missioners and would all everybody please stand for our implication and remain standing for our pledge of allegiance yeah i did good morning i would invite you to pray with me heavenly father thank you for the gifts and talents you have given each person here guide us as we use them responsibly so that our work brings glory to you grant us strength and clarity when we need it and help us to work in a spirit of respect and unity and i ask this prayer in jesus name amen amen of the united states of america into the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible liberty and justice for all we have some recognition good morning commissioners staff and visitors i'm caitlin hoverkamp public and media relations officer for polk county government today we are recognizing seven employees for their service to polk county i'd like to invite the employees to come to the front as their names are called and then if the honorees will remain at the front while the commissioners return to the dais behind them we'll take a group photo at the end billy williams has worked for polk county fire rescue for 20 years throughout her time with the department billy has served in a wide range of roles including emergency medical technician firefighter emergency medical technician firefighter paramedic driver engineer and now captain for the department's office of medical direction billy also served as a training officer for the department's training division in her spare time she enjoys spending time with her husband robbie williams who is a battalion chief for the department and their two sons brent and ryan anna bonia has worked for polk county building division for 20 years anna began her career as a radio room operator with the division and has served in different roles including customer service representative and permit technician before her promotion to her current position as the division's permit service supervisor anna is a graduate of the leadership bartow class of 2019 and she is currently enrolled in the county's succession management program excuse me she is also a member of the transfer the transforming the world church in balrico florida in her spare time anna enjoys spending time with her husband pedro and their daughter leanne in the future she looks forward to continuing her education and to continuing continue providing exceptional service to the residents and visitors of polk county russell sutherland has worked for the polk county information technology division for 25 years he began his career with the division as a person a personal computer coordinator and has served in the positions of network analyst and network supervisor before moving into his current role as a senior network analyst russell's a certified systems security practitioner a certified cisco network associate and a graduate of the polk county emerging leaders class of 2008 in his spare time russell enjoys jeeping on any dirt road he can find being a member of the polk county disc golf club and playing disc golf woodworking and spending time with his wife lori his son andrew and his granddaughter amelia in the future he looks forward to finding more time to do the things he loves thomas elliard has worked for the polk county roads and drainage division for 25 years he began his career with the division as a service worker and served in different roles including service worker operator one and service worker operator two before being promoted to his current position as a service worker equipment operator three for the division thomas is a graduate of frost proof high school he received his heavy wheel light construction certification while serving in the u.s army and received multiple commendations throughout his time in the military including operation desert shield desert storm certifications a southeast asia medal a freedom of kuwait medal and a merit a medal of merit in his spare time he enjoys singing gospel at churches singing elvis presley music when he can and spending time with his wife maggie and their three children thomas brianna and cassidy and their eight beautiful grandchildren in the future he looks forward to retiring within the next five years and traveling with his wife while continuing to serve the lord vanette baker has worked for the polk county health and human services division for 25 years she began her career as a family support worker one with healthy families and worked her way up to her current position as a family support worker three vanette holds numerous child care certifications and throughout her time with healthy families she's obtained certifications in home visitation and child development in her spare time she enjoys trying new things traveling and spending time with her husband tony her son chad daughter keisha stepson tony stepdaughter tisha and the fort and 14 beautiful grandchildren she and her husband share together in the future vanette looks forward to retiring traveling more spending as much time as she can with her younger grandchildren and looks forward to living each day happily brian finder has worked for the polk county parks and natural resources division for 30 years throughout his time with the division he has served in a wide range of roles including environmental technician one environmental technician two environmental technician three and lead environmental technician before his promotion to his current role as the division's natural areas coordinator brian is a graduate of auburndale high school he is a certified prescribed burn boss and a licensed herbicide applicator he is also a member of the traditional bow hunters of florida and the florida aquatic plant management society in 2000 and 2012 brian was selected to receive the applicator paper award from the florida aquatic management society for his work to preserve florida's aquatic heritage in 2010 he also received an applicator team of the year award from the organization in his spare time brian enjoys fishing fly tying traditional archery hunting camping and spending time with his wife jody and their two daughters madison and chloe in the future brian looks forward to continuing to being a productive member of his parks and natural resources team and retiring in good health to enjoy adventures and good times with his family and friends christopher price was has worked for the polk county roads and drainage division for 40 years he began his career as a roads and drainage equipment operator one and has held a wide range of roles while working for the division including environmental technician three aquatic weed control foreman environmental lands foreman and senior equipment operator before his promotion to his current role as a road foreman two chris has received a variety of environmental land management certifications and he is also a certified florida stormwater management inspector he is a member of the wounded warriors sportsman fund a non-profit organization that takes wounded veterans on outdoor excursions including turkey and alligator hunts freshwater and saltwater fishing trips canoeing trips and even trips to collect alligator eggs chris has served with the wounded warriors sportsman fund organization as an organizational board member for more than 10 years as the vice president of the organization for seven years as the president of the organization for three years and now serving as a volunteer in 2010 chris received a division commendation for an airboat tour he captained on lake hancock on behalf of the polk county sheriff's office for the u.s air force thunderbirds team in 2017 he also earned the president's lifetime achievement award for volunteering more than 4 000 service hours with the southeastern guide dogs organization in his spare time he enjoys hunting fishing restoring his family's 1979 jeep c17 attending concerts with his wife karen and spending time with his family including his son josh daughters taylor and megan bonus children olivia and brent and grandsons caleb and jake in the future chris looks forward to retiring and building a home in georgia where he can spend time with his lovely wife be closer to family and enjoy more outdoor adventures mr chairman if i could say you're talking about 185 years of collective service to polk county well done polk county thank you guys thank you all give everybody a few minutes here to get cleared out amber we don't have any comments for this i reckon we can go ahead and approve a consent agenda motion in a second any further discussion all in favor all right opposed motion carries mr chair just for the record i know you asked um miss smith but we did not have any comments for the public for section b correct thank you right i asked her i just want to make sure it was what section we were talking about thank you uh miss butterfield all right good morning today we have for you payroll checks number zero four two five nine through zero four three zero seven and the amount of seventy one thousand two hundred twenty seven dollars and four cents we have three thousand and nine direct deposits in the amount of five million two hundred and twenty two thousand sixty six dollars and thirty seven cents dated october thirty one twenty twenty five we have wired electronic fund transfers of forty two million four hundred ninety six thousand two hundred sixty five dollars and fifty three cents dated october twenty one through november third twenty twenty five and invoice checks numbered four nine three three one two through four nine four zero seven four totaling fourteen million nine hundred fifteen thousand six hundred and forty five dollars and seventy five cents those are dated october twenty one through november third twenty twenty five for you to approve and ratify please motion for approval got a motion and a second any discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries anything else ma'am yes we need you to request um i need to request the approval of your minutes for your regular board meeting that was held on october 21 of 2025 please move for approval second got a motion and