chaplain murphy handling to give the invocation and then remain standing for the pledge good morning i would like to invite you all to pray with me heavenly father your word reminds us that we are to pray for those in authority with that in mind i want to thank you for the gifts and talents you have given each of our commissioners and the county leaders assembled here guide them as they use these gifts and talents so that what is accomplished here brings glory to you grant us all strength and clarity when we need it and help us to work in a spirit of respect and unity i ask this prayer in jesus name amen good morning commissioners staff and visitors i'm caitlin hoverkamp public and media relations officer for polk county government today we are recognizing two 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 commissioner return to the dais behind them we will take a group photo at the end charlie true has worked for polk county fire rescue for 20 years he began his career with the department as an emergency medical technician and has held several positions including paramedic firefighter paramedic driver engineer paramedic battalion medical chief battalion chief captain and deputy chief before his promotion to his current position as the assistant chief of training and emergency services he obtained his associates and science degree in emergency medical services from south florida state college and his bachelor's degree in supervision and management from south florida state college throughout his time with polk county fire rescue charlie has also obtained a number of certifications he is a certified chief training officer chief emergency medical services officer fire officer one and fire officer two charlie was also named paramedic of the year in 2013 in his spare time he enjoys hunting and watching his son charlie play baseball and his daughters janelle and bailey play softball terry armstrong has worked for polk county fire rescue for 25 years terry began his career with the department in 2001 serving as a firefighter he also served as a driver engineer before being promoted to his current position where he serves as a captain emergency medical technician terry obtained his associate's degree in fire science from columbia southern university throughout his career he has also obtained a number of certifications he is a certified hazmat technician live fire instructor one fire officer one and fire officer two in his spare time he enjoys relaxing and spending time with his wife cindy daughter macy and son jacob madam chair 45 years of service to polk county madam chairs we begin this next item could i just ask brother lawrence if he would step to the center podium he has a couple of special comments he wants to make specifically addressed to the chair in light of your your senior service grace peace and mercy be unto each and every one of you from god our father lord jesus christ our blessed savior what an honor and a privilege with great humility i want to say thank you for such great work that our sister martha has done not just only here but outside the community she had made herself so i i guess the word we i would use is she's everyday person everyday person so no one felt like you know here comes the commissioners she will she's right there with them on their level and i want to say thank you commissioner thank you all the ones that help you and work with you and most of all thank your husband praise god thank that man yes let's give a round of applause everybody y'all come on y'all give a thank you thank you very much y'all continue to be blessed may our father not god continue to keep and bless you all thank you thank you thank you brother lawrence you've always been right there for me right hand always calling me and texting me and just say wonderful things about your community people i really appreciate you coming here today thank you appreciate if you'd come down here please ma'am i'll try to be a good uh martha it's my honor to present you with this plaque commemorating your time as a chair of the board of county commissioners for 2025 and 2026 it has been an honor to sit next to you and tease you whenever i can but yeah but it has been an honor so i just want to show you your plaque and you understand you know what it is and we got something else we want to do here so just kind of just kind of hang tough here just a second it gives me great pleasure to present this extremely large vase to you for your diligent professional and dedicated service to the residents of poke county for the past eight years as a commissioner of this board can you hold that okay okay as you know you and i were elected to serve at the same time we came on this board together and while i'm staying for another four years you'll be you have chosen to get started in the next chapter of your life lord knows it's not not always been fun and easy but you have served this county with a true servant's heart and the desire to do what's best for the residents and the business business people and visitors you have set a wonderful example how to lead with class and dignity it has been my absolute honor and i mean that from my heart to serve with you for the past eight years and i wish you the best it has been me and martha we i remember eight years ago when i first met her and she was just a lovely lady then as she is now now she will get on to me every now and then i will be honest and this is her famous deal shaking that finger but i want to thank you for what you've done i want to ask everybody all the other commissioners to come down let's take some pictures if you don't mind but it's been great yes we do yeah we're not done embarrassing you yet maybe technology's not working today good county commission chair martha santiago was first elected to the board of county commissioners in november 2018 and was re-elected in november 2022 during her term she has served twice as board vice chair and is currently in her second turn serving as board chair throughout her career as a commissioner she has continued to focus on public safety economic development growth and infrastructure commissioner santiago began her long career in education in 1978 she worked as a teacher school administrator and district administrator for the polk county school system she then moved on to polk state college where she was a board trustee dean of academic affairs and a provost community service has been a mainstay throughout her career her hard work has been celebrated by polk vision the lakeland junior league and the winter haven chamber of commerce for her significant contributions to the community today we pause for a moment to say thank you thank you to a leader whose dedication passion and unwavering commitment has left a lasting mark on polk county throughout her time in office commissioner santiago has been more than a public servant she has been a voice for the community an advocate for progress and a champion for those in need her leadership has helped shape stronger neighborhoods empowered families and inspired future generations to believe in the power of service commissioner santiago has led with heart she has listened with intention and she has acted with purpose whether working on initiatives that improved infrastructure supported local businesses or uplifted underserved communities her impact can be seen and felt throughout polk county but beyond the accomplishments and milestones what truly defines her legacy is the connection she built with the residents the trust she earned and the difference she has made one life at a time as we celebrate the state of the county we also celebrate her journey a journey marked by resilience integrity and a deep love for this community wow as a former educator i i always have something to say right so i'm just uh in awe of this recognition and thank you and and um commissioner wilson wow i'm impressed good job but mostly i'm really touched by the words in your kind spirit that you share that with me eight years came about really quickly and yes i remember when we met and we ran together and how we supported each other in that but i blinked and eight years of serving on the polk county commission flew by it has been a wonderful experience and i'm honored to have served the county i love i close this chapter of my life with a grateful heart a deep sense of pride and a tremendous faith in polk county's future public service has never been just a position to me i see it as a calling my career in education taught me that there are the true measure of leadership is not the title we hold but the difference we make in the lives of others over the past eight years polk county has experienced unprecedented growth and as you already know especially in the northeast area at a pace few of us could have predicted we faced significant challenges that required complicated solutions but also created opportunities to build a stronger better county i will never forget the challenges of covet 19 and how we navigated them together we worked to protect our residents support our businesses and keep our county moving forward it was a true test of leadership collaboration and resilience and i believe it showcased the very best of polk county through it all we faced difficult decisions and adapted to change never losing sight of our responsibility to the people we serve we also work diligently to strengthen our economy invest in infrastructure address our water issues and balance growth opportunities with our responsibility to preserve quality of life these accomplishments accomplishments were never the work of one person they were the results of collaboration among commissioners county leadership and staff community partners and residents who care deeply about our future to my fellow commissioners thank you thank you thank you thank you serving in this capacity is not for the faint of heart we don't always agree and we don't always approach issues with the same perspective but i can honestly honestly say that each of you has brought your experiences convictions and commitment to the table along with a shared responsibility to make decisions in the best interest of polk county that is what public service is about we may not always agree on decisions but we share responsibility to the people who place their trust in us mr beasley a sincere thank you i believe that your leadership and your partnership has made this county better yes and i appreciate everything you do for the county commissioners i wish you the very best as and very soon you will be entering the same well-deserved retirement that i'm going to be enjoying mr mink i should start by saying thank you for keeping us out of jail you have been a tremendous supporter and a trusted resource helping us navigate some very difficult and complex legal issues thank you for always being there when we needed your guidance mr taylor i know he's somewhere around here this is for you congratulations i wish you an excellent and successful tenure as our new county manager you have an important responsibility ahead of you and have every confidence that you will continue to build on the strong foundation that has been established mr bode i know he's somewhere somewhere there you go right next to mr taylor of course mr bode thank you thank you for your expertise guidance and steady support over the years you will continue to play an important role in helping poe county prosper to the three of the world's finest administrative assistants and i'm not exaggerating anna please stand okay please stand and chris yes and i cannot forget chris who is now retired these three ladies are amazing and i will be remiss if i didn't take a moment to recognize you you have been my right hand my sounding board and sometimes my saving grace thank you for your patience dedication and professionalism you have made these eight years a little easier a lot more manageable and certainly more enjoyable i could not have done this job without the three of you and i'm truly grateful for each of you to the rest of our incredible county staff and constitutional officers please forgive me for not naming each of you individually as we would be here all afternoon thank you for your partnership dedication and commitment to serving the county and the county's residents you have inspired me and i hope you know how much i appreciate you behind every decision we make as commissioners is a team of dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to provide us with resources that help us to better understand the issues and last but certainly not least to the residents of poe county thank you for your trust your support your questions emails phone calls visits and feedback and for the privilege of serving you over these past eight years this position has never been about me it has always been about you the people i represent as i prepare to close this chapter i am reminded that the public service isn't about how long we serve but about what we leave behind my hope is that i have helped make poe county a place where families can thrive businesses can prosper and every resident has the opportunity to build a better future ultimately that is what i have always wanted to make poe county the very best that it can be eight years ago i began this journey with a commitment to serve today i leave with gratitude for the opportunity pride in what we have accomplished together and confidence in this county's future thank you once again for the opportunity it has truly been an honor and i leave with wonderful memories lasting friendships and a heart full of gratitude i will always be proud to have been part of the county's story may god bless each of you and may god continue to bless poe county thank you martha while you uh walk up i just want to say a couple of things first of all it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you uh i have appreciated uh your perspective