Good morning and welcome to our December 2nd, 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 Sergeant Jacob Blasik. And would you like to add something? Madam Chair, good morning. During this moment of silence, I would like all of us to recognize and remember Sergeant Terry Sweeting Mashcow. She was the Indian River County deputy that was murdered when her and her partner were trying to serve an eviction notice. Let's also remember David Long, who was simply doing his job as a locksmith, and he was also murdered. And West Virginia National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom, 20 years old, standing in Washington, D.C., protecting the folks of D.C., unarmed, was also murdered. So while we have our moment of silence, let's remember those folks, please. Thank you. Thank you. Sergeant, would you lead us in the Pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Republic, which stands one nation for God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And can you tell us a little bit about your experiences in the U.S. Army? Yes, my name is Jacob Blazak. I was in the U.S. Army from 2007 to 2012. I deployed to Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was stationed in Fort Carson, Colorado. Thank you very much. We have a full agenda today. We will start with public comment. At 11 o'clock, we have a preset with the Army Corps of Engineers giving us an update. At 11 o'clock, we're going to have a discussion on an economic development toolkit. At 1.30, we're going to have an update on the Indian River Lagoon economic valuation. And at the end of the meeting or at 5.05, we'll have our final public comment. Is there, let's see, is there a motion to approve the agenda, including the agenda, not the consent? I'll move approval of the agenda. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Now we'll hear from the public. Carol Zolton is first, followed by Jess Griffin. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Carol Zolton, and I'm a long-time homeowner in Stewart West. First, I want to sincerely thank each of you for your service in Martin County. I know how much time, preparation, and thought goes into every decision you make, and our community truly appreciates it. I also want to congratulate Ms. Elise Elder on her appointment as Martin County Attorney. We are grateful to have someone with her professionalism and clarity guiding the county's legal framework. Her recent written guidance to our community has been extremely helpful. I'm here today regarding the proposed Stewart West Putt Amendment, seeking to add and expand domesticated animals as a permitted use. I am respectfully asking the commission to deny this amendment. First, the term domesticated animals is vague and undefined, and across Florida can include animals like chickens, goats, and pigs, not just household pets. Leaving a phrase that open-ended creates interpretive challenges and risks, with unintended consequences. Staff would be put in a position of determining animal by animal what qualifies. The ambiguity is reason for caution. Second, our community has very clear governing documents prohibiting any nuisance, noise, sanitation issues, odors, or anything disruptive to neighbors. Barnyard animals, particularly chickens, are widely recognized to create exactly those issues. Allowing them at a county level will directly conflict with the private covenants that protect our neighborhood's character. Third, the amendment simply isn't necessary. We are in an established 40-year-old equestrian residential community, and nothing in our zoning or our history indicates a need for this change. I do want to raise one point from a place of genuine concern and not criticism. Harboring illegal chickens is one of the county's top complaints to code enforcement. Multiple reports have been made within our community as birds have been let loose, crowing has become disruptive, and the situation has escalated. For a long time, neighbors stayed silent, but eventually this ongoing issue became too much. So we are simply trying to understand what is the role of code enforcement when an issue like this is repeatedly reported but seems unresolved. We ask this respectfully because we know code enforcement works hard, and we also know that these rules and ordinances exist for a reason. Approving this amendment would almost certainly increase these kinds of issues. It would create predictable enforcement burdens, increase neighbor disputes, and set a precedence for other residential communities to request similar broad language in their own PUDs. Finally, this amendment does not come from our community. It was initiated by a small group of individuals. The 249 families who live under the Stewart-West PUD were not included in crafting this request, and it does not reflect the will of the community. For all of these reasons, I respectfully ask you to deny the PUD amendment. Stewart-West does not need it, does not want it, and would be negatively affected by it. Thank you, Commissioners, for your time and for your dedication to protect Martin County. Thank you. Jess Griffin is next, followed by Greg Braun. Good morning, Commissioners. Also a Stewart-West issue. This is relating to POA governance concerns. I'm here to briefly summarize a series of governance issues occurring within the Stewart-West Property Owners Association that have grown beyond normal HOA disagreements and now affect public trust and stability within our community. Over the past several months, the board has taken actions that appear designed to avoid accountability and obstruct a lawful recall. Twice in August and again in October, directors voted on their replacements and then resigned the following day. Even with active recall petitions, the vote today resigned tomorrow, pattern disrupts stability, and appears intended to manipulate board composition during a recall. In addition, the association's attorney has filed unauthorized corporate changes with SunBiz on three separate occasions since late August. This includes signing as a registered agent without consent and also replacing all directors and listing her office as the association's address. These filings raise serious doubts about proper corporate authority affecting almost 250 residents. A majority of the homeowners have submitted valid recall petitions with more than enough signatures under the court's statutes. Three times they were rejected without valid justification, and the board's explanations changed multiple times, including contradictory statements about ballots. Rather than the required DPPR recall process, the attorney has filed three lawsuits in Circuit County, causing delay and unnecessary cost. I also want to address the repeated misstatements involving this commission. In multiple communications, the board majority has asserted that the county attorney, Elise Elder, additional county legal staff, and Commissioner Campy directed the board to rewrite our PUD in governing documents to align with the county. That is simply not likely accurate. Both Attorney Elder and Commissioner Campy have likely been misquoted to homeowners repeatedly now. The county did not mandate this action, is my view. Their names were used to justify the board, the decisions the board has already made. If this is incorrect, it has caused great confusion in the community. Can you please address these repeated cited statements in a public forum to set the record straight? While I know you cannot intervene relating to HOA issues, the patterns of misrepresentation, irregular filings, and misuse of county officials' names now touch on public trust, property values, and governance integrity. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Tom Pine is next. I'm sorry, Greg Braun is next, followed by Tom Pine. Good morning. I'm Greg Braun, Executive Director of the Guardians of Martin County. And with me today are our President, Tony Zanino, and past President and current Board Member, Peter Konze. As you know from our previous numerous interactions, both the Guardians and I personally hold the county and your county staff in high regard. We agree with you on almost everything, not all the time, but almost everything. And like you, we also believe that what we're all doing is best for the community, for our economy, for our environment, for our residents, and for taxpayers. The Guardians believe that the health of our economy is directly related to the health of our waters, hence our investment of resources as a member organization of the Rivers Coalition, the IRL NEP, and our support of the IRL Riverkeeper. We're concerned now, however, about the adverse impacts from the beef processing facility that is proposed for the Chancey Bay Ranch property in northwestern Martin County. Because facts about the project have been hard to obtain, we've queried online permitting databases and made FOIA requests to a variety of state and federal agencies. We've used a peer-reviewed fact sheet on slaughterhouses that was published by the Center for Biological Diversity as the basis for our research. With assistance from attorneys and input from a variety of our NGO colleagues, we've developed an extensively referenced position paper that I'll distribute to you shortly that describes the results of our inquiries and our concerns about water use, pollution abatement, social justice, and natural resource protection. We've learned that there have been a variety of noncompliances in the past with both the BMPs for the ranch and also violations of the basin management action plan for Lake Okeechobee, which was declared as an impaired water back a number of years ago. We're not necessarily opposed to the alleged preemption of the county's regulations. We believe that this project deserves some discussion in the public forum. We believe that by carving off the meat processing facility from the rest of the 2,000 acres of the property, the owner has created an industrial operation rather than an agricultural operation. And therefore, we think that you have not only the responsibility, but the authority to proceed with reviewing the application. I'm asking for two things today. Number one, that you accept our position paper and allocate staff resources to take a look at it. And number two, that you schedule the project for a future public hearing so that we can all hear about it. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Capps. Yes, Madam Chair. I think the Guardians have done a lot of work on this issue, and it's worthy of an agenda item at a future meeting. So I would make that motion that we have that future agenda item. I would second that motion. Anything further, Commissioner Vargas? No. I have spoken with them. I'm very familiar with the project. And I think it was a bit rushed to push this through. It kind of slipped through a lot of the details that I was unaware of and was brought to me after the fact that we had voted earlier this year. Do we need to have a vote, or can we just nod and say, let's have an agenda item prepared for Chansey Bay? You can have nod and have an agenda item. We'll bring one. Thank you. Thank you for bringing this matter up. Tom Pine is next, followed by Ken Haynes. Good morning, Commissioners. My name's Tom Pine. I've been a resident of Martin County for over 50 years. It was just a joke at our last County Commission meeting when a 70-page register report detailing all the expenditures in the clerk's warrant list was made available to the public. Because this week we are back to the same old smoke and mirrors, nothing to see here. I'm speaking about the consent agenda. Once again, our County Commission will approve $15,044,022.99, which was spent between November 3rd and November 60th of 2025 without identifying the payees or the purpose of the payments. I don't have any degrees. I didn't go to college. But I did learn how to use a dictionary. Today I use the modern dictionary. It's called Google. Consent agenda, a tool to streamline meetings, procedures by collecting routine, non-controversial items to a group whereby all are passed with a single motion and vote. Topics that have not been discussed by the board in the past shall not be in the consent agenda. It's that plain and simple. Then why was our community center rented out to the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce? Some time ago. All hidden in the consent agenda. It's one of the few I know because I was discussed at a later meeting. Or the millions of our tax dollars and new contracts that have been approved in the consent agenda. It never ends. Our County Commissioners use the consent agenda to hide from the public where they are spending our tax dollars outside the items passed in our yearly budget. With no public input or discussion. This is why our taxes have gone up almost every year over the past two decades. Greed rules in Martin County. I do not trust my local government. It started with the illegal expansion of runway 1230. The two men that lived on both sides of my home died of bone and brain cancer, which is related to the jet fumes we were forced to breathe for several years before the county finally bought us out after their illegal expansion was complete. As we move into the new gilded age in America, our Martin County government is leading the way on the Treasure Coast and the working class is paying the ultimate price. What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ken Haynes is next, followed by Kirk D'Amizio. Hello. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Ken Haynes and I'm a resident of Stewart West. I also happen to be on the board, but I'm speaking to you today as a resident of Stewart West. We moved to Stewart West about four years ago after living over in North River Shores for over 25 years. When we discovered the community and compared it to other areas, we did weigh in the Palm City Farms, and that's more of a farm community. You can, you know, have whatever animals, barnyard animals, chickens that you would like. When we saw Stewart West, we fell in love with it. We'll never move. Beautiful community. But we were aware that it was an equestrian community with restrictions on the barnyard animals, the chickens, et cetera, and really thought that suited us. Unfortunately, as you know, there is an upcoming amendment challenge to our PUD, and it's posed as aligning our PUD with our governing documents, which the alignment part they claim is to make sure that the equestrian, the horses, the donkeys, the zebras are allowed. But they have snuck in the term domesticated animals, and it's very important. As Carol Zoltan mentioned earlier, that opens the door for the chickens, the barnyard animals, and a whole host of other animals that are not currently allowed by our governing documents or the PUD. It's a Trojan horse. At a board meeting, they refused, although challenged by over 50 residents, to remove that. But they just dug in and would not. When I say they, it's a small group of residents. Most of that group is already in violation of our governing documents with the animals and our PUD because they have those animals. One of our fears, you know, property values, of course, is an issue, not wanting the nuisance of those animals, but also predator animals, which they attract. And when this was brought up over a year ago, they scoffed at the predator animals as that that was just made up and exaggerated. Less than a year ago, it was reported that one of the residents in violation lost over 20 chickens. Now, think about that. They're not even allowed to have those. Lost over 20 chickens to a predator animal. Whether it was a coyote or a bobcat, it really doesn't matter. And one of my concerns is we have small house pets, cats, dogs, a dog. If we had the amendment approved and it attracted those predator animals, I mean, even now, letting him out every night to go to the bathroom, you know, I have to stand with. Sir, your time is up. So I urge you, please, when this comes up, please vote no and stand with the majority. Sir, your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Kirk D'Amizio is next, and this is the last request to speak form I have. Good morning. Hey, I'm Kirk D'Amizio. I've been a resident for 17 years in Martin County. I live in Coral Gardens. About two years ago, they came and worked on all our swales and our drainage and our wastewater that drains into our lake behind my house. At the time, I talked to the guy that was running the hole. I think it was subbed out to another contractor. And my swale was sinking, and it's approaching to my driveway, which my driveway will soon collapse. And nothing was done about it. They did a lot of the other storm drains. There's nothing – I got sinkholes on my easement, two sinkholes, and my neighbors across the street got sinkholes where the pipes distribute the water when it overflows. And I had a – there's a lot of kids that fish at the lake behind my house. And they come through my swale, and one kid went into the washout and flipped over. There's going to be – if he gets hurt, there's going to be a lawsuit. I mean, I've told – and a guy came out about two weeks ago and looked at it and said, oh, we'll get out here and get this done. Nothing's been done. This has been going on for years. I got a huge – I mean, a huge washout before it. When they fixed all those swales, I don't know why they didn't do these. We have the worst ones. I don't know how this goes, but they kept putting me on, you've got to go to a meeting. You know, I've been in Coral Gardens for over 10 years. It seems like nothing's getting done. I mean, that's all I've got to say. I don't know. Thank you. Mr. Hetherington. Yes, sir, before you leave. I represent District 2, and we just had a meeting, and we can't go back and forth, but I will get your contact information. And come out to see your house personally. We just had a meeting where many of the residents attended, but I'd be happy to call you and come see your house. That was my neighbor. He's the one who told me to come to the meeting. Thank you. Commissioner comments. Commissioner Vargas. Yeah. I want to make a comment. I know I can't go back and forth and shouldn't, but, you know, this has been voiced several times about the consent agenda. My understanding, and I did ask, can a member of the public, anyone, click on a link that is next to each item to see what is being funded? Is this correct, Mr. Donaldson? So the clerk has where you can access all the information on our web page. There isn't a direct link for it, but there is through the circuit clerk of court's office, and so that information is available. The summary of documents expenditures that are shown there are all related to items that have been previously approved by the board, whether it's through contracts or other CIP sheets, and it's just the summary of all the funds that have been expended in the previous weeks or months prior to the agenda item. Okay, because that's important that the folks, what is the link? What is the address? Can we broadcast that now? I don't have it off the top of my head. You know, perhaps Ms. Murley might remember the linkage to it, so. Good morning. The clerk of the circuit court's website should have a link that says finance division, and they have a list of all the financial transactions called clerk check register, and it should have all of that information. But I believe that there is a link on the agenda as well that directly links to the clerk's register. There is a link on the agenda? Somebody's saying, no, there isn't. So what is the address that we put in the address bar to get to the clerk? I don't know it off the top of my head, but it's like the clerk of the circuit court of Martin County. Okay, you might try that, circuit court of Martin County. I will try it myself also because I think this needs to be available to everyone before the funding is dispersed, so folks are reminded of that. There was something else that was mentioned. It has been mentioned before to me outside of this meeting that if decisions need to be made on topics of extreme importance, I think this gentleman talked about a preferential lease, that needs to be discussed by our board, who's making the call to put it on the consent agenda? So that would be your county administrator, along with the rules that the board adopts annually for, but yes, I make that recommendation and sometimes in consultation with the chair. Yeah, okay, so if it's dealing with a lease that's county-owned property, don't you think that's something we should be discussing rather than just tucked into the consent agenda? I think the circumstances would dictate if it's a renewal or something that the board has already discussed, then we would put it on, it would only go on the consent agenda if it was already previously approved. Yeah, I understand that, but if it's not previously approved, I think it's something that needs to be discussed. This is owned by taxpayers of Martin County, and it's no preferential treatment for family or friends. On a lighter note, we have the Taste of Jensen tonight. It's our community tree lighting ceremony, and I urge all of you to come on out. Let's have a great time. It's going to be the Taste of Jensen, so it'll be all of the restaurants and all of the businesses that are there to meet you. You can have Taste and Samplings, there'll be music, and this starts at 5.30. We'll be going for a couple of hours right down Jensen Beach Boulevard, so I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you. Commissioner Capps. I am good today. Yeah, we're a small community, so we unfortunately make announcements about people passing in our community who we know well, and I have the responsibility this morning to say that I've just learned of Ed Fielding's passing. I served for eight years as a commissioner with him. He was a brilliant guy, a graduate of MIT, a funny man, and he loved public service and was a dedicated public servant, so rest in peace, Ed. Commissioner Campy. Yeah, thank you. Rest in peace, Commissioner Ed Fielding. I did not know that either. A couple of things. One, I would like to have an item at next week's meeting or at least a conversation about the Stuart West emails and information that's being put out. I do receive that from multiple residents. Saw my name mentioned a couple of different times, surprised by some of those comments. I will research with our growth management staff to see if there is any way that something that might have happened several years ago could be construed as me offering some kind of discounts, which off the top of my head I would say is not possible. We don't do discounts like that for anyone, and I certainly don't have the authority to issue complimentary discounts on procedural or permitting or paperwork issues. That's not a thing. But I will double-check to see if there was something that took place. I know that there are sometimes discounts that are built into a structure that are not offered, that if certain paperwork reaches a certain threshold or a level, it would be one price, and if it comes in below, it would be something else. So I'd like, and also if our county attorney's name is being mentioned, and I know that her and her department had been asked a couple of times to sort of weigh in. Obviously, our legal department works for the county government and for the commissioners, but just as a respect level in constituent services would answer a question, especially if it's asked repeatedly. So let's have a little more of a formalized conversation about that, because I think it's – I was going to say that it's an issue that is starting to boil over, but I think it's well past boil over on both sides of the issue. One of the speakers was accurate in saying that we do not, as a county, as commissioners, hopefully, and as the government get involved in private HOA issues. I would tell you that at this particular moment, I think most of us have something in each of our districts that's happening like that. I know that in District 5, we probably have four or five neighborhoods that are, you know, at odds, looking for the county to be some kind of an arbiter. We're not. We can specifically state what our policies are, so that you're getting basically an unbiased, formalized opinion, either legal or growth management, engineering, of what something is. Now, what normally happens when that takes place is the side that feels that that information benefited them are very happy, and the side that feels that that information did not benefit them are very angry. And that's just sadly the way it is. I think HOAs in general serve a purpose, but in most cases, they create a lot of animosity within neighborhoods. I would say it's definitely within my top five things that I am requested on handling. All over the county, even outside of our own districts, I'm sure the folks in Stewart West and Cobblestone have reached out to all of my colleagues looking for things, and it's disappointing that neighbors have to have that. I've lived it and experienced it myself in two different neighborhoods that I've lived in. The benefit of an HOA and the structure also creates an opportunity for a lot of problems. So maybe next week, at least for Stewart West, we can dig in a little deeper and tamp some of those things down. I don't think it's going to solve it, and it won't be a Christmas miracle, but at least some of the stuff, some of the misinformation or manipulated information, we can address. As Commissioner Vargas said, on a happier note, tomorrow night, tomorrow night in Palm City on Map Road, immediately adjacent to the Station 21 fire station, we're having our annual holiday festival. We'll close Map Road for a couple of hours. So if you live in that area, there's a lot of alternative side streets that can be taken, so it's not like you're completely blocked, but we will be blocking the road. We only do it one time a year. It's tomorrow night. In front of the patio at Palm City Place, we will be having most of the local schools, their choirs singing, which is always a lot of fun. We start at nursery school and work our way up to high school. We're having, I think, over 50 vendors. Most of them are crafts people, local crafts people, that are giving you those clever gifts that might be for someone that's hard to buy for. There will be food vendors. There will be other community sponsors, and so we really look forward to that. Palm City Chamber of Commerce does a majority of the heavy lifting for that, but so do a lot of other organizations. We'll be doing that tomorrow from 5.30 till 8. The road will be closed from 4 to 9 so that we can safely set up and disassemble. And not to steal any thunder from Commissioner Capps, but I don't know if it starts on Wednesday or Thursday. The Hope Sound Bible College has their singing Christmas tree that is free. It's at the Hope Sound Bible College. It is something that my family and I have gone to for well over a decade. It is absolutely remarkable. The staging, the music, the pageantry. It brings, I think it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I think it's, the doors open at 6 and the show starts at 7. It is remarkable. So if you really want to see something great, come to the Hope Sound Bible College. It's not necessarily, you know, a religious type of event. If that's not your thing, it's still a great evening of holiday fun. The reason I know so well about it is my mother has been texting me and calling me every single day for two weeks to remind me that we'll be going there this week. And so I just wanted, you know, it's the, we're in the, we're in the season. I think Friday is the Stewart Christmas parade this coming week. Friday night. It's the nighttime parade, which is a lot of fun. And then if we want to kick it back to my colleague from down south to share news about this weekend in Hope Sound. Please do. Yes, I would be remiss if I didn't mention two parades in District 3 this coming weekend. The Hope Sound Christmas parade will be Saturday at 1 o'clock. And the Indiantown parade will be Saturday also at 545 in Indiantown. We hope you all can make it to those events as well as to the Hope Sound Bible College singing Christmas tree. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. I would add, I think Commissioner can't be referenced it. We have our, also our Christmas parade downtown here Friday evening. I believe it starts at 7 p.m. See you all there. Sounds like a lot of great holiday events. Mr. Donaldson. Nothing, thank you. Ms. Elder. We will take up item number, oh, we will, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? No moved. There's a motion and a second to all those in favor. Aye. Opposed. That motion passes unanimously. We'll now take up Department 1, which is Office of Management and Budget items, which require board approval. Look at her going so early in the day. Did you win the United Way thing or something? Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Stephanie Murley here presenting to you five items on OMB today. Our first item is a permission to accept the Florida Inland Navigation District or the fine grant for the Manatee Park Seawall Restoration Project. Our public works is requesting the acceptance of $350,000 for the Manatee Park Seawall Restoration Construction. A grant match of $350,000 is required and budgeted within our Coastal County Resilience Program CIP. Where's Manatee Park? That's a good question. Anybody know? I think it's by, it's in your district, by Pirate's Cope. Isn't that where it is? Yeah. Oh, okay. There you go. On Park Drive. There you go. Yeah. We have so many parks, it's hard to keep track of where they all are and what the names of them are. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, John. Item number two, we have the Supervisor of Elections, Vicki Davis, here with us to chat if you would like. We have a budget resolution to increase the Supervisor of Elections funds. In coordination with the Supervisor of Elections and the Office of Management and Budget, we set aside excess fees for years over years for the SOE to be able to purchase voting equipment, basically a voting equipment barb, and she finally needs to use the 457,867,000 that has been accumulated in order to have high-speed tabulators and election management system workstations at the Supervisor of Elections office. Would you like to update us? Good morning and welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to answer any questions that you might have. I do have information on the new equipment, and it's very similar to what we currently have, but we have had our current equipment, as many of you know, that have been on the board for a number of years since 2008, and it has reached its age, and the company is going to stop providing service for the current equipment that we have. So you can see from the picture on the information before you that it's very similar. It's just a much faster tabulator. It's still a paper-based system, and in 2008 is when Governor Crist basically mandated that every county in the state of Florida have a paper-based system. So this equipment has been in place since 2008. It was paid for through the reserves that we have, the reserve account. And I've never had to come before you to request additional funding for equipment, and so today we have that money in reserve for this very purpose. So I don't know if you have any questions about the equipment or the replacement. Ed? Mr. Campy, how many are you buying? 50. You're able to buy 50 of these machines for $450,000? Yeah. But everything has to be upgraded, servers, software. That seems like, for such an important piece of equipment, a good price. I'm sure you shopped around. Well, actually, there's no shopping. In the state of Florida, you have two companies that you can purchase your equipment from. It's either the company before you and what we currently have, ES&S, election systems and software, or Dominion. So we've been ES&S since 2002. Yes, and ES&S works for me. Yes, it works. Absolutely. No, that was my question, how many machines did you compare pricing? But you answered that question because I believe that that's how you operate. Yep, absolutely. And the board approved funding for a renovation to your building recently. Yes, thank you. When is construction going to begin, and when will it end? I'm not sure when it will actually begin, but I know later this month we are going to start the interview process for contractors. So it should start pretty quickly. And will it be done by election time? Not for 2026. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Do you want to separate them out or keep them together? Well, you already approved that. No, this. Oh. This one. Sure. You want to make a motion to accept the supervisor of elections request? Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Can I introduce two new members of staff? Sure. As you know, I have Keri Anderson here. Keri was promoted up as chief deputy. So we have Amanda Vertiz. Amanda, if you want to stand. She's coming to us from Indian River State College as poll worker coordinator. And Julian Hewitt, he's coming to us from Habitat for Humanity out of St. Lucie County. And he is going to be outreach coordinator. So welcome to both of you. And this is day two for them. So, yeah. Day number two. Welcome. Congratulations, Ms. Anderson. Well deserved. Yes. 20 plus years. Right. To the two new folks we meet here, you're required to come to every committee. Not so. You have a lot of work to do in the office. Get out of here. Yeah. We can watch. But thank you, Stephanie. Thank you to your staff, Dawn. Thank you for, and Elise, for reviewing the contract and the invoice. Thank you for all you do for us. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Number three is our 2026 fiscal policy update. Each year, the board is required to update the county's fiscal policies. This year, there was no substantive changes, just clarifying language on new accounting terminology regarding capital leases and lease purchases, finance purchase agreements as recommended by the clerk's office, and then routine typo edits. Item number four is a request for funds to pay off various debt obligations. If you recall, during the fiscal year budget development process, we included dedicated reserves for strategic debt retirement to reduce the county's outstanding obligations and strengthen its future debt capacity. So OMB is requesting the approval to transfer funds from the reserves that we set aside, along with related budget resolutions to appropriate the debt service funds to pay off the following obligations. We'll be paying off a 2020 fire equipment lease of $476,000, and we're paying off two long-term debts for the Willoughby parcel that was Martin County Utilities and Property Appraisers of approximately $1.6 million and $1.1 million, respectively. Additionally, during this fiscal year, we'll be paying off three more debts, which include the Veterans Memorial Bridge, another capital improvement revenue note for fire equipment, as well as another fire equipment lease. And so collectively, the satisfaction of these obligations relieves about $7 million of outstanding debt liability off the county's balance sheet. I want to personally thank Ms. Murley. This is her initiative. It was a brilliant move. It's, it's, it's, we're so financially responsible. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. I was excited to get this on the, on the item. Indian Street Bridge. And number five is just a request for funds for the health insurance fund. Each year, the health insurance typically sees claims outpace the revenue coming in the first couple months of the fiscal year. And to manage the temporary gap, the general fund has a $2.2 million set aside for actuarial reserves for these cash flow needs. OMB is just requesting a budget transfer from these reserves into the health insurance fund for short-term cash support until our revenues catch up starting in January. And that is all I have for you today. Any questions? Is there a motion to approve the remainder of the agenda item? Move approval. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Let's take up Department 2. Contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of a million dollars or greater. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioner. Seth McConaughey, senior purchasing agent for the record. Today, I only have one item for your consideration today. It is a continuing service agreement for telephone and telecommunications equipment repair and maintenance. This has a maximum not-to-exceed contract value of $1 million and a maximum not-to-exceed contract term of five years. Staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the sole responsive and responsible bidder, Universal Cabling Systems Incorporated, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designee to execute all documents related to this request. And that concludes my item. Excellent. Any questions? Move approval. Well done. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. This looks like we can take up Department 3, which is consideration of a public purpose lease agreement with the Martin County Fair Association for approximately 30.7 acres located along Southwest Citrus Boulevard in Western Martin County. Good morning, Madam Chair. George Stokas, Assistant County Administrator for the record. With me is Ms. Carla Segura and Mr. Sebastian Fox. This item is a continuation from the previous item heard before you for final action for the public purpose lease with the Martin County Fair Association. The duration is an initial term of 10 years with three 10 additional year terms as renewals, which equals a 40-year term as total. The Fair must submit a site plan for the proposed improvements within six months of the effective date of this lease. And all improvements must be completed within three years for site plan approval. Those, I apologize, those improvements are found under an Exhibit B of the lease addendum and consist of general and handicap parking for no fewer than 1,500 general and 60 paved handicap spots, public restroom facilities, which would be no fewer than 20 restroom stalls, six stalls. I'm not going to go into the full details of that. The Fair Office in Agricultural Education, Space, and Storage, which is a concrete block, a CBS or other hurricane-rated structure of approximately no less than 7,500 square feet in accordance with county standards. Utility connections, all utility connections required by applicable government authority and utility companies, as well as all stormwater infrastructure associated with the site. And just to remind the board in the previous, we, as the county, paid to build the turn lane off of Citrus, as well as the county paid to bring the utilities to that site. And with that, I'm more than happy to answer any questions or address any concerns that you may have. Questions? Mr. Vargas. Okay. So, I understand about the lease. I've read through all the paperwork. I've had a lot of discussions also. You know, one thing that I see here is that if they violate the lease, we terminate any association with them. They did here by leasing to a Buick dealership, and we never received the revenue. And I've asked the director for that. I don't get an answer. That's taking from the citizens, the taxpayers of Martin County. That's our revenue. So, what happened to that? My recollection of the event, Commissioner, was that we let them know that they were in violation of their lease. They gave them a period to write to cure. They responded accordingly to write to cure. And then that GMC dealer was then moved off the property within, I would say, about 30 days. No, that had been going on for a lot longer than 30 days. This is money that is not theirs. This parcel is owned by Martin County. They violated the lease, of which I did read this lease also. And it says if they're in violation. So, nobody's been called to account for this. And I don't quite understand why. I have property, rental property. Somebody violates a lease. It's terminated. So, I'm waiting for an answer. My answer is that we notified the Fair Association. They were in violation of their lease. We gave them an opportunity to cure that said violation. They cured that said violation. Okay. But it's still the same individuals that are now going to lock us up for 10 years, and then they're asking for three additional 10-year terms. It's the same people. It's not as if it's different. And I can't seem to get an answer for this. And I'm speaking for the taxpayers of Martin County. That's my responsibility. So, it's not a Commissioner Vargas thing only. Where is the income for that? Why isn't that in our revenue? The income remains with the Martin County Fair Association. I understand that. But I'm making a very valid point here. And there's been a lot of lax demands on this association. I've got nothing wrong about a fair if they can be successful, but I don't want them taking income and violating a lease and then coming back and asking for more. That's reasonable. I don't do business with people that are not above board and have not been transparent. And I can't get any answer. Do you have an answer, Mr. Donaldson? Because I'm getting the same answer back here. So, we did not seek the funding for that. We seeked the issue was that they were engaging in an activity that was not allowed under the lease. We did notify them that they were in violation. Mr. Stokas is correct in that they were given time to remedy, which they did. And during that time, we've continued to negotiate with them on a future lease. We did not hold that action against them. And they do have a new board and a new director in the last few years. So, we made it clear that those types of activities cannot come about. But we did not seek remuneration for any of the funds that they had collected and simply asked them to move on. The tenet of this contract that we're preparing today is that they are an entity that the county wants to continue to engage with. And that's why we presented it today with some contract stipulations that should they fail, there are some that the lease would be canceled. So, I think that's where we are. Certainly, everybody acknowledges that what had occurred, there was no other compensation requested by the county for their actions. And why is that? I'd like to understand why that was. If I may, so we followed the process in the lease. There are specific provisions that the county had to follow if there was a default or a potential default under the lease, which we did. I don't believe there's anything in the lease that allowed us to claw back any money from the Fair Association. They had the proper possession of the property since they're a leasehold. They had a leasehold. So, we didn't have an opportunity to get that money back because they had possession of the property. And there was nothing in the lease that allowed us to get any compensation from the fair that they generated while they had a lease on our property. So, that's why. I understand what you're saying. However, it was premeditated. They said, hello, yes, come park cars and we'll charge you this amount of money. It was premeditated because I've had a lot of conversations with them directly. But they violated the lease. And that should have been it, terminating with this group. But I don't see anybody holding anybody to the fire here. This has been going on for years now. Those cars didn't appear 30 days ago or six months ago. I saw them. So, a formal filing of a breach or termination would be at the direction of the majority of the board. We have not heard that. We've continued to negotiate in good faith with the fair association on a new plot based upon direction from the board. And that's why we're here today. Still no answers. Commissioner Campy. Thank you. Since the future home of the fair was District 5, it was a piece of property that we had received as surplus from the South Florida Water Management District. Sat basically unused and really had no vision or plan for the property for many years. Several iterations of the board and their leadership and management and I had an opportunity to work with staff, several of whom have since retired. That's how long the process has been. Have been working on a reasonable, it's a fair, fair lease. A reasonable lease. It's been a long and arduous process that had lots of turns and twists. And many times during the multitude of commission meeting agenda items that the fair's future was discussed, I would remind my colleagues that the fair association is a group, the board at least, is a group of volunteers. This fair is over 60 years old, has brought, especially from the agricultural 4-H side of things, an opportunity for a majority of our residents and our children and their families to participate in agricultural, you know, animal husbandry, showing of animals, showing of agricultural knowledge. And then there was also the midway and excellent music and rides and a beauty pageant and scholarships. And so it is really part of the fabric of what Martin County is. I think fair county fairs in general across America have that feel. But specifically here, many people that have lived here for decades or are born and raised here have very fond memories of the fair. I remember my children are well-grown now, but I remember when we were young parents with little kids, we really looked forward to the fair and not just the rides. We spent a lot of time because we lived, obviously, in Palm City and my kids, God bless you, my kids did not get a chance to see up close and personal sheep, cows, pigs, horses, roosters, rabbits, guinea pigs. And that was really something that they looked forward to. So, yes, I hear my colleagues saying that there has been some issues with the lease. It has been sort of a looser, I'll admit it's been in the past, maybe looser, loosely enforced on some of the issues. The cars, I saw the cars there. I don't believe that they had been there for a tremendously extended period of time because in the spring they had the fair. And they have had things, you know, auctions there, opportunities there. The fair is responsible for a majority of the upkeep of that acreage and the buildings that were all old. I know that there were times that sprinkler systems had to be added. It has been a work in progress. So I'm not disagreeing with you, Commissioner Vargas. It has definitely been a work in progress. But that being said, I think the path forward with your suggestions, and I'm sure your watchful eye of making sure that the heart and nature of the lease will be exactly what it's supposed to be. I don't believe that these new folks that have stepped into volunteer positions should be punished. And with that, I'm very pleased to move the ball forward and make a motion to accept the lease agreements that have been agreed to by both parties. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. I agree with much of what you said and the educational opportunities that the fair to me is really a lot about raising our youth and teaching them responsibility and work ethic and all of the educational opportunities that comes along with it. I think that the lease is very fair with you investing all of the infrastructure for a 10-year lease with 10-year extensions. I think that that is fair to the residents, and I'd be glad to second it. I have some questions. I'm looking on page 263, which is 10B, and it's a spelling error to the extent required. Just look through the contract. There are other mistakes also. And on page 266, which is 12K, lessee may permit overnight temporary lodging on the premises for authorized vendors of the Martin County Fair or other exhibitions for a period commencing five days before the Martin County Fair or other exhibition and terminating five days after the Martin County Fair or other exhibition. Why? We've had problems with people overstaying their welcome at the fair in the past, so why are we giving this grace period of five days before and five days after? It doesn't take that long to set up a fair or an exhibition. It was indicated by the fair association that that is what they needed for them to have. That's what they wanted. I'm sorry. I didn't hear you, Commissioner. Um, 12M, the lessee will ensure that gray water, animal manure, and other waste from animals on the premises will be properly disposed of during within 21 days after the conclusion of the activity for which the animals were on the premises. 