Board of County Commissioners on 2026-03-24 9:30 AM - Mar 24, 2026

to the March 24th BOCC meeting. The clock in the room is five minutes slow, so we're going to follow the real time. We may need a battery. We'll put it in the budget and make sure that it's fixed for the next meeting. Noted. Noted. This morning we're going to start with the Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance with Robert Bradley, Bread of Life Christian Church. Pastor, thank you for being here. Let us pray. Returned by our Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for the gift that it is. Our life, our health, and our strength. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the reason whereby we're here today for this meeting of this Board of Commissioners. As they set their hands and their hearts toward the betterment of this county, we ask your blessings upon them that their decisions be guided by your spirit, that their hearts and their minds be guided by your spirit, and that the decisions that are made today be all for the betterment of the county and for your glory. We pray also for the employees of this county that daily work out the plan of this Board. Heavenly Father, we are moving right now in a season in this country where we're experiencing turbulence in this country, and God, we're asking for your steady and calm hand to guide us through it. We pray for your divine protection over our men and women that are in the armed forces that are on the front lines of war. And so, God, we ask you, Lord God, that you just continue to be with them, guide them, strengthen them, be with us, guide us, strengthen us as a county, as a state, and as a nation. Our lives are in your hands for us to use us for your glory and for your honor. We ask your blessings upon all that we do today. In Jesus' name, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's the sound of winning. It is the sound of winning. I forgot to tell you to silence your cell phones, and I forgot to silence mine, so please do so as we speak. We are going to start today with a resounding congratulations to the Lake Mary High School women's soccer team. They are the state champions. Chairman Lockhart is going to read that, and before she does, I just want to say from this seminal and greyhound bomb, go Rams. Commissioner Herr gave me a promotion. I am still the vice chairman, just for the record. Did I call you chairman? Yeah, that's okay, though. Some days. We're so glad that you all are here with us today. It is truly an honor for us as the Board of County Commissioners to be able to continually recognize student athletes in our community who excel. It's just really exciting and thrilling, and as a former school board member and a Lake Mary Ram former mom, I am really honored to be able to read this proclamation this morning. So I move the following resolution, Commissioners of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners, recognizing the 25-26 Lake Mary High School girls soccer team as FHSAA Class 7A state champions, whereas Seminole County proudly recognizes the outstanding achievements of its student-athletes and the positive representation they bring to the community through excellence and competition, and whereas the Lake Mary High School Rams girls soccer team achieved a historic milestone by winning the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 7A state soccer championship in 2026, marking back-to-back state titles, and whereas the Rams secured their championship in a thrilling contest against Cypress Bay, winning by a final score of 4-3 in a dramatic match decided by penalty kicks, and whereas the Lake Mary High School soccer team overcame adversity and demonstrated resilience, determination, and composure under pressure, exemplifying the highest ideals of sportsmanship, teamwork, and competitive spirit, and whereas the team's success reflects the leadership of head coach Christian Isley, whose commitment to excellence, character development, and community pride has played a pivotal role in the program's historic achievement, and whereas the championship reflects the dedication of the coaching staff, student-athletes, families, school administrators, and supporters whose collective efforts contributed to this remarkable season, and whereas this remarkable achievement has brought significant recognition to Seminole County and serves as an inspiration to young athletes throughout the community to pursue excellence, both on and off the field, and is worthy of special recognition and commendation. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby congratulate the Lake Mary High School girls soccer team for winning the 25-26 FHSAA Class 7A state championship, and extend sincere congratulations to the players, coaches, families, and supporters for their historic accomplishment. Adopted this 24th day of March 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. Commissioners, all those in favor? Aye. Hearing no, no in opposition. Congratulations, ladies. We are proud of you. If there's anyone from the, either the team or the coaches that would like to say a word, we would love to have you do that. You can take the podium, and I'd also like to recognize Board Member Abby Sanchez, who celebrates literally everything that happens good at Seminole County Public Schools, and we are delighted to have her here. Anyone? You don't have to. That's good. We get a better shot of that baby. Bring your latest recruit. Yes. Yes. Well, yeah, thank you for having us. It's obviously a very special achievement that these girls have had, and I think for me, it's very special to be a coach in this county, so I'm very grateful for that, and just watching these girls grow as players and human beings has been really special, and how they impact the community and the people around them. Care about each other is what sports is all about, so I'm very proud, not only for the accomplishments on the field, but certainly for how they carry themselves and represent the school and the county and this program, so hopefully we can continue doing that for years to come, so appreciate you having us. Thank you. Thank you. We have a second proclamation to read, and then we'll come down and do pictures all at once. This one is a proclamation proclaiming April 2026 Water Conservation Month in Seminole County, and it will be read by Commissioner Constantine. Thank you, Madam Chair. Since we are winning everything, it must be in the water, so let's conserve it. I move the proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming April 2026 Water Conservation Month in Seminole County, whereas water is basic and essential need of every living creature, and whereas the state of Florida, the water management districts, and Seminole County are working together to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation, and whereas Seminole County and the state of Florida have designated April, typically a dry month when water demands are most acute, Florida's Water Conservation Month, to educate citizens about how they can save Florida's precious water reserves, and whereas Seminole County has always encouraged and supported water conservation through educational programs and special events, and whereas every business, industry, school, and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water, thereby promoting a healthy economy and community, and whereas outdoor irrigation comprises a large portion of the water water use, and Seminole County will encourage citizens and businesses to focus on improving outdoor irrigation efficiency in support of water conservation efforts. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Water Conservation Month in Seminole County. Second. We have a motion and a second, Commissioners. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Let's head down to the floor for pictures. Thank you. Please do. Madam Chair, Commissioners, I'm Deirdre Irwin, the Water Conservation Coordination for the Central Florida Water Initiative with the St. Johns River Water Management District. That's a very long title. I would like to thank you today for passing this proclamation. We are in our 28th year of having water conservation proclamations in Florida. We've partnered with the American Water Works Association to put emphasis at this time of the year in the importance of water conservation. This year in particular, we're considering the drought conditions that we're dealing with. So I really appreciate your efforts today and hopefully your constituents will follow suit and save water. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Includes the constituents in Heathrow. You're all thinking it, so I just thought I'd say it out loud. Northwest. We refer to it as the northwest corner of the county. Next up on the agenda is Scott McIntyre, who will do our county investment report, which will sound a lot like the last few months, as Commissioner Zimbauer has pointed out. Scott is appearing with us virtually today. Scott? Good morning. I'll keep it brief because you guys are right. Things have pretty much looked the same. Job growth has slowed. Inflation has picked up. And obviously right now we're talking about, I'm sorry, advanced slide. Yes. And then one more slide after this. The Middle East is really driving things at this point in time. And most of the data that we're getting is suddenly very, very stale. Just kind of to set the picket, if you will, economic growth according to GDP was 0.7% in the fourth quarter. So it sort of started out with a little less momentum going into the new year. Next slide, please. This is non-farm payroll growth. So we got a really bad number in February. Five of the last nine months have been negative payroll growth. A lot of that has to do with technology. A lot of that has to do with AI. A lot of that has to do with uncertainty. Overall, we don't need quite as many workers. But the Fed is certainly a little bit concerned about the labor market at this point. Normally they might be in a position where they could cut. That's what we expected when the year began. But obviously what's going on in the Middle East is at least temporarily tied the Fed's hands. So next slide, please. This is inflation. It's the same story here. Inflation had been moving lower. We had core CPI at the lowest level since March of 2021, the last time we saw core CPI. A lot of that has to do with shelter costs that are coming down. Right now we're in a position where we all understand that elevated oil prices and by extension elevated gasoline prices are going to flow through to the March CPI and the April CPI number. We're going to see them quite a bit higher. Again, the idea that inflation is higher is going to tie the Fed's hands for now. So we don't expect the Fed is going to cut. The earliest expected is at the end of July and the market doesn't expect that the Fed is going to even be