MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

 

 

November 10, 2009

 

 

 

The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, met in regular session on November 10, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. in the Government Center Commission Room, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida.  Present were:  Chairman Chuck Nelson, Commissioners Robin Fisher, Trudie Infantini, Mary Bolin, and Andy Anderson, County Manager Howard Tipton, and County Attorney Scott Knox. 

 

 

The Invocation was given by Reverend Robert E. Adams, Jr., Faith Presbyterian Church, Merritt Island.

 

Commissioner Trudie Infantini led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. 

 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Fisher, seconded by Commissioner Infantini, to approve the July 28, 2009 and August 4, 2009 Regular Meeting Minutes; and September 22, 2009 Special Meeting Minutes., 2009 Special Meeting Minutes.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

 

Frank Abbaleo, Human Resources Office, stated he would like the Board to recognize the Spring 2009 Graduating Class for the Brevard County Citizens Academy.  He stated the purpose of the Academy is to offer to all Brevard residents the unique opportunity to learn how the many Departments that fall under the County Manager’s Office operate, and to provide insight as to how they function; the Citizens Academy also acts as a conduit to promote open lines of communication between the citizens and County staff; it also provides information on the many services that it offers to the citizens, and how they can use these services; the Citizens Academy is an eight-week interactive learning experience, and it meets once a week for three and one-half hours, plus three Saturday field trips; this group of citizens was very, very interactive this time around; and their participation was 100 percent, and it added to the class being informative and educational.  He inquired how the Citizens Academy accomplishes all of this; stated this is performed by having representatives of the many Departments that make up County Government give an overview of the County Departments operation and responsibilities; and at the end of the presentation there is a question and answer period. He noted in the session participants heard from 21 County Departments; along with the three Saturday field trips, this structure offered over 75 hours of education as to how County Government operates and functions; as to the field trips, the first Saturday takes them
to the South Central Water Treatment Plant, with its 200-plus acres of manmade wetlands; the second part of the trip is to the Cocoa Landfill, which stands 115 feet above sea level and has the capacity to go 205 feet by the year 2014; the second Saturday is Country Acres, which is the County’s home for children ages six to 17; and the third Saturday is to the Detention Center, which is the County Jail.  He stated at this time he wanted to thank all of the County Departments that participated in the program, particularly those employees who put together and gave the presentation of the classes, and answered the many questions that the citizens had.  He read from a certificate to the Board that was written and presented by the participants of this year’s Fall Citizen Academy.  He requested that Carrie Cotter from the County Manager’s Office come forward to help present the plaques; and thanked her for helping keeping this program on track.  He advised the Citizens Academy Graduating Class are as follows:  Barbara Bagshaw, Arnold Benson, Dienna Butler, Bill Carmichael, Christopher Cleasby, Lee Daniel, Christi DiSturco, Linda Eichas, Robert Guthridge, Susan Guthridge, Dottie Hudak, Edward Hudak, Sharyn Hurst, Michelle Jaeger, Richard Janne, Lois Katzin, Alice Kreitz, Jack Kroflich, Michelle Loufek, Linda Mannier, Craig Mott, Terry Mott, William Neckles, Marsha Newell, Gwendolyn Owens, Rick Renfro, Mary Robertson, Paula Slater, Lisa Souter, Sarah Stoeckel, Robert Taylor, Mike Toker, Mili Torres, Camille Warren, and Warren J. Warren.

County Manager Howard Tipton advised there are employees who have achieved 25 and 30 years of service with Brevard County; and the Board presented plaques to the following: Karen Dillon, County Manager’s Office, David Hover, Fire Rescue Department, Susan Nigh and Rececca Yandre, Library Services Department, Arthur Harris and Barry Portnowitz, Parks and Recreation Department, and Gloria Harris, Solid Waste
Management Department, for 30 years of service; and Leslie Rothering, Central Services Office, James Daley, Arlene Kidd, Maria Morissette, Dale Merritt, Jeffrey Money, Thomas Parsons, and Dennis Stowe, Fire Rescue Department, Leslie Forsberg, Human Resources Office, Diane Hardos, Information Technology Department, Ellen Noyd, Patricia Cooper, and Deborah Metzger, Library Services Department, Dwayne Hickman, Mosquito Control Department, Victor Marletta, Janice Rouse, and Donald
Wiggins, Parks and Recreation Department, James Statlick, Planning and Development Department, and Henry LaRoche, Public Works Department, for 25 years of service to Brevard County.

 

 

Chairman Nelson read aloud a resolution proclaiming the week of October 31 – November 7, 2009 as Week of the Family.

 

Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Fisher, to adopt Resolution proclaiming the week of October 31 – November 7, 2009 as Week of the Family; and urge all residents to spend quality time with family members to strength those relationships.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

J. D. Humphries stated they have been doing this for a number of year’s now; he thanked the Board and all of those who care about the families of Brevard County; stated they ended their Week of the Family with about 250 members of the community working on their family histories; and it was an opportunity to remember those who brought forth the strength in families for today.

 

Chairman Nelson stated they are so fortunate in Brevard County to have an aviation unit that is as good as the one it has; this year they finished second in the National competition; and everyone knows they would have finished first but they were tired of giving it to them, because they have won it five out of the last eight years.  He advised he has a video he wants to show, which was a 20-minute chase, and he edited it down to approximately eight minutes.  Space Coast Government Television showed the video. 

 

Chairman Nelson stated it was amazing to him, after watching the video from beginning to end, of the professionalism of all of the agencies involved and the coordination between all of the agencies; and it began in Titusville, went into Cocoa, and as it was evolving all was kept aware of what was happening.

 

Chairman Nelson read aloud a resolution recognizing and commending Brevard County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit.

 

Motion by Commissioner Infantini, seconded by Commissioner Fisher, to adopt Resolution recognizing and commending the Brevard County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit for their dedication to duty, professionalism and commitment to saving lives, property, and the prevention of crime in Brevard County.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Chairman Nelson presented the Resolution to Members of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit.

Loralee Thompson stated in 2006 President George W. Bush signed the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act; this was something that was actually created in the mid-1970’s to address overfishing, to stop foreign vessels from fishing in American waters, and to help protect the fishing
communities and their economies; and it gets reauthorized every several years.  She advised when it was reauthorized in 2006, some new things were included; some of those things were specific timelines to address overfishing; those timelines were unrealistic; it takes a long time to figure out what is going on and what needs to be done to address it; and the fisheries that were already being considered by the National Marine Fisheries Services had until 2009 to come up with a plan to end overfishing, and other fisheries that were not in the pipeline until 2010.  She stated the Red Snapper Fishery has not come up with a plan to end overfishing; and their response, since time is up, is that people have to stop fishing for Red Snapper since there is no plan to address overfishing.  She stated there are three amendments to the Red Snapper Management Plan that are under consideration; they have been voted on by the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council; they are under consideration by United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke; all of these fisheries come under the Secretary of Commerce; Amendment 17A, which prohibits snapper fishing from the North Carolina/South Carolina State line, down to Central Florida; and then there is 17B, which will kick in after 17A, that prohibits all bottom fishing from the same boundaries in order to keep people from accidently catching Red Snapper while they are fishing for Grouper or something else.  She noted then there is Amendment 18, which expands the boundaries of the fisheries closure to the Virginia/North Carolina line.  He stated once the closures are enacted, they can remain in place for years; this will be economically catastrophic to the marine industry in the State of Florida as well as the other four or five states that are included; Florida has the most diverse fisheries in the United States; and once the closures are in place, it will be very difficult to monitor what is happening with the fish population, because nobody is catching anything and no records are being kept.  She noted the data that was used to come up with the conclusion that the fisheries needed to be closed was flawed, and there is other data that is out there, other management practices, that can be done instead of closing the fishery, like stop fishing where the fish are spawning; there are people like her that know where these fish go to spawn; and that information is out there.  She advised no effort has been made to interact with the fishermen who know where the spawning fish occur; she feels like they are being ignored; and it could be really bad for tourism, boating, boat builders, fish markets, and it goes on and on. 

 

Chairman Nelson stated one of the things that most people would agree about is that if there was good information that indicated that there was a need to do the closure, it would be supported even by the fishing industry; the problem is that there is no agreement from a lot of high places; and by looking at the list of folks who are concerned that the data is not accurate and complete that have signed on to say it is premature, it is a pretty impressive group of folks who would ordinarily be supportive of closures given good information.

 

Ms. Thompson stated it is a highly political issue; there will be environmental groups that say closure is not necessary at this time; and then there will be fishermen that say the closure is not happening soon enough.  She stated what they are seeing at their own dock at Port Canaveral is more Red Snapper coming across the dock than they have in many, many years.

 

Chairman Nelson read aloud a resolution requesting Federal agencies delay the decision on a Red Snapper ban.

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to adopt Resolution requesting Federal agencies delay the decision on a red snapper ban until additional data is collected and further research conducted.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Chairman Nelson advised there is a meeting on Wednesday at the Radisson at Port Canaveral; and he would like to go and testify before that Committee with this information.  He stated it is important, because all of the charter boats could be gone from the Port is this happens.

 

Ms. Thompson advised that meeting is at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow at the Radisson Resort at Port Canaveral; and from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. people can make public comment, and support the fishing community.

 

 

Frank DiBello, President of Space Florida, thanked the Board for the opportunity to address it and provide an update on what Space Florida is doing.  He stated he spared the Board the usual presentation and notes; he thought he would speak in a much more informal manner to the Board and give it the framework for an update, as well as an opportunity to answer questions, because what they are facing is a significant issue, and it affects not only the County but certainly the State and the nation as the National Space Program goes through a change; and that is true with any major change, but especially devastating to Florida as it is facing a disproportionate share of the impact that will occur as it moves from one type of space flight system to another.  He stated that he wanted to compliment the Board, both the seated Commissioners, as well as those who were before it, for keeping this issue out in front, and keeping eyes focused on it; and that has been especially important, because it is crystal clear that the community cares and that it is the right message that people need to deliver, whether at the County or State level.  He stated they really do care about the workforce and this national asset that they have in this State, which is the Space infrastructure; he has been in the job just about seven weeks now permanently, and he spent the summer as an Interim; during that time, he did a lot of blocking and tackling and putting fundamentals in place; and when the Governor and Lieutenant Governor asked him to take the position on, they made it clear
that the number one job was jobs.  He advised he knows that there has been some confusion in the past about what the role of Space Florida really is, but he clearly sees it as the responsibility to build the health, size, and robustness of the Space Industry in the State as measured in terms of jobs and the economic contribution that the industry provides to the well-being of the citizens in the State; and it is truly economic development, and it is truly long-term.  He stated he emphasized to the Governor that he would focus on four priorities, and he will use that as his basis for giving the Board an update; the first of the priorities was the creation of a vision for what they wanted the Space Industry in the State to be; it is not a vision about Space Florida, but it truly is a vision for the growth of the Space Industry in the State out to the year 2020; that 10-year growth plan will have some very significant goals associated with them; and they are right now locking in on tripling the size of the Space Industry in the State by the year 2020.  He noted he is a little bit out over his skis because the Board has not approved that yet, but he believes that if they do not set a reach goal, they are not really meeting the job that they have or meeting the responsibilities; and secondly, he has the confidence of knowing that they have a lot to work with.  He explained that they have some tremendous assets in the infrastructure and investments that have already been made, and they have a tremendous workforce to attract other businesses to the State and other Space Industry work to the State, so clearly they are going to achieve that goal through a focus on 10 targeted industry segments, which they have identified.  He stated the strategy is diversification; they are going to achieve that growth through diversification through continuing to make investments in key elements of infrastructure and other research and development in assets and partnerships; and those three elements are really important.  He stated when he spoke at a forum a few weeks ago, he gave his ‘we’ speech, and he overemphasized the use of the term ‘we’ to drive home the point that they are clearly all in this together, and that they need to not go often, because Space Florida has the Statewide role, to think that they are going to do this alone, nor should they attempt to because there is a lot of good minds, a lot of good efforts going on at every level; they need to embrace each other and leverage that; this vision clearly has a lot of partnership contexts to it; and the second priority that he had was communications and ramping up the partnerships and communications that they have with local community organizations, Statewide and national organizations, with the Industry itself so that they are in a listen mode and practicing the rationale that they have two ears and one mouth for a reason, and the more that they listen to the bright minds that are out there, the more that they know they will keep on track with what they are doing.  He advised that communications also represents affecting the County and State’s brand and image, and that means everything from grass roots communications right up to the communication with the White House; while he is speaking about that, he wanted to commend Commissioner Fisher, and this Commission for supporting him, in what has been a really remarkable grass roots letter-writing campaign; and while that on the surface seems small, it has had a devastating impact in Washington that has been recognized.  He stated while he was in Washington two weeks ago he had a meeting with some people in the White House who wanted to know what they could do with all of the letters that they have gotten; and their estimate is that they have received approximately 500,000 letters all in support of the Space Program.  He stated they have an issue with security, they cannot deliver them to the White House, but the White
House knows that they are there; they have been able to leverage that and to work with seven other states that have embarked on similar letter-writing campaigns; they are using the Save Space website, and they are multiplying that number of letters, so the White House is getting the message; and they have engaged the Governor’s Office in pursuit of a robust dialogue with the White House to make it clear that this is a call for national leadership in Space exploration and an appeal not to seed their leadership to other countries through inaction.  He stated the Governor’s Office is looking at ways that they can respond at the Legislature level to specific needs that the State might have in economic development.  He advised the third thing the Governor agreed to do is to convene the Florida Delegation and ask it to support a number of initiatives that it is suggesting to the White House, because the White House recognizes that Florida has a problem; and they are in dialogue with NASA and the Office of Management and Budget right now about various ways that they can solve the Florida problem.  He noted they are trying to give the White House every opportunity to be successful and to declare victory in Florida; and what they would like to be able to do is give the President the chance to sit around his Cabinet table and ask his Department of Energy what can be done for the Florida problem, because it is crystal clear that they are not going to solve the problem that they have in the Space Industry from within the NASA budget alone.  He advised that it get back to the diversification strategy, they clearly need to look to diversify not only the industry across those 10 sectors, but to diversify the sources of funding for the Space activities in monitoring, they are looking at applications to agriculture, which are key areas important to Florida; and they are going to try to bring many of the benefits of Space back to the citizens of the State in terms of efficiencies as well as economic contribution.  He stated the third priority for the Governor, which was aggressive economic development, and as he mentioned earlier those 10 market sectors; they have a number of initiatives underway to target, grow, and aggressively pursue every one of those; but they need to be both strategic in what they are doing as well as tactical.  He advised it is okay to set a goal for 2020, but there is a problem with the next two years with an estimated 6,000 plus or minus, maybe to 8,000 workers, that are in the Shuttle Program that could be facing layoff as well as a secondary economic impact that is significant; they will need to be able to put work in place to fill the gap; the gap will exist independently of anything that is done simply because they are moving from a workforce level that is significant and working on a reusable spacecraft and they are moving to an era when they will be using expendable launch vehicles; the workforce levels will be different just by virtue of that move; but it is exacerbated by the fact that there will be a gap between the end of the old program and the beginning of the new.  He explained there is a task force report that was just completed in Washington, Chaired by Norman Augustine, a former Chairman of Martin-Marietta, who studied various alternatives for the White House as to shape the future Space Program, the civil Space Program; it is clear from that report that NASA does not have adequate funding to have a robust exploration program without some major change, and that there is very little that they can do to close this gap sufficient to avoid an impact; and they are addressing the gap to try to fill some of it with near-term work assignments while they are building long-term growth for the industry.  He stated with respect to the Augustine Task Force, and rather than to go through a presentation on that, he thought that he would comment that the Augustine Task Force indentified eight alternative paths that the administration can
consider; none of those alternatives are without significant hurt for the Florida workforce; they looked for solutions that go beyond just the Space Civil Program, and looked to the Department of Defense, at the commercial marketplace, and looked to international countries that have an interest in Space; and they can be good clients for a lot of the Florida workforce and assets that they have, because they will want to all covet the opportunity to do research in Space.  He stated the Space Shuttle is flying out its remaining manifest to complete the International Space Station, which is a permanent structure, or they hope permanent for at least 10 years or more, but it is a research platform that is significant; and they are trying to position Florida to be the ground node for the access to that national lab and certainly a lot of the pre-work that is necessary for researchers to go up there and do work, as well as all the post-analysis, the payload preparation, and all of that kind of work, is work that the Florida workforce is well-positioned to do, and they hope to attract a lot of that work, not just for commercial researchers but for other counties as well that want their own program.  He advised they do plan to expand and accelerate the growth of Exploration Park; it is being done in collaboration with other County agencies, the Economic Development organizations, and Workforce organizations; and that is important because in partnership they can accelerate that growth.  He stated infrastructure, workforce, and other elements, including business environment, enable the attraction of new employers and new Space Industry work to the State.  He stated there is no reason why the Board and he cannot have a close and open dialogue about what is going on; and if he knows its concerns, he can turn himself to address them. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated the County’s Contract with its Lobbyist Bob Walker expired October 31^st; and inquired if there is any way to create a partnership between Space Florida and the County to hire the Lobbyist to help fight the cause.  Mr. DiBello advised he would be very open to collaborating with the Board on any level; he would encourage that frequently a lobbyist is looked at as a solution to a problem, and they are just another communications channel; and they are very fortunate that there is a broad array of people who have their eyes and ears open in Washington.  He stated the various companies that are here in the Space Coast area have not only their own Washington office but lobbyists that they have hired; the County has other people that it has turned to; and he would encourage that it organize them to magnify the amount of listening and communicating that it is able to do.  He noted there will be no substitute for face time in Washington; and that is true on the part of the Governor, which they are really trying to ramp up; Florida needs to remind the President of promises that he made during the campaign, exactly what Commissioner Fisher’s letter-writing campaign did; and he would look at any opportunity to work with the County and to magnify its voice in Washington.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she is involved in Space Florida on the Legislative Committee, and she will be following up on Mr. DiBello’s suggestions; and thanked him for explaining to the Board what is being done by Space Florida.

 

Mr. DiBello stated there is no higher calling right now, and that is clearly what the job is; this is near-term, these are very real people, and an asset to the community; he gets calls and letters from people who are going to be impacted; and he is happy to provide a regular report back to the Board whenever possible.

 

Chairman Nelson stated Mr. DiBello is the right man at the right time for the job, because Space Florida was just cranking up when he got into office and it seemed to basically float in Space for a period of time; and for the first time since he has been on the Board, he feels like there is a positive direction.  He stated Mr. DiBello got through doors in Washington that he could never have gotten through; he does a great job; he has access to the people that need to be talked to; and he hopes he keeps up the good work, and looks forward to working with him in the future.

 

 

Howard Tipton, County Manager, stated he wanted to pull Item VI.D, Contract with Ronald A. Book, P.A. and Banyan Network, Re:  State Legislative Lobbyists, from the Agenda; there were some legal questions; and he will be bringing that item back to the Board on the November 17, 2009 meeting for approval.

 

 

Howard Tipton, County Manager, stated on Thursday, November 12, 2009, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., in the Government Center on the 3^rd Floor, they will be having a meet and greet for the candidates for the Animal Services and Enforcement Director position; he committed to the Animal Welfare Working Group and other who are passionate about that area, that he would provide an opportunity for them to meet the candidates; he extended that invitation to the Board Members; and they will ask for feedback from the group.

