October 26, 2004

The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, met in regular session on October 26, 2004, at 9:00 a.m. in the Government Center Commission Room, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida. Present were: Chair Nancy Higgs, Commissioners Truman Scarborough, Ron Pritchard, Susan Carlson, and Jackie Colon, County Manager Tom Jenkins, and County Attorney Scott Knox.

The Invocation was given by Reverend Daniel Mix of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Merritt Island, Florida.

Commissioner Susan Carlson led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance.

REPORT, RE: MUSICIANS FROM BREVARD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Chair Higgs requested Commissioner Carlson introduce the musicians who have performed for the Board and audience today. Commissioner Carlson stated Fran Delisle, Executive Director of the Brevard Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will do that.

Fran Delisle advised the musicians are Laura Pinfield and Tom Silliman; Tom is with Southwest Middle School in Palm Bay, and Laura is based out of Melbourne High School; they are both string consultants for the Brevard County School System; and the BSO is proud of the association it has with the School System, which allowed them to come here today to entertain the Board and the public.

Chair Higgs stated they are wonderful. The Board, staff, and audience applauded the performance of Ms. Pinfield and Mr. Silliman.

REPORT, RE: ABATEMENT OF ENFORCEMENT FOR SHORT-TERM RENTALS

Assistant County Manager Peggy Busacca advised on October 27, 2004, the Board confirmed a decision of the Policy Group to abate enforcement of short-term rentals to allow rentals for people who were displaced from their homes or for relief workers; there has been some question as to the expiration date of that; and she is seeking Board direction whether it wants to have it expire or to continue the abatement for a specified time. She stated staff identified that there continues to be a need for short-term rentals in the community.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired if there has been a request for 90 days or six months; with Ms. Busacca responding there has not. Ms. Busacca stated the Board could extend it again if it finds that in 90 days or six months there is still additional need.

Chair Higgs stated it seems apparent to her that homes being repaired would need six months to two years, so six months would be reasonable.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Colon, to continue abatement of enforcement on short-term rentals for six months from today. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

REPORT, RE: JAYCEES HAUNTED HOUSE ON MERRITT ISLAND

Commissioner Pritchard advised the Jaycees have a haunted house on Merritt Island; he was privileged to be there to scare the folks who attended last Friday; and held up a picture for the television cameras of him and a jaycette in costume. He stated he is the one with the chainsaw; they had a great time; it will be open this week also; so anyone who goes by the Jaycees haunted house on Merritt Island, he or she should watch out for the guy with the chainsaw.

REPORT, RE: COMMISSIONER PRITCHARD’S MOTHER ON MOTORCYCLE

Commissioner Pritchard requested the cameras zoom in on a picture of his mother who is 88 years old sitting on his Harley; stated she wanted to drive it but he would not let her; however, he did give her a ride around the block and she kept saying, “go slow dear”. He stated he just wanted to show everyone that even at 88 his mom is still feisty.

REPORT, RE: DUNE RESTORATION SYSTEM

Commissioner Pritchard advised there was an article in the newspaper that talked about dune damage leaving owners with little room to rebuild one of the comments says, “if the people are not allowed to rebuild, the County risks losing millions of dollars of valuable beachside development, which would translate into huge revenue loss”; and that is one thing he brought up at the last meeting when the Board talked about dune stabilization and the importance of maintaining the coastline. He stated if the Board does not do it on the coastline, it will be doing it on SR A1A; Virginia Barker, Interim Director of Natural Resources, is in Tallahassee today meeting with Department of Environmental Protection and Fish and Wildlife; the intent is to look into a system that has been installed in Vero Beach for a while and in few small areas in Brevard County; and the issue is whether or not the Board should allow that type of structure or go to vertical seawalls. Commissioner Pritchard stated his experience with vertical seawalls on the beach is that they take sand from the beach and create more problems; the other system seems to enhance not only preservation but conservation and turtle issues in that turtles nest on top of the dune restoration system; so it seems like a win/win situation. He stated Ms. Barker is in Tallahassee pitching and listening; she is hoping she can encourage Fish and Wildlife to listen to the reality of what the system is as well as what the coastal engineers have to say about it; and he looks forward to Ms. Barker’s report when she returns.

REPORT, RE: ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES ALONG MAJOR CORRIDORS

Chair Higgs advised there was an article in the newspaper about restaurants and a number of businesses that are not operating; and she would like to ask the Board if it could get a report from staff for the next meeting of what it might do to assist small businesses along major corridors that are out of business or struggling to stay in business at this time. She noted people have suggested some things that the County might do for small restaurants that might be helpful; and she would like to have a report from staff to see what the County can do to assist them in getting back on their feet and keeping jobs for residents. She inquired if there were any objections to the report; with the majority of Commissioners responding no.

REPORT, RE: BREVARD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Commissioner Carlson requested additional time for Fran Delisle, Executive Director of Brevard Symphony Orchestra, to talk about its red hot season.

Fran Delisle advised last year she mentioned how wonderful it is because where she goes she has accompaniment; last season the Brevard Symphony Orchestra (BSO) celebrated its 50th anniversary; and during that season, they had amazing concerts and very successful events. She stated it also gave them time and opportunity to recognize and thank all the people who were instrumental in making sure that the BSO is a success after 50 years; and they had a great time recognizing everyone. She stated the Board was among the people they recognized in helping to make sure the BSO is still here; they are proud that they are a true Cuntywide organization with over 500 volunteers, board members, and musicians who represent the entire County; and as an orchestra and residents, they work closely with the King Center and all the arts groups and businesses, corporations, and individuals. Ms. Delisle stated at least once a week she hears about a symphony orchestra somewhere in the United States that is heavily in debt or had to close its doors; so everyone can be proud that Brevard County is able to sustain a professional symphony orchestra; and it is with the Board’s help they are able to do that. She stated Friday she will be defending her County cultural grant to the panel and appreciates the opportunity to submit an application and defend that grant; and they appreciate the support the Board gives the BSO and all arts groups in Brevard County. She stated they work closely with the School System to insure that all students in Brevard County have an opportunity to learn and enjoy music; it is very important for youth in the country to be able to enjoy the arts; and BSO is happy to be a big part of that in Brevard County.

Commissioner Carlson stated the Board appreciates the great culture BSO brings and hopefully the audience will too and attend some of the concerts.

REPORT, RE: HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH FESTIVAL

Commissioner Colon advised last Saturday at Brevard Community College in Cocoa there was a wonderful festival that showed the different instruments used in the Caribbean because of Hispanic Heritage Month; it was incredible; with Hispanic music, one is not able to stand still and moves with the music; it is addicting; and it was extremely wonderful to have it. She stated people came to the festival from all over Central Florida; it was packed; and Wendy did a wonderful job with the multicultural alliance.

REPORT, RE: MEETING WITH THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENT

Commissioner Colon advised Saturday, as an immigrant from Ecuador, she was blessed and got to meet the President of the United States; it was an incredible experience; unfortunately, she was in a wheelchair. She stated she was in a wheelchair because she ruptured her ankle Friday evening and tore some ligaments; there were five people chosen to greet the President and she was one of them; but she was in a wheelchair; the President follows his own way of going to the crowd, not what the Secret Service tells him; therefore, the four people who were standing there moved when the President moved and they left her behind. She stated she was there by herself and sad because she did not get to meet the President; but he showed up where she was so she was able to give him a prayer on behalf of Brevard County and the First Lady signed a book she had called The Faith of George Bush. She stated it was an incredible experience, especially being Hispanic and coming from another country, to have the honor to speak to the President; and she will never forget that. She stated it has been a painful but enlightening weekend, and wished everyone the best.

Commissioner Colon stated under Resolutions today she wants to make sure the Board did a good job for Christian Guadalupe so she will not read the resolution to make sure there are no tears. She stated she asked Commissioner Pritchard if he would read the resolution for Christian this morning because she had enough of that at the last meeting.

RESOLUTION, RE: PROCLAIMING PUERTO RICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Chair Higgs read aloud a resolution proclaiming November 2004 as Puerto Rican Heritage Month.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution proclaiming November 2004 as Puerto Rican Heritage Month in Brevard County in recognition of the contributions made by Puerto Rican residents to the community. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-267.)

Chair Higgs presented the Resolution to Sam Lopez who thanked the Board for the recognition. He stated the parade will take place in Palm Bay on November 21, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.; it will start at Community College Parkway and San Felipo and head to Malabar Road; and it will end at Palm Bay City Hall. He invited all Commissioners and citizens to come out and participate; and thanked the City for sponsoring the parade for the first time. He stated it is an exciting time for the community, which is getting larger and the parade is getting a lot larger; last year they had close to 15,000 people; and hopefully there will be a lot of people this year. Mr. Lopez stated because of the hurricanes, they had to cancel it and move it to November 21; and they look forward to the parade being continued and hopefully the Commissioners and citizens to come out and participate.

Mr. Lopez stated he knows this is Commissioner Higgs’ last year on the Board; it has been a pleasure working with her and the Board; and they look forward to continue working with the Board. He thanked Commissioner Higgs for her support of the Hispanic community as well as the rest of the people who live in the community.

RESOLUTION, RE: PROCLAIMING NATIONAL EPILEPSY AWARENESS MONTH

Motion by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt Resolution proclaiming November 2004 as National Epilepsy Awareness Month in Brevard County, and encouraging all residents to be supportive of those afflicted with the disability. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-268.)

RESOLUTION, RE: RECOGNIZING CHRISTIAN ANTHONY GUADALUPE

Commissioner Pritchard advised Christian Anthony Guadalupe has done things people only dream about; and read the resolution commending Christian for winning the State Essay for How Has the Life of a Florida Hispanic Inspired Me.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution recognizing Christian Anthony Guadalupe for his achievement of winning the State Essay for How Has the Life of a Florida Hispanic Inspired Me Contest, a full four-year paid tuition to attend any university or college in the State of Florida; and a new computer. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-269.)

Christian Guadalupe thanked the Board for the Resolution and stated he is shocked to be here. He advised about a month ago he started writing the essay having no idea what he was doing, and now he has received three awards, which is amazing. Commissioner Colon requested Christian read the essay he wrote. Christian Guadalupe read the following: “How Has the Life of a Florida Hispanic Inspired Me. My grandpa, Jose Antonio Izquierdo, is a hard-working selfless gentleman who inspires his family. The way he inspires me is that if there’s a goal in life that I wish to achieve, is to never give it up, even if sacrifices need to be made because in his life he made big sacrifices just to live in America. When he was a young boy, his dad died suddenly. He had to quit school at 4th grade to work to support his mother and five younger siblings. Although he has never regretted leaving school to help his family, he’s always made it a priority for his kids and grandchildren to put education first. Another way he inspires me is to always do everything with excellence. He always showed me to be a man of my word; and I see how people respect him because he never goes back on his word. Thirty-three years ago my grandpa was a part of the Cuban police. When Fidel Castro came into power, grandpa had to leave Cuba or he would lose his life. He came with the hopes of returning after four days. It’s been over four decades and still he hasn’t been able to return. When he came to the United States of America, he took any job anyone would offer and had several jobs at a time. He promised to bring his family to the U.S. and he didn’t rest until he did. That proved that he is a hard-working man. It took him a year to save enough money to bring his wife and daughter to America. He washed dishes until his hands looked like prunes and still he cleaned buildings and also worked as a head butcher in the markets at Hunt’s Points in the Bronx. It was a bad area with horrible working conditions. He did anything he had to keep food on the table for his family. Years after that he brought his mom, his sister and her family, and his brother and his family. A few years ago he was finally able to have the American dream and built his own home in Palm Bay. Grandpa is considered to be the ‘papi’ (dad) of everyone in the family. Everyone looks up to him. He has never turned his back on anyone in need. He encourages me to be a hard-working and respectful young man. Every day he expects me to be considerate of others and treat them as I would want to be treated. He’s a great man with a great heart and I hope to be just like him.”

Chair Higgs advised Christian that the qualities he just described are qualities everyone would like to have; and they appreciate him sharing it with the Board, and thanked him for being at the meeting.

Commissioner Colon advised Christian that they are all proud of him; he is representing not just the Hispanics in Brevard County but Hispanics in the entire State of Florida; it is a great honor; and they are extremely proud of him and the entire family. She stated it says a lot about his grandfather and grandmother and the wonderful parents he has; he is a nice melting pot, being Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican; his grandmother is here from Santo Domingo; and he is a nice Caribbean that all came together. She stated Christian makes them proud with the wonderful scholarship; and asked him to always put the Lord first.

RESOLUTION, RE: PROCLAIMING MEDIATION WEEK

Commissioner Scarborough read aloud a resolution proclaiming November 1 through 7, 2004 as Mediation Week in Brevard County.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt Resolution proclaiming November 1 through 7, 2004 as Mediation Week in Brevard County, and requesting the community recognize the role of mediation in their lives. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-270.)

A representative of the Volunteer Mediators of Brevard County introduced Mary Norwick who is in charge of the Family Mediation Program. Ms. Norwick thanked the Board for the recognition. Commissioner Scarborough stated the people of Brevard County want to thank Ms. Norwick and the volunteer mediators because it is never fun to go to court and they make things work easier, which is a great blessing one can have in life. He thanked them for all they have done for Brevard County and its citizens and presented the Resolution to Ms. Norwick.

UNPAVED ROAD AGREEMENT WITH MICHAEL AND MARIE DAVINO, RE: OUTBACK
AVENUE

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute Unpaved Road Agreement with Michael and Marie Davino for a building permit off an existing right-of-way known as Outback Avenue, which has been constructed to the standards of the Unpaved Road Ordinance Section 62-102. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page
for Agreement.)

UNPAVED ROAD AGREEMENT AND CONTRACT WITH NANCY HIGGINBOTHAM,
RE: LAWRENCE ROAD

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute Unpaved Road Agreement and Road Infrastructure Contract with Nancy Higginbotham for construction of Lawrence Road in an existing County right-of-way under the Unpaved Road Code of Ordinances, Section 62-102. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See pages
for Agreement and Contract.)

RESOLUTION, RE: RELEASING CONTRACT WITH THE VIERA COMPANY FOR
WINGATE ESTATES, PHASE 6

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution releasing Contract with The Viera Company dated April 13, 2004 for Wingate Estates Subdivision, Phase 6, to facilitate release of the performance bond as all improvements have been completed. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-271.)

RESOLUTION, RE: RELEASING CONTRACT WITH TARGET STORES, INC. FOR
WICKHAM ROAD TURN LANES

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution releasing Contract with Target Stores, Inc. dated May 18, 2004, for Wickham Road turn lanes, to facilitate release of the performance bond as the infrastructure work has been completed. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-272.)

ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF ANNEXATION REQUEST #AR-2004-157 FROM CITY OF
MELBOURNE, RE: PROPERTY NORTH OF ELLIS ROAD AND EAST OF JOHN RODES
BOULEVARD

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to acknowledge receipt of Annexation Request #AR-2004-157 from the City of Melbourne involving 29.29 acres located north of Ellis Road and east of John Rodes Boulevard. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF ANNEXATION REQUEST #AR-2004-158 FROM CITY OF
MELBOURNE, RE: PROPERTY WEST OF WICKHAM ROAD

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to acknowledge receipt of Annexation Request #AR-2004-158 from the City of Melbourne involving approximately .44 acre located along the west side of Wickham Road. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 TO GRANT CONTRACT WITH FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, RE: EXTENDING TIME FOR CHAIN-OF-LAKES
REGIONAL STORMWATER PARK PROJECT

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to approve Change Order No. 1 to Grant Contract No. WM804 with Florida Department of Environmental Protection extending the time for completion of the Chain-of-Lakes Regional Stormwater Park project to October 30, 2005. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Change Order No. 1.)

RESOLUTION AND LEASE AGREEMENT WITH THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT TRUST FUND, RE: USE OF PALM BAY MAINTENANCE
YARD

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution authorizing Lease Agreement with the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund for use of its Palm Bay Maintenance Yard, which is currently managed by the County under Sublease No. 3741-01, and execute Lease Agreement for a period of 50 years. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See pages for Resolution No. 04-284 and Lease Agreement.)

RESOLUTION AND COUNTY DEEDS, RE: TRANSFERRING MADISON AVENUE TO
CITIES OF MELBOURNE AND WEST MELBOURNE

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution and execute County Deeds transferring Madison Avenue, a roadway running east off Dairy Road south of Eber Road, to the Cities of Melbourne and West Melbourne. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See pages for Resolution No. 04-273 and Deeds.)

CONTRACT WITH FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, RE: FUNDING TO OPERATE
BREVARD COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT FOR FY 2004-05

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute Contract with Florida Department of Health for funding to operate Brevard County Health Department for FY 2004-05, and authorize the Chair to execute any future amendments to the Contract and budget, subject to approval by the County Attorney and Risk Management. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Contract.)

AGREEMENT WITH CROSSWINDS YOUTH SERVICES, INC., RE: FUNDING FOR
START-UP AND RENOVATIONS FOR JUVENILE ASSESSMENT CENTER

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute Agreement with Crosswinds Youth Services, Inc. authorizing carry-forward of $54,000 for start-up and renovations to accommodate the Juvenile Assessment Center; and authorize the Chair to execute any future amendments to the Agreement contingent upon the approval of the County Attorney and Risk Management. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page
for Agreement.)

AGREEMENT WITH SPACE COAST CREW BOOSTERS, INC., RE: OPERATION OF
BOATHOUSE AT OARS & PADDLES PARK

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute Agreement with Space Coast Crew Boosters, Inc. to operate the boathouse at Oars & Paddles Park through October 25, 2005; and authorize the Parks and Recreation Director or his designee to execute renewal options. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page
for Agreement.)

ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF RESOLUTION FROM NORTH BREVARD COUNTY
HOSPITAL DISTRICT BOARD, RE: PARRISH MEDICAL CENTER MILLAGE AND
BUDGET SUMMARY FOR FY 2004-05

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to acknowledge receipt of Resolution from the North Brevard County Hospital District Board establishing the millage for Parrish Medical Center at 0.000 and revenue and expense budget summary for FY 2004-05 pursuant to Florida Statutes 200.065(4) and Chapter 28924, Special Acts, Laws of Florida. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

REJECT BID AND AUTHORIZE RE-BID, RE: BID #B-3-05-14, TRUCKING SERVICES

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to reject sole bid from ABC LandClearing and Development, Inc. for Bid #B-3-05-14, Trucking Services, and authorize re-solicitation of new bid under revised specifications. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

APPROVAL OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, RE: DESIGN AND INTEGRATION OF
COMPREHENSIVE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CONTINUITY OF OPERATION
PLAN FOR VARIOUS MUNICIPALITIES

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to approve the Request for Proposal (RFP) to allow for selection of the most qualified contractor to develop a Continuity of Operations Plan for selected municipalities, and conduct training and exercises as required, funded through the Homeland Security Grants Program; and authorize the County Manager or his designee to make final selection and sign any future administrative submissions to the RFP selection. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

APPROVAL TO RESTRUCTURE PREMIUMS FOR ELIGIBLE RETIREES AND THEIR
DEPENDENTS, RE: HEALTH FIRST MEDICARE HMO PLAN

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to approve restructuring of premiums for eligible retirees and their dependents in the Health First Medicare HMO Health Insurance Program with the revised premium structure becoming effective January 1, 2005. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

APPOINTMENT, RE: EXTENSION ADVISORY COUNCIL

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to appoint Joan Borsik to replace Gerald Lafferty on the Extension Advisory Council, with term expiring December 31, 2005. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH TAX COLLECTOR, RE: ENFORCEMENT OF
OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING

Walter Pine of Titusville stated Item III.A.5. is a contract between Brevard County Tax Collector and Brevard County; the reason he brought it up and asked for comments is he wants to hear some public debate on this and why the particular occupational licenses are being transferred or singled out; and the ones they singled out are lawn care business, home repair, tree service, and vendors who are operating within the unincorporated areas. He stated at this time when they have all the repairs to be done, they need to be out there enforcing occupational licenses on roofers and people that might be out there unscrupulously offering services; but the question he has is it seems to him, and he does not understand and tried to find out, is the occupational license the duty of the County or the duty of the Tax Collector; and inquired which is it, and for somebody to tell him.

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised it is the duty of the Tax Collector. Mr. Pine inquired why is the County giving occupational permits; with Mr. Jenkins responding the County does not, the Tax Collector issues occupational licenses. Mr. Pine stated the County requires them for particular permits; with Mr. Jenkins responding if someone comes in for rezoning, he has to show he has an occupational license. Mr. Pine stated he thinks it is a very good thing, but there is a question of enforcement and all the occupational licenses being disjointed from the permitting process. He stated bringing it together into one process is a good situation, but there needs to be some discussion here so there is some inter-linking between the actual permits that are issued, the occupational licenses that are required, and the permits that are denied based on the lack of occupational license. He stated for instance, there was discussion between an individual who wanted to build a building to sell it for a restaurant; he does not have an occupational license for a restaurant; and he had to spend days and days explaining why he does not have an occupational license when he wanted to build something to sell it. He stated that should not have happened; this is an improvement, but they need to go one step further in aligning the permit process and linking the permit process with the enforcement issues; and that is what he wanted to bring to the attention of the Board.

Commissioner Pritchard stated it does not seem reasonable that one has to have an occupational license for a facility he is constructing, when the person who will open the facility is the one who will need the license. Assistant County Manager Peggy Busacca advised that is correct; the Zoning Office has an agreement with the Tax Collector that within half an hour after faxing the application to the Zoning Office, staff will ensure there is proper zoning to issue the occupational license. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if it is to the person he would sell the building to; with Ms. Busacca responding to whoever is requesting it. She stated there is a case called change of use in which if someone had a previous use in a structure and wants to change that use, that may go through a more rigorous review; larger parking requirements may be required; and that is what happened in Merritt Park Place where people had residential use and moved to commercial use and the request for occupational licenses triggered a change of use review. She stated for the actual occupational license, it simply requires the zoning.

Motion by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to execute Interlocal Agreement with the Brevard County Tax Collector for licensing regulation and enforcement to locate and identify lawn care, home repair, and tree service businesses and other vendors operating within the unincorporated areas of the County that do not hold valid occupational licenses at a cost of $49,150 for one year beginning October 1, 2004 and terminating September 30, 2005. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page
for Agreement.)

AGREEMENT TO EXTEND AGREEMENT WITH U.S. SPACEWALK OF FAME
FOUNDATION, INC., RE: COMPLETION OF IMPROVEMENTS AT SPACE
VIEW PARK

Walter Pine of Titusville stated Item III.B.3. is something he is bringing up and something that has been the issue of all the staff briefings and other issues that they have been talking about for years; the idea when somebody comes up and requests something from the Board, it is actually a recommendation; and those recommendations should be made in the public. He stated whoever wrote it says, “it is recommended”; he called this morning to try and find out who recommended it and at what public meeting and what public discussion the recommendation was formulated on; and there was none. He stated when he asked them, do not get him wrong, he is not opposing the particular item, he is discussing the process; he believes the issue is fine; but the issue when they asked them how do they choose when somebody is given money have they successfully used the money; and well, it is automatic; he said that means if he makes mud pies he is successful; and the answer from the director of one of the County services this morning was yes. He stated when they have the automatic issues, there should be some accountability; and if he gave somebody $100,000 one year and he did not spend it all or wants more, there should be some realistic accountability to insure that the public is getting benefit from the money. Mr. Pine stated reasonable success should include some public benefit, some determination of public benefit; there is no indication here that there has actually been public benefit; additionally, the discussion that went on was done outside the sunshine while maybe considered a slip of the tongue where this is put as recommended, the fact is that everything that comes here on the Consent Agenda is treated as though it is recommended. He stated discussions occur in silence and in the dark; staff reviews, staff comes in and briefs the Commissioners outside the sunshine; discussion goes on; the proposal changes due to discussions with the County Commissioners; that is a decision; and any time it changes, it is a decision. He stated some Commissioners show how they will overcome the objections of other Commissioners and staff in the private staff briefings; he has sat there and listened in the other offices while some of the staff briefings occurred; and Commissioners would say they do not like the language, change it, and it gets changed. He inquired where is the public review of that particular process; stated the process needs to be changed; he is using it to illustrate; they need to do it all in the sunshine like they are supposed to and no more hidden private staff briefings, no more polling Commissioners; no more amending proposals outside the sunshine; and no more changes of language without public review. He stated it all needs to be done where the public can see and hear it. He stated the Board needs to determine what success is and stick to those standards; accountability cannot be so morphed as to have no meaning; set standards, check them out, if they meet standards, great, but no standards can be considered a set of standards; there must be something; if the Board spends the money, it needs to receive benefits; and inquired what kind of benefit are they supposed to get. He stated making mud pies does not count; when one of the staff members say that, it is going a bit too far; and it lacks the accountability necessary to properly re-approve or continue a process.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he would be glad to review the issue further with Mr. Pine, but the request came from the Foundation; there is an existing contract that provides for an extension by written request; they made the written request; and all staff did was forward the paper work. He stated Mr. Pine asked where it originated from; and it originated from a previously approved contract. Mr. Pine stated so Commissioner Scarborough is admitting the original contract had no requirements for accountability, just automatic re-up. Commissioner Scarborough stated the original contract was by prior action. Mr. Pine stated that is right, but that is the point; the point is the Board is supposed to be accountable for the money it spends; and Commissioner Scarborough is telling him he can issue a contract today and can spend it any way he wants and that contract will be continued. Commissioner Scarborough stated he did not say that; and what he said was that they made a request under paragraph 1, which allows for an extension.

Parks and Recreation Director Charles Nelson advised staff has done an inspection of the project and the Foundation has made the majority of the improvements; the Agenda item says the improvements they have made; and they would like to spend the remaining funds, which is less than $2,000. He noted that is the issue before the Board. Mr. Pine inquired where are the improvements on the Agenda Report; with Mr. Nelson responding the improvements completed to date by the Foundation include the Able Monument, picnic tables, benches, and trash receptacles. Mr. Pine inquired how do they know those were done with the money; with Mr. Nelson responding they have the ability to audit; and they inspected the work and found them on site. Mr. Pine inquired if Mr. Nelson did an audit; with Mr. Nelson responding no, they have the ability to audit, but they did an inspection and those facilities are on the site. Mr. Pine stated so essentially there was no accountability. Chair Higgs stated the accountability was established by staff on site via the improvements.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute Agreement to Extend Agreement with U.S. Spacewalk of Fame, Inc. to January 7, 2006 for completion of improvements at Space View Park. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page
for Agreement.)

