2025 board of county commission meeting we are delighted that you've joined us this morning please join us for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance which is going to be led by deputy riss heater please join us for a moment of silence thank you is deputy heater with us this morning would you please come forward thank you for joining us this morning yes ma'am i pledge allegiance to the flag united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all would you tell us a bit about your career sir sure um my name is reese heater it's an honor to be here i was a scout in the army for a little over eight years um i've got 26 roughly 26 months in combat between iraq and afghanistan and uh i'm actually in a documentary uh on amazon prime it's called the hornet's nest and i get interviewed and do some missions with the camera guys and so got out of the military moved down here and been with martin county sheriff's office for a little over nine years loving every minute of it we're lucky to have you thank you very much now we have a special treat this morning we're going to have a presentation by radiant voices yes and by the way that was that was the most enthusiastic pledge of allegiance i've ever experienced me too my heart always don't run these days the world's been out of control these days it's rise and furious it's like the words instead of us oh to be at home maybe we're too maybe late for these days connie pull down the mic good morning my name is kayla pitt what my name is chris christian we we we work at s a a a a a a s s what you want and store our jobs our are two white menus white tables salt and pepper shakers ketchup bottles and other things on the table we we work because we want to get a pay paycheck we want to be able to buy sad box we want to go grocery shopping for things we want thank you for hearing my voice voice good morning my name is katie rodriguez i work at the olive garden restaurant my jobs are rolling silverware getting the menus to the hostess cleaning tables for the customers to use putting away the dishes silverware and napkins taking all the trash and dishes from the tables so other customers can use them i need to work so i can go out with friends and i want to live on my own katie's an enthusiastic singer too hello my name is jesse medeiros i work at do it with my job is to organize and dance files that go into the scene to be first in the books where all the fries and bark which is whom i need to work which i want to buy for my girlfriend patty kinsman nice job come down to the pictures now or do you or do you want to can you you want to file in here and we'll stand behind you christ will come up front you come to the front you come to the front scooch together come on scooting keep coming in over guys there you go scooch amanda move down a little bit there you go matthew move down katie move down there we go tall guy in the back he's tall yeah thank you so much connie don't go far thank you thank you so much you did a beautiful job remember that we would also like to take this opportunity to present you with a proclamation recognizing national disability employment awareness month in martin county florida good morning everyone that was wonderful um october 2025 is the 80th anniversary of national disability employment awareness month and its purpose is to educate about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of america's workers with disabilities the board urges all citizens to recognize this month by bringing together businesses and partners to break down the barriers faced by individuals with disabilities who are working or seeking employment helping improve the quality of life for all and obviously connie is here to accept with all of her wonderful folks thank you connie would you like to say a few words oh my goodness you got on the floor to me i am pleasure okay my mouth will probably carry you um i'm a retired educator most of these guys were in my classroom when they were in high school and my goal for every one of my students was work because that's quality of life that's where your social life is that just so much revolves around going to work and it's important that all these guys learn how to work so that's why i think this month is very important because i don't think the employers out there really recognize the talents and abilities that these guys have and they learn those things through school and through their work environment and it's great you guys that have a job let's see your hands up they didn't speak today okay at work now because work is more important than singing that paycheck is pretty important yes okay thank y'all so much thank you thank you thank you all right guys okay now we can go we're gonna go straight thank you very nice to meet you i mean a pocket knife or something oh very nice nice thing thank you very much oh great yeah i don't want to see you pass that sounds very cool i think you should do that no no regular hi hi thank you you did such a nice job goodbye bye danjela goodbye goodbye thank you yes there's your paper and my bag you can have it you're done though you don't need it okay you'll get a job soon mm-hmm great there are lots of inspiring people in our midst absolutely the next proclamation is a proclamation declaring domestic violence awareness month in martin county florida domestic violence is a serious widespread issue that affects individuals in every community regardless of age race income or education level and leaves a lasting impact on survivors families and communities with survivors always is the theme for domestic violence awareness month 2025 uniting communities nationwide and here on the treasure coast in standing with survivors the board encourages all residents to join safe space in supporting survivors honoring their courage and committing to end domestic violence and here to accept we have jennifer fox ceo good morning commissioners and community members is this okay yes absolutely i'm jennifer fox the ceo of safe space and on behalf of safe space and everyone standing with me today and survivors of domestic violence i want to thank you for recognizing october as domestic violence awareness month thus proclamation sends a powerful message to survivors across our community that says you are not alone domestic abuse can be found in every neighborhood workplace and school yet survivors feel very alone every statistic represents a person a parent a child or a neighbor who deserves to be safe in their own home safe space is the only certified domestic violence center serving saint lucie indian river and martin counties and just to give you a little bit of an idea our crisis hotline averages between 250 and 275 crisis calls every month last year we provided a variety of services to 891 survivors of domestic violence and 165 of those were children 378 people stayed in our safe homes and we provided legal advocacy and representation in court to 359 survivors in our community so we're talking about almost 900 people last year 900 people who found us and 900 people who are safer because of the support of this community this year's domestic violence awareness theme safety support and solidarity reminds us that everyone has a role to play safety means making sure survivors have a place to turn 24 hours a day support means listening without judgment and connecting friends family or colleagues to resources solidarity means standing together wearing purple raising awareness and making sure the survivors know this community is with them we do want to invite the community to get involved throughout the month of november so to learn more about our events the services we provide or ways to help please visit our website safespacefl.org or follow us on social media so thank you again today thank you for using your platform to shine a light on this issue and for standing with safe space and survivors of domestic violence nancy you be in that picture nancy come on nancy there it is on sale on the county's website later to the for sale you did nice job is there a motion to approve the agenda i'll move approval of the agenda second there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye oppose that motion passes unanimously we'll now take public comments if you would like to speak to us please fill out a request to speak form handed to the bailiff who will get it to us you will have three minutes to speak um arthur rink would like to speak on public hearing number one is that true or now okay uh jesse fulton is next followed by christopher cory please come forward good morning good morning morning good morning hi proceed my name is christopher cory i help run the non-prof at 6155 southwest layton farm ave um i came here today actually i was out of town two weeks ago when you guys uh voted on the gate on layton farm and i came down here just to say thank you actually um because it wasn't there and uh i think that the decision you made um showed an incredible amount of common sense um that road uh is very safe for the kids being a dead dead end road and um you know with that gate um i i'm not an engineer or lawyer or anything but uh the trucks they just see the that gate right and they and they keep going and god bless them they have a job to do and uh the problem is we already had one incident you know thankfully i mean it's not great but thankfully it was a dog and um if that gate opens uh it won't be an if it'll be a when it's a kid right uh we've never had an incident with a kid uh you know knock on wood god bless uh but it will um it's just too dangerous to do that um and i just wanted to say thank you again you know the work we do out there uh is it's incredibly meaningful to me and i believe to the community um we have five or six of our members that live in that community i think specifically so they could be closer to the to the facility and i just you know uh again was touched by the decision you made to help keep it safe and i wanted to come say thank you so that's it thank you thank you is jesse fulton here sir you might want to stay for a little while longer and following mr fulton is justin andre lamereau thank you commissioners so uh i'm here as you know uh following mr cory with respect we represent jacob community center llc and thank you again for your decision last week i'm actually here because we kind of heard a rumor that there could potentially be some individuals from meadowrun showing up in order to address the determination that was made by the board last week um first i just want to raise a procedural matter this was not duly noticed therefore we did not really have an opportunity um to prepare if there are going to be testimonials provided things like that we would just suggest to the board that this is just an improper not to mention there are legal questions that could be raised and this just is not the proper vehicle for that at this time um i don't need to reiterate what you already know concerning what was addressed the last week um as you know commissioner or chair heard uh you had emphasized that this approved site plan already existed you expressed concern as to whether uh that meadowrun was already using this gate having full knowledge of these restrictions commissioner hetherington uh you had cited the increased traffic and issues and the ongoing violations that they continued to violate that were not being addressed uh you noted also rightfully uh as to the magistrate creating this exception which ended up being violated ultimately uh commissioner caps you had also recognized that the main entrance could be modified um to handle large vehicles and you questioned whether the north gate could serve instead both valid options available and commissioner campy you had concluded meadowrun should just redesign the main entrance uh so that's expensive and all the owners purchased this with full knowledge as to the access restrictions when they got into this uh development so again we're just asking that you you uh deny the rehearing request and stand by your prior decision we appreciate all that you've done and we look forward to continued uh cooperation with you both thank you thank you justin andre lamereau is next followed by matthew height good morning commissioners mr chair and county attorney my name is justin andre lamereau i reside in port st lucie i'm here today as the father of daniel hunter lamereau to place on the public record a written notice and demand for investigation and referral that i am submitting to the clerk and the county attorney's office for inclusion in today's official minutes the notice concerns official misconduct and the continuing refusal to enforce a georgia custody order a valid judgment entitled to full faith and credit under article 4 section 1 of the u.s constitution and the parental kidnapping prevention act over five years martin county officials have declined to give effect to that georgia decree resulting in the ongoing interstate kidnapping interference with custody and deprivation of my parental rights the notice details conduct that appears in appears to violate florida statutes 838.022 on official misconduct 112.3173 on abuse of public office and related federal civil rights protections i am not here to re-litigate those ongoing matters today i'm asking the board through its county attorney to exercise its administrative authority oversight authority under chapter 125 florida statutes to appoint an independent committee to review these allegations preserve all relevant county records and communications and refer the evidence to appropriate state and federal investigators including the state attorney fdle's public corruption unit and the fbi the supreme court has made it clear in monel versus department of social services 1978 that a county can be held responsible under 42 usc in 1983 when constitutional violations result from an official policy practice or deliberate indifference by its governing body in action after formal notice can itself become a policy my request is respectfully made in good faith not as a threat of litigation but to ensure that our local government stands on the side of constitutional compliance transparency and protection of children and parents i thank the board for receiving this filing and for acknowledging it in the public record i remain available to provide documentation or testimony to any investigative authority the county designates thank you for your time and service to the citizens of martin county can i uh leave a copy of this for the county attorney thank you thank you matthew height is next followed by bobby moran good morning is this good good morning first of off thank you for your time and my apologies for our wasting your time the last time we were here because we didn't really understand the process of having to litigate our need for this back gate in meadow run i know this isn't the time or place to do that my purpose here today is to voice our need to be able to give you the information so that you can make a decision i don't think it's a lot to ask again forgiveness for our ignorance the last time um just to reconsider and hear both sides of the story um the gcc attorney spoke with you just now i think it's inappropriate um that is an unpermitted place in that back gate that has been dominated by lawlessness truly um as far as the traffic that we're going to create this is 91 lots we have less than half occupied there are going to be a few cars coming and going we have three we average three homes being built a year so construction traffic minimal at best compared to the hundreds of cars that transit that road now for the soccer field so we don't want to own the road we just want to share it it's a public road and we just want to have the opportunity to present to you the need because we have grave safety concerns with our elderly drivers with our younger drivers with our permitted drivers using southwest citrus on a regular basis it has become a racetrack there's limited visibility there the overpass to 95 people come down off of that at high rates of speed there have been accidents there have been near misses so the limited amount of use that we would have for that back gate from an EMS police emergency reasoning for multiple reasons we would just like the opportunity to show you because what we're asking isn't outrageous we've done the steps we've followed the rules and we just want the opportunity to show you thank you for your time I appreciate it thank you Bobby Moran is next followed by John Moran good morning I would just like for you to revisit the Meadow Run thing I don't think our facts were delivered in the right way I mean our facts you did not hear our side of the story and I think some of the facts that you heard were not correct I do have to address the dog I'm sorry I'm a dog lover I know that it's inappropriate but why was the dog in the road and I know that they say that road is a very busy road however I have gone down there and had to wait for their dogs to get up out of the middle of the road and move off the road I'm sorry the dog got hit but anyway that's my case thank you thank you John Moran is next followed by Vincent Dugino okay thanks good morning my name's John Moran I'm just a resident of Meadow Run I'm here just to support the board from the HOA because I think there are some points that need to be made I didn't realize it was this controversial but I'm just here to support that and just to get a revisit thank you very much that's all Vincent D'Aquino is next followed by Ann Marie Height I'm going to address the safety issues that were brought up before about this gate situation I made some notes so here's my point of view that I'd like everybody to consider and hopefully help us out here first responders in my opinion will have an advantage advantageous point of entry and exit to our community a home base for police firefighters and ambulances are all east of our community every second matters in a life and death situation a mock-up emergency at the back of the development one responder entering from the west side of our community and one entering from the east side would prove to you the considerable time savings which can save a life we have elderly people in the community that live with their caretaker children in the event of an emergency they would also be afforded the opportunity to exit the community from the east and not the west the east side is where all the hospitals and again time savings we have young drivers in the community my 16 year old daughter Mia is one of them the westbound community exit onto Citrus Boulevard as you heard whether heading northbound southbound is extremely dangerous for any driver for an inexperienced young driver it is cringeworthy for parents like me to worry about their daughter vehicles and trucks are frequently observed driving 70 miles per hour plus reckless and distracted I have witnessed multiple accidents just outside our community on Citrus by our entrance I would ask that the motor vehicle accident history is researched to prove my point deaths and permanent disability will be discovered during some of these accidents I know people that have died I am a five year of resident that nope I won't say that but that's it thank you very much thank you Ann Marie Height is next followed by Tom Pine thank you again for letting us come in front of you and we apologize for last week not being prepared we really didn't I'm Ann Marie Height I'm the president