a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries now anything else yes sir two things um this week my office is participating in operation green light and during operation green light individuals that have outstanding uh courts and court fines and traffic tickets uh that have been turned over to collection agencies which means their license has been suspended have the opportunity to come to our office and make full payment and with the full payment we would be able to waive the outside collection agency fees which range anywhere from 25 to 35 percent on top of the outstanding fines so we the clerk is required by law to turn it over to outside collection agencies after a time period and so we will all week long uh we started yesterday and monday and monday and monday and monday and monday through friday all three locations you come in 8 to 4 30 tonight will be open until 6 p.m. to accommodate customers and they can settle up by that full payment and we'll waive those fees and then they can proceed with getting their license the steps to reinstate their license um if by chance you can't make it in person we are allowing on the phone so they can call our office same hours i will say yesterday we experienced the high call volumes so wait time some of the longest was in the 30 minute range but we had a huge volume of calls it was a normal monday and operation green light so it's a great opportunity because driving on that suspended license is serious um you can have additional fines you can end up in jail so um it helps people get back on track and we're uh we're delighted to offer that yes ma'am this before yes you've done this before how successful is this um operation great question last year we had 400 people that took advantage of it that were able to be in a position to take the steps to get their license and that's just last year's numbers i we've been doing this for a number of years thank you second thing uh next week thank you an observance of veterans day to honor those that have served in our serving for the month of november my office will offer free passport pictures to veterans and active duty um members that want to take advantage of that again all three locations um they just need to show their dd 214 or their id that shows that designation as military and we're happy to honor those that have served us and continue to serve thank you thank you thank you ma'am appreciate it very much uh commissioner brazwell have you got an appointment with her to get your okay all right thank you very much all right let's move on here uh mr mink yes sir i have one item for the board's consideration it's a request for the board adopt a resolution calling for a school board of polk county referendum on november 3rd 2026 general election ballot on the school board of polk county florist authorization to impose an additional one mil admiral tax annually on taxable property in polk county for school operating purposes beginning july 1st 2027 and ending june 30th 2031 as you're aware the polk county school board adopted resolution directing the board of county commissioners to call a school board referendum to add the one meal to the school board admiral taxes uh the bocc sending the school board referendum to the supervisor election to be placed on the 2026 general election ballot is required by florida law and the board of county commissioners do not have any discretion in this matter the florida law law is clear there's a hillsborough case that has basically informed the board of county commissioners that there is no discretion this is a ministerial task in order for the election be called as directed by the board of county commissioners a failure to send the school board referendum to the supervisor elections would result in unnecessary unnecessary litigation which would cost both sides um taxpayers money in the litigation so at that i'm requesting that you approve the resolution yeah yeah we we've known this was coming for a while uh is there anyone from the school board even here to discuss it i believe jess mackmore now i would well not a school board member i i i so but i hear you randy i'll get to that in a minute um it's a little disingenuous i think to this board to have this sent up to us expect the rubber stamp to raise taxes about 80 million dollars on the people of this county um that said uh randy is correct i'll go through the timeline april 2nd of 2024 the school board in hillsborough county uh voted to approve a one mill tax referendum in july of that same year or 2024 the bocc said no we're not going to put it on the ballot um a week later a circuit judge ordered the bocc to put it on the ballot uh the bocc appealed to the uh second district court of appeals they said no you don't have any authority uh to block it they upheld the lower court's uh decision and that cleared the way to put it on the uh ballot it was put on the ballot it was voted on november 5th of last year it was approved um and it uh uh you know it worked at the same time we haven't heard anything from the school board other than put this on the ballot as a courtesy i think it would have been nice to at least explain to us what the intent is i know there's um uh i don't know what i don't remember what the letter said is it just for school teacher pay did they explain what the intent is i mean this is us saying we're going to give you a blank check and the taxpayers are going to fill it in for you um on top of the timing of this is horrible uh this thing is going to be sitting on a ballot and the next referendum to be voted on is to abolish property taxes in some form uh it it's i don't know what they're thinking uh i think it's a terrible idea at the same time i'm going to vote for it because like you said i'm not going to waste our tax dollars fighting this thing when a court two courts have ruled that we really don't have a say quite frankly i think it could have gone through the administrative process without this board even having a say in it maybe maybe not i don't mind formalizing it but i think it's it's it's a bad idea at the same time we have a half cent sales tax that goes to the school board uh it's my understanding it's only on the first five thousand dollars of any uh sale uh i i don't know why you wouldn't look at that to amending that as another method to to raise the money but i think this is going to be one year from today a long drawn-out process to see a referendum get shot down and you're back at square one when you could have come in with a better option in the first place so uh that's my two cents um like i said it's 77 million is about yeah that's what it's going to bring in budgeting 95 percent of what yeah okay uh but i don't i don't think the citizens are going to appreciate it but at the same time they will have a say commissioner sandiago well my i agree with you uh commissioner braswell and just this morning i got an alert that said action alert polk county commissioners to consider a referendum for school tax increase so so my concern is that the people will cause the blame for the increase on us on this commission when we're actually not we don't have a choice in this am i correct mr mink we don't have a choice in this um today's approval will will move forward the referendum request so if we deny it we'll go to court am i correct but but the people have to understand that it's not coming from the county commissioners in fact for the last three years we have decreased the mileage rate for our citizens um so the fact that now we're going to have an increase that we have no control over really bothers me and that i believe that alert comes from i believe poor reporting from the media that puts out a article the day before that doesn't properly quote what was said at the agenda review as i believe i clearly explained during that agenda review yeah that this was not a county referendum this is a school board referendum i understand that but yes but the perception is going to come from the perception of the people are going to look at the county is responsible for us that we five here are the ones that moving this forward regardless of what we say regardless of what i'm saying right now they're still going to think that it's coming from us and that's that's what bothers me it may be something we need to put as part of our legislative priorities that that statute needs to be changed where it doesn't have to come through when this board doesn't have anything to say that statute should be changed so the stat the legislators make it clear that this is a school board reference so i think that um communication and whatever we put forward has to be so explicit and even with it being explicit we're still going to call we're still going to be the ones that they're going to blame but nonetheless we have a year to let them know it's not us it's just this is the way it's supposed to be going let me ask randy one thing right quick and i'll let y'all get in if we we have talked about them going out and getting uh in these past occasions on certain things like this they can go out and get signatures is that correct the school board they could do that and and have it and have it put on the ballot if they got enough signatures to to do that to put it on the ballot they don't have i know they don't have to but they could do that if they call through that referendum it still comes through the board because that that still comes if you're talking about something through a charter or something to that effect but only this is what has been provided through statute for them to go okay all right i understand where you're coming from but that would still come to the board and put you in the same position okay sorry uh uh becky well my question i think probably goes to to randy case law clearly says we have no authority to block it says we have to do it so why am i required to vote on something that i have to do i mean i want to abstain from the vote i don't i'm not i don't have a say so in it i i agree with you that that you shouldn't be put in this position but that's what the