APPROVAL OF GRANT APPLICATION, RE: BARRIER ISLAND ECOSYSTEM CENTER
EDUCATIONAL EXHIBITS

Walter Pine of Titusville stated he wants to raise some questions in regard to the EEL’s Program; all the educational materials that are coming out for environmental resources are being brought, in part or a great deal of them, through the EEL’s Program and the Office of Natural Resources; there are many divergent views that are occurring in the community; that is obvious by some of the meetings that have occurred; but yet there seems to be a proclivity to provide all the educational materials through those particular groups. He stated like the previous discussion, it seems like once a contract is issued, the Board continues to empower that contract and increase it for those who have the contract; they need to see some diversity in the opinions; they need diversity in the education; and to continually fund the same organizations is not a good thing. He stated they need to seek some diversity here; the EEL’s Program has a right to seek a grant, and he would not disagree with that; but it is funded by County money; and they should seek to accountability once again with the EEL’s Program. He stated there are many things going on there that need to be checked out; he would like to see a complete audit before they go seeking more grants for educational materials that the public at-large may not agree with; they are supposed to be educating and instructing their elected officials; and the key issue here is accountability, not accountability to what the public officials want, but what the public wants. He stated there clearly is divergent views and both sides of the issues should be given at least equal time and consideration. He stated if they are going to give additional grants, they should instruct the EEL’s Program to give the divergent views; and if they are the ones that are going to be doing the educational processes, they should be instructed or the contract should include that they should include in their educational packets the divergent views and opposing views of the various environmental issues.

Chair Higgs asked staff to explain the item.

Parks and Recreation Director Charles Nelson advised the grant is for the Barrier Island Ecosystem Center to do displays which demonstrate the life cycle of sea turtles as well as the conservation of sea turtles. He stated the sanctuary is in the center of the Archie Carr sea turtle beaches; their view of it is conservation for sea turtle purposes; and using the funds from the license plates specifically for sea turtles would be appropriate. He noted he is not sure what the divergent view is on that.

Commissioner Carlson stated she does not know what the divergent view is either, but in terms of grants, Parks and Recreation deals with a lot of different grants; they are very competitive and they have to have accountability on every side, so maybe Mr. Nelson could talk about that. Mr. Nelson stated it is a State program; the State has significant conditions and requirements in terms of accountability and producing and providing it with the opportunity to review the information staff provides; so from the expenditure standpoint and as far as meeting the criteria for a specific grant, in this case sea turtles, the State is going to be reviewing that to determine it is acceptable for the expenditure of those dollars.

Chair Higgs inquired if staff is applying for a grant from the State to use State license tag money so that County taxpayers would not be paying for it; with Mr. Nelson responding yes. Mr. Pine inquired if he could mention what some of the divergent views are; with Chair Higgs responding no, Mr. Pine is out of order.

Motion by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to authorize staff to submit a grant application to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for a sea turtle grant of $34,500 for the Barrier Island Ecosystem Center educational exhibits; and authorize the County Manager to execute any necessary grant agreements. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

RESOLUTION, RE: APPROVING FEES FOR PERSONNEL COUNCIL MEMBERS

Walter Pine of Titusville stated once again the public has been silenced. Chair Higgs stated no sir, Mr. Pine had an opportunity to give his five minutes to start with; and he now has another five minutes for this item. Mr. Pine stated the divergent views, he will use some of this time for that, were in fact whether or not the goals of conservation could be achieved with private land holdings as well as public land holdings. He stated currently EEL’s is pushing the public holding of lands, the continual accrual of land to the government; the divergent view is that the same environmental and conservation goals can be achieved with private ownership; and that is one of the divergent views, but there are others. He stated that is an important issue, private ownership as opposed to public ownership. Mr. Pine stated he pulled off Item III.D.2. and would like for the Board to explain to the public what the Personnel Council does. He stated he went back through various minutes of the meetings and such and found no explanation of what the Personnel Council does; and prior to the Board adding additional funds or changing it, he wants the Board to explain to the public what the Council does and its full duties and responsibilities.

Human Resources Director Frank Abbate stated the Personnel Council is a hearing body that is appointed by the Board of County Commissioners; each Commissioner appoints a member to the Council; they serve as a hearing body that reviews administrative actions regarding employment of employees when they are terminated; so any career service employee can have a decision relating to his or her termination from employment reviewed by the Council. He stated that is the primary function of the Council.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to adopt a Resolution approving attendance fees of $25 for Personnel Council members attending hearings. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-272.)

APPROVAL, RE: BILLS AND BUDGET CHANGES

Walter Pine of Titusville stated unfortunately he has mixed up his paperwork and asked the Board to tell him what the subject is of Item III.D.5. Chair Higgs stated it is the bills and budget changes. Mr. Pine stated in looking at that, the issue he was looking at was the travel to Canada; that is the first issue; and he would like the Board to tell the people why they needed to go to Canada for training, why they could not receive it in the United States, and why it could not be done at a closer and less expensive site. He stated travel agencies do those trainings throughout the nation and world; and inquired why was the training so unique that they had to go to Canada for that.

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised it was a trade show. Mr. Pine inquired why is the County participating in a trade show; with Mr. Jenkins responding to attract tourists to Brevard County. Mr. Pine inquired if one person was enough to do that; with Mr. Jenkins responding yes.

Chair Higgs stated it is a TDC participation in a three-day trade show in Canada. Mr. Pine inquired if the County had a booth up there; with Mr. Jenkins responding he does not know if they had a booth, but they had a representative there. Mr. Pine stated that is the point. Mr. Jenkins stated he is not saying they did not, he is saying he does not know that. Mr. Pine inquired if Mr. Jenkins does not know what they are paying for; with Mr. Jenkins responding he knows they are paying to send an individual to Montreal to attend one of the largest trade shows. Mr. Pine stated what were their duties and what were they supposed to do while they were there, what benefits did they get with somebody walking around and looking at things. Chair Higgs stated the staff who attends the TDC trade shows make reports; and requested that be given to Mr. Pine. Mr. Pine stated but the Board cannot tell him whether they had a booth or there was actually anything done to encourage tourists to come to Titusville with that money. Mr. Jenkins stated that is incorrect; they have a report from the TDC Office that he will provide to Mr. Pine that articulates what was done. Mr. Pine stated but Mr. Jenkins cannot say it at this point. Mr. Jenkins stated he does not have it in his pocket, but the report is available. Mr. Pine stated so the Board is voting on it before it has the information. Mr. Jenkins stated the vote is for the trip.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to approve the bills and budget changes as submitted. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See pages
for List of Bills and Budget Change Requests.)

Commissioner Scarborough stated Chair Higgs sits on the TDC; he hears comments all the time that she is a thorn in their side by periodically asking those questions; the perception from those watching the meeting may be that they do not ask questions; and to the contrary, some people on the other side think sometimes they sort of overly probe. He congratulated Chair Higgs for having that reputation because she has looked out for the taxpayers’ interests.

Chair Higgs thanked Commissioner Scarborough; and stated she tries to be a thorn in their side and move it in a positive direction. She stated the TDC gave her a plaque the other day, but she has not decided whether it was because she was leaving or because it appreciated her service; but either way, it was very nice and she found it a very interesting assignment that the Board gave her.

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING RIGHT-OF-WAY (OLD DIXIE HIGHWAY)
- GEN DEV, INC.

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating a right-of-way (Old Dixie Highway), as petitioned by Gen Dev, Inc.

Transportation Engineering Director John Denninghoff advised the petitioner has withdrawn the petition for the vacation.

The Board accepted withdrawal of the petition to vacate by Gen Dev, Inc.

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING RIGHT-OF-WAY (JENKINS LANE)
IN JENKINS ACRES SUBDIVISION - HARRY AND HISAKO CLARK

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating a right-of-way (Jenkins Lane) in Jenkins Acres Subdivision, as petitioned by Harry and Hisako Clark; and advised there are two speakers.

Commissioner Pritchard advised the petitioners have request the public hearing be continued to December 14, 2004. Chair Higgs stated there are two speakers who wish to speak on the item; the person who requested the item has asked to have it continued until December 14, 2004, but she will allow each of the speakers to be heard.

Tammy Samarah of Merritt Island advised the public hearing has been continued twice; the gentleman said it is for his health; but their health is also in jeopardy. She stated it is to make the road his private access; the road was built in 1969; her home was built in 1977; and her driveway backs right to the road. She stated if Mr. Clark closes the road, there will be no way to access her home at all other than to come through her front yard; her neighbor’s driveway also backs up to the road; and there are people that are his neighbors in the back with the same situation who will not be able to access their lands. Ms. Samarah stated Mr. Clark does not live there; he keeps cattle on the property; and she would not be able to access her property even from the back pasture where her animals are.

Lewis Hannah of Merritt Island stated he would like to formally protest the continued postponing of the issue; they would like to have a resolution to it; and if it is postponed long enough and talked about enough, they can get their way. He stated they would like to see it over with; it is time to end it; and if the continuance is granted, it will be the third time, which is excessive.

Commissioner Scarborough stated Commissioner Pritchard could say in his motion no further continuance; with Commissioner Pritchard responding he happens to agree with the speakers; the applicant requested it be continued again; and whether or not there is a plan behind the continued request, he thinks enough is enough. He inquired since there has been two continuances, why should the Board continue it again. Traffic Engineering Director John Denninghoff stated that is probably a legal question and he is not prepared to answer that.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired of Mr. Knox why the Board should continue it again. County Attorney Scott Knox advised there is no legal reason why the Board has to continue it; and the fact that they asked for a continuance does not mean they are automatically going to get it. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if it puts the Board in a precarious position; with Mr. Knox responding no, they should be here to defend their continuance request if that is what they want to do. Commissioner Pritchard stated they are not here to defend the continuance; it just may be a strategy that they are employing; and he does not agree with that strategy, so he will move to not continue the public hearing and to have the issue discussed today. Chair Higgs stated if there is no motion to continue, then the Board does not have to discuss that at all. Commissioner Pritchard stated the issue had ample discussion; the Board realizes the effect it is going to have; but for the viewing public, he would like staff to reiterate some of the discussion. Mr. Denninghoff stated the petitioner would like to limit access to his property or the ability for people to have access to their property by vacating the right-of-way; there are access issues that involve other property owners; and part of the reason why they were seeking the continuance as he understands it was to try and work out some of the access issues. He stated where they stand on that is unknown to staff at this point; but it is something that happens on a fairly regular basis on such items; frequently they do successfully get the issues worked out; but again, he has no idea where they stand on this particular case.

Commissioner Pritchard stated as far as he is aware, there is no other way to resolve this; if the Board were to vacate the right-of-way it would create a hardship for people who live and use the right-of-way for access to their properties; so with that in mind, the Board has carried the continuation far enough, and heard from people who would be affected, but have not heard from someone who is requesting it; so he will move not to vacate the right-of-way.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Scarborough, to deny the petition from Harry and Hisako Clark to vacate a right-of-way (Jenkins Lane) in Jenkins Acres Subdivision. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING UTILITY EASEMENT IN GRANDE BAY
AND ACCEPTING REPLACEMENT EASEMENT - ELMER F. SEALING

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating a utility easement in Grande Bay, and to accept a replacement easement, as petitioned by Elmer F. Sealing.

Transportation Engineering Director John Denninghoff advised staff has not received the opinion of title from the petitioner showing the ability to convey the easement; and requested the public hearing to be continued.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to continue the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating a utility easement in Grande Bay, and to accept a replacement easement, as petitioned by Elmer F. Sealing until November 9, 2004. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING PUBLIC UTILITY EASEMENTS (S.
WATERWAY DRIVE) IN BAREFOOT BAY, UNIT 2, PART 10 - WALLACE AND
DONNA WIGHT, AND WAYNE CHAPPLE

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating public utility easements (S. Waterway Drive) in Barefoot Bay, Unit 2, Part 10, as petitioned by Wallace and Donna Wight, and Wayne Chapple.

There being no objections heard, motion was made by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt Resolution vacating public utility easements (S. Waterway Drive) in Barefoot Bay, Unit 2, Part 10, as petitioned by Wallace and Donna Wight, and Wayne Chapple. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-275.)

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING RIGHT-OF-WAY (PORTION OF SOUTH
TROPICAL TRAIL) - DONNA MacFADYEN

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating a right-of-way (portion of South Tropical Trail), as petitioned by Donna MacFadyen.

There being no objections heard, motion was made by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt Resolution vacating a right-of-way (portion of South Tropical Trail), as petitioned by Donna MacFadyen. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-276.)

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING RIGHT-OF-WAY (CAPE VIEW LANE) -
PAMELA S. DeFOE

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating a right-of-way (Cape View Lane), as petitioned by Pamela S. DeFoe.

Pam DeFoe thanked the Board if its decision is to vacate the right-of-way for her wellbeing and safety. She stated it is a small area at the end of her driveway; she was told if Waste Management hits her truck she is responsible, and responsible for anybody who parks back there because it is in her driveway; and thanked Ms. Streeter for all her help.

There being no further comments or objections heard, motion was made by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt a Resolution vacating a right-of-way (Cape View Lane), as petitioned by Pamela S. DeFoe. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-277.)

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: RESOLUTION VACATING RIGHTS-OF-WAY (FREEMAN ROAD
AND BYHAM ROAD) IN PLAT OF TOWN OF PINEDA - JAMES AND LINDA NAFF,
AND ROBERT AND LINDA LYNN

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider a resolution vacating rights-of-way (Freeman Road and Byham Road) in Plat of Town of Pineda, as petitioned by James and Linda Naff, and Robert and Linda Lynn.

There being no objections heard, motion was made by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt Resolution vacating rights-of-way (Freeman Road and Byham Road) in Plat of Town of Pineda, as petitioned by James and Linda Naff, and Robert and Linda Lynn. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-278.)

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 202-267, SPACEPORT
COMMERCE PARK AUTHORITY MEMBERSHIP

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider an ordinance amending Section 202-267 relating to the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority membership.

Veronica Clifford of Titusville, Sun Electronic Systems, presented documents to the Board but not the Clerk; stated there are still more letters coming in from the businesses in her facility who contacted her when she arrived here; she is not sure the Commissioners have all the paperwork; and she tried to make a packet for everyone. She stated due to an occurrence that happened late on Friday, the business owners are just trying to get things out; so when the Commissioners get back to their offices, they may have more notices. She stated she is one of many business owners in the Spaceport Industrial Park in Titusville; she is here on behalf of the businesses in the south industrial area; she wrote a letter explaining what the south industrial area includes; and that is the Spaceport Commerce Park, the North Brevard Industrial Park, the Free Trade Zone, and the industrial area as well as Knight Armament. She stated when she references the south area of Titusville Industrial Park, she is referencing all those businesses in that area. Ms. Clifford stated today they are requesting the Board go forward with no delay on two items, VI.H. and VI.E.3; stated they are requesting the Board adopt the amendment to include two industrial park business tenant owners and enact the change, and appoint members to the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority. She stated she copied part of the Code for the Commissioners; if they look at the creation of the Spaceport Commerce Park, it states, “the authority was created to advise and assist the Board of County Commissioners on the management, operation, maintenance of the County-owned property”; and it also states the duty is to advise and assist on the sales, leases, etc. She stated it does not state the Authority to do appointments; the Code states the property consists of approximately 390 acres back in 1995; today the County-owned property consists of about 100 acres; there are approximately 120 acres left that the County owns; but that is before the purchase of 25 acres, so basically 70% of the land in the park is owned by the businesses. She stated she and the rest of the business owners have made substantial investments in the park and the community; and they have more reason to see the park become an economic engine. Ms. Clifford stated the Code goes through the appointments to the Authority; there are seven members; the page that says June 1st is a list of appointments; and one is a Brevard County employee, another a Canaveral Port Authority representative, another from TiCo Airport, an at-large member, Space Coast Development Commission, Economic Development Commission, and a Titusville Councilman. She stated the City not only has a member, but also a staff person appointed, who is Walt Johnson; there are no business owners or operators on the Authority; and there is no voice from the industrial businesses that own facilities and operate their businesses from their facilities in the park.

Commissioner Scarborough stated Ms. Clifford wrote the Board a letter; he brought the letter under his report to the Board; it was put on the Agenda and sent to staff; and this is the third time it has appeared before the Board. He stated as Ms. Clifford pointed out, the Authority, unlike a library board, zoning board, etc. involves County-owned property; the County is a developer; and it is extremely unusual to be in a developer mode and get the community involved. He stated he doubts there is any other developer who does business in Titusville that has a council member advising it, or a member of the Economic Development Commission or city staff; what they have is a degree of frustration; they feel like they have come before the Board and are basically running a park; and the theory is, as they develop a piece of property, there may be a lot of development control at the beginning; so he would question whether one employee, Peggy Busacca, should represent the County with all the other interests, even though the County is a property owner and has a great deal at stake. He stated the County is most generous in sharing its interest with a lot of different people from the Port to the airport and on and on, those people who have acquired a greater interest and greater stake; and they question why is it such that Titusville has three persons active on the Authority at this juncture and feel they are compelled to come in and play a role in the County’s privately-owned property that is proprietary and not a governmental function. He stated he will move the item as there is nothing of any significance; and the Authority could have sent the Board something from its Friday meeting if it wished.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, to adopt an Ordinance amending Chapter 202, Article VI, Division 5, Brevard County Code, specifically amending Section 202-267, regarding the appointment of two additional members to the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority; providing for codification; providing for severability; and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner Carlson advised on the list dated June 1, 2004, Greg Jones was penciled in representing the Economic Development Commission; and he used to work for the Commission but does not work for it any more. Economic and Financial Programs Director Greg Lugar advised Greg Jones has his own private business, Costello Development. Commissioner Carlson stated that is what it says, and she wonders why they do not have another appointee from the Economic Development Commission instead of someone in private practice. Mr. Lugar stated he was the appointee from the Economic Development Commission; and he is not a staff member any more, but the Economic Development Commission went ahead and appointed him to the Authority because of his background. Commissioner Carlson stated she agrees with Commissioner Scarborough that there was no substance in any of the letters that came in from Titusville and the Authority so she does not understand why the Board cannot go forward.

Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board has been most generous in letting people participate in something that is essentially a Brevard County proprietary function; and rather than recognize that the Board is trying to do the right thing, it got a lot of letters that they had not written earlier when they realized something. He stated apparently now they are upset that this thing is going to be tabled for no reason except maybe to thwart their ability to participate where they put their investment; and he would like to be able to tell them if the Board is going to table it, why it is doing it.

Chair Higgs stated she supports going forward and adding the two members; she looked at the makeup of the Authority; and inquired why is there a need for the Canaveral Port Authority to be there and why would it not have an appointee from the Board of County Commissioners rather than the Port Authority. Commissioner Scarborough stated it is a free trade zone issue. Chair Higgs stated going on Commissioner Scarborough’s premise, it is County property and the Board is accountable for those dollars, but does not have representation from the Board on the Authority; and inquired if further changes should be made in the makeup of the Authority.

Commissioner Scarborough stated ultimately any recommendation comes to the Board; and it would be able to have staff say that is not the prudent thing to do even though it has a recommendation from the City of Titusville, TiCo Airport, or the Port. Chair Higgs stated Titusville does not have the County on its boards. Commissioner Scarborough stated he understands that, and perhaps it is a subject that can be brought up in a separate manner and Mr. Lugar bring back a report on the reasons for each of the appointments for fuller discussion. He stated he will go there, but right now it may be more than what is before the Board. Chair Higgs stated the Board is there now and why not do it right now; with Commissioner Scarborough responding it could go ahead and do that.

Commissioner Carlson stated she would like to move ahead as well, but would also like to get back a report on some indication of how the park is doing because she knows from her discussions with Ms. Clifford the other day that it is doing much better than it was; and the meetings should be ongoing versus every six months. She stated she would like to get a report on the activities of the Authority. Chair Higgs stated she would support a motion if there is support on the Board for further alignment. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to have a staff report before he does that as there may be various reasons to have different entities involved. Chair Higgs inquired if they could add an additional appointee from the Board of County Commissioners if the Board does not want to take off somebody. Commissioner Scarborough stated the item was advertised; this is a public hearing; the Board cannot make major changes on it without readvertising; so there are two problems. Chair Higgs inquired how was it advertised; with County Attorney Scott Knox responding it was narrowly advertised for two additional members.

Commissioner Scarborough advised he would like to make a motion; the Board needs to expand the language because Knight Armament is recognized as an entity; it is a large parcel; and the ordinance should say Knight Armament or its successors in interest because if it moved into a different entity, it still will be part of the big area. Chair Higgs inquired how does Commissioner Scarborough want to amend it; with Commissioner Scarborough responding it references certain people who can be appointed under new appointees; and it states specifically Knight Armament and it should say or its successors in interest so it would carry that property forward.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt an Ordinance amending Chapter 202, Article VI, Division 5, Brevard County Code, specifically amending Section 202-267, regarding the appointment of two additional members to the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority; providing for codification; providing for severability; and providing for an effective date, as amended to include Knight Armament or its successors in interest. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Ordinance No. 04-45.)

Commissioner Pritchard stated someone mentioned having a staff report; and he would also want to know why they have certain entities on the Authority, why is there not more direct ownership participation, and why there is no County Commission participation. Commissioner Carlson stated she would also like to have an activity report as part of that. Chair Higgs stated since it is a County park, the Board has to be careful loading it up with vested interests in ownership; it has to have a balance; and she is not sure she understands the membership that is on there. She inquired if there is a motion to get a staff report.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to direct staff to prepare a report on the membership and activities of the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

APPOINTMENTS, RE: SPACEPORT COMMERCE PARK AUTHORITY

Commissioner Scarborough stated it might be beneficial if Ms. Clifford could tell the Board how they agreed to sort of separate the park into separate entities, how it evolved with one representative from each area; and if she has questions, she can ask them. He stated if she is happy with what is before the Board, he will make a motion on the appointments, but there may be some interest in how they need to have representatives from two areas of the park.

Veronica Clifford of Titusville stated there was a map in the packet that she put together for the Board; the Spaceport Industrial Park area is where the County owns land; and since the intention was for the business owners to eventually create a homeowners association and dispose of the Authority, what she suggested is not only to make an appointment from the Spaceport Industrial Park where the County property is, but also have a second appointment from another business in the whole area, either the north area or Space Authority Free Trade Zone area that goes to the Airport as well as Knight. She stated that would cover the whole industrial area in south Titusville and it would be beneficial.

Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board has names before it; and since Ms. Clifford is instrumental and attends all the meetings, he suggests she be the appointee that operates facilities in the Spaceport Commerce Park. He inquired if Ms. Clifford would like to talk about her alternate David Hofius. Ms. Clifford stated David Hofius is a business owner/operator and has a manufacturing facility on the corner of Shepard and Armstrong Streets; he is willing to be on the Authority or an alternate in case she cannot make the meetings; so he would fall under the Spaceport Industrial Park appointment. She stated the second appointment is Lily Renzetti of Renzetti, Inc.; her business is located in the north industrial park area; she is willing to serve and is very active in the community; and she and her husband are willing to be appointed to the position. She stated Ms. Renzetti’s alternate is Patrick Corr from Helicopter Adventures, Inc., which is by the Airport in the free trade zone; those are people they recommend who sent letters; and in the Board’s packets are more letters from other business owners who are saying to let them know, they want to be active and participate and see what they can do to continue to make it an economic engine in the area.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to appoint Veronica Clifford and Lily Renzetti to the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority with terms expiring December 31, 2005, and David Hofius and Patrick Corr as Alternates on the Spaceport Commerce Park Authority with terms expiring December 31, 2005. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Commissioner Scarborough thanked Ms. Clifford for her hard work to bring the business owners in and her creative ideas of how to market the park and go after good purchasers. Ms. Clifford thanked the Board for its consideration and noted she will provide information to the Board when she gets a chance to type it.

PUBLIC HEARING, RE: ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 46-127, NOISE, TO EXEMPT
LAWN MAINTENANCE AT GOLF COURSES WITHIN RECREATION DISTRICTS

Chair Higgs called for the public hearing to consider an ordinance amending Section 56-127, Noise, to exempt lawn maintenance at golf courses within recreational districts. She stated in talking with staff and folks at Barefoot Bay who made the request, if the Board desired to pass this ordinance and inserted language that says recreation districts that are authorized under the Laws of Florida 83-204, then the impact would be limited just to one area.

Planner III Todd Corwin advised the language Chair Higgs mentioned is Chapter 83-204, Laws of Florida, which creates independent special districts known as mobile home park recreation districts; and it would limit the extent of the ordinance to Barefoot Bay.

Commissioner Pritchard requested staff explain the effect the ordinance will have on other golf courses, especially County courses; with Mr. Corwin responding the ordinance as written and if the language is inserted, would allow golf course maintenance to occur at 6:30 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if Barefoot Bay would be the only one prohibited from doing maintenance at 6:30 a.m.; with Mr. Corwin responding it would be the only one that would be allowed to start at 6:30 a.m. and all other public golf courses have to start at 7:00 a.m. according to the current Ordinance. Commissioner Pritchard inquired what is the point of having one start at 6:30 a.m. and another at 7:00 a.m.; with Mr. Corwin responding it was a request from Barefoot Bay; they needed the extra time to prepare the course for the day; and they came before the Board and requested it. Commissioner Pritchard inquired what about the County-run golf course and what time do they normally begin maintenance; with Mr. Corwin responding based on the Ordinance, they typically begin at 7:00 a.m. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if there has been no request from the County golf courses to extend their operating hours; with County Manager Tom Jenkins responding they would love to, but the neighbors at the Savannah’s complained when they did. Commissioner Pritchard stated that is where he was going, but Mr. Jenkins took about three paragraphs out of his conversation. Commissioner Pritchard stated the whole point is that Barefoot Bay requested to expand its operation and others have not and on occasion have said they do not want to expand; with Mr. Corwin responding that is correct.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to adopt an Ordinance amending Chapter 46, Environment, Code of Ordinances of Brevard County, Florida; amending Article IV, specifically amending Section 46-127, Exceptions, to address golf course lawn maintenance activities; providing for conflicting provisions; providing for severability; providing for area encompassed; providing an effective date; and providing for inclusion in the Code of Ordinances of Brevard County, Florida, as amended to include “within recreation districts established in accordance with Chapter 83-204, Laws of Florida.”