able to cut this year. So this is all in a state of constant flux. So, you know, we take that with a grain of salt. Next slide, please. This is the two-year Treasury note yield. I show this to you guys every time. It goes back one year. You can see that the yield on the two-year Treasury note has climbed significantly during the month of March. For a while, we've been in a pretty narrow trading range. This is shooting higher with the expectation, again, that the Fed is not going to be able to cut. It also reflects inflation expectations, which have soared recently as a result of oil prices. Next slide, please. This is where yields are, obviously. You can see that they're sharply higher since the last meeting and for reasons that I've already mentioned. The pool rates, which is where most of your liquidity sits at this point, are stable. They will be stable because the Fed is not expected to cut, nor are they expected to raise rates. So where your liquidity is, we no longer expect that that's going to fall over the course of the next six months. Next slide, please. So upcoming maturity has got a couple of them in April. Not a whole lot. 20-odd million is coming due. Recent transactions, a couple of palm terms, which in essence are locked in longer pool yields, locked in at $365 and $379. The recommendation at this time is that the county is fully invested. This is a time when some money is being used, and this is a time when there wasn't a whole lot of securities positioned. That is going to change in the coming months, but as of this point in time, we do not recommend that the county make any purchases during the month of March. If anything, this allows for additional liquidity. Next slide, please. We'll come back to this, but as of the 28th of February, the average yield was just under 4%. For March, it's going to be just under 4%. It may be that the spending out of those liquidity buckets pushes the yield up just a little bit toward 4%. Next slide, please. And that $399 compares well to the benchmarks that the county uses. And if we can go back a couple of slides to the recommendation or the lack of recommendation, as it were, and I'll ask one of you to read the motion. Move a motion to implement the recommendation of our financial advisor based on the current submitted report today and recommend the clerk implement the board's recommendations. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Thank you, Scott. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you for being here, Scott. Thank you all. Have a good morning. All right. We've come to the portion of the agenda that is the consent agenda. If you have any intentions on speaking on the consent agenda, I would ask that you turn in a speaker's form to Mr. Koontz, who is sitting up here in the front. And with that, I'll ask the county manager, are there any additions, deletions, or modifications? Thank you, Madam Chairman and Commissioners. Actually, a couple changes. I would like to poll for discussions item 19 and 20. These are the arts funding agreements that the board has discussed recently. There has been some discussion regarding the budget for this, so I just want to ensure that everyone is on the same page and the budget has not changed since you adopted the budget. And I'd like to have our Director of Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Gee Cunia, present that. If you want to do it after the consent, I'll leave that up to you, Madam Chairman. Also, just one other, just to remind the board that we did have an add-on to the agenda, and that is item 24A. And that is a good news item with a 434 and Ronald Reagan DOT project that they are advancing on our request. So that is included in the consent agenda as well. And that's it. Thank you. I do think we'll do the consent agenda first. Do we have any speaker forms? No forms. We have no speaker forms, so we get to skip the reading of the directions for public speaking. And I know that does disappoint you every time we do that. With that, I'll look for a motion. I would have something to pull. Oh, I'm sorry. Commissioners, do you have anything to pull? I'd like to pull 22. All right. Anything else? All right. So that takes us to item 4, 5 through 18, 21 through 24A, and I believe 25 and 26. Commissioners, I'll look for a motion. I'll try to pull this off. I'll move a motion to approve. Item 4 on the constitutional officer's consent, 5 through 18, and 21 through 26, less 23. 22. 22, I'm sorry. Less 22. 23 through 26, including 24A, which was a walk-on. 21 through 20, yes, 23. You got it. The way you said it, yep. 22, yes. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. County manager, we'll go to item 19 and 20 if you want to do that combined. Yes, thank you, Madam Chairman. I'll have, again, Mr. Guy Cunha from our Economic Development and Tourism Office just explain that the budget has not changed. Good morning, commissioners. For the record, Guy Cunha, Director of Economic Development and Tourism for Seminole County. This is our one slide just to recap going back to the arts presentation on January 27th. This slide here on the table shows that the approved budget for fiscal year 2026 for the arts program is $148,881.60. That is the combined $74,440.80 for Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and the Seminole Cultural Arts Council of $74,440.80. So the entire arts program, that total budget listed below. After the BCC meeting on January 27th, the Wayne Dench Performing Arts Agreement has a scope solely for operations at $50,000 with a term that ends on September 30th, 2026. That is item 19 on your agenda. And then item 20 on your agenda is the Seminole County, Seminole Cultural Arts Council. My apologies on that. $50,000 for operations. And $48,881.60 for arts grant program. And that term also ends September 30th, 2026. So the grand total for the arts program in the Seminole County budget does not change from the previous meeting. It is still the total $148,881.60. In the agreements that you do have in front of you, the arts grant program, that $48,881.60, those funds cannot be used for salaries. I want to make sure we state that on the record. These agreements have gone through updates for administrative purposes solely. We have not changed the core understanding of the agreement. When we did the updates, as we see from the last five years, these agreements have changed hands a couple of different times. So the intent of the upgrades and updates are for transparency purposes and do not change the scope, term, or funding that was agreed upon on January 27th, 2026. Anything to add? That's it? No. Yes. Thank you. Commissioners, any discussion? Yes. I just want to say thank you so much for being the tip of the spear. Whoever the county employee is who draws the straw to manage various contracts is usually the person who winds up getting beat up from both sides. And so I want to thank you publicly for your willingness to dig in and really make sure that this is set up for success for both of our organizations. I do want to say that because we have changed the way that we have distributed these grant funds many, many times over the years, personally, speaking for myself, not for the board, I'm looking at this from a year-to-year basis and seeing how this year goes. We get to choose who we want to partner with even though we're using other people's money. This is taxpayer dollars. And when we entrust a private organization to disperse those for us, we're doing it on behalf of the citizens of Seminole County. So I will be on this like white on rice. This is very important to me. The arts are very important to me. And I want to make sure that the funds are being spent in the way that we are supporting as many organizations and artists as possible in this community. So we're looking for great partnership. Commissioner Zimbauer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I sincerely appreciate the additional transparency terms and conditions and reporting that's in this contract. I will, however, say, as you know, I've requested all contracts through this division to be supplied to my office. And I've reviewed each and every one of those contracts. And I will say none of them have the oversight. Most men don't notice the details. Yeah, we usually don't. However, many of those contracts do not have the kind of oversight that is now in this contract. And as many of you know, I'm a big advocate of equal treatment under the law. So I would be looking for our staff, if this is the new road we're venturing down, that we certainly consider all the contracts start to resemble what we've now brought forth in this contract. So every contract is at least treated equally and fairly for those taxpayers' dollars for these type of scenarios. So that would be my request. Is that clear? Yes, ma'am. And Commissioner Zimbauer and I have discussed this. It must, it must, you must have. So I'm going to ask for a little more. I need to be part of the discussion for all of us. Are you referring to contracts with regard to grants, contracts with regard to? With our economic, it's handled through our economic development team. All through economic development. Correct. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I just thought we should get that out on the record. Yes, absolutely. All right. Any other discussion? I, I, Commissioner, Commissioner, no? Go ahead. It's a yes or a no? It's a no? No. All right. I would just say that as we close this out that we, we had a really healthy discussion about this a month or two ago. And there was a lot of very clear direction given. And I think when Commissioner Lockhart says that she's going to be paying attention, I think we're all going to be paying attention. And I think it's around following the direction of making sure that, quite frankly, from my perspective, the ratio of things that benefit the community makes sense compared to the expense associated with the organization, simply not defendable in the way it was presented the last time. So with that, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Aye. I make a motion to approve 19 and 20. Second. I'm sorry. Hold on a minute. I'll second the motion for approval of 19 and 20. All right. There's a motion to approve 19 and 20. And there's a second by Commissioner Dilawri. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. All right. I think that brings us to item 22. Commissioner Lockhart? Well, I'm going to bring this up as another good news item. I just wanted to draw to everyone's attention. This is the proportionate cost share of SunRail for the Central Florida funding partners. And I want to – this is the projected. So the SunRail – the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission – that's a mouthful, too. The SunRail Board has not yet adopted the budget for the upcoming year. And this is coming to each of the funding partners as the tentative budget. And I just wanted to thank Tanya Lurie, who has joined us recently, who has an incredible historic knowledge of SunRail and has been working on our behalf with our partners at FDOT and with the other funding partners. The amazing – you know, we saw an increase last year in our – but in the overall budget and in Seminole County's share. And this year, through a lot of good work and some good conversation, and I will give Tanya the credit for figuring this out for us, this is coming to the region at essentially a net neutral and no-cost increase. And Seminole County's portion for next year is actually decreasing $260,656. So a decrease of 2.25%. That's remarkable. In a time when everything is going up, not to say that we won't see increases in the future as needs develop and evolve, but I just want to give a huge shout out to everyone who made that happen for our community and for our budget. We appreciate that. I'll give a shout out to Darren for finding Tanya. Yes. Wonderful. Thank you. Great work. We appreciate all of you. With that, any further discussion? I make a motion to approve item 22. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you. So that takes us to our work session, Utilities Master Plan Final with the Holistic Water Policy. Yay. We have Johnny Edwards, Utility Director, and Kim Orenberg, Environmental Services Director. Maybe we don't have Kim. She's coming. Oh, there she is. Sorry about that, Kim. Take it away. Right. Good morning. We've been waiting for this for a really long time. All right. The anticipation. So good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. We appreciate the opportunity to present today. I'm Johnny Edwards, the County Utilities Director. Presenting with me will be Keeley Carlton, the County's Water Policy Program Manager. And as you mentioned, this is our sixth and final planned presentation related to the Utilities Master Plan. But today we wanted to include an update for the Holistic Water Policy. That's the County's innovative policy created based on the Board's vision to have County departments looking at water as a precious resource from all perspectives, not just utilities. And you may also recognize Steve Riley from Jacobs Engineering, who was certainly the brain behind the Master Plan and very integral part of creation of the Holistic Water Policy available today to answer questions if needed. So our agenda briefly, I'll talk about the purpose. Keeley will address the Holistic Water Policy background and update the Board on its implementation. Then I will talk about the Utilities Master Plan, looking at previous work sessions, the contents of the Master Plan, and touch on a few highlights before we talk about next steps and requested BCC action. So the purpose today, we wanted again to provide the Board with an update on the implementation of the Holistic Water Policy, review some highlights of the Utilities Master Plan, and then request BCC approval of the Holistic Water Policy and the Utilities Master Plan. And with that, I will turn it over to Keeley. All right, so good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners. I'm Keeley Carlton. I'm the Water Policy Program Manager here at Seminole County. Just to start off, I would like to, you know, thank you, the Board for your continued support on our water resources in Seminole County. Today, we've already emphasized the importance of conservation of our water resources with a proclamation, and now we're here to stand to give a presentation on the long-term strategies to protect the source and ensure our community's water-related needs are met into the future. In August of 2024, our team was here to present the Holistic Water Policy Plan to the Board. This plan is a key strategic priority of the county. It outlines solutions to water resource challenges by protecting limited water resources, enhancing our natural systems, and advancing community engagement by shifting perspectives on water management and viewing all water as one water. I do want to point out, though, that there are many one water movements across the nation providing guidance on the collective management of water resources. However, in Seminole County, we've coined our own approach as the Holistic Water Policy. So, what this means is there's roughly 40 projects, programs, or policies that intersect with many of our county departments, outside agencies, as well as our community, to provide a successful outcome. So, on this slide, you'll see the five main goals that make up the Holistic Water Policy. Those are enhanced water conservation, develop alternative water supplies, enhance watershed management, mitigate septic tank impacts, and implement water utility projects and programs. So, it's under each of these goals that there are specific concepts that are going to guide the implementation of this robust plan. So, kind of looking back, the idea of this policy began around 2021, 2022, and then we brought forward the plan to the board and with Jacobs and county staff in August of 2024. And then, moving into 2025, there are various foundational programs that have been kicked off, such as the expansion of our water conservation program, the start of an internal water audit program, and the successful launch of the septic upgrade incentive program that I believe you guys heard in the last session of the master plan. And so, also to kind of recap the previous presentation and from 2024, we made mention that stakeholder engagement was going to be one of our first assignments. At the direction and feedback of the board during that meeting, we also noted additional stakeholders to add to the list, to look at including these concepts probably into the comprehensive plan, the need for a financial roadmap, and then also to treat this plan as a living document and to keep it updated as we learn. So, relationship building both internally and externally has been a priority focus since its kickoff. Before us is a list of stakeholders that we have engaged. The form of engagement has been group meetings, one-on-ones, emails, presentations at workshops, and just organic conversations at collaborative events. So, they haven't just been a one-size-fits-all. We've been out there talking about this to everyone that wants to listen and even if they don't. So, the feedback has been positive, though, and there has been relationships and ideas that have grown from each conversation, which is probably one of the most exciting parts of this process. Stakeholder engagement will continue to be a staple of the program and it's going to be ongoing forever. Next, I don't know if I pressed it too many times or if I'm, okay. So, now for the fun part, we're going to move into the implementation highlights beginning with the enhanced water conservation goal. Our water supply in Seminole County is received from the Florida and Aquifer System. As we know, this is a valuable groundwater source throughout the state. Water conservation of our current water supply can offset the time that we will need a new costly source. Water conservation of our water supply is very important. Roughly 50 percent of drinking water goes to lawns and landscapes across the state of Florida. So, our team has been dedicated to increasing the awareness of long-standing efforts that the county has already been doing, such as our water conservation ordinance. This includes our watering irrigation guidelines and then also the enhancement of our irrigation evaluation program. Also, we have expanded our rebate incentive program for our Seminole County utility customers and this includes our HOAs. So, we actually have had high water user HOAs come to us and request assistance for upgrading their irrigation systems and we've done a pilot program. So, stay tuned on how that worked out, but that was kind of a little exciting tip that HOAs are actually now wanting to engage with us on these things. We've begun strengthening relationships internally with all of the departments across the county, our cities, and our water management district. We also have worked to expand our outreach and education footprint by opening the gates to our water and wastewater treatment facilities to a lot more groups and also stepping in front of classrooms from elementary to college. And there's so much more I could go on and on, but we're not going to do that. This slide, this one's kind of cool. So, if you like data and are a nerd, water nerd like I am. So, this slide is showing a graphic of a resident's water use. It was determined that this resident was a high water user through our H2O software. They were offered an irrigation evaluation. So, that means we actually reached out to them and let them know like, hey, you're probably using a little bit more water than your neighbors or than you should and we can reduce your consumption. We can reduce your bill. They participated. So, if you can see on this graph, they're using upward 750 gallons a day. So, the one marker that you see right there with the number one on it, this is that when the intervention occurred, we sent out a contractor. They performed the irrigation evaluation. You can see their consumption dropped to well below 250 gallons a day. So, that is a success. This program alone in FY25 saved us around 56 million gallons over the span of the year. So, we intend to hit this one pretty heavy moving forward because it is successful and people love it. Next, the next goal is our mitigate septic tank impact highlight. As I stated before, we successfully launched our septic upgrade incentive program and since this slide was created, we have had more applications come in. We are now up to about 40 applications in total and the majority of those are in progress. The ones that didn't qualify were not in the priority focus area of the Waukiwa Springs, which is currently the area of focus for this incentive as part of meeting state requirements of nitrogen reduction within the sensitive regions of the state. And then moving on to our enhanced watershed management goal. This goal focuses on the management of stormwater, mitigation of flooding, and the preservation of our natural areas. There are various departments that obviously touch this goal, but however, our watershed management division has been actively enhancing education restoration efforts through our serve program. working on new content for the Fertilize Florida campaign, which is now live, coordinating with internal departments. They have also kicked off the beginning stages of a water quality master plan, and they've also added additional MSBU Lakes to the program. So, very successful teamwork over there as well. And then these next two goals are develop alternative water supplies and implement water utility projects and programs, which are going to be wrapped into the utilities master plan. So, at this time, I'm going to pass it back to Johnny