case law requires that's what the the statute basically you the board of county commissioners has the general authority to call referendums the school board doesn't so that's why they say it has to come through you all to call it it doesn't make sense that you don't have any discretion but that's what the law the case law says as minister was obviously it's similar to when you approve the millage rate and send it to the tax collector the tax collector at that time does not have a choice of putting that on the tax bill even if they don't agree with it so you have if you had a tax collector that says i don't think the millage rate should be that it should be this they have no choice but to do it now it's a little bit different that y'all are now sent it to a surprise election put it on but it's very it's similar through the case law that the case law that this is our government front function to have to send it to the surprise election and of course i've said that's a minstrel task for the board of county commissioners and if i if i may before i forget because i don't on the school board and of course they they could come up come here but it's always been our understanding when i spoke to the the school board's attorney is that we understood that this was a minstrel staff our task and that there would be no need for them to be here because y'all really at the end they have no discretion is there a need for debate when only the board doesn't have discretion we're debating the heck out of it right i understand that i just don't want the school you know the school board individuals be put that hey we didn't show up well you're when the attorney spoke the position was that this was going to be that this is a minstrel staff and there's really the discussion although we can discuss the heck out of it only if we ended up in court it goes back to the case law so yeah i mean it's just a courteous type thing um and i don't want them to get blamed if the one that the the the understanding was that it had to be passed and had to go to them and then ultimately if people has citizens have questions about they need to be going to the school board not to the board of county commissioners right who's going to advocate for this the school board can't can they i i think they don't fall under the same and i'm not gonna advise the school board but the statute that you're just talking about that was passed where the county couldn't advocate for items i'm not sure if it applies to the school board i have to double check that but um so i'm not sure what their their their plan is on that i haven't spoken to them about it we can't advocate for against it the county commissioners not using public y'all can of course speak about it here and stuff but actually putting the information out and stuff that's not something we will be able to do commissioner scott just a couple of things so just so i'm clear i i understand that a no vote would put us in a litigation measure um abstaining does the same thing as a no is that correct yeah if it doesn't get passed so if you got you got five and quite frankly i don't think you have the ability to legally should not abstain under the statute unless you have a conflict of interest the statute's been clear that you can you're not supposed to abstain as border county commissioners you're supposed to vote on it yes or no and i understand the communication between you and the school board we were this isn't an administrative process so there's not a quote-unquote need but i think from a transparency standpoint there's no different than other topics that we talk about because one mill on property tax we're not talking five or ten dollars on a tax bill to the average resident this is hundreds of dollars and potentially more depending obviously on the value of the home it's not homestead exempt either so there's multiple you know there's thousands of families that this will impact and not to say it's you know good bad or indifferent the school board has formulated it based on whatever it is but that's the black box and the question mark where i understand we have to pass it but for those that are going to watch this meeting today for there not to be significant or at least sufficient information on the street to say what is this one mill going to go to to add clarity then i think to commissioner santiago's point you know the media picks it up as a bocc for full county just approved you know if the math comes out 80 million dollar increase in property tax and it's not us and and and even though it's administrative for the media to at least be able to have the talking points if they want to publish them of okay it's passed because administratively they have to it's going to go to a b and c and i think that transparency would be beneficial from because if you're just picking up on sound bites of our agenda briefing or today's meeting you don't get the full story of what this referendum is even for it's just more money is what it sounds like right and i believe that needs to be explained by the board account or the school board and not the board of county commissioners of course you make different but the thought was that the school board should be answering those questions right but i would say the transparency of the school board would have to coincide timing wise with our meeting and when you lack that or you have a lapse in time then you only get a portion of the story published which is a to me a disadvantage to us as a bocc knowing them they probably will talk just as least as they can about yeah the tax bill comes from bocc even though they're separate taxing agency the perception of the average citizen is when they get that tax bill it is increased which falls then on to the five of us that well that's uh i mean i understand the perception i i that of course the tax bill comes from the tax collector and and we have we we feel the questions up here where we get questions during our millage our budget process about the school board those rate and so forth i understand that my only comment to kind of sum it up is if i came to this board asking for them to you know write a check for eighty million dollars i'd have a little bit of an explanation i would i would i would you know especially if they are like we are and they can't advocate for this they're going to have to depend on the teachers union or somebody else to advocate for this this would be your opportunity to to to present your sales pitch this would be your opportunity to sell the public on why this is necessary and needed um they didn't see fit to do that uh and and and i find that a little disappointing well just like i just said why why would they they don't have they come here and and get up and talk to us about doing this they know that we got to do it the more they talk about it you know saying it's our deal then the more which they're not but the more heat that could get on them so i mean that's you know hands off we'll let you know we got this they got to do it so let's just do it sure if i may one one other thing and i think for the school board to ask us if they need to be here is putting the burden on bocc to even a pine upon do we need to talk about it again from my transparency to the community to the taxpayers i would put it on the school board to have better decision making skills to understand when you're talking about a financial impact that's substantial to a lot of residents that pay taxes in this county that there'd be more effort on the school board to at least be transparent about what that's going to be that would be my expectation because i don't i don't want to pay more tax if i don't know what it's going to and yeah you can educate yourself before you vote on it in november but again this is the early process so the the more conversations the earlier in the game typically the better the outcome i would just encourage the school board to do better in the future mr chairman of the board uh albeit maybe after the fact would you like me to reach out to the superintendent and maybe schedule a work session to no i don't think so i mean we sit here and beat this thing to death but it's still going to happen and again i think to that point it's us it's us leading them like they should be ahead of this if they really are being good stewards of financial planning and communications of how they're spending publicly collected funds that should come ahead of a vote like this that's going to get passed because of the way the laws are written but to me it's poor foresight on their part well communication is important randy let me ask you a question since all five of us are not in agreement with this but we know we have to vote for it right is there any way that we can state that we agree we're going to vote on it in protest or something like that and saying that that i think you do yeah i mean it doesn't matter but at least the people know that it is not coming from us and um and but that we have to do this because it's administrative is there any is there any way we can deal with that you as part of motion we make the motion to approve it that that can be stated well i think i think we should just and i think we're ready um cocked and loaded to put out a press release that explains this in great detail who it's coming from who it's benefiting and why it's happening this way which it's i know that for a fact so i think that's that's about all we can do well you know when it move for approval when it comes down to i got you when it comes down to what everybody said here today especially what uh commissioner scott just said i mean it should have been planned out a lot better this could not be in more worse time no more could be a worse time to be doing this and i get it what i've been what i've heard is for the teachers you know pay increases for the teachers i mean who couldn't everybody wants that no doubt about it but at the end of the day look what it's going to do and and and look what it's going to i guarantee you can write all you want about it put it in the papers you can put it