Commissioner Scarborough stated he has not supported this; if it was a health and safety issue, to have separate rules dealing with things like noise that is different; however, when it goes to a proprietary function, such as operating a golf course for profit, it does not seem appropriate that the County should live under one set of rules and the rest of the world under another. He stated it sets a dangerous precedent, so he will vote against it. Chair Higgs stated the recreation district is not a private entity that is making a profit; it is owned by the residents of the district; and their board asked this Board for some accommodation of their needs so they could operate their golf course in a manner they think is going to help. Commissioner Scarborough stated that is his point; and inquired why should the Board do things for proprietary interest that is public and not have the same rules apply to the private sector. He stated it creates a problem.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Ordinance No. 04-46.)

Chair Higgs stated she thought Commissioner Scarborough was against it; with Commissioner Scarborough responding the Board heard what he had to say; and it does not matter because he is in the minority.

The meeting recessed at 10:29 a.m., and reconvened at 10:40 a.m.

LEGISLATIVE INTENT AND PERMISSION TO ADVERTISE PUBLIC HEARING, RE:
ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING RURAL DISTRICT WITHIN SOUTH MAINLAND

Lisette Kolar of Grant stated she is here today to request that the Board take steps to establish a rural district in South Mainland Brevard in which open space regulations are required for new single-family subdivisions in areas of one acre or greater lot sizes; and the request is consistent with the desires of the South Mainland residents that want that area of Brevard County preserved as rural and that its natural resources be preserved and protected. She stated they were before the Board previously asking for other things such as Charter amendments that would have established preservation districts modeled after Orange County, Charter amendments for growth management modeled after Volusia County, and Comprehensive Plan amendments, which decrease density; and they did that all in an effort to convey to the Board their vision and desires for the area in which they live. She stated mandatory open space development will promote the rural character, preserve ecological systems, and offer economic returns for developers; and open space or conservation design offers advantages over even large-lot developments for rural areas. Ms. Kolar stated in large-lot subdivisions, all the land is typically used for houses and streets and a few open spaces; what is left as open space is typically inaccessible land or wetlands that cannot be developed; all the natural areas are usually cleared except those that are regulated; and they are planted with grass and non-native vegetation that radically alters the ecology of the site. She stated as growth continues, even if they are large-lot neighborhoods, open space is fragmented and the rural characteristic is lost; people see that the reasons for coming to the area are disappearing; and conservation development begins with identifying the unique ecological features of the land and basing the distribution of homes to preserve those. She stated if there is a cypress stand or oak hammock on the land, developers should look at that first and ask how they can preserve it and bring corridors to it; and how can they set up the homes so that they are around it and not disturb it. She stated that kind of development also attempts to maintain interconnecting natural corridors for wildlife and recreation; more important to the developers are the economic benefits; using that type of development also decreases the likelihood of protest at public hearings; and especially in their area, those are the types of things they want to see. She stated developers would have faster reviews and it will save money because they do not have to go through all the review and change things; and it will reduce infrastructure, engineering, and construction costs. Ms. Kolar stated open space can be used to manage runoff; it can reduce crossing wetlands, which is hard to permit and could cost some money; open space has marketing and sales advantages; and it has been used to say they buy one acre but have the use of 80 acres for recreation and open space. She stated homes in conservation developments appreciate faster than in conventional neighborhoods; demand for public recreation areas may be reduced because they are already provided in the neighborhood; rural character is quantified in part by the amount of development to the amount of open space; 60 to 65% of the land in those conservation developments are usually open space; rural character is also something that is perceived as openness and spaciousness; and that is something people equate with being out in the country. She stated if new development contributes to open space, the rural character can be maintained; Brevard County has an Open Space Ordinance that calls for the volunteer use of open space design; since 2002, when the Ordinance came into effect, out of 138 applications for subdivisions, only two developers used the open space principals; and she got those numbers from County staff. She stated in order to insure that the rural character of South Mainland is preserved, they are asking the Board to start the process by which use of the open space or conservation development is required; apparently developers are not into using it yet; but for the South Mainland area, they would like the Board to start the process so the ordinance can be put on the books that will actually require developers to use it.

Vicki Benoit of Micco stated she has been before the Board in the last year and a half about four or five times and said the same thing every time; she talked about lowering density, environment, traffic, schools, etc.; and what she is trying to convey is the greatest good for the greatest amount. She stated fortunately the Board has agreed with her for the most part; when she was at the meeting two weeks ago and listened to property owners say they are going to lose their land value and that the Committee was telling them what to do and meeting in secret, she decided to look up the affected area to see how many property owners were actually affected; and from what she could find out, there are about 14 property owners that own property in the affected area. Ms. Benoit stated about half of the property is owned by one corporation that is in the process of having 1,200 acres annexed into the City of Palm Bay and are trying to get more annexed into the City; the rest of it is owned by another large corporation; and out of 14 owners, half of them are corporations or limited corporations, partnerships etc. She stated others are individuals; four of them live in Brevard County; most of them live out of the County; one lives in Germany, two in New York, one in Dade/Palm Beach and Broward Counties; and she is also a property owner who lives on her property. She stated if the density is increased or green space areas are not allowed, they are the ones affected; and urged the Board to say yes. She stated they have to be cognizant of everyone’s rights, but this is a democracy and majority rules; the majority of the people in the area do not want density increased; they are not stopping development, they want it controlled; and with open space amendments it would be a benefit for developers because they can increase density a little if they increase their open space.

Commissioner Pritchard stated when this issue came up two weeks ago, the argument he had was the South Mainland Group wanted to take property that was currently zoned for one unit per acre to one unit per 2.5 acres or 5 acres; with Chair Higgs responding there is no change of zoning. Commissioner Pritchard inquired then what was the change about the land use going from one acre to 2.5 or 5 acres. Planner III Todd Corwin advised two weeks ago there was a Comprehensive Plan amendment heard by the Board; and the proposal was to change the Future Land Use Map from Residential 1, which would permit the property owners in the area that have AU and GU zoning the ability to request the zoning classification such as RR-1 that allows one unit per acre. Commissioner Pritchard stated the South Mainland Group wanted to move it to 2.5 or 5 acres; with Mr. Corwin responding that is correct on the Future Land Use Map to conform to the zonings. Commissioner Pritchard stated he is not talking about the zoning. Chair Higgs stated Commissioner Pritchard said zoning; with Commissioner Pritchard responding he was wrong when he used the word zoning so the whole point is that people have the ability to put one house on one acre. Mr. Corwin stated that is correct if they request a rezoning. Commissioner Pritchard stated but the South Mainland Group wants to take it to one house for 2.5 or 5 acres; with Mr. Corwin responding yes, it wanted the Future Land Use Map to conform to the zoning. Commissioner Pritchard stated the Board is talking about requiring a minimum lot size of one acre or greater. Ms. Benoit stated they are talking about having a public hearing so they can put the green space in an ordinance. Commissioner Pritchard stated it says, “the new single-family subdivisions in zoned areas that require a minimum lot size of one acre or greater.” Chair Higgs stated the open space subdivision regulations would be required in single-family zoning classifications that are greater than an acre; so the issue today is whether or not to do legislative intent to have a hearing on mandatory open space regulations. Commissioner Pritchard stated so the question is whether the Board is supporting one acre or supporting 2.5 and 5 acres. Ms. Benoit stated she is supporting the current Brevard County Zoning Code; that is what most of the property owners looked at when they bought the property; and they knew it was AU or GU. Commissioner Pritchard stated years ago the whole County was AU or GU; things have changed; his point is, and he is also for limiting density, but he also happens to believe that people have a right to develop to a certain standard; and one acre lot seems to be a pretty good standard. He stated as for the 2.5 or 5-acre lot, if people want to have five acres, they can buy five lots; and then they would have their five-acre lot. He stated Ms. Benoit said all the property is owned by 14 people; with Ms. Benoit responding approximately 14, and she may have missed some owners of small parcels. Commissioner Pritchard inquired how many acres do they control; with Ms. Benoit responding the Wheeler Farms own about half of it or about 2,000 to 3,000 acres, and the Demuyncks own about 100 acres. Commissioner Pritchard stated if the Wheelers own 2,000 acres, that is about half, so there is about 4,000 acres controlled by 14 entities; his point is the multiplier effect is very great in terms of there may only be 14 owners, but they own 4,000 acres; so anything they would look at today could have quite an effect on their ability to responsibly develop the land. Ms. Benoit stated she checked with a couple of real estate agents and most of the property was bought between 1995 and 2002; and if they sold the property today, most of the property in South Brevard has at least doubled and in some cases tripled in price; so they could definitely get their investment just selling their property and not doing a thing to it. She stated even Barefoot Bay homes have tripled in the last two or three years before the hurricanes; and to hear the people say they are going to lose money is not going to happen because they can sell their property right now and at least double their investment. She noted they are talking about a lot of money. Commissioner Pritchard stated everybody has a business plan when they buy and an anticipated return; so if they realized a return is not what they anticipated, then they lose money; it is always on paper; and it is like saying you lose money in the stock market. Ms. Benoit stated she had investments and some have done okay and some have not; but she does not remember anybody feeling sorry for her because it is a risk people take when they invest. Commissioner Pritchard stated that is true, but Ms. Benoit probably had an expectation of getting so much back. Ms. Benoit stated she had hopes but sometimes they are not realized.

Diane McCauley of Micco stated she watched the presentation of Brevard Tomorrow Smart Growth; the concept is exactly what the long-range planning in the South Mainland did; they identified the same ideas; they were not as polished as the report, but they were approximately the same; and that is why she asked that the Board advertise and go forward with an ordinance for open space amendment that will help accomplish many of those goals. She stated the report on the Brevard Tomorrow Community journal says it is completed one step at a time; she believes this is a good step for that; some of the strategies identified in the South Mainland long-range planning are denoted in strategies 2 and 3 in the booklet; they are to create active and safe open space and provide opportunities for community interaction; and define communities and neighborhoods with visual clues that reinforce their unique sense of place. She stated it was not addressed by the committee, but is in the report to incorporate or include all of the up-front development costs at the time of development and encourage a mix of uses that provide or generate long-term revenue sources needed to maintain those communities, which are very important in the South Mainland where roads are needed, schools are nonexistent, and industry is not there. Ms. McCauley noted instead the South Mainland is a wetland and boating area; and that is their identity and uniqueness. She stated Brevard County uses an ibis in the water on its leisure action activity report; the County Manager’s progress report has a heron in the wetlands; that is how Brevard County is marketed; and inquired how is the growth controlled to allow for conservation. She stated it is up to the five Commissioners to conserve and save their fragile area; at the last meeting developers repeated they would be taking 4/5ths of their profits; she would suggest the Board consider an ordinance that takes the purchase price of each property, triple the cost of the purchase, and guarantee the purchaser that amount of profit; if the owner cannot gain that profit on the free market, then the County purchase the land and make it a preserve; and in that way the big corporations that own blocks of land in the South Mainland could realize their desires, which they claim is a right. She stated she would like the same right for each landowner no matter how small their properties are. She stated developers bought the land years ago at a very fair price and held it for several years under the AU tax base; and she would take three times what she paid for her property even though she paid a full tax burden during the past 15 years. Ms. McCauley stated the ecological design manual for Lake County is a great book; the Board should go back and look at some of the designs in it for conservation; they maintain the rural character and protect the environmental resources; and the manual gives great examples of how open space works. She stated it conserves roads, reduces runoff, and preserves wetlands; Crystal Bay and Pelican Bay projects have been approved and are under construction; they have not impacted the area yet; they have open spaces, wetlands, and large buffer areas; and they have scrub conservation. She stated it is coming to their area; it is not there yet, it has not impacted them; it is good; and they have no problems with it; so smart growth is what they need. She noted Brevard Tomorrow is a very interesting project, and she is all for that. Commissioner Pritchard requested a copy of the subdivision drawing to review; with Ms. McCauley responding it is for 534 homes on 260 acres.

Commissioner Colon stated what is being discussed today is legislative intent and permission to advertise; Mr. Goatley and Mr. Nohrr just walked into the Board Room; she does not think it is for this item; but the item before the Board is the South Mainland issue. She stated it says legislative intent and permission to advertise public hearing on ordinance amending the land development regulations to establish rural districts within South Mainland; and if Mr. Nohrr would come forward, she needs to share something with the Board. She stated she knows she is catching him off guard, but he will be interested in knowing about it. She stated one of the things she was glad to hear was regarding the workshop of Brevard Tomorrow in regards to smart growth; Mr. Nohrr and Ms. Lawandales came to see her and she shared with them her concern that each of the property owners have something in mind of what they want to do; and she encouraged them to have all the landowners, including folks from the South Mainland Committee, to come together and look at every piece of property that is out there, not just one piece of property. Commissioner Colon stated when she was on the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council there was a DRI that came before the Council; one of the things they were talking about was 3,000 homes ready to come up; and she was afraid of all the bedroom communities so she suggested to the Commissioners that they all come together, including the neighbors, and City of Palm Bay because there is a lot of annexation going on, and bring all the parties together and really plan it out. Commissioner Colon stated there is a lot of acres out there to do some mixed use and so forth; she just threw it out to see if that is what they would want to foster; one of the landowners felt it was the way to do it; and she explained there were studies going on in Titusville and Melbourne, and there was nothing wrong having a study in the south part of the County to look at the whole picture and see exactly what they want because she is afraid that if each of them is going to do their own thing, it is going to be a big mess. She stated that is what she explained and they were eager to do that; she got excited and said let her go ahead and bring all that together; and then it was informed to her that she was not the Commissioner from the District, as it is District 3. She stated there is an election next week; she does not need to get so excited and need to wait until that takes place; and hopefully the Board will encourage that kind of planning. She stated it is similar to what they did in Titusville and are doing on U.S. 1 by bringing all the folks together; there is a mentality of absolutely no growth, and there is a mentality of build everything on every inch so it looks like cement city; so there are two different groups, and none of them are willing to realize they have a lot in common. She inquired if Mr. Nohrr can give the Board a little feedback of what was discussed there to see if it is something the Board can start for those lines of communication.

Attorney Phillip Nohrr stated he came to the meeting with Rochelle Lawandales to talk about acquiring the 788 acres on the south side of Micco Road; during that meeting, they started discussing the concept of a larger plan at Commissioner Colon’s suggestion; and the more they had discussions on it, the more they realized they were talking about Districts 3 and 5. He stated his clients represented that they were interested in having that kind of discussion and had started informal discussions with some of the larger landowners as to what the whole area might look at in the future and how they could start planning for services to come down there; it was an informal discussion and he was not prepared for it; but at the end of the day, his clients represented to Commissioner Colon that they would be eager to go forward and start down the road before they realized they did not have all the players and all the Districts involved in that. He stated it was something to start looking at over the next upcoming months to see how they could get the parties together; and Commissioner Colon requested they include the South Mainland folks; so that is their intention.

Commissioner Colon apologized to Mr. Nohrr for catching him off guard, but it is appropriate for the folks to know that it is the kind of planning she wants; stated it struck her when a speaker started mentioning it as something they talked about in her office last week; and she hopes the Board encourages it because they are going to be dealing with one owner at a time, which is not the way to do it. She stated she mentioned the fact that there are a lot of orange groves; a man came before the Board and was going to develop lots of 2.5 acres; and she said no because she wanted five acres. She stated she wants to let him know there is a need out there; but what happened is that she does not necessarily feel that she has all the answers and the man felt that it was not just of her to not approve it at 2.5 acres, which is something most people would have loved to have; but what she was trying to explain to him was that he needed to look at the bigger picture. Commissioner Colon stated it is critical for those folks to realize that they need to come together and look at the entire acreage versus going after one little parcel. She stated if the Board passes anything today or give a perception that it is rushing through it, it will bring ill feelings to the table; she does not want to do that; even though she is not the Commissioner of that District, they are Commissioners for the entire County; and she would like to get feedback from the Board to see if it is something that maybe it can do. Mr. Nohrr stated the timing game was not where they were coming from; and whenever the Board is ready to move forward on it, they are happy to participate or take the lead if the Board wants them to do that. Commissioner Colon inquired if Ms. McCauley feels it is something worth looking at; with Ms. McCauley responding yes, that is what they have been aiming for. She stated they have been fighting little individual fires because developers come forward but do not show the Board their plans or say what they are going to have; so the citizens are negative on it at first because they have no idea what the developers are going to do. Ms. McCauley stated the Brevard Tomorrow concept of designing an area that is self-sufficient is good; and she would love to be a part of that. Commissioner Colon stated she does not know what the Board wants to do; she is hesitant to approve something when she feels they should have discussions with all the folks at the table; if the District 3 Commissioner feels it is not something he or she would encourage, she would be more than happy to be part of that because it is a one-time opportunity; and if the Board does not do it now, it is over.

Chair Higgs stated with the Comprehensive Plan amendment the Board passed a couple of weeks ago, if it proceeded with the legislative intent on this item, it could be wrapped into a small area study for District 5 through District 3; and those would be center points of the discussion and signify the Board is intending to have it contemplated and considered. She stated the Board is at the point where the pressure is on in the South area; it is also on in the North area; there was a proposal at the MPO meeting that swings into Grant to establish the 1,200 acres to include an interchange that would have significant impact; and the study is greatly needed. She stated the time is at hand and it needs to be fully thought out; she understands the large landowners, but most of the speakers this morning pointed out they have invested in that area also; so the Board is not just talking about speculative investments; it is life investments and property rights including not just those who may be the 14 landowners, but the 1,400 or 8,000 people who have invested their life savings and their property rights; so it has to be well thought out. She stated while she fully endorses moving forward on the legislative intent, she would also endorse a full and comprehensive study by all the parties as the Board contemplates the area. She stated whoever the District 3 Commissioner is, is irrelevant to the fact that the citizens will still be there and still have very strong feelings about how their community moves forward.

Commissioner Colon stated she thought it was premature of her to mention anything when they do not know who the District 3 Commissioner is going to be; but the reason she mentioned it was to assure the folks that as far as where she is coming from, it is something that is extremely important to her and she hopes it is extremely important to whoever the Commissioner is. She stated by the same token, if the Board was to take that direction today, at least it would have started the process.

Chair Higgs stated the Board should take that direction today; it has grappled with the issues; the five Commissioners fully know what is coming down the road; the road may be coming earlier than they want, but the road is coming; and they need to be sure that where it ends up is where the community can come together.

Commissioner Pritchard stated he agrees with what Commissioner Colon said; everyone has a vested interest in the community; the drawing had 200 acres and 500 units; and he would rather see 200 units on 200 acres, but understands there is a need to provide certain levels of housing. He stated it appears to have not only starter homes but executive homes of 3,000 square feet; and if people choose to live that way on what would end up being half acre lots in terms of the total community and something like that works, then it works and it is a nice balance and that is why he thinks Commissioner Colon’s mentioning today of discussions she had and where it is going is so important. He stated the Board is at the cross roads; it needs to ensure what it does is right for Brevard County; and one of the best rights it can do is look at how it is affecting growth by density and the way to do that is by having a real look at what it has, bringing in the parties that are involved, so they know what the County is going to become, lay out the entire County, and say that is what it is going to do here and what it is going to do there. He stated Commissioner Colon mentioned the meeting at East Central Florida Regional Planning Council when it was discussed they were building a residential bedroom community; there was no commercial or where people would go to work; and they said they can travel I-4 and Disney is 15 miles away and other commercial establishments are so many miles away. He stated that is great, but what if they need a loaf of bread or jug of milk and other minor conveniences; they need to have not only the small commercial operations, but something larger so people do not have to travel; and he happens to think one of the things the Board also needs to encourage is when it looks at a blighted area to redevelop it, where they have a store on the bottom and a house on top, it could create more user friendly neighborhoods. He stated downtown Titusville is probably moving toward that; Melbourne has its corner; Cocoa Village has its area; people that want the more urban lifestyle are gravitating toward that lifestyle; and people that want more acreage can go south or north or to the west where they can get larger parcels. He stated everybody has an interest in it; he appreciates that interest; he does not want to move forward on the legislative intent and permission to advertise until there is further discussion; the reason for that is he thinks they need further discussion and is concerned the Board may put itself in a box; and that might not be the box that ends up being the type of box it wants to have for the South Mainland as well as the rest of the County. He stated it is time to look at the County as a whole and stop picking on little pieces and fighting fires as they come up; and the Board should look at the entire County and address it.

Commissioner Carlson stated the legislative intent as it is set out mentions that they require the application of open space subdivision to future single-family residential subdivisions in the classification that require a minimum lot size of one acre or greater; and Chair Higgs said moving forward with that and also moving forward with the need to do a large area plan, which she thinks they are talking about versus a small area plan that it has been familiar with in different segments of the community. She stated she does not know if there are any differences between a small and large area plan; encapsulating open space is a good ordinance for those who want that lifestyle; but it needs to deal with both ends of the spectrum. She stated the 2.5 to 10-acre homesites plus the commercial element to reduce travel time is talking about a development of regional impact basically; and she is not sure that was the intent. Commissioner Carlson stated there is a rural atmosphere out there; they want to keep that rural atmosphere; but she also understands what Commissioner Colon is talking about in terms of making sure it is not a haphazard way of developing. She stated if someone develops in the open space scenario, that person needs to know what other areas are going to be developing as so they can connect the open spaces that they preserve together into some understandable reasonable habitat if that is what the intent is; so doing a large-scale kind of plan is critical to the success of the open space scenario as well as trying to keep the rural sense out there. She stated when looking at the Crystal Bay flyer, the density issues are there; people have to want to live that way; it does not necessarily portray a rural lifestyle other than the fact that the open space is there; and they are giving up certain lifestyle elements for that open space, but the whole idea of the open space connectivity is that they connect those open space subdivisions in some form or fashion that leaves the natural area to define the wildlife corridors, etc. She stated there is a lot of planning that needs to be done; now is the tipping point she always talked about; if they do not get there and do that right now and do not help plan that area for folks, then it is going to be lost and they are going to have the haphazard development that is occurring; so she supports going forward with the legislative intent with the idea it is going to go through with a large area plan when it gets all the folks together to talk about what it is they really want to see out there.

Cole Goatley of Palm Bay inquired when was the item added to the Agenda; with Planner Todd Corwin responding it was not an add-on and was submitted for the meeting per deadlines they have to meet for any agenda item. Chair Higgs stated it was on the original Advanced Agenda. Mr. Goatley stated he received rather late notice of it and did not find it on the Agenda previously, so he felt it was a little late notice. He stated he has watched the County grow; he has seen a disjointed effort throughout the County when it comes to controlling growth; and there have been efforts to stop growth, yet it is inevitable the County is going to grow. He stated the South Mainland area is an important part of that growth; there are other parts of the County; and he would like to see some real careful thought given to an overall plan. He stated he agrees with what Commissioner Colon stated about getting the various parties together; the South Mainland area has been presented by a number of groups; there are developer interests down there, including the company he is associated with; and he would like to see the Board take its time on it as there is no necessity to rush to a public hearing or legislative intent until there has been time for the various groups to be pulled together, polled, have their input, and develop some range of interest and a consensus, if that is possible, before going into the more formal procedures. He requested the Board not rush into this issue.

Chair Higgs stated one of the things that disturbs her, as they have grand ideas and big plans is how hard it is to do big plans; she has seen time and again as they tried to look at the big picture, the big picture gets lost in the details and quibbling and never gets done; so it is very hard to do big plans. She stated the Board should move to study the area and what is going to happen; she has no problem doing that; and that is part of what a variety of citizens in conjunction with her office talked about and came to the conclusion they did. Chair Higgs stated the Board should move forward on the legislative intent in regard to the open space as it moves forward on the Comprehensive Plan and simultaneously name a small area planning group to include the south area. She noted if the Board at least signals an interest and concern about those issues, they will be able to study that.

Commissioner Colon inquired does the Chair think by passing the item it is going to tie their hands. She stated she truly needs feedback from the Board of looking at the bigger picture; and inquired if it were to put this in place with the best of intentions of exactly what it wants to see in the South Mainland, because there are parts of South Brevard that they are already doing it where they have been able to preserve and conserve a lot of the areas, would it be tying the hands of what is going to come out of there. She stated she does not know if by taking action today she is about to tie the hands of future discussions or maybe it does not come into play; and that is why she needs feedback from the Commissioners if that is what she is about to do and instead of helping she would be tying the hands of that kind of smart growth that was talked about in Brevard Tomorrow. She stated if it is no, and it all goes together, then she does not have a problem supporting it; but if there is any kind of reservations, she needs to know because she does not want to approve something that goes against what they were talking about, about looking at the bigger picture and not just one developer. She stated how they all fit in the bigger picture is where she has a dilemma. Chair Higgs stated she does not think it ties anyone’s hands to advertise the legislative intent, as it is simply saying the Board is serious about looking at it; and it will jump start the process.

Commissioner Scarborough stated the idea of using the overlay of the open space has not been discussed; everybody knows that he supports small area plans and likes them; and that is where the Board needs to go. He stated the chemistry of the Board is going to change and with that the manner in which some things are going to be discussed and handled; this item is moving forward with permission to advertise understanding full well that the conversation when it comes back to the Board is going to perhaps be different; and it will at least give the Board an opportunity to discuss it whether it likes the concept or dislikes the concept with the new chemistry of the Board, which could give some direction and thought process to the small area plan. He stated he does not think the Board will find this adopted, but he could be wrong; it is worthy of discussion because he has not seen the discussion of the overlay; and he would not mind looking at it further in a public hearing, knowing full well it would probably end up going in different directions as the Board proceeds, so he will support the motion.

Chair Higgs passed the gavel to Vice Chairman Pritchard.

Motion by Commissioner Higgs, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to approve the legislative intent and grant permission to advertise a public hearing to consider an ordinance amending the Land Development Regulations to establish a rural district within South Mainland.