so he can walk us through those steps. But again, I do want to thank the board for your continued support. I want to thank our internal teams because, yes, I am up here presenting this, but it takes a village and our internal teams are just as excited to collaborate on things. And that's actually very exciting to be a part of. And then also our external partners, such as our community members, which I do see Miss Gabby and the audience here. And she's been integral in, you know, walking me through some of this too, because she's a longstanding resident. And so, I really just appreciate the collaborative effort all the way around. So, thank you. Thank you. Kaylee, we appreciate you too. So, back to just looking at the agenda to remind the board where we're at in the program. Now, we're going to talk about the utilities master plan. And I wanted to start off... Johnny, did you feel we needed to be reminded? History is any indication of future performance. I'll move through this as expeditiously as possible. So, I wanted to start off with reminding the board about the previous work sessions that we've had in the series to talk about demand projections, water supply and conservation, our treatment plants and transmission mains. Last year, we took a pretty detailed look at a few of our specific assets. And then in January, we ran through the capital improvements plan work session. I wanted to take a kind of a guided tour through the contents of the master plan. And with any 500 page document, an executive summary up front is greatly appreciated. So, that's there. The first chapter is an introduction, talking about the objectives of the master plan and the background of the utility. Chapter two takes a deeper dive, looking at the demands, how they're calculated both for potable water and reclaimed water and the wastewater flows that we anticipate needing to manage. Looking at seasonal trends, daily, hourly trends, not only where we have these demands, but when and how much is needed. So, chapter three builds on those demands and answers the questions of what is needed to meet those demands. What are the the pumps, the tanks, the pipes, the processes, the engineered physical assets that we need to meet the demands and the applicable standards. Chapter four is a very in-depth regulatory review that touches on our consumptive use permit. This is a permit issued by the St. Johns River Water Management District that limits how much we can pump out of the aquifer or surface water bodies. It talks about our drinking water requirements, wastewater treatment. What do we need to do to comply with state standards in treating wastewater to send it out as reclaimed irrigation water? Several other regulations, both federal and state, we have emergency response plans. Recently completed an assessment based on the federal lead and copper rule to make sure that the country doesn't have another occurrence like Flint, Michigan years ago. And we did a risk and resiliency assessment to evaluate what are the threats, natural, technological, and other man-made threats and dangers to make sure that we are protecting our assets, our services, staff, and our customers. Chapters five through seven look at potable water or drinking water in a few different perspectives. Five looks at the water sources. How much water is out there? Where do we get it? And what might that look like in the future? It also discusses the Central Florida Water Initiatives. And this is a coalition that has been meeting for years consisting of state agencies, Central Florida utilities, environmental groups, and other stakeholders talking about management of water in Central Florida. And we know CFWI has implemented rules that will further limit our consumptive use permit. Chapter six looks at water treatment. We have five potable water treatment plants. It talks about those plants in detail. It also talks about our Yankee Lake surface water treatment plant, which is used to treat surface water to reclaim, to augment our reclaimed irrigation system. Lastly, in chapter seven, we look at our water distribution system. We have four service areas that are connected to our water treatment plants and several connect consecutive systems that are connected to water treatment plants from our partnering utilities, other utilities in Central Florida. Chapters eight and nine, we take a very in-depth look at wastewater treatment. We have two water reclamation facilities or wastewater plants in the northern part of the county. There's a detailed discussion of biosolids. This is the sludge, the leftovers from the wastewater treatment process, which we send to the county landfill for disposal. And we receive leachate from the county landfill in exchange. So there's a nice symbiosis going on there. There's a brief discussion of a potential future septage receiving facility at the Yankee Lake plant. And as you know, in the in the southern part of the county, we have partnering facilities where we send our collected wastewater treatment to their treatment plants. Chapter nine looks at the collection system, talking about our infrastructure assets, our hydraulic models that are used to design the pipes and pump stations are inspection and maintenance programs used to make sure that those pipes and pumps are in good working order and you know to meet state requirements to minimize the potential of a sewage spill and overflow in our area. Finally, there's a brief discussion on septic tanks throughout the county. Chapter 10, reclaimed water. How much is out there? What is available to us? How do we distribute reclaimed water throughout the county for irrigation and what are the costs and benefits of expanding that system? Chapter 11 looks closer at forecasting of needs through renewal and replacement of our assets to make sure that our systems remain in good working order. While there's some built-in redundant systems within our utility, we want to avoid run to fail because we think our services are too important to fail. So not only preventive maintenance but appropriately timed renewal and replacement reduces the potential for service disruption. Finally, chapter 12 is the capital improvement plans which I see as the sum total of all the preceding chapters and these are the capital maintenance R&R programs as well as the future projects needed to keep pace with future demands in our system and meet challenges of the future. Growth leading to more demand, changing regulations, changing environment, and we want to keep evaluating those changes for cost-effectiveness. So that's a quick look through the chapters of the master plan, but I want to touch on some highlights, some themes throughout the master plan that I think are important to note. First of all, coordination. We coordinate with all the county departments and delivery of the services that we provide. I just mentioned a handful of them here. Environmental services from the holistic water policy as you see today to conservation to septic tanks and in a few weeks the citizens academy. We work closely with environmental services. Public works, we want to know each other's projects and plans for the future so that we can dig once for efficiency and minimization of area disruption. Development services, we have an engineer and development review committee meetings making sure that we're in touch with new development. We're reviewing proposed new developments and we confer with development services about future growth. Fire department, Fire Chief Kinley tells me he likes water. And the fire hydrants and the sprinklers system. So utility zones and maintains the public fire hydrants in our service area. We help evaluate fire flow and if we have a main break or other cause affecting a hydrant, we inform the fire department promptly. Other utilities, I'm sorry, information technology. We have the SCADA system that we manage. This is a remote control system for monitoring and controlling our facilities. So we manage that and IT manages the communication network and we want to coordinate, we do coordinate on updates and projects that improve that infrastructure and cyber security for our systems. Other utilities, we have interlocal agreements with pretty much all the utilities in Seminole County as well as Orlando, Orange County and Snokwada. We're working currently to update all of those agreements. Other plans and documents, there are five pages of reference materials within the master plan. Can't put it all in the 500 page document but there are a lot of other moving parts and studies that feed into the master plan. We often coordinate with regulatory agencies, notably the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the St. John's River Water Management District. Lastly, I wanted to talk about coordinating with program management. For us, program management is a team of consultants from CHA and Jacobs that work side by side with us on a daily basis on a wide variety of tasks. And I just want to name a few of the tasks here. They've helped us strengthen our regulatory compliance assurance with respect to capital projects. They've helped senior project managers help mentor some of our younger project managers and they help support all of our project managers, frankly. They've also developed detailed project worksheets and schedules to help keep us on track and on budget. They've provided updates to our engineering manual and given technical support when we review designs for our projects as well as reviewing projects proposed by developers. We're launching utility-wide key performance indicators. This year, we're going to participate in the American Water Works Association Benchmarking Consortium, so that'll help us compare metrics against other Central Florida utilities. Finally, we have over 350 pump stations on our system. Program management has helped us prioritize the R&R. If one of those stations goes down for any period of time, we could have a sewage spill and overflow. So it's important that we make sure these pump stations are in good working order. And we know that these results, just listing a few here, would not be possible without the support of program management, the county manager, and the board. I wanted to touch on water supply. Seems like a theme for today with respect to conservation. We use words like growth, demand, and regulations to answer questions like, are we running out of water? It's kind of hard to say sitting on a peninsula marked with lakes and rivers that we're running out of water. But the plan helps explain that the more we use, the more difficult it is and the more expensive it is to meet drinking water standards. Most of our wells are screened in the upper Florida aquifer. That is the cleanest water that we have available to us. And I don't want to turn this into science class, but you know, the Central Florida Water Initiative has already told us that we're pumping