here but at the end of the day we are the ones that's going to get get the get the hit off of it so anyway i got a motion do i have a second bill could you clarify your motion approve item f1 as required by our statutes approve item f1 i mean it's on the agenda as it is if i'm i mean we're going to need a second here we're going to we're going to put randy to work approval i mean only i i can't in the lawsuit i can't go to the court and say i'm going to second it in protest we got a motion in a second i hate to even ask for if there's any more discussion because we know what the deal is we've talked about it so well i i just want to say i'm not going to support this not because i don't support what they are asking for but i think that would then lead to the discussion of looking at this as a legislative item that we do need to have discussion with our delegation with as far as making this changing the process to be a more transparent process that would have this coming directly from the school board instead of you know from us how do you clarify and clear that up in perception and i think that's important i think we could amend the statute to make that clear right how how much time do we have to accomplish this is there a deadline it has to be this has to be approved by a certain date to get it on the ballot for next year usually it's brown june i believe we were going ahead and moving it through you know go ahead and get it through so the school board can handle the rest of this but it's not till like june or so which we actually have to send it so so if it is denied today there's no need to go straight to court we can maybe or or is there all right i mean if the school board may seen a need to go ahead and go straight to court because there's really no discretion in the board but i mean let me ask is there if time is not of the essence yet meaning today is not the absolute deadline for this to make its way through this item cannot be continued to the next board meeting correct where the where the school board could come and can it be continued and then the school board can come and speak more to it to at least give some more content to what it is that we're administratively required to approve and we're not just up here approving it because statute says thou shalt do this that's that discretion the board if it's a good idea but doesn't uh well let me ask this randy continuing it does that put us in litigation does that immediately get us necessarily no it would and again would that be a better solution than denial what passing it puts it moves this forward yeah um i mean otherwise they hit they come they can come do the explanation but the board's at the same spot yeah no i understand i i just the only reason i was asking about that was to at least give some content to complete the story of okay today we if this goes and approves it goes down in the books as we've approved it just as the same as it will two weeks from now i get that but at least from the content and the context it's given is school boards say that it's for a b and c administratively the board has to approve it it's passed we're going it's sailing on but at least the school board had a opportunity to speak publicly at the same meeting that we're voting on an 80 plus million dollar bump in property tax and all that said and then it'll still be on the ballot but but um i i i i do agree with that you you know yeah there needs to be some ownership of this so i'm going to withdraw my motion uh and make another motion that this be carried forward to first meeting in january that's do you like that well we can do it that whatever i guess it depends on the school boards i'm trying to give the school board time right holidays elections there's things going on no i don't disagree there i'm saying it really is contingent upon the in my opinion schedule wise on what the school board has available to come and be able to present motion is to what's the term continue it to continue to the first meeting of january second okay i have a motion and a second all in favor aye those motion carries all right county manager mr bill beasley now we can do the fun stuff yeah the production goes yeah that was the yeah mr chair good good to see you back yes sir thank you uh mr chair members of the board members of the viewing audience the manager's office will have four items for board consideration this morning the heavy lift of the morning is item number g1 g1 is to request the board to approve a construction manager at risk guaranteed maximum price addendum number three to the existing agreement with wharton smith in connection with the northeast regional wastewater treatment facility expansion project addendum number three will reflect a one-time project expense not to exceed 50 million eight hundred and twenty two dollars in december of 2023 the board entered into an agreement with wharton smith to provide pre-construction construction manager at risk services in connection with the northeast regional wastewater treatment facility expansion project which changes it from a six million gallon per day facility to a nine million gallon per day facility in september of 2024 the board approved addendum number one to that that agreement for additional pre-construction services in anticipation of a final project that would be delivered through five guaranteed maximum price addendums in december of 2024 the board approved guaranteed maximum price addendum number one in the amount of forty one million six hundred and forty four thousand one hundred and thirty three dollars to construct what we call phase one which included the deep filter beds chlorine contact chambers dewatering and chemical feed building in february of 2025 the board approved guaranteed maximum price addendum number two in the amount of thirty million four hundred twenty one thousand thirty six dollars to construct what we call phase a the electrical and communication improvements that also included other plant improvements to include degenerative replacement and switching the voltage the plant-wide voltage from a medium system to a low voltage system pre-construction services for what we call phase b headworks to include return pump stations electrical building number three which includes design and bidding services are now complete and wharton smith has provided a guaranteed maximum price proposed addendum number three in the amount of fifty million eight hundred and twenty five thousand eight hundred and twenty two dollars to construct those specific improvements the contract time for all guaranteed maximum price addendum number three work is set at seven hundred and fifty eight calendar days due to the rapid growth in the northeast service area the construction of this guaranteed maximum price addendum will increase the plant capacity incrementally while the designs of the remaining guaranteed maximum price work is being completed for the additional phases it is anticipated that the final two guaranteed maximum price addendums number four and number five will be available for board consideration in the spring summer of twenty twenty six continued funding for this major wastewater utility plan expansion is available in the utilities community investment program budget so mr chair members of the board i think in keeping with the board's continued support to address utility expansion projects to accommodate growth across all regions of polk county i would request the board to approve the proposed guaranteed maximum price addendum number three to the existing agreement agreement with warden smith in connection with the northeast regional wastewater treatment plant expansion project in an amount not to exceed 50 million eight hundred and twenty five thousand eight hundred and twenty two dollars motion for approval second got a motion in a second any discussion on this if i may just one uh so just to confirm for those that hadn't followed this this takes that plant from six mgd to a nine mgd once it's all done through the subsequent phases that are still to come correct for yes it does yes okay and then this facility from a site perspective does have land capacity to go up to 12 mgd if needed yes way down the road yes we're planning it for ultimate capacity of 12 if needed okay great thank you thank you and that's how long when do you think that 12 will be needed if it's needed you know that that's the fastest growing area in polk county now as as the land use it is now we expect nine is good nine will be for the build out 12 is if there are changes or redevelopment that type of thing so it just depends on how the area continues to move forward period anyone else all right we have a motion in a second uh all in favor all right opposed motion carries mr chair members of the board item number g2 is to request the board approve an infrastructure agreement with power bargain 17 llc in connection with planned roadway alignment and intersection improvements along bargain barn road at its intersection with us highway 1792 these improvements would be made at a cost to polk county not to exceed 3 million 756 473 dollars and 49 cents power bargain 17 llc is the developer of a planned convenience store to be located at the intersection of bargain barn road and us highway 1792 in order to facilitate a safer and more functional planned intersection also consistent with the ongoing road construction along powerline road the developer has agreed to design and construct all requested improvements over and above those roadway improvements required for their development as is typical of these agreements staff believes the developer can accomplish this work in a much shorter time frame and at a reduced cost than through normal county project delivery methods this agreement will reflect that the county will reimburse the developer for the actual cost of the bargain barn road rate improvements in an amount not to exceed three million seven hundred and fifty six thousand four hundred seventy three dollars and 49 cents funds are available within the roads and drainage