Good morning. Good morning, everyone. If we could take our seats, we'll begin our meeting. Welcome to the Polk County Board of County Commissioners July 1st, regular board meeting. And we will start with our invocation. Please stand, and we'll have Murphy Hanley. And please remain standing for the pledge. Chaplain, thank you. Good morning. I would invite all of you to pray with me. Heavenly Father, we give thanks today for the men and women who have given their lives for the freedom of this great nation. As we assemble here today to exercise that freedom, help us to be as bold and brave as they have been. Remind us to live aware, to redeem the time, to listen to your words, and to be willing to make a difference in this community and in this land. And I ask this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. At this time, we have the public comments concerning agenda items. I'm going to turn it over to Attorney Randy Meeks so he can share some information about this change. Thank you, Madam Chair. Pursuant to Resolution 2025-064, this section of the agenda is for those individuals who would like to speak, like to comment on an agenda item not listed under Section N, Exploited Hearings, Section 0, Public Hearing, or Section O, Public Hearings, or Section P, Request for the General Public. You will have an opportunity to speak during those sections of the agenda. Pursuant to said resolution, prior to speaking, you must fill out a speaker's card providing the agenda item you're being addressed and submit it to the communications representative. Upon being recognized by the chair, please come to the podium and state your name, your address, and the agenda item you are addressing. You will be given three minutes to comment on the agenda item. The commission expects civility at all times during public comments. Speaking out of turn, shouting out from audience, respectful sounds, or utterances. Will another speaking or unsectable, and you will be asked to leave the chamber's remainder of the day? Madam Chair, do we have any speakers for this section? Communications, as indicated, we don't have any speakers for this section. All right. Thank you so much. Since we don't have a speaker for this section, we'll go on to the approval of consent agenda. Move for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Ms. Butterfield, what do you have for us? Good morning. Today I have for you to approve and ratify payroll checks numbers 03982 through 04052 in the amount of $75,665.87. We have 2,945 direct deposits in the amount of $4,334,940.74, and those are dated June 27 of 2025. We have wire and electronic fund transfers of $34,210,907.15, dated June 17th through June 30th of 2025. And lastly, invoice checks numbered 485191 through 486212, totaling $18,744,871.41, dated June 17th through June 30th of 2025. For you to approve and ratify, please. Move for approval. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. I also request that you approve the minutes of your regular board meeting that was held on June the 17th of 2025 that had been distributed to you. Move for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Anything else? Just wish everyone a happy and safe fourth. The clerk of the circuit court and comptroller's office will be closed on Friday, July 4th only, to observe the July 4th holiday, as well as the courts will be closed on the fourth only. Regular business on the third. Thank you. Thank you. Moving forward, we have our county attorney, but you have nothing. Am I correct? Okay, so county manager, Bill Beasley. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, members of the viewing audience. The manager's office will have two items for board consideration this morning. Item number G1 is to request the board to approve the proposed Northridge Trail Roadway Construction Infrastructure Agreement with the East Group Properties Incorporated Organization at a total cost to Polk County not to exceed $4,181,255. East Group Properties Incorporated, the actual site developer, is the owner of certain real property located south of the existing Laurel Estates Phase II subdivision, west of U.S. Highway 27, east of the Green Swamp core, and adjacent to the county's right-of-way established for future construction of the Northridge Trail Roadway project. The developer has plans to construct an industrial warehouse on designated property with planned direct access to the Northridge Trail Roadway once completed. As such, the developer has agreed to design, permit, and construct certain non-site-related transportation improvements of the county's proposed Northridge Trail Roadway project, specifically that segment between the Laurel Estates Phase II subdivision and Dean Steel Road, or about a half a mile of roadway. The proposed roadway construction infrastructure agreement has been negotiated to reflect project reimbursement costs by Polk County not to exceed the $4,181,255. This agreement will allow for the improvements to be completed, I think, quicker than the county could do that, and certainly at a reduced cost as opposed to the county's standard capital execution means and methods. Funding to support the proposed roadway infrastructure reimbursement agreement is budgeted and available in the FY24-25 General Capital Improvement Fund. So, Madam Chair, members of the board, I think consistent with the board's commitment to roadway infrastructure improvements, especially in Polk's congested northeast sector, I would request the board to approve the proposed Northridge Trail Roadway Infrastructure Agreement with the East Group Properties Organization at a total cost to Polk County not to exceed $4,181,255. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions? Hearing none, all in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next item, Madam Chair, members of the board, item number G2, is to request the board to approve the utility division's purchase of Motorola radios and related essential services under an existing agreement number 15-09 with Motorola Solutions in connection with Improved Divisional Emergency Communications and Field Operations. This would be a one-time operating expense not to exceed $269,754.56. Polk County entered into agreement number 15-09 with Motorola in November of 2019. This agreement provides for the purchase of various Motorola equipment and services using discounted pricing. In July of 2023, the board ratified the process for purchases made through the agreement that requires board approval of any purchase exceeding $250,000. The utilities division has identified the need to improve communications during emergencies such as hurricanes and other real-time events. Example, during Hurricane Milton in 2024, the division lost the ability to communicate with cell phones and had to rely solely on the existing radios for not only the field staff, but also radios assigned to contractors conducting emergency work to restore services. These additional radios will ensure that all appropriate staff and authorized field contractors are equipped with radios during storm events, increasing field communications and service restoration reliability. Funding for this emergency communication enhancement is available in the utility's operating budget. So, Madam Chair, members of the board, I think consistent with the board's commitment to the timely restoration of utility services after storm events or even any other unforeseen outages, I would request the board approve the utility division's request to purchase 90 Motorola radio units and related essential services under the existing agreement. in connection with the goal to improve the emergency communications in an amount not to exceed $269,754.56. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. That's it, Madam Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Troutman? Commissioner Braswell? All right, thank you. Commissioner Scott? Yeah, I'd like to appoint Jenna Sutton to replace Ronnie Hedrick on the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Opposed? Motion carries. That's for the lay appointment. Oh, I'm sorry. That's for yours. Right. Right. Anything else? Yep. And for lay board appointments, I'd like to go ahead and appoint, make a motion to appoint Gary L. Phillips to the, I'm going to butcher this, Soho, there we go. The TWA, Board of Supervisors for the remainder of a vacated term and a new three-year term ending September 30th, 2028. I have a motion and a second. Any questions? No questions. I just want to, you know, commend him for stepping forward. The gentleman that was in that position, we lost him doing, because he passed away, so we are thankful that they were able to find somebody within the community to serve in that position. Anything else? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And I just want to wish everybody a happy 4th of July and definitely be safe during the holidays. So with that being said, we now can move to the expedited hearings. Thank you, Madam Chair. Prior to expedited hearings, I will go over the public hearing during 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 the topic. Individuals speaking during the public comment section of a matter will be strictly limited to three minutes. The board is experiencing these matters and able to discern what is legally relevant to an issue and what is not. Information that 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 of terms, shouting out from the audience. Disrespectful sounds or audiences while another is speaking are unsectable 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 matters considered here today, you will need a record of proceedings and that for such purpose you may need to ensure that verbatim record of proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is based, which you must gather at your own expense. Anyone in the audience who wishes to speak or present testimony today must be sworn in. All testimony given during public hearings shall be deemed to be 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 that testimony or evidence you provide to the commission today is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? All right, thank you. Madam Chair, at this time I'll go over to expedited hearing procedures. Expedited hearings are held pursuant to resolution number 2022-089. Expedited hearings are used when no opposition was present at the planning commission hearing. The applicant agrees to the expedited hearings and recommendation of the Development Review Committee is for approval. Expedited hearing procedures are the following. After staff briefly introduces the case, the hearing will be open for public comment. If anyone speaks during public comment, the applicant will be given the opportunity to respond. After public comment, the board will consider the land use case. At any time, a full presentation of staff can be requested from a commissioner, the applicant, or a member of the public. All documents attached to the agenda 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 agenda item are deemed experts for the purpose of the land use case. At this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Ziskell to present. Thank you, Mr. Mink. Good morning, Commissioners. Ben Ziskell, Land Development Director. There are two items on the expedited public hearing portion of today's agenda. Item number N1 is an expedited public hearing for case LDC-PAL 2024-14, Poinsiana Subdivision CPA Amendment, to consider a future land use designation change from agricultural residential rural to residential low on 160 acres. The subject site is located just to the east of the existing Poinsiana development of regional impact. As you can see on the screen here, it is an L-shaped piece of property that fits into the existing Poinsiana DRI. All evidence from the development pattern indicates that it most likely was contemplated to be in the Poinsiana DRI but never was. That's evidenced by the road network that has a gap on the short leg of the L-shaped property. The request is to change that land use designation from ARR to residential low with the intent to develop single-family homes similar to what is adjacent to it. This item appeared before the Planning Commission and received unanimous recommendation for approval. It was transmitted to the Department of Commerce in May and received no comments. And following any questions or comments from the public or the Commission, staff recommends approval of this change today. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing. If you have comments, please address the board. You have three minutes. State your name and your address. Seeing none, I close the public comment and bring it back to the board. Move for approval. Second. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know if he was getting up to speak or not. It looked like he was. Was there anybody speaking on this? We don't have anyone signed up for this section. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Any questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N2 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCT 2025-10, temporary storage of storm debris, to consider a change to the land development code to allow for the temporary storage of storm-related debris. After a storm, the county contracts with private property owners to store debris until it can be transported to a final resting place. The land development code currently does not contemplate this scenario, so this will provide that option for private property owners to store that material for six months until it can be disposed of properly. This is the second hearing. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval, and following any questions or comments, staff is recommending approval and adoption. Okay. I have public hearing, so anyone interested in speaking to the board on this, please come forward, state your name and address. You've got three minutes. Hearing none or seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Move for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions? Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Madam Chair, that concludes the expedited portion of today's agenda. Thank you, Madam Chair, and we have one public hearing. Oh, one is a public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance creating the Master Inwood Street Lighting Municipality Service Benefit Unit, MSBU, and adopt the tenant rate resolution for the 2025-2026 Master Inwood Street Lighting MSBU. And as explained to the board, this consolidates all the Inwood Street Lighting Districts into one, and also the resolution sets the tenant rate resolution for 2025-2026 for the Master Inwood Street Lighting MSBU, and it's recommended for approval. How much is that? The amount? I'll give it to you in one second. There's three, actually, three different rates. There's three different – the districts, as I explained, they're currently – each district has capital improvements that they have to pay. So, once they complete their capital improvements, then they all will have the same assessment. So, they all have the state right right now, but within, I think, three years, they'll all be one. But for the Southwest District, it's $0.36. For the Central, it's $0.46 and $0.46 – I mean, $0.36. Sorry, not $0.36 – $0.36 for the – I'm trying to read my handwriting. All right, the Central is $46.12, and then for North is $44.09 currently. Commissioner Braswell, you may recall that early in your tenure, we had community meetings in Inwood, and this is what they asked us to do, was to create that street lighting program throughout the community. And it's a good example of us listening to the public. That's what they wanted us to do. We have a means to do that. And I've never heard anybody complain about it. But I guess I was – my curiosity was, have we melded it into one rate, but we're not there yet? Not yet, but we're setting it up to get to that point. And it's like 1,500 lights, right? Something like that? Actually, I have them – it's less than 1,500. I have 54s in the Southwest, 71 in the Central, and 109 in the North. So I'm not going to do the math off the top of my head, but it's only a couple of 100. I don't know, that's your handwriting. It might be off by zero. I don't think I'm off that much, but it's recommended for approval. All right, thanks. Any other questions or discussion? Do we have anyone speaking on this? Okay, so we close the public hearing, and I bring it back to the board. Move for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Seconded by the Chair. At this time, it's Section P, which are requests for the general public and audience, an opportunity to be heard. And I believe the Communications Division has those who have signed up. Okay, we have Wallace, Lori, Lowry. I came here to talk about my house on 628 Hobson Road. I've taken it upon myself to repair my house, and I'm getting hindrance. And I don't understand why I'm getting hindrance. Permits, codes, and all of that, I don't understand. When they give me someone to talk to, first thing they say, I'll sign anything you want. But you've got to give me $3,000 first. And I'm thinking, that don't sound right. That sounds like extortion to me. And I just want to fix my house. That's all I want. Done. Mr. Beasley, I guess you have someone that's working with Mr. Lowry? We've got Mr. Dunn's in the back of the room. We've got Mr. Holman through the coach division is in the back of the room. Sir, if you want to step to the back of the room, we've got two gentlemen back there that will try to help facilitate what you're trying to accomplish. Thank you. Next, we have Debbie Hicks. Debbie, if you would state your name and address. You have three minutes. Debbie Hicks. Oh, sorry. I am short. Debbie Hicks, 