of Meta Run so when we went through the process of this gate project started in 2021 up until that point we have had we have used the back gate the community has used the back gate since 2004 or 5 when the first roads were constructed and the stables which is now the soccer farm was also constructed by the developer Martin County in 2004 was very different than it is today in 2004 all the land over owners got along there were agreements handshakes we had land over owners that were using our lakes to fish in things like that and granted the site plan stayed in place there was never an issue or a complaint until 2025 when the road was paved in 2022 we received an email from the county engineer's office stating the road is open back up you have access but remember you are limited by your PUD you need to amend that if you're going to have a back gate the infrastructure today is in place the road is paved the road is qualified to be up to 3,000 cars a day I think is what the engineer said Meadow Run is 32 homes today with 9 under construction we basically bring in today with the lots and the homes over $800,000 in property tax revenue every four homes is worth an additional $100,000 now we're only planning to have three to four homes go to CO per year for the next four years but the limited amount of traffic with three homes going to CO is not the reason that we want a back entrance we need a second secondary entrance it's a safety matter if there's a natural disaster we need a second way to get out of the neighborhood the police responding from the Exxon at the bottom of Martin Highway at the bridge save five plus minutes just to get my home from Layton Farms Road so all we're asking for is we came here not prepared we didn't realize that when the county government growth management section goes through and you follow each checklist and each department approves it that there was more to it we actually thought we were coming just to say thank you we appreciate it but we didn't get that opportunity to be represented and we didn't expect that a non-permitted group in the back that don't have business licenses on an agricultural unit would cause such distraction from the true thing that we are here to amend a site plan to stay legal thank you for your time thank you Tom Pine is next followed by Jeff Cable good morning commissioners my name is Tom Pine I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years at our last county commission meeting we got an excellent presentation about two new wings also known as pods proposed for the county jail paid for with a grant of $500,000 from the state of Florida it went real smooth till the end when the cost was presented $60 to $70 million we can just add that to the rest of the project that we're going to be going to build on borrowed money three new needed fire stations in western Martin County a new maintenance building at $80 to $90 million that's been discussed for multiple years with no action taken using the consent agenda to hide from the taxpayers of Martin County where you're spending our tax dollars is a major factor in this mess you have gotten us into spending tax dollars behind closed doors is wrong and immoral one of the county commissioners takes a position every time when selling county-owned property that our county government should not be in the business of making a profit then why is our parks department operating multiple business on the taxpayers back because the hypocrisy in Martin County never ends I went to the grand reopening of Phipps Park several years ago out by the locks the head of the parks department gave his presentation and the only thing that stood out to me was the cost the county had already spent $800,000 and at least another $200,000 to finish it up these are the types of expenditures that are hidden in the consent agenda just like the county golf course since this RV park is a business venture maybe it's time to sell it on the open market and let it be operated like it should be a private business Martin County residents don't use it what you permit you promote what you allow you encourage what you condone you own thank you for your time thank you Jeff Cable is next and Mr. Cable is the last request to speak form that I have for public comment if you would like to speak to us please fill out a request to speak form and get it to the bailiff thank you morning commission morning my name is Jeff Cable and I'm the original applicant that requested an amended amendment to the master site plan for the community of metal run I'm both a resident a current member of the HOA board and also served on the board in 2021 when the process to seek this amendment first began when I attended the October 7th meeting I unfortunately misunderstood the procedure and made a rather egregious error and assuming that the amendment after nearly two years of the detailed review and approval by the Martin County staff would move forward as a formality I take full responsibility for that misunderstanding and the consequences that followed I'm here today to respect you just request a reconsideration of our application and to ask that the board allow us the opportunity to return and fully present the reasons this amended master site plan merits approval we believe these reasons are significant and directly tied to the safety and well-being of our community thank you for your time and understanding and your considerations thank you any comments commissioners yes okay I was not able to be here at the last meeting however I did review the video and I have lived in an HOA that had a front gated entrance guarded gated entrance and also a rear entrance it definitely warranted a lot more traffic it was by multiples the number of homes that were there I moved in when the construction was going on still by a developer you have a very small HOA if you're constructing about three homes per year that's really negligible it's not a great amount the back gate my understanding in speaking with Mr. Donaldson who was the engineer at that time and growth management I did question him about all particulars on this particular road my understanding is this was constructed by a private individual and please correct me Mr. Donaldson and then it was turned over to the county is that correct yes so the the late forms avenue has always been a public right away the end of it was unimproved and therefore considered on the rolls not open road it was paved as was stated earlier and opened then it was opened to the public and all rights as an open road so and that was done by a private individual to open the road for the benefit of their property to get permits to get permits and to construct Martin County is not the Martin County that I grew up in way back it's not even the Martin County when I was here in early 2000 and I've come back again the pleasure of serving on your board it is a raceway a lot of our roads Citrus US one canner you can just go on and on we have a sheriff here too so we can attest to that also I think that if an individual is driving appropriately it lessens the accidents providing that they are going about their business in a way that is not breakneck speed I'm a dog lover I don't like to hear about animals being hurt nor children or people however the issue is whether or not the metal run HOA and the adjacent property owners really had a chance to present their sides of the argument it was stated that there were inaccuracies that the full picture wasn't described if you have trucks that are coming in they can damage the front gate if they haven't already possibly overhangs that's an additional expense I lived in an HOA again I'll say it had the trucks moving in in the back gate and those homeowners that were living there me being one of them had a barcode that they could leave through the back gate we talked about the safety factor that's critical also today traffic should be moving over it doesn't soon enough when an emergency vehicle whether it fire or sheriff is trying to get through to help one of our citizens I think that we have to in the spirit of getting along neighborly give the and I'll talk to my board now give the homeowners and those that are in the neighborhood another chance to present their case I would like to make a request for a quasi-judicial hearing to be put on the agenda agenda and Mr. Donaldson and his team will make a decision what date and I would really request respectfully that our board accede to this Commissioner Campy well first off let me thank my colleague for that stole a bit of what I was going to say but I appreciate it very much teeing it up there is procedural issues there was a gentleman from the JCC that said this is not properly noticed I just want to be clear first off let me say that after the meeting I did have an opportunity having been invited to go out to Meadowrun and meet with some of the folks that spoke this morning to drive down the northern driveway to see if that was legitimately an option I personally am not an engineer but I would tell you I don't see that as an option I also drove down all the way down Layton Farms to I have been down that way before but not since this issue had come up I also drove within the neighborhood the roundabout the gate the the width of the road is all done and paved there is a gate there it's chained over so it's not like a large construction project some of the comments and the statistics that you heard today even at full build-out it's less than a hundred homes they're building this is a very old already the HOA property has been around for decades decades and had a very slow start to the construction of the neighborhood itself as you heard they build a couple of homes per year so it's not like a massive construction project going coming and going the citrus look most of us have driven on citrus if you're if you're not familiar with Meadowrun the entrance is just a little bit north of the overpass of 95 and similar to what happens on Palm City on the Palm City Bridge you can imagine when you're coming over on a highway speed coming up and over that it sort of launches you down into the straightaway it's dark there I did it I met with them during the day but then I rode it again in the evening it's pitch black at their entrance and so beyond the construction which will only last a little bit longer we have to start looking at the safety issues now instead of having this be an agenda item today which there is to Commissioner Vargas's point if that was a motion I would second it if it's not a motion I would make one so whatever she prefers for the opportunity for our constituents to be able to come back and present their side of the story differently now I get it and I will tell you that prior to hearing Commissioner Vargas's points this would have been the first time in my political career I have ever asked for a reconsideration not so much specifically on the item but on the procedure of how the item presented itself the staff had given a recommendation of approval confusing and creating confusion for the residents our constituents who are obviously not professional consultants and builders and developers to think that as we heard one of the speakers say that the approval here from the commissioners was merely a formality had they thought that it was going to be a much more of a back and forth which to the other sides benefit they were prepared they were prepared with visitors and and people to speak out members of the club to come and speak on behalf but the residents assumed not to come because they thought that once you had a staff's recommendation of approval it's an approval having in in many circumstances an item like this would have been on the consent agenda but it wasn't and then all of a sudden they and if they're spending thousands and thousands of dollars to get to that point so my point today is that they should be afforded the opportunity to come both sides the other side can come again and make a presentation that is a little more balanced in my opinion to hear the different sets of circumstances it wasn't a matter of just purely having a construction entrance as a convenience for the trades it literally is a permanent opportunity for residents to have it and also there's an added wrinkle of how the magistrate had basically said I'm going to give you conditional approval until it goes to the board for them to sort it out so I think a lot has been put forward on a relatively simple item that warrants at least another opportunity so that in the future we have a fully noticed agenda item for both sides to be able to come and present to us a more complete picture so if Commissioner Vargas and I will second it thank you so much I appreciate well that's two we look forward to seeing our meta run folks and those neighbors along Layton Farms come out please talk let us know we're trying to be fair but we only have so much time also okay thank you so much it might be procedurally more correct for the motion to come from Commissioner Campy because he voted in favor of the item therefore he has the ability to ask for a reconsideration vote at the next noticed meeting so I think second so that that could happen but the rules do allow an absent Commissioner to make the motion as well so we're good either way we have a motion in a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously now we're going to take things slightly out of order Commissioners because there's a preset and the Sheriff is sitting here protecting us doing a fine job of protecting us but probably can be more productive after he leaves this this building so let's take up department three which is a discussion of the county attorney position thank you Commissioner Don Donaldson your county administrator so this is it for consideration of selection of the county attorney's position the one of two positions that you hire being the county administrator myself and the county attorney's position this position was advertised starting back in May 30th with selection or the applicants submitting prior to July 1st there was a number of views and interest from this the board then selected a committee to assist the board in reviewing the board in reviewing the applicants and that board consisted of our clerk Carolyn Timmon our sheriff John Budenseek and Denise Marie Neiman who was a former Palm Beach County attorney and myself county attorney yes our job was to take the applicants and narrow it down for the board's consideration we did narrow it down and to a selection of three applicants for interviews we did eliminate some due to concerns to ethical concerns in their background the board then asked us to conduct those interviews we did conduct interviews on January 12th we had narrowed it down to three to the applicants of such taking other positions however it's it's important to note that the applicant that we have has done an excellent job for us we the committee has voted unanimously to recommend to the board Elise Elder for consideration for the board to be our county attorney we have with us in the audience again Miss Timmon and Sheriff John Budenseek Mr. Neiman could not attend but she did send a nice recommendation in the board packet essentially describing her experience in interview processes for public attorney positions and county attorney positions and and noting that miss elder met all of the qualifications and in her interview also did very well and would be ranked highly for any interview around the state however having said that this is your process and ultimately the final decision rests on you on how to proceed um if you want to hear on any of the details of our uh reviews or interviews um miss Timmon and uh John Budenseek are here to uh to assist me and and how that process went um but otherwise uh um we're here to answer any questions and to assist you in the furtherance of the process of you hiring your county attorney thank you mr campi mr donaldon thank you for taking the lead um a couple of points that i think need to be brought up we did also receive a letter of recommendation in the packet from our tax collector ruth pietraszewski uh recommending that we permanently hire or promote in this case miss elder also from supervisor elections vicky davis uh i did and i'm assuming my colleagues did as well receive a couple of emails where people were frustrated with the fact that we were only being given the choice of a single name as mr donaldon had just mentioned this has been a multi-month long process uh involving an opportunity as we would hire for any position putting it out on social media uh for or the the social media hiring platforms for anyone to have the opportunity to throw their name into the hat uh with that in mind there was a process there were people that applied there was a vetting process all the way to the point where uh not the commissioners where sometimes it has been the case where we have filled at least i have been involved in opportunities where we went through a whole uh laundry uh you know parade of applicants to fill positions and some of us have hired people in the past some of us have not but that being said i think it's from the applicant's point of view a very difficult process to go through five commissioners and others uh to to get to a position uh we were very fortunate in this particular case to have the folks that are involved in this our sheriff our clerk of the court and uh denise neiman who was involved i know she was also an officer of the florida association of county attorneys we had used her services in the past to you know i'm a strong believer in that the locals pick the locals but miss neiman coming from out of the area gave an opportunity to give an unbiased kind of an objective uh perspective of you know whether or not we're getting the right person as many of you know the county commissioners only hire two people they're sitting over here to our right the administrator and the attorney both are very very important positions i have had the honor of working with mr stephen fry who was a legend uh and then had the opportunity to help uh as we're hopefully going to do today promote commissioner commissioner uh attorney sarah woods to uh her permanent position and obviously that worked out very well i'm a strong believer and i i would hope most of you would be in um bench strength and hiring from within you don't have to uh pay someone a year's worth of a salary to find out that there wasn't a proper mix or a fit uh not only is florida a very unique state to be an attorney in martin county is a unique county to be an attorney in especially on our behalf i think the position uh although it seems like up on the fourth floor we have a small little um law firm if you will i think the position of um county attorney is more of a managerial position so you need to have the managerial expertise beyond having obviously an excellent legal background uh in the agenda packet i steered clear of the process because i was very comfortable with the people that were running it for us but in this agenda packet was miss elder's resume and it's exactly what you would want to see in a resume from an applicant it had all of her professional and educational experience that is perfect it also that spoke very highly to me it had a tremendous amount of community involvement not volunteer involvement leadership involvement in the community and not in the last couple of years for decades um and i would say and and i