21 days of manure on the premises is okay. I think it needs to be tightened up. And on page 276, it's Exhibit B, utility connections and stormwater infrastructure will be made within three years after the site plan approval. How do you operate for three years without utility connections or stormwater infrastructure? So they will still have – so if the fair submits their site plan within six months of, let's say, today, they will have, if I remember correctly, the fair in 26 and 27 based on the board's motions from the last item. And then their third year, they would be conducting a rustic fair that would have the restroom facilities that would be on the back of a trailer where the water is contained within the back of that trailer and then removed off property, very similar to other venues that utilize park property. And then by the fourth year, they will have constructed the restrooms and we'll have them connected. So in years zero through three, tell me about electricity. Tell me about water. Tell me about sewer. Tell me about stormwater. If you're going to have 15 parking spots there, tell me about stormwater infrastructure. Well, I think the fair is behind me and they can opine on it more, but I believe staff's intent was that under the understanding that the fair will be conducted at its current site on Monterey – excuse me, Dixie Highway for the next two years, and then the third year would have been a rustic fair. But also the first two years gives the fair an opportunity to bring the utilities to that site and gives them timing to build the restrooms and to look at the utility connections. So we haven't – you know, that would, I think, be all drawn out through the site plan and that would create a timeline in which how the fair would move forward. Now I'm on page 284, and this is all about camping, and it looks to me like it's a campground. A maximum of six months per year people will be camping. It doesn't sound like a fairground to me. It sounds like a campground. And these rates, I don't know what any of these rates are. Water and sewer connections are available at each camping space. Each camping space has a 100-amp, 240-volt straight blade connection. It sounds like it's a campground. So this attachment is from the fair association itself. The staff considers the overnight stays plus or minus five days after the event. No, it says here that you can stay for six months a year. Yes. Again, the top of the attachment, and it also has spelling errors as well, is from the Martin County Fair Association. Yeah, but they're in our rules and procedures. Correct. Okay. We will be more than happy. Included in our agenda item. I presume that when – if this agenda item is approved, then the rules and procedures are also – the policies and procedures are also adopted. Madam Chair, is this Exhibit C you're referring to? I don't know. It just says – it starts on page 281. It says procedures for the Martin County Fair Association year-round event programs, policies, and procedures. It talks about booking. It talks about vendor accommodation. It talks about camping, and particularly the camping regulations are on 284 – well, 285, 286, on and on and on and on. Golf carts are allowed, you know, the Fair Association. Mr. Mike is here, too. Sure. And those are current – on the current site itself. If you look at the backside of the property, we do not have overnight camping. During the fair, we have facilities along the backside where our ride vendors, our food vendors, where they do have those services. We have pump-out. We do have folks that use golf carts during the events. We do not have six-month overnight camping in any way, shape, or form. It's in your procedure. Well, nothing is camping, per se. We do not offer camping, and no one stays on our property for six months. That has not happened. And we do have a five-day in and out because we do have folks that come in. They prepare. They come in before the fair. Usually the ride vendors even come in. Usually they don't stay overnight, but they're about two weeks out before the fairs. They bring equipment in. It's a long setup process. And then usually the fair closes out. Most of our vendors are out within 24 hours of the fair ending as they're moving on to the next fair. So we do not offer any overnight camping on our premises. There will be not any overnight camping. That was a big sticking point years ago as they were looking at this agriplex. They talked about creating this. We're not going to be having that. And as we have the new site planned together, we'll be having to adopt new policies, procedures for the new property, which we're not able to do yet because we haven't even created the site plan for that as well. However, in no way, shape, or form will there be a camping facility other than facilities for our vendors to be using for the operation of the fair and those active. And that's how it's stated in the new lease agreement. But that is not what your procedures say. We had to provide our current policies and procedures as requested by the county, which we did. We cannot create a new policy and procedure manual for the new site until the new site is approved and we have the new plan moving forward. Commissioner Vargas. You know, I don't know where to begin. We've had discussions. You were very angry with me at the last meeting, and that's fine. I can take that. Oh, I'm not angry. That's fine. Okay. You pay $120 a year, and then you have a lease that's stacked in your favor, and it says right here on page 284, I'm an English teacher formally, campers may stay to a maximum of 30 consecutive days per visit. Campground, you must move spaces at least one a day for whatever reason, a maximum of six months per year. I'd be stationed there because that would be very reasonable living. That former policy procedure manual, that's what we've been presented. We're creating a new one. That is not in any way, shape, or form how we do business now or how we'll be doing it in the future. And we do not have anybody that has six-month accommodation. I'm not sure why years ago they had written a campground. We've never had a campground on the facility. Okay. My sister is an attorney, and she always told me. She went to the University of Miami. She always told me she clerked, and she did like what you did, okay? She said, it's in the contract. A first-year law student would always go back to the contract. You know, we're not going to be signing anything unless it's for the benefit of Martin County and its taxpayers, not at all. You're getting away with no money to rent this facility. 30 acres, $120 a year? I mean, I looked at your financials also. But as I said, it goes back to the behavior here at this particular location on Dixie Highway. I'm dealing with the same people, and you never proffered at least to give half of the income from the Buick rental on that lot, which was a violation of the lease. It's a violation. I don't do business with people that violate leases and then refuse to come forward and proffer up what is fair and equitable. And then you want us to give you more at this location, prime location, 30 acres, plus what's there on Dixie Highway, very valuable property for the county. And you're correct, Commissioner. The property on Dixie Highway is very valuable, and we are looking forward to seeing what the county chooses to do with that site. And that's why we're working to get this facility up and going as quickly as possible out there, working with Mr. Stokas and his team to get our time frame out there as quickly as possible. Securing the funds to make that happen is what we're working very hard towards. Yes, you keep referring back to this lease with Starling, which was put into place prior to my tenure. The way I'd interpret it, we've already had discussions on that based on creating revenues to support where we're a non-for-profit and creating the operations or supporting the operations of the fair is what we do. We were made aware that that was not okay, which is we remedied immediately. We took care of that. We did not proffer anything for we were not asked to. So that is one of the reasons we took care of that. We won't be making that error again because it is very clear, and that is not something that we will have to cross again. As far as this situation with the new fairgrounds going forward, we're not operating a campground. That is something that is just not part of the process. Now we will have a new policies and procedures and operations manual per the new site. These are things that are happening on our current site right now, and I assure you there is no camping that is going on other than vendor accommodation during our event. Okay, I asked you for that income, and you resisted. You never asked me for that. I did. I said, where is the income? This is Martin County taxpayers' land. It is not your land. Ma'am, it is not our land. And on top of that, it says every—excuse me, I'm talking. In this lease, this is stacked in your favor. Absolutely. And I say you're the fair's favor. No, it has to be stacked in the favor of the county. I would not approve this at all, at all. Ms. Segura. Hi. So the lease itself specifically states that there's no camping allowed. The policies and procedures are what the state approves them to do and which we are going to change once they give us their site planning. We know everything that's going on. But the lease itself specifically says no overnight camping allowed, except for during the fair exhibition. Well, I'm confused. Why is this policies and procedures included in the agenda item? And by approving the proposed lease, are we also adopting the rules and the policies and procedures? Well, these specific ones are the ones that are allowed by the state, but we're not allowed. That's why the lease breaks it down and says they're not allowed. Mr. Fox, you want to provide some clarity? Sure, Madam Chair. With respect to Exhibit C, the policies and procedures, the lease in Section 3 states that they'll be amended from time to time. As Ms. Segura indicated, I think all we had to attach at this point were the existing policies and procedures that specifically address the current lease premises. But the lease provides specifically they can be amended from time to time. So what makes sense to me is that once those new policies and procedures are adopted, they'll be attached to the lease. But are these adopted policies and procedures? As of now, yes, but they refer to the current premises. Mr. Hetherington. Sebastian, I think, was starting to answer it, and the question was for legal. Is, per the lease agreement, it doesn't look like the rules and procedures are, we're bound to those rules and procedures. So the lease says that the lessee shall comply with the policies and procedures attached as Exhibit C. So they would have to comply with those, which technically has the camping in there. If they amend their policies and procedures, we would have to come back and amend the contract to swap out the policies and procedures. But these policies and procedures would govern right now. So if the board's not comfortable with these policies and procedures, we can come back to the board once they finish the new policies and procedures and incorporate them, if that makes the board more comfortable. It is a bit of an inconsistency because the lease does say there is no overnight camping, but the policies and procedures have some overnight camping provisions. So from an ambiguity standpoint, it might be better to clarify that before you adopt it, if the board's not comfortable with that. Commissioner Vargas. Okay, so are you going to give the income that you earned from the lease to the Buick dealership to Martin County? We'll follow any direction from the Board of County Commissioners and the Office of our Executive. Okay, and how much did you earn from that venture? I think at that point it was half of it, about $21,000. Okay, that's $21,000 that belongs to the taxpayers of Martin County. It was also $21,000 that supported the operations of the fare. Well, you know what? That is a management thing, not ours. You violated the lease. This lease, I would never sign it. I wouldn't have anybody else sign it either. It is ambiguous, it's conflicting, and it's kind of like a foggy day. I cannot support that, and you should have come forward to me to do the right thing and said, here, this is what we earned. Yes, we did not follow the lease, and you know how to read a lease, or you said you had an attorney and he misinterpreted it. I'd get another attorney if I were you. It's very clear what your lease states, and I read through it. I took my time to do that. That's part of my job here. Ma'am, we responded appropriately to everything that was given in front of us and followed those directions. I think one of the challenges we are facing right now, and this may speak to that ambiguity, is in our current policy procedures. Remember, we are going to be following two properties and two operations simultaneously. We were given the extension of the current site, which we will be conducting two more fares on, and in that process, and maybe this answers some of the questions for you, Commissioner Hurd, which I think were very good questions, is that in that all those things, we haven't done our site plan yet, so to answer those questions about water hookup, all those things, those will be coming out in the near future as that development goes concurrently as we continue on the process of the actual fare operation right now. So that's why these are two concurrent things that are happening at the same time. Also, in regard to the policy procedures, again, those will be changing as well. Commissioner Capps? I think the plan for the fare and the lease is realistic and solid, and I have a good feeling about the people involved, so I will support it. I think it's a new day for the fare, and I appreciate all the hard work you all are putting into getting our fare moved ultimately to Western Martin County because we kind of have to get that done, so I will support it. Ms. Elder? Provide another option that the board can, and if the fare agrees, we can strike out any reference to camping in the policies and procedures and then approve it that way if that's a better option for the board in this way. There's no ambiguity of whether, you know, they can camp. Motion maker agrees. I still think that there are conflicts and ambiguity, so I'm not going to support the motion. There is a motion and a second to all this. I would like to say one thing, though. I think this whole lease, everything that's here has to be reviewed because inconsistencies are rampant. I cannot support this at all. I will not do this at all. There's a motion and a second to all those in favor. Aye. Opposed? Opposed. That motion passes 3-2 with Commissioners Vargas and Hurd dissenting. Thank you. We will now take up our 10 o'clock preset, which is an Army Corps of Engineers update. Major Bell, are you updating us? Good morning and welcome. Thank you for volunteering to come to see us. We'd like to see you on a regular basis and get updates. Absolutely. For your service. Thank you. So thank you, County Commissioners, for allowing me to speak today and providing you guys an update on kind of our program. I'm going to start strategically and then come down to Martin County specifically. Just for new members that haven't met me before, I'm a Florida resident, a university graduate from Florida, mechanical engineering, and then just recently returned from overseas assignment two years in Kuwait. So I've been with this district, Army Corps of Jacksonville District, specifically since 2023, July. I've been the deputy commander down in Palm Beach Gardens since then. So I'm slotted to rotate out in the summer of 26. So I'm here for a four-year assignment, which is atypical. It's usually a three-year assignment. So I'll be here for a while. So if any questions, comments, concerns, or site visits that the commissioners would like to see, we would greatly support those actions like we've done in the past. We don't want you to leave. I would love to stay if that was an option. But we're going to talk a little bit about our program and specifically how we do this and how we execute this, and our resiliency not only from the federal perspective but from your perspective of the county. It all starts with the people. And with that, in our context, the way we execute business is our non-federal sponsors. So that can be counties, cities, and anything up to state levels to entertain those ideas and provide solutions to those problems that the communities are facing through a myriad of different resources and community project programs that we have throughout the Corps of Engineers. But, again, it starts with the people, and then we escalate based on the federal requirements and where we need action for the citizens of the state. And throughout the entire resiliency program, when you look at it from our perspective, the federal perspective, we have lots of different ways to look at that. I like to start in the water because I love being out in the water and diving here. So as you come in, you have CSRM, that is the Coastal Storm Risk Management Projects. These are putting sand on the beaches to protect that infrastructure along those embankments out there or those land sources out there and stop that storm surge from hurricanes and any type of events, and then also balancing the economy of the state. So one of the taskings that Colonel Bowman is super interested in is making sure that we can get ports, specifically deep draft ports, for those larger vessels and keeping those navigation mission, which is one of our 13 mission sets, keeping those moving forward to allow the state to grow the economy. And then as you move into the intercoastal way and those barrier from the barrier islands into the mainland, you start to have a lot of impervious surface with structures, development, et cetera, and those back-based studies are conducted in there while trying to balance the needs of other infrastructure as you move towards inland sections to include high-rises and other natural canals that the state would have originally, the landscape would have originally, and to those final western side where you have those communities that are growing and supporting all the inland, intercoastal area, and then all the way to the Everglades, specifically to South Florida with restoration projects there. And that's kind of how we have to look at all these. So it's a lot of interconnected pieces when you look at studies specifically, when we're looking at how we can make positive changes to the environment or to economy-based industries that we're also kind of balanced when we execute those. And this all predicates off the CNSF, so that's a central and southern Florida system. This is the background system that everything has come off of, so specifically when you're talking CERP, the baseline for that program is the CNSF. And then under that, I'll show you a hierarchy of kind of how we look at things. But the CNSF is that driver project that we were mandated by Congress in 1948. After some storms in 1926 and 1928, specifically hurricanes filled the lake, Lake Ocotribia were topped and killed 2,800 civilians, which Congress then acted and put the federal government in charge, specifically the Corps of Engineers, on Lake O management. And then we have all those consequences that happened by draining the landscape to create a flood control system. And you can see there are five congressionally authorized project purposes for the CNSF. None of them are labeled with a number one priority, but we have to balance these requirements every time that the colonel makes a decision, Colonel Bowman makes a decision on how we operate the CNSF, specifically in partnership with South Florida Water Management District, and how we conduct these operations. And specifically, navigation is one of those that we cannot impact. We conducted Lake O recovery operations, a low row, and we had an impact to navigation across the federal waterway, the Ocotribia Waterway that cuts across from the east to the west coast. So we're going to talk a little bit about the AER. So we're hoping today, actually at 9 o'clock, we're having meetings to garner input from state and federal agencies and non-government organizations as well to be able to hear that feedback from that operation and apply those lessons learned moving forward. But I just want to set the stage on the CNSF when we're talking about CERP, we're talking about restoration projects within Martin County. The predicator is the CNSF, and you need to understand that the process of CNSF is very important and what we're trying to balance with all those requirements. And we're not necessarily managing for one stakeholder specifically. We're looking at a whole myriad of requirements that we're trying to balance and provide those benefits for the project to all the citizens in the state. Specifically talking about ecosystem restoration projects, so the Kissimmee River was initiated by the state in 1974. The feds got involved in 1976. We just completed the restoration plan there, and we're under what's called increment one of the water control plan. So this is water operations have a federal control water plan, which we're on increment one, so that just how we regulate those lakes and how we restore the flood plans. So if you look in the picture on the left, that's a restored floodplain. Originally in 1948 when we were authorized to the CNSF project, the best way to canalize water and to know the volume of water is to make a straight line, so that's what we did. We took the Wandering River, straightened it out, put some structures on there, and it's a lot easier to move water around from a flood risk management perspective. But we completed that project recently, and then we're moving forward on restoration plans. Lake O, again, we conducted Lake O under LOSUM, so the Okeechobee System Operating Manual, which was adopted in 2014, August. There's a new control manual that we operate Lake O, and with that came specifically in Zone D, the S80 structure that's on the St. Lucie River. However, that structure basically has a huge reduction, approximately 85 percent of no releases through that. So Lake O Recovery, we did have to operate the structure for that operation, but since that concluded in March, we've saved 22,500 acre feet from being released through the S80 structure and stored in the C44, which is a great project that's beneficial to the community, and we can continue to see positive impacts from that, and we'll talk a little bit about those programs and projects in IRL specifically. And then again, with SERP specifically, you're looking at the greater Everglades, the entire impact south of the lake, and we have the EAA project there that we'll talk briefly on as well. So it's just a challenging thing that we have, and this is kind of how we see it in our military diatom and the way we kind of think through the problem set. Again, the predicator is the CNSF, and then under that you see all these other fascists and programs that Congress has approved, and again, the Concerhension Everglades Restoration Plan, SERP, which is the driver of all the restoration projects throughout the Everglades system from the Kissimmee chain to Florida Bay. And then you'll also notice the EAA Reservoir. We'll talk briefly about this as well because there's a new memorandum of agreement and a memorandum of understanding between the state and Department of the Army that has moved that project to the left. The intent is to have it completed by 2029 instead of 2034, so we are working through that as well with the South Florida Water Management District in the state along with the Secretary of Army Civil Works. So here's kind of our snapshot of fiscal year 26 of what we're trying to execute. We did have a rocky start getting out of the fiscal year, but right now we're good to go. So this not only affects the Corps of Engineers had no impacts with the elapsed and appropriations, but our federal partners and sisters did have issues, and we can't move out specifically on what's called studies, feasibility studies, if the Corps of Engineers will build a project. We have to do studies to see those impacts, positive and negative, or can we make a financial investment to make those right. But this is what we're tracking for 26 right now. Some of these are continued projects. So on the left you see the program affiliations. Those are always going to be moving forward, and those agreements or coordinations and recovery activities are always moving forward. It's the design, planning, and construction, and the water operations that will change based on funding requirements out of the federal side and then how we move forward on a prioritization of those projects. I do want to highlight the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project, LORP. This has been terminated, so we are finalizing the administration process on that. So within that project we'll talk a little bit about it. There's two different portions of that project, the ASR, so the Aquacare Storage Recovery System, and the wetlands portion, we don't have a final determination on that, but we believe that the wetlands portion, if the state chooses to execute that, they can move forward on the Paradise Run section. We are still our Engineering Research and Development Center out of Vicksburg is doing the ASR research with South Florida Water Management District. That portion is still moving forward. So the portion that's terminated is the wetland portion of that project. Any questions on these programs? Yes, sir. Mr. Capps. Yes, I would take you back to page 141, the Central and Southern Florida Project. Just curious about a little bit of the history of drainage of the state. And this picture here would suggest that most of those canals were dug at this time. And I always had the impression that it was earlier in our history when some of that was done. And was most of what is pictured here, was that done in 1948 to 1954? So this is the complete build-out of the CNSF. So the state started, you know, with the St. Lucie Canal. They completed that project in 1924, 1926, I believe. Yeah, that's what I was. So the state's done a lot of that work, and different people have done a lot of work. But when Congress authorized the project in 1948, we came in and did a complete analysis on water control and flood management. And we created additional drainage on the landscape to be able to execute that mission that was created in the 9 million people that we have in South Florida now. Right. Yeah, I always have conflicting feelings when I think about all of those canals and levees. You know, on the one hand, it seems that we did enormous environmental damage to the state when all that was done. On the other hand, none of us would live here if it had not been done. So it's quite a conflicting emotion when you think about it. Absolutely. It's, again, a balance when we look at it, right? So any time you do something, we've got to look at the balance, right? And I think our federal partners, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, NOAA, NIMS, specifically National Marine Fisheries, we have to coordinate with those when we do actions, right? That's the deeper process. You know, it's just not the Corps of Engineers. It may be our name at the top of the permit, but we have to coordinate across the local and other federal agencies to make sure that we can balance the requirements that are given to us and mandated by Congress. So it's interesting. We were told to drain the landscape and people to live here and to be able to use the land and cultivate it, and now we're looking at how do we restore the impacts we made. So it's, again, balancing of kind of looking at where we are now, where we're moving forward to