236 Alderman Road, Lakeland, Florida. And I am here in regards to animal control. But first, I want to say that I made the long trip from Hillsborough County to Polk County 30 years ago this December. I love this county. It's been great. I don't do social media. I'm not involved with any groups. What I'm going to say is what I believe and what I've seen. I was here at the June 3rd meeting. This commission seemed to think that the sheriff is totally responsible for everything that goes on with animal control. I became a volunteer with the sheriff's office in 2017. And I worked for four years at animal control, taking dogs out, cleaning kennels. I was there two to three days a week for four to five hours. I know the facility. I haven't been there for three years. And I resigned as a volunteer last month so I could do this. The facility, from what I have gathered, is owned by the county. And the county operates it. He does the daily maintenance or the daily operations. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. This is what I find on the internet. Okay? So, what do I know? You cannot expect the sheriff to do what needs to be done when the facility is from another era. The building that I worked out of was built in 1988. The drainage system is terrible. It's infested. I know this is a big thing. I understand. But it's time. You have passed the buck on it. It is time. The sheriff, the ordinance they talked about with the tethering, great. The trapping and neutering of the animals, great. We need it. But that puts more on the sheriff's office, more on these officers and these people at animal control that are trying to do right with a facility that's from another era. I loved what I did when I took those. I didn't take the dogs out. The dogs took me out. They never get out. There's so much room for improvement. And the sad part of it was the public wants to help. Look what they do for the other agencies. Look at all the money, all the volunteers. When I volunteered, nobody wanted to volunteer because the place is terrible. It's terrible. Now, would I like to also discuss some management issues? Yeah, of course. But I'm here today. If I'm wrong, please let me know. But we are responsible for that facility. And I believe the county, the people in this county, I've taken in over 20 dogs in the last 20 years. Thank you, Mrs. Hicks. Appreciate your comments. Mr. James Abercrombie. Morning, commissioners. My name is James Abercrombie. For the record, I've been here an awful lot lately. I continue to talk about public records. I don't know. I don't understand the problem here. I've got some evidence there that I've been asking for three months about the public records for the fence on Hunt Fountain Park. I've asked the board. I've asked the county attorneys. I've been up the fifth floor. I've done it all. I've done exactly what you want me to do. But yet, I still get no public records. There's nothing. There's a statement on one of them letters from Jennifer from Parks. Has given me all the public records that pertain to that park. That I have received nothing. You can see them. I've got the USB right here for both the records that I've asked for. I brought you 1,000 pages a couple of months ago. Nobody ever read it. Who cares? I'm telling you, the job's done. It's done. There's no invoices. There's no payments. There's no contract. There's no inspections on the job. It hadn't even been looked at since it's finished. There are problems with the fence already. There's trash. A lot of the little aluminum stuff is all over the place. Why can't I get public records, folks? Why can't I get them? I can tell you why. Because it's all cover-up. There was probably more than two miles of fence taken down and probably salvaged $20,000, $30,000, $40,000. Who knows? But I don't know where it is. What happened to that money? That's our tax money. That should be going back into our coffer. So we don't have to pay taxes. You're fixing to increase our tax base by 8%. But yet this kind of stuff has happened, as well as giving $9 million away, $9 million of our tax dollars you give to a developer to get him to move to Polk County. We have to make that up. Yet had he paid for it, he would have deducted it at the end of the year. So now he's got to look for a new deduction. How does all this work, folks? How do we let these people do that to us? You're supposed to be watching us, not them. We want business. We want everything. Yes, we do. But we don't want to pay for it. We're the ones that are paying for it. We're paying for roads and stuff. We don't have anything to say about sidewalks anymore. We have no public meetings. We have nothing about the roads. We have nothing. I watched the agenda review meeting the other day. You guys talk about everything. You make all your decisions there. You change the schedules today. Thank you, Ms. Souther. You're doing it without the public's knowledge. I appreciate your comments. There needs to be an investigation done completely. If you don't do it, I'll be at Tallahassee. You may sit now. Thank you. We have Mary Hodges. There's actually two of us from the same neighborhood. My name's Mary Hodges. I live at 3509 Rose Road in Mount Tabor Estates. I've lived there since 1975, and we've never had flooding. I get really emotional, sorry, but this year I lost my house because the ditches are not maintained by the county anymore, and we have severe flooding. I had two and a half feet of flooding in my home, and my neighbor had four and a half. All we want to know is if there are any way the county can come maintain those ditches before we have another hurricane. She has pictures. They're up? Okay. At that corner, that's by your house, right? There was over two and a half feet of water at that point, and at the point of Rose Road and Sunnyside, there was four and a half feet of water. There was a ditch halfway between Mount Tabor and Sunnyside on Rose Road that