don't think miss elder would mind i had concerns in the beginning we had uh some uh i had some questions and we had an opportunity to sit down and have a very frank conversation and that really uh swayed me i thought that she uh presented uh not only what she has been doing which obviously if you know we talk about like a number two or a number one if you're number two you're not number one your job is to assist and help the person that's in the leadership position but not necessarily to push or to steal some of the spotlight so with that in mind i am proud to make the motion that we permanently hire miss elise elder to be our county attorney i think she will fit very nicely into our long history of excellent representation and i look forward to working with her commissioner vargas yeah i i commissioner campy already addressed that i was getting a lot of calls and questions why is there only one viable candidate as i stated before we had narrowed it down to uh seven and then to three for interviews and as we went to the interview process the two that we were going to interview um dropped out as they were hired to other county attorney positions uh or city attorney positions um and so we we uh continued with the interview of miss elder and treated her as uh as as a candidate um and gave her very tough questions so that we could be ensured that um that uh that she knew the full depth of of the process um but ultimately that is um that's why we have uh today just one candidate from the original mix of candidates anything else commissioner hetherington i think commissioner can be summarized it very well and um i was going to just clarify that we had received the emails um stating that there was only one candidate but actually there were it was properly advertised um with plenty of opportunity around the state and the nation i think it was advertised we had um applicants and i believe i want to thank the committee for the job and the due diligence we it was a very thorough and transparent process and i'd be glad to second commissioner campy's motion mr caps i'd like to begin by thanking all of the candidates who applied for the position there were seven originally and there were many very compelling applications and then i'd like to thank the selection committee which i thought was a very stellar and impressive group of people that deal with the county attorney a lot and of course they were our clerk of court carolyn timmon sheriff john budency county administrator don donaldson and particularly noteworthy the former palm beach county attorney denise marie neiman or is it neiman neiman neiman yes and i thought that was uh very good that she was on there as someone who has held the very that very position in a county much larger than ours palm beach county i think palm beach county is about nine times as big ten times as big as our county so i uh i have not actually met her but i just the weight of her office that she held and the role that she played seems to be very relevant to me you know we could be in a situation where we would need to make a decision based on resumes and reference letters and job interviews sometimes you're in that spot where you have to you have to make a decision as best you can with limited tools and those are valuable tools but they only tell you so much in our case we have the opportunity to hire someone who we have seen in action for many years right on this very dais we know a lot about former deputy county attorney and now acting county attorney elise elder we know that she knows our comp plan ldrs and ordinances very well and the county attorney basically has a tough job where she has to have an incredible recall of our laws and ordinances because she has to basically practice law and in a public setting without the opportunity to go research things like most attorneys have that opportunity we know that she gets along well with and has credibility with the legal department and with staff and we know that she has in-depth knowledge of our community since she's lived here for many years i would note that the selection committee made a unanimous recommendation to approve ms elder as our next county attorney i think that's very noteworthy and impressive and i put a lot of weight on former palm beach county attorney denise marie neiman's letter of reference for ms elder which ends with this statement and i thought i would read a paragraph from that letter fortunately for martin county there was a very strong candidate and the application mix even if hundreds of others applied it's highly unlikely any could come close to what our deputy county your deputy county attorney elise elder can offer it's not unusual to find someone who has vast private and public sector experience is actively involved in their community and who has not only the intellectual capacity but excellent leadership skills as evidenced by responses to questions asked during her interview ms elder clearly cares about rendering the best legal counsel to the board administration and the county's various departments divisions and constitutional officers as well as fully supporting the county attorney team her humility is also to be lauded on top of all of this she has a proven track record working in martin county's legal office in different positions since 2018 including the very role she is seeking ms elder is the complete package i strongly join in recommendation that deputy county attorney elise elder be appointed the county attorney for martin county that was at the end of her letter and latterly above i don't think we need to look any further in my judgment to make the best decision and i would be in support of elise elder being our next county attorney miss tim would you like to address us are you the chair of the selection committee i think we were all equal participants thank you tough group to get in front of thank you madam chair i'll just keep my comments brief i am here um first to answer questions if anyone had any questions about the process i know one of the greatest questions was why did we end up with one candidate hopefully you're comfortable with that response it was a national search um and continuing to narrow down the applicants we ended up with three for interviewing and one final interview we did feel that it was critically important to the whole process that we conducted that interview as if there were 10 candidates it didn't matter it was still a very important process we all wanted to hear the responses we all wanted to have the opportunity to ask questions i will tell you selfishly i care a lot about this position there's a lot of questions that come up in my office part of my role is to help protect the county from different risk um and identify kind of you know hot topics that we may need a little assistance with and those are very diverse issues there's criminal issues there are civil issues there are certainly financial issues ordinance issues all of those things we need a diverse base and miss elder brings that to us so i felt very good about all of the interactions that i've had over the years and look forward to continuing those i think the only thing i probably haven't brought forward would be anything from my domestic relations department but that can always come up too i really appreciate the diversity and i appreciate that the board is really considering how important this job is to the whole county but also to all the individuals in here i think we hear that when people come before the board on public comment and again it's really those diverse issues there's litigation there's land use all of those things in your county attorney's office brings that to you and i hope that we have a favorable vote to support miss elder and again i'm happy to answer any questions any questions sheriff budencic would you like to address us commissioners madam chair thank you for just giving me a few minutes when i when i was looking at this position and i think about attorneys because we deal with them every day we kind of live and die by them i i think of three things somebody smart enough to see the problem or figure out a problem somebody brave enough to look at you in the eyes i mean your guys and gals can be intimidating or i can be intimidating they say and just tell you the truth whether you like it or not they just tell you the truth and then somebody forward thinking enough to actually figure out how to navigate the scenario whatever that might be and and move the organization forward and we clearly saw that in miss elder as we were going through the process uh to your question uh commissioner vargas good question by the way local attorneys when we were looking for applicants local attorneys stood solidly behind miss elder in fact some of them are here in the room today to support her so the local uh community supports her and our in our attorney community but then i'll tell myself real quick because i think it uh it tells you what you're dealing with here with miss elder uh in the application process between her application being submitted and our oral board that we conducted with her your sheriff made a mistake a misstep not enough to get me in any real trouble but enough for miss elder to call over the mark county sheriff's office and say hey sheriff you absolutely uh messed something up there and this is the legal grounds with which i'm making my argument and this is what i did to rectify that and i i sat back and and thought prior to the oral board we did she already passed the oral board with me because she identified the problem she had the courage to call over and tell us that we're wrong and then she fixed it moving forward and that's exactly what you're looking for an attorney if i was hiring an attorney that's what i need somebody tells me the truth and figures out how to keep me out of trouble and keep the county out of trouble so i'm proud to support you miss elder i'm i'm proud to be here to answer any questions happy to answer any questions if you might have any of me commissioner vargas was your misstep i missed step you want me to confess yeah i'll tell you what it was so one of our we we talked about our mental health pod this morning earlier and one of our inmates that has a severe mental health issue came to court and spit on judge robey and i released the video to the media well we have been pretty careful unbeknownst to me your county attorneys even prior to miss elder they've been very careful with releasing the whereabouts of those cameras and me releasing that video showed where that camera was in the courtroom so not a real violation but certainly an operational uh problem because moving forward if we started a pattern of releasing videos if somebody came in and did a public records request then any and all cameras in the courtrooms could be brought forward great point so uh we won't be doing that again but she was able to go in there and move those cameras elsewhere and i think we're still able to protect our cameras under 119 the exemption of it being a surveillance piece of equipment so those little nuances matter greatly in our business and again i appreciate her coming forward and and just telling us what the problem was but she also fixed the problem which was impressive to me so that means she has av skills as well moving the cameras around in the courtroom good for you all right i'm done confessing if you any questions any other questions it doesn't appear so thank you thank you would anyone from the public like to address us on this in that case we are going to close out and i will make my final comments which i am not going to be supporting miss elder for this position um there was a trial in circuit court here seven years ago the defendant was and is a martin county employee miss elder was and is a martin county employee she should have been impartial she was anything but during this trial the trial lasted for three days and for three days she stomped loudly deliberately in and out of the courtroom over and over and over slamming the door each time she came through the door she was trying to uh rattle the defense attorneys she was trying to influence the outcome of the trial i thought that on several occasions i thought that the judge was going to to prohibit her from remaining in the courtroom he perhaps should have kept her out of the courtroom she was that disruptive that unprofessional that disrespectful and for those reasons among others i'm not going to support her i think that we should uh we ever re-advertize for uh the position again commissioner campy so as to end on a different note uh there's five of us for a reason if it was a simple decision on yes or no there'd be one person sitting up here ideally it would be me but other than that i think that uh the legal profession in more so than in many other professions uh with all respect to my colleague engenders this level of emotion uh if you are in the legal system for whatever the reason uh there is sides and sometimes it's very obvious what the sides are and sometimes it's more innuendo and uh sort of feels like there are sides but beyond that very personal uh experience that we just heard i think that that should not overshadow decades of experience uh the fact that the community is endorsing her and supporting her in large measure the fact that her her uh staff within the department thinks that obviously we will be making the right decision the legal community as was mentioned uh the brightest and the best of our group here you know we're kidding about the sheriff and the clerk of the court and mr donelson and miss neiman being the board that you'd have to interview that's a that's a serious uh board to sit down in front of and uh everyone was unanimous so with all respect to my colleague and having a very specific and personal opinion of a set of circumstances i think that will not necessarily and i get it i get that that's how she feels but i don't see that that would be okay that's how you feel uh facts i don't know i'm just hearing about this for the first time ever and and i'm giving you full respect for that i just don't want that to be the final uh word on what i personally would consider uh an excellent opportunity for us to have miss elder represent us thank you and to my colleagues across town this is how you do employment issues mr vargas okay uh so i i understood what you said uh chairwoman uh heard um how was this handled with legal department at that time and also our hr department was that something that crossed was that something that had to be handled differently i i don't lawsuit brought up by this employee i mean i i don't think the particulars of this would be appropriate to have any discussion on it other than i think um um the chair explained her her concerns about during uh the trial uh which uh was a personal and difficult time um so i would a um anyway there was an acquittal um and uh we're fortunate to have uh uh that all fully resolved um and so i think any details of that manner that if you're truly interested it should be discussed and in private thank you any further discussion there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed opposed that motion passes four to one with commissioner heard dissenting uh now we will go thank you both uh we will now continue with uh commissioner comments uh commissioner hetherington any comments this morning no i'm all set this morning thank you commissioner campy i'm also set i'm set commissioner caps well we just came from the legislative delegation meeting that occurred in the blake library at nine o'clock and i would just like to say that i appreciate uh chair heard and county committee or county commissioner county administrator don donaldson for representing our interests very well and also i would just like to say that i really appreciated the vocal number that we heard from the radiant voices what a beautiful performance and song with such a beautiful message maybe we were made for these days we don't have to be afraid i really enjoyed that commissioner vargas um some of the uh ladies who were with radiant voices do go to my church and they were so enthused about coming here and i was delighted to see them of course as my colleagues and those who were in attendance also um i think you did a spectacular job uh chairwoman hurt very authoritative of course mr donaldson always you know picks through the spaghetti and people understand it when you explain it in lay terms so we appreciate that all so it was a good presentation but we all got up in mass and left before the other municipalities had a chance to you know present uh their their uh notes uh but anyway um no i think that's about it for right now for me thank you mr donaldson i i do have one item and it's uh we've done this once before it's regarding brownfields and so this is simply a public notice is required by law there's no action to be taken and so this is requested by oasis development llc so i will read the following there will be a community meeting for the request by oasis development llc and the palms of hope sound llc to designate property located out southeast gomez avenue in hope sound florida as a brownfield under florida statute section 376.80 the meeting will be held at 11720 southeast shell avenue unit 1-a hope sound florida on november 4th 2025 at 5 30 pm the purpose of the meeting is to provide the public input on the size of the area the objectives of rehabilitation job opportunities and economic developments anticipated neighborhood residents considerations and other relevant local concerns and that concludes my public statement on the by pursuant the request of oasis development in accordance with florida statutes thank you thank you that's all i have miss elder let's move on to the consent agenda uh can we take up the pulled consent uh number 14 which can i can i begin just i'm the one who pulled this item and mr gorton i'm sure will do a marvelous job presenting as he always does and and i would note that the issue at hand is a resolution to authorize execution of a maintenance memorandum of agreement with the florida department of transportation for a multi-use trail along us1 and hope sound and so that that is the subject matter before us but the reason i pulled the item and wanted mr gorton uh to explain a little bit to us i think there's a lot of confusion about where the sun trail is proposed you know at the mpo meetings and other places uh they're just reams of documents and and i asked uh mr gorton to put the the sun trail on a on a one-page document so it's real simple to understand to explain to us where it's going to be as it goes into jd park well first of all let me let me just mention you know the goal here is to connect the wide sidewalk that is down by the entrance of jd park and to run that wide sidewalk all the way up to osprey street in northern hope sound and to make it part of the sun trail and it has a lot of zigzags and turns and part of it is going to be on the east side of us1 and part of it's going to be on the west side of us1 and also there's some very interesting twists and turns on the sun trail as it goes through the park itself well that i don't think many people understand so i look forward to uh to mr gorton explaining it in detail and put make a particular note on which side of us1 we're talking about and why it's done that way thank you jim gorton public works director so this agenda item is uh we're asking the board to authorize the county