your point of view it's uh been a lot different than mine sometimes and uh uh it's uh it's it's kind of a revelation to hear some of the things one thing i've certainly learned from you is what a provost is because i never i never looked it up until i uh asked you i never knew what it really was but it has been a lot of fun um you've been here for eight of the fastest growing years this this this county's ever had and it's been um challenging and rewarding and frustrating and everything in between and but it but but you were up to the task you did a great job and i appreciate working with you i guess my last comment is did you get free tickets on a velo for that commercial you just did next please martha yes you know what is it probably nine and a half ten years ago i know exactly where i was i was in my vehicle called you i said martha you want to run for county commission again and her answer was no i already done that and i i failed twice i said but martha the third time's a charm and she said well we'll think about it and you made that commitment and you've served and it was the right time for you um when you served many years as the only female up here and it's been a pleasure to serve with you i've really enjoyed this last year watching you be chair to handle some situations that um can get emotional and you have handled it with grace and with great concern for all the parties involved and i'm going to miss you i know you're going to play lots of pickleball i am alex alex may want to send you back but thank you not just for the eight years here but for everything you've done for this community for decades thank you enjoy thank you thank you madam chair if i may sure you know i wouldn't go without words but i want to say you know the first time that actually i met you was when i was a just a resident and had a meeting scheduled i think i actually missed it and came back and rescheduled and uh got to talk to you as a commissioner and the insight that you gave at that point in time for me was inspirational for the particular topic that i had but what you didn't realize at the time is you were planting a seed and that seed was for me to get the guts up enough to go ahead and run for county commission as well and i just uh i never got to say thank you officially but thank you for planting that seed uh thank you for giving me the guidance during that particular event uh in my life and personally my family's life and the residents around me to have a positive impact on that outcome and for us uh in the greater north lakeland area um i think we'll always be appreciative of your service here and for me individually um i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that one meeting so thank you very much thank you but i don't remember the meeting mike that's okay that's all right i do that's all that counts scary you never know right what you're gonna do okay madam chair yes i know i said quite a bit earlier and i and i meant every word of it but i just want to say to you as my friend i'm gonna miss you uh we worked together very closely and for this county and it's not going to be the same i know we've got great people here but it's not going to be the same without you so thank you thank you thank you very much appreciate it okay well that's enough enough right i think we need to go ahead and go on with the rest of the agenda and i i think i've said enough so um now we will go to public comments concerning first of all thank you all so very much i'm sorry i'm i don't want to get someone around here told me don't get emotional and don't cry now i'm not a crier but it it is emotionally so anyway uh do we have any public comments concerning agenda items yes ma'am we do we have um tina polk kinemuth who has um three items she'd like to speak on on the the primary agenda okay tina tina if you come up front here give your name and your address thank you brother lawrence your name and your address and um you have three minutes my name is tina polk kinemuth i live at 2500 24th street northwest winter haven i'd like to address the agenda items g1 two and three seeking approval for close to 45 million dollars for the construction of the sheriff's office warehousing and facilities project i'd like to ask that the plans address the living conditions of the animal control department that falls under the sheriff's purview many of your constituents have come before you pleading with you to address the issues of humane responsible care to no avail how are you actively working to find solutions to the problems with animal control please speak up we deserve answers commissioner troutman told me after the last meeting on 10 20 that the tnv tnvr program will not work in polk county but perhaps a spay and neuter program could she said she's looking at ways to fund that it should be part of our county's budget why isn't it this proposal has a 45 million dollar price tag and i'm willing to bet that there is zero for animal control improvements at the last meeting you approved a 5 million 200 000 expenditure for county vehicles that you only got one bid on 20 000 for four speed bumps uh there's that 80 million dollars for five miles of road in lake alford i know that before i leave today um you will approve this 45 million dollars for the sheriff's project there's money for everything but better more humane animal control what are you waiting on who or what is holding you back why not try funding a program for a year to see if it works on 10 20 i came here to express my concerns over turning off public comments on your social media commissioner scott acknowledged that it's difficult for people to find you and then all of you voted to do it honestly it looks and feels like you do not want public engagement there's barely 100 chairs in here and you've moved the public comments to the end i signed up for your emails your agenda reviews and board meetings lack links to documentation on informational packets thursday 10 30 hours on 10 30 i received the agenda for this meeting it seems that you all meet prior to the county commission meetings to review the upcoming agenda and that is where you make the decisions that way the lengthy 11 page agendas can be pushed through and voted on am i wrong this is your consent agenda you know your conclusions before the public can even address the items were merely an inconvenience for you this meeting is a formality that's required of you as a form of record how does this work for the rest of us the almost 900 000 people in polk county i know that you know it is your actual paid job to represent all of us thank you thank you lauren who do we have next no more madam chair thank you very much we close the public comments and bring it now to county comptroller good morning stacy butterfield thank you today we have for you to approve and ratify payroll checks number 0 5 1 0 1 through 0 5 1 7 1 the amount of 90 537 dollars and 68 cents we have 3 347 direct deposits in the amount of 5 million 984 000 46 dollars and 71 cents and those are dated october 30th of 2026 we have wire and electronic fund transfers of 47 million 669 thousand 140 dollars and 34 cents dated october 20 through november 2nd of 2026 and lastly we have invoice checks numbered 5 1 5 8 0 4 through 5 1 6 5 7 2 totaling 18 million 474 thousand 210 dollars and 92 cents dated october 20 through november 2nd of 2026 for you to approve and ratify please madam chair motion for approval second i have a motion and a second any questions or discussion hearing none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you we also request the approval of your minutes from your regular board meeting that was held on october 20 of 2026 second i have a motion and a second any questions or discussion hearing none all in favor opposed motion carries anything else thank you yes um veterans day is next week november the 11th and in honor of those who have served our country in the past and are currently serving the clerk's office will be offering free passport photos for anyone coming to apply for a passport during the month of october november sorry let me get it straight um they can come in our office to apply and then we will have no charges for the passport photo um so to qualify they simply need to bring their active uh duty uh documentation their dd 214 or military id and then we will honor that at any of our three locations the main courthouse here in barter our northeast government center and then our lakeland government center every day monday through friday 8 to 4 30 thank you okay thank you thank you for providing that service for our veterans you're welcome i just had one more thing and actually jumps back to the other item recognition i wanted to say thank you to you for your service it's been an absolute honor working with you as you serve our community and serve it with professionalism dignity and poise and as your leadership throughout this county as everyone's mentioned has been during this tremendous growth you have helped navigate that growth and those demand for services that it brings and it has been remarkable and that was on the heels as everyone is mentioned of the pandemic that had happened so thank you for your service to our community um it's been an honor and i am excited for you we will miss you but thank you thank you thank you stacy so very much okay moving on we'll do the approved consent agenda i have a motion and a second any questions discussion ma'am i have two that i would like to add yes discussion to um we'll start with m52 give us a moment yep and that is the last one and that is for the collective bargaining agreement with polk county fire rescue their official union name is on there um i just you know us this board we have really shown our commitment to public safety and to turning polk county fire rescue as we've always said into a destination department um and i do believe that john hall is here today and wanted to share just a few words with us as a commission regarding approval of the collective bargaining agreement sure morning everybody the further record my name is john hall uh i have the honor of serving as the president of polk county professional firefighters this morning i stand before you speaking on behalf of more than 600 men and women who serve this county and the families who stand behind them in support what we've accomplished together is something pretty remarkable while the significance of this agreement today might not be immediately apparent to those outside of the fire service i can assure you that the impacts will be felt for generations to come since the beginning of our department we've worked at least a 56-hour work week it's just the way things were but back in 2022 we began exploring an opportunity to change that what started as an effort to improve recruitment and retention eventually became a much bigger conversation about the future of our department at the time transitioning to a 24 72 schedule was just an ambitious idea uh with no real established roadmap for making it happen but four years later here we are just last month our firefighters began working a 48-hour work week for the first time in our department's history and today we have a commitment to transition to a 42-hour work week no later than october of next year that represents the most significant change in our department's working conditions in more than half a century sorry throughout this process several of you took a genuine interest in our proposals you asked questions took time to understand the numbers and you recognized what it could mean for the people who serve this county more than that you guys made this possible for our firefighters this isn't just a different rotation on a calendar firefighting is an inherently dangerous profession and those dangers don't end when the emergency is over the cumulative effects of exposure to carcinogens physical exhaustion and repeat exposure to traumatic events follow firefighters long after the shift comes to an end for years we've understood that these demands take a toll on the health and well-being of our members and throughout these negotiations we made it a priority to address something that is too often overlooked the importance of giving firefighters adequate time to rest recover and return to work healthy and prepared to serve that's what this represents today it's an investment in the long-term health of our firefighters an opportunity to reduce the cumulative strain that comes from this profession and give our members a better chance at a long healthy career and ultimately a healthy retirement and yes it also means more time at home with our families more opportunities to be present for the moments that matter and a better quality of life outside of the fire station long after we've all moved on from the positions we hold today the impacts of these decisions will still be felt by firefighters and their families throughout Polk County I hope that's something that each of you takes pride in because I am incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together so on behalf of our members and the families who support them thank you thank you for your leadership your support and your willingness to invest in the future of our firefighters you all have had a unique opportunity to change the future of our department and for that we are forever grateful thank you thank you and madam chair the official um agenda item is under mr mink but we have that discussion and then the other one is career source polk which i believe is m47 um this entire board has had the names as well as it's been provided we have a total commitment so far of 12 individuals to serve on that um and the movement has been expedient and we have the first meeting set for november the 19th which we will have participation um from the president of career source florida as well as the involvement is already showing change um with