to the may 7th board of county commission meeting if you will stand for the invocation and remain standing for the pledge good morning please pray with me heavenly father we come to you today seeking your wisdom your clarity and your peace as we gather here today to attend to the business of governance we know that you are with us and that you are for us your word reminds us that the more we seek you the more we will find you lead us today and always in the path of your wisdom and your peace and i ask this prayer in jesus name amen miss butterfield good morning today we have for you a presentation by lance smith who is the managing principal of the office of central florida for clifton larson allen your board of county commissioners external audit form as you know each year the requirement is for the county to have an external financial audit and lance is going to present the results of that audit this year and just ahead of time i want to say thank you to lance and his team but to the board of county commissioners bill beasley todd bond and all of the team out there along with dd beaver the comptroller division from my office it takes a coordination to accomplish this every year and i appreciate their work also the actual annual financial report has been delivered the bound copy has been delivered to your offices which lance will refer to it will help you sleep if you need to but there's a great statistical section that is always of interest and we will post this also it'll be available on the website for anyone that would like to look at this so with that i'd like to turn it over to lance go right ahead thank you so much appreciate the introduction um again this is uh our first presentation was um earlier uh with the finance and audit committee where we went into a lot of details so we're going to give a very high level overview of the um annual comprehensive financial report today just uh as a reminder uh take everything i say in context of the entire uh kind of bound uh annual comprehensive financial report um several hundred pages there of uh good reading uh that will kind of cover everything that i'm about to give you in a very summarized uh version and so when we talk about doing the county the county's audit there's several different components to that um i just want to briefly cover those each of your elected officials um your constitutional officers um i should say have a standalone separate report all of that is ultimately combined with the board of county commissioners in the annual comprehensive financial report we issue in total roughly 26 different reports as well as seven different uh or i'm sorry eight different financial statements that we issue as well among other uh some financial reports that also will go to the state of florida so quite a bit that goes into that um again we looked at several six six different programs for compliance this year related to your state and federal funds so certainly a lot that goes into those financial statements and it certainly is a huge lift on both management of the board all of the constitutional officers in the clerk's office to make sure that we're able to to issue this report today and so i want to give you just a quick recap of those uh reports obviously i'm going to go into each one of those because that would take quite a bit of time but the most important one is your independent auditor's report that covers whether or not your financial statements are materially correct you received an unmodified opinion this is the best opinion that you can receive it's commonly referred to as a clean opinion essentially what this opinion says is we're able to say everything is materially correct and then we can kind of end it there we don't have to say except for this or except for that which is why i would use the term unmodified opinion so again congratulations on that definitely something that's earned and not just given out the second report that we issue is our single audit report over grants here we're going well beyond the numbers and we're looking at various compliance requirements everything from prevailing wage rates to procurement to eligibility if the grant has you know an eligibility component to it so we're going well beyond the numbers and really getting a deep dive on these various grants to make sure you're materially complying with all those rules and regulations glad to report you received an unmodified opinion and you had no material weaknesses which is which is awesome news so again unmodified opinion is the best opinion you can receive we did have three significant efficiencies which you'll find in the financials that we discussed at the audit finance committee but again they weren't significant enough to to change our opinion on whether or not you materially complied with all the rules and regulations of the various grants we looked at the third report that we issue is our independent auditors report over internal control so essentially do you have a an accurate structure and setup so that you can accurately capture your financial activity and correctly report those financial statements glad to report that we had no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies so again what we call a clean opinion on your financial on your internal controls over financial reporting and then lastly we also issue a management letter that's prescribed by the auditor general and glad to report that we had no written recommendations in there throughout the course of the audit we certainly provide feedback our our polk county-based team only focuses on governments we do governments really all over the southeast a lot here in Florida but again we're really glad that we were able to issue this report and again just want to say thank you again certainly an honor to both both live in polk county and also have the ability to provide these services to polk county and we certainly appreciate the opportunity thank you lance anybody got any questions looks like no questions good job thank you all right sounds good thank you again anything else thank you lance we appreciate all right moving on that was a nice three minute good job request from the general public i have a list of people here who would like to speak uh first one is carolyn williams after her is deretha tillman if you guys will kind of carolyn come up and deretha uh stand by in the batter's box good morning my name is carolyn williams and i'm a member of peace with st james amy church here in bartow we'll get your name and address uh carolyn williams 1015 gulfview avenue bartow florida 33830 thank you uh peace voted to look into the issue of elder care after hearing stories from members of our community about seniors being on a waiting list to get support uh families spending their entire savings on health care and the burden of caregivers taking care of their spouse or a parent in our research we learned that there are 184 000 seniors in polk county who prefer to live at home but services allow them to live independently or expensive and their caregivers don't have the resources to take care of them additionally there are around 45 000 seniors who live in poverty that's one in five seniors tasks that once seemed easy like cooking and cleaning and personal care now demands a helping hand and when seniors don't receive these services their health continues to deteriorate they end up being hospitalized and are having to live in nursing homes which is eight times more expensive right now 28 of the county's population is 60 years old or older and that number is expected to grow in the next 10 years at the same time services have decreased so as a result in 2023 over 3200 seniors were on a waiting list for community-based services and 2 000 seniors are on a waiting list for in-home services services things like assistance with cooking and cleaning bathing themselves respite care and making nutritional meals so i urge one of the commissioners to take the leadership and meet with peace so that we can discuss ways that we can support this growing population in our community thank you thank you dorita tillman and terry hutchins is on deck hello my name is dorita tillman my address is 1345 ninth court northeast winterhaven florida i'm a member of peace with hearst chapel ame church in winterhaven i'm deeply concerned about the care that low-income seniors have access to in our community and i urge the commission to meet with peace so that we can discuss ways that can support this vulnerable community my mom developed alzheimer's in her later years i was the only sibling that lived in town to be take to be able to take care of her so she moved in with us and it had a big impact on our family and was a huge and was a huge adjustment she eventually got to the point where she would only eat if i put food in front of her she would have starved to death if she was on her own she refused to become she started to become combated it was difficult to bathe her excuse me she became increasingly difficult to care for i was really worried about her being on her own but i could not afford to have anyone to stay with her and both my husband and i had to work i was constantly worried about her being independent and being safe but when i got found help i found out about a county-run daycare facility i was offered support from a social worker and i was given respite every other week it was a huge blessing for me and my family since then these services have stopped seniors deserve to be cared for and their family members deserve to to deserve support no matter their income peace is not advocating to reopen the senior centers but we also believe that the county cannot and the county should not get out of the business of caring for our vulnerable seniors i urge one of the commissioners to take lead and take leadership and meet with peace so that we can discuss ways that we can support our vulnerable community thank you thank you terry hutchins and chris christine race is on deck good morning my name is terry hutchins excuse me and i'm a member of the beacon hill fellowship church in lakeland i also serve on as a team leader and a board member on peace and i too am here to urge the commission to meet with peace regarding our vulnerable poor citizens that have no resources and are in their homes and sometimes have no care or um and it's just not okay for it to be that way i'd like to share one personal experience i can remember and my when i was younger my elder excuse me my elder