Board of County Commissioners on 2026-08-18 9:00 AM - Aug 18, 2026

If you would kindly take your seat, we will start with our board meeting for August 18, 2026. We will begin with Chaplain Henley as he gives the invocation and then stays standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good morning. I would invite you all to pray with me. Heavenly Father, as we attend to the business of governance today, we know that you are with us and that you are for us. Your word reminds us when we ask you for wisdom, you give it freely. And so we ask that you lead us today and always in the path of your wisdom and peace. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. At this time, we will proceed with presentations and recognition. And I would like to have some very important people and a very courageous K-9 to come up to the front. They would come up right up here. We have with us Polk County Sheriff Office Chief of Staff, Steve Lester, Deputy Natalie A-Strike, and her K-9 Ace to come up. Commissioner Wilson will be able to present to them a presentation this morning. Good morning, everyone. It is my honor to present this commendation of valor to a retired Polk County Sheriff's Office K-9 Ace. I'd like to thank his handler and partner, Sheriff Deputy Natalie A-Strike, for bringing him here today so we can recognize the great job he's done. It was through Ace's brave action that he saved not only his partner, but two other deputies' lives when the man opened fire on them. Now, where's the plaque at? I want to read it. This is what it says. Polk County Board of County Commissioners, commendation of valor, presented Polk County Sheriff's Office K-9 Ace. On August 6, 2026, K-9 Ace was critically wounded in the line of duty while protecting his handler and other Polk County Sheriff deputies from an armed gunman who opened fire on the approaching deputies with the intention of taking their lives. The Board of County Commissioners formally recognizes K-9 Ace's brave actions which resulted in seriously bodily injury while saving the lives of the others. Congratulations, and thank you for being here. Amber, have you helped them get over here in front of us? We could go ahead and take regular pictures. Yes. Perfect. Good morning, Madam Chair, Commissioners, County Manager, and everyone else. I am Steve Lester. I'm the Chief of Staff of the Polk County Sheriff's Office. On behalf of Sheriff Grady Judd, who the sheriff wishes he could have been here today, the sheriff's on a well-deserved, long-term, planned vacation out of state. And trust me when I tell you, a well-vacationed and rested Grady Judd is good for all of us. But he wishes he could have been here. But on behalf of him and all the sheriff's office, we are grateful for this acknowledgment where Natalie today and Ace are being recognized. We thank you so much, Commissioner Wilson. You know, today we are recognizing Natalie and Ace for their heroic events on that particular moment in time on that particular day. But the fact of the matter is they are doing this every single day. In a county of over 2,000 square miles, they are putting their canines in harm's way every day. They're going into woods, into swamps, into structures, into businesses, into attics where they don't even know what's around the corner. And they're doing that in apprehension of murderers and rapists and pedophiles, in this case a pedophile. And they do it fearlessly and they do it every day. And we are grateful to them. They are heroes to us. Ace is a hero. Unfortunately, Ace lost his left front leg to gunfire. But you can see Ace is alive and well and doing great. God has graced us with that. We are grateful for that, to have Ace here with us. But it's not lost on me also that this commission, we're able to do this because of this commission. This commission has continued to make public safety a priority. And that's why we can have the nation's best officers like Natalie, the nation's best canines like Ace, the best training, the best equipment, the best resources. So we are grateful to you for this. We are grateful to Natalie and Ace and all of our canine units. We have the best canine unit in America, the world. And we are grateful to you for this. So thank you for this acknowledgement. Thank you for this recognition. It's not lost on us at all. I wish the sheriff was here to enjoy it with us, but he couldn't be here. But again, thank you so much. All right, let's get some paper. All this and no dog biscuit. Ace. Good boy. I don't know if any commissioners wants to say anything. Madam Chair. Yes. I'll just say as far as having visited with the sheriff's office several times and looking at our training facilities and the amount of time that every deputy puts into their job beyond just when they're on the clock is tremendously, I appreciate it as a citizen, but having seen it in real time of the sacrifice that those men and women make every single day, oftentimes without the support of the community they're going in because they're going into a bad neighborhood or they're going into somebody that doesn't want to see you guys. I'm truly thankful that we have the best sheriff's office in the nation and I appreciate your dedication. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Well, I just, I, I just want to say I saw the video on TV and I tell you what, my tears just, just came down. So, um, we all feel for this, but we're just so glad that Ace made it through and, and I'm sure that, um, deputy you're excited about that. Chief Lester, thank you. And please tell the sheriff Grady Judd that we appreciate everything you guys do putting yourselves on the line all the time, just so that we can be safe. Thank you so very much. Appreciate it. Now we go on to employee recognition. Good morning, commissioners, staff, and visitors. I'm Caitlin Hoverkamp, public and media relations officer. Caitlin, excuse me, give me just a few minutes for people to leave before we start. Good morning, commissioners, staff, and visitors. I'm Caitlin Hoverkamp, public and media relations officer for Polk County government. Today, we are recognizing four 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. James Roberts has worked for the Polk County fleet management division for 20 years. He has served as a fleet technician three throughout his time with the division. Throughout his career, James has obtained several automotive service excellence certifications and heavy truck and automobile equipment. In his spare time, he enjoys riding side-by-sides and spending time with his wife, Pamela, his daughter, Katie, his son, James, and his six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. In the future, he looks forward to retiring and traveling. Grant Ewert has worked for Polk County Information Technology Division for 20 years. In 2006, he began working as a telecom technician for the county's Information Technology Division. Throughout his career with the division, Grant has served in several different roles, including serving as a telecom specialist, telecom network analyst, telecommunications supervisor, PC support call center supervisor, and systems architecture supervisor before moving into his current role as a technical services manager for the division. Grant obtained his bachelor's degree in business economics from Wheaton College, and he obtained his master's of management information systems degree from the University of South Florida. In addition to his educational achievements, Grant has coordinated Polk County's annual submissions for the digital county survey for the past five years. His efforts have helped the county rank among the nation's top 10 counties and rank number four among counties with populations between 500,000 to just less than a million for the past two years. Grant is a member of LifeSource Community Church in Lakeland. In his spare time, he is an avid mountain biker. He enjoys exploring the trails in Central Florida, planning trips to explore out-of-state trails, cooking, playing disc golf, and spending time with his wife, Cassina, his son, Toby, his daughters, Ava, and Gwyneth, and his son-in-law, Isaac. In the future, he looks forward to seeing how technologies like artificial intelligence continue to transform local government and how he can help the county make the most of those opportunities, in addition to continue traveling, riding his bike, and spending as much time as he can with his family. Takedra Roundtree has served the residents and visitors of Polk County for 25 years. In 2001, Takedra began working as an ADA transportation coordinator for Polk County Transit Services, where she assisted with planning medical transportation needs and reviewing and approving ADA applications for residents who needed accessible transportation services. After serving with Polk County Transit Services for 14 years, she transferred into a new role working as a customer service representative for the Polk County Utilities Division. She then moved into a new role serving as a financial specialist one before being promoted to her current position working as a financial specialist three for the utilities division. She obtained her accounting one, accounting two, and accounting three diploma from Travis Technical College. She is a member of Family Worship Center in Lakeland. In her spare time, Takedra enjoys being a custom cake decorator and florist, traveling and spending time with her daughter, Kayla, her son, Joe, her daughter-in-law, Shana, and her three grandchildren. In the future, she looks forward to retiring after 30 years of service with Polk County and marrying her fiancé in Jamaica. Victor Kelly has worked for the Polk County Utilities Division for 30 years. In 1996, he began his career with the division working as a service worker one. Throughout his career, Victor has served in a number of roles, including working as a service worker two, service worker three, and equipment operator three before being promoted to his current role to serve as a utilities system operator three for the division. Throughout his career, Victor has obtained several certifications, including his class A CDL, class two distribution system operator license, and his reclaimed water field site inspector certification. In his spare time, Victor enjoys spending time with his wife, Carol, his daughter, Heather, and his sons, Josh and Billy. Madam Chair, members of the members of the audience, 95 years of service to Polk County. Wow. Congratulations to all, and thank you so much for your service. Next, we have Katie Hayes, Executive Director of Keep Polk County Beautiful to present the 2526 Completed Community Cleanup Project and outline the 2026 Proposed Community Outline Project. And here she is. Good morning. I'm Katie Hayes, the Executive Director of Keep Polk County Beautiful. For those of you guys out here that aren't familiar with Keep Polk County Beautiful, we are a non-profit organization. We focus on litter prevention, community-based cleanups, tire recycling, and environmental education. This year is a big year for us. We are celebrating our 30th anniversary, and I have been very blessed and lucky to serve as a part of Keep Polk County Beautiful for the past 22 years. So I just want to, before I begin this presentation, thank all of our volunteers, our sponsors, our board of directors, our county government, and all of your offices that make Keep Polk County Beautiful possible. I'm an office of one, so I can't do anything without the people that are here today. So without any... To the 2025 to 2026 Clean It Up to Green It Up program. This program, recipient of the 2025 Keep America Beautiful National Innovation Award, has helped Polk County residents since 2011 by providing free disposal of materials not accepted through curbside collection, including construction debris, bulk waste, large tree debris, and illegally dumped tires. Cleanup locations are selected based on community need, and the program is made possible through the support of the Polk County Board of County Commissioners and our local waste haulers, FCC Environmental Services, GFL Environmental, Waste Management, and Scrap It, who donate curbside and tire collection services that help reduce illegal dumping throughout the community. Program information is dispersed throughout the community using various forms of communication, including utilizing programs through the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Polk County School Board, flyers, social media, and traditional media sources like radio and news outlets. Keep Polk County Beautiful kicked off this year's program in the Wabash community, collecting 78,940 pounds of garbage curbside and collecting 2,661 tires at the Bartow Tire Collection event. 55,860 pounds of curbside junk and debris was collected in the Inwood community on November 22nd. 110,420 pounds of junk and debris was collected curbside in the Eloise and Juanita communities, as well as 1,897 tires that were collected at the Eagle Lake Tire Collection event. 