MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

January 11, 2001

The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, met in special workshop session on January 11, 2001, at 9:00 a.m. in the Government Center Florida Room, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida. Present were: Chairman Sue Carlson, Commissioners Truman Scarborough, Nancy Higgs, and Jackie Colon, County Manager Tom Jenkins, and County Attorney Scott Knox. Absent was: Commissioner Randy O'Brien.

Chairman Carlson advised Commissioner O'Brien had a family emergency. Commissioner Scarborough requested a moment of prayer for Commissioner O'Brien's son as he faces acute appendicitis, and blessings on all those who suffer in our community.

APPOINTMENTS/REAPPOINTMENTS, RE: DISTRICT 5 CITIZEN ADVISORY BOARDS

Motion by Commissioner Colon, seconded by Commissioner Scarborough, to appoint and/or reappoint Dr. Linda Madyda to Animal Enforcement Dangerous Dog Hearing Council, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Josiah Snodgrass to Art in Public Places Advisory Committee, replacing Mary Herzig, with term expiring December 31, 2002; Mel Rabonowitz to Beach Erosion Control Advisory Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Aimee Canelas replacing Janie Holman, Enid Naranjo replacing Brenda Harris, and Carmen Schrum to the Brevard County Commission on the Status of Women, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Jerry Phillips to the Building and Construction Advisory Committee, replacing Donald Simms, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Dale Young to the Citizen Budget Review Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2001; David Paterno to the Community Action Agency Advisory Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Juanita Barton to the Community Based Organization Funding Advisory Board replacing Sally Stephen, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Leon A. Tucker, Sr. to the Contractors Licensing Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Cheryl Lawson-Young to Country Acres Advisory Board, replacing Traci Wood, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Anselmo Baldonado to the Economic Development Commission of the Space Coast, replacing Scott Sorenson, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Mary Redmond to the Employee Benefits Advisory Committee replacing Debra Bleau, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Gerald Lafferty to the Extension Advisory Council, with term expiring December 31, 2001; David Paterno to the Historical Commission, replacing Jim Culberson, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Wayne Mozo replacing Tom McGill, and Troy Rice replacing Ron Pritchard, to the Marine Advisory Council, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Dr. Samuel Del Rio to the Medical Services Review Committee, replacing Ellen Chick, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Mark Blue to the Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District, replacing Ken Carah, with term expiring September 30, 2003; Sharon Savastio replacing Ronny McLellan and Eddie Carr to the MPO Citizens Advisory Committee, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Dudley Aderson to the Palm Bay Regional Park Advisory Committee, replacing Michael Couture, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Juan Marrero replacing Dave Suazo, Leonard Ross replacing Jon England, and Ted Whitlock replacing Mike Kingery, to the Parks and Recreation South Service Sector Advisory Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Cleave Frink to the Personnel Council, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Edwina Davis replacing Eddie Carr, David Matte replacing Ron McLelland, and Pat Richardson as alternate replacing Roy Wariner, to the Planning and Zoning Board with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Mike Stieber to the Public Golf Advisory Board, replacing Brett Wood, with term expiring December 31, 2002; Anselmo Baldonado to the Tourist Development Council, replacing William Ellis, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Robert Doucette replacing Art Irvine, and Dan Faden replacing Dennis Wilt, to the Valkaria Airport Advisory Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Carlos Colon to the Veterans Memorial Park Advisory Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Nelle Ayres to the West Melbourne Public Library Board, replacing Stephanie Eley, with term expiring December 31, 2001; and Ed Dean replacing John Mazziotti, and Kevin Smith replacing David Bogenrief to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, with terms expiring December 31, 2001. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

DISCUSSION, RE: COURTHOUSE EXPANSION

Facilities Management Director Hugh Muller advised currently Brevard County has 20 judges and 19 courtrooms; the Moore Justice Center has 12 courtrooms and 16 judicial suites; and currently 15 judges are operating out of the Moore Justice Center. He stated the Titusville Historic Courthouse has three judges; there are two courtrooms available for visiting judges, senior judges, or for future needs; but those two courtrooms are relatively small. He stated a holding cell is under construction in Titusville to support the courthouse, and should be done by February, 2001; jury assembly is taking place in the Government Center - North; and parking is a problem because at times there is no secure parking for the judges or jurors, and the majority of the parking is south of the Government Center - North. Mr. Muller advised Melbourne Courthouse has two courtrooms and one hearing room; two judges are assigned to Melbourne Courthouse; jury assembly is less than adequate; and parking varies from day to day, but when there is a heavy load, they park across the street in the dirt. He stated the State has authorized an additional three judges for Brevard County; if the State had funded them, they would have been on board this month; it is normal to assume the judges will be here in January, 2002; and that will create a challenge as there are only two courtrooms that are not fully assigned both in Titusville, so the County will have a shortage of courtrooms. He stated staff has been working on it and has gone through several options; and his letter dated December 20, 2000 on Court Expansion Options Status includes projections from 2000 through 2020 for circuit and county courts. Mr. Muller advised the projections are based on the study that the National Center for State Courts has done for Brevard County in conjunction with the workload and the projection of the population, etc. He stated Tab A-2 is the projected court support personnel; with additional judges, there are additional requirements for State Attorneys, Public Defenders, staff attorneys, bailiffs, court security officers, and Clerk's personnel; so they looked at all of those needs, and will show the options and how they work together. He stated Tab B-1 shows the dollars staff feels are available for funding the expansion; and Option 1 is approximately $5 million, and Option 2 is $6.6 million. He stated Tab B-2 is the $5 million option, with Row A being the current needs; they looked at four different options with the $5 million budget constraint; and one option is to expand the Moore Justice Center that would provide two courtrooms, offices for judges, court support, and one shelled out courtroom, but would not meet the needs of the State Attorney and Public Defender. Mr. Muller advised they are in a crunch with space for the State Attorney in Building B at the Government Center; and they would have to find rented space or some other space if the courthouse expansion is done at the Moore Justice Center. He stated the second location is Bayside Lakes; the County recently purchased 20 acres for the Palm Bay Service Complex which is under design; the County has an option to purchase an additional 15 acres at Bayside; and to build two courtrooms, judges offices, court support, and purchase the property would cost approximately $5.7 million, which would leave $700,000 unfunded. He stated the third option labeled South of Hibiscus Boulevard is a generic option; and the generic estimate is to show the cost if the expansion is done somewhere in South Brevard other than the sites discussed. He stated the fourth option is the Palm Bay Wal-Mart; it is diagonally across the street from Palm Bay High School in Melbourne city limits; and because the County would be purchasing a 106,000 square-foot facility with over 500 parking spaces, it is the most expensive for initial cost and would be approximately $8 million. Mr. Muller advised Row B depicts the projected five-year needs and the costs to add four additional courtrooms to each option. He stated as a note of interest, at the Moore Justice Center, if they met the six-courtroom total by adding Rows A and B, it would cost approximately $20 million; the Wal-Mart option would be approximately $13 million; so although the Wal-Mart option is the most expensive initially, in five years it becomes a more economical business decision. He stated if they expanded to 13 courtrooms in 15 years, the first three options are almost identical in cost, ranging from $63 to $66 million, but the Wal-Mart option would be approximately $30 million; from a business standpoint, his office feels the Wal-Mart option would be a good decision; however, the overall cost, as shown in Tab B-3 gets into the recurring costs. Mr. Muller advised Note A, Courtroom Space, shows $185 per square foot for new construction; it is a lot of money because of security, television, holding cell needs, etc.; and courthouses in other locations are above that in cost. He stated for an existing structure such as Wal-Mart, the cost goes down to $75 per square foot; the reason is because the site, roof, and air conditioning already exist; and to convert that space is more economical than to build from scratch. He stated another item to consider is the timeliness of the action; to build anywhere, they would have to totally design and construct the whole structure, which would take between two to three years; but if they go into an existing structure, that time can be cut in half. He stated the cost for holding cells is $175 per square foot for new construction and $100 for existing structure; open office space is estimated at $100 per square foot for new construction and $75 per square foot for existing structure; and private office space is approximately the same as open office space. Mr. Muller advised the annual operating and maintenance expenses for the different locations is estimated at $174,354 for Moore Justice Center, $215,508 for Bayside Lakes, $212,356 for the South of Hibiscus Boulevard generic item, and $240,994 for Wal-Mart. He stated under the Moore Justice Center, communications expenses would be $130,000, and the other three options are $300,000; that reflects a savings in the existing switch at the Government Center and the tie-ins to the Moore Justice Center; and the other expenses for utilities, maintenance, janitorial services, etc. are based on the size of the structure. Mr. Muller advised Tab 4-B assesses the $6.6 million option; they can build four courtrooms at the Moore Justice Center, and two courtrooms initially at the other two locations; at the five-year point, they start leaning towards Wal-Mart economically; and the bottom line shows the differences in the costs.

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised they are collecting approximately $1 million per year from civil traffic fines, which the judges specifically placed on civil traffic offenses, in order to pay for facilities; currently $500,000 of that is being used to pay the debt service on the Moore Justice Center, which will be paid off in 2015; and that $500,000 would then become available. He stated in addition to that, another $500,000 a year is being generated; $370,000 per year is currently being used to make improvements at the Titusville Historic Courthouse; and that funding will be available in the year 2002. Mr. Jenkins advised the County is spending $130,000 a year on domestic violence prevention courses and child support enforcement; and if those two programs were funded from the General Fund, or if the judiciary is able to pick up State funding for child support enforcement and/or domestic violence prevention, they would have that $500,000 available in 2002. He stated the funding mechanisms could range from $370,000 to $500,000 from 2002, and another $500,000 currently being used for the Moore Justice Center in 2015. He advised if they were to fund the $130,000 being diverted to programs back to facilities, which he thought was the original intent for assessing the civil traffic fine, they would be able to increase the number of courtrooms at the Moore Justice Center or proceed with the Wal-Mart option. He stated the Wal-Mart option has less impact because the others are new construction; by starting from scratch, they would get fewer courtrooms; but by renovating existing space, they can get additional courtrooms. He noted Mr. Van Bever ran some of the numbers on them; with Courts Administrator Mark Van Bever responding he has them here and can discuss them if the Board desires.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired how much can be bonded with the different scenarios; with Mr. Jenkins responding if the Board were to use the $370,000 and $500,000, it could bond approximately $6.2 million.

Commissioner Higgs stated staff is assuming the revenue stream from the fines will remain at a constant level over time; and inquired if that is unrealistic since that revenue may escalate; with Mr. Jenkins responding that is the current forecast. Mr. Van Bever stated the revenue stream has been fairly stable, but slightly upward. Commissioner Higgs inquired if there are opportunities to increase the revenues as they are based on a 1995 action of the judiciary; with Mr. Van Bever responding the $30 per offense is at the maximum allowed by Florida Statutes; it was done in 1998 and cannot be increased; but they could expect the volume to increase over time. Mr. Van Bever stated if the Board wants to be less conservative in its revenue estimates, they can come up with a growth factor, but for now they left it flat to be conservative. Commissioner Higgs stated it is not realistic that it would be flat; and the Board could assume it would grow. Mr. Van Bever stated one of the reasons they did that is because over the last 12 months they have not had a clear picture of how much is coming in per month due to problems with the case processing system; and once they have a clearer picture, they can do a forecast. Commissioner Higgs stated the clearness of that picture is important to what the Board is able to do. Mr. Jenkins stated assuming there will be some acceleration, that will have some financial impact; and over a period of ten years, it could have a 20% increase. Commissioner Higgs stated she wants to know what the real number is and not assume it is not going to grow.

Mr. Jenkins stated to answer Commissioner Scarborough's question, if they use the $370,000 and $500,000, they can generate $6.2 million; and if they used the full million, $500,000 in 2002 and $500,000 in 2015, they could get approximately $8.2 million. Commissioner Scarborough inquired what funds will be pledged; because if another source of revenue is used, it may provide more latitude. Mr. Jenkins stated the sales tax would be used as collateral to guarantee the bond, but the payments would come from the civil traffic fines. Commissioner Scarborough inquired if the County has the capacity to borrow that amount with sales tax; with Mr. Jenkins responding yes, using it as collateral and not for the actual payment. Commissioner Scarborough inquired if the financial advisor looked at it; with Mr. Jenkins responding yes, both the old financial advisor and the new financial advisor reviewed it.

Mr. Muller advised another item he wants to bring to the Board's attention is on Tab D, which is a schematic of the 106,000 square-foot Wal-Mart option of two courtrooms; that would give unimproved space of approximately 70,000 square feet; one of the items unfunded in the CIP is the Sheriff's South Precinct at $1.6 million; and if the Board elects to go with the Wal-Mart option, it could take the 70,000 square feet for the Sheriff's Precinct and build it at an estimated $500,000, so that is another business decision that would not spend $1.6 million to build a precinct elsewhere. He stated there are other options of what to do with the 70,000 square feet; it is available at the time of purchase for a warehouse, and could immediately solve some of the warehouse requirements; and as they lay out plans for the 106,000 square feet, they could solve a lot of other expense needs for the State Attorney, Public Defender, Clerk, etc.

Mr. Jenkins advised if the expansion is at the Moore Justice Center, the County would have to provide additional office space for the State Attorney whose staff continues to grow; the most cost-effective alternative for expanding the State Attorney's office at Viera would be to move any overflow to the second floor of Building E where the Public Defender is and build a small building for the Public Defender across the street because his space requirements are less than the State Attorney's. He noted one of the reasons the numbers are high for expansion at the Moore Justice Center is the fact that more space will need to be added for the State Attorney.

Commissioner Higgs inquired if staff knows where the caseload would be in terms of the different facilities; with Mr. Muller responding Tab A-1 shows the caseload at different facilities, but is broken up by civil, traffic, etc. and not by North, Central and South. Mr. Jenkins stated once the County builds the facilities, it is up to the courts to use them as they see fit; therefore, the numbers provided are countywide by criminal, civil, domestic relations, probate, juvenile, etc. Commissioner Higgs stated her question is if staff knows where the offenses are being generated so it has a better idea where the people are who will be most directly using the facility. She requested a count for North, Central and South or by Commission Districts, or some way for her to know where the caseload is. Chairman Carlson inquired if Judge Torpy or Judge Maxwell would like to comment on that; with Mr. Van Bever responding those statistics are kept by the Clerk of Courts; but they did some arrest boundaries to allocate county court cases, which are the majority of cases, and about 1/7th of the cases are from Port St. John north, 4/7th are between Port St. John, and U.S. 192, and 2/7th are south of U.S. 192.

Judge Vincent Torpy advised there is a difference between the circuit court and county court and who are the actual users of the courthouses; citizens gain access to the circuit court primarily through lawyers; there are very few who use the system without an attorney; so the Board needs to look at attorney access to the courts in terms of expenses to the citizens for sending lawyers to court facilities and paying the travel and time. He stated county courts tend to have more unrepresented persons for traffic and summary claims.