polk vision and that they already have scheduled an opportunity for our industries to have conversations with nilda so that we can begin to understand what businesses and industries are needing in this community to again work to improve that workforce so we will um be approving again those 12 people who have committed to serve at this point and then they will work to finish out filling the board requirements and i'm sure you'll keep giving us updates on this absolutely okay thank you all right we have a first and a second any more questions or discussion on the consent agenda hearing none all in favor all right opposed motion carries thank you now mr meek do you have anything for us nothing at this time okay thank you and now county manager mr beasley good morning madam chair members of the board members of the viewing audience the manager's office will have four items for board consideration this morning item number g1 is to request the board to approve a guaranteed maximum price addendum to an existing construction manager at risk agreement with rata construction incorporated in connection with the joint use warehouse project in support of the polk county sheriff's office and the board's facilities management replacement offices today's board action would reflect approval of a guaranteed maximum price addendum to the existing construction manager at risk agreement not to exceed 29 million 978 532 dollars in january of this year the board entered into an agreement with rata construction to provide construction manager at risk services in connection with the polk county sheriff's office and boards joint use warehouse and facilities management administration offices which included pre-construction services in the amount of 39,050 dollars this project is comprised of constructing a polk county sheriff's office joint use warehouse and facilities management administration offices the total square footage of the project is approximately 120,000 square feet which includes a 112,500 square foot main building and a 7,500 square foot secondary building within the main building 10,000 square feet is allocated to the board's emergency storage needs 10,000 square feet allocated for the facilities management offices and 92,500 square feet for the sheriff's office wide-ranging storage needs which will consolidate multiple outdated storage facilities the pre-construction services are now complete and staff is requesting board approval for the guaranteed maximum price addendum to construct the project in accordance with resolution number 2026 05 to 500 thousand dollars is included in the guaranteed maximum price total to address allowance and contingency work conditions the guarantee maximum maximum maximum price addendum provides 350 calendar days from the date of notice to proceed to achieve the project's substantial completion the joint use warehouse and facilities management project is an approved project in the board's adopted community investment program and full funding is available within the general the county's general the county's general capital improvement fund so madam chair members of the board i think in keeping with the board's priority commitments to public safety to include operational efficiencies within the facilities management division i would request the board approve a guaranteed maximum price addendum to the existing construction manager at risk agreement number 2026 dash 006 with rata construction in the in connection with the joint use warehouse project in an amount not to exceed 29 million 978 thousand five hundred thirty two dollars second i have a motion and a second any questions and discussion yes commissioner thank you madam chair just to address some of the comments earlier specific to the needs of this county and the sheriff's office and for the other groups that are going to be in this building you know this this represents polk county looking ahead in the future and consolidating operations updating operations to better serve the county and i know from uh just a member of the public as i was prior to getting a seat as commissioner it seems like sometimes we move slow as a government agency that's just kind of common common theme if you will but as miss miss hicks and miss work have said before specific to animal control improvements do happen over time um we're not sitting here static and ignoring all comments and doing nothing um there is stuff that does occur to improve and we'll continue to do that that's an effort that we have as representing the people of polk county just as we do that and improve animal control we improve the sheriff's office we improve roads and drainage we can't move everything at one one time simultaneously with the unlimited budget and uh infinite time and to quickly do it so i would just ask that again when you look at items like this on our agenda um yes they're heavy lifts as far as budget wise there's a lot of money that has to go into the county to serve the residents every single day so for us again it is a challenge on how quickly you can make everything happen but patience does also result in good success long term so i just want to state that again this is a project that's a needed asset for the county and it's going to allow us to serve the community better and we'll keep working hard to do that every day thank you thank you anyone else hearing none we have a first and a second uh all in favor all right opposed motion carries next item madam chair members of the board is very much a companion item to item number g1 item number g2 is to request the board to approve amendment number one to an existing professional services agreement with the lunds group for architectural and engineering services in connection with the joint use warehouse and facilities management project board action today would reflect approval of a contract amendment not to exceed 791 933 in june of 2025 the board approved a professional services agreement with the lunds group to provide architectural and engineering services for final design permitting bid support and construction administration services in connection with the polk county sheriff's office joint use warehouse and facilities management offices project based upon very preliminary space programming the initial project scope envisioned a building of approximately 80 000 square feet with an estimated construction budget totaling 15 million professional architectural engineering fees negotiated based upon those initial parameters totaled 1 million 117 thousand 825 dollars during the project's design development and after having conducted multiple site visits to other similar public safety property and evidence storage facilities it was determined that through lessons learned from those jurisdictions that the work areas and storage areas would need to be increased in particular to provide separate sensitive evidence storage space that would require specialized mechanical ventilation and cooling requirements collectively these changes increase the building footprint to approximately 120 000 square feet with a final construction cost agreement totaling just over 29 million proposed amendment number one includes the additional architectural and engineering services to accommodate the larger facility by an amount not to exceed 791 933 these professional design and engineering services are essentially complete excluding identified and negotiated construction support services which will begin in the near future the joint use warehouse and facilities management offices project is an approved project in the board's adopted community investment program and these professional services uh funding for these professional services is available with the county's general capital improvement fund so madam chair members of the board i think as as these are the supporting professional architectural and engineering services required for the successful completion of the joint use warehouse project i would request the board to approve amendment number one to professional services agreement number 2025 dash 035 with the lunds group in an amount not to exceed 791 933 second i have a motion and a second questions or discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries next item madam chair members of the board item number g3 is to request the board to approve a guaranteed maximum price addendum to an existing construction manager at risk agreement with rada construction for the expansion and renovation of the 10th medical examiner's district offices located in winterhaven the board action today will reflect approval of a guaranteed maximum price addendum to the existing construction manager at risk agreement not to exceed 13 million 342 830 dollars in january of this year the board entered into an agreement with rada construction to provide construction manager at risk services in connection with the expansion and renovation of the 10th medical examiner's district district facilities serving polk hardy and highlands county which included pre-construction services in the amount of 43 118 dollars and 75 cents the facility is located along jim keene boulevard within the polk county main public safety campus this project is comprised of constructing an expansion consisting of a 4900 square foot office building an 8400 square foot morgue autopsy building and all associated renovations of the existing spaces to include site development and supporting infrastructure necessary to meet current and future operational requirements the pre-construction services are now complete and staff is requesting board approval for the guaranteed maximum price addendum to construct the project in accordance with resolution number 2026-052 500 000 is included in the guaranteed maximum total to address allowance and contingency work conditions the total contract time for this project has been set at 720 calendar days including polk county's funding contribution the total project funding includes hardy county a hardy county contribution totaling 500 000 a highlands county contribution totaling 1 million 500 000 and a state grant totaling 3 million dollars total construction funding for this project is included in both the special revenue grant fund as well as the county's general capital improvement fund so madam chair members of the board as this project represents i think significant support to florida's 10th medical examiner's district and is a direct reflection of multi-county cooperation and state funding support i would request the board approve a guaranteed maximum price addendum to the existing construction manager at risk agreement number 2026-005 with rata construction in an amount not to exceed 13 million 342 thousand eight hundred and thirty dollars i have a first and a second any questions or discussion yes commissioner just wanted to note that there is obviously some significant difference between the amounts that were put in in the other two other two counties that are part of this and i just think for the public's knowledge that's based upon the amount of work that is done for each county out of that medical examiner's office okay commissioner travel let me add to that we do get workload data distributed from dr nelson's office and clearly the vast majority of the autopsies and investigations conducted by the medical examiner are for polk county cases but that's a direct representation of the percentage distribution of the workload anyone else okay hearing none all in favor all right opposed motion carries final item madam chair members of the board item number g4 is to request the board to approve a permanent closure of the northeast landfills temporary residential customer convenience center pilot project effective january 1 2027 so madam chair rather than read a narrative statement i've asked mr brian cogswell if he would give the board a general overview and the general and the viewing audience of what we were trying to accomplish uh how we were going to try to accomplish that and the metrics the data that we received uh over the last four or five months and then as his conclusion of his presentation i'll come back and make a formal recommendation to the board brian please good morning commissioners congratulations madam chair thank you so just to bring everybody up to date uh last april we had discussed opening up a convenience center to combat some of the illegal dumping in the northeast region of the county uh we went ahead and got approval for about 551 000 to open up this pilot project on the bottom uh or on the sorry on the left side of the screen you'll see some illegal dump sites and that's exactly what we're trying to prevent on the right side uh this is us opening up the facility uh some of the traffic that was associated with that and this is located in hane city at our northeast landfill so we started doing some investigation on how to quantify the productivity of the ccc we drew out a portion of the county that would be relatively affected by having a ccc in the area and so we when we chopped up some of the some of the county to look at the illegal dumping cases we we had to compare them to previous years so on the left side of the screen you'll see some of the icons and dots those represent illegal dump sites were investigated and cleaned up and those are by month and so we were trying to formulate um some type of pattern that we could assist with investigations or get the sheriff's office involved to to enforce uh illegal dumping uh investigations and so on the top right we see the year over year as far as illegal dumpings just in this area in 2025 this region represented 16 of the total illegal dumpings in the entire county unfortunately in 2026 that has risen to 38 percent below that you'll see the actual month to month illegal invest illegal dumping investigations that we had concluded starting in june uh year over year it went from just under four to over 15 illegal