um uh i can remember my grandmother specifically that she stayed had to she did get to stay in her home but she stayed with my uh with her daughter and it was really a hardship they were very very poor they had no resources and it just drained the family the family they needed respite so badly that uh and there was none there i mean the family could take turns but there was only so many of us and it was really a hardship so i urge you please to meet with peace so we can talk about ways that we may can come up with a solution to help these poor vulnerable citizens thank you terry can we get your address for the record 1147 waterfall lane lakeland 33880 thank you thank you christine and uh lois sorenson is on deck good morning my name is christine julevis rages and i'm a member of peace and i'm a member of saint joseph catholic church in winter haven florida my address is 126 audubon road winter haven florida 33884 and i am deeply concerned about the care that low income seniors have access to in our community and i urge the commission to meet with peace to discuss ways that we can support this vulnerable community i have personally seen struggles of many seniors to maintain their independence with minimal programs to assist them and your attention to this community need is imperative to avert a crisis in our elder population i ask you to please act and meet with us thank you very much thank you shauna fox is on deck good morning my name is lois sorenson i'm the pastor of reformation lutheran church a congregation of the evangelical lutheran church in america i also have some background with one of your commissioners having worked for him in my civilian job as a employee of the southwest florida water management district so it's been a while and i normally talk about hydrologic conditions when i would meet in front of him anyways but again i'm here as a member of peace as pastor of reformation we are a grandma and grandpa church that's how they refer to themselves and so it's not only me we are concerned about the care that low-level seniors have available to them in our community three quick examples diane has mobility issues she had to move into a nursing home because she could not get reliable sufficient home health care another example linda she tried so hard to care for her mom at home her mom had memory issues she only resorted to putting mom in a nursing home after her own health suffered because she could not get respite a chance to take a break from being the full-time caregiver of a combative formerly wonderful woman and then the third example is actually the person the prisoner that drove with me today she spent thirty thousand dollars to have her husband in care for just six months fortunately she had the resources many of our seniors in this county do not so with that having been said i urge the commission to meet with peace so that we can discuss ways in which we can support this vulnerable twenty eight percent portion of our population thank you given your background we would appreciate you praying for a little rain too we can believe you me yes i need to talk to my old boss as a matter of fact and tell him i am praying for him thank you uh shauna fox and uh i think that'll be you'll be the last peace person i believe speaking and then we've got a couple more after you go ahead hey um i'm shauna fox i live at 1020 sunshine way southwest in winter haven i've been a resident of polk county for 23 years um i am here because i attended an action that peace had uh last week and there were 1 000 of your constituents there and they are all we were all there in concern for this elder care issue so you may not see 1 000 people here today but there were 1 000 of your constituents who care about this in a building hoping that some action will be taken so we do urge you to meet with peace and it is not the time to ignore this issue in favor of other priorities 28 percent of our population must be a priority and we don't our our elders don't all have the means to age in place which i think is what we all wish for ourselves when that point comes because every single one of us will be in this demographic at some point by the grace of god so i just wanted to come here today and just let you know that there was a whole there were a whole lot of people there um who care about this and are urging you along with us to meet with peace and to make a commitment and a plan to care for this population thank you thank you next up jim powers good morning jim powers 620 osprey landing drive lakeland florida 33813 i'm the chairman of the polk county rec my 41 year career has been an information technology i have spent the last three and a half years studying and being horrified by what goes on in our election processes we have turned over the most critical part of our republic the means by which we select leaders to third party private companies who operate behind a veil of secrecy despite what we have been told our voting systems are absolutely connected to the internet and the very summation of our votes takes place in the cloud which is in the essence the essence of the internet experts in voting technology field sean smith and clay peric have given dramatic warnings about the gigantic vulnerability we face with computerized voting systems they have said that our systems are not tested properly at all and every one of about 100 systems which peric tested he could hack into quickly smith said that everything we have been told about the testing of our voting systems is a complete falsehood no voting system in the usa is certified for standards later than 2005 and we are completely unprotected florida uses dominion voting systems as an approved vendor to run elections in our state there have been several documented cases since 2020 when the machines programmed by dominion voting systems have given wildly inaccurate vote totals resulting in the wrong candidate winning races in county elections a case filed with supreme court by navy seal and lawyer kurt olson in march of this year showed the unconscionable security flaw in which the encryption keys are sitting in plain text on the database allowing a hacker to get into the system and create any any vote results he wants professor j alex halderman in a georgia courtroom in january demonstrated before a judge that he could hack into dominion imagecast x machine in seconds and easily change the vote totals we should stop using these systems immediately we are wide open for a bad actor to steal our elections we can go to a hand count process which if set up properly at the precinct level will give us entirely accurate results the night of the election and save us money how to set up and execute this process is well documented please pass a measure requiring our county to do a precinct level hand count of the paper ballots in every election going forward use whatever influence you have to compel governor desantis to call an emergency session of the florida legislature to mandate a precinct level hand counting process if the state fails to change the current law requiring the votes to be tabulated by electronic voting machines we can run a parallel process here in polk my analysis shows that to conduct a hand level count of all the voting cycles in a busy uh presidential year would cost our county about 292 000 which would amount to slightly more than one one hundredth of one percent of our county budget a very very small price to pay to get accurate vote totals that our citizens can trust thank you jessica post maybe good morning my name is jessica post i live at 1410 chamberlain loop lake wales florida 33853 i am here today to talk about how taxpayers money and how it is being wasted on river ranch acres and how polk county code enforcement has come onto private easements through knox locks that are supposed to be used for emergency purposes only after reviewing all of the data in the case 150 000 of taxpayers money has been wasted on only 10 people in the last year imagine there's 42 000 others just like it imagine the amount of money that you guys are wasting all these unpermitted structures were told by polk county here that it's river ranch go ahead and put it out there it's river ranch don't worry about it well now all of a sudden a cattle baron carrie lightsey was brought code enforcement in to start writing up people because he wants to free graze his cattle on private property this cattleman knows just like the other ones that in the state of florida free grazing cattle is illegal they are supposed to be maintained in their own pastures and in their own fences there has been several of the properties that are currently in this lawsuit that have already been written up once before over the last 10 years they were marked as unfounded which means and leads to believe that they saw these unpermitted structures and did absolutely nothing for the last 60 years that you guys have known about river ranch take a moment to think about how much money is being wasted just on 10 people 10 150 000 okay there's 42 000 other people on north side and south side river ranch that still need to be addressed for the same thing a few meetings ago polk county code enforcement asked to ignore the sheds and side yards of backyards and unpermitted structures that they had because they didn't have enough manpower and it was approved by you guys how do you think they have enough manpower to go after 42 000 people you are the commissioners and the stewards of our money to be spent appropriately for schools traffics lights roadways and much more we are already lacking in the school systems with teachers and proper educational funding but now we're wasting it on something such as river ranch that again you've known for over 60 years after reviewing rick wilson's deposition he entered south side river ranch to buy a disc for his own personal tractor and he was asked during his deposition under oath that did he see all these unpermitted structures he said yes he was then asked if he was going to send county code enforcement out there to look at them he said no under oath the only person i feel that i can trust on the county commissioner's board is neil combi in december 2023 he wrote an article that the government entities should have the rules and regulations posted clear and should not work off the hip i commend you sir for standing up for the polk county people that we have here at the end what is your end game thank you anyone else wishing to address