MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

 

 

May 26, 2009

 

 

The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida met in special session on May 26, 2009, at 9:10 a.m. in the Government Center Florida Room, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida.  Present were:  Chairman Chuck Nelson, Commissioners Robin Fisher, Trudie Infantini, Mary Bolin, and Andy Anderson, Interim County Manager Stockton Whitten, and County Attorney Scott Knox.

 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated there is one speaker card and he has talked with the individual; he inquired if the Board has any problems with the Public Comment section being moved to the end; and if any questions come up they can be directed during the presentations.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated on May 15, 2009 he went to My Region Organizations Economic Summit for a presentation on how 6 Counties could help absorb some of the workforce possibly lost from the Kennedy Space Center.

 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated on May 27, 2009 he has a meeting with Robert Cabana, Kennedy Space Center Director, and he is looking forward to that.

 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he was appointed to the East Central Florida Planning Council Board by this Board, he seems to be having a conflict, and he would like to solicit some help.

 

The Board recessed at 9:15 a.m. and reconvened at 9:23 a.m.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he is appointed to the East Central Florida Planning Council also.  Commissioner Fisher stated it is a great organization; but looking at their schedule and the things that are on their agenda, not much affects Brevard County currently at this time.  He stated he did not want anybody to feel bad if it was heard that he has not been to a meeting because his calendar has other pressing issues in his District.  Commissioner Anderson advised he has emailed Stockton Whitten, Interim County Manager, and staff regarding what the legislation of House Bill 360 has done and how much authority that organization will continue to have in the future; and whether it is feasible to participate and pay the large sum of dues.   Mr. Whitten stated with an updated memorandum from Scott Knox, County Attorney, that he will re-circulate the memorandum.  Commissioner Anderson advised that he has a copy of that memo.
 

Commissioner Fisher stated another concern he has in this short budget fall is knowing how many limited projects there are and as he understands it is a State-mandated fee.  Mr. Knox advised it is a State Law that allows them to set dues and collect dues; the dues are set by an established rule; it is paid by per-capita; if it is not paid, the sanction is the delegation loses the right to vote in any preceding held and have the right to collect the dues by filing suit to collect the dues; and the only thing that can really be done is go to the Legislature to try to get relief.  Commissioner Anderson stated that the Governor has not signed the legislation yet; and the way he understands it is it takes a lot of authority away from the Planning Councils.  Commissioner Fisher mentioned he will keep representing Brevard County.

 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he had the opportunity to go on a couple of trips to Washington, D.C. and Colorado Springs; he went with high hopes that this would help be better for the future in Brevard County as far as the space-related industry; and he found Brevard is facing a “Perfect Storm”.  He stated the end of the Shuttle Program is approaching, the delay of the next generation vehicle, and the proposed Federal budget also calls for a lot of defense spending cuts, which directly impacts many of the companies in Brevard, also including a down real estate market is going to be effected.  He stated while traveling back and talking with individuals, there seems to be a sense of denial in Brevard County because people think things will be fine and it is all going to go away; it is not going to be okay; and he thinks it is time to come out of denial and work together to find out what needs to be done.  He stated he obviously was given the opportunity to Chair this meeting today and hopes that there will be several meetings Chaired by different Commissioners because one thing he did learn is parochialism is gone especially with the Chambers and the Economic Development Commission (EDC); and stated there is not a Commissioner here North or South County it is all about Brevard County and the region to get things prepared and ready to recover to expand the diversification that not only impacts the workers at Kennedy Space Center but the small business people such as the restaurants that depend on those workers, and the handymen are all going to impacted.  He stated between direct and indirect jobs it could be very difficult for the elected officials that are in the municipalities and the leaderships at EDC Space Florida; he has a lot of faith in this Commission that the impacts could be minimized if everyone works together and does what is right to ensure that the residents of Brevard stay here; every time he thinks about Huntsville or Alabama he gets angry because they have it made there; and we do not want to lose residents to there.  He stated he hopes this will be the beginning of several meetings that will get the community together with a rally cry to keep Brevard a great place to live.

 

 

Lynda Weatherman, Economic Development Commission President & CEO, stated she was asked to give an economic presentation on the economy to find out were Brevard is; she  does not think that what she is going to share today is new; but in statistics it is just a different way of looking at it.  She stated her presentation today will not be long; she wants to discuss the state of the economy, particularly Brevard County, to see trends and insight; in regards to this presentation,  an EDC survey for the business community along with partners of the Chamber of

Commerce and Home Builders that also took part in the survey, which basically is their business outlook and personal consumption; and then talk a little about the space impact.

        

Ms. Weatherman stated this is the only United States (U.S.) driven item she will speak of, the rest will be Brevard driven; the U.S. Economic Growth Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shows the recession started in 2007 and while looking at the recession it traditionally has two consecutive growths of non-growth quarters and now it is looked at more epileptically and more correctly with personal income being looked at, spending, consumption, production capacity, production outlook, labor, and sales.  She stated a recession typically runs eight to 12 months; and while looking at this recession starting in 2007, it is already 17 months into a recession that is typically a 12-month recession, which is certainly a longer recession.  She stated an unemployment rate was looked at that compared Brevard to the past three recessions being the ongoing recession now, the 2001 recession, and then the 1990 to 1991 recession with a couple of things to notice; after the recession is declared over, Brevard tends to lag behind and have a higher unemployment rate for about maybe two quarters after that; but what she really wants to be noticed is that she thinks Brevard’s recession started between the first quarter and second quarter 2006; and again, the last two recessions lasted eight months.  She stated the quarterly absolute changes in employment is a bit more insightful with absolute number change in employment from the recession date of December 2007 to when it was thought to be started early second quarter/late first quarter of 2006, being seen negative absolute change of employment in 2006 and certainly in 2007; what is interesting is that even in quarter four of six and seven there still was seasonally adjusted rates with the increase of employment base because of seasonal, and in 2007 that did not occur.  She stated in the economic development two things needs to be looked at, one being how long the recession will be; but most importantly how deep will it be.  She stated the next slide show will show how deep the recession is; with every recessionary period there is a lose of employment base; and in the last two recessions a base loss of one-half of one percent each; with this recession now six percent has already been lost; that number will change and will go down a bit once the recession is declared over; and we then need to see how much employment base was lost.  She stated what is known now will not be anything that is new to this audience but it is known we are in a longer recession. She stated another variable is new claims for unemployment; and that means a person loses their job and it is their first time going to the unemployment office to apply for unemployment compensation so it is a net-new number.  She stated the diagram for new claims show it starts to pick up in 2006 and it really takes a hike in 2007 to 2009; from 2000 to 2005 the average new claim for unemployment was 1,043; and in the last two years it was double that amount.  She stated the year-to-year changes in employment with construction shows that in 2006 people were not constructing homes; it shows a dip of the different industry sectors to and retail sales going down in 2007 to 2008; and manufacturing trying to pick up in 2006; but fell in 2007 to present.  She mentioned the only area that had a positive growth rate was education and healthcare; in looking at the changes of all three sectors together, manufacturing had a positive growth; with the correlations between the three sectors, manufacturing is unique to most Counties in the State of Florida with Brevard County’s share of manufacturing at 14 percent; and in the State of Florida the share of manufacturing is six to seven percent, so Brevard has 100 percent more and it is showing Brevard is a manufacturing driven economy.  She mentioned when there are conversations spoken about defense spending and space it is critically important to us; that is why the State provides goods supportive manufacturing policies as it is good for the County; but also keep in mind the State is also fighting other industry sectors too and it might not get the attention from different sectors such as tourism and agriculture because it is not the driver in the economy there as it is here.  Ms. Weatherman mentioned she wants all to understand how the manufacturing sector and the rest of the economy goes.  She stated the average manufacturing wages compared to the average wages in Brevard County show from 2007 to 2008 manufacturing wages during a recessionary period grew 2.6 percent, with average manufacturing growing one-half of one percent; if that whole indication of 2003 is compared to 2008 manufacturing wages increased 19 percent and all Brevard County wages increased 14 percent; this it is one that has more positive growth in manufacturing to spite the challenges it pays more.  She stated the contribution to integrate sectors by Real GDP shows that manufacturing makes up 70 percent of a 2.8 percent growth during the recessionary period; the retail index activity, which are sales that are really critical of what happens in the economy as it helps the tax base too or hurts it; the slide shows in mid quarter of 2006 it starts to decline and then it really dropped off and what she feels was happening is in 2006 to 2007 when the home sales started to drop and if correlations are looked at of retail expenditures and home sales it is quite profound; what happens when people buy homes are they buy furniture, drapes, clothes and they buy a car; there is a large percent that when people buy homes they buy a car and she finds that unusual; but if a person starts to think about it what is another $25K with spending a lot of money on a house; next there is a drop because people got scared from watching the news people stop spending and this is the human nature; so what started as a real impact based on dollars turned into an emotional thing.  She stated she did a survey in her office the other day in preparation for today and asked individuals if they are spending more money with the response being no because their income has not changed relative to what it was a year ago; but still there is concern because it is needed to know how much of that is emotional; she mentioned another insight of what may be unique about this recession is it is the most ubiquitous recession she has seen; usually a recession is driven by one particular sector and in 1991 that is what happened because every prime contractor had layoffs and it impacted the area; and the high tech industry in the spring of 2000 had impacts.  She stated housing impacted retail sales, which impacted individuals savings in 401K and lending and it is also the most personable one and she thinks everybody here today knows someone who has been impacted; another thing that may happen with the recession is usually when there is a recession there is a down growth and then there is the expansionary period that is whatever the reason the economy kicks is and people start spending more; and what may happen the economy has been driven by baby-boomers and if that expansionary period money is supposed to be spent on the economy may not happen because it may be put back in a 401K.  She mentioned again this like no recession seen before; the expansionary period may be like none seen before where the money is being invested back into the economy; but it may not be in consumer durables, which is customarily done.  She stated housing sales and housing prices from 2000 to 2009 explains how she thinks of it as green is money and blue are houses; in 2000 the housing boom shows a lot of buying and selling; then in 2004 people in Brevard, for many reasons, decided to not buy anymore houses; then sales dropped, which explains what she calls the state of denial because people quit buying; but the housing prices for about a 14-month period did not drop which means that people were buying homes for investment properties; then nobody was buying houses, leaving those houses to sit on the market for awhile before there starts  to  be  a  change seen.  She explained the reckoning is seen when prices started to drop and then the homes started to sell, which is the adjustment period of sales increasing and prices are still low; a lot of this is from the first-time home buyers with the reasons of having an $8,000 tax credit; that will lead to the number of houses being sold but not the cost yet, and that in the future will see a rebound.  Ms. Weatherman mentioned she looks at this presentation as sort of a push-pull meaning she is pushing the information out and also trying to pull the antidotal information out from the business economy; with two things being looked at in the business sentiment scene that is going on their business and in their private purchasing power from the EDC survey.  She stated she would like to thank the Chambers for helping with this survey being an industry breakdown of the people responding to the survey; and stated she was very pleased with it because it was a good distribution of all economic sectors of the economy.  She advised, others was quite high being education, real estate, and particularly high tech consulting with the question asked have sales fallen relative to what they would be in normal times with 69 percent responding yes they have and 30 percent said no; she was very curious about the no’s and who were the no’s in education and healthcare as previously referenced before; 58 percent of the people surveyed predicted that their sales have fallen ten percent or more and 42 percent said they have fallen ten percent less or none at all.  She explained the next survey question asked what factors are felt currently damping customers or potential customers demand for products or services; the two outstanding responses were uncertainty about the future income and job losses/decline in income, with one being real and the other being emotional; and with a tight credit market being very legitimate with more liquidity in the housing market and in debt financing for businesses.  She inquired has a business revised down its capital expenditure plans relative to the beginning of the year; stated if businesses are not expanding, purchasing equipment and computer software, then that is going to impact the economy in a negative way.  She stated this is interesting when it anticipated sales to start picking up from the survey, the response was 32 percent for six to 12 months or over a year’s time meaning 62 percent think that is going to happen between now and November, and a year from now, or now in the last quarter of 2010.  She stated personal consumption has fallen relative to what it would be in normal times with about 60 percent responding their business was falling yet their personal consumption is higher than that; they are far more conservative in their personal buying power than in business and that is human nature; explained these numbers tend to be higher; but again, if a person is not buying the money it is not going out into the economy and giving it that jolt that it needs; surveyed which areas have a been cut back or changed spending behaviors; luxury items, leisure actives, and eating out are the highest response; and this again is not new, but gets into the buying patterns.  She stated that next question asked on the survey was has a person delayed or postponed any planned major purchases because of lingering economic uncertainty; with 30 percent responding no and 70 percent responding yes; in the planning question it was 62 percent, and again they are far more bullish on personal spending than they anticipate in their business spending; and the same questions asked in their business was asked in their personal spending was when they thought they would be able to purchase more; 19 percent responded six to 12 months and 26 percent responded over a year, which was compared to business sales versus personal consumption comparisons; business responding 62 percent in six months to 18 months meaning the latest mid 2010 and personal responded that same time period six to 18 months was 46 percent; so again, if would be anticipated to see it in the business rather than the personal first.