enough. Too much, frankly, from the upper Florida aquifer. So a line in the sand has been drawn from 2025. We can't increase beyond what we pumped in 2025. And the water management district would actually tell us we need to roll the clocks back a little bit to avoid environmental problems with lakes, rivers, and streams and wetlands. So we look at alternate water supplies like the lower Florida aquifer or surface water sources. And the bottom line on that is that they are more expensive, significantly more expensive to develop those sources than to stay in the upper Florida aquifer. And this is why conservation is so important. One of the reasons, frankly, that it is much more cost effective to conserve than it is to develop these alternate water supplies. Environmental protection wastewater systems for us, wastewater treatment provides a couple functions. One, it provides more reclaimed water that we can use for irrigation instead of potable water. And two, it helps make sure that the wastewater doesn't get into the environment uncontrolled and risking harm to the environment. Lastly, being a public utility, everything we do is in service to our customers. We work hard to consistently provide high quality services. R&R programs are, frankly, one of the pillars of success that we see is providing quality service without interruption. Another pillar is making sure that our staff has the proper training, certification, and licensors. And where appropriate, we use qualified contractors for services for our customers and to help make sure that we are good stewards of another resource that is limited and that is public funds. We want to strive to be cost effective in everything that we do. So what are the next steps? Conservation plan. Keeley and the water policy group want to continue with conservation plan recommendations of capital conservation projects. Utilities, beyond implementing the Utilities Master Plan, we want to work with a rate consultant to, one, update our capacity fees. The CIP is the foundation for calculating these capacity fees for new connections to water and the wastewater systems. And this is how development pays for development, through those fees. We also want to take a look at our wholesale fees within our local agreement partners to make sure that they're transparent and appropriate. Lastly, we want to update our tier structure to help keep the cost for the lowest tiers low and encourage water conservation. So we talk about this master plan being a living document. It is a 20 year plan. We get new information every day, but we scheduled updates to this plan every five years. CIP projects and funding are timed. And before pulling the trigger on a future project, we want to reevaluate. Our demands keep on par with projections. Is this the most cost effective project at the right time to meet those demands? Have regulations changed, environmental conditions, or are there other considerations? And when we propose our annual budget, we can highlight any changes from this document and the supporting reasons to keep the BCC up to date. So with that, this is our final slide. I want to turn it over to the board for discussion and request approval for staff to implement the holistic water policy and the Seminole County Utilities Master Plan. Thank you. Thank you both. That was exceptionally well done. Exceptionally well done. If you don't mind, Madam Chairman. I would be remiss if I didn't put the exclamation point on this whole year process. When I became the county manager, when you all selected me three years ago, this was one of the top priorities that you had given me is to update our master plan. It hadn't been updated in quite some time. And I really want to commend Johnny Edwards, our director of utilities. He wasn't the director at the time. He just was Mike. He did everything over there, I call him. He stepped up. Christian Swenson, our assistant county manager, supported Johnny a lot through this process. Kim Orenberg and Keely and her team. Jacobs Engineering, I cannot thank them enough. I see DDA Minard in the back, along with Steve Riley. Thank you. They stepped up and partnered with this, as well as with CHA. This was a huge, big effort to go through. As you know, I have told the board and the staff sometimes is that, you know, you ask yourself sometimes what keeps you up at night, you know. This really one that kept me up at night is just because it wasn't complete. And you all had, you're well aware of that, and you put that on my radar right when I got here. So I appreciate that was a gap. And it has been filled. And I am so excited, as well as Mr. Edwards, to present the master plan for adoption today. So thank you. Commissioners, I'll turn it to you. Any comments? I'm ready to move for a motion. So we're in work session right now. We are in work session. Okay. So we don't approve things in a work session. It's not on the agenda as an approval. It's on an agenda for a work session. But we can approve things in work sessions. We've done it before. And we've been told multiple times through multiple attorneys that we can do it. So I'd like a yes from the current attorney that says we can do it. I am fine with you approving this during a work session, yes. It's a noticed item. And I hope we can build a consensus, of course. Madam Chair, I just want to tell you that in the years that I've been here, you know, this has been very, very important, especially the holistic water plan as well as the utility in bringing forth the consumption element, the conservation element. A statistic I read a long, long time ago is that, and I was, you know, you just never think of it. There isn't any more water today than there was at the creation of Earth. It's just where it is and how it is and whether it's salt, whether it's, you know, polluted and everything. And so the point that we have to make, and we did it with the conservation today and everything, and I want to commend page 10, Keeley, that's amazing. Take that back to everybody and, you know, all along the Markham Woods Road that I represent, some others represent, and everybody. Look how much money you can save. We are light years ahead. We really are, from where we started. And Johnny, Keeley, Kim, everybody, Jacobs, I really appreciate it. We went from an observer to a leader in this, and I truly appreciate the fact. I wish we could get everybody on this consumption program because the fact of the matter is that in Florida, we use so much more water than we need to irrigate, so much more fertilizer than we need to irrigate. People come from the north, they think they've got to do what they did in Ohio. Well, they don't. And so to educate and train, this is tremendous, and to combine these two, I think, is amazing. So congratulations to everybody from the county manager on down. And now we have to, as it says, implement. We're at the end of the beginning, and we need to continue on. Any other comments? Yes, Commissioner Lockhart. I was struck at one point on one of your slides, not that this hasn't occurred to me before, but it struck me again, that as we are trying so desperately, and entities of the state are trying desperately to get the message out that water is not plentiful, that's the nicest way of putting it, we have folks in other sections of the state organization agencies that are looking at preempting our ability to be able to conserve and be, what's the word I want to use, good stewards of the resources that we have locally. And our resources here in Seminole and in this region are different than the resources in other parts of the state and the way that we have to protect them and access them is different than in other parts of the state. And so it just struck me that while we are trying so hard to make sure that we are doing the right thing for our communities, that there are folks in other parts of the state and in other parts of the state organization that would seek to preempt our ability to do that. It just, they are at such odds with one another. It is, it's remarkable. And yet not unusual. Any other comments? I think we had a half of a motion. I'm ready, I'm prepared to make a motion. I move to approve staff to implement the Holistic Water Policy in the Seminole County Utilities Master Plan with an annual update in the last meeting in March annually. Meaning an informational update or an update to the plan? Yes. An informational update? My concern is with regulations at the state level that may come in the federal level that we should be aware of those. You know, 10,000 foot view. Not that we need to take action, but just keep us updated. As it was stated, it's a living document. And I think that's important that we understand that because when people look back on this five, ten years from now and say, well, this is what was said in the master plan in 2026, why has it changed? And we can follow that along if we get those annual updates. So that would be my motion, Madam Chair. Is there a second? Second. All right. And I neglected to ask if we have any requests for public comment. No request. Thank you. Any further discussion? Before we move on, I actually do have a few comments. Number one, I would love to see from our public relations department, who is keenly paying attention back there, some success stories with the HOAs that we can share with the other HOAs because that will actually create a win-win-win. I think the consumer won, I think the community won, and I think the HOA wins when the neighbors have lower bills. So it's a rare opportunity to do that. Some of the things in this policy that I thought were just fantastic is the concept of run-to-fail avoidance at all costs. We cannot be there. We cannot be like the communities that have done that. But the coordination among departments is starkly different from when I got here to where it is now, which I think has everything to do with when you got here, not when I got here. I didn't mean to say that like it was me because it wasn't. And dig once is a great example of that. We were digging multiple times all the time before. And then I think the overarching proactive nature of this is stunningly different from where we were before, and that is because of the coordination with all of the consultants and our team and the willingness to dig in and get us there. So with that, I will call for the vote. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Congratulations to everyone who was involved. Thank you. All right. That takes us to our public hearing agenda. I'll look for a motion to accept proof of publication. Move to accept. Second. All those opposed? I mean, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, passes unanimously. Ex parte disclosure? Madam Chair, I have some emails that I'd like to submit. Send that to the clerk. Thank you. Anyone else? I have none. None. I have none. All right. This is the Chapman Road right-of-way vacate, and this will be presented by Annie Silloway, our principal planner, and I will go to Kate Latour to talk to us about how to run this meeting. Thank you, Madam Chair. While the board welcomes comments from all persons with an interest in these proceedings, Florida law requires that the board's decision in quasi-judicial actions be supported by competent, substantial evidence presented to the board during the hearing on the application. Competent, substantial evidence is evidence such as evidence as a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion. There must be a factual basis in the record to support opinion testimony from both expert and non-expert witnesses. Persons presenting testimony may rely on factual information that they present, on information presented by county staff, or on information the applicant presented, or on factual information included in the county staff report to support their testimony. All persons who present written materials to the board for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's record of the proceedings and the official meeting minutes. Madam Chair. Thank you. We'll now hear from Annie Sillaway. Hi. Good morning. For the record, Annie Sillaway with Development Services. The applicant, Shane Heskin, with Eklon Constructors, has petitioned the county to vacate and abandon a portion of Chapman Road located approximately a quarter mile west of State Road 426. The portion of right-of-way subject to this vacate request is located along the south perimeter of Lot 50 and Lot 55, and the north perimeter of Lot 51 and Lot 54 of the Slavia Colony Subdivision, as recorded in Platte Book 2, page 71 of the public records of Seminole County, Florida. The subject right-of-way is 30 feet wide and approximately 1,074 feet in length. If the vacate is approved, 15 feet will be allocated to the north property and 15 feet will be allocated to the south property. However, the owners of Lot 50 and Lot 55 FDOT have decided to sell their vacated portion of the Chapman Road right-of-way to the owner of Lot 51 and 54, LG Development Corporation. As part of the private sale of the right-of-way vacate, FDOT will retain a perpetual easement with LG Development Corporations to ensure continued access to its existing stormwater ponds on Lot 50 and 55. The applicant has provided letters of no objection from all applicable utility companies, and Public Works has no objection to the requested vacate. This request complies with the requirements of vacating a right-of-way under Section 35.184 of the Seminole County Land Development Code and the authority of Sections 336.09 and 336.10 of the Florida State Statutes. Staff requests the Board of County Commissioners adopt the resolution vacating and abandoning a portion of public right-of-way known as Chapman Road in the Slavia Colony Subdivision as recorded in Platte Book 2, page 71 of the public records of Seminole County, Florida. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. Is the applicant here? Yes, they are. And would you like to speak? Is that her? Here's the question. Smart move. Applicant is here for questions. Do we have any requests for public comment? We do not. No request. With that, I will turn it to the Board. Commissioner Dilawri, this is your... Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a quick question. First of all, I support the vacate. The other question I have is on Taft Street. Once we vacate this, I do see, as you clearly noted, that DOT reserves their right after they sell the property to get an easement in perpetuity. I understand that. But I just want to make sure that Taft Street, there's full access to the partial on Taft Street, which is 2050. And you still don't see any issues with that at all? I do not see an issue. Tetra Street will still be accessible. So there's no issue with accessing the property at 250 Taft Street? That's the property we spoke about? To the north, yes. They can still gain access to that property at the north. I just want to make sure of that on the record. That's all. Yes, sir. Well, and for the record, are you referring to Tetra Street or Taft Street? It's Tetra Street. I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. That is throwing me off a little bit. Chairman. Yes, ma'am. I just want to point out, too, that there is two easements being given to the county with this vacate. There will be an access, drainage, and utility easement over the vacated portion of Chapman Road. And there's an additional drainage easement to the south that the property owner is giving to the county, too. So, Commissioner Dilawri, any type of, you know, there will still be county access over that portion, so it shouldn't affect the Tetra Street access. The county access wasn't the issue. The issue is the property owner to the north. I just want to make sure. Because at some point, they could come in for development. I just wanted to make sure that there is full access to their property. We're not removing that access. That's all. Yes, sir. That's part of the criteria when we look at these vacations. I understand that, but it wasn't noted. I just want to make sure. Sure. Absolutely. Commissioner Dilawri, are you prepared to make a motion? Is there any other questions? Madam Chair, I move to approve the adoption of the resolution vacating the abandoned portion of the right-of-way, the public right-of-way, known as Chapman Road in the Slavia Colonial Subdivision, as recorded in Platte Book 2, page 71, and public records from Assembly County and Smith here today. Second. I have a motion of second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. Passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. That takes us to the county attorney report. Thank you, Chairman. I have two quick items for you. I wanted to give the board an update on the litigation regarding Fire Station 11, APM construction versus Seminole County, where APM is the plaintiff and the counter-defendant. And this has been in litigation since 2022 regarding construction defects at Fire Station 11. We've been to mediation twice with this entity and the surety, who is also involved in the litigation. And it was set for trial for June, for this June. And recently, APM has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so I wanted to let you know that. We received the suggestion of bankruptcy filing in the circuit court, which means the county's proceedings against APM, at least in the circuit court, have to stop. We still have a claim against the surety, so that part of the litigation, and there's many pieces to this litigation also, that piece will continue, and we're working with outside counsel to discuss our options with regard to what can happen with APM and the bankruptcy. So we have options. We'll know more later this week. So I just wanted to update the board on that. And then my other item is just wanted to let the board know. I've been asked to serve on the board of directors for Florida Association of County Attorneys, so I will be commencing that role this year. Congratulations. Thank you. And that concludes my report. That's awesome. That's awesome. All right. Top that, county manager. Oh, I can't top that. She's too smart. Just a couple of events, announcements that I would like to just inform the board about. You may, or I'm sure you already know about these. Anyway, but just for the public, first, we're excited to welcome more than 200 elite firefighters from across the country for the All-American Firefighter Challenge and Training Camp. This will take place April 1st through the 4th at Seminole State College. Residents are invited to attend the Free Family Fun Day event on April the 4th. So a lot of competitions. You'll be able to see emergency vehicles displays. So it's going to be a fun day. And I want to thank Seminole State College for partnering with us as well. On April the 3rd, our animal services is partnering with UCF, or they call it the Pups at the Plex. It's with the UCF Softball. And they're going to help pets connect with their forever homes. And then on April the 11th, believe it or not, Red Bug Lake Park will turn 50 years old. And so we will be having a 5K event that day. It's already been announced, and it's publicized. It's going to be a fun family day at Red Bug Lake Park. And then lastly, just want to, I know I sent this to the board, but just want to congratulate Joe LoFasso for being promoted up to our assistant county engineer position. Joe has been doing a tremendous, great, fabulous job for us. So we appreciate you, Joe. So thank you. Good work. Congratulations, Joe. Or condolences, not sure. I hear things are always fabulous in District 2. They actually really are. And the good news is we do not have the emu running wild, unrestrained through the district. I attended the Lake Mary Comfort Inn Airport Grand Opening on March 12th. It was well attended, sponsored by the good folks over at the chamber. And I think it's another asset that has come to bear for our sports complexes and those teams and families that will come to enjoy, you know, our sport outings. Of course, Seminole County State of Real Estate, I attended on March 19th. Commissioner Lockhart was there. I saw Commissioner Constantine there as well for a brief in and out. So it was good to see everybody there that attended. A quick reminder, the chamber legislative update is March 26th for those that will attend. March 28th is the Orlando Halal Eats Food Trucks from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 786 Myrtle Street here in Sanford for those that want to go out and get the food truck events. OEP announcement. National Science Foundation has awarded $45 million in new funding to the Florida semiconductor engine over the next three years. That's great news for the semiconductor industry here in Central Florida region. Of course, down at Neo City is where a lot of those jobs are. But there's a lot of those jobs that people here in Seminole County are part of. So that's great news from an economic development standpoint. Outside of that, that's all I have, Madam Chair. Everything else is great. All right. That takes us to District 3, Commissioner Constantine. You're all forgetting my name today, huh? Okay. Thank you very much. I just wanted to reiterate the fact that since the last meeting, the Regional Planning Council, Central Florida Regional Planning Council, awarded the county and our staff that was here today, Kim Hornberg and others, the Diamond Award. It was at their Diamond Awards in New Smyrna Beach. Commissioner Lockhart and I were there, and it was really a wonderful event, and it's nice to be recognized for something that is so significant in the cleanup of the Little Wekaiva. Also, I did want to mention that the Greater Orlando Sports Commission had a luncheon at the Dr. Phillips on March 20th for bringing in various Olympic