Vice Chairman Pritchard inquired how much will it cost to advertise the ordinance; with Mr. Corwin responding several hundred dollars. Vice Chairman Pritchard stated the Board is going to spend several hundred dollars to advertise an ordinance that may not pass when the composure of the Board changes with the new Commissioner; and he does not see why the Board wants to waste several hundred dollars for the advertisement if the opportunity exists that through the change of the Board it is not going to pass. He stated he does not think the Board wants to do a piecemeal effort; it is the one thing it keeps talking about, not doing a piecemeal effort; so he does not understand why the Board is trying to push this forward at this point because it fragments the overall intent of addressing the County as a whole. He stated it is looking at an area of the County, but it is not looking at the entire County; if the composition of the legislative intent is going to change, the advertisement is a waste of taxpayers’ money; and he does not think the Board should do that. He stated the Board should, at the very least, wait until it has the new Commissioner and make a decision then on whether to start advertising small pieces of property or wait until it has a bigger plan for the County then advertise that; and that is his objection to this issue, so he will not support the motion.

Commissioner Colon stated residents from the area that see the growth happening had an immediate fear; that is why the item has come forward; and she gave them her word that the same things they want to see is what she wants to see. She stated it is common sense; they do not want a cement city; and she wants to bring all the parties together, so she is uncomfortable with the motion. She stated she wants the open space, etc. to apply to that kind of study; the folks will be sitting along side with her requesting those things; and she was surprised of how receptive they were because she thought they would think not their piece of property, but that was not the case. She stated if she supports it today, she is putting the carriage before the horse; but she will give her word that she is going to work very closely with the residents even if she is not the Commissioner from the District. She stated it affects her District because it is on the other side of Babcock Street; she wants the Board to know why she would not support it; it has nothing to do with why it was brought forward; it is based on the fear of all the growth that is happening so quickly; and she wants to also assure Commissioner Higgs that she is going to make sure that smart growth happens in the area the way it should happen with the open space and all the things that they worked hard on, because staff had done it before in a small area and the possibilities of it are huge. She stated she feels she needed to explain why she would not support something like this today.

Commissioner Carlson stated passing it today sends a very strong message; the Board needs additional community input from all the players; and what it is doing is looking at it, which is what the legislative intent is all about. She stated that is why it was brought up long ago to have legislative intent to make sure nothing goes forward that the Board did not intend to go forward; and all the pieces to the item can be identified in the legislative intent. She stated along with the legislative intent is going to be a long methodical process; and staff has shown the Board through small area plan discussions in the past that it will take a long time to look at the property, what the Comprehensive Plan says, how things have developed, and what is the most compatible way of developing the area, so she will support the motion. She inquired if there will be an additional motion to do the small area plan; with Commissioner Higgs responding if the Board wants a separate motion that is fine, but she would be happy to fold it into the original motion. Commissioner Colon requested it be separate so the Board can discuss it. Commissioner Carlson stated the whole idea is to capture the big picture the Board is talking about; and by folding it into the original motion, it will have the legislative intent, which is based on what the Board is talking about, open space subdivisions, etc., which it is going to look at and look at the big picture that is all part and parcel of the motion; and she agrees with everything everybody is saying. Commissioner Colon stated so if she votes against the motion, she is voting against something she believes in; with Commissioner Carlson advising Commissioner Colon not to vote against it but to vote for it. Commissioner Colon stated she is not going to be forced to support something.

Vice Chairman Pritchard recommended the items be kept separate. He stated Commissioner Carlson commented that she is willing to gamble that it will move forward; he is willing to move it forward with the intent that it is going to go, but again it is the money issue with him of spending several hundred dollars to move it forward and not knowing where the intent is going to go. He commented it is wrong at this time, and that is his comment on that.

Vice Chairman Pritchard called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered; Commissioners Scarborough, Carlson, and Higgs voted aye; and Commissioners Pritchard and Colon voted nay.

Motion by Commissioner Higgs, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to authorize a small area study consistent with the overlay district in the Micco area; and direct staff to bring back suggestions as soon as possible on the make up of the committee.

Commissioner Colon stated she wants to bring a lot of players into the discussion because of so much annexation that is going on in the area; she did not want to leave out the neighbors on the side there because of a lot of what is happening; and maybe staff can suggest to the Board who they would like to see sit on the committee. She stated the Board requested a study from staff before; and inquired if it should just leave them alone and let them meet on their own.

Commissioner Higgs stated what she said in the motion is to bring back the composition of that committee so the Board can balance the folks who are on it and the Board direct who is included on the committee. Commissioner Colon stated the reason why she did not think that is the way to go is because she thinks the Board needs to let the folks decide because it is difficult to tell anyone who is affected that they should not be a part of it and that the Board is deciding who is on it. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board will decide on the committee because it has to have a group, but everyone can be part of the input. Commissioner Colon inquired if she is still able to go ahead and meet with the other folks and have full discussions; with Commissioner Carlson responding there is a structured way of doing that through the small area plan process and maybe Mr. Corwin could bring that up. Commissioner Colon stated that is the part she is concerned about because what happens is she wants to make sure that everyone involved is part of the original discussion; and when the Board decides this one goes in and that one does not, she is afraid of it becoming so structured that it is not going to accomplish what she had envisioned. She stated if the committee takes place that is fine, but she is still able to meet on her own with the other folks. Commissioner Higgs stated Commissioner Colon can meet with anybody, but the small area plan has a defined group that would meet in the sunshine and continue to discuss the issues. Mr. Corwin stated typically small area studies include a group referred to as a citizens resource group (CRG) comprised of members from throughout the community who have an interest in the area; and that group meets in a designated set of public hearings, but includes participation by everybody in the community who can come and speak and raise pertinent issues.

Commissioner Colon stated her point is not to create another South Mainland group that all of a sudden excludes everybody else; they are talking about just the people who are affected, which completely throws out what she is trying to explain; and there is so much bureaucracy in government to the point where it makes her sick. She stated what she is saying is instead of putting a committee together, go ahead and do the study and let her just meet with the residents and everyone that is involved, because if the Board creates an official South Mainland committee that meets by the sunshine that will take away from what she is trying to accomplish. She stated when the Board starts having developers, residents, and this and that on a committee, all of a sudden everybody feels a sense of animosity; she does not want that; she really feels they can get together and say it is their community and they should be able to move forward; but with the committee that is going to have so much teeth, everybody is going to fight about how many residents and how many developers; and she is so tired of that and does not know if she is starting to not make sense. Commissioner Higgs stated she does not know how else to insure that everybody knows when discussions take place and knows that it is a staff project.

Commissioner Scarborough stated one of the comments that was made was that they basically had a very informal structure; therefore did not meet in the sunshine or have staff participation; what this committee would move to is a more structured environment where people would know where they had to go and what was on the agenda, and minutes would be taken; so there are advantages of having a defined group. He stated while it is going on, there can be homeowners groups, developer groups, etc. that are meeting and putting in organized input to the committee; and by having staff structure the meetings with a structured committee, the product that they get back will have the component parts of pros and cons. He stated he does not know if they have an opportunity for everybody to be present on particular subjects, but they can review minutes of what has occurred; so there is some advantage to structure. Commissioner Colon stated since there are some advantage to it, she can go forward; it is a start; and she will come back with the complaints if that is the case. Commissioner Carlson stated she would expect that Districts 3 and 5 would be part of the process, so she would hope that Commissioner Colon would be involved as much as possible with the process. Commissioner Colon stated she feels pretty passionate about what is about to happen there. Commissioner Carlson stated whether Commissioner Higgs is there or somebody else is there should not make a difference; the folks are fearful for what is going to develop in their backyard; and they should have a say in it.

Vice Chairman Pritchard stated one point of support he has is that it needs to be a public process; it needs to be orchestrated; it needs to be done in the sunshine; and it needs to have staff involvement so the Board has accurate minutes. He stated one of the concerns he has is that some citizen resource groups that may have 20 members are holding meetings with two or three members showing up and are able to have a quorum and conduct business; some of the CRG’s need to go away as they have served their purpose; and the Board should not have anything that provides input that is not directly in the sunshine so that it knows the input is accurate. He stated the Board should not have 20-member committees being able to invoke the authority of support of the committee by only having three people at the meetings; a lot of staff time is tied up on the CRG’s; and if they are going to be, they need to be structured differently, appointments made differently, and notices of meetings sent out. He stated one of his appointees to the Land Use CRG never received a notice of the meetings for whatever reason, so he has never been to a meeting; and he asked him about that and was told that he never received a notice. He stated he is sure there are others that operate the same way; but the way to handle it in the best interest of the County is to have the formality of either the small area plan or whatever else it is going to implement. He stated if it is a small area plan, the Board will do South Mainland; it will do Merritt Island; or it will do Titusville or whatever else; then all those plans would come together and they would then have a County plan. He stated that is probably the best way to handle it.

Vice Chairman Pritchard called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Vice Chairman Pritchard passed the gavel to Chair Higgs.

Commissioner Carlson inquired if the CRG’s were put in place because of the Comprehensive Plan; with Mr. Corwin responding that is correct, and they originally were groups that examined infrastructure, land use, and environmental issues as the original Comprehensive Plan was being developed. Commissioner Carlson inquired if the County is going through the EAR process soon; with Mr. Corwin responding the EAR is due in August 2006. Commissioner Carlson inquired if staff will include the usefulness of those groups with the EAR; with Mr. Corwin responding they can do that. Commissioner Carlson stated she would like to see that because she knows they are supportive; there are a lot of members, but not many come to meetings; the Board gets feedback from them, but as Commissioner Pritchard said a few come to meeting so she is not sure there is the interest or that they are not educated enough to realize that it is an important thing or maybe it has just lost its usefulness; so she would like staff to address that in the EAR.

PERMISSION TO NEGOTIATE CONTRACT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE WITH MARY
P. SCHUSTER, TRUSTEE, RE: ACQUISITION OF PRITCHARD HOUSE

Chair Higgs advised she has several cards from speakers. Commissioner Scarborough stated he thinks everybody is here to speak in favor of the project; he appreciates them coming today; and perhaps everyone who is going to speak in favor could rise. Several people from the audience rose in support of the acquisition of the historical Pritchard House. Commissioner Scarborough stated there are people throughout the County who serve on the Historical Committee not just for Titusville; and if there are questions on this item, the Board could go to the questions; but it has appeared numerous times on the Agenda. Chair Higgs called for questions from the Board; and hearing none, inquired if there is a motion. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to make the motion; the structure, after two hurricanes, is now propped up; and District 1 is in the posture of moving forward today so it can start some discussions. Commissioner Carlson inquired if there will be additional agenda items talking about the costs and things like that; with Commissioner Scarborough responding yes, this is just the opportunity to sit down and talk; they have the two required appraisals; and there is a lot of support for it. He noted staff will come back with the contract for the Board’s approval.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to authorize the Parks and Recreation staff to negotiate a contract for sale and purchase with Mary P. Schuster, Trustee, for acquisition of the historical Pritchard House in Titusville. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

RESOLUTION, RE: AUTHORIZING ISSUANCE OF BREVARD COUNTY HEALTH
FACILITIES AUTHORITY HEALTH CARE REVENUE BONDS (WUESTHOFF
MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, INC.)

Chair Higgs inquired if there were any questions from the Board, and heard no response.

Motion was made by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adopt Resolution approving the issuance by the Brevard County Health Facilities Authority of revenue bonds not to exceed $10,000,000 (Wuesthoff Memorial Hospital, Inc.) for the purpose of paying the cost of the project described therein and the cost of issuing the bonds. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-283.)

DISCUSSION, RE: ELECTRONIC PET CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS REVIEW COMMITTEE
REPORT

Chris Streeter, representing Invisible Fence, advised he has been a professional dog trainer and animal behaviorist for 25 years and has been in the underground pet containment industry for 20 years; he was part of the advisory committee appointed by the Board to review the matter at hand; and he wants to thank the Board for the time and energy put in that committee. He stated since man domesticated dog centuries ago, now in the year 2004, there is one dog or more in one out of every three homes; Brevard County is rapidly growing; each day dogs and dog owners move into the County; and dog owners find difficulty in trying to keep peace with neighbors and keep dogs safely at home. He stated everyone in the industry of animal services understand completely that dogs kept behind conventional fencing, wooden fences, chain-link fences, etc., typically get out with great frequency; and invisible fencing is truly one of if not the greatest asset in providing responsible dog ownership tools to those dog owners. Mr. Streeter stated it keeps the dogs from digging out, climbing over, running out front doors, causing accidents, or having dog-on-human domestic situations; and he hopes through researching the committee’s findings that they were overwhelmingly voting five to one in favor that Brevard County try and recognize electronic fencing as a viable means of containment. He stated folks who use the products consist of circuit court judges, police officers, attorneys, doctors, school teachers, sheriff deputies, directors, enforcement officers, and employees of Animal Services; and they do it with great success and great regard. He stated he hopes the Board will accept the recommendations of the committee, or at least not change the legislation as it is and continue to have the Code read as it does now. Mr. Streeter stated using Palm Beach County as an example, they have roughly three times the population of Brevard County yet an identical number of dog-on-human attacks over the course of the last year; and part of Palm Beach County’s attributes for that great reduction in their numbers is they have an active referral program and highly encourages anyone who adopts an animal from the Humane Societies or Animal Services Offices to consider electronic fencing as a viable means of containing their dogs. He stated they understand it is a great benefit; and he appreciates the consideration of Board of County Commissioners in taking up this matter, and hopes they can all be educated and rule in favor of the products.

Commissioner Carlson stated she would like to get some feedback and is sort of representing the minority report because it was her appointee that did a lot of research and found out a lot of issues regarding public safety that she wants to address here in the public to make sure that they are clear on those. She inquired do those systems work without training for the dog and just put the collar on it and it works; and how do they train the animal or is it something inherent based on how it works. Mr. Streeter stated because there are various products available in the marketplace now, training is recommended with the product; the dogs do in essence train themselves, but to go back to the flip side, people that invest their hard-earned money and time into the products are treating those animals as family members, like their own children, and they would do anything if not give their own lives for those pets. He stated they take great paints and great time to try and condition the dogs responsibly; Animal Services has not been able to give him one single report relating to a dog-on-human attack directly related to an electronic pet containment system; and that speaks volumes considering there were nearly 1,000 dog-on-human attacks in Brevard County last year. He stated training is required; Mr. Engelson and he agree the systems typically will work; that most people use them diligently and with responsibility; but dogs can dig under a regular fence; and if an electronic fence owner forgets to put a battery in the collar, and the dog gets out and is hurt or injured, that is their responsibility. He stated if the dog gets loose, it should be cited for being at large, for a nuisance, for anything like that; so he feels they should be treated with the same regard as any other type of containing an animal. Commissioner Carlson inquired if Palm Beach County requires a permit; with Mr. Streeter responding Palm Beach County has not changed its Code or laws in regards to electronic containment systems; there is no permitting; the County has not changed similar to what the Board has proposed to being changed; and it continues to have the same Ordinance. He stated it is almost verbatim to Brevard County’s Ordinance, but they highly recommend treating it as a conventional fence; so a dog at large is a dog at large, a nuisance barker is a nuisance barker, an aggressive dog is an aggressive dog; but it does not go after an industry as a whole that is doing much better for the community than it is doing worse. Commissioner Carlson inquired if the fences are effective for all breeds; with Mr. Streeter responding his company and most people with ethics and/or common knowledge realize that there are certain, not necessarily breed specific, but aggressive animals; there are certain situations where he would not nor would most industry recommend it as a sole means of containing an animal; and a great majority and/or portion of those products are used as supplements. He stated if a dog is digging out under the fence or running out of the front door because the child leaves the front door open, the invisible fence can be used as a supplement with other types of fencing and things to insure the dog does not run into the road and create a car accident or have the child follow the dog into the road and get in harms way. He stated there are a multitude of benefits beyond just someone wanting a fence in the yard and throwing the dog in the yard and let it live there; but that is not the norm of what they do. Commissioner Carlson inquired if Mr. Streeter does not recommend it as a stand alone product; with Mr. Streeter responding there is great merit for stand alone and again it would apply to a front yard. He stated most residential areas, a lot in Brevard County especially, do not allow, due to Homeowners Association or ARC’s, any type of fencing at all; those folks are very limited in what they can do to let their dogs out for five minutes a day to use the bathroom; and it is impossible for them. He stated treated responsibly if the dog is not aggressive and there are no complaints from neighbors to have the dog wandering loose anywhere on the property could be perfectly sufficient; but if there was an individual situation where there was a complaint or someone who feels the dog is a nuisance or a danger, absolutely they should not be an underground pet containment candidate. He stated he hopes the Board takes it on an individual basis given those instances are very rare if not nonexistent in the County of negative complaints toward electronic fencing. Commissioner Carlson stated unfortunately the people who were in the group showed her a lot of examples where they were shown when the fence malfunctioned or intimidated someone walking on the sidewalk that they stepped off the sidewalk and could have gotten hit by a car. Mr. Streeter stated the same gentleman Commissioner Carlson is referring to, the original complaint that brought this whole thing to fruition was the situation where a resident in the development was walking her daughter down the sidewalk; the owner of the dog has two toddlers in the house and a golden retriever puppy; there was no way they could keep the front door closed with the kids going in and out; and had there not been an electronic system there, the golden retriever could have crossed the front yard onto the sidewalk and possibly knocked those people over; so it would have been a far worse incident. He stated the electronic fence in that incident did exactly what it was intended to do, stop the dog several feet back from the sidewalk and created that peace and harmony and lack of conflict that would have happened without the system. He stated those people do not leave the dog out during the day; the dog is only out when they are home; and it is a supplemental thing to make sure if their children leave the door open the dog is not harassing the neighbors or getting killed in the street. He stated there are ten million dogs put to death in the United States every year because people cannot keep them from digging out and things like that. Commissioner Carlson inquired if a dog sees something outside of the fence and wants to get it, how do they get back in; with Mr. Streeter responding it is a non-issue; almost every veterinarian in Brevard County will back him on that; Dr. Joiner who was on the committee has two pointers; dogs simply do not leave the fenced yard; and are far more reliable than a conventional fence and require minimal amount of maintenance. He stated it could be a dog, cat, T-bone steak or anything on the other side of the fence; they are incredibly effective in the industry; and history has shown that to be.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired how much does the system cost; with Mr. Streeter responding a retail system sells for as little as $200; a professionally installed system ranges over $1,500; and there is a wide range of products available. Commissioner Pritchard stated he would imagine the reliability of the upper end system would be much better than the lower end. Mr. Streeter stated the upper end system probably has far less rate of failure and product failure, more durability, water proofing, and things like that; and being one of the pioneers of the industry he represents, they are very reliable and have little product breakdown. Mr. Streeter stated he does a lot of upgrades; if someone has the electronic system, the dog is trained and it works very well, that may be their product has an occasional malfunction and they contact his company and upgrade to a better product line; but dogs are very conditioned once they are trained to the boundaries. He stated hundreds of people called him post Hurricane Jeanne and Frances; and as everybody with a chain link or wood fence in the communities know, the dogs were free ranging the neighborhoods. Commissioner Pritchard stated it was mentioned that the battery in the collar fails; and inquired how does the owner know the battery failed; with Mr. Streeter responding several products have indicator lights in the collar that will alert the owner it is in need of replacement; they do automatic shipments to every client on a quarterly basis; and it takes the brain work out of it for them because they get a battery in the mail and know it is time to put the new one in. Mr. Streeter stated people can put in shabby chain link fences that are not in good shape; even conventional fencing depends on quality and monetary things; so the instances of dogs getting out of electronic fencing is literally a fraction of the instances of dogs getting out of conventional fencing. Commissioner Pritchard stated Mr. Streeter mentioned the responsibility of dog ownership and that he has not had any recorded instances with a dog in a managed electronic fence compound getting outside the fence and biting someone or attacking someone; and inquired if that has more to do with the level of person who would buy that type of device, and the responsibility they will have and instill in their animals; but the concern he has is someone else who sticks a collar on a dog with a dead battery and lets it roam and nobody knows whether it is contained. He stated he is also concerned that people walking down the street would not know that the dog they see that may or may not be barking is contained by an electronic fence; and it may cause some anxiety for them. Mr. Streeter stated when they do new installations with any new product that is available, there is signage; during the training process with the dogs, there are training flags installed; and that lets the community know as they are passing during the first couple weeks, that the people are installing an electronic fence and training their dog. He stated there is a permanent placard or sign to warn or notify communities that the residence does utilize an electronic system as well; and in his honest opinion, folks who would spend $99 on a crackerjack box electronic system should not ethically or humanitarianly own a dog in the first place. He stated they are going to put the collar on the dog and throw it in the yard; and if the dog is picked up by Animal Services, he would hope it finds a better home. He stated he deals with ethical, good, responsible pet owners; and trying to limit the use of the products is going after the people who are the epitome of responsible pet ownership. Mr. Streeter stated people that chain a dog to a tree or use a cheap system that does not work are the kind of people that need to be cited for those infractions; but the vast majority of the folks that use the electronic products literally are the epitome of what the County should look at as responsible pet owners trying to keep peace in the community and safety for their pets. Commissioner Pritchard stated he banged on a few doors during his time and when he heard the howling that takes place and people say, “come in, killer won’t bite,” that always puts him on edge. Mr. Streeter stated he has a 95-pound Lab that would scare anyone to death although he would lick the person once that person enters the door. He stated he uses invisible fencing indoors for offices; his dogs do not approach within five feet of his front door; and there are million other applications for baby rooms, offices, and other areas where people implement those types of products. Commissioner Pritchard stated the issue came up about the front door being open, the dog runs out, and there is no fence in the front yard; the back yard may be fenced, but the dog gets in the house, the toddler opens the door, the dog is out the door, and there is a secondary system; and inquired what effect does his question have on the current ordinances that are in effect; with Animal Services and Enforcement Director Craig Engelson responding they would not have to change at all.

Chair Higgs asked if there is a motion, and heard no response.

Commissioner Carlson stated when she read the summary of things discussed by the committee, all the folks did agree on one thing, and that is that those who use the invisible fence were always present when they let their animals out; so she sees it as obviously a good secondary device. She stated if the Board includes anything in the Ordinance, she would agree to it being supplemental fencing only to something more significant because it requires the dog owner to be responsible and the Board cannot guarantee that. She stated the folks who sat on that committee obviously were responsible folks and knew how to use it and what brand to buy or whatever; she does not feel comfortable in okaying any additional stand alone system; that is her only issue; but if the Board made it as a secondary system, that would be fine.

Chair Higgs stated she used the system in the past and found it more than adequate to contain her dogs. Commissioner Carlson inquired if Chair Higgs felt comfortable with it even when she was not there; with Chair Higgs responding they did just fine and she does not consider herself an irresponsible pet owner. Commissioner Carlson stated Chair Higgs is not an irresponsible pet owner, but there are those who might be. Chair Higgs stated the problem she had was the edger kept going over the wire and they had to find where it was broken; but they are adequate systems if people have the right type of dog and it is trained. Chair Higgs inquired if there is a motion.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to authorize revisions to Chapter 14 of the Code of Ordinances, Animal Enforcement, and grant permission to advertise a public hearing for changes to the Ordinance as recommended by the Committee. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

The meeting recessed at 12:01 p.m., and reconvened at 1:01 p.m.

PERMISSION TO SELL, RE: SURPLUS REAL PROPERTY ON MERRITT ISLAND

Assistant Utilities Services Director Stephen Peffer advised the Utilities Services has property at 1780 S. Banana River Drive on Merritt Island, which is the site of an old wastewater treatment plant and currently is the site of a lift station/pump station; there is additional property on the site, which is not being used by the Department and could be considered surplus; and there is a potential of sales revenue of perhaps $500,000 and could generate tax revenue between $4,500 to $9,000 a year. He stated the property is perhaps the last remaining site in that part of the County, which could be used for riverfront access in certain locations; it has been the goal of the Board and citizens of Brevard County to acquire riverfront access; and another potential use is as a spoil location for maintenance dredging in District 2. He stated it is of limited size, but it has potential value; he discussed it with Transportation Engineering Director John Denninghoff who made note of the fact that District 2 Dredging MSBU does not have a permanent disposal site in that area and is constantly looking to find locations, which might be suitable; and they are disappearing over time as additional development occurs. He stated on the positive side, there is potential for revenue, both short-term from the sale and long-term from the tax that could be generated; but on the other hand, it does represent a loss of property along the river and options that are available by having that frontage.

Commissioner Pritchard stated the property is located about a quarter of a mile north of the Old Causeway bridge property, which is part of Harbor Point development; it is a County park and does provide riverfront access; so the question of riverfront access is not really an issue because there is riverfront access located fairly close by. He stated using it for a dredge site is a moot issue because the Dredge Committee does not have any money and has bonded the money out in effect by borrowing from one of the enterprise funds for seven to eight years; so it looks like the dredging program, unless they make some significant changes, is not going to be doing much of anything in District 2 for the next several years. He stated the property is suitable for development; he happens to think the County will get more than $500,000; comparable properties, when split and sold, go for a much higher price than if it is sold as bulk; so he would like the Board to consider not only that it move forward and consider it as surplus, but also split it and sell it as two individual parcels. He stated the County would get a much higher return on its investment with the one-time sale and recurring property taxes that will help pay for quality of life issues; and it will benefit the community, so he will move to consider it surplus and sell the property as well as consider splitting it into two parcels.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, to declare the property on South Banana River Drive in Merritt Island as surplus, and authorize splitting it into two parcels and selling the parcels.

Chair Higgs stated she heard no second to the motion. Commissioner Carlson stated she will second the motion, but has a question.

Commissioner Carlson inquired if the site is an appropriate place to put dredge material in the future since it is in the vicinity of a residential neighborhood; with Commissioner Pritchard responding it is becoming a very upscale residential neighborhood; some of the older properties that are there are looking at being razed and much larger homes being built on existing properties; and the area is in transition. Commissioner Carlson inquired if Commissioner Pritchard said there is already riverfront access, a park, or something close by; with Commissioner Pritchard responding yes, just south of the subject property. Commissioner Carlson inquired if it was purchased by Beach and Riverfront funds; with Commissioner Pritchard responding he does not know who purchased it, it is called Causeway Park; and it is where the old Causeway went from Merritt Island to Cocoa Beach.

