly understand and sympathize that this is, you know, a huge and significant addition, in addition to all of the, you know, the other costs that we're bearing right now, like homeowners and, you know, just general supplies being more. So I don't know, I don't know, I wouldn't want to throw out the bid, but it would be nice to see if we could extend, I don't know what kind of procurement flexibility we have because, and I certainly would like to defer and see if we can work on getting the cost down. I thought we were trying to do less than $10,000 per household at one time, but I think that this merits thinking outside of the box and trying to work a little extra to see what we could do to buy down the costs. And I would like to just explore the idea of, of not letting go of the bid because we know if we re-bid it in a year from now, it's going to be increasing. So. Commissioner Jenkins. How long can we pause this until the grants are in jeopardy? The grants have a life of three years. Okay. If you're under construction, physically under construction, during that period of time, you can apply for extensions. Or if it's not under construction? You cannot apply for an extension based upon the rules. How old is the grant currently? We just received this grant last, I'm thinking about eight or nine months ago. I believe the contract was approved probably within the past six months. Okay. Yeah, but you still didn't, so status quo, how long until? Two extra years. Is not applying, well, we can't apply for an extension. So how long from today till we're in jeopardy? Two and a half years. Oh, okay. Commissioner Hurd. Those are my questions also. Is, is, so we have two and a half years to be under construction? Yes, ma'am. All right. So based on some of the feedback from my colleagues, I think one of the points that was made by a public comment that's a bit different is it's $11,924 if you pay it up front. If you divide the 740, if you multiply the 749 by the 20 years, it's $14,980. Now, of course, that's 20 years from now. That number doesn't go up or down. The $2,000 that Mr. Donaldson was speaking of is terrific. But if you can't do 12, 10 is also a challenge, or 15 or 16 or whatever the case may be. And then there's also the conversation about some folks own multiple lots. And, yes, you would be responsible for each of the individual lots. And then, you know, it would either force you to sell off the lot and put a house next to you, or so the concept of having generational, a larger piece of property, if it legally is divided into lots, you're paying more than one share. And the SHIP funding, which I thought, Mr. Emerson, was an excellent suggestion, but I want to be careful that from this board, from your county staff and your commissioners, it's not guaranteed. We can't guarantee you today that you'd get that money. I do know that there's going to be more funding available. Like I had said, it sort of fluctuates year to year, but there's no guarantee. And then the comment that someone said, you know, about there's already a list of people that are on that line for all sorts of projects. And without that being here, we don't know. I wouldn't want to send you out with a false sense of security thinking, well, I can get the SHIP money. And then you realize that there's, even with an abundance of SHIP money, if there's 60, 70 people on that list already, and you join the list, if all of you join the list, some of you potentially could squeeze in before the money ran out and others won't. But I approved it as a blanket point. One of the advantages of coming and sort of discussing these issues, your concerns with your elected officials, is exactly what's happening right now. I came this morning assuming I was voting for this, because we have in the past. It's our goal to convert septic to sewer. It's what we have mandated our staff, and they're doing exactly so. I don't have any critiques or criticism of our staff. Mr. Keith Lee, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Emerson are doing exactly the board policy. But I think in my mind it starts to show that not every neighborhood, every community, can be looked at through the same kind of parameters. This particular case, I mean, New Monrovia is a historic neighborhood. We've all been there. We know exactly what we're talking about. It needs to be addressed in a different way. So my suggestion, the chair doesn't traditionally make motions, but I would entertain a motion that would ask staff to keep an eye on that two-and-a-half-year grant clock. You don't want to bite your noses to spite your face. And have our staff, which are very good at finding additional money, like Mr. Keith Lee said, in Palm City when we were $10 million short, we went back out. The advantage that wasn't mentioned thus far today is that several years ago, and Commissioner Smith up in Tallahassee sort of led the charge, Martin County, although a relatively small county, is known statewide for really leading the charge on this conversion with our key people. So when we ask for money in Tallahassee for the people that write the checks, we have a leg to stand on. We are not one of these communities that showed up late at the party. We've been doing this for Commissioner Hurd and Commissioner Smith have been up here a long time, and they've been pushing this since the beginning. So when we show up in Tallahassee, when our team does, with our hand out for some extra funds, we get it. Indiantown, although a separate community now, they, last year, I think if I'm not, Mr. Emerson, correct me, there was $400 million statewide available. Palm City got $10 million, Coral Gardens got $8 million, and Indiantown got $28 million. Rocky Point was $10 million. Rocky. So out of the $400 million for the entire state of Florida, we got a lot of it. So I feel comfortable that we can, in my opinion, send you out today knowing that we're going to take another crack at this. Now, maybe the number is going to be $6,000 or $7,000 or $5,000, but you'll leave today knowing that your efforts hopefully chopped it in half. There is a cost. And we can't, if we made it free for you all, then everyone behind you would expect it to be free from now on, as well as it would not be fair for the woman who said her mom lives up in Jensen. It wasn't free in Jensen. It's not going to be free in Palm City. But every neighborhood should be addressed specific to the community where it is. And I have confidence that we can work that around a little bit more. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, I also have confidence, great confidence in our staff. And I'm going to move that we pause this project for 90 days, try to do everything we can to secure the bid, to ask for additional grant money, and to evaluate the ship funding that will be available. I think 90 days will give us enough time to reevaluate some options. Thank you. But the first thing is to make sure that we secure that bid. Yeah. You don't want to backtrack. We're okay with the DEP grant. We've got two and a half years to spend that money. But I'm nervous mostly about ship, about the bid, and about asking for additional money from the state. I think that this is a unique situation, a unique project, and I hope that it gathers new money. Commissioner Smith. I would also just, I second the motion, but also for discussion to also ask staff in the motion to reach back out and hold another informational discussion, whatever you want to call it. So that if there was confusion, if there were people who weren't able to attend, that got information from someone else, that we give everybody the opportunity to be very clear about what we're doing, how we're doing it, why we're doing it, what this motion really means, what it looks like. Maybe we can get somebody from ship there to explain how the ship process works so that it's very clear for everyone, step A, B, C, D, and this is where you would fall if that all happens. I just think it's an opportunity to kind of polish up what we do on the outreach side of this, and I think it would be very helpful for everybody, including us even, to understand what all the different issues are and how it will help you all. If that's helpful to you, if you're willing and you think that's a good idea, I think our staff would be more than willing to do that, especially with the ship discussion as well. Well, this just in, I see our purchasing, our director of purchasing, came into the room to throw a stick in the spokes of our conversation. Well, she's going to respond to the time frame from the bid. Let me see. Ms. Brotherton, you are recognized. Good morning, Christy Brotherton, Chief Procurement Officer. The 90-day bid guarantee is actually up today, so the prices are only held through today. But that's just on the bid. On the construction, yes. But that's not the grant dollars. The grant dollars are not in jeopardy of losing the grant dollars. Okay, so that wasn't as bad. So there's, well. It's not ideal, but it's not as bad as it could have been. So there's two different issues. One is the contract bid expires today, correct? But the grant money doesn't go away. I mean, I sort of was hearing a little bit that the grant money was in jeopardy of being lost at some point in time. Three years. Huh? Three years. So the grant money stays, but the bid does not, and we'll have to rebid, correct? Or can you negotiate with the bidder to hold that bid for 90 days? We would have to request that the bidder hold their pricing depending on the timing. I'm not sure that's something they would agree to. But it's worth asking. Right. And I think in Commissioner Hurd's motion, the idea of 90 days is to re-explore our options, and hopefully the contractor agrees to exploring that. It doesn't change the relationship with the contractor. It just changes the relationship with can we get additional funding, are there different avenues to go in. But it's not in an effort to beat the contractor down, you know, another half a million dollars or a million dollars. I mean, that's not my point of this. Correct. Mr. Donaldson? Yeah, so the two things. One is that with your motion, you can request that we ask the contractor to honor their price for 90 days, but it's on them to accept it. And then the other thing was just sort of the scale of the project, that for roughly for every $1,000 reduction we're aiming to get for the property owners, we need $960,000 of some other four sorts of funds. So roughly a million dollars. So just in terms of the ability to significantly reduce the amount of this assessment, I think they're certainly working on the hookup fees. I think it's certainly within the bounds that with approximately, you know, $2,000, that's another $2 million. But if the goal is to get it under $10,000 or something like that, it will more than likely require that the bids would expire. It would take some time to get other financial resources. So 90 days gives us time to explore that. I just wanted to put framework in terms of the size and scope of what we may be looking at. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah. The bid guarantee changes things for me because they're depending upon today, they're going to be able to put their contractors to work tomorrow. So they may not be very enthusiastic about extending 90 days, but can we ask them today and continue this item until we've had an opportunity to talk to the contractor and find out whether they're willing to extend their contract, whatever it is, 60 days, 90 days. Maybe 60 is a better number. I don't know. But securing that bid is extremely important to me. I will take care of that as soon as I get up. Okay. Then I'll move to continue this item until the end of the day. Or perhaps we – I'm sorry. Perhaps you could just take a break and you can go – Well, we have two things. In order to run the meeting. We are at our closed – we're a couple minutes behind our closed captioning break. Someone's actually typing what we say for closed captioning that you probably see on the screen here. Normally by 1030 we give them a break. I would prefer, and I hope you all would too, that we would take a 10 to 15-minute break, allow Ms. Brotherton to work her magic on the contractor versus postponing it to the end of the day, then you're at home postponing it for two weeks. I personally, in my opinion – and look, the contractor, I get it. My brother's a contractor. If you can't – we're not looking for him to shave him, her, to shave the price necessarily. I think it's bigger than the contract bid. This – we're not talking about, hey, can we save $500? We're talking about trying to shave this, and as Mr. Donaldson pointed out, every $1,000 decrease would require nearly $1 million to be found or raised. So I'm thinking that we need to find $3, $4, $5 million, not $1 million. I don't even know how you do that in 90 days. I just think that the number that really makes a difference to me is the grant, and we have two and a half years before the red light starts flashing. That's the only number I'm looking to protect is the $8 million that we already have. If it's not this particular contractor, and if he says, yeah, I'll wait 60 days, we're not solving this in 60 days. I mean, you know, our staff is great, but they're not Marvel superheroes. Some are. But the other thing I was going to say before we got into that conversation is that some of you this morning were remarkably articulate and tuned in. We would need your assistance with this. I know that Ms. Jennifer Dotson, Cody Kemp – I like saying your name. Even when I first heard it, I'm like, ooh, four names. How about that? I think you are probably not even a secret weapon, but you're someone that we will rely on for your assistance. Your community needs you. And so – and then there were some other very articulate, and when we're making grant opportunities, it does not hurt to hear from the community for the people that decide this. I feel today is a positive meeting. You know, I appreciate that you came. I don't know if 10 minutes will make a difference in terms of the bid because it's bigger than that in my mind. So if Commissioner Hurd, if you want to go back to your original motion, I don't know if a 10-minute break for Ms. Brotherton to speak to the contractor. I mean, that's assuming he answers the phone in 10 minutes, you know? Worth a drawing. All right. But, I mean, come back in – we'll take a 10-minute break, 15-minute break, and then we'll solve this when we come back. Or we'll decide. We're not going to solve it. Solve it. No, you're good. Thank you. We are back from our mid-morning closed captioning break. We are continuing with our June 20th, 2023 Board of County Commissioners meeting. We are more than halfway, nearly all the way through our agenda item, which was public hearing number three. We had tasked our chief procurement officer to contact the contractor, as well as the fact the name that we had mentioned very quite often this morning, Ms. Michelle Miller from Health and Human Services, is also here now to give us an update and a little more information on SHIP. But we will start with you, Ms. Brotherton. Commissioners, I did reach out to Mr. Stringer, who is the vice president of Centerline, our contractor, and he graciously agreed to extend his pricing guarantee for 60 days. So we have a 60-day window to work on that. Okay. Thank you very much. Ms. Miller, are you familiar with some of the conversation that we've had thus far this morning? I am, yes. Okay. Why don't you explain – just give us a little brief background of your department and SHIP, and then if there is specific opportunity for the folks here. Okay. Michelle Miller, Health and Human Services. We have in our department our housing unit, and that covers multiple streams of funding that would cover any kind of water, sewer, conversions, or hookups. So the first is our SHIP funding. We get a new allotment come July 1st. So if anyone is interested in being on a notification list, I would just encourage them to contact our office. We will put them on the list, and then as soon as that funding becomes available, we will call you. And then if you're income qualified, then you would get a letter of qualification for whatever services you need. And then we also have, coming up in the fall, community development block grant funds. Those will also pay for these types of services. That is a grant. It's not a lien. So SHIP funds, there is a lien attached to that. So it reduces a certain amount based on how many years you live in the home, and it's dependent on the amount. The community development block grant funds is not. So that basically is a grant, and you can use it for those same types of services, and that will be also available in the fall. Can you give us an idea, if you know, how many – is there any allotment, allocation of funds have come down? Do you know? From community development block grant? Well, both. Yes. So it's $750,000 for community development block grant. In SHIP, it will be $1.8 million. Okay. Now, there was a comment this morning that you already have a wait list on the SHIP for people that are already signed up, correct? We do, but we're ready to open that back up again because we have started some new projects, so that is ready to be opened up again. So now if the folks in the room have a project that's coming forward in a year or so, can they dedicate – can they commit to funding through your office now, or do they have to wait? Give us kind of the feedback. So if they get put on the notification list, and then when that new funding comes in, if it's for that year, so let's say that's 23, 24 funding year, then those funds could go to that year. But those SHIP funds also come in annually, so it would just go into whatever funding year was available. And the community development block grant funds are good for three years. Okay. But that's $750,000 traditionally, how quickly – I'm on your board with you – how quickly does those