 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated Friday in the Field was with St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) last Wednesday on a tour of the basin; it was an eventful tour; Commissioner Infantini went the day after he did; even though they had a flat tire, throttle cable break, and the battery go dead, and then they were chased by bees, it was pretty enjoyable; they went from the Stick Marsh back through Blue Cypress, back towards 192; his main concern was the flood control issues and how it will be handled; and SJRWMD is doing a good job and it did show them some of the structures put in recently.  He stated he appreciates SJRWMD; he will send someone else next year; his Legislative Aid Dawn Johnson went on this Friday in the Field; and she was a trooper, but it will probably be the last time they get her in the field.

Chairman Nelson stated he has speaker cards on Item III.B.10, Permission to Purchase Hardware and Software, Re:  PBX Upgrades Using State Contract Number 730-000-09-1, and Item III.B.3, Approval, Re:  Policy BCC-56, Public Use of Meeting Rooms at Brevard County Government Centers; and he wanted to vote no on Item III.A.2, Binding Development Plan, Re:  Michael A. DiChristopher. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she wanted to abstain from voting on Item III.C.3, Resolution, Re:  Providing Final Approval of the Issuance of IDR Bonds for the Benefit of Florida Institute of Technology’s Tax-Exempt Financing Project, as she works for Florida Institute of Technology. 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve and execute the Subgrant Application from the State of Florida, Department of Transportation (DOT) for the Highway Safety Grant Funds.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to execute Binding Development Plan Agreement with Michael A. DiChristopher for property located at the eastern terminius of Sun Pointe Place, approximately 570 feet east of North Banana River Drive, Merritt Island.  Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Nelson voted nay. 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to execute Binding Development Plan Agreement with Michael and Sandra L. Fahey for property located approximately 300 feet south of Pioneer Road, approximately 550 feet west of N. Courtenay Parkway, and approximately 150 feet north of Butler Avenue, Merritt Island.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to accept the Deed from Cochran Development Corporation and waive the Phase I Environmental Assessment and survey requirements for property located in Section 36, Township 27 South, Range 36 East.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve Sunset Review of Policy BCC-38 for Utilities Delinquent Accounts in District 1 and 3.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to authorize the Utility Services Department to advertise a Request for Proposals (RFP) for professional consulting engineering services for Capital Improvement (CIP) and Renewal and Replacement (R&R) projects at the Barefoot Bay (South Mainland) water and/or wastewater treatment plants; approve a Selection Committee consisting of Utility Services Director Richard Martens, Assistant utility Services Director Steve Peffer, Utility Services Engineer Mark Reagan, Land Development Engineer Richard Szpyrka, and Natural Resources Management Director Ernest Brown, or their designees; and approve a Negotiating Committee consisting of Utility Services Director Richard Martens, Utility Services Finance Manager Jim Helmer, and County Attorney Scott Knox, or their designees.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to adopt the Special Magistrate’s recommendation to reduce the accrued fine for Case #98-2560 from $32,526 to $2,636; and direct staff to prepare and execute release and satisfaction of lien upon receipt of payment.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve one-year contract extensions with David W. Dyer and Stewart B. Capps to provide Special Magistrate services for unlicensed contractor, vested rights, and Code violation hearings; and authorize the Chairman to execute the Agreements to Extend Existing Contracts. 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to authorize permission to bid replacement of the fire alarm panels and devices in Buildings A, C, D, and E at the Brevard County Government Center, Viera; and authorize the Chairman to execute the contract for same.

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve the Mutual Aid Agreement between National Aeronautics and Space Administration, John F. Kennedy Space enter (NASA-KSC) and Brevard County Fire Rescue for Mutual Aid, to provide a mutual service exchange to allow for fire and rescue protection to each jurisdiction in times of emergency or disaster too great to be dealt with unassisted; and grant permission for the Chairman to execute the Agreement.  

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to authorize the advertisement for and acceptance of proposals from qualified Architectural and Engineering firms for Community Development Block Grant Infrastructure and Public Facilities Improvement Projects; establish a Selection Committee of the Housing and Human Services Construction Project Supervisor, Facilities Director Steve Quickel, and Housing and Human Services Director Gay Williams; establish a Negotiating Committee of Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten, Purchasing director Steve Stultz, and Housing and Human Services Manager Ian Golden, or their designee; and authorize negotiations by the Negotiating Committee.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute an Agreement with Crosswinds Youth Services, Inc. for Fiscal Year 2009-2010, in an amount not to exceed $208,815 for the Brevard County Juvenile Assessment Center, contingent upon the approval of County Attorney and Risk Management.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute an Agreement with Brevard County Legal Aid, Inc. for Fiscal year 2009-2010, in an amount not to exceed $256,500 for legal services for indigent residents, contingent upon the approval of County Attorney and Risk Management. 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve and authorize the Chairman to execute an Agreement with Circles of Care, Inc., for Fiscal Year 2009-2010, in an amount not to exceed $1,748,507 for Baker Act Services.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to adopt Resolution and authorize Easement to Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) for electrical service upgrades to Wickham Park Campgrounds A and B.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to execute letter accepting the Grant Conditions with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) regarding the habitat management of the Scottsmoor Flatwoods Sanctuary, under the Florida Scrub-Jay Conservation Program Fund Memorandum of Understanding between U.S. Fish and Wildlife and TNC; and authorize the County Manager to execute any other standard
documents and amendments required by TNC for the acceptance of grant funds in an amount not to exceed $30,000.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to adopt Resolutions, and execute Unpaved Trail Easement and Access, Use and Utility Easement Agreement with Town of Malabar for road and drainage improvements on Marie Street, and to allow for a continuation of the Al Tuttle Trail that currently terminates at the northwest corner of the Coastal Jewel property.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve the proposed 2010 Board meeting schedule.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve payment of award to the following Public Works Department/Engineering employees who submitted recommendation EIP #381 under Brevard County’s Employee Innovations Program:  Lisa Marasco, Leon Craig, Richard Jenkins, Justin Kennedy, and Henry Laroche.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to adopt Resolution providing final approval of the issuance of up to $62,000,000 of Industrial Development Revenue Bonds, Series 2009, the proceeds of which will be loaned to TUFF Florida Tech LLC (TUFF) to finance the acquisition, construction and equipping of
student housing, food service, parking, recreation, laboratory and classroom facilities at the Florida Institute of Technology campus in Melbourne, Florida.  Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Infantini abstained from voting. 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to appoint Joe Thompson to the Art in Public Places Advisory Committee, with term expiring December 31, 2010.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Anderson, to approve bills and budget changes, as submitted.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Jon Sellers, Information Technology Director, stated this item is to upgrade four of the County’s nine private branch exchanges in the various facilities around the County; the oldest ones at a cost of $243,000; these machines are very old; there is extreme risk of failure on them; and staff would like to get them current to make sure they are working for the next three or four years.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she was going to pull this item, but she saw there were already some speaker cards for it; one of her concerns was not going out to bid on a project; and the County has had this contract in place since 2003, it got updated in 2008, and is set to expire in August 2010.  She advised she was visited by Matt Nye who told her about a different type of telephone system; upon seeing the presentation, she did a little bit of homework; she and her staff contacted a few companies that let them know what kind of savings the County to expect to enjoy, as well as updating technology; and at this point, that is why she will not be able to vote for this item as the Board needs to move forward with going out to bid rather than upgrading existing equipment, which is extremely old.

 

Mr. Sellers stated Item VII.B.4 is a very similar situation where staff is asking to go out to bid; it will take staff a few years to get to the whole bidding process; and it is important the County has equipment that will run correctly for the next few years while going through that process.

 

Chairman Nelson stated this decision impacts the other decision, which is it keeps the system up and running while going through the RFP process.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated after spending time with staff yesterday, he realized the Board cannot change that quick; when the Board talks about the separate item, it will talk about why it takes two years to bid something; and that is because of the complications of the systems.  He advised the County does need to move into a new technology, he just does not think the Board can do in as quick of a timeframe that a person can do it at home.  He suggested that the Board hire a consultant to do it if staff cannot do it so it can get done quicker.

 

Chairman Nelson stated the Board will be using the State Contract, so there is a component to this, at least for keeping the system up, that has been bid, it was bid by the State as opposed to the County bidding it; but he thinks that looking at the overall technology and going to bid on that makes sense.

 

Thomas Gill, Account Manager for AT&T in Brevard County, stated he is a taxpayer and he is a sales guy, so he would love to sell the County a new system, but frankly, at this point in time, he does not think the County needs a new system.  He stated he wants to be clear of what they are proposing, it is a simple upgrade to the existing system the County has that will allow a future growth pattern into all of the technologies that are available today, IP Technology, Voice Over IP, and it allows the County to move into that growth as it is needed; this is all done without ripping and replacing the infrastructure that the County has made an investment in; when the Board made a decision about 10 years ago to invest in this technology, it allowed the County to continue to grow without having to completely replace the system; and from a very financial and economic standpoint, AT&T would love to sell the County a new system, is recommending that it does not buy a new system, that it simply upgrades the system, continue it to be in a supported environment with the manufacturer and AT&T’s support organization, and move forward.  He stated in these economic times it is tough to justify the cost of a brand new system, when the Board can look at leveraging the investment it has made already and continue all of those functionalities and a cost savings as well.  He stated AT&T is standing proactively on this; they brought this proposal to the Board proactively as a cost saving measure; and they encourage other vendors to bring these kinds of cost savings measure to the Board as well.  He noted AT&T has been a partner for many years, and they are proud to come to the Board as the world’s leading communication provider of services to bring it this option; and the video earlier of the Sheriff’s rescue shows the importance of reliable communication systems.  He noted the proactive stance that AT&T has taken on this, because they understand that budgets are tight; it is easy to be a partner when things are going good; but it is more difficult to stand up in front of the Board and be a good partner when times are tough; and they understand that times are tough and are encouraging the Board to take advantage of this cost savings option for not only the County, but the community of Brevard County.  He stated the Board should
always investigate other options; but encourages the Board to take the cost savings today while it continues those other investigations.

 

Erik Lindburg, Area Director for Government Education for AT&T, stated these are tough economic times; they are in the business of selling technology, but today they are here to tell the Board that what it has is working; they are going to work with the Board over the long-term to find the right solution; they will compete vigorously for that business; but today their proposal is to get what the County has working and supported so the Board can make those strategic decisions long-term.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated the thing that jumped out at him yesterday when he was being briefed on this was that it is a savings of over $200,000.  Mr. Lindburg advised there are two items, this one is for the upgrades of the current telephony system, the item under New Business is a comprehensive package.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if the system is changed could that savings be more.  Mr. Lindburg advised the investment is the key; if the County is going to replace an existing technology that implies a spending of new capital, everything from the handset to the systems behind the wall that support it all would be functionally replaced potentially at a cost; the environment of the current technology needs to be looked at, if it is supported and is it doing what it needs to do; if it does, AT&T is here ask the Board to look at the future path forward; and when the cost benefit makes sense, AT&T will work with it on that decision.  He noted today their analysis was to provide a replacement system that would be far more expensive over a period of time; but they look forward to continue to work with staff to find that appropriate time.

 

Matt Nye distributed folders to the Board.  He stated County Manager Howard Tipton has the documents that support some of the comments he is going to make today; and he is here to ask that at a minimum the Board postpone action on this item.  He stated he has done a preliminary evaluation of the County’s phone system, capital, and operating costs; this is high-level based on access to data that he could get to; it appears the County can save as much as $1.5 million per year by replacing its outdated equipment and services; and over a three-year period the County can save almost $5 million by installing the right IP-based phone system instead of upgrading or expanding the current outdated Nortel System.  He advised spending this additional $334,000 to upgrade an already obsolete phone system does not make financial sense; this $334,000 is enough money to replace approximately 600 of the County’s 3,800 telephones with a better IP-based phone system that saves money on operating costs and dramatically lowers administrative costs; and independent research shows that Nortel, the system the County is using now, ranks dead last among all major phone system vendors in terms of value, technology, and system management making further investment in the Nortel System a bad choice for the taxpayers of Brevard County.  He stated Nortel declared bankruptcy in January of this year, and the Company faces tremendous financial and corporate challenges as its business units are being sold off to competitors; Nortel has eliminated product lines, reduced staffing levels, and reduced
research and development investment creating uncertainty and problems for existing and future customers alike; investing in a software upgrade assurance plan when the very future of the Company and its product is in question does not make sense; and independent third-party research shows that among the top four IP phone system vendors, Nortel has had the most significant declines in customer satisfaction and market share in recent years, and now ranks dead last among all major IP phone system vendors.  He stated Brevard County is currently paying dramatically more for its ongoing phone system maintenance and telephone service than other organizations of similar size; the cost savings by switching to a more efficient system will be dramatic; by voting no on this Agenda Item now, the Board will save $334,000, and give the County time to evaluate a better IP phone system that will cost less to install, less to maintain, and will save almost $5 million every three years; and that is nearly $20 million in savings over a 12-year system life.  He explained 15 percent of the County’s phones could be replaced with brand new, state-of-the-art equipment that County employees could hold in their hands and that would improve their lives and productivity.  He stated for all of these reasons he is asking the Board to vote no on this item and allow him time to complete a free cost analysis based on the data he received via public records requests from the IT Department this morning.  He stated the concerns he heard about the transitioning, in that folder the Board will see a slide, the Shore Tel System specifically, and he has actually demoed it for some of the Commissioners, that has a completely seamless transition; the Departments they are talking about upgrading can have a Shore Tel System that will talk to the existing Nortel System; there is no need for a massive capital outlay; the County could literally take this money it is considering spending on a dead Nortel System throw it at a new Shore Tel System and have 600 new handsets that integrate seamlessly with the current system; he had the Government Accounts Representative from Shore Tel on standby, she would be happy to come in and present to the group or the Commissioners individually; but to continue to dump money into an obsolete system, and the timing to implement this master plan, is not accurate information.  He advised the Board could move forward today; as these items come up for upgrades, the Board can do $300,000 here and $300,000 there; and at the end of five years the Board has replaced the entire phone system, it has state-of-the-art technology, and it is all software upgradable going forward.

 

Mr. Sellers stated he appreciates Mr. Nye’s presentation; he did ask for a public records request, and he did provide him with significant information from the County’s networks; but he does not think that picking it up this morning he has had time to review all of the other upgrades that go along with this, including circuit, network, and equipment upgrades that would make a voice-over IP system be feasible.  He advised if Shore Tel can do that job, there may be others also, they still need to go through that RFP process to find out if someone can do an even better job.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she agrees with Mr. Sellers, it should go out to bid, it should not just be a done deal with Shore Tel.  She stated on Friday afternoon she did call the City of Oakland, because when she went to Shore Tel’s website to see who
some of their customers were, she did find out that the City of Oakland was; her office contacted them, and they called her yesterday afternoon; and they stayed on the telephone with her for 15 minutes explaining how all of the phone systems do not have to be changed at the same time.  She stated in the City of Oakland what they did was they did a pilot program in a small complex; then as they found that it worked so well, they started taking on lines more and more large structures, which housed large phone systems like the Courthouse; and it is not a massive something that has to be done all at once.  She advised they said they had it down to three phones with Shore Tel being one of the three, Shore Tel, Cisco, and something else, and he said the reason why they chose Shore Tel was because of how easy it was to integrate.  She stated the Army Corp of Engineers spoke with her staff on the phone, and he kind of repeated what he put in his Shore Tel blurb, which was their upfront cost benefit they expected a two-year return on their investment; and she would like to either table the vote today and just not vote until the Board has information, because she does not think there is significant information out there, and give the other Commissioners the opportunity to do additional research prior to taking a vote on this.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if there is time sensitivity to this item; with Mr. Sellers advising the time sensitivity is while Nortel did go through the bankruptcy process, they were purchased by someone else, and their prices will go up on this at an estimated $20,000 if the Board holds off on this; and stated it is up to the Board if it wants to risk the $20,000 or not.  Commissioner Anderson stated he is concerned that the County did not fulfill the freedom of information request until right before this meeting to give potential competitors adequate time to analyze the data and get back to the Board; in all fairness and to be as open as possible as a government body, the Board should at least give potential competitors, including Shore Tel or any of the other ones out there, the ability to analyze that data; and he would support Commissioner Infantini’s motion to table this at least one meeting to analyze that data.

 

Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten advised staff did have that information available; he is not sure when it was available, but the pick up just occurred today; but he is pretty sure Jon had that available before today.  He stated in terms of the direction the Board wants to go, Shore Tel is negotiating with Volusia County; he would like to hear whether or not that is sort of a plug in play; and that would be helpful in terms of the analysis.  He stated he knows Commissioner Infantini mentioned Oakland, but they are going through a negotiation process with Volusia County; and if the Board could hear with regards of whether or not that is a plug in play it would probably be helpful.

 

Mr. Sellers stated he is well aware that the Board can upgrade certain areas at certain times and stuff like that; the Clerk of Courts has a Cisco Voiceover IP System and staff reviewed what it might cost to just use their backend, and just replace the telephones on the frontend and stuff like that; that capital investment was pretty steep upfront for that; there is a number of significant network upgrades that have to take place across the County to utilize a voiceover IP system effectively; and taking a piecemeal approach to this can be more expensive down-the-road.

 

Commissioner Infantini inquired when Mr. Sellers says pretty steep, what kind of dollars is he talking about.  Mr. Sellers advised with the Cisco, it was about a $3 million capital investment; stated Cisco is a top of the line product and very proud of the pricing on their equipment; Shore Tel he absolutely understands as he has researched them and they are significantly less expensive than Cisco is; and he understands there are potential cost savings out there, he just likes to take a measured approach towards that.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if Mr. Sellers can give the Board some history of what happened in the Clerk’s Office with the Cisco system.  Mr. Sellers advised the County’s IT Department runs the telephone system for all of the Charter Offices as well as the Board; the Clerk felt the County was expensive in terms of its yearly payments; the Clerk was being charged approximately $1.1 million a year at the time; and the Clerk of Courts Office went to a Cisco Voiceover IP System.  He stated he did see an email from the Clerk saying how much he had spent over those years; he multiplied that $1.1 million over what was spend over those years; and the County would have been about $700,000 less if he had stayed with the County.  He stated the other side of that from the Clerk’s point of view is he was able to use a different funding source to resolve his issues; and the Clerk’s funding sources did not impact the Board through the General Fund.  He noted overall financially it was not a great win for the Clerk.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated Mr. Sellers said he thinks Cisco would have cost about $3 million upfront, and that Shore Tel’s cost is substantially less, so if she just drops that by one-third and say $2 million, and if Mr. Nye’s numbers are correct, he could save the County $1.2 million per year, then within two years the County would have paid for all of the hardware.  She stated the other item that is up is to give AT&T a three-year contract for $3.2 million per year; and she would really like to cut that number down a bit.

 

Chairman Nelson stated tabling but giving no direction on what to come back with really does not accomplish anything, it just slows down the process; and the question is what is the Board expecting to come back and how it is going to do that.  He stated with all due respect to Mr. Nye, he represents a product line, there may be others out there, this is well beyond this Board individually technical understanding and maybe that it does need kind of a third party consultant to evaluate this; but there needs to be an apples to apples comparison done for the Board so it is laid out and explained.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated the Board needs to make sure this does not create any kind of a bog in the system and if the Board does not do something the issue is going to fail.  Mr. Sellers advised the County is operable right now; the way the system works is there is a set of cards; those cards are no longer manufactured; if one of those cards should go down, they could lose from 60 to 120 telephones; that is likely to happen at some point; and because the manufacturer discontinued, staff is going wherever they can find to get one.  He stated he does not have a problem with not doing this item as long as everyone agrees they are willing to accept the risks associated with them.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated what Mr. Sellers is saying is if the Board decides this item will be tabled and it will not move forward, then it needs to understand that there is a risk by not upgrading that there can be departments that have total communications go down.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if any of those are emergency agencies; with Mr. Sellers responding all of them are; stated IT will make every effort to take care of those public safety groups first; and cards can be pulled out of other departments and put them in the public safety areas to make sure they were down a minimum amount of time.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated this can be tabled until the 17^th; he is concerned about the freedom of information request; and he does not know what happened, but he knows the person who requested it did not receive it until today.  He inquired if the Board votes on this, they are not going to change those systems out today; with Mr. Sellers responding it will take 60 to 90 days.  Commissioner Anderson stated another week really does not matter.