administrator to execute a maintenance memorandum of agreement or mmoa with the florida department of transportation for a proposed multi-use trail along us1 and hope sound so this is a sun trail which is sun trail is the funding mechanism that's used to construct this trail and it's also part of the east coast greenway trail which is a trail network that extends from maine down to key west so this is one of the pieces through martin county so on this map that i've got pulled up we've got green on the north and south ends of the the map those portions are already existing those portions have been built on the south end that's on the west side of us1 and it runs from the park entrance all the way to the county line on the north end that's the piece of trail that starts at cove road runs through sea branch park and then to the north end of gomez so those are the two existing pieces this maintenance of this mmoa is for the piece that's shown in orange through hope sound from bridge road north to osprey street that piece is designed by dot and it's going to be constructed with the resurfacing project that's going to occur in 2026. the next piece that is also referenced in the mmoa is is the red piece that's south of bridge road so that's going to be it's going to start on the west side of us1 at bridge road and at jv reed park olympus street it's going to cross over to the east side of us1 and then run down us the east side of us1 to the national wildlife preserve there there's going to be a crossing a signalized crossing where users of the trail can cross over and then get into jonathan dickinson park the next piece is in design so this is the current concept piece which is the red part that's actually inside the park but generally the concept is going to be for the trail to be along the old dixie highway which is the paved road that's adjacent to the fec train tracks and then that'll carry over to the park road where the train tracks cross the park road and then it'll follow the park road out to the entrance of jd park once those four projects are constructed there'll be continuous trail multi-use trail from cove road all the way south to the county line so that's the piece that we have done now there's also a concept that's being developed for the next piece which is from cove road all the way up to baker and so that that's a little trickier because you have to go through the developed part of the county so we're working on that piece right now through our mpo and then the the piece north of baker is already constructed so we already have the the section of trail that runs along green river parkway all the way up to the county line that's already built and saint lucie county is getting really close to finishing their piece which goes through the the park up there so there's going to be quite a network of trails available to our residents once this is all constructed i'd like to just uh thank you jim that was excellent um just a couple of comments for our jd park enthusiasts i'm one of and i'm one of them and uh mr gorton is too i do believe uh he's also in the park a good bit but as you go in and you pass the guard gate there and you just imagine yourself winding around to the railroad tracks that's where the road turns north right there there's like a little dirt road that runs right along the east side of the railroad tracks and and then you would go north quite a ways along that little road and where it pops back out again that's uh the state parks entrance right there by where the loran tower used to be that's where it pops back out of the park and then it crosses us one to the east side of us run and one and runs for maybe a mile or so over the overpass and on up to the fire station by reed park and the reason that portion of it is on the east side of the highway which is the only portion that's on the east side of the highway is because we can get federal funding for that part is that kind of the concept where we're pursuing federal funding because that is hopes on national wildlife refuge land is that the thinking that is correct so the funding that the state is using it requires it to make a connection to the federal facility right some people have questions why do we have a segment of it on the east side with most of it being on the west side of us one well anyway up there by the fire station that's where it pops back across the highway and starts running on the west side all the way up to osprey street i just felt like there are a lot of folks uh who didn't really understand that so i really appreciate the presentation thank you commissioner hetherington i just could you just summarize what is our responsibility for maintaining it and what the dot because i only see just drainage very generally so um the dot is required to maintain the structural integrity of the trail but we were to any of the amenities that might go along with the trail should we choose to add benches landscaping um even the ada surfaces the detectable warning surfaces are ours drop-offs for for safety of the public things like that are are to the county that but the structural integrity of the trail itself is there's still a responsibility of dot um we i can tell you that uh our staff that worked on this negotiated pretty hard with dot uh our neighbors to the north that um just that are working on their trail section now um just signed the agreement outright and we uh spent quite a bit of time negotiating to make sure that we have a fair agreement and limits our liability thank you for that is this the one miss wixer pointed out the state's error yes that's the one where our our chief engineer um pointed out to the state that there was a concern with um with the agreement so it didn't match how this the funding came down from the state any further questions i would move approval of consent 14 is that the next thing we need to do there's a motion and a second all those in favor i oppose that motion passes unanimously now i will i would like to see a motion to uh uh prove the remainder of the consent agenda so moved second there's a motion and a second all those in favor i oppose that motion passes unanimously we will now move on to public hearing number one which is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending chapter 83 general ordinances martin county code relating to fish and wildlife and lake okeechobee fish and wildlife advisory council mr fox good morning commissioner sebastian fox senior assistant county attorney for the record i'm here before before you this morning on a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending chapter 83 general ordinances martin county code related to fish and wildlife and the lake okeechobee fish and wildlife advisory committee in 1974 martin county adopted a variety of ordinances in chapter 83 to regulate various methods of saltwater fishing and to address the protection of bald eagles sea turtles and alligators subsequent to the adoption of chapter 83 both the florida constitution and the florida statutes were amended to grant the fish and wildlife conservation commission or fwc exclusive authority to regulate wild animal life freshwater aquatic life and marine life this authority includes the power to adopt rules tantamount to legislative acts for the management restoration conservation and regulation of fish and wildlife in the state the regulation of bald eagles and sea turtles in the state of florida involves both federal and state entities with primary oversight provided by the u.s fish and wildlife service service at the federal level and fwc at the state level these agencies work under the framework of the endangered species act the bald and golden eagle protection act the migratory bird treaty act and florida state law to protect these species and provide a legal framework for enforcement with this historical context in mind this agenda item concerns an approval of an ordinance that will address the constitutional and statutory preemption of local governments regulation of saltwater fish and wildlife and the effect of elimination of any consistencies between martin county code and the relevant provisions of the florida constitution florida statutes and title 68 of the florida administrative code county staff has worked collaboratively with fwc to ensure that the proposed ordinance aligns with fwc's constitutionally established authority and that violations of state law will be enforced appropriately in martin county um included in this agenda item is a letter of support from fwc which i would like to share before i conclude my presentation uh finally the proposed ordinance updates article 3 of chapter 83 to remove all reference to the now defunct lake okeechobee fish and wildlife advisory council which was replaced in the year 2000 by the county coalition for responsible management of lake okeechobee and the st lucy and caloosahatchee estuaries and the lake worth lagoon this county coalition is a multiple county-based advisory group organized primarily for the purpose of providing the general public the south florida water management district the u.s army corps of engineers florida department of environmental protection the florida legislature and various groups and committees with the body which will represent and present a variety of issues dealing with the health and welfare of these bodies of water according to its bylaws the county coalition shall whenever possible initially consist of one representative from nine counties each county nominates one representative from their board of county commissioners to serve until which time they are replaced commissioner hurd currently represents martin county at the quarterly meetings of the county coalition which are held in okeechobee since the county coalition was legally established pursuance to its own governing documents it does not need to be incorporated in the martin county code so this public hearing was advertised in the stewart news on october 10th and if i may i'd like to read the letter of support we received from fwc for this ordinance change this is from regional director dr thomas reinert dear madam chair and commissioners of martin county the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission fwc has reviewed the draft resolution of martin county's efforts to streamline and modernize county codes and outdated special acts and statute we support the county's efforts aimed at repealing the fish and wildlife ordinances codified in martin county code section 83.31 and in turn recognize the fwc's constitutional rulemaking authority and the state's preemption of the power to regulate the taking or possession of fish and wildlife as established in article 4 section 9 of the florida constitution the county commissioner and citizens of martin county can rest assured that the repealed ordinances will not jeopardize fish and wildlife resources federal and state law and fwc rules cover most if not all of the issues addressed in the county ordinances using a science-based approach the fwc is committed to managing fish and wildlife resources for their long-term well-being and the benefits of people sincerely thomas reiner that concludes my presentation i'm happy to answer any questions you may have questions for mr fox we have one request to speak form and that's from mr arthur rink please join us and you'll have three minutes to address us this morning i agree with you a hundred percent that this should be approved thank you at least for whatever help you gave me during the course of this deal uh thanks to the commission i'm sorry i thank you guys for like listening to me i brought this to you on may 6th okay mr caps said let's put it on the agenda we're here we're here today okay let's solve a big problem for myself and all the other commercial and recreational fishermen that we have however there is one issue down there at the national wildlife refuge and uh they still want to do the two rod limit which is against fwc rules and everything um and if you look at their title 50 32 28 they enforce local ordinances okay in this particular case it won't exist that that code won't exist anymore so hopefully i just want to make sure they know what's going on and other than that i'm so happy you got this accomplished if it's i don't even know when does if it happens when does it happen now to approve it today now yes go and fish in the mar well thank you so much i appreciate it that actually worked out for you sir from from may to now that's pretty good well got anything else on your christmas list well i got a couple other things but come back too early for that i got to deal with fwc with their opinion but um yeah it's it's uh it's fantastic to see that it can actually work anybody can come up here and say what they have to say and it works so thank you all thank you mr rink thank you for bringing it to our attention to begin with is there a motion to approve move approval there's a motion in a second all those in favor i opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you mr fox thank you sir we'll take take up let's see department quasi-judicial number one shall we take up that's a request for approval of the high point planned unit development phase two revised final site plan this is quasi-judicial any ex parte disclosures i have any they've been filed if i have any they have been filed if i have any they've been filed i don't have any and that's been filed if any they've been filed excellent and have all your materials been sent to the clerk a copy of my work history and the agenda item anyone who's going to be providing sworn testimony please stand raise your right hand and be sworn in do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth presentation mr elam thank you madam chair commissioners uh this is a request by cotler and hearing on behalf of pulte home company llc for revised final site plan approval for phase two of the high point planned unit development consistent with the approved revised master site plan which added six lots to phase two the site is located along southwest pratt whitney road on the northwest corner of pratt whitney and bulldog way with the secondary urban services district or within the secondary urban services district and steward the current zoning on the property is the high point pud zoning agreement and the future land use is a state density one unit per acre which allows a maximum density of one unit per acre the aerial image on the left shows the high point pud phase two area inside the red line and the phase two platted lots the image on the right is an excerpt of the proposed phase two revised final site plan showing the lot lines for the six new lots which is consistent with the pud revised master site plan approved on november 12 2024 so this is the area and this is where the six slots were added and approved for the master site plan development review staff have found that the pulte home company application to comply with all applicable regulations in the comprehensive growth management plan as detailed in the staff report and staff recommends approval of the pulte home company application to revise the phase two final site plan for the high point pud we move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments including the staff report is exhibit one and we move that the board adopt the resolution approving the revised phase two final site plan for the high point pud that concludes my presentation questions for mr elam applicant would you like to make a presentation good morning good morning george missomer with kotler and hearing for the record and i have been sworn in i do have a brief presentation that i've prepared it's the same information that brian presented i don't have anything new to offer so if you'd have any questions i'd be happy to answer them any questions commissioner vargas okay so this is just an additional six lots so that you can sell them yeah so the yeah the master plan was approved for the addition of the six lots and this amends the final site plan and the construction plans for those lots that they could be sold correct this is a public hearing would anyone from the public like to address us i will close the public hearing and commissioner campy make a motion to accept staff's recommendation there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you thank you next item is department one office of management and budget items which require board approval good morning miss murley good morning stephanie murley director of omb here to present four items on the omb item today our first item is a permission to accept the florida department of transportation local agency program or lap grant for the southeast washington street sidewalk project our public works department is requesting the acceptance of a grant in the amount of 554 thousand and seventy three dollars to construct a six foot wide concrete sidewalk crosswalk drainage improvements and pavement markings for ada compliant pedestrian route there is a grant match required in 1.2 million that is programmed within the roads capital improvement plan our second item is a permission to accept the clean water state revolving fund or srf loan amendment number one our utilities department is requesting the acceptance of four million five hundred ninety three thousand five hundred twenty three dollars to be applied to martin county's coral gardens vacuum septic to sewer project um there is no cash match required but the principal interest in any additional cost of these loans will be paid from the assessments for those folks that are in coral gardens item number three is a permission to accept the fdot public transportation grant agreement for runway 1230 um papi i don't know what that's for uh replacement at the airport our martin county airport is requesting the acceptance of 15 15 000 from fdot for the replacement of those items with led units um there is a match of two and a half percent or 15 000 that will be pride be provided by the airport capital improvement plan and the remainder is going to be covered by the faa and item number four is a mosquito control annual certified budget um our mosquito control division is requesting um the acceptance of an increase of six thousand one hundred and eighty five dollars and fifty six cents um to provide funding for our arthropod control programs and we are just requesting a budget resolution and detailed work plan to accept these funds that is all i have today questions for miss murley commissioner caps um on the first one item number one on page 510 it's interesting to me how in most cases the county government puts forth a little bit of money and the state government puts forth a bunch of money and it's interesting how this one is kind of flipped uh where the state is paying about a half million dollars and we're paying 1.2 million dollars and uh wondered can you explain that a little bit yeah it's so uh jim gorton public works director the um the reason that this dot is only paying a percentage of it is because they can only fund the portions that are directly related to the sidewalk itself so in this instance we have to do some drainage modifications and pipe some swales and and do some stuff to allow for the sidewalk to be in the location that it is and um those are non-eligible expenses related to the grant so the county has to incorporate those into our project so those are local expenses thank you but we still have about a third of the project paid for by the state