19,500 pounds of curbside trash was collected from the Boggy Bottom, Florence Villa, and Carefree Cove communities. A new location for tire collection was added within the Florence Villa community, collecting 1,151 tires. The Skyview, Eaton Park, Crystal Lake, and South Comby communities produced 56,840 pounds of curbside garbage. This event was held in partnership with the annual Lakeland Tire and Household Hazardous Waste Collection event, collecting 1,886 tires for proper disposal. The Gulfview and Washington Park communities in Lake Wales were both added into this year's cleanup rotation, collecting 17,540 pounds of junk and debris curbside from these two small communities. In addition, Keep Polk County Beautiful collected 1,514 tires at the Eagle Ridge Mall. In addition to a curbside collection event in unincorporated Polk City, Keep Polk County Beautiful hosted a community dumpster cleanup and free tire collection event for Polk City residents. Together, these events removed 113,560 pounds of junk and debris, including nearly 3,000 tires collected in just four hours, highlighting the significant community need for these services. We concluded this year's curbside cleanup season in June with an event in the North Poinciana community, removing 76,960 pounds of junk and debris. This area was selected to address significant illegal dumping hotspots. And due to the continued need, another section of Poinciana will be included in the upcoming cleanup season. During the 2025 to 2026 Clean It Up to Green It Up season, Keep Polk County Beautiful, with the support of our Polk County Government and Waste Hauling Partners, collected 529,620 pounds of junk and debris, as well as 11,951 tires for proper disposal. These results demonstrate the power of community partnerships and the positive difference we can make when we work together to keep Polk County clean and beautiful. In addition to the Clean It Up to Green It Up program, Keep Polk County Beautiful hosts community, waterway, park and roadway cleanups throughout the year. Together, these efforts removed hundreds of thousands of additional pounds of trash from Polk County this year. This year's Eloise CRA cleanup in April removed 30,720 pounds of curbside trash and 155 tires from this small residential community. We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces returning to volunteer. Thanks to Republic Service's National Neighborhood Promise Grant, in partnership with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, we also gave away 100 free trees at this event as part of five tree giveaways across Polk County this year. The grant will also provide a scholarship for a Polk County graduating senior. Residents were so excited about the tree giveaway that some began lining up as early as 5 30 a.m. We're excited to, once again, partner with Polk County Solid Waste to honor young artists at the unveiling of the leachate treatment wall created by Polk County Public Schools middle school students on September 12. Be sure to mark your calendars. Invitations will be sent out soon. Here is our 2026 to 2027 tentative Clean It Up to Green It Up Entire Collection event schedule. The Clean It Up to Green It Up program is made possible through the continued support of the Polk County Board of County Commissioners and our waste hauling partners FCC Environmental Services, GFL Environmental, Waste Management, and Scrap It. We also thank our municipal partners, City of Bartow Solid Waste and Lakeland Solid Waste, along with our community partners at the Polk County Sheriff's Office Weekend Work Release Program, Communications Office, and Environmental Crimes Unit. Our government partners in code enforcement, roads and drainage, communications, and solid waste all continue to play an essential role in making these community programs a success. Together, we are making a difference and building a cleaner, greener, and more beautiful future for Polk County. Thank you for helping us keep Polk County beautiful. Ta-da! Thank you again for supporting our programs, our projects, and making these projects possible. As you guys saw, we collected 12,000 tires, and that's just with that program. That's not including all of our other community-based programs that we do, the Adopter Road, the Adopter Park, our waterway cleanups. That's just that one specific program. So thank you for entrusting us to help take care of Polk County and helping keep Polk County beautiful. Well, thank you. Commissioner Wilson? Unbelievably hard. You know, this is a big county, you know, and the numbers show when you, you know, just what you showed here today. And it's a group effort to do that. And it's just not in certain areas. It's all over the county that you do this. And I appreciate it because, you know, keeping Polk County beautiful is all our, is what we're all trying to do. And, but thank you. Thank you for all you do. And, and you'll have me out there slinging some more tires, I know. I'm looking forward to it. I know it's your favorite. Anybody else? Yes. Just curious to say is for the, looking at the previous year data versus current, it was over 20% increase in both the tonnage of trash and also the number of tires. Are we typically seeing that as a trend as far as is it going up 20% almost every single year? Some years are a little better than others, but yes, the trend is going up based off of the population growth is what we're noticing with the new development, with the apartment complexes coming in. We're seeing illegal dumping changing a little, but we are definitely seeing more of our residents actually participating in these programs, which is a positive. They're not dumping this stuff on the side of the road. They're actually putting this out to help clean up their communities. So we are seeing an increase in participation as well. You're seeing on a back to the apartment topic. So the apartments kind of are changing. You're seeing more illegal dumping as some of that comes in. I'm just wondering if we need to change some of our requirements for those developments to have more trash facilities. If we're seeing, you know, kind of a link there, just some way to help. I mean, I appreciate what you guys do, but again, if we can take off some of the, the burden is always going to be there, but if we can reduce this 20%, 25% increase year over year, because at some point in time, now we get into, you know, a million tons. I mean, it could be exponentially high, right? So. Yeah, we, um, we've definitely seen with, with certain growth, the illegal dump sites are popping up closer to those, those type of communities. When we're seeing apartment complexes come up, especially ones that don't include like a bulk pickup. Um, we are seeing that bulky item dumping on the right-of-ways. Interesting. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Commissioner Scott. Commissioner Scott. Um, I believe we already have it in the works looking at, um, some additional requirements for apartment complexes and stuff in regards to having the proper dumpsters and, and everything. So I think that's already being worked on by land development. Yeah. I think we may just have to look at the actual size of it because it seems like there's probably even more of it. There was a need that we had already talked about. I remember that discussion, but I want to make sure from an actual volume of capacity that when we do address the need, we're, we're providing the adequate space because it seems again, if we're increasing by 20% year over year, I mean, that's incredible. I'm not saying it's just that type of development either, but again, if we can make some kind of link, uh, to help reduce some of this, that'd be great. Yes. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Katie, I just want to say you're awesome. You're a one person office and you do work based on all the volunteers and it's amazing. And especially in the pictures, we just saw the amount of people that come out and help you. Thank you for everything that you do to keep Polk County beautiful. It's, it's working and it's great. I am still amazed at the number of tires that you guys accumulate. I've never ever imagined that we would have that kind of number showing up on our County, but we appreciate what you do. Thank you very much. And we look forward to, uh, hearing more wonderful things that you're doing. So thank you. Thank you. And again, I can't take the credit for it. It's our volunteers. It's our waste hauling sponsors. It's everybody else. You're one person. That's what I'm saying. I'm just coordinating it all. I'm just amazed at how you can round up all these people, especially here. Commissioner Wilson. It's the puppy dog eyes. It's the tears. It's the begging. It all works. But thank you guys. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. In our last presentation, we have Dave Carter, the chairman of the stormwater technical advisory committee to provide an update on the committee's activity. Welcome Dave. Uh, good morning, Madam chair, commissioners, County manager, uh, Dave Carter, professional engineer. Uh, I serve as chairman of the County stormwater technical advisory committee, uh, here this morning to give you our annual update, annual report. Um, after all the other presentation before we, we like stormwater, we think it's exciting. Others maybe don't feel that way, but we're pretty excited about it. Um, just a little back, I'll give you a little background, talk about some funding, and then I've got a couple of projects I want to share with you, uh, later on. So, uh, the, uh, committee was established back in 2013. Its purpose at that time was to assist the County in, uh, implementing what's called the NPDES program, national pollutant discharge elimination system. Uh, the County in 2013 implemented a MSTU and there was some concern politically about, uh, having some oversight to the County's activities in that area and, and making sure we were in compliance with our permit requirements. Uh, we do review the County proposed project and funding levels, and we provide technical assistance to County staff in addressing surface water issues. Uh, next slide, please. Just a little overview. We've been here for 13 years that in 13, there was very little funding for stormwater. Um, the County was, was doing some basic outfall inventory education programs. And at the time they had something like 40 unfunded CIP projects. Uh, the, the MSTU fee was, was instituted. The funding started rolling in about 2025. Uh, the County then began doing some, uh, water quality management plans. Uh, in 2019, uh, I think it remarkable was the Lake wind project that we've talked about several times. Uh, that's a, a lake project that the Peace Creek canal, uh, system bisects. That project, uh, was conducted in two different phases, was very successfully completed. And the results from that project have been very, very, uh, promising and very, very positive. 2019, they were looking at, uh, more feasibility studies and additional funding and grant, uh, uh, income from other, other agencies. Uh, currently, uh, we, we are successfully meeting our NPDES requirements. I want to make sure I told you that. And also, uh, we've had, we've had to address new Florida statutes on stormwater regarding septic tanks, BMAP, uh, uh, uh, building resiliency, which has to do with, uh, vulnerability assessment of critical facilities, uh, things like hospitals, uh, uh, uh, power plant, uh, uh, uh, critical facilities that are sometimes flight and flood prone areas and what we can do to take care of that. Uh, next slide, please. This is a pretty happy picture. Actually, the funding that your staff has sought and gotten in terms of grants has been outstanding over the years. Uh, this year, there's almost a, almost a 10 to one ratio of outside grant money versus county tax dollars. And I, I just think that's extraordinary to have that kind of return with, with those county dollars. Uh, one thing I would point out when you, you get a grant, it's not just a free check. You, you've got to do a number of performance things that you have to do to, to satisfy that grant. So they don't just give you the money. Uh, you have to, you have to do things that they asked for in the grant to, to successfully do the funding and get the grant reimbursement. So the county has traditionally done a great job at seeking grants and successfully, uh, fulfilling the requirements of the grants. Next slide, please. I'm not going to go over all these, but just, this is a, just to give you a taste of all the activities that the county is involved in. Uh, they do a number of small scale projects that don't get much, uh, much reporting, but they also do some innovative technology, uh, that they're working on the street sweeping program. I'm going to talk about in a minute. Uh, they look at over 250 outfalls that they do condition reports on. There's 20 water quality treatment facilities that are being operated and maintained because once you build these facilities, you just can't walk away. You have to take care of them and make sure they're operating properly. Uh, I'm sure you're aware of the county's a water atlas web web page is maintained, uh, by, by your staff. They also are collecting, uh, water quality samples with in-house lab analysis on 140 sites that they do quarterly. So quite a bit of assessment of the, uh, of the water systems around the county. Next slide. Thank you. This is what I call sort of our water quality report card. Uh, looks at, uh, 115 lakes, 37 stream sites, and they, they only look and, and, uh, for rating like this on this report card. If the site has said 10 years of historical data, uh, a trend line for it to move up or down, it has to have four, uh, quarters directly where, where it's measured in the trend line is established for four quarters on a water body. You may be sampling multiple points and you may be sampling multiple constituents within each of those points. And so this