 

Chairman Nelson suggested the Board defers the item for one week; stated what he would like to see come back in one week is how the Board would go through an analysis process to determine the next step; and inquired how long would it take to get a consultant on board and is it going to be treated as an emergency to get the consultant.  He stated he would like staff to work with both of the vendors, because he would like to everyone to at least nod that the process the Board is going to look at is one that is going to get the Board the information so the analysis can be done.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated what he would like to see is maybe the contract is not a three-year contract, that if the Board thinks it needs to make a change or adjustment that it is not having to sign a three-year software contract; and maybe the timeframe can be shortened on that.

 

Chairman Nelson stated staff has direction to bring back next week an analysis process, how would the Board make the determination of whether or not to upgrade or to go out and potentially hire a consultant to do that third-party analysis for the Board.  Mr. Sellers stated regarding the freedom of information subject, it took him about a week to get the information to Mr. Nye; it could take a lot longer with that; he tried to come up with a system that would work best for him and get him the information he needed as quickly as possible; and he assumed Mr. Nye would be present today to make that presentation.  Commissioner Anderson stated he was not finding fault with anyone.

 

The Board reached a consensus to table permission to authorize the Chairman to execute agreements with AT&T, and to authorize Information Technology Director Jon Sellers to provide initials for the individual pages to upgrade four of the County’s nine PBXs to the latest release of software, upon completion of review by the County Attorney’s Office, to the November 17, 2009 Board meeting.         

 

Commissioner Infantini inquired if this is for both items, and it is not just for the Consent Agenda Item; and it will also be on the item for annual contract, because that is $3.2 million.  Mr. Sellers stated he thinks the Board wants the same process; and if it wants to go down this path, it will want to do the same with the other item.  Chairman Nelson stated Item VII.B.4, Approval, Re:  Modification and Extension of AT&T Contracts and Pricing Schedules for Circuits and PBXs will also be part of that, so that will be pulled from the Agenda today.

 

 

Chairman Nelson stated everyone has heard the discussion and they understand the direction the Board is going.

 

Brian Paternostro, PAETEC Communications, stated they actually compete head-to-head quite vigorously for government contracts; they are able to provide many governments with a lot of different opportunities and cost savings; and AT&T could not provide those on its own.  He distributed information regarding PAETEC to the Board.  He stated PAETEC Communications is the premier alternative carrier to AT&T, it actually has over 20,000 customers in Florida alone; and by that means, it has many examples where it worked with communities, governments, and municipalities to help save them a tremendous amount of money.  He advised Hillsborough County Public Schools is a recent client that was with AT&T for 15 years, and they chose to leave AT&T to come on board with PAETEC in order to be able help save $2.4 million over a three-year contract; at the same time they are allowed to use their program called Equipment for Services that allows them to profit share with the County to be able to offset the cost of a capital expenditure; and they have the ability to come in, take a look at the overall expenditure throughout the entire network, and be able to offset the cost and refund parts back to the County to help offset the cost of a capital expenditure.  He noted another major success story is Miami-Dade County who is a customer on the voice side; with them they were able to save approximately $280,000 a year on voice services alone; and at the same time, they helped offset with an additional $300,000 worth of capital expenditure through the Equipment for Services Program.  He stated within 90 to 120 days they could come back to the Board with an apples to apples comparison of what AT&T is proposing on the same solutions versus what they can propose; and he believes the County can save 20 to 35 percent off of what the current AT&T’s best offer is. 

 

Chairman Nelson stated he wants Mr. Paternostro to make sure staff has his information so he can be kept into the loop for the discussion. 

 

Matt Nye stated on this item, they have agreed to move forward with a bid-type process; but he wanted to point out according to the IT Department’s overview that he found in
the County’s budget, the County is currently maintaining approximately 5,300 phone lines; according to Mr. Sellers verbally when they spoke a week or so ago, there are approximately 3,800 actual handsets and around 2,800 and 3,000 employees; and the normal ration of users to phone lines in a regular business environment is somewhere between .1 and .15 lines per user; if the County had 1,000 employees they may maintain 100 phone lines because only 150 people will be on the phone at any given time; and inquired why the Brevard County ratio 1.76 phone lines per user, which is 10 times any industry average.  He inquired from a basic high level math, why that ratio is so far out of whack; stated he understands there may be something with the overview where the 5,300 phone lines some are really data circuits; if half of them are data circuits for the network, the County would still be out of whack by a factor of five; and from a high level management overview, that is one issue.  He mentioned a story about Los Angeles County doing an audit of the IT and communications department; they found they were paying for 8,000 unused phone lines; he does not think it is the case in Brevard County; but the tremendous discrepancy between the ratios he sees in the IT Department budget and the industry average merits further review.

 

Mr. Sellers stated as a department they bill other departments based on telephone lines; every single handset in the County requires one telephone line off of the PBX; he thinks Mr. Nye is looking at PRI lines and those kind of things coming in to connect back to central offices and stuff like that; and that comparison is a lot off.  He advised by billing per telephone line, they give every department every incentive to cut unnecessary telephone lines.  He stated review is done every year of that; the departments know how much it will cost them; and they come back year-after-year saying they need the lines.

 

Chairman Nelson stated several of those lines are actually Constitutional Officers that the County provides that service for.

 

Thomas Gill, AT&T, stated most of those services the County has today with AT&T are already under contract; they have no self-interest in coming to the Board and reducing those costs; but that is what they have done.  He stated if the Board decides not to do anything on the second item, the costs stay in place for up to the next two years; AT&T really appreciates its business; what is being offered to the Board today is to reduce those costs in the midst of contracts that are already in place; this is not a complicated proposal; and they are only trying to help the County reduce their costs.

 

Chairman Nelson stated if the Board chooses a different system and it saves the County bigger bucks than what is being talked about, then that is advantageous to the County as well. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated AT&T can wait a week for the Board.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the Contract is valid through August 2010.  Mr. Gill stated the Contracts do not all end in August 2010; there are multiple Contracts with the County; and they are spread out over the next 18 months or so.

 

The Board adjourned at 11:03 a.m. and reconvened at 11:17 a.m.

 

 

Marlene Adams stated she only had one item to talk about and now it has mushroomed to three.  She stated she always feels like the citizens are left in the dark, especially with the Agendas; for example, the debate on the AT&T renewal which says, “Permission to Purchase Hardware and Software Upgrades Using State Contract;” and it does not give enough information for the average person to know what is being discussed.  She stated when she heard the $243,000 was actually $334,000, that is misleading and not open government.  She stated the other item misleading was the approval of settlement agreement with Palm Bay; it only lists one case, but it is settling two cases; and it does not say it is a class action case.  She advised the next one is VI.E, Discussion Regarding Addendum to Brevard County Code Section 14-59; and that is to try to enforce the picking up of horse waste.  She stated if the public is lucky enough to get Florida TODAY to write about it in advance; they did not write anything about the lawsuit but wrote two days ago about horse manure; and inquired how the public knows about this if it is not on the website anything that is descriptive.

 

Ms. Adams stated the real reason she wanted to speak today is because she could not get an answer by email on the question she has been asking; Ordinance No. 06-045, which is the famous fire assessment, Section 10, says shall which is not mandatory; she stated it requires notice to be put on the TRIM notice; and it never has been.  She stated she has asked why; and she gave the Board a copy of the Ordinance and what it said.  She stated when the public listens to the Board going out for RFP’s to get the price for an item, it is disheartening staff trying to defend inefficiency. 

 

Helen Voltz stated she wanted to update the Board on the Youth Development Workshop; a week ago last Saturday there was a good crowd of kids; the presenters were all great; the presenters opened up the eyes very wide of some of the younger kids; and they were able to solve two crimes from the information the kids gave to the police. 

 

 

Chairman Nelson called for the public hearing for Resolution for petition to vacate public utility and public drainage right-of-way in Briarwood Manor Subdivision, as petitioned by James Swonger and Valarie Page.

 

Public Works Director John Denninghoff stated in this particular vacating petition, the property owners have requested a vacating of a small portion of a drainage right-of-way that is adjacent to their property; the reason for the vacating request is that they had applied for a permit and constructed a dock; the dock is a little bit unusual as it has some fence panels along the edge of the dock; also the dock was intended to be constructed wholly within their parcel of land; and along the property boundary is a pond area water body, so the dock was going to be out into the water, but they own the land the dock would have been on.  He stated the contractor who constructed the dock got a portion of that dock located out into the drainage right-of-way, which is County-owned property; so rather than disassembling the dock and relocating it, they have petitioned the Board to consider vacating just enough of the right-of-way to accommodate allowing them to leave the dock at its current location; in accordance with the procedures staff utilized to consider vacating they had requested that all County Departments comment on it; they received no objections from any County agencies; but they did receive objections from the adjacent property owner, located on the lot to the west of the petitioners property, and their objections are included in the package.  He advised even in consideration of the items that are included and outlined in that objection, the County staff still has no objection to the vacating request.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he did not have an issue with vacating it, but he did have an issue with somehow incorporating in the vacation agreement that if for some reason the County is going to dredge or clean in there, and it damages that dock, that it will not come back and become responsible for it; and they will say the County vacated the property, staff knew the dock was there, and now the County damaged the dock so it is the County’s fault.  He advised he did not want the County to get in that scenario situation by trying to do the petitioners a favor with vacating and end up building a dock some day because something happened with the cleaning out, dredging process, or whatever the County does in that body of water.  He stated if there is some way to include that in there, he would be fine with the vacation.

 

Mr. Denninghoff advised there are two ways to potentially accomplish that; one is to continue the item to a future date while staff works on language and documentation to try to achieve that in coordination with the County Attorney’s Office or to approve it based on a condition that staff would do that same effort; but he does not know exactly how it would be done as it would be a new thing for staff.

 

County Attorney Scott Knox stated the County Attorney’s Office will have to work out some type of reservation to have the gentleman sign; he is not exactly sure how to do; but there is a way to do it.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired if Commissioner Fisher wants to approve it with the County Attorney working out the language or continue it and have it come back with the language.  Attorney Knox advised it is up to the Board as it can be done either way; but it might be better to continue it and bring back the language.

 

Mr. Denninghoff suggested the Board not hear the item again any earlier than the December 15, 2009, because these things take a little bit of time to get worked out and get the language settled.

 

Mr. Swonger advised his contractor has been on this job for about five months now, and he thinks December will put him outside his permit completion window; and the contractor has been very concerned about it.  Chairman Nelson inquired if he knows what the contract date is; and when is the last meeting in November.  County Manager Howard Tipton advised there is a workshop on November 17^th that is scheduled; but currently there is nothing set up for that date, so it would be November 15^th.  Mr. Swonger stated the contract date is April 24, 2009.  Chairman Nelson stated Mr. Swonger already has a problem then.  Mr. Denninghoff noted December 15^th would be the earliest the language could be worked out.

 

Chairman Nelson stated he wants to make sure that staff has answered the question about any repair right issues; and inquired if when staff brings it back would they have a definitive answer that there are no issues.  He stated building a dock with a fence on it is a little bit unusual; he has never seen one of those; and he wants to know that all repair rights issues have been addressed if it is appropriate.

 

There being no further comments, motion was made by Commissioner Fisher, seconded by Commissioner Bolin, to continue public hearing to consider vacating portions of the public utility easement and public drainage right-of-way in Briarwood Manor Subdivision in Section 5, Township 24 South, Range 36 East, to the December 15, 2009 Board meeting.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Chairman Nelson called for the public hearing to consider approval of the Fourth Quarter Supplemental Budget for the Fiscal Year 2008-2009.

 

Budget Director Tom Rosenberg stated there is a typographic error on the Agenda Item; under the fiscal impact it says .19 percent; but it should be 1.9 percent.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated that was one of her points to mention; it is closer to a 2 percent change; she wanted to also draw the Board’s attention to the fact that when the 2008-2009 budget was approved, the Board then talked about the fact that the budget decreased by 18 percent from the prior year, because the prior year the budget was $1.3 billion and now it is down to $1,095,000,000, which was an 18 percent decrease; and by approving this new budget, the Board realizes it will be increasing the budget by 10 percent, so looking at the 2008-2009 year it was only decreased the budget by eight
percent.  She stated she cannot approve the budget changes going forward.  She stated when the Board has a budget and it says it decreased it by 40 million, it only decreased it by 40 million to say but it will be increased 25 million as the year goes along.    

Chairman Nelson inquired if Commissioner Infantini is fine with stopping all of the projects including the Beltway and all of the other things the Board has made commitments to.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired what percentage was carried forward.  Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten advised this is dealing with last fiscal year’s budget; and he does not know what the carry forward was for last fiscal year.

 

Chairman Nelson stated these are dollars that the Sheriff’s Department has received; Commissioner Infantini does not want the Sheriff to get those dollars; all of the projects are in the package; and she does not want those to be done.  Commissioner Infantini advised she does not want any of them to be done; and the Board needs to learn how to budget properly as it should be doing.  Chairman Nelson stated this is properly.  Commissioner Infantini stated she does not want the Board to spend money it does not have; the Board said it was how much it was going to spend, which was $1,095,000,000; but instead it spends $1.2 billion, which is entirely different.  Chairman Nelson noted the Board has budgeted $1.2 billion, but it has not spent that amount.  Commissioner Infantini inquired if the Board has not spent it why is it increasing the budget; and could the budget stay the same, which is substantially higher than where it was at the end of 2008-2009, and roll $21 million of the dollars that were included in this to go towards the Palm Bay Parkway. 

 

Mr. Whitten stated at some point in time there will be a first quarter supplemental for this current fiscal year budget recognizing those revenues and/or expenditures that were projected coming into this fiscal year; this is a process that is required by State Statute to actually reconcile the checkbook, if you will; and so it is standard for any county or city government or any business to make a projection of what their expenditures are going to be as the budget is being prepared and make a projection of what those revenues will also be.  He stated this is the reconciliation of where the mark was missed.  He advised State Statute says that, for instance, under Public Works projects if the Board anticipated last year or the year before last expending $10 million and it only expended $8 million, it has to bring forward the $2 million, and it has to be recognized in a public hearing, and that is what this is.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated $21 million is from Capital Improvements Reserves in Transportation; inquired if the Board did not spend it in 2008-2009 and it probably will spend it in 2009-2010, why is the 2008-2009 budget being increased to reflect something it did not spend; and why not just increase this year’s budget to say the Board expects to spend the $21 million this year on the transportation.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated it is part of balancing the budget; what staff is doing is that part of the challenge is that they project to spend “x” amount of dollars; they expected “x” amount of dollars of revenue; staff did not get the revenue they thought or expenditures they thought, so part of this is balancing that out and correcting the projections; and if they projected a couple of road projects they did not get completed, that revenue can no longer sit there.

 

Mr. Whitten stated this happens each year; this issue is separate from the current fiscal year; this is reconciliation and finalizing of last fiscal year’s budget, which obviously affects this fiscal year’s budget; and it is the reconciliation of the check register to make sure that the Board finally recognized the revenues where they were and expenditures were recognized where they actually occurred.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he gives his daughter an allowance, and she spends every penny; there is never a carry over; his son saves money; he always has a carry over; this is what is happening with the County; it has budgeted that it is going to build St. Johns Parkway and put $20 million towards it; and this year came by and the Board did not put the $20 million towards it, so it is being carried over to this year. 

 

There being no further comments, motion was made by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to adopt Resolution approving the Fourth Quarter Supplemental Budget for Fiscal Year 2008-2009; and approve the budget changes and such actions as are necessary to implement the adopted changes.  Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Infantini voted nay.  (See page                                 for Resolution No. 09-243.)

 

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she thought this item was pulled.  Chairman Nelson advised Commissioner Infantini asked that it be placed back on the Agenda.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if the County is in the middle of a lawsuit or something.

 

Chairman Nelson stated before Attorney Cliff Repperger speaks, he needs to ask the County Attorney a question; and inquired since it was the County Attorney’s suggestion to pull it because of the lawsuit, would he give the Board his explanation as to why.  County Attorney Scott Knox advised the issue the County Attorney was not going to bring before the Board was whether or not there would be a Code Enforcement violation that might be pursued in this case; and part of that issue is dependent upon who owns what property out there.  He stated since the lawsuit has now been filed, the issues of ownership are going to be submitted to the court; and it seems redundant at best for the Board to be considering those ownership issues when the court is going to decide those ultimately.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the lawsuit was filed as a result of the erroneous permit application that was approved by staff; the permit application was written in 2003; and
the permit application stated that there had been a sign continuously on this piece of property without interruption.  She advised the facts remain that the sign was not there without interruption; when the staff member, who should have known because they reside down in that area, said that the sign was not always there, and the application in and of itself was false; based on the false application they forwarded it to FDOT stating that the sign would be erected in the FDOT right-of-way; FDOT has said they do not own that right-of-way; and inquired how can FDOT grant a permit for a sign on property it does not own.  She noted had the County not erroneously filed and signed off on that application, this never would have gone forward; after all these years, Mr. Manney came before the Board and it said no to put it on the Agenda; again he was going to come before the Board and it said no they want to have their attorney present; and in November 2009 he filed a lawsuit, which was only filed because the County has not done what it should have done in 2003.  She showed the Board all of the emails going back and forth from her office ever since she got into office; and it is over a year that she has been working with Mr. Manney trying to resolve this issue.

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired if the Board listens to the speakers on this Item, since there is a lawsuit, is the Board in any jeopardy of any comments made by the Board.  Attorney Knox advised the Board will not be in jeopardy, the lawsuit may be in jeopardy; the two parties in the lawsuit are before the Board; and whatever they say will be transcribed, and he is sure it will be presented to the court when that matter is considered.  He stated he thinks that is one of the reasons Mr. Repperger said he does not want to go forward with this.

 

Cliff Repperger, Attorney with the Law Firm of Gray, Robinson representing Honest John’s Fish Camp, stated what Attorney Knox said to the Board is accurate; they have been retained to represent Honest John’s, not only with regard to this item, which they were prepared to move forward with, but also in the lawsuit recently filed last week; before he says anything in great detail, he will tell the Board they have obviously reviewed the action of the Board at the last meeting, which was September 15^th; there were numerous factual inaccuracies that were represented to the Board at that time from Mr. Manney, which formed the basis of the Board’s motion in moving forward to this point; they would love to get into a discussion of those issues today; but unfortunately the filing of the lawsuit, which involves those issues, precludes them from moving forward today in any meaningful manner.  He stated they do not want to give record statements, they do not want to put on testimony, they do not want to get into the factual issues involved in this case outside of the lawsuit, which will decide these issues; and those facts involved, a lot more than that permit application with all due respect to Commissioner Infantini, they relate to staff comments going back to 2004 on the record when the Board issues related to the closing and relocation of the right-of-ways and the signs, the issue at that time.  He stated with that being said, they do not believe it is appropriate for the Board to move forward today; and it is appropriate for the Board to abate its action pending the resolution with regard to the lawsuit.  He noted they did not file the lawsuit, Mr. Manney or the Representatives of Lillian Manney filed the lawsuit, and that was their choice to do so prior to this Board meeting.