Judge George Maxwell advised juveniles are different than that, but he could not give the Board accurate statistics, and do not know if they were ever kept by the Clerk; juvenile dependency is what he has this year; 85% of the cases nationwide are below the poverty level; so if the Board looks at its pockets of poverty that is where its caseload is generated from. He stated juvenile dependency cases are user intensive in that one hearing could have seven or eight people who are interested persons in the case; in general civil, generally only two litigants and/or witnesses show up for a trial; and in criminal they have the defendant. He stated juvenile dependency cases are not particularly attorney loaded because there is a staff attorney for the Department of Children and Families and contract attorneys which the Board funds; they handle a significant amount of cases; and he averages 50 to 70 cases on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Commissioner Higgs inquired about jury pools; with Judge Maxwell responding they do not use juries in juvenile; and the jury pools are for circuit and county courts. Judge Torpy advised they are very close to implementing jury districts; and they will have three jury districts in the County where the drawing of jurors will be made for Titusville Courthouse from the North end, for Viera from the Central area, and for Melbourne Courthouse from the south end. Commissioner Higgs inquired where would the Nieman Avenue Melbourne Courthouse north boundary be; with Judge Torpy responding they are doing it by zip code; and it is a complicated thing because they cannot just draw a line and have to be sensitive to the topographics and racial mixes, etc. Mr. Van Bever advised the jury line for the Melbourne Courthouse is from Palm Bay south even though it is in Melbourne.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he appreciates Mr. Muller crunching the numbers because building a judicial facility is important and something the County will live with for many years. He stated Melbourne Courthouse was not mentioned but came up in the last discussion; multiple facilities do not play well for the cost of operation and does not work well for the judiciary; so the Board needs to look at this project in a holistic sense as well as how it can best serve the community. He stated if there is additional cost to do something well, the Board needs to be willing to do it because in the long run it would be cheaper. He stated if attorneys are running all over the County and people cannot get to their hearings, the Board would not be serving justice well; justice is a fundamental basis of all civilization; so the Board needs a judicial system that can be reasonably accessed. He stated if someone has to drive many miles and does not have transportation, justice is denied; so the Board needs to discuss those things and bring the judicial system to a user-friendly process. Commissioner Scarborough stated originally the Board discussed the difference between circuit and county courts and having the massing of facilities at Viera; they did a lot of studying on what other counties were doing; Brevard County is a large county that is growing; and in the long run it may need to have a massing in only one location; but the Board needs to make sure the location is where it wants to build and grow and operate for a 50-year period. He stated he would like to have more comments on how the whole system operates.

Chairman Carlson advised logistically staff talked to the judges and asked them about the locations and what their potential projections are for different types of cases; and inquired, given the comments from Judge Maxwell on poverty, will staff be using the new census data to figure this out; with Mr. Jenkins responding when they receive the new census data, they will go back and update the jury districts, but currently they are operating on old data. Chairman Carlson advised she has concerns about the statistics and understanding logistically where the County is going to meet the greatest needs and where the population is going to be growing; the Board has significant projects of what it needs to cover; but she wants to ensure it covers those needs at the right location. She stated she has no idea if Wal-Mart is the right location or not; she does not know how old the building is and if it is going to cost more in maintenance over time than a new structure; and inquired if staff has any of that information. Mr. Muller advised the building is seven to ten years old; it is in excellent shape; his staff and he inspected it; it is a block building so it is going to last as opposed to a metal building; and as for the operation and maintenance expenses, they are planning to put in efficient air conditioning which is included in the figures. He stated the building is currently air conditioned for open space; their figures include putting in efficient air conditioning and lighting, etc.; so there would be a savings in state-of-the-art facilities from that standpoint. Mr. Muller stated his concern about a new facility is not having a location to put the third judge in January, 2002; and he has two small courtrooms in Titusville to put two judges, but it will no longer have an option for visiting judges or senior judges taking care of trials. He stated the Florida room is booked frequently for other meetings and workshops; the conference centers and Board room are used frequently; and he has no other option for an additional court somewhere, as it is very realistic that Brevard County will be funded for three additional judges in January, 2002. He stated he tried to look at the long range of 5, 10, and 20 years, but he has to also look at the short range of what can be done in 11 months to facilitate three judges.

Commissioner Colon advised she hopes no one is under the impression that the Board has enough information to make a decision where it wants to put the courthouse today; and based on some of the issues discussed, which has to do with the census data, once the numbers come in, the Board could make a more educated decision on how it would be able to split the County. She stated one of the things that concerns her is there has to be a balance between the attorneys who are going to be using the courthouse and the people in the community; it is a mix between Judge Torpy and Judge Maxwell's comments; and her concern is that the Board be very careful and not have a champagne taste and Coca Cola pocket. She stated the Board needs to look at how it will pay for the expansion; it would be wonderful to say this is what we would like, and this is a savings; but sometimes it is not a matter of being able to get something that is such a good bargain and not be able to afford it. She inquired what good does it do to take advantage of a good bargain if the Board is not able to pay for it; so she hopes today is just opening the lines of communication and not trying to make a decision of what it is going to do, because it would be very premature if the Board does not look at the numbers. She stated all the Commissioners have very good concerns regarding making such a major decision, because the decisions are not really for five years from now or ten years from now, but will affect Brevard County twenty years from now. She stated she is concerned over the fact that the County has a population in the south area; Palm Bay alone has a potential of 250,000 people; so when it discusses where most of the growth and offenders would come from, it would basically be worthwhile to look at those numbers because the census will show where the poverty level is coming from and also make the Board aware of the fact that it has a community that is going to be a potential of 250,000 people, and it is only at about 86,000 people now. She stated that is scary because the Board is not talking only about Palm Bay; it is talking about Barefoot Bay, Micco, Valkaria, and Grant; a lot of people are moving into Valkaria; and the Board should be realistic about looking at the numbers and projections ten years from now and twenty years from now. Commissioner Colon stated she knows there is concern about a judge coming in 2002, but she spoke to a few people from the Clerk of the Courts office about letting the County know if it may be able to have the space to put more judges in there. She stated the Board needs to have that kind of partnership and line of communication and find out where it can put the judge who will come in 2002, and not make a quick decision of where it is going to put the courthouse without the data. She stated that is what concerns her.

Judge Maxwell advised he agrees about the census numbers and getting prognostications; the judges are not policy makers, but the Board of County Commissioners makes policy; their input is limited to the administration of justice; but looking at the practical mode instead of the theory, one only has to drive the County at rush hour to know where the stress of population is located. He stated Melbourne/Palm Bay is definitely a growth area; the numbers will back that up; the south area tends to grow and definitely has increasing needs; and he does not want the Board to procrastinate and get behind the curve on courthouse space. He stated it is still ahead of the curve at this time; they are going to need more courthouse space; and it is important for the peace of the community that people who get involved in the legal system get treated in a timely manner. Judge Maxwell stated he analogizes juvenile dependency court to an emergency room; they do a lot of triage at the trial court level, patching up families and situations and trying to put them back into society as functioning units as opposed to dysfunctional units; and if the Board studies this issue too much, it will cause problems that will increase the revenue from fines because they will have more crime. He stated the turn around time in criminal and juvenile dependency are factors that Judge Torpy and he are acutely aware of; justice delayed is justice denied; so they look at this issue not as a crisis or of extreme urgency, but as important and urgent. He stated if there is an economic down turn, he suspects the County will have a criminal and juvenile delinquency up turn; those things tend to be grafted and follow that pattern; and if there is not enough money in the family, there is more violence, crime, and child abuse.

Commissioner Colon stated the Board is the policy maker and accountable to the community, so when it makes decisions, it has to be based on facts and numbers to justify and be accountable to the citizens when they ask why the facility was put there, is it the right place to put it, and how did the Board come to that conclusion. She stated it is important for the Board to discuss this issue because of how critical it is; her husband is in law enforcement and deals with a lot of criminals, so she is extremely sensitive to that; but by the same token, the Board needs to have the numbers in order to make the right decisions and take into account a lot of things it is saying. She stated how the facility will be paid for is a major question the Board has to consider; the numbers will be available in the Spring; that is only two months from now; by no means does she want to stop the process and does see how critical it is; and she hopes no one misunderstands her, because she wants to make sure they have all the facts and is able to go to the community with the facts. She stated this project will cost a lot of money; there is a lot of priorities in the County, such as the jail; the Board has to look at how it is going to pay for it; and it is critical for the Board to make those decisions.

Judge Maxwell stated one of the problems they have in trying to wrap their minds around this issue is they look at the numbers which are intense, at the tremendous responsibility the Board has to the voters, and the economics of it. He stated everyone makes assumptions of what goes on in the courts; unfortunately, a lot of the public has a perception of what goes on based on fictional stereo types on television which have very little to do with reality; and there are several judges who would love to have the Commissioners ghost them on a day, any day they want to come and follow a judge around from 7:45 a.m. to whatever time they get through. He stated he would like to have any Commissioner be his guest in his chambers and watch what they actually do; and if they had that day in court experience, they would be able to apply themselves to the numbers with a greater concept of what the needs of the courts are and how complex the whole situation is. He stated juvenile court delinquency is not juvenile court dependency; divorce court frequently needs a bare room and small hearing room because of the anger and frustration; and a complex civil case, such as the sewer pipe in Melbourne, would require TV screens or movie screens; so it is not real simple.

Commissioner Scarborough stated that is why the Board needs to work with the judges; and whatever it does, it needs to make sure it sizes right for the function and not just look at the bottom line and buy the wrong product. He stated one thing that came up at the prior meeting and was not said today is whether the Melbourne Courthouse will remain open; and inquired if it does, does it preclude doing anything in Palm Bay, and what types of functions would occur at the various courthouses. He stated there was concern about all civil circuit cases going to Melbourne because Mr. Nance wanted that to happen; there was some concern about having everything that was civil circuit go to Melbourne; it is not the easiest place to go to for the rest of the County; and although it is a good analysis of the costs to do each option, he does not know if Melbourne Courthouse will remain open or not open, and wants to see all the pieces come together. He stated the discussion is about South Brevard but not about how to serve Brevard effectively; and inquired if something is done in South Brevard, would it preclude putting County courts in Palm Bay as was promised at a subsequent time. He stated the City Manager of Palm Bay has asked that question; and inquired if this project precludes that, or could the County have that. He inquired if the County keeps Melbourne Courthouse, will it have a Palm Bay facility; and will it have three facilities in South Brevard. He noted he is not sure if that is where the Board wants to go. He noted he would like to look over the horizon so he can tell people that is where it is going and it is going to work well for everybody in Brevard County.

Chairman Carlson stated it seems like the Board has a good enough understanding of circuit, County, and juvenile courts to be able to understand, based on the census tracks that will come in, where those things should evolve; and the numbers depict the overall cost, but she does not feel comfortable picking a location although she agrees that the population base would be from U.S. 192 south. She stated theoretically the Board is talking about decentralization and not centralization, which was discussed when the Viera Complex was built; and that discussion does not seem to have melded to this discussion today.

Commissioner Scarborough stated it may not take two months and could be two weeks if staff comes back and gives the Board a more comfortable feeling that things are going to work well. Judge Maxwell stated he does not speak for the judiciary as a whole; he is not urging the Board to do something quickly or ill-advisedly; but he does not want it to slip into years because there is going to be growth and caseload increases; and if they are all successful in their jobs, the community will continue to grow as they hope it will.

Commissioner Higgs inquired if there is any information on what can be expected from Title V funding; with Mr. Jenkins responding Mr. Van Bever is knowledgeable about that if the Board wants to discuss it. Commissioner Higgs inquired if that is a revenue stream for the facility; with Mr. Van Bever responding it is safe for the Board to assume that for every dollar of cost the State assumes, it will take a dollar of revenue from the County. He stated Revision 7 to the Constitution relates to State courts funding and requires the County to pay for facilities; so that will not change. He stated the Board is responsible for facilities today; and the Florida Constitution, as it stands today, will make it responsible for facilities going forward. Commissioner Higgs commented so there is no real help from the State.

Commissioner Higgs stated Wal-Mart is a good place to characterize things; the Wal-Mart was built in 1985 and served for approximately 15 years; and although the Board would like to think on the big horizon of 30 or 25 years, maybe that is unrealistic at this time. She stated maybe its planning horizon is more like a Wal-Mart, and the Board should look at ten or fifteen years; and to predict and plan 30 to 50 years may not be a realistic idea. She stated there are Wal-Marts and other businesses moving around, new Walgreens and Eckerds going up, and on every other corner gas stations are leaving; and maybe that is something the Board should think about. She stated it is a very interesting proposal and worthy of a lot of attention; but the Board should think of it in terms of several planning horizons; and maybe the resale of the land from the Wal-Mart use to a new use is a model to consider, because if it got 15 years of use out of the building, it may be a good deal. She stated she is sharing thoughts with the Board; it has a potential price, but she does not know if that is the only price and is not going to make an offer based on an asking price; and she will not entertain any action until she knows the bottom line final deal. She stated she wants to know the bottom line, the final offer, what is the deal, what is the price, and if there is something more to it that the Board should know. She stated she wants to know more in terms of a realistic price estimate, a realistic revenue stream, if the projections are very conservative, what is the less conservative projections, where the numbers are of people who are users, where the growth is going to be, and what are the user groups for different kinds of facilities, if staff can help the Board understand those issues. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board needs to know the bigger plan for the Palm Bay community as well as the South Melbourne community, what are the cities saying in terms of what is going to be, more information from the Palm Bay community on where they envision their significant infrastructure ten years in the future, and where the County should be coordinating with them. She noted while she agrees the Board made some commitments and had serious discussions with Palm Bay when they last talked about this issue, and acquired the service complex land, the Board needs to have more conversations with that community regarding the planning horizons. She stated she agrees with Judge Maxwell that it should not be put off; it is an item the Board needs to move on; and wherever the new judge will be sitting, the Board wants her to be in the right place.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired if any of the options contemplate closing the Melbourne Courthouse on Nieman Avenue; with Mr. Jenkins responding there are so many variables that come about with the courthouse options; and they would not sell it, and would use it for the Parks and Recreation Department, which is in an old modular that is falling apart. Mr. Jenkins stated if the Board decides to put in a new south County facility, what kind of facility it is going to be and will it be designed just for County court or full service will have an impact on what they do with the Melbourne Courthouse. Commissioner Scarborough stated he is not comfortable running the "what ifs"; the trouble is how they all come together in the final analysis; and he has more questions than answers right now. He stated the Board made commitments to Palm Bay to go in with the Constitutional Officers; and inquired if it goes with the Wal-Mart option, will it get rid of the property purchased in Palm Bay; with Commissioner Higgs responding no. Commissioner Scarborough inquired if the County needs to have multiple facilities that are all inadequate and expensive to operate just because three judges are coming; and noted that would not be the way to proceed. Commissioner Higgs stated the service facility does not have to be with the judicial offices; and for years they have not been put together. Commissioner Scarborough stated the problem is how will the County have a cost-effective program that meets the needs of the people, can they access government easily, and how does the Board reduce the cost to have those facilities are missing pieces to the puzzle.

Chairman Carlson advised the life span of a building needs to be considered; the Board needs to do something within the next three years; and if it went into the Wal-Mart, there is potential to sell the building and build a new structure. She stated she is not interested in how many courtrooms they have to build, but is interested in the location; and it can bond out 30 years because it is expected the courthouse will always be there and is in the right location where the people are going to be.