dumpings in the area july was almost even uh year over year august we had slight increase in september we increased again to just under 15 illegal dump sites so looking at the actual statistics for the ccc for the pilot program we noticed that the total number of customers was relatively the same month over month uh we had some slight increases but nothing dramatic uh the repeat customers from when we started uh grew dramatically and we anticipated a lot of that was from uh possibly commercial customers that were utilizing this area to supplement their businesses at a much reduced rate from uh bringing the material materials to the landfill in winter haven uh the average vehicles remain the same around 22 22 vehicles per day average tonnage relatively the same which comes out to about seven tons per day um in the photograph on the bottom right you'll see those blue cans seven tons represents about one of those blue cans per day so moving on uh and this is the uh the revenue portion and the cost portion of my presentation so revenue has been pretty steady around nine ten eleven thousand dollars a month as we knew this was going to be a very reduced rate uh to incentivize this facility to to obviously thwart illegal dumping our operating cost is pretty flat as well started around 42 000 a month we're averaging around 40 000 a month now which means that we're having to supplement it uh about 30 000 a month because of the the loss of revenues um so the the total revenues and this is projected out would only be around 128 000 if we had continued this for the whole year uh operating cost because we have done some reduction strategies we noticed that it wasn't being utilized as much we reduced some of the manpower out there uh in an effort to to reduce some of the supplementation so it came out to a net loss of 350 357 000 if we were to continue this through the end of the year back when we had first proposed this to the board uh the rates were ten dollars for a car 18 for a small trailer 27 for a large trailer and five dollars for a tire it was also questioned how much of that are we actually supplementing or incentivizing incentivizing as this program as today we know what the usage is it it comes down to uh if we were to break even we would have to charge 43 dollars per car 77 for a smaller trailer 115 for a large trailer and then 21 per tire if we were to maintain the way we're going so um so to get some direction from the board uh the proposal is to actually discontinue the project because uh it doesn't seem to be producing the results that we expected um in in closing a project of this magnitude we we want to give some time for those especially during the holiday months to to finish their cleaning up of their residences and just to continue using the facility for for just a couple months and we will do a mass media campaign social media newspapers flyers and let everybody know so that they don't they don't get upset when they show up in the facility is closed and then investigate alternative prevention strategies and that's what i owe you the board we're going to continue to search for alternative options such as future residential collection contracts what can we do to broaden those contracts so that people can just put these items by the curb and that they don't get illegally dumped to incentivize you know prevention uh doing a lot of education and community outreach i think there's a lot to be said with that as long as everybody kind of brother's keeper and we we encourage our neighbors to do the right things um and then we're going to obviously promote aggressive enforcement that's there are partners of the sheriff's office code enforcement keep hope kind of beautiful and then just letting everybody collectively know about those areas that are of concern so that the sheriff's office can can go in and do enforcement and then uh we do have some some land development codes that are possibly coming about and that relates to the standards of the multi-family sites and i believe that's in senate bill 180 that's coming uh pretty soon so with that i stand for any questions yes um how often do you go looking for illegal dump sites you you guys proactively go seek them out right yes sir so there's a garbage truck on every road in unincorporated pope county every week so those garbage truck drivers are all told to report back in um any illegal dump sites now with our collection contracts they can't pick up the illegal dump sites but they report them um we also have code enforcement that drives around the county every single day they they do self-initiated reporting also the citizens call in uh our code enforcement is the hub for for all those communications so they investigate them first and then send them to us for cleanup after the fact but we're throughout the county every single day and so when you when you say there were 15 illegal dump sites or whatever i mean that number sounds low um how do you reconcile that with what you just told me i mean you would think there's not a lot of illegal dumping when i hear 15 you know illegal dump sites the the history of of illegal dumping if if something is found on the side of the road say it's a mattress or some tires those sites breed immediately uh it's the broken window theory they'll just start growing and growing and growing um we we actually send out a claw truck one of the one of the big clamshell trucks and they pick up every dump site that's reported the previous week uh but we send them out once a week and they're able to recover all of the reported dump sites in one day okay thanks and then the uh the other thing about the the fact you're closing it it sounds to me like you've got a few commercial operations that go in there unidentified to take advantage of the low price actual citizens probably aren't they're just not that many taking advantage of it it's more commercial guys taking advantage of us would you say that's correct that's that's how it appears yeah um so we actually record all the users um we have hundreds of users that have been there only one two three four times uh but we do have a few select that have been there 40 50 60 times um and that's just not consistent with a residential right usage um and we do turn customers away we've turned away to date about 105 customers and that's because of the materials they were bringing or they were identified from coming out of county or they were identified as commercial thanks yes manager commissioner just for clarity on the 357 thousand dollar loss that would be if we extended the operation through the end of may of 2027 correct that is correct that's from the initial 551 000 that was approved for the project right so anticipated savings per se closing on january the first will reduce that loss by 150 000 approximately for assuming 30 000 per month and look it'll be slightly higher than that but yes sir okay so we are again proactively looking at as a county to save taxpayer money when we can if it's not being productive yes sir initially we saved about 75 000 by reducing the staffing and then this would be an additional savings as well yes sir to the tune of about 300 000 and just one other follow-up as far as our alternative uh prevention not a prevention strategy but we talked about i know in the gender review meeting if there's a necessity to increase that claw truck presence to say two days per week or add another truck we can budget in for that too we don't the last thing i want to do is have more dump sites start popping up and then we can't get to them timely so as you're mentioning on the broken window theory you have this growth of uh both number of sites and volume at each one of those sites i want to make sure we can stay underneath that yes sir i have i have the current capacity in my budget to increase that to two days a week if necessary okay very good thank you yes and madam chair i'm glad to make a recommendation i need to make a comment i i just want to say of course this is not the data that i wanted to hear the ending of this i want to thank my fellow commissioners back in september when we talked about this and i brought it up because of the fact that we did have that location there and the issue with illegal dumping which i totally do not understand how and why somebody would do that to our counties i know we have it the problem is throughout of polk county but especially in the northeast so i was really hoping and praying that this would be a solution for that as you pointed out it's not and and it's kind of disappointing um but we need to move forward and we don't want to go ahead and continue wasting our taxpayers money so we'll need to close it down the media campaign is going to be real important in this aspect to notify people i know there's going to be lots of people that will be upset but due to the information that you provided the data that you provided there's just no other way to do this i just i just encourage and i know code enforcement they go out there and they check everything to make sure if they find any kind of evidence of who's doing this and commissioner bradswell it starts with a little something and before you know it that little area turns into a big big ugly situation with illegal dumping so i just say fellow um northeast people please help us with this stopping this illegal dumping and uh so we can make sure that our county is beautiful throughout polk county so thank you again thank you fellow commissioners thank you again for providing this and i'm sorry to see this closing but i understand so madam chair members of the board i think based upon the marginal citizen response to the site's availability and convenience over these past four to five months i would recommend the board to approve the permanent closure of the northeast landfills temporary residential customer convenience center pilot project effective january 1 2027 second i have a motion and a second any further questions or discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries that's it from the manager thank you so much for the information okay now we move into our expedited hearing thank you madam chair before we move into the expedited hearings i will go over the public hearing general procedures remind everyone if you wish to speak on any of the public hearing items you need to fill out a speaker card in the back and give 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 to three minutes the board experience in these matters and able to discern what is legally relevant to an issue and what is not information that is relevant and repetitive only serves to frustrate and necessarily prolong the day's business the commission inspects civility at all times during all public hearings speaking out of turn shout from the audience despairful sounds or utterances while another is speaking are unacceptable and you'll be asked to leave the chambers for 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 would 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 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 or present testimony today must be sworn in all testimony given during public hearings shall be deemed to be sworn at this time if you're going to address the commission or speak on any case today please stand raise your right hand answer out to the following questions and these are for the the public hearing cases do you swear or affirm that testimony evidence you provide to the commission days the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you madam chair i will go over the expedited hearings at this time expedited hearings are held pursuant to resolution number 2022-089 expedited hearings are used when no opposition was present at the planning commission hearing the applicant agrees to the expedited hearing and recommendation development review committee is for approval expedited procedures are the following after staff briefly introduces the case the hearing will be open for public comment if anyone speaks in public comment the applicant will give be given the opportunity to respond after public comment the board will consider the land use case at any time full presentation from 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 land use case at this time now chair i will turn over to mr zisco to present the expedited hearings thank you mr mink good good morning madam chair for the record i'm ben zisco land development director with polk county there are seven items on the expedited public hearing portion of today's agenda item number i1 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pal 2026-8 pipe extrusion plant cpa to consider a future land use map designation change from phosphate mining to industrial on approximately 118.78 acres the subject site is located at the far southwest corner of polk county just north of the hardy county line it is currently owned by the mosaic company and is adjacent to a pipe facility associated with mosaic the request is to change the designation as mentioned from phosphate mining to industrial the intended use of the property is a pipe extrusion plant to sell to fabricate and make pipes that will sell to mosaic for operations of the phosphate industry however there is an intent to sell some of the piping to other non phosphate related industries currently the use would be allowed on the site without a land use change however this is brought before you today in the event that the customer base changes or that more of the piping is sold to non phosphate industry users the site would have to change to industrial because the phosphate land use designation requires the primary use to be associated with the phosphate industry so really this is a long-term vision with this land use change again the operations and what is proposed today would be allowed without the land use change but in the event that the market changes or their customer base changes this land