 

Kenneth Manney stated he is requesting one thing, that the Board revoke the recent permission granted by Brevard County to Honest John’s Fish Camp to maintain a sign in the Mullet Creek Road right-of-way; in order to do this, a clear and explicit letter must be issued from Brevard County to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) stating that the permission to maintain a sign that was originally granted by Brevard County to Honest John’s Fish Camp, and a letter dated May 21, 2003 and signed by Billy Osborne, Jr., is hereby revoked; the FDOT should revoke all permits issued pursuant to that letter, i.e. Permit Nos. BZ697 and BZ698; and that will facilitate the immediate and permanent removal of the obsolete sign as Mullet Creek Road is now a residential dead end street, and a new road, Old Florida Trail, has been opened for over a year as the new and only access road to the Fish Camp.  He distributed a handout to the Board showing the sign did not exist November 2002 and prior to the property being purchased the property had been leased by the former owner, which is shown.  He stated that sign did not exist and it was a new sign, based upon the permission granted by the County; and that is what needs to be revoked.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated Commissioner Bolin had asked for the minutes from the prior meeting when the road was vacated and what the discussions were regarding this sign, and whether or not they would have the ability to put up another sign; that was the reason why staff, very articulately, crafted an exceptional design so that they would be able to put up another sign knowing that, that existing sign on Mullet Creek Road would have to come down; they were allowed to then place another sign at the new Old Trail, which is the entrance now to Honest John’s Fish Camp; and she has the minutes with the information regarding the sign.  She stated Chairman Nelson expressed grave concern about granting the design of the road because he said it is not a good idea to do that.  She stated they talked about how the County is proposing to vacate Mullet Creek Road, Arthur would still have signage at that entrance that would lead patrons back to the business; that sign currently fronts on Mullet Creek Road; and it is now a vested grandfathered sign, which is not accurate.  She stated they were told later on that they would approve an access strip and a four by eight double-fronted sign; and the last bullet says to waive the northwest and southwest setbacks.  She advised basically they knew they were going to get a new sign when the Board agreed to vacate the road; that was the understanding of the Board at that time, which is why they were crafted such a special easement, a 3,000-foot strip of public land, that Chairman Nelson opposed because he thought it was not a great idea; and they knew they were getting a new sign because the other sign was going to have to come down.  She stated she thinks it was the intent of the Board back then granting that special easement; and inquired why even do that if they are allowed to keep the old sign on the old entrance, which is not even there, the road has been vacated.

 

Chairman Nelson stated it appears to him that there are really two judicial processes; one is quasi judicial and the other one purely judicial to resolve this issue as opposed to the Board making that decision; frankly, regardless of which direction it chooses, a lawsuit is probably going to occur; and if that is going to be the ultimate outcome, regardless of which decision the Board makes, why not let it go through that process that
it is going to end up in anyway, whether it is Code Enforcement or through litigation filed, let them resolve it with all the information that will be available and heard at that time instead of the Board being the judge and jury.  He stated either the special magistrate or a judge should make that decision.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the Board is going to ask a taxpayer, one of its residents, to incur a lawsuit and legal fees just because it gave an erroneous permit for an application stating that it was in the FDOT right-of-way.

 

Chairman Nelson advised Mr. Manney is the one who filed the lawsuit; he did not have to; what the Board would have chosen potentially for it to either take an action or to allow this action to go to a special magistrate; that is what was before the Board; and it was his action that caused this.  He stated the Board did not say to go to court; there is the ability to go through Code Enforcement, which would have been his choice; but let the special magistrate hear it, he is an independent third party, he is not going to be looking out for staff; and it would have been a fairer process.  He stated there are remedies before the petitioner, it just should not be the Board, because it will not hear all of the facts associated with this; there is a judicial process available; and Mr. Manney has chosen court, and that is his choice, but there is also Code Enforcement.

 

Mr. Manney explained the issue of Code Enforcement is not the issue he is addressing at this point; he is addressing a single issue; one, the County granted them permission to have this sign and because of that granted permission the FDOT permits were issued; and if the County revokes that permission, the FDOT permits will disappear and FDOT will come and remove the sign.

 

Chairman Nelson advised then Mr. Repperger will file the next lawsuit; the point is that the issue is not going to be resolved by action of this Board today; Mr. Manney has a choice, he has chosen to go to court, but he does not have to as he can go through Code Enforcement; they will say if the County erred; they will evaluate all of the information that he has been sharing; and the special magistrate will tell the Board if it erred in issuing that permit.  Mr. Manney stated that is a totally different issue.  Chairman Nelson stated in the end it is not as it ends up at the same point.  Mr. Manney stated no.  Chairman Nelson advised they will just disagree.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired if there is an action the Board would like to take.

 

Motion by Commissioner Infantini, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to revoke permission to allow the sign to be there.  Motion did not carry; Commissioners Fisher, Nelson, and Bolin voted nay.

 

 

Chairman Nelson advised Mr. Manney that he has the choice of Code Enforcement or the suit that he filed; and that will resolve the issue for him.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated at the end of the day this Board did not grant the permission.  Commissioner Infantini advised staff of this Board did.  Commissioner Fisher inquired when was the permission granted; with Commissioner Infantini responding 2003.  Commissioner Fisher stated it was long before him and many of the other Commissioners; the reason he voted no is obviously there is a legal problem; just like Mr. Manney is a citizen of Brevard County, he is assuming Honest John is a Brevard County citizen; and there are two citizens who cannot seem to agree, so unfortunately the courts are probably going to have to decide.  He noted maybe the Board did make an error in doing that, but he does not know that to be the case.

 

Mr. Manney inquired was it the Board’s intent when it issued the property for that new sign at the new road to still leave up the old sign; and stated he thinks the intent at that time was that the old sign was coming down.

 

Chairman Nelson stated he was on the Board and he never understood that, that sign was going to come down as a result of the action that the Board took; he did not support giving the easement, but he also did not believe that, that sign was going to come down; and he was on the Board at that time.

 

 

Chairman Nelson stated in a nutshell, there was a judge ruling that he then softened later because they were being good, they have no longer been good; and this would seek to get those reinstated, which requires them to do better security and enforcement of the original conditions.

 

Assistant County Attorney Morris Richardson stated staff’s first request, and Lieutenant Vick De Santis from the Sheriff’s Office is available as well if the Board would like more information, but what staff is asking for is to shut down two portions of the business, the adult theatre and the so-called peep booth where the problems seem to occur; the judge once before shut those down entirely and then he reopened them with some restrictions; just putting the restrictions back in place would be middle ground; but what staff would like to ask for is to shut them down entirely, because history has shown that it is just a pattern and practice of the same problems over and over.

 

*Chairman Nelson passed the gavel to Vice Chairman Bolin.

 

Motion by Commissioner Nelson, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to authorize the County Attorney, in cooperation with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, to seek modification of an existing injunction relating to ongoing criminal activities and a public nuisance at Showboat Adult World in unincorporated Cocoa.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

*Vice Chairman Bolin passed the gavel back to Chairman Nelson.

 

 

County Attorney Scott Knox stated this is the matter that was brought before the Board several months ago with the City of Palm Bay and Brevard County have two suits pending, which have consolidated into one suit; one involved the request by the City of Palm Bay for a Certificate of Necessity for the operation of an ambulance system in the City of Palm Bay; and the other involved the EMS assessment, which was declared unlawful and they were seeking a refund of the amounts paid into the County coffers under the EMS assessment.  He stated the County did win on the issue of whether or not they had to pay the refund; and they moved forward without having appealed the issue as to whether the EMS assessment was unlawful, so that case is still pending.  He stated the COPCN case was set for hearing and at that point in time the City came to the County and asked to settle the case in some way; and this is the settlement that has been negotiated.  He advised the folks from the fire department are here and they could explain the details of how that settlement works; it basically involves the City taking over emergency calls from I-95 south to Malabar Road; and in exchange for that, which has cost the County money in the past, the County has agreed to take over dispatch services for the fire department for the City.

 

Fire Rescue Director Chief Larry Collins stated he asked Deputy Chief Neterer to work up some of the data that would answer the Board’s questions.

 

Deputy Chief Neterer stated the settlement agreement calls for Brevard County Fire/Rescue to provide dispatch services to the City of Palm Bay for a five-year period; upon closure of the five-year period there is the option to renew the agreement should the County and/or the City decide to do so; City of Palm Bay will provide first responder and fire protection services on the I-95 corridor from about Malabar Road to the County line; it is not an area that can easily be reached; the closest fire engine comes out of the Palm Bay/West Melbourne boundary area; and it takes quite a while for them to get out there.  He advised in order for them to provide the service, the Communications Manager and the group in Dispatch basically said they will need two more personnel to accommodate the volume; and he thinks the City runs about 10,000 calls a year; along with Dispatch they answer telephone calls, administrative phone calls, and whatever information needs that they have, they will provide; and they also help manage the City’s assets; if one area of the City gets busy, they move assets around to help them manage that; and they can provide a great service.  He noted an added benefit is, from a regional dispatch perspective, by looking at the EMS model they are able to see all of the pieces, and they move assets accordingly; and they would expect a higher level of communication and improvement during large brush fire events that occur in the South County area.  He stated the City has indicated for their service on the South I-95 corridor it would be a $60,000 annual cost to do that; if the County hires two additional Dispatchers, train them, and provide uniforms it would be roughly $80,000 a year; and it equates, the total value between City and County, to approximately $78,000 for the life of the five-year agreement.  He stated it does resolve the lawsuit on the two fronts as explained by the County Attorney earlier.

 

Commissioner Infantini inquired how much it costs the County to provide EMS service to the City of Palm Bay, the service it is asking to be able to provide for itself in the lawsuit.  Chief Collins stated one of the issues for Fire/Rescue is that this system is a Countywide system, so they are constantly in a state of flux using those assets all over the County and then bringing assets from the County down into there; it is very difficult to determine the true costs just to the City of Palm Bay; what they can do is go back and look at the cost of the assets that sit there right now; but in the long run it would not be a true cost, because they are constantly in and out as part of a larger system. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he is familiar with this case; what he understood in the arguments is it would actually cost the County money because it would have to provide ambulance service for a small portion of south County that may now handle portions of the City of Palm Bay Incorporated and portions of those unincorporated areas; and for the City to take over all of their own ambulances and go outside its borders, it would have ambulances sitting in unincorporated very low populated areas just waiting for calls because those people have to be serviced.  Chief Collins advised that was his point of how dynamic this system is and how it is constantly in that state of flux sharing across the larger geographical area.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated if he remembers correctly, the Board met in executive session on this issue; it was a lawsuit, and part of the settlement of the lawsuit the Board came up with this proposal that both parties agreed to; and he is not sure that agreement needs to be changed.  He stated it made sense for both parties to end the lawsuit and move forward.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated not everyone was on the same page in the executive session; the recommendation was brought to the Board, it was not something the Board decided to do; and she does not know what it cost the County to provide ambulance service, and sense the City was suing the County to be able to provide that service, it is going to cost the County an additional $78,000, she was just trying to find out how much does it cost the County.  She stated to address Commissioner Anderson’s concern, if the City of Palm Bay has a fire station that is already down in South County, the County does interlocal agreements all of the time and perhaps they could then service that portion of South County.  She advised she is trying to look out for Brevard County overall; a lot of people are not happy with the fees the County is paying; and she thought this may be a way to reduce those.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated that would only be if the City of Palm Bay agreed to do that interlocal agreement; and it probably would not.

 

Chairman Nelson stated he is not inclined to break up the service; they do a great job; there is no reason to play with it; and the City of Palm Bay is less enthusiastic today about running that service than they were back at that point in time.  He stated it is a good alternative; the County does get a benefit as well; and it will be an additional benefit by having those additional dispatchers in there.

 

Marlene Adams stated she is confused about this; she asked what is the fiscal impact of this, because it is a little misleading; the County’s agreement is for five years; and what no one really said was if the County is determined in another five years, why would they not.  She inquired why the Board can not just say it like it is as it is a 20-year settlement; no one has mentioned anything about the ambulances that are supposed to be provided; the County is going to provide free ambulances; the County is settling a lawsuit for unlawful assessments that all the citizens paid; and part of that class was 68 percent of the rest of the people.  She stated she is not interested in compensating them again for something she paid illegally as well.  She stated what the City of Palm Bay is going to provide for EMS to the County for no charge is just I-95, 14 miles of road, not South Area; and inquired what Palm Bay paid before for the dispatching services.  Chairman Nelson advised it had its own dispatchers.  Ms. Adams stated in order to settle this 10 or 15 years of unlawful EMS assessments, it wants 20 years of free dispatch service.  She stated she wanted it to be clear for everyone out there watching this; what the Board just said was not what she understands; she understands the County is going to give them 20 years of free dispatch service and free ambulances as needed; the City is going to give the County free EMS service on 14 miles of I-95 and fire services if need be on that roadway only; and inquired if she is correct.  She stated she would like the answer to two questions; inquired if she is correct about that; and what the total fiscal impact is. 

 

Attorney Knox advised the County and the City of Palm Bay are exchanging response service to accidents on I-95, which is going to be done by the City from Malabar Road south, in exchange for which the County is going provide fire service dispatch to the City; the ambulances are already there, there is no new ambulance; what the County has agreed to do is to check annually to see what the need is in Palm Bay and to see if there is a need whether or not the County has the fiscal resources to provide another ambulance; that is what the agreement calls for; it is a five-year agreement at $15,000 per year; there are options to renew it; but it cannot be assumed that everyone is going to renew it for the next 20 years.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the County bills the patients who ride in those ambulances, whether in Palm Bay or Port St. John; and everyone pays for the ride unless it is not billable, and then it has to go through the collection process.

 

Commissioner Infantini inquired what the level of service the Board is agreeing to for the City of Palm Bay.  Assistant County Manager Stockton Whitten advised it is the same level of service, it is a Countywide level of service there, and so the level of service is whatever their response times are, but what the Board is looking at in the agreement talks about the Comprehensive Plan, level of service with regards to the ambulance units per 10,000 citizens, that is unchanged, that again is a Countywide level of service.  He stated as Attorney Knox indicated, the County will sit down with the City of Palm Bay and discuss whether that level of service has changed; but the County does that for the entire system, so there is nothing above and beyond given to Palm Bay with regards to that level of service requirement.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the Board should have a final fiscal cost breakdown before it votes, because when agreeing to a settlement the Board should know the actual dollar amount of what it is the County is giving up; realizing they do not really want the EMS service and this whole thing can go away; and she would like to see the fiscal cost impacts so she will not be voting yet.

 

Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Bolin, to execute Settlement Agreement with City of Palm Bay regarding settlement of Palm Bay v. Brevard County, Case No. 05-2005-CA-024646-XXXX-XX.  Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Infantini voted nay. 

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to approve amendment to Policy BCC-79, “Valkaria Airport Rules and Regulations”, to establish guidelines for the issuance of a special event permit for interested parties that wish to use the airport for such events and adopt a permit fee.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

*Chairman Nelson passed the gavel to Vice Chairman Bolin.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated this in addition to what was already approved and budgeted for, for the Parks Referendum; the Projects with the Parks Referendum have already been completed; and this is extra money.  She suggested the Board not go forward building more community centers, because it was not part of the original Referendum; everyone who was originally was promised something has received what they were promised; and because the Board currently does not have the funding to pay for community centers, the operations of them, she would like to see rather than building a new community center, perhaps the $4 million could go to an ATV park. 

 

Commissioner Nelson stated Rodes Park would be a great place for an ATV park.  Commissioner Infantini stated it is too centrally located.  Commissioner Nelson stated it would be ideal as it is right by the Interstate with good access.  Commissioner Infantini stated she is not in favor of going forward and spending more County money on projects that were not originally budgeted for; her community center has been built and was budgeted for; and at this point, the Board should look at paying down its debt rather than building more facilities just because there is left over funding.

Commissioner Nelson stated Rodes Park as it is being built today was not originally envisioned in the Referendum; what Commissioner Infantini is saying occurred at a park
that is very important to that community just as this is; when the Referendum in 2006 was being proposed, they had already master planned those facilities to include the community center; there was some concern that there was not going to be enough money and they would have to do a large open-air pavilion similar to what is on Kawanis Island; but because of favorable bonding conditions they were able to get significant money to do the community center; and to say it was not planned for is not entirely accurate.  He stated it is a need on North Merritt Island, the community centers, hardened structures, 170 mile wind load generators to support recovery efforts; they just had during Tropical Storm Fay people displaced from their homes on North Merritt Island; it meets all the same criteria that all of the other community centers do; and throughout the Referendum and peppered throughout there are projects that did not go exactly the way they were envisioned.  He noted one of the best projects is the Senior Center at Wickham Park, which was originally going to be basically additional restrooms and shuffleboard courts at the sight down in Melbourne; but as it turns out it was a better choice to go somewhere else.  He stated those dollars cannot be moved from Merritt Island; and he will be darned if those will be used for an ATV park on Merritt Island, because they do not have the land for that.  He stated those are dollars that Merritt Islanders are paying for; the citizens in the south part of the County are not paying for them; and he is not paying for Rodes Park.  He advised it will take 18 months to build it; it will put people to work during that period of time; it is a good thing for Brevard County and Merritt Island; and he would like to move for approval of the item.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated Commissioner Infantini brought up a good point; the Board has done the same thing with the Field of Dreams; District 5 is going to be asking the Board to help with that facility; and he would be hypocritical if he told someone in a different district that he does not support their facility when they have a fantastic opportunity with the Field of Dreams coming up.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the Field of Dreams is entirely different; that is a one-time facility for the entire County, just like an ATV park; if Commissioner Nelson was suggesting moving the Field of Dreams from Rodes Park to there, that is entirely separate; and that is a one-time facility to be granted to people with disabilities that they do not have in Brevard County.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated all of the facilities are Countywide; children in Palm Bay play in Titusville; and people use different parks.

 

Commissioner Nelson stated with the existing Rodes Park, the County was actually faced with having to sell that to make the numbers work; the second Referendum allowed it not to have to do that; that is great, because in the end the County will need more recreational space than less; and Field of Dreams is a great project.

 

Vice Chairman Bolin inquired if the community center was on a work plan for this area; with Parks and Recreation Director Don Lusk responding affirmatively. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated with the community center down in the south beaches, she is sorry to say that it is not very well used, she is sorry they have such a huge facility that residents now have to be charged rather than outdoor basketball courts; a lot of parents will not pay; she is trying to prevent the expense of another community center when there are so many community centers; if the outdoor portion of a park was being requested, that is entirely different as it does not cost $500,000 per year to operate; but when it is not that far away to get to the next closest community center, she does not think it is a good suggestion at this point.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated everyone thinks the community centers in their districts are important; citizens are going to realize that if they want community centers, they will have to pay for them; people are saying they want them as they keep passing referendums; and there is a concern about how to maintain the community centers long-term.  He advised it is a quality of life issue, and issue with crime and kids and other stuff going on in the community; and the community centers are kind of part of the solution to some of those problems.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the quality of life is really an issue of how a person spends time with their family and those who are important; she had a fantastic quality of life when they moved up in 1990; it has not improved with all of the new libraries and facilities; and she still spends good quality time with her family and people who are important to her.  She stated she thinks the Board is misjudging quality of life by how much money the government can spend on its citizens; that does not give you quality; and it is how a person spends their time not the money.

 

Motion by Commissioner Nelson, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to authorize the construction of the community center at Mitchell Ellington park; approve the funding for the construction phase of the Memorial Garden; and approve reimbursement for land acquisition for expansion of Veterans Memorial Park.  Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner Infantini voted nay.

 

 

*Vice Chairman Bolin passed the gavel back to Chairman Nelson.