the board all right we will move on with the consent agenda approval second we've got a motion and a second any discussion see none all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign miss butterfield good morning today we have for you to approve and ratify payroll checks number zero two seven nine zero through zero to eight six six in the amount of eighty four thousand three hundred seventy six dollars and ninety seven cents we have five thousand five hundred twenty six direct deposits in the amount of seven million eight hundred ninety three thousand eight hundred thirty seven dollars and fifteen cents and those are dated april 19th through may the third of twenty twenty four we have forty two million one hundred twelve thousand three hundred and sixty five dollars and sixty seven cents of wire and electric funds transfers dated april 16th through may the sixth of twenty twenty four we also have invoice checks number four five eight three five zero through four five nine six zero nine totaling twenty six million seven hundred thousand two hundred twenty nine dollars and ninety nine cents dated april 16 through may the sixth of twenty twenty four for you to approve and ratify please move approval disbursement second motion and second for approval any discussion see none all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries we also have the minutes of your regular board meeting that was held on april the 16th of 2024 to request your approval of those minutes please got a motion second for approval any discussion see none all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries anything else no sir thank you thank you nothing from randy mr. beasley good morning mr. chair members of the board members of the viewing audience the manager's office will have six items for board consideration this morning item number h1 is to request the board approve a construction contract with strickland construction incorporated in connection with the construction of the polk county sheriff's ridge district station to be located within the poinciana community this will be a one-time expense not to exceed 10 million 543 327 dollars today's board action will include the requisite community investment program amendment and budget transfers in direct response to the continued growth within the poinciana community polk county has completed the public solicitation process to secure bids from qualified contractors who were interested in the construction of a new sheriff's district substation to be located at 9530 marigold avenue this project will consist of an approximately 22 000 square foot building that will include a community room various office spaces interview rooms holding cells vehicle sally port and a satellite fleet maintenance shop bid number 24133 was issued and five contractors submitted bids the lowest responsive responsible bid was being submitted by strickland construction incorporated in the amount of 10 million 293 327 dollars a recommendation of award was issued and no protests were received in accordance with uh with resolution number 13066 250 000 has been added to the contract value to address contingency and allowance work contract time for this project has been set at 397 calendar days this project is included within the board's adopted community investment program funds in the amount of 8 million 232 478 dollars are available in the american rescue plan lost revenue fund for this project the additional 2 million 310 849 dollars will be transferred from the general capital improvement fund reserves to this project budget so mr chair members of the board in keeping with the board's priority commitment to public safety i would request the board to approve a construction contract with strickland construction incorporated in the amount not to exceed 10 million five hundred and forty three thousand three hundred and twenty seven dollars in connection with bid number 24133 to include the approval of the community investment program amendment amendment and budget transfers as stated so mr chair the sheriff is here i you may want to defer to the sheriff before you take action on this item sheriff you want to sell us on this idea i would love to you know it's my honor to be your sheriff and i think this board of county commissioners for making public safety their top priority that's why crime is at a 50-year low and unincorporated polk county in our service cities that is why over 100 000 people have moved to this county in the last four years because of your remarkable leadership i've also been dealing with commissioner santiago this is in the poinciana area for those of you not familiar with poinciana it is a city in and of itself and it's divided among two counties so if you can imagine if you're from lakeland florida avenue on the east side being one county and the west side being another county that's exactly what we have there the people of poinciana have asked for years for a police station but quite frankly up until the recent past the population hasn't dictated that now this growth will not only be for poinciana the station will not only be for poinciana but it will be for that entire sector of the county we're going to call it the ridge district at poinciana if you approve it if you don't it doesn't make any difference what the name is but i have to brag on each and every one of you it is our opportunity to once again stay on the cutting edge so that we can deliver the services to all of the people of polk county as the population of this county has gone above 800 000. this design is the basic northeast district design which i hope saved us a lot of money we did a few tweaks to it architecturally but basically it is the same exact district station that you approved up in alpha dunson road north of the interstate several years ago with the the largest addition is we have a fleet maintenance bay so we can do oil changes tire changes minor stuff that otherwise it's cost prohibitive to drive a vehicle across the county and we can do it for less costs than private enterprise so we can save money there as well but it's the right thing to do and it's the right time to do it because the population explosion in the northeast area so we are going to divide that northeast district up and we're going to to have a smaller northeast district that operates out of dunson road and as the population march comes south then our ridge district at point sienna will be their police station but it will also deal with the population march in the unincorporated area as it moves south and east of highway 27 seems like we broke ground on this like two years ago or something actually it was two years ago was it two years yeah yeah yeah so i think however the conversation has been longer than that so mr chairman yep i make a motion to approve this and i second it okay any other comments i do want to say thank you for moving forward with this this is exactly needed in that area and the growth i know these gentlemen don't want to hear it but it is the fastest growing area in our county and we definitely need to continue to make sure that our citizens are safe so i'm looking forward to this what is it called now ridge district station i got to get used to that the ridge district station at point sienna at point sienna thank you so much you don't think osceola would just want to buy the other half of uh point sienna and just put it on anyway go ahead neil i never really thought about the uh florida avenue analogy before but uh i can see where that would be quite a challenge the uh the area certainly deserves service and i'm happy about this but before you leave i want you to give us the good news update uh on the deputies sure thank you very much as you know two of our deputies were involved in a horrible tragic violent death-defying situation as it turned out a week ago saturday morning when what started as a very minor event we were patrolling the green and duff road area we had recently had a break in into the concession stand there and we have these young gang bangers that have been flipping handles so we were there looking to protect the community when we see this what we thought was an empty vehicle it turned out it had not only had a person in it but had a sovereign citizen a moorish sovereign citizen for those of you who are not familiar with sovereign citizens they renounced the government they suggest that they don't have any any responsibility to comply with federal law state law local law and as a result of that when we were trying to check out this person to see why they were violating the county ordinance to be in the park and were they in fact the burglary suspects that we were looking for this person absolutely totally refused to cooperate at all zero so when we explained to him and spent a great deal of time trying to de-escalate the situation we said look if if you don't show us some identification if you don't step out of the car we're going to have to take you out of the car you're now resisting our lawful duty and responsibility of keeping the community safe and you're violating the law he continued to argue as we started to take him out of the vehicle he pulled a gun and shot two of my deputies deputy craig smith was shot in the arm he now has rods in his arm his healing is going to be significant and take a long time at the same time he shot lieutenant chad anderson and that bullet pierced his arm went into his chest cavity and lodged between his heart and his spinal column he was fractions of an inch from death or paralysis from the chest down and of course we returned fire and that guy won't ever pull a gun and shoot at another person so he is graveyard dead but he asked for that and we obliged him and we gave it to him the good news is deputy craig smith went home in just a little less than a week and just i think uh eight days after the shooting chad anderson lieutenant chad anderson went home his re his rehab is going to be long as well but they're alive and well and and i'm grateful and it's just a god thing that they're alive so thank you for asking their update they are healing they've got had tremendous support from the community which is typical in our county they've got tremendous support from this board of county commissioners certainly from the sheriff's office but i can't thank the community enough but you set the tenor commissioners with your great leadership here you set the tenor for the county and how we look out for and take care of