that's good good thanks and then on the second item on page 511 um wondered for those who might not understand what the state revolving loan fund is if it could just be explained a little bit um and why we have to use it uh i think it's like a financing mechanism but good afternoon uh sam amerson utilities and solid waste department director uh that's a good question commissioner it's the state revolving fund loan and it's just what it says it's a revolving fund and so we apply for low interest loans this money comes from the federal government through the states and the states allocate those funds when we make application to assist in in this case clean water or wastewater project septic to sewer for coral gardens and their low interest loans um and so those are available each year um the the committee um at fdep this is within the department of environmental protection and they meet four times per year uh and we've been able to get financing through them pretty successfully over the last five years and so we use that mechanism as opposed to a bank loan which is typically a higher interest rate these loans can go out to 20 years typically they are a 20-year loan bank loans if we're going to borrow uh 20 million or 15 million dollars for a project um banks are a little uneasy extending loans beyond 15 years and so we prefer the state revolving fund loan so we would be borrowing from the state revolving loan fund for the portion that the county uh is adding into a project yes typically we'll have local funds there are some uh revenue sharing funds that the county provides to the utility to reduce the cost of these large vacuum sewer projects the board's policy was a goal of a cap of twelve thousand dollars on these projects in order to do that the general fund has assisted there's um fpnl franchise fees that are utilized as well as local match local funds to buy down the cost and typically the loan is generally the same value as the assessment to those properties in the msbu and so um that is our repayment that's the revenue stream to repay the loan is the assessment commissioner if i could add to it is um we get grants and we have local funds that are paying for a portion of the project and then we have the assessment which the homeowner pays and the homeowner can pay cash up front or we can put it on their assessment over time the the county still has to pay the contractor the total value of the project when they build it so if we're going to allow a property owner to pay it over 20 years at 800 a year on their tax bill or something like that we don't have the funds internally to up front those funds so this srf fund is really the borrowing is on behalf of the property owner who is going to receive an assessment so it's uh the repayment is from the um through the special the msbu is what's paying it back um and so again the property owner has a choice to keep the cost as low as property possible to the property owner obviously the cheapest mechanism for us to write a check all at once with no interest at all but the srf is a lower rate than we can get from from a bank uh and then the repayment is managed by um uh uh outside consultants essentially working with the tax collector so once it's done actually we we don't we don't see it again and uh and those um um that debt if you will is really occurred by our residents who received the benefit um as opposed to like a utility project that's at our plant thank you mr campy thank you madam chair mr donelson to your point i remember several months ago or maybe in the last election cycle folks were the amount of money that is borrowed for the construction of those massive projects that is going to be repaid by individual residents the the amount of the debt looks as though it's county debt correct when you hear people saying oh the county has a hundred million dollars worth of debt that number includes this it's listed as it but it the revenues pledged are by those special assessments borne by those folks in the msbu correct but if someone was just you know casually reviewing our overall financial circumstances of the county it looks as though we have a massive debt except it's it's working debt based on these projects correct thank you bears repeating mr vargas yes um where did he go there he is uh yes the uh the interest rate is rather attractive for the homeowner is it not 1.83 percent yeah it's it's like the old days of a couple of years ago the fake money but anyway uh it's quite attractive so you know if they're earning more on an investment they may want to stretch it out but we make it convenient for them too that's a good point that's that's exactly right we've been able to uh the loans to date have been less than two percent this one point this one's 1.83 percent and they have up to 20 years to be that's correct a good deal one more question for mr emerson um are there caps on how much we can borrow at a time like are there limits because we had a meeting last night can we just borrow what we need and get the uh palm city old palm city project going with more money right now that's probably a different loan um these are typically for clean water which is wastewater or drinking water and we're capped at 20 million dollars each entity is capped at 20 million total or yearly yearly leo get some money any further questions real quick and that that's why we're doing this amendment here because we hit our cap and we got about half the funding we had requested um last year and this is the second half of that funding so that's the reason for the amendment because we had hit our cap already for which year it was for i think last year okay so we have another year to reach our cap starting october 1 right and i think going forward we're going to probably we we had these grouped um some of these were grouped into multiple projects because we wanted to get proof for the total 20 million cap and so that's why we've bundled several other projects thanks commissioner hetherington i'm just curious the 20 million dollar cap we've reached that in the past and what does the state put into that fund statewide i'm just curious it varies uh based on the federal budget and the state budget as well um it's tens of millions i'll have to look that up i don't have that number offhand thank you is there a motion for the whole state tens of millions yes that's correct i'll make a motion as long as a lot of the money goes to palm city forget about jensen beach and rio they're all done up there i'll second it there's a motion in a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously department two doesn't have anything department four is solicitation for public private partnership for a public facility commissioners before we take up this matter um you want to motor through or you want to make a break in that case do we need to take well let's you want to take a five ten a minute break for this closed captioner and then motor through yes all right let's do that ten minutes we'll look at your watches commissioners excellent thank you we are now taking up department four which is solicitation for a public private partnership we call it a p3 for a public facility take it away yes good afternoon commissioners uh macram assistant county administrator joining me is sean donahue our general services director and today we're here for a request for approval to do a solicitation for a public private partnership or p3 for a public facility so this um proposal and or this public facility would include uh basically three things one it would include a um either a backup dispatch center or a public use for one of our other departments or constitutional offices the second thing would be medical offices that we could potentially lease out or the builder could lease out and then the third thing is our ultimately our wellness clinic so we're asking for a two-step process for the solicitation the first step would be the request for qualifications where we would receive the qualifications from the bidders we would evaluate those with our selection committee and then the final two or three top two or three uh bidders would then be um invited to participate in the request for proposal and once we get those proposals from the top two or three bidders the selection committee will evaluate them and then bring them back to the board for recommendation there is one other item on this uh prop uh this agenda item that i have and that's to um ask that we change the land the current land use on there it's designated as general institutional and in order for us to have medical on this property we need to change that to a commercial office residential so um ultimately we have three recommendations one move that the board approve the issuance of the solicitation of the public private partnership proposals for the construction and financing of a county facility to move that the board directs staff to return with evaluation results and recommendations following the review of the proposals and three move that the board adopt a resolution resolution to initiate a future land use map amendment to the comprehensive growth management plan to change a portion of the county property from institutional general to commercial office residential for the purpose of accommodating a revenue generating public private partnership project um so that concludes my presentation we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have i for one i'm very excited to be taking this next step commissioner hetherington um yes i agree i just thought of this question if for some reason i know that they likely will never sell this property we have you know big plans but if it were to this particular property to revert or be be used for something else could we take the core could we take the zoning back to its original zoning if we were to sell it for unforeseen reason at least elder so prior to selling it we can come back to the board to rezone it or change the land use whatever the core off of it whatever the board wanted to do thank you i'll move approval mr caps yes uh this is a request for the board to consider approval of a solicitation for probable public private partnership and uh p3s can also be unsolicited that's as well right yes yes sir that's correct and that that's a very interesting concept like or maybe maybe the local government wouldn't necessarily feel the need to do something but some private interest could come in and say hey we want to build a building on a public private partnership basis here's our unsolicited bid is that is that the kind of thing that was done with the golf courses and jd park i think i think that's kind of what happened up in tallahassee wasn't it yeah that was my understanding of how those came about yes sir yeah yeah that was interesting and then how long have p3s been around this whole concept is this a new thing it's newer i believe there was some change to the legislation in the past few years but um it was probably what 2008 or so i think is when the 15 years so with a p3 the county owns the land and then the private partner is going to own the building that's correct and at the end of a term of years probably 20 or 30 years or something the title to the building itself which reverts over to the county eventually yes that's correct so ultimately we'll own the land we'll have say in the design and the development of this project but we're going to be working with a builder to construct it utilize their expertise in building a medical facility and realize their cost efficiencies while building this and when you mention utilizing their expertise that's one of the advantages of the p3 where there are these people that go around the state and they have a niche in construction of various unique types you know perhaps they're good at building hospitals or libraries or are certain types of facilities they uh and you have a lot less problems when you have this sort of specialty contractor correct sean donahue general director exactly right county could build it we're not experts we've never built a medical facility before we've never designed one uh we could we could make several mistakes along the way uh we get the specialty guys to come in and build it there'll be much faster so time is money uh and they'll be much more efficient and uh and how they construct it uh specific for that use good thank you mr vargas what is the typical if that's the right word or most beneficial to the county length of an agreement with a p3 partnership would it be 15 years 20 years is that doable so we're working with kirchman wakefield they're going to help us evaluate the proposals also uh will involve the budget office but once we get those proposals we'll bring them back to you and we'll be able to evaluate the financing um when when those proposals are submitted i don't think there's an exact answer it depends on the project um i because some p3s um the the challenge with the the state language in the p3 is it's it's it allows a lot of different types of projects so um there are some times we might use one like in where transportation where tolls and the p3 is building the facility and getting a percentage of the toll revenues and the toll revenues they may be for so many years um or it might be through a utilities project where there's a surtax or something on top of your utility bill that you're that you're using it so um that diversity makes it hard to say but typically the uh it's going to be the benefit of um um if if it's a and i think the school boards have used it where sometimes um the p3 entity has actually found the property and developed the land and the building uh for the entire project and then that facility got turned over at the end of this lease purchase if you will project concept where you're you're paying the the entity owns the land and the building until the end the all the projects that we've contemplated we don't need that type of service we're just looking for the expertise in the building construction but i think you would typically see a 15 or 20 year uh certainly no more than 32 year life giving our typical process if you ask miss murley she likes loans that are short term that we could pay off in the eventuality so we're usually um we don't like to the total interest cost over the life of the project we like to keep to a minimum any further questions comments is there any public comments seeing none back to the board for a motion to approve um i offered a motion to approve second there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you thank you next up is department five which is consideration to adopt an official martin county flag where's where's gail morning madam chair george stokas assistant county administrator before on april 8th of 2025 this body directed staff to prepare an item outline in the process as well as the creation of an official martin county flag um before you today will be two options i'll scroll down to that but uh staff wants to bring your attention that under florida law um local government flag designs are public records and therefore are classified as public domain local governments including counties generally cannot copyright their flags unlike the county seal which is afforded a statutory protection under section 165 um we also would uh as staff if once you'd select a flag we will create a flag display policy uh that would only affect or govern county direction and before you so we've met uh behind but here are the two options for the flag um can you rotate i'm gonna do my best no i do not get to have access to do that so uh donna do you get access to rotate it while we're doing that option a was inspired by the martin county seal the design features the county sailfish emblem uh prominently at the center in the sun in the upper right corner of the uh flag and the words martin county displayed along the lower portion all colors incorporated in this design are drawn directly from the existing county seal uh option b which we'll scroll down it's a similar design uh it's uh it newly recognized is uh highlights martin county's newly recognized champion black or mangrove tree the design places the tree against the outline of the sun with four horizontal lines representing the three county's three rivers and lake okeechobee the words martin county are displayed along the bottom or lower portion of the flag again all colors are consistent with those found in the county seal with the exception of the additional green uh in the leaves as far as initial capital and ongoing maintenance costs in order to have a flag of this manner uh displayed outside of this building uh general services has instructed informed me that the cost to do so would be fifteen thousand dollars for indoor display with staff purchasing approximately 10 double-sided four by six flags approximately seventy dollars each with two eight-foot flagpoles with bases at approximately sixty dollars per set uh staff estimates the indoor display cost to be approximately one thousand dollars and of course there'll be ongoing maintenance costs which will consist primarily of replacing the above components at the as they reach the end of their useful life uh and with that and i apologize but i guess we cannot flip the item i can put this like i can go very old school and put this up on the doc cam you know in my entire 15 years i've never used the doc cam so i don't even know how to turn it on oh it's perfect george see that you're like an expert that's right that's option a that is option a and then this i apologize is option b and with and with that i'll take any comments questions concerns and look forward to your decision mr hetherington yes i like option a and b i think option b would be greatly used um in some of our tourism development council um i prefer option a except for option a's um is a marlin and we just would i would want it we would need to change it to a sailfish thank you thank you for all of the fishermen out there that recognize that we will make that change i was not aware of the difference it should look like that fish back there that fish i i like option a because i believe it it kind of is our brand that we have on our seal and it's very consistent with that so that's why i prefer that option again i think b is is beautiful and i i'm hoping that we can find um some usage out of that for many other things i would i like option i think that the mangrove is should be the symbol of martin county i think that it's a it's an environmental message that we want to send that our residents send to us i think every day mr campy thank you um i like a um i get the concept of the mangrove should be our our image however it's not this is historically not this particular fish but historically it's a sailfish it speaks to the water we're on the coast i like the sun i know that this is just a color copy of and then put on the doc cam so the colors are not accurate but i think would be important is if you're using or whoever designed this if they had pantone the little pantone squares that we can actually see because we obviously want the sky i like the light blue color of the sky but whatever color this is for the water i mean it's probably accurate but we would hope that in a flag it would be bluer than that this is brackish or whatever this yeah this is you know and that's why the fish is mostly out of it i guess so all kidding aside i think this is a nice idea i know that we had a member of the public come forward and sort of ask us to