Chair Higgs stated she will not support the motion and thinks it is important to save access to the rivers and beaches.

Commissioner Scarborough stated it does not say that the contract would come back to the Board; and inquired if staff anticipates getting an appraisal on the property. County Manager Tom Jenkins advised to sell it they would get appraisals and will consider the option of splitting it into two parcels. Commissioner Scarborough stated his concern is some of the properties have moved very rapidly; and while the Board may estimate a half a million dollars for the property, he heard some are going for substantially more. He stated any time the Board sells surplus property, particularly on the river, there may be people who will scrutinize the sale and have more information than the Board does when it makes the decision; so he will go ahead and support it now, but with no commitment to support the actual sale if it is not substantially enough funds to be justified.

Chair Higgs stated the price is moving all the time in Brevard County and generally is going up; the timing of the sale of riverfront property right now is not a good one; the impact of the storms had a brief blip in terms of values; and although she does not support selling riverfront property at all, she thinks this is a real inopportune time to sell it. Commissioner Scarborough inquired if Chair Higgs thinks the property values on the waterfront will strengthen; with Chair Higgs responding yes, and right now is not the right time to sell if the Board does not have to sell it.

County Attorney Scott Knox advised the Board has an Ordinance that requires it to get appraised values for those types of properties that it puts out for bid; and the appraisal is the minimum bid.

Chair Higgs stated the appraisals the Board has gotten on riverfront property have always been well below the market value; when trying to acquire properties, whether it is condemnation or whatever, the appraisals are well below what owners would take; so if the Board chooses to sell the property, it needs to be extremely careful because appraisals have not been keeping up with the market.

Commissioner Scarborough stated with the Sarno property, the Board was criticized in the movement of the value one way; and what he does not want to occur is for the Board to sell the property and find it flipped for several hundred thousand dollars and have the editorial in reverse with this property. Commissioner Pritchard stated that is not his intent; with Commissioner Scarborough responding but the Board does not know that unless it knows the values.

Commissioner Pritchard stated that is why he wants to insure the Board gets the highest value possible; the property is on the premiere side on the Banana River as opposed to Newfound Harbor, which is also a nice development; the Banana River tends to command a higher price; and he has seen smaller parcels on the Newfound Harbor side sell for $250,000 to $300,000 for about 3/4th of an acre. He stated he would estimate the parcels when split would sell for $300,000 each; that would be his estimate; and he would not feel obligated to sell it, if the Board gets an appraisal saying it is worth $400,000 for both parcels. He stated he is familiar with the neighborhood; and if the appraisal came in to what he considers to be reasonable, such as $600,000, then he would say go ahead and see what the County can get for it; if it cannot get that type of price, then it does not sell it; but the point is the Board is not going to know until it gets its feet wet and at the very least have an appraisal. He inquired if the property would sell by appraisal then be opened to the market for competitive bids; with County Manager Tom Jenkins responding yes. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if the County does not use a broker; with Mr. Jenkins responding they do not have to and could, but normally do not. Commissioner Pritchard inquired why does the County not use a broker, put a price on it at $350,000 a lot and see what happens; with Mr. Jenkins responding he would think the Board would want to have an appraisal first. Commissioner Pritchard inquired what would a broker do; with Mr. Jenkins responding he would put a price on it, sell it, but if the Board wants assurances that it is not underselling it, then it would get the appraisal before giving it to a broker. Commissioner Pritchard stated the concern he has and as mentioned by Chair Higgs is that some times appraisals come in at a price less than what the property is considered to be worth; when he sold his house, he researched the market and came up with a fair price; and that is generally in the ball park of what he gets for it. He inquired how much does the appraisal process cost; with Mr. Jenkins responding several thousand dollars. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if a broker commission would include an appraisal; with Mr. Jenkins responding typically when the County uses a broker, it has the buyer pay the commission as opposed to the County paying it; but having said that, all the appraisal does is provide the bottom threshold; and it does not preclude the Board from getting more for the property. He noted if the broker says the County can get $450,000, then the Board can sell it for $450,000; but at least it will know it is not under-selling it; and that is the whole purpose of an appraisal. He stated the Board is not precluded from rejecting all offers either. Commissioner Pritchard stated if the Board goes with a broker and eliminate the appraisal, it could contact several brokers and say it has the property for sale that it thinks is worth $600,000 and let the broker sell the property with the commission paid for by the buyer. Mr. Jenkins stated the Board can do that, but the dilemma is how does it know it is not worth more than $600,000. Commissioner Pritchard inquired because it is public money, does staff want to take the cautionary route; with Mr. Jenkins responding by law they have to get two appraisals. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if the Board has to get two appraisals and it does not like the amounts of the appraisals, can it say it is not going to sell the property; with Mr. Jenkins responding if the Board does not like the offers, it can say no; but it becomes a chore to select a broker. He stated they would have to do an RFP for the broker; and that is another step it has to go through if it chooses to use a broker. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if it would behoove the County to have a broker that could handle the sale and purchase of properties for the County; with Mr. Jenkins responding it went through the selection process and had a broker years ago for the Commerce Park property; the market was such back then that there was no big demand for that property; so it was not successful. He stated the subject property is going to be in demand and would sell itself; he is not trying to stop a broker from earning a living; but the property will sell on its own. Commissioner Pritchard stated there is no doubt in his mind that it will be a hot item.

Commissioner Carlson stated it may sell on its own, but she does not know that; she does not know the impact the hurricane season had on the marketability of the property; so she does not have a problem waiting six months and re-looking at it to see what the market does. She stated it may take two years before the market comes back; she does not know what is going on out there in terms of sales and everything else; her problem is she does not want to spend thousands of dollars on an appraisal if it turns out the Board does not like what the appraiser gives it; and that is what is going to happen.

Chair Higgs stated the Board can expect right now that it is not a hot market, although the waterfront property is a hot item; but it will be hotter fairly soon. Commissioner Carlson stated now is the time for investors to come out and buy it; those are the folks who are looking for lower prices; so if the Board is looking for the highest and best price, it probably should wait a year and see what is going on and make sure the market is back. Chair Higgs inquired if the property is in the Blueway project; with Parks and Recreation Director Charles Nelson responding it was not identified as one of the parcels. Chair Higgs inquired if it is outside the boundary or just a parcel owned by the County already and are there parcels around it on the Blueway.

Mr. Knox advised the process in the Florida Statutes does not require an appraisal; it requires the Board to bid it or pass an ordinance that provides for competitive disposition; and what the Board did was pass an Ordinance requiring an appraisal to set the bottom line price, then put it out to bid or give it to a broker to sell at the minimum price or better. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if when appraisals are done on such property, does it come in well under the fair market value; with Mr. Knox responding he does not know as he is not the person who sells the property and does not know how those things turn out. Commissioner Pritchard reiterated appraisals on his house and how they come in within the ballpark of what he thinks it is worth. Chair Higgs stated appraisals the Board has gotten on open land on the waterfront have not been keeping up with the market. Commissioner Pritchard stated then the Board needs new appraisers if they are not keeping up with the market because something must be wrong with their process.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he had experience with different people he knows who bought and sold property; he has seen a lot of contracts this year come in and come in multiple offers as soon as it gets on the market; and the real estate brokers at least in the north end of the County are recommending never come in at the asking price. He stated they have to come in above it and rush the contract; it is a different market than it was before; there have been hurricanes and they do not know how that is going to impact sales and sale of waterfront property may be a little weak right now; but he was talking about the average home. He stated people who want the house need to get the offer in immediately and above the asking prices because they will be looking at multiple contracts. Commissioner Pritchard stated he heard about bidding wars. Commissioner Scarborough stated if he was an appraiser it would be difficult to anticipate how much the market is moving; it is almost like the stock market; it is moving one way, but then there was the doubling and tripling of values on some properties in the County in a very short span of time when they were stagnant before; so in fairness to appraisers, they do not know where to draw the curve. He stated they estimate it is going to a certain percent and appraise it at that, and guesses that will be answered with the bids. He stated if the bids come in, the Board would have the minimal from the appraisal and could bid above that; and noted it would surprise him if they did not come in above the appraised value.

Commissioner Pritchard stated that is his position; and he made the motion, which was seconded by Commissioner Carlson.

Chair Higgs stated it is a bad idea to sell off a parcel of fine land on the river; the County has acquired land on the river and ocean and ought to maintain that; and Mr. Pine had a card in to speak but was not present when she called him. She inquired if he wished to speak now.

Walter Pine of Titusville stated he was upstairs trying to find some information from staff and appreciate the Board giving him the time to speak. He stated there are some properties for instance that he would like to bring to the Board’s attention; on the first one on the list, they said they attempted to call Habitat for Humanity and no action was taken; they did initial calling to Habitat for Humanity and they never heard of it; but they can use the property. He stated anything that is reasonably developable they can use; he would suggest somebody simply call and find out; if there was no action, double check it and see if it can help; it is difficult for the public to tell from the Asset Management listing where the properties are; and he looked into some things and found some adjoining properties that are undeveloped and under-developed throughout the County. He suggested and asked the Board to ask for something other than surplus property because each Department has a different idea what should be surplus property; some of the properties are being held for projects that are not yet budgeted; they may never be budgeted; and he would like to ask that the Board ask for a list of properties that are under-utilized and not currently utilized at all. he stated for instance, one of the properties they found out about is ten acres next to Parrish Park that is undeveloped; one of the things they had ongoing discussions on was community centers for Scottsmoor and Mims; they did not find out about the property until the last couple of weeks; and the process has been going on; so an inventory of under-utilized and unused properties should be made available to the public for public service organizations and different communities because those properties can have good use. He stated they are not making more property; he very rarely agrees with Chair Higgs, but has to agree with her that the property is not going to be there later on; the City of Titusville is trying to pass a bond referendum right now to buy waterfront property; and granted he prefers to see all the property in public hands, but the reality is that is not the state. He stated that is not what is happening at this point and time; and if the Board gives it away today or sells it for $300,000 and finds out in two weeks, two months, two years, or ten years later that it needs it, it will not get it for $300,000. He stated that is the nature of the market; it appreciates and rarely goes down in Florida; other areas may depreciate, but they are fortunate enough not to have that; so he would suggest considering other issues as well. He stated there is a piece of property of 46 acres in Mims; one thing people have been seeking is an off-road vehicle park that is an area next to the ball parks; they need to establish a percentage of noncompliance properties that can be used; and what he means by that is properties that can be used for things that are going to damage the property. He stated the County is saving a lot of property for conservation, but there are activities that have been historically practiced throughout the nation and certainly in the community that deserve to be continued; people put a lot of money into them; they are their hobbies; and they have been doing them for generations. He stated the property could be considered for something of that nature; there should be maybe 15 or 20% however the Board chooses to set it; but there should be an amount of properties that are allowed to be utilized for activities that are not necessarily consistent with conservation. He stated driving motorcycles through the woods obviously does some damage, but people have been doing it for an awful long time and the community desires to continue that for four wheelers so on and so forth; they see that all the time; so when the Board does create a list or inventory the properties, then it can evaluate them. He stated he would encourage on the list that they tell the Board what they are being held for, are they budgeted, and what are the plans for the future; the properties are not all currently on a single list where the public or the Board can take a look at it; and when he says under utilized, the Board may want to establish a threshold and say a property five acres and greater that is 50% unused at this point should be listed because that could be broken apart. He stated things like that could be returned to the public use or the private sector; so it would be very good to create an inventory of all the properties and not just what a particular Department wants to surplus.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion did not carry; Commissioner Pritchard voted aye; Commissioners Scarborough, Carlson, and Higgs voted nay; and Commissioner Colon was absent.

RESOLUTION, RE: SETTING FORTH FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS
PERTAINING TO DENIAL OF REZONING REQUEST BY BABCOCK, LLC

Chair Higgs called for discussion, and hearing no response, requested a motion on the findings of fact.

Commissioner Scarborough stated when he was briefed by Assistant County Attorney Eden Bentley, she suggested the Board may want to take up the discussion on the jail first; and inquired what is Mr. Knox’s advice; with County Attorney Scott Knox responding that is probably a good idea because a lot of the findings of fact go to the issue of the correctional facilities, which was one of the grounds used to turn it down. Commissioner Scarborough inquired of the Chair if the Board could do that; with Chair Higgs responding the Board will hold the item until that discussion takes place, and will continue through the Agenda at this time.

APPEAL OF WAIVER DENIAL, RE: BUILDING PERMIT FOR LOT ON SHARPIE ROAD
IN WEST CANAVERAL GROVES

Madeline Harris of Cocoa stated she has been a resident of Brevard County for 19 years and living in the same home for 19 years in Port St. John; growth has taken over Port St. John, which used to be country; and six years ago she purchased land on Sharpie Road and spoke with the County office at which time she was told she would be notified when it would be open to get a permit. She stated approximately three years ago her neighbor started building a home next to her property; she said she was notified by mail that she could obtain a building permit if done by a certain date; and she found that out after building permits were no longer being given out. She stated she never received anything from the County stating that she could obtain a permit; when she called, she spoke with Mary Thompson who said it was too late and the only way she could obtain a permit was to pay to bring the road up to County Code; and she cannot afford that. She stated she knows a woman who was giving away her permit at one time for some reason; she did not have to put the road in up to County Code either; so what she is asking is that she be allowed to get a permit to build on the property that she has had for a long time. She stated at one time they opened the building permits, then closed it; three years ago, everybody was notified but she never received anything in the mail and has lived in the same house for 19 years; and had she known three years ago, she would have gotten the permit and built on her lot. Ms. Harris stated she has her reasons for wanting to move there; when she first moved to Port St. John it was very country and very quiet; recently Port St. John has changed; cars have been stolen, a child was stabbed 18 times on Curtis Boulevard last Friday night; the next night a car was stolen by a bunch of kids; and they put a brick on the gas pedal and let the car go down Fay Boulevard. She stated that was confirmed through her neighbor across the street who is a highway patrolman; so she wants to move to West Canaveral Groves, which seems to be safe and quiet and why she bought the land.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired if staff had any additional facts that they did not discuss yesterday; with Interim Assistant County Manager Ed Washburn responding no, the criteria for waiver consideration is on pages 6 and 7 of the attachments; and there are five items that the Board would consider if it wants to grant the waiver. Commissioner Scarborough stated it appears from the public records that the property was purchased in April 2001; the Ordinance was changed effective July 24, 2001; and all the property owners were notified of the adoption of the Ordinance. He inquired if staff has a list of who notices were sent to; with Interim County Manager Peggy Busacca responding they use the current Property Appraiser’s database and keep copies of the envelops of returns; and there were no returns for Mr. or Mrs. Harris. She stated they also have a list of people who called the County with questions at that time; and she did not see any note from Mr. or Mrs. Harris. She noted the letter was sent out on June 21, 2001. Commissioner Scarborough stated what scares him with this issue is there needs to be some establishment of equitable estoppel; from time to time things do change; the Board needs to be careful about requests that say they did not know there was a change or did not get it because that becomes very convenient; and the Board could hear it quite frequently. He stated someone could be up North, overseas, or did not open the mail or read the paper; all of a sudden they come and say they did not know; the fact of not knowing has yet to be a reason for the Board to look around an Ordinance that it passed; and if there is some basis to look at it specifically, he would be glad to do that; but if it is just looking past an Ordinance because someone did not know the Ordinance passed or there was a window of opportunity that past, he sees a dangerous precedent. He noted he does not know if the Board shares that thought.

Commissioner Carlson inquired if staff has a record of who they sent the notices to because it is only a month between the time it was purchased; and maybe there was a different owner at the time they were notified. Ms. Busacca stated Ms. Harris stated she has owned the property for six years; there was a sale in 1997 as well as in 2000 and 2001; it is possible that the 2000 and 2001 were some kind of refinancing or something because when she looked at the note, there was a special comment on that so it was not a typical sale.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired if Ms. Harris said she owned it for six years; with Ms. Harris responding it was approximately six years; she owned another parcel also on the other side and sold that around 2001; but everything was put in her name immediately and she used to call the County regularly to check with Ms. Thompson. She stated somebody else by the name of Dawn said when it is open they will notify her; and when she found out everybody received a letter and she has been living at the same address for 19 years and never changed address, she was upset that she did not get a letter. She stated if she had received a letter, she would have gotten the permit immediately because that was their future plan as they are both in their 50’s and are going to retire out there because it is country. Commissioner Scarborough stated he still has a basic dilemma; if something happens in the County where staff misled a person who acted in reliance of that misrepresentation or misunderstanding, the Board has been most lenient in finding equitable estoppel almost to the point of believing the comments of the citizen above the comments of staff; however, when it is not a matter of misleading, but a matter of whether information was understood, he does not think the Board wants to get into that posture of putting a duty on staff of letting everybody know their legal status as to their property at all times and what they can and cannot do, or to put an enormous burden on the Board; and that burden is going to be to essentially listen to what is being said unilaterally, not what happened from the staff, but unilaterally what they interpreted and what they viewed. He stated it leads to the questions of how many misinterpret or may not understand, does the Board give leniency there, and where does it lead. He stated it leads him to want to move for denial and accept staff’s report.

Chair Higgs inquired if Commissioner Scarborough is not making a motion to approve the waiver; with Commissioner Scarborough responding his motion will be to uphold the denial.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to uphold the recommendation of waiver denial for a building permit on a lot located at 6999 Sharpie Road in West Canaveral Groves, owned by Madeline Harris pursuant to Section 62-102.

Commissioner Pritchard requested clarification of the motion; with Commissioner Scarborough responding the motion is not to grant Ms. Harris’ request; staff denied it and she is appealing that denial; so the motion is to uphold staff’s position. Commissioner Pritchard stated Ms. Harris said she did not receive notification. Commissioner Carlson stated it has been three years. Commissioner Pritchard stated how would she know if she had not received notification; with Commissioner Scarborough responding if Commissioner Pritchard wants to take that scenario, things are changing constantly in the County with a lot of different rules; and if someone says he or she did not know about the change, he as a Commissioner is not entitled to look around that change or requirement. Commissioner Scarborough stated when the Board has granted an applicant the ability to walk around a requirement, Ordinance, or procedure, it has been based upon equitable estoppel, which required a couple of things. He stated it takes an act by the County staff saying yes incorrectly, the applicant relies on it and expends money based on it; so it takes misrepresentation and an act of reliance. He stated this issue fails the equitable estoppel measure by a long way; there is nothing the County did to lead Ms. Harris to believe; and there is nothing to indicate that she, after the fact, took some action in reliance on; and even if she says she misinterpreted, it is going to miss the mark of equitable estoppel because she did not take additional action based upon the misinformation or misunderstanding. He stated if Commissioner Pritchard does it, he will find it very difficult for the Board to refuse anybody who comes in and say he or she did not know.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired if Ms. Harris did not get the information, how would she have known; and if she was not provided the information, how would she have known. He stated going back to the administrative rezonings in the Sharpes area, Mr. Moehle came in and said his little parcel was administratively rezoned ten years ago and he never knew that it was done; and his argument then is why would it be inappropriate for him to come and say he did not know when the Board may not have provided notification. He stated they may have sent something out, but she did not get it; and inquired how can the Board say it is too late; how can she be late if she just found out; and when she found out, she took action, but the Board did it three years ago. He stated he understands what Commissioner Scarborough is saying, but what he does not understand is why the County does not send out return receipt requested notices; with Ms. Busacca responding because they send out over 2,000 notices and they cost about $6.00 each. Commissioner Pritchard stated the Board spends excess money here on other things; his point is the person is a property owner now being denied use of the property because she did not get notice; she said she did not receive notice; those things happen; not all Christmas cards sent out arrive; and inquired how can the Board tell this person that she cannot do anything on her property now because she did not know. He stated he cannot come up with a way of saying she is out because she did not know; he understands about the $6.00; and inquired how many people come back with this type of situation saying they did not know. He inquired if it would encourage more people to come back with the claim they did not know, or is it the exception when someone comes and says he or she did not know. Commissioner Pritchard stated someone tries to build or do something now and finds out three years ago or ten years ago something was done that prohibited that person from doing whatever; and it seems like there is a certain amount of fairness that is being thrown out the window by not acknowledging a property owner who comes and says he or she did not know.

Commissioner Scarborough stated if the Board approves it and somebody hears about it and come in and says he or she did not know, and somebody else comes and says he or she did not know, it becomes the routine; it is not that the County led them to do something where they acted in reliance, which is an equitable estoppel decision; but just saying he or she did not know does not tell him why they did not know. He stated many people do not open every piece of mail they get; they get a lot of junk mail and sometimes they may not open them; but if Commissioner Pritchard wants to move in the future to send everything by certified mail, return receipt requested, he will do that; but to go back and open this thing, he would caution the Board about it because there are things it will not be comfortable with at future meetings.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Pritchard voted nay.

STAFF DIRECTION, RE: DETERMINATION OF CONSERVATION LAND USE BOUNDARY
ON PROPERTY LOCATED ON MERRITT ISLAND

Commissioner Pritchard stated this item has to do with an area off Sykes Creek. Interim County Manager Peggy Busacca advised the area off Sykes Creek is an example, but the question staff is asking is universal should it occur elsewhere. She stated it is also a policy issue, not simply an issue relating to one property.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired why Mr. Zajdel is here; with Alan Zajdel, representing New Found Land and Property Management Company, advised it seems by mistake the conservation line was put over onto his upland property. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if it is the area off Sykes Creek; with Mr. Zajdel responding yes. Chair Higgs inquired if Mr. Zajdel is in favor of Option 1; with Mr. Zajdel responding he believes so. Commissioner Pritchard stated Option 1 says, “determine that the intent of the conservation land use designation was not to include upland areas or properties zoned other than EA.” Mr. Zajdel stated he agrees. Commissioner Pritchard stated he wanted to qualify why Mr. Zajdel was present; it is an interesting situation; he focused on that one in particular because he is familiar with the property; and Option 1 will work for Mr. Zajdel.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to approve Option 1, determine that the intent of the Conservation Land Use Designation (pre-update) was not to include upland areas or properties zoned other than EA; and authorize staff to ask the owner of the property on Merritt Island to demonstrate the extent of wetlands on his property and to administratively change the Future Land Use Map to show private conservation on the wetlands portion of the property. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; with Commissioner Colon being absent from the room.

COUNTY DEED TO FRANCIS AND PAMELA STOVALL, RE: UNUSED RIGHT-OF-WAY
IN SECTION 7, TOWNSHIP 30S., RANGE 39E.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to execute County Deed conveying unused right-of-way in Section 7, Township 30S., Range 39E., to Francis and Pamela Stovall as it is not needed and not expected to be used in the foreseeable future. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; with Commissioner Colon being absent from the room. (See page for Deed.)

APPROVAL OF LOAN, RE: SOLID WASTE CIP FUND TO SOLID WASTE COLLECTION
FUND

Commissioner Scarborough advised he was briefed by Solid Waste Management Director Euri Rodriguez and Finance Director Stephen Burdett; and one of the questions raised was the nature of the loan.

Finance Director Steve Burdett stated it would be helpful to clarify what the meaning of permanent loan is; and under the cost benefit, it says “the local share of the three hurricanes will necessitate the need for a permanent loan.” Solid Waste Management Director Euri Rodriguez advised the collection fund has a reserve of approximately $400,000; reimbursement from FEMA is expected to be 90%, and the State’s share is expected to be 5% of all eligible costs; he expects the collection fund to have dispersed a net of about $1.5 million; and having $400,000 in reserve leaves it short by about $1 million. Mr. Burdett inquired if it is to be recovered through the Solid Waste collection or disposal assessment; with County Manager Tom Jenkins responding it would have to be in the following fiscal year.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired about the interest rate for borrowing from itself; with Mr. Rodriguez responding, based on an eight-month period, it would be $133,000 worth of interest at 2.5%; he is not sure how accurate that is, but it is basically a projection for the next eight months. He stated according to the information he has, the interest is not FEMA reimbursable. Commissioner Pritchard stated everyone knows how he feels about paying interest to itself when borrowing from within; but the County is in a dilemma on this one with the hurricanes; and it is a shame that it cannot get reimbursed on the interest. He stated in the scheme of things, looking at $27 million as the amount, paying $133,000 in interest is small in terms of the whole; but he is surprised that FEMA would not consider that not everyone has millions of dollars sitting around and would have built into its calculation what reasonable rate of return would be on otherwise lost investments. He stated he guesses the County is grateful for what it can get in terms of reimbursement and will bite the bullet on what it cannot; and inquired where will the $133,000 come from; with Mr. Rodriguez responding the collection fund payable to the disposal fund; and the reason there is interest because it is like running two separate companies under the same umbrella, and they still have to pay each other.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired how long will the settlement with FEMA take; with Mr. Rodriguez responding he is still arguing about the hurricane back in 1999, but they expect to start receiving refunds from FEMA within 30 to 60 days from the time they submit their bills. He stated this item is to set up a revolving fund with the loan. He stated they are not sure they need the full $8 million and may need more or may need less on a temporary basis. Commissioner Scarborough inquired when does staff feel it will be substantially reimbursed; with Mr. Rodriguez responding four to six months.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to approve a loan of $8,000,000 from Solid Waste CIP Fund 4011 to Solid Waste Collection Fund 4110 as a short-term loan to meet the demands Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne have imposed on the County. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; with Commissioner Colon being absent from the room.

PERMISSION TO BID, AWARD BID, OR PURCHASE OFF STATE CONTRACT, RE:
HEAVY EQUIPMENT FOR FY 2004-05

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to grant permission to bid, award bid to lowest responsible bidder, or purchase off State Contract if unavailable locally, one loader, one compactor, three tractor trucks, one Chevrolet Blazer, and three pickup trucks budgeted for FY 2004-05. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

APPROVAL OF LOAN, RE: COUNTYWIDE WATER AND SEWER SYSTEM RESERVES
TO BAREFOOT BAY WATER AND SEWER DISTRICT FOR SNUG HARBOR UTILITY
SYSTEM

Commissioner Scarborough advised when he and Finance Director Stephen Burdett went over the items, one of the notes he made was on the estimation of the total cost. Finance Director Stephen Burdett advised they discussed the concept of condemnation, but he can understand what the situation is with the Board and that it needs the funds in order to pursue condemnation of the property.