is a, what I call an average on an average, but the results this year are promising as they have been in the last couple of years. So we've had a trend of promising results. The number of lakes that are improving, it's 148. The declining lakes are 91. There's over 300 that showed no significant trend one way or the other on streams. There's 19 stream systems that have been improving and only five declining, uh, again, 76 that know that show no significant trends. So again, this is a, I think a positive report card, and this has been consistent the last couple of years we've, we've looked at this, we've had similar results. So I think this is a pretty good trend line. Next slide. Not going to go into all the NPDES requirements. And what I think I would take away from this, uh, this graphic is that when you have, when you started the program with cycle one is a few basic things you do. Then you go to cycle two, you have to continue doing those basic things, but they add on two or three other tasks and things that you have to handle. And every time the permit cycle renews, there are more things you have to do. Uh, we're in cycle four. Now they typically are running about four or five, six years per cycle. Uh, the latest things we're looking at. I mentioned earlier was, uh, addressing septic tank nutrient loading and B map requirement basin management action plans. So we're, we're almost into, into cycle five with our permit. And once again, we are in compliance with our NPDES permit requirements. Next slide. Thank you. Um, street sweeping is considered a non-structural, uh, uh, program. Uh, the county originally started, they only looked at six basins are now looking at and doing a street sweeping on 30 basins. Uh, this is by no means random. These sites are targeted based on the, the downstream water body and what, uh, the, the treatment levels of the streets, you know, upstream of that and looking at which system should be, should be checked and done. Um, it focuses on impaired water bodies and it's part of your NPDES requirements to do a street sweeping program. Next slide. This, when they, when the county does the street sweeping, they, they have ways they can check the, the amount of pounds they're bringing in. And there's a ratio between that and the amount of nutrients that are in those pounds, nutrients, you think of, think of it like fertilizer and there's almost 1800 pounds of nutrients were removed in 2025. The remarkable thing to me was that is almost twice the nutrients that were removed in the prior year and talking to staff, uh, the, the issue there, the, the improvement I think is comes about because they're focusing on, uh, the areas that they're doing a little closer. And they're also, I think having better controls of the contractor doing the street sweeping. And so the fact that that that has doubled, I think is, is a pretty good sign and pretty remarkable. Next slide. Okay. I want to, I want to just show you some projects, give you some ideas. These are the larger projects, typically a little more glamorous. So, uh, a completed or nearly completed projects, the Lake Annie project. This is east of 27, south of Dundee. Uh, this site was an old, uh, peat mine that was done decades ago. It was partially reclaimed. Uh, the county's gone in and created some flow paths for the water to allow the water to settle the nutrients to settle out of the water column. Uh, they've done some, uh, aquatic planting. There's also a passive recreation area that's in the bottom. It's that light green area, the rectangle on the bottom of the site. So they try to do recreation when they do some of these projects and make dual use of the land that they've, they've acquired. Next slide. Uh, the Lake Lulu project, we talked about that last year. Um, if you remember that's on the south side of Winter Haven, south side of Lake Lulu, the green area on the, uh, the, the wetland area on the south lake on the photo there, you'll notice there are some channels in that, in that area. Now, those were not there two years ago and we showed you that as proposed work last year. And so those channels have been dug. That allows the water from Lake Lulu to ebb and flow back and forth through those wetland areas and better, better treat that, that water on the left. This graphic on the left, uh, is, is the area just to the southwest of the wetland area. Um, that area was an old industrial area. There was some remnant, um, stormwater or industrial treatment areas there. And the county's looking at taking those over and, and repurposing those basically, uh, the water from the north and northwest flows into here from some industrial areas and it's all untreated. And so the idea is to capture that water, let it through flow through sort of serpentine through those long skinny ponds that are there. They eventually flow through a wetland and would flow back out to the junction point, which is in the south, uh, lower side of that, uh, drawing. That's also the point, if you're familiar, where the, uh, canals, uh, control structure, which drains the, of the whole Southern Winter Haven chain comes in there. So that area is just north of Lake Gwynn. So that project is, is ongoing upcoming project. Uh, this project is on Lake Hamilton. Um, it's on the, um, uh, northwest side of the lake. It's, uh, adjoining the, uh, West Lake Hamilton Drive. If you're familiar with that, uh, the, the blue line, the water coming from the north and an old canal basically will be filtered through some, uh, either new, newly dug wetlands or some enhanced wetlands. It'll all drain to the east into Lake Hamilton. Uh, another phase for that would be on the east side of the road. Uh, there'll be some wetland treatment cells created and some native wetland playings will be done. And again, County's proposing some recreational use on that area. Next slide, please. This is simply a list of some of the ongoing projects. And some of these are, you'll, you'll note date back as early as 2017, because these projects, again, once they're created, they have to be maintained. Uh, the, the, uh, TAC committee does look at these projects annually, and we had recommended them for approval in our June meeting. So I just wanted you to know that. Uh, next slide. Uh, I understand you have before you on the consent agenda is a resolution to dissolve the committee. Um, we're again in, in our 13th year. Uh, originally the committee was established as, and to be sunset after three years, the notion was to, uh, help the county, uh, ramp up their stormwater program. Um, we're very proud of the work the county's done over that time. I, I think, you know, looking at where we are today versus where we are then in terms of the scope of the projects, this, the complexity of projects, we are light years ahead of where we were back in that, that day. And I think it's a testament to your staff, their, their talents, their skills, and their experience. Um, our committee did, uh, vote unanimously to recommend to you that our committee be dissolved. And, um, we, we feel like it, we've done our work here. It's time to move on. And your staff is well-qualified now to do what, uh, what, what they do. And so I would mention, um, the, uh, next slide. Yes. Thank you. Uh, current members of the committee. And I'll ask you guys to stand up besides myself, Chris Kay, uh, Robert Collinger is not here, but Ed Morawski is here. And Jeff Spence, guys stand up. Um, they've been on the committee anywhere from five to 13 years. Uh, uh, Chris served on me and well with me when the committee was initially established. And so he's been here quite a few years. The other gentlemen come on the last four or five years. Additionally, the initial, uh, members were Wayne Griffin, John Lindsay, and Dan Fruge. So guys, thank you. Just wanted to mention you. Uh, and Mr. Mr. Madam Chair, that is the extent of my presentation. I'll be happy to answer any questions you would have this morning. Questions. You know, it's, it's, uh, it just shows what Polk County and your team, this committee has done for all these years. You know, a lot of people don't understand what we do and how we do it. And, and they, they don't get involved in that, that much, but they can always complain about something when it doesn't look right. But, but for the year, for all these years, we've been doing this, we'll continue to do this and try to make Polk County better when it comes to stormwater and stuff like that. So it's, it's, uh, really shows everybody working hard together and trying to make this happen and not trying to making it happen. Thank you. Commissioner Scott. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Carter, I just want to say, you know, I appreciate what, uh, the, uh, advisory committee has done, not that you guys know, but I had actually attended a meeting many, many years ago as a professional engineer and as a stormwater expert, just to learn what Polk County was doing. Cause as a consultant, you know, it's the way you figure out what work is next. Right. Um, but what that actually did in the time I didn't know it is it spurred an interest in me to get involved in the public forum. And the reason I ended up running for office, one of them was because I want to make a difference. And the reason I really wanted to be involved, uh, on the stormwater technical advisory committee at the time was to make a difference. And although that wasn't in the cards at the time, um, I appreciated the insight that you guys, um, did and, and just some of the, you know, the ingenuity that you brought, I think to a County, uh, platform as far, uh, more advanced than a lot of other counties even have an opportunity to do. So when you look at the members that are on the committee and the many, many years of expertise, um, it really did a great thing for Polk County, but also did a great thing for me personally, because again, it's one of the inspirations I had to, uh, run for, uh, commissioner seats. I do appreciate all the time that you guys put into it, all the years and all the improvements that you provided to Polk County. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. That was very nice. Thank you. Anyone else? Uh, Ms. Beal has some information and would like to say a few words about the, the team. He says, uh-oh. Good morning, commissioners. Tabitha Beal with parks and natural resources director. Um, it's my privilege to recognize and sincerely thank the members of our stormwater technical advisory committee for their outstanding volunteer service and commitment to Polk County. Um, I asked staff to come forward. We have a little something to give them for their service. And the first one is Dave Carter, Chris Kay, if you'll come up, Jeff Spence and Mirowski. And lastly, Mr. Bob Conjure is not able to be here. As Dave mentioned, some of you started serving in 2013, which the volunteer service for this is meeting sometimes on a monthly basis, multiple time after they were professionals working in the work field for a couple hours an evening, providing their technical expertise. It was originally for three years. They got promoted because of their expertise, technical guidance, and dedication to extend it to 13 years of service. And so I just, on behalf of our team, I want to recognize you and appreciate your encouragement, mentorship, and continued dedication to Stack. Your knowledge and willingness to serve has strengthened our stormwater program and contributed meaningly, meaningfully to the work we do for our community. So on behalf of Polk County and personally, thank you for exceptional service and commitment. So I just want to say thank you to you guys. Those are nice awards right there. They're beautiful. So this is just a small momentum of our thanks for their hours. If we can have them all come to the front and we'll take them. That would be amazing. Yes. They could stand right here. Amber, if you would help them. That's sad. Let's get a little closer together in the front row. Get ready. One, two, three. Perfect. Thank you so much. Dave Carter, we are. Dave, I just want to say thank you for your commitment for all these years and making sure that Stack does the work that they've done. And based on the projects that we have seen, it's unbelievable what has taken place. So thank you very much for your service. Excellent job. Thank you. Madam Chair, Dave and I are actually graduates of Penn State University together. He's a few years behind me, but we are both graduates of Penn State University. Attorney Minks, there was a recommendation for Dissolved. What do we do with this now? That's actually on the Xenogen R13. Perfect. As an R13, Madam Chair. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Moving forward, we'll go on with the public comments for agenda items. Amber, do we have any? No, ma'am, we do not. Okay. And now we get to our Comptroller, Ms. Stacey Butterfield. Good morning. Today we have for you to approve and ratify. Hang on. Let me get my information. Payroll checks 04826 through 04858 in the amount of $31,635.13. We have 3,200 direct deposits in the amount of $4,922,816.27 dated August 7, 2026. We have wire and electronic fund transfers of $15,633,266.28. Those are dated August 4th through August 17th of 2026. We have invoice checks numbered 510162 through 511066, totaling $14,754,637.49, dated August 4th through August 17th of 2026. For you to approve and ratify, please. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We also request the approval of the minutes of your regular board meeting that was held on August the 4th of 2026, please. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Anything else? Yes, ma'am. My office is holding a little over $85,000 in unclaimed court-related funds for 154 people or businesses. So I encourage everyone to go out to our website, which is polkclerkfl.gov, and review the list to see if you have any unclaimed monies. If you find a possible match, just call our office at 863-534-4000 and give us your information, and we will go over the procedure to claim that money. Claims must be submitted by Tuesday, September 1st. So please check the list and help us out by spreading the word. Thank you. Polk County's own treasure, huh? Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Attorney, county attorney, anything for us? No, ma'am. I think we do. We've got to approve the Kassin agenda, though. Let's go ahead and approve that now. Thank you, Madam Chair. Motion for approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Nothing further, Madam Chair. Okay, now, anything you have for us? No, Madam Chair. Okay, let's go on to County Manager Bill Beasley. Madam Chair, members of the board, members of the viewing audience, the manager's office will have two items for board consideration this morning. If I could ask Mr. Jerry Rodriguez to step to the center microphone here. Madam Chair, members of the board, item number G1 is to request the board to confirm the appointment of Mr. Jerry Rodriguez to serve as the director of the Polk County Building Division. The Polk County Charter specifies that the county manager's appointment of executive service employees is subject to confirmation by the Board of County Commissioners. After a competitive public process, I have appointed Mr. Jerry Rodriguez to the position of director of Polk County's building division, effective Monday, August 24, 2026. Mr. Rodriguez brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in land development, municipal planning, zoning, code compliance, entitlement review, and forward planning across both public and private sectors. Most recently, he served as a lead land development project manager and a forward planning manager for the D.R. Horton Corporation. His public sector experience includes serving as a planner with the Polk County Board of County Commissioners between the years of 1998 and 2005, as well as holding leadership roles with the Polk County Public School System and the cities of Dade City, Bushnell, and Davenport. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a strong ability to lead teams, manage budgets and operations, mentor staff, coordinate complex development and regulatory matters, and effectively present projects and recommendations before public boards and commissions. Mr. Rodriguez holds a Master of Business Administration from Florida Southern College, a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of South Florida, and an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts from Polk Community College. He also served as a corporal in the United States Marine Corps assigned to field radio operations. The building director is an authorized position in the current adopted budget, and the existing appropriations are sufficient to cover a negotiated base salary of approximately $146,411 and employee benefits of approximately $40,730. So, Madam Chair, members of the board, it is my honor to recommend the board confirm the appointment of Mr. Jerry Rodriguez to serve as the next director of Polk's building division, effective Monday, August 24, 2026. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Jerry? Madam Chair and board members, I want to thank you, and I'm very humbled and grateful for the opportunity to come back and work for Polk County. I'm a little lost for words, so bear with me. I want to thank Mr. Beasley, Ben Dunn, your interview panel and the HR department for their due diligence and their recommendation. My goal is to lead and support the building division and the fine work they do, work with our partnering county divisions and departments and the PCBA. My goal is to be responsive and provide solution-driven outcomes for our residents, customers, and our business community. I want to thank you again. Thank you, and good luck. Welcome aboard, Jerry. You've got some big shoes to fill. Thank you. Final item, Madam Chair, for the Manager's Office. Item number G2 is to request the board to approve a land purchase agreement between Richard E. Wheeler, Jr., including family, and Polk County in connection with the Environmental Lands Program Project Site Number EL-142-25, as recommended by the Conservation Land Acquisition Selection Advisory Committee. This will be a property acquisition cost not to exceed $3,615,000. In February of 2023, the board adopted Resolution Number 2023-009, which created the Polk County Conservation Land Acquisition Selection Advisory Committee, or the CLASIC. Creation of the CLASIC was in response to a bond referendum approved by Polk voters in November of 2022 to finance capital projects related to the acquisition, preservation, protection, management, operation, and restoration of environmental lands, water resources, and important fish and wildlife habitat. The CLASIC reviews and evaluates properties nominated by property owners and provides a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners as to whether or not staff should pursue the acquisition of properties for the program. One such nomination was provided by Mr. Richard E. Wheeler, Jr. and family for continuous tracts of land located along the north side of Masterpiece Road to the west of Timberlane Road in the Lake Wales area. The property was evaluated by the CLASIC, which recommended approval, and in July of 2025, the board approved staff to pursue the acquisition of the property. The county hired an independent appraiser to establish the value of the property, which is comprised of two rectangular-shaped tax parcels containing a total of approximately 80 acres. The owners of the property have agreed to accept the county's offer in the amount of $3,600,000 and have executed an agreement for sale and purchase of the property. The county attorney's office and the real estate services director have reviewed the agreement and recommend approval. Approving the agreement, authorizing the issuance of funds for the purchase, and hiring the American Government Services Corporation to close the transaction will allow the county to take ownership of the property for its intended purposes. Funding for this environmental preservation initiative by way of this property acquisition is available in the Parks and Natural Resources five-year adopted community investment program. $3,115,000 will be provided from the Environmental Lands Acquisition Fund, and $500,000 will be provided through a Florida Defense Support Task Force grant. So, Madam Chair and members of the board, I think in keeping with the board's priority commitments to environmental preservation, water quality improvements, and habitat restoration, I would request the board to approve the proposed land purchase agreement and authorize the issuance of funds not to exceed $3,600,000 for the identified property purchase. I would also request the board to approve the hiring of the American Government Services Corporation to close the transaction and to approve paying closing costs in the estimated amount of $15,000, whereby the total transaction being approved by the board today is not to exceed $3,615,000. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Madam Chair, if I may? Yes. I just wanted to point out, you know, this particular piece was one of the parts I talked about on our wildlife corridor when we talked about the Masterpiece Property. Obviously, there's infrastructure we have to put in there, but then with the addition of this being added to kind of this clustering of property, now it does connect the wildlife corridor. So, while we're not envisioning a five-foot-wide path, it would be something more appropriate. This does allow for that. So, I'm super excited that we're able to get this property into our program and looking forward to Tabitha's work and her group to really make that connection and continue on on the Florida wildlife habitat. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Wilson? Yeah, that particular piece, you know, we've looked at it a long time ago. We knew what it was going to do, what it meant to us, and how it worked all together. So, that just goes back to how important this is on our federal program, I mean, classic deal. It really, we have really put together some good pieces of property for conservation, and I'm very proud to be part of that. We have a great team doing that, and we're going to, we've got them, I can't say we've got them lined up, but we've got plenty that we can be looking at and keep adding to it every month. So, I'm very proud of Tabitha, what you do, and everybody else. Anybody else? Okay, I have a motion and a second, or more questions. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. That's it for me, Madam Chair. Thank you. Let's go to Commissioners. Commissioner Troutman? Just want to remind everybody, today is our primary election day, so please get out and vote. Saying your frustrations on social media and to your neighbors gets nothing done, casting your vote does. Okay. Anything else? Okay, Rick Wilson? Uh, Ditto, just what she said. Commissioner Braswell? I don't have anything. Okay, Commissioner Scott? Yes, Pam, I'd like to appoint Levi James Stuball as a member, seat six, of the Polk County Historical Commission for the three-year term from October 1, 2026 through September 30th, 2029. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Anything else? No, ma'am, that's all. Thank you, and I don't have anything else, and we will go now to our hearing part of the meeting. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before we begin our expedited hearings, I will go over the public hearing general procedures. I would remind everyone, if you wish to speak on any of the public hearing items, that you need to fill out a speaker card in the back and give 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 a topic. Individuals 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 today's business. The Commission expects civility at all times during all public hearings, speaking out of turn, shouting out from the audience, disrespectful sounds or utterances while another is speaking and are acceptable, and you will be asked to leave the chambers for the remainder of the day. If any person decides to appeal any decision made by the Board with respect to any matter considered here today, you will need a record of the proceedings, and that for such purposes, you may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based, which you must gather at your own expense. Anyone in the audience who wishes to speak and 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 and raise your right hand and answer out loud to the following questions. This is for the land use cases. Do you swear or affirm the testimony or evidence you provide to the Commission today is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Madam Chair, at this time, we'll go over the expedited hearing procedures. Expedited hearings are held pursuant to Resolution No. 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 procedures are the following. After staff briefly introduces a 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, 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 would turn it over to Mr. Ziscoll to present the expedited hearings. Thank you, Mr. Mink. Good morning, Madam Chair. For the record, Ben Ziscoll, Land Development Director. There are eight items on the expedited public hearing portion of today's agenda. Item number N1 is an expedited public hearing for case LDC-PAL-2026-4, Organic Matters Text. To consider a future land use map change on approximately 71 acres from Business Park Center to Industrial. The subject site is located on U.S. 17, just south of the city of Bartow. As you can see on the screen, at a larger scale, Bartow is both to the east and the west, with the exception of the land that is right on Highway 17. Zooming in closer to the subject property, you can see that there is an industrial site to the north and to the south, but the subject site still retains a BPC-2 designation. The request on the right-hand side, although the purple doesn't quite color match, is to match the industrial by changing the land use from BPC to industrial, so this entire section of U.S. 17 will have an industrial land use designation. This is a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment because it exceeds 50 acres. It was reviewed by the Planning Commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval, so following any questions or comments today from either the public or the board, staff recommends transmittal to the Florida Department of Commerce. Any questions for staff? Hearing none, we'll open it up for public hearing. Amber, do we have anybody for this one? Not for this one, ma'am. Okay, thank you. I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. I have a motion and a second. Any questions or discussions? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N2 is an expedited public hearing for case LDC-PAL-2026-3, Socrum Loop West LCC-CPA, to consider a future land use map designation on approximately an acre and a half, changing from residential low to linear commercial corridor. The subject site is located on Socrum Loop, just to the east of U.S. Highway 98. As you can see on the screen, underneath the word current, there's a larger linear commercial corridor, which is on both the east and the west side of U.S. Highway 98. The subject parcel does have a residential low designation. The request is to expand the LCC by one parcel. You can see an existing commercial development or commercial property just to the west of the site. To the north is an existing church. The request is to expand this 1.49 acres. As you'll recall, over the last several meetings, there was a text amendment to the comprehensive plan, which will facilitate or allow this expansion. This is an acre and a half, but it is within the Green Swamp, which therefore qualifies it as a large-scale comprehensive plan. So a very, very small, large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. The item did appear before the Planning Commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval. So following any questions or comments, staff also recommends transmitting this to Florida Commerce. Any questions for staff? Yes, ma'am. Yes. All right, so just a couple. If we go back to, there was a, I believe it was like an outdoor storage and kind of RV storage. It was north of 98 that went in for an approval. Well, it was expanding their existing site. It's Lakeland RV storage or something like that. We said at that time that along 98 that the LCC corridor had been established for many years and that there wasn't going to be allowable expansion east or west to extend LCC. But that particular use, I think we did it as a TSDA. I'm going outside of my area of expertise. But there was a land use we were able to assign it that allowed them to have the expansion of their business without it being LCC as the original property was. And I'm just kind of curious on the LCC that I think you're referring to on the text amendment, that was for the site that was in Polk City. Is that correct? That was going to allow the Polk City expansion? I'm just trying to see where this kind of grew legs to get it beyond where we were historically. I'm not recalling exactly which other land use case you're referencing. What I will say is this is within the Polk City special protection area. So it was this exact parcel that had an asterisk, we had an asterisk in our land development code that did not allow the LCC within the Polk City special protection area to expand. That asterisk only applied to this parcel. Everywhere else throughout the county, there is a process where a linear commercial corridor could come before the planning commission and the board to seek an expansion. So by removing that asterisk and that footnote from the code, it now put this parcel on equal playing field with the rest of the county. We knew that that text amendment was in anticipation of this request coming before you. But as you can see, where the existing LCC exists up and down 98, the Polk City selected area plan follows the US 98 corridor and then turns due east on Socrum Loop. So everything to the west of US 98 or everything to the south of Socrum Loop is not in the Polk City special protection area. The only LCC parcel that was in the Polk City special protection area was this particular parcel here. So that footnote prevented this one property from seeking the expansions before you today. So I guess just for my own information, how did the Polk City, from a historical standpoint, how did the Polk City special protection area get down to Lakeland when it's a ways away from Polk City? That certainly predates my time with the county and when that line was drawn. But common planning practices using a major roadway to be a differentiator. So clearly that was done at the time when they used the US 98 and the Socrum Loop corridors as the dividing line. But the methodology or the thought process that went into that predates me, maybe some other staff would be able to answer that question. Okay. So this doesn't, like you said, this is just going to be for this parcel. I was, I guess when I heard Polk City before, I didn't realize spatially we were talking about 98 North and North Lakeland. I was thinking more up towards Polk City just by nature of the, okay. Thank you. Appreciate the clarification. Yes, sir. Any other questions for staff? Hearing none, I'll open it off a public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone for this one? No, ma'am. Okay, I close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N3 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCPAL 2025-2, US 98 and Peace River ARR to consider a future land use map designation change on approximately 116 1⁄2 acres from phosphate mining to agricultural, residential, rural. This is a continuation of an effort directed by the board to seek out properties that had a phosphate mining designation that had never been owned or operated by a mining company or were not part of a mining plan. In this particular case, you can see that there's 116 acres of land on the north side of US 98 just to the east of the city of Fort Meade. These properties all contain residential development and residential dwellings that were built in the 1960s. This amendment will accurately reflect the use of the properties as residential and agricultural and not part of a phosphate mine. This will afford the property owners the rights to use their property for residential and agricultural purposes as designed and as has existed for over 60 years. This also appeared before the Planning Commission with the unanimous recommendation of approval, being that it exceeds 50 acres. It is a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. So following any questions or comments, we also request a favorable vote to transmit this to Florida Commerce. Any questions for staff? Hearing none, I open it up for public hearing. Yes, ma'am, we have one. Okay. No, ma'am, we do not. So just for the record, that was Mr. Butler, and he no longer wants to come up, correct? Just so we have a record. Thank you. Okay. So we close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. I have a motion for approval and a second. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N4 is an expedited public hearing for Case LDCPAL 2025-3, Parish and Keller ARR, to consider a future land use map designation change from phosphate mining to agricultural residential rural. This item is nearly identical, very, very similar to the previous item. Again, it is a piece of land to the east of the city of Fort Meade, slightly east of the previous item. This also includes multiple residential properties that have contained residential structures since the 60s. You can see them on the screen here just to the south of US-98 as it makes its bend. You can see the parcels here all containing residential structures. The current future land use map has most of this designated as phosphate mining. These properties were not a part of a phosphate mine or owned and operated by a phosphate company, and the request is to change their designation to agricultural residential rural as well. The accumulation of these parcels is 66 1⁄2 acres, so since that exceeds 50 acres, this is also a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. Following any questions or comments, staff recommends approval to transmit to Florida Commerce. Any questions for staff? Yes. No questions, just comment. Again, just for a refresher, we've had some residents have to come in and do this on their own, and it's several thousand dollars, so thanks for being proactive and getting this cleared up once we saw some of this happening. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for staff? Hearing none, I open it up for public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone? No, ma'am, we do not. Okay, close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N5 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCPAL 2026-5, Indian Lake Estates sewer and duplex text. Items N5 and N6 are companion items. N5 relates to the comprehensive plan, and N6 is a corresponding item for the Land Development Code. Both of these items are text amendments which would allow the construction of duplexes in the Indian Lake Estates community, and it will allow those duplexes to be connected to septic. It will allow them to be a shared septic between the two units of a duplex, so each duplex, while it's two separate living units, will have one shared duplex. Item N5 is the comprehensive plan text. This was transmitted to the Florida Department of Commerce and received no comments. Your Planning Commission did recommend this for approval, and following any questions or comments today, staff recommends adoption of this text amendment. Question for staff? Yes. Commissioner Braswell? Why does this ring a bell in my head? Did we do this for an individual parcel before, and now we're just changing the comp plan? There was a request to exempt the connection to sewer about a year ago. This specifically requires the duplexes to share a septic, so it cuts the number of septic tanks in half from what was proposed before. The request was for individual septic tanks about a year ago, so this is a modified request. Okay. All right. Thanks. Any other questions for staff? Okay. Hearing none, I open for public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone? No, ma'am, not for this one. I close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And item number N6 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCT 2026-12, Indian Lake Estates Land Development Code duplex and use table text change. And as previously mentioned, N6 is a companion item to N5. This is the change to the Land Development Code text. This item also received unanimous recommendation from the Planning Commission as a Land Development Code text amendment. This particular item was not subject to state review, but it is before you today and on second reading for adoption, and staff recommends approval. Any questions for staff? Hearing none, I open it up for public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone for this one? No, ma'am. Okay. I close the public hearing, and I bring it back to the board. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item number N7 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCPAS 2026-8, Kathleen Government Center, to consider a future land use map designation change from residential low to institutional on approximately 29.62 acres. The subject site is in the Kathleen area, the site of a future county government center. This is part of the greater effort of county government to decentralize services to the residents. This request to change to institutional is consistent with the Land Development Code and the Comprehensive Plan. Institutional is a land use that is designed to provide services to residents, such as schools, government facilities, and churches. Therefore, it's deemed to be compatible with almost everything that surrounds it, in particular with residential communities, as the desire is to put those community services near residential communities to allow the services to be accessible to residents. This item did appear before the Planning Commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval, and it is here today as a small-scale comprehensive plan amendment. It requires only one hearing. Therefore, today's hearing is an adoption hearing, and staff recommends approval. Questions for staff? Hearing none, I open up a public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone? Yes, ma'am, we do. Mr. Abercrombie? Good morning. James Abercrombie, for the record. 2737 gives only Galloway Road. Now, what effect does this project have on me? I live on the other side of the swamp, so everything you build across 98 on the west-hand side builds up that swamp and floods my area. Gibson and Galloway Road was flooded. Last big storm we had, the curve was flooded. People going around that curve was flooded. This is basically public records, but I'd like to explain to the public how Polk County is the fastest-growing county in the country, that being that we had a public meeting. We had, Mr. Scott had a public meeting. We had almost 200 people there. I'm really discouraged that I'm here by myself today. It just really blows my mind, but I can understand why. Because we had that meeting, three of the commissioners refused to even come. They could care less about what goes on out there. They're going to get their building no matter what happens. What I say or what he says, it's going to happen. We know that. But we did, we tried to keep informed. We tried to be a part of the service. At that meeting, there was 39 of us that gave our address, or not our address, our email address, and our names wanting to be informed of everything going on. We never got any information about the meeting, of course, because there's a sign on the property that's turned white. It used to be orange when it was put out there. It's been there so long that you can't see what the sign says to start with. People did make the comments. Nobody wanted to hear them. I hear a lot of them right here. I brought them. There was even suggestions. Nobody wanted to hear them. The county planning department informed me the other day that there was no emails even sent to them. No emails sent to them, folks. None of them. Michael Herr or Michael Scott, I've got one directly to you specifically. Now, it's not our fault that you people can't communicate. Nobody in this building can communicate. Everybody should have known about these emails. They should have known about the questions, suggestions of the North government. I don't know if you've ever seen these. I have no idea. But they were in public record. That's why I push public records, because if I take this to court, which I'm liable to do so, I need all the information I can get. So I'm requesting right now as well, I want to see the whole program. You just said at the beginning of the meeting that I could do that. I want to see the entire program that they got. And I'll rebut 14 seconds left. Madam Chair, so Mr. Abercrombie, you're requesting a full presentation. Mr. Disco, are you ready to present a full presentation? Yes, I will call Eric Peterson, case planner, to load and present the full case file. Thank you. That means all the information, everything to do with buying of the property? He's going to provide his full presentation. There's no reason for it. I need a really good reason why we need that center. What's it for? Staff is going to provide their presentation. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie. Good morning, Eric Peterson, for the Land Development Division. This is our case synopsis that Ben explained. Just a refresher on why we're here. The current county facility that's at 930 East Parker is too small, and our lease is expiring, so we need to find a new location for it. So it's part of a decentralization of government services. We've got a number of county courthouse annexes, one that was just completed between Haines City, Lake Alford, and Winter Haven. You also saw a little bit about the one today that will be located in the Lake Wales area. There's the central facility where the sheriff's training center is, and this is the new one, moving it from downtown Lakeland more towards the center of the population that it serves in the North Lakeland area. The site is around other government facilities. We have a middle school and elementary school. There's a county fire station, and this is the site for the government center. The fire station is here, the elementary school here, and here's our site. You can see the area around it. 110 mailers were sent to area property owners, and we had no response. The site has a lot of grading that needs to be done, so one of the things that will be a mitigating factor in this is bringing down the height of the property to a standard height that gives us the ability to expand the retention ponds and provide for more stormwater. It was talked about in the public meetings that this would be converted to a type of park, pedestrian facility, things of that nature, and that will be coming forth to you in the design. It won't be quite as big as the Northeast Government Center, but for the impact analysis, we use the Northeast Government Center as a model for how much traffic and use of water and sewer and things of that nature. We have more than adequate capacity to serve it all. So with that, I'll conclude. It's efficient. It has good access, good connection to everything. This designation provides clarity, so when people look at the land use in the area, they see that this is going to be a government facility, and it's in support of the residents around it. This is the main reason for putting it out there is to serve the people in this area of the county. With that, I'll stand for questions. Any questions for staff? Yes. Will we have courtrooms in this one? Yes, I hear that. Is a plan to have courtrooms there as well? Absolutely. Two? Two minimum, possibly three, and expansion to four. I guess where I'm getting at is why is it smaller? What's not going to be there that Lake Alfred has? We're not sure about the tax collectors. Oh, okay. He has a facility in downtown lately, so he may have a presence, but we think it may be a smaller scale. Okay. All right, thanks. Commissioner? Madam Chair. Let's go. Yeah, I just wanted to add clarity. As far as going back to Mr. Abercrombie's comment, and then obviously thank you, Mr. Reisman, for the summary, the community meeting town hall that we had, so all those comments were taken down in writing. There was follow-up on the ones that we needed clarity on, so there's literally all those comments were logged, and so I'm sure public record requests, you can have those as well. But we have been very keen to understand what the concerns were of the community. Again, this being a government center, when you look at the amount of developments that's occurred over the last 15 to 20 years in North Lakeland, there are a lot of services that are lacking, and this being one of those, when you look at what the residents need, you know, it's either, I say it's either, I mean, anything can happen in any land piece, but to have this parcel be just another community development and still have no more government services, you just continue to add to the problem of a lack of providing to the residents that live, you know, in North Lakeland. And so, again, in our efforts, I'm on the selection committee for both the architect and engineer and for the construction manager at risk, so my intent is to definitely have as much of a thumbprint on this project that benefits the community and to not just, we're not taking the Northeast Government Center and copying and pasting it and making it look exactly the same in Kathleen. We are very aware of the aesthetics and of the additional functions that this needs to have to benefit the residents around it. And not just be an eight to five office that you go in for services, but something that has passive elements as well, and we'll continue to do that. And, you know, if we have another community meeting to be determined, the last one was a, you know, interesting meeting. I'm fine to hear any and all comments. I can take that, no problem. But it's one of those things I want collaboration to help us come up with great solutions as a community. For me to have a town hall meeting and have nothing but statements of, you know, we hate this, that doesn't get us anywhere to have a better community. It's no different than if we have another difference besides, you know, this is about the Government Center, but if we have another topic that we disagree on and all we can do is talk about how much we hate each other, that doesn't really get us anywhere positive. So I would just encourage those in the community. If you have other comments, if you're watching this video now, or if you watch it later on, please email my office. If you have more concerns, we will certainly take those into consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. We have... Madam Chair, I believe Mr. Abercrombie had at least 15 more seconds of his time left. Mr. Abercrombie, you have anything additional you want to add during that 15 seconds? Thank you, Mr. Mook. I appreciate that. Mr. Scott, I don't see any numbers. Show me some numbers. How often is people there? How much is them offices used? What are they going to be in there? I need more answers of what is actually going to be there. You stated that they did make a lot of comments. There was nothing in the public records. There was any other talk about it between any of you, between any of the people out there, nothing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie. Okay. Amber, do we have anyone else for this? No, ma'am, we do not. Okay. So then I close the public hearing and I bring it back to the board. Second. I have a motion for approval and a second. Any question, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Madam Chair, the final item on the expedited portion of today's agenda item N8 is an expedited public hearing for case LDCT 2026-15, Vehicle Service in RACX, to consider a text amendment to the Land Development Code which would allow vehicle services mechanical as a C1 conditional use in the Regional Activity Center districts of the U.S. 27 Selected Area Plan. I presented this two weeks ago on first reading and indicated that vehicle service in this area, the selected area plan is the only area within the county that restricts vehicle service. Everywhere else within the county and other selected area plans allows vehicle services in the Regional Activity Center. So again, this would put this district on par with the rest of the county. The U.S. 27 Selected Area Plan is a highly dense, highly active selected area plan. The Regional Activity Center is regional by nature, and these types of uses do support visitors and regional traffic that comes to the U.S. 27 Selected Area Plan. The C1 designation versus a permitted use, the C1 will implement conditions, most notably that all activity will be conducted inside the building for any vehicle repair. This is the adoption hearing, so following any questions or comments, staff recommends approval. Any questions for staff? Yes, Commissioner Braswell. I've got a question about a phone call I had from a guy, and I guess maybe in California or somewhere like that, they're starting to have, like this, a Jiffy Lube with a 7-Eleven with a car wash. It's all one thing. And he said they're gaining popularity. Do we have a land use that would cover all that? How would we handle something like that? I know this hasn't got anything to do with this case in particular, but I'm just curious how we would handle it. I think what we would do is we would look at, of those three, the convenience store, the car wash, and the vehicle service, which is the most restrictive use, and it would most likely follow that approval process for the most restrictive of those three. But I have not cross-referenced if all those uses are on par with the same level we do today. But typically what we would do if there's multiple uses is we would go with the more restrictive use, and that would go through the review process. All right. Thanks. Any other question for staff? Hearing none. Amber, do we have anyone for this one? No, ma'am. Okay. So I opened it and closed the public hearing, and I bring it back to the board. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussions? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Madam Chair, that concludes the expedited portion of the public hearings, and I believe I turn it over to Mr. Lowry for the regular hearings. Good morning. For the record, Scott Lowry, Real Estate Services Director. I have two items this morning. The first staff is requesting the board by its own motion vacate a platted drainage easement as shown in the platter Cypress Point, recorded in Platte Boat 63 at page 40. The county recently completed a drainage improvement project on Cypress Point East, which consisted of the construction of a new drainage pipeline running north from an inlet located within the cul-de-sac to Lake Eloise. The new pipeline replaced an older pipeline that was damaged, not functioning properly, and undersized, which ran from the cul-de-sac eastward, and it's in this red area shown on the screen, towards a canal which also drains to the lake. Due to the fact that the platted drainage easement was so narrow, it's only five feet wide, and situated in such close proximity to existing residences on both sides, it could not be utilized for the project. And we got easements from the property owners to the north. The platted public drainage easement, which is located over lots 40 and 41 of the plat, is not suitable for any drainage used by the county based on its size and location, and it is requested that the platted public drainage easement be vacated to remove the encroachment and the encumbrance of the easement over the lots. Vacating the platted public drainage easement will remove the encumbrance of the easement and allow the property owners to fully utilize the area in conjunction with their properties. The county's roads and drainage division staff and the county engineer reviewed the request and have no objections. Staff recommends the board adopt a resolution to vacate the platted drainage easement as more fully described in the legal description contained in the resolution. And I'll remain standing for any questions. Any questions for staff? Okay. Hearing none. I open it up for a public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone? Not for this one, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. We close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Motion for approval. Thanks. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay. For the next item, the county received a petition from Bart Allen as authorized agent for 1917 Development LLC to vacate a portion of deeded and maintained right-of-way for Spring Road in the Auburndale area. Spring Road was, until recently, a county-maintained roadway running from Braddock Road northward to a dead end. The right-of-way for Spring Road consists of right-of-way conveyed to the county in a 1945 deed recorded in deed book 755 at page 311, along with a maintained right-of-way map recorded in 1973, excuse me, and map book 2 at pages 273 and 274. Additional right-of-way for the roadway near its intersection with Braddock Road was conveyed to the county by the state of Florida, basically in conjunction with the Polk Parkway in 2005. Spring Road was recently severed in conjunction with improvements to the Polk Parkway, which included a new interchange at Braddock Road. The right-of-way bisects portions of the petitioner's property, and they requested the vacation to remove the bifurcation and prepare the property for development or sale. Additionally, it was determined that the maintained right-of-way extended northerly and to properly owned by the state of Florida as part of its SunTracks facility. You can see that here on the screen. It's going into the existing facility. No evidence could be found that this portion of the right-of-way was previously vacated, so county staff have asked that they'd be included in the vacation as well. After the petition was filed, the petitioner's property was sold to the turnpike to be utilized in conjunction with the SunTracks facility, future expansion project. Turnpike was aware of the petition prior to the purchase and has provided consent along with continued assistance in this process. Vacaying the subject right-of-way will remove the public's interest, which will remove the bifurcations and allow the turnpike to fully utilize its property. The appropriate county divisions and utilities were notified and have no objections to the vacation. Gulfstream Natural Gas did request an easement for existing facilities, which cross in this general area, and turnpike has been actively working with them to fulfill that request. Staff recommends the board adopt a resolution to vacate and close the portion of deeded and maintained right-of-way for Spring Road, as fully described in the legal description contained in the petition and the resolution, and I'll remain standing for any questions. Any questions for staff? Yes, Commissioner Scott. I just want, as far as the, once, if this is approved today and it's vacated, as far as demolition of the roadway and all that, that's up to the property owner. There's nothing the county has obligation to do. Correct. No, we've made no agreements to do that. They would be on them. Very good. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Hearing none, I open up the public hearing. Amber, do we have anyone? Not for this one, ma'am. Thank you. We close the public hearing and bring it back to the board. Motion for approval. I have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Item 03 is considered adoption of an ordinance of the Polk County Board of County Commissioners entitled the Polk County Property Maintenance Ordinance. As the board is aware, this is actually amending a 2008 ordinance to clean up some language. It's the ordinance that code enforcement uses to correct code violations if the property owner fails to do so. Through that process, the property owners are given notice. They're given an opportunity to appeal it to a special mastery. And once that occurs, if they don't appeal it, then the code enforcement will go out and abate the violation. And then the cause is assessed against the property. So this is cleaning up some language. It also makes it clear that the property owners on the local road is responsible for maintaining the property up to the edge of pavement. It also creates a process to allow code enforcement or allows the county to abate violations for individuals who fail to maintain their drainage easements that's on their property, their private drainage easements. And if they don't correct those violations, then the county can maintain those private drainage easements or make the necessary maintenance to it and the charge that costs back to the property owners. That helps out in that that helps out, clears the drainage for the upstream property owners and stuff. So it's recommended for the board to approve this at this time. And I'll say for any questions. Any questions for the attorney? Hearing none, I'll open it up for public hearing. Amber, do we have? Yes, ma'am, we have two. Okay, thank you. And the first one we have is Kyle Roy. You come on up here. Kyle, state your name and your address, and you have three minutes. Before I start, could I ask if you could put a paper that I have up on the screen? Yes, Caitlin. Hello, my name is Kyle Roy, and I live at 102 Valencia Street, Winter Haven, Florida. And I'm speaking today to give my opinion on this ordinance. So first of all, I like that the provisions for the rights of way and drainage easements are made explicit. And I like that the code enforcement process is defined in the ordinance so we can read it and we can know what the process is before without having to, like, watch the magistrate meetings to figure out what it is. In general, I like it when rules are clearly defined, and that's why I have a small problem with the definition for prohibited overgrowth. So in the start of the provision, you can see that it explicitly calls out grasses and annual plants, and it gives an exception for wooded plants that are part of intentional landscaping. And I think that is a problem because I do have some grasses that I would like to grow over 18 inches. You may have heard of them. They are barley, corn, goat grass, millet, sorghum, and wheat. These are all grasses, and I'm interested in growing them eventually. So I wouldn't want to, you know, be forced to cut them down to 18 inches because that would kill them. And I also have some annual plants that I would like to grow above 18 inches, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, peas, beans, squash, eggplants, basil, mint, thyme, cilantro, ginger, peppers, sunflowers, and American groundnut. I know what you're thinking. As long as they're not unkept, it's fine, but I respectfully disagree because the word unkept is a subjective term. And the last time I checked, this is a county government, not an HOA, and I would appreciate it if we kept our rules based on matters of fact and not matters of opinion. With that being said, here's my recommendation for a edit to this provision. On general areas of the lot, excluding those areas covered above, any dead or living plant life that has grown to exceed 18 inches in height and is not a part of intentional landscaping or poses a hazard. As you can see, this version is unambiguous and easy to read. Exactly what I'd like to see. I hope you agree. Thanks for listening to me. Thank you. Attorney Randy, I don't know if you have any comments on this or? Not this time, Madam Chair. Not this time? Okay. Thank you. Next, we have Abercombie. I wasn't sure what that was about, so I agree with him. I think they need to be explicit. Okay. And no one else, Amber? No, ma'am, we do not. So we close public hearing and bring it back to the board. Randy, I mean, he makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I read both. I don't necessarily see the difference. I think the plants, I can see where we're not, I've never seen where we ordered and went cut down tomato plants and stuff. Right, right, right. And I don't think that's ever. I mean, it's intentional. Never the intent of it. So if we want to clarify vegetable garden plants, I'm trying to figure out. Can we just take two weeks, figure this out, and bring it back? We can. I have no issues with that. Yeah. I mean, like I said, everything he said makes sense. Yeah. Reading that, I don't see the difference, but there is, obviously. So let's, what do you need, a motion to? Yes, a motion to continue this to the September 1st, I believe, is the next meeting, if I'm not mistaken. So moved. Correct. At 9 o'clock. So moved. Second. All right, so I have a motion and a second to continue this on September 1st. Any questions or discussion on that? And that's September 1st at 9 o'clock, Madam Chair. Okay. Any questions or discussion on that? Yes, Commissioner? Yeah, I just want to thank the President for bringing the clarity, and again, that's part of how we govern is to have their input. So thank you for that. Thank you. Any other questions or anything like that? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. So we will continue this in September, and we look at this. All right. Thank you. Okay. And I think I did close the public hearing. I want to make sure I did do that. Okay. Thank you. All right. Now we will go on to the general public audience, opportunity to be held. Do we have any? Yes, ma'am. We do. Thank you. Okay. We will start with Kevin Noble. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Kevin Noble. I live in 2345. Outro Slope Road in Barta, Florida. Can I see if this may be get closer to the mic or something? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My name is Kevin Noble, and I live at 2345 Outro Slope Road in Barta, Florida. Okay. I'm speaking out today because there was 60 in Old Lake Walls Road. I've seen, it says that my driver met Crispin Night. We've seen how backed up it gets. It gets backed up to the third semi-truck entrance, and it gets backed up every day. And I feel that it needs to turn signal. Both sides do. And that curb, the first curb, there was no one accident there. That was the one that me and Chris and I had. It says, I don't want nobody else to have an accident or run off the road. It says that that curb is so bad, that it's so sharp, and I feel that maybe the speed on the curb can be reduced for a certain reasons. Yep. Yep. And I use that, me and I, we use that road every day, and it's so bad. That, that, me and I, we, we, we are the only ones that have the accident there, and, and we are lucky. Yep. Yep. So, um, both sides of the intersection, they do, they do need turn signals, and, and we don't want the, um, we don't want the intersection to get back to the cell, so we could try three options. Um, put a turn lane on out, on Old Lake Walls Road in Stairway 60, put a turn lane there, or, or, or, or Arrow, or, like what Alters Road has at, um, Arrow Markins, and, and in that way, there'll be no confusion, and that, and that way, we don't have to make close calls, because it says that when, when, when a car turns left, there's a good chance that, that, that, that they're going to hit somebody else. They don't pay attention, and they, and they're going to turn around somebody and hit them, and we, we don't want that. We don't want, we don't want, we don't want, we don't want no more close calls. I'm sure you agree, and Chris and I will agree with me. So, so, so, so, so, so if you maybe have a change of heart and, and improve, and improve old, old Lake Walls Road in Stairway 60, put a turn lane there, or Arrow Markins, and, and, and improve that curb, um, yeah, at the old Lake Walls Road, if you, if you'll improve that curb and make it safe for everybody, I would, I appreciate it very much, and, and and my daughter, Chris and I would appreciate it too. So, so, so, so thank you for, thank you for, thank you for, thank you for taking time and listen. Thank you. Maybe we could look into that area. Yes, ma'am. We'll take that under advisement. Yes, ma'am. Please, yes, and, and, and provide us some updates. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next is Kay Bork. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Kay Bork. I'm 1133 Brook Road in Fort Meade. Um, I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to speak and for the work behind the scenes to address some of the issues that we've been bringing forward over the past year. Appreciate that very much. Today, I want to talk about the importance of spay neuter and why prevention matters when the system's already overwhelmed. People say that spay neuter won't fix everything, and it won't, but that's okay. We've got to start somewhere. Um, spay neuter will not stop backyard breeders. It won't rewrite animal laws. It won't magically create more adopters or more rescues or bigger shelter rescue budgets. But here's what it does do. It gives the rest of the system a chance to catch up. Imagine trying to empty a bathtub with a clogged drain while the faucet's still running. You can grab a bucket to start bailing the water out. You can work faster or grab a bigger bucket. You can ask 10 friends to come help you bail. But realistically, unless somebody turns the water off, you're fighting a losing battle. That's where prevention comes in. Every cat or dog prevented from being born into an already overwhelmed system is one less animal competing for a home, one less animal needing shelter or waiting for a rescue, one less animal on the street creating a public health issue, one less animal adding to the workload of veterinarians, animal control offices, shelter, rescues, and volunteers. Prevention does not erase the crisis, but it does slow the flow. And sometimes slowing the flow is exactly what gives the rest of the system a chance to breathe. The adopters, the fosters, the shelters, the veterinarians, the rescue groups, the animal control officers, they're all trying to manage what's already here. Prevention is how we start reducing what comes next because we can keep grabbing bigger buckets. We can keep working faster. We can keep asking more people to help. But at some point in time, we've got to turn off the flow. Now, I'm not here to ask you guys to put county money toward this because I recognize, Mr. Braswell, I actually viewed the tax, I mean the revenue meetings on Friday and heard your proposal, which I think is pretty cool. But I realize the questions that are on our minds about county revenue. But, you know, there are small pockets of volunteers, nonprofits working to develop spay-neuter programs in Polk County today. They're based on donations and grants, and they're fueled by volunteers. So I want to encourage all who can to support these programs and, when possible, use their influence to call attention to these programs. Spay-neuter may not pull at the heartstrings and, as a result, may not bring in as many donations