Commissioner Scarborough stated some improvements that would be done to the Wal-Mart may reduce the value rather than increase it; very few people want courtrooms and courtroom security for any other use; a Wal-Mart can become another store; but once improvements are put in, it would reduce the value because the person who buys the property will have to destroy what the County put in; so the sale price is reduced and whatever improvements are put in will be lost. He stated he is not inclined to go with the short-range concept. Chairman Carlson inquired what kind of information is Commissioner Scarborough looking for; with Commissioner Scarborough responding he would like to see how the Board can have cost savings and how it will work to the advantage of the community at the least cost to the taxpayer. Commissioner Higgs stated she was not advocating going into a location and saying it is a 15-year throw away; that seems to be a business concept in retail; but the Board should entertain that in its thinking as one of the factors. She stated location is a critical factor in terms of the advantage to a business; business changes significantly over time; and the Board should not ignore that concept. She stated 30 years ago the Board thought one building in Titusville would be the courthouse for Brevard County; that is no longer applicable; so if the Board thinks it can plan on a 30-year horizon, it may be sorely mistaken. Commissioner Scarborough stated he does not want to go into a location that is not a good location; maybe 30 years is a mistake; but he would like to create cost-effectiveness in an area that he believes the Board wants to have a government presence. Chairman Carlson inquired if Commissioner Scarborough wants the cost-effectiveness information and how it is going to affect the Melbourne Courthouse, Parks and Recreation Department, etc.; with Commissioner Scarborough responding there are some other data the Board can look at.

Mr. Jenkins advised the Board's decision on what type of facility it is going to put in South Brevard will affect what happens to the Melbourne Courthouse; if it is to the far south, then they would keep Melbourne Courthouse; and if it is further north in South Melbourne, they may not need the Melbourne Courthouse; so there are many variables to consider.

Commissioner Higgs inquired, if the Board entertains the Bayside Lakes location with the entire realm of court facilities, has that been discussed with the cities. Mr. Jenkins stated that was one of the Board's earlier concepts along with the BCC Palm Bay campus area. Commissioner Higgs stated when the Board discussed the service complex, it debated between BCC and Bayside Lakes; she liked the BCC location, but that was not what the Board decided to do; and the Board bought land at Bayside Lakes for a service complex, not with the concept of a full service courthouse. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board talked about having county court there; with Commissioner Higgs responding that is correct. Mr. Jenkins stated the decision was to initially acquire land there; and the Board increased the amount of land. Commissioner Higgs stated the conversation was not fully discussed in terms of what does a full service facility mean. Mr. Jenkins stated initially it was County court, and staff was acquiring enough land to have the capacity to do anything there in the future. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board needs to be sure that concept is fully explored.

Commissioner Scarborough stated someone mentioned 30 years; conceivably the County could have one full facility in Palm Bay and one full facility in Melbourne when the population is half a million in South Brevard; but he does not want to scatter County facilities, rent space for Constitutional Officers, and have employees driving all over Brevard County, because that is not efficient. He stated there is a need for efficiency in the Clerk's Office, as well as the State Attorney's and Public Defender's Offices; and if the Board creates a thought process that is good, maybe it will abandon it in 15 years, or maybe it will build on it. He stated the County has been building rather than abandoning facilities; and it is not talking about abandoning Viera or Titusville, but is talking about having a greater presence in South Brevard because of a population need. Commissioner Higgs stated 30 years ago the Board thought County government would be totally in Titusville; and the presence of the Government Center and Justice Center demonstrates the Board's ability to look into the future.

Commissioner Colon advised this Board is fortunate because the census information is coming; all the decisions that were made a decade ago were based on the numbers they had then; but soon the Board will have good numbers of how the growth in the southern part of the County is going. She stated by no means does she want anyone to think the Board is going to neglect the necessities throughout the County; she is not parochial; she explained to the community that if she was blessed to be a County Commissioner she will look at the entire County and never be territorial; and she is proud of this Board because it is not parochial and wants to base critical decisions by looking at the entire County as one, not just considering the south portion. She stated once the data comes in, it will provide tremendous information, not only on building a courthouse but on human service needs and requesting the County's fair share from the State and federal governments; and the Board will be able to make good decisions for 10 and 20 years down the line. Commissioner Colon stated opening the lines of communication with municipalities is critical; who better can tell the Board what is going on in the municipalities other than the city managers and elected officials; and people are looking at Palm Bay as the most southern part of the County, but that is not true because there is Grant, Valkaria, and Micco. She stated the Board cannot look at the boundary used in the past at U.S. 192; when people used to think of Palm Bay they used to think of cow pastures; but that is not true any more. She suggested Commissioners take a ride through Palm Bay, not become parochial, and look at the beautiful things that are happening in the County so they can make good decisions and not be territorial. She stated they represent the entire County; it is an exciting time to be an elected official because they are about to make decisions that will impact the County for the next 20 years; and that is why the Board has to be careful, even though there are crucial needs, and look at the bigger picture. She noted if Commissioner O'Brien was here, he would be able to share that because he has in the past asked the Board to look at the bigger picture; it is not saying they do not want to address this again or see the need; but she wants to have the data and make educated decisions. She stated they are all accountable to the taxpayers; it is nobody else but the five Commissioners who have to be accountable to the citizens about why it made those decisions; so it is always important to do their homework and have the research that needs to be done to make those kinds of decisions.

Mr. Jenkins advised there are three basic issues that need to be addressed: (1) the use of the facility; (2) the cost and funding; and (3) the location. He inquired how will the facility be used, does the Board want to limit itself to the amount of money it currently has available or look at other options for funding additional facilities, and where does it want to have the facility. He stated they are interrelated and have to be dealt with and decisions made; staff will get the data and more information for the Board; but the Board should focus on how it is going to use the facility, what is the cost, how it is going to pay for it, and where does it want to put it; and staff may break down the census data that way. Mr. Jenkins inquired if the Board wants to form a users committee to look at those issues, or does the Board want to do it.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to get more data before giving it to a users committee because the Board needs to ask some pertinent questions and get feedback; otherwise it will start a committee and they would not know what the Board's concerns are. He inquired of the judges, if the County uses the Wal-Mart, it will have to build out places where there will be no windows and could be a little claustrophobic; maybe that is okay, but that is one of the cheap things if it goes with the Wal-Mart option; and the judge's chambers may seem like going into a cavernous place and may have star chamber effect. Judge Maxwell commented he hopes they do not have a star chamber. Commissioner Scarborough stated normally when someone walks into a judge's chambers, it represents the culture, civilization, etc.; people do not go into a tunnel and end up in a closed box; but that does not appear to concern the judges, so maybe he should not be concerned either. Mr. Muller stated that gets into a dichotomy of a security interest and the aesthetics; they have windows in some of the buildings that are prone to blasts if someone parks a car nearby with a bomb; and they have to look at the total picture. Commissioner Scarborough stated in the Wal-Mart facility, they would have rooms without windows back in a maze.

Commissioner Higgs inquired if the Board needs to look at use, cost, and funding and all the options available for the short term or long term; and could it be put on a regular agenda in a few weeks; with Mr. Jenkins responding it will take more than a few weeks; and inquired if the Board wants to get the census data first. Chairman Carlson noted the census data should be coming out in March, 2001, so the Board can wait until it gets that and correlate it with what it has. She inquired if it is cost effective to consider closing certain facilities, how can they save money doing that kind of thing, and can staff do a matrix on something like that; with Mr. Jenkins responding staff will try, but there are so many variables. Chairman Carlson stated she understands the variables, and requested staff do what it can. Mr. Jenkins stated the location and use will dramatically impact the variables. Chairman Carlson stated it is important to understand what the courthouses are used for; based on the way the system works, just because the address is Palm Bay does not mean they are going to go in a courtroom in Palm Bay; and it is crucial to correlate that into the overall decision.

Mr. Muller stated one instant impact is the County is short one courtroom; if it closes the Melbourne Courthouse, it will be short three courtrooms; so it would have to build four or five courtrooms instead of two. He noted the report was based on funding that could be made available for the project.

Commissioner Scarborough advised when he was elected to the Commission, there was an idea it was not good to have everything scattered all over the place; justice works better when they have it centralized and have all the support functions together; and when he talked to people who operate the system, they say to have things working together in a holistic sense makes sense for them operationally. He stated the Board says it is the cheapest thing to do, keep Melbourne Courthouse open, go to Wal-Mart, etc.; pretty soon it is only looking at its side of the picture; and that scares him. He stated the Board needs to know the impact of what it will do to the State Attorney, Clerk, Public Defender, etc., and what they think about it; and a users committee needs to incorporate the judges, Clerk, State Attorney, Bar Association, and citizens. He stated it may cost more to do it right; it is generally the things that are analyzed in between the cheapest and best where the County will get the best buy; and that is where the Board needs to go.

Chairman Carlson stated when the Board talked about centralization, it built Viera; the price on the Moore Justice Center is $58 million compared to $29 million elsewhere; a lot of things the Board is talking about now happened back then when it said it needed to centralize because things would be more efficient and cost effective; so her question is why is the Board not doing that. She stated the price tag is much higher, but she is not sure if it is more cost effective; the Board has no control over where the people will come from no matter what part of the County they live in; so that needs to be entered into the analysis.

Judge Maxwell advised when the Board was looking at the Melbourne donation option, it was brought out that when it did the Viera concept planning, it was during a pre-Internet technological revolution; it did not have cell phones, Internet connections, fiber optics, etc.; the Board has now gone through what some people analogized to be re-invention of the wheel; so it is a post-technological revolution. He stated the economies of scale of court facilities are changing; the Board commissioned a study from the National State Courts and an engineering study; and at the meeting with the experts, they showed a projection of the economies of scale of courthouse facilities changing dramatically. He stated at one point it was a scale of 12 courtrooms being ideal; at some time in the predictable future it was down to eight or four; so when the Board looks at its economies of scale, it may want to dust off the old studies and look at them and update them to see what it can do in the way of economy of scale, which has a lot to do with taxpayer accountability.

Commissioner Scarborough inquired if Judge Maxwell is suggesting that they can operate with smaller facilities. He stated one thing that was said is a judge could go over and help another judge and jury pools could move around; moving people around was one of the issues that was more so than just technology transferring information; it was having a mass where they could have efficiency in utilization of jury pools, judges, etc.; and inquired if the Board is going to do something in South Brevard, should it go to a certain degree of mass that makes sense and look at retaining the mass at Viera so it does not lose the efficiency of what people expected. He stated removing civil circuit from Viera seemed to frustrate a number of members of the Bar Association; that is something he does not want to find as a result of the Board's actions; so the Board needs to make sure it has facilities that satisfy the needs as fully as possible in the North, Central and South areas and does not have redundancy of investment and operation.

Judge Maxwell stated something that has come up in the recent past that he does not know the answer to, is a trend towards specialty courts; there is a debate in the judiciary and among the scholars and law professors as to whether that is a good thing or not; so civil circuit or civil criminal, which is a historical divide, may not be what the Board will be looking at in 2010 or 2020. He stated they have seen that with the evolution of the domestic violence court and drug court; juvenile used to be consolidated dependency and delinquency, and now in most circuits it is divided between two judges; so as the Legislature tends to give them more specialized legislation and a more complex schema, they may have a logical breakout for some types of courts that are not necessarily security intensive versus those which are security intensive. He noted, having said that, he will confuse the whole thing by saying the only time judges have gotten killed in Florida were in domestic court settings which historically have the least secure matters. Judge Maxwell stated it is a complex issue; the Board has a lot of homework to do on it; but it should not forget what it studied in the past. He stated Mr. Jenkins has done a great job, and Mr. Muller has done a great job putting together the materials for them; but their institutional memory should go back and pick up the existing engineering and trend studies.

Coleman Goatley, representing Bayside Lakes, advised there is a need for facilities in South Brevard; a service center is planned in Bayside Lakes; South Brevard is growing at a rapid rate; and he is not sure the impression has been made that the growth is going to be tremendous. He stated they have 80,000 plus people in Palm Bay; the growth potential is enormous; utilities are becoming available, and there is a lot of land; Palm Bay is taking steps that will improve the availability of utilities; so that means there will be more homes built. He stated within Bayside Lakes area, they have a new high school and elementary school, a planned middle school, Publix Market is out of the ground, and Walgreens will be starting soon, so they are in the center of things in the south part of Palm Bay. He stated looking at the map of planned roads reveals that Emerson, DeGroodt, and other roads have access to Bayside Lakes; within a short time people will be able to go from DeGroodt straight through Bayside Lakes to Emerson; and all of that is having an influence on the population. He stated he would be concerned about how to serve a quarter of the County's population without providing some kind of central service facility and perhaps a courthouse somewhere in South Brevard. He stated he likes the idea of a users committee and would like to see active participation from the broader citizenry rather than just professional groups.

Chairman Carlson inquired if the Board is interested in pursuing the user group; with Commissioner Higgs responding not right now; and Commissioner Scarborough responding he likes the idea, but not until after the Board gets more information back.

Mr. Jenkins advised they are proceeding with a service center in Bayside Lakes; it is being designed right now; and it would be like a retail outlet where there is a high walk-in customer volume.

Chairman Carlson inquired when will the Board get back the information; with Mr. Jenkins responding if the Board wants to wait for the census data, it will be in the Spring; and the kind of information it requested is going to take some time to prepare. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to workshop the project again because at a Commission meeting, when people are waiting for several hours to be heard, it puts pressure on him. Commissioner Higgs stated she wants to move it along and not wait six months. Chairman Carlson stated there are not as many meetings scheduled as there were last year, so a workshop could be put on the schedule at 5:30 p.m. in the Florida Room or Commission Room. Commissioner Scarborough stated he likes the judges sitting across from the Board so they can converse; and the project is too important not to have a workshop. Chairman Carlson inquired if the Board wanted to have another workshop in April. Mr. Jenkins requested the Board tell staff what it wants to do.

Commissioner Higgs stated she would like to see, in the next couple of months, information in terms of price and revenue stream. She stated Commissioner Scarborough talked about the critical mass and how many facilities could be built; and if it can do a critical mass at a location based on the revenue stream, that would make a different picture that she would like to look at. She stated if all that can be projected is $6 million, then she would have a different picture to look at; and if she can make a decision in the $16-million range funded over time, that would be a different decision. Chairman Carlson advised she did not think the Board would be making a decision until it had the census data; and inquired if it wants to make a decision before getting that information; with Commissioner Higgs responding she has a good idea of some of the information, and does not know how good the census information is going to be.

Commissioner Colon advised there is a lot of data to go over, so if the Board is able to look at the information from staff at the end of February without making a decision, it would at least be comfortable enough to know it reviewed it with the census numbers. She stated the Board would not be able to do it all in one workshop because there is so much information; so if it is able to do some of the homework at the end of February, it would be able to look at the census numbers and know it has gone through most of the homework.

Chairman Carlson stated she does not have a problem with that approach; and Commissioner Scarborough stated that is fine with him. Chairman Carlson inquired if it is okay with staff to have a workshop at the end of February to digest what staff brings the Board, and make a date to use the census data and incorporate it into whatever information they have.

Mr. Muller suggested that he get with Court Administration to see what short-term options they have if they do get three judges in 2002, or would they say no thanks to one of them because it is only 11 and a half months away. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board would never say no to having a judge; and Chairman Carlson stated staff would just have to find a place.

The meeting recessed at 10:35 a.m., and reconvened at 10:50 a.m.