 

 

Wanetta Dyer stated she was at a Board meeting on August 4^th; it is all about the waste on the roads from the horses; the Board wanted to have the County Attorney check into the legal ramifications; and the study came out.  She stated the only downside is if a driver was injured on the roadway because he or she swerved to miss the manure.    She advised the roads where she lives are 20, 25, and 30 miles per hour; it is not like a person would whizzing along the road at top rate speeds; and a person can see what is
on the road.  She stated what they are asking for is for the Board to make a ruling whether they can have the addendum to allow horses to do what they do when on the road for rural residential and agricultural areas that allow horses anyway.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired if Ms. Dyer was issued a courtesy warning or violation by whom; with Ms. Dyer responding Animal Services and Enforcement.  Chairman Nelson inquired if they were called out or did they observe; with Ms. Dyer responding she thinks a citizen made a complaint.  Chairman Nelson stated Animal Services and Enforcement was not out there following her and her horse waiting.  Ms. Dyer stated the person who filed the complaint does not live in the area. 

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired in the area Ms. Dyer is speaking of the majority of the homes do have horses; with Ms. Dyer responding affirmatively.  Commissioner Bolin stated this is an area that everyone knows has horses; and it is just a fact of life.  Ms. Dyer stated they have a one-half mile strip of their road that have 15 horses on it; the adjoining road has 30 horses; she drives carriage horses; riding is not an issue for her; her husband is disabled; and most people ride their horses.  She stated it is difficult, and unrealistic to pick up manure in a bag.

 

Susan Fitzpatrick stated she drives a motorcycle, she has a 1966 Ford Mustang fully restored, and the Board should know how she feels about getting that dirty; and she also drives a horse and buggy.  She advised the roads they drive on the speed limit is 25 miles per hour or less, mostly less; consequently, it is not difficult on a motorcycle or a car to avoid a horse pile if a person is doing the speed limit; and the likelihood of human injury or automobile accidents is far less than on some of the dirt roads that have wash boards and wash outs.

 

Louisa Killian stated she is disturbed by this because she has ridden for 40 years in the area; she lives in Melbourne in Lake Washington, which is also a horse area; she has lost most of her areas that were trails in the Sarno Road/Eau Gallie Boulevard area; Wickham Park is not safe to ride in right now because of the trees that might fall on a person because they are burned; a person cannot ride circles in their pasture forever; and her arthritic horse cannot do that anyway.  She advised she goes out on the road, and she does not ride on the road most of the time, she is on the side of the road; her horse could poop on the road; she is an asset to the area; children love her; there are handicapped people that sort of sit outside and take pictures of her; she is a detriment to crime because she is riding down the road; and she actually saved flooding of a neighbors house because all of this water was running down so she called.  She advised she took off work today, she is a teacher; and she does not like to do that.  She figured out horses poop about every two hours; if a person goes riding, he or she would have maybe one or two piles on the road; it will dry in two to three hours; and at that point it is no longer a fly attraction.  She stated it is a low-traffic area.  She stated the County would lose horse population in the area if this happens.

 

Marlene Adams stated she is impressed with the amount of research done on this item, 24 pages by an attorney; she has a little problem with the tax money spent on such an issue; she has been in Canaveral Groves for 12 years and seeing horses on the roadways has always been a pleasant thing; it is fast becoming less and less; and when she sees horses, she cannot believe they still have them in Canaveral Groves.  She stated it has not been a problem, she has not seen a lot of horse manure on the roads; and inquired why there is an issue now.  She advised there are fewer horses, lesser people out there with horses, so there will be lesser poop on the road.  She stated she did an unofficial survey with the homeowners group, and 75 percent of them wanted to exempt horse manure from the Ordinance; she noticed in the Ordinance it speaks to dog urination, she does not know how many complaints the Board gets about that, but there are dogs urinating all over Canaveral Groves; and she does not know how the Board can enforce that except to ban walking.  She stated people need to understand if a person is going to move to a rural community like that, he or she will need to expect these kinds of things.  She stated Code Enforcement in general has been out in Canaveral Groves a lot more in the past couple of years; the Canaveral Groves Homeowners used to sell onions way back off the road, they got cited for that and had to move to Jabbers; they were selling pecans twice a year; and now it is horse manure.  She inquired why the County cannot just leave the people in Canaveral Groves; and it is a rural community, they do not bother people, and they do not want to be bothered.

 

Linda Rubin stated she has been giving riding lessons to handicapped children for the last ten years; she has her own horses; she believes there is no problem with this; people need to have more common sense; and she sees more dead animals on the road that are squishy and a person can get into an accident with them rather than horse manure.

 

Nancy McFarland stated she rides all over the County in the saddle; and she is reduced down to the buggy and everything.  She advised she picks up dead animals on the road and puts it on the side of the road or buries it.  She stated she and her other half patrol through the woods, and last week they reported a burning vehicle; anything that goes on out there, Ms. Wanetta is the same way, they complain; people should pick up beer cans and crap like that; and people should not break beer bottles out there, because the horses and buggies go over that and they can get hurt.  She advised they are a non-profit, non-paid, under-deserved security system in Canaveral Groves because anything they see they report. 

 

James Dyer stated this issue with the horse poop, it is amazing that the people have to talk to the Board about being exempt; the Ordinance was originally was intended for dog poop; and it was never intended for horses.  He stated the way the Ordinance is worded, if a person is a horse rider he or she has to get off of their horse and clean up.  He noted that is fine for the young, healthy riders; but there is a large population that is aged and handicapped; he can ride a horse but he has to get on it with an aid or device; and there are many people who cannot get off of the horse, and this Ordinance would limit them
from riding.  He stated although unintentional, this Ordinance is targeting the aged and the handicapped; and he urged the Board to give the horses the exemption so people can ride without a fear of being fined for the droppings.

 

Chris Zack stated she rides all of the time, unfortunately she has to take her horse out of the County, because she lives in an area that has become full of kids and dogs; if she did have to ride from her house, she would have to ride through the streets; and she could not get on and off of her horse to do this. 

 

Walter Churchill stated he is looking for an amendment to the Ordinance from the way it is written as right now it is too broad in interpretation as far as public areas; inquired if this would include equestrian events; and how is the County going to enforce this on Wickham Park trails.  He stated does not see how the Board can enforce the entire animal community as far as the livestock types to abide by it. 

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she thinks the Board should leave the horses alone; this is a fact of life; for those who have been raised in the agricultural area, knowing he or she could only have a two-hour ride because that is how much time before the horse does it again; and that just is not feasible.

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Fisher, to approve the request of Wanetta Dyer for an addendum to Brevard County Code, Section 14-59 (animal defecating, urinating on public or private property), excluding horses from the Ordinance.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Infantini, seconded by Commissioner Bolin, to approve request of Dr. Tom Blue, President of Central Florida Animal Reserve, for a 60-day extension to complete the C.U.P. application process, to be heard at the December 7, 2009 Planning and Zoning Board meeting and the February 4, 2010 Board of County Commissioners meeting.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

The meeting recessed at 12:45 p.m. and reconvened at 1:33 p.m.

 

 

Amy Tidd stated this is a program which many have supported for its success in preserving Brevard County’s best wild places; she is the past Chair of Preserve Brevard, which was a group formed in 2003 to help pass the 2004 EEL Bond Referendum; this
Referendum passed by almost 70 percent in the largest election turnout that Brevard County has ever experienced; and in fact, it was such a great turnout, that on the evening of the election after the poles closed and the votes were counted, Karl Rove praised Brevard County for having the best increase in Republican-voter turnout in the whole country.  She inquired why the program had such great support from Brevard County citizens for over 19 years; stated to understand it a person must go back to the beginning; in 1989 the residents became concerned about preserving land; there was a 1984 Beach and Riverfront Referendum that had bought access but there had been some problems because of political interference; the Board in 1989 voted to put a Bond issue for endangered lands on the ballot; this failed because of the perceived problems; the Board then formed a citizens committee, which sat down and wrote the Land Acquisition Manual, which laid out the non-political, scientific basis of a new program, and the scientific committee to purchase and manage the lands; this program, with the Selection and Management Committee, to purchase land was brought to ballot in 1990 and passed; and it was very successful in preserving land while providing public access.  She advised many other areas bottled their programs after it.  She noted because of the safeguards and policies in place, the voters then renewed their support and voted to renew it in 2004.  She invited everyone who supports the EEL Program and came here today to stand up.  She advised today she is here because there are some ideas being discussed on how to improve the Program; they applied Commissioner Fisher’s idea of better marketing the program to promote ecotourism; his leadership has been valuable to the community for many years; she was a coach at the YMCA in Titusville when Commissioner Fisher did the work there; and recently was showing his support for Port’s Space endeavor.  She stated today they want to offer some ways they have come up with that would fit the program goals and bring jobs to Brevard County; she spoke with EDC and TDC; she does not know if anyone came from there; but they were invited to come to the meeting.  She stated they are interested in seeing how tourism can be improved; this will be further discussed by another speaker, but she just wanted to introduce the idea that they believe in public access and marketing knowledge that could be improved by giving TDC and EDC a stronger role in the program; right now they are authorized a non-voting seat on the Recreation and Advisory Committee (REAC); they suggest that they be given a voting seat on the Committee, which is in charge of discussing access and recreation choices; and it is a small change but would have a huge impact.  She stated the EEL Program staff, now that a lot of the acquisitions have taken place, could play a wider role in coordinating with EDC and TDC; as for the Selection and Management Committee, this is a scientific committee that manages the land for the protection of the natural resources they were bought for; they believe that an honest mistake was made in the last appointment process to the Selection and Management Committee (SMC), which did not follow the important safeguards built into the program; the manual is clear, to be qualified to the SMC five areas were required; the Board’s appointment did not make the list of qualified candidates, and should not have been considered; and she suggested that the Board take another look at this appointment and consider fixing the appointment that caused the problem.  She stated they look forward to working with the Board to promote access to these great lands and ecotourism, but while protecting the integrity of the citizen-supported program.

 

Ron Taylor stated he would like to read an email he received from an engineer who has worked on EEL’s projects.  “We in the professional community applaud the Commission’s decision and sincerely hope you don’t reverse course for the vocal
opposition.  I have known Sue for many years and worked with both her and her husband on EEL’s issues in the Malabar/Palm Bay area.  In my opinion, she will do a fine job.  I have received several emails supporting the decision.  If you have ever attended an EEL’s Committee meeting when a decision is imminent, you will understand the need for rational direction.  Good Luck, Bill Stevenson, Engineer.”  He stated diversity is more than a concept in biology; and respectful diversity of opinion is pertinent to any well-functioning group.  He noted today there is a severe recession with economic uncertainty from the Space Center to the family business; at the time EEL’s Program was considered, and there were times when there was a growth expansion phase in the economy in Brevard County; his opinion is the endangered species in Brevard County is the American middle class; and although some will argue land is cheap and a great time for EEL’s purchases, most economists believe good economic policy during a recession is for the Government to expend monies that produce jobs for the unemployed.  He stated perhaps the EEL’s Committee can find a way to hire Brevard County citizens similar to what was done during the Great Depression with a civilian conservation corps or give their monies to programs that do promote employment, or do not spend the monies; and further, it is good monetary economics that ways are found to cut taxes and operate Government in the sweet spot where it promotes the public economic growth.  He thanked those Commissioners who fought to reduce the taxes.  He stated Brevard County citizens need to keep that fight alive; more money needs to be put in the pockets of the working people so they can keep their homes and not become the homeless working corps; public policies should be promoted to keep the citizens on the tax rolls, not force them off; and it makes sense to him to put someone like Sue on the EEL’s Committee who understands this.

 

Barbara Jagrowski stated the League of Women Voters of the Space Coast are concerned with the method that was followed for Agenda Item VII.B at the October 20^th County Commission meeting; the Environmental Endangered Land Acquisition Manual, Chapter 2, Page 19 clearly gives the procedure for selecting qualified candidates for the appointment to the EELS Selection and Management Committee; the ballot paper supplied to the Brevard County Commission on the 20^th clearly stated who were and were not qualified candidates; the vote by the County Commission to appoint an unqualified individual was definitely against County Policy and procedure, and has clearly circumvented the will of the people; and inquired if it is legal for the County Commissioners to even make the change without discussion and without public comment.  She stated she has the Brevard County Home Rule Charter; and Page 9, Section 2.10.1 says, “A majority of those present shall be required to adopt, amend, or repeal a resolution or motion under the terms of this provision.”  She advised Land Acquisition Manual was adopted by a resolution of the Brevard County Commissioners; and the League of Women Voters believe in open and accountable Government and trusts that the Board does also.

 

Darlene Hunt stated she has support for the EELS Program; it has been extremely well-managed; the EELS Program is a valuable asset to the citizens now as well as the future

generations; it has been managed, not only the land but the historical and cultural aspects of the land; and she also likes that they involve the community through many volunteer programs.

 

Mary Hillberg stated as a lifelong native, she thinks Brevard County is a great place to live; it is the perfect combination of outer space and open space; now that the manned Space Program may be reduced, making sure Brevard County does not lose any other engines of economic drive for the County is imperative; the four main engines Brevard County has are agriculture, growth, Space, and ecotourism; and the County is not into agriculture as much anymore, growth is a self-limiting one, Space is having a hard time, and ecotourism is going to end up being probably the main engine for a while.  She advised one of the best things to happen to Brevard County is the EEL Program in terms of overall property values and quality of life; and in her opinion, Brevard County citizens wisely recognize anyone can pave, cement, and develop, but no one can duplicate the rich, natural environment that the citizens have at their doorstep.  She noted to increase efficiency and save money, the Program collaborates and partners with other entities, such as Commissioner Anderson would enjoy perhaps seeing the Pine Island Recreation Area, because St. Johns River Water Management District jointly works with them in that; and she does not think he would be attacked by bees or anything.  She stated for the average home with a medium assessed value, the EELS Program costs around $21 a year, that is less than six cents a day, and 40 cents a week; taxpayers now, and in the past as well, want to see a return on their investment; and she thinks they really received quite a return on this investment.  She stated there are 30 miles of marked trails, five canoe launches, two educational centers and another near completion, a wealth of learning and exploration for the school children, and Brevard County families only need to check eelbrevard.com to find out where everything is, how to get to it, and all about it.  She stated the beautiful beaches, famous lagoons, and excellent EELS properties are the return of investment for Brevard County; they are the engines that are going to keep it going during this hard time; the EELS Program is respected by other Florida counties, as well as thousands of tourist who come here to find a place that they may safely still see the wild things in their natural state; the EELS Program is clearly Brevard County’s best idea; and this is the goose that will lay the golden eggs of support for Brevard County’s economic future.  She stated in her opinion Commissioner Fisher’s desire to encourage more collaboration between the EELS Program, tourist, and economic interests in the County is certainly appropriate; his move and the Board’s unanimous vote to have the EELS procedures reviewed for possible improvement in that respect is an excellent one, and supports the health of the Program and the County as well; she respectfully requests that the Board ask staff to thoroughly research this current appointment issue regarding the selection procedure outlined in the Land Acquisition Manual; and perhaps, with that complete evaluation, the Board may wish again to address this issue.

 

John White stated he is one of the many people who voted for EELS; he thinks it is one of the smartest things that the County ever did; and he would like to see its continued success.  He stated he believes as he reads the EELS manual that Sue Hann’s qualifications are quite consistent with the criteria set forth; she is very supportive of the fundamental objectives of EEL to protect the land, to protect endangered species, and also benefits the people; and he applauds the selection.  He stated he thinks the Board got it right when it voted 3:2 for Sue; he thought it was an excellent choice; he has known it for many years; he would like to see the Board make it a 5:0 vote; and make EEL work for the environment and make EEL work for the people.

 

Clyde Thodey stated he has been a Brevard County resident for over 42 years; he has been very active in the community; he thinks that Sue Hann, who was chosen by three Commissioners, should have been chosen by five people and not three; Sue Hann is a well-qualified person for this position; and Sue brings a breath of fresh air, a new set of eyes, and has business behind her.  He noted as a private businessman as he has been for over 40 years, he will tell the Board that, that really turns him on in regards to having someone on the EELS Committee who understands business; and that is what this is about.  He advised he supports the EELS Program but he does not support the way the County has purchased lands in the past; and if there would have been a business person on the Committee, there may have been some different changes.  He stated he applauded the Board’s vote, and hopes it continues with Sue Hann as the member.  He stated he hopes the Board will do a 5:0 vote for her; he does not know why it is even being reconsidered, because basically it was a done-deal when three Commissioners voted on it; and he understands people did not have the opportunity to speak, but they are speaking today.

 

Catherine Stanton stated she is speaking today for Sherry Clarke who unfortunately was stricken with the flu and was unable to be here.  She stated she is going to tell the Board about the EELS Program Environmental Education Initiative; she provided each of the Board Members with a binder that contains brochures, maps, and examples of educational curricula used by the EEL Program; the first page is a summary of environmental education activities provided by the EEL Program over the past couple of years; and the figure which she quotes in this speech are drawn from this summary.  She stated the second guiding directive of the EEL Program is to provide environmental education opportunities; the primary goals of the education program are to increase the public’s awareness of Brevard’s natural resources, promote the knowledge and use of conservation practices, encourage public use of EEL Program sanctuary, and provide educational programs and resources; the EEL Program accomplishes these goals primarily at the two management and education centers located at the Enchanted Forest Sanctuary in Titusville and the Barrier Island Center in Melbourne Beach; the Enchanted Forest Sanctuary opened in November 2002 and has hosted more than 140,000 visitors, while the Barrier Island Educational Center, which opened in May 2008, has had more than 39,800 visitors; and during the past two school years, more than 6,170 students have participated in study trips at these two education center.  She stated EEL Program sanctuaries also provide in excess of 1,000 serving learning hours each year to both
high school and college students; the EEL Program hosts over 500 environmental education programs every year, including school study trips, children’s programs, adult education programs, guided hikes, teacher in service training days, and similar activities; but the education does not stop there; graduate students seeking advanced degrees use EEL Program sanctuaries as research sites; examples include an ongoing University of Florida study of a parasitic fly used to control the exotic Bromeliad Weevil, a University of Central Florida scrub habitat restoration project, and a Florida State University study of the endangered Golden Mouse; locally BCC and FIT students routinely use EEL properties as part of their biology courses; and other examples of advanced degree research projects are listed in the binders.  She noted the EEL Program sanctuaries also offer study sites for a variety of conservation and protection agencies; the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Indian River Lagoon Aquatic Preserve Office uses EEL properties for mangrove study, while the USDA Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) Program sets and monitors insect traps on EEL sites; St. Johns River Water Management District monitors water quality from EEL properties; and several NASA-affiliated researchers perform plant and animal surveys, many of which target endangered or rare species.  She advised the EEL Program partners with several other science-based agencies in the performance of habitat and species research, including the Brevard Zoo, U. S. Air Force, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the EEL lands are used for adult and environmental education as well; the Florida Native Plant Society, Florida Trails Association, Sierra Club, Keep Brevard Beautiful, and many other civic organizations use EEL Program properties for guided hikes and workshops; as the Board can see, the EEL Program sanctuaries are used in a variety of ways for environmental education; and the examples she has outlined are only a small sample of what is going on out there.  She stated it is important that this Board realizes that the reach of the EEL Programs Environmental Education Initiative does not terminate at EEL sanctuary borders, nor does it end at the Brevard County line; not even Florida’s State line define the reach of this program for many, many out-of-state and international visitors have taken what they have learned at an EEL sanctuary home with them; and considering this, it is apparent that the only real limits to the EEL Program’s educational outreach are the ones imposed upon it by this Board.  She urged the Board to visit an EEL Program sanctuary and experience first-hand the real value of conservation lands.