developer agreement account for this activity so mr chair members of the board i think consistent with the board's commitment to roadway infrastructure improvements where feasible and prudent i would request the board to approve the proposed bargain barn road infrastructure agreement with power bargain 17 llc at a cost of polk county not to exceed three million seven hundred and fifty six thousand four hundred and seventy three dollars and 49 cents got a motion in a second any further discussion one other comment mr weasley if we can just confirm as far as the existing alignment for bargain barn road the portion that's no longer going to be in use i'm assuming that would be vacated to the property owner that's adjacent yes sir that that remnant piece that no longer gets used as part of the uh realignment would get vacated wait i believe that's that's the strategy right away real estate services group knows that thank you uh for the introduction uh to answer your question there first of all that portion of roadway had been transferred to the city okay so there's any any vacation of that roadway will be handled through the city not through the county not through the board of county commissioners we think that's what they will do with it just vacate it there's a portion of yes the overall plan is a portion of that and in this agreement also there's a portion where the city will need to uh provide that right away uh that was previously transferred that will no longer be needed for this section to uh the developer to be able to build for his site plan also we'll have some that uh in association with some ponds and a lift and a lift station okay okay and just the reason i was asking for that is if that right away is being vacated is that from an application perspective that would be initiated by the city and not have to be the property owner in that case is that correct since it's a part of this overall project that is correct okay i just want to make sure that thank you anyone else all right we have a motion in a second i believe all in favor aye opposed motion carries mr chair the next two items item g3 and g4 are kind of companion items and they are certainly good news items relative to the board's continued commitments to public safety within polk county item number g3 is to request the board approve a consultant services authorization with cmhm architects for professional architectural and engineering services in connection with the proposed christina fire rescue ems station project this agreement will reflect a one-time professional services fee not to exceed 312 255 dollars over the past 12 to 18 months the polk county fire rescue division has continued to reevaluate sectors of polk county for future fire rescue facility assets in order to optimize response times in providing first responder services specific to the south lakeland area that a vacant parcel the vacant parcel located at 1145 county road 540a at its intersection with gladman road was considered ideal for service coverage and in may of 2025 the county acquired this property with the specific intent of building a future fire rescue ems station the proposed consultant services authorization with cmhm architects will provide all required preliminary design final design bid support services and construction support services in connection with the proposed new fire rescue ems station that will indeed support our first responders mission within the south lakeland community sufficient funds to cover these professional services are available within the ems impact fee fund so mr chair members of the board consistent with the board's continued priority commitments in public safety i would request the board approve the proposed csa number 2021-032-07 with cmhm architects for the provision of professional architectural and engineering services in connection with the proposed new fire rescue station to be located at the intersection of county road 540a and gladman road at a total cost to county not exceed 312 25 25 25 25 moved got a motion and second any further discussion i'm going to stay with my theme sorry i went to just for clarity on this one i know um this is separate from g4 the next item but they're two similar activities as far as the fire stations go the increased cost of this one uh we did look into that and it's for site conditions that are going to drive up potentially some of the costs with some wetland impacts and there's also a larger contingency um on this one so i just want to make sure that we are clear on that from the county's perspective that while they're the similar build out on the the layout of the building facilities the sites themselves do have some uh differences that are making up that that cost difference yes sir that's accurate good morning commissioners keith tape facilities management director it is all related to site conditions on on that particular site that's the sole difference where there's a 100 uh thousand in there for uh site mitigation uh wetlands uh permitting right that's offsetting for potential wetland impacts for the facility if it's if it's not needed it won't be used right of that 100 so the actual design cost is 212 000 with uh 100 000 in for ad services perfect thank you anyone else all right we got a motion in a second uh all in favor all right opposed motion carries final item the companion item mr chair members of the board is to request the board the item g4 is to request the board to approve a consultant services authorization again with cmhm architects for professional architectural and engineering services this time in connection with the proposed willow oak fire rescue ems station project this agreement will reflect a one-time professional services fee not to exceed 207 090 again as part of the polk county fire rescue division service delivery optimization initiative a continued presence in the willow oak community remains a critical component to provide first responder services within the southwest sector of polk county in order to improve those services a new larger state-of-the-art fire ems facility is recommended specific to the willow oak community in june of this past year the county acquired about a two and a half acre parcel with the specific intent to build a replacement fire rescue ems station on that site to replace the antiquated facility currently in willow oak the proposed consultant services authorization will again provide construct preliminary design final design services bid support services as well as construction support services in connection with the proposed new ems facility that indeed will support first responders that mission within the southwest sector of polk county sufficient funds to cover these professional services are available within the emergency medical millage fund so mr chair members of the board i think similar to the board's commitment to the south lakeland community by way of the christina station i would request the same consideration for the willow oak community and request the board to approve consultant services authorization number 2021-032-08 with again cm hm architects for the provision of professional architectural and engineering services in connection with the proposed fire rescue ems station to be located at 4145 willis road again just west of the mulberry community at a total cost to the county not to exceed 207 000 90 dollars moved to approve second motion in a second any further discussion i will on this one i just want to say thanks to staff i know this has been a long time pursuit to find land that met all the requirements uh definitely that willow oak station needs to be built um so i appreciate you for sticking through it and finding a location all right uh all in favor all right opposed motion carries that's it mr chair all right commissioner troutman got anything no sir oh man commissioner brazil i i just have one thing i want to say thanks to uh sponsors of the wounded warrior clay shoot it was a couple of weekends ago the rotary club of bartow partnered with the rotary club of kissimi a few years back to raise money for this um really good cause uh last year it raised over seventy thousand dollars uh this year um expecting um i raised 70 this year we're expecting a little bit over 70 000 and again just thanks to the the sponsors uh it's a fun time uh because the ffa uh clay shoot uh area closed down we had to have it down in okeechobee this year but it's a it's a great cause and a great time and also thanks to the floor department of ag uh they're a big part of making it happen thanks all right uh commissioner santiago nothing at this time thank you commissioner scott yes sir uh so this time i'd like to appoint ashley luddy to the polk county lakes access advisory committee for the three-year term um november 17th 2025 to november 16th 2028 second got a motion in a second uh all in favor aye motion carries all right and the other item i had to uh just discuss with respect to septic tank permitting uh within the county uh that currently resides in a kind of a limbo spot from what i understand dep is to take that over over some period of time however funding has not been a set aside for that phase that they that capture polk county uh for permitting uh we as a board i think are all aware as we spoke on uh friday's agenda briefing that there there are kind of wheels moving in this uh for new homes uh so the the permitting time is less but my main concern is for the residents that live in polk county on septics that are needing a repair permit new home is one thing and that's inconvenient i understand that but for anyone that's on you know fixed income or really any any person that needs a septic tank repaired you can't do that legally without getting a permit we're talking two to three months to get a permit and typical septic tank coming from somebody that was in it for 20 years you're you know every one to two weeks you're having to pay to pump it out again or you're letting a discharge on the ground and if you're paying to pump it out while you're waiting for a permit that's thousands