STRATEGIC PLANNING, RE: CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PLAN

Budget Manager Dennis Rogero advised the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) is for FY 2000-01 through 2004-05; the current year CIP was approved by the Board as part of the operating capital budget on September 19, 2000; and it is a cooperative document that has involved dialogue and research among all the agencies. He stated this year they attempted to modify and improve the projections for the five-year revenue and expenditure estimates contained in the document; the document is also part of the approved and published adopted budget for the current fiscal year; and the approved funding for the CIP is just over $136.5 million, with a total funded project amount through FY 2004-05 at over $312 million. He advised the unfunded projects for the next five years total nearly $295 million; and those are primarily in the Public Works road construction program section. He stated they have undergone a few format revisions in an effort to provide the Board and the public with more detailed information regarding each project; they added the date the Board approved the project regardless of the fiscal year, where applicable; and as the Board approves the projects, they will amend the pages to reflect the approval dates. He stated they included information regarding prior year expenditures for each project where applicable; some of the projects have not begun yet or are not scheduled to begin until the following fiscal years; and they included the status of individual projects, and whether they are funded, unfunded, or a combination of both. Mr. Rogero advised they identified funding for many aspects, but funding for some aspects are yet to be identified; when adequate funding was not identified from existing revenues, but the need for the project was considered substantial, the project was included in the CIP as a project where "funding has not been identified." He stated those projects are considered tentative, pending Board guidance regarding project priority or until the funding is identified. He stated page I-2 is an example of the five-year projections for revenues and expenditures for each Agency's CIP; in the left column at the top it says "adopted budget"; and that information is consistent with what the Board approved on September 19, 2000 with few exceptions. He noted one example is the Library Department; the Board approved commercial paper for the CIP's after it adopted the budget; but it is consistent with the information the Board received as part of the published document. Mr. Rogero advised page I-2.1 is an example of the format change; it is the vehicle replacement project for Animal Services Department; they now have one project per page; and below the title is an information block where they will include additional information such as the approval date, previous expenditures, etc. He stated below that is the project funding schedule with the funding source or lack of funding source for the project and the fiscal years where they anticipate receiving the funding. He stated the Water Resources Department requested to delete one of its projects prior to approval of the CIP; it is on page I-21.26; and they requested reallocation of the potential funding in FY 2001-02 to another project in Water Resources.

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised the Valkaria Airport CIP has been requested to be tabled or rescheduled; and staff will do that probably at an evening meeting.

Motion by Commissioner Higgs, seconded by Commissioner Colon, to delete the Water Resources project on page I-21.26 and reallocate potential funding to another project in Water Resources; and delete the Valkaria Airport CIP for rescheduling. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Mr. Rogero advised they will provide replacement pages based on the Board's action to insert in the CIP. He stated Department Directors and associated staff are ready to answer any questions the Board may have on specific projects.

Mr. Jenkins advised a good approach to discussing the CIP is for each Commissioner to discuss any projects of interest or concern as opposed to going through each project.

Commissioner Scarborough advised an unfunded project gets the status of being in the CIP yet is shown as unfunded; and inquired what methodology was utilized to do that. He stated if the Board goes further on the sales tax, it could be a key element in the whole conversation; and he is not sure the CIP has been tied into the long-range plan and visioning. He stated staff is collecting data; Brevard County has more square space for libraries than most places; and inquired if they considered state-of-the-art quality libraries. He stated he does not know if staff was encouraged to be aggressive in coming forward with unfunded projects; and they need to be more aggressive in driving the planning process in the CIP for discussion of the sales tax. Mr. Jenkins advised the CIP is more aggressive than prior years, but staff can work to make it further aggressive.

Chairman Carlson stated that is a positive move, but the issue she has is using the CIP as a planning document and how to incorporate it into the visioning process. She inquired how does the unfunded definition fit within the entire stream of events, so the Board can say in year 2002 it is going to fund a certain project, it is a priority, and it wants to fund it; and that is a missing link in the CIP. She noted it has to have some meaning. Mr. Jenkins stated there are $297 million of unfunded projects; and staff can go beyond that.

Commissioner Scarborough stated if the Board gets into the sales tax, it would be talking about a quarter of a billion dollars on capital improvements; he would not want to take the CIP and come to some conclusion; if they had a half a billion dollars or a billion dollars, they could scrutinize everything and come to some consensus using all the community input; and that is much sounder than to have an existing document that never anticipated a major leap forward of that magnitude.

Chairman Carlson stated some of the other issues could be discussed before going into the CIP; doing more on the visioning side and getting additional information from the community leaders, which is what the plan is going to describe later, is what the Board is talking about; and once it can focus in on certain issues, then it can incorporate them into a CIP and have focus points as part of the vision that it has accepted and wants to push forward. She stated the Board can then look at the CIP and say it agreed in 2000 that it would do it; it is going to take a certain number of years to do it; and this is how the money is going to be allocated. She stated what is not funded, the Board could state its intent to potentially fund them; each year there is going to be unfunded projects; but she has questions about the philosophical side of what the document is being used for, and about some of the changes. Commissioner Scarborough suggested the Board go into the philosophical aspects before going into the specifics, because some times it gets involved in the minutia before it gets to agree on a concept. Chairman Carlson stated the first question is what is defined as capital. She stated there is a limit of $25,000; some of the items were lumped together, but alone they are less; and inquired if it means that several small projects at one site can be lumped into a total cost; with Mr. Rogero responding yes. Chairman Carlson inquired how does that really project capital improvement when small things that could be absorbed into a budget elsewhere are thrown together as capital; with Mr. Rogero responding it is a mechanism designed to give the Board and the public a big picture of major expenditures and the planned major expenditures; for example, ten vehicles at $20,000 each would have a $200,000 expenditure that may not be readily apparent outside of the CIP because it is buried in a capital outlay budget. He stated if it is included in the CIP, it gives the big picture of the agency's intent to spend a fairly substantial amount of money on vehicle replacement. Chairman Carlson stated $25,000 is not such a big ticket price; it is a community plan and not necessarily a capital plan, or it could be a capital and community plan that gives some sort of planning document to be able to look at and say those are the things they are planning for in the future; that is what the whole visioning thing is all about; and that is why the Board has been pushing it. She stated page I-1.1 has a statement of current day-to-day operations; the last line says, "Renovations to existing County facilities within a five-year time frame of the CIP"; and inquired how is departmental visioning woven into the needs identification. She stated the Board went through the whole visioning process; and inquired how is that interwoven into the identification of needs, because she does not see anything in any of the comments that says it meets a visioning priority. Mr. Jenkins stated that statement is not included in the CIP, but they do include it on the Agenda Reports now; and every Agenda Report has a statement which specifically ties it back to the vision and mission statements. Chairman Carlson inquired if the agenda item is tied back to the CIP; with Mr. Jenkins responding yes, if it is in the CIP. Chairman Carlson suggested some identification of that.

Commissioner Scarborough stated that sets forth his concern with the CIP as currently utilized; and maybe they need to have a separate designation to have a county of excellence and a county that competes globally. He stated concurrency requirements indicate the County is meeting minimum requirements as opposed to achieving excellence; and it needs to go back to each Department and ask them to do an analysis on how they can have a department that exceeds all standards in the State and sets some standards that would be emulated by counties throughout the country. He stated the Board may not want to fund it, but it needs to ask where does excellence lie, and what does it cost to acquire it. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board did that a year ago; with Mr. Jenkins responding it was their first effort and something they can improve upon. Commissioner Higgs inquired if staff can refine that previous effort. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to see it incorporated in the report, maybe as a separate category such as "funding needed to acquire excellence".

Chairman Carlson advised Step 2 in the process is funding source identification; and inquired if the Departments are given a projection of anticipated resources over the next five years; and if not, how can they plan expenditures. She stated there would not be a way to estimate unfunded requirements; and inquired how does that occur. Mr. Rogero advised the five-year projections are a team effort; they provide information to the Departments they may not readily have available; and the Departments provide information to the Budget Office that they are ignorant about such as their day-to-day operations and what they think their future revenue and expenditure requirements will be. He stated as part of all that dialogue and making use of different methodology information, depending on the revenue source and the Department, they come to an agreement as to what they can realistically expect to take in for each revenue line item for each Department. He stated with the support of the Budget Office, the Departments decide how they want to allocate the revenue over the next five fiscal years; and the finished product is the five-year forecast form.

Mr. Jenkins advised it is easier to do with enterprise funds that have control of their own destiny; and the problem encountered is the General Fund. He stated the Florida Legislature can make a decision that entirely changes the revenue stream the following year; and there is no way to anticipate that, so they are vulnerable in the General Fund. He stated the ad valorem portion is consistent and they can generally project that; but the rest of the revenues can vary and is speculative at best when it comes to the General Fund. He noted they make a five-year forecast, but it is speculative because changes have occurred and do occur that dramatically impacts it.

Chairman Carlson stated there are several steps in this process that is on the same page she referred to and goes back to her question about the $25,000 and lumping projects together; it says, "the need for the project was considered substantial"; and inquired how is substantial defined if it is $25,000, which does not seem substantial. She inquired, if it is $25,000 and the Department thinks there is a real need, why are other programs not cut so they can bring it forward in the regular operational budget versus putting it in a capital improvement budget. Mr. Jenkins stated if Chairman Carlson is talking about raising the standards in terms of the milestone, should it be $50,000 instead of $25,000, he does not know any reason why they cannot do that. He inquired if $25,000 is a generally accepted practice in the accounting industry, or is that just an arbitrary number. Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten advised he is not sure, but thinks the $25,000 is consistent with the definition in the Comprehensive Plan, so the Board would have to change the Comprehensive Plan if it changes the $25,000 to $50,000. Chairman Carlson stated she is not sure she wants to do that; and $25,000 may be great, if it is a number that stands alone for a specific project that the Department cannot absorb and is substantially needed. Mr. Whitten advised Departments do that with the capital outlay portion of their budgets if they can afford the project. He noted he thinks $25,000 is consistent with other counties; it is a number that can be raised; but it would have to be raised in the Comprehensive Plan to make the two documents consistent. Mr. Jenkins advised there is minimal General Fund capital funded projects in the budget; much of it is funded through enterprise funds, gas taxes, and other revenue sources; and it is the General Fund agencies that have a difficult time funding capital projects.

Chairman Carlson stated the document includes project funding schedules and operating expenditures; there are not very many that have operational expenditures; and a lot have five-year projections, but there are no projections for many of them. She inquired how effective and purposeful is that. Mr. Jenkins advised the EOC renovations of infrastructure shows zero operation. Chairman Carlson stated so does I-3.1 under Emergency Management; and there is a question in her mind what she is supposed to use the document for. Mr. Rogero stated I-3.2, Renovations of the EOC, is a capital improvement item, but there are no additional operating expenses associated with it; and that is why it shows zero. Mr. Jenkins stated a new server for Emergency Management will not have an operating budget impact, but will improve their performance. Chairman Carlson stated the beginning of the document shows a shortfall of about $294 million over the next five years, but only four Departments and the Sheriff are shown to have unfunded requirements after 2001; and inquired how does that work, how will the $294 million get distributed if those are all unfunded, and is that supposed to be reflected in the CIP. Mr. Rogero stated it is not equally distributed across fiscal years. Mr. Jenkins stated it is a basic projection as opposed to an excellence approach; and it is the minimal requirements for the next five years. Chairman Carlson inquired how will the $294 million be dispersed over the Departments; with Mr. Rogero responding in fiscal year 2001-02 it is askewed by the $220 million unfunded needs in road construction. Mr. Jenkins stated that is shown one time, but can be spread out over five years if the Board chooses to do that. He stated in addition to that, the Board has a courthouse and the jail as capital projects.

Commissioner Colon advised she is used to looking at a CIP and being able to look at definitely five years ahead to give her a bigger picture; and she has questions regarding housing and human services and the timing. She inquired how good is the track record regarding dates, and is staff on track or have projects been pushed to the following year. She stated she does not want it to look good on paper and wants to know how well they are doing as far as projects getting done. Denise Carter advised they are spreading the projects out and trying to approach them on the standpoint of budgeting; they budget for engineering; and when they are ready to go to construction, they move the monies to meet the construction projections. She stated they are doing that now to meet the infrastructure improvement needs that they have. Commissioner Colon inquired if staff is staying with the target dates; and if staff says the project is supposed to be finalized in 2001, are they staying within that time frame.

Commissioner Higgs stated West Railroad Avenue paving is defined as a seven-year project; and inquired if it started out as being seven years; with Ms. Carter responding no; however, they are facing a lot of easement acquisitions with their road projects; and they have to acquire 29 easements for West Railroad Avenue. Ms. Carter stated when they have to acquire rights-of-way and easements, it takes a long time; they are just finishing negotiations with the Church to get two easements they need for West Railroad Avenue; that project took longer because of the easements; however, the people say they want the improvements because they had a lot of flooding on that street. Commissioner Higgs stated they have a similar problem with Harry T. Moore and DeVoe Streets; it gets backed up in terms of CDBG funding; and inquired if in developing the CIP, they could break the projects down so they do not put the County behind in terms of HUD funding, and not fund the whole project, but portions of it, so it does not become a street project that takes seven years. She stated seven years gets beyond the allocation process; and HUD will begin to say what is happening and why has the money not been spent. Mr. Jenkins advised Ms. Carter currently staggers some of the projects. Commissioner Higgs stated if it became three different projects, it may look better. Mr. Jenkins advised Ms. Carter budgets engineering in one year, land acquisition in another year, and the construction another year; but in some of those cases, it is taking four or five years just to get the land. Ms. Carter stated that is correct; on Harry T. Moore, they will have to acquire 60 easements according to their engineering firm; so they will divide that project into phases. She stated they are also talking to the communities about projects they requested so they know it is going to be long term; and they also budget engineering and land acquisition rather than the whole project, so the funds will not sit over a period of years. She stated they will wait until they need it then budget for it; so they are being proactive in their approaches.

Commissioner Colon stated the perception of the community is if there is money and there is a certain project, why is the project not being done; and if staff can explain to the community and open lines of communication by letting them know the phases, that is the best bet, because they are always safe that way by letting them know that Phase 1 will take so many years and phase 2 will take so many years. She stated when the community feels the money is there and is not being spent for a particular project, it gives a negative perception of the Board and every agency that uses CDBG monies; and that is something she does not want to happen to the Board. Commissioner Colon stated in regards to the clinic, even though it is a totally different subject, she needs to ask how does that come in with the dollars. Assistant County Manager Don Lusk advised the PATH clinic would not normally appear in the CIP because generally all that money goes to the Health Department with exception of rental expenses; the rental expenses will be required to be placed in there; but it would not be part of the CIP, it would be part of the Housing and Human Services operating budget. Commissioner Colon inquired if it is put in the operating budget because the County is not putting up a structure and would be leasing and operating it; with Mr. Jenkins responding if the County is renting the building, it would be in the operating budget. Commissioner Colon stated that was her concern; if the Board is planning ahead, those are some of the issues it should look at; and she did not know if it was something that the County was going to build from scratch or offices that it would be able to lease and utilize. Mr. Jenkins stated the most expedient way to get a clinic is to rent space. Commissioner Colon stated she would prefer going into an area that is empty like a shopping center and utilizing it versus building a new building and creating sprawl. She stated that is something community pride would appreciate also; and that is the direction the County is taking.