 

Suzanne Meyer, President of Sea Rocket Chapter of Florida Native Plant Society, stated she represents at least 55 members in North and Central Brevard County; she worked very hard for the original Referendum in 1990; and never thought this amazing program would be in danger.  She stated it is hard for her to understand why Ms. Hann would be chosen for a Selection and Management Member instead one of the many other qualified individuals; the County’s voters agreed to only appoint scientific members for these positions to ensure a quality program; this is worked exceptionally well; and she would like to ask the Board to continue to follow the policies and procedures as has been done in the past.  She stated her organization’s mission statement reads, “The Florida Native Plant Society was organized in 1980 to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plants communities of
Florida, primarily through education.  The EEL Program has helped in our mission to do just that.  Many of us visit the EEL sites frequently, and hopefully will continue to use these lands as part of our educational program.  There are very few places one can go to actually see our native plants in their natural areas.  There is plenty of access to these properties for passive recreation, which is the reason these lands were purchased.  Ecotourism has also benefited by the use of EEL properties.  I don’t have any figures,
but I know that hundreds if not thousands have visited the Enchanted Forest Sanctuary from all over the country and the world.  I spend quite a bit of time there myself on volunteer basis, and have spoken with so many people who say they wish their home areas had such a great program for conservation.  Please continue to support the EEL Program, along with so many of our citizens.  We are counting on you to do the right thing.  Thank you for your consideration.”        

 

Bill Whitehead, President of Space Coast Progressive Alliance, stated SCPA is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization centered in Brevard County; their major purpose is to increase public awareness and build support for issues that serve the public interest; and certainly the EEL Program is in the public interest.  He stated in 2004 70 percent of Brevard County voters supported the science-based EEL Program; they were convinced in part due to the scientific integrity of the EELS Program, which protects the public’s investment in conservation; the EEL Program also protects the endangered natural Florida habitat and species for future generations; and without such protection, Brevard County will have much less appeal to visitors, existing and new residents.  He advised EEL-managed sanctuaries are unique and provide passive recreation opportunities, such as hiking, canoeing, biking, nature photography, and bird watching; and the EEL Program currently does promote ecotourism in Brevard County, which boosts the economy and alleviates some of the taxpayer burdens.  He stated the non-political, science-based land selection and management criteria and process, which has been instituted by the EEL Program, has been essential in establishing and maintaining taxpayer support for the past 19 years; and Space Coast Progressive Alliance, and the great majority of Brevard County voters, support the scientific integrity of the EEL Program implemented with proven procedures, and also the ongoing efforts to promote ecotourism and EEL-managed sanctuaries.  

 

James Durocher, co-owner of Space Coast Kayaking, stated they offer guided kayak nature tours at four different EELS properties in Brevard, and provide that for residents and tourists alike; people get educated, are entertained, and learn a new skill when they come out with them; since many tourists return year-after-year to do the trips, they help put heads in beds; and that is one of the things that needs to be talked more about.  He advised the hoteliers and resorts love them; they send their people to them; and they like to have something else for them to do so they stay an extra day.  He stated Brevard County is blessed with wealth in the form of a healthy eco-system; with care and protection, this will be self-sustaining; from the St. Johns River and Floodplain, to the Indian River, Banana River, and Mosquito Lagoon, people have more opportunities here than almost anywhere in the United States; Brevard County residents love the rivers, creeks, estuaries, beaches, ocean, and all the recreation associated with those;
ecosystems create the possibility for ecotourism; and ecosystems create the possibility for nature-based tourism, which is another name for it.  He stated nature-based tourism creates job.  He stated in 2007 and 2008 the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program finally purchased the Thousand Islands of Cocoa Beach; many people struggled for more than a decade to protect this natural floodtide delta, which is part of the nursery ground of the Indian River Lagoon; and no little fish, no crabs, no big fish.  He advised currently there are five kayak-guiding companies, two nature boat tour companies, and several fishing-guide companies operating out of this area, in and around the Thousand Islands of Cocoa Beach; and think of the economic benefit of these businesses to the local fish and tackle shops, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, marine stores, gas stations, the City of Cocoa Beach, insurance companies, banks, and everyone benefits from the ecotourism.  He inquired how can Brevard County be enhanced as a destination for tourism and for companies relocating here; stated they had a meeting on October 28^th with Commissioner Fisher, and Commissioner Fisher had some great ideas on that point; the suggestion was getting a seat on the REAC Committee for the EDC and TDC; that is a perfect place for them to have a voting position; the Recreation and Education Advisory Committee are non-scientists who recommend education and recreational activities to the EELS group; as a REAC appointment of Chairman Nelson, he will suggest and support this at the next meeting; and as someone who has biked, hiked, and kayaked most of the EEL properties, he would like to address the public access issue.  He noted whoever does say that the EEL properties are not accessible is using misinformation; there are 28 properties owned by EELS in Brevard County; some of the properties are new purchases so they are still pending opening; some of the properties are very small so they are not really usable for any real good purpose; but most of these properties are open and accessible right now.  He advised of the 28 properties 23 of them will be available for hiking, 12 for biking, nine for horseback riding, 10 for canoeing and kayaking, and 10 for fishing; that spells accessibility; and there may be other passive opportunities in the future that can be explored.  He stated EELS properties were not intended to be County parks; they will not have baseball fields and soccer fields and stuff like that; he thinks the EEL Mission Statement is like the prime directive of his favorite TV show Star Trek; and he would like to read that to the Board.  “The Mission Statement for the EELS is protecting and preserving biological diversity through responsible stewardship of Brevard County’s natural resources, and the guiding directives for that statement are conserving and managing natural resources, providing opportunities for environmental education, and providing opportunities for passive recreation.”  He stated in closing he would like to extend an invitation to each Commissioner and staff to come out with him and explore one of the EELS properties by kayak; it is a great way to see some of them; but there are a lot of the properties he could get to and show them.

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired if out of 28 properties 23 are available for hiking; with Mr. Durocher responding a couple of them are still pending opening.  Commissioner Bolin inquired if there are 12 available for biking; with Mr. Derocher responding affirmatively.  Commissioner Bolin inquired if there are 10 EELS properties for fishing, 10 for kayaking, and nine for horseback riding; with Mr. Derocher responding affirmatively.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the level of accessibility is his issue; he has small children who went to Malabar Scrub; he is not against EELS; but he cannot take his small children or his elderly father so the properties are not accessible in their current state.  He stated he wants it accessible for everyone as much as possible, and that is not always the case.  He stated the Board needs to define what accessible means; and he does not think it has been defined correctly under the Program.  Mr. Durocher stated where they put in the fire breaks there is soft sugar sand, which is hard to walk on, it is like walking on the beach; the fire breaks are very important because it protects the properties from fire danger; and it is hard to get away from some of that.  Commissioner Anderson inquired how many of these properties are ADA accessible.

 

Doug Sphar stated he is here to help dispel an urban myth; that myth, most recently propagated by Florida TODAY Reporter Matt Reed is that there is little or no public access to EEL properties; Mr. Reed kind of said that EELS buys the property and throws away the key; and as a member of the EEL Recreation and Education Committee, he knows there is great public access as summarized in the handout.  He stated at their recent REAC meeting they approved the Pubic Access Plan for the Indian mound property; Mr. Reed claims to be an investigative reporter, but he did not dig very deep on this one; with a few mouse clicks in his office he could have gone to the EEL website and noticed all the great recreational opportunities that are summarized on the handout; Mr. Reed mentioned hiking, canoeing, and bird watching and implied that these are not available on EEL properties; but if a person looks at the handout and there are all those and more.  He advised in recent weeks his family has canoed the Thousand Islands, Ulumay Sanctuary, Crane Creek, and hiked the Enchanted Forest; this week they attended the festival at the Enchanted Forest; the Enchanted Forest is a favorite of their granddaughters; and he would like Commissioner Anderson to go there, because they do have trails, they have a two and a four-year old and they have no trouble with those trails.  He stated last week they took a family visiting from Michigan to the Barrier Island Center; and they enjoyed that immensely.  He noted he supports Commissioner Fisher’s idea that the TDC have a voting seat on the REAC; and he also supports Commissioner Fisher’s idea that there probably needs to be better EELS staff liaison to both the TDC and the EDC.  He stated in the past REAC has supported a TDC suggestion for a trail from Mims/I-95 rest stop into Lake Scrub Sanctuary, and possibly if they had some representation they could find more opportunities such as that.  He advised the EEL properties are great birding destinations; birders from all over the world come to Ulumay hoping for a glimpse of the reclusive Black Rail; and he goes there frequently for bird photography and he has talked to people from places like Germany who were looking for the Black Rail.   He noted EEL properties are featured in the Space Coast Adventure Guide, which Mr. Durocher just distributed to the Board.  He stated in the past he has been on the Festival Steering Committee, and from time-to-time he has been a fill-in guide, so he has seen how EEL properties play into the ecotourism economy.  He stated the EEL Program follows the model of the Florida Conservation Land Act of 1972, which is manifested in Florida Statute 259; this act says, “The Florida Environmentally Endangered Land Program is designed for the conservation and protection of environmentally unique and irreplaceable lands as value ecological resources of the
State.”  He stated the legislative intent for the Conservation Land Act goes on to say,
“These environmental preserves are to managed with maximum attention to fostering and maintaining natural conditions in the processes.”  He stated the act also says, “There should be public access consistent with the reef source.”  He stated the Brevard County EEL Program should strive for no less than what the State does for its endangered land properties; these natural conditions are what attracts ecotourism and are why they need the knowledge of scientists to maintain the vitality of the EELS properties. 

 

Jim Egan, Executive Director of Marine Resources Council, stated they have been around for 26 years; they are a private 501C3 non-profit corporation; they employ 12 people and have some 800 volunteers; and they bring always over one-half a million dollars, sometimes several million dollars into local economy.  He advised their headquarters are Palm Bay; they have had the fortune to work with Sue Hann very closely, especially when they established their headquarters there at the Lagoon House; they think very, very highly of her; and he can see why the Board considered her in terms of this appointment.  He stated one issue that they do have some concern with is there are three committees in the EELS Program; the REAC Committee and Procedures Committee are very balanced; but the Selection and Management Committee, that Committee is very specifically set for the scientists; and selecting Sue for that Committee looks like it creates some technical problems with the procedures.  He mentioned the Board may consider a motion that Commissioner Fisher had proposed at the time, which was to ask the Procedural Committee to relook at their criteria, perhaps create like a niche for someone like Sue Hann, for instance, she may serve in an advisory capacity until a niche could be made specifically for her.  He stated since access is such an important thing, the Board may consider if there is a place for Sue on the REAC or Procedural Committee; he would definitely recommend her to one of the committees; there is interest in having someone like Sue on the committees; there are two very balanced committees that already have places for someone like sue; and he would suggest the Board take a look at that.  He stated why this one committee is so science-based is because it is a real pain in the butt really do this job properly; he went through the Acquisition Manual, and there is actually over 25 steps before it appears before the Board to be voted on; there are things like identifying acquisition priorities, preliminary resource assessment, preliminary resource review, planning assessment, onsite visits, creation of a resource planning assessment report, and identifying acquisition partners; it is very complex, and having those scientists there, there is a reason for it; as the Board looks at these appointments, he recommends the Board keeps the scientist representation very strong there, because it is a very technical decision making process; and if the Board thinks of, for instance, a hospital, where there are businessmen who are helping to run the hospital, but when there is a surgical team, they all need to be doctors.  He stated to them the Selection and Management Committee is kind of the surgical team; they need to have the best possible experts specifically with scientific background; there needs to be diversity; there need to be scientists who have a broad background; and to a large extent, the Selection and Management Committee was referred to as the dream team when they were first created, because there was such a spectacular group
of people.  He noted the Marine Resources Council gets involved in land acquisition, they also do land management; and up to now they have been very pleased with the operations that have been going on with the EELS Program.  He requested that the Board keep the science, keep the surgical team with a really good background; the Board does not want a lawyer doing an operation on it; and it does not want a really good business person doing the science.

 

Maureen Rupe, President for the Partnership for a Sustainable Future, a coalition of 17 environmental and community-based groups in Brevard County, thanked Chairman Nelson, Commission Fisher, and Commissioner Bolin for wanting, at the 20^th meeting, to revisit this to take it back to the Procedures Committee; also, Commissioner Fisher, they all agree that the concept of someone from the EDC and TDC giving input to the EELS Selection and Management Committee; and in fact, both the EDC and TDC are mentioned in the EEL Manual concerning the Recreational and Educational Advisory Committee.  She stated she remembers the 1990 EEL Referendum; people had a great distrust with the Beach and Riverfront Acquisitions that was known to favor developers; in fact, some of the highest prices ever paid was with this program; the EEL Referendum of 1990 was passed with assurances to the public that the EEL Program would be non-political; and there are many examples in Florida TODAY of this at the time.  She advised on August 22, 1990, the Florida TODAY stated, “If Brevard County voters pass the Endangered Lands Acquisition Referendum September 4^th, they can count on expert ecologists to review potential purchases, which was put forth with the SMC; and the public can rest assured that this Committee will do what needs to be done to protect these lands.  Some residents, a lot of residents, in fact, complained that the Committee would be loaded with Commissioners friends who would recommend buying other developers properties.”  She advised on the Sunday, August 26, 1990 advertising supplement it said, “Citizens will get what we are paying for, and politicians and developers will be kept out of the process.  Our lands meeting strict environmental criteria will be selected.”  She stated the 2004 Referendum gave the same assurances; on Comprehensive Plan Policy 9.5 states, “Development of Brevard County-owned conservation areas shall be in accordance with the intent of the original acquisition.”  She stated Commissioner Anderson stated at the October 20^th meeting that EEL passed with a 20 percent turnout, actually it was in 1990 in the primary, and it was 37 percent voter turnout; but as testament to the success of the EEL Program, the 2004 Referendum passed during a general election with 70 percent of the vote, with a 78.64 voter turnout, one of the highest Brevard County has ever had; and 170,000 people voted for EELS.  She stated the policies and procedures, in her opinion, were not followed on October 20^th; the County Charter, which take precedence over all of the County laws, states, “A majority of the total number of the County Commissioner shall constitute a quorum and the concurrence of the County Commission shall be required to adopt, amend, or appeal a resolution or motion previously taken by the Brevard County Commission.”  She noted she has been on two Charter Review Committees, and she knows the very intent of this amendment; and it is spelled out in plain and simple words.  She stated if the County Attorney can prove that what was done was within its rights as local government, she is scared to death; if the Board can just sit up there and disregard
policy and procedure, that means there are no rules within the County on which the people can depend on, respect, and follow themselves; the Commission changed the policy and procedure without voting, discussion, or public input; it is of great concern that they are on the path to remove public input and standardized procedures for public rule; and she requested that the Board follows its own policies and procedures.

 

Sean Phelan, President of Space Coast Paddlers, stated he has been so far pretty pleased with what he has heard from most of the people; this has been a strange year for a lot of people; the discussion of where they are going as a country and a County, has gotten a little bit partisan and gotten ugly, and today it has not; and that is mostly why he has been pleased with what he has heard so far.  He stated he is not going to get into a whole lot of expertise, because there are people here who have done that very well.  He stated as the President of Space Coast Paddlers, they are 100 strong, and almost everyone in there is in favor of more green space to use; the kind of members are kayakers, hikers, birdwatchers, and such; these are people who go to work, get off while the sun is still shining, and then they go out and enjoy what they have; and these are the people who Brevard County is based upon.  He stated one thing he sees is people tend to see EELS and buying land to keep it for later as an expense more than an investment, but it is definitely an investment; it is an investment in tourism and local businesses; and there are at least six businesses in Brevard County that are directly related to the kayaking business.  He recommended to people who are buying a piece of land to keep it for later, it is an investment, and he or she should think of it as an investment.  He stated as soon as the land is left alone, the water is being cleaned, the air, it preserves genetic diversity, and it is a benefit for a person who does not know how he or she will use the land yet.  He stated they have found funguses in old grove forests in the Pacific northwest that can digest raw petroleum spilled, and they are using that now to clean up tanker spills; if those had all been cut down for lumber they would never have had that; most of the medications come from either plant or animal life; most of them were discovered by accident; and no one knows when the next one will be discovered.  He stated there is real value in keeping genetic diversity around.  He noted the core of this is they are trying to balance living space versus lifestyle space; there are more than enough buildings right now, most of them are empty; they will be filled again; but once those are filled again, there still needs to be a place for people to have their lifestyle.  He stated his wife and he were a three-business household, and all three of them have been tanking for quite a while; they understand what pain is; they also understand what faith is; they will get through it; the County will get through it; and he watches other businesses that are screwing it up by cutting their marketing, not talking to channel partners, there are restaurants that do not serve breakfast anymore because people are not coming in, restaurants that will not deliver because they think it is too expensive, and those companies are going to suffer.  He stated people should not stop investing in the future and should not panic; and if it was a good idea when times were good, it is still a good idea when times get tough.  He advised at $21 a head per person for EELS, that is a 12-pack and one-half; and he is willing to do with two fewer 12-packs if he has a place to enjoy it because he drinks the ones he still has.

 

Paden Myjak stated he wanted to tell everyone that he does not want any of the EELS Programs to go, because he has been having so much fun at the Enchanted Forest picking up all the Air Potatoes and Ear Pods that are invasive at the EELS Program; he would not want the EELS Program to leave so his kids can go there; and it is a very beautiful place.

 

Michael Myjak stated he was one of the original board members of Preserve Brevard; he was not here during the time when the original referendum passed; but his interest in the EELS Program was purely the fact that it was a science-based program.  He stated he has been a volunteer at the Enchanted Forest for many, many years; he is disabled, and he can well understand the issue of access into these lands; and he is paralyzed partially in both legs, he has an instability problem.  He stated he has heard said that all things are artificial, God is the only one who made the art; the art is not ADA compliant; there is front country that people know as Parks and Recreation where people can play ball or run on the grass; and these lands are back country.  He stated as a Scout leader; he actively engaged the Scouts to participate in these environmental programs, Air Potatoes and Tree Ears being some of them; his son earned a National World Conservation Badge by participating at the South Lake Conservation Area when it was first purchased; and they also had the opportunity of taking a five-mile hike with the SMC when they were evaluating the Mims purchase.  He stated this is something that should be preserved for the future.  He stated what makes the EELS Program unique is that it is science-based; there is only one committee that is truly science-based in this whole entire process; as a research scientist, retired now, he can tell the Board the value of science; and he has participated as a modeling and simulation expert on several committees with the St. Johns River Water Management District.  He noted the fact that there is such a small amount of land preserved under EELS is actually more shocking than anything else; there is a lot of land out there that is not preserved that will not factor into taking up the load that we as human beings leave here; there needs to be a responsible way to manage this; and the only responsible way to do that is truly with a scientific vent.  He advised the Land Management Manual is clear as to what those requirements are, what kind of background is needed; and if that is not accessible to the particular person who is appointed, but he is disappointed if that person who does not meet any of those criteria.  He stated Mark Twain said, “Buy land, they’re not making any more of it.”  He advised that is true, particularly with the EELS Program, because once this land is disturbed, it is gone forever and it cannot be put back; and mankind has never been able to restore a forest or an ecosystem.