of dollars that you're having to spend out of your household income just because the permit can't be issued to have a licensed contractor do the work and to me that's not acceptable level of service to our constituents within this county and if there is a way for us to look at on the county side to bring that either internally so the county handles all the septic permitting i know from a state standpoint that's not and mr main college you speak to it but i guess from a legal standpoint i'm sure there's steps to go through but nonetheless i think it's important that we we at least think about it and talk about it and get some conversation going because truly if this is going the path forward of dep taking it over and we're multiple years down the road this situation is going to cost many residents you know it's tens of thousands of dollars if not hundreds and more collectively and and it's really a waste of money for them all because government can't get out of the way to issue a permit timely state government state government yes sir not county government i'm saying county is better than yeah so we just again moving forward i want the you know the residents to know that we hear you loud and clear and i feel for you and having been in that industry for many many years the contractors that provide these services too are obviously being impacted because they can't generate the revenue to provide for their families because they can't get a permit to do the work so it's i mean they can but it's it's not timely for a septic tank is not something that you're planning to fail and you're like i'm going to go get a repair permit four months before it fails it fails and then you're like okay i'm going to get it pumped out i'll go get a permit and used to you know we go out and do a repair within one or two weeks at the very latest time frame because normally it's urgent you don't want a discharge of sewage going on the ground but at this point you know residents going to be forced to pop the clean out cap off and let it run on the ground and have the neighbors smell it because they don't have the money to pay three to five hundred dollars to pump out a tank again that's correct um you know i think the wheels are rolling i think ben has been involved in some stuff on it i think we all have we've all heard this but at the end of the day i think it's in the state's hands so we've got to do our homework to get our delegation and our people to try to push something through to help to get it to a point where we can look at it and discuss it and maybe do something to help the overall situation so that's where we're at it's nothing it's going to snap our fingers and get fixed unless the state snaps their fingers and all of a sudden says oh we're going to take care of all that which we know that's not going to happen so yeah i think it is so thank you sir that's all uh and i don't have anything so we're going to move right on ben zisco i believe you're up and at this time i'll go to public care and general procedures i'll remind everyone if you wish to speak on any of the public hearing items you need to fill out a speaker card in the back and give it the card to a member of the communication staff 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 topic individual speaking during the public comment section of a matter will be strictly limited 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 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 from the audience if this will affect disrespectful sounds or utterances while another speaking or 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 proceedings and for such purpose you may need to ensure a verbatim record of the proceedings is made which record includes the testimony evidence upon which the appeal is based which you must gather at your own expense anyone in audience who wishes to speak on and present testimony today must be sworn in all testimony given there in public hearing 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 the following question do you swear or affirm the testimony or evidence you provide to commission today is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you at this time i will go over 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 hearing and recommendation of development review committee is for approval expedited 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 at the public comment the board will consider the land use case at any time a full presentation for staff can be requested from a commissioner the applicant or a member of the public all documents attached to the agenda 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 this land of the land use case i'll turn over mr ziskell thank you mr mink good morning members of the board members of the audience my name is ben ziskell i'm the land development director for polk county there are nine items on today's expedited public hearing portion of the agenda item number n1 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pal 2025-4 ear based comp plan cpa this is an adoption hearing to adopt the comprehensive plan amendments in compliance with florida statutes regarding the evaluation and appraisal report this is a big first step in the overall update to the county's comprehensive plan state law requires that local governments review its comprehensive plan every seven years and make any amendments to the plan necessitated by changes in state law during that seven year period during our overall rewrite of our comprehensive plan as directed by the board our update was broken into two specific segments one was to accomplish the ear based amendment mandatory updates and two was the overall update based on public input new visioning and review by uh relative state and and local government agencies as well as members of the community the item before you today is the adoption hearing of those state mandated updates which also include updates to include our certified local government historic preservation initiatives and our septic to sewer initiatives this effort to to bisect our comprehensive plan has proven successful in light of the response that the state has given local governments as a result of items transmitted per senate bill 180 a number of local governments have received letters or opposition from the state declaring their comprehensive plans null and void we did not receive such a letter we received very very minor comments they have been incorporated into this item and we are very pleased to present this to you for adoption and final submission to to the state um and following any questions or comments again this is an adoption hearing we recommend adoption thank you mr chair um did the advisory group have any input on this this particular item we did cover the topics but as we are going through the advisory group we're meeting every two weeks this was significantly ahead of schedule because of a state mandate so we have briefed them on what's in this element but they did not go through it line by line policy by policy because this was transmitted to the state prior to them convening their their bi-weekly meetings do you have plans to go over it with them in the next meeting we can certainly cover the content they're aware of the general content but as these updates are mandated by state law there's there's really no wiggle room in some of the updates in this particular item but it's good for them to know what went up yes ma'am yeah mr troutman i just wanted to reiterate what ben said or before he said it that they really don't have input on this it's bringing it up to be current with state statues i do have so in regard to that yeah again for the advisory committee just for them to be all inclusive on their understanding of the background and understandably some of these are fixed as far as how it's stated but i wouldn't want them to be absent of some of the information that may help at least have them have a better understanding of some of the things that we can change for the betterment of the community absolutely yes sir anyone else uh all right ladies and gentlemen uh this is a public hearing if you wish to come and speak on this matter please come forward and state your name and address and you will be given three minutes seeing none we will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for a motion motion for approval got a motion and a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries item number n2 is an expedited public hearing for case ldcpas 2025-21 old tampa highway cpa to consider a future land use designation change on 2.5 acres from residential low to industrial as you can see on the screen the subject site is located just to the north of the city of lakeland and south of an existing csx rail line it is currently designated as residential low but it is a budding existing industrial to the east the request is to change the subject parcel to industrial i point out and is noted on the agenda that we are requesting a change of 2.5 acres of an overall 2.87 acre site and that's due to an existing creek that runs at about a almost a 45 degree angle across the site so the request is to change all of the land that is east of the creek to industrial but the small sliver that is west of the creek would remain residential this item did appear before the planning commission received unanimous recommendation of approval and following any questions or comments today staff recommends approval do you have a uh do you have an aerial that has kind of shows the residential to the west any better than what we're showing on the slide we could pull that up yeah shauna bennett with land development division for the record you can see there's a house right next to the parcel to the west okay and i know this is expedited so we received no opposition no were there even any comments or commentary at all from the neighbor okay and the creek as i indicated on the previous side of the creek you can see in the green line represents the the creek so the the intent is that that triangular piece on