Chairman Carlson stated she has questions on the way the document is used; page I-5.13 is the Houston Lane Paving and Drainage improvements, which says it is a four-year project approved by the Board in 1997 and scheduled for completion in February, 2003; in 2001 there is $1,000, and nothing else until 2004 which has $500,000; and inquired where is the planning. She stated the next page has $1 million scheduled for 2000-01 for South Mainland Gym, which is probably more appropriate; the next page has Shepard Park Acres, which says it is a one-year project approved by the Board in August, 2000, and scheduled for completion in August, 2001; the phrase on the bottom says, "This phase of this project is fully funded by additional participation with the City of Rockledge, yet it shows $254,000 in 2001-02; and she does not have a clue what that is about. Ms. Carter stated they were trying to correlate the sheets they turned in with the final project; and maybe the Budget Office can elaborate on it because there was interpretation from the information they submitted. Mr. Rogero stated the scheduled completion date is August, 2002. Ms. Carter stated Shepard Park Acres is a phased project; the City of Rockledge is participating with the County and asked the County to do certain streets; they submitted their cost estimates of how much those streets would cost; and staff indicated the phases and costs on the sheets they submitted. Mr. Rogero stated completion of Phase 3 would probably occur in 2002, and the $254,000 in 2004 may be Phase 4. Chairman Carlson stated how the numbers are laid out do not make sense; it is hard for the Commissioners to understand; and since they are the policy makers, they need to understand what is going on. She inquired if staff has enough feedback to improve the document.

Commissioner Colon advised she asked Mr. Whitten a question about a month ago about Parks and Recreation projects; and she wants to be on the record so everyone is on the same page. She stated when the referendum passed, it was something the County was not counting on because it did not know if the citizens were going to approve it or not; based on how she understands capital improvement projects, sometimes they put a wish list together of the needs in the community, which does not necessarily mean they will be able to get it; and her question to Mr. Whitten was if there was anything within the CIP or in the budget for future years that coincided with the referendum projects approved by the citizens. She stated she wanted to know if there were other projects in the CIP that are able to get approval now.

Parks and Recreation Director Charles Nelson advised it goes back to the history of how they fund Parks and Recreation capital improvements; that process is tied to the budget and became a budget document; they only included capital improvements which were funded; so the Board would not see multiple years unless they knew they were going to take multiple years to construct a project. He stated if they had the dollars in hand, then a project was put in the capital improvement budget; and they did not do wish lists or had a million dollars worth of improvements and asked the Board if it would fund them. He stated each year at the annual workshop they would review the budget; in some cases there was some money set aside, so a project that was actually budgeted got on the list, and the others that did not get funded did not get on the list. He stated they do not have a true CIP with multiple years; this year was a unique year because they went through the wish list process; those became the referendum projects that went on the ballot; and in three parts of the County they have been funded. He noted those will be integrated into the CIP at mid-year because they did not have that information when the CIP was put together. Mr. Nelson stated it does not answer Commissioner Colon's last question, which is what about the other projects that are not on the CIP; and they need to go through that and identify not only the area that did not pass the referendum, but the other areas where they had a longer list than they put on the referendum and incorporate those.

Mr. Jenkins inquired if there are any projects funded in the first year of the CIP that are now going to be funded by the referendum; with Mr. Nelson responding yes, there are some of those in minor amounts for the most part; the biggest one is in North Brevard District 1 MSTU, which set aside approximately $400,000 of land acquisition dollars for the Chain of Lakes project; but most cases are very small amounts that are contingencies for existing projects or to allow them to do other types of projects. He stated they are going through the process now; they had less than 60 days to figure out where they were going; but that information will evolve over the next few months. Mr. Nelson advised they have existing special taxing districts; they have tried over the years to equalize funding between the areas; and they have been able to recapture any savings that they have had and put those into additional projects as it relates to capital improvements. He stated some of the projects have extended out over years because they saved from year to year to get enough money to do a project; one is Palm Bay Regional Park; they have scrimped and saved to try and do the road there; and it has taken multiple years to do that so it keeps showing up, but each year it gets larger because they have had some savings. He noted that is the nature of how they have been funding projects in the past.

Chairman Carlson advised pages 12.2 to 12.9 have everything projected just for 2000-01; she assumes the County is not doing all the EELS centers in the same year; and inquired why those were not projected out to when they are expected to happen. Mr. Jenkins advised staff will come back and talk to the Board about those centers; right now they are authorized to do only the Enchanted Forest; and before they do the rest, they will come back to the Board for discussion and authorization. Mr. Nelson stated there are other projects, not only EELS, that have not been done; but those will need Board direction.

Commissioner Higgs stated 12.6 of the CIP looks at managing actual resources and talks about fire landclearing; she is not sure that is a capital improvement, but more or less an ongoing management issue; and the Board has endorsed aggressively managing the lands. She inquired if staff is aggressively managing the EELS properties to the maximum extent they can to get those in shape to support the reasons they were acquired; with Mr. Nelson responding absolutely. Mr. Nelson stated they have done seven different environmental burns; they have been restricted this year because of the dry season; but they did one in December, 2000, when it was wet enough to burn. He stated they are also doing mechanical pepper busting through Mike Knight and the volunteers within the resources they have; and they have land managers, not a lot of them, who are coordinating with the communities to get volunteers out there to do those things. He stated they also had support from the County's Public Safety Department and Division of Forestry; and they have been extremely cooperative, which has been a great experience. Commissioner Higgs inquired if Mr. Nelson is comfortable they are aggressively managing the lands; with Mr. Nelson responding yes he does. Mr. Jenkins inquired if Mr. Nelson had more resources, could he be more aggressive; with Mr. Nelson responding if they had more resources they could do more, particularly in the mechanical area. He stated in the burn area they are somewhat restricted because they have outparcels that create a problematic circumstance with some of the burns, as they do not own all the properties. He stated with additional resources they could do more environmental burning; they are timbering; the scrub properties, which are not conducive to scrub jay retention, are transitioning into other types of habitats; so they are doing more and more of that. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board also endorsed managing non-EELS properties for environmental purposes, which are not inconsistent with the uses; and in the current plan for Parks and Recreation, there are measures being taken on the lands managed for natural resources preservation. Mr. Nelson stated they have undertaken more than the Board is aware of because they have done it within existing resources, particularly within winter months when they have a little more time to do those things. He stated in their developed park areas, because they are mostly in neighborhoods, it tends to be labor intensive to do mechanical pepper busting; but they have done more of that and are doing as much as they can. He stated if the Board wants an incremental increase in their ability to do those things, it would take additional resources; however, the referendum will help because they will be developing some of the sites that are currently being maintained, that will give them the ability to do things they have not been able to do in the past; but full management of all sites will take additional resources.Commissioner Scarborough stated there is varying degrees of being conservative in showing things that are unfunded; there is only two ways the Board will know what it needs to improve; one is have someone move in from another area and come to a meeting and say how they did things, and the other is Department heads, through Associations and involvement, learn of excellence from publications and bring those to the Board. He stated there are things that can be done if the Board assures its Department heads to take advantage of that and share it with the community and the Board. He stated he has some particular items to discuss, but if staff is going back and reviewing the CIP, there is no reason to take the time now. He stated he talked to Department heads, and they did not feel comfortable in showing things that are unfunded; there are some things that should be in the plan and are not; Department heads are going to be given a more aggressive roll in identifying unfunded projects; so he does not need to say anything about special projects at this time. He stated his concern is minimizing capital items as opposed to challenging the thought process of the Board and community and what it wants to be; and the Board is not doing what it is telling the community with its vision.

Commissioner Higgs advised page 4.3, Renovations of Space Coast Stadium, will be funded from the fourth-cent tourist development tax; and inquired what renovations are being made; with Mr. Jenkins responding they have done quite a bit of renovations, but access to do construction is limited by the use of the facility, so they do it in the off season. He stated they are finishing up with the water proofing; there are minor structural things that have occurred; Facilities Construction is monitoring it very closely; and everything they have done to this time is within prior Board authorization. He stated there may be another agenda item for the Board in the not too distant future for additional things, but most of it is correcting the problems of the past. Commissioner Higgs requested staff refresh her memory on what they are doing, what they are spending, and where they are going, as she has not looked at it for a while.

Commissioner Higgs stated under the communications area, there were several unfunded items that are not things the Board would jump up and wonder about, like network administrative software and network upgrade, network storage, etc.; land expansion is unfunded; video teleconferencing at $28,000 is unfunded; and she does not understand the consequences to the whole operation of those being unfunded. She stated not having up-to-date communication equipment may have some consequences that she does not see; and she does not know if the Board wants to talk about it now or get a report so it can understand the consequences. Mr. Jenkins stated staff will give the Board a report; it is a good example of what was discussed in terms of minimal as opposed to excellence; and there are a lot of things they could do with SAP if they had the funding. Commissioner Scarborough stated the County has a wonderful system and capacity to expand; he did not ask Mr. Butto the question, but the question he asked people is what they would like to see; and he has heard two different things. Mr. Jenkins stated because it is so technical, it may be better to give the Board a written report on that and the impacts of not having them. He noted there are other things they could add to the list.

Commissioner Higgs advised the column of County System on 6.1.1 has $100,000 unfunded in 2001-02; nothing is funded in that year; and inquired if that means staff is going to fund it in the next budget, or is it going to sit there. Mr. Rogero stated the Board will see those items as program change requests in the upcoming budget process. Commissioner Higgs inquired if they will be funded; with Mr. Rogero responding they will be requesting General Funds. Commissioner Higgs stated nothing the County has is funded in the next budget year; and inquired if Mr. Rogero anticipates they will be funded; with Mr. Rogero responding that is part of next year's budget process. Mr. Jenkins stated he cannot say right now whether they can fund those next year or not. Information/Communication Systems Director Gino Butto advised those are things staff has identified and is leaving them in the plan as earmarks; they will be back to ask for funding; and some they will do in mid-year and the remainder in the next fiscal year. Mr. Jenkins commented there is no mid-year this year. Commissioner Higgs stated those kinds of things do not come to the Board like an unfunded park project; there could be a lot of consequences; so the Board needs more information. Mr. Jenkins stated staff will give the Board a report on that.

Commissioner Scarborough stated the County bought an excellent system with SAP and has the capacity to enhance its operation and provide more information to all personnel; if the County does not fully utilize it, it has not really taken advantage of what it has; so the Board may have to spend more money and somehow needs to encourage staff to come forward. He stated the County needs to challenge itself in all those opportunities as well; and Mr. Butto may be willing to bring those ideas to the Board and challenge it on how much better it can make the system. Commissioner Higgs stated this workshop on the CIP is an opportunity for the Board to learn and challenge itself on how it does things; page 8.1 is the SAP work order module at $114,000; it is unfunded in the 2001-02 slot; and inquired if that is something the Board will see again. Mr. Jenkins inquired of Mr. Butto, based on his current budget, does he think he will have the revenue next year, or will it still be a questionable item; with Mr. Butto responding it is still questionable based on what they are going to be able to justify in any kind of revenue increases. Commissioner Higgs stated she is not understanding the flow; and inquired when will the Board challenge itself again with those kinds of things. Mr. Jenkins stated staff will go back and give the Board information from each Department of taking them from minimal level requirements to an interest in excellence. Commissioner Scarborough advised he called Department heads and asked about unfunded items; they are under the philosophy that it is dangerous to do that; he is only one Commissioner and cannot say they are doing it wrong; and that is why he asked for clarification. He stated maybe they did send minimal requirements out; so each of the pages need to be supplemented with reasons why and go beyond the minimal. He stated he does not know how else to do it but to bring the document back and look at it again with the additional information. Commissioner Higgs stated that is fine as long as today is not the one shot the Board has on all the items. Chairman Carlson stated the Board will have to review it again when Parks and Recreation updates it at mid-year. Mr. Jenkins stated there is a serious consequence of not spending that money, but on the flip side, can they keep the doors open and continue to do business without it, the answer is yes; they are operating today; so those are enhancements that will have benefits. He stated staff can tell the Board what the outcomes would be, but they are not going to close the doors if they do not get them; they would allow staff to do more with less; and there are definite enhancements that come from those investments where the Board has x number of dollars to spend and prioritizes. He noted that is what its budget is for the current year, a prioritization. He stated they will give the Board a full list of things that would be driven towards excellence so it can review those items. Chairman Carlson advised the status report on SAP has been concluded; and Commissioner Higgs asked how the conversion has gone; with Mr. Rogero responding they can provide that.

Chairman Carlson inquired if that is the end of discussion on the CIP; with Commissioner Colon responding no, she has another question about fire fighting vehicles on page 14.8. She stated sometimes staff is told not to come to the Board and ask for something because the monies are not going to be there; but what she is hearing is if there are changes, staff needs to let the Board know because there is no way it can know. She stated the Commissioners are busy trying to make sure they are there for their constituents; they also want to be there for their staff; so there has to be that balance. She stated she is concerned, based on what she heard here, as far as priorities, of how dangerous and bad this year is going to be in regards to brush fires throughout the State with the drought and so forth; and she wants to give staff the opportunity to talk about the priorities. She stated they have the acquisition of an air truck and fire fighting vehicles countywide, the construction and renovation of fire rescue stations, and so forth; and she wants to get some feedback from staff in regards to the priorities, the level, and how critical it is going to be in 2001.

Public Safety Director Jack Parker advised if he has an issue that is important, he will bring it to the Board because he has that obligation; and if he was a Commissioner, he would want a public safety director who is going to tell him what he needs to hear and not what he wants to hear. He stated he thinks the Board wants the truth; and that is what staff provided. He stated they completely upgraded their level of service on brush fires and wildfire capabilities over the last couple of years, thanks to the Board and its assistance; they had a wildfire workshop where they said they needed certain things, and the Board gave them everything they thought they needed to bring themselves up to and above acceptable level of standards in fighting those fires; and his staff has been given wildfire training. Mr. Parker advised they built approximately 15 or 16 brush trucks since that workshop; they added tankers and equipment; and they will be one of the most capable, if not the most capable fire fighting Department in the State when it comes to fighting wild fires. He stated he is proud of their efforts; there has been tremendous increases in the level of service by the municipalities as well; it has served them well in working together; and between the municipalities and the County, they have a tremendous working relationship. He stated the other day the County's Fire Chief met with the Fire Chief of Rockledge, Rick Allen, who is the Chief of the Space Coast Fire Chiefs Association; they began efforts to start off the fire task forces; that is a joint effort between the County Fire Rescue Department and the municipal fire departments working together to combat those fires; so it is not just a matter of asking for a world of resources, but using the resources wisely together as teams; and they have done that.

Commissioner Colon stated, taking it one step further, and not just capital improvement, it is not just telling the Board but also the community that the County is prepared; and inquired if they are up to date as far as overtime within the Fire Department, because it is an emergency based on the dollars. Mr. Parker stated fighting fires in any season is unpredictable; they do their best to plot the amount of overtime they may need for fire service in general; fighting fires is one of the emergencies that will come up throughout the year; and they also have hurricanes and other types of natural disasters, as well as hazmat situations. He stated the one thing they try never to do is impede their effectiveness based on overtime budget; if it is a situation where they have to throw resources at it and their overtime is going into the red, it is his responsibility to let the County Manager know they are in that situation; and he is sure that information is passed on to the Board. He stated they will pick up the pieces when the event is over, but they are not going to throw half or a quarter of their resources at it because of a money situation and wind up getting somebody hurt. He stated they do their job to the best of their abilities and then do a financial analysis of the incidents; there are also FEMA reimbursements; they get a lot of help from Emergency Management and the Budget Office in trying to get those funds back to replenish their budget; and they do not let funding limitations restrict their ability to fight fires.