Assistant Utility Services Director Stephen Peffer advised the Governing Board of the Barefoot Bay Water and Sewer District elected to move forward with acquisition of the Snug Harbor Water and Wastewater System; and staff needs two actions today. He stated as the Board of County Commissioners, staff needs authorization to make available a loan to the Barefoot Bay District; and as the Governing Board of the Water and Sewer District, it needs to borrow those funds. He stated there is a typo in the loan agreement; they are requesting a loan of $1.5 million for the appraised value of $1.2 million and $300,000 for various expenses related to the transaction that will be paid as needed; and requested authorization to change the loan agreement from $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to authorize Utility Services Department to make available a loan of not to exceed $1.5 million from the Water and Sewer Reserves to the Barefoot Bay Water and Sewer District for acquisition of Snug Harbor Utility System and interconnection costs. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; Commissioner Colon being absent from the room.

LOAN AGREEMENT WITH UTILITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT, RE: ACQUISITION OF
SNUG HARBOR UTILITY SYSTEM

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to recess as the Board of County Commissioners and convene as the Governing Board of the Barefoot Bay Water and Sewer District. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; Commissioner Colon being absent from the room.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to amend the Loan Agreement to reflect $1.5 million instead of $1.2 million; and execute the Loan Agreement with the Utility Services Department for a loan not to exceed $1.5 million for acquisition and interconnection costs of the Snug Harbor Utility System. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; Commissioner Colon being absent from the room. (See page
for Agreement.)

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adjourn as the Governing Board of Barefoot Bay Water and Sewer District, and reconvene as the Board of County Commissioners. Motion carried and ordered unanimously; Commissioner Colon being absent from the room.

DISCUSSION, RE: REZONINGS YIELDING RESIDENTIAL DENSITY INCREASES,
LEVEL OF SERVICE STANDARDS, AND IMPACT FEES

Commissioner Colon’s presence was noted at this time.

Chair Higgs requested the County Attorney summarize the legal memorandum, and Planner III Steve Swanke summarize his findings that were sent to the Board.

County Attorney Scott Knox advised the issue the Board is facing is how to deal with concurrency, specifically as addressed in the memorandum, relating to correctional facilities, law enforcement, and schools; the issue is whether or not any one of those three concurrency issues prevents the Board from granting rezonings that increase density; and his conclusion is basically they do not. He stated in the case of school concurrency, the Board has approved rezonings in the past where there was no di minimus impact for over-55 communities and where there were binding development plans where the developer agreed to pay a fair share impact fee based upon the study that was presented to the Board. He stated subsequent to that, the Board enacted an impact fee, which basically establishes a fair share impact for anybody who applies for rezoning; so he concluded from that, since it is a discretionary matter whether the Board approves or denies rezonings based upon overcrowding, in view of what it did in the past, it has the authority to do that again. He stated the same rationale applies to correctional facilities because it has a correctional facilities impact fee, which establishes the fair share; and the last issue is law enforcement, which deals with police protection. Mr. Knox stated law enforcement is a mandatory requirement under the Comprehensive Plan in a sense that the Board has to make sure that law enforcement personnel are available in the ratio established in the Comprehensive Plan at the time it approves developments; and the issue there is how does it determine what that ratio is. He stated the ratio in the Comprehensive Plan is two deputies per one thousand residents; the Comprehensive Plan is not specific as to what a resident is or whether it is an unincorporated resident or Countywide resident; it uses the term deputies, which is a specific term in Florida Law meaning sworn officers hired by the Sheriff; so the Board has to deal with that issue. He stated he looked at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) statistics on ratios between deputies and unincorporated residents in the County and it is 1.99 deputies per 1,000 residents; so that gives the Board an idea where it might be.

Chair Higgs advised the Board has to look at the numbers whether it goes with the MSTU numbers or the FDLE numbers; and some of the FDLE numbers are not oranges and apples in comparison and are interesting numbers. She stated Mr. Swanke will explain his findings.

Planner III Steve Swanke advised with regard to non-concurrency services, the Capital Improvements Element in Policy 1.3 establishes advisory level of service standards for public libraries, law enforcement, correctional facilities, fire protection, emergency medical services, and public education based on Mr. Knox’s recommendation that the Board follow the same decision-making process with regard to approving rezonings that increase residential density. He stated the County has impact fees for correctional facilities, fire rescue, and emergency medical services, which are set at 100% of the maximum amount that was calculated in the March 2000 update study; the libraries fee is set at 28.5% of the maximum amount from that same study; and there is no impact fee for law enforcement. Mr. Swanke stated the County now has an impact fee for public education, which went into effect yesterday; therefore, since everyone is required to pay those impact fees, the Board would follow its decision-making process and not be required to deny the rezonings based on the payment of impact fees. He stated as far as law enforcement goes, the Board needs to get some clarification as to how it would want staff to implement that level of service standard; it is written as 2.0 deputies per 1,000 residents, but it does not specify which deputies to include; and staff has a breakdown of what was approved in the most recent budget that shows deputies, corrections officers for the detention center, bailiffs for the courts, road deputies from the MSTU and deputies for patrols under contract with some incorporated areas as well as administrative functions of the Sheriff’s Department. He stated staff needs some kind of direction as to how the Board wants them to calculate the population; and it could be based on the entire County population or the unincorporated population or the unincorporated population with some incorporated population for those cities where the Sheriff provides law enforcement services such as Palm Shores, Cape Canaveral and Malabar. Chair Higgs inquired if the municipalities would be covered by their own Comprehensive Plans; with Mr. Swanke responding they could be, but he does not know if their plans specifically contain law enforcement information; it is not a mandatory requirement of the Comprehensive Plan; but he was just suggesting it as an option. He stated, for example, Palm Shores participates in the Law Enforcement MSTU so it can be included in calculating level of service for that function; and the Sheriff provides contract services to Cape Canaveral and Malabar.

Commissioner Carlson stated the County has a lot of interlocal agreements with police departments in the County in terms of areas that are close to urbanized areas and better served by the police force in that community versus the unincorporated area. She stated when there was research happening for Brevard Tomorrow, they analyzed all the police departments and the County and came up with a 2.4 ratio to 1,000 in terms of all the residents of the County. She inquired if in the Intergovernmental Element of the Comprehensive Plan, there is any connection as far as if they set something like that up that they could not look at the whole County area and consider the police forces and also look to see if their Comprehensive Plans provide for this potential fee impact and if they collect it. She noted Mr. Swanke is sort of staring at her; and inquired if he follows what she is saying as far as the actual ratio of officers to population. Mr. Swanke stated the Board could direct staff to consider that; he is not familiar with a specific policy in the Intergovernmental Coordination unit that would set a precedent for the Board to do that; but they could consider adopting one. He stated one point that has been made is that by simply setting a level of service standard at two deputies per 1,000 residents without specifying how they calculate the total number of residents and how they calculate the total number of deputies make it very ambiguous. He stated staff is going to need some direction; and it may be necessary to amend the Capital Improvements Element to specify two deputies per 1,000 residents in the unincorporated area of Brevard County or whatever policy direction the Board wants to give staff. Commissioner Carlson stated if they took all the police forces and the Sheriff’s deputies and put them all together, she would like to see what the real number is and what coverage the residents are getting. She stated the only thing is that the impact fee can only be used against capital improvements, which include vehicles and things like that; and certainly that needs to be spread about; so she would like to know if they do have 2.3 or 2.4 per 1,000 then how are the cities dealing with capital expenditures, and how is the County dealing with capital expenditures as it has always been on a tight budget when it comes to vehicles, replacement, and all that. She stated she would like to see how it can be cost shared and make sure that if the County is going to apply an impact fee that the cities are also doing something similar so they can still keep that 2.3 per 1,000 and keep that ratio high and not have to charge as much on the impact fee side if they decide to go with an impact fee. She stated it needs to be more equitable because there are so many police forces out there; there are 15 communities; the Board can set a two to 1,000 ratio in the County, but the County is getting better coverage than that if it takes into account the police departments that are covering through interlocal agreements and such. She stated the County is getting better coverage than the 2.0 reflects so she does not know how the Board can skin the cat. Chair Higgs stated the Board could not do it in the incorporated areas. Commissioner Carlson stated maybe there could be an interlocal agreement with the police departments to determine if they are going to assess impact fees for law enforcement so that a true ratio exists if the Board is going to keep it in the Comprehensive Plan.

Chair Higgs stated as they were trying to track down where the numbers came from, where the numbers are, and how they got there, the numbers that are reported to FDLE are self-reporting numbers; and they determine that each Sheriff reports based on how he or she sees those numbers or how he or she is categorizing them. She stated she does not see how a Countywide number can be applied to the Board’s actions because it is not a statistic that is relevant to its decision; the Board can only decide based on the unincorporated area; so it has to use the unincorporated area to come up with a standard since it does not have control over what the cities are doing. She stated it boils down to how to get a number that is a meaningful number that represents what the Board thinks is the level of service in the County; and the only way it can do that is to use the County’s unincorporated population and break down the number of deputies. She stated FDLE said look at a number of deputies who are on a regular basis responding to calls for service; she cannot give the Board that number, but can give it the MSTU number that does not represent all of the deputies either; so it has to go to the General Fund deputies; and that number is 44, but she does not know exactly what they all do. She stated some are in civil, operations, Agriculture marine, canine, aviation, and bomb units, and warrants who do not respond to calls; so the Board cannot just go to the deputy sheriffs that are in the General Fund and say all of those are now deputy sheriffs because they are not all responding to calls. Chair Higgs stated if the Board goes with what FDLE says is the way they should be calculated, it has to look at people who are responding; she does not think the Board has enough information to determine if it is meeting the level of service; and she does not know how it can go to anything but the unincorporated area. She stated Mr. Knox said it is the standard the Board should look at, but the Board cannot determine if it is meeting or not meeting that standard until it gets more information.

Commissioner Carlson stated she was trying to logically look at the borders where the Board has interlocal agreements with cities, which would be its burden; if it has an interlocal agreement with the City of Rockledge to cover some of the outskirts of Rockledge because the County can cover it more effectively or vice versa, it is going to be the City’s burden or the County’s; and either way it is looking at a capital cost. She stated Chair Higgs is right in that the Board has to look at the total number of unincorporated residents and the FDLE model; but it does not have enough information yet.

Commissioner Pritchard inquired if this will be coming back; and stated the reason he is asking is that it sounds like that is where it is going. He stated the FDLE model has the County at 1.99 ratio; that is awfully close to 2.0; Policy 1.3 says 2.0 deputies per 1,000 and .003 inmate space per capita; and he is still trying to figure out what an inmate space is and is working on that. Mr. Swanke stated an inmate space is a bed. Commissioner Pritchard stated so whether it is three in a cell or somebody in the day room, it is an inmate space; and that takes out the bricks and mortar of it when talking about putting a bed in and using those numbers, so the County is well above what it needs in terms of inmate space. He stated in fact the County can put a lot more spaces in the jail by simply double bunking areas that are now single bunked; so the correctional facility part is not only covered in Mr. Knox’s memo by saying the Board cannot prevent the rezoning on increase in density, but it also, by its own definition of an inmate space being a bed, can put another bed in and get another space. He stated as for the 2.0 deputies per 1,000 residents, he was in this business for a long time and can tell the Board that figures lie and liars figure because they can orchestrate it any which way they want. He stated it was a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommendation as well as the fire chiefs association recommendation to have certain levels of standard for performing functions; some would say three men on a pumper and others would say four; that is the vehicle that goes to a house with hose and water; and others would say four or five on an aerial, depending on what side of the issue they were on. He stated the folks who were staffing the vehicles wanted to have more people because it makes the evolution, which is the process they go through to extinguish a fire, easier and safer because they have more people; and folks who were on the management side said they could do it with less. He stated it is somewhat an arbitrary figure, but it is based upon a way to perform an operation. Commissioner Pritchard stated 2.0 deputies per 1,000 residents has been a standard that law enforcement has been using as an example of how many they feel is necessary; it is used in somewhat of an average situation because they will have some communities that are far worse than others and 2.0 deputies per 1,000 is not going to work; they almost need 1,000 deputies for 2.0 population in some neighborhoods; and the 2.0 the Board has is an advisory level or service standard and a planning guideline that it should utilize, but it is not cast in stone. He stated it is a way for the Board to determine whether it thinks it has enough deputies; it might be 2.5 or 3.0; some cities have 3 and some have 1.6; it depends on where the city is comfortable; if the city needs more police protection, then it hires more police officers; so it is a guide; and using it as a guide and based on FDLE standard of 1.99, the Board has attained that. Commissioner Pritchard stated even though Mr. Knox’s memo says the County is doing all right and it cannot be denying rezoning, the point he wanted to make is it is advisory; it is a guideline; and the word “should” is in there, so it is not cast in stone. He stated the issue that Commissioner Carlson brought up and that he mentioned earlier, if they are talking about police protection in the County and they happen to live in Melbourne, and they call for a police officer, he does not think it would matter to the person whether Florida Highway Patrol, Fish and Wildlife, Brevard Sheriff’s Office, or Melbourne Police Department responded; if anyone shows up with a gun and a badge, he is good to go; and that is what he wants to see at his door. He stated all four of those agencies provide police protection; they provide a level of service that insures they have some protection from whatever element; all of them are authorized to issue tickets and make arrests; so the Board may also want to consider FHP as well as Florida Fish and Wildlife Service that have those authorities. Commissioner Pritchard stated the amount of time Sheriff deputies spent in cities is miniscule as compared to the amount of time or incidents that are in the cities; for example, Satellite Beach has 4.7% of its total responses that involve the Sheriff; and Palm Bay has 2.2%, Melbourne has 0.9%, Titusville has 1.9% and Cocoa has 2.2%. He stated Cocoa has a lot of area on the west side which is easy for the BSO to go back and forth; and the Sheriff’s farm is in West Cocoa. He stated the Sheriff’s numbers show 3.3% of their responses are to municipalities, so the vast majority of the Sheriff’s responses is to the unincorporated area; that is what the Board needs to look at, the level of protection and making sure it is adequate on a County level, and the level of protection in the unincorporated areas and what municipal residents are receiving, and not let the tail wag the dog. He stated he has a real concern when the Board talks about how many deputies it has serving warrants and doing this and doing that because that allows management to orchestrate how many deputies are on the streets; and a deputy is a sworn officer and it does not matter if he is the Sheriff or if he is a patrol person. He stated the Sheriff, about a year ago, arrested someone for speeding; he has that ability; he carries a gun and is a sworn officer; so he does not think the Board should discount anyone’s occupation within the Sheriff’s Department because it can be too easily orchestrated to take deputies off the streets, which would cause the ratio to drop below the 2.0 and the Board would be saying it needs to have more deputies. He stated the reason the Board would have to hire more deputies is because the Sheriff took ten off the streets and put them on a SWAT team or dive team, or all the other functions; every one in those functions have arrest powers and they carry guns; and that is his comments. He stated he was pleased to see Mr. Knox’s response come back; and he did want to ask if the Board is looking at accepting it as a statement of fact so it can utilize it in making decisions about whether additional increases in density are going to be approved or denied because of education, incarceration, or law enforcement.

Mr. Knox advised what he tried to do was give the Board the best legal opinion he could; and given the circumstances that exist right now, those are his legal opinions on the issues. He stated he does not think there is anything in school overcrowding, the correctional facility, or law enforcement concurrency requirements at this point that would prevent the Board from granting rezoning based on increased density; and the only gray area is the law enforcement issue, but FDLE has provided evidence that the Board essentially meets that requirement.

Chair Higgs stated if evidence was that the FDLE figure may not be representing the level of service the Board wants to define, that will be evidence to the contrary. She requested Mr. Knox explain page 3 of his memo that says, “The level of service standard for police protection is mandatory as set forth in Future Land Use Element (FLUE) Policy 1.2. Mr. Knox stated the language of that policy says, “minimum public facilities and service requirements should increase as residential densities allowances become higher and the following criteria shall serve as guidelines for approving new residential land uses. Fire and police protection and emergency medical services to serve the needs of associated development shall be available concurrent with development”; and that is the language he is referring to because the “shall” is mandatory as defined in the Comprehensive Plan. Chair Higgs stated further down it says, “the County, in accordance with the applicable policy set forth in concurrency provisions found in Section 12 of the FLUE, when reviewing development proposals, the Board must assure that existing and future needs for public facilities and services are available consistent with the Capital Improvements Program and the policies of the Comprehensive Plan”; and it does not say “should” but “must”. Mr. Knox stated he agrees that is what it says. Chair Higgs stated so the Board must, if it is going to following its Comprehensive Plan, go to the level or service and discern what that means. Mr. Knox stated that is the issue the Board is wrestling with, what does the 2.0 deputies per 1,000 residents mean, how would the Board interpret that, and what statistics support it; and the only thing he could find that related to that issue was the FDLE report, which is evidence that the Board does comply. Chair Higgs stated if they went to the FDLE report on the Internet, as any of them could and many of them did, she looked at that, but that did not tell her everything; she called FDLE and FDLE said there are 454 full-time law enforcement officers in Brevard County; that is not the same number that the Board has, which is 431; but what she found in further discussions with FDLE is that it is a self-reporting number and how it is categorized depends upon how each sheriff categorizes the deputies. She stated the Board knows there are MSTU deputies; it also knows there are General Fund deputies; and what it has to do, because it is a “must” and not a “maybe or might”, is understand what 2.0 means; and the only way to get to that is to go through the full budget and how it is being paid and how the people are being used because she does not know how they are using the General Fund deputies that the Board is seeing in the budgetary numbers.

Commissioner Pritchard stated question #3, does the advisory law enforcement level of service prevent the Board from approving rezoning applications, short answer is no; and inquired if Chair Higgs agrees with that; with Chair Higgs responding no. Commissioner Pritchard stated Chair Higgs is saying the FLUE differs from the Comprehensive Plan Capital Improvements Program Policy 1.3, which is the one she referenced a couple of weeks ago should utilize the following advisory levels and their planning guidelines. Chair Higgs stated she was reading what Mr. Knox wrote. Commissioner Pritchard stated what Mr. Knox wrote was no; and the qualification he placed with that is 1.99, which, as he mentioned, is close to 2.0; and that is based on FDLE figures; and Chair Higgs said there is even more full-time officers than the 431 figure that is used. Chair Higgs stated that is not what she said; she said FDLE has 431 on one page; the statistics it sent her yesterday says 454; but those are self-reporting numbers of deputies, and the Board does not know how they are used; and if they are not used based on the definition that is consistent with responding to calls for service, the Board has to be sure it understands what the numbers are. She requested Mr. Knox bring into focus his response to question #3, what he wrote on page 4, and how they are either consistent or inconsistent. Mr. Knox stated he is not sure he understands the question. Chair Higgs stated the memo says, “Therefore, as to police protection, the policy requires police protection in the County in accordance with applicable policies set forth in the concurrency provisions found in Section 12 of the FLUE. In accordance with those policies, when reviewing development proposals, the Board must assure that existing and future needs for public facilities and services are available consistent with the Capital Improvements Program and the policies of the Comprehensive Plan.” She stated compliance with the law enforcement level of service is compulsory under the Comprehensive Plan; if the most recent FDLE deputy to population ratio for Brevard County is used, the current ratio substantially conforms; she agrees with Mr. Knox that it is compulsory; but the Board needs a better number than the FDLE report because that is based on the way it is reported and everybody reports it differently. She stated the Board needs to know specifically what it is in Brevard County. Commissioner Pritchard stated that is why he said earlier the Board cannot let the tail wag the dog and let them decide. Chair Higgs stated she does not know what that means.

Commissioner Pritchard stated what Chair Higgs is encouraging is to allow the Sheriff to move people within his organization to produce less deputies on the street, thereby incurring the need to hire more deputies for the street; and that is what she is doing. He stated if FDLE says now it is at 454, as Chair Higgs said, that raises the ratio to 2.1 deputies per 1,000 residents. Chair Higgs stated it depends on how they are being used; and all she needs to know from the Sheriff’s Office is how in fact they are being used. Commissioner Pritchard stated when there is a new Sheriff, the Board will see how they are being used; and the report from the Chief Deputy is so far out it is laughable. Chair Higgs stated the Chief Deputy said, as he saw it, it is the MSTU deputies who are on the street; and if the Board goes further into the General Fund, it will get a different number. Commissioner Pritchard stated if Chair Higgs accepts that argument, she is letting the tail wag the dog. Chair Higgs stated no, what she wants is the real number; and the Board needs to go to the Sheriff and have him tell it how those people are being used. Commissioner Pritchard stated the Board needs to go to the new Sheriff and let him tell the Board how he is going to run his Department. Chair Higgs stated she needs to go to the only Sheriff the Board has right now, which is Phil Williams, and ask him to clarify. Commissioner Pritchard stated he thinks the Board needs to wait and bring it back in November so it has an accurate reporting. Chair Higgs suggested asking Sheriff Williams to help resolve the question.

Commissioner Scarborough stated there is another problem and both Chair Higgs and Commissioner Pritchard are mentioning it; and the problem lies in the word “deputy” defined under the Florida Statutes; when he talked to Mr. Swanke he asked what if the County had a half a million people and only 5,000 lived in the unincorporated area; and it would be ridiculous because it would be compelled to have every sixth person be a deputy. He stated on the other side is the question of what is a deputy; Chair Higgs made a good point; if someone is serving the courts or in the jail, they are not available as deputies; there is a fundamental problem in language that the Board needs to address; and in all due respect, he thinks it will get clarification with the new Sheriff. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board can go and look at things, but the bottom line is who will be a deputy, what the Board wants a deputy to mean, and whether it wants the word “residents” to include all the County or just the unincorporated area is fundamental to treating the problem. He stated to talk around the subject without asking staff to come back and give the Board options to change the particular point, it is never going to solve the problem because it is inherently ambiguous as to what is meant by deputy and what is meant by resident.

Commissioner Pritchard stated he subtracted the corrections officers from the sworn officers in the numbers he used; and he realizes their duties are different, but his point is that the Board needs to work with the new Sheriff to insure that the number it gets is accurate and that it is not gerrymandered and does not discount people on various teams such as the bomb squad, dive team, SWAT team, and whatever else. He stated they are deputies; the Board needs to be sure what they are talking about so it knows what they are talking about so that it knows what it is providing; and if it is going to focus on the unincorporated area only, then the municipalities are going to start having an issue about the deputies that are responding in minimum amounts in municipalities and the amount of money they are paying to have deputies respond. He noted that was always an issue in South Florida.

Commissioner Carlson inquired if it provides any clarity to determine what the consultants laid out as far as their equations for figuring out law enforcement impact fees; stated she knows they define things in certain ways; and inquired if it would be any assistance in clarifying this issue. Mr. Knox stated the Board does not have an impact fee for law enforcement, but it does for the correctional facility. Commissioner Carlson stated she is talking about whoever has done it, not just Brevard County, but other counties in the State. Mr. Knox stated it might be helpful to look at those alternatives. He stated Commissioner Scarborough basically identified the problem, which is they do not break down by what type of deputies they are and just say deputies; and theoretically, someone could come in and prove a case to the Board that he or she meets the Comprehensive Plan requirement by showing there are 682 deputies if all deputies qualify; and he or she would meet the requirements of the Comprehensive Plan. He stated if the Board does not break it down by deputies who are on road patrol or respond to crimes or something more specific, it will have that problem to wrestle with when someone comes before it trying to present evidence. Commissioner Carlson stated staff could find another municipality or county that applied law enforcement impact fees and see what it did to determine how it came up with that number, which may have the same problem with the definition of deputy versus police officer. Mr. Knox noted that would not hurt. Commissioner Pritchard stated one of the things staff will find out is the ratio per 1,000 will drop significantly and it will be looking at perhaps 1.0 or less if the definition of deputy excludes all support personnel; it is going to find it will get a different number and a different standard; and as he mentioned earlier, he has been there and has done that.

Commissioner Colon stated the Board does not have a leg to stand on; today it has been discussing this because it had a zoning meeting where it was about to change the rules in the middle of the game; so it tabled everything in that meeting to have this meeting and this discussion to see if those who wanted to put another impact fee in place had a leg to stand on. She stated right now she feels they do not have one because the numbers show that they do not have one; she is curious because the Board has a meeting on November 4, 2004; and she is concerned if it is going to apply or change the rules for those folks in the middle of the game again or is it going to go ahead and go back to the rules that those folks started with. She stated she is very curious about that and thinks it needs to have that discussion today because she refuses to go ahead and do the same thing it did to those poor folks the week before. Commissioner Carlson stated she thinks that is the intent. Commissioner Colon stated she pretty much wants to know if that is the case because if the Board is going to rehash this in the middle of a zoning meeting, it would not be appropriate to do that to those folks. She stated some Commissioners are not happy with the numbers that came back showing the County is doing really well; 1.99 is almost 2.0, which is very good; and one of the things she is curious about and is trying to find out exactly is not to try to micro-manage because it does not have any control over the Sheriff’s Department, which has a good idea of who is actually out on the road. She stated she is also curious about what is going to happen next week at the zoning meeting; and inquired is the Board going to go back and say no, deny, deny, deny, deny, or table, table, table, table until it gets back the report again. Commissioner Colon stated once all the Commissioners have the discussion and actually agree that maybe it is the formula it wants to use, that is what it should set in place and apply those rules and let everybody know who comes before the Board in zoning that it is what the Board decided, it is what it is going to do, and the folks need to be aware of it.

Chair Higgs stated she wants to clarify two things; the Comprehensive Plan to which she is referring is the same Comprehensive Plan the County has had since 1988; the Capital Improvements Element, which it is looking to for guidance, and thinks there are gaps in clarity there, is the same Comprehensive Plan that the Board used for years to apply the standard in regard to schools; and so what she thinks the Board has to do is figure out does it want to have standards in the community for law enforcement and what does that mean. She stated the Board has a standard; the problem is the standard is not as clear as she would like it to be; it does say 2 per 1,000, but when they go to the sources, that is not as clear; and FDLE told them yesterday that each sheriff reports as he or she sees fit the numbers that he or she decides to put into particular categories; so what the Board has to do is clarify its language, which is the same language it has used, no change, but it is applying the same language differently. She noted the language changed when the Board started applying it to schools; and everyone knows that. Chair Higgs stated the other thing the Board has to do is determine what deputies are what the numbers are, where all the deputies fit, then have a standard that meets the Comprehensive Plan and bring accountability to the Board and law enforcement so that they really know what level of service it has out there. She stated that clarification is very productive; it tells citizens what is out there, how the Board is measuring it, and what it looks for in the future in terms of level of service.