funds run out? Well, the $750,000 will probably take us through the whole three years. Really? Yeah. So the SHIP funds, it just depends on, I would say, availability and projects as far as we have a certain amount of contractors and how fast they get the projects going. So it's hard to say how long it would take for the funding to be expended, but encumbered, we can get that encumbered probably within the year. Okay. Now, when you said you have a list of contractors, the county has a contractor to do this work. It's not going to be one of your contractors. Exactly. So how would they qualify then for that? They won't. They won't be – They won't be through you. Right. That would be – since they're county employees. Yes. For the – So we recently went out to bid for a pool of contractors to complete SHIP funded projects. The way that it would work, the way that it's set up, which is a little different than what Michelle has done in the past, is as these projects would come up, Michelle has her list of contractors that she can contact. They get proposals from all of those contractors for whatever the scope of work is for whoever the applicant is. And then they would take the best price, and that's how they – and then they would enter into an agreement to complete that work. We've got a lot – it's like a switchboard up here. Mr. Donaldson, you want to chime in to what you just heard? Yes. I just wanted to make a clarification that the SHIP funds would most likely be used for that portion of the project, which is that tank abandonment and that final hookup cost, which is separate from the assessment that we were discussing earlier today. The CDB funds, I believe, could be used for either. It could be help in paying the assessment, and it also – or it could also be helped in paying hookup fees. So just in terms of there's two – the two different funds, one would only likely be used. The SHIP would be for that final assessment the project's already done. I want to get rid of my septic tank and hookup to the county. That $1,850, I think that Phil mentioned, that was bid out before, that would be paid for with SHIP. The CDBG is more flexible, and it could be used to help either pay your financing charges or the hookup. I appreciate that, and we have other lights. But the only thing I would say to that is that we were saying before the break that to lower the – let's call it the $11,924 just as a number, even though we know it fluctuates up and up, up and up, every $1,000 to lower that number is a million dollars. So I think that the SHIP or the CDBG is helpful, but it's, in my opinion, not the answer. Commissioner Smith. Also, it might be helpful, too, on CDBG for staff to explain that process. So CDBG grants come back to us, or projects come to us, and someone has to make a decision who gets allocated. You can only have so many CDBG grants at one time, right? Right, and we have one currently. So it is for rehabilitation, this specific grant, so it does cover this type of service in addition to rehab a house. But it would get allocated – it needs to get allocated to a specific project. It's not that we apply for those dollars and then we just arbitrarily put them somewhere. Correct. I just – everybody needs to leave here with as much information as possible so that they understand what really is at hand, what's available. So I think you did a great job on SHIP. I think now CDBG is a little bit more understandable that we would still – I think, because we've done this in the past, we have to decide to say if we're going to apply for that CDBG money to go to this project, we would have to do that. Correct. No, we already have done that in the funds that we're getting – For this year coming? Yes, for the funds that are coming, yes. And where are they allocated to? To rehab. Of where? This project or – Well, it could be multiple projects. It just depends on the – if the person is income eligible. Okay. I'll ask you, if we had had a prior agenda item when we had already allocated all of those to another project, it wouldn't be available? Correct. That's what I'm kind of getting to. Right, but we haven't done that yet, correct. So we will need to do that. Yes. And if we were to take action today or decide that when those funds become available from CDBG, we would want them to go to this project. So how it works is you can't say it can only go for one specific thing. It's whatever the grant will allow. So we could say, yes, it's all going to be for rehab, but included in rehab would be any kind of water connections. Maybe I'm just not saying this right. So if another neighborhood came to us next week, that money would be already allocated in – from the board's direction, you wouldn't be able to use it twice. Right. It hasn't been allocated yet, correct. I just want everybody to leave here saying there's potential money from CDBG. Yes. We haven't allocated it yet to anything. Correct. And it would sound like today that we would want it to be allocated in this direction versus coming to us next week with another agenda item and said, oh, by the way, we have this other project over here. We've already thought about allocating it to this. Correct. Mr. Donaldson. Just as a point of clarification is that I think as one of your strategies, staff has looked for knowing that septic-to-sewer hookups is a priority and a challenge for folks to pay that last line of connection, is that we've already applied to the CDBG with the concept that it can be used for water or septic-to-sewer hookups irrespective of which project in the county you're going to use. So it's not that you'll have to allocate it to New Monrovia. It's already available to any septic-to-sewer project in the county where somebody needs hookup fees and they follow the criteria that allows them to meet the grant requirements, meaning income eligibility. My whole purpose for that conversation was that there's only X amount of dollars that are going to be available in that fund. And if everybody were to leave today saying, oh, okay, there's $750,000 available over in this fund, we'll all be able to get that. It may be consumed by others or other projects unless we said something otherwise. Yes. And there will be a workshop that will be available. As soon as all the monies are received, we're required to have a community workshop so we can put that information on our webpage so everybody will know to come out and they can get very specific information that day. Thank you. Commissioner Hurd. So to summarize, there are CDBG and SHIP funds available, and they're unallocated. So applications can be made for assistance given income eligibility. Also, we've secured our bid for 60 days, so I would move that we pause this for 60 days and that we ask for additional grant money from the state, that we, before it comes back to the board, that there needs to be another meeting with the community, much like the meeting that was a week or 10 days ago or whenever these residents became aware of the project. And that we work very hard to get additional state funding for this project. Commissioner Smith. I'll second that again. And just to add to the commentary of that, that we also, as maybe from the chair, reach out to our delegation with a very specific ask for additional funds, that are there something that we don't know about? Is there a way through what just happened with the budget approval? Are there any other additional funds that our delegation may be able to draw down to assist in this project? That too. Thank you. Here's my opinion on this. And I'm Michelle Miller. I appreciate you very much coming to share that because we were sort of guessing prior. I want to be clear that both the ship funds and the CDBG grants are specific pots of money that are available for any resident in Martin County for a multitude of projects. We said every $1,000 off of the $12,000 requires a million dollars. So I don't want to mislead any of us to think that, one, the $700, because a month from now the Palm City folks are going to hear that same comment and they're going to want to have $1,000. If you're a multiple lot owner, you can't apply for a CBDG grant for lot A and B and C. So you're only getting one. I think it's helpful. I think it's sort of like paying for the dessert, but you still had to pay for the meal. And so I'm leery of the motion because I don't know if it really sends these folks out. 60 days in the government is 15 minutes. And so I think what we, just as my suggestion, Mr. Keithley said that the grant, the big money that is specifically allocated for your community, $8 million. Is, has a two and a half year life expectancy. That's more reasonable. I would hold the project indefinitely until you, because you need two, three, four, five million dollars that is specifically allocated to this community. Because leaving here, we'll know, but the folks will leave saying, well, I can, I can tap into this, some of this. Michelle will tell you, you have a group, right? There's a board. I sit on it, the AHAC. They determine some of these things. Some of you, lucky for you, your income, your financial circumstances won't let you qualify for this. You're in that weird set of circumstances where you don't have so much money that it doesn't make a difference, but you don't have, you have more money than would allow you to qualify for things. But there's still a sting of the price tag, you know, and that's the tricky spot that most Americans find themselves in. You make too much money to qualify for all sorts of extra, but you don't have enough that it's no big deal. You're there. I think we need to send staff out with a clear direction of Commissioner Smith, the concept of reaching out to the delegation, as one of our speakers said, that she will. I'm sure quite effectively. So will our staff. Brian Mast. We haven't even talked about CARES dollars. I know that there's a lot of CARES dollars that are still sort of like, you know, they had commitments that are now sort of failing. George Stokas is our expert on CARES dollars. You need to be thinking in terms of a half a million to a million plus to really have a difference in what we're talking about today. Because if we lowered this down $1,500, I don't know. I mean, it's terrific, but I don't know how much we really assisted you. So I would hope that maybe 60, if you want, we could do the 60-day thing as just a starting point. But I'm telling the residents and our staff, it's going to be much heavier than that, and it's going to take much longer than that to bring in. I think that a great goal would be $5 million. I think a great goal would be $10 million. Of course. But that would buckle up. Well, no, and I get it. And so our staff has got a long history of being able to figure this out, not just the three gentlemen and purchasing and health. Everyone, our legal department, because remember, Palm City folks, there's wealthy people in Palm City, but there's plenty of people that are in the same financial situation that you're in, and a month from now they're going to be sitting in those seats having watched this, most likely, and want the same thing. And so every community is, you know, the project scope is different, the environmental impact is different. But I see Palm City, old Palm City, and, you know, from an environmental point of view, being similar to this. So I think we need to think bigger. So we do, I don't know if that sways any of my motion makers and seconders, but I think we're sort of there. Here comes Commissioner Jenkins. So the motion just brings us out 60 days to have the same conversation, which we very well at that point may do, have forced them to do exactly what you're talking about, correct? Okay, but I just don't want to send people out with the wrong concept. Well, I think you cleared that up. Okay, I appreciate that. Commissioner Smith. And I think the 60 days helps us all focus on the effort, and I have no doubt from our residents that they will focus on the effort. So with your help, maybe our help, maybe we'll spring something up. Okay. So as long as we're clear. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd to extend this process for 60 days. And in the meantime, staff will unearth all sorts of opportunities for grants, and then there'll also be another meeting, community outreach meeting, during sometime within those 60 days. Well promoted through this group. You know, this is a group representing a portion, but, I mean, please spread the word to your neighbors. And then also to, if not for this, even one of the advantages for Ms. Miller is if you have other projects, if you have other things, she has a list of things that qualify. So maybe today's, you know, your hours that you spent here with us will give you the understanding you can apply for something else. If you're replacing windows, front door, you've got an issue, please look into our Health and Human Services Department with Ms. Miller to see if you can access those funds for something else. Commissioner Smith, this is the final word. Thank you. Just a quick thought. If staff would put a letter of thank you appreciation to our contractor for on the fly giving us 60 days, that probably got breezed over way too quickly. Say his name again. Centerline. It's Randy Stringer with Centerline. I can provide the information. And meanwhile, they're superstars. They're local. They're great. I think it would be appropriate to tell them thank you for an on-the-fly agreement. Yes. So with that, we have a motion by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. It'll be a busy and active 60 days. We'll see you again. Thank you. To our staff, thank you very much. Okay. Maybe we're going to be here the whole day anyway. Let's do board and committee appointments with Ms. Donna Gordon. The first one is BNC number one, historic preservation board appointments. Commissioner Smith? Can we have a plot? Can we have point two? Yeah, really? No? Come on. Really? For the historic preservation board, we can't make more? You've got to change the ordinance. Well, I'm not a – how many are on the historic preservation board? Why don't you take your position? Seven. Because I agree. This – this – both of these – both of these voting issues today were probably two of the toughest we've ever done. I have. And if that's so, if we have to do something to the ordinance, can we hold at least the historic preservation board until next meeting to do an orange change? We have more on that one. It's Gordon. Donna Gordon, for the record, I wouldn't know how to change the ordinance. We have someone that does. It's a legal thing. You've got to speak into the – come on now. Microphone. Excuse me, Sarah Woods, Martin County Attorney for the record. I'm checking to see if it's set by state or county ordinance, so I'll update you as soon as I see it. Well, let's do this. Why don't we go with the assumption that we do have the ability to extend it? If we do, then we can. And if we don't, then we can't. But again, we still need you to appoint somebody, please. How many people were – that was between – how many people were on that? Yesterday was the historic preservation board meeting, and they were looking forward to having a member appointed. They mentioned it yesterday. I was there. We're doing a special buy one, get one free. How many people were on that list? One, two, three, four. Let's take a moment. It looks like it's in the ordinance, so you could direct – after you appoint someone, you could also direct us to amend if you want to add another position. I would. So often it's a hard thing to get people to sometimes apply to our boards. Right. And then when you get really good people, expand it, and then we can make a motion to add two people. Can we? No. You can't add another person until you've amended the ordinance, so you would need to appoint one person today. Okay. That's fine. And then amend the ordinance, and then you would solicit again for that additional seat. That sounds like a plan. It would be an evening. Yes. Not our first day. Yeah. It's okay. It's a historic reservation. You're not going to have tie votes. Right? They're a decision-making body. Yeah. Thank you. Do we want to add two people? Yeah. Two additional? Nine. So we have seven? It will change their quorum, but they had a quorum yesterday. More people could potentially come and create the quorum. Do you have what you need? Yes. Mr. Rob Steele received four votes, and Mr. William Weiss received one vote. Weiss. Weiss, excuse me. Willie Weiss. I'm full of Rob Steele. Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd, seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Mr. Chair, I would move that we ask staff to bring back an ordinance change to modify the number of historic preservation board members from five to seven? Seven to nine. Oh, seven to nine. From seven to nine. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith to add two positions to the historical preservation board, taking us from seven to nine. It was seconded by Commissioner Hurd. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Just a quick comment, Mr. Chair. Can we please notify the applicants that didn't get chosen that we're doing that so that they don't feel somehow that they were not chosen? Because I would absolutely have appointed two of them today. Correct. I agree with you. Do they have to reapply, or can the applications, can we just vote from the people that were already in? I guess you'd put it in there. They reapply because things can change. Okay. Understood. Oh, I guess I have to announce it. Our next agenda item is B and C, number two, Value Adjustment Board appointment. For one person on the Value Adjustment Board, and Ms. Diane Castellucci received four votes. Approval of Diane Castellucci. Lucci. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Hurd to heap Ms. Diane Castellucci on the Value Adjustment Board. It was seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Ms. Gordon, thank you very much. Our next agenda item is public hearing number one, public hearing on proposed Martin County Trico Settlement Ralph Perry, an individual versus Dylan Edward Hathaway, and Martin County Fire Rescue, Martin County Board of County Commissioners. It'll be presented by, look at you, and you're wearing your old hat. Or is this your current hat? What do you? My current hat. All right. Mr. Matt Graham, and it looks like he will be assisted by Ms. Elise Elder. Sir, you are recognized. Thank you. Good morning, Commissioners. Matthew Graham, Assistant County Administrator. Today, I'm here before you to conduct a public hearing on the case of Ralph Perry versus Martin County Board of County Commissioners. In accordance with the procedure for Trico Settlements established by the Board, the public has provided an opportunity to comment on the proposed settlement. The case arose from an accident when Mr. Perry was a passenger in an ambulance that lost control and rolled over. Mr. Perry sustained injuries and filed a personal injury lawsuit against Martin County. A negotiated settlement was reached, and Trico is paying $100,000 on behalf of Martin County. It is a recommendation of relation and our outside counsel, Mr. Gary Dundas, that the settlement is in the best interest of the county. The recommendation is move that the Board conduct the public hearing, receive public comment on the proposed settlement by any member of the public and any member of the Board of County Commissioners, and two, move that the Board directs staff to notify Trico that the settlement procedures have been completed and that the settlement should be finalized. This concludes my presentation. Was Mr. Perry $100,000 or $200,000? I'm sorry, $200,000. That's what I thought. Yes. Okay. Questions for, well, we don't do questions. Just hearing it and that's it. Just hearing it and that's it. Voting. Public comment? Asking for public comment, yes, sir. Is there anyone that would like to address us on this topic from the public? We do have one. Mr. Pine, good morning. When you're done, if you could fill out a form. Yes, sir. Good morning, Commissioners. I do have a question, the cause of the accident. Who was a cause? Who was anybody held for the cause of the accident? And was there any violation of department rules when he was being transported? Thank you. Thank you, sir. I think we're not going to get into those, but those answers can be afforded to you after the fact, if they're available. I know there's very, Ms. Elder, can you speak to our public comment? I'm not aware of any discipline as a result of that accident, so I don't think any departmental rules were violated. Oh, Elise Elder, for the record. As far as whether or not there was a ticket issued, I'm not aware of that, so I don't have information on that. We send those cases outside, Gary Dundas represents the county on behalf of Trico, so we're not that involved in the lawsuits. Commissioner, if I may, it was raining that day, and the driver was taking, he was turning, the vehicle was turning, as he was turning it, rolled over, and the passenger sustained injuries, along with another member, which is public hearing number two. Correct. The passenger was the patient? The patient, yes, sir. Yes, I've heard anecdotally about that, that it was actually code two or three, which means, you know, responding with a patient to the hospital, based on what I've heard. We have a motion. Do we have a motion in a second? There's no motion needed. So that's it? Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Public hearing number two, public hearing on a proposed Martin County Trico settlement, Emily McBride, an individual versus Dylan Edward Hadaway and Martin County Fire Rescue, Martin County Board of County Commissioners. Thank you. I'm here before you today to conduct a public hearing in the case of Emily McBride versus Martin County Board of County Commissioners. In accordance with the procedure for Trico settlements established by the Board of County Commissioners, the public has provided an opportunity to comment on the proposed settlement. The case arose from an accident when Ms. McBride was a passenger in an ambulance that lost control and rolled over. Ms. McBride sustained injuries and filed a personal injury lawsuit against Martin County. A negotiated settlement was reached, and Trico is paying $100,000 on behalf of Martin County. It is a recommendation of relation in our outside council, Mr. Gary Dundas, that this settlement is in the best interest of the county. The recommendation is move that the Board conduct a public hearing and receive public comment on the proposed settlements by any member of the public and any member of the Board of County Commissioners. And two, move that the Board direct staff to notify Trico that the settlement procedures have been completed and the settlement should be finalized. Thank you. Anyone from the public looking to address us on this agenda item? Seeing none. Any comments from the Commission? Also seeing none. Sir, thank you very much. Ms. Thank you. Appreciate it. Our next agenda item is public hearing number four, public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending Section 67.201, nuisances declared, Article 7 nuisance abatement, Chapter 67, Environmental Controls, General Ordinances, Martin County Code. It'll be presented by Ms. Elise Elder, Mr. Jim Gordon, and Mr. Jeff Daugherty. The three of you are recognized. Jim Gordon, Public Works Director, for the record. You're taking a lot of new tasks. This is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance that amends Section 67.201, General Ordinances, Martin County Code, to require property owners to maintain weeds, brush, and undergrowth and excessive accumulation of trash on their property up to the edge of the street surface. So this is an existing code section that has been modified. The existing code had two sections, one related to weeds and grass, and then the other section related to trash. Both of those we're extending the area that we can enforce against from the lot of record all the way out to the edge of pavement, because in many cases the nuisance occurs in both locations, and under the current code we aren't able to enforce in the area that's in the right-of-way. And then we added a section to the code that includes trees and brush that extend into the right-of-way that present a health and safety issue relating to potentially blocking sidewalks or signs or roadways. So that's what's been modified in the code, and we're here to answer any questions if you have any. Thank you. Questions? So the gist is that there was a gray area from the sidewalk, in between the sidewalk potentially, and the street, like in the Swale in many neighborhoods where people, you know, their yard was clear, but they threw it all in between this closer to the road that was not officially their property, and so you're just tightening that language up. Correct, and it's consistent with many of our neighbors, so we were the outlier. Counting, neighbor counties, neighboring counties and neighboring municipalities, yes. Thank you. Anyone from the public looking to address us on this agenda item? Seeing none. Back to the board. I'll move staff's recommendation. Thank you. We have a motion to accept staff's recommendation by Commissioner Hetherington, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Mr. Daugherty, well said. Very, very articulate there. It was moving. Your comments were moving. Here we go. Departmental Quasi-Judicial No. 1, request for revised final site plan for approval of Mariner Sands planned unit development, track RC-2M174-017. It'll be presented this morning by Ms. Elizabeth Noggle with Elise Elder and assist. Ms. Noggle, you are recognized. Excuse me, Chairman. This is a quasi-judicial. Oh, that part. Since this is quasi-judicial, let me ask my colleagues if they've had any ex parte communications. I will start with you, Commissioner Hurd. I haven't, and they've been filed. Commissioner Jenkins. If I have any, but they've been filed. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. Thank you. Commissioner Smith. Thank you. I have none, and we filed that concept. Anyone that will be offering any testimony, please stand to be sworn in. 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? Ms. Noggle, do you have a copy of your work history and the agenda item that you would be submitting? Let the record show as she is submitting it. Is there any return receipts requested? No mailers were required. No mailers were required. Are there any interveners? There are no interveners. So close. With that in mind, now you can begin. Good morning, Commissioner Elizabeth Noggle, principal planner for the record. We're here today to talk about Mariner Sands PUD Tract RC2 request for revised final site plan approval by Mariner Sands Country Club, Inc. This is a request for revised final site plan for Tract RC2. The proposal includes demolishing and rebuilding the clubhouse and related improvements. The clubhouse tract is located generally at the northwest intersection of southeast Mariner Sands Boulevard and southeast Burning Tree Circle, approximately 0.17 miles northeast of southeast Federal Highway. The zoning of the property is PUD and the future land use is low density. A little site history. The Mariner Sands PUD was originally approved in 1978 for a golf course with a clubhouse and residential community. The clubhouse was constructed on this Tract RC2 of the master plan in 1979 and expanded through a revised site plan in 2007. The most recent revision to Tract RC2 was approved in 2014 and included revisions to the parking lot, new bag drop, and new golf cart parking. The proposal before you today is to demolish the existing clubhouse, construct a new approximately 33,849 square foot clubhouse. The existing storage building and bag drop is to remain. There are some minor revisions to the existing parking lot, golf cart parking area, and clubhouse drop-off. Access to the site will remain in place from southeast Mariner Sands Drive and southeast Club Lane. There are no preserve area requirements on this Tract, and the proposal is consistent with the master plan and the PUD zoning agreement. This is an aerial view of the existing clubhouse with the clubhouse and vehicle parking, golf cart parking, bag drop off of southeast Club Lane, and two access points from southeast Club Lane and Mariner Sands Drive. This is the proposed site plan. The clubhouse is generally in the same location, and some modifications just to the vehicle drop-off and parking areas. And this is a closer view of the proposed clubhouse. Development review staff reviewed the application and finds it in compliance with all applicable regulations of the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan, as detailed in the attached staff report, and staff does recommend approval. Pursuing to section 10.5.F.9, a review of the application before the local planning agency was not required. The recommended action is to move that the board receive and file the agenda item and staff report as Exhibit 1 and move that the board approve the revised final site plan for the Mariner Sands PUD Tract RC2 Clubhouse Project. Thank you. Thank you very much. Questions for staff? None at this time. The applicant's representative. Yes, good morning. Morris Crady here on behalf of Mariner Sands Country Club, senior partner with Lucido and Associates, and I have reviewed the staff report. I appreciate Mrs. Noggle's very comprehensive staff report. We're just rebuilding a new clubhouse on the same site, and after 30, almost 40 years, I think it's about time, and we're upgrading it to meet all their current needs and services. I'm glad to answer any questions. And you have been sworn? Have been sworn in, yes. Have they demolished the clubhouse already? Any possibility of teaming up with our fire rescue department to see if there's any kind of training can be done on that property beforehand? I'll ask, but I'm sure there'll be no fire involved. No, maybe not fire, but there's other training that can be done. I'm not sure, but I'm sure they'll be willing to talk about it. Thank you. Commissioner Smith? Morris, just looking at the footprint, it looks like they're eliminating or downsizing significantly the dining room section? Well, actually, it is condensed. The footprint is smaller, but I think there's like three pieces of the dining room, so they've kind of reoriented the building to take advantage of the views. So those octagons are part of the? Extensions of the dining room, so they could add to it, yes. I was just curious, it just looked like that whole eastern side used to be all, or is, was, all dining room side. Yeah, they've been very cognizant of, you know, trying to maintain and improve views of their existing golf course and the mature vegetation that has, you know. I know, it'll be stunning. It's just interesting. Yeah. That's great. Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant? None. Anyone from the public looking to address this on this topic? Commissioner Smith? If there is no public, move approval. Thank you. Commissioner Hurd? I just wanted to commend Mariner Sands. They've been an association for a very long time, 40 years, and they're so conscientious about continuing to improve their environs, and it's, it's, I'm so impressed. And also, the elevations are lovely. It's, it's, it's, it's going to be, the elevations, by the way, are on page 568, 569, and it's just going to be a stunning addition to our community. I just like the additions, renovations that were made to Indian River Plantation at our last meeting. It's really nice to see these organizations reinvesting in their wonderful communities. Absolutely. Thank you. Is that a second? It was. Oh, fantastic. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith for staff's recommendation and seconded by Commissioner Hurd. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Let's get one more in before Commissioner Jenkins passes away. Do you have a favorite? You'd like to have as your last agenda item. We do have fire rescue here, so the worst comes the worst. Departmental number one, Office of Management and Budget items which require board approval. There will be two, and it will be presented by Ms. Jennifer Manning. Ms. Manning, good morning. You are recognized. Good morning, Commissioner. Jennifer Manning, OMB Director for the record. I have two items on the agenda. I know they're not on the board right now. The first item is permission to accept the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistant Grant. It's for $66,520, and those funds will be used to support the juvenile diversion programs, staff training, and program expenses. I'm leaving. I don't smoke. I'm sorry. Did you say something? Okay. The second item is an amendment to the CIP for the Larry Masson Building Modification Project. That is a beautiful title. Yeah. I saw that on the agenda item. Thank you very much for doing that, Mr. Jardy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they're requesting an amendment for the CIP sheet as well as a transfer of $169,000 to remodel the floor plan, to do some classwork training session. They want to add the men and women's restroom facility. They want to also replace some of the flooring and some security and architectural and engineering. You've done a nice job with that, but when I heard it from Mr. Daugherty, Mr. Daugherty, could you come forward? More fluffy? Yeah. No, just a little more detailed. Okay. He's in the trades to explain what's going to be taking place at the Larry Masson Building Department. The building was originally constructed back in 2005 or 2006, and it was constructed not for the building department, so it wasn't necessarily laid out that way. The building department occupied it, and since that time, they've also taken on code enforcement and derelict vessels, so the operation's a little bit different. There's a large training room that is often used by many different departments within the county as well as groups outside that are similar, such as a code enforcement training or something from many. There is only one men's and women's restroom. It's out in the public area. There's only one men's water closet, so when there's a break on the training days and that, it is very cumbersome with many people in there, particularly the lobby and noise. So we're going to add a men's and women's restroom behind partially secured so that there is a better flow of that. Additionally, when it was constructed, as you notice out in our lobby here, we have relationships between staff and our customers, and we have them to be able to come in and view with video or TV monitors type between the inside and outside so that they don't have to go through security. Over the years, security has become a bigger issue, so we will address that as well. The original flooring is in there from approximately 20 years ago, carpet, and we have moved away from that vinyl towel and that, particularly with the COVID and better maintenance. So those are the main things as well as a study for our future needs as we go forward. We've changed operations as technology has come, but we also have to be cognizant of our staff needs and the ability to serve our customers. And to secure staff, because you do code enforcement. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate it for that thorough clarification. Ms. Manning, anything else? With that, you know, I can't do that. I'm going to close the session at this point. Thank you. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer. Commissioner Smith? I move to ask a recommendation. Thank you. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith for staff's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Hetherington. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, we have Palm City resident, Christy Brotherton, who's back. She already, you know, who do you have with you? I have a special guest. Fantastic. This is Christy Brotherton, chief procurement officer, star purchasing agent. Seth McGonnie, purchasing agent for the record. Fantastic. Welcome. And Palm City resident. Good for you. Good for you. Hire Palm City in purchasing. No. What's wrong with that? Before we start, commissioners, based on our conversations earlier with the Port Salerno, New Monrovia vacuum sewer collection system and neighborhood restoration project, items A1 and B1, we will need to withdraw. We will bring those back at a later date once we have gone through the 60 days. So with that being said, we will be presenting item A2. Thank you, Christy. Thank you, Christy. Thank you, Christy. Gomez corridor resurfacing for your consideration. Staff recommendation action. Move that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, CW Roberts Contracting, Inc. in the amount of $1,958,026.25, and move that the board approve the revised CIP sheet for Gomez neighborhood restoration phase one and phase two project that reflects the bid award, and move that the board approve a budget transfer to reallocate funding from completed projects, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. And that concludes my presentation. That was fantastic. Commissioner Smith. Move staff's recommendation with the approval of A2 and the withdrawal of A1 and B1. Second. Thank you. I was originally going to be a no, but the way you sold it really tipped me over. Appreciate that. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins, for staff's recommendation, including the two withdrawn. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Unanimously. So write that down. You got your first one was unanimous. I appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Thank you. See you in the neighborhood. Our next item is Public Works Departmental No. 3, update on the Hutchinson Island Shore Protection Project that will be presented by Ms. Jessica Garland, a lifesaver. Probably doesn't live in Palm City, but she did save a life of a person who lives in Palm City. Yes. Who's with you? I'm Jessica Garland, Coastal Program Manager for The Record, and I have Wendy Laurent from Taylor Engineering. Hello, Wendy Laurent. Hello. Welcome. So today we are giving an update on the Martin County Four Mile Beach Protection Project and the work we've been doing to analyze the resilience of our Four Mile Beach Project. And so I'm going to let Wendy take it away and give her presentation. Before she starts, I just want to let Wendy and her and Taylor get a really excellent presentation at Florida Shore Beach. Just took away what I was going to say. I just thought there was a – this has been put forth at a national conference and papers written about it. So I just wanted to – Who's Taylor? Taylor Engineering is the company that I work for. Oh, Taylor Engineering. Yes, yes. Yes. I thought that was Taylor back there. Now Bruce Taylor is off sailing the sea somewhere doing something fun, I'm sure. Commissioner Smith? Well, he stole what I was going to say because I was there, too, and I was sitting next to him like, Oh, that was really something. We ought to get her to come present to us someday. So – And here we are. And here you are. Now the rest of us will get to decide if it's really as good as – Well, the expectations are pretty high, but it was really something, so. Thank you. Ms. Laurent, you are recognized. Thank you. And thank you so much for having me today. Thank you for those positive comments. I hope I can live up to it. And I hope this is a fun presentation for you all. It's four minutes or less. I'll go fast. Oh, I went too far back. Sorry. Okay. I'm trying not to get click-happy here. But a little presentation outline, so I'll give you a background of the project information, and then we're really going to dive into what is resilience. It's a very hot word right now, and how it can be applied to beaches. We'll take a look at this beach and how it performed for Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, and then really what this study – what we're looking at. So here in this presentation, I was looking at different beach resilience metrics and how we could apply them to the project that we're working on right now. So a little bit about the project. Which beach project is this? You might be asking that. So this is the Shore Protection Project. This goes from the St. Lucie-Martin County line all the way down to what we call R25, which is located just south of the Marriott Resort. FDEP, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, establishes these R monuments. They're range monuments. This is where we take surveys every year of the beach so we can compare results, see how the beach is performing, and how we need to adapt in the future. So this project provides not only storm reduction benefits, so it protects your infrastructure behind the beach, but it also has a lot of very positive recreational benefits and environmental benefits. So that's important to take into account. So right now the county is looking into ways that the project can be modified because we've seen it hasn't performed quite as we expect it to. And really, how can we make it more resilient in the future? There's increased storms. The berm is overtopped a lot. So we wanted to look into this and see how we can change things within federal guidance. So a little bit about the project. This project was authorized in 1990 and WERDA 1990. Following that, the Army Corps of Engineers developed the General Design Memorandum in 1994. So this is the playbook of the project. This sets the rules of the project, says how often you should nourish the beach, what those volumes are. And here it describes the project as, first, a protective beach berm and storm dune along approximately four miles of Hutchinson Island. So we have that. It allows for periodic nourishment of the beach, an adjacent shoreline for the life of the project, and it also requires multi-year performance modeling. So how has this project performed in the past? It's very highly dependent on storm activity. Storms come and go. And if storms follow each other very closely, such as Ian and Nicole, it's really hard for the beach to recover from that. So often we see erosion of the dry beach or what the public considers the beach. And if a storm follows soon after, the beach can't naturally recover. And we see rarely a full recovery of the beach. In the northern project area, we usually see increased erosion as the sand travels south. So the south project area is usually stabler. However, St. Lucie County recently brought online their south county project. So that's really going to help you guys in this northern project area. And we hope that we won't see as much erosion. And we've already seen those trends. But really exciting. We've seen a lot of dune growth in this project area. And dunes are a very good feature. They're almost the last resort when it comes to storms. They act as the last buffer there. How many of you are boaters? So you know a sacrificial anode on a boat. The dune and the beach berm act as that. We know it's going to erode, but it's going to protect you. So a little bit about the dune growth. Here on the left, you see beach profiles. So this is the project after each fill event. So we have August 2005, May 2013, June 2018, and June 2022. And you can see not only an increase in elevation of over five feet in the dune, but also seaward movement of the dune. So the dune is naturally growing here. And then next slide, we show also how the vegetation relates to the dune growth. So textbooks say if you have good vegetation on your dune, the dune will grow. And we're seeing that here in data. The green little points and the red arrow represent the dune, the edge of vegetation on the dune. And the blue line arrow there represents the toe of the dune. So as the vegetation is moving seaward, it's trapping sand in there. And it's also stabilizing the dune with its root systems. So that's very good. A little bit about the project history and when it's been nourished. There's been six nourishment events placing over 3.5 million cubic yards on the beach. And you'll see that the most recent three events, there was actually additional funding available, which is FCCE funding. That's government funding that's available following a storm event. And that covers about 20 to 30 percent of the project's costs historically. But this is still higher than the GDM and the LRR. Those are the authorizing documents stated. And those are the Army Corps documents. So we wanted to look into this and see what we can do to adapt the beach's profile template to make it perform better. So this is the beach template. The colored lines, the blue, the red, and the green, are all historic construction templates. While that dotted line hiding under there, that's our design template. The colored ones are advanced fill. We expect those to erode. That's the sacrificial anode we have there. And then once we hit the design template, we usually start talking to the Army Corps saying, hey, we're going to need another nourishment project in the next few years. We know this beach will continue to erode. Let's talk about spinning something up. So very importantly, in the design documents, this beach is referenced to tidal datum. So you'll see in green here we have MSL, mean sea level, MLW, mean low water. So the design documents are referenced to a tidal datum instead of a geodetic datum. Tidal datums change over time. However, this project's tidal datum has not changed over time. So right now we're working, talking to the Army Corps, trying to figure out how we can change the project design parameters and increase the tidal datum to get more fill on this beach, raise the beach berm to account for current tidal datums that is more appropriate, not ones that are from 1990 and even predated because of that, because it focuses on a 20-year time period. So we're working on that. That's the overarching goal of this large project. So exactly what is resilience? It's defined by the government as the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions, to withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions. In this case, our disruptions are primarily sea level change and storms. Resilience is also a trait. Adaptation is the action. And the steps we're taking right now with the county is adapting the beach for these impacts. Oops, it's not just me. Okay, so now how do we measure resilience to sea level rise? That first requires picking a sea level rise projection. For this study, originally we were going to use the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact because that's what the county has adopted as their standards. However, because it's an Army Corps project, they asked us to use their curves. You can compare them on the right. So the Army Corps curves that we're using are the high and the low, so the red and blue solid lines. And in between, we have the dashed and dotted lines that represent the other projections there. So we're going forward with those Army Corps scenarios. And actually, historically, the project has been tracking with the Army Corps high. So really, that's what we're using in our modeling. And it's interesting, called out in the 1993 GDM, they actually note that if the upper limit of sea level rise does occur, it will increase shoreline recession and storm damages estimated for the project. So we've brought that to the Corps' attention, and we're focusing on that, saying this is why we need to adapt this project. So how exactly do we measure beach resilience? There's a few things. So first, we're trying to protect the important infrastructure located landward of the beach, be that roads, especially evacuation routes, people's homes, electrical power lines, many things. We're trying to protect those from sea level rise and storms. Those are our major stressors. And there's two important features. So we have our beach berm. That's where you'd like to sit your beach chair down. And there we can measure our beach width, elevation, and the volume of that. And then our final line of defense is the dune. So we can measure, again, the width, the elevation, the volume, and take a look at the vegetation. So there's very simple methods to measuring this, or relatively simple methods to measuring this. It still takes time and a lot of procedures. So we can track elevations, those being mean high water, the berm, the dune. We can look at the width of the beach, look at volumes, look at vegetation coverage. And then there's some more complex methods. This is a relatively new thing. So all of these methods, there's not one set in stone that's an answer for everything. Every beach is different. So at the time of this presentation, I took a look at the following, the last two on this list because they included the impacts of storms. And with Ian and Nicole had just passed at the time of this presentation. So I wanted to see how they performed for those storms. So now is the part with the pretty pictures of the beach. A little bit of a brain break here. So this is the beach prior to the storm. For this analysis, I just took a look at one R monument. And these are the photos that we have to the north and the south. So prior to the storm, the beach is pretty wide. It's in good condition. We knew it was approaching its design template, so it was going to be time for nourishment soon. And this is during Ian. This photo is very deceiving because when you take a look at the next photo, you actually see there's a scarf forming along the entirety of the shoreline. So the beach is serving its function, though, and protecting the homes and the roads behind it. Just right after Ian, you can see it didn't move too much from the photos during Ian. And then before Nicole, Jessica went out there and took these photos, the beach is smoothed out a little. It's still pretty steep, and it looks like it's encroached upon the dune, which you can see during Nicole. There was some overwash in this area, and a pretty significant scarp was formed in the dune. So here are some more photos of the sand on the walkover showing that water was definitely coming through there. And these are pretty significant scarps. I would say they ranged from three to five feet in the dune. So a lot of that dune volume was gone, but it did serve as a really great storm protection. You can see the vegetation, too, that root structure in there that helped keep it together. And we'll get into this analysis. So at the time, I did not have the buoy data from in the project area. And I'm sorry, I did not update this with that buoy data. So we actually used the buoy offshore of Cape Canaveral, that 41009, and we got water level data from the closest NOAA gauges. So these are the three resilience methods that we tested out. So first, we have the simple method, the contour tracking and volume analysis. Beneath that, you can see it does not include water level or wave information in this. However, we can pull that data into here. In the middle is the coastal resilience index. This combines five different variables. And I crossed out berm volume and dune volume because it does not take volume into account. And then on the right, there's the engineering design parameter. This one's pretty complex. But broken down, it really focuses on intensity, or that's the storm intensity, over resilience of the beach. And you can actually customize this equation to what is the best fit for your beach. So the author of this has about nine different equations that you can plug into here. I used what he suggested performed the best. But this can be optimized for your beach in the future. So a little bit about how they performed. First is the most simple analysis. If you look on the left, I have the change in shoreline position relative to the design template. So in June 2022, the design template at Mean High Water, so where the water is at high tide, was 12 feet advanced of the design template. Following Ian, we lost about four feet there. And then with Nicole, we lost an additional seven feet there. It's interesting if you look at the sub-aerial volume. So that's the dry beach volume, the volume available above Mean High Water. In the October 2022, so following Ian, you actually see an increase because some of that sand in the nearshore moved onshore. Whereas then in December 2022, you see that massive decrease of 11 cubic yards per foot as a result of Nicole. That's the purple line on that plot. So you can see all that volume loss that you saw in those pictures is here in the data. So now taking a quick look at the Coastal Resilience Index and how this performed. So if we look at the table on the left in the very bottom there, between June and October, so this is as a result of Ian, it decreased by 1.4 points. And then between Ian and Nicole, it decreased by 0.6 points. Just looking at the volume loss associated with this profile, I did not get the gut instinct. It did not perform as I expected it to. I thought the resilience of the beach following Nicole was much greater than a 0.6 decrease in points. So although it is a resilience index, I didn't think this was the one we wanted to use. Next. And then finally, this slide is a lot. Let's focus on the bottom table there. And here is the intensity and resilience metrics of each of the profiles. So the design template, interestingly here, we talked about the dune growing earlier. The dune's grown a lot. It's actually larger than the design template right now. So that's why it has a very low resilience, because we're missing that dune volume that's currently out on the beach, which is good. We want a very resilient beach. So in June 2022, you see that resilience go up. The intensity is still low, because I used average conditions for that month. No hurricane. And then come October and December. So October 2022, the intensity of Ian was quite high. And then we had a low