as a sick parvo puppy. But the only way to slow the flow is to support prevention. And had the parvo puppy's mama been spayed, there would have been no parvo puppy. So I encourage us all, county people, commissioners, everybody that's hearing this today, support these local groups that are trying to get the spay-neuter process started. And hopefully one day we'll be as good as the Keep Polk County Beautiful program. Thank you. Thank you, Kay. Next we have David Butler. David Butler. My address is exempt. I didn't see the presentation Ms. Bork talked about with Mr. Braswell, some options or whatever for the new budget, but he did propose a one-cent sales tax. That's probably a pretty good option because then everybody participates in the tax program. However, I haven't seen a list, and it may be in that presentation she just spoke of, of anything any of you decided to do away with that could save taxpayers money. Is there a list out there of any programs you all think could shave a few dollars off? This is your time. I understand. Yeah, we're not going to answer your question. I'm not asking for questions, but I guess, ma'am, I understand. But I haven't seen anything like that where you've gone through the programs and said, hey, you know what? This program isn't working. Let's do away with this program. Let's save taxpayers some money on this program. The sheriff's spending too much money on an airplane. Let's sell that airplane and get a cheaper one. It's out there. You know it's a bad deal. This deputy's up here this morning. She was one of my, well, I taught her in the academy. I know her a long time. That deputy does not get paid any extra to run that hound or to run that dog. She doesn't get paid overtime for training. You know what she does? She gets an extra hour off. Is that fair? To walk into gunfire, take rounds at you, and have to do without overtime while you fly around on a $3 million airplane instead of driving like everybody else has to. It's not right. Mr. Wilson, I asked you on today's election day, I asked you last week if you could come up with eight things that you've done throughout your time. Is that list available anywhere? I don't know. You're not going to answer back. Talking about ordinances, Ms. Troutman, a while back, was very proud, and rightfully so, of an ordinance y'all passed for the advertising signs and intersections. You're incorrect. You weren't proud of that ordinance? There is no ordinance related to the snipe signs. The stop signs? Snipe signs. Oh, I apologize. I misunderstood. But I thought there was a... I thought you... I'm sorry. So anyway, you can enact ordinances. Ms. Bork asked for an ordinance for spay and neuter. Please do that. Please do that. It's easy. So, Mr. Wilson, is there a place for that list of accomplishments? Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair, may I? Yes. Mr. Butler, I would just reiterate what you've heard or spoken before from Mr. Braswell and others, we are always available to make appointments with, and if you've got beef, for lack of a better word, some issues that you want to talk about, it could be much more effective to cover those. I don't need anything else today, and I'm not going to go against the procedures, but please feel free to make appointments with us. We can get a lot more done on a one-to-one rather than just in a little three-minute, you know, pieces of information. But if you would like to actually talk about some issues and have more than three minutes, we're always open for constituents to make appointments. Can I have my 39 seconds? Thank you. Thank you. Can I have my 39 seconds, please? The one? No. Can I? Why? Do you have extra? Yeah. I have 39 seconds. Yeah. Ms. Trowman, that was not meant as a beef at all with the sign thing. I thought y'all passed an ordinance to find people that left advertising signs at the intersection. That's not the case? That is not the case. I'll be glad to tell you why. I feel that that's important in what we're doing, but it would take more than three minutes. Again, I just encourage you to make appointments. Well, please don't say it's a beef. I was applauding you for making that thing. I said rightfully so. So please don't take that as a beef. Okay. Okay. And if any beef has started, it's because the first time I ever talked was going to be the last time I ever spoke. And Mr. Wilson interrupted me, telling me he didn't like my attitude. So please correct him on his beef first. Okay. Thank you. And just for the record, the presentation that we had Friday was basically lining up $133 million worth of cuts to identify what all is available to cut should Amendment 3 pass. Okay. Next, we have John Robertson. Good morning. My name is Jonathan Robertson. I live at 6211 Silverleaf Lane in Lakeland, Florida. Thanks for letting me have three minutes, y'all. I'm just going to read an email that I sent about a week ago to y'all. I know you're busy. So, dear commissioners, I hope this message finds you well. I'm writing to express serious concern regarding the estimated 100,000 plus stray and feral cats in Polk County and the ongoing lack of a coordinated countywide trap-neuter return program. Without systematic intervention, this population continues to grow rapidly. I'll step aside and say I know the 100,000 is an estimate. The lower estimates have been 30,000, but even 30,000 or more, I think, is a bit out of control. So, as a volunteer working with the SPCA of Lakeland, I personally trap, sterilize, and return dozens of cats in the area just east of Hardin Boulevard. So, if you imagine Carleton Music Center, if you've ever been to Carleton Music Center and look at their trash dumpster, I've put a cat house back there where the sick ones go in and I trap them and do what needs to be done. Also, I'm involved with the retirement community just east of that, which is the Citrus Community Retirement Center. I worked with their community manager because they have probably 100 stray cats running around there. I've reviewed the county's website and available public materials, but have found no information regarding planning, budgeting, or any active initiatives to address this issue at the county level. I would appreciate any update on any current efforts, including whether the board has considered allocating resources for comprehensive TNR program or partnering with existing animal welfare organizations. Other Florida counties, such as Pinellas, look, Polk County, we're the best county in Florida, right? I agree. Not so for TNR program. Pinellas has us beat soundly. Pinellas has successfully reduced the stray cat populations through their well-established, robust TNR program. This demonstrates the challenge is solvable with a sustained policy commitment and funding. I respectfully request that the board prioritize this matter and provide a clear response outlining next steps. I'm available to discuss the issue further or share my on-the-ground observations, if that would be helpful. Thank you for your attention. I took a vacation day today to be here to speak with y'all. Those are coveted at Publix Corporate, let me tell you. Thank you for attention to this community concern. I find it very important. Cats like to mate. If it's 100,000, it's going to be 200,000 before we know it, and then it'll be 500,000. Ask AI what Pinellas County has done to be so effective. Or have one of your assistants jump on GROC or OpenAI and just type in how has Pinellas County been so effective at their TNR program. I can tell you it starts with a basic supportive legal framework. It's not rocket science. Thank you all so much. Thank you, John. Respond to my email if you have any questions. Yeah. Okay. Next, we have David Cole. Good morning. My name is David Cole. I live at 933 North Swanee Avenue in Lakeland, Florida. It has to do with cats. Over three years ago, a nonprofit group come to me and want to know if I would help trap cats to get them fixed. Up to $2,000 of my own money, we were down to four female cats. Every male in the neighborhood had been fixed. 19 months ago, as Ronald Reagan used to say, your various fear for a private citizen, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you. Well, sure enough, the AC officer that showed up told me to stop feeding cats. I stopped feeding cats. Nine months ago, he told me to clean off my front porch so he could see my front porch. I cleaned off my front porch. This AC officer had a management, anger management problem that was really severe, really severe. My neighbor, which witnessed both times, he said, you know, that guy would have shot you if he'd had a gun, and I agreed with him. Okay, so I've gotten to compliance. I got a citation. I met the state statute. I met the county ordinances. Well, on hold on, I still got a citation. I fought it, went across the street to the court. It was a magistrate. She said she was going to be biased and unopinionated. Well, I presented a 15-page document how the citation was not following county ordinance. She brushed it aside. She cut me off four times from speaking. The animal control officer stopped me abruptly and stoke over me four times during the proceeding. It's fine. Animal control officer lied about me twice. That's fine. I'm a big man. I can take it. I paid the fine. So my question is, what am I supposed to do? I'm in compliance. Everybody, my neighbor pointed out to me, everybody in the neighborhood feeds cats except for me. Everybody. But the lady that's complaining has cats in her property, but she is not confronted by animal control. So my question is, as I know, at the Great Depression, when the bums used to go around from north to south, and they look at a house, and if it was marked, they knew they could get food there. Am I marked now for the rest of my life on my property? If the animal control officer needs money, he will cite me, even though I'm in compliance. I need to know from somebody. Seriously, I mean, I'm in a dilemma. I cannot live in fear constantly every day to look out my door to see if I'm going to get a citation for something I'm not doing. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Mr. Beasley, can we have him, can we have David talk to someone that would help him with his situation? Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. You've already spoken. I'm dealing with Mr. Beasley. Yeah, this may be an animal control citation. I'll be glad to refer to the chief of staff. Yeah, we'll just check on that and see. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Abercrombie's next. Good morning again. James Abercrombie, 2737 Gibson at Galloway Road. And I sit here and listen to you guys, and every one of you say, come, please, please call me. I'll make this talk, let's come to my office. Let's do this. That's not public record anymore, folks. I'm afraid, like a lot of people in this building, somebody's going to threaten me. How about that? What do you think? It's a good possibility. It happens all the time around this building. Trust me. And once again, I ask for a complete definition of why we need the building. Why do we need that building? Right now, we're having a massive discussion about property taxes and how everybody's going to go broke and how we're going to have the money to have police and so on and so forth. But yet, everything we're building right now, everything in the process, and it's already in the process. Eight fire stations ahead of time. Fire going on right now. We're doing these public buildings. And once again, I don't see a reason for it. I don't see where the traffic is. Everything's online anymore. And it's on phone. They can walk into a lot of these stores now. The plates and all that stuff, you can find it. There's one out there by the UPS store on North Lakeland. So, I don't understand it. Every building you build as well, for we, the people, is a tax exemption, folks. No more taxes on that property anymore. $5.5 million plus a $50 million building with no taxes. How are we going to make that up? We're expected to make it up. You want us to have more tax bills. You're going to add to our property taxes now, as it is this year. I'm sure of it. I don't understand it. You're supposed to be, I don't represent you folks. You were elected to represent me and the people in Polk County. Now, how do you justify spending that kind of money when we're about to go broke anyway? It doesn't make sense to me. Thanks. Thank you. And the last one is Ms. Debbie Hicks. Good morning. Debbie Hicks, 236 Alderman Road, Lakeland, Florida. I actually was not going to speak this morning. But I was so impressed by the Stormwater Technical Advisory Committee that Dave Carter, that was impressive. I don't truly understand your advisory committees because, sad to say, we don't have an animal one yet. But I know it's coming. And when it does, that is the example that I would like to use for the success. That advisory committee was able to move the county forward in their stormwater, the way you handle stormwater. I don't know anything about it. And I would like to think and believe that an animal wellness advisory committee would do the same thing for this county with these issues that we've heard talked about today. So, anyway, I want to congratulate them. And when we get that animal advisory committee, we're going to do the same. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Hicks. Anybody else, Ms. Amber? Okay. Then I close the public hearing. And any other comments? Then we're adjourned.