Commissioner Scarborough stated to answer Commissioner Colon’s question, as it reads, 2.0 deputies per 1,000 residents, he finds it very difficult to deny something based upon that because he finds it inherently ambiguous; however, he does not think it is appropriate for him to leave this be and continue to ignore the law enforcement component; therefore, he would like to define it and apply it once it has been better defined. He stated he thinks the whole Board agrees if a deputy is in the court room or at the jail it is not the same; and it is not good math to look at the incorporated and unincorporated areas in doing the calculation of residents because the Board can really have some askew numbers.

Commissioner Carlson stated the Board needs clarity; what FDLE has got, there is not much of an argument; but the Board needs to clarify it so it is not ambiguous in the Comprehensive Plan and it will have something that will guide it. She stated if Commissioner Scarborough will make the motion, she will second it.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to direct staff to report back to the Board with Comprehensive Plan amendments to clarify the language and definition of deputy.

Commissioner Pritchard stated while he does not have a problem coming back with a clarification, that is not the problem; the problem he has is the Board has a zoning meeting coming up; and he does not intend to come to that meeting saying it cannot do this or cannot do that because of some ambiguous number. He stated the Board is looking for a new way to say no; and he is looking at what County Attorney Scott Knox has said to the Board.

Commissioner Scarborough stated while the number is ambiguous, he is not going to use that as a basis for denial, but he does not think he can leave ambiguous language there indefinitely and three years later refuse to look at it as a component part and say it is ambiguous. He stated as soon as the Board identifies the ambiguity, it is incumbent upon it to move forward to clarify; he knows there is going to be different philosophies on how to do it; but the Board is going to move through it a lot smoother in this manner rather than taking and trying to apply different standards to fundamentally ambiguous language.

Commissioner Pritchard stated what the County Attorney said on questions 1, 2, and 3, correctional, schools, and law enforcement, is no, the Board cannot prevent approving rezoning applications based on those issues; the position the Board has taken in the past was wrong; he has been saying it for the past several weeks; and the numbers that Chair Higgs sprung on the Board a few weeks ago were totally erroneous. He stated Chief Deputy Crawford was wrong; he said he was wrong and all those numbers say he was wrong; and even Sheriff Williams back in 1998 said he was wrong; so the Board cannot let the tail wag the dog. He stated it has to come up with a way to determine what is what; FDLE uses 1.99 based on a reporting standard; others use whatever numbers they use; and according to the latest numbers provided by Chair
Higgs, it is 2.1. Chair Higgs stated she did not provide that number. Commissioner Pritchard stated Chair Higgs told him it was 454 and he divided that out, which came to 2.1; he was just taking Chair Higgs as a source; the total deputies per 1,000 Countywide is anywhere from 2.2 to 2.4 depending on what numbers the Board ends up using; and Brevard Tomorrow had 2.4, he had 2.3 and this is 2.2, so it is somewhere in that range. He stated his point is the Board needs to be careful about micromanaging to the point where it is making selective choices as to what it should accept as relevant data; when FDLE gives the Board 1.99, the discussion pretty much stops at that point; that is something the Board can accept; and when the County Attorney says no to the three issues that the Board discussed, then he can accept that. He stated he is not looking for another way to say no, he is looking for a way to provide service.

Chair Higgs stated the County Attorney said, “Although compliance with the law enforcement level of service is compulsory under the Comprehensive Plan, if the most recent FDLE deputy to population ratios are used, the current ratio substantially conforms to the advisory level of service.” She stated Commissioner Pritchard wants to throw out the Chief Deputy’s number because he just used the MSTU, the people who are actually out there; but it is just as appropriate to throw out the FDLE information since those numbers are also at fault; and the responsible thing to do is to get the right numbers. She stated what is written in the Finding of Facts on the Babcock LLC is, “The Code criteria requires consideration of the character of the area, the changes in the area, the impact of the proposed zoning classification on public facilities, the character of the surrounding area, compatibility of the proposed use, and the appropriateness of the use. Likewise, the textual portion of the Brevard County Comprehensive Plan in the Future Land Use Element provides criteria for the review of rezoning requests. These policies require compatibility of the proposed use with existing uses and availability of public facilities." She stated if it is saying the public facilities requirements are in the Comprehensive Plan and do not trivialize the arguments of what they need to do; they need to understand; she would agree it is not just the MSTU, they do have to add to those; but it is not the FDLE numbers either; so the Board has to come to some real numbers. She stated it needs to back off the Babcock LLC if this is where it is going because clearly what the County Attorney has said in there is the County must use, and it has said it more than once; so she would suggest the Board read that as well.

Commissioner Pritchard stated when Chair Higgs says, “must use,” the Board has the numbers; it has the 1.99, which is actually 2.1; it has the numbers; and Chair Higgs is looking for another set of numbers to say no. Chair Higgs stated she is looking for a real set of numbers. Commissioner Pritchard stated Chair Higgs is looking for the real set of numbers that she can accept so she can say no; and that is what she is looking for. Chair Higgs stated it is not .88 nor 1.99; and the Board has to come up with the number that is right to actually reflect the level of service in the community and what the Board wants it to be.

Mr. Knox stated the Board has rezoning cases that are pending; if someone comes in and tells the Board the Sheriff’s Department has 682 deputies, which somewhere in the report it says, there is no way the Board can say they do not meet the standard because it has not broken down the definition of deputies and what deputies it is talking about. He stated the developer used whatever deputies they have in the Sheriff’s Department to come up with the standard; that is what he would do if he was sitting on the other side of the podium trying to present a case to the Board; so at this point, it is not a realistic way to say yes or no to anything because it does not have it flushed out enough. Chair Higgs stated she agrees.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he made a motion and Commissioner Carlson seconded it; but he has a question for Mr. Swanke that goes to some fundamental issues that Commissioner Pritchard touched on; that is the Board is dealing with a Constitutional Officer; the Constitutional Officer obtains funding through the Board; the Board gives the Constitutional Officer monies; and he may designate different ways based upon that the Board could end up with denial of zoning requests totally independent of anything the Board has control of. Commissioner Pritchard stated the Sheriff could hold the Board hostage. Commissioner Scarborough stated what he thinks is significant is to extract out the incorporated areas; and he wants to extract out the budget that is utilized for the incarceration, the court system, and the jail, and look at the on-road operations in all functions to see how much per capita the County funds for that. He stated he would like to see to what extent the County is in fact funding that because one thing that could happen is a moratorium on everything in Brevard County and having to throw more and more money into law enforcement without having a definition of how far or where it goes to answer the question. He stated there is a problem; if the Board controlled it that is one thing; but it loses control; and Commissioner Pritchard had some difficulty getting some information and numbers from the Sheriff’s Office. Commissioner Pritchard stated that was only from one person who does not like him any more because he keeps asking her budgetary questions. Commissioner Scarborough stated nonetheless, the Board needs to get a handle on where it has control and where it needs to have that control and say it has certain standards; and it wants to contractually maintain that as a part of its funding methodology. He stated if the Board wants to have so many deputies, it needs to tell the Sheriff as it goes into the budget that the Board would like to see personnel assigned to those functions so it does not back into a moratorium on something it does not control. He stated that is a little extra work to Mr. Swanke’s work process, but the Board needs to see the dynamics and the community needs to see the dynamics.

Commissioner Pritchard stated Commissioner Scarborough also needs to realize that if he has ten people on the SWAT team, five people on the dive team, six people in Marine Agriculture, ten people in this, and 18 people in that, maybe the Sheriff can get by with far less in all of those services as well as forensics and whatever else, and put more deputies on the road. He stated if the Board leaves it simply to the Sheriff to orchestrate his distribution of personnel, he could hold the Board hostage; he could hold the County hostage by having less whatever it is going to determine is its definition of deputy on the road; and the Board is having the same problem with the School Board. Commissioner Scarborough stated Commissioner Pritchard will have the ability to walk through his definitions and ask the questions and have the numbers and economic data to make sense out of going from two deputies to a thousand to a real meaningful number; and that is where the people want the Board to be. He stated they do not want to see degradation in the quality of law enforcement because people are moving into the County; that is what this is for; and the Board has a responsibility to do it. Commissioner Pritchard stated what the people want to see is a deputy come to their house in about five minutes; that is what the people want; one of the arguments he had with the Sheriff over the 1998 referendum was that they do not care about two deputies per 1,000 or ten deputies per 1,000; what they care about is when they call 9-1-1 they have someone knocking on their door in five or six minutes; they want a response from police like they get from fire; and they do not want to wait or have a call system or rotation. Commissioner Pritchard stated it is inherent in certain operations to make people suffer by delaying the response; if the Board wants to get people’s attention, it could not pick up their trash for a week or cut off their water, and it will get just that; and it can be done the same way by orchestrating the response and still build the bureaucracy. He stated the County is getting less people out on the road, so he has a concern about the orchestration that can take place as well as the ability to hold the Board hostage; it is going through the same thing with the educational impact fee; the Board took the position of imposing the fee; and the School Board, he does not think, came up with whether it is going to build something. He stated the point is the Board has people that argue well they cannot do this because there is no school; there is no school because there is no money; there is no money because the Board did not do this; so then it is relying on the School Board to sort of tell it how it can charge more money for something the School Board may not do; and that is the same problem he has with trying to come up with a specific qualification that may be based on a scenario that is only going to be used to hold the Board hostage to provide more deputies, which could be taken off the road and put into special services and not counted. He stated he realizes the study needs to be done; he just wants the Board to understand all the parameters he will be looking for; and he has been there and done that, so he knows how to hide them and how to find them.

Chair Higgs stated Commissioner Pritchard is correct; people want the response at their homes; that is what it is all about; and inquired if the Board is going to allow the services to degrade. She stated the standards are not as clear as it needs to be, but the Board has a standard and has to measure its actions in growth issues on that. She stated there is a motion and a second; and inquired if everyone understands the motion.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Commissioner Colon stated the Board needs to know it is not applying something that it does not have proof will work. Chair Higgs stated she does not know if she would agree with that, but the Board can do whatever it wants; she suggests it weigh the evidence at the hearing because if it does not, then it will be remise in its quasi-judicial role. Commissioner Colon stated the reason she said that is because she wants to make sure the Board is pretty clear in the fact that all the evidence is not in to make the case.

Commissioner Carlson inquired if the Board will come back to the school capacity issue that it has not touched on.

The meeting recessed at 2:50 p.m., and reconvened at 3:03 p.m.

AGREEMENT WITH DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, RE: COST SHARE COMPLETION
OF GENERAL REEVALUATION REPORT FOR DEVELOPING AUTHORIZED FEDERAL
SHORE PROTECTION PROJECT FOR THE MID-REACH

Motion by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to execute Agreement with the Department of the Army for cost share completion of the General Reevaluation Report for developing an authorized federal shore protection project for the Mid-Reach. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Agreement.)

DISCUSSION, RE: REZONINGS YIELDING RESIDENTIAL DENSITY INCREASES,
LEVEL OF SERVICE STANDARDS, AND IMPACT FEES (CONTINUED)

Commissioner Carlson stated the Board did not do anything with school concurrency when it tabled all the rezonings, so it needs to at least be aware of where the school issue is at right now. She stated she had a meeting with Dr. DiPatri, David Picalo, Dane Theodore, Director of Facilities for the School Board, and the Planning and Project Management Group; and they basically said the School Board is going to meet in December for a workshop to review the policy to address impact fees. She stated they are currently in process of updating their facilities needs capacity assessment, which is scheduled for the February-March timeframe so they will have a handle on future capacities and at the same time the needs capacity goes into their five-year facilities work plan, which is due November 22, but they asked for an extension. She stated unfortunately what they said was the impact fee and the class size amendment have not been considered in any of that because they do not have impact fees to address so they do not know how those dollars are going to be accruing and they have to do a lot of analysis with that. She stated regarding the class size reduction amendment, the State Education Board has not convened in a while because of the hurricanes, so they have to reconvene and deal with that one; and she is not sure where that leaves the Board other than the fact that at the workshop the School Board will be reviewing the policy to address it now that the Board has impact fees in place. She stated of course after November 2, they do not know what will happen, but as far as they know today, here and now, impact fees are in place; so as an update, they did not give her any more additional information other than those are the processes the School Board goes through; and if it does change its policy, it takes three months to get it in place. Chair Higgs inquired if the Board has the same numbers it had; with Commissioner Carlson responding it has the same numbers and hopefully by the December workshop, if the Board finds that the School Board did anything with the policy, then it can address it at that point. Commissioner Carlson stated there was no new information regarding anything other than to find out it is where the School Board is at and it cannot use some of the more current data in its needs capacity and assessment process. She stated she does not know what the timeline is for some of the things the Board rezoned, but it ought to see what the School Board comes back with; and that needs to be what the Board then goes forward with. She stated that will not leave any questions how the Board is going to act on any given rezoning issue whether for density or other issues; and that is her update.

RESOLUTION, RE: SETTING FORTH FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS
PERTAINING TO DENIAL OF REZONING REQUEST BY BABCOCK , LLC

Chair Higgs inquired if the County Attorney wants the Board to act on the resolution today in light of its previous discussion; with County Attorney Scott Knox responding it depends on what the Board is going to do. He stated if it is going to not act on it and try to change the decision to approval of what was originally submitted, it can do that today; but if it is going to try to change it to anything other than what was originally submitted, it will probably have to re-advertise it for a public hearing. Chair Higgs stated in light of what the Board has been talking about for an hour and a half, the findings of fact the County Attorney submitted to the Board may be inconsistent with what the Board just said. Mr. Knox stated at the time the Board considered the rezoning request, it did not have the information that it has today. Chair Higgs read excerpts from the findings of fact, as follows: “The Board of County Commissioners takes judicial notice of the fact that the County currently has jail capacity for 1,041 inmates, but there are 1,379 inmates”; “existing deputy coverage is inadequate to meet the requirements of the Comprehensive Plan”; and “the proposed rezoning request will increase density and exacerbate the deficiencies in public facilities and services described above.” Commissioner Pritchard stated the findings of fact need to be revised. Commissioner Carlson stated the Board cannot do that unless it opens the issue up again.

Mr. Knox advised he does not think anything was mentioned in any of the evidence presented to the Board about correctional facilities or law enforcement personnel; the Board was made aware of those statistics by virtue of an earlier presentation made at the Board meeting before the zoning hearings that particular day; so it had the ability to understand the information that was presented at that time, but it had to take official notice of it in order to get it into the record because it was not in the record. He stated at this point, to the extent the Board has conflicting information, it probably needs to take additional evidence, meaning a new hearing, or needs to go back and rescind what it did before. Chair Higgs stated or the Board could adopt it as is. Mr. Knox stated he is not sure the Board can do that given what it knows now.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to direct the County Attorney to advertise a rehearing on the rezoning request of Babcock, LLC.

Commissioner Scarborough stated under the circumstances, that is what he would feel more comfortable with. Chair Higgs inquired how will that happen; with Mr. Knox responding they will re-advertise it and the applicant, if he is still interested in pursuing his rezoning application, comes back and goes through the hearing again; and if he is not, he can withdraw it and the Board does not have to worry about it.

Chair Higgs stated she thought Commissioner Colon’s argument at that time was largely in regard to incompatibility and schools. Mr. Knox stated that was also an issue; and the basic reason it got turned down, if his recollection serves him correctly, was the correctional facilities and jail capacity at the time. Chair Higgs stated when the Board rehears the application, it will need to have the information on jail capacity and law enforcement. Mr. Knox stated it is going to have to hear the evidence to make sure it is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

DISCUSSION, RE: FULL FUNDING FOR TANF COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP MATCHING
GRANT

Commissioner Scarborough advised in his discussions with Housing and Human Services Director Gay Williams, she suggested the Board proceed with Items 1, 2, and 3; and he will make a motion approving those items.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to authorize staff to contact the Governor to request assistance in the authorization of additional legislative funding through June 30, 2005; contact the Brevard Legislative Delegation to request legislative action during the special session in December 2004; and seek another emergency partnership as it did with Florida Children’s Services Council to spend out the grant by December 15, 2004, requiring selected partner to invoice for up to $700,000 worth of services, keep half of the match, reduce the County’s potential revenues to approximately $1.3 million in lieu of the almost $2 million, and mitigate the potential for any risk to the General Fund or privatization efforts. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Chair Higgs stated she assumes she would sign a letter to the Governor; with Commissioner Scarborough responding that is part of the motion.

Chad Carnell, Chief Financial Officer for CBC of Brevard, thanked the Board for the assistance it has rendered to the CBC; stated the board of directors and senior executive management team feel the Board of County Commissioners is a critical partner of their organization; and they hope the Board will continue its support. He stated they are here to assist the Board in any manner it thinks is necessary to go forward.

Virginia Shannon, Clinical Director of Family Counseling Center, advised the Center has been providing services through the TANF grant to the County for years; they have been giving family assistance for over four years; and without the dollars that come from the Board, they would not be able to take care of the families that do not have any means of mental health insurance, not Medicaid eligible, and not sick enough to go to a Circles of Care facility. She stated they feel because of the recent hurricanes their families will experience a lot of trauma, which will begin to manifest itself in the next three to six months; and they have experienced that historically after Hurricane Andrew; and many families moved to Brevard County and went through a lot of serious issues starting with financial problems, trauma with children being frightened to be alone in their homes, and so forth. She stated their program of individual and family counseling is a preventative measure that will save the County a lot of money in the end; it will prevent a lot of domestic violence, some child abuse, and preserve the family system; and eventually it will save money in Community Based Care.

Chair Higgs thanked Mr. Carnell and Ms. Shannon for their presentations.

APPROVAL, RE: ALLOCATION OF FY 2004-05 COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATION
DOLLARS

Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board knows how he feels about certain items that were reduced, not because they are good, but they also make good dollar sense; and they capture other funds and bring them into Brevard County. He stated the meals for seniors can bring aid to a person who is critical by going there and identifying multiple other problems; so he will make a motion to supplement with other funds. He stated the Board put a little extra in reserves; and his initial thinking is to take some of the reserves and make it work for the people who need it so badly. Chair Higgs inquired if Commissioner Scarborough is talking about $18,000 for Alzheimer’s and $18,000 for Community Services Council coming from reserves; with Commissioner Scarborough responding that would be his hope.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to approve $18,000 for Alzheimer’s Foundation and $18,000 for Community Services Council from the reserve account.

Chair Higgs stated with that in mind, there seems to be support for the allocations; and she has cards from those who wish to speak to those items.

Joe Steckler, representing Brevard Alzheimer’s Foundation, requested the Board’s support not just for the elderly program but every nonprofit program. He stated people have been hurt tremendously, not just the Alzheimer’s or Community Care, but the Salvation Army, Red Cross, and all the organizations; they have experienced new meaning to the fragility of their care-giving system; and they have a lot more clients typically because of what happened over the last month. He stated agencies like people need stability; the proposal by Commissioner Scarborough to fund it from reserves makes it easier for all of them; he does not want to see any other agency have money taken away from it; they work too hard to have anything like that happen; so his plea is to keep it intact and let the people work on their budgets as they have for the last four or five months. He stated there has been too much scraping; the Board has helped them a lot; and he would have come back and asked for more money.

Robert Radencic, representing Prevent of Brevard, Inc., stated as much as they like to take credit for their own accomplishments, none of them could be here without help from others; and he is here today so the Board realizes the significant impact Sally’s House residential recovery home program has on Brevard County. He stated Sally’s House is a residential recovery program offering a safe drug-free environment for a period of six to 24 months for pregnant and post-partum women with or without children and with alcohol and/or other drug abuse problems. He stated clients receive individual family case plans, a comprehensive program of substance abuse treatment, both individual and group therapy, relapse prevention, mental health evaluation, parenting skills, anger management, employability skills, education, and referrals to other services available in Brevard County. He stated the program strives to eliminate drug and alcohol abuse through individual and group therapy, enhance bonding with infants and children, thus improving parenting skills, achieve family reunification, meeting the goals of Department of Children and Family case plans, increase vocational and employment opportunities by referrals to education business locations, and return a woman to the family and society with life skills and drug-free living skills as an employed productive member of the community. Mr. Radencic stated to date 53 drug-free babies have been born to mothers who reside at Sally’s House; the success rate for the women who successfully complete all program requirements is 82%; and Sally’s House is also a good business investment for the citizens of Brevard County. He stated it is estimated the medical cost for the care of one drug-addicted baby is $250,000 in the first year of life; by helping to prevent these addictions, they save the taxpayers a significant amount of money; and additionally, for every dollar they receive they draw $4.00 in matching TANF State support funds. He stated someone questioned the wisdom of helping those mothers who are victims of their own abuse; the common consensus seems to be to help those who are victims through no fault of their own; if ever there were innocent victims who got totally what they did not deserve, they are the babies born addicted to drugs; and that is why Sally’s House is so important. He stated on behalf of Prevent and the residents of Sally’s House, he would like to thank the Board for the opportunity to speak to it today; they are grateful for previous funding; and they would like for it to continue.

Chair Higgs stated she does not think she is misreading the Board, but there is support and at least three votes for Commissioner Scarborough’s motion; the Board will support the allocations; but if anyone wants to talk against the allocations, they could speak now; otherwise the Board can move everybody back to work. Commissioner Scarborough stated Mr. Jenkins has a suggestion of the possibility of finding the funding.

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised it does not appear that the Board will fund a State lobbyist this year, so for the two $18,000 allocations, staff could take the lobbyist funds and use it for that purpose.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, to amend the motion to include funding from funds allocated for a State lobbyist instead of the reserve account.

Chair Higgs stated the Board is ready to move those funds, but she will recognize anyone who wishes to speak.

Tom O’Bryant stated Commissioner Scarborough’s recommendation was to fund senior citizens and Alzheimer’s, but he did not hear anything about domestic violence; and inquired if it is part of that.

Commissioner Scarborough stated in addition to what is before the Board, the motion is to provide an additional $37,399 from funds previously allocated so there will be 100% funding for all the agencies; and he will restate the motion that way.

Mr. O’Bryant inquired if it will be in accordance with funding streams from last year; with Mr. Jenkins responding it will be as recommended by staff.

Chair Higgs stated there is a second from Commissioner Pritchard on the motion as amended; and called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

RESOLUTION OF NECESSITY, RE: PROPERTY OWNED BY M & W PUMP
CORPORATION AND ELLER BROTHERS INVESTMENT LLC (COUCH
PUMP SITE) FOR SOUTH BREVARD BOAT LAUNCH SITE

Parks and Recreation Director Charles Nelson advised the action today is to adopt the resolution of necessity and authorize the Chair to sign it; but he would also like to highlight a couple of things relating to the item because the public may not be aware of the issues. He stated in 1995, Dr. Frederick Bell with Florida State University did a study relating to availability of boat ramps; it was determined that by 2005, Brevard County would be short 25 ramps; and since that time, two ramps have been constructed, so it is still about 23 short. He stated in the 2000 parks and recreation referendum for South Brevard County, one of the projects was a boat ramp; a citizen committee got together and selected this site for that purpose; and as they were going through the Manatee Protection Plan process, a site in South Brevard was given some special consideration to allow for the construction of the boat ramp. He stated with all those factors, they want to get into the record that the need exists to acquire a site in South Brevard for launching of boats into the Indian River.

Chair Higgs stated the Board will find that recreational facilities and access to the water is in the best interest of the public safety, health, and welfare; people enjoy the river; it is a jewel; and the Board needs to provide access to it.

Commissioner Scarborough stated staff will continue to work with the owner and hopefully work out a friendly purchase, but nonetheless, this is the appropriate thing to do, so he will move it.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution of Necessity for commencement of condemnation proceedings for acquisition of Parcel ID: 29-38-28-25-0000A.0-0007.00, and only the riverside property east of U.S. 1 for Parcel ID: 29-38-28-25-0000A.0-0006.00 owned by M & W Pump Corporation and Eller Brothers Investment LLC (Couch Pump site) for South Brevard boat launch site, subject to the County Attorney’s approval of the required survey. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-279.)

AGREEMENT WITH NASA, 45TH SPACE WING, UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE
SERVICE, AND BREVARD COUNTY MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT, RE: MOSQUITO
CONTROL ON NASA AND 45TH SPACE WING PROPERTIES

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to recess as the Board of County Commissioners and convene as the Governing Board of the Mosquito Control District. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to execute Agreement with NASA, 45th Space Wing, and United States Fish and Wildlife Service for mosquito control services on NASA and 45th Space Wing properties. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Agreement.)