resilience due to the decrease in berm width. So we lost that berm buffer of the beach, where we saw the scarp, and the dune was about to be eaten away. And then Nicole came through. And again, we had very high intensity there. Decrease in the dune volume. But we did see an increase in the berm width. So a lot of the volume that was in the dune moved out to the berm. So that evened out the resilience metric. So on the right there, you see the numbers that vary from the .00038 to the 70.9. And I thought that this makes logical sense of what is the most resilient compared to the storms and just a gut instinct there. A low EDP is either a resilient beach or a low intensity storm. So the design template in June 2022, those were low intensity situations because they were average conditions. And then a high EDP is a vulnerable beach or a high intensity storm, as we see for both Ian and Nicole. So just a quick comparison of these and what we used moving forward. So the contour tracking and volume analysis, that is the most simplistic, easiest method. However, the engineering design parameter, although we're not using it in our reporting, it is a really great opportunity for the future. Because if you fine tune this for your beach, if you have enough data, which the county does, you have really great beach profile surveys. And also you have extensive data related to the wave climate in that region because there is a buoy in the project area. So this could be fine tuned and you can actually use it as a forecasting tool. So if you take a look at all the historic data, you can see a storm coming in, put in the storm parameters, put in your current beach parameters, and see what the impacts are going to be to the beach. Try and predict that before the storm comes through and see whether or not it performs as expected. So some quick conclusions. So beach resilience directly relates to the buffer volume and the recovery timing conclusions. Ian and Nicole were right after each other. So there were pretty significant impacts to the beach. There's so many ways that beach resilience can be measured and which way is the best. That's up to interpretation. Martin County has done a really wonderful job in collecting data. So this beach is a really good test for future analyses. And all the data is there that's needed for planning exercises. And for us to have conversations with the core for them to understand why this beach template needs to be raised. And be the leading edge. There's not many projects that I'm aware of that are talking to the core, trying to adapt their beach template to incorporate for sea level change. This is something new. And the core has their ear. They're listening. And they're willing to work with us in order to adapt this template to accommodate for sea level rise, increase the volume, and make the beach more resilient in the future. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions. Or challenges to her information. What? Or challenges to her information. Yeah, I noticed on some of those formulas, I wasn't sure, like, on the third. I try not to get too into them. Well, one, it's nice that you enjoy and appreciate your work. So good for you. I think that the pre-praise that you received, you earned. It was a good presentation. I mean, engineers love it. Don was just, you know, you can take the engineer out of the office, but you can't take the whatever. Commissioner Smith. It was funny, like, who was watching and who wasn't the presentation? I was. It was just, it was an interesting. Engineer's like, yeah, great. Female engineer. Maybe not so great on the other. Where'd you go to school? University of Rhode Island. Oh, okay. Good for you. I think what I took away from when the presentation, when we watched it, was that we were in almost like in its own little class of the presentation. Like, relative to what other communities are investing in. And we spend probably a fair amount of money doing this work. But I think her conclusion of this is it puts us in a really good position for the core, not only to get our projects funded and prioritized, but to be able to document everything that's going on and what's happening. And from what I take away from these conferences and all the different information that's given, you've got to do that. I mean, what was interesting, that conference followed right after Nicole. And the presentations on Volusia and their loss of their profile and their seawalls and other things was shocking of maybe there needed to be a lot more work done up there than has been done through the years. Specifically, even the design of the shoreline protections and so on. So, I just, I really appreciated how you presented, but it also put us in a position that for all the money we do spend on doing this stuff, we get some fantastic results as of all of it. So, Wendy, thank you very much for being here, coming down. You want to stay? No. Jacksonville, right? You're up in Jacksonville? No. I'm actually in Philadelphia. Wow. I thought you were in Jacksonville. Taylor Engineering is in Jacksonville, yes. But you're in Philly? Yes. Really? Yes. But I get to come visit here a lot and I do enjoy it quite great. Our winners are much better. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Donaldson. Yeah, just a couple of things. One was, I think the performance of the beach really showed itself well during Nicole, too. Daytona has not had a beach program and has a lot of structures that are threatening to fall in as a result of that. Also, the Barton County project was the first, I think, federal project that had a dune constructed with the project, and that's also been significant in its performance over time. And I think this will be the third time we're looking to modify it because we did change the slope of the breach perm file to make it more turtle friendly, which we worked with ecological associates years ago on kind of looking at alternatives to design for how it behaves for turtle nesting. So there's been a lot of really significant advancements done on the beach project. And I think, lastly, I think the idea of that index is one thing is to boil it down into, I think, the discussion was you might be able to have a sort of a green, yellow, red, or kind of a color contour to say, hey, what's the condition of my beach, using that resiliency index just to kind of show colored locations of, hey, we're in green place, we're in yellow, or we know we need to do a project soon, or it's red because it's been stressed in some areas. So that will be able to communicate to our public beyond those partial differential equations that I think you threw up there, a much easier way to kind of convey what's the condition. And I think the other that using it as a forecasting, what is the condition before a storm, which then would relate to our emergency management, are there any structures that we need to advise people on in the event that it is vulnerable? Fortunately, to date, our beach has actually gone through a significant number of hurricanes and done remarkably well, where we haven't had to have any evacuations specifically to Northeaster or something like that, which prior to 95, we did have structures washed into the ocean prior to the original project. So I think it's a good demonstration for all of that. Well said. Anyone else? Anyone from the public looking to address us? Who did you bring with you? That's my co-worker, Nicole McLean. Hello, Nicole McLean. Welcome. Helps me crunch all the numbers. Where does she operate out of? Jacksonville. Okay. So she's your Florida connection. Oh, yeah. When I can't get here fast enough, she's on her way down. That's fantastic. Anything else? Just the one bonus of doing this, starting this now, is our FCCE project that we're looking towards is in the winter of 24-25. So we have plenty of time to get the modifications done and coordinate everything with the Corps. So there is plenty of time to get the changes in place before the next project goes out to bid next summer. Thank you. And you did an excellent job as well. Thank you. Commissioner Smith, we're going to give you the short final word. St. Lucie County's federal project, that was the first time they did that. So a thank you should also accompany us to them because we tend to receive what they do or what they've done. And so we're interested to see over time how that helps us. It has already. Yes. Yeah. And we're looking to hopefully in the next project, because they did have hurricane damage as well, hopefully join the two projects and do them at the same time. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Fly home safe, get back to Jacksonville safe. We will take our lunch break and return at 2 p.m. Thank you. Thank you so much. Three county commission meeting. We are back from our lunch break. We're going to take agenda item departmental number four, approval of a collective bargaining agreement between Martin County and International Association of Firefighters for fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2027. Who's kicking it off? I will. Oh, here he is. Hello, sir. You had the suit and tie. You just blended right into the room. Matt Graham, how are you, sir? Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Matt Graham, assistant county administrator. Today, I'm here before you for your review and consideration of the IFF union contract between the International Association of Firefighters and Martin County Board of County Commissioners. This is a three-year contract. Before we get started, I just wanted to recognize some of the individuals and all of their hard work on this contract. First of all, Sarah Walker, she's been with me doing negotiations for the past six years, but she was actually the chief negotiator. She took the lead on all of this. So as well as David Hayes. David Hayes was our secretary. He took all the minutes, and he reformatted our entire contract from start to finish. Matt Resch for all of his financial help and coming up with all the different financial proposals and the cost associated with those. Of course, Elise for her legal review. All of our fire chiefs for their subject matter expertise. And then, of course, our union, which is back here. Scott, Pete, they really did their homework this time around. We had negotiations that began in January, and our goal was to bring it to you all before July 1st. And we were able to do that thanks to everyone's hard work. Sounds like you're winning an award. Yes. Well, there's a lot of hard work. There was a lot of late nights on this. I know I got e-mails from David Hayes behind me up until midnight. So I'll now turn it over to our fire chief. Good afternoon. For the record, Chad Chancholi, fire chief, Martin County Fire Rescue. So today's a pretty exciting day for us to bring this forward to you. But before we begin, what I would really like to do is take this opportunity to educate the public a little bit before we get into the contract itself. So recently we did an open house at Station 14. And during that open house, we talked about a few things out there. One was a modern fire station, modern firefighters, and we talked about how seconds make a difference. Seconds count. Seconds save lives. And what we realized walking away from that event is the general public, they don't know what those seconds look like. So what we did is we put together a very quick three-minute video of a call, and it's going to actually display and showcase how our personnel actually operate on the street. So with that, I'll kick it over to you, Matt. What is the address? What's the window? Something's happening, and it's not. Hello, sir. Tell me. Talk to what's going on. I don't know. You've got to know that kid's home. Okay. He's having a fit or something or a hard time to do something. That right there was a true display of professionalism, all the way from the dispatchers to the firefighters on the street. I'd like to quickly break down what our citizens have just watched in this video because it's very important. What you saw were firefighters at the beginning there. They were about to have dinner, sit down at the station, and congregate, and that's what our firefighters, this is their second family. This is their home away from home. As soon as this 911 call came out and the tones dropped, you immediately saw them switch gears. They were responding to a call, a single vehicle, motor vehicle collision, with heavy, heavy damage and occupant entrapment. This call that I'm talking about right now, it's not an outlier call. This call happens on a daily, routine basis. So this is a routine call. You saw them immediately leave that area where they were congregating, head out to the bay, get their gear on, get in the truck, and get out those doors because their goal is to get to that call as safely and effectively and efficiently as they can to mitigate the scene. So let's talk about what they do when they get on the scene. First, they have to overall do a scene size up. They have to understand what the hazards are, identify those hazards to be able to mitigate the hazards. And what they had, obviously, was the vehicle entrapment or the patient entrapped in that vehicle. So they had to actually cut the vehicle to get to the patient. This is what I want you to think about when we talk about vehicles. The vehicles that you drive, the safer the vehicles are for you, the more difficult it is for us to cut into those vehicles. So they identify these hazards. The other things they identify is not only how to cut the vehicle, but where to cut the vehicle. Right now, the electric vehicle world is growing. It's growing nationwide. That type of vehicle is probably one of the most hazardous vehicles for our firefighters to actually cut. If they cut in the wrong place, that could be immediate death to a firefighter. That's the level of training they have, and they are prepared for this type of call. So once they actually understand what they're going to do, and they strategically attack this call, and they extricate this patient, these same firefighters you saw move metal around this patient, pull this patient out, put them on the backboard, and bring them to the back of the truck. These are the same firefighters that are now transitioning to medical modalities. Now they're actually performing life-saving treatment. And I want to identify some of the treatment they did. So first, the patient had an unstable airway. So they actually had to secure their airway. What did they do? They took a laryngoscope, put it in the patient's mouth, displaced the jaw, visualized the trachea, put the tube in, inflate the cuff. Now they own the airway. They have completely taken over the airway for this patient. Then you saw where they actually stuck a needle in the patient's chest, and that was because of the trauma they sustained. They had to reinflate the lung, and that's how we do it. All this has taken place on the side of the road at night in the back of a truck. That's the skill set they have. But one other thing you may not have recognized is when they were going from the truck and they were taking the patient in the stretcher to the helicopter, there was blood hanging from the stretcher. That is whole blood. Whole blood saves lives. Whole blood is proven. This is military tested. This is battle tested of how it saves lives. We are one of three, one of three in the entire state of Florida out of 462 registered departments that carry whole blood. That is a life-saving difference. That's the caliber of our people. That is how they are trained. Now, keep in mind, all this happens within what we call the golden hour, 60 minutes. We do not have a trauma center in Martin County, so we fly them to the county north, we fly them to the county south. They went from that dinner table on scene to figure out how to extricate that patient from that vehicle to doing a decompression on them to hang in blood to get them to the helicopter and flying them to the county north or south to a trauma surgeon to give them that life-saving treatment under 60 minutes of time. It is a statistical fact that if we get them to a trauma surgeon, under 60 minutes, they have a higher probability of survival. So I just wanted to kind of showcase the skill set, the caliber of what our people have. Now, I want to transition into the contract, and I think it's very important to start the discussion with this. As your fire rescue chief, as your fire rescue administration, we 100% wholeheartedly endorse this contract. Everything in this contract, they are completely deserving of. To operate at that caliber, they deserve every item in this contract. So when we talk about a couple things in fire rescue, we're going to talk about recruitment, and we're going to talk about retention. Now, if you remember about over a year ago, we came before the board, and we asked to apply for a SAFE grant for 40 additional full-time employees because of the demand of the community on our workforce. And we needed to put extra trucks on the road. We didn't have the personnel for it. And it's been an overtime burden ever since. We were not awarded the SAFE grant. I came to you mid-budget, just a few months ago, and I said, I asked, if we can get 20 today and then request permission to apply for that additional 20 in the next SAFE grant to still get that 40. But I needed immediate relief. You all agreed. You gave us the green light. We went back and started recruiting. We had roughly 400 people in the queue to come to Martin County Fire Rescue. 