people in the community and at this very dangerous time when our deputies had to do what they had to do to stay alive and to protect this community they protected us but we only can do what we can do and the reason we have this low crime rate unlike this national angst that's going on we don't have that here it's because of leadership such as yours but thank you for asking sheriff we're always praying for all your deputies all the time thank you sir all right uh let's uh did we get a motion all right all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries go forth and build thank you sir thank you sir mr chair members of the board item number h2 is to request the board to approve a construction contract again with strickland construction incorporated for the construction of improved roadway maintenance facilities at the frost proof area roadway maintenance station this will be a one-time expense not to exceed four million four hundred and ten thousand dollars polk county has completed the public solicitation process seeking qualified contractors who are interested in providing demolition and new construction services at the county's roadway maintenance station located in the frost proof community the scope of work will include the demolition of two existing structures and construction of three new facilities to include a 4700 square foot office administration building a 4 100 square foot fleet maintenance facility and a 4 000 square foot equipment storage facility these planned improvements are part of a 10-year asset upgrades program approved for the roads and drainage division bid number 24 127 was issued and five contractors submitted bids the lowest responsive bid was submitted by strickland construction incorporated in the amount of four million two hundred thousand a recommendation of award was issued and no protests were received in accordance with resolution number 13 066 210 000 has been added to the total contract award to address contingency and work allowance issues the contract time for this project has been set at 300 calendar days this is an approved project in the board's adopted community investment program and funds are available in the transportation millage fund for these designated purposes so mr chair members of the board i think in keeping with our asset management program and in keeping with the emphasis on roadway maintenance and the assets associated with that i would request the board to approve a construction contract with strickland construction in an amount not to exceed four million four hundred and ten thousand dollars all in connection with bid number 24-127 any questions move second got a motion and second for approval any further discussions and then all in favor say aye aye aye those like sign motion carries mr chair members of the board item number h3 is to request the board approve a construction contract with the chrisdale group incorporated for the fort fraser trail extension project this is a one-time expense not to exceed six million nine hundred and forty three thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars and twenty cents polk county has completed the public solicitation process seeking qualified contractors who were interested in the paved trail construction of the fort fraser trail extension project the current trail runs parallel to us 98 for about seven and three quarter miles along an abandoned railway line from state road 60 in bartow to state road 540 in lakeland the proposed extension will add approximately two and a half miles up to the existing trail starting at state road 540 winter lake road and will run parallel and adjacent to the polk parkway to lakeland highlands road and then traverse north north to glendale street bid number 23 444 was issued and two bids were received the lowest responsive bid was from the chrisdale group and submitted in the amount of six million six hundred and ninety three thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars and twenty cents this project is partially funded through the florida department of transportation shared use non-motorized sun trail network program the sun funds have been budgeted in the amount of three million eight hundred ninety seven thousand nine hundred sixty dollars with the remaining three million forty five thousand three hundred thirty eight dollars and twenty cents budgeted within the transportation millage fund a recommendation award has been issued on this project and no protests were received in accordance with resolution number thirteen zero six six two hundred fifty thousand dollars has been added to the total cost of the contract to address allowance and contingency work the contract time for this project has been set at 365 calendar days so mr chair members of the board consistent with the board's commitment what i think is to passive recreation and paved trail extensions throughout polk county i would request the board to approve a construction contract with the chrisdale group in the amount not to exceed six million six hundred ninety three thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars and twenty cents all in connection with bid number 2344 approval second got a motion and second for approval any discussion seeing none all in favor say aye aye all right those like sign motion carries mr chair is a side note about 56 almost 60 percent of this project is being paid for out of state funding the other 40 44 is being paid for out of county funds and as a side note holloway family that donated the uh easement portion of that necessary for that now orlando health acquired some of the property during our conversation with mr holloway and they agreed to honor the commitment he made mr chairman of the board item number h four is to request the board approve a local agency program supplemental agreement with the florida department of transportation to provide additional uh construction funding for the construction phase of the inwood elementary school community sidewalk improvement project this action will include the requisite community investment program and budget amendments to accept additional state revenues totaling 554 455 dollars in 2018 polk county submitted a grant application to the florida department of transportation as part of the safe routes to school program in connection with a proposed inward elementary school safety initiative while the original grant request totaled 565 246 the florida department of transportation only approved 360 264 to be applied towards future construction costs all other all other related design and construction engineering and inspection costs were to be provided by polk county polk county has recently completed the public solicitation process seeking qualified contractors interested in sidewalk construction in close proximity to both the westwood middle school and the inward elementary school bid number 24-011 was issued and three bids were received with the apparent low bidder being submitted by cm engineering services in an amount of 871 160.64 a recommendation of award has been issued and no protests were received in accordance with resolution 13066 43 558 000 and three cents or roughly five percent has been added to the total contract award to address contingency and allowance work conditions a contract award totaling nine hundred and fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars and sixty seven cents should be submitted for board consideration within the next two to four weeks the contract time for completion of this work has been set at 160 calendar days upon approval of the community investment program amendment and resolution a budget uh revision in the amount of 554 455 will be added to the approved inward sidewalk improvement project to reflect total construction funding available in the amount of 914 719 dollars so mr chair members of the board i think in keeping with the board's commitment to pedestrian safety i would request the board to authorize the chairman to execute the proposed florida department of transportation local area program supplemental agreement to accept these additional construction funds in the amount of 554 455 dollars and to approve the corresponding community investment program and budget amendments for receipt of these unanticipated revenues so mr chair i just want to clarify this is simply an action accepting additional state money so we can subsequently make the construction award in the next two to four weeks all right i move this on behalf of the chairman represents inwood second got a motion and a second for approval any discussion cnn all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries item number h5 mr chair members of the board is to request the board approve a contract with the central florida health care organization for the proposed purchase and renovation of a new community health center located within the mulberry community this is a total amount of indigent health care funds of not to exceed four million dollars the central florida health care organization is a federally qualified health center providing primary and specialty care dental and behavioral health services throughout polk county the central florida health care organization is contracted with polk county to provide services to low-income polk county residents including polk health care plan members the central florida health care organization submitted a request for funding needed to purchase a building and for partial funding needed for the renovations to create a new community health center within the mulberry community central florida health care organization currently operates a facility in mulberry providing primary care and dental care with the purchase and renovation of a second facility of approximately 14 000 square feet the central florida health care organization will be able to expand adult medical services pharmacy services and add gynecology services the existing facility will then be designated for pediatrics and expanded dental services this contract will become effective april 1 2024 through 8 september 30th 2025 this funding request was presented to and is recommended for approval by the citizens health care oversight committee funds are available in the indigent health care fund for this designated purpose so mr chair members of the board in keeping with what i think is the board's commitment to improve improvements in public health i would request the board approve the proposed contract with the central florida health