  

She stated some monthly economic indicators are what she feels are interesting and asked all to remember the macro numbers that are looked at quarterly, ten-year span, and eight-year span to try and see the trends; now she has the last month to see what is going on here; and stated this is not a trend.  She stated with employment and unemployment they start to plato in March, which is the last month, and that is good; labor force in March shows the first increase seen; payroll  employment  tapers  down  over  the  last  year  then  starts  to  slightly  go  up  in March.  Ms. Weatherman stated construction is probably the most volatile impact of all the areas of the economy, which was shown previously; it has not gone up, but look at the degree it has not gone down to the degree as seen in the past and now it is at a plato; and stated again the construction is one that will start to see a change.  She stated wholesale trade employment has not gone down or up and has sustained for the last two months; and retail employment is the biggest increase net change seen since August 2008.  She stated financial activities employment is when the banking was impacted so she chose the ones that were particularly impactful in this economy; sustained but it has not had a drop and it certainly has not had a drop that has been seen go on from August to July; and professional business services and employment is one that is almost like consulting has a small net increase.  She stated with leisure and hospitality employment is starting to show a downward trend; and there needs to be tracking done it probably and are the one most hit because people are not spending money on leisure.  She mentioned there is an increase and then a fall in taxable sales totals and an increase in retail activity; hotel occupancy rates have changed and she thinks it is indicative of the economy going down; and she has spoken to some local hoteliers and they were having some of the best summers had because maybe there is a local increase because people are not going to Waikiki they are going to Cocoa Beach and that might be the reason, which is good because people are telling they are not going to spend money on leisure activities.  She stated single-family homes sales; every one of the slides has either a sustained per month or an up-tick, along with condominium sales.

 

She stated the re-cap basically is Brevard County’s recession started 18 months prior to the national recession; this is a longer recession even if the recession is looked at in regards to it starting December 2007 and is still 14 months in it and she thinks it starts late first quarter/second quarter 2006, which puts us almost two years into it; and this is significantly a deeper recession seen with losing already six percent of the employment base, which traditionally in the last two recessions of 1990 to 1991 and 2001 lasted eight months lost one-half of one percent.  She stated many factors sustained the economy; there is a direct correlation, not a statistical correlation, but a correlation between year to date employment change and where manufacturing has driven us; it also accounted for 70 percent of the GDP in growth rate of 2.8 percent; and from 2007 to 2008 in a recessionary time, the wages increased 2.6 percent when average wages increased one half of one percent.  She mentioned home prices have adjusted with sales beginning to move up between sales, home prices, and condominium sale prices are starting to adjust; the $8,000 tax credit is helping the first time home buyers.  She stated the local business members anticipated assumption in normal sales activity seeing an increase about mid 2010; and there is a slight up-tick in the leading economic indicators for the last month and they need to be followed. 

 

She mentioned normally if she made this presentation this is where she would stop and would predict to be out of the recession in mid 2010 because that is traditional; but this is not a traditional recession; and she has another section to discuss and that is the space update.  She stated  the  projected  Kennedy  Space Center (KSC) workforce trends (Shuttle and Constellation only) has two things that is needed to know about the number is volatile and changing and does not know the number for sure; a study was done last year with the number being 3,500 that was referenced by Senator Nelson when he had his Field Hearing Test, with all indications now looking like the number might be big; there is talk right now based on what is known now and so many things can change with the new Administrator for National Aeronautics Space Administration   (NASA)   or   how   they  respond to Shuttle with a aeries review; and the curvature can change just like anything if there is a deep recession it should be short and if there is a cut off it should be shorter.  Ms. Weatherman stated based on 3,500 jobs every economy in a related Economic Modeling Program in plan about 5,700 jobs; this includes direct jobs, indirect jobs, and induced jobs, just for point of reference for the audience, an in-direct job is someone who is working who might be a sub-prime contractor to say United Space Alliance (USA); and induced jobs are the kind of people that lose their jobs on the second part of the economy, like working at the grocery store.  She stated she wanted to do something in regards to kind of divvying up to kind of give the idea of what is going on in regards to the workers displaced; and this does not mean the economic impact, the economic impact will be ubiquitous.  She stated if just retail sales are looked at and collected them at a State level, basically all the sales go down to a County; they are going to come back down and all will be impacted; based on some informal surveys resulted with South Brevard at 10 percent, North Brevard at 30 percent, and Central Brevard at 50 percent; again, there is going to be estimated loss of income and this graph is divided into three sections North, Central, and South Brevard in regards to the decline in spending.  She stated in conclusion, there could have been a potential recovery in mid 2010; but this will be offset by the Shuttle program with estimated numbers of jobs tied to it will be higher than 3,500; and they are doing studies now and will have a final figure this summer.  She stated the degree and length of the gap is unclear and is more diversified than the Apollo era, and it is very human nature to look at the Apollo era; but is more diversified in the industrial base, consumer base, and space base with more unmanned rockets and new companies coming like SpaceX that is hitching their future to unmanned rockets; Co-Ventures Ltd. between Lockheed, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance and looking at unmanned rockets that did not exist before; assembly work tied to the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) that this Commission directed responsibility in making sure it can; so even the historical industrial bases change with what and how they do it.  She stated manufacturing has sustained a GDP growth and talked about what can be done; she thinks one of things that can certainly be concentrated on is manufacturing; and manufacturing is important and we need to see what can be done to sustain and retain the workforce.  She stated it is easy and it is good when the Board works and brings companies to the area, like Ombreer’s is a classic example; are going to have a little bit of economic stimulus in the next six months in the middle of a recession of $50 million; 200 jobs is a pretty good thing; but also needs to make sure it take care of the ones that are here; and this is what Brevard has a strong industry program with.  She stated she challenges each one of Commissioners if he or she wants to get to know the manufacturing companies in their district, she would be happy to set up a tour to talk with them about what they see going on and what can be done to help sustain the workforce and expand.  She stated to secure work derived from explorations she has Space Advisory people that have to do with the All Tare Program and there are work packages tied to it; they are not stopping the Space Exploration Program they are just changing it to make sure it is an opportunity and proved it with CEV and does not think Huntsville counted on that happening and the tied packages really needed to be worked on closely as a local organization; but this is beyond them, this is where the State needs to come to the table;  and the United Stated Senators need to fight and desperately get the fair share because the unfair share is what is getting the impact.  She stated she just had a meeting with the head of CEV last week; one of things talked about is now that it is known that assembly work is going to be done what other supply chain opportunities can be brought to the area; and that is why two years ago it identified supply chain and what might not be available.  She stated are there things being done in house and there are things that can be done out of house to recruit companies to the area; and   she   feels  very   confident  that   Brevard  could  build  on  CEV.   She   stated   economic  opportunities driven  from  a  diversification  approach  in space and manufacturing needs to look at what else is out there, there are emergency technologies and solar that are dealing with a number of companies and cannot tell how extremely competitive industrial recruitment is; and are not the only community in this nation that say jobs are good; they are very aggressive; there is a lot of State support going after those; and again, as mentioned before, the existing industry needs to be retained.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if the Board has any questions.  Commissioner Bolin responded yes; inquired about the general economy of Brevard County; and does Ms. Weatherman feel that some of that up-swing is because there are summer jobs that are getting hired or does she feel confident that the jobs are permanent.  Ms. Weatherman advised that a lot of the numbers she has shown were seasonally adjusted except for the last indicators; usually in the summer it slows the economy; if looked at historically, because there were such profound negative changes, she thinks there is something there; and it needs to be continued in the areas that are so strongly hit.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if those are unemployment and employment figures adjusted for the population differences with seeing a decrease in population in some areas of the County.  Ms. Weatherman responded yes, she uses the unemployment rate; stated when showing absolute numbers that is not the case; he is absolutely right; and also, that is why she showed the retail index as well.