 

Mary Sphar stated she agrees with the other speakers on the value of ecotourism and the need to encourage that; she agrees with Jim Egan on the need to have scientists on the Selection and Management Committee; and he talked about diverse backgrounds of the scientists, and there are on the SMC who own their own businesses.  She stated the Board knows there are requirements in the Land Acquisition Manual for the Selection and Management Committee Members; inquired where did these requirements come from; stated she wanted to find the oldest documentation of the SMC requirements, so she put in a public records request; and it turns out that in February 1990, months before
the Referendum, the Procedures Committee, which was already established, talked about the need to get the qualifications written.  She advised the first list of the Selection and Management Committee qualifications, which is almost identical to what there is today, was in the April 1990 draft of the Land Acquisition Manual; three months before the manual was adopted and five months before the Referendum; inquired why was it so important to get the qualifications written; and why was it so important to get the SMC Members chosen.  She advised Commissioner Roger Dobson said in the minutes of July 24, 1990, “If the list of candidates, the Selection Committee candidates, can be submitted for the August 7, 1990 meeting, as his office is getting anonymous calls from people who are obviously trying to torpedo this issue saying that it’s just a ruse to buy land from whoever.  He stated that he is impressed by the way the Committee has taken it out of the political arena, and it would help the Committee’s cause if those identified people could be appointed at the first meeting in August.”  She stated the Selection Committee Members were actually chosen on August 21, 1990, before the Referendum; the EEL Program was sold to the voters in 1990 as a science-based program shielded from politics; and she knows this because she has been looking at the old articles.  She stated there was an interview with Ken Friedland, the head of the Procedures Committee, said, “One of the specific points I wanted to mention, which is a key point, is that there will be a Land Selection Committee appointed by the County Commission.  The Selection Committee is to be comprised of experts in the field’s ecology and biological sciences, people who have shown a dedication to conservation.  The County Commission has adopted this manual as a procedure to be followed.  It is a blueprint for the program.  It allows the program to be handled in a non-political, objective way.”  She stated there was an editorial from the newspaper dated September 3, 1990, a day before the election, which says, “The people who will comprise the Selection Committee were appointed prior to the Referendum specifically so the public could have confidence in the integrity of this program.”  She stated she has a guest column dated August 23, 1990 written by Sue Carlson who was the Chairwoman of Preservation Brevard, which said, “The Selection Committee is made of seven environmental experts and will serve on a voluntary basis for a term of two years.  Each member must have an academic graduate degree or demonstrated expertise in biological or environmental sciences, or a closely related field.  They must have familiarity with Brevard County ecosystems and demonstrated concern for and actively participated in environmental conservation.”  She inquired what the legal mechanisms are for keeping the EEL Program non-political and science-based; and stated it is mentioned in the Comprehensive Plan, Conservation Element Policy 9.4.  She stated in Charter Section 2.10.1, which was referenced by Barbara Jagrowski and Maureen Rupe that pertains to the Board may take official action only by the adoption ordinances, resolutions, or motion; the majority of those present shall be required to adopt, amend, or repeal a resolution or motion under the terms of that provision; but beyond the legal mechanisms that have been in place since 1990, the County Commissions have honored the original intent of the Referendum.  She stated it is now up to the Board; she believes an honest mistake was made on October 20^th due to a misunderstanding of the rules; the Board knows the way the selection process is supposed to work; and requested the Board honor the intent of the voters.

 

Bob Wille stated he was surprised this was even taking place; he has known Sue Hann for over 20 years; she is an outstanding individual; and he thinks the Board made the right selection in choosing her.  He stated he was part of that 1990 Referendum language discussion; in that Referendum, which trumps everything, the manual, the Board, everything, the statement the people voted on was making improvements was appropriate for passive recreation; inquired what does that mean; stated the people have to rely on the Board as the policy makers to determine accessibility; and that is maybe the balance issue of what is really going on here.  He noted there are a lot of labels being thrown around, who is green and who is not; he thinks everyone is in favor of clean water, air, and providing for green space; and it is a matter of some people’s perception of degree or what is appropriate.  He stated in the discussions in 1990 when they were very much a part of creating the language for this ballot and that access to passive recreation was critical; there be no EELS if that language was not put into the ballot; and it was not just a pure land acquisition to be fenced off and for perpetuity left out there.  He advised passive recreation should be a part of the EELS Program; there has been a lot of reference that is out there; a manual can be changed; but in watching this program over the years, is the EELS process is due for a change in the balance of it.  He stated his recollection is there was not a real big advocacy by the EELS Program to open up those properties for ecotourism; and in the ten years since that, he has not seen a whole lot of accessibility.  He stated there are degrees of accessibility; inquired is there room for parking and is it sugar sand a person has to walk through; those are the issues for this Board to acknowledge that maybe more balance is needed on the EELS Program; and the decision to include Sue Hann as a member of the EELS Committee is an outstanding one.

 

Beverly Pinyerd, Member of EELS Recreation and Education Committee as Commissioner Bolin’s appointee, stated the purpose of REAC is to provide citizen input on decisions regarding recreation and education facilities that would not harm the wildlife or the habitat they depend on; passive recreation is the recommended use, such as hiking and bird watching; educating the public through displays, kiosks, and signage is also a function of the EELS Program; there are certain people who serve on the REAC who are always pushing for hardened bike paths in and through the EELS properties; and they even suggested it may be nice to bike through shaded areas instead of open scrub.  She stated if it is too hot do not go; they have an agenda that would make EELS properties be parks and recreation; one time they called it recreation land; and she told them it is EELS property.  She stated Murray Hann is the Chair of the REAC Committee; Barbara Meyer is on the REAC Committee; she is one who pushes for bike paths; they talk about how a person cannot bike through sugar sand as a person can barely walk; but that is what God put there.  She stated even Disney and traveling carnivals have signs saying a person must be this tall to ride on that ride; and they restrict usage as well.  She stated she was doing ecotourism 30 years ago; she does not need everything to be a cement walkway or elevated boardwalk; the land has to have ecological value; she is not a scientist, that is why she was not put on that Committee; but a person has to have confidence in the integrity of the Selection Committee, because they have to buy land that has environmental value.  She advised she served on another committee
where The Viera Company wanted to move the Burrowing Owls who like high, dry land, because they burrow in the ground, but it was more valuable to them in developing their properties to move these owls onto a flood plain.  She requested that the Board rescind or revisit its vote and keep all scientists on the Selection Committee; and stated there is an agenda at work to take over these EELS properties and make them into parks and recreation. 

 

Matt Nye stated in the absence of people, the environment is neither good nor bad it just is; nature is the given, and only people making value judgments as to how he or she wants to assign a value to something constitutes this debate currently going on; that naturally rolls into the discussion of private property versus public ownership of property; the EELS Program is obviously a program like all government programs to take money from some people and spend it on things that they otherwise would not have spent on had they had been free to keep their money; and at its most basic level, some people think this is a value, the voters voted on that long before he arrived in the County, and they are going to move forward with that.  He stated as with all government programs, because it is not the governments money, there is a tendency not to be very careful with how it is spent; he does not question the wisdom of the voters in regards to the EELS Program, but he does question the wisdom of the management in the purchase decisions that have been made by some of the current members of the Board; and to spend $25 million in 2007 on a property that was purchased by the owner at the peak of the housing bubble in 2005 for $15 million is a waste of taxpayer money.  He stated the Board was told it has to be done right now; if that purchase had been put off, this land could have been bought at half of the value or perhaps less; he is glad that someone has been selected for this committee to look at basic business common sense type decision; and he supports the Board’s decision.

 

Frank Platta stated he can see the confusion that has been going on regarding this issue; EELS should not even be a subject; it is a great program; and people know it is going in the right direction.  He stated he is surprised to see that many people do not know Sue at all; from day one, she was a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and she meets the minimum criteria for the Program, which is a science degree; and the next step would be to narrow down the Program procedures.  He stated there is no question that Sue meets all of those criteria; and she has the experience, transparency, and the background that she will bring from other areas that are not truly narrowed down into the science definition.  He stated a lot of people want to protect wetlands but have no background whatsoever in water resources and watersheds; people are needed to understand how these parcels interact with the larger picture; and he believes Sue, with her background, is one person who can bring some transparency to this sector of the EELS. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated one of the things that keeps coming up is the minimum criteria did not qualify by the EELS staff when it came to Sue Hann; two of the criteria he knew for sure she had was a familiarity with diversity and being familiar with State land
purchases; but for some reason EELS staff left that off.  He advised that was his point of contention.  He stated he will stick by Sue Hann because he personally knows her; she has no political, philosophical beliefs; many times when he was on Palm Bay City Council they go into debates where she felt like there were areas that needed stricter preservation when it came to places in Palm Bay; and from his standpoint, that is who he selected because he knows she is non-political.  He stated if the two areas are added in that were left off by EELS staff she would have met the minimum requirements.  He stated the voting seat on the REAC Committee he agrees with.  He stated the only other thing is to go back and interview them in front of the Board; but based on personal knowledge, and knowing she is a non-political person who cares deeply about the environment in Brevard County, he does not intend to change his motion.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she agrees with the idea of possibly looking at all of the candidates again, because it seems like the Board is torn whether or not the qualifications were or were not on the sheet; and that might be a possibility.  She stated she would like to have the Board formalize that the EDC and TDC be put on the REAC as a voting member. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she believes more appointments will be coming up next year; she does not think now is the time to revisit this; she does not think there are huge sums of money left for the County to purchase more property; and the County has jumped into an awful lot of purchases.  She stated this last Referendum in 2004, yet the County did not buy any land in 2004 or 2005, but it waited until many developers needed to sell land and it blew $50 million in the last two years, $25 million was spent on one piece of property for 4,500 acres, 200 of which were cow pasture.  She stated going forward, maybe if there had been someone like Sue Hann on the SMC, she would have helped EELS prioritize, so instead of getting $25 million cow pasture, which could have easily been picked up for $15 million, there would be $10 million to spend on land that was so incredibly important sensitive that had a lot of things on it that the County really wanted.  She advised she performed numerous audits of the EELS property; frequently, when they were listing properties that were environmentally sensitive that were ranked either A or B category, they were not, they were actually category C; she did a lot of research with the FNAI to look up all of the flowers and plants that were found on there, a lot of them are not on the endangered list at all; when looking at the EELS Policy Manual, one of the things it says is before land is purchased that all the natural attributes should be looked at; and then they look over the County and State and find out how much of that land is already protected.  She advised the County has never done that.  She stated at least eight audits where staff would not file the information required for an Agenda package; each Agenda package is supposed to list the cost it would require to maintain that property or bring it up to the standards with which it would like to have it, meaning getting rid of all of the exotics; she wrote that up audit after audit; finally the eighth audit was Veronica Estates; that was a piece of property where EELS bought spotty parcels not even with any connectivity to one another; and the County paid big time dollars for it.  She stated Sue Hann is going to bring to the SMC to look at all its priorities, so that when it spends the last $5 or $10 million, it is on the piece of property
that is the most uniquely valuable.  She stated one of the pieces of properties the County recently purchased was Boyd and DiChristopher; there were 356 acres; the County was going to pay $10,000 an acre, but finally it went down to $6,500 an acre; and she would like to stick with Sue Hann and the new appointees can be put on the Board next year.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated what needs to be discussed is whether or not the Board had kept the true intent of the EELS Program; there was a committee that was specifically identified to be totally made up of by scientific people.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated that goes back to his original point, had those two criteria been selected for Mrs. Hann, she would have met the minimum requirements.  He stated access is very big to him; he understands there are certain areas on EELS properties that need to be protected; however, someone made a comment earlier that if a person wants access and pavement to go to Disney; but anyone who is paying property taxes and paying for EELS property, they have not only the right to demand access they have an absolute right to be on that property.  He stated some places are more accessible than others; Malabar Scrub has a lot to be desired; every entrance he went to, the trails were in horrible condition; and that needs to be fixed.  He stated if people can see what is out there, he or she will continue to support it; but until it is made accessible, that will not happen.  He stated he had as many calls as speakers today that were the opposite of what was said today.  He stated as he understands the point of order, he would have to reconsider his motion.

 

County Attorney Scott Knox advised it would be a motion to rescind the previous action taken at this point.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated what he understands from State Statutes, and she has already been appointed to a board, there has to be some reason to remove her from the Board as she would have to commit misfeasance or malfeasance; and she has done neither as she has not attended a meeting yet.  He stated she has brought a positive aspect to this board, and he will not re-entertain his motion at this time.

 

Chairman Nelson stated it goes back to 1990; the shambles that started out being the Beach and Riverfront Program started out as a noble program and ended up as an absolute disaster; that is why it ended up with three pieces of this operation, the Procedures Committee, Selection and Management Committee, and REAC; and each one had its specific purpose.  He stated it was never meant to just be things on the endangered list, it was about the environment and protecting the environment; and that can be just good habitat as it exists today and not necessarily endangered, what was endangering it was the development that was occurring.  He stated it was the Procedures Committee’s job to select those sites, it was the REAC’s job to recommend recreation uses, with the SMC saying that is consistent with how it should be managed.  He stated he did not vote for Sue because he thought there was someone better qualified.  He inquired if the Board would be willing to appoint the existing committee to an additional two-year term and move on with this.  Commissioner Infantini advised no,
that needs to be opened up to everyone.  Chairman Nelson stated these are folks who have been on this Committee for years and years; they have donated their time to the County over a long period of time; and they have done a remarkable job.  He stated the Board will be back at this in about six months fighting again about what that means; he is troubled by a business experience to select an environmental site; he does not know how that fits; if the Board wants to look at the price or business aspect of it that is fine; but he does not see how someone like that can select it, because there is no criteria in here that says that is a consideration.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the issue with Sue is not a big issue, because there is still the rest of the Committee in place; this was a vacancy the Board did not kick someone off and put Sue on there; someone mentioned about advisory capacity-type business person in the future; that is something the Board can look at in the future to avoid these kinds of conflicts; and anyone who knows Sue Hann politics being involved will not be an issue.  He stated Sue is a good selection for this, she meets the minimum criteria, and the Board has it coming back to it; and he would like to look further of having some sort of non-voting advisory capacity on the real estate business side of it.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired if the issue is going to go to the Procedures Committee to address the process; with Commissioner Anderson advising that would be fine.  Chairman Nelson inquired if that was Commissioner Fisher’s motion at the last meeting to send it back to the Procedure Committee for nailing down any of the loopholes.  Commissioner Anderson stated it can be an advisory capacity.  Chairman Nelson stated there was some concern that there were some gaps in how the Board ended up identifying; and he likes having the interview process.  Commissioner Anderson stated had that been in place at this time it may have changed his mind; and he went off personal knowledge and selected the person who he thought was best for the job.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he has some concern that maybe the Board did not follow its own procedure; he is not sure anyone should have been on the list if he or she did not qualify; and that would have eliminated them really quick.  He stated that was a mistake that got presented to the Board.  He stated he was attracted to Sue, and he does not even know Sue, because of the business administration side of her application; he is for diversity on boards; and he told a lot of his EEL friends that was a concern he had.  He stated as this comes up in the next six months, he would hate to see the Selection and Management Committee get broken up; and his fear is that could possibly happen.  He stated the Committee does need to stay scientific based; Sue Hann is one vote out of seven on a committee; he does not think one person is going to change the make up of what lands are selected; but he was hoping one person could give a different perspective on how to get better public access to it.  He stated as he began at this whole issue and what other counties are doing, Volusia County their selection committee is not nearly as tough as Brevard County’s criteria-wise; Volusia County is made up of professional real estate people, planners, engineers, and the whole ball of wax; a lot of these people know Clay Henderson, he is a great guy, and he acquired more land than anyone; and he would not qualify for Brevard County’s Selection and Management Committee.

 

Chairman Nelson stated he had the chance to look at the Volusia County make up; its program is a slight bit different; they do what is called resource-based recreation; and having been in that world, that would be like Wickham Park.  He stated in Brevard County it is broken into two pieces, the referendum for Parks and referendum for endangered lands; it is not an apples to apples comparison; and it was something he found interesting. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated the one thing Volusia County also has is that 10 percent of its funding goes to public access; it promotes, manages, and encourages that; he is worried about this for EELS, because if the 1990 ballot is put on the ballot today, he is not sure it would pass like it did then, because he is not sure the public understands all of the beautiful things that EELS does; and there should be a workshop on EELS so everyone will understand it better.  He stated he is comfortable with Sue Hann, because she adds diversity to the group; but she is also very comfortable that the Committee that it stays scientific-based. 

 

Chairman Nelson inquired when the next appointments to the Selection and Management Committee are coming up; with EEL Manager Mike Knight responding December 2010. 

 

 

The meeting recessed at 3:20 p.m. and reconvened at 3:40 p.m.

 

  

Lori Scott, Supervisor of Elections, stated as the Board knows in 2007 Governor Crist signed a law to make Florida a paper ballot state; this Legislation extended to converting the current ADA voting equipment by 2012, which are the touchscreens being used; the hope was that by 2012 additional ADA voting systems would be developed and certified for use in the State of Florida; and currently there is only one system certified in the State.  She advised the cost to Brevard County to purchase new ADA voting machines that would comply with the 2007 Legislation is approximately $1 million, $35 million Statewide; the Florida State Association of Supervisor of Elections is requesting that the Florida Legislature extend the mandated replacement of these machines to 2016; and she is requesting the Board’s support of this effort through a resolution.  She stated to date 26 Florida counties have passed a resolution supporting the Association’s request to extend the compliance date to 2016 in the hopes of having better technology, the County to be in a better fiscal position to incur the costs associated with the replacement, as well as competitive pricing by having other vendors available.

 

Motion by Commissioner Fisher, seconded by Commissioner Bolin, to adopt Resolution to the Florida Legislature supporting the Florida State Association of Supervisor of Elections’ request to extend the 2012 touchscreen replacement deadline to 2016.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.  

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to grant permission for Fire Rescue to transfer $174,000 to the Parks and Recreation Department for a four-acre site within the Fay Lake Park boundaries for a fire station site needed to service the Golfview Parkway/Port St. John West Connector Road/I-95 area.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired if she has video streaming on her computer can she still do work on her computer; with Jon Sellers, Information Technology Director, advising yes, she can; stated it is done through multiple windows; there will be a window up showing the video stream and another showing the word processing program; and it is not an issue.

 

Chairman Nelson stated Commissioner Fisher has expressed an interest in Option 2; and inquired what would that give the County.  Mr. Sellers responded Option 2 is more expensive but it provides some things; Option 1 gives the County streaming video, record minutes for the Clerk’s Office; videos can be stored on the providers website, which will allow citizens to come and look at the videos whenever he or she wants; Option 2 provides the same thing as Option 1 with the exception that it allows staff to provide unlimited amounts of video; it allows streaming video to employees; and it will allow it to be tracked a little bit better.  Chairman Nelson stated Option 1 is $11,000 and Option 2 is $15,000, so it is about a $5,000 difference between it.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated there are some government agencies that when a person reviews the video, a piece of the Agenda can be clicked and it will hop to that item; and inquired with Option 2 is there unlimited ability to expand from here.  Mr. Sellers responded affirmatively.

 

Motion by Commissioner Fisher, seconded by Commissioner Infantini, to approve Option 2, Advanced Video Streaming Subscription, in the amount of $15,960, for video streaming services; approve the recommended award of Proposal #P-4-09-23 to IQM2; authorize funding; authorize final negotiations to be completed for solution available within funding established by the Board; and authorize the Chairman to execute the Contract.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he asked the County Attorney’s Office to look at this; apparently there are issues in South Brevard County that would be referred to commando towing; there is a lot of State Legislation that dictates what towing companies can and cannot do; and they have very strong lobbying and support.  He stated the one case that came to him was a towing company picked up a very expensive car; the car owner got in his buddy’s car and caught up with the towing company; and requested that the tow truck release his car.  He advised the tow company is supposed to, but this particular company refused to.  He stated this towing company and a similar one on a second complaint would stage at a certain establishment at Southern Brevard County, wait for someone to park in a parking space that they had their signs on, as soon as that person walks into the establishment the car is gone, and the person has to pay the impound fee.  He noted there are some tow operators in South Brevard County that when staff talked with them that thought there should be licensing requirements; he suggested there be a towing task force; the only change he would recommend under the current resolution is that each Commissioner would get an appointee; he would like two people from the industry selected for the committee; and it is important that it be done.