care organization to purchase to for the purchase of the property and partial funding for the renovations cost and providing a new community health center within the mulberry community motion for approval okay and a motion and a second any comments questions george yeah would you roll back to the artist rendering i just want to draw attention that that's the former pen fed credit union building there in mulberry which has been vacant now for several years and i think this would be a great addition to the community and it's a community and it's a great facility and uh look forward to the innovation and occupation mr i just recognize ann clausen here again and thanks so much for being here and your support and for as long as you've been doing it in this community thank you ann any other comments all right uh we got a motion second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries next item mr chair members of the board final item from the manager's office this morning item number eight six is to request the board approve a contract with the winter haven hospital doing business as the center for behavioral health for proposed facility renovations and the purchase of related medical equipment and supplies this is a total amount of indigent health care funds not to exceed 408 966 dollars in response to a request for applications through polk's indigent health care initiative the winter haven center for behavioral health submitted a request for partial funding for construction expenses in connection with the renovation of their existing center for behavioral health located within winter haven their proposal also included a request for funding of needed equipment and supplies for the expanded offices and common areas the winter haven center for behavioral health is currently contracted with polk county to provide behavioral health services to polk county health care plan members and to provide specialized community care team services to low-income polk county residents the proposed facility improvements will create seven additional offices and a small conference area for those behavioral health providers this contract will become effective april 1st 2024 and conclude through september 30th 2025 this funding request was presented to and is recommended for approval by the citizens health care oversight committee funds are available in the indigent health care budget for this designated purpose so mr chair members of the board again i think in keeping with the board's commitment to improvements in public health i would request for the board to approve the proposed contract with the winter haven center for behavioral health for the partial funding of renovation costs equipment and supplies for their existing behavioral health facility located within winter haven oh approval second motion and second for approval any discussion see you none all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries uh george yes sir mr chair i'd like to make a motion to appoint susan l smith as a member of the housing finance authority for the remainder of a four-year term ending january 22nd 2025 second got a motion and a second for the appointment all in favor say aye opposed like sign she is appointed uh chairman like to follow up on a couple items we had friday in our general discussion agenda review and that was the uh discussion about the equestrian facility that's been hanging around for so many years in fact i think it predates everyone on this commission except me during my rookie year when this thing first came to pass uh we struggle with it with um over extended period of time along with the fort mead folks and now the bartow folks of express center so moving forward and have done some preliminary planning in that regard the discussion friday indicated that we would abandon the bartow efforts and instruct staff to proceed with the county doing this on our own within the funds that are designated for that purpose before we take that vote i would like to have mr her and his team at least make a presentation and share with us their vision of what they propose for this facility how they're going to finance it how they're going to operate it and maintain it at least we have the benefit of that alternative before we make a final decision of going on our own okay um want to say something yeah uh you know we're and we talked about this friday uh i i pretty much know what the bartow has you know their ideas and what they want to do with this and uh you know you ask how they're going to finance it uh they cannot they are not possible of financing their dream of this equestrian center and what happens on this deal and since i've been involved with it george is right it's been around a long time we've got x amount of dollars to do something the biggest thing i wanted to do was to keep have somebody run it be able to take care of it and keep the county out because county's got quite a few of their own projects going on in parks around this county and what has happened the vision how this got started out and the vision of what i would like to see is a agricultural equestrian linked facility uh our youth fair and our place down here on highway 17 we're out of room i'm not looking i don't think anybody's looking for all this millions upon millions of dollars everybody gets off track on what i would like to see anything's possible down the road but for right now we everybody looks at this as a money making opportunity the cities wouldn't be involved in it or wanted to be involved in if they didn't think it was a big grandiose deal to make money but some of the stuff not down in them i i admire their force their thinking of what might can be done you know the city of bartow here but what i seen was 150 million dollar project at the end of completion which would take years and years to do and how funding that was the next thing was asking me well y'all can help and you can do this and you can do that on money i'm just saying what i would like to see is what we have intended to do for years and years we have the ground we have the personnel let's build what we got so our youth fair can be if they want to be enjoined in it that's the main thing our youth fair our equestrian center can be part of it we'll go from there now friday we were going to run some numbers and look at it the more and and i if i remember right when we first i sit down with my car i'm the one that went there and sit down when he first came here and i said we've only got a short period of time i want to move on that that was over a year ago so we have done more work the county itself than anybody including fort meade and barton and that's why i want us to do it and get this ball done that's all i mean i know i got a little lengthy there but that's the story behind it mr chairman yeah i certainly do not object to having mr herr come and make a presentation in fact i even support the idea uh to give them a chance to you know say hey here's what we where we are and where we're working so we're all uh working from the the same page and understand what they've got into it or what they might like to do but i i tend to agree with uh more with commissioner wilson that if it's going to get done it's going to be on us but uh so i wouldn't want to really slow down uh anything that the commissioner wilson wants to do in pursuing uh an opportunity on that property but at the same time not get too far ahead of ourselves that we can't you know properly evaluate and listen to uh what uh mike and and uh the folks on his team may be willing to to put out but i uh we're we're not going to build a world equestrian center here whether it's us alone or us in cooperation with bartow or any other city and uh but we we can and have spent a lot of time not getting anything accomplished on it that's for sure and that's unfortunate so mr chair mark i don't know how quick mike can turn around but probably our next meeting and come in and talk i would think did you have anything yeah my my concern is that when we dealt with fort mead we we just kept they just kept pushing us forward and forward and forward in the sense that they were going to look into it find the funds and so forth and so forth and until the very end then it came out that they were not going to be able to afford it i don't want to see the same thing happening to bartow i mean mike could make his presentation but here's the thing if i don't want us to wait again as we did with fort mead until we could figure out if they could do it or not um so you know the sooner we we get this done the sooner we agree on who's going to take care of this the faster we go the better it is i just don't want this to drag out anymore well i share that concern but i don't have the benefit of mr wilson's conversation with uh mike and his team i wasn't a fan of this thing to begin with and it goes back 10 years so a few more weeks is not going to make a difference but before we may very well come back to what mr wilson has described but i'd like to at least hear what the alternative is before we embark in that that direction it's not going to that will affording them not that opportunity the next two weeks or 30 days is not going to delay if we choose to go forward uh on our own or we choose to scuttle a project altogether so i think it's a courtesy and and i'd like to hear what the plan is and and before making that final decision all right so we'll move forward whether bartow's in or not but uh agenda review the next agenda review we'll set aside some time and see if bartow can make it and make a presentation how's that yes sir mr chair i i i i'm guessing that mr hurd probably won't make the presentation it may be um one of the consultants that had worked on that plan but some team from bartow would be available we'll coordinate that yes but in the meantime we're doing what we're doing yes sir okay and i got one one quick question for you what we're doing is then showing what the 6.3 million dollars would can do and do would would provide and um do we have a park that makes any money a profitable is there such a thing no i i don't think so i didn't think so parks is a is just a is a core service that we provide that the citizens want whether it be active leagues whether it be passive parks it's just part of the tools in our bag and that the public expects but to say that they make money no sir okay all right do you want to yeah go ahead did you want at the agenda study at that meeting set a date in which