 

Commissioner Bolin mentioned that because of the anticipated job loss it is known that within the boundaries of Brevard it cannot be absorbed; all of those people that are needing to find jobs and are going to have to go regional; one of the things she is concerned about is it going to be a regional and State thing; and the Board needs to get all of the other aerospace affiliated companies who are not fiscally having their office in Brevard County to help absorb some of these jobs; it rolls into another concern as far as a State of Florida; it might fiscally be in the County but it is for the State of Florida; and inquired if Ms. Weatherman starting to feel the pull with the State and other counties together to see what affects are out there on the changes coming.  Ms. Weatherman explained a number of things with presentations being made to counties, meeting with Mayors, and MyRegion because it goes beyond the County, particularly more impactful in Central Florida and has done her best to show that; that also means the economic strategy has to go beyond the County to; with one reason of a visit to California two years ago to visit companies and labs that are tied to the Buhrmann Institute to try to relocate them here; but her point is the County is going to be philistines that are going to see what is available and take advantage of what is going on with Buhrmann.  She stated it is a Statewide issue and that is why there is Space Florida because there is not a space-microbiology lab; she thinks there is credit to this Commission for ringing the bell of the impact of space; she is proud of the CEV and that is a slight mitigation in the job loss experience coming; but there has been a pyridine shift as launch vehicles have not been assembled in 50 years here; and it was successful because this County was able to provide the resources EDC needed, the State was able to provide resources  needed  to  retain  them,  and  NASA  was also able to provide a facility.  Commissioner Bolin concurs with the fact that Space Florida is onboard now and have them behind the County; and stated there for awhile she felt like all of the Commissioners were leading the charge.  She inquired how she feels confident to be able to rally the troops to become strong again because Florida has to become a strong political entity just like Alabama and Texas; and what are some thoughts of the new Director for NASA.  Ms. Weatherman responded it still has to be confirmed but can tell her, he certainly is supportive of the Shuttle Program and Man Space, which is the past and current future; she is very excited about him and he is very knowledgeable, through, and someone Senator Nelson really pushed for to get into that position for sometime.  Ms. Weatherman stated the truth is there is a Congressional Delegation that does not work together; part of that may be because there is such a diverse economy in Florida with the unique thread to Florida being Manned Space Launches there are a lot of things that can be done at Space Florida even maybe leadership of this Commission to go to the Congressional Delegation to get together in a room and talk about what is going on; she knows that has been done with the Chamber of Commerce; and she cannot think of one thing that is so unique to the nation that is particularly Florida-related and that the State of Florida as a whole has suffered from.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired are there any existing manufacturers interested in expanding right now that might absorb some of this job loss.  Ms. Weatherman advised yes, there are a number of them, that are there and she does not have the numbers with her right now; there is an existing industry person onboard with the EDC; the Aerospace and Defense Training Show (ADT) a lot of them are modisized with no great 500-job manufacturers and there are 800 manufactures in existence and if each hire 10 to 20 people that could be done; that is why it is important with the workforce argument because the supply of labor the skill base that meets the demand of labor nets coming from existing industry base; and the existing manufacturing base is far more active than the companies looking to relocate.  Commissioner Fisher stated Commissioner Anderson made reference to being in denial; he thinks he and Chairman Nelson’s districts will be affected the most; inquired if there are any conversations in reference to extending the flight possibly longer with Mr. Bowden onboard now because of the commitment with the Space Station than rather be able to get there or not in the future if it is solely relied on Russia.  Ms. Weather responded President Obama did extend the Shuttle by one launch; but the question is more than that, it is if there is not enough money to launch the Shuttle and build a new launch vehicle; with the analogy of pay me now or pay me later; and then having a longer gap.

 

Marshall Heard, Florida Aviation Aerospace Alliance Member advised there are a handful of shuttle flights left, which most of them go to complete the Space Station; they are actually going to launch up big parts to be bolted to the Space Station; but two of the missions are resupply missions; the last mission that is scheduled is a scientific mission called an Alpha Magnetic Sprint Tormentor that is a large sensor that will be carried up by the Shuttle and bolted to the exterior of the Space Station; and it will look out into space with an attempt to prove or disprove once and for all whether or not anti-matter exists.  He stated that sensor is an American and European build that costs over $1 billion, which is sitting in a warehouse; that mission is one that everybody would like to see launch as that is the last Shuttle flight mission; and it is planned for September 2010.  He advised the three orbiters that exist today will be incrementally retired starting in the spring of 2010, summer of 2010, and September 2010.  He stated most people believe that if there are one or two missions left and the fiscal year expires there will be an extension; but he does not think there will be an extension for very long maybe six months; and the reason is the chart that Ms. Weatherman showed with 8,500 people supporting constellation and the Shuttle, most of them being the shuttle, which means if it is chosen to extend the program by six months that is the equivalent of 4,000 man years, 8,400 by six months.  He stated NASA has budget problems and to extend the Shuttle very long, is counter productive; not only is there a safety of flight issue but a standing Army cost; with NASA’s current budget they simply cannot afford to extend it; if they do it, it comes at the expense of the Constellation Program; he does not feel there will be a major extension; and with one or two flights it could possibly be done in six months.  Commissioner Fisher stated eventually the Program is going to stop; and inquired how much job loss is being seen with the unemployment rates in the created charts here today.  Ms. Weatherman responded it is has not reached that degree yet to show on the charts here today; stated there is some movement with Huntsville capturing some individuals and it also needs to be remembered as part of the challenge as community partners with companies like United Space Alliance (USA); they still have an obligation to have safe and effective launches and are working very hard to obtain and keep those workers because they are needed for scheduled launches; and the answer is a strong community involvement with USA keeping a strong workforce plan, knowing what is happening, and is there to help bring other work into the area, which should help bring some degree a comfort level that will help retain employees.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if there is anything that the Board can do to help.  Ms. Weatherman responded there is a number of things, first, working closely with Space Florida, the Board’s Business Advisory Board; sending a loud and clear message to the Senators that this is something that is important to it with anything pertaining to space; this community cannot come up with $35 million dollars and should not to do a pyridine ship in this States industrial base for space; but the State could and it needs to be seen what is done at the State level because only so much can be done at the local level; there is money that the State has set aside for a launch pad; she does not know when or where that discussion will go; and possibly there are opportunities for low interest loans for existing companies.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if the Board needs to create a letter or a resolution to help with the process.  Ms. Weatherman responded it could be talked about more, but she certainly thinks a letter could outline some needed things to be done.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she has such high hopes for the new director because she thinks he will have a special place in his heart for Brevard County; and inquired what does the future hold as far as his appointment.  Mr. Heard responded he is a super choice and he nominated him to Governor Bush when he came in second; he thinks he is a great choice; today is his first official day; and he has a calendar that the Board would not believe.  He stated he has been exchanging emails and based on the tenor of those he has some good ideas that will be implemented in the next few weeks; and he is very pleased about that.  Commissioner Bolin stated she believes Mr. Cabana is going to be working very closely with Brevard County; and inquired Mr. Heard’s thoughts of a NASA Administrator.  Mr. Heard advised he is delighted because Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator is a first class person; he brings a bunch of attributes to the table, not the least being leadership; a person does not become a Marine General without understanding leadership, and that is a real strength of his; NASA has three or four components such as the expendable launch vehicles, aviation, science, and manned space flight; he crosses at least three of those nicely; and NASA has somebody who will be able to take all four of those and do really good things with them.  He mentioned the other thing is he chose as his Deputy Administrator Lori Garver; she is a past NASA employee at the Associate Administration level and is a policy person by nature; she is a communicator and well connected

on the health; and he believes with that twosome there is probably a stronger leadership than has been seen in a long time.  Mr. Heard stated General Bolden has a great appreciation for Kennedy Space Center; he has spent a lot of time there and understands the process; he has put his life at stake riding on the top of those flaming candles; and he really does have an appreciation for the value of the workforce.  Commissioner Bolin stated she was very pleased to hear about Lori Garver because Commissioner Fisher and she had an opportunity to meet with her when she was on the transition team in Washington; and she seemed to be very receptive to any type of suggestions made.

Chairman Nelson stated one of his frustrations over the last couple of years has been the lack of a face at the State level; he does not think the Governor had stepped up to the extent that he thought was appropriate given the circumstances; there will be a new Governor for 2010 because of the current Governor running for Senate; inquired will there be the same kind of statement made with the past Presidential election to have an impact on their policy as it relates to space at the State level because he feels there are moments when the Governor has to step up to the plate to represent the State and be that face to try to heard the Federal Delegation together; and advised he hopes some kind of effort will be put together similar for the nation at the State level because he really feels these gentlemen will do a great job with Space Florida.

 

Commissioner Anderson mentioned bringing those things up could be one of the things that maybe the Chamber might even touch on; not only addressing the Governor and Senators; but from a community analogy Dr. DiPatri knows how to deal with the teachers and if they thought their funding shortfall was difficult then; public sector employees need to know that when these jobs are lost they are also going to face less revenues; being vocal about what is going on with the space industry and other industries surrounding that; and somehow as a community of concern of effort especially when the Governors race is heating up to let them know that it is very important to this County and to this State.