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Pritchard, to adjourn as the Governing Board of Mosquito Control District, and reconvene as the Board of County Commissioners. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

EMERGENCY PURCHASE ORDERS, RE: EXECUTED FOR HURRICANES CHARLEY,
FRANCES, AND JEANNE

Walter Pine of Titusville stated he discussed the issues on the contracts at length to some degree with Scott Knox and there is a lot of things that need to be looked at. He stated he wants to bring some of those things to the Board’s attention in regard to the contracts; one thing is the contracts reach hurricane or given what Finance calls a bid or internal order number and that is how they are tracking them; and he did not see the internal order numbers on there and wonders if this is supposed to be an all inclusive list or a partial list, and he would like to know that. He stated there is also the question of the contract monitors and the way those are being done because they were let out and done in an emergency situation; the Policy Group passed a number of those that are purchase orders; then the contract monitor actually exists; so there is one set of hands giving out the contract, officiating over the contract, determining whether the contract was complete and so on and so forth, with no checks and balances whatsoever. He stated he checked with Finance today; the contract monitors in Finance do not go and double check it; it is done by simply the emergency Policy Group and the people that come in there; and he would recommend there be some re-questionings. He stated the FEMA issues and the suspense for applying to FEMA are important; he has no doubt of that; and he appreciates the great work that a lot of people have done, but there has already been a number of issues on overtime and other expenditures that have occurred and the public deserves accountability. He stated one of the problems with the reviews that have occurred in the past for the emergency systems is they have not caught the errors and shortcomings; it is important that they look at the contracting system and the way the contracts are handled when they move back into normal operation of the County; while it is well within reason for them to be handled by one single set of hands when they are under an emergency situation, as they transfer back into normal operation of the County, there should be checks and balances; and the Board should have some separation between who gives out the contract and who officiates over the contract and who monitors the contract. He stated there needs to be some review; right now he went up and looked in the Emergency Management Section for finance in their file and did not find many of the contracts; he was told they would be available over with the FEMA representative in budget; and he will be checking there when he finishes here. He stated as far as their availability, they are only available at this point through the emergency system so they have not gotten into the rest of the system to be even properly processed; those are what are currently in the computer; Finance cannot even tell him if there are others that will be subsequently entering the system and be required to be paid; they believe there are additional issues that are before FEMA; so he would suggest when the Board looks at the contracts, because it is interesting that all are round numbers with a few having 80 cents and so on and so forth, it is unusual that all the contracts would come out so evenly. Mr. Pine stated that in and of itself is one of the things an auditor will tell the Board he will check; and if all of them come out with three zeros on the end or five zeros on the end or whatever that is one of the basic things a financial auditor will tell the Board he looks at. He stated it does not usually work that way; it is something that needs that additional check on because they need to save as much money as they can save on the processes; there is no doubt, as the Board discussed today with the waste pickup, it is going to have to go to the public to recover those monies; and if there are monies that may not have been spent or may be recoverable, they need to double check that because ultimately it comes out of the taxpayers’ pockets. He stated while everybody is very grateful, it is definitely necessary to have those checks and balances in the system that are not currently there; one of the situations he discovered today is normally Finance verifies budget numbers; Finance does not have all the contracts or all the information; and the person doing the FEMA reporting and budget, Finance certainly cannot verify that person’s numbers, so that is the check and balance needed. He stated when they are reporting the numbers to FEMA they need to be certain that those numbers are correct and they capture all the expenses; and that is very important.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he received a memo from the Clerk referencing one of the contracts; Finance Director Stephen Burdett went through it with him; and he would feel more comfortable if the Board is going to hold one contract, that it hold all of them so he can make sure that he is fully briefed. He stated he needs to do it in person to make sure he has full knowledge of them; and the Board is in the process of ratifying the contracts, but he does not know if there is any rush to ratify them. He stated it may be wise to hold the whole item until the next meeting; and inquired when would that be; with Mr. Burdett responding Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis’ request is to be put on the Agenda for the November 9th meeting.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, to table the emergency purchase orders for Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne until November 9, 2004.

Chair Higgs stated there were two contracts the Policy Group was involved in; one was the Post Buckley and the other was purchasing of traffic lights; and she does not understand it as a matter of practice and practicality because they have already received the traffic lights and will have to stop the Post Buckley contract if it is not going to be ratified.

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised during an emergency certain powers and authorities are delegated to the Policy Group; most of the expenses have been incurred; and what the Board asked for and received was a list of purchase orders. He stated Mr. Pine confused the word contract and purchase order; in a sense a purchase order is a contract; but many of the entities have existing agreements that are already in place; and they are purchase orders that were cut against those agreements. He asked Mr. Knox if the Policy Group has legal authority to take action; with County Attorney Scott Knox responding they have that authority; it is not specifically articulated; but it is certainly derived from the Florida Statutes and from the authority that is granted to the Policy Group. He stated he believes the Policy Group has that authority, but he asked that they come back and have the Board of County Commissioners ratify the purchase orders to make sure there is no question about them from anybody.

Commissioner Scarborough stated if the vote is to acknowledge receipt, he would not have any problem; but the word “ratify”, after his conversations with the Clerk’s Office, it is incumbent upon him to understand if there are concerns on any items before he actually moves to ratify. He stated if the Board wants to acknowledge receipt that would be acceptable because that does not mean he has knowledge of all the items, particularly when a Constitutional Officer has questions and would like to inquire.

Chair Higgs stated she understands Commissioner Scarborough’s concerns; she was just trying to understand it in a holistic sense; and on the two items that the Policy Group did, she does not think the Board would want the Group not to get the traffic lights. She stated the Group moved forward to get what it thought was a good monitoring collection system in place; the Board heard the presentation and moved forward; and to be in receipt is fine, but if the Board is not going to move forward with the Post Buckley contract or it wants to take back the traffic lights, then it should do it. Commissioner Scarborough stated at this time all he knows is there may be questions that are raised and he does not know what they are. Mr. Jenkins stated staff will be happy to answer any questions, but the point is on September 28 Post Buckley made a presentation to the Board and told it what they were going to do; they basically have done that for the last three weeks; the Board can stop them today; but he would guess that three-fourths of the expenses have already been incurred or at least a portion of it.

Commissioner Scarborough stated Post Buckley appeared before the Board and made a presentation; he looked over to Mr. Knox and asked if the Board is going to be asked to approve the contract; and Mr. Knox said no, the Board does not have to but it would not be bad to ratify. He stated later on they thought there were a number of contracts and probably needed to look at all of them; Central Services Director Steve Stultz came up and read through a litany of things; and it is really hard to ratify a list. He stated they still have a list except now they have the Clerk, having seen the list, saying he would like to look at the list in more detail; he would prefer and would make a motion to be in receipt of the list of contracts; and if somebody wants to bring something up further or he is called upon to look further, he may.

Commissioner Pritchard seconded the motion. Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Chair Higgs stated she would like to ask the Board, because it does not need confusion on those issues, to direct the County Manager and the County Attorney to clarify the issues; and if it is not as clear as the Board ought to have it, to clarify those in the Policy Manual so there is no ambiguity.

Mr. Jenkins inquired if the clarification is in regard to authority of the Policy Group; with Chair Higgs responding yes. She stated she understands where Commissioner Scarborough is coming from; and if staff could do that, she thinks that would be real helpful in the long run.

BOND RESOLUTION, PUBLICATION OF SUMMARY NOTICE OF SALE, FINALIZE
PRELIMINARY AND FINAL OFFICIAL STATEMENTS, AND AWARD THE SALE
OF THE BONDS, RE: LIMITED AD VALOREM TAX BOND, SERIES 2004,
ENVIRONMENTALLY ENDANGERED LANDS

Walter Pine of Titusville stated this item is on the old EEL’s tax bond referendum; according to the statement, the issuance of the tax bonds have already been approved; if they have already been approved, he does not understand why it is brought back unless it is just an information matter; but if the Board is being asked to vote on something, there is also delegations of authority in there that he thinks may or may not have been done previously. He stated he has not found it in the record; for instance the delegation of authority to the County Manager or his designee in regards to the EEL’s process and the delegation to the Chair of the authority to award the sale of the bonds based on the criteria; and inquired if those have already been done, and the issuance is already taken care of, why is the Board wasting its time; what is the legal invocation; why is it bringing it back up for vote again when it says they have on September 21, 2004 budget hearing approved the additional issuance of additional limited ad valorem tax bonds. He stated he is a little confused and tried to ferret out the necessity for this particular item. He stated if the Board could enlighten him on that he would appreciate it.

County Manager Tom Jenkins stated the voters voted for up to $55 million in bonds; prior to this, $27,420,000 in bonds were issued, so there is additional capacity that was previously authorized by the voters of almost $20 million; and in order to issue bonds, it is necessary to have the Board adopt a resolution and other documents. He stated this item is for the balance of the available capacity; and they will never reach the $55 million, but they have the potential to generate another $6 million in bond proceeds. He stated it came up in the Budget Workshop when the Board was setting the millages; and the Board discussed going forward with doing an additional bond issue for the balance at that time.

Commissioner Scarborough stated to integrate this borrowing with the other borrowing may lead to some opportunities; he does not have a problem with bonding; that is what it is there for; that has been previously approved; it all makes sense; but he would like the Finance Director to go into the scenario of what they talked about.

Finance Director Stephen Burdett advised there could be some opportunities presenting themselves depending on the outcome of the referendum that the people are getting ready to vote on; so it may open the door to issuing more than the $5 or $6 million the Board is looking at. He stated the Board might incorporate it into the new referendum if it is approved; and it opens up opportunities that the Board may want to consider before it issues these bonds.

Chair Higgs advised PFM is here if the Board wants to ask it questions.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired if it is possible to pass a contingent motion to go for the bonding, but if in fact the referendum passes, it can be integrated into the larger issue. Commissioner Carlson inquired if they can actually co-mingle those sources of funds.

David Moore with Public Financial Management (PFM), advised there would be some efficiencies in doing them at the same time, but they are separate referendums and separate authorizations, so there would actually be two separate series of bonds. He stated the Board could sell them at the same time. Commissioner Scarborough stated so that is not much opportunity; with Mr. Moore responding he is not sure if the Board is going a different direction than just the cost of issuance type efficiencies.

Mr. Burdett stated part of the millage seems to be levied for operating and maintenance purposes of the voter referendums; the other part is levied to pay the debt on the bonds that are actually issued; so the Board has opportunities, if the new referendum is approved, as to how it wishes to structure the part that is going to be funding the operations, environmentalists, and other staff there employed to manage the program. He stated the Board also has the opportunity, as Mr. Jenkins said earlier, to issue more than the $6 million and come closer to what was actually approved by the voters; and it will have another 20 years on the new program to size how much it issues under that.

Commissioner Carlson stated she is not sure she gets it. Mr. Jenkins stated Mr. Burdett is saying because the Board has to run them dual track, it cannot merge them. Mr. Burdett stated Mr. Moore’s statement is true; the Board cannot merge one bond issue from two different voter referendums; but it could issue $17 million under the EEL’s program as opposed to $6 million. Commissioner Carlson inquired if that is for the current EEL’s program; with Mr. Burdett responding yes. Mr. Jenkins inquired how could they do that; with Parks and Recreation Director Charles Nelson responding the question is how much could be made available from the operating cost in the old issue versus new issue, and new millage versus old millage; but they have not had a chance to look at it because they just talked about it earlier today. Mr. Jenkins inquired if they are trying to transfer operating costs from one to the other; with Mr. Nelson responding there was some discussion related to long-term maintenance costs; one ends in 2011; and the potential is that the new bond could address that and the old bond dollars that are currently being used for operating and maintenance could be used for additional bond dollars. Commissioner Carlson inquired what advantage would that provide; with Mr. Jenkins responding the Board can borrow more money if it did not have to use the current dollars for operating and maintenance expenses; under that theory, it could borrow more with the current money; and the new referendum if it passes, will run for 20 years; therefore, the Board would be getting those operating dollars for another 20 years.

Chair Higgs inquired if that gets into the problem of the two separate streams of money, separate lands, and separate operating costs; with Mr. Moore responding that gets to the legal issue as to how the two referendums are separated. He stated can the Board move what could be operating expenses in the current program to a different program is the gist of what staff is getting at; and if it is fine from the legal side, then from a financing side, it can borrow more money with the existing EEL’s program and fund more projects. Mr. Nelson stated what complicates the process from a maintenance perspective is that it is a checkerboard acquisition process; staff will have some new acquisitions, potentially with the new referendum plus the old acquisitions; they are going to be side-by-side; and from a practical perspective, the operation and maintenance of those are not going to be discernable. He stated they are going to be faced with that issue under any circumstance. Chair Higgs stated if staff is faced with that circumstance, it would be better to clear it up there than to have the bonding scenario.

Commissioner Scarborough stated after the Presidential election, the Board could find a spike in interest rates; oil prices are going to historical levels; and there is no indication that inflation will perish. He stated whoever is President is going to face some higher interest rates; when interest rates go up, the County gets less money; so he would like to proceed because there is a tremendous advantage in borrowing when interest rates are low; and he does not want to keep revisiting issues. He stated if he could make a contingent motion to proceed this way, and if the bond issue passes next week, the Board can have an integrated proposal if it is advantageous. He stated they will have the ability to get the process going because the Board does not know how fast interest rates may move as soon as the election is over next Tuesday; and it may find a different attitude at the federal level; so he would like to let them go ahead with the flexibility. Mr. Moore inquired if Commissioner Scarborough is suggesting approving it now, and if the referendum passes. . .; with Commissioner Scarborough responding yes, and it remains approved but may be integrated with the larger issue. Mr. Moore stated they had planned on selling the bonds the following Tuesday; but they probably need to defer that at least a week or so to give the Board the time to meet again to essentially wipe out the contingency and say either go or not go. Commissioner Scarborough stated the contingency would wipe itself out. Mr. Knox stated there is really no contingency if they approve the deal today. Commissioner Scarborough stated it is approved, but it will allow for flexibility in the event the referendum passes. Mr. Moore stated if the referendum passes, he assumes the Board would want them to come back before they sold the bonds to see if it wants to do a different structure or to work with the legal aspects. Mr. Knox stated he does not know whether or not they could consolidate the two; there may be a way to structure it that he is not familiar with; bond counsel may be able to come up with a method; and if that is the case, the Board may have to come back and do some kind of combined resolution. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board definitely has to come back with the new issue, so there is further discussion; but this has basically been approved for integration; and the discussion has moved past this issue to whether it goes along as an integrated discussion with the other issue.

Commissioner Carlson inquired if they are not going to do the bonds until the week after the election; with Mr. Moore responding if the Board were to approve it today, they would advertise it on Friday so it starts the sequence, which they can pause at any time. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if it would be better to wait another week until the election and go from there; with Mr. Moore responding if the Board wants to have a contingency so that if the referendum passes they could look at some things, it would be to approve it exactly that way, and adopt the resolution; and if the referendum failed, they would proceed with the limited issue.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to adopt Resolution supplementing a Resolution adopted on February 1, 1991 as supplemented and amended, authorizing the issuance of its Limited Ad Valorem Tax Bonds, Series 2004, not to exceed $6,000,000 to acquire environmentally endangered lands and make improvements with respect thereto; authorizing the County Manager or his designee to award the sale of such bonds based on bids submitted at public sale and approving the conditions and criteria of such sale; specifying or establishing the criteria for determining the date, interest rates, interest payment dates, provisions for redemption, series designation and maturity schedule of such bonds; approving a draft form of Preliminary Official Statement; authorizing the circulation thereof and authorizing the County Manager or his designee or the Chief Financial Officer to deem the Preliminary Official Statement final in accordance with SEC Rule 15c2.12 and to approve the final Official Statement; designating the Registrar and Paying Agent for said bonds; providing covenants to comply with applicable tax and arbitrage rebate requirements; providing certain covenants for the benefit of AMBAC Assurance Corporation as an inducement for it to issue its municipal bond insurance policy with respect to the bonds and authorizing the negotiation and execution of a commitment with respect thereto; approving the form of and authorizing the execution and delivery of a Continuing Disclosure Certificate; providing an effective date for this Resolution; and providing certain other details with respect thereto.

Commissioner Pritchard stated he does not understand why the Board wants to take two tracks and approve the bond resolution today with the contingency on what the election may bring up. He stated it is going to sort of halt them in their tracks as to what they are going to be doing; it is going to be held up a week anyway; it would seem like the more responsible or best way to do it is to wait until next Tuesday then go from there; and the Board can always approve it if the new EEL’s referendum fails. Mr. Moore stated the only hitch with that would be if by chance the interest rates were to take off very quickly, they have essentially a two-week window; they have to advertise and then sell two weeks later; and if they wait and put it on the shelf for two weeks, they would not have that flexibility to start the process. Commissioner Pritchard inquired if Mr. Moore thinks interest rates would spike that quickly; with Mr. Moore responding it is probably unlikely, but stranger things have happened; it is particular strange that rates are as low as they are right now, given the things that have happened for the last five or six months; so he is not going to bet either way. He stated he has seen in the past where he has stood in this position and said do not worry it is not going to hurt the client, and the client has paid for it; so he does not say that any more. Commissioner Pritchard stated he would not be surprised that there will be an increase in interest rates, he does not think it will happen in a week or two weeks.

Chair Higgs stated if the referendum passes on Tuesday, the Board would look at a much larger bonding operation; and inquired would he go forward with that immediately or wait until the actual properties were negotiated. Mr. Moore stated it would be up to the Board and staff if they are ready to move forward with the larger program. Chair Higgs stated she does not think there are millions of dollars worth of projects ready to be purchased; they do not have contracts and things negotiated; but it is reasonable to go forward with this.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he votes his own instincts; there is a motion on the floor; and the nice thing about it is, they do not have to come back if the referendum fails. He stated there will be a lot of dynamics if it passes; his inclination is to borrow, even though they do not have all the contracts in hand, because the higher the interest rate the less money the County will have in the bank. Chair Higgs stated if the referendum passes, they should get the bonding done. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to move expeditiously. Chair Higgs stated sometimes money in hand ready to go makes negotiations easier. Mr. Moore stated the Board can always come back, even if there is not a very well defined list.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Pritchard voted nay. (See page for Resolution No. 04-280.)

*Commissioner Colon’s absence was noted for the remainder of the meeting.

DISCUSSION, RESOLUTION, AND APPOINTMENTS, RE: INTERNAL AUDIT COMMITTEE,
AND RESTRUCTURING COMMITTEE AND AUDIT PLAN

Walter Pine of Titusville stated as the Board considers restructuring the Audit Committee, he would encourage it to give a greater amount of public access; he realizes the Audit Committee is to produce solutions to problems found by the auditors; those solutions are not always found by "qualified personnel"; many of the audits have command and control issues; and suggested the Board put some people either on a parallel committee or on the Audit Committee, that are general public members. He stated the old adage “from the mouths of babes” is a good adage; people can come up with very good and appropriate ideas even though they may not be schooled, properly qualified, or certified in auditing; and it creates a situation where the Board will get a divergence or a broad spectrum of input. He stated the audits serve as major checks and balances on government; all members of the public should have access to it and input into it such that they would actually be participating in the process; and suggested the Board give the public access or create some public positions on the Audit Committee so the public has the opportunity or at least some members of the public have the opportunity to put in perhaps nontraditional or non-conventional solutions. Mr. Pine stated the Audit Committee is extremely important to the solutions of the County; limiting it to purely qualified individuals tends, in many cases they have seen with engineers, to come up with more complicated problems; often the members of the public, though they may not be qualified in the field, come up with solutions or find problems where they are not seen by other people; and that is quite common. He stated they see that quite frequently; so he would like to encourage the Board to look at it and consider putting average members of the community, well some members of the community, because he does not want to use the word “average,” on the Audit Committee for those solutions.

County Manager Tom Jenkins recommended the Board go to the next item as staff calculates the results of the selection.

The Board postponed the Audit Committee item until later in the meeting.

CITIZEN REQUEST - PHILIP F. NOHRR, RE: MELBOURNE GREYHOUND PARK,
LLC CARD ROOM FACILITY

Attorney Philip Nohrr advised he wrote to the County requesting it consider granting authorization under Chapter 849 for the issuance of a license to allow a poker card room in the pari-mutuel facility; he spoke to all the Commissioners about the facility; and he is here to answer any questions. He stated it is not gambling as defined by Florida Statutes; the house or pari-mutuel facility is not involved in the game; and it just sets up the facility and does not take a percentage of the revenues. He stated they do not play against other betters; it is a form of entertainment; they are not striking new ground; the facilities are in existence in Jacksonville, Daytona, St. Petersburg, and in West Palm-Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, but he is not sure about Tampa. He stated they are trying to provide a form of entertainment for the community; based upon other facilities, it will produce as many as 100 jobs, some of them as much as $25 an hour; and they believe it is recreation. He stated it is low-stakes gambling; the maximum is a $2.00 raise; in order to do it, Florida Statutes require that the County in which the facility is located grant its approval; so he is here tonight seeking the Board’s approval. Mr. Nohrr stated the people who hold the pari-mutuel license in Brevard County are here if the Board has any questions of them. He stated there is only one facility; he has spoken with the City of Melbourne to alert it that this will be on the Agenda; so the City is aware of it.

Commissioner Carlson stated the Statute on gambling says, “certain penny-ante games are not crimes, and restrictions. . .”, and assumes Mr. Nohrr is guided by that; and inquired if that is correct. Mr. Nohrr stated he is not an expert on gambling; he does not really deal in that area of the law, and he loses money whenever he gambles; but the difference with this is that the house does not participate. He stated that is the distinction that was raised when this bill passed the Legislature and was upheld; there will be a low-stakes poker game; and to him that is gambling of some sort, but the pari-mutuel license is not involved.

Chair Higgs inquired if the Board has to advertise an ordinance; with Mr. Nohrr responding the Statute just says grant approval in such form as the Division may require; but if it is the pleasure of the Board to advertise for an ordinance, that would be up to it. He stated he does not think the Florida Statutes require an ordinance per se; it just requires a majority vote; but again it is subject to what the Division would require. He stated he knows in Volusia County, when the Commission passed it, it did it by resolution.

Commissioner Pritchard stated the State collects pari-mutuel revenues and passes them to counties; the Florida Statutes say, “one quarter of the monies deposited into the pari-mutuel trust fund be distributed to counties in which the card rooms are located”; and inquired if Mr. Nohrr has any idea how much money that would be; with Mr. Nohrr responding he is not sure; the County Manager asked that question when he got the request; and at the risk of being wrong, he thinks it may be in the $30 to $50,000 range, but asked not to be held to that number. He stated he would be happy to look back and see how it develops, but that is his best guess.

Chair Higgs inquired if the Board can do it by ordinance or resolution; with Mr. Knox responding it can do it either way, but the ordinance would require publication of a public hearing. Chair Higgs inquired if there is a motion.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded for discussion by Commissioner Higgs, to authorize adoption of Resolution approving the request from Melbourne Greyhound Park, LLC to have a card room facility at Melbourne Greyhound Park.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he will not be voting for it; he knows it is probably very minor; Mr. Nohrr came to talk to him; but there are certain currents in the State today to expand gambling; and he is concerned about that and does not know if this is a positive signal.

Commissioner Pritchard stated he vacillated with the same concern, but one thing about it is to have a revenue stream if the Board is reducing the amount of people it is going to invite to come
to live in Brevard County through density regulations. He stated one of his concerns is how the County is going to pay for services unless it keeps raising property taxes; he does not want to get built out with an under-populated County because the Board decided to have low densities; so it has to create revenue streams. He stated there are people who enjoy low-stakes poker; and inquired how many people do Commissioners know who do Wednesday night poker games or whatever. He stated some of the ladies are involved other card games; they may be doing pretzels and chips or dollars; but the point is how is the County going to pay for things if it does not have a revenue stream. He stated it is not a casino or slot machines; there are ships that go out, but some people do not like to get tied up for four hours plus an hour or more in transportation; and this might be a way for the County to bring in some revenue to help pay for some of the services that people would like to see; so that is why he supports it.

Chair Higgs stated it is similar to some of the things that are already going on such as bingo; and that is popular among a lot of people and does not seem to bring forward unseemly folks.

Chair Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Scarborough voted nay. (See page for Resolution No. 04-282.)

PERMISSION TO ADVERTISE AND SCHEDULE EXECUTIVE SESSION, RE: SAMUEL
D. HICKS v. BREVARD COUNTY

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Carlson, to authorize the County Attorney to advertise and schedule an executive session on November 9, 2004, at 11:30 a.m. or as soon thereafter as possible, to discuss strategies relating to Samuel D. Hicks v. Brevard County litigation. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

DISCUSSION, RESOLUTION, AND APPOINTMENTS, RE: INTERNAL AUDIT COMMITTEE,
AND RESTRUCTURING COMMITTEE AND AUDIT PLAN (CONTINUED)

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised the nominees selected were Jack Armul, Mark Cherry, Sam Lenck, John Walter, and Dave Zinsner and that would include the resolution that was before the Board and the schedule of the work to be done.

Motion by Commissioner Carlson, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to adopt Resolution restructuring the Internal Audit Committee; appoint Jack Armul, Mark Cherry, Sam Lenck, John Walter, and Dave Zinsner to the Committee; and approve the schedule of work to be done for the remainder of the calendar year as recommended by staff. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. (See page for Resolution No. 04-281.)

APPROVAL, RE: LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR JOINT TITLE

Chair Higgs advised she learned yesterday that on November 9, 2004, the Governor and Cabinet are going to be considering the issue of joint title; on a number of occasions, the Board has taken a position in favor of joint title; and inquired if it wants to send a letter to the Governor and Cabinet supporting joint title and authorize staff to represent the Board if appropriate.

Motion by Commissioner Pritchard, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to authorize the Chair to send a letter to the Governor and Cabinet supporting joint title; and authorize staff to represent the Board if appropriate.

Commissioner Carlson advised Virginia Barker is in Tallahassee, and could do double duty; with Chair Higgs responding Mr. Jenkins will select who should go, if it is the right thing to do.

PUBLIC COMMENTS - WALTER PINE

Walter Pine of Titusville stated the Board had Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) before it, and in that discussion FPL said it would gladly go back and see what additional concessions it would offer and additional benefits it would offer for the contract; and during that time, without asking anything about it, the Board voted for that contract. He stated essentially FPL said it will pay the County more and the County said okay it will give the contract to FPL the way it is. He stated meanwhile here the Board is sitting saying it needs to get the most it can for its dollars, the most it can for its property and everything else; and there is a problem here. He stated a few minutes ago he made a comment about the Audit Committee; the Board sat there while he was making comment and took the ballot; and they took an oath to uphold the Constitution, which they all just violated. He stated Article V, Section 5 of the Florida Constitution says the public has a right to instruct their elected officials; the Commissioners all fit the definition of elected officials; and before he had finished his comments, they were already voting, which shows that the decision was predisposed and they had no intention of properly or completely considering the public’s comments. He stated that is a violation of their oath of office; they did it intentionally, they did it willfully, and they did it with knowledge; there is absolutely no doubt; and it goes to show that the decisions are predetermined and that Commissioners do in fact make decisions before they sit on the dais.

WARRANT LISTS

Upon motion and vote, the meeting adjourned at 4:08 p.m.

ATTEST: _________________________________
NANCY HIGGS, CHAIR
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA
_____________________
SCOTT ELLIS, CLERK

(S E A L)