the west side of the creek adjacent to that home stays residential and the industrial development stays on the east side of the creek gotcha thank you all right anyone else ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward and state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing none i will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board motion for approval second got a motion in the second all in favor all right those motion carries item number n3 is an expedited public hearing for case ldcpas 2025-22 motor vault east cpa to consider a future land use designation change from residential low to institutional on approximately 2.28 acres the subject site for for this property is located on the north side of pipkin road due what east of an existing institutional use the the the institutional use is approved for a a civic club of of auto enthusiasts a private club for for gathering for auto enthusiasts to to park their vehicles and to socialize and the request is to expand that facility to the parcel to the east as shown in the yellow box this item appeared before the planning commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval and following any questions or comments today staff also recommends approval any questions not a question but my two racers seem to be very excited about this opportunity of an institutional motor club i'm just thinking of other ways we can use institutional land for racing operations you know all right all right anyone else all right ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come and speak on this matter please come forward state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing that we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board second got a motion in a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries item number n4 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pal 2025-6 point sienna bayberry street cpa to consider a future land use designation change from development of regional impact to institutional in the point sienna master plan on approximately 72.27 acres you can see the site located on the screen is a vacant piece of land off of bayberry street just to the to the east and south of marigold the subject site has been identified by the school board as a future site for a high school and the requested change to institutional will facilitate construction of that school this item appeared before the planning commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval and this is a transmittal hearing so following any questions or comments from the board of the public staff recommends approval to transmit this to florida commerce any questions ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come forward and speak on this matter please come forward and state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing none we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board motion for approval got a motion in a second all in favor all right opposed motion carries item number n5 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pal 2025-8 northridge sap pics text change the request is a an amendment to the comprehensive plan text to increase the allowable percentage of retail and commercial usage on areas identified with the professional institutional land use designation the requested change is to increase that from 25 percent to 30 percent and what we have seen since the professional institutional land use designation was uh was put in place as as a a change to the market as it relates to professional offices and institutional office space and there's an ever-increasing request or demand for more commercial and retail spaces in those land use designations uh the the selected area plan the northridge select area plan currently has five picks designations which are seen on the screen and this request is to transmit a comprehensive plan text amendment to increase that percentage this is a transmittal hearing your planning commission unanimously recommended approval and following any questions or comments staff recommends approval to transmit to florida commerce any questions ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come up and speak on this matter please come forward state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing none we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board got a motion in a second all in favor aye opposed motion carries item number n6 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2025-14 northridge selected area plan picks ldc text amendment this item is a companion item to item n5 that was just approved this replicates the same language that was just approved for transmittal in the comprehensive plan to the land development code so once we receive comments back from florida commerce and bring back the comprehensive plan text amendment we will bring this back to you as well this item as a land development code text amendment is on its first reading and following any questions or comments no action is required by the board this morning all right ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come forward and speak on this matter please come forward and state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing now we'll close the public meeting and bring it back to the board just one question mr zisco on this just for clarity um the slide that was up in one place you talk about going from 25 to 30 percent and then in the text you've actually stricken 20 percent just want to make sure that that is that it was that was it previously at 20 or 25 percent i believe what you're seeing on the on the screen here is specifically related to gas stations the 20 is specifically to gas stations the overall limitation is 25 okay thank you for the clarification did we have a motion in a second yep oh that's right that's right okay all right item number n7 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2025-7 cargo containers on residential property the next three items are a series of text amendments as a result of a work session where staff brought you numerous items in the land development code that have been been relatively challenging for for staff or for applicants this item pertains to cargo containers in residential neighborhoods the current land development code specifically states that cargo containers may not be used for storage pursuant to the the work session staff has drafted a land development code text amendment which states that cargo containers may be used for storage on residential properties at a rate of one container per acre and that a minimum of one acre is required for those residential properties setbacks will conform with existing setbacks in the land development code as directed by the board this item is a first reading and no action is required by the board today however i will point out that the planning commission did recommend unanimous approval this will be before you in two weeks for adoption all right ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come forward and speak on this matter please come forward now state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing none we'll close the public meeting and bring it back to the board next item number n8 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2025-8 pool safety ldc text amendment and this is an amendment to simply remove conflicting language between our land development code and the florida building code and the replacement text will simply reference the florida building code as the guiding document for this regulation this is eliminating an inconsistency and will make enforcement consistent across divisions of the county again this is a first reading that no action is required today and this will appear before you for adoption on december 2nd i misspoke earlier the last item will be december 2nd as well for adoption all right any questions all right ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to speak on this item please come forward and state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes so you know we'll close the public meeting and bring it back to the board next and finally item number n9 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2025-9 southeast polk mobile homes to consider a land development code text amendment to remove conditional use standards for individual mobile homes within the southeast polk selected area plan and treat individual mobile homes consistent with the way they are treated across the rest of the county again this was an item presented to you at a work session and there is no action required today and this will appear before you on december 2nd for adoption all right thank you uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to speak on this matter please come forward state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes so you know we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board and thank you ben i think that concludes the expedited portion hang on a minute hang on a minute all right if i may just to go back a couple steps on our container language i know we got one container per acre but that's and there's multiple size containers do we have to add more language to be specific that it is a container independent of size is what counts so if somebody got four ten foot containers that it doesn't equal one 40 foot container so they're gonna have four like it is a head count of containers the language as written is one container and we're regardless of size okay perfect that's fine okay all right thank you mr chair oh one we're asking to be continued to december 2nd 2025 due to a publication issue i would like a motion if i can on that motion them a motion to move oh one to december 2nd 2025 at the 7 or 2nd 2025 at 9 am thank you got a motion in a second uh any further discussion all in favor aye those most cares no two will be presented by deputy county attorney sandy howard good morning sandy howard the county attorney's office this is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance granting an