 

 

Leigh Holt, Government Relation Manger stated she thinks that she can help set the stage for things that were suggested; two years ago it was said what the County can do to begin influencing what is going on; and as a policy making body probably what can be done the most is influence policy.  She mentioned the space forums that started in the fall of 2007 was called the Speakers Forum; in attendance were Tom Feeney, John Thrasher, and Joseph Cannon as the Co-Chairs of the event; there were 200 people in attendance with the industry folks saying that with these individuals getting together it helps with the needs at the State level to influence State policies to help as an industry; and there were areas of emphasis on Workforce Research and Development Plan Infrastructures, Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education, and Space Florida; and from that the Aerospace Career Development Council, which is overseen by the Workforce Board that set a State policy agenda collectively and then different groups took the lead on different pieces of legislation.  She stated the Space Day Committee is an industry group that goes to Tallahassee the first week of the Legislative Session with 70 or 80 people from industry that deliver the message that certain things are needed to support the industry; and then the building of the lobby-team consisting of Southern  Strategy  Group,  Space  Florida,  Associated  Industries  of  Florida,  and  the Florida Chamber as partners for space at the Statewide level.  Ms. Holt mentioned this year a regional delegation meeting was added in December 2008 at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and put space out in front of the 40-member Central Florida Legislative Delegation, with one-third of those members being brand new to the Legislature and were hearing the space story for the first time and became advocates.  She stated over the last two years there was $20 million appropriated directly for space, with the passing of the Qualified Space Contractor Bill, limited liability for space contractors, and monitored the Quick Actioned Closing Fund, which is one of the primary tools of the Economic Development Commission (EDC) for bringing in new business.  She stated this past year was much more difficult with losing jobs but is a much harder sell this year than  in the previous years with many  obstacles  to overcome;  but there is a cadre of people, a structure in place to build the State story, and it is said all the time that space is in 47 of 67 counties and it is the oldest and largest high-tech industry in the State of Florida.  She stated she is working very close with NASA now to invite the right people to the launches; there is a bus for the legislatures and elected officials and have focused on those legislatures that are making policy decision, on committees that vote on incentives and transportation for the June 13, 2009 launch; and also have invited the chair and the vice-chair’s of the surrounding counties such as Volusia, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola to make sure they are engaged in the conversation.  She mentioned the Aerospace Career Development Council (ACDC) is now working on a Federal Legislative Policy that has a small group working on developing a policy to take to the Federal level; and with new leadership at Space Florida and at the National level the agenda is being prepared to move forward.  She stated there are some immediate things that are happening that she wants everyone to know about; in working closely with NASA on a particular project; one of the assets available at KSC is the Space Live Scientist Lab that was built in the early 1990’s that is owned by the State of Florida on NASA land that is leased; and Space Florida is building a new complex called Exploration Park, with a goal to build this park so additional businesses can be right at KCS.  She mentioned the Space Live Scientist Lab is a huge opportunity and will be more of an opportunity if it is accessible outside the gate; right now individuals have to go through the badging system to get inside; the County might be able to help NASA and Space Florida with a connector road that would connect Exploration Park to the Space Live Scientist Lab; it is a very small area and has hopes to apply for an Economic Development Administration Public Works Grant, which are available to local governments, that would allow a connection between the two properties; and John Denninghoff, Public Works Director, is going to look at the property and give an estimate.  She stated she wants the Board to be aware that she is looking into ways that the County can contribute in small, big, and tangible ways to assist in developing new opportunities there.  She mentioned tomorrow Senator Nelson will be convening a meeting at KSC with one of the primary guests being the Chief of Staff of the Office in Science Technology, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other agencies talking about research and development opportunities possible to bring here from Federal offices.

 

Dale Ketchum, UCF Spaceport Technology and Institute Director, stated the meeting tomorrow at KSC was originally scheduled to support the groundbreaking for solar energy facility; but in conjunction with that the Senator was trying to bring down Secretary Steven Chu from the Department of Energy; that did not work out; and the Senator decided this was an opportunity to bring a bunch of people down from Washington and around the Country to focus on what would be new research and technology development programs that could be brought to KSC that would help to mitigate the job loss that will be seen and take advantage of the workforce.  He stated that is a particular interest to him because he has pushed for a long time that research in itself is not the answer to five to ten thousand job losses but it needs to be part of the answer; this will help diversify the business base because as he has been saying for years, the reason why Florida and KSC is going to take it in the shorts in a big way with the retirement of the Shuttle is the business base is very narrow with just being operations; and that is what KSC does, they bring things here and launch.  Mr. Ketchum stated Ms. Weatherman is correct in saying the changed pyridine has helped by bringing assembly and check to KSC with the CEV; and research and development is key and are in a great position because what is going on in the south-end of the County with Harris, DRS, and Technologies Inc.; and the other activities were there has been an exemplary example of what to do and tying that in with what goes on in Orlando at the Research Park; and really have an opportunity to try to bring to KSC an increased  opportunity  to  engage  in  applied  technology   development  and   research.   He mentioned KSC has more new technology reports with more patented applications than any other NASA center in the agency with the exception of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) because JPL’s budget is 40 times what KSC budget is for with that same focus; technologies are being developed that can be very easily spun off into high-tech small businesses; and Senator Nelson is very keen to look at those opportunities.  He stated Jim Kohlenberger, Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), Chief of Staff, with NASA reporting through OSTP along with the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF); Dr. John Holdren, OSTP, Director is the Executive Office of the President of the United States that goes to the Oval Office and speaks with the President about what needs to be done with science; and the President has said repeatedly that science is really important to him; with Senator Nelson bringing those groups together it help to bring the FAA Center of Excellence here that will also help to diversify the industry base and support commercial launches, which has been the great albatross around Florida’s neck for the last couple of decades.  He stated there hopes to be a lot of focus on growing the life science and Senator Nelson is ready to bring research and development here; and he is eager to help. 

 

Commissioner Bolin mentioned she concurs with Mr. Ketchum because there has been an uphill fight because the past Director of NASA actually said to the Board that he did not believe that research and development should be done here, which has hindered the Board; now it is trying to paddle as fast as possible; and hopefully with the new Director he will not have that same philosophy so there can be diversification.  Mr. Ketchum stated he knows that Senator Nelson pushed former Administrator Griffin on that and Mr. Griffin was rather assertive with saying no this is an operation center there is no research and development done here; Senator Nelson said that is an issue on which will be disagreed on; his guess is that Senator Nelson is going to bring that up again in the confirmation hearings of Charlie Bolden; hopefully he will be a bit more persuasive; but he gives kudos to the Senator that is pushing hard now hopes he is successful.  Commissioner Bolin stated she would assume since he was the candidate that the Senator wanted them to be in sync.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated his own observation of NASA is that it is doing a great job; but one of the things that he thinks it does not do a great job of is tooting its own horn about what it does for this Country; it would just seem like the Space Program is trying to be sold all the time; and it seems as if NASA could brag about how everyone benefits from the space program it would be an easier sell long-term.  He stated he thinks about how the satellite dish use to be as big as this round table and now it sits on a roof that is less than the size of a rim or whether it is a calculator or a blackberry; and all of that is a spin-off from the Space Program.  Mr. Ketchum stated that is not NASA’s forte; it does some things very good but it needs a public relations firm; hopefully by allowing UCF to articulate about the development, particularly by bringing more applied technology development to KSC; one of the critical problems is the President asked for review of Constellation, which is causing a great deal of consternation as they look at where it is going and to see if there is the ability to fund.  He stated there was conversations about putting an outpost on the moon, which is great and KSC is willing to support that; but unfortunately, as the cost is looked at to sustain that outpost it is going to eat the agencies lunch; so there needs to be more focus on where KSC can bare fruit and bring its own expertise such as how more sustainable systems can be developed and how can the vehicles be launched more effectively.

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired what time is Commissioner Fisher going to do to the meeting.  Commissioner Fisher responded 10:15 a.m. is the Solar Energy Celebration and then a meeting at 3:30 p.m. with Mr. Cabana.

 

Commissioner Infantini inquired if that meeting has been publicly noticed so if other Commissioners are present there are no conflicts.  Stockton Whitten, Interim County Manager, responded no, it has not, but it will be.

 

Ms. Holt stated she has assembled an amazing advocacy team that is ready to go for the Board and will have the space forum in September again this year; again with State and Federal elected officials to give the policy direction for the coming year; there is the Associated Industries of Florida on the team, Florida Chamber, Central Florida Partnership, Central Florida EDC, and Metroplan Orlando.  She mentioned the voice has been really expanded and they are trying to speak with one voice, so whatever policy direction is given by the Board there are a lot of people ready to deliver the message.

 

 

PRESENTAION, RE:  EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA REGIONAL INNOVATION
     GRANT_____________________________________________________________            

Sue Carlson, Regional Innovation Grant (RIG) Project Manager stated it sounds to her like everyone is trying to get on the same page when it comes to space and she for one appreciates that; this has been an ongoing issue for a long time and now that it is getting more absorbed into the region and looking to reach out into the region it is seeing the region has a different view of Brevard.  She stated she wanted to introduce herself; she is the Project Manager for this RIG, which is a Brevard Workforce Grant, and with her is Tyler Sirois, RIG, Business Liaison; and she wants to give a little background on what the region is thinking right now and how they will be reaching out into the region.  She stated luckily with Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce President, she has the big picture in mind and ultimately workforce shoulders is and what it is going to come down to and how workforce provides the extension with the hand into the community, whether it is a local, State, or National level it is going to come down to what workforce is going to be able to do in lock step with everyone else.  Ms. Carlson mentioned that the actual grant comes from the Department of Labor as an actual emergency grant so the emergency scenario is looked at; and they will be working and collaborating with the Florida High-Tech Corridor in partnership with the Workforce Central Florida Board and the Center for Business Excellence Board.  She stated the primary purpose of RIG is to design and implement a strategy that will establish a process and infrastructure to support a regional approach to workforce, education, and economic development intended to address massive changes in workforce across a large region, specifically the impacted aerospace workforce once retirement of the shuttle program begins; and she has already heard the first shuttle is estimated to retire in early 2010.  She mentioned she would like to bring everyone up to speed on the current regional challenges and the ongoing workforce initiatives that are in place now and have been since the summer of 2007;  first,  she  thinks  everyone has heard dislocation of 4,000 to 8,000 high skilled/high wage workers into the region at one time is not quite right; it will be more gradual; a report out this summer will hopefully qualify things because of all the different moving items and variables that are concerned in trying to pin that number down; the multiplier effect is 2.9 jobs for every job lost inside the gate as determined by NASA; that is a very big issue when talking about 5,700 jobs when doing the math that equals over 10,000 to 12,000 jobs; but the other unintended consequence of that is if an engineer or tech is lost from NASA they may bring with them in Brevard County a teacher or a nurse, plus all the service industries will be impacted; and the Chambers are here and may want to talk a bit towards that.  Ms. Carlson stated the ability to retain the brain power in a region already greatly affected with numerous dislocations due to slumps in several industry sectors; obviously space is not the only industry jobs have been lost in; the bad economy has hit and there are other issues going on, it is not all just about space; but obviously space is looked at because it is a huge driver in the County.  She stated there is a heavy recruiting effort for this workforce currently underway by various States such as Colorado, Alabama, and New Mexico; the volatile defense industry uncertainty of Department of Defense (DOD) jobs throughout the region and no unification of Florida’s Federal Delegation on State issues, which is a huge issue with all the different political entities; and it is time for all to get on the same page.  She stated everyone was on point with the issue of mass transportation; ironic as it is, folks fought the good fight in Tallahassee for SunRail and lost that fight; unfortunately the demise of that may show reproductions of it later on as the non-existence of mass transportation from moving workers throughout the region to be an issue in the not-to-distant future; a very short timeframe to accomplish the RIG mission attempting to do it within a 12 to 18 month period and are hoping to move that timeline up a bit to get a strategy and start implementing it this time next year; and the challenge to adequately identify current human asset skill sets due to competitive environment/proprietary information and no consistent form or methodology applied from company to company.  She mentioned Ms. Weatherman touched on this area a bit with one of the problems that workforces had was some of the programs initiatives on the ground currently is the proprietary nature of things; contractors really do not want to impact the quality mission of the shuttle by having workforce out there saying a person is going to be losing a job potentially and want to help; but it is making some of the contractors nervous and they would like to make sure that their contractual arrangements with NASA are kept and the quality mission goes forward as it should.  She stated some issues will arise while working in the region with the economic development organizations and they have proprietary issues that will further need to be gone over.  She stated some of the current initiatives that the workforce has going is Aerospace Outlook Reports the Phase One was in Summer of 2007 and Phase Two was in the Fall of 2008; that was basically aerospace workforce benchmark data; and in that process it was identified that 9,235 Florida Shuttle-related workers were being affected; 6,340 from the USA 2,500 to 3,500 workers will be in need of transition assistance to new industries and occupations; and then there is an additional one-third that will need skill upgrades for successful implementation of Constellation’s work; and the cumulative impact of shuttle retirement and transitioned constellation will be realized gradually.  She stated Phase Three is underway, the outcome of that report will be in July 2009, and the reason that Phase Three has occurred is because of the need for the workforce update because indicators predicted 7,000 plus workers will require transition assistance; with that information, recent political events such as a new President where it is not sure where he is on space; there is no administrator yet in Washington, D.C.; future work programs are no longer slated for KSC; and the Constellation Program slipping to the right is all going to impact and will it be interesting to see what the July outlook report shows.  She stated as far as what Brevard workforce is doing right now on the ground,  they have  their  Aerospace  Workforce  Transition  Program,  which is $1.75 million State grant funded that is producing communications and outreach; she has a handout for all to see what has been accomplished with this Transition Program; and this is a total assessment of the workforce as much as possible; there are some issues with contractors and such and they have evolved programs out there that are helping with training and re-training with 500 plus having completed training to date; and collaborative planning and workforce support services have been in place.