initiate this i think it's something that we have thought about for a while it is more of a you know a nicety than a necessity but there's no reason that if we kept it simple i also like the fact that we wouldn't necessarily copyright it and make residents participate in it i think letting it be open source where we've created this is sort of our flag but if people wanted to you know have pride in their community it can be a flag but it could also be a bumper sticker or a cling or let the members t-shirts uh let the members of our public utilize it as long as they don't well they can do whatever they want i guess in terms of doctoring it but if this is going to become our official emblematic flag then let residents participate in in using it but i think this this is the right version for us it makes not to that i agree with what commissioner heard said that and it's actually a very nice logo the the man of the mangrove tree and the way it looks but this is more if you were thinking what's martin county it's this is there a motion yes there is i make a motion that this uh option a become our uh official martin county flag with the uh enhancement of the blue of the water and correcting the fish silhouette to be a sailfish second there's a motion in a second all those in favor aye opposed opposed that motion passes four to one with commissioner heard dissenting man chair i just for just for clarification or am i to move forward with an outdoor display as well or do you want to limit it just indoor did you say that the outdoor display would cost how much fifteen thousand dollars i think we could wait yeah i think so too for a little bit let's start with the indoor we can put it right up here behind us okay thank you ma'am thanks 15 great department six is a request approval of services agreement excellent job prop logics uh orange data systems and adopt a resolution establishing a fee schedule mr doherty good morning commissioners for the record jeff doherty with the building department this morning before you you have a uh request for consideration and approval of a contract with orange data as well as the adoption of a resolution uh uh setting fees some associated with orange data and some with the building department fees the building department regularly performs searches for outstanding permits expired permits through the permit division within the building department as well as outstanding code enforcement actions associated with the code enforcement division these are all done at the quest of title companies when real they perform real real estate transactions to provide title insurance it's a very large demand on staff to do this and we have found the company in orange data that provides this service they integrate into our software and able to do it remote we surveyed 16 other jurisdictions in the state of florida that actually use orange data as well as the fees charged fees range from fifty dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars with the average being approximately ninety six dollars staff is recommending a fee of seventy five dollars which is approximately thirty percent just under thirty percent lower than the average so it's a competitive number orange data will do all the work collect the money and then refund back to the county fifty dollars that money would go half twenty five to the building uh search for the permits and unexpired and 25 would go to offset cost and code enforcement for their code enforcement this would be a way to keep staffing to a minimum and to generate revenue to offset cost additionally with that is a agenda item that sets the fee of seventy five dollars because the board is responsible to set that as well as what the building department does every year is review our workload or revenue and anticipated volume for next year we've done that again and we found that it would be consistent to reduce some of our fees for the higher end projects um and maintain our financial viability and be able to pay our overhead as well as overhead contribution back to the county uh on a very simple uh explanation i would say that if you went next door to a walgreens and bought a soda you would pay two dollars and fifty cents for that bottle but if you bought a case you would not pay sixty dollars for that case you expect a discount and it's the same as the scale economy with a larger higher end building so those in the higher end got a reduction because of the scale economy we have to under statute 553 uh financially independent use our funds we're not supposed to make profit and at the same time look at the entity as a whole but look at the individual services each received as well we've been able to maintain eighty nine dollars and fifty cents for the very small items and that's been for going for over 20 years and so we're keeping that uh very friendly and then keeping it consistent with the scale economy so with that i would uh request approval of the orange data contract and adopt the adoption of the resolution uh for the fees as established and be happy to answer any questions you may have mr caps yeah how about the timing for the searches i would imagine something like this is really time sensitive and people are when they when they call and say hey uh i need a search done because my i have a real estate transaction in play here and what do you know there are open permits um for construction activity in the past and it's holding up my closing i need this really fast can i get it today i mean like uh did these people have a good record track record for producing results quickly typically the requests come from the title insurance company not necessarily from the individual and it depends how quickly the title insurance company was given the contract to settle obviously if you have a 60 90 day settlement there's a lot more time if that time is much shorter for whatever reason um if it's a very clean and there's no open ones it's quick if there is open or expired ones we have to look at what the individual cases and how do we remedy it if it's a code enforcement action did the code enforcement resolve was the grass cut was the boat moved or whatever it be appropriate so they they can vary all over the place but we do get the emergency please rush this quick and we do get the um better timing on them uh to clean up so it's it's across the board right like our in-house people you know can respond quickly to things but you know that's always a concern when you're dealing with a third-party contractor you know are they going to be able to service people quickly enough but if you if you think we're good there we uh specifically use this this company because they integrate in with the seller our software which is hugely important and we referenced the 16 entities we reached out to to check not only their service and the fees and it was very positive good thank you further questions i would make a motion to accept staff's recommendation second there's a motion and a second all those in favor aye opposed that motion passes unanimously thank you very much we will now go on to department seven which is permission to use construction management at risk we call it cmar delivery method for the hope sound beach ocean rescue building welcome back mr donahue thank you good afternoon sean donahue general services director uh this is a request to use cmar for the construction delivery method for the hope sound beach ocean rescue project uh the reasons why we want to use this and and i think we have a uh a presentation donna to uh we have a presentation to show uh just the site plan uh and where we've been with this project so this is a request to um replace uh the two existing facilities the restaurant facility and the pavilion facility as well as build a uh hope sound ocean rescue facility on the south end of the of the parcel here uh we would replace basically both of these the older facilities in the same general location uh making room a little bit for the for some handicap parking uh and then adding the the 850 square foot uh ocean rescue facility on the south end uh fire rescues here if you have any questions about the design or the use of that facility but you can see some of the concepts that we've walked through the town commissioners with and received some very good comments back in direction we've had two-story versions we've had various versions of one story and they kind of keyed in on this one it's a little bit more low-key it does enhance some of the architecture of the pavilion just a little bit and and kind of gives them mostly what they're looking for we still have to work through the commission in the town's process and site development process so we're just at the early stages of that the reason for this request though is to have our contractor on board so we can hit the ground running uh because the town has an ordinance that says we can only do construction up to november 1st and not and not after november 1st until uh i think it's april 30th so there's a limited uh construction window we want to try to hit the ground running as soon as we can in the first of the year and get as much done as possible by november it's a little bit of a constricted site it's between the parking lot and the dune uh so we think we think a construction manager could help us with this mr caps yeah i i know this stuff will come later but i wanted to mention a couple of things um on the pavilion roof in the middle that one to me is the most important um my preference would be to make it to look exactly like the one we've got a very simple roof structure just up and over the reason is because what do you know about simple roofs are better less problems but but that pavilion roof is in the artwork of numerous art paintings it's a part of the history of hope sound it's part of the the mystique of our town i mean like when you think of iconic things in hope sound there's the jd tower and then there's the the ficus tree road and that pavilion roof at the end and and i would really strongly prefer that it be it look just like the one we got and and in the same size as well i think that's really important i mean if people feel like it's smaller and they don't have as large of a sitting area they're going to be upset about it and like i don't even really like the double column poles that hold it up just those round ones just let just like what we got uh i i think that would really be the best way to go and uh it's not controversial it's not a change it's just new and it does need to be new by the way because if you sit under that canopy and you look up at the tongue and groove ceiling uh when salt hair blows against that raw wood over the years it gets kind of like a hairy surface on it and it has a name doesn't it fuzzy wood and it's like deterioration and it's all over it there in numerous places and i think the fascia boards are bad and uh so it definitely needs to be replaced but i hope it'll be exactly like as closely as possible to what we have because it's in all the artwork and then uh on page 662 we have a picture of a two-story structure but um this rendering that you have on the screen right now appears to be one story for all three buildings and uh you're looking at the cip sheet for the project and that's right representative structure i believe that's the okay jensen beach structure so that's not necessarily what we're doing no sir okay okay no commissioner we uh reviewed all of these if you remember with the the the jupiter island commission um and um uh right so uh we'll we'll work with you we want it to be functional and what the what the firefighters need and but ocean rescue needs of course and if they really needed something bigger that'd be one thing but you know low-key is good for our style done in district three i agree i agree and also any changes that are made need to go back to the town commissioner caps should go with you to the town yeah he should commissioner vargas um on two page six six two it says facilities on a septic waste disposal system so what changes it currently is on septic tank uh we're we're working with the town to repurpose uh an iq main uh six inch main that's in the ground already adding lift stations and other structures to uh make uh to give that town and give this facility the start of the sanitary sewer system okay yeah but that's super important there exactly and and and well this is jensen beach uh it's a very simple roof i just want to point it out is that correct commissioner caps simple roof yeah yeah that's pretty simple that's pretty simple but that that that other picture is probably more in keeping with our style which is like a one story smaller structure if if it's functional and if it's you know meets the needs of ocean rescue yes sir commissioner hetherington yes so i defer to the of course the district to for the design but as far as the delivery method the construction management at risk i think is a powerful tool i've been an advocate of it because i think it offers efficiencies cost savings for the taxpayers and i'm glad to see that we're using that kind of delivery model and i think that will work very well on this project i would be glad to move approval for the delivery method of the cmar for this project mr vargas yeah the delivery method the cmar uh means that the contractor has an amount that cannot be exceeded any change orders are on their dime is that correct not the taxpayers we will come back to the board with a contract for a guaranteed maximum price based on the design and the time frame to get it constructed change orders can be applied but they will be owner driven so if the if the if we wanted to change something in mid design or mid construction then it would be on us and we and we would issue a change order if that's what we wanted to go but they were supposed to to give us a guaranteed maximum price and it's not to exceed yes ma'am wait a second i'll second any further questions comments there's a motion and a second all those in favor i opposed that motion passes unanimously next up is permission is department eight which is permission to use construction management at risk cmar delivery method for the martin county sheriff's office firearms training facility correct same same request uh this is a the cip project to enhance the the current facility uh current property to include a shoot house facility and as well as a lot of safety improvements uh since we uh we looked at moving this facility or moving this property out west uh a while back uh that was very cost prohibitive it was according to my calculations it was going to be in the 14 to 17 million dollar range just to get back to where we are today with our current facility so we elected to stay at the current facility and enhance it and this is one of the enhancements is to provide a shoot house facility for the sheriff's office training this would be a pole barn with a training facility underneath it so they can do live exercises it's basically a mock building that we could do several different things with we could have two story sections of it mezzanines uh hidden hallways hidden rooms where they have to breach and and rescue uh as needed so and then the other uh enhancements would be a uh warehouse facility so they can store their outdoor apparatus and some other other things inside that warehouse uh it would have the gun cleaning station the restrooms uh this this project also includes connecting to the water and wastewater systems that were just recently finished on 84th and bush so that's a good improvement for the overall site um and that's that the cmr could help us out it's going to have to be constructed um in an active shooting range for you know property uh so i think we can get their expertise and and how we can keep the facility open while we're doing some major construction on it so i think there's benefits there mr donahue as i recall over the past several years we've spent millions of dollars upgrading this facility and now we're proposing to dump another 7.4 million dollars how on earth do we get to these figures the seven the the cip sheet needs to be adjusted and i think when we come back with it can adjust it up or down i think it's going to get go down a little bit it currently shows an out year uh improvement of uh replacing um the new modular trailers that we just put in with a formal um training facility a classroom and office training facility uh we can we can kick that can down the road because we just spent some money on on uh adding a couple different trailers there uh that that'll you know suffice for the sheriff's office for at least the next 10 15 years what are we going to do with those trailers they're currently they're going to be used as a classroom uh facility and a office facility well it says here that we're going to build a permanent 12 000 square foot classroom right in addition to the two temporary ones no ma'am the the future project would be to replace the modulars when their end of life comes and put a permanent facility there but we had to ramp that up because the existing classroom or existing modular it was actually one of the old courthouse modulars from way back that fell apart on us we had to replace them quicker than we thought we had a great deal with mobile modular to bring in a couple brand new for new modulars so we've been able to bring those in get the sheriff what he needs and and kick that future improvement down the road a little bit so we'll adjust the cip sheet when we come back in with a guaranteed maximum price for this project commissioner vargas um if we're not building a permanent structure what we have there now plus if you need another modular that would suffice that would work we can wait another 10 or 15 years is that what i'm understanding let me let me re-explain the project a little bit uh again um the current request is to build a shoot house facility and a warehouse that's in addition to the currently replaced classroom modular and office modular there was uh last year a joint classroom and office modular that was very old is way way beyond its useful life we just replaced that facility with the two new modulars so we are not asking to build a new classroom or uh training or office uh building at this time so we will adjust the cip sheet when we come back in with the budget for this shoot house and warehouse facility to push that way beyond the out years 10 or 15 years or more down the road uh and we'll just concentrate on the shoot house and warehouse facility any further questions move approval commissioner hetherington there's a motion and a second to all those in favor i opposed that motion passes unanimously uh next is another department nine which is permission to use construction management at risk cmar delivery method for the supervisor of elections expansion this is a another great candidate for cmar it's going to be on a very tight uh occupied site with an occupied building it has a limited window of construction i think the construction manager can help us navigate through uh a lot of those constrictions and get this project built much more efficiently than we could if we did design bid build that's the request commissioner hetherington i think this project is another good example of how i think cmar will provide efficiencies and cost savings and i will move approval of that delivery method for this project commissioner caps yes although the cmar method instead of the p3 method that we talked about earlier in