400. That's not a bad number. Right? We made the phone calls. We said, we've got a place now. We have the date, the time. We have openings. Come be a part of Martin County Fire Rescue. Out of that 400, only 140 answered the call and said, OK, I'll be there. OK. So that's one flag. Now, the day of testing, the day where they actually applied for the job and tested the process, 30 of them didn't show up. No phone call. Nothing at all. Now I'm down to 110. Now, I'm not going to get into the generational conversation of how that works, but my point is I'm down to 110 people. Now I have to put 110 people through a testing process. In that, we have an academic side of it and we have a physical side of it. Once we put them through all that process, I'm now down to 70 people for 20 spots. That is a problem. That is a recruitment issue. That threw a red flag. So what I want to talk about is replacement costs because this is important for the taxpayers to understand. Firefighter paramedic, that's the utility player for any fire rescue organization across the nation. They are the utility player. They are very diversified. They can go in different positions. So they're really, really well sought out. But everybody is having a shortage in this particular area. When we recruited those 20, over half that we hired were not firefighter paramedics. They were firefighter EMTs. So we have currently lost four. I'm only going to talk about Palm Beach County because that's where we lose them to. So that's what this comparison is, and that's going to show you the replacement cost. When we lose one firefighter paramedic, I hire a firefighter EMT, which we currently did. Roughly with the salary, fringes, gear, medic school, it's going to cost me roughly over $282,000. Medic school in itself is over 15 months of just paramedicine. 100%, very arduous process. In that three years, it's going to take me to get that EMT trained up to be a level of a medic for Martin County Fire Rescue as a day one medic, which is a difference. They don't have that experience that what you saw in that video. But between that and the overtime that we incurred along the way, $420,000, my total cost is $702,000 to replace one fire medic with a firefighter EMT. Let's say we're fortunate enough to get some paramedics, ones that just got out of school. They don't have the experience, but they are trained, which does save us from sending them to paramedic school, which is a long process. Even if we hire that medic and train them up to the level of Martin County Fire Rescue and to the level of the standard that the community expects from us when we deliver our service to them, that medic is going to cost us, because they have to pay overtime for up to a year to get them up into the speed of the training they need to be. That training, with the salary fringes and gear, overtime the entire way through, my total cost is going to be roughly $259,000 for one person. That's leaving a medic, replacing with a medic. And that's tough to do as it is because we don't recruit well enough for it. So, what I want to transition into is the current contract, not the one that you're voting on today. This is important to look at. A step one, day one firefighter in Martin County right now, if they drop their gear, they go to Palm Beach County, they will overnight gain $21,000 just by walking 20 miles south. That's all they got to do. The one I want you to pay attention to is the step five, which is your five- or six-year employee. Those are the ones that you just saw performing in that video. Those are the ones that have the skill set. They have the sets, the reps, and they're able to do those high-level treatment modalities that you just witnessed, including that helicopter. That step five medic today drops their gear, goes to Palm Beach County. As a day one person, they will gain over $7,000. That is a retention issue. This is something important to note. Out of all of our paramedic, the classification that we have in Martin County Fire Rescue, roughly 60% of that group is in that one- to six-year time frame, 60%. We went through this 10 years ago where we lost a lot of people. It's what we're trying to prevent today. So, with the proposed contract, here's what we did. We had to front load this contract because we don't have three years to wait for this to happen. Because we're going to have a retention issue. So, in step one of the proposed contract that you're voting on, if that same one-year fire medic or firefighter leaves and goes to Palm Beach County, they're still going to gain over $15,000. Look, we know we're not going to be Palm Beach County. We don't want to be Palm Beach County. And Palm Beach County will never have the culture that Martin County has. But we have to identify that, and we still have to narrow that gap. And that's what this contract does. But the one to really focus on is back to that five- or six-year employee. That one now, if they drop their gear and go to Palm Beach County and start at day one, they will lose roughly $1,372. I get it. It's not a lot of money, but it's a step in the right direction. So, we feel this contract is going to help us on the recruitment and the retention side. And this is something that we believe is going to help us deal with the issues that we have to deal with today. So, at this point, I'll kind of conclude the presentation, and I'll be open to take any questions you may have. Chief, thank you. Appreciate that. Questions for the chief or his team from the commissioners? No questions? You did a great job. Members of the public looking to address us on this topic? None. I'll ask a couple of questions. More for the edification of the public, I have had the opportunity to have some of these conversations with the staff, as well as the fact that my oldest daughter, 27 years old, some of her high school and college classmates are in the mix, if you will. So, I've heard anecdotally, you know, whether they worked here in Martin County or elsewhere in Palm Beach County. Now, there's a lot of municipalities also in Palm Beach County. So, it's not just like, you know, here in Martin County, I guess we have City of Stewart and Martin County. But you get into Palm Beach, there's tons of little smaller municipalities that also have their departments that are also, you're talking specifically the county, correct, Chief? That's correct. So, some of those smaller communities that are also looking to maintain their own, the same issues that you mentioned about retention, recruitment and retention, even the smallest of departments are going through the same thing. They might be talking about one or two people here or there, but they are paying even more generously, correct? So, I have heard, you know, through my daughter and her friends that Palm Beach County is actively looking to fill potentially up to 250 spots. Is that about an accurate number? It's close to 300, but yes. 300. How many members of our entire department are there? Well, on boots on the ground, you're roughly 350. It would wipe us out. Now, I don't expect that they would get the whole department, but I'm just saying to just apples to apples, they are looking for as many people as we nearly are. And the other thing that I have heard from residents and I share with residents is that, you know, most of us work, you know, Monday through Friday jobs. And so, if I were to look for something else to do, I can't look in Miami-Dade, Fort Lauderdale, Ocala, you know, Orlando, because I'd have to commute there every single day. Fire rescue, a lot of people don't take that into consideration. I have some friends and neighbors that live in Palm City. They're Miami-Dade firefighters because they drive down there and they stay there. So, we're not just competing against, you know, a local job for a local job and a regular employee would have to think about, well, how long is my commute going to be? It's different for you all. And, you know, when I have shared the information, and I'm sure my colleagues have had to do the same thing, when I have shared the information, I'll be honest, when I first heard the percentages that you were talking, they were sort of shocking. But when you sit down and you start to go through the costs of the training and then the lack of personnel that we require creates overtime scenarios for the existing personnel, which just obviously, when I first came on board and Commissioner Hurd and Commissioner Smith were already here, there was this whole concept of, you know, oh, you know, they're getting all this overtime and, you know, it's too much. Well, and then the safer grants originally knocked a lot of that down. But you didn't speak much of the demand from our community, the increased demand on our community. Can you give me an idea of call volume and if you could break it down into some of the departments? If you don't know, I'm sure you probably know the answers off the top of your head. But if not, I don't think our residents completely understand, like Station 21 in Palm City, how many calls do they get in a year and what are the numbers up from? You had brought that forward a couple of months ago. I think it bears repeating. So if we just go back to the original safer grant back in 2009 and we looked at the call data that changed from 2009 to where we are current, we have gone up roughly 63 percent. Port Salerno itself, Station 30, has gone up just in itself 110 percent in call load. Back in 2009, Station 30 was a busy station. Can you tell us where these are so people know? Station 30 is in Port Salerno area and Palm City, another one. That went up, I think, by roughly 90 percent since 2009. But total call load that we're doing is roughly 30,000 calls a year. But you start breaking that down to unit responses. Unit responses, what I mean, is actual trucks on the road. One call can take multiple trucks. But unit responses, and I'm kind of going off the cuff a little bit, but you're probably roughly 55,000 unit responses, emergency vehicles driving to an emergency on the road per year. And it's going up, and we're actually trending right now to where our just in the last, this up to June right now, we've had seven structure fires, seven structure fires. Now, this is when the house is actually really on fire, right? So this is significant. It took 68 apparatus to address roughly seven structure fires, 127 personnel, and that averages 18 personnel on each specific call. So if you think about stations, people ask the question of why does it take so many people? Like, why do you have the personnel you have? And I think for the public, because we shared the video, the best way to break it down is what you just saw in the video. So you saw the crews respond to a call. You have the engine on scene dealing with the hazards of such as fire, such as electrocution. They pull it out. You have the rescue receiving that patient. They have to take that patient and start doing the treatment modalities. Then you have your supervision up there of running the entire call, managing all resources coming in. Then bringing a Lifestar helicopter. That's another additional employees on there. Then secure a landing zone for the helicopter to land. That's a minimum of four people. If we don't secure landing zones, and I'm just trying to showcase the numbers, we will have people drive through, walk through, run through, take their bike through, landing zones actively when a helicopter is landing. Why? Because the helicopter doesn't normally land in the places they land. We create that landing zone because we have to get that patient quick access to the helicopter. But as far as call load, 63% would be the rough since 2009 of what we have gone up since. What do you attribute that to? Now, I know that, look, there's been increases in population in the county, but not nearly to those levels. There have been, I know, I've heard you say that a lot of the calls are, you know, from assisted living facilities, which we do have a large amount of, and it climbs. But it can't be specifically from that. I know that also, I'll give a real-world example. If you had to go to the doctor, a lot of people will call. In the older communities, they spread the word to each other, the neighbors, that instead of the husband or the wife driving the spouse to the emergency room where you'll then wait in the waiting room, you dial 911 and you go in the ambulance whether you needed that or not. You don't show up for someone that's got, you know, shortness of breath and say, you should have driven your spouse there, you're taking them. And do you see an increase in people just calling for ambulances just because they know that it sort of gives them sort of the fast pass into the emergency room? It's a very common statement when we arrive on a scene to a low-level priority call that I called you because it gives me access to the emergency room. In reality is, one, we transport them all. But that's not true for the general public listening because what will happen is we'll take you to the emergency room. They'll see it's a low priority. They will put you in triage back where technically you would have started if you drove yourself. But, yes, that is one area, one very small area. But the other area are motor vehicle collisions have gone up drastically. I think we're roughly, and I'm really kind of going off the cuff here, but roughly 133%. And I'm talking about just a few years snapshot. And what I contribute that to, I'm no expert on it. The only thing I can tell you is what we respond to. It's the distractions of our vehicles today from people being on their cell phones. But between the technology of the vehicles alone, there's so much activity in the driving seat of a car today that people cannot be that distracted to get into constant accidents. And these accidents are occurring all the time. But this morning you were doing public comment. And when we talked about the trauma call, there was an active trauma call happening over your heads while you were doing, you had public comment here. And we had an incident that happened that was a trauma alert near the Roosevelt Bridge that we had to fly out. These are happening on a daily basis. But, yes, the assisted living, that's another factor. As far as the census, you're right. The census does not match the call load. But how people utilize us is different today than what it was. We are looked at at primary care because people know you call us, we will be there. We're going to be there quick, we're going to be efficient, and we are going to treat you no matter what. So that turns you into a primary care. Good to know. Commissioner Smith? Some years back, there was a time with these contracts that the board at that time decided that we should go out of house and we should hire experts out of house and do our negotiating. And that got turned around later on with different boards. And I just got to tell you all how, at least on my end of this thing, and I'm sure all of ours, how grateful we are that you all are able to pull all this stuff together without having to go outside, without having to spend that money, having our administration, our rescue administration, union all pull together and pull off what you're pulling off. You know, I said to both sides early on in this process that at some point this would all have to come together and people would have to agree. And there was no way that either side could come up and disagree because it probably wouldn't move forward that way. And I congratulate all of you for getting where we have gotten. Sometimes it's not easy, and sometimes there's polar opposites in the thought process. But I think having our own folks internally handle all this and do it in-house, A, it saves the taxpayer money on that end of it, but I think it also keeps everybody's focus on the prize at the end, where you don't have someone independent out there with their own objectives, their own mindset, and almost to some extent, how can I do this in such a way so I have to come back the next time and do it and keep feeding off of that process. And I do, I congratulate you guys for getting where you've gotten. It's not easy. But at the end of the day, our public, and I think, Chad, I think your opening comments at the opening of the island station the other day are spot on. It's all about response time. It's all about having an amazing trained staff. It's about the professionalism. It's about everything that was in that video and making it happen to where I think even ironically to your comment that we didn't even know what was going on this morning during public comment. And that just kind of shows how well things run and how things happen and how incredibly proud we are of all of you for making this all happen the way it has happened. So congratulations on all that. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. I would echo those comments because you made the negotiation process look completely seamless on this end. And all the hundreds of, and I'm sure, you know, many of my colleagues talking to residents every day, you know, hundreds and hundreds of residents, never, ever have I heard once that anybody is willing to sacrifice the level of service that you showed in that video. You know, they're just not willing. You know, that's a priority for the residents. That's a priority, you know, for me that we have top-notch public safety and our first responders. And I've never heard anybody say that, yeah, I'm willing to pay a little less, you know, for less service. So I think it's a matter of we can't afford to lose our people. We have to keep our people because we, the scenario that you described in one of the beginning slides, that scenario shows that we're still paying if we don't keep this, you know, competitive. So we're just, we're paying in overtime. We're paying and we're not keeping our retaining and recruiting. So, therefore, that's impacting our level of service, which is 100% what I hear from residents is they value that. So thank you for what you do and what you put into this contract. And we certainly appreciate it. And I know the residents will appreciate it, too. Thank you. Chief, you have your group here in the front, but behind them is the leadership of the union. Now, I know that during negotiations you sort of, you know, sit on separate sides of the table, even though it's the same family. I'd like to compliment the union leadership because there have been years past where, you know, one, the initial negotiation was very challenging. Even that year that Commissioner Smith was speaking about where an outside firm was brought in, I think it went to impasse. And that can't be good for the organization. That can't be good to, you know, to argue and fight and bicker at fractures, a group that needs to normally work together. And for the leadership, sometimes have to take that information and then have it agreed upon by the rank and file. And that's not an easy process where that process has been sort of divided. So when we talk about a smoother kind of operation or negotiation where it didn't have to get so brass knuckles, and Rocco can relate with me to that brass knuckles kind of negotiations, it leads back to putting the contract to bed and everyone sort of picking up the same strategy. Commissioner Hetherington's point is accurate. The residents expect and require and demand a very high level of service because without it, the ramifications are fatal or catastrophic at the very least. And so they don't want to sacrifice any bit of it. And I think when I've shared this most recent case scenario that business people know you can't lose our people. And, you know, the institutional knowledge of allowing people to, hey, I know that, you know, we've been to a call there before. I know exactly that house is, it's weird. They don't have a number in front of the house. You've got to go around the corner. It's tucked in. And I know they have a dog or I know they have an autistic child or, you know, I know that they have a child or a senior family member that might be, you know, have Alzheimer's or dementia. If you're constantly rotating our personnel in and out, they don't know those things. So I know some people will be frustrated when they hear about the increases and things like that. I think you laid out a pretty reasonable business strategy on why it's appropriate. And so you'll have my support in the vote today for it. I think our residents expect us to do it. So with that, I'd entertain motions. I will move. One second. I'm sorry. Excuse me, Commissioner Elise Elder, Deputy County Attorney. A few Scrivener's errors were noted or discovered in the contract. So we're asking for approval subject to giving staff the authority to correct those Scrivener's errors. So I just want to put that on the record. That I cannot do. That's it. That's the straw that broke the camera. I thought he was up until midnight. Okay. If our motion maker and seconder would agree to that. I will. You're seconded. Nobody yet. I will. I will include subject to Scrivener's errors. You were the second. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, Chief and your team, I certainly appreciate your efforts, your expertise. It's an expectation that we all hold that when we dial 911 that we're going to be taken care of very well and professionally. However, I just can't support your contract because of the cost to the taxpayers. It's a 12% increase in the first year, 3% increase in the second year, and another 3% the third year. And that's to the base. So, and then the sheriff has a Me Too opening clause in his contract, so we're going to get the same request from the sheriff. And I was here in 2005, 2006, 2007, when our economy was in overdrive, and we were adding positions, and we were increasing salaries, and everything was doing wonderfully until the bottom fell out in 2008, 2009, 2010. And our economy fell apart, and so did our budget. We had to close libraries. We closed parks. We stopped mowing. We stopped. We furloughed employees. I furloughed myself for several years, so that when we do these big market adjustments and the bottom falls out, the only thing that we can afford to do is pay for public safety. And there's more to county government. We're not. So the increase in just this contract alone in the next year is $6 million. It doesn't include capital. It doesn't include 20 new hires. It doesn't include training facilities. It doesn't include new fire stations. It doesn't include trucks. There's so many additional expenses, and as the fiduciary representative for our taxpayers, I have to protect my taxpayers. And also our non-bargaining employees and our teamsters, who we value just as much, are going to be receiving 4% salary adjustments next year. And they feel inflation just as much as you do. So I am not going to be supporting this contract. Okay, let me unpack some of that, respectfully so. I would love to not support the contract. I would love to say that I am the fiduciary representative of the county's taxpayers and vote no on your contract. However, if three of us took that position, you have no contract. I don't agree that one of the parts of the history of 2005, 6, 7, 8 that was missed is that when that did happen and the bottom fell out for everybody, the firefighters' union gave back their pre-negotiated raises. They didn't temporarily, you know, put them on hold. They gave them back. And then we worked towards that. And I agree that fire rescue and sheriff's deputies are public safety. If I always use the expression, if there's the first dollar of people's taxes, they expect it to go for fire rescue and sheriff's office. Because closing the libraries and not cutting the grass as frequently, those of us that were here furloughed, it's different. Not every job within the county's personnel structure, employee structure is the same. You let off with the fact that what I call them street doctors. You know, I try to use the example of if you were, and a lot of your personnel could work in the hospital. Your wife works in the hospital. It's an honorable position and position location-wise. But what you're doing, they're doing it in climate-controlled, absolutely perfect, designed-perfect emergency rooms with the personnel all ready to go. The lighting is proper. It's not pouring rain. It's exactly what it's supposed to be. Now you take that exact same thing and you put it on the side of 95 or in someone's backyard in the pouring rain, and the family members are screaming and yelling because something catastrophic has happened. And you are still required to do your jobs and save the patient. I don't blame fire rescue for the increase in calls, for the technicalities, for the technical responsibilities you have now, like you just mentioned the single example of the blood. I never even thought about cutting somebody out of a Tesla. It didn't even dawn on me, the new requirements, as well as the fact that those cars catch on fire and they blow up, and there's a whole new ballgame. And no one wants to hear you make excuses. They just want to hear it. No one wants to wait longer for the ambulance to show up, or only two people show up when the person weighs 350 pounds and two people, I don't care how strong they are, they can't do it. So, I mean, yeah, I would prefer not to vote for your contract. And I think the public differentiates the fact that, you know, for those of us that will support it, even if they don't like a 12% increase, you don't like a 12% increase. That's just the way it is. And so I will put myself, you know, politically out there because I think the residents understand, value, and appreciate what we're talking about here today. And if we were to vote no today and your contract were to fail, you'd have to go back to the drawing board and all of those accolades we talked about negotiating back and forth amongst the parties, including our staff, you'd have to start over. And it would send a terrible message to the folks that are deciding, do I stay in Martin County or do I take that extra 20 or 15,000 and drive just up the road to Palm Beach? I think not only is it the money, you've heard me say at the fire stations, I think we are now finally in a position to treat the personnel with respect on where they have to live and sleep and shower and eat, which most of us don't do at work. And then the training facility I think is appropriate, and there's a financial benefit to doing that, but I also think it sends the proper message that the commission majority of however that works out to be values and appreciates the service on behalf of our residents. So, yeah, I wish I didn't have to vote for your contract too, but I will. Commissioner Smith. And I think to tag onto that a little bit, I think if I were to phrase what I think and how I think about all this, and I would say this to any group if I were talking to them, protecting our residents, whether you want to say it financially or physically, should be the number one job we do, and there's a cost to that. And there's a cost to protecting our public that they expect that they support, and quite frankly, every time they ask for it, it better show up. And so I have no trouble justifying that or taking that position because that's what people expect. And, you know, maybe 50 years ago that was different. But today, people have an expectation of what they are going to get delivered. And so my definition of protecting our public is making sure that we have the best trained men and women possible. And to the point of having the best that we can afford, to me that's protecting our residents. And so good for you guys. Again, I'm incredibly supportive and proud of where you have come to, both sides and our staff, to make it all happen. We have a motion by Commissioner Smith for staff's recommendation of the contract. Seconded by what? Oh, I apologize. He was the second. We have a motion by Commissioner Hetherington for staff's recommendation of the approval of this contract. Seconded by Commissioner Smith. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries four to one with Commissioner Hurd dissenting. Thank you very much. Just in closing, I would be remiss if, and I don't want it in an effort not to be redundant, but I am going to be. Again, I want to thank the fire rescue administrative team for this negotiation process. They did an amazing job. I want to thank our lead negotiator, Sarah Walker. I mean, this is a huge animal to conquer, and she did. Elise Elder, deputy county attorney, she kept it straight, and she really did. And she did a phenomenal job. The executive board for working with us so diligently, and I don't want you to think those rooms were like we were just eating biscuits and drinking tea because it wasn't. But we got to a place where we needed to get, and it was with their effort it got us there. But this is the big one. The MVP again, David, if you can stand up, Chief David Hayes. He loves being recognized. This guy crushed it with formatting. Is he standing? I can't tell. That is. It is, yeah. This guy's amazing. He did an amazing, amazing job with just reformatting this contract and everything. He is our MVP. But chat GPT, people talk about, we have David. But, and then, of course, everyone's going to talk about Matt Rush because he's always the golden nugget in everyone's pocket, and we love Matt. So, I think I got it all. Yes. Did I miss anyone? Oh, Matt? Yeah. And it goes without saying, the assistant county attorney. Yeah, right. Oh, and we're going to go with Don Donaldson. Yeah, we got Scott. Mr. Sator, I'm pretty sure you have to shave your head now. That's funny. You sure? But I just want to thank them all for their leadership and everything. Don't. It was a lot. It would be like cutting the mustache off. Don't do it. Scott Risk, if he had here, he would have lost here, but he did an amazing job. Did an amazing job, those guys back there. All right. Well, that's it. Thanks. Head back out. We'll take a moment, allow them to clear the room, and then we're going to take up the conversation from this morning, which was the State Road 710 Beeline Highway Project update that was the slides from the Florida Department of Transportation. And, Commissioner, while they're coming up, I do have an administrator comment at the end of the day in case you're – that's all. I'm just letting you know. Thank you. Okay. It's like a little sneak preview. A lot of people were just getting ready to tune out, and they're like, wait a second. Don's going to have something interesting to say at the end. I also will have an additional. Well, here – Very quick. Layla, are you going to have anything for us? Ms. Gordon, anything? Okay. I think considering the fact that Commissioner Jenkins heard the presentation yesterday, I think you can begin without him. Okay. Fair enough. Board, commissioners, thank you. George Zama, Public Works Deputy Director. Per the comments this morning, we wanted to provide an update on the State Road 710 and County Road 714 intersection. As many of you are aware, it's a pretty dangerous intersection of our county two-lane road, our arterial road that intersects with State Highway. The State Highway is a two-lane high-speed roadway, and there have been several options put into place, which I will certainly go over. But in the meantime, at the MPO board meeting yesterday, FDOT, Florida Department of Transportation, District 4 representatives came to provide an update. And they are taking some intermediate efforts, including maintenance and some updates to signage and pavement markings at the intersection for temporary safety measures. So I can highlight that as shown. The location, there's several projects that have been identified in the MPO. Is it possible for you to zoom in? Yes, I can try to zoom in. Just if anybody's watching, you can barely see it. There you go. Yeah. Super. It is a little hazy because I did copy this from the meeting yesterday. So State Road 710 runs northwest through the western portion of the county, and 714 intersects with the roadway at the very west end of the county. So as I mentioned, this project, safety improvements were identified in the MPO priority list. We have an unfunded project priority list that we submit to the state every year to coordinate with the state and program safety improvement projects, both on-system and off-system. On-system is on-system is on-state roads, and off-system are projects on county roads. At times, the state will perform projects on county roads at the request of the county. What makes this project a little different is that we have a county road that ties into the state road, and as I'll mention, one of the options actually will potentially carry the roadway into a different county and a different Florida Department of Transportation district, which would be Okeechobee County and District 1. So as I mentioned before I zoomed in on the slides, the state has been taking some intermediate efforts to perform maintenance, such as site distance. So we just wanted to present that this is what they presented yesterday, that there were some site distance issues with vegetation. They've since mowed it down for better site distance to improve visibility. They also are proposing to add some signage, including some edge-lit signs for stop ahead, some signage delineating the intersection ahead on State Road 710, the intersection with 714. And they also are looking to add some striping with actually pavement markings for stop-ahead, stop-bar, and edge markings, as well as updating the hash striping and the centerline striping on 710. So the DOT representatives presented three options for intersection improvements. And I could certainly go through all three options at the will of the board. The MPO board did approve one of these options with an exception or with an addition, I should say. Let's talk about that one, then. So I'll do that. And with that did include some elements of this first option. So just to jump ahead, the option that was selected was actually realigning 714 with the intersection of Southeast 126 or County Road 15A and Okeechobee, which will make this a two-way controlled intersection in line with the County, Okeechobee County Road. So as you can see, the existing 714 follows the County Road 15A and makes a sharp bend and turns into 710. This would realign the roadway with the Okeechobee State or County Road. And right away would need to be obtained. There have been preliminary talks with the property owner. So this was the selected option. It would also include a right-turn lane and a left-turn lane to both northbound or southbound or eastbound, westbound, however you look at it. Both sections of the roadway would each have a right-turn lane and a left-turn lane, but there was also recommended to add an acceleration lane, which was presented in option one. There would be an acceleration lane for each direction to allow motorists to get up to speed because this is actually has a design speed of 60 miles an hour. So vehicles are running 60 miles an hour plus through this intersection. So this would give an opportunity for vehicles to have a free right-hand turn and get up to speed and merge with traffic. Also, I wanted to note that it was recommended to add the in-ground pavement markers, which are the vibratory pavement markings that vibrate when you run over them, because there's a potential for vehicles traveling through the through lane to treat this like it's a passing lane. So that was what was presented and approved. This option was approved. And so the next step would be for county staff to meet. It was proposed that county staff meet, Martin County staff meet with Okeechobee staff to work out maintenance agreements. We would really like to meet with Okeechobee County to discuss what their concerns would be for maintenance or any other concerns as far as acceptance of infrastructure, because in the meantime, Florida Department of Transportation District 4 and District 1 have been in talks, and they seem to be in agreement to move forward with this option. So there's been quite a bit of coordination involved, and they are looking to set up a meeting with both districts and both metropolitan planning agencies. So before that, as well as each of the county representatives, so it would be a six-member stakeholder meeting to discuss this project. And we feel beforehand it would be good to