Mr. Jenkins advised he and Mr. Parker recently discussed funding; all the items that were on the referendum are being implemented; and they are on target in terms of acquiring things they said they would acquire with the referendum dollars. He stated with the additional personnel, it is a fairly tight budget; there is not a lot of cushion in the Fire Rescue/EMS budget; so it is something they will have to watch.

Commissioner Scarborough stated there are two concerns that permeate the community; one is wildfires and the other is mosquitoes, which is a wet season event; and in both cases the aerial capacity seems to be important because they do not want to send personnel into an area where they cannot get out. He stated the capacity to get back there with helicopters and drop water while the fires are still small is very good; so the Board should look at capital acquisition of helicopters to augment the Mosquito Control Department and have dual functioning capital expenditures for Fire Rescue. He stated the community should support an over capacity in both of those cases because they would have enough equipment to handle wildfires if they have events happening in three parts of the County concurrently. He noted he does not know if that is a dream ticket, but if they do dream, maybe they will dream interdepartmentally as well. Mr. Jenkins stated Mosquito Control helicopters are being equipped to fight fires and personnel are being trained to assist and support Fire Rescue.

Mr. Parker stated that service has been updated; a lot of counties rely exclusively on the Division of Forestry; in Brevard County, because of the wildfire workshop and direction of the Board to be aggressive in this area, they have taken existing resources and resources from Mosquito Control and updated the helicopters to be able to perform water drops. He stated most counties do not do that, so Brevard County is really ahead. He stated Mosquito Control now has an airplane that is also capable of doing water drops and chemical water drops with fire retardant; they also put radio equipment in those aircraft so the Division of Forestry could work in conjunction with Public Safety and Mosquito Control and bring their helicopters over as well; so they have a saturated air support. He stated although they are far ahead of other counties, it does not stop them from continuing to improve; and the more air support they have, especially if it can be used in both endeavors, they will get the most out of those resources.

Chairman Carlson inquired if there were any further questions from the Board on the CIP; and heard no response. She stated the remaining five or six items is mostly review of what has been done. Mr. Jenkins stated it is sharing information with the Board of where the County is from last year's strategic plan. He stated they will continue to improve upon and refine the strategic plan for next year; and indicated the Board may not have enough time to set its goals and update the plan today. Chairman Carlson stated the idea is to talk about how to set goals. Commissioner Higgs stated she is having a problem understanding how exactly the pieces fit together. Commissioner Scarborough stated he has general comments on where the County is and what things it is doing. Chairman Carlson suggested a half-hour lunch break.

The meeting recessed at 11:55 a.m., and reconvened at 12:40 p.m.

STRATEGIC PLANNING, RE: QUALITY OF LIFE MEASUREMENTS

Chairman Carlson advised the next item is the 63 Quality of Life Measurements; and inquired if the Board wants to handle them singularly or take questions on certain items. Mr. Jenkins advised he could do a global overview to recap the issues if the Board wants to discuss the process; with Chairman Carlson agreeing.

Mr. Jenkins advised two years ago the Board proceeded to create 63 quality of life measurements so it could monitor the quality of life as it relates to the vision statement for Brevard County dealing with health, education, social services, economics, protecting and conserving natural resources, etc., and doing all that through partnerships. He stated they went through, using existing data, and created 63 measurements; however, what they have not done yet, which is the next step in the process, is set benchmarks and goals, and try to identify priorities, then try to improve what Brevard County is today in terms of those priorities. He stated what staff has learned from other communities is rather than having 63 measurements, it would be more effective to have five to ten goals and set benchmarks and goals for those particular priorities. He stated at prior workshops, the Board talked about what is the best way to do that; it talked about creating a leadership council consisting of government, private industry, nonprofits, and a variety of leaders in the County to prioritize items and monitor the quality of life measurements, and take the initiatives back to the various entities to promote and encourage some of those priorities. Mr. Jenkins advised Chairman Carlson, Assistant County Manager Peggy Busacca, and he met with EDC Director Lynda Weatherman on numerous occasions to talk about what is the best way to do this; they initially talked about a leadership council; but since that time, a leadership roundtable has already been formed in health, education, and social services areas and is moving vigorously in establishing priorities in those areas. He stated the Economic Development Commission is the economic leadership group for the community; there are various nonprofit entities advocating on behalf of protecting and preserving the natural resources; they did not want to create a redundant or duplicate council, and thought they should try to come up with a way to work within existing organizations; and they came up with the concept of having a leadership forum. He noted it was one of the ideas that was discussed in the beginning of this process, where there would be a large group of individuals who would be brought together to work through the 63 quality of life measurements and begin to select some priorities for the community in terms of what it wants to be as a community, and prepare or develop a report for the community that a number of different entities could utilize for their planning and visioning, etc. He stated that is where it is today; and inquired how does the Board want to proceed with its community vision process to pick up where the Vision 2005 process left off.

Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board has dealt with juvenile crime; there is a group dealing with the elderly issues; Ms. Weatherman has economics; and he has a problem determining if the data is relevant to answering the questions he needs answered, and if they are the proper measurements. He stated he does not think the measures to determine if the County is dealing with juvenile and elderly issues properly has been put in the report; and the Board needs to target its analysis to see where quality lies as to the arts. He stated there is an insufficiency in the cultural arts segment; and perhaps sending it to the Cultural Alliance group and the other groups, and asking them to augment it, critique what the County is doing to determine whether it is doing enough, and how it can do it better may be appropriate. He stated after that information is received and a bigger document is put together, maybe the community could come in and lead that as a forum in a more holistic sense. He stated there are some groups that could target certain areas before it is turned over to a larger group.

Chairman Carlson advised Mr. Jenkins alluded to bringing a bigger group together to tap into those other groups regarding education, cultural arts, etc. Commissioner Scarborough stated that would be inappropriate at this time because if it is sent to the larger group, they will all discuss their own problems; so it should be sent to each group, and they be invited to critique it and make suggestions, then come back to the Board to fill in the holes. Chairman Carlson stated that is exactly what staff is trying to do.

Mr. Jenkins stated it could be modified to do what Commissioner Scarborough is suggesting; what they would do is a survey of the leadership in the community; it would be a broad-based group of industry, homeowners, cultural arts, government, etc.; and they would do a survey to get people's perception of what the County is doing well, the things they want to improve upon, and where they want to be as a community in the future. He stated they would collect all that information, bring it back and present it, along with some of the existing planning documents. He stated Juvenile Justice has a document; United Way did a needs assessment last year; the Cultural Alliance has a consultant working on a master plan; the County has a strategic plan; and they can get some of those key planning documents, and in conjunction with the School Board, League of Cities, and perhaps the Legislative Delegation as co-sponsors to try and sponsor the leadership forum that would occur in the County where they would take and critique quality of life indicators. He noted they could divide into groups in each functional area; and staff could categorize the information of the measurements into functional areas. Mr. Jenkins stated taking experience of communities that were successful, such as Martin County, Jacksonville, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and others, the key was they took two or three really important areas in each of the functional categories and focused on those; and as a result of the facilitation process for the leadership forum, they would come out with a community plan that hopefully will be bought into by the School Board, League of Cities, Delegation, County Commission, and all the other organizations and groups.

Commissioner Scarborough stated the quality measures have statistical data; he does not think statistical data is on target; sometimes there is data for Brevard County and not for other areas; and sometimes it is in a format that is not understandable. He stated when he talked to individual groups about it, they said it is not germane to the discussion; so there are some fundamental flaws in the document; and before getting into discussion about where to go, they need to go back and ask the people who are directly involved to get involved in the input. He stated he is not prepared to go forward, because the last time the Board had the visioning process, it went through numerous things, many of which funding was not discussed; and many were inconsistent, so the Board ended up with nothing. He stated with actual measurements there is going to be a more meaningful discussion; but the trouble is what does it mean.

Mr. Jenkins stated the first step is to circulate the measurements and get input from the various groups. Commissioner Scarborough stated it should ask what they think the County needs. Mr. Jenkins stated the United Way suggested a format that it used; staff liked it; so they will probably change the format also. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to get a lot of people involved. Commissioner Higgs stated benchmarking makes people think about what criteria the County should use to measure who and what it is and where it is going; it is not an end product, it is a process; and sending it out and getting more people to say this is what they want is important. Commissioner Scarborough stated while he is not happy with the report, if the Board believes those are its goals, then it should be able to say whether it is achieving those goals; and if it is not achieving them, it can get a report card saying it is not making it.

Chairman Carlson advised when the Board discussed putting this together, it also mentioned trends; it was trying to determine what trends were and get trend data so it could see if there was a trend that said they need to concentrate on certain points; now there is some trend data; and maybe the report is not giving the Board the right information, but it is getting some trends, which provides education. She stated hopefully when it is given to the groups, they will look at it, see if it fits into their goals, and determine the things the Board should be focusing on. She stated it is a trend document to set some sort of base line of where the County is going. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board does not have the complete trend of where it is going in comparison to the rest of the State and country; it could have an upper trend that is improving; but it could also be improving at a substantially lower rate than the rest of the country; therefore, one set of data would show it is on the right track, but it is still failing to achieve what it wants. Chairman Carlson stated the report is just a base line of what the Board has been talking about and is trying to set the benchmarks for; it also talked about going elsewhere and getting other communities' benchmarks, but it needs to set its own benchmarks; and that information has to come from the community on what they would like to see as an improvement in certain areas. She noted if the Board can achieve those, it would be great, and if not, then the Board can adjust them.

Commissioner Higgs stated if the Board just looks at what it has, there are many more it can include and some that it would not want to include; there is an increase in the low birth weight babies in Brevard County; and that is not the trend statewide. She stated the infant death rate is higher in Brevard County; yet that same trend is not consistent; so the document makes the Board ask questions. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board has the capacity to pull out the data, determine why it is happening, and ask the right questions. Commissioner Higgs stated she thought Brevard County was making great progress with immunizations, and was surprised to see that it is not so.

Commissioner Colon stated staff needs to go back and get that data to different organizations and ask what does it mean to them, so the Board can get that feedback before going to a leadership council. She stated if it does not get that feedback, it would not have any idea which direction the leadership council would take; and the Board would not want to do that yet. Commissioner Scarborough stated for example, the Sheriff wants a safe community, Kay Burk wants to have emphasis on arts and culture, and everyone has something they want; but it is not that easily defined. He stated it would be a more pertinent document if the Board asked the Sheriff, or Ms. Burk, or Ms. Weatherman how they measure, what do professionals in their areas measure by, etc. Chairman Carlson stated there are not too many quality of life measurements for cultural arts in the document because it has more health and environment issues; but there is a lot of stuff in the report. Commissioner Scarborough stated one thing statistical data shows is to have a good cultural arts community helps to attract businesses; the Sheriff will say retirees that are more affluent will not move here if it is a crime-ridden community; so the Board cannot have a good community without all the elements considered by all the different entities. Commissioner Higgs stated it is an evolution of the process; and that is what the Board is trying to do. Commissioner Colon stated benchmarking is being able to constantly update and enrich the document, even by giving that direction now. She inquired why the cultural arts are not in the report; with Commissioner Higgs responding the Board did not tell staff to put it in there when it looked at the item the first time; and it agreed to all the other items, but never asked about the arts. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board is heading in the right direction; and it has a document it can send to people who perform the day-to-day operations and ask for their help.

Chairman Carlson advised the cultural issue has been bubbling to the surface recently; a community cultural plan is being devised and will come back in March, 2001; it will help the Board with a lot of the issues; and Ms. Burk will be more adept at talking about it, because they are going out and getting all the data. She stated they are doing it for cultural issues only; and all the information will have to come back and be integrated into a whole. Mr. Jenkins noted it could be integrated into the Board's Strategic Plan in the Spring.

Commissioner Scarborough stated there is a Juvenile Development Strategic Plan; the Commission on Aging is developing an elderly strategic plan; so several things are happening. He stated each entity could create a strategic plan that can be shared with other entities, then the Board would have measures to see as they implement the strategic plans and determine whether it has to come back and make changes.

Commissioner Colon advised the information that is in the document is incredible; and there is a lot of good data that the community would love for the Board to share with them. She stated once it is put together, it will be talking about the crime rate in the County and how it is going down compared to the level in the State. She stated the Board should give credit where credit is due because there is a lot of good data in the report. Commissioner Scarborough stated he is not trying to be critical because it is just starting; the page on lands and agriculture uses gross numbers; and he would prefer to see a percentage number because then he can take how much percentage of Brevard County is in agriculture as compared to the rest of the State. Commissioner Higgs stated staff should also measure the decrease in gross number of agriculture acres and put that number in the report; with Commissioner Scarborough responding that is shown.

Commissioner Higgs inquired if the high school graduation rate shown used the new method of analyzing graduation rates or the old. She stated 1997-98 shows 69%; and 1998-99 shows 63.9%; but were they computed as a percentage of 12th graders rather than four years; with Tammy Thorpe responding they were calculated by the old standards because they do not have the numbers for the new standard yet. Chairman Carlson inquired if the 1999-00 will show the new numbers; with Ms. Thorpe responding yes. Chairman Carlson inquired when will the Board get that data; with Ms. Thorpe responding she is not sure of the availability. Commissioner Higgs stated there was an Internet article that pointed out the difference in the statistics and how it is computed; the number of seniors at the beginning of the year and those who graduated is the percentage that is reflected; the new way to do it computes it as a four-year figure; and that would be more meaningful. She stated the report does not have the poverty rate listed for the last few years; and inquired if that is not available. Ms. Thorpe stated the poverty rate is only available normally during a census year; however, in 1997 or so there was an ACS survey; and they can get poverty thresholds, but not the actual rate. Commissioner Higgs inquired if 2000 will have the poverty rate; with Ms. Thorpe responding affirmatively.

Chairman Carlson inquired how much manipulation of census data has to occur before the Board gets the information so that it means something, or is it something they can read and digest. Ms. Thorpe stated it should be in a format that is understandable as it has been in the past census years. Commissioner Higgs inquired when will they get the census data; with Ms. Thorpe responding they will get actual population numbers on April 1, 2001; and the more detailed data should be received between June and December, 2001.

Commissioner Scarborough stated it would be nice to have that data massaged by the different groups and committees; and after that is done, they can send it out as a complete and new report with the census data included, and ask the groups if they want to take a second bite of the apple because there may be data they will see that may allow them to do more.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, to authorize the Chairman to send letters to interested parties, the School Board, Sheriff, Kay Burk, Lynda Weatherman, youth groups, elderly groups, and others staff may come up with; and ask if they could review the data and advise the Board how it could better reflect their measurements which would accurately report on the status of their interests in the community; and return with the information in six weeks.

Commissioner Higgs stated they could take that information to the leadership group; and Chairman Carlson agreed. Mr. Jenkins stated they will go through the report and identify something in all the functional areas.