use change will change will allow them to sell the piping to keep the business operational this item did appear before the planning commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval it is a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment which must be transmitted to uh the florida department of commerce so following any questions or comments from the board or the public today staff is recommending approval to transmit this to tallahassee any questions for staff yes but if you just clarify what would be the reason that the mosaic's not seeking the same land use on the existing pipe i guess my question becomes operationally if they're producing pipe on the existing land use and then they're going to have this adjacent one what designates what pipe can be sold versus what can't we i have not commissioner i have not had that conversation and understand why they didn't lump that other operation into into this request they certainly could expand this and and include that piece at a at a future date but at this point they have only communicated their intent on this 118 acres so not not aware of why they would exclude that or why they would in the future include it thank you any other questions for staff hearing none i'll open it up for public comments uh lauren do we have anybody no ma'am okay we close the public hearing and bring it back to the board move for approval second i have a motion and a second any questions discussion hearing none all in favor all right opposed motion carries madam chair item number i2 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pal 2026-9 davenport 27 business park cpa to consider a future land use designation change from regional activity center to business park center on approximately 24.03 acres the subject site of this parcel is on the west side of us 27 just north of i4 and you can see on the screen this parcel is right on the border of where the regional activity center transitions to the business park center on the east side of us 27 the entire portion of the east side is regional activity center the regional activity center does include several properties on the west side of us 27 and then transitions to that business park center designation the uses that were intended for the regional activity center have not been what the market has brought to this area in particularly on the west side the west side of 27 is primarily of the warehousing and logistics uses and that is what the intent is for this parcel the proposal would be to change this designation to business park center which would allow the construction of four flex warehouse buildings totaling just shy of 370 000 square feet this item did appear before the planning commission and received unanimous recommendation of approval it is only 24 acres but it is located within the green swamp area of critical state concern so it is treated as a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment so we would need to transmit this to florida commerce and following any questions or comments today from the board or the public we recommend transmittal question for staff yes ben will they access what road will they access the property from if it's going to be warehouses believe they've got fronted they've got this this access road right here along and like that is called access roads they do have designated access here and then there is a private road or private easement that they they could negotiate an access point here but the primary access would be on this access road so to the west is private that's that's what warehouse is that on the on the west side is that fedex that's what i'm thinking i i i was i was thinking there was a public road on the west side of that i only ask this question because of the issues we've had with warehouses queuing up their trucks getting in the middle of busy roads whatever we do when it comes time to give them a final approval factor all that in knowing that whatever they say they may not do and and and put it in a way that they don't really have a choice is there understood any other question yes commissioner yeah madam chair if i may uh could you just expand upon i know it says approximately 11 acres are within a well field production district just for those that aren't familiar with that can we just get some clarity on what that means if this is developed in the warehousing with impervious surface and stormwater ponds and traffic what does that mean for the the well field designation good morning um shauna bennett with line development division for the record the wellhead protection district is that there's a uh well that the county uses to draw water from for the northeast utility service area it's to the west and south and the code just prohibits certain uses like a landfill things like that on the ground and this isn't a prohibited use so it's within those regulations thank you thank you any other question for staff okay hearing none i'll open it up for public hearing lauren do we have anyone no ma'am we do not okay then i close the public hearing and bring it back to the board i have a motion and a second any further question or discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries madam chair item number i3 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc ben excuse me that was a fedex facility yeah yeah i remember i3 is an expedited public hearing for case ldc pas 2026-15 glisten drive rscpa to consider a future land use map designation change from institutional to residential suburban on approximately 0.64 acres the subject site is located to the west of kathleen road south of duff road and this was a it's a oddly shaped triangular piece that was a a former well site for polk county utilities the the well was abandoned and this property was surplused the request is to change that designation from institutional to residential suburban with the intent to build another home or two it's it's depending on the design the maximum they would be able to fit is two houses but with the abandonment of the of the well and the surplus of the property there's really no other viable use for this parcel other than one or two single-family homes this is a small-scale comprehensive plan amendment that is before you today for adoption your planning commission unanimously recommended approval and following any questions or comments from the board or the public staff recommends approval question for staff yes no oh okay hearing none i'll open it up for public hearing do we have anyone lauren yes ma'am we have a james burke james is james here he's good he says no he's going like this either you're saying hello or you say no okay all right anyone else lauren no ma'am okay so we close the public hearing and bring it back to the board i have a motion and a second questions or discussion hearing none all in favor all right opposed motion carries madam chair item number i4 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2026-16 juanita neighborhood plan gas station text amendment to amend the land development code allowing gas stations as conditional uses within the high impact commercial center within the juanita neighborhood plan the subjects district if you will is located at the southern portion of rifle range road where it meets u.s highway 60 or state road 60 you can see the red outline here this red outline depicts the boundary of the juanita neighborhood plan as i mentioned the high intensity commercial within the juanita neighborhood plan currently does not allow gas stations but high impact commercial outside the juanita neighborhood plan does allow gas stations so the area we're looking at right here you can see a high impact commercial area just outside the red line has already been approved for a racetrack gas station the property just to the north of that on the corner of 60 and rifle range road is interested in building a gas station as well that is needed in that area and and of course for friendly competition among gas stations so this text amendment would allow that gas station as a conditional use i do want to point out that the juanita neighborhood plan is quite large it extends all the way up rifle range road this southern area is the only area where high impact commercial exists within that neighborhood plan so the county has undergone some overlay efforts to stimulate development in the northern portion of rifle range road and juanita this would not be applicable there as it's only applicable to this this high impact commercial area this item appeared before the planning commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval it is before you today on first reading so after any comments from the board or the public there is no action required and we will bring this back to you for adoption in two weeks any questions for staff okay hearing none i'll open it up for public hearing lauren do we have anyone no ma'am there's no one thank you i close the public hearing and since there's no action we'll wait for well i won't they will wait for it in two weeks madam chair item number i5 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2026-19 mobile homes text amendment to consider a amendment to the land development code to remove to remove standards for individual mobile homes and mobile home subdivisions from the land development code this uh this amendment is being brought before you as a as a result of state mandates uh via house bill 399 from last year's legislative session this is simply a text amendment to comply with that with that law and that mandate and the code provision will remove differential treatment for mobile homes as it relates to site-built homes um so this amendment will simply strike through the terms um individual mobile homes or mobile home subdivisions and it will amend the definition of single family homes to include mobile homes thereby treating mobile homes the same as we treat individual residential structures this item did appear before the planning commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval and like the previous item it is before you on first reading so following questions or comments no action is required today any questions for staff yes just just to clear it up i know we briefly talked about it friday i don't remember if we really resolved it park models are not included in this because of the way that's correct and and and where is that written in our it's not our decision that would be in the statue i believe because the these are required to meet the florida building code i think that's the language in the statute that differentiate because the park models that you you're discussing aren't built to meet the florida building code it's be uh built to meet antsy which is like rvs and stuff i believe so and but my my question is there's you'll be able to tell me where i can find that in state statute after this i believe so okay i believe so because if it's not defined in state statute if it's ambiguous like this as park models could could be i'm pretty sure put it in front of everybody's house i'll pull the statue and i'll get with you follow up with you okay and everything but i believe that's something to the effect of meat has to meet the building code part building code okay all right thanks any other questions okay we'll open it up for public hearing lauren do we have anyone no ma'am then we close the public hearing and no action is taken madam chair item number i6 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2026-20 compatibility text amendment to consider amendment to the land development code to modify the compatibility standards complying with state statutes this item also is in response to house bill 399 it was passed during last year's legislative session this text amendment will clarify the language that is to be reviewed for both planning commission and the board of county commissioners as it relates to public hearings and either approving or more importantly denying an item based on compatibility this is also before you on first reading your planning commission unanimously recommended approval and following any questions or comments no action is required today any questions for staff yes more of a comment but just for clarification when this new statute kicks in january 1st a developer brings something to you that you guys do not believe complies with our comp plan land development code whatever um that isn't the end at that point you have to tell them what it is and i'm just i would assume you do that anyway right now but now they so they've made an application they've come through the process you don't like it you tell them we don't like it they don't have to reapply they will now be offered the opportunity to to negotiate basically uh with the county on whether they can comply or not comply and then once that's done if if they comply you'll send it up to us or the planning commission if you still believe they don't comply they still have the opportunity to move forward is that correct that's correct if they still have not complied with what so my understanding and again as a a new law this will be tested throughout the the applicability of it but if if a development appears before us as staff and we find it incompatible we must give them mitigation measures that they can take to make it compatible if they if they meet those requirements then we would deem it compatible and move through public hearings with a recommendation that it is compatible however if they still don't meet those those those mitigation measures that we have recommended it will go through public hearing but staff is still able to then find that they have not met those mitigation measures and recommend denial based on compatibility and and when you get right down to it that's going to be probably the only chance that the planning commission or the board will have well we won't i mean if it if it comes with your recommendation it's going