events, preliminary Olympic events, before the Los Angeles Olympics in 28. They would be done at the Camping World Stadium, their BMX and skateboarding and flag football, which is becoming really big, and, of course, beach volleyball, which is really big, and also that climbing the wall thing that makes you look like your Spider-Man. But they would all be done at the Camping World Stadium. Many of them would continue to train, and Guy was there also, and we were pushing some events for Seminole County to some groups that were there at our new indoor sports complex, potentially. So it was really nice to have them there. There was a lot of Olympic folks and a lot of Olympians that were there also. So I think we've got a very good shot, pending politics, of course. The Olympics is, if anything, political. So I wish the Sports Commission a great deal of luck. Also, the leadership Seminole board is going to have a joint meeting with the council and the board of directors on tomorrow, 25th? 25th? Yep, tomorrow. Also, Seminole County Uptown Arts Expo at Cranes Roost will be this weekend. Wonderful event coming on the heels of the Winter Park Art Festival. On the 31st, we have another meeting from the statewide council on opioid abatement. That will be at Seminole County Sheriff's Office, but it will also be on teams. And also, I just want to just say that there's a couple of things I don't want to take other people. So on April 11th, there is going to be, as you know, one of the greatest, best events we have every year in the spring is the Spring's Concert. Last year, it moved to Cranes Roost to a great deal of success. It will be there again with the Orlando Philharmonic using the, I believe, the, bless you, the eagles. They're going to be celebrating the songs and the history, lifetime achievement of the eagles. For all those of the Jewish faith, happy Passover, starting at sunset on April 1st. And happy Easter Sunday to all of you. That was awesome. That's it. Commissioner Lockhart. Lots of different things going on. It's spring. It is spring. It's the best time to be out and about, for sure. Tell my sneezing in the mess. I know. I think it's just as much the fires as it is. It's a combination. It's not good. Commissioner Hurd, just a sneeze. It's such a dainty, petite, little sneeze. No one probably hears that we're giving you up. So the leadership, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council Leadership Summit that Commissioner Constantine referenced in New Smyrna Beach, it was a great job. The Planning Council did a fantastic job organizing it, brought in speakers literally from around the world. However, closer to home, yours truly, not from around the world, was able to serve on a panel called Transport the Region, which focused on things that are happening in transportation, like what's coming next in Central Florida. And was honored to serve on that panel with Secretary John Tyler from FDOT and Rusty Roberts, who's with the rail administration in Washington, D.C. And our own John Slott was our moderator. He did an excellent job. We're going to be doing a debrief on the event and figure out. It was such a great – there were so many things that people could grab nuggets on. It was unfortunate that we didn't have more folks from the private sector in the room to really focus on how important it is that those of us in the government group are working together hand-in-hand with the private sector. So I know we're going to be doing more reaching out to have more participation next year for that. I did mention at our budget work session that we toured the Volusia County Medical Examiner Facility. Christian Swenson and Chad Wilski and Patty Rawlings and I went and spent many, many, many hours talking and touring and very impressed with the work that Dr. Fulcher and his team are doing there. I did want to point out, though, in our submissions, we have a letter from Putnam County stating that they support our request to leave District 5. And I feel like I need to reiterate again on the public record, we are not a part of District 5. We are District 24. We never combined with District 5. We do not need permission to leave and stand up our own medical examiner facility. We are our own district. So, you know, whether they were just wanting to make sure that we knew that they were happy that we were leaving or it was kind of like a here's your hat, what's your hurry kind of letter, we are still planning to be in alignment with our current agreement, which is that when the agreement ends in 2029, right now we do not plan on renewing. And as you all know, we are moving forward with the plans of a new medical examiner facility. It was Sumpter. Sumpter. Did I say Putnam? Yes, Sumpter. Sumpter. My apologies to Putnam. Thank you for the clarification, Commissioner. I'm sorry. Sumpter. Because when I read it, I went, huh? Yeah, well, I just, there continues to be this, there's like a cloud of lack of clarity. So I just feel like every time it comes up, I need to add comment. So that's, there's my comment again. Seminole State College had our many campus-wide convocation, college-wide convocation, which is where the entire school shuts down for the day. We bring everyone from the team together and it's a day of learning and looking at the future and plans for the upcoming year and had some great speakers. And one of them was our very own, Adamir Desene, who presented on recycling in Seminole County and how it could be implemented even more efficiently at the college and things that people can do at home and at their workplace. So shout out to Adamir for doing a great job there. Thank you to everyone who pulled off the retreat and budget work session. It's a lot of work. Well done. Good, good things accomplished. We attended the professional, the chamber's professional women's luncheon a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to Highland for sponsoring a table. The room was packed down at the Hilton and the guest speaker was Michelle Mikish from the Central Florida Expressway Authority. She did an absolutely amazing job. If you have never had the chance to get to know Michelle, she is about as genuine and smart and just an amazing executive. And we are fortunate to have her here in this region. The State of Real Estate was a great event at the Lake Mary Event Center. I will say I'm going to pile on Commissioner Constantine because I just think it is remarkable. He has an amazing talent of saying hello to everyone on the way in and saying hello to everyone on the way out. And I turned, I was sitting next to Holly Kroll, the tax collector's wife, was sitting next to me. And we both turned and looked at each other at the same time and we said, that is truly a gift. There's this entire conference going on. And he's just hi-ing and good-bye-ing. And it was amazing. You are a master at these events. So I want to give kudos to everyone on our team who participated in the panel. You represented Seminole County so well, talking about the state of real estate and economic development and development and all of the things that are coming in Seminole County. And there were a couple of questions that I saw a couple of you kind of like, oh, my gosh, I know there are commissioners in the room. Do I really answer this question? Because the moderator actually said, I want you to answer honestly, right off the top of your head. What would you say is the one thing that you would fix in Seminole County? And I was like, ooh, that's, I mean, that's tough. That's putting someone on the spot for sure. And you all did a remarkable job. So congratulations. And we'll also say the five of us received kudos. On the way out, one of the realtors stopped me. I had not met her before. And she said, I just want to tell you I watch you on TV. And I said, oh, no, I'm so sorry. Poor thing. I know. And she said, no, I just, I tell everybody if you just watch the meetings, you will know so much about what is going on in this community. And if you want to be involved and you want to be engaged, you have to watch the commission meetings to see how things really work. And she said, I love watching you all interact together. You get along and work together so well. And so I wanted to share that with you because that could not be said about this board in prior years. And so congratulations to all of us and to our county management team who have worked to help us all work together very well. It's really important. Our community sees it. And it's a good thing. As far as, we talked about the SunRail budget. But links, we'll see how this meeting goes on Thursday. Yeah. The late night additional trains for SunRail are being used very well. We have quite a few additional riders. Channel 13 actually is doing a story on it. Tim and I took the train down to a show Friday night at the Dr. Phillips. Had a great time. We were able to take the train back. Like, it's not the weekends. I know. As soon as I told someone, we got to go down on a show. They were like, but it's not the weekend. Okay. I get it. It's not the weekends yet. I know we want the weekends. But to be able to do that in this community is a really cool thing. And we enjoyed it. And it was, we were not the only people on the train. It was, it was a very busy night. So, um, glad to see that's happening. Of course, you all know we've got the chamber delegation meeting, uh, coming up at the Hilton and Altamont, um, the 26th and the OEP leadership conference, um, on the 27th. And I cannot let today go by without telling you all it is National Cocktail Day. Yesterday was National Puppy Day. That was wonderful. Puppies yesterday. Martinis today. That's all I have. Mr. Glory. Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I'd be remiss if I didn't, uh, congratulate the staff as well as the county manager and his leadership team, as well as yourself, Madam Chair, for putting on a phenomenal retreat, uh, a week or two ago. I thought the leadership there and the information was spot on. And I want to thank everyone, including, uh, everyone that was there that worked hard on it. So, thank you. Uh, at the MPO, we've been working very hard on putting together our report. The staff has. It's not done yet, uh, regarding, uh, traffic calming devices in relationship to first responders. Uh, I know, uh, Chief Kinley's involved in that as well. Once that gets finalized, they'll be more than happy to make sure that everyone gets a copy of it. Uh, it's interesting to hear other elected officials on how their cities or counties are not talking about this at all. And they're willing to put speed tables everywhere. And so, we've had to put a group together, uh, with DOT to take a look at this to understand what it actually does or doesn't do. So, we'll make sure that everyone gets a copy of this as well. Uh, next month is, uh, Child Abuse Awareness Month. So, uh, uh, if you do want to get involved, there'll be pinwheels over by the, uh, Sheriff's Station, as well as the courthouse, as well as Kid's House. And, uh, just want to make sure that everyone's aware of that. And Easter, as one of the commissioners, Constine, talked about, is April 5th. Happy Easter to everyone, because we won't be here. We'll be back after that. That's the end of my report, Madam Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Lockhart? After the State of Real Estate event, one of the Altamont Springs City Commissioners, Commissioner Turney, um, mentioned to me, as he was about to take off on his e-bike, that he was very concerned about the county's, uh, potential conversations relating to, um, putting ordinances in effect that impact the use of e-bikes. Um, he said that he believed that, uh, the city manager, Mr. Martz, was in touch with someone in our organization on that topic. Okay, so he just wanted to express his concern. Um, he thinks that there are, there is some happy medium, there is some middle ground that we should be looking at and not just completely, um, disbanding, uh, outlawing them, or whatever it is that, whatever it is that you all are doing, he won't, he don't want that. Okay. There you go. Having them be safe on that table. Whatever it is that he perceives that we all are doing. Yes, whatever. So let's put that out. Right, right, right. I don't know that we're banning e-bikes before we get through your comments. I'm just saying, I just, I, as soon as you. That's a clarification, Madam Chair, because we have not discussed this publicly or individually. Which is why I wanted to say it so that you all knew that the perception from a colleague is that we are doing something. And I, frankly, wasn't terribly sure I knew what it was we were doing, because I'm not you and, or Frank. Yeah, and if you want, I can just say two things on that. Yes, we have been in conversation, but I have been working with Commissioner Dillard with the MPO, and we haven't, we, and Ms. Latour can back me up on it. We've never talked about banning e-bikes, so. Never. Okay. And Madam Chair, just since the MPO was mentioned, we don't have anything really at this point going on because it's been discussed in Tallahassee. Correct. We're going to see what they're doing in Tallahassee. Right. Okay. They will take lead, and then it'll trickle down. Fantastic. I would just point out that sooner rather than later, with all the things that they are taking lead on, on e-bikes is important because there are close calls every day. Every day. That I witness. It's crazy. It's crazy out there. Not that I'm a fan of banning them, but if you're on the road, you ought to follow the traffic rules on the road, and that's not happening. And I think the big issue, and we'll talk about this at some point, makes it more appropriate, is on our trails. Correct. That's what it is. Also, the sidewalks. Trails, sidewalks, roads, four-way stops, having a conference in the middle of the road. It's crazy. Children driving them. Children. Complaints from the trail all the time. Winter Springs. Terrible. All right. I'm so glad I brought it back. I don't know that I'm that glad you brought it back up, but we do need to, at some point, get this figured out for the community's sake. So, as for District 5, we are continuing to work through the joint planning agreement with the City of Sanford. There have been several milestones that have been missed that our team has reported on, and Sanford's team has reported that we canceled a meeting. So, we are right back where we were, and we need to pull this thing back together. I think we canceled a meeting because there were several milestones that were missed, so we can't keep talking about the same milestones that don't happen. And so, I do think, Darren, we need to re-engage with Mr. Bonaparte. I did let him know that this was going on and that we really need to advance this ball. That's a question. So, in my briefing with staff about that topic, I asked if there would be an opportunity for us to perhaps send a letter or reach out to our counterparts, because it could be that the mayor and the commissioners are not aware that at the staff level things are not progressing. I can speak to it if you'd like me to. Naceb Worker, for the record, so I think the meeting was canceled because we had said at the previous meeting, hey, we are going to meet with all the commissioners individually and determine how we should bring this amendment forth in the time frames, which we've all talked about, and you all have had briefings. And so, that's why the meeting was canceled until we got this answer. So, we have that answer now, and we have the amendment as drafted, and it will be coming to you to extend the JPA. And then you all will have a chance to discuss that. So, that's why it was canceled, because we were having these meetings. So, they'll start back up now that we have, and once we get it on the agenda. As for, and I believe that's been relayed to them. I'm not sure if Dagmarie's followed up, because we just had our last briefing, I think was Friday, I believe. So, that's where we're at in the process. Yes, and Dagmarie and I had a conversation yesterday after she briefed me on all the briefings with you all, and it is scheduled to come back at your next board meeting. So, we will relay that to the city. We just put it on hold until we had your briefings. Thank you. And at the same time, milestones on that side have continued to be put aside for, and we'll bring all of that up at the next time. But from my perspective, I don't know, I'm not feeling like we're getting to where you all think we're going to get with this. But more work to happen on that. Agreed. Yep. So, on the 3rd of March, I moderated a panel of one. This was awkward. I moderated David Johnson in talking about property taxes, which is a task that's really bigger than it should be. But I will give a shout out to Leadership Seminole for putting it on their agenda. I will give a shout out to them for getting a room full that it was at Seminole State in Heathrow in the atrium. It was packed. We were out the door. And it was a very engaged and knowledgeable audience. And David always does a five-star job. So, thank you, David, for continuing to give the reality of that message in the community. A shout out, and this has already been done, but I have to say it, board retreat was very well done. And you all did a fantastic job, and we appreciate how productive that day was. On the 11th, there was a PBS panel discussion on homelessness and affordable housing. It was very well done, and there were a lot of myths that were busted in that room, which I thought was very worthwhile. With regard to opioid abatement, there is a company called Stage Cares. And it's an acronym, C-A-R-E-S. Don't ask me what it stands for. I did meet with them. They had some remarkable ability to measure the results of programs that we're paying for. And I did pass the information on to Stacey Smithwick with Darren's approval to do a meeting with them to at least listen to them. They dashboard all of the results. We all know that I love the dashboard thing. But it's the measurement, and they're measuring against standards. And this is a health care delivery program, and it ought to be measured against evidence-based standards, and that's what they're doing. So just an FYI, it was just wildly interesting. Commissioner Lockhart mentioned National Cocktail Day, and I did have that down. Today is the trifecta. It's National Cocktail Day, National Chocolate-Covered Raisin Day, which we all know that Commissioner Zimbauer will eat anything that's covered in chocolate. And it is National Cheesesteak Day. So just going to say, Pat's and Wit Out, that's what you do if you're doing a cheesesteak today. I'll be in theory this weekend. Not Geno's, that's the new guy, and you've got to get it Wit Out, because that is not real cheese. And a question for Commissioner Lockhart. The only thing that I actually had on my board or chair report was that letter from Sumner County, and my question is, would you like us to respond in some kind way to clarify the record? I don't think it would hurt, and I would copy the medical examiner board, just so that, I mean, thank you. Yep. If the board is agreeable, I think that would be wise. Sure. You know, I think they were really trying to help. I do, too. Yeah. It'll be a nice letter. In their way, they were trying to help. Yeah. That's how I read it as well, was that they're supportive of the mission. Yes, and I will say, their representative to the board has been quite gracious. They had an administrator attend the meeting, one that I did not recognize, who also made a comment at the meeting that something about us separating from District 5. And just the way that it was made, I felt like there's still some misunderstanding. So I just don't think it would hurt to nicely thank them for their support and reiterate that we are District 24 still. All right. Will do. And with that, happy Easter, happy Passover, and I think that's meeting adjourned, unless oh, it's not. Public comment? Well, yeah, public comment. I just want a rebuttal. Consistent for the day. I want a rebuttal? Rebuttal. Rebuttal from the two of you? I want some kill for it for your technology. Yes, I do. I killed it already. I just wanted to say, all kidding aside, if you were a realtor in that room, Guy, Mike, Steve, you did a marvelous job. David Johnson did a great job. And in my hellos and goodbyes, everybody commented and complimented and said, you know, if they were going to live, they live in, most of them lived in Seminole, but if they were going to live somewhere in Florida, it was going to be Seminole County. So, I think our guys did a great job, and as I said, I didn't want to bring up anything that you all were going to do in your own districts, but Madam Chair, tomorrow you have and we all have the midway drainage improvement. We do. And I think that is incredible because we've been working on this for years and years, and I'm looking forward to that groundbreaking ceremony, and being that it's cocktail and Philly cheesesteaks since you're from Philadelphia, today is a great day for you, but also the 28th is going to be a great day because it's two of your favorite things in Sanford, Paws and Paws, or Pints. So, that's going to be on the 28th, Paws and Pints Craft Beer Festival in historic downtown Sanford. Wonderful. And now you have done. We are clearly not in District 5, the best event announcers. We do a lot of other stuff really well, though. All right. I have skipped public comment consistently throughout today's entire meeting. Do we have any public comment to close out the meeting? I have not received any public comment. Let's just act as though I knew that. With that, I shall adjourn the meeting. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.