 

Ms. Carlson stated the Workforce Transition Program handout gives some statistics on what has been accomplished to date and has been in place since July 2008, with one marvelous thing done, the Brevard Job Link Express Mobile Unit, where they have basically taken what exists in the bricks and mortar job link and put it into this mobile unit, are parking it at KSC a couple of times a week, and providing all sorts of opportunities for folks to come and talk to workforce and get the needed information that they can use for any sort of issues the individuals might have in the coming months; the unit has been out there since July 2008 and will continue for some extended time; and so far there have been 1,137 visits supplying 1,296 services to the individuals.  She stated 278 workers are currently in training and 326 workers have completed training; and have a web site that has had over 125,000 hits to it that is linked to the Job Link web site.

 

She stated there is opportunity to create a mechanism for a regional response to counteract a massive and possible unexpected economic or workforce upheaval leveraging existing collaborative efforts that have successfully brought workforce, economic development, and education based entities together on common issues of regional significance; employ a regional perspective to ensure that East Central Florida’s businesses and workforce will be well prepared to compete; and succeed in a global economy.  She noted since being out in the region talking with folks and making connections with MyRegion, it has made a lot of sense to be at that regional table and if there are any questions why she should not be at that regional table she currently sits at; she thinks this particular issue focuses on the reasons why she should because now she has an understanding of what all of this is going to mean to the region; and it is understood how much will be lost from a regional perspective if all is not working together with the space issues.  She mentioned the purpose of this grant is the region she is defining as seven contiguous counties Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia; a point made by Randy Berridge, Florida High Tech Corridor’s CEO, is that Polk County may want to be included because that is the I-4 corridor, which Brevard is now part of whether the road stops here or not Brevard is part of it.

 

Ms. Carlson stated the RIG process is establishing a Core Regional Leadership Group (CRL) that will be a task force made up of 35 to 40 leaders in the region and have actually named the initiative as the Regional Aerospace Workforce Initiative that will meet for the first time June 22^nd at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Research Park.  She stated the RIG process is utilizing existing collaborative groups such as the Florida High Tech Corridor being a huge resource and as expected from this Grant to look from the ground up when looking at process and gap analysis that will be going to Prism that is a seven county K-12 initiative that has become its own entity; it deals with how science and math are brought in though K-12 education on a primary level; she hopes to be talking with them to make sure that there are revolving and cultivating the kind of workforce needed to support high-tech industry throughout our region of Brevard; and also, as part of this process, there will be interviewing community and industry leaders  representing  core industry clusters that have related or emerging skills so that it can be figured out how to transition aerospace workers into regional entities; but will need to define the existing related and emerging skill sets that will be fairly difficult, but she is hoping to utilize the regions Leveraging Corridor Council to do that; and along with existing region asset mapping though the aerospace workforce effort with outlook reports.

 

Ms. Carlson mentioned the RIG activities once the task force is prepared to execute and determine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis as is applies to process an organizational infrastructure, establish communications with a massive downsizing in employment, and are hoping to create a template that any sort of issue can be approached like this that creates a workforce problem but it is focused on aerospace currently identifying high-tech industry clusters, establishing communications, and an outreach plan to identify workforce education and development organizational process infrastructure and communication gaps when there are emergencies, such as a downsizing of this caliber in a community, so there is someway to combat that and all work together; and to utilize local asset mapping to establish a database of skill sets to blend with regional assts to provide a roadmap for the regional vision.  She stated the next slide show is the RIG process flow chart to give a visual to how folks that like seeing a visual chart to identify the regional economy, form a Core Leadership Task force, SWOT Analysis, identify a shared regional identity and vision for the regional economy, devise strategies, and leverage resources and implements.

 

She stated the possible industry clusters that will be looked at related, emerging, or easily transferable from aerospace into aerospace, biosciences, digital media, energy alternatives, Micro/Nano Technologies, modeling, simulation training, photonics, optics, and laser with many of these being established as centers of excellence or banner centers in the immediate area; but also outside of the region in hope to draw upon those collaborations as well.  She mentioned a stronger region will give a better understanding of the region’s existing and emerging high tech industry clusters, clarification of industry workforce needs, and better understanding of what is needed in a region to provide quick response to economic shocks that result in massive targeted industry workforce reductions; Targeted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding that will ensure the workforce skills needed by industry clusters are present in the region’s workforce; and everyone is aware of the stimulus dollars, and on the handout given earlier, it says to save the date for a special forum entitled The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; and a briefing on securing stimulus dollars for businesses to be held Monday, June 29^th at the Gleason Auditorium on the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) campus from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  She stated what does the County stand to lose; obviously there is a competitive advantage on a world stage from a global economy and it was always thought that space started and stopped here in Florida, but that is not the picture being painted here; and people are seeing a lot of competition all over the world with loss of economic vitality due to an eventual brain-drain meaning if high-tech people that are starting to be lost other than high-tech folks that are not going to want to move here because there is no workforce; and that needs to be seen on all levels with the potential of  a deepening recession.  She stated a lot of positive things have been heard with looking at the region; looking for help though the region is a very positive thing to do right now; by reaching into the region and saying assistance is needed and who out there might be able to provide some insight and input into what their needs and opportunities might be for aerospace workers to transition into some of those jobs; keeping that brainpower in the region with people living here but needing to commute elsewhere; and that is where transportation might become an issue.  She stated the template for the future has opportunity to find the process and  infrastructure necessary to preserve the regional aerospace workforce; and in so doing will create the framework necessary to protect the region from future economic and workforce shocks.  Ms. Carlson stated insight is needed and has already spoken with several of the Commissioners to date and tried to get some feed back; after hearing this presentation, if the Board has any insight into how they see economic development workforce, educational entities working together, with their experience, it would be great to have that information as part of the gap analysis to form a positive or a negative side.

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired what the timeframe is for the Grant.  Ms. Carlson responded 12 to 18 months with a deadline of June 2010; stated they have until then to come up with a strategy and implementation with other workforce units and other regional leaderships about the road map ahead of how the gaps will be defined; and if they will be easily fixed or if it will take the State or the region to do something more.  Commissioner Bolin inquired about asset mapping being able to do other counties as far as the jobs that might be available for the workforce to go into.  Ms. Carlson responded that is what she has been talking about; stated what is currently being done is asset mapping for Brevard County; they are finding what the skill sets are of those that are going to affect the dislocated workers but are also looking into what other industry clusters are available here; and then she will take what is found out in the industry clusters out in the region with the regional asset mapping by bringing it together and feeding it into the skill sets.  She stated there are a lot of moving pieces and hopes to have one regional asset map that talks about everything; ultimately it would be nice to have this at the State level so that any industry throughout the State could have access to the skill sets for space; so that ultimately space can be kept in the state and everyone knows helps is needed because all those jobs will not be absorbed right now.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated one of her concerns is that the County is always looking for outside businesses to come to the area but sometimes perhaps some areas may be overlooked in some areas of what is already here.  She mentioned when she was looking for a different cable provider service and inquired to the company about customer loyalty; she shopped around and found a fantastic package at a much lower price; and it was right here in her backyard.  She stated she wants to make sure the Harris Corporation, Northroup Grumman, DRS, and many other organizations that are looking for that really big piece of fruit out there know she has a lot of low-lying fruit right here.  She stated if they would be helped to expand their operations, she believes it could go further than trying to reach for that really big pie in the sky package that everybody is shooting for; if everyone should work harder to work with the current workforce businesses, even with smaller business, to help them expand because often times the Board is presented with packages that are going to hire 20 people; and inquired about the mom and pop stores that are hiring two and three people.  Commissioner Infantini stated she knows Ms. Carlson is addressing a lot of this but she just wanted to restate this, because to her a lot of her focus is just working harder with the existing business; however, large or small they are to keep them here and to help them expand because it is a lot easier to expand an operation than to relocate on operation.  Ms. Carlson advised most certainly she thinks all the experts in the room will agree with her; and what she has seen with Brevard workforce is that they are doing everything they can to talk to existing corporations to see what their needs and opportunities are and how do they see the future.  She stated a lot of things are based on the economy and she knows Ms. Weatherman could speak better to this than she; but for all practical purposes Brevard workforce is looking at those job opportunities that exist here; she thinks Commissioner Infantini is absolutely right that there could be an unintended consequence where reaching out to the region and jobs might go the other way; if there is not any idea of how many of these jobs can really be absorbed, then reaching out to the region will have to happen; and being at the regional table is incredibly important and certainly does not undermine the issue of making sure that what is here is the primary focus.  Commissioner Infantini stated she in not discounting looking to the region because she thinks that if someone is relocating or expanding business operations regionally she was just trying to go to the west coast of the United States because often times she thinks there is so much competition that she would rather work harder with the current workforce and employers to give them a little more.  Ms. Carlson stated what she thinks will raise many eyebrows is to see the competition out there, and those folks do not understand as well as she; but there are lots of folks that have a game plan with the process of hunting for jobs out there.  Commissioner Bolin stated because of the importance of the work being done with a time element, it is anticipated to report back to the Board with some of the information being correlated.  Ms. Carlson advised the task forces’ first meeting is June 22^nd and they will be doing a SWOT analysis at the same time to make it a more efficient and effective process; and to bring all of that information back within three to six months there will be a lot of details to share.  Commissioner Anderson stated one of the things we cannot overlook is the existing small businesses; it is important to support those small businesses; hopefully the Board will have more workshops in the future; and one would be how to be as business friendly as possible for the small business.