both of those cases you're dealing with a specialty contractor right somebody who's kind of used to building or no that's more of the p3 thing right specialty contractor yeah they're they're not so similar uh the cmar is a process that allows us to bring in the contractor and this could be a general building contractor but they we can bring them in up front instead of waiting for the design to be done and the permitting to be done and then advertise for a contractor and get a bid on low bid we can bring in the contractor up front to help us with the design help us navigate uh some of the issues with building projects on you know occupied sites uh very tight sites uh and we can get that guaranteed maximum price uh at the end of and at the end of that process versus using a low bid which may have uh issues in it that come back with change orders and multiple issues down the line so we kind of ferret out some of those problems up front with the cmar process versus waiting for change orders to come at us later and the cmar is particularly useful when you have a tight time schedule like at hoops on beach and also with the supervisor of elections um this this work has to be done before the next election season right so that that's what puts the time crunch on this one if it's a tight site if it's a tight schedule yes those are great opportunities i think it's a i think cmar is is wonderful for all vertical construction personally uh you know we can get rid of some of the problems as we design it using a contractor to have that input along the way uh and i think we can reduce the amount of change orders as we move forward and get projects done uh in a quicker fashion a much more efficient fashion and i have one more observation about this project and and the the few other ones that we've just talked about earlier the uh the wellness clinic the hope sound beach the sheriff's firearms and the supervisor of elections expansion these are all capital projects and these are some examples of the kinds of things that could really take a hit if we have a sort of um um radical tax reform from tallahassee if hopefully they will tone some of their ideas down the ones that we're hearing about are so draconian that these are the kinds of things that would have to be take the hit first and um if we had massive cutbacks in our budget that are forced upon us um so uh that's uh something we ought to all keep in mind and in our lobbying to our state delegation and writing letters to state representatives and state senators commissioner progress okay i see here on page 672 staff is exploring it exploring various grant options can you do that for these other projects also and are you doing it for this one this is the elections we've worked with the the supervisor i i don't think there's any option any grant available for us on this particular project um they did received in the past some uh hardening grants uh to fix up that facility uh but on this one with the speed of how fast we need to get this done for her election cycle and everything uh i think we're past the grant stages now now i know that they are redesigning and the interior so there is an easier flow when folks are going in to pass their ballot and exiting the building so it would be sufficient to handle this next cycle of election if some of the other variables came into place rather than having to run and construct this facility is that correct where they're currently doing the canvassing and the early voting um we're we're adding on a separate canvassing area so we can expand early voting into the current canvassing so we have to we have to build it so we can expand the other areas and do uh be more efficient with the right i understand this i was there i looked at you explained thoroughly as the supervisor of elections what we're talking about here is construction of half of the parking lot but where she is and your your redesign would be sufficient for the next election should that be necessary when when we get the contractor on board and we can work through the schedule of it yes we're going to work around it work through it contractor interior well the exterior and interior it's going to be the same contractor i know but this is construction of a new building that we're talking about in addition to the existing but you were redesigning modifying the inside as i recollect yes ma'am look a portion of this project is redesigning the inside of the facility as well as building onto it to expand the facility we may have to to wait and see as commissioner caps had concern i've always had concerns about this about changes in funding we're going to receive so it would carry us through the next election no we the cip project is is fully funded at this point uh that we can move forward with it if we can come in within this budget we may have to cut back though he mentioned too so that's directed let's take that into account we can't be oblivious we can't be blind to it so mr caps yeah i remember taking a tour and and our uh supervisor of elections thank you davis seemed to suggest that she has a real problem with early voting the popularity of early voting is what caused this surge of sort of a mob scene in that small area there so and she expressed that it was quite urgent and uh so mr campy i would echo commissioner caps his uh comments having served just recently on the canvassing board uh i know that miss davis and her staff have uh really over several years in such a small footprint have maximized what has happened uh in results in in terms of voting especially as commissioner caps at early voting is much more popular than it used to be but also for us as a county in florida to make sure that she has everything that she needs for the uh consistency and the and that people feel confident in the accuracy and the legitimacy of the votes so i know that this is something that she has been working on very carefully for a long time i think this one out of the three that we've discussed thus far although all three are important is the most important so i would make a motion to accept commissioner hetherington echo those comments having served on the canvassing board a number of times and very much enjoyed it um we are fortunate to have a supervisor of elections who has one of the best reputations in the state for election integrity and security and if you've served and you've got those ballots stacked up in every tiny little space in that canvassing room used and maximized to the the hilt i think it's definitely an urgent necessity um it should it needs to be done between elections so i would gladly second the the motion there's a motion in the second to all those in favor i oppose that motion passes unanimously we will take up our last item which is department 10 environmental lands acquisition program approval of properties recommended by the environmental lands oversight committee eloc as the 2024 sales tax program acquisitions mr houston good morning afternoon good morning everyone i'm michael houston oh i guess good afternoon yeah uh senior project manager in the martin county environmental resource division to talk about our land acquisition program and where we're at so as we're all aware in 2024 we passed a referendum here in martin county that offer authorizes sales tax to help acquire environmentally sensitive lands and as a part of that referendum it required us to establish an environmental lands oversight committee or eloc whose purpose was to review and rank proposals uh to then be brought before you and our oversight committee met on september 5th 2025 and recommended the acquisition of 16 properties so staff is here today to seek your approval to authorize the use of sales tax funds for these acquisitions so this just this map is meant to give you an idea of what properties were looked at by the oversight committee where they are and how many acres so in total we looked at 16 properties containing over 9 000 acres of land for conservation and these properties were represented in all the four acquisition zones that we have previously established which as you might recall included the indian river lagoon south palmar loxalusi and the blue waves and the acreage of those properties vary quite a bit from as much as 3 500 acres in the palm beach heights or palmar area to a single acre out in our beach areas at perry beach addition this is just meant to outline the process that we use for properties that come in as potential acquisitions so they have to be they have to be nominated and submitted to staff we then review those proposals and see if they are concurrent with our ordinance and also that we have a willingness to sell from the landowner we then if we have enough information we then take those proposals with supporting information and provide it to our oversight committee who then review and rank the meeting and once that happens we bring it before you to review and vote on whether to proceed with acquisition and that's the step where we're at now now it's important for me to say that this isn't the final step in terms of acquiring any particular property this really will then just give us the go ahead to due diligence to do negotiations to do all the things that we need to do to then bring those properties back as final acquisitions to you at some point in the future and that's what's outlined on the bottom of this flow chart so once again these ranking meetings are for our oversight committee to review information on our nominated parcels and to fill in a project ranking form they then make recommendations to you the board of county commissioners on whether to proceed with acquisition of those properties and i also need to highlight that we are working with the florida natural areas inventory or fna which is a part of the florida state university and their job is to conduct environmental assessments they also work with the state to do their assessments for the florida forever program they help us to evaluate properties that have been nominated for acquisition under our program and they provide us all different kinds of data including habitat quality greenways and wildlife corridors management needs of any of these proposed acquisitions and shoreline protection areas and then this is a this is what their form looks like that each eloc member has for each property so there are 10 different criteria that we look at those different criteria are are weighted according to certain metrics so for instance if something is within a certain project footprint that gets our highest weighted score out of any of our different criteria or rare and listed habitats so it just provides some weights for us to then use to help uh come up with our final scores and once they have provided that we uh put them all put them all together so we can come up for a total score for each property mr hafter's name is spelled wrong oops yes thank you for that so um i also want to at this point call out the rural and family lands program it's a state program that was founded in 2001 and they uh do perpetual agricultural conservation easements it's important to note that these are conservation easements so they uh prevent development on any of the properties that these easements are used for however the primary purpose of these types of easements is to protect working agricultural lands while also conserving natural resources the land remains in private ownership and in production and these easements are purchased by the state and approved by the governor and cabinet and there's no public access requirements for any of these properties and i wanted to do a little comparison because of as you might recall the barbie ranch property we used a conservation easement but it was with the florida forever program and the difference is that the florida forever program's primary mission is to protect natural resources water habitat scenic values and recreation while the rural and family lands program is primarily designed to keep working working agricultural lands working in agriculture while also protecting natural resource values so with that i we wanted to briefly go through each of the different properties just to give you a little sneak peek into what these areas are how big they are and where they are so the first one i'm bringing up is the palmar acquisition zone and we have five nominated properties that fell within the palmar acquisition zone which includes ss farms the thal family property palm beach heights which is also palmar elise j and jr stewart land and i know you are well familiar with the palmar area as we've brought this up many many times but uh the green area that you show in the area that's also been circled in red represents the properties that we have acquired including with the recent settlement agreement however areas without polygons are privately owned and these are the ones that we would be looking to acquire through the sales tax program and overall there's roughly 3500 acres of unacquired private lands that could be potential acquisitions in this zone the second one is the thal family partnership this is one of our larger contiguous pieces that was brought forward it's a 1499 acre property that has a large cypress and slough wetland systems it is a part of this very large connected system of greenway that extends all the way from lake okeechobee to the atlantic ocean and it includes um hung it is adjacent to hungry land and it would be the missing link between hungry land wildlife and environmental area and corbett which is just south of this property is any portion of thal already in conservation no the the next one is a little bit different this is the jr stewart land property uh so this property is adjacent to hungry land it is next to the area the palm beach heights area or palmar and just to the northwest is the trail side development uh the property is actually currently under a conservation easement as a private mitigation bank although the owner has taken out very few of the mitigation credits on that property and the reason why we brought it forward is because it's in the middle of everything and it could provide recreational opportunities it could become a part of hungry land so there is some value in the property even though it's currently it even though it has a conservation easement on it at this time is it the entire property that has the conservation easement or just portions of it correct the entire property the next one that was brought forward is a lease j and this one is to the north of that jr sturt land property the unique thing is that to the north of that is harmony ranch which has already been acquired and is being protected so with the acquisition of a lease j we could have a contiguous conservation network that extends from harmony ranch down into hungry land and it could be a part of hungry land wildlife and environmental area our next property is ss farms this one is 53 acres it is primarily pasture and is actively being ranched it is just north of the area that's uh our palm beach heights palmar complex and this is the first property that we're bringing forward that is a part of that rural and family lands program that we mentioned so this was submitted to rural and family lands for a conservation easement and they've asked the county rural and family lands has asked the county to review it as a potential partnership with them uh so we will partner with them to provide a agricultural easement on this property and also of note and of importance is that the jupiter indiantown grade actually bisects this property so acquiring an easement could potentially be used to help to uh create trail access through this property which has been a long-term goal of of the board of county commission next up we have the indian river lagoon south acquisition zone and the only nominated property we had in this cycle is turnpike dairy however i will say that barbie ranch which is in the process of being acquired as a conservation easement is also in irl south so we've already approved one project in the zone and this is the next one so it's a 488 acre property it's primarily pasture on 84 of the program it's another one that's been submitted to the rural and family lands program and has asked the county to participate as a partner in acquisition of the conservation easement it is adjacent and next to allapatta flats which has significant and i would say the development potential of this property is maybe higher than some of the other ones on our list just because of its location next up we have our loxalusi acquisition zone and we had six potential proposed acquisitions in this zone uh pretty much around the entire area of the locks of loxalusi the first of which is whitworth farms this is a 2262 acre property that's a mixture of pastures high quality pine flatwoods hydrocammock it's it would also help to provide a protected land corridor that would extend all the way from cove road all the way down to county line so south of um a bridge road all that property has been protected as agricultural easements so that area can't be you can't have constructed in that area but in addition this would then secure areas north of bridge road extending all the way up if you include how patio key to cove road so it may it's a unique opportunity and in addition and also of utmost importance is it is actually bisected by the south fork of the st lucie river and it would help to create an ecological corridor and it would help create an optimal boundary for atlantic ridge state park next up we have point santa gardens that is an area it's 225 acres in size there are individual lots that have been subdivided in that area and it's a mixture of government and privately owned lots it includes pine flatwoods depression marshes and a large sluice system the importance of this area is it helps to buffer atlantic ridge state park and it could potentially have hundreds of different uh hundreds of homes could be constructed in this area since it's already been subdivided what are the shaded lots the shaded lots are ones that we have acquired actually next up we have the lender parcel and this is the final of the three that we're we have been asked to review as a part of the rural and family lands program it's a 229 acre property that's a mixture of pastures and large cypress sloughs uh there is a uh actually that's a mistake there is not we're requesting an agricultural easement and with active cattle ranching on the property and it's not contiguous to any public lands but it could create a greenway to jonathan dickinson state park we have rogers atlantic ridge parcel it's a three acre property that's dominated by wetland systems it is directly adjacent to the metalist property which is a part of atlantic ridge and it's primarily disturbed wetlands with the very small area of scrubby flatwoods we have another property on the south of bridge road it's the rogers conservation fund parcel it's 4.5 acres and it could help link jonathan dickinson and atlantic ridge state parks it has been acquired by the conservation fund a private uh non-profit whose goal is to protect and conserve lands and uh it could be used to support the restoration of kitchen creek we could potentially look at providing some kind of flowway feature through the property that would help to capture some of the water that goes into the loxachi system we then have the petway property it's a 20 acre property that is in the western eastern flowway of kitchen creek it could