economic development ad valorem tax exemption for a new polk county business fort me dc llc and to approve a performance agreement with the company the company plans to construct an approximate one million nine hundred and twenty five thousand square foot data center facility and will invest one point two billion dollars in real property improvements and another one point six four billion dollars in tangible equipment the company also plans to create 50 new full-time jobs at the facility paying an average annual wage of a hundred and seven thousand dollars a year which is more than two hundred percent of polk county's 2025 average annual wage based on these plans and the board's currently approved guidelines the project qualifies for a 90 percent reduction in applicable ad valorem taxes for a 10-year period running from 2029 through 2038 the property appraisers report estimates that if the exemption is granted approximately 14 million 837 536 dollars in ad valorem taxes would be lost each year of the 10-year exemption period the county would recognize the remaining 10 percent of value as new ad valorem tax revenue during that time which equates to one million six hundred and forty eight thousand six hundred and fifteen dollars annually additionally new tax revenues gained for the school board would be 13 million one hundred and fifty nine thousand five hundred and one dollars annually for mst use two million forty thousand five hundred and eighteen dollars annually and for swift mud four hundred and seventy four thousand three hundred and forty eight dollars annually the applicant is with us in the audience today and i believe they would like to make a few comments so i will stop talking and stand for any questions can you on the dollar amount that you mentioned for the contribution the school board uh 13 and these are estimates from the property appraisers report of course but 13 million one hundred and fifty nine thousand five hundred and one dollars annually annually and uh i believe um cfdc and sean mentioned it on friday but it's also a significant um impact to the fort me the project is within the city limits of fort means so it would be a significant impact for fort means tax rules and then the number compare i know it's 1.6 million on the property tax we would get after the ad blurum tax exemption what is the current property tax for the parcel it's it's currently vacant so i don't have that number but it's minimal because it looks like sean might have it i didn't print that out i apologize no no problem i just and then of course after the 10-year period it would be full value probably like 39 or something good morning commissioner sean malott with the central floor development council thanks for having me here to speak and again appreciate your uh your support of this project uh for current parcels there's roughly eight parcels and right now between all mstus plus the city it's about four thousand dollars a year that's currently being collected and the impact from a fort me perspective this will be about a 23 million dollar annual impact to to fort me so it's it's significant and then of course if there is an additional mill right so that will also be uh also additional impact if that is approved by the the voters next year so what's for me's annual budget seven it's it's i won't say it's like around three million dollars it's significantly higher correct yeah so uh but we do have uh doug firstenberg with with stonebridge who would like to say a couple words to the commission as well so thank you thank you sean good morning commissioners doug firstenberg with stonebridge we're the developer of the project just want to say we appreciate your consideration of this this is a your comment about the city of fort me this is transformational for the city of fort me we think it's wonderful for the region and happy to answer any questions but we're looking forward to getting this moving as quickly as possible and really contributing to the community thank you for your time and your consideration any questions i just have a comment okay thank you sir thank you thank you yeah transformational for fort me this is a really big deal i think um a lot of people will be critical of the fact that the county's given up basically 140 million dollars of uh ad valorem taxes over a 10-year period uh but the fact of the matter is we're getting four thousand dollars a year now which is budget dust to this county and totally insignificant uh but more important this could be the first of many um uh projects like this when you look at the average wage of over a hundred and what was a hundred seven thousand dollars um that's big bucks for pole county that's that's those are great jobs those aren't good jobs and and that's what we need we talk about high tech high wage all the time we don't get it we get warehouses this is this is high tech high wage uh a good business model for our county and and i think it's a really good project and i'm certainly going to support it anyone else i would just like to say again when we look at a project of this type in the consideration there might be some concerns about the tax exemption you know they're not going to be putting heavy trucks on the road they're not going to be likely a use of law enforcement regularly so this is really low impact to the majority of our infrastructure components in the county and so i i would echo what bill said this is what we need in this county and so we'll gladly support it and if i made commissioner trauman's point you know this the 1.6 million that we still do get as soon the project moves forward is significantly more that is a budget contributor over the 4 000 per year that's uh currently on the tax roll and then not us but on the school board 13.1 million out of the 80 something million that we're talking about with that one mil projects like this make a big differential and potentially saving uh future escalated cost that's burdened amongst all of the property owners in the county so certainly support the project and glad you guys chose poe county anyone else yeah this is this is a project that i think um it's our responsibility to bring to poe county i always say that uh we want to make sure we have not only jobs but really good jobs good paying jobs so we thank you for choosing poe county you could have gone anywhere and you selected us so we appreciate that i look forward to the game changer as you said and how it's going to impact not only for me but the whole poe county so yeah i'm i think this is good for us i'm just going to say ditto on everybody that spoke they've hit on some pretty good points here it's good for our county uh it's good for fort me it's it's just good all around so thank you for coming here and uh we appreciate everything that you're doing all right uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come speak on this matter please come forward state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes seeing none we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board motion for approval second got a motion and a second all in favor all opposed motion carries thank you mr chair item number 03 is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance requiring criminal history screening requirements this is for uh county employees uh this is required in order for the county to access the state and federal databases um to form employee background checks this is setting up for us to be able to do this in-house instead of hiring a third party and it's required by the the federal regulations so we recommend it uh for approval all right uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come and speak on this matter please come forward state your name and address and you'll be given three minutes so you know we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for motion second got a motion in a second all in favor all right opposed motion carries item 04 is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance set in the yearly salary of commit of the commissioners in accordance with section 2.5 of the pope county charter this is the annual adjustment that we do uh based on either lesser of the cpi or the salary increases of the employees from the previous year this will result in a 2.9 percent increase and it's recommended for approval any question uh ladies and gentlemen this is a public hearing if you wish to come speak on this matter please come forward state your name and address and you'll be three minutes see now we'll bring it back to the board close the public hearing and bring it back to the board i think just for transparency and we're talking about dollars um does anybody here have the actual dollars as what we are currently and what that will go to currently is 51 304.54 and it will go to 52 792.37 which is an increase of 1487.83 annually okay yes thank you second got a motion and second all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries all right amber do at this time is uh general public for their turn to turn to have a chance to speak i have a debbie hicks first one up good morning i want to thank you guys for having us wait to the end i really do well you're welcome it is fascinating to listen to what goes on one of these days i will be fascinated over what goes on with animal control but i'm only here to mention it's still broken and i stand by everything i've said but actually i wanted to also address roundabouts because uh mr abercrombie brought it up last meeting about whether or not they were work or whatever well i want to say i love the things i use the one on north galloway road with sleepy hill the one south of bonnet springs on that lake whatever that pond or lake is anyway it is fascinating and i'm looking forward to the one on north galloway at 10th not that i make a left turn but i feel for the people who do and that's actually all i want to say thank you ma'am thank you very much mr abracombie up he's not here huh all right that's all i have ladies and gentlemen that is a wrap and we are adjourned so so so so so so