he comes or have him make the presentation no i'm sorry i'm gonna have him make the presentation our next agenda okay i just want to clear that sorry and you know this is what we run up against and i we're just all we're going to do is add time and time and time to this deal just like we have in the past there we have 6.4 whatever million dollars set aside for this project what bartow has envisioned in this project is like i said multiple multiple million dollars so you're wanting them to come here and explain to you how that you know they're going to do this they don't at this time and point have a clue because they have no money so i'm just saying i'm with you but all we're doing is pushing this thing down the road and sitting around waiting on somebody to make a decision on something when they got bigger fish to fry mr chairman after 10 years two weeks is not going to make a difference i may very i may very well come to the same conclusion but at least i'd have the benefit of knowing what you know yeah i don't really know how uh we plan to go forward on evaluating the property and what six and a half million dollars that we have set aside we'll do for it but uh i i guess somebody can start that process we talked about that friday and that's what our staff is doing with what we've got they're actually i think keith's already working up a um a a basic uh this is what we could x dollars in site work x dollars in a building restrooms we'll tell him not to stop yeah yeah don't stop doing it don't stop as far as parks making money and unfortunately i couldn't make it there uh probably the closest thing we'll ever have to it is bone valley and i didn't make it down there okay all right all right george anything else yes sir i want to follow up another item that we discussed at friday and that was uh the extraordinary action by mr smith as a member of the planning commissioner uh really going outside the parameters of a protocol as a planning commissioner uh i think that was bad act on his behalf uh shows a lack of respect for the protocol and and how things are structured regardless of the merits of the issue being discussed it was the manner in which this was was brought forward so i'm i'm suggesting that mr smith might be asked to either resign or as at a minimum i have a uh remedial training session with the county attorney's office again obviously he missed something and uh he cannot be uh allowed to participate until he completes that remedial training all right rick okay yes uh is that i would make that as a motion what's a motion but as a minimum mr smith will be would take remedial training with the county attorney's office he missed something in the protocol lesson before he's allowed to go back to uh sitting on the board all right a second guys for a second anything else that's it yeah i wanted to talk about uh bone valley uh this past weekend we had the uh ribbon cutting for our bridge that was connecting the two properties uh to from bone valley south to bone valley north uh if y'all if the people i mean people need to go out and look at this it's unbelievable what we've got out there you know bone valley bone valley south started uh around 15 or 16 turn and just been growing ever since the re and the growth of the atv market and the growth of what the people coming out there we were you know very lucky to get some property across the road and it's just uh it's turned out to be a very very populated people coming there riding their atvs a safe place for them to go with the new uh north side we've got a lot of room to grow and i just want to you know i want to thank the past commissioners that started this deal i want to thank the commissioners now that has supported what we're doing uh just saturday i was basically told the the uh the pop uh the uh admissions there for a normal deal would be it has doubled uh but that was saturday i mean there was almost 500 people out there were motorcycles little bitty kids big kids all having a great time and uh but this is really turned out to be a when they get done with the north side when we get done with the north side it will be a premier 80 uh i mean motocross track uh the one of probably the best in the southeast and it's and the hard work with the county and everyone has has done that so i i suggest anybody go out there take your atvs out motorcycles you don't have one we've got rentals out there i still think but just go out and have some fun that's what it's about because people don't have a place to go and do these kind of things like we used to back in the day and uh so now we have a place so go use it anything else nope martha you're going to take your motorcycle i'm going to i have my motorcycle ready george are you going to join me my big little big for that trail whatever whatever you call it um i i just have a question i know joy johnson is here so maybe she could help out we've heard some couple of people talking about the elderly care this morning and it just brought me to all the programs and everything that we do through the indigent health care and i just want to know in what ways uh are the elderly cared and if you don't have that information because i'm putting you on the spot if you could bring it back to us because i just want to know how much is being done in the county for that she is an encyclopedia of what's going on in this county that's that's why i said if she doesn't have the information she could come back it doesn't exist i do i don't mind mentioning that we are in the process of putting together a team to do some explorations on some unmet needs and gap analysis in the community the elderly population and some of the needs going on that we're hearing has come to our attention and if there's an opportunity that we can align the use of these dollars to help meet some of those needs we definitely want to pursue that and bring back recommendations to the oversight committee to eventually come back to this board so it's going to take some time but we are working on that we have a plan and we will start mobilizing on that soon right that that's great to hear and i thank you for that because uh the the the comments that were made they wanted to meet with either one of us here and basically i just we just need to know what's going on with with your programs and how it's helping out absolutely and i too will be meeting with them as well okay thank you anything else nothing else neil well as i said i couldn't make it out bone valley just couldn't make it fit but i sure wanted to go and see uh what the county staff had uh accomplished there and i guess when the north side's done as commissioner wilson said it will be spectacular and uh you know i i don't look back a lot on decisions i made and unfortunately i didn't have to make a decision on this because it was just in the early stages but uh randy wilkinson was the one that kept wanting to said we need to build this we need to build it get people a place to go and i wasn't that keen on the idea he was there saturday oh i'm sure i'm sure but uh anyway i'm happy to hear it especially when you look at uh the situation at rancho bonito that you all don't see nearly as often as i do and how uh disorderly disorderly out of control the uh the what the neighbors out there have to put up with because of the wild wild west nature of that place uh i'm really happy that bone valley exists and and would uh even look to uh see that expanded in the future if uh the capacity or if the demand exceeds the capacity that we can serve out there when the north side's done so hopefully there'll be opportunities down the road to expand it even more the other thing uh oh i'm sorry well let me get take put this uh out here i need to appoint adam bass is an alternate member of the polk county planning commission for remainder of a three-year term may 7th 2024 to july 1st 2026. second got a motion in a second uh all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign all right while we're on the subject of planning commission and mr smith who is uh my appointment to the planning commission and uh whether he's a good guy bad guy yes man no man uh whatever uh i think we need to get the county attorney to prepare a memo for all of us and the planning commission uh about what is protocol what the parameters are i think that was the word you used george parameters and protocol what they may or may not say what they can or cannot say what's uh uh you know what are those boundaries the difference between legislative action and quasi-judicial action uh and and a clear distinction between those two randy for us the board and the planning commission and mr bass i don't know what kind of what kind of a spokesman for anything he's going to be i didn't i didn't question about that he had an interest in serving and somebody said he would do a good job so i put him uh up on here to get appointed so i don't have i don't have any agreement with him about what he will or won't say or what he likes or doesn't like so uh but i think it's important because one i'll defend mike schmidt because it is a legislative issue and it'd be just like us sitting up here with something coming before us that we don't like that we you know are sworn to silence and we can't say anything about it i mean that obviously is not the case and if it is the case i want you to put it in black and white randy uh do you understand what i'm saying if i may in lieu of doing a new memo we have a huge training that we do for for the planning commission i would like to send that to you all so y'all at least can see what we are the training covers and then if you think anything additional or you want you're shaking your head no that's my head no no i want a memo from you that says here's here's you know what is quasi quasi-judicial and here's how uh board members board of county commissioners and planning commissioners because they're basically uh operating in our stead is that right but it's a point they're making a recommendation to you all and yes at level at level three they're they're level three they're making the final decision in lieu of you all covered by statute but what i what i could do is if the board so directs i'll do a memo but i also want you to see this training that we do it's not uh yeah i want to train that for sure it's not a short training that that they're going through here's a question i think it will help everybody if there's there's five members of this board and if the board wants to put