to be uh difficult for any board to deny would you agree with that it's i mean you're going to have to have compatibility no longer compatibility no longer is something you can arbitrarily assign um it's written in statute now well i don't think we ever arbitrary assign is that well what i what i it's arbitrary in the fact that what i think is compatible and what you think is compatible may be different right but with the board as a you all make a decision as a whole what it's compatible i think i want to is i think it's a may that staff can present mitigations uh um recommendations but if if the applicant presents mitigation uh standards and stuff to mitigate the compatibility issue then if we deny it we must explain in more detail the reasons why those mitigation standards that they have presented does not allow for cap compatibility before we didn't have to give the specific reasons although we had to explain why it wasn't compatible but when they give mitigation as i understand the statute so far they give the mitigation to us why it should be compatible and then we deny it we have to be more specific why those those are not compatible at the at once y'all make a once you all make your decision then the avenue currently is to circuit court um to to contest whether or not and it's a quasi-judicial hearing whether or not there's confidence substantial evidence to support the board's decision often is the issue before the circuit court and i think going back to your points mr commissioner braswell is i think we can still deny it but i believe then the question comes up is it a legally defensible denial and i think that that's often been where the public feels frustration with these boards is when we approve what they consider to be non-compatible the understanding of of the rules and regulations that guide us to that compatibility standard and again it is very subjective but i do believe that this adds more objectivity to it and puts the onus back on us that if we deny it the legal challenge and the successful legal challenge of an applicant i think is greater well i mean it really gets down to it's not really subjective at all it's these are the these are the items it meets this criteria you approve it or you're going to court which is kind of the way it's supposed to be yeah and i mean it's kind of where it is now to a degree but it just tightens the noose around us to get it right the first time or find ourselves in court and this is just my opinion i believe that bills like this are coming down where we are losing quote home rule because of the powers that have been given to planning commissions and county commissions across this state are not making decisions based upon land development codes and compatibility with their comp plan and this is the states then saying we're going to continue to try to ensure that you are making the decisions as as the law sets forth and i think it's important like right now we're going through our comprehensive plan and rewriting it that's where we have to get it right the first time we have to you know it's been since 90 or whatever that we've done a wholesale those those things will have to be done more often uh as you find the flaws and and what we have uh and what we're rewriting there's going to be some unintended consequences we're not going to like probably so we're just going to have to bear down on that more and and constantly stay with uh keeping that comp plan more uh up to date i suppose madam chair if i if i may also one of your decision points is always the cpa the comp plan amendment you sit at that point in a legislative position and those are the decisions you make when a cpa comes through a lot of times is whether or not as a legislative body we want that type of amendment then after that you get into the actual land use which is your cus and stuff which then at that point you're sitting at quasi-traditional which your your your authority is less and that you're sitting more as an impartial judge so y'all y'all have to recall remember those as cpas come through that that what it opens up that land to and i think that's a lot of times your decision point yeah you're right because we had this conversation maybe two three years ago that we were looking at the cpas not as as tightly as or looking at the what the results of that cpa may be more like looking at it going well they could do this or they could do that knowing full well that they were going to do down the road probably something we we really didn't want and we went ahead and let those things get through so yeah you know we'll certainly like you said have to tighten up on that well the bottom line is that all of this is going on either state or whatever but people see that we make the decision and then all of a sudden it's turned around and the state uh denies it or approves it all of a sudden a subdivision goes up and then people are saying well wait a minute you guys deny this what happened how come the changes so uh it's good that we talk about this and talk about it often so people could know our citizens could know how you're right uh troutman our hands are tied and home rule it's becoming even narrower every single day so anyway any other questions for staff okay hearing none we'll open it up for public hearing do we have any lauren no ma'am thank you we close the public hearing and no uh action is necessary right now and the last item on the expedited portion of today's agenda item i7 is an expedited public hearing for case ldct 2026-22 offices text amendment to consider an amendment to the land development code to modify the standards for office uses and this is really a continued effort to make our land development code more user friendly for both staff and members of the public currently the land development code has two different uses or definitions one is offices and one is office park and this amendment would strike through both of those uses and definitions and introduce professional office and contractor office and the intent here is that having one definition of office an office can operate very very differently a professional office that may be a an attorney or an accountant or some other office that generates a light amount of customers coming to consult with a professional but really having no storage just just a computer and paperwork versus a contractor's office where there may be materials a showroom or some other operation and of course the location of where these different types of offices go is different depending on on what type of office there is by having one definition of office it has made it confusing for both staff and the public because offices are not allowed in in the same the same different land use districts that might be appropriate so this bifurcates the the definition provides clarity to both public and staff this did appear before the planning commission and received a unanimous recommendation of approval it also is on first reading before you today so following questions or comments no action is required any question for staff hearing none i'll open it up for public hearing lauren do we have anyone no ma'am we do not thank you i close the public hearing and no action is necessary now concludes the expedited portion of today's agenda thank you madam chair i'll introduce item number j1 item j1 relates to granting an economic development ad valorem tax exemption to an expanding business in polk county the details to be presented this morning are being presented by miss tabitha alpers she's out of our budget and management services office and we also have representation here from the central florida development council so tabitha please thank you good morning madam chair and commissioners for the record tabitha alpers budget management services item j1 is a public hearing to consider the adoption of an ordinance granting an economic development ad valorem tax exemption for an expanding polk county business u.s baking solutions inc and to approve a performance agreement with the company the company plans to create 11 new full-time jobs paying an average annual wage of seventy four thousand three hundred and seventy four dollars which is more than one hundred and twenty five percent of polk county's twenty twenty six average annual wage which for reference is sixty three thousand nine hundred and seventy seven dollars the company plans to lease an additional forty thousand square foot facility to expand its food manufacturing operations and will invest three point six million in construction for build out of the property along with an additional six point seven million in tangible equipment based on these plans and the board's current guidelines the project qualifies for a 40 percent reduction in applicable ad valorem taxes for the five-year period beginning 2028 through 2032 the property appraisers report estimates that if the exemption is granted approximately thirty three thousand five hundred ninety five dollars in ad valorem taxes will be exempted each year for the five-year period 2028 through 2032 the county would gain the remaining sixty percent of the property's taxable value estimated to be fifty thousand three hundred ninety two dollars as new ad valorem tax revenue annually during the exemption period according to the property appraiser the company pays approximately nineteen thousand dollars annually and ad valorem to the county with this exemption the expansion the expansion represents an estimated 168 percent increase in anticipated tax revenue each year of the the exemption period additionally new tax revenues gained for the school board would be sixty six thousand nine hundred and sixty three dollars annually for mst use ten thousand three hundred ninety five dollars annually and for swift mud two thousand three hundred eighteen dollars annually representatives from the central florida development council and the company are also available in the audience to answer any questions that you may have regarding the project and with that i'll stand for any questions any questions okay i know we have the applicant here and i have sean if you want to come up and share some or introduce the applicant good morning everyone sean malott with the central florida development council at 1725 bartow road in lakeland florida uh thank you very much for uh you considering this exemption this morning we do have representatives from uh the company here in the audience um but really this is an expansion of the of their bakery option operation in lakeland and they they moved to the county several years ago and this is an opportunity to be able to bring uh you know this expanding uh manufacturing line to the facility uh and they do have options they do have other other facilities where they could do this project at but they would like to do this in in the lakeland market and because of that um this exemption is helpful to make that and as i thought you know again tabithee did a great job of explaining the tax revenue you know if they don't bring this facility or this line to this to this you know uh production plant then we would not receive the tax revenue but because they're investing within this facility those will be additional tax revenue for the county that could be able to be utilized in in many ways for the the benefit of the of the area so uh thank you do you have any questions for me any questions for sean okay thank you thank you very much appreciate it thank you and i'll open it up for a public uh hearing anyone no ma'am no one okay so then i close the public hearing and and i bring it back to the board move for approval second i have a motion and a second any question discussion commissioner i think just the discussion as sean said as well as tabitha you know this company has options and by providing this type of program we do work to incentivize the company's expansion in this area but then most importantly the jobs and so um each and every job that we have especially in today's economy as we continue to hear about additional layoffs that may be coming to the area um i think it's an important perspective that we remember those jobs are being created and i agree with the jobs but i also like the bread they make pan so bow so i'm glad that they're here any other questions or comments okay so i have a motion a second uh no further questions or comments all in approval all right opposed motion carries welcome okay that closes the public hearing and we're going to go ahead and open it up for public comments at this time laura do we have any yes ma'am um first up is kevin noble kevin good morning commissioners kevin bring the mic up so that yeah yeah no that's good yes um good morning commissioners my name is kevin noble i live in bars hoe uh and uh and i'm on 23.5 after slip road yep yeah so um the reason why i'm here today is because um because of this and so um yeah i've been and that um hopefully technology will work should be coming up no okay well you know like i'm saying that um um my neighbor charl i'm speaking on his behalf in that and he's disgusted he's the plot that this is going on yep and in those two they they're doing it illegally they're right on both sides of the road all hours a day and especially when there's cars coming and i'm concerned that that that um they're going to hit somebody head on somebody's gonna get hurt around somebody's gonna get hurt yep yep and i don't and they're riding all hours of the afternoon especially with the buses because um because when the buses are coming through i'm concerned that they're going to they're going to hit those kids yeah beyond that yeah and they're riding along there mom on my road all hours of the night we're talking 12 midnight 1 30 in the morning 2 30 in the morning and 3 o'clock in the morning and my neighbors and my neighbors are my neighbors are trying to sleep and they can't see what that record what that record going on oh