the pipe that goes under the street has been blocked. A lot of us neighbors would gladly dig the ditches if we had to, but we can't get permission to even do that. We have a man that works in the septic tank business. He has equipment that he could dig it, but he's been told that he'd be in serious trouble if he did. The water, I guess it used to be a river or something and flowed through there, and it used to go through the neighborhood behind my home and cut across Polston Road, and it hit a large ditch, and it went down to Winston Creek, and I was told from there it went to Hillsborough River, but now it can't drain anywhere. There's been new homes built in our area, and they raised them all up, which is nice, but it's caused severe flooding. If our ditches were open, we wouldn't have that problem, and I'm terrified my house will flood again, and I've only been back in it for two months. I lost everything in my home. Floors, walls, furniture, cabinets, everything. I don't know who to go to. Mr. Beasley? Madam Chair, Jay Jarvis is in the back of the room as well as John Bodie. Ma'am, if you'll go back there and talk to those two gentlemen, we'll talk about whether these are- Can I say one more thing before you say that? Yes, ma'am, please. I don't know, Mr. Jarvis, but the neighbor behind me on the street behind Rose Road said that he had been out, and he dug a few little ditches and said that's all he was going to do. That's what I was told by a neighbor that Mr. Jarvis said, we're not coming out to do anything else. I would be shocked if Jay put it in that context, but certainly- Mr. Beasley, if I could. Yes, please. I've got some background on this, and I appreciate you coming today. I recalled the email I think we had had on 3509 and 3515, looking at the county data that we have for elevations. Obviously, as you mentioned, there was a waterway at some point historically that flowed through this area. I grew up and rode bikes and everything around your streets and Deeson. I've been around this area for 40 plus years. This area has, and Mr. Jarvis, he gives you some more details, there are several lots within that Mount Tabor area that have privately maintained ditches. Certainly on county assets, if there are culverts that are blocked, we'll, by all means, clear those. But knowing that area, there are several homeowners, I'm not naming any specific ones, but there are several that haven't maintained those over time. And so what happens, obviously, when you have, it only takes, you know, one blockage to make the whole system unhappy, right? You're right. And that spot I mentioned, halfway between those two intersections on Rose Road, it flows behind a couple of houses behind mine, and it gets there and it just puddles up. Right. And so there is, if it's the county side, we can certainly address that, and Mr. Jarvis will do that. But what I would encourage you to do, and I've done this with other residents, not just in this area, but in other areas of the county, you know, get with your neighbors, and they're your friends, right? And get with your neighbors and really talk about, on the privately maintained side, you know, do a community cleanup day where you're going through and clearing out those ditches. And if, you know, if you guys need some insight, I'm always happy to come out and give some insight on that as well. But again, county asset-wise, we'll definitely do our part to help you, and certainly meet with Mr. Jarvis, and that way you guys can talk specifics, and he could follow back up with me as well. And again, if I need to come out to the side, I'm more than happy to do so. One of the problems that the man that I talked about with has a septic tank business that would gladly do this for us, there's a lady that owns two homes, one's directly behind me, one's to the west of me, on the back street. She, that one ditch flows between her two properties and behind the one to the west, and then it cuts back to the south. She will not let anybody dig those ditches. That's where I talk about when you get private landowners that are not cooperative on a community, it makes it difficult. But definitely meet with Mr. Jarvis. Let's see if there's anything else we can do on the county assets, okay? Thank you, Mrs. Hodges. Are you Mrs. Alvarado? Yes, ma'am. My name is Jessica Alvarado, and my address is 3326 Mount Tabor Road. Those are my photos that you saw on the screen just a little while ago. That is the corner of my home that floods, and the same corner that my children have to walk to their bus stop, to and from their bus stop every day. When this flooding happens, it also affects our plumbing, and we are unable to flush our toilets. So, it is a major problem. I have, myself, have contacted Jay Jarvis. This problem didn't start happening until last summer. Nothing's been done. I do believe someone did go out there, but there's nothing done. I drove up and down Mount Tabor, and I do see, I'm not sure if they're the private property that Mr. Scott was just mentioning, but there are ditches that do look like they are, they're blocked. So, we would really appreciate some attention in that area, please. I've been there for eight years, and this just started happening last summer. Just last week, with the light rain that we had, we were already flooded. So, the same as Mrs. Hodges, we would appreciate any attention, any help that we can get before the big storms come around, and I am unable to flush my toilets. I would really appreciate any help we could get. Thank you, Ms. Alvarado. Also, with Mrs. Hodges, if you would see Mr. Bodie and Mr. Jarvis, that would be great. And I'll stop by there this afternoon. I'll take a look and drive through and just see what I see as well and report back to the county staff as well. Okay. Okay, we have no more, so we close the public hearing and public comments, right? And that's it, right? That's it, right? So, we're adjourned.