something forward and we're going to have a public hearing which we want the public to know about theoretically uh we put it given by law required to put notices out that we're having a public hearing so the idea that you announced that hey there's going to be a public hearing uh seems like a public service already nevertheless if i don't like something that three members here or four members like i think i should have the right to say if it's legislative before that meeting at the grocery store at the barber shop at church wherever that i don't like and i'm not going to vote for it but uh you're welcome to come to the meeting and if you want to support it come on if you're opposed to it come on but i think we need something concise uh so going through the training program uh is all well and good but i think we need something that's uh more well more concise and more executive summary for people that aren't going to go through the training and have no interest in being a planning commissioner or a member of this board but still want to know you know what the rules and regulations are what etiquette is what protocol is okay if that's you you understand yes the question yes okay and you don't go to the barber shop what are you talking about i used to anything else i got shamed out of going anything else that's all all right and randy you'll you'll you'll get that uh to us and the training package too because that was some well it's my turn now anyway but that was one thing i wanted to talk about was i would like to see what kind of training they get um but more importantly we still have six six people that's showing up so what what what are the what dictates how many people are on the planning commission as far as alternates well i think mostly our ordinance but what what we were planning on doing we had discussed this at the county managers meeting within next agenda review or the following one to come back to the board with some suggestions address some of your concerns regarding alternates not showing up right possibly adopting a policy of you know if they don't show up this is what the steps are so we were going to follow up with that discussion and bring something back to you all it works if that works yeah that works i mean it's just a a hugely important job and that involves tens of millions of dollars in development money whether it's spent or not spent i mean these guys that come before it deserve a yes sir that's a well-trained well-versed group to to make the decision and that's our plan it brings us back at the next gender review or the following gender viewing and george quickly as part of that consider requiring the alternates to attend you're stealing my thunder that's that's the things we were planning on bringing back for you or at least one alternate i mentioned friday that right so so that's one that's one that's one of the things we were going to suggest mr chair there are several things staff is kicking around that we will bring back the two big pieces that we're talking about is increasing the amount of alternates and requiring an alternates attendance at every planning commission meeting and that and i'd be fine with paying them i mean if it gets down to that well i don't think the statue will allow us to pale uh so you keep making it harder you know i mean i i understand what everybody's saying here 100 but we have a hard enough time getting to come now yes so if you go to hammering on them we're taking more courses and what are you going to do if they don't show up well that's what you're going to let them go and then you're going to put your alternate in there i get that this is just a tough deal and that's a lot of other things we want to come back with suggestions we've got to have you all make final decisions okay what y'all want us to do so no related to commissioner lindsay's point um the water co-op that i'm on and you know there's only four members and there's only three of us that ever come and it's the same three but i will promise you the staff emails us calls us and lets us know we need you here uh because so and so can't come well so and so never comes so you always know but i mean the point is they make sure that they have the folks there i don't know if we do that or not if we call and say okay check you'll be here for sure yes and then alternates because uh it'd be pretty tough if somebody gets called 15 minutes before and an alternate and you say hey can you come down here and it's like yeah i'm two hours away and i think that's one of the reasons one of the things we're looking at when the alternates be required to their own call basically you show up to the meeting for that meeting and maybe rotate through them so you're not on call every meeting as an alternate but you have an alternate who's designated to be there in case someone doesn't show up different than what i'm saying though i'm i'm giving plenty of notice that right you know bob knows he can't be there uh next week so just so you all know and i believe land development does and i believe land development does that you just they they're he's been shaking his head yes right but we'll go in that more detail at the the the agenda review if that works yep yep hold up a second then okay that happens and we still can't get you know everybody there all the seats filled so what do they tell you i'm busy i can't be there i mean is that what happens are they telling you they'll be there and then they don't show i've got two possibilities here good morning commissioners uh ben zisco land development director there's really two scenarios that that we encounter on a regular basis one is that when we find out that a regular member cannot be there we make phone calls to the alternates and they have prior engagements and are not able to attend or more commonly we receive phone calls or emails the morning of the meeting that either a member is sick or has a family emergency or a child is sick and at that point it's too late to get an alternate so it's both of those situations i'd have some suggestions we have this workshop yeah yeah yeah mark i just want to go back to um the letter or the email that you got george because one thing is is going to and and i i i kind of expressed my where i feel about this thing with announcing to people to come and speak one thing is going to uh being in the grocery stores or the barber shop in your case and talking to people and say yeah you come on over and express your thoughts that's in fact that's they're right another thing is what was what was this email sent to just about everybody and anybody i mean to me that is different from just going around and saying it's what a face facebook to me that's that's wrong and i'm glad that i i don't i think we should address that and i think randy you will be addressing that when you come to the training and meetings and things like that i don't think that's appropriate i agree i don't think that's appropriate and i think talking to somebody on a personal basis people that you know and say hey yeah you have a right to come and speak for three minutes and say your piece that's not what that's about that's what started all of this neil that's exactly why i want randy to do this memo if it uh if there's anything inappropriate or out of bounds uh for a planning commissioner to say hey we've got a meeting scheduled next wednesday and there's an item on there that people may be interested in you want to come because it's going to be taking place and it deals with abc or xyz if that's wrong if there's something that's out of bounds outside the law put it in your memo please all right moving on oh speaking of toho water authority yeah uh point lee ruse skip stale fox to the toho water authority board of supervisors for the remainder of the vacated term and a new one-year term ending september 30th 2025. second got a motion in the second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries public hearings all right mr chair before we go into the public hearings i'll go over the public hearing general uh procedures we ask that you please turn off your cell phones or other devices that may distract from the public hearings please adjust the microphone and state your full name and address for the record before you begin speaking on a topic individual speaking during the public comment section of a matter will be strictly limited to three minutes the board is experiencing these matters and is able to discern what is legally relevant to an issue and what is not information is relevant or repetitive only serves to frustrate and necessarily prolong the day's business the commission expects civility at all times during all public hearings speaking out turn shouting out from the audience disrespectful sounds or utterances while another is speaking are unacceptable and you will be asked to leave the chambers for the remainder of the day if any person decides to appeal any decision made by the board with respect to any matter considered here today you will need a record of the proceedings and for that for such purposes you may need to ensure that a verb in record of the proceedings is made which record includes the testimony evidence upon which the appeal is to be based which you must must gather at your own expense anyone in the audience who wishes to speak or present testimony they must be sworn in all testimony given during public hearings shall be deemed sworn at this time if you're going to address the commission or speak on any case today please stand raise your right hand and answer out loud to the following question do you swear or affirm the testimony or evidence you provide to the commission today is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you mr chair before we go to expedite hearings i will go over those procedures expedite hearings are held pursuant to resolution number 2022-089 expedite hearings are used when no opposition was present at the planning commission the applicant agrees to the expedite hearing and recommendation of the development review committee is for approval expedite procedures are the following after staff briefly introduces the case the hearing will be open for public comment if anyone speaks there in public comment the applicant will be given the opportunity to respond at the public comment the board will consider the land use case at any time a full presentation from staff can be requested from a commissioner the applicant or a member of the public all documents attached