meet with Okeechobee County and their staff to discuss this project prior to that meeting. Commissioner Smith. A couple other quick points to add. This option was almost half the expense of option one, I believe. This is like $5.5 million. The other was $13 million or so, which was nice, sir. The other thing I thought was interesting in the presentation, from their safety studies, the westbound movement, or I guess westbound, merging on to 710 from 715, going northbound, 25% of those vehicles coming out of that intersection, then make a left-hand turn onto 126th Avenue, that movement right there. And by turning this into a controlled four-way intersection, you eliminate 25% of those movements, meaning a right-hand turn onto 710, then crossing the speed through lanes, because you're merging into the speed lanes, then merging into the desal lane, and then making a left-hand turn. So from our residents, which is really where so much of this is emanated from, I think that option provides probably one of the safest movements from the design piece of all this. So there was that, there was the cost, and I think the interest in getting our two commissions together to talk about the maintenance agreements or whatever we need to do is certainly imperative. Probably the most important thing along the timeline issue was that the EIS statement that was done probably 10 years ago, 2011, was reviewed, considered, and they are accepting that statement as valid for today so we don't lose two years in the process of that piece for the four-lanning of the rest of the project. So a lot came out of that. There was also the 609 interchange. That's 609 and 710 that came up as part of the conversation, and the idea that we need to accelerate funding in that component as much as possible. There are discretionary MPO funds that we have at our discretion, and I don't know if they're allocated or not allocated, but they're called SU funds. That's one place to look at the impact fees out in Indiantown or another place to look at if there was a replicable, and then any developer contributions that are happening out there that might be appropriate to help fund that because I think it was something like a how many million if the whole intersection was done was? The first option was around $7 million, and a lot of the second option was $13 million, and this realignment option that was selected without the acceleration lane was $5 million. I'm talking about 609. Oh, 609? Yeah. It was, I think, in our meeting yesterday. It was like a million and a half. Off the cuff, we discussed $2 million, a million and a half, $2 million, yes. I'm sorry. You're right, but I was getting confused, and I worked that into this conversation, but I think it's important because it's all within this segment of what's trying to get accelerated and fixed. But you're right, the cost of this $7.14 version coming into $7.10 was, I think, $5.5 million or whatever that was, and then the other was $13 million on the other option, the first option. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty productive conversation. I thought that did a really good job of getting this stuff to us. And, again, on the appreciation side, the EIS statement shouldn't be underlooked. I mean, that was a big deal, shaving those couple years off the process. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Hurd. Yeah, the only thing I would add is that the FDOT representative said that because they are able to use the existing EIS, their design team is ready to go, which shaves off way more. Commissioner Jenkins. So I think the conversation with the Okeechobee Commission is going to be very easy. Yeah, they're friends of ours. I did have a conversation with one of their commissioners and got the impression that they are as enthusiastic about correcting this situation as we are, even identifying their concerns on our side of the county line, not only just the intersection. So I think that's going to be a very easy conversation. I think, like every conversation, it just comes down to the money, right? All about the money, the money, the money. Is that it? It's always it. Commissioner Hetherington. Mostly everything's been said, but I think that the flavor of the conversation was some of the other improvements, you know, were can be done near term. This, although it takes more coordination, is half the cost and is way safer than, you know, some of the near term improvements. And so, and this time is of the essence, and I think Mayor Thomas, right? Susan? Susan Gibbs. Susan Gibbs Thomas emphasized that, you know, this, they like this option, but time was of the essence that we get together with Okeechobee and make this happen. And then an aside, the traffic signalization, I don't, I don't know whose district that is in now, that is when, when the residents came to the MPO to talk about the safety of 710, they emphasized that, that traffic signalization was very important to them at 710 and 609 as a dangerous intersection. And that seems to me like a project that we could pull out and get done with DOT also in an urgent manner. So District 3 probably could use all of his district funds for these projects. Thank you for that suggestion. It's just a suggestion. Thank you. Of course, having, you know, magnanimously given up my position on the MPO for my colleague. Thank you. You're welcome. And then gave up the intersection to my other colleague. Say thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. After years of really putting this together, the most difficult thing to give up was the property owner at this intersection. His name is Mr. Sanchez. Is this his property? Yes. Okay. Was he represented by Mr. Carmody yesterday at the MPO meeting? I know he's represented by Mr. Carmody. No, he wasn't there. Okay. I need someone from our staff to reach out to Mr. Carmody because as far as I'm concerned, I love that my colleagues are in agreement. I like that the staff agrees. I like that it's the less expensive option and it's the fastest option. But let's remember Mr. Sanchez in these negotiations. He was, has been a generous supporter of this, very patient. I think we've been working on this. And, of course, Beth Beltran and her MPO staff, she had really crafted some, we probably have to send her to the Middle East to negotiate because she was able to, many years ago, craft, already had the letters written and signed between one and four at the FDOT, and the commission is up, you know, in Okeechobee and here, and she really crafted quite a deal. I'm sure she's part of this. But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that the property owner who's out there, Mr. Sanchez, feels that this was, I know he had a couple of, I think this will be okay. I know he had a couple of options that he was very interested in and one or two that he absolutely would not support. So having a willing and participatory property owner would make a huge difference versus having him be out there as adversary. Let's take Mr. Don Donaldson. Just in terms of your comments, the reason why this was revisited by the MPO was due to Mr. Carmody representing Mr. Sanchez, and this preferred option was their preferred option. This one? Yes, so this is, so that dialogue has taken place, which is why this is before you today. Thank you. That's what I like to hear. Staff. Jim Gordon, Public Works Director for the record. And Public. And Public Records Director. Just wanted to touch on a couple of things. So the SU funds that are a potential funding mechanism for the 609 signalization, we currently have those tagged to the Cove Road widening. So we're going to have to look at the mechanics of that and look at the timing of them, and we'll get back to you individually or at a future MPO board meeting just to kind of let you know what that would look like. Do you know how much that is? It's about $2 million. $2 million a year, roughly. Yep. And then the widening, the reason that the options one and two were so expensive is because it requires widening of 710, and if you've been out there, there's those deep canals on both sides of the road. DOTs, when they do the four-laning of 710, it's going to be an exorbitant amount to do that because they are eventually going to have to fill that stuff in and pipe those ditches. How are they going to four-lane 710 if it has a scenic highway designation? No, 710. 710. Oh, 710. Never mind. Yeah, no, they're not going to four-lane 714. But 710, that's why. So eventually they're going to have to spend that money, but you're right. It doesn't have to be with this project. It just makes it much more approachable. And the last thing I have is that we'll absolutely reach out at a staff level and get that discussion done and then update you before you have your discussion with their board. Yeah, they're great out there. The signage that's more immediate, Mr. Sama, that would be on 710. And Mr. Stokas and I were just out with our friends from Okeechobee at a meeting. And it was daytime, and we were driving back and, you know, sort of half-kidding about how difficult it is to visualize when to make the left to come back onto 714. I saw you had a couple of different visuals there. I hope, you know, this was in the middle of the afternoon. At nighttime, when I know I'm looking for it, it's sometimes still difficult when you're coming from Okeechobee to make that left. So I guess it would be these ones right here with the blue junction, like right there. So the bigger, you could say, Martin Highway or this way to Martin County, the better. Because it's almost like trying to go back to the Batcave, you know, for those of us who remember the Adam West Batcave where the bushes parted and you just kept going, that's what it feels like. Yeah, and we can reinforce that and see if we can get some prior notification to this signage here. We'll note that this signage is proposed to be edge-lit. So it'll be flashing at night to let you know there's an intersection ahead. I like it. The new version. The new version. But this is going to be for the current version, right? Temporarily for this intersection. But the last thing, and not to put a wet blanket, I'll give Commissioner Hurd the last word, but the last thing is what's the time frame on the new intersection? You know, I know when we talk about speeding it up and shaving years off, but FDOT years are different. They're like dog years. So what is it really? Will any of us still be alive when this is done? The design team's ready to go. They're ready, so ideally it'd be two to three years. See, that's what most people don't think. They are thinking this will happen in the fall, but it's three years from now. Yeah, well, technically, if this is going to be facilitated by the state, they have to perform the right-of-way negotiations, and we can't necessarily interfere with that. I know, but I stopped meeting with him. Commissioner Hurd, you're going to get the final word. This is unrelated. It just triggered another memory, and that is the intersection of Citrus and 96th at night. I can't tell you how many times I've gone straight to 714 because I missed the turnoff. There's no signage whatsoever. Well, we have a sign shop. Yeah. Yeah, we'll look into that. Then we have the people that Stacy hired to do the striping. So, Commissioner Hurd, you're talking southbound on Citrus? To make the left on the night. Make the left on 96th. Okay. No, even northbound coming from Indiana. They're seniors. They should even be driving at night, these two. And we're not the only seniors driving around here at night. I mean that purely lovingly. I don't need to hear from the seniors. Anything else on this topic? Do you need any action from us? You brought it up this morning, Commissioner Smith, just to purely, oh, Commissioner Hetherington, I'm not giving you the credit you deserve today. Well, we needed to inform you, Commissioner Smith, that you gave up the spot on the NPO, and we're not there to. Well, they do call me the benevolent one. I think it was also for the Commission, Okeechobee County Commission, to meet and have a discussion. So, Commission, permission. Commission, permission. Permission, permission, and meanwhile, as Jim mentioned, we will contact Okeechobee County staff immediately about the meeting, you know, about this whole project to work out any of the concerns before the Commission meets. So, in addition to permission, commission, commission, permission. Got it. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Okay. I think we have. Don't make them mad before we get there. No. I think we're getting closer to the end of the meeting. Why don't we do this? Do you want to be before or after public comment? Thank you. We are at the end of our meeting at 311. We'll take 505 public comment or end of the meeting public comment. Mr. Pine, would you like to make, would you like to opine? Okay. Mr. Pine is our only member of the public here. Seeing no one else, we will come back to the commissioners. Commissioner Smith. Commissioner Hetherington. All set. I like to hear some stuff. Commissioner Jenkins. I am good. Thank you. Mr. Heard. Sent. It makes it hard for me to, I'm all set. With bated breath, Mr. Donaldson followed by Ms. Woods. Mr. Donaldson, what do you have to share with us? Yes. Daniel McHenry is our veteran service officer and, as you know, does a really great job for us and has great accolades. They named a Ford after him. One of the items that he's brought to my attention and why I brought it up today, he brought it up yesterday, was there is a bill that's being sponsored in the House of Representatives and it has to do with veterans pay. And I'll try to summarize the particular issue and it's detailed in the letter I provided to each of you at your dais there. But essentially the issue is that if you are a service member and you become injured or as a result of your service and you leave without retirement, you get a disability. If you stay on and work to the point that you can receive a pension from the military, you can only get any disability help if it's more than 50% of disability or you have to forfeit a portion of your retirement benefits in order to gain some disability. So the request is that they would like Congress to amend this provision to allow all veterans, whether they were retired with full retirement or not, to receive the same disability benefits of whether you served a week and were injured and had their leave or whether you served more than 20 years. And so I think it was a pretty simple request and we're asking Congressman Mass to sign off on this bill. And so really all I'm asking for two things is, one, is that you allow the chairman to sign the letter to request Mr. Congressman Mass to assist us with this, which Daniel McHenry has had conversations with his staff, not with the congressman yet, and so they're aware that this is coming. And then, number two, that you allow us to amend our priorities to allow this to be on our congressional federal support. Sounds good to me. Thank you. I think you'll see the head nodding. There is no bigger supporter of veterans services than Brian Mass, so I don't think that will be a difficult ask for us to him. And he'll probably have more of a challenging issue trying to get it through everybody else, but he's a veterans superstar. Ms. Woods, it's your turn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sarah Woods, Martin County Attorney. Recently, the Florida legislature in the last session passed a requirement that applies to self-insurance groups that may, we believe, may apply to our self-insurance group, which is Trico, which is Martin, St. Lucie, Port St. Lucie, and the City of Stewart. And what it changes is it makes a requirement that the governing board that runs the group has to be composed of elected officials. Right now, we have representatives that meet. Our insurance representative is looking into it, but in an abundance of caution, I'm going to recommend that in order to comply with this law, which, if it's applicable to our Trico organization, would require designation of a member of one of you all to represent it to Trico. The legislation is, it becomes in effect July 1st, you know, I'd like to go ahead and have that ability to have someone appointed in case the determination is that we have to have that. My recommendation is that it either be the chairman or the vice chair would be the person that you would appoint. So if I could have a motion to appoint someone, if needed, to the Trico board to comply with the law, if we don't, I'll let you know at our next meeting, but again, that'll be after July 1st. So we're just trying to be cautious. Thank you very much. Commissioner Smith. With the recommendation of the county attorney's request of us to appoint the chair and in the absence of the chair or the vice chair, no? There's no alternative. It would just be one or the other. That we make as part of our policy direction that the chair be the representative for Trico. Second. Thank you. Well, I do have free time considering I'm not on the NPO. Keeping it light. Welcome to the world. We have... I was just going to say, commissioners, we would still have the staff meeting to do all the prep work and working with the insurance on making recommendations to the board. I'll be doing all the prep and all of the recommendations. If you prefer to do that, it's fine. I'm going to dig deep into the whole process. Thank you. I want to reconsider my staff. Are you the second? We have a motion by Commissioner Smith for our attorney's recommendation, seconded by Commissioner Jenkins. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? I really do appreciate my colleagues' confidence in my abilities. With that in mind, believe it or not, the next time we meet will be July 11th, so I want to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July, the summer's nearly over. With that, we wish you all well, and we'll see you on July 11th. Thank you. Thank you.