as well. Mr. Vargas has a question. Yeah. No, just a comment. And I would urge those listening here to read the book The Swamp by Michael Grunwald. You know what I'm talking about. Our wonderful library system has it on audio because everybody's busy. You can drive down the road and read the book. But that definitely tells you a whole lot about the history of Florida and how it was carved up and carved out and twists and turns and how it did destroy quite a bit. But, anyway, you weren't here at that time. But, anyway, it's knowledge, and you have to have knowledge and apply it. Thank you. Proceed, please. All right. So the integrated delivery schedule, this is all of our projects, specifically with Surfer, South Florida ecosystem restoration plan. So we originally were hoping to have the rollout, the new plan. This kind of shows all the projects systematically across the entire Surfer program, where we are at on construction, where we are in developing those border control plans, operational plans. With the lapse and appropriation, we're now delayed. So we're looking towards January to have the release, and we'll do workshops to explain how to read that document. And we're also releasing a new digital interactive format, so you can go onto the website, you can click on specific areas or specific projects and provide the same information that you would have on 11 by 17 piece of paper, which is getting smaller print as we add more projects. So now we'll have it interactive, so you'll be able to go onto a website, click on a project or an area you're interested in or focused in. You can get a fact sheet where we are on all that information, but we're kind of slightly behind the power curve. Typically, we would present this at the South Florida Ecosystem Registration Task Force in D.C., but that has also been canceled as well, I believe, in December. That was originally scheduled for. So we're still working through that. We're working through the challenges of the lapse, but we're hopeful that we'll be able to execute this in January and present it to the public as well. So we're going to talk a little bit about some of these projects and what's called the planning. We call it planning, but this is really the feasibility studies area. So this, again, this is the ASR, so ERTIC right there is the Engineering Research Development Center. They're still moving forward on that and are looking to complete some of those four tasks there that we were asked to look at by our chief of engineers. So what ASR is, is it's taking surface water and then injecting it down a deep water well and then drawing it out at a time you need it to use later. We have a lot of concerns. You can see the four that are highlighted there. There is, if we're involved from a federal perspective, it needs to be certain water quality standards. And then when you pull it out, it also has to meet certain water quality standards. So it's very costly from our perspective. So we're still working through if it's feasible from a technical perspective, from an engineering perspective, we think it's feasible. But it's also, you know, the long-term O&M of these things. But they're still moving forward on that research. And South Florida is moving forward on their ASR wells, too. And they're around the lake. So, again, surf is about storage. And then when we can at least quality, quantity, and timing of those releases into the Everglades to keep that ecosystem balanced. But we are terminating that portion of the wetlands project. And then you can see it's highlighted in green there. That's the Paradise Run section on the graphic to the left. So the resiliency studies, we have a lot there. So the first arrow is not actually a shingle crank. It should be that circle oval there. That's shingle crank. So we're looking, doing a study there. It's moving forward, no issues with that one right now. The comprehensive study, that's the entire black area there. So that's the entire CNSF. The authority allows us to go back and look at how things changed. So the environment has clearly changed when we were tasked to build the CNSF and allow 2 million people to live in South Florida. Today we have over 9 million and growing. So clearly the landscape has changed. There's a lot more infrastructure and development that has happened since the 1940s. So we're looking at all that and how that impacts there. And then we have the northern estuaries ecosystem restoration looking at specifically those environments there and how the flows are going to work and how we're going to balance that. And the flood resiliency studies looking along that coastline from Palm Beach County all the way down to Miami-Dade. And we've broken that up in four different what's called reaches because of how the funding works at the federal level. We can't do the entire study at the cost given the current policies that we have in place. So we've broken that up in four different reaches. South Florida's taking a section, we're taking a section, and I think the other section will be studied later at a later time. But that's where we're moving forward on those. Any questions? So we'll talk specifically about what's happening in your community and specifically within the Indian River Lagoon. So South Project is C-23 STA, storm treatment area. This is a water quality function and reservoir system that's moving forward. The STA, which is a core-led project, is scheduled to be completed later this year, next year, 2026. So that's exciting news. The North Reservoir Contract 4A is continuing to move forward. No challenges there right now. The C-24 Package 1, this is a clearing and grubbing. We've taken some folks out to see that. So that's really just the initial stages of the C-25 complex there. And then the C-23, C-24 Interconnect, that's a South Florida. So this connects the two reservoirs between North and South to be able to transfer water where needed to be able to execute that as well. And the C-23, C-24 South Reservoir Package is currently underway with South Florida Water Management District, depending on your questions on this. All right, so the Central Everglades Planning Project, this is SEP. So this is the EAA Reservoir here. This is a 10,500-acre storage. That's A2 Reservoir. And this was highlighted on January 2025 on the 18th, where the Memorandum of Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Department of the Army in the state of Florida. And this agreement is very spirited, and it's given us a lot of ways to move this program forward, specifically with EAA. Our challenges with that, so originally that was a 10-year contract. This MOA asked us to complete that by 2029. So we're working through that. It also allows South Florida to take federal funding under what's called 1043B program. It's a pilot program to receive federal funds to a state agency to execute federal projects. So we're working through that. That framework is posted on South Florida's webpage, along with our webpage, that talks about those projects and those potential fundings for state actions through federal funding to move some of these projects forward, to get these executed so we can see those benefits of the EAA when they come online. With the EAA coming online sooner, as we're working through those challenges, that also means we have to have updated water control plans. So we're looking around September of 2026 to start LOSUM 2.0 and start the scoping of that. So we'll help guard our input for that. So the next lake regulation schedule, we expect to be able to have a lot of input from everybody. But that will be another great opportunity to have folks talk about their concerns with how the system is going to be operated moving forward on the EAA reservoir, additional storage capacity throughout the CNSF. So that will be another great community engagement event for those that are interested. We did complete the inflow-outflow connection. So that was an initial contract that goes around the outside of the reservoir, STA system. This was completed in September. We are currently moving forward with the foundation. This is 11A contract and the embankment, which is 11B. So the MOU MOA specifically talks about 11A and 11B and moving that to the left. So we're working through those challenges now. We call it the yes-if register. So yes-if we get all these requirements, if we get funding, if we get permits, if we get all these actions and our support across the nation to execute this by 2029, we can do it. But we just need a lot of ifs need to be answered and a yes to be able to execute this to get it done in a short amount of time. We'll move into operations. So we did conduct CELOSUM. Many of you probably were on the board at that time. CELOSUM is a new control manual that we use for Lake Okotropic operations. It's really focused on the estuaries specifically looking at the impacts of those unscheduled or untimely or harmful release regimes that could happen. So this CELOSUM allows us to look at those estuaries, look at the algae, to look at other factors when we can consider what operations we're going to do through what structures and balancing those five mandated congressional actions with we have to balance and then looking at all the other sovereign nations that we would impact with our operations. And we conducted what's called Lake Okeechobee recovery operations. So this looks at specifically Lake Okeechobee and the ecology of the lake, and the focus of that is to get the lake healthy. And if you have a healthy lake, when you make releases east, west, or south, then those will create positive impacts to those environments and estuaries as well. So we conducted that, which drew down the lake. We started that in December of last year, concluded officially in May, stopped release schedules in March, which we drew down the lake. And, again, what that does is it draws down the lake to allow the SAV, subaquatic vegetation, to grow, so it naturally filters the water on the lake, and then it creates a healthy environment for the lake and the bass fisheries there and other organisms there as well to include some aviaries, birds that also require certain type of organisms to eat as well. So it's really looking at the ecology of the lake. But, again, LOSIM 2.0, so it'll be a great time to go through that experience. So we're looking forward to moving forward on that. But we conducted successful operations during that time. You can kind of see that we got into what's called the ecological envelope. This is the healthiest place where the lake would need to be naturally to create the SAV and the growth it needs. When our initial reports have received, at the lowest point, we had 4,000 acres of SAV, subaquatic vegetation, and our initial reports have over 28,000 acres, so we already have seen positive impacts from SAV growth on the lake. And then currently the highest peak we reached on the lake during the wet season was just under 14 feet. It was 13.99, what does that matter? Moving into this dry season, which, again, we're conducting a mid-season point dry season assessment now, and we'll roll out our strategy in the next several months, but that's going to have an impact on water supply. So as we approach what's called the water shortage management ban, the authorities kind of change a little bit. South Florida Water Management District has a lot more vote on how we conduct operations because they're looking specifically at water supply for the industries that rely on that. And currently WCA2, Water Conservation Area 2, which is south of us, is above schedule, but Water Conservation Area 1 and 3 are below schedule. So those, again, supply water supply for Miami-Dee County, Broward, and Palm Beach. So we're just looking at those. But great, successful operation. We were 238 days in the recovery envelope, so that allows that natural SAV to grow back. And we're expected we'll fall out of the envelope here shortly, but then we'll jump back into it in the new year. You can see how it jumps, the purple jumps on the other side in January, so we'll drop back in it. And we're expecting to be in that for a very long time through the dry season, and we'll be hopeful that the hurricane season won't be so bad in 2026. We were blessed this year that we didn't have that to impact our operations. So it was a very successful operation that we conducted on that. Again, this just highlights the SAV there and what we're seeing from a positive. And, again, we use a 16-gauge average. Other folks use different gauge averages, and the lake is so large over 700-plus square miles that we have to use an average base. We use 16 gauges, and other organizations use a smaller gauge set. But you have that wind velocity. It creates that energy that comes across the lake, and we need a truer value because it can lopside the one side depending on the wind velocity across the lake. Also, to highlight, we have the Okeechobee gourd came back during this operation. It was the first sighting in several years that this has happened. So this is great news and positive. FWC was able to conduct controlled burns out there as well to get some of that organic material out of the way so that it will be successful this coming dry season as well. And this is specifically within the IRL, specifically St. Lucie estuary here. So we saw great – or this is a Klusahatchee great recruitments on that. I don't know the St. Lucie – I don't know if I have that data in here. But we have seen positive impacts as well on the St. Lucie estuary as well. And then just kind of a snapshot of where we are on the recovery. So we did have impacts, right? So we're talking about balance. So we had negative impact to snail kites. So those aviaries that we're also trying to balance for wildlife had an impact there. So we're taking all these under consideration. But the AAR process, we'll be sending out a media release, a public release, for folks to provide input to us how it impacted local communities, governments as well. And we'll garner that and dress that up at the end of the year into the next quarter, sorry, fiscal years. So we'll talk about those details as we roll out. And kind of our goal as we move forward is to consider everything we have, and specifically the West Coast stakeholders, the Klusahatchee is going to – they require different needs in the St. Lucie estuary. So we're trying to balance those needs. And it's going to be challenging as we go into a drier season. And as we're projected to stay pretty dry throughout the entire dry season, it's going to be challenging to balance. But we're looking at that as well. And it's another great aspect of having these programs come online. The C-43 came online last year. So as water volume is available, they'll be able to store it there and have it for those needs of dry periods to be able to provide that water supply for their estuary because they have different seagrasses and freshwater grasses as well. C-44. So this specifically is, you know, a project that's local here. C-44 is currently at 7.8 feet this morning. Again, we've saved 22,500 acre feet from being released through the S-80 structure since March of this year, which is great news. We can't operate at full design criteria, which is 15 feet. We can operate right now at 10 feet. And we're working through what's called the seepage management feature. That design will be completed later this, I think it's fiscal year 27, and then construction will start after that. And then we'll start our OTMP, that's the operational maintenance and testing phase. We'll bring it up to 15 feet, verify that it can hold that, and then complete that turnover to South Florida Water Management District to execute right now. We're working through the challenges there. So that's the southwest corner of the project in that reservoir. And it's not a life health safety concern. What is a concern there is that outer canal, that is a seepage canal. These are mostly on all of our reservoirs because you have a natural hydration and hydrological pressure from the reservoir being above surface. That creates natural flow and percolation through those materials. On that seepage canal, it's called sloughing, and this is a maintenance issue for the mowers that have to keep that area clear and clean. For the wildlife that is out there, it's not a safety issue with the embankment itself. These meet our federal dam requirements, so there's no life health safety there. Put in any questions. If anyone has any questions on C-44. Yes, sir. Commissioner Capps. Yeah, I'll take you back to page 154. Loathsome. As I remember, this is a new way of doing things. It's a new plan. Can you just put it in a nutshell how that plan differs from the old one practically? So the prior water control plan for Lake Okeechobee was called LORS. That's Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule 2008 is when it was adopted. Loathsome was signed in August of 2024. The difference between the two water control plans is LORS was very, if this, do that. It's very much a flow chart. It's very much, it takes the human element, I would say, out of it. It's very analytical, very by the numbers. So if the estuaries or southern parts of the system are wet, you don't make releases. If you're at a certain threshold on the lake, you make releases east and west based on other requirements. Loathsome kind of looks at everything and says, okay, you know, we have estuaries to the east coast. We have estuaries to the west coast. We have the Everglades we're also trying to balance in Florida Bay. And is there blue-green algae on the lake? Is there all these other things? We can look at all that and say, okay, and specifically for Martin County, SAD structure. Within zone D, there's zero releases. Under LORS-08, based on hydraulical conditions, you could do up to releases through the SAD structure. So depending on how you looked at it, how commanders would view that, you would either get flows out of the SAD structure or you wouldn't. Loathsome is a little bit easier to read because most of the time we are in zone D, which means you would not receive flows through the SAD structure unless there was a life health safety issue from the embankment, if I'm looking at the lake side, from a flood risk management side. But that's why you had the C44 is to take that basin runoff onto the C44 basin and then pump it into the reservoir so you don't make those releases through SAD. And you might have seen that through the wet season where we backfilled into the lake instead of pumping it or to release it through the SAD structure. If we couldn't get the pumps that at C44 turned on quick enough to pull that volume or the rainfall is higher than what those volumetric rates to pull it into the reservoir, we moved it back into the lake to not damage that estuary, trying to balance that salinity level within the estuary. So those organisms specifically, what we look at is orchards there, but other seagrasses as well, depending on salinity gradients. So it's kind of balancing that. So it's a holistic approach versus a very flow chart, if this, do that, kind of mandate. So it's a completely different way of how we operate the lake, and we garner input from both federal, state, and local and nonprofit organizations to how we conduct operations. Where there wasn't that in the prior regulation schedule, it was we were going to execute, and we could communicate that or not. But it's a completely different way of doing business, and I think it's a more transparent way of doing business for everyone to see what we're doing. You know, thinking back on the history of when LOSUM came in, it seems like it came in after that lost summer, as it was termed. What was that, 2018 or something, 17, where we had the really bad green algae outbreak, and that created a lot of public outcry, and I think it seems like that's about when the LOSUM came into play, as I remember. But, you know, thinking about the issue of lake levels and a couple of the basic things that I have garnered over the years is that when the lake is too high, you know, it's a threat to the berm or the dike. But it also chokes out the seagrasses in the bottom of the lake, which threatens and imperils the life in the lake. And then if it gets too shallow, you kind of – I remember many years ago – I wish I remember when it was. It seems like it was about 12 or 15 years ago. We had a real crisis one summer with an extreme drought, and, like, islands started appearing in the middle of Lake Okeechobee, and there was a serious threat to the navigability of the lake. And, you know, you've got to – it's a very delicate science to keep those lake levels where they need to be. So hats off to you all for doing all you do. Yes, sir. It's a challenge to balance that. So we saw that under Lake Okeechobee recovery operations. We did have an impact to navigation, which is our congressional-mandated tasking. So, again, we have to balance all these things and looking at lots of different things, and we're trying to be open and transparent about the process to have input and provide that so folks understand when the decision is made it's not done in a vacuum, and we're really trying to understand the impacts to everyone that we're doing these operations. Well, thank you for your support. Yeah, Major, the reservoirs in SERP are the foundation of water storage, and seepage management is a problem on every single project, every single reservoir project. We know that their seepage management is not 100 percent at C44, so we know that we're still testing until we can create a solution. Cutoff walls are a solution that work. In the reservoirs that are being constructed now, are cutoff walls being used in order to manage seepage? Commissioner Hurd, great question. So C44 taught us a lot of different lessons, and that's a great point. So one of the impoundments in Broward County specifically, we stop what we're doing and add the cutoff wall design. So EAA has cutoff wall design. So these reservoirs moving forward, at least on the southern and eastern and western flanks of those reservoirs, will have cutoff walls to stop that seepage because we don't know what the hydraulic karst looks like underground. So underground is just limestone karst, and underground we don't know what that does. So when you create an above-ground storming pool, depending if that geology changes, you could have an impact like we saw with C44. And unfortunately, this cutoff wall going back on C44 is financially not worth that investment, but we're moving forward with 126 what's called seepage well management future. And I know that we're looking on trying how to move that forward as far as we can to the left to get that up to full operational capacity so we can bring that up to a 15-foot pool and save those releases out of the S80 structure when there's a lot of high-volume rain events across the C44 basin specifically. But, yes, ma'am, moving forward, we're looking at that. We're learning from those lessons that we made on the C44 project moving forward within the program. I'm just one person, but my vote is for cutoff walls as a solution for C44 also. Yes, ma'am. Commissioner Hetherington has a question. I was going to add into the loathsome conversation. Major Bell, thank you for being here. And you mentioned at the beginning of your presentation that you have to manage the stakeholders throughout the state and all of the missions that you highlighted at the beginning of the presentation. But you've always been very accessible and with a spirit of collaboration for our community. So thank you. And Commissioner Capps was talking about loathsome. And I think it warrants recognition of our county staff for loathsome because during that period we assembled – and we have new residents and we have residents that were here during loathsome. We assembled an all-star, rock-solid team, and that was led by Mr. Donaldson. And, of course, many engineers and many legal astute minds, John Mayle. So I just wanted to give some recognition because while our goal was zero discharges and we didn't achieve that, but we did pretty darn close. And I think that we put together a great team, and our residents should certainly recognize that. So thank you. Commissioner Campy has a question. More of a statement, sir. It's interesting, having had the opportunity to meet several of your predecessors, every time they are to depart, we are really mournful. But magically, the new person comes in, and you were a perfect example today. Obviously, you have the slides. But I'm just sitting here amazed at the depth of knowledge that you have on very technical issues, you know, binder-sized loads of information that you are just easily just calling right off the top of your head, specifically to our area. I'm sure you could get out of that seat and go down to Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens and further south or to Indian River County and give them the same customized, homespun version. So remarkable. We will miss you. I have my fingers crossed that whoever replaces you or attempts to will quickly come to the abilities that you have. We have really – I can't think of any that have really not been able to carry the torch. But today, it's just been remarkable. So thank you so much. Thank you. Just quickly, we talked about Kissimmee River. So this is north of the lake, which is, you know, impacts the lake, which impacts your estuary here. So we're moving forward on that. Increment one, again, is current operation schedule on that. And we're doing a new schedule as well under development. And that's all I have for you. Major, do you know if there's any dredging being done on the Kissimmee? Dredging? It may be by south Florida if they have projects. I know that we – I think we completed the dredging in St. Lucie. And I know that we've got awarded the CSRM project for Hutchinson Island as well. So that's moving through our process right now. But I can't speak to this Kissimmee River. I know EAA, south Florida, is doing dredging improvements along Miami County North New River Canal for the EAA because we have to have that advanced capacity to get to the EAA reservoir. So I know they're doing stuff out there. But we – I don't believe that the federal Corps of Engineers is executing dredging operations there. Any updates on the muck removal in – as part of IRL South? That's a great question. So we're still coordinating with Martin County on moving forward with that, along with all the other programs with IRL system suite of projects. I don't have any update – major updates to provide. We're still going through that. I know that Martin County voiced concerns about some oyster beds. So I engage our staff, the Corps staff on that, to make sure that we're not impacting those oyster beds that Martin County has invested into. So we're looking at all those different things moving forward, but no highlights yet. The MOA, MOUs, has kind of focused the district on executing – when I say district, I'm Jacksonville District – focusing on completing that by 2029. So that's where all of our staff efforts are right now focused on. Not to say that IRL is not important, but we've got to figure out how to get this completed in half the time. So it's a challenge. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. I'm highly supported and interested in the muck removal and the dredging. Banana River had a – does anybody know who did that dredging project? Because that seemed like it was a very successful project. I think Mr. Mayle does. Was that St. John's? It was the county? That's the county, Brevard. John Mayle, Ecosystem Restoration Division Manager. That's not right. Brevard County has been doing expansive muck removal projects. And they've – it's not a holistic project, but they're taking, like, hot spots that they've identified through survey and have – I think they've done about 400,000 cubic yards of removal all told through – you know, they have a huge chunk of the lagoon. And they've seen pretty remarkable results from that. They've seen the fishery rebound, the clarity, seagrasses rebound in those areas. So that's been a motivating factor for us to get highly engaged in keeping our muck removal project moving forward. Who's funding it? They have a sales tax that has done the predominant lift on that. So I've heard really good results from that project. Thank you. We do have a request to speak for them, and it is from Pete. Is this for this item or for the next one? Okay. We'll finish this item then. Any further comments, updates? I would say the muck removal project. Like, you know, I've been out at Representative Mast. I've been out with Captains of Clean Water, and it's – you know, we're doing all these projects, C44, C23, 24 reservoirs and STA systems. It will be super beneficial once we have those programs online and removing the muck and seeing the natural ecosystem respond to have those, you know, areas crystal clear with seagrasses again. So that's great news that we're moving forward on these things. But right now, federal funding is, you know, all hands on deck towards the EAA reservoir. So I just say that generally that, you know, it's still on our agenda item. We want to get it moved forward as well, but just be optimistic as much as we can moving forward throughout the federal cycles for funding streams. Commissioner Vargas. Yes. I just want to say I'm a scuba diver also, born in Florida, so I totally understand. I think that the presentation was excellent. As a layperson, I could understand what you're talking about. I've been to conferences that are dealing with this same issue. And I look forward to the day when we can finally say, gee, what we did, we invested all these years, has really come to fruition, and we'll be able to see a different St. Lucie River. I understand there's a vacuuming system that I think has been talked about. Can you address that? There's different methods, yes, ma'am. There's different methods on dredging. There's, you know, vacuum systems. There's crawl systems, bucket systems. So, again, you have to look at the impacts that you're doing during those operations, specifically when you do crawling or any type of armed, you know, mechanical means. It creates particulates in the water column that could be negative impacts to corals. So we have to balance those based on the environments that we're operating in. So it goes a part of our NEPA process and the SCA consultations with the federal services on how we do that and what methods are used. So it depends on the environment you're operating in and how you're dredging and how it's going to affect the environment. So we have to balance that as well. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Capps. Yes. One question about muck removal. I remember this came up when I was talking to John Mayo or someone recently about it, and it had to do with where to put the muck. And I suppose that's one of the biggest challenges, finding the right place to put the muck. And you would have to have a lot of acreage, I suppose, somewhere where they could have a big dirt mound, a very big dirt mound somewhere. So do we know how Brevard County managed that issue? That would be interesting. John Mayo Environmental Resources Division, they approached it with a myriad of different options, including some innovative approaches where they just asked landowners if they had spoil sites to where they would want the muck for one reason or another. But because it was kind of a compartmentalized effort, it wasn't like a holistic lagoon-wide effort, they were able to just do a little bit here, a little bit there. And so they didn't have to have a major single site to pump to. Thank you. Any further questions or comments? Terrific partnership. Thank you. Look forward to seeing you for the next update. Absolutely. And looking forward to the new integrated delivery schedule in January. Thank you. You're on. Welcome back. We're going to take up our 1130 preset, which is the Economic Development Toolkit, public hearing number one. Good morning, Madam Chair. George Stokas is back with you again, Assistant County Administrator. I hope to be brief but brilliant with my presentation. What I'd like to do is offer you the Economic Development Toolkit. As a visual, if you can imagine a box that represents economic development and various tools that are in the toolkit. The first one is the Opportunity Fund. It provides reimbursement grants for businesses committing to large-scale, high-impact projects with a minimum of $10 million in investment and caps the amount of the incentive to be at $1 million per project. The second tool is the Local Closing Fund. This delivers a gap-filling financial grant for critical projects, targeted investments of at least $5 million with a maximum of $500,000 per project. Expedited permitting accelerates development review and permitting for priority of industries, streamlining the process but not offering direct financial support. Training and workforce grants. This was a product of what we learned during the COVID era, which issues reimbursements for employee training and workforce development, including support for transportation and child care, especially in advance in green technologies. Industrial Development Authority Bonds. This was a pre-existing tool. This is an independent agency that reports to the board, but they facilitate the access to tax-exempt financing for large-scale county projects, and it's very heavily regulated through state statutes and its own board's policies and procedures. And then finally, one of the voter-approved referendum tool that is very heavily regulated through state statute is the ad valorem tax exemption program. It's also probably one of the most powerful tools but offers the least amount of flexibility. It offers property tax exemptions for qualified businesses based on a calculated, which is calculated via a scoring system based on job creation, wage levels, capital, and capital investment. Exemptions can last up to 10 years. This program was implemented in accordance to Chapter 71, Article 13 of the Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemptions, General Ordinances of the Martin County Code, and also under state statute, Section 196. To point out what are the big differences and why did we revamp the toolkit, I think it's important to point out why the old toolkit did not work and how we've made those changes into the new toolkit. Under the previous toolkit, the levels in which to meet the minimum thresholds to actually qualify for incentives were too high, and we were constantly receiving that input from businesses and prospects. So staff went back, and with coordination with the BDB, the Economic Council, other outside business entities, the Rotary, the Chambers of Commerce, we've reset the levels for achievable and attainable that can be achievable and attainable by businesses in Martin County and those that are seeking to move to Martin County. Under the old toolkit, everything was job-centric, job-centric, and as you know, for those of you who have been up on the dais for a while, we saw counties around us that relied heavily on these job-centric tools to only find out that later on and within a couple years, the businesses were gone, the jobs were gone, but the investment and the money was also gone. So under the new toolkit, we focus on capital investment. They actually have money that stays here in Martin County that is ultimately somehow recollected through the ad valorem taxation, regardless of company placement or whether the company stays here. And under the old toolkit, the county paid up front or paid at least 50% up front, and then the company was expected to perform. Under the new toolkit and through the guidance and help with Martin County Legal Department, we have changed the equation to the business must perform, and then we pay in the lieu of a grant reimbursement program. I think it's also important to note that as each business applies for these tools, that ultimately everything, the package will be brought before the Board of County Commissioners. The Board of County Commissioners decides whether or not that incentive package passes or does not pass. These are incentives, not necessarily entitlements. Finally, another thing to add is how is the actual toolkit funded? It is funded through the Economic Trust Fund, which is an ad valorem fund that is ultimately budgeted and money is given through a budget process. Currently, the ETF stands between about $1.3 to $1.6 million. I apologize. I don't have the exact number with me today. And then finally, I do want to point out that staff in consultation with other businesses and the BDB is aware of a couple issues that we would like to have changed based on some changes in the economy. And the first one, I'll just go under the Opportunity Fund to show you where we would like to make these changes. And the first one has to deal with business size. Initially, staff limited the businesses, and we're looking for Board of County Commissioner comment on this. We limited to businesses must have fewer than 500 full-time employees, but we were made aware by some local companies that had been bought out by larger companies that based on this language that they would initially be eligible, but once they had been bought out, they would not be eligible. So staff is recommending the elimination of the business size due to the fact that we would probably want to open it up to everyone to apply for a tool and ultimately let the Board of County Commissioners decide whether or not that company is worthy of receiving those incentives, regardless of size. However, we still do require that all these businesses must be legally registered in the state of Florida to do business as well as have an office address in Martin County, and they also must have a business tax receipt. So that's the first requested change. And then the second requested change is in light of the advent of data centers and how we as Martin County may be receptive or may receive inquiries to data centers, staff created a payment in lieu of taxes, no pun intended, but a pilot program, which would be for data centers meeting or exceeding the 100-megawatt threshold, may be considered for payment in lieu of tax arrangement with Martin County, subject to county approval and negotiation. It's a little bit of a backward thought. Pilot is not necessarily an incentive that the county is giving the company. It is more of a stabilization tool that allows county staff, through guidance of the Board of County Commissioners, to stabilize tangible personal property tax payments that would go from these large data centers to the county. And based on a stabilization mechanism, it was pointed out to staff that under the incentive calculation language, which is on page 100, I need to ask that the Board consider changing that, adding the language. I'm going to read it direct. That the pilot program will have separate calculations, but a maximum grant payment will be for $1 million, to make it unworthy that data centers are not entitled to more than $1 million under the Opportunity Fund. As far as how long we started this in October of last year, much of the language was derived from our economic development partners, the Business Development Board, the Economic Council. And unless the Board would like me to walk through each tool further in depth, I'm more than happy to answer any questions, comments, or address any concerns. And I also should say, Madam Chair, to my left is Mr. Kevin Crowder. He's our consultant, and to my right is Mr. Sebastian Fox, who helped us from the legal perspective. Questions? We have a number of requests from the public to speak. The first one is Pete Praveet. Is that anywhere close to being accurate? Please join us. Next is Paul Skiers. Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Pete Praveet, or Previtt, as some people say. I'm here in my capacity as a business advisor for the South Florida Manufacturers Association. The reason why I wanted to come here is because we work very closely with the Martin County Business Development Board, specifically William and Troy. In my capacity, I need to partner with local organizations that are able to provide resources to businesses that we work with. So it makes my job a lot easier when we have organizations that provide resources, they know the county, and they're able to support the manufacturing companies that we work with. If you're not aware, SFMA, South Florida Manufacturers Association, is under Florida MAKES. So Florida MAKES is the MEP, or Manufacturing Extension Partnership, of the state of Florida. It is government-funded, and our job statewide and in South Florida is to support the growth of manufacturers. So just in the last six months, I have personally had a lot of success working with the BDB. It's made my job a lot easier, and hopefully some of the folks on the BDB can talk to you about some of the successes that we have. So I just wanted to come and spend a minute or two just to introduce myself and talk a little bit about what SFMA does and the support that we're getting from your organization. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Paul Skiers is next, followed by Jeff Sabin. Morning, commissioners and staff. How's everyone doing? I would like to encourage you to support this economic development toolkit, primarily because it provides access to capital and workforce development for businesses here in Martin County, which is very critical for business growth, business expansion. In my capacity as a business consultant, I work with Inclusify, an entity that is also with the Business Development Board in providing capital for smaller businesses here in the county. And we couldn't survive without the economic toolkit. A lot of the programs that you have within that toolkit actually dovetail quite nicely into our financing programs. We can finance gap capital for entities that are getting reimbursed through that program. More importantly, as you look at the economic landscape and how businesses interact with each other, those small businesses that we finance interact with the larger businesses here in the county, creating a total cycle in terms of economic well-being. So my encouragement to you this morning, if you would, is to please support this economic development program as a mechanism for creating well-being here in all the county. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Sabin is next, followed by Harold Jenkins. Okay. Harold Jenkins is next, followed by Carmine DiPaolo. Good morning. Good morning. Well, when I left here, I said I will never do public speaking again. But here I am. So obviously this issue is something that's important to me. As most of you know, I was the liaison for the commission to the Business Development Board for the eight years that I was here. And this is a conversation that has been going on for quite some time, George, correct? Of what is an appropriate incentive program for a toolkit for Martin County. And now I saw the ebbs and flows of the Business Development Board. It currently has its feet under it. And I believe that this is a very fiscally conservative toolkit compared to our neighbors around us and throughout the state that is appropriate for Martin County. And I ask you to support it. This is something that George and Kevin and William's predecessor worked on for quite some time. And I think it's completely appropriate for what a tool for the Business Development Board to do their job as they were asked. And with that, a little personal note. I keep getting asked whether I actually miss being on the other side of it. And by the way, for some reason I'm more nervous over here than I was over there. Everybody is. Yeah, it's kind of weird. But I do miss it. I do miss working with the people in this building. I can't say that there's anybody that I ever worked with being a commissioner that I disliked. And congratulations. There is no more deserving person to be sitting in your position. There is some things I don't miss, anyway, as I walked in this morning. So, with that said, I miss you all. Commissioner Capps has a comment here. Oh, yes. Commissioner Jenkins, I just wanted to thank you for your service to Martin County for eight years on this dais. And for being a pillar of the community in Hope Sound, I have a little story to tell. I remember when Commissioner Jenkins ran for office the first time in 2016. And I went to a political forum, and he made a statement that I never forgot. He said, I bleed Hope Sound. He said, I bleed Hope Sound. And I remember that. And I know that to be true. And I know you have deep feelings for Hope Sound and the south part of the county and all of Martin County. And thank you again for all you've done. With that said, Blake, or Commissioner Capps, I'm sorry. You're doing a fantastic job. Thank you. Representing Hope Sound. And we all appreciate it. And everybody. And Sarah, I miss you. Ed, I miss you. Stacey, I miss you. Eileen, I never got to know you. But maybe one of these days. Thank you. I appreciate it. Mayor DePaulo is next, followed by Sarah Lynch. Now it's just the mayor of Indiantown. Big shoes you've got to follow. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Well, you all know why I'm here. And I've met with most of you, Taryn and I. I'm asking for your support on this toolkit. You know, I've always said that Indiantown and the coast, Stuart, the council, and the commission are connected. What happens here affects us there. What happens out there affects you here. So the only thing that we can do in Indiantown is good. We can add to your tax base. We need this toolkit so that we can attract the best of the best and bring some good-paying jobs and industry to Indiantown, which is something that we desperately need. As you know, we're building 3,000 homes out there. People are going to need a place to go to work. They need a reason to move to Indiantown. And we've got a lot of stuff coming up in the pipeline for our 2,100 acres of industrial land. And, you know, there's people waiting in the background to see whether this passes or not. I can tell you that. And I just, you know, appreciate your support, appreciate each and every one of you. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah Lynch is next, followed by William Corbin. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Sarah Lynch. I'm a commercial banking manager at Seacoast Bank, and I sit here in Martin County. So I just wanted to share that from a banking perspective, the Economic Development Toolkit is a smart, strategic move for the community. By tying incentives to verified milestones, the program reduces financial risk, and it gives lenders confidence in the projects that it supports. It also stimulates significant private investment, which strengthens our economy, and creates high-wage jobs. So programs like tax-exempt financing and property tax relief improve project cash flow and the creditworthiness, making businesses more bankable and reducing the default risk. Workforce training grants help employers build a stable talent pipeline, and expedited permitting accelerates the timelines, both critical for project success and financial stability. So in short, the toolkit creates a business environment where public incentives and private financing work hand-in-hand to attract high-value industries and expand our tax base, and ensure that Martin County remains competitive. So it's a win for businesses, it's a win for banks, and most importantly, a win for the community. So I hope that you vote in favor of this toolkit. Thanks. Thank you. William Corbin is next, followed by John Slattery. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Hope you're doing well today. I'm William Corbin, for the record, Executive Director for the Business Development Board of Martin County. And I'm here today to respectfully request that you all vote to adopt the proposed toolkit. The primary mission of the BDB, of course, is to help strengthen the local economy. And this proposed toolkit goes a long way to supporting that mission. In a competitive environment like the one we're in, we need to make sure that we remain competitive amongst our peers. We've got to capture, capitalize on a lot of the significant amount of investment, expansion, relocation decisions that companies are making every day. And the proposed economic toolkit will help us do just that. It features six key incentive policies. Each one is intended to support resilient, higher-paying industries that align with county and state strategic economic goals. Industries like advanced manufacturing, additive 3D manufacturing, green industries. The overarching philosophy and goal of offering economic incentives is really to encourage small businesses and entrepreneurs to reinvest and put money back into their companies. And this is made possible by, you know, those incentives because the incentives, they reduce the business costs, right? And the business owners can then put those costs and those savings, those cost savings, rather, back into their company to help them become more resilient, to grow, and to thrive. And in turn, the county wins as well because those companies will have increased valuations. And that will result in increased tax revenues to the county, which is a great thing, especially in these times. Finally, most importantly, this proposed economic toolkit was designed with the idea of protecting the county from harm. What does that mean? The application process, the compliance, reporting requirements associated with each initiative are pretty extensive, including clawback provisions to protect our taxpayers. And, in fact, speaking of which, the Martin County Taxpayers Association recently endorsed the adoption of the toolkit as well. So I hope that you'll similarly vote to adopt the toolkit. It will be great to have a meaningful resource like this at our disposal as your official economic development partner. So thank you for your time. Thank you. John Slattery is next, followed by Ted Estolfi. Hi, my name is John Slattery. I have a company called Catch Boatworks. We are a brand-new startup company that is launching our first boat in two weeks. And we just relocated to Martin County from Palm Beach County on October 1st. And primarily the reason we did that is because of that guy sitting right there, Troy McDonald, and his boss, William Corbin. They courted the heck out of me to come up here. And we were looking for space anywhere from West Palm Beach to Fort Pierce. And Troy was incredibly helpful about enlightening me about all the benefits of Martin County, including this program. And we're taking full advantage of it. And, in fact, a bit of optimism. I leased space for only three years with the intent to build a building after that lease is up in three years and take advantage of this program as well. So, they made it happen. They made me come here. We have five employees. I hope to grow that to 15 and develop my business here in Martin County. And it's all due to those guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and welcome. Thank you. Yeah, Troy McDonald is kind of a big deal. Ted Estolfi is the last request to speak for him. If you would like to address us, please fill out a request to speak for him and get it to the bailiff. Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, I'm Ted Estolfi here representing the Economic Council of Martin County today. As you might imagine, I support this toolkit. But I just want to say a couple things. You know, I've watched economic incentives being adopted and used across the state for decades now. And there's always been an argument of corporate welfare and giveaways and what I consider to be buying of jobs. I'm really happy that this toolkit gets away from paying for jobs and having these strict job requirements. It's really focused on capital investment. That's how the government runs is on the taxes. And we've always advocated for a diversification of our tax base to add to the commercial industrial tax base so that those taxes can be used to offset the residential tax burden for our community. But to do that, it often takes some enticing and some incentives to make that work. I think that the way this toolkit is written, where it's a performance-based payment, it's not a payment up front. We're not laying out cash. You receive the payments for those development review fees, the impact fees, all the rest of it, and you get reimbursed based on performance. So that takes a lot of the risk out of the program. It really is basically taking what they've paid and giving it back versus upfronting cash for anybody. And it's not paying for jobs. It's paying for the capital investment that's, without this, may not happen. But getting people to come in and make those large capital investments. And, yes, there's, you know, for instance, the state referendum that was passed locally twice now has a timeline, and it gradually decreases the value of that incentive. But that gives the company time to grow and be able to afford to pay those taxes on that program. And often that capital equipment in terms of tangible personal property ends its useful life within that time period, and they reinvest in new capital. So the value goes back up, even though the percentage that they get discounted has gone down, they reinvest, and the number goes back up. So it pays back fairly quickly to the community. And I really like the fact that it's based on capital, not just jobs. The jobs will come. People will create the jobs they need to create. But incentivizing the capital investment in this community that will stay here, especially when they start constructing buildings, is so very important. And it's actually quite innovative in the state of Florida. So, again, I urge you to pass this today. So thank you. And, Madam Chair, I apologize. Legal pointed out one of my mistakes already. I failed to mention that also attached to the board item is a policy ordinance update. Basically, the higher-level perspective of this is that it officially implements the toolkit as your central economic development platform and requires regular review by the board. It also clarifies the board's authority to levy annually an ad valorem tax not to exceed .1 mil. And, really, basically, the other two changes are it does allow for the county ad valorem tax exemption to be issued countywide. Current interpretation of that ad valorem exemption under the current ordinance is that we only incentivize non-municipal or those that are outside of a city or a town, as well as the other change would be it does require periodic reporting of the economic development trust fund as well as the reporting of any type of incentives through transparency and formal agreements. So, if you have anyone who can go dig any deeper, Mr. Fox will be more than happy to answer any questions. Whether he likes it or not. Ms. Elder. And just for the record to clarify that this is a public hearing and we're actually amending our ordinances, Chapter 71, Article 2 of the general ordinances and the amended ordinances attached to the agenda item that delineates Mr. Stokas' changes that he explained. Questions or comments? Commissioner Vargas. I've got a lot of questions. I've been looking at this very, very carefully and I do get outside information. So, you're stating here that you're going to levy an additional tax in Martin County to support this. Could you clarify that, please? No, ma'am. Your economic trust fund is budgeted through your normal budget process. The ordinance just says that the board has the ability if they would like to do so. I'm not recommending that at all. I just paid my taxes yesterday. I went down to the tax office so I could formally do it. There wasn't a person there saying, I love my tax bill. Not at all. The other thing is on 114, clawback provision. If a project fails to meet the terms of the bond agreement or does not proceed as planned, assuming after you're giving them this tax relief and also financing at a lower rate and everything else that you have under these different headings here, the county may require repayment of funds or implement other penalties as stipulated in the bond agreement. Why doesn't it say will? This is developed through the Industrial Development Authority, which is a separate entity that issues bonds and it's heavily regulated through state statutes. I don't – Mr. Corbyn is the secretary for the IDA. He may be able to opine on that. But my understanding is each lending instrument has its own provisions and clawbacks based on the specific bond that's issued by the Industrial Development Authority. Did you have a question? Yeah, that was the question. Can you repeat the question? I said, why does it say the county may instead of will, must? It's talking about the county. It's not talking about somebody else who's lending money. If the project fails. If the project fails. If they close up. This is for the IDA we're referring to, correct? Is that right? Correct. Yeah, so the Industrial Development Authority, their capacity is to issue tax-exempt bonds or projects that qualify under them. So this would be one of the tools that is utilized, you know, as part of our county toolkit that's less direct than some of the other tools in here. So this tool is essentially through the Industrial Development Authority, to which we are the secretary to that board. Yeah, I understand that. Okay, I understand what you're saying here. However, I can tell you Kroger has pulled out of Lake County. They gave them all these incentives plus tax relief. And now that commission is charged with trying to claw back. So how are you going to do this? We're not in a climate. The businesses are expanding. Also, PepsiCo. This is all in Florida. They employed at least 500 people. And the same with Kroger. And they have LLCs, and maybe our legal department can address that, too. They have different entities. How are you going to handle that? Well, the claw back provisions are all, you know, in the toolkit. Tell me about them. Tell us about them. I'll defer to the county to talk to that more. The consultant has graded that, the claw back provisions in and of themselves. So I think there are different ones that apply differently. So, Madam Chair, I think it's important to note that the Industrial Development Authority issues bonds, tax-free, exempt bonds, on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners as the Martin County Industrial Development Authority. You all appoint the members of the IDA. Each bond has its own agreement and has its own specific clawbacks based on that business deal. So when those are issued, it has to follow, I believe, SEC regulations. There's federal regulations that go with it. So the clawbacks, staff can't answer to you what the specific clawbacks would be based on default. Those clawbacks, as I understand it, are written as a part of each individual agreement, a bond agreement, as it's issued to the company. So for your example, Commissioner, if the IDA were to issue a bond to Kroger and Kroger then defaulted, the IDA and its legal, which also has its own separate council other than the county attorney, they would then go and work forward based on those clawback provisions that are stated and stipulated within the bond agreement. The toolkit does not – the toolkit is merely a guide that presents to each – at the end of the day, each – the Board of County Commissioners will vote on each incentive package. And within those packages are the clawback provisions. So for the IDA, those clawbacks are going to be different based on – because of the bonding, as it would be different than, say, the opportunity fund or the local closing fund because those have performance objectives and it's perform than pay. Whereas with the IDA bond, there's obviously a bonding, there's payment, it's heavily regulated through state and federal statutes, and then the clawbacks are stipulated in that agreement. Okay, so if I'm a business and I find my way by myself to Martin County, because they do businesses – we have the Florida Department of Commerce. I've been to those facilities, those offices up in Tallahassee. And then you say, okay, you're eligible. Which one would that be if you're going to exempt them from taxes, I think, up to 10 years? Is that correct? Ad valorem. So that would be the voter-approved ad valorem referendum program that's been around for more than probably about 12 years now. That's right. It has. Okay, so now my business fails. So how do I get that money back to the taxpayers? Well, Commissioner, first of all, staff doesn't approve that. That would be this body, the Board of County Commissioners. And if you go to – again, the toolkit's not going to specifically mention all of the clawbacks. But if the exemption is revoked, the property appraiser will – so if the business is no longer able to meet the definition or the business fails to file the required annual report or the business fails to fulfill any of the conditions, in other words, they go out of business, the property appraiser will assist in recovering of any taxes that were improperly exempted. And those clawback provisions would be stipulated in the specific package that occurs when you approve that. So, again, the toolkit's not going to specifically speak to the actual clawbacks. Those clawback provisions are voted on a separate package that was presented to that company that found its way to Martin – you know, company XYZ. You as a body will vote on that, which also includes the clawback provisions and the strength of those clawback provisions for the ad valorem exemption. Okay, so we'll have to see when that comes through because this is not a climate to be expanding. I'm talking about PepsiCo. They're a large, large concern, and they made a decision to go to another state. They're streamlining. They're more mechanized. They don't need the workforce, and that's the way things are going, you know, with AI. The other thing I have – I'm really concerned about is they talked about data centers. What is a data center? Could you tell me? I think I know, but I want you to tell me. Well – Information center. Yeah, there's different types of data centers, and it's really all about – Well, tell us about them. I will defer to the definition that's found within the state statutes that I referenced, 100-megawatt use. I think between the BDB and I would also say our partners at FP&L could probably give you a better definition. I'm not as tech savvy. I just know that commonly they're called data centers. And then when you go to the opportunity fund, and that would be under the pilot program, I define the eligible data centers are those that are – This definition was derived from the state statutes where the state is exempting sales tax. Data centers meeting or exceeding the 100-megawatt threshold may be considered for payment in lieu of tax arrangement with Martin County subject to county approval and negotiation. Okay, so we're talking about an entity that uses an extreme amount of electric power, water. We're talking about it could be noise pollution also. In the event of a power outage, there are large diesel generators that have to go on. Where would you be putting something like this? Well, that would be based on where the business would like to locate. I believe that with my very limited knowledge of data centers, they need to be in close proximity to 500-megawatt lines, which I believe – I think will leave run through Indiantown. I'm not exactly 100 percent certain on that. But like every single incentive, it will be brought together as a package, and you as the Board of County Commissioners will vote to not – vote as to whether or not it meets or exceeds your needs or demands for incentives. Okay, Indiantown doesn't have enough water. I spoke to the principals there, and they – well, we're figuring it out. That's nebulous. Figuring it out doesn't work. You know, they incorporated, everybody applauded, and that's a wonderful thing. But what went wrong? Where was the planning for this? And now you're asking us to say, sure, let's go ahead and just rubber stamp this and put this through, this toolkit, which includes data centers, which I already mentioned to you, and I learned a whole lot more about data centers. I wouldn't want to live near one. I know a lot of ranchers are very upset about that, the farmland also, and we're talking about out western Martin County. This is not Martin County. We're changing this entirely. I mean, you're talking about a huge amount, a huge amount of finite water. They don't even have it. They're building how many homes? A thousand, give or take. Oh, she's right in the back there. The mayor is right there. And the manager is there, too. He's back there. So where are the answers to this? The answers to what? What I just asked. What was the question again? Oh, my goodness. I'm talking about the water. I can't answer that question. But with the electricity, you know, that's an FPL question. Similarly, I know different areas are working on ways to solve their particular, you know, challenges, whatever that might be. But that's an answer that's kind of like fluffy, okay? I need substance. How are they going to resolve the present water situation? Lack of. I don't have that answer. Okay, well, you should if you're in the business development. You should. If you're promoting this, I would do my homework for this. You have to have an answer. But just to say, well, we're resolving it. And that was the answer I was given. Oh, good. Okay. So we're in the process right now of starting new wells. And we're in the process of design for a reverse osmosis plant. We're also upgrading our current facility that should give us probably about 30% more capacity than what we have right now. Hopefully, this will all be completed within the next 18 to 20 months. So, so far up to date, the state has given us $77 million. And there's another number that's being asked that we'll finish what we started. I'm not going to give you that number. But it's up there. And so our water problem, we realize we have a problem with capacity. But we realize that the people that owned the plant before the village purchased it did nothing for it. Indian Town has been neglected. I've been out there for 33 years serving the public. 33 years. I know Indian Town like the back of my hand. I know where the potholes are. I know where the good guys are. I know where the bad guys are. Indian Town was, oh, that's way out west. That's another county. Taxes came from Indian Town to Stewart, but never went back to Indian Town. Those people out there didn't have anything. I have to drive to Stewart or to Palm Beach Gardens to go have a steak in a cowboy town. So we don't have anything out there. But we're getting it. It's coming. Our infrastructure is being built. We have a plan. And if a data center wants to come to Indian Town, we will do everything, everything. I will do everything that I could possibly do to make sure that they're successful, as it is with any other industry. Now, I've spoken to you individually about a company that's called Renko, okay, that has a 50,000-square-foot facility that is just about ready to get to producing synthetic block for building houses. But they can only build 60,000 homes out of that plan. So I'm trying to entice them to come to Indian Town and build a 150,000-square-foot facility. That facility in Palm Beach has got $60 million in equipment in it, times that by three. That's what we're looking at here. That's why I'm so for. That's why I'm here. That's why we met with just about all of you to explain all that. And, you know, we intend, the village intends, this passes here. We intend to put it back on our ballot for August, and we are going to market it, and we're going to do exactly what this toolkit is to do. I mean, this is a great toolkit. I also sit on the business development board, and it worked hard to put this together. And it's a great tool, and you have nothing to lose because the great part of this whole plan is that you all get to make the decisions and put whatever you want to put into the mix of it. Can I ask you a question? No. Okay. Well, you know, you have the opportunity to do what you have to do with whoever comes before you. So it's not a losing situation. It's a winning, winning, winning situation. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here talking about it. Thank you. Well, you know, there are some things you have control of and some you don't. And you certainly have no control over about what's happening externally with the economy. Businesses are pulling in. They're not expanding. You may have small businesses, and small businesses are the backbone of our country. I get that. I've had small businesses. And, you know, as a business owner, you've got to run your company. You have to manage expenses, which government should be run more like a business. You have to understand your industry, your niche market. You have to hire and manage the employees if you have some. I understand this could be up to a sole proprietor, down to a sole proprietor. Is that correct? You eliminated some of the barriers here? I'm not sure because... Everybody needs to be sure. The thing is that you have to market to your customers, and you've got to develop a strategy for your retirement eventually. A lot of people just look to their business for their retirement. So I understand what's involved as being a business owner. I've been doing it many years, many years, okay, since I've been 18. Not that long ago. But anyway, having said that, the thing is that the water runoff, how it's collected, it's filtered before discharge, we're talking about high-capacity wires, transformers, transmission lines as part of the infrastructure, and it can be a grouping of these data centers, or it can be one monolithic data center. I wouldn't want to live near one. I wouldn't tell somebody. But you don't even have the fundamental in place, and you want us to go ahead and approve that included, that type of business included here. I don't see that. There's all types of businesses. I understand. It could be the gentleman that spoke about his boating business. I understand. I'm a Florida native. I totally get that. I've been a boater, all of that. I understand that. And that's wonderful. That's wonderful. But the point is, you have to have more control over what you're asking. And I mean this respectfully, you are building a lot of homes out there. You don't have the capacity. Where are you suggesting that we put data centers? I don't know. Maybe Mr. Corbin can explain. If it's not Indian Town, where would it be? Here? A vacant parcel of land that's in town? You know, we don't know enough about the data centers yet. We have some information, but I've asked him. He doesn't have the answers. So that makes me leery. I don't like to decide on something so quickly. I think the data center, I'm sorry, I think the data center is an example. Okay? There's no guarantee the data center is coming to India as of today. Okay. I understand. Carmine, I believe me. I understand. I like you. I really do. I do like you. Okay? All right. Thank you. I hope I've answered your question. No. Because 18 months, you'll have nice, clean water coming out of a brand new facility. But you drink the cup of water first before I do. Okay? But here's the thing. It's included in here as a description of the type of business coming. And we don't know enough about that. Indiantown is not prepared to receive that. Yes, I know about 18 months, and they can do fast-track construction. I've read this. I understand about the bonds. I understand about the money, the workforce grants. You say there's a fund that we're already putting in from ad valorem to be able to support this venture, this next venture, lower borrowing costs. But it's clean technology, information technology. That would be a data center. Global logistics and trade. It could be an offshoot of that also. I don't know enough about this, and I don't like to make quick decisions. I mean, this board has in the past done this, and I hope that they're paying attention and listening. I'm talking about two major companies that have pulled out. You can call those commissioners. And see, Miami-Dade County did this a number of years ago. It was a disaster. It didn't pan out, oh, there's going to be a lot of tax revenue. It'll be wonderful for the community. It got to be like a ghost town in some of the areas that were constructed. So, you know, what's the expression? What is it? Decide and haste, repent at leisure, words to that effect. People can find their way to Martin County. I think Indiantown, and I will never say it's way out there. Again, I was corrected by one of your commissioners. But it's a pleasant place to live for somebody who likes that peaceful tranquility. You have your certain section, and I toured that with you, where you're going to have your industries. But when you include something as these centers, and I say can be a grouping or a huge building, that's something that we cannot do. We cannot do. And you can only grow as fast as you can provide the finite resources. You can only grow that fast. So this may not be the moment for this. A toolkit can be spread across different areas. There might be warehousing, and they find their way here, but when you're talking about just build, build, build, build, build, without any consideration as to what that's doing, more to the citizens of Martin County. And the traffic, I got stuck in huge traffic this morning, not certain if I'd make this meeting, and I left on time. But everybody has their interest, and I understand Florida Power and Light has their interest. It's just the corridor from St. Lucie County, Martin County, and West Palm Beach, and that would be their dream to be able to build that. But that may not be right for Martin County. So those are my comments so far about this. And the heat that it gives off also, these centers. You can't deny this. You cannot deny this. Anybody who is to the sound of my voice. Yeah, I just want to go through some of the incentives here. Let's look, first of all, at the Opportunity Fund, which gives a business up to a million dollars worth of incentives, getting breaks on development review fees, building permit fees, impact fees, utility connection fees. Those things are not going to be provided for free. Staff is still going to have to review them. They are not going to be volunteering their time. So if we're giving an incentive of a million dollars to each business that applies for this, then taxpayers are going to be on the hook. So I disagree. This is corporate welfare. It's being paid for by the taxpayers. The monitoring is insufficient. The annual reportage is insufficient. The local closing fund creates incentives up to a million dollars, I think, also. For infrastructure improvements, roads, utilities, other public services, somebody's paying for those. We're not going to be providing those things for free. And if we're giving an incentive to a business, then the taxpayers are picking up the bill. Expedited permitting. Once again, if we're expediting permitting, we're using staff time and efforts in order to expedite the permitting. If the business is getting a break, somebody's paying for it, and that someone who's paying for it is the taxpayer. And then the training and workforce grants, I don't know where to start, except that there's transportation assistance, there's child care support, there's apprenticeship or internship programs. Who wouldn't love to have – what business wouldn't love to have all those things provided for free? It's not free. It's the taxpayers who are going to be paying for those. Industrial development authority bonds are just – go way, way, way too far. And then finally, the ordinance funding, the economic development fund is – it's millage that's levied on your tax bill in order to create uneven advantages for businesses. So if a person moves into Martin County and buys a house for $1 million, buys a house for $10 million, what kind of incentive do they get for making that investment in Martin County? You know, this reminds me so much of the biotech frenzy about 15 years ago. Oh, man, there were – the government, local governments, south of us and north of us, were giving away taxpayer money like crazy. How successful – and the taxpayers paid for it. And how – yeah, what happened to those biotech companies that came? They went. You know, this is just a – this is too risky for me. The taxpayers are bearing all of the responsibility. The taxpayers are paying all of the bills. This is – is one of the worst proposals that has ever come across my desk. Commissioner Campy. That's quite an introduction from me. I happen to be here last time when the toolkit came up. The room is echoing similar to what some of it was said back then. I think there's an important piece of the new pie that people are not thinking about, and it'll be coming very apparent in the next 12 months. Florida is poised to become the first state in the United States to eliminate the collection of property taxes on homesteaded residents. The cornerstone of that plan for the shortfall in revenue would be made up by non-homesteaded properties and businesses. That's the plan. I've been watching and doing a lot of research on this. Now, even after you doge every single county from top to bottom, there's still going to be expenses that the residents are going to require those services. Public safety is obviously the obvious one, and every county is a little bit different. We really support environmental protection and the protection of our natural lands as part of it. Martin County has purchased thousands of acres and are continuing to do that, and we're cheering about it. But they need to be maintained, and so even after a full doge, there will be expenses that have to be paid. So the first portion of the people that will pick up the tab—now listen, it's going to be on the—it's going to be a referendum. And I've been telling people, if you saw a ballot language that said, would you like to pay property taxes, yes or no, everyone's going to say no. Everyone. Everyone up here, I would bet, too. Now, there are some, you know, like, what would that entail? But if I live in Ohio, and this is where I have my second home, the first thing I do is become a homesteaded resident in Florida. Because if I'm already paying the taxes in Ohio, as an example, I would homestead here. So I would think that whatever that chunk of non-homesteaded residents are that we're going to rely on that money from, a lot of them will have a very easy path to now also join us as homesteaded residents, and good for them. So who's left? Businesses, commercial and industrial businesses. That will be the cornerstone of where the revenue will come from. Even after you've stripped away and went really draconian and stripped away all of the things that one percentage or another will say is not important to the government's day-to-day operation, there still will be expenses. So the average healthy balance of industrial in a community is 10%. That's what I've heard from my economic expert. Ours is 4%. We've always been sort of behind the eight ball. We've never wanted to be Palm Beach or St. Lucie, and we haven't been. For all the doom and gloom of the last toolbox and how the county's run away, this morning we had an example where our finance director has shaved down $7 million worth of prepaying loans and different things that we've done because that's the way the county operates. Oh, there she is right there. I see you. We're a very conservative community. When you heard about the biotech or other big businesses that were looking in Martin County, and I won't use an example, but it's a very well-known example of an entertainment industry company wanted to come our way. And they weren't even asking for much from us at the time, you know, early negotiations, meetings. But just knowing the nature of Martin County, the makeup of the board, the makeup of the staff, didn't work. Never came here. Shot right over our heads into St. Lucie County and agreed. It's easy to remember the failures because they're the ones that make the headlines. This one didn't work, but we didn't do it. So it's not like we have some crazy track record of just throwing money up in the air and seeing who grabs it. We are that conservative county. However, to have no strategy as we enter into this brand-new world, which I don't have a crystal ball, but I would guess we might be the first state that won't have a property tax. Remember, we also don't have income tax. Only seven states in the United States don't have income tax, personal income tax. So now we could be sitting up here a year, 18 months from now, wondering, what are we going to do? We've always had a difficult time. I remember once with a business in Palm City, one of our biggest businesses in Palm City. Technological company had a long, long history, and there were rumors in the neighborhood that the woman that owned it was looking to move it to St. Lucie County because they were literally just offering her all sorts of incentives. And so I met with her, and so did some of our staff. And what she really needed was parking. Her main issue to depart Martin County and Palm City specifically was there. She could not get enough parking for her employees. As the business grew, she couldn't do it. And so she said to me, Ed, they're rolling the red carpet out for us in St. Lucie County. I said, Mary, we don't even own a red carpet. We can't do it. But what we were able to do is work with our staff in growth management and engineering and legal, and we created an opportunity for her to buy a derelict shopping center that had tremendous amount of parking. And not only did she not move into there and close up where she was, she expanded into there. So if we want to talk about success stories or failures, we have, we can go all day long, I know this one worked, this one didn't, this one worked, this one didn't. What we're discussing today is not the specifics of an individual project that is looking for financial opportunities. I get the concept of corporate welfare. I get the concept last time when people said, and I was a small business owner, what about the business, whether it's a family or a corporation, that didn't get any incentives, that just pulled it off on their own and they did it? Well, a rising tide lifts all boats because I've never had any of them say to me, well, I'm furious at them. I didn't get it, so why should they get it? Because if you're looking at a community, there's plenty of people pay school taxes that don't have any kids in school because it's for the betterment of the community. There are people that pay, you know, fire rescue taxes, and God bless them, they will never call 911 in their entire lives, and good for them, but they still pay because it's for the betterment of the community. What I have found, sadly, in Martin County, and it's a very small minority, is people that are selfish. You know, we're called the selfish capital of the world. Sometimes I say we're the selfish capital of the world because if you don't play golf, you don't want golf courses. And if you're kids and you don't go to the beach, you don't think there should be lifeguards on the beach. And if you don't use the library, there should not be libraries. But luckily, the majority of us feel that for the community to be what we want, and there are non-financial advantages to living in a beautiful community, and there are financial advantages for everyone. So my concern is that all we're discussing here today, and it's, again, I'm going to say this repeatedly, thank God there's five of us, because there's five different, unique, all of us elected, all of us up here, sometimes brand new, sometimes a long time, to sort of, you know, represent the public. And I hear from my colleagues, and, you know, some of it I agree with, and some of it I disagree with, but my perspective is that, yes, we need to have some of these opportunities available. Will we use them? Will we hand them out like Christmas cards? I don't think so. We have no history of that whatsoever. The board makeup here is very unique. It's five very diverse personalities up here, sets of circumstances, business experience, moral compasses. There's a lot going on up here, which is a safety net. It's a guardrail for us. So I don't look at this as like, oh, my God, this is a terrible idea. I think this is literally the clever name of a tool in a toolkit, is that's all it is. Maybe we don't use the tools. Maybe we use a specific tool. Now, we got really deep into data centers, and I heard a mixed message. I heard that the future of business that is potentially frightening for some is AI. The only way AI works is through data centers. So they literally go hand in hand. So if you want to talk about the value, if that's your thing, of AI, and it's not going away. You know, when people said, why would I need to access the Internet on my phone? Why would I need to do anything but hit send and end? That's where we are now. And I'm not, you know, I'm not some expert in this, but anyone that's paying attention knows AI is the way. It'll be in every industry. The only way AI happens is data centers, and the Martin County AI needs are not going to be powered by a data center in North Carolina. They literally have to be very close to where the AI requirements are. The data is required. That's why they are close to electrical transmission lines. I don't know if they'll go to Indiantown, but I will tell you from a water point of view, the modern data centers are closed loop. They're not evaporative cooling systems. They're closed loop. They do not generate a tremendous or require a tremendous amount of water. They're relatively quiet. They do not require a tremendous amount of employees. So it's one of the biggest buildings that will have the fewest employees because it doesn't require. It's technological. It's not manpower, which some people are mad at because they're like, well, we want to hire people. So just using that as an example, that's not the boogeyman in the room today. It was just an example, but it's an important example because we're going to be spending, all five of us and all of you, a tremendous amount talking about AI and data centers for the rest of our lives. It's just the way. So you either participate or you don't. And in terms of what our next door neighbors to the south and the north are doing, they have offered up cautionary tales of what we should not be doing. But let's call a spade a spade. They've offered up a tremendous amount of success stories. And so whether you like economic development or not, our tax base will require us to diversify much more than we have in the past. We're going to really need to do some hand-holding. I get that people can find Martin County on their own. And the biggest advantage we had in the years past, and those of you that are in this business, St. Lucie County really rolled out the red carpet. But what Martin had that St. Lucie County didn't have is we had excellent schools, and St. Lucie County didn't. We still have excellent schools, but St. Lucie County does now, too. So the concept of they will have to live here, but they'll work and build their businesses there, that doesn't help us from a tax base. So I think, respectfully of my colleagues, we're going to agree to disagree on this. I think it's an important step forward. I hope we have not demoralized the folks that came and spent their mornings to sort of cheer this on, because it's important. And I will make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. Commissioner Hetherington. Thank you for all that. I'm going to keep it brief. I had written down property tax exemption, because I agree wholeheartedly with what you said. We are going to be finding new ways, as this next legislative session occurs, and unique ways to support the infrastructure in our communities. And I do believe that we are going to see some major changes in the way property taxes are collected. So time will tell on that, and I think that means it's incumbent upon us to support economic development, to diversify our tax base, because right now residential taxpayers are carrying a very, very heavy burden in Martin County. And I watched many years ago. I wasn't on the board, but as the mayor was up there from Indiantown, I remember Indiantown had a thriving industrial community years and years ago, thriving with the steel mill and the citrus industry. But if you watch, when citrus started being completely eliminated because of greening and all those industries, you started to see them disappear. I don't believe that we've done enough to attract new industry and economic development. So you watch how, you know, and Indiantown, kudos to you. You have done a lot to provide resources. I watched when Ecogen was not attracted to Indiantown, and that was the catalyst to incorporation and you wanting to control your own destiny. And I think you've done a real good job. My family still lives in Indiantown. I'm there quite frequently. So I think that's just an example to me that we have to, for our entire tax base of Martin County, support economic development. And while I don't think that this toolkit is perfect, I don't think much of it will be used, but I do believe it's a tool and I think it's important that we have it in our toolkit. And I think it's prudent that all of this is going to come back before this board. So I will support it. And I think it's, again, it's necessary and incumbent in order to diversify our tax base and not have the residential taxpayers paying the complete burden in Martin County. So I'll second. Commissioner Capps. Yes, you know, in Martin County, we're really into our quality of life and preserving the Martin County difference. And I often think about how that's not cheap. That's kind of expensive. If we want to fix our environment, if we want to have preservation lands that are taken care of and maintained, you need an expanding tax base to pay for it. You know, the economy and the environment have to work hand in hand. And I think our last budget cycle shows how we live in an inflationary economy. And whether we like it or not, budgets are rising in local governments all over the state of Florida. That gets a lot of attention these days. But it's a reality. You know, the amount of money that it costs to pave a mile of asphalt has massively increased in the last few years. And that's just a tiny example. Think about what has happened with the cost of your homeowner's insurance. Think about so many other things, the cost of food, the cost of fuel. All these things are always on the rise. And if you don't have some additional revenue coming in, you don't stand a chance of keeping up. You know, in business, we've learned over the years there are two ways to balance your budget. You can chip away at expenses or you can make some more money. And you need to do both if you're going to have a successful business enterprise. And I think we have to adopt that same mindset when it comes to economic development in a community and in a local county. So I think we need to be concerned about economic development to hedge against inflation and also to hedge against what is probably coming from Tallahassee very soon with tax reform. And I think it's important to remember, too, that we are in a competition if we want any kind of business or economic development coming to Martin County. These companies have options, and they're looking at those options. And they narrow it down, you know, to a smaller and smaller group of finalists. And they make a decision that is attractive to them. And if we don't have any mechanism to compete with that reality, we won't have any businesses coming. And we will suffer with a diminishing tax base. So I think this is a solid plan, and I'm going to support it. And one thing I thought I would mention from the motion maker, should that motion include the changes that staff has recommended? Motion maker agrees. Commissioner Vargas. Our country is $37 trillion in debt. My phone lines might write up, no, Ms. Vargas, it's $38 trillion. Okay. Well, I'm in the arena of that. Business failures are on the rise. I'm very familiar with the closed-loop system, by the way, for data centers. Very familiar with that. But I do want to say every time someone is given a dollar, someone else is working hard to provide that dollar. And this is what they called it, corporate welfare. This is not, this toolkit, it needs work. I want to support something like this. I've been in business both here and overseas. And I know what it takes, and I just recited it to you, what a business owner has to go through constantly. It's not a one and done. And I've asked questions of the business development board of Martin County. They couldn't answer my questions. That's what they do all day long, I assume. But I certainly did my homework on this. And with data centers, my understanding is you have to change, this requires a change of the county comprehensive plan. Yeah, there's a lot of caveats here. It's not all just, you know, it's a shiny new object, you know, this thing, and everybody's going to come, and everybody's going to be successful. And some businesses may, and some may not. So then if we don't have a residential tax, that goes away. And by the way, I'm very familiar with that, some of the proposals, which I'll talk about later on. Then, and if the business folds, then what? Then what happens next? Who takes care of the services that we demand and should be entitled to here as residents in Martin County, whether we're taxpayers or not? We have staff that we have to support, too. And staff time is taken away. Everything that our chairwoman heard has said, I agree with, and I cannot support this toolkit as it stands right now. There are too many unknowns. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. That motion passes three to two with Commissioners Vargas. And we are taking up our preset, which is the Indian River Lagoon Economic Valuation. And here to introduce the item is John Mayle, presumably. John Mayle, Environmental Resources Division. I am happy to introduce Valerie Seidel, who came on a request from Commissioner Hetherington, who heard her presentation, and Courtney's presentation to the Indian River Lagoon Council last month on the economic impact of ecology restoration in the Indian River Lagoon. It was a fantastic presentation. It's great science. And it substantiates the investment that all the local governments, the state, and the feds make in the estuary restoration. So I was pleased to have them be available to come give that presentation to you. Welcome, Ms. Seidel. Thank you. Afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you, Commissioners, for this opportunity. Again, I'm Valerie Seidel, and Courtney Cortez is here with me today as well. So thank you for this opportunity. We've been working with the IRL NEP over the past year to update their economic impact study. The last time this analysis was completed was in 2016. It was, you know, well overdue. And the previous economic impact analysis was your standard direct, indirect-induced type of economic impact study. And this time, Duane DeVries, the director there, really wanted more of a focus on the ecosystem services, which is, after all, what we value from the lagoon. So we really took the approach of focusing on the ecosystem services. Oops, okay, I told myself I had to do that the other way. There we go. Okay. So lagoon-wide, we used what's called INVEST. This is a model that specifically looks at the valuation of ecosystem services and find that lagoon-wide, over 940,000 acres of preserved land and natural lands are retaining more than 100 billion gallons of flood water annually. That's waters that would otherwise be in our homes and our roads and so forth. 52,000 acres are providing additional coastal protection because of collecting storm surge and so forth. 360,000 acres are providing water filtration and purification services. And all told, these lands and waters generate habitat, aesthetic, and recreational values. And when we look at these across the different services that they provide, based on very detailed mapping of vegetation and habitats that are there, we find over $10 billion in annual ecosystem services and economic values provided. And that ranges from $3.7 million in commercial fishing all the way up to $6 billion in recreational activities, shoreline, boating, and so forth. And including property values. So I'll talk a little bit about the individual values. So we looked at each of these across the data that's available using GIS mapping and published values. And so, for example, for coastal protection, we're looking at the difference in the exposure to coastal hazards with and without these natural protective processes intact. So basically, if you paved over the lagoon, what would you have left there? And so we use very detailed land cover data from Fish and Wildlife to estimate these coastal protection habitats. In the map that you see here, this is a little screenshot of Zuma near Tequesta, right there near the county line. And it's showing, in this case, some mangroves and oyster beds and how those are mapped. So when we look at these across the lagoon, that's about 52,000 acres of habitats that provide this coastal protection. That generates almost a quarter of a billion dollars a year in protective economic value. And the NOAA-funded projects that are underway currently are projected to add an additional $8.4 million annually. When we look at water filtration, similarly, we can look at the different types of habitat and vegetation and how they process nutrients and provide water filtration and purification services for us. And these are, mind you, services that we would otherwise have to provide through some built, you know, infrastructure or otherwise. So we have about 360,000 acres across these different habitat types, and that's generating more than half a billion dollars in public value annually. The NOAA-funded projects that are currently underway are estimated to add about $38 million alone in annual value. When we look at wildlife habitat, we all know that Floridians have consistently shown a preference for strong preservation of wildlife habitat. And again, using the FWC land cover data, we can see the different habitat types that the public has placed a high value on. All told, these generate more than a billion dollars annually in public values. And I want to just pause there for a moment. That's a big number. And I want to state that we used conservative estimates across all of these. So in every instance, there are higher and lower values that you can use across these values. And we have taken the lower bound so that there's room for recognizing that, you know, there's estimates. These are all estimates. And if you look on the right there, you can see the map, and that's showing how these ecosystem services vary by basin and by type. So anywhere from $435,000 in one of the sub-basins up to $90 million in annual services. And then finally, in aesthetic values or property values, this is kind of the cold, hard cash. So, again, if you paved over the lagoon, what would that house be worth if it were sitting there without the lagoon next to it versus with? And so we're able to tease out, for example, if you have a three-bed, two-bath home with a pool in a certain school district, and it's next to the lagoon versus if it's not, we're able to tease out that value of that proximity to the lagoon. And this, of course, values varies county to county. So in the maps here, you can see in Brevard, for example, being very close to the lagoon adds about $350,000 to the average sales price, all other factors being equal. In Palm Beach County, it's almost a million dollars. And when we look across the lagoon by county, you can see there in Martin County, we have almost $3 billion, just over $3 billion in added value for waterfront properties that we can attribute to the lagoon. We can annualize these values at using a cap rate, and that's generating economic flows of about $350 million every year to local coffers. Lagoon-wide, this adds up to about $22.9 billion. That sounds like a lot, but, you know, for context, each of these counties is close to $100 billion by themselves. So annualized, that adds about $1.4 billion to Florida's economy. And then we also looked at benefit-cost analysis across the NOAA-funded projects, and we looked across the lagoon. So we tried to pick examples that were not the most extreme case of any of these particular types of restoration or of any of the particular locations so that we were distributed across the lagoon, north, south, and so forth, and one for each primary habitat type. And we estimated their total costs over 10 years as well as their estimated total benefits over 10 years. So you can see in the first example, salt marsh habitat, the example was Karen Bay. The total costs are estimated about $380,000. The total benefits over 10 years in current dollars are estimated about $2.7 million. And they vary, you know, by type and by location. So when we look at all of them, you can see there on the left how they sort themselves out. You can see the two outliers there, Begon Point Marsh and the National Wildlife Refuge pieces. Those are both where we are removing impoundments, so we'll really be restoring fish passage in a really transformational way. And so the return on investment there is huge because they are transformational. They're having large areas of impact across a large number of habitats. But even if you took those out of this entirely, the return on investment would be about 10 times the dollar. So for every dollar you spend, you're getting 10 times back. Including them, overall, these projects are estimated about 24x. So for every dollar we're spending on these habitat restorations, the public is receiving a return of about $24. And then finally, we did also look at the standard sort of economic impact study. And this is looking at spending within Lagoon, so that direct spending impact. And then we margin that out for things that don't happen locally. So, for example, if you buy a gallon of gas, we don't make gas here. So most of that money leaves the local community. So we margin that out, and then we look at how much of that then creates indirect effects through payroll and so forth, and induced employment and spending from second round spending from those employees and businesses that are impacted by the first round. And what we find is that across the entire Lagoon, we have value added of about $15 billion annually. That includes that $1.4 billion from the property value impacts annualized. From an output perspective, that's about $26.9 billion in spending that would otherwise not occur. And this is supporting 128,000 jobs with total payroll of about $8 billion annually. So significant numbers, significantly larger numbers than the last go-around, as you would expect. And in the context of the other NEPs around the state, very much in line with what we see in Chennapp, Biscayne Bay, Tampa Bay, and so forth. When we look at this across the different sectors, you can see here how that 128,000 job sorts itself out. A large piece of that is associated with the recreation, which is, you know, what the public values in a great way for the lagoon. And one thing I'll draw your attention to is within the natural resource management area, while that only shows 1,000 jobs overall, we were able to identify 440 directly funded restoration jobs. And those 440 jobs generated another 600 indirect and induced jobs. That's important because they're generating more than one additional job for every job that's funded. If you look at some of the other sectors, for every job that's directly funded, they might generate another 0.3, 0.4. And in large part, that's because much of that output that's getting generated leaves the area. Whereas with your habitat restoration, I mean, it's generally they're local scientists, they're using locally produced materials, and so forth. So they really have an outsized economic impact. And then in terms of Martin County specifically, we find that Lagoon supports about 15,000 jobs directly based on employment numbers, about $800,000 in, I'm sorry, $800 million in annual payroll, adding about $1.4 billion to the local economy from $3 billion in total output. And that generates about $124 million in state and local taxes every year and supports about $176 million in federal taxes each year. And all of this data is available in a dashboard. The link is here so that anyone can go in and slice and dice this by their city, county, their habitat of interest, a particular area, priority communities, and so forth. And that is publicly available for most of it's available for 2012 to 2022. And, too, some of that data is only available from 2019 forward. But it is all there for individuals to access as they wish. And there you have it. Good demonstration of a good use of public funds. We find that the returns are more than beneficial to the public as they are spent. And happy to take any questions. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. No, thank you for coming here. I thought the presentation was so fantastic the last time I heard it. And how often do you hear that you're getting 24 times the return on the investment and the staggering numbers? And I think as Florida grows and even Martin County, we have 1,000 people a day, they say, moving to Florida. And many from other parts of the country that are not necessarily acquainted with our Indian River Lagoon and why it's so important and what the benefits are. I think it's important that we continue to share that message, why we're investing all of this time, effort, and energy in protecting our water quality. So thank you very much. Those numbers are absolutely staggering to me. Mr. Capps. The phrase that came to mind was, our rivers are the lifeblood of our community. And what does that seem so, based on what you've just said? I appreciate the presentation. It was very well done and super thorough. You're making my head swim. I was trying to think, is she an engineer or is she an economist? I think you're both, but very good job. Excellent presentation. Thank you very much. As they're departing, I've had the privilege of working with Courtney and Valerie in the past when they did work for the Florida Navigation District. And I know Valerie is a great presenter, but if you want to nerd out on the various analytical techniques, Courtney is the one you want to talk to. Thank you. Let's see, do we just have one item left, and that's the P3 project? Good afternoon. Afternoon. I'm Sean Donahue, General Services Director. This item is for the board to discuss and provide staff direction on an unsolicited proposal for a public-private partnership, a P3, from the company named Building Tomorrow Schools, Inc. They're a Florida not-for-profit 501c3 organization. The unsolicited proposal was submitted under the requirements of Florida Statutes Section 255-065 and the county's P3 policies in the purchasing manual. It was submitted specifically under subsection 3c of the Florida Statutes as an expedited project. The unsolicited proposal provides financing options and a cost to construct a 114,000-square-foot maintenance and operations facility, including all site and utilities work on the county-owned 30-acre parcel located on Waterside Way. The delivery of the completed building and site work is projected to be July of 2027, so it's an accelerated schedule. The unsolicited proposal provides a breakdown of costs for the project, including $6 million for soft cost designs, $63 million for the construction of the project and the site works, and then $5 million for FF&E, fixed furniture and equipment. It also provides for allowances for – I'm sorry, the total project is $74 million. It provides allowances for financing, three different ways – full financing by the proposer, partial financing with a buy-down option, and then the county's self-financing. We would look at all three of those. The proposal was submitted with a $25,000 fee as required by the county's policies. The fee is available to use for consulting review services to help provide evaluation of the proposal. This item is presented as the first meeting of a three-meeting process where we would – under Section 3C of the Florida Statute, staff recommendation is that we – the board accept the unsolicited proposal and authorize staff to analyze the proposal using the fees provided and come back with additional information. There's an alternative recommendation where the board would solicit alternative P3 proposals for the operations facility, and that would be according to Section 255-0653B of the Florida Statutes. Mr. Capps. Yes. I know that the relocation of the operations facility has been a long, drawn-out hope and aspiration. Does anyone have any idea when this became an issue and how long this has been talked about? 25 years ago. 25, is it that old? At least, yes. At least. So it's really long overdue. And, you know, the people who work at the operations facility have been very patient. So we appreciate that. And I'm comfortable with what I'm seeing here, and I would move staff recommendation. Commissioner Vargas. Okay, so I've heard everything you've said, and, of course, we had our discussion, too. $74 million is a lot of money. I know there are other entities out there that would like to throw their hat in the ring. And how are you continuing to actively solicit? If this was unsolicited, how are you doing this? And are there others? Because, you know, we have to have something that makes sense, too, economically. It's a lot of money, a lot of money. And whatever the going rate may be, I think that was your response to me. We really need to massage these numbers better. So whoever's going to come in is going to make a lot of money. Also, nobody's losing money doing this. So how are you going to continue to get more bids? The proposal was provided as an unsolicited proposal, so it was not advertised. It follows the Florida statutes and that provision. There is an alternative recommendation that we could reach out and get more bids and approach it that way. But we will come back with an analysis using our consultants to provide, you know, is this an affordable project? Does it meet all the requirements? Does it meet current standards, current price values? So that will all come back to us. Commissioner, if I may add, this is only the first step of a three-step process. So there's two additional steps, which we will be required by statute to come back before the board. So anybody that's interested in this project could submit an unsolicited proposal from now until we, the board decides to enter into a comprehensive agreement. The comprehensive agreement would be determined by the board at the second board meeting after the consultants bring their evaluation of the proposal. That would be our financial consultants and architect. So, Commissioner, the P3 process is new to us. However, we've had discussions with you all and amended our purchasing manual to accommodate the P3 process. And through our CIP process, there are a number of businesses in our community that are aware of our need for our public works facility. We've also talked about our need for the medical facility. And in those public conversations that we've had, we do know that there are entities that we're interested in submitting on these. So we do believe, while it is unsolicited and we're not, did not specifically solicit for this type of proposal, the opportunity, Martin County, has certainly announced not only through that, but we also hired some consulting firms that help us in the real estate that specialize or have a specialty with P3, that we have made it known to those that have done P3s that we are willing to accept P3s not only on this project, but on other projects that are listed in our CIP. So we would expect that during this time of evaluation that if there are any other individuals that are interested, they would be afforded the opportunity to submit, and that we would bring those to you just like this. And if we got a similar proposal for this project, we would then be analyzing them both on their own merits, but then comparing the two together so that we would follow that process. It's also important to note that this process does have its own procurement specialties in terms of cone of silence and all those, and we would be following that. So today's meeting is an example where we're talking about it, and any of the businesses out there that see this on the agenda affords them the opportunity to see that we are accepting P3 proposals for a facility like that. And so we would hope that if there are competitors, they would be coming forward in the next several months as we go through this process. Yes, I understand everything you've said. My question is, I understand it's 25 years, but this is a lot of money, and we have to be very judicious and fiscally sound with this money. How can you actively advertise in whatever platforms? And you may have to reach out to, I don't know the person, the entity, to say, okay, we are soliciting for this. What can you do to propel this? Because right now you're just going to be looking at the study that deals with the bond council, the real estate group, and the engineering architectural site planning. I understand that's what that money is used for, and that was part of the requirement in order to bring a bid forward to us. But what can you do to get the word out? Rather than happenstance somebody looks at this meeting today, that's not actively pursuing the best deal. Sure. So if the board decides to go through the expedited process, we can't solicit it. The alternative recommendation, if the board prefers to go through the solicitation process, we would be posting it and advertising it on the Federal Register. So that's ultimately up to the board today. Okay. I think it's important to solicit other bids. I think it's vitally important. In the meanwhile, you can look at this particular proposal based on the applicant's money. It's not costing us, and you can do your due diligence on that. But I would like to solicit other proposals for this. Commissioner Hetherington. What is the timeline that you project for the analysis stage? So if this was accepted, what is the timeline to analyze the proposal? Sure. So the second board meeting, we're looking to come back either in January or February with those consultants. Okay. So if we went where we could accept any other proposals, which would not be the expedited route, then in that time frame, in my mind, there has to be a cutoff because we have to be able to analyze and then move on something. But I would like if we were going to – if there's an opportunity that somebody would submit another proposal, I would like the opportunity to analyze that. But I believe there has to be a finite timeline so that we're not hanging up or even losing potential interested parties. So would you say then by the beginning of the year, if we did a non-expedited, that we could still say, okay, we're no longer accepting proposals? So if we're not – if we're no longer accepting proposals, that would take place after the second board meeting and if the board votes to approve the county staff to enter in negotiations for a comprehensive agreement. At the third meeting is when we would come back with that comprehensive agreement. So basically we have until either January or February how long it takes for the consultants to get this evaluation done and for us to bring it back to the second meeting, if you want, you know, we can – you can direct us to come back in February. That way it gives us time to evaluate this proposal. And should any other proposals come in, we would have this first step meeting as well to then evaluate that second, third, fourth proposal. I would like to evaluate it but accept other proposals while we're evaluating it and then have a deadline so that we can move forward with the project as well. Understood. Yeah, we have – this is new to us. And so I was prepared to be cautious as always. And this proposal is so thorough. It's so professionally rendered. Their references are fantastic. Their experiences are tremendous. I'm reassured, I think, that – and also their estimate that they could have a facility that we can move into in June of 2027 is really, really remarkable and very attractive. I think it's a great proposal. I'm certainly eager to proceed. Ms. Elder. Okay. Commissioner Vargas. I think that we also should make the decision today to put this on the federal platform that you mentioned and get the word out, do the advertisement. I think that's critical. That would be the way that I operate my personal life too. I get various bids. I just don't run with the first one. If there's no second, I will pass the gavel and second the motion. Commissioner, Chair, if I may, we need to accept – or we need to ask for public comment on this. I'm sorry, is there anyone from the public who'd like to address us? Thank you, Mr. Graham. So can you be the substitute? Can he be the vice chair? Yes. Uh-huh. Sure. Excellent. Call the question. So where – Isn't it Commissioner's Caps' motion, isn't it? Yeah, I thought it was. So then maybe Commissioner Heatherington should be the vice chair or Commissioner Vargas, yeah. Yeah. Want to be the vice chair? Sure. So the motion on the floor is to only move forward as an expedited? It is. I would suggest that I know the board is open to other proposals that staff would probably set a date to not come back before February or, you know, by the – no sooner than the middle of February to give other proposers the opportunity to come in. So I just need clarity. The motion on the floor would accept other proposals within a certain time frame? Yeah. So the expedited proposal allow – directs us to follow that procedure. But we can still receive other unsolicited proposals up until the time that you decide that you want to negotiate a contract. And so we're suggesting that would be no sooner than the middle of February. Okay. The second board meeting is February 24th, if that helps. Okay. I think the latter portion in February that gives us almost three months. But we can't solicit at all for them. They would have to be unsolicited. I just want to make sure that we – the motion that's on the floor, because that determines the way I would vote, that we could, if an unsolicited proposal, that also then would come to the board and be analyzed. Yes. If one were to be presented. It would be. And if we have several of them, we would discuss with the board about the timing of when we would bring both of those together. You know, so February is a timeline that we're suggesting, February 24th, that if we receive another proposal, then we would do that analysis. And we wouldn't bring both of those for consideration until staff felt that they were – we had enough data to – enough information to render a comparison between the two. Great. Okay. All right. Does that mean you're seconding my motion? Commissioner Hurd. Oh, you already seconded it. Seconded it. I misunderstood the parameters of your motion to – I thought I heard Matt Graham say that if that was approved, that we would not accept any other solicited proposals. We will accept them. Okay. We just won't advertise for them. Correct. So how can you not advertise so that folks know that this is an opportunity? It is a peculiar instrument of the P3 process for – within the state of Florida. And that is the peculiarity of the unsolicited proposal. Part of it has to do with the – you know, how we've had to redact things for the trade secrets and other things that unsolicited proposals have the opportunity to work with their local government on these types of projects. So we can accept additional unsolicited proposals, but we're not required to advertise for them under this process. But why don't we advertise for them? The motion on the floor is to accept the expedited process, which does not use the Federal Register. All right. So is it an additional month then to use the Federal Register? If I recall, I believe it's 14 days. An additional 14 days? 21 to 120 days. I'm sorry. What did you say? 21 to 120 days. An additional 21 days? No, two to 120 days, though. It could be – how long is that? Let's say four months. So we're already at the beginning of December. That's four months. Yeah. Okay. So an additional month, it gives us an opportunity to open up to see who else can make a solid proposal. But it could be up to four months. But it could be – we could put a – And that could blow our deal with the P3, right? I don't think so. We would get pretty close because there's a deadline with the existing P3, right? Don't we have to, like, sew this thing up by June of next year? Well, that's June. Yeah. Under the expedited process. Right. But you're getting – you know, you're getting pretty close if it took four months, you know. Yeah. I think any proposer is going to want an avenue of certainty. So if they don't have a decision, it would be like if you were putting on a roof and you put out a quote. If they didn't accept the quote for 14 months, the pricing may differ. Right. So I think that there has got to be some parameters. Well, we definitely could put limitations on that so the pricing doesn't differ on the roof. I mean, we're talking about a lot of money here, and people are kind of, like, not listening to this. This is a lot of money. And I think that we ought to explore all avenues to be able to get the best deal for our taxpayers. So this is not something to be taken lightly. And additional – what did you say? I'm sorry, Frank. What did you say? The minimum advertisement time in the Florida Administrative Register would be 21 days with a maximum of 120 days. Okay. So we could do it for 21 days then. Is that correct? Frank? If you chose the public bidding process, yeah, you could do 21 days. I think it's important. I don't think we ought to be closing off. I think we have to explore every avenue because we only have one on the table right now. I mean, I don't know unless somebody speaks to somebody at the supermarket or something like that. How else is somebody going to know that this is available? It's an option. For a viable concern, it might be another viable concern. I think that this home for public works is desperately needed. It's beyond time. And we need to evaluate this. And that's where the motion does is gives us an opportunity to use the $25,000 that the proposer is giving us to evaluate the viability of this proposal. And I'm confident that at the end of that time we will have a fuller idea of whether this is a good idea to proceed with. Okay, I'm not opposed to using the funds provided for the study. What I am saying is that we do need to seek other avenues, other options, as you would. You're buying a car. You're buying a house in a certain area, which is the best value. And we need to know this. Well, the $25,000 is from building tomorrow's schools. Building tomorrow's schools. I understand that. Anybody who would make a proposal would be required to put up the same amount of money so that we could do the study and make sure it's viable and feasible and cost effective. We have to have a good return on our investment for this. Anybody else have any comments, questions? We have a motion on the floor. And a second. All those in favor? What's the motion? Staff's recommendation to not analyze this. So we're not going to be advertising? Is that what I'm understanding? We're going to accept the. And to accept other unsolicited proposals. With a return date of February 24th for the second meeting? At the soonest. Yes. Okay. Any other comments? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Opposed. Motion carries 3 to 1 with Commissioner Vargas dissenting. And Commissioner Campy. And Commissioner Campy absent. Thank you. What else do we have? Would anyone from the public like to address us? Mr. Vargas, any closing comments? Yes, I do as a matter of fact. Last meeting, there were some comments made, which I think were not really well thought out. And I do want to say my contemporaries on the Martin County Board don't believe in attending conferences. But that is where you learn. And that is where a commissioner is able to talk with other 66 Florida County administrators and commissioners, city managers and city commissioners about challenges, issues, and the potential solutions. And by the way, at this last conference that I attended two weeks ago, the overwhelming focus was on controlling expenses within government, the property tax proposed reforms, and what revenue will replace the property tax revenue. Where will it come from? In addition, there was discussion, question and answer about data centers with the heavy usage of power, which we talked about this morning, water, which is finite, and it's all not recirculated. That's erroneous. That's erroneous. Land requirements and noise pollution, creating a strain on resources, which are, again, finite. By the way, the property tax proposals, I have two pages here, which I picked up, and there was spirited conversation, so I brought that back. But that's only if you go and attend conferences to be able to speak with others. So what I say is some of my colleagues on the Martin County Commission have stated that this is not the real job, and maybe just collecting a handsome check 26 times a year is okay. Well, this is my real job, and I take this position seriously, representing the taxpayers of Martin County. Let's go back to the conferences. Any Martin County commissioner is able to attend conferences, meetings, or other activities to make our county outstanding. But they choose not to go. Furthermore, it's a coincidence that Commissioner Hetherington used the Freedom of Information Act, a FOIA, to delve into my travel and furniture expenses, yet Commissioner Campy brought it up in the last meeting. Now, I wonder why that would be. Commissioner Hetherington. I'm going to have to step in and correct the record, because I didn't put any kind of FOIA request in. That's not my understanding. Commissioner Capps, any closing comments? I think I'm good, but, you know, the idea that none of us go to any conferences doesn't sound right. You know, I've been to continuing education. I've been to in Gainesville. Where else have I been? I went to FAC in Tampa. You know, we're going to be going to Tallahassee real soon. And there's some travel involved with the job, and conferences are part of it. And so the idea that none of the rest of us go to any conferences, I don't think, is accurate. I think we all go to the conferences that we feel represent, you know, our interests and whatever we can do to further Marin County. And I'm all set. We'll see you all at the Christmas parade on Friday, Saturday, Friday night in Stewart, Saturday afternoon in Hope Sound, and Monday evening, I'm sorry, Saturday evening in Indiantown. And there's tonight Jensen Beach. Join us for the tree lighting. On activities. Mr. Donaldson. Lots of them. Thank you. Ms. Elder. Clerks. We're adjourned. We're adjourned.