to the gen item are deemed part of the record of the land use case unless removed from the list of experts by motion of the board all individuals on the list of experts attached to the gen item are deemed experts for the purpose of land use case now this time we'll turn it over to mr sisco to present the expedite hearings would it be appropriate to move p3 out of order if it's advertised yeah we can do that p3 and actually miss powers don't present that but i'll do it give me one second who's gonna do it sandy howard but i think she was waiting for the other hearings but as the board is aware this proposed ordinance reduces the number of hospitals required to execute um the hold harmless agree uh identity agreement to those hospitals which are collectively responsible for 75 percent or more of the total assessment amount imposed on the county on all assessed properties in any given year this modification allows hospitals who are not significantly impacted by the uh program to abstain from executing the hold harmless agreement while also maintain the validity of the special assessments as all affected hospitals are required to participate in the program and is recommended for approval and we're standing for any questions i need a public hearing yes public hearing and i'm going to open up a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward see nobody i'll close the public hearing we had a very thorough briefing on friday and i'll entertain a move approval second motion and a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries thank you mr chairman good to see you jan go forth and heal number one again for the record ben zisco land development director there will be four items on the expedited portion of today's public hearing agenda item number 01 is an expedited public hearing for case lbc pal 2023-11 us 27 north ridge sap ecx to consider a large-scale comprehensive plan map amendment to change approximately 29.69 acres from professional institutional to employment center and to amend an existing policy that prohibits new driveways to access us 27 in the transit supportive development area the subject site is located on the west side of us 27 south of holly hill grove road one you can see here on the screen in the red box half of the site currently has an ecx land use designation and the other half has the professional institutional land use designation in the post-covid remote work work from home era we haven't seen the demand for the professional institutional and office that was was higher pre-covid so the desire here is to locate a retail and commercial development on this site and the change from pix to ecx is necessary for that development this is a transmittal hearing the planning commission has recommended approval and following any public comments or questions staff recommends approval to transmit this item to the florida department of commerce what's the thought process between not having a driveway in the tsda that was to limit driveway connections and to have to have the road the driveways connect to the existing east west roads it was just to to eliminate or to reduce the amount a lot of businesses and one driveways kind of idea that's the idea all right um all right any questions seeing none i'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward seeing no one i'll close the public hearing bring it back to the board move approval to transmittal got a motion and a second all in favor say aye aye opposed like signed motion carries item number o2 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2024-3 recreational camping land development code text amendment to consider adoption of a request to modify conditional use criteria for recreational camping and rv parks this is another land development code text amendment to clarify the language within our land development code we have two specifically different uses one is a recreational camping campground or camping facility and another is an rv park this change will remove any language that was duplicative to clearly distinguish between the two a key distinction is that a recreational camping facility is for less than 30 days it's a traditional campground where you go for the weekend or a week one of the regulations currently in the code is that those types of facilities must be located on a collector roadway or higher as a campground is seeking a rural environment we felt that a collector roadway or higher didn't provide that type of ambience we've seen some requests for developments on smaller categorized roads so this would pave the way for them to to locate in those facilities there's also a regulation in the existing code that requires planning commission approval to create a condominium or timeshare or co-op and that is contradictory to current state law so per the the county attorney's office we are requesting to remove that language this ordinance is on its first reading it did receive a recommendation of approval from the planning commission but following any comments or questions today no action is required by the board all right thanks any questions cnn i'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward seeing nobody i'll close the public hearing and move on to number three no that one needs an approval no that's first reading i'm sorry item number 03 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2024-4 streets and pedestrian safety text amendments to add electrical vehicle vehicle charging stations as accessory uses and to require 20 mile per hour speed limit signs on level plan level 2 plans in residential subdivisions as i just read in the title this is a minor change to the land development code staff has received inquiries on on how to design or place electrical vehicle stations within parking lots we have no standards so this text amendment will provide those standards if a development chooses to use those those facilities it is not a requirement and then likewise we've received a request from the roads and drainage division to include the the placement of speed limit signs on the level 2 plans that are submitted for new subdivisions that have public roads this again is a first reading of a text amendment the planning commission recommended approval and following any comments or questions today no action is required by the board all right questions george in a recent um trip mr wilson and mr braswell i took there was a charging station and the the business that decided to put the charging station on an adjacent piece of property and get its own address so that the general public could google that address and go and make use of those facilities is there any prohibition against that or to encourage of that if it's interior to an hoa then that's one thing but if it's adjacent to a commercial established then they may want to create it its own identity so i just share that observation for whatever it's worth this current tax amendment considers the charging stations and as an accessory to a primary use we could certainly go back and look at look at the text and see how that may be considered as at least allow for it all right any other comments just thinking about what george is talking about though has anybody in the county anywhere built a private charging facility to date a freestanding not that i'm aware of a freestanding primary use as a charging facility i'm not aware of one okay all right uh i'll open a public hearing anyone want to speak on this matter please seeing nobody a close public hearing and move on to the next item item number 04 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2024-5 boat ramps amendments to allow administrative approval for boat ramps to be open 24 hours within recreational open space land use designations and this is another effort to streamline government streamline the approval processes the recreation and open space land use designation allows for boat ramps it allows for similar facilities but the current code requires not only a level 4 review to get the land use but also a level 4 review to then be open 24 hours so staff finds that if the land use is in place and that's an appropriate location for a boat ramp that a 24-hour operation could be done administratively this item also went to the planning commission received a favorable recommendation it is a first reading so following any comments or questions today no action is required by the board all right any questions i'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward say nobody will close public hearing and we will move on to p1 good morning for the record mark matt land development division i'll be presenting agenda item p1 north lakeland brownfield as i get on the screen here uh before i begin let me go through the um uh responses 14 mailers were sent on march 4th no response two boards were posted on april 1st and a legal ad was published in the lakeland ledger on april 22nd this time came before you all at our last meeting the location of the site is in north lakeland this is the second reading and public hearing so action is needed on this item the request is to designate 22 and a half acres as a brownfield you can see in the bullet points there the key points and factors involved here with this section and i'll just go through a couple more slides location of the site is between statewide 33 and i4 and as a reference point the amazon facility on 33 is located here so i won't go through the entire presentation if unless requested no we're good i learned in the latter part of my military career when i started briefing generals and admirals that the less i stand in front of the podium the better so even us sergeants appreciate that yes so with that i'll stand for any questions all right any questions it's in and i'll open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak on this matter please come forward so you know want to close the public here and bring it back to the board second got a motion a second for approval all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries p2 we're requesting that it'll be continued to the june 18 2024 24. p2 yes sir so moved second got a motion a second i carry a p2 to win june 18th 2024 at 915. june 18 all in favor say aye aye opposed like sign motion carries that's the end of the meeting we're adjourned mr chair if i could just tell you that you did a heavy lift today just 18 million dollars 27 million 27 we're just slipped that other old nine in when you weren't watching yeah yeah all right we're