yep and and and i and i know where those two live because because um i think my brother told me they live the day of shrek road so um that charles palmer he feels that that that um he feels that um that um that has to stop it's got to stop period it's got to stop once and for all yeah yeah yeah and that uh and that one and that one and that will not behavior from elsewhere will not be tolerated and let's all know that um two of the poke deputies know me they go to they work they work with access her to parto debbie kirkland and they're in their um and then when we're the guy we had they know me personally and they know me well and they're and they understand the situation if great judge if you heard about that if you heard about that he would be disgusted in a pod so um so so so i feel that that um that that um those that um those two they only they can't be doing that no more it's just that because it's a nuisance they're disturbing the peace and that will not be tolerated anymore you have been and for public safety that um i don't want i don't want to make it hurt no way yeah you know you know so therefore my neighbor charles palmer would like to see this stopped i would like to see it stopped i just want to make it hurt so please so please reach out the church office thank you i want to take that thank you mr noble lauren who's next yes ma'am k bork good morning commissioners commissioner santiago i would like to congratulate you and thank you for your eight years of service and wish you much success in this next chapter of your life thank you um i began advocating for better animal welfare in poke county because of the high euthanasia rate at our county shelter healthy adoptable animals were being killed simply because they had nowhere to go that is heartbreaking and it should concern all of us but our concern needs to reach farther upstream animals do not appear in an overcrowded shelter because shelter staff woke up one morning and decided they needed more animals to euthanize they arrived because prevention and retention have fallen short the shelter did not create this crisis it was left to manage the consequences when present when prevention is neglected and pet owners do not have the resources to care for their pets the shelter is expected to clean up afterward of course we want animals to leave the shelter alive but alive should be the beginning of our standard not the end rather than focusing only on whether our shelter is no kill we need to ask a broader question what are we as a community doing to stop bringing more animals into the world than we can responsibly care for we need to spay and neuter animals in our county we need to support affordable access to basic veterinary care we need to foster and adopt responsibly stop abandoning animals provide practical support for pet owners who feel that surrendering a beloved pet is their only option these steps address the problem before an animal reaches the shelter door and help families keep their pets at home prevention and retention must be at the heart of changing the narrative in polk county i want to recognize an example of community support made possible entirely by donations and volunteer efforts this particular effort is in support of the retention piece tlc pet snip has challenged the community to collect three thousand pounds of cat and dog food in the next 20 days in time for thanksgiving families in our community face difficult choices every day and feeding a beloved pet can become a struggle this endeavor can help keep polk county animals in their homes and out of the shelter once the results of the vote on amendment three are known i hope county and city funding can supplement community efforts and support programs like this one and commissioner if you're working towards supporting a spay and neuter i applaud that and thank you so much for that effort in the end prevention and retention can save more lives by keeping animals from reaching the shelter in the first place thank you and and just to uh clarify i see here that it's november 1 through the 20th the challenge yes ma'am and it's 7 to 4 pm and it's at 1701 east gary road lakeland florida for the drop off yes correct yes ma'am and i have some flyers in my bag i'll put on the back table if anybody wants any in the audience when they leave okay and please feel free to share with your constituents thank you thank you maybe we could um post something like this so that people will know where to drop and drop off the food thank you kate next uh joanna mukai alinde good morning commissioners and thank you for your service mrs santiago thank you congratulations my name is joanna mukai alinde um 109 sandberg lane winter haven florida animal neglect and abuse is alive and thriving here in polk county and i've never heard of the broken window theory but when i looked it up it's the idea that visible signs of neglect like a smash window left unrepaired can signal that nobody is monitoring an area encouraging more disorder well that theory can be applied to animal abuse and neglect as well two puppies were left to die when a man leaves home for eight days and leaves the puppies trapped and rusted out crates no food it's outside no food and no water for eight days this is a direct quote from polk county bully project and then cross paws which is another local rescue gets a call that there's a dog tied up on the gate in the middle of nowhere in fort mead there's no house for miles and just left to die slowly fortunately a polk county deputy arrived and was also upset to see this and found out that the dog has a microchip so hopefully there's some investigation happening and just this morning on my way here i wasn't even planning to talk about this but a post from a friend stating that driving around in less than five hours yesterday she witnessed in haynes city a senior dog being used as a so-called guard dog was left outside in the rain with no visible shelter and if you call animal control there's always the concern that this the conditions may be considered acceptable even when an animal deserves better protection and number two in winter haven she saw that a terrified mother dog was digging through a gas station dumpster for food she appeared to have recently given birth and a rescue was contacted and hopefully locate her puppies and safely trap mom she also noticed community community cats were also in the area if you read the comments and look at the photos it is heartbreaking from these posts and people are sad people are angry we want to know is there an investigation what is the punishment for people who does these horrible acts how are they held accountable these are the same people that will hurt people as well the community needs to know when appropriate what action is taken i want to read those updated posts on social media which i don't see enough of some rescuers even feel discouraged from reporting animal abuse or neglect because they don't believe action will follow i have to say i appreciate the data that was presented during the northeast dumping problem with the graphs and comparisons we need that data from animal control to put pertinent information together just like that one i was a little inspired where are the straight pickup locations where are the locations for animal cruelty investigations maybe the locations for suspected backyard breeding and we need this to determine where we should focus our efforts for this spay and neuter ideas that we have so you know as a community we will do our part but we need your leadership and we need your help so thank you thank you next katherine van valkenberg morning commissioners good morning um thank you for allowing me to speak today my name is katherine van valkenberg and thank you uh chairwoman santiago for your service i wish you well um i'm here to ask about pro therapeutic programming for our special needs community we have eight to nine thousand people in polk county with special needs they go to school and then are released to home there are very few programs or day centers or anything for them to do for the next 40 years the good news is that i am not asking for extra money there is already funding for parks and natural resources there's a recreation funding and general fund as well in addition there are currently hundreds of buildings to include firehouses libraries schools offices and other county space that are open with staff that are there every day today i'm asking for someone to assist this community with county-wide programs and give all of our residents a chance to enjoy our beautiful county thank you thank you yes i just want to say um i believe ma'am you and your husband have sent the emails um with some examples of some programs that i believe it's bennett's yes thank you yes yes um some examples of kind of what you're looking for right so um some programs that are out there are private pay or paid through a med waiver program um i think what we're interested in is just um an expansion of the parks and rec program so it wouldn't necessarily be a place to drop off your child for eight hours or six hours but it would be record therapeutic recreation which means that they could come together and find support within their own their own family group i guess recreation would include what anyone else enjoys cooking or sewing classes painting classes things like that um so i i think that there's definitely room for expansion here in poke county to serve this population thank you thank you madam chair for me yes manager beasley is that something from a uh joy and parks and recreation kind of a joint effort that would be looking at that as from at least from a funding perspective i think planning and execution maybe is more parks and rec but it seems like that would be a uh health care need potentially yes sir uh commissioner scott it might be associated with some of our community center activities uh it may be some of our special programs uh within the parks the active park environment i'll i'll pursue it with uh with tab the deal um you know i caution in light of property tax reform vote today and the idea that that general fund and those mstu funds identified for the park system could be in jeopardy and existing programs may go away uh much less expand programs but certainly there may be some activities associated with special needs uh clients and that's why i go more more of the health and human services type part of it for funding not taking away from right parks directly but if there's some creative for grants or even federal assistance on that yes sir indigent health care uh may be a fun source but you've got to qualify based on indigent standing okay thank you i'm gonna put kim on on the spot here with poke vision um do you know of anything that is going on countywide with your organization that could be of help in this area sorry to put you on the spot but kim long executive director poke vision thank you for the question as you know we have an active behavioral health team um we have been exploring uh different types of therapies including um immersive therapies using outdoor spaces we recently visited circle b bar reserve and part of the conversation was around um the the environmental uh impacts of being out in nature and the positive aspects of that from a formal programming standpoint the answer would be no ma'am the conversation about have we opened the lens up to consider alternative programming is yes but i would i would say to mr beasley um we're well aware of the um restrictions on using the indigent health care tax but there may be other resources community-wide that we could use collaboratively and leverage towards these uh types of initiatives does that help yeah that does help i think it was katrina right is that was the name the person that spoke was balken katherine katherine katherine if you would check with um miss kim long and just have a conversation with her you never know how things move along with a with a start of a conversation so thank you thank you kim for letting me put you on the spot okay next debbie hicks good morning debbie hicks 236 alderman road lakeland florida i love my retirement lets me be here okay uh i want to mention for animal control i stopped by there a week or so ago i'd like to check in on animal control and i was very pleased to see that the county has hired a company to come in and work on these kennels that i'm assuming are from 1988 they haven't started on that north side i hope you're going to keep them moving on the north side because that north side's a mess anyway but i want to thank you you got a company that poor facility people i don't know how they keep up with all the stuff over there but now i want to move on to the wildlife and the trees that i started last time we do have a tortoise haven't seen him in a week or two but and he's a young one so apparently there's a nest we haven't seen the old one my concern is the 151 homes that's going in across the street because yes all the development around me is lakeland it's it's all annexed into lakeland but of course the subdivision is not i don't have a problem with the subdivision not complaining about that but we do have fox squirrels we know we have tortoises i would like to know how i and our neighbors can follow up because as was discussed in i6 things change and a lot of us don't know we've got property annexed into lakeland that supposedly was going to be a warehouse now we find out it's one building with lights all around it and there's going to be equipment constantly coming out and one of my neighbors is front doors 50 feet from there so i would like to know how can i follow up on changes because we do know they come in here but they don't all come in here and that's what i'm asking because we've got a lot of trees we've got a lot of wildlife out there and what they're playing they said look good you know there's wildlife places there's