 

 

PRESENTATION, RE:  CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE               

 

Melissa Stains, Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO and Council of Chambers Chairman, stated she is appearing as the Chairman for the Council and she represents the Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Palm Bay, and Greater Palm Bay Chambers; and they are fully aware of the perfect storm of the economic situation the County is facing because it is dealt with every day serving small businesses; and she would like the Board to understand the Chambers commitment to their members; and they want to be apart of the solution with one Florida one voice.  She mentioned she just attended the Citizens Space Exploration in Washington, D.C.; if a grass roots effort that is sponsored by the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, but is supported by all Chambers; what she has learned was Texas and Alabama are way ahead of Brevard County; and the difference with them is they have their business located in Huntsville, Alabama but their representatives, whether from Birmingham or Mobile, walk and talk one voice for space.  She stated the Texas Delegation also does the exact same thing and they are funded; Florida had the second largest Delegation in attendance but had only 25 representatives there; and it was known that it was because of the current economic situation; however, a lot of thanks goes to the council of Chambers that allotted a $1,000 per executive to be able to attend and represent the small businesses and, therefore, the Chambers’ wants to be apart of the solution.  She stated the thing that is wonderful about the Chambers now in this County is they all walk together in finding the same solution and are not competing with each other on this economic perfect storm with a larger voice by working together.  She mentioned the Shuttle is dead and will no longer be done; and a retired Martin Lockheed Executive, Norm Augustine, is going to do a blue ribbon presentation in 90 days; he is going to decide mans space exploration with what direction to take to the Executive Branch; that is good and bad for Brevard; he is the supporter of manned exploration; but NASA’s  budget  was  increased  for  2010 and 2011 from .5 percent of the Federal budget to .6, however, manned space exploration has an asterisk by it with zero funds.  Ms. Stains stated the trip to D.C. was not very fun; the good side of it was every one of representatives is in support of stem research, the science aspect of space exploration, and areonomics; but they are very iffy on the manned space.  She stated the Chamber is saying one Florida one voice, one county one voice, and one business one voice; and that is what she would like to see happen.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she really appreciates everyone coming together and working together as a unit because she believes in the Statewide issue.  Ms. Stains stated it was very obvious of those who attended the Coalition for the Citizens for Space Exploration is Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Ohio that were present in Washington D.C.; there is a total of 16 space centers; and the good thing is when getting together everyone takes one message, which is manned space exploration.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he appreciates all that is done with the Chambers drumming up a lot of support for the 2010 campaigns to ensure Florida steps up to the plate.  He mentioned the Florida with one voice he would like to talk about that further; and hopefully there will be a future workshop where it is just concentrating on the small business owners to really get the political pressure moving and to help the Chambers expand.  Ms. Stains mentioned Marcia Gaedcke from the Titusville Chamber is here in spirit, she just had some scheduling conflicts.  Commissioner Anderson stated Ms. Gaedcke has some fantastic ideas and is the reason he wanted to have a follow-up meeting so she gets an opportunity to represent Titusville. 

 

Chairman Nelson stated one of the things that he has discovered in the two years he has been involved with the County Commission is a lot of the rules and regulations tend to constrain improvement and even if it is an incremental improvement, there will be a project coming up that will help with those types of concerns; he feels there can be a better job done when looking at things; and he knows the Economic Development Commission (EDC) has some of the same concerns with the rules and regulations; they are looking forward to the original intent; but still makes the business community actually more successful.  Ms Stains stated she knows the EDC is planning to form a group that will try to identify those impediments as are all of the Chamber Members; and she thinks one thing that the Board could do, along with the City Councils, is to take a look at some of the recommendations that come out of that; and wherever it is feasible to try to make progress in those areas for a fantastic local stimulus.  Chairman Nelson stated he thinks one of the basic principles of smart growth is trying to redevelop existing infrastructure so that other areas are not moved; and there are members that sit on the Growth Management Coalition that started for a different purpose because annexations were the issues at the time it really started.  He Hstated what really started the annexations was the different rules and needs to be looked at so a better job can be done for coordinating and consulting; so that is not such a difficult experience regardless of where the improvements are trying to be made.

 

Ms. Stains stated she would be remiss not to thank the EDC for its support in bringing the Chambers onboard quickly for the journey forward and with all of the executives that went to Washington, D.C. when Commissioner Anderson went to help with the foot soldiers basically; and she represents 17,000 businesses that belong to her Chamber with the other Chambers also bringing a large number of businesses.  She stated it is good to see everyone putting the pieces together, yet she thinks there have been a lot of pieces but the corners have not been put together; and this is a start to do that; and EDC’s plan for the journey forward is wonderful if all get behind it.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated to tag along with Chairman Nelson’s comments about the obstacles business have to go through, there is the Comprehensive Plan coming up and the Board will be able to pull that off of a couple of agendas so that the engineering and business community can get behind this to see if there are any changes to the Comprehensive Plan because this only gets to be done once every seven years; and now would be a really great time to consolidate things.  She stated she knows she has reached out to the building and engineering communities to seek what things they are aware of in ordinances or rules in place that are hurdles for them to overcome that duplication of effort; and if the business could get onboard so that the ordinances can be consolidated at the same time and she does not see this being a long drawn out process with it maybe getting done in October; and she would rather have a timeframe to get moving on this stuff rather than procrastinating and having workshops.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he wants to give the Chambers credit for opening this dialogue; the economic outlook stuff was their idea originally; to go deeper is needed because he believes in small businesses; with down economic times when people cannot find a job, sometimes the people will create their own businesses; and the community’s support is needed for them to be successful.

 

Kathleen Bishop, Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Greater Palm Bay, mentioned this past week while she was in Washington, D.C., Ms. Stains had Illinois and she had the State of Michigan; a person would think that going to that State of Michigan and having the Senators and Congressmen listen to the potential job in Brevard County is nothing compared to what they have seen in Michigan; they were very sympathetic; and this she thinks will help echo that.  She stated the County Commission needs to get onboard, support, and maybe allow the EDC to take the lead on this with the backup from the County Commission; but there thoughts back to it were they understand the Space Program and have benefited from it in many different aspects; but they did not have a plan for the auto industry and here they are trying to figure out what to do after the fact; they are still in shock; and she is relaying a message to get together, design a plan, stick to the plan, stay together, and take care of each other.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he was looking back at a memorandum from February about things that could be done to have the County’s own economics stimulus package; one of the things that was recommended was to engage with the public and launch a local campaign on educating   residents  about  the  economic  development  of  using  local  businesses  with  the Chambers representing all of the local small businesses throughout the County; and he inquired if that is something that the Chambers could implement.  Ms. Stains responded that has already been implemented in the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce; their theme since she came onboard in October is “Partners Doing Business with Partners First”; she preaches that at every ribbon cutting for individuals to get online and look for a partner and do business with a partner; and in the past three months the partnership is starting to pay off because the partners are starting to see it is a little extra work to look to find a partner but once one is found their networking with get so much more to keep the money within the County’s service area.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if the other Chambers are doing the same.  Ms. Bishop responded she took a stand five years ago that if all the businesses bought from each other and if there was no good of service needed they went and recruited someone to become a Chamber Member so that the good of service could be utilized; because of the Palm Bay Road construction, her Chamber put together an incentive booklet and had 15,000 of them printed along with a punch card so that if someone patronized someone along Palm  Bay  Road  they would  get  a  sticker,  bring it back to the Chamber, and they would receive a gift certificate; and she is seeing a huge return on that investment.  She stated she also lead the Ad-Valorum Tax Abatement when it was up for renewal in the City of Palm Bay for the community but only to do business with Chamber Members; they are the ones that pay their salaries and those are the ones she is going to support; and she lives in Indian River County but when it is time to go grocery shopping she tries to go to a Palm Bay Member to do her grocery shopping and then buys gas from someone else so she can get home.  Ms. Stains stated they all have very similar policies amongst all of them; and are trying to expand to a broader business base beyond members.

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired if there is a big sign as people are leaving on a major highway to another County saying, “stop there is good food here, turn around”.  Commissioner Fisher stated he thinks part of the concept was also getting the County to participate in a Countywide ad type of thing to kind of help support that; and he is not sure what more could be done except on the County’s Space Coast Government Television (SCGTV) could put something together.  Ms. Stains stated the TDC has the funding to do a marketing plan; and her Chamber has a 14-member committee that is going to study a Shuttle campaign trying to figure out how to capitalize on the last seven launches; and hopes there is a way to do this to promote people coming in and spending more time rather than just driving over and leaving.  She stated the hoteliers are behind it; the Titusville Chamber has a program for small businesses that is being put together; that started out as a council Chamber initiative; and that can be a color system check to see how that business rates.  Commissioner Fisher stated if there is anything from the County level that can be done to help, please let them know.