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

STRATEGIC PLANNING, RE: COMPREHENSIVE PLAN GOALS STATUS REPORT

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised the Comprehensive Plan Goals Status Report is just to provide the Board with information on the Comprehensive Plan and the goals that are in the Comprehensive Plan.

Chairman Carlson advised her question is how to link everything together in terms of the visioning and everything else. She stated the Comprehensive Plan goes through the status of all the different things where there is supposed to be some action; she assumes the status report is about those actions; there is a lot of supposed action items in the Comprehensive Plan; and most of them seem to be in the Conservation Element which may be in need of assistance. She inquired if the Comprehensive Plan is supposed to be the guiding light for the community, should it be incorporated into the visioning. She stated when Natural Resources comes back and tries to incorporate items in the CIP, should it also address how the Comprehensive Plan is being looked at or if there is an Element that needs to be targeted, and put that in the visioning process to see how it flows. Assistant County Manager Peggy Busacca stated Natural Resources would be happy to tell the Board the additional staffing needs they have, but it is not a capital improvement issue. Chairman Carlson advised one issue that has been discussed at different points is the critical habitat plan which is in the Comprehensive Plan and is referred to in several different policies; it says they need additional funding to get it done before 2004; the Comprehensive Plan says 2002; and inquired if there is a way, with expenditure of dollars for additional positions, to complete the plan. She stated it is not a CIP issue but needs to be incorporated somehow. Mr. Jenkins advised when staff does the excellence concept Commissioner Scarborough talked about, they could divide it into capital and other operational issues such as staffing. Commissioner Higgs stated implementation of the Comprehensive Plan should be a goal that is incorporated into the excellence concept.

STRATEGIC PLANNING, RE: EDC STRATEGIC PLAN AND POSITIONING BREVARD
STATUS REPORT

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised the other items include a status report on the Vision 2005 goals in terms of what the Board does to contribute to those goals; and it is more informational than anything else. He stated Lynda Weatherman is here to give the Board an update on the EDC strategic plan and Positioning Brevard for the Future document, which she gave the Board a year ago.

EDC Executive Director Lynda Weatherman advised on any kind of strategic plan, they have to know where they are, where they are going, and where they have been; their annual report is a quantitative measurement of what they have achieved that year; and those goals are part of the overall goals in their strategic plan. She stated how to get a better quality of life and how to do all those things need availability and creation of good jobs for all clientele; they have met or exceeded all of their goals that were outlined for last year; and this goal is part of the goals they have in the contract relationship with the Board. She stated EDC was awarded the Deal of the Year Award among their peers which include the EDC's around the State and the Florida Economic Development Council; they analyze how an EDC puts something together and what kind of economic impact it has to a community; and they were proud of receiving the award, which would not have been able without the right clientele and the right tools the Board provided to them. Ms. Weatherman advised they do an annual manufacturers survey usually in early Spring; they use it as a diagnostic tool and to help in developing their policies; they received a 25% response to the survey last year which predicted 38% increase in their employment; but 98% reported a shortage of qualified employees, which has been a concern of the EDC. She stated last year they talked about a talent recruitment endeavor in addition to their traditional industrial recruitment; and for an EDC that has responsibility and a roll in addressing some of the economic development policies of an area, they need to be able to turn back to the quantitative measures like surveys, so they can calibrate their policies.

Chairman Carlson inquired if a survey was done last year; with Ms. Weatherman responding yes, and they have done it since 1995. Chairman Carlson inquired what are the comparisons, and was there any change in any of the survey information; with Ms. Weatherman responding she cannot recall the past years, but from 1995, she could have seen those curves and shown where the plateau occurred. She stated in the first survey, the majority had layoffs or predicted layoffs; by the second year, they projected they would hire more employees; the survey before that they had concerns about labor; and that is why in 1996, they started the Manufacturing Alliance to make sure they are interfacing with the kind of training programs they have available in addition to the supply of labor. She stated over the next two years, she would guess that the labor market will get tighter; that is something they are all involved in, especially when talking about the visioning process; there are some things EDC will play a roll in, and there are some things that will have a tremendous impact on them such as the graduation rate; and they will have a roll in that, but will not be the premier group. She stated they had a good year relating to job creation that they were directly involved in; and there were 2,791 new jobs. Ms. Weatherman advised in addition to the day-to-day activities, they do trade shows, work with existing industry, and meet with them. She stated there were some interests the Board brought out within the strategic plan; and she will give the Board an update of what they have done and are doing in regards to those particular interests. She stated the first issue, which was discussed with Chairman Carlson is the cluster development; it is an analysis of the industrial base looking at cluster or kindred type of industries that are occurring; and what kind of industries are occurring are called emerging clusters. She stated the information is to understand the clusters, their needs, demands, training requests, and things like that; so they focus on the emerging industries that they are better able to respond to. She stated there is not a lot of data in emerging industry clusters because it is just now happening; but instead of waiting for the data to develop, as they look at the census data, their answer was to develop an information technology consortium involved in IT which has about 100 members right now; it is very broad at this point, and includes everyone from small dot.com companies to Bell South; but eventually the consortium will go into subdivisions. Ms. Weatherman stated the reason they want to look at clusters is to know the industry, get them together, know the people who are involved in it and what their wants are, and have systematic logistical meetings with them. She stated the first thing they did with them, which was a co-venture with F.I.T., was to survey those companies and use that survey as a diagnostic tool to find out what they need that an EDC may be able to respond to; and as they find additional data, they might be able to share it with the Board, Brevard Workforce Development Board, and other agencies involved in economic development. She stated the survey will be released February 2, 2001; 55% was the response rate because of the efforts of F.I.T. staff to make sure they called companies to respond; 86% predicted expansion within the next year; and that is very interesting, with the economy changing, for an industry tied to fluctuations to expand. She stated as an EDC they look at that and say it is good and they want to make sure if there is expansion opportunities that expansion occurs in Brevard County; but that is not necessarily the case. She stated 87% of expansions require 50 employees or less; and that is part of the small type industries that are evolving. Ms. Weatherman advised another thing they are doing is the targeted IT brochure; when they do a product they want to be able to use it several times; what they found is a lot of the existing companies are telling them they need to go out and do some recruitment on their own; much of EDC's time is spent interfacing with the existing industrial base; and their response to the industry was what can they do. Ms. Weatherman advised they are developing a brochure that will show the diversity and eclectic nature of the industrial base, particularly that high-tech started with the Space industry and ends with the Space industry with Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory (SERPL) and all the things in between such as companies that have grown and developed like Harris. She stated it will show to the market what the area has to offer; and that same brochure can be used by companies that may want to recruit software engineers. She stated industrial America does not know about Brevard County, especially engineers who are looking at places; they hear about Palo Alto and Austin; Brevard County has what it takes to compete with those sites; and the Manufacturing Association Electronics Group did a study recently that showed Brevard County ranks above some of the traditional high-tech areas. She stated they talked about venture capital; high technology is driving the manufacturing economy; but there is argument if the money is behind high technology or does the technology find the money. She stated one of the State's shortcomings has been the availability of seed venture capital; and when they go to San Jose, they tell venture capitalists there are companies in the area that are competitive and making world class products, so they should consider this place. She stated it is a tool that tells them about the area; what they are fighting is the perception; and they all know about the Space system but not everything else in between and the qualified talent that existing companies could use. Ms. Weatherman stated another area of interest is the regional effort; it shows the dynamic nature, not just of Brevard County, but other regions; the EDC is involved in a few regional efforts such as the Florida High-Tech Corridor Council; she was Chairman of the Marketing Committee; and that means a lot of EDO's, UCF, and USF get together to find what is it that will make the corridor known throughout the world the same way as Silicon Valley and the I-28 Corridor around Boston; and that involves marketing, research products, telling the story, and marketing the materials. She stated in October, 2000, they did a joint mission to the San Jose area, not in the traditional economic development fashion and saying are there industries looking to leave, because they are not leaving; but they went as peer to peer and said when expansion occurs, or if they need data centers, or if Cisco Systems or J. D. Unibase is having expansion, Brevard County has what it takes to be able to absorb those expansions. She noted it takes going in there and talking and knowing the companies and players in that area. She stated the year before last Commissioner Carlson was involved in some of those meetings and talking to industries and hopefully has an insight to some of the kinds of questions they ask. Ms. Weatherman advised they were asked to present an economic development perspective at a regional conference hosted by Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce with about eight different counties about what is economic development, what is going on in Brevard County, what is it they find exciting, and what are some of the regional endeavors they see. She stated there will be a meeting coming up among the Economic Development Commission, Mid-Florida Development Commission, and Volusia County staff and Chairman; that is unusual because they work with staff all the time when they do missions; and they do not pay for one mission and want to leverage their money so they have co-missions and have done so for several years with other EDO's. She stated they have to sell Florida before selling Brevard County; there is a meeting coming up to talk about other ways they can leverage their budgets and other ways to tell the story of Central Florida, particularly the East Coast; and although they work on a staff-to-staff basis, they will be doing more with the regional technology development efforts. Ms. Weatherman advised there is an organization called Central Florida Innovation Corporation located in Orlando; and they want the Corporation to come to Brevard County and do a series of seminars because there are opportunities and organizations in Orlando that they might have worked with and want to mature that relationship. She stated another issue is education, not just education of what the Board may be doing, but also the roll of the EDC; the EDC is maturing every year in regard to its abilities; they have a core business cut out for them; and at the end of the presentation, she will show the long list of objectives they have to meet and play a roll in even if it is only to some degree. She stated they have established an education committee, which came about after meeting with Commissioner Higgs and talking about the roll of education in economic development; they want to interface with colleges and universities, and the Superintendent of Schools and become a liaison or facilitate the lines of communication between the manufacturing industry and the School System to let them know they can go into the manufacturing world, and that if they are good, capable, and semi-skilled with a drive, they can get skills on the job and be trained to make $35,000 a year in three or four years. She noted that skill mix makes manufacturing unique; they can have no skills and work in manufacturing, but they can also work hard and absorb skills and move to a more sophisticated level; and if the Board is interested, they can set up meetings with manufacturers for walk throughs. She stated they are all very different, and it is quite an education. She advised last year they did a reception for new Superintendent DiPatri; and it was a way of telling him he is important to the business community and they are excited about having him on board. Ms. Weatherman advised the next thing she wants to talk about is Space Coast Defense Alliance; there was a State drive endeavor about three to four years ago where the State was putting up money for communities with bases; in 1993 when the BRAC list came out and a lot of communities were not prepared, EDC became more mature; it got ready for it and became proactive; and it was to the compliment of the State for doing it. She stated they asked EDC to get a group of community leaders together to see what they could do to BRAC-proof; they provided the funds; and the community was smart enough to go after it and provide opportunities for the community and the 45th Space Wing, as well as other military installations like the Coast Guard. She stated it was a true effort between the community and the military; some of the things are occurring right now and some will occur; and they want to develop a small information piece to talk about why it is important for military communities to get together. She stated they applied for the grant and got it; there are military issues they have to address as a community; and they are getting involved. She stated another thing they are doing is developing a talent recruitment video provided by a grant; they like to use one piece many times; in talking to the Space Wing and industry, they said they would use it, and they need to know about the area; if Avtech needs additional scientists or software engineers they could provide the video on their behalf; and they are in the process of developing it right now. Ms. Weatherman stated another thing is Mission Enhancement; they hear about base closures, but there is also realignment; and if the community could start preparing ahead of time, they could take advantage of it. She stated the flight line is under utilized; there are opportunities in the winter to get flight training missions to come down here; and they asked the 45th Space Wing, Navy, and Coast Guard if they worked in conjunction to develop something, if they would make sure they get those presented to the air bases in other areas, so when they go to make their determination of where they are going to do their training for the winter, they would consider coming to Brevard County. She stated the only reason they can have a product that is meaningful is because they talked on a systematic basis with the 45th Space Wing and the community surrounding the area. Ms. Weatherman advised the other thing they are doing that is quite exciting is the infrastructure improvement project; the State provided money and asked the community to get with the base and determine if there is something the base could do to assist in their infrastructure that would help BRAC proof it. She stated it may be something they have been wanting to do that would make the base more secure, but they did not have funds for it; they worked in conjunction and have a grant out for improvements and infrastructure on the base; they did it as a collaborative effort between the 45th Space Wing, EDC, and the Space Coast Defense Alliance; and they hope to hear from that in the next 30 days. She stated another item is the Space efforts, what is going on with NASA and what is going on with SERPL are rolls that the EDC will play a part in; and for commercial space, it is the EDC's effort to capture satellite manufacturers and tell the story that this is the place to go when they have expansions; they could assume they would come here anyway because it is close to launch facilities; but a lot of the payloads are built not just for Cape Canaveral, but for other places as well. She noted it is their third year of doing this effort; last year they did it as their sole communitywide recruitment endeavor; and they invited city managers and mayors to Satellite 2001, so they would be there collectively as a community and not just as the State of Florida, but as Brevard County talking to those industries. She stated it is an interest to the industries; last year the Mayors of Melbourne and Titusville attended; they had never seen mayors take the time to talk to industry; so the Board cannot underestimate the story it tells because it makes a big difference when someone takes the time to do that. She stated SERPL is something they are going to get involved in; the State provided $14 million for a 400-acre industrial park at the Cape; a lot of scientists will be involved in it; and it is a new chapter in the roll of NASA working with the State and the EDC to find out what kind of companies, who are they talking to, and what are they going to do. She stated they will have quarterly meetings with NASA as well as subcontractors because there is a renaissance taking place in NASA; and on Tuesday, NASA was here in support of the EDC regarding an issue they discussed and apprised them about the outcome. She stated to bring the industry into the area might mean they have to use tools they were not aware of; it is a different world; and the EDC will and must play an active roll in all of that. Ms. Weatherman advised if EDC is to have a roll and responsibility in developing policies for economic development, it better understand the economy; with some of the data they collect, they want to start quarterly economic indicators of business and community data that they will provide four times a year; and she would be interested in looking at the retail sales for Christmas in Brevard County for the last six years out of curiosity and slightly diagnostic, then compare them nationally. She stated those are little things that may not change their policy but will give them the idea and insight; and they would share that primary data that is specifically tied to Brevard County. She stated they have the capability to do economic modeling in-house on the true impact of Brevard Zoo, Kennedy Space Center, etc. Ms. Weatherman advised on May 16, 2001, they want to host an economic summit and forecast; they want to work with F.I.T. for EDC to collect data and share it with F.I.T. to do the analysis; hopefully it can happen on an annual basis for the entire community, not just the business community. She stated they have a list of specific goals every year that they need to meet; they are divided into manufacturing location expansion; they have in-house quarterly objectives that must be met, which are tied to directors or bonuses; and that is how they meet or exceed their goals. She stated they are excited about this coming year and had a good year last year in regards to relocations; they cannot say it will happen again, but there are a lot of other things going on that they will be involved in, particularly with Space development; and they look forward to working with the Board throughout the year.