help be helped to restore wetlands in a portion of jonathan dickinson state park and support the restoration of the northwest fork of the loxachi river which is a comprehensive everglades restoration project and our final area is our blue ways acquisition zone and we have four properties that were nominated three of which are in the the same area for acquisition and the first one to discuss is the jane wild parcel so this is in kind of a unique location because it sits between the south fork of the saint lucie river and the saint lucie waterway so that one is highlighted in red and it would help to protect saint lucie river shorelines the second is the burn steam property which is the one that's highlighted in blue that one is three acres in size and also would all of these properties would be part of a contiguous county system of conservation lands it would fit them with lands that we've previously acquired within the blue ways corridor and the final is the kresser property which is adjacent to oxbow preserve it's three acres in size and it's primarily mangrove swamp the owner of that property actually has an easement that could allow them to construct a roadway through existing county preserve land which is our oxbow preserve so they could have the right to build a road directly through an area that we already and are managing as a part of our conservation network and finally we have the perry beach addition property that's our smallest it's one acres and in size and it includes beach habitats and mangroves and it's unique in that it extends all the way across hutchinson island and that is adjacent to an existing county preserve which is clifton s perry beach so moving on just highlighting some of the state plans that come into play with this first we have the uh cert plan comprehensive everglades restoration plan and in particular in this area we have the indian river lagoon south that is designed to help capture runoff that is impairing and negatively affecting our st lucie river estuary the purpose of the serp natural lands program is to help offset lands that have been impacted by serp by acquiring other lands and conserving those areas the properties in question were approved as acquisition priorities by the federal government in the 2007 word of bill and any acquisitions in this zone can be used by the state as a match for their cost share with the federal government so that money goes even further and that the federal government would then spend that amount of money on one of their serp projects that they're working on we have two elise j and whitworth farms that are directly in irl south and the turnpike dairy project project is adjacent adjacent to a serp project so it could actually potentially be added to their ledger as well next up we have the florida wildlife corridor which is a system of state conservation land that creates wildlife corridors and areas for wildlife to move without this throughout the state and this would be a part of the florida wildlife corridor segment that runs from west palm beach to segment to central florida and it is listed as a priority to according to florida wildlife corridor program and finally we have the uh for our florida forever program and within the palmar florida forever project boundary we have four properties that fall within that area including jr stewart land ss farms palm beach heights or palmar and the thal family partnership and it is important to note that the thal family partnership is actually listed as an essential acquisition according to their program in our loxalusi footprint we have three properties that fall within the atlantic ridge florida forever program including whitworth farms the rogers treasure coast uh sorry the conservation fund property and the petway property so with that being said we can get to the rankings so the our our environmental lands oversight committee went and ranked all these properties based on the metrics that we have provided and here's the scores that they came up with starting all the way at the top with with whitworth farms being the top priority according to them and the rogers uh conservation fund property being the lowest ranked however it is important to note that the oversight committee recommended that all of these properties be approved as potential acquisitions so at this point once we get uh commissioner approval to move these projects forward we're going to look at different things in terms of determining what properties we acquire and when and that can include things like the threat of development or and whether or not the property could be sold to another entity its status and potential for funding partners like the fdax florida forever water management district land trusts or ngos we have to look at whether the cost to acquire those properties outstrip the amount of money that we've already collected and we have to look at the size of the properties because some of the properties that are smaller would be easier to acquire than some of these larger scale projects that would require more funding partners and more effort on our part to secure and that is the end of my presentation you've been busy i just want to say that i uh i have great confidence in the process for these acquisitions uh and the people involved um i just think our staff and our uh eloc committee is incredibly impressive the the depth of thought that you all have put into this the scoring criteria uh all the data and analysis it's it's really impressive and we appreciate your your work and um you know when i think of the martin county difference the word conservation is what it's all about right that's what that's what we're about in martin county and i i think about some of the founding fathers and mothers of our county and the people who who made the largest impact in setting the course for what martin county has remained all of these years you know i think of people like nathaniel reed um who was the assistant secretary of the interior uh back in the 70s i think and a very famous environmentalist jupiter island resident and i think of maggie hercella uh a very powerful figure in our community and i and i think about how they're probably looking down right now and they're very pleased so uh good work to all and i would go ahead and move approval uh of whatever we're asking for here what is what is the actual motion um and we there's one addition that we need to make as well that will be uh provided by sebastian in regards to something to consider as we uh as as a step moving forward so sebastian sure if i may uh madam chair uh one tool that staff would like to employ as part of the initial um due diligence process is a non-binding letter of interest that would come from the county to a prospective seller or funding partner and the purpose of this letter is to just show the county's interest in the property obviously and indicate that it has received approval both from the e-lock and initial approval from the board of county commissioners this letter of interest will fall short of a typical letter of intent that you may be familiar with in it's typically used in commercial real estate in that we will not be providing a sale price because that is dependent on the appraisals that we don't yet have in hand but this will allow us to satisfy at least one seller and one funding partner um indicating the county's desire to move forward so um we would appreciate guidance on uh your preference for that letter being signed either by the board uh or the county administrator send it from the board sure yeah that's fine yeah i will admit i'm in my motion that it be sent from the board as well and now the motion is to approve what is it how was it phrased include it's on the screen oh there it is there we go uh the recommendation there uh with the uh additional non-binding letter of interest signed by the board thank you mr vargas no i mean that was my question i i didn't i didn't want to be roped into something that was not going to be beneficial to martin county and of course our taxpayers so um we're just doing a look see if it works it does if not shake hands and go different direction for the property owner and i see the two types how you're you put here uh either being a fee simple or land conservation easement one of the two would take title to that so and mr houston you make this look very very easy it's it's a very polished presentation and it makes it look like it was effortless and i know that you were looking for an entire county to determine eligibility for lands um and it's it's a wonderful summation of um all the properties that you had to evaluate over the last several months and something that we have not utilized in the past is fdax and john male and i went to tallahassee a couple weeks ago and met with the rural and family lands conservation people and boy are they eager to provide uh funding for farm easements so it's this is this is a relatively new partnership for us and they're extremely enthusiastic um you know john uh proposed three projects and they were very receptive and that was their first look at them too um so we have we have now have new enthusiastic partners and i'm sure that we will um work closely with them in the future to acquire additional easements additional uh farming easements which are terrific too because we certainly support uh productive farming in in martin county commissioner campy thank you i agree with our chair mr houston while you were speaking you have like you'd be an excellent real estate agent because you really were hitting the points i was writing things down uh your first off you and and mr mail are leading our incredible staff with with legal and and everyone else that's involved uh especially then with the e-lock um and the individuals you went past it pretty quickly but the individuals that are on that committee are really rock stars and passionate the four words that i wrote down were knowledge uh preparation professionalism and it's obvious of your passion for this i think our internal staff and the organization you know the committee brings an incredible uh level of legitimacy to the process that could potentially go off the rails uh in certain circumstances and i don't see that being a situation here i know that when we originally even talked about the sales tax uh option that there was always going to be people that are concerned but i think it is the process of getting it now an award-winning process of getting the folks to agree but now once it's been agreed i think the residents can feel comfortable knowing that the process is remarkably great and i think that we'll all benefit from the the possibility of acquiring some of these um you know the the push and pull of development versus not development uh is always a challenge because we talk about property rights and when people own properties they're allowed to do uh what they you know are allowed to do the real only legitimate way to uh stop that is what we're doing here and i think again martin county will lead the state in how it's done not just the fact that we're doing it but how we're doing it so thank you very much thank you very much you made that look very effortless and i know that you and john on foot in many many many hours so congratulations i think the voters would be very uh proud and impressed between you to your staff and your department and the e-lock the way the transparent process is working so thank you also about the composition of the the e-lock it's a really really fun group really engaged i know that they had a lot of fun evaluating the properties and we all think of vicki davis as being our super competent supervisor of elections she's also a native daughter she's you know her family is from western martin county she's she's intimate with with the owners and the properties and she was you know she's we think of her as our supervisor and she's way more their chairman's great too you know i was talking to vicki davis a while back and her family family is the one that started uh providing oranges and orange juice at the turnpike plazas that's sort of their family's claim to fame that was very interesting so we have a motion in a second all those in favor i oppose that motion passes unanimously thank you very much thank you is there anyone who'd like from the public who would like to address us at the end of our meeting commissioner comments mr vargas no i think i'm set for today how about commissioner caps i'm good thank you commissioner campy and hetherington mr donaldson i just wanted to announce i know that our um uh we we had some um uh recent awards and i'll bring them back uh uh at next meeting but uh just wanted to thank our staff susan kora's uh certainly got a uh an award too for american planners association second place for great for great places in florida's choice award palm city uh place and patio uh and uh very proud of that uh you've got the uh maybe you can say a few comments on our your great achievements and want to thank you for all your hard work yes uh-huh good afternoon everyone um we did receive a certificate certificate for finalist of greatest places in florida for uh the patio and palm city place and then we went to the florida redevelopment association conference and um came home with three awards they all look like that so we didn't bring all three although they say something different um each year the uh fra presents what they call the roy f kenzie awards and that honors excellence across various categories um and they give those to communities and organizations across the state of florida and they celebrate a diverse array of all different kinds of innovative projects and initiatives and for us this year oh important to note that they separate the awards into large and small so large cities and counties small cities and counties because of our population which is how they base it we are in with large cities and counties so we're competing i know like probably by 2000 people um so we're competing with miami and tampa and orlando and lauderdale and and all of the places that have uh really superb programs and lots of lots of funding so we brought home three one for our annual report which was called live from martin county it's fy 24 and that was a sort of digital platform that we used and had videos and lots of media and was a lot of fun i think for people um we won capital projects and infrastructure category large city for the patio at palm city place and the biggest surprise was the president's award uh which we also won this year and that was also for the patio at palm city place um that award is really the highest recognition that you can get uh in this milia and um it's really what they say is the best project across all categories in the state for this past year so that was very exciting but as we know none of these things happen in a vacuum so we'd like to thank a few people many sincere thanks and gratitude to all of those involved the patio was designed by gian grande engineering and it was built by de pompeo construction and it really would not have happened without county departments public works parks and rec omb were the three big ones that really supported us all the way and then tons of support from the old palm city neighborhood advisory committee the cra board uh the board of county commissioners and the palm city community as well uh they really were a driving force behind a lot of this the amazing cra staff up on the fourth floor all of them were crucial to the success of this particular project but i'd like to call out two people which i think were the key ingredients to make all of this really successful one is commissioner campy one um he got us started with a matching matching our dep grant with his commission funds uh and that really got the project rolling and i will say that he was out there all the time you say that like it's a bad thing 8 a.m 5 p.m weekends walking the site with us um and really very involved with the planning and the development of the project really throughout its life um and the second person is jordan pastorius who was just immersed in the project from the very beginning and if none of you know the genesis it's a little bit of an interesting story we had an nac member who basically sketched it on a napkin and that is what you see out there today which is pretty amazing like his idea jordan took it and ran with it um he knows every inch of it and i think that uh his talent and perseverance really is unbelievable he has taken projects from inception to awards not this time this once but three times this is his third project that uh he's done that with so thank you all very much for letting me go on and on thank you i have one other item um uh mr stokas received a letter from um bob daniels from the uh uh sewell's point um wanting to ask uh the commission to have a joint meeting however there's no agenda or or schedule to to talk about so my um suggestion is for me to respond back or have george respond back to mr daniels that we would need more information on what a joint meeting would be referencing and i would suggest that if the joint meeting is specifically about items that the board has already made a decision on then uh there's no reason to have a joint meeting but that would be my communication through to the town manager uh if that's acceptable to the board mr camp um i feel similarly but not exactly the same i think that if a municipality is requesting an opportunity for us to meet jointly their members can't meet uh separate of their own meetings we can't uh i think most of us have received phone calls or lobbying from professionals and our colleagues that are elected um i am absolutely in favor of meeting with them even if it's on an issue that we might feel that is uh resolved however if they want to meet and they don't think it's resolved then i think it would in my opinion be still appropriate to meet because those are our friends and colleagues that are uh and our own constituents that live there and i'd like to have be given the opportunity to hear what they have to say to all of us collectively i personally think that a lot of what they were asking for was reasonable i know that it is you know multiple ways that we can look at this but to i'm not in favor of telling them we wouldn't meet mr gargus yeah i um i have to agree with um commissioner campi i think it's important that um that we resolve to sit down have a chat with them and see what's on their mind and i i think definitely send the letter and see what it is you want to talk about but i don't want to close the door you know commissioner caps yeah i think we should hear them out and uh that's my i'd rather err on my side of that than uh closing the channels of communication so i'm i'm into that as well okay let's meet anything else no i have nothing else thank you elder i just want to thank the board again for the privilege of being county attorney and commissioner heard from the bottom of my heart i want to apologize if i did anything to you in the past or anything to any employee in the past to make it think unbiased or would try to ever make a stressful situation more stressful i am truly sorry if i ever gave that impression so i just wanted to clear the air for that but i i'm looking forward to being county attorney and i'm gonna do a really good job for you guys we're looking forward to having you be county attorney thank you would anyone from the public like to address us we are adjourned