 

 

 

Frank Abella, Kennedy Space Center Director, stated he apologizes for being late and it is good to be among friends to have his first public speech be in front of the County Commission on an issue that is really important to all; so many times in the past he has commended the Board for exercising leadership on this issue, give it visibility, get out in front of it, and keep it in the public eye; and also responding by pulling together County and Legislative leaders to address the issue of doing everything possible to preserve the precious resource that is the critical skilled space workforce.  He stated the Board has to also be unafraid to put money where its heart is and investing with EDC and the Workforce organizations with staffing and the additional help as this issue is arising; they have been putting feet on the street with this issue that has really paid  off through dividends in an aggressive effort to pursue and capture the final assembly integration of the CEV program and helping to secure the target workforce assistance that Lisa Rice and other organizations are doing; and to engage political leaders at State and National levels even while being candidates because this is an issue important not only to Florida but also important to them.  He stated he trusts that everyone knows that this is important for the Governor as well; this is the highest priority charge that was given to him when stepping into this job to develop and execute programs designed to retain, grow, and expand the space industry business in Florida and to develop a workforce and vendor retention program that all can be proud of; and he thinks the aim is to let those companies already doing business in Florida know it is deeply appreciated and they want them to stay here.  He stated some quoted words from the Governor “Let the Space Coast to know there is a plan in place to keep as many of the quality workforces as possible”; and as everyone knows, the time is upon them as NASA has already started the first layoffs; and while the first round of 160 workers was in another state he is reminded of one of his favorite Sheryl Crow songs “The First Cut is the Deepest” because it is so poignant and so relative to what will be faced.  He stated KSC is maintaining the workforce to continue launching and processing Shuttles until the end of the program, but eventually the Center will face the loss of the large number of jobs; and efforts are underway now to re-baseline the assessment of the numbers of workers likely to be requiring assistance and to ensure that they target their training and resource dollars to them.  Mr. Abella stated there will be no waiting for what is happening; the Shuttle Program plans are clear; but it is less certain how quickly new jobs will ramp up for the Shuttles replacement, rather it be the Aries rockets, Orion capsule, or other exploration hardware; and these will not be know until the Augustine Task Force finishes it work.  He advised he is in touch with the people that provide the staff work to organize what they do; and they intend to have dialogue throughout.  He stated there are a few words he would like to say that reflect what he hopes is the mood of Space Florida to come and that is togetherness, inclusiveness, and openness; but together with the Board he plans to continue the kind of ongoing strategic partnership discussions that have been held with leadership, whether it be with the new NASA Administrator, Senior Pentagon Officials, and the Whitehouse or Congressional leaders, to address the issues facing Brevard County and to let them know it is critical that the skills here are preserved for the future of the Nations Space Program.  He mentioned this morning he dealt with mostly what is coming, how large the number is, and the economic impact that it will have on everyone; but he would like to reiterate something that Ms. Carlson mentioned and that is that the solution path is not going to be based on just a County effort but on a regional, State, and national effort with a number of initiatives underway at Space Florida to bring space jobs here but also jobs in other industries; they do intend to concentrate as well on not only growing what is here, but to really work with the supply chain because there is a large bang for the buck; more work for those small companies that are being talked about; they have to work together to make this happen; for everybody that has participated in the workshop, he wants all to know that their active participation, thoughts, and advice will be an interval part of the plan that has to be put together for the Governor’s Office Mandate to develop a program to link space infrastructure, any investments made, business development, research, and education goals across the State; everyone is going to attempt to bring new jobs, companies, and to work with Florida; and Space Florida will be a good partner in that affair.  He stated he commends the Board for holding the workshop, and he looks forward to working with all.

 

Chairman Nelson stated for the first time, and maybe Space Florida never had the chance previously, but he is so confident that under Mr. Abella’s leadership they will be seeing the partnership   move   forward;   it   felt   lonely   there   for   a   very   long  time  because  of communication; he appreciates him and the guidance given to him over the last two years, for bringing him up to speed in a hurry; and there is a gentlemen across the table that could use some help because it is a quick learning curve in a very dynamic time.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she thinks there has been an expression in conversations with Mr. Abella and her about how she wants to have the State of Florida as one voice, which has been talked about most of the morning; and she really feels that under Mr. Abella’s leadership he would be able to assist.  She is very pleased to hear that the administration at the State level is getting it and she knows that he knows what is going on; and she is very hopeful, with the leadership, that all will move forward in the right direction.  Mr. Abella stated he knows one person going into this job is not going to carry all the skills and he is not ego driven enough to believe that he is bringing everything to the job; there is a good team in place; looking around the room  with these individuals present at meetings and workshops there is a lot of good talent; and bringing in the best minds and approach is what has to be done in an inclusive way is to put concerted effort of leadership where it is needed but also taking advantage of the skills that are out there.  He stated everything does not have to be carried under one flag; and it is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit, what is happening, and what will measured as the result.

 

Commission Fisher stated he was very impressed while in Washington, D.C. when meeting with President Obama’s transition team and how they were listening to Mr. Abella as he spoke; and has learned a lot from him with the visit there; and inquired what he thinks as having heard from that transitional team to be helpful for Brevard County.  Mr. Abella responded there are good ties to the leadership in NASA and will be helpful; the big issue he thinks all have to watch for is access to the White House being the major driver; in the past, NASA has had to work more closely with the Office of Management and Budget than having a direct tie to the White House and is going to do everything to help strengthen that; and it has to made clear to the White House that what happens in Florida is very important to them in the next election round.

 

Commissioner Anderson thanked Mr. Abella; as a rookie Mr. Abella has opened his eyes to a lot of things and he thinks he understands the impact of everything; it is not parochial when somebody in Commissioner Fisher’s District sneezes another District catches a cold when it comes to the economy; and his whole insight to the Space Program has changed.  Mr. Abella stated he looks forward to working with all members of the Board.

 

 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if Commissioner Fisher wanted to do something further on Buy Brevard.  Commissioner Fisher responded he does not know who handles it from a staff level but if Stockton Whitten, Interim County Manager, could look at how to create a brand of some kind of campaign, not only Buy in Palm Bay, but take that effort Countywide, it would be helpful; and individuals do not always have to go to Orlando if it can be done in Brevard.

 

Commissioner Bolin mentioned when the shutdown of A1A happened after 9/11, in Satellite Beach there were lapel pins in a promotion to stay in Satellite Beach to help all industries in the private sector because there was a major loss; and if a little pin could be done and readable on television, they could wear them, give them to all committee members, and spread the word that way.  Commissioner Anderson stated maybe some funding sources could be identified that might be available to have some kind of public campaign such as radio advertisements.  Commissioner Fisher mentioned again there is the use of the SCGTV that is free, and that could help promote very well.  Commissioner Anderson stated to use the TDC; but he does not know if they have any money.  Commissioner Fisher stated the Board needs the Chambers to be onboard with this too; and maybe a billboard can be used.  Commissioner Anderson stated Chairman Nelson loves billboards.  Commissioner Fisher stated he is fine with it as long as it is not in his district.  Chairman Nelson stated believe it or not there will be a billboard upgraded in his area; they do not have to go everywhere, but just need to be strategic; but there is another action point with having the best lobbying groups in Washington, which is Walker-Wexler; being in a holding pattern without a space administrator, the President has not really came out as to where things are going to go; now things are starting to unfold; as Chairman he would like to get the  chance  to  talk  with  them  and  brainstorm  and  bring something back  to  the  Board  for consideration as to a new path of how to utilize them, because just as Mr. Abella gets to walk through a lot of doors so does Walker-Wexler particularly issues related to alternative energy issues because there is a ground braking tomorrow for solar issues and he will bring something back to the Board with what their thoughts are; and to see what is happening in Washington to help come up with a utilizing game plan.  Commissioner Bolin stated she would like to get a report on that because she has been kind of fuzzy and has not seen much communication from them to the Board; and she is concerned and knows there were a lot of variables.  Chairman Nelson stated the whole space program was fuzzy and that has been the difficulty; and he thinks everyone is ready to move forward now with the selection of the new administrator. 

 

Commissioner Fisher mentioned there was one more recommendation in expanding companies that are here locally; and he does not know if that is something that staff can look at with the EDC expanding that with some references to wage guidelines.  Commissioner Infantini stated she would not mind heading the research up on that along with EDC.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if Andy Ziegler, District 5 School Board Member, has anything he would like to add to today.  Mr. Ziegler stated obviously there is a lot to talk about and he is happy to see the collaboration and partnerships here; and it is important to the School Board that there is a complete good buy in education.  He stated on the good side of things, everyone is fighting hard to save all the jobs from the obvious largest employer in the County, with there being a lot of eyes on everyone as there are on NASA; he feels lucky to save the budget and saved a lot of jobs with a few more to save; and he will be continuing to work on that.  He stated on the good and bad side of things, tonight at a School Board meeting there will be discussion on a class size amendment issue coming in the 2010-2011 school year, which is going to mean an increase in jobs of close to 1,000 teachers; that may sound great but that means more money that is not there; it can get pretty ugly if the School Board has to implement that class size amendment because it is not just the teachers; there has to be additional classrooms with that; and they are looking at additional facilities when there is an actual declining enrollment. He stated those are things everyone has on their minds and he knows that there can be no more revenue generated and they just need to work with what is available; he is sure that there will be discussion of this tonight at the School Board meeting; and all of the members have their heart in the right place for the kids, staff, and community.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired if Mr. Ziegler was able to hear the Legislature say the other day that it actually increased the funding per student; and inquired how the funding is increased per student yet still ending up with a shortfall.  Mr. Ziegler responded there are a variety of ways that happens, one of which is when talking about the funding per student, the Full Time Equivalency (FTD) funding, that is what they are focusing on as to how much they will get per student; there are a number of other sources of funds that are available that are being cut; and that part of the solution was pulling a quarter million from the capital funds and moving it over to operating funds but that puts a deficiency in capital.  He stated there are other sources of funding where there were issues, plus the fact that the capital monies got moved over, which means that more local effort is being put in; it used to be the State funded about 60 percent of education and the rest was funded locally; now it is down to 49 percent from the State; so now that they moved more local money over, it is looking more like they are funding 45 percent; they were getting $2 million for capital then they cut it down last year to $1.75 million; and now it is $1.5 million; there is no need to build any new facilities; the age of the facilities is amazingly old and there is a lot of maintenance that occurs; and that is an expensive task just to maintain those.  Chairman Nelson  stated he gets a bit frustrated with the State in how it actually explains what it has done; he appreciates Mr. Ziegler’s honestly, because a lot of times what happens is that the way they spend it is not exactly what happened as the average person would say if funding was increased for students how did they end up having to cut teachers; it is all in how the numbers together effect Brevard; as the budget was being reduced they were holding or increasing the local required effort on the School Board side, which meant that whatever savings the Board was giving back as a County were being effected by the State to fund education; and that was kind of a frustration because the County was doing its job but got no credit for it; and it is unfortunate and he hopes someday it gets figured out.  Mr. Ziegler stated he is fortunate and proud to be apart of the School Board; they are a very good Board that works very well together; they will get through this phase; constituents look at the School Board and figures that it is not understood what is going on and they are not looking at wisely spending the money; but every Board Member is very conscious of that and if there is a way to survive this it will be done.