Chairman Carlson inquired if the research projects quarterly economic indicators are the same as Brevard County economic profile; with Ms. Weatherman responding no, the profile is a collection of about 3,000 different data sources, and the economic indicators are more fluid. Chairman Carlson inquired when will the Board have the first quarterly report on that; with Ms. Weatherman responding they hope to have it by April 1, 2001; they are in the process of doing the research now and trying to cruise until they get the census data so they can put it in and put it to print. Chairman Carlson inquired if they will use the REMI model in the tax abatement program to show the significance of why the County should give an abatement versus not give it. Ms. Weatherman stated the whole REMI model is not used in the tax abatements, but they have acceptable measures of judging economic impact. She stated part of what the REMI does is determine what the multiplier is; and they take that multiplier and use it in their analysis for the tax abatement program. She stated what they have used in the past, instead of having their own REMI model, was call the State for input and output; they are using some products that come out of a REMI model; but now they will be able to plug those numbers in and do more to probably find more of an impact on other factors of the economy. Chairman Carlson advised the TDC assisted EDC in getting the REMI model; and inquired how that was going to flow over to the tourism side of the equation; with Ms. Weatherman responding REMI is a sophisticated and expensive modeling program; it was too expensive for EDC to justify, so they went to the TDC and said if they purchased the REMI model and let EDC use it, EDC would do a study for the TDC and pay for a person to get the training on it. She stated it shows what a good partnership can lead to; they requested a study on the Brevard Zoo; EDC did that and completed it November, 2000; so both of them came out with what they needed and it saved them from having to purchase a study. Chairman Carlson inquired if they used the REMI model for the GE Harris issue to see what the implications would be if they moved; with Ms. Weatherman responding no, they did an economic impact analysis on that, but it was not a true REMI model analysis. Chairman Carlson inquired if Ms. Weatherman is going to talk about the Road Map; with Ms. Weatherman responding no, it is almost eclectic communitywide, and the three objectives they need to focus on was mentioned earlier.

Commissioner Higgs advised Ms. Weatherman emphasized education and being a partner; the County had wonderful indicators from the University of Central Florida (UCF) about its expansion of the Palm Bay Campus; and she hopes it will be included because it has committed to major expansion of course opportunities that will have a tremendous economic impact. Ms. Weatherman stated a lot of their work with UCF has been through the high-tech corridor; it plays an important roll; and its presence in Brevard County is equally significant. She stated when they made their presentation in San Jose two Octobers ago, the head of CREO was with them; they were very interested in CREO's part of UCF Center of Research and Electro-optics; and Dr. Swallow knew people on the Board of Directors of UCF, so it is significant. She stated developing the kind of trained labor needed within Brevard County is also a wonderful tool to use and very critical.

Commissioner Colon advised Melbourne Airport wants to build a convention center; because it is within her District, they asked her to chair the Space Coast Convention Center Committee; and she has a difficulty whether it is a conflict of interest because it would be presented to the Board. She stated she told Mr. Johnson if it was something the citizens would pay for, there is no way she could support it; and she wanted to get feedback from the Commissioners if they would want to appoint someone to the committee. She stated the TDC, Mayors, City Managers and a lot of elected officials sit on the committee; she wants to make sure there is no violation of the Sunshine Law; and requested feedback from the Board on how to go about it.

Chairman Carlson indicated former Commissioner Voltz served on the committee; and stated they approached her and she declined because she does not want to be in that position. She stated there is no problem being on the committee and having input, but it is up to Commissioner Colon if she wants to chair it. Commissioner Scarborough stated he has no problem with it, but Commissioner Colon may become more of an advocate in that particular roll; and they need to understand she will look at it from a broader perspective than just that group. Commissioner Colon stated she is putting her hat in as an elected official and not just someone sitting on the committee. Commissioner Scarborough stated the advantage is Commissioner Colon will have a lot of information about it, but as she takes the position, they may assume she is going to become the leader and others in the community will look to her as their representative who may see things differently; so they need to understand she would approach it as a Commissioner first and secondly as the chair of the committee. Commissioner Colon stated she did not want a position where she would compromise that; the convention center may be great and have an economic impact in the community; and inquired if she declined the chair, would the Board be interested in having an appointment to the committee to get feedback.

Commissioner Higgs advised some hoteliers are distressed by the concept of tourist development dollars being used to fund a convention center on the site of someone else's hotel when they pay the tax; she has heard from people who have a great deal of concern that the convention center might be coming; and if there is a move to build a convention center with TDC dollars at the Airport and a hotel being there, people from Mims to Micco will be in conflict over that. She stated Commissioner Colon has to decide whether she wants to put herself in the roll as the chair and an advocate of that project.

Chairman Carlson advised Commissioners serve on different boards, but not necessarily as chairs; they can have just as much input without chairing the board or committee which does not imply they are heading up anything and are just providing input; and that is a better position. She stated if Commissioner Colon is interested in the project, she should be on it, but she does not necessarily have to chair it.

Commissioner Colon inquired if Ms. Weatherman sits on that committee; with Ms. Weatherman responding no, and the EDC Executive Board has not addressed that issue. Commissioner Colon expressed appreciation to the Board for its feedback.

Commissioner Scarborough advised Ms. Weatherman met with Roy Bridges and Darrell Kelly from Mid-Florida; and it would be appropriate for her to work with them if they want to partner with the County in support of SERPL. He stated it is a non-threatening and beneficial project; Mel Martinez was very successful last year and got support from all adjoining counties and their legislative delegations; and this Board needs to follow that up and contact Jacob Stuart, so he will make a motion to do that.

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Higgs, to authorize the Chairman to send a letter to Jacob Stewart requesting he lobby for SERPL.

Commissioner Higgs stated it should also be brought up at the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council meeting. Commissioner Scarborough stated he will request a resolution from the Council. He requested Ms. Weatherman work with Mr. Kelly to support SERPL. Ms. Weatherman stated they have an upcoming meeting, and that could be an agenda item.

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

STRATEGIC PLANNING, RE: STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised the update of the Board's Strategic Plan shows where each of those items are; and in view of the fact that the Board has other leadership things working and evolving, it may want to delay anything on the plan at this time because it may be counterproductive to do anything with it.

Chairman Carlson stated that is a good idea.

STRATEGIC PLANNING, RE: QUALITY GROWTH BEST PRACTICES

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised the Board talked about best practices for achieving quality growth; Mel Scott identified 11 factors involved in best practices to achieve that; and it is more an informational item and maybe something the Board may want to discuss at another time.

Chairman Carlson advised one of the goals brought up last year was smart growth or quality growth; and the Board could discuss it at another time.

Commissioner Higgs stated there are some great things in the report that the Board needs to move on; and inquired if the Board is going to pick one item and bring it back separately. She stated there are a number of concepts the Board has discussed in the past that are on the list and need to be implemented.

Chairman Carlson stated a lot of it is philosophical, and changing what it does now to the direction it is talking about, whether it is land development regulations or whatever. She stated she does not have a problem if Commissioners have specific comments or want to bring it back and discuss it further in a different setting. She stated she did not have the opportunity to really study it well and would like to bring it back at another time; and inquired if the Board wants to bring it back as an agenda item or another workshop.

Mr. Jenkins advised a workshop is scheduled on January 30, 2001 with the Clerk and Homeless Coalition; the Coalition asked to delay their portion of the workshop as they are doing some things and would like to have it later in the year; so the Board could add this item to that workshop. Chairman Carlson indicated approval of Mr. Jenkins' suggestion. Chairman Carlson advised staff has given the Board the status; and inquired if staff has recommendations to get some of the things moving along and being more aggressive with the quality growth initiatives, and could bring those back at another workshop. Planning and Zoning Director Mel Scott advised it would be more appropriate for staff to follow the Board's lead if there are recommendations for additional measures that could be generated. He stated if it wants staff to elaborate on the issues, that is one thing; and those are all the items that have been given Board direction that they can pursue with more vigor.

Commissioner Higgs advised the Board discussed court expenditures and revenues; and inquired if a court-related impact fee can be done; with Mr. Jenkins responding he thinks the Board can do that. Commissioner Scarborough stated impact fees are very difficult to bond because they are cyclical. Commissioner Higgs stated they may not be able to bond those fees, but it would be an additional source of revenue; and requested information on that. Mr. Scott stated according to the consultant, as long as the Board can establish a strong rational nexus for any impact fee, it has a good chance of standing up in court. Commissioner Scarborough stated if there is not a steady stream it cannot be bonded to accomplish capital improvements.

Commissioner Scarborough stated at the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council meeting, a development in Lake County was discussed; there was a comment or two that they did not appreciate Brevard County coming to their meetings; they are building a 45-hole golf course; but the lake levels over a period of time dropped about 40 feet. Commissioner Higgs noted Lake County is in a 200-year drought. Commissioner Scarborough stated it is horrible and goes back to historic proportions; the water table over the last few years dropped ten feet; they just created a new water authority that wants to look at it; but they want to vote for it because the developer wants it. He stated coming back to Brevard County he noticed the St. Johns River is as dry as it would be in the dry season; people want to drain areas rapidly to build and get that water into the St. Johns River which will eventually go into the ocean and a valuable resource is lost; and the higher the County can maintain the water table the better it is for the aquifer. He stated when it creates drier and drier conditions, the plant material becomes drier because there is less water in the soil; therefore, all the homes people want to build may get destroyed in a massive fire. Commissioner Scarborough stated all of Flagler County was evacuated during the wildfires; it is conceivable that Brevard County could have forest fires that could burn beyond control; fire suppression is not included as best practices, and water moisture and plants are not addressed; but the Board needs to tell people if they want to build in this area, they need to create weirs and keep water. He stated Florida is a sponge; the sponge has been rung out rapidly; then it sits there in a dry season and burns and people wonder why. He stated he is not talking about natural fires because they have not been doing natural burns; burns in the wild areas will occur because they cannot be suppressed; what has happened is that Florida has been overly drained; and that has contributed to the drought conditions in plant material which are more combustible. Commissioner Scarborough stated the plant materials become more combustible and fires started by lightning strikes become more treacherous. He stated they are going to meet with the South Florida and St. Johns River Water Management Districts to talk about how dry the State is; and he would like to see that discussion brought over to Brevard County and the best practices include concepts of keeping water and keeping fire suppressions a part of it.

Commissioner Higgs stated she would not go as far as to say all wildfires will be a result of draining everything; ditch and drain has been the mentality of Florida; and they will not see it as a problem until the water is all gone. Commissioner Scarborough stated historically fires have occurred and were never able to be suppressed because they occur in the wilderness where the County does not have the equipment or trained manpower to go back there and fight it. He stated one of the things that is occurring is the dryness of the State; and soon they will have dry plant material with the propensity to burn more rapidly and be harder to suppress. Commissioner Higgs stated when the Board looks at the recharge areas, that will be an important thing; the development standards in terms of retaining more water in areas is also important; but what the County has looked at in terms of retaining is problems for water bodies and not for the land; and not having water for the land is an important problem. Commissioner Scarborough stated the purpose for retaining water was not to pollute the Rivers; if water is retained at a lower level, it does not have the same capacity to maintain the fresh water bubbles; and if it dissipates into a salt water lagoon, it is lost as far as potable water and capacity to fight fires. He stated that is going to be very critical in the future, not just in Brevard County, but in the entire region, as to whether it will be able to survive a massive catastrophe where a fire wipes out an entire community. Commissioner Higgs mentioned the lakes where she grew up that are drying up; stated it affects the quality of life; and lack of water is a limiting quality of life factor. Commissioner Scarborough stated there are reports from people in Highland County to the Ocala Forest; it extends beyond the East Central Florida region; the typical areas where everyone thought were the areas that caught and retained water for Florida are lost; and ironically Brevard County is not a part of the Florida aquifer. He stated Cocoa draws from the Florida aquifer; a lot of people do not realize what is being said in Orange County that is going to impact people in Brevard County; so the Board will be faced with that problem, but it is not as immediate as Lake County. Commissioner Higgs stated the Board has looked at the Cocoa Water system as one of the best supplies around, and they are going to be the hardest impacted by this issue. Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to see that added to the list of quality growth practices.

Commissioner Higgs advised, it would be useful for Commissioners to communicate to staff their priorities to have the items discussed then the Board can move to those it wants to implement or are most comfortable talking about implementing.

Chairman Carlson instructed staff to meet with each Commissioner. Mr. Jenkins advised the workshop will be held on January 30, 2001.

APPOINTMENTS/REAPPOINTMENTS, RE: CITIZEN ADVISORY BOARDS

Motion by Commissioner Scarborough, seconded by Commissioner Colon, to appoint and/or reappoint Clara Mutter and Dr. Denis Van Cleef to the Animal Enforcement Dangerous Dog Hearing Council, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Bobbie McMillen to Art in Public Places, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Dr. John Potomski, Jr. and Joan Madden replacing Gayle Cannon, to the Brevard Commission on Aging, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Beverly Jones and Rosemary Munzenmayer replacing Cindy Flachmeier, to the Brevard County Commission on the Status of Women, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Patsy Scherer, Elizabeth Armistead, and Reverend Canon Kite-Powell to the Central Brevard Library and Reference Center Advisory Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Kim Zarillo to the Citizens Budget Review Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Reverend Melvin Chatman, Leartis Brothers, Pat Boatwright, Izeal Battle, Zola White, Betty Wells, and Jimmy Jackson to Cocoa West Community Center Advisory Committee, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Marisol Soto and Yvette Torres to the Community Action Agency Advisory Committee, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Sharon Savastio to the Community Based Organization Funding Advisory Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Reverend Edward Buckner to the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Robert Hicks, John Robinson, and Pete Cario to the Contractors Licensing Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Ruth Santomassino to Country Acres Advisory Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Yvette Torres to the Employee Benefits Advisory Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Sharon Savastio to Environmentally Endangered Lands Procedure Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Bob Gross, Elaine Liston, and Ada Parrish to the Historical Commission, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Fernanda Safarik to the Library Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Gary Hanlin to the Marine Advisory Council, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Ayn Samuelson replacing Chuck Striffler, and Clarence Mills to the MPO Citizens Advisory Committee, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Jerry Jagrowski, Mary Ann Kise, and John Corelli to the Parks and Recreation South Service Sector Advisory Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Gordon Prentice replacing Julie Harrison, and Jerry Jagrowski replacing Peter Kostrzewa, to the Planning and Zoning Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Clarence Mills to the Public Golf Advisory Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Herb Richter, Mary Anne Beasley, Mike Malone, Daniel Frazee, E. Harrison Rhame, Jerry Jagrowski, Jim Peterman, Neil Jackson, Warren Price, R. L. Jones, Audrey Nassen, Chuck Manning, Bill Roberts, John Lewis, and John Law to the Suntree-Viera Parks Committee, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Saul Barton, Dot Lawless, Jim Peterman, June Baker, and Terry Kotzen to the Suntree/Viera Public Library Advisory Board, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; Frank Kunze to the Veterans Memorial Park Advisory Board, with term expiring December 31, 2001; Eleanor Munton, Mary Soares, Ollie Olsen, R. L. Jones, and Richard Butler to the Wickham Park Advisory Committee, with terms expiring December 31, 2001; and Timothy C. Jelus to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, with term expiring December 31, 2001. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

APPOINTMENT, RE: CONTRACTORS LICENSING BOARD

Motion by Commissioner Higgs, seconded by Commissioner Scarborough, to appoint Roger Drabyk to the Contractors Licensing Board, replacing Bob Morgans, with term expiring December 31, 2001. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Upon motion and vote, the meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

ATTEST: __________________________________
SUSAN CARLSON, CHAIRMAN
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

____________________
SCOTT ELLIS, CLERK

(S E A L)