a creek that runs through there but we know things change so i'm just asking for some help and knowing how to follow it so if you can send me to somebody i'd appreciate it i am uh john would you raise your hand right here look look at the back there that's going to be your point person from now on so he's going to give you his phone number and you can call him and ask him all sorts of questions to make sure you have the and you know i like questions and so john i think she'll probably or john will probably send him on to ben ziskell so ben ziskell go ahead yeah that's okay whoever he wants to send him but he's the point person right now well i appreciate it and i appreciate everything you guys do it's a big issue uh it's a big issue and i just ask for balance in this county because you guys control a lot of the land and you know we have water shortages trees that are being knocked down and then you put these little twigs in they put these twigs they're not going to be worth anything to the wildlife for what 10 20 years and then some of them plant them under the electric wires what's with this well they're going to love me i'm sure john's gonna love you that's for sure thank you debbie next becky bywater becky it didn't work before sure there you go and then also um it's working oh martha i just want to say we met years ago when i was with score and i've always had the utmost respect for everything that you have done for our community and you as a person and anything i've said here please don't take it personally i don't okay but thank you becky yeah okay so and i know martha's sister we were together in an organization great family okay so um as i was um having my morning coffee i opened my text to uh sos please come and volunteer this morning at the pope county bully project if you can because we took in 25 dogs yesterday from a breeding situation so um the home was in haynes city there was no ac all of the dogs were infested with uh fleas worms this is just one of them that was sent to me um after i arrived here um how we found out i was spoke to the shelter manager because i was curious whether animal control was involved and they were not uh the owner was moving and contacted one of the bull or bully foster families if they would take the dogs so we have no ordinance that this isn't an illegal act and this person could be penalized i believe if we did um this would not 100 deter the situation but if somebody knew they were doing an illegal act um i want to point out to you that between g1 2 and 3 the totals today that you talked about 44 million 113 295 dollars how much would an ordinance cost think about it how much would it cost the sheriff's budget is approximately 3 million of that that animal control is 5.5 historically according to um chat gpt uh 90 percent of that is in personnel cost and employee salaries these are deputies they are not they are not people who are um trained in animal welfare um could you put my sheet up please thank you um i did some research and i want you to keep in mind that the shelter that these ladies have been talking about our live outcome rate is 63 percent let me repeat that 63 hillsboro 95 that constitutes no kill at 90 percent um orange county miami-dade palm beach pasco these are the numbers i mean you say you can't do anything but is that really true bill brasswell brought up that we were talking to the wrong people a year and a half ago but that that person will not speak with us and he is not interested god bless him he's the best sheriff in this country when it comes to crime but we need it's time we need to remove animal control out from under the sheriff's department thank you thank you becky lauren do we have anyone else yes ma'am james abercrombie james i want to get my flyers everyone to get a copy of my flower flyer there it is everyone to get a copy james put the mic up closer to your mouth so we can hear better there you go that's not all right the first page that says 2000 is uh was a um petition drive by by the citizens of polk county to be put down a ballot for term limits and as you read through it about halfway through board of county commissioners shall not be qualified for re-election after two terms very specific something you can really understand even without an education second page was 2018 now 22 000 uh that was taken supreme court florida supreme court by um um god i'll think of his name in a minute killabrew uh he didn't like the results so he became a congress member in tallahassee and i'm sure he had a lot to do with the second one the incumbent will be will have will served no the incumbent will have served blah blah blah anyway there's nothing in there that says anything about a three-year term limit it does not limit it to three years nothing so once they serve the third term they can go on and serve the fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth term if they want to there's nothing there that says three terms period so this is illegal to start with now my it my my uh proof of this is neil cumby spent his fifth term from 2000 to 2024 that was his fifth term so this allowed him to do that and i brought this to the board a couple years ago when uh george lindsey was here so it's been here before and you ignored it then so we're not going to ignore it any longer um also last meeting i dropped off a ton of pictures uh i went by in duff walker park again yesterday and he's still got a thousand dollar cabinet sitting on the ground laying on the ground in the weather with the lid partially opened i also took a look at the wire hanging out the pole it's uh colored for 480 volts 277 480 volts and just hanging out the pole no big deal you got some citizens concerned there don't you all right now the pictures for duff uh for uh hunt fountain park we've gone beyond the fence i'm still concerned about the fence i still want to know what's going to happen with that fence it's not a year old yet and it looks like it's 50 years old you took down the 40 year old fence that didn't look as bad as it does now that's number one the rest of it is the maintenance there was a lot of pictures i sent of the maintenance that's been that has not been done for 40 years on that piece property and i don't understand that you want to build new ones and you still got you have you can't afford to don't have the manpower or you can't afford it or whatever thank you mr abracombi lauren anyone else no ma'am okay so we close the public comments and our last part of the agenda is commissioner's comments we'll start with commissioner troutman um as we all know today is election day so i just encourage those that if you haven't voted please go out and do so um and i know there's been a lot of discussion about the tax amendment and whether it passes or fails i think as a board um and as a community we have to be realistic that this issue is going to come back so i think it's going to be incumbent upon once we have a new board assembled that we really talk about what are some ways that we can look at the budget and work towards being prepared that at some point there's going to be some legislation that's going to come down around that um and then again also regarding career source polk and polk vision they have already set up two days for the industry and education summit so on november the 12th in the morning in lakeland in december 1st in the afternoon in winter haven we are encouraging business and industry leaders to come out and have a conversation about what the educational needs will be for workforce development and that's it will that be advertised or be notified through social media yeah i believe polk vision is taking that on and we'll probably share that with our communications team i did see a flyer um that polk vision sent out yesterday um so i shared it on my social media but i believe we'll start to see that going around more perfect thank you commissioner wilson i was wondering if he's gonna say my name uh just as commissioner troutman said get out and vote today uh you know everybody says this is the most every every election here is always the most important election that we're having this one really is so everybody get out and vote and uh and again before we close this meeting i just want to say thank you martha i know this board does and it's going to be unusual coming in and you're not here it's it's going to be quieter but it's going to be that's all i got thank you always pushing the limit oh yeah oh yeah where's your first trip my first trip is going to be a cruise to the bahamas just to relax a little bit and congratulations on that because so many people our age talk about oh we're gonna you know slow down and start traveling but you have you have taken off on that and pick a ball and i'm proud for you i mean uh it's nice to be able to travel and go places when you want and where you want um a couple of things we had i can't remember if it's last week or the week before two kids shot uh one right here in bartow three-year-old i believe um parents gun was was just there um and the kid picked it up and shot himself we cannot be too aware too cautious um when you have kids and guns they just don't understand what they are what they mean what they can do um and and it's just everybody just you can't take a chance with a gun around a kid um another thing is on the on the theme of voting it's election day and i know a lot and it seems to be more of a republican than a democrat thing but there's a lot of republicans that are like you know i'm only going to vote on election day this early voting mail-in voting is just not good or not right the people in brevard county today the people in desoto county today the people in i think some in highlands and i know hardy can't get to the polls because of flooding there's always something that comes up on election day that prevents prevents people from from getting out and voting and it's a shame but it's the reality that they're living with especially over brevard brevard i heard 24 out uh 24 inches of rain in 24 hours i mean it's just it's it's it's crazy uh last thing i want to talk about is the the firefighter paramedic contract um the transition from where they were a few years ago to where they're headed next year um i'm glad we were all part of that uh i think it's the right thing to do i think we've got them going in the right direction i think you know the the the cancer aspect of what they do is is important to recognize and deal with i think the stress of what they do is important to to recognize and deal with um and just as much as the the the ability to enjoy their life with their family um i think is important too but i'm i'm glad we did it um and and if nothing else from an economic factor for the county because if we don't do these things we are not going to have the personnel available the you guys on social media and magazines and now television they're advertising for firefighters everywhere and i mean it's getting really competitive so we have to stay competitive and that's one way we we did it and i'm glad we did and congratulations martha thank you commissioner scott for the last time thank you madam chair uh just uh to get out and vote theme for sure i sit on the canvassing board for supervisor of elections for volt county and i can tell you the mail-in votes count uh your vote the day of voting counts uh just important to get your voice out there and be heard and the only way you can do that is to get out and vote uh parks follow-up uh county manager beasley i know two weeks ago we had talked about uh us getting out to the walker and the hunt fountain on those concerns both on the fence warranty and on the lighting so if we can just follow up on that to make sure work order wise that that's uh made a priority yes sir uh commissioner scott we did i believe respond to mr abercrombie and uh well i think there was the electrical box there was some some rutting there was some fence uh fabric damage and counties moving to address any and all of that perfect thank you uh and a follow-up on kathleen road update not everyone watches the agenda review so i just want to put this out there for public information that the county will be coming out with the informational flyer with respect to the four lane widening of kathleen road north of duff road so that'll be forthcoming and then uh just i want to know what committee commissioner santiago is going to volunteer for once you get back from your cruise because you know you're going to miss it i won't answer that question we'll leave it open all right you didn't say no that's okay yeah i'm already engaged in a lot of community you know you retire from something but you don't retire from working for your county but thanks again appreciate the service with you appreciate it i just want to say first of all those that have been coming to us for i guess for at least a year a year and a half about animal welfare i just want you to know that your your words and your comments have not fallen on death here it's like commissioner scott said it takes a while to um to change or to move towards a change but we've seen a lot that has happened from the beginning that you started coming to us and sharing with us until now and there's more to be done so i'm very confident that we will continue moving in the right direction with this so take heart of that i i'm just overwhelmed with the recognition i want to thank my fellow commissioners again for for just being by my side and working together i couldn't ask for a better board to work with these issues that we face every single day in the county like i said in my speech i love polk county i will continue working for polk county as a private citizen and i look forward to seeing all the good things that will happen in our county because of the good people that we have on board so thank you so very very much and with that being said we are adjourned