 

 

 

Jerry Brinegar, stated he is representing the Grass Roots Citizens Movement that has started an organization to eliminate Code Enforcement abuse; he would like to take a little time to read a few things aloud that he has came across; and he hears all this stuff going on is about building up the community and Code Enforcement is tearing it down; and this needs to be addressed very quickly.  He stated one young man he spoke with is in a wheelchair who wanted to put city water in his house in Palm Bay; as he proceeded to get things done, he found out he had a $7,000 lien against his house from driving on the swale instead of his driveway; but this is only one of the things going on because of Code Enforcement and that is wrong.  He stated a lady named Nikki, in Cocoa, told him that the 18^th of next month her place will be locked up as they are making her get off of her land; he would like for the Board to open its heart and listen to her story; on Sunday, May 24, 2009 she asked to please help and to feel free to tell her story as she has lived at S.R. 520, know as West King Street, for almost ten years; she had her first garage sale at the end of March 2009; one of her neighbors owns the land that her driveway is on; per her deed there is legal use of the driveway;  but  this  land owner did not like all of the traffic and called the Code Enforcement; and that was the start of the troubles just because of a garage sale.  Mr. Brinegar stated Ms. Lally said she has done everything that Code Enforcement has asked of her, including allowing them to come and take pictures inside of her studio garage.  He stated she lost her house from the 2004 hurricanes, Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Tropical Storm Faye, which put her under water; she had her house torn down in 2006 after it took 13 adjusters and two engineering companies to report before State Farm would recognize the damage as hurricane damage; and she only had an insurance trailer for seven months and then moved into the studio apartment above her garage that was bought like it is ten years ago; apparently Code Enforcement says she cannot have a garage without a house even though her garage is a two story detached garage; per codes recommendations, she submitted a building permit application to get her studio apartment and garage zoned into a house.  He stated Ms. Lally wrote she got scammed out of her insurance money and her mortgage company is sitting on the rest because if they would have repaired then they could have access to the money, but since they are rebuilding it has to come out-of-pocket first and after the mortgage company inspects then they will be reimbursed with money.  He stated this past Saturday Ms. Lally received a letter from Permitting and Enforcement telling of what fixes are needed to bring the studio apartment to Code for her house; then Code Enforcement comes for a visit on Tuesday and serves her a notice that they have to vacate her property by June 18, 2009; she inquired about  pitching  a  tent  on her property and the agent said she would be fined; she finds it totally unbelievable that words on a paper can make a family homeless even thought she has paid her property taxes, mortgage on a house that does not exist, and has not lost homestead exemption because they are still staying there; they are not leaving because they do not have the money due to layoffs; but her husband just found work in Miami to help pay all of this stuff off.  Mr. Brinegar stated Code Enforcement is going to come on June 18^th and lock the place up and get the Lally’s off of the property; and that is not right as this is America not Cuba or China.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he is familiar with this situation and Kathy in his office has been working with Code Enforcement on that issue.  He advised there are two sides to every story and there are some other issues there; he thinks there are some issues on exactly how some of the proceeds were used with rebuilding the house; and they are well aware of it.  Mr. Brinegar stated there are two sides to every story, but he does not believe that she should be put off of her property if they are paying taxes on it and have a homestead exemption; and all these people want to do it just to be left alone.

 

Mr. Briegar stated one of his friends had to go to Code Enforcement before the Special Magistrate in the Space Coast Room; he sat outside and watched the people come out of their meetings sad with most of them not having two nickels to rub together; they are fining people anywhere from $350 to $550 court costs; they are not in there more than ten minutes; if it is not fixed in 30 days it is a $25 a day fine; too many people owe thousands of dollars and have liens against their houses; he does not know what can be done; but something needs to be done because it is just wrong.  He stated he talked to a couple the other day that owns a property and the weeds were too high and were made to cut the weeds; but they were fined $7,000, causing them to hire a lawyer who was able to get it reduced a little bit; but they still have to pay court costs; this is not a communist country, this is America; and he recommends the Board go back and read the Constitution, which he has some of the Constitution, which he has with him today if the Board would like him to read some.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired what is his organizational position if someone and builds a house without a building permit and then the Code Enforcement finds out about it and starts levying fines and fees to get he or she to comply with State Law rules, and regulations.  Mr. Brinegar responded he thinks there should be somebody to be able to have enough smarts to sit down and figure out what is wrong and what could be done; and stated does not think Code Enforcement can go in and try making them do anything.  He stated anytime one Code is made against one person, somebody loses their rights; he does not know the whole situation as he just met the Lally’s last week; he does know that Code Enforcement is too strong and does too many things; and he has noticed once they have one thing and it gets cleared they are back on a person for something else.  He stated he will have to think awhile on his position with the organization; he does feel Code Enforcement is good to some degree; but what is in place right now is abusive Code Enforcement; and there is a lot of abuse accruing out there.  Commissioner Fisher stated abuse is one thing, but making people comply with safety issues on homes with certain Codes is another rule; most of the issues coming before the Board are people building without permits; the County figures it out and cites the individuals; people feel like they are being picked on when most of the time they knew that they were building without a permit and did it for financial reasons or did not want to go through the process or the process as it was too complicated; then he or she gets angry that Code Enforcement is out there trying to enforce the Code; and the Board may have to decide if it wants to or not to have Codes.  Mr. Brinegar stated he thinks that would be a good idea; he does not know what has to be paid for a builders permit;  he  inquired  who  sets the Codes; and stated perhaps some things need to be looked over to recalculate.  Mr. Brinegar stated this whole meeting he has set through is about bringing people into the County; and it looks to him like Code Enforcement is running people out of the County.

 

Chairman Nelson stated often in the County they are reactive; they do not go out and look for Code issues; and many of those are called in by neighbors who have concerns and rights too.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated some of the cases are within City limit municipalities such as Palm Bay and Melbourne and it is not all just County areas.  Chairman Nelson stated at least in the County area neighbors have called and they will go out and look, but there needs to be some reasonable level of Code to make sure a house is built so that it is safe, inhabitable, and does not blow away in a hurricane because if a house blows into another house there will be problems; there are reasonable levels; but doing away with Codes is a bit excessive.  Mr. Brinegar stated is in 2006 when they made him get his motor home out of his driveway; it was only two foot longer than what they allow in the Palm Bay area; it looks like to him that they are making Palm Bay or Melbourne a gated community; and if you do not like the guy next door, a person calls in on them and they will Code it in and charge them with a $2,000 fine.  Chairman Nelson stated Mr. Brinegar may have a legitimate discussion with the City of Palm Bay but the Board cannot make them change or tell them what to do; but if there is a specific one from the County, then the Board will deal with it.  Mr. Brinegar stated perhaps that he can do that in the future because this thing is not going to go away.  Commissioner Anderson stated things that he is finding out are they are really simple fixes; if a person lives in Mims or West Melbourne there are different lifestyles; he does not know how that is addressed, it is a different type of community, but they are held to higher standers while living in the country; he does not think that somebody with an acre lot in the country should be held to the same standards as somebody on the beach; if stricter standards are wanted, then the individual should move into the municipalities, and there needs to be a way to fix that.

 

Chairman Nelson stated in general he thinks it is done by a lot size; and if a person is on a acre lot there are a lot more things that a person can do.  Commissioner Anderson stated he has had two situations where they are getting the trailer ordinance in place and the individuals are getting hit with it.  Chairman Nelson stated if the person is on an acre lot have a nice day because the County does not do anything to a person it they are on an acre lot; a person can park as many as they want to; anything less than one-half acre is affected; and it is used to be that there was no differentiation.  Commissioner Anderson stated he is not arguing he is just stating that needs to be revisited with the issues with Mims and West Melbourne because they are different.

 

Commissioner Fisher mentioned he would encourage Mr. Brinegar to visit with the Code Enforcement people to make sure he has a good understanding of what they are enforcing and why with what the State Codes are and such,; because if his organization is going to have some kind of meaning he needs to make sure he understands both sides of the issue.  Mr. Brinegar inquired he sees what is enforced but who sets the standards.  Commissioner Fisher responded some of it is followed through the State Code.

 

Scott Knox, County Attorney, stated some of it the State makes the County do such as the Standard Building Code that applies throughout the State; and it is enforced because the State wants the County to do that.  Mr. Brinegar stated it is a State-mandated thing regardless if a person’s  lifestyle  is different like Commissioner Anderson said.  Mr. Knox stated in some cases it is and if it is Fire Code or Building Code it is State driven.  Mr. Brinegar inquired what the process is of changing some of those laws.  Mr. Knox responded his Legislature.  Commissioner Fisher advised Senator Haridopolos or Thad Altman, Florida House Representative.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she has worked with the Code Enforcement Department and they have worked really hard bending over backwards with the County and people are not taking into consideration their neighbors safety.  Mr. Brinegar stated all he can say is he sees people out there that want to be left alone and they cannot be left alone.

 

Commissioner Bolin thanked Commissioner Anderson for pulling this workshop together; stated she was given information that makes her feel good; she thinks she feels more comfortable were the County is headed; everyone seems to be on the same page; and she is very excited about what the County can do.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if the Board is going to help get delegations together for a resolution or letter to consider or look for direction from Ms. Weatherman and Ms. Gaedcke.  Commissioner Anderson responded he thinks anytime there is a resolution it seems to be stronger than a letter.  Commissioner Bolin inquired if is it premature and should the Board wait for the announcement of the new NASA Director, then it can go to the Federal level and let it trickle down all the way.

 

 

Upon motion and vote, the meeting adjourned at 12:23 p.m.

 

 

 

 

ATTEST:

 

                                                                        ­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________

                                                                        CHUCK NELSON, CHAIRMAN

                                                                        BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

                                                                        BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

SCOTT ELLIS, CLERK