 

Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Infantini, to adopt Resolution establishing a Community Towing Task Force to evaluate current towing practices and procedures, to provide citizen input, and to make recommendations to the Board concerning towing in Brevard County.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

Motion by Commissioner Fisher, seconded by Commissioner Anderson, to authorize advertisement and approve legislative intent for an ordinance amending the Ad Valorem Tax  Abatement Ordinance by creating a new provision allowing a grant of exemption to become void without further action of the Board upon notification that a project will not be pursued.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

 

 

William Powell stated he has lived in Titusville for the past 30 years; he spent eight years on the Brevard County School Board; out of those eight years, he was on the Value Adjustment Board for seven years; he was Vice Chairman for three of the seven years; and also he Chaired some of the meetings when the Chairman was absent.  He stated he appreciates the Board’s consideration; he will look at every case that comes before the Value Adjustment Board (VAB); and he will be impartial and with fair judgment on his part.

 

Walter Carroll stated he is a practicing CPA in Cocoa Florida; he developed an interest in the VAB; he hears a lot about property taxes in his office these days; and he thought it would be a good area to serve.  He stated Mr. Powell is a very nice and experience candidate; and he did not realize the amount of experience that he had when he applied.  He thanked the Board for its consideration; and stated he looked forward to helping with the VAB.

 

Mr. Carroll stated the Board needs to take a lot of care to see that those tax items are done according to the law; it is not good when a person pays too much tax; but it is also not good when the government does not get what its entitled to; both of those sides need to be addressed in a very fair and impartial manner to see that the law is carried out; he does that every day in his practice; and there are times when he leans in the direction of the client and other times he does not.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired how the Board needs to vote; with County Manager Howard Tipton responding that each Commissioner has a ballot in his or her package; stated it is up to the Board how it would like to do it; it could have a first and second choice; and staff can tabulate those.  Commissioner Infantini stated she wants to only choose one candidate.  Chairman Nelson advised the Board will just choose one candidate from each Commissioner. 

 

Chairman Nelson stated he would like the Board to go on to Item III.B.3, Approval, Re:  Policy BCC-56, Public Use of Meeting Rooms at Brevard County Government Centers, until the votes can be tabulated for this item.

 

 

Chairman Nelson stated it is his understanding that these have not been, in effect, programmed into the budget; there are some fees that need to be charged, because they have never been on the list, and he thinks those need to be incorporated but at the same level; he does not want to see the fees go up right now; if they are not in the budget and the County is not counting on them; it is a difficult time for Brevard County citizens; and he would like to go one more year and it can be addressed at a later time.

 

Commissioner Bolin stated the difference is $3; and the Florida Room was $12 now it is $15.  Chairman Nelson stated he does not think it is worth increasing the fees at this time.  He inquired what are the rooms that need to be added; with Facilities Director Steve Quickel advising the Supervisor of Elections Canvassing Room and the Brevard Room in Titusville.  Chairman Nelson stated those rooms need to be added to the list to be charged, but he does not want to see the rate change above where it currently exists.

 

Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Bolin, to approve revised Policy BCC-56, Public Use of Meeting Rooms at the Brevard County Government Centers; and did not increase the fees for use of the rooms, but added the Brevard Room, North Brevard Government Center, Titusville, and Supervisor of Elections Canvassing Room, Viera, along with the applicable fees, to the Policy.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

County Manager Howard Tipton advised William Powell has been chosen as the Citizen Member to the Brevard County Value Adjustment Board.

 

Chairman Nelson thanked both Mr. Powell and Mr. Carroll for applying, because it is one of those great cases where there were two folks who were interested and are very qualified for it.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated the first meeting is Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

 

Mr. Powell thanked the Board for its confidence; he will serve diligently; after being so many years with controversial items as a Member of the School Board, he wants to compliment each and every one of the Board Members in the demeanor that he or she has handled the meeting today with a lot of issues placed before it; and each Commissioner should be congratulated for how the meeting was conducted today.

 

 

Alfred Agarie stated he is the owner of Alphy’sTrucking; and he has been doing business in Brevard County for approximately seven years.  He advised he has a situation where he feels like the bidding procedure was not done in the right manner; and as a result, it did not turn out the way it should.  He stated four quotes were sent out to Viera’s vendors; he responded to the quote; and Guettler Construction’s quote was noticed in the office five days later.

   

Commissioner Anderson requested that Mr. Agarie stated what the quote was for.  Mr. Agarie advised the quote was for 30,000 yards of fill dirt for Rodes Park Construction.

 

Mr. Agarie stated the quote was sent out and there is a deadline date listed on it; the request form clearly stated the time, date, contact person, and so on; the Guettler Construction quote came in late; it is addressed to the wrong person; it was faxed to the wrong number; and it was discovered five days later from the time and date when the bid was supposed to arrive in the office.  He was told on more than one occasion that he was the lowest bidder.  He stated he is concerned that so many days went by; and inquired why the bid should be honored.  He stated the Purchasing rules say if a bid turns up late after the date and time it should be returned unopened.

 

John Denninghoff, Public Works Director, stated the bid was not received late; what did occur was that the sender of the other quote that the question has been raised about, their fax machine had an incorrect timestamp on it, which indicated that it was sent late; staff does not accept the sender of a quote’s timestamp from their fax machine; the County’s fax machine said the quote was sent at 2:21 p.m., which would have been 39 minutes prior to the deadline; but in the abundance of caution, they checked to see what their fax time was in comparison with the actual time; and from that staff was able to determine that the actual time the quote was received was eight minutes prior to the 3:00 p.m. deadline.  He stated it is a fact, not a matter of opinion, that the quote was received timely.  He stated what did occur is that the sender of the fax, the fourth quote, called into the Road and Bridge office and asked for the fax number; there are two fax machines there; he was given the other fax machine number; and that is the number that he sent it to.  He stated the fax at that point was placed on Charlie Burton’s desk who is the Manager of the Construction Division, which is handling this matter; Jim Wham, who is a staff member, did not know that it had been sent in; when Alphy’sTrucking contacted him, he indicated that they appeared to be the low quote; he did not say that they would be awarded the contract; and Mr. Wham is not authorized to do that.  He stated there is an assertion that the bid was late, but it was not late; the quote did not state that it had to be sent into the fax number that was on the quote or that it would be disqualified; it provided the fax number; but it did not indicate what was required.  He stated they could have brought it in by hand, Federal Expressed to the office, but he sent it into a fax number that he was provided by telephone specifically for that purpose at the time that he made the contact.  He stated the fact of the matter is there is a quote that was significantly lower; Alphy’sTrucking quote was 27.5 percent above that of what turned out to be the low quote, Guettler Construction; and at that point staff is of the opinion that would be the lowest quote received.  He stated in the meantime staff found that there was another opportunity to potentially receive fill material at a much lower cost even than the Guettler quote; staff has exploring that option; that would to go directly to the City of Palm Bay who has a major earth moving project underway; and it needs to dispose of dirt.  He noted the County has an option, to award to Guettler Construction, reject all quote and go directly to Palm Bay, or the whole project can be re-quoted. He advised Alphy’sTrucking is the County’s trucking contractor, so they are being utilized to haul the material regardless of who gets the quote for the fill dirt; and that is going to be in excess of $85,000 contract for the trucking.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired in the future does he have any plans to put one fax number on the sheet for the quote; with Mr. Denninghoff responding what staff is going to do is to clarify exactly how it will be provided so that it is very clear; stated staff has been directed that no one is to indicate to any vendor whether or not they may or may not be the lowest bidder or quoter on a project until a final decision has been made, because there are various things that can be involved; and this one the quality of the material involved was a question as well.  He advised that was another thing about Mr. Agarie’s quote, he failed to include the location of the dirt, the source of the dirt, which was a requirement that was on there; staff was not going to disqualify him on that basis; but that was something he failed to do and it was very clearly spelled out on the quote request.

 

Mr. Agarie stated he would like to correct two of the statements that Mr. Denninghoff made; one is that all of the vendors had been faxed Request for Quote; and it has the fax number on it, contact number, time, date, and everything on it.  He advised on the paperwork from Ms. Leslie it says that one of the instructions a vendor or a bidder should be following is to be able to follow instructions; if the County faxes a quote to each vendor, they should have the common knowledge to follow the instruction; this was a cover sheet that was addressed to Mr. Charlie Burton; it goes to the wrong fax number; and the time on it is wrong.  He noted there are four obvious reasons for this to be rejected.  He stated the other one is it had been identified in the office five days later.  

 

Chairman Nelson stated the Board is aware of each of those facts, and those do not need to be gone over again; he heard that Mr. Agarie did not follow the direction of submitting the location of the material, so based on that.  Mr. Agarie advised he wants to address that as well.  He stated he is the contractor to do the hauling so on his bidding form he put under 10 miles; the main reason for that answer is that staff will use the millage, delivery costs, and the material to determine the award of the bid.  Chairman Nelson inquired if there is also the possibility that staff needs to know the quality of the material because of the use; he remembers a park project where they ended up using material from a road project and it had spark plugs and license plates; and there is a concern.  Mr. Agarie stated he has been doing the trucking service for Brevard County for three to four years; all of the dirt that has been hauled to Rodes Park, probably 200,000 yards or more, he hauled every bit of it.  He explained his main reason to not give all of the details of the location is on February 2008 he was asked by Charlie Burton to locate 50,000 yards of fill dirt for Rodes Park; that was the first 50,000 required; he sold probably 200 loads to the County; he had dirt available; Mr. Burton called him one day and said they need 50,000 yards for Rodes Park; he asked him to give him a couple of weeks; he located the dirt on Palm Bay Road, east of Babcock Street; he called Mr. Burton and told him he found the dirt, he sent a quote in for price and everything, and the same thing happened to him.  He stated when Mr. George Clark went to do the sample, he brought the dirt and pushed him out of the deal and bought the dirt directly from Guettler, the same guy that he is questioning his bid now.  He stated when he talked with staff about it they said why buy the dirt from him when they could get it for 25 cents cheaper from Guettler; it is once bitten, twice shy; and that is why he called Road and Bridge so many times.  He advised he has a contract with the City of Palm Bay; and
he had that contract signed on September 30^th.  He stated when he called Friday to ask about the dirt sample, he was told by Mr. Wham that they sent the sample out and it would not be back for another few days; one of the Superintendents for City of Palm Bay, he talked to them the 12^th of October; and the Superintendent told him the County was trying to get the dirt from the City of Palm Bay directly and to push him out of the deal.  He stated that is when he called Mr. Wham to find out when he should start hauling the dirt.  He stated Mr. Wham advised him they did not get the sample because the guy doing the sample is out of the country.

 

Chairman Nelson stated the Board understands what Mr. Agarie is saying.  Commissioner Infantini stated she does not think Mr. Agarie should be interrupted, because what he is trying to tell the Board is the reason why he did not fill out the bid the way it was supposed to be done is because one of the other times he had filled out where he was going to get it.  Chairman Nelson stated he thinks the Board understood that.  Commissioner Infantini stated she is not in the habit of cutting someone off when they are speaking; there were numerous speakers in front of the Board this afternoon for hours; and at this point in time she would rather hear what Mr. Agarie has to say.  She advised she would like to not interrupt people when they are speaking.  Chairman Nelson stated as Chairman he gets to run the meeting.

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if the dirt that the County is proposing to go out and purchase is the same dirt that Mr. Agarie had identified in his bid.  Mr. Denninghoff advised if the County uses the City of Palm Bay material, it is. 

 

Mr. Agarie stated this is the contract he got from the City of Palm Bay in June of this year.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated if he was in his shoes he would be where Mr. Agarie is today and very upset especially in these economic times.  He stated he is familiar with the Palm Bay procedures; and the whole thing just sounds weird.

 

Chairman Nelson stated he means no disrespect to Mr. Agarie, so there was no reason to continue the discussion; and the issue needs to be dealt with.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated when Mr. Agarie originally brought the fax to her office and explained to her the sequence of events; she could see there was a little bit of differences between the delivery time and arrival time of a fax, so they ran a test to both faxes; they found that one of the machines was off by approximately 20 minutes and the other one was off by approximately 45 minutes; but Mr. Denninghoff is correct, even with the test it was not technically late.  She stated the confusion for her is on the Request for Bid, it would appear a reasonably prudent person would know where to fax it to, because the fax number is here, and who to send it to, because the person’s name is here.  She noted it does draw a little bit of concern when someone sends it to a different fax number to a different person’s attention; there needs to be tighter procedures; and in view of that personally, she would lean toward this one time not going forward.  She advised going
forward she would like the Board to change the procedures and tighten them up so the Board does not have this ambiguity; but it would appear that Mr. Agarie would be entitled to the contract, based on the original facts and circumstances.  She explained it seems like it would be the appropriate choice to do; and especially in view of the fact the County is now going to get dirt from where he was going to get the dirt from. 

 

Commissioner Bolin stated the Board has established the fact that the fax was not late; the fact that an employee was doing a due diligence and put it on Charlie’s desk and Charlie was out doing business for Brevard County and did not see it for that time period; she wants to go back to the bid that came in; they got the fax number by calling into the Department; that was given to them; and they followed what they thought was given to them correctly.  She noted that bid was the winning bid.  She stated the situation is between the lowest bid and whether or not to get the fill directly from City of Palm Bay.  She advised it is proven the quote was not late; and she is confused why there is still a problem.  She noted the Board should decide to go with the lowest quote or reject them all and purchase the dirt somewhere else.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if staff is asking people to do quotes and then going out to search for its own dirt; can that be done vice-versa; and can staff search for its own dirt before putting people through the quoting process.  He inquired if Charlie Burton would prefer staff to go through the City of Palm Bay to pay 99 cents a yard; Mr. Burton advised that is just an option; stated Guettler Brothers actually has dirt that is within one-half a mile of the same location; and they are actually low bid at this point.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired how Mr. Burton is comparing those two; and is he talking about low quote on the material costs or on the total cost for hauling and material; Mr. Burton advising it is delivered cost; staff always factors in the cost of the material with the trucking; the last time they got dirt, the acceptable dirt was two locations, one was Palm Bay Road and the other was Merritt Island; trucking dirt from Merritt Island was not feasible as it ran the cost way up; and that is why staff tries to hunt material as close to the project as they can.  Chairman Nelson inquired if the Board would find Mr. Agarie’s argument to be worthwhile and the bid was awarded to him, what is that number; with Mr. Denninghoff responding approximately $76,000; Guettler’s quote was $60,000 or $2 per cubic yard; and that does not include delivery.  Chairman Nelson inquired if staff bought the material from Palm Bay what would it be; with Mr. Denninghoff advising the trucking cost will be the same no matter who receives the contract; the quantity stays the same, the cost of the trucking stays the same regardless of which of the three the County uses; and it comes down quite simply to the cost of the material itself.  Mr. Denninghoff stated the trucking cost will be approximately $85,500.  Chairman Nelson inquired how much is the material cost with City of Palm Bay; with Mr. Denninghoff responding $29,700.  Chairman Nelson stated it is a difference between $76,000 all the way down to $29,000; and the difference is Alphy would potentially get the hauling.  Mr. Denninghoff advised Mr. Agarie has the Contract for doing the material hauling for the County.  Chairman Nelson stated his difficulty is paying $30,000 more than needed; he is not condoning how it happened, because the process needs to be locked down; but the reality is to pay $30,000 more is an expensive principal position.

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired what the lowest quote was; with Mr. Denninghoff was Guettler Brothers Construction was $2 cubic yard or $60,000. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated staff needs to decide to go find the dirt before going out for quote.  Chairman Nelson advised that is the second part of the discussion; it needs to be nailed down; and it is not fair to call a vendor and ask him to find dirt, and when he finds it the County negotiates for lower costs.  Chairman Fisher stated a person should know what time a quote is due, where it is due, and everyone’s quote is delivered in the same spot; one person should be assigned to that quote; and he does not understand how quotes are going to different locations.

 

Mr. Denninghoff advised the two fax machines are 20 feet apart; there is not an office in between them; and it is just two different fax machines in the same administrative office.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if people did not know that bids were due at that time; Mr. Denninghoff responded with that particular item he does not think the person who actually gave that fax number to Guettler’s knew about the circumstances surrounding that particular fax; stated it would be the same thing calling in and asking one staff member a question; and all staff does not know all of the same things about the same items.  Commissioner Fisher stated the quote should say faxes are due at this number.  Mr. Denninghoff explained he assures the Board that will get straightened out.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated whenever she has to fax something, she looks at the document and type in the fax number as she is looking at the document; to go to an extra step and looking up an alternate fax number when it is written on the document makes no sense; and it seems odd that Guettler’s sent it to another location.  Mr. Denninghoff stated in his business people do not see signs and have crashes because of it; unfortunately what he thinks occurred is that Guettler’s were busy filling the quote out; they were running out of time; they knew they had the time to make a phone call and get the question; and they probably just did not see the fax number.  He stated under typical procedures staff specifies types of things that are required that a person has to do or they will be disqualified; under this particular circumstance it was not done; but he can fix that.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the Board has to go with the lowest quote; this man worked hard to find dirt; and it is tough out there.  Mr. Denninghoff advised staff typically looks for the dirt; in this case they did not find it; they did find it afterwards; but they also recognized they were still following the work by sampling the material; they found the quote from Guettler and that was tested; and staff did not know which way it would be going until after the material was tested.  He stated they do have the right to reject all of the quotes if it is in the best interest of the County; staff sees they can get the materials at a significant savings; and all of a sudden they have a quandary.  He advised staff always tries to look for the material; when they do not find it, they ask people they know who is in the business; and then ask them to put together a quote for the County.

 

Chairman Nelson stated he thinks the Board should throw out the bid and resolve the issue, which in effect means Mr. Denninghoff will look to buy the material from Palm
Bay.  He stated the next step is to follow the procedures and identify the location of the material and hire the contractor onboard, which is Alphy’s, and the issue is resolved at that point.  He stated the process needs to be straightened up.

 

Mr. Agarie stated the issue is still going on with the fax machine; the fax number on the request form is Mr. Wham’s office and he is the person in charge of the quotes; the other big fax machine is in the big corridor; and it is a conflict of interest on a business point of view that he did so much work for six months identifying this product, and staff pushed him out of the deal.  Chairman Nelson stated he understand the dilemma and the County Manager is going to be resolving that issue so the County does not have this circumstance in the future; and in the end, while he will not be making money on the material he will still get the hauling.  Mr. Agarie inquired if Chairman Nelson thinks that is the fair way to go; with Chairman Nelson advising he also looks at fair for the citizens of Brevard County, which is they have identified there is a $30,000 difference that is a factor for the Board as well.  Mr. Agarie advised he is a citizen of Brevard County; and he pays over $16,000 a year for property taxes.  He stated the Board appreciates that and the fact he has done other work for the County has been beneficial for everyone; there is a circumstance the Board would prefer to have; but in the end they have to look to the costs to the County.  He stated when the City of Palm Bay put this bid in June he was the only person who bid the dirt, because he anticipated the event coming up. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated when Mr. Agarie came to her office she ran the test fax; when he first left she thought it was wrong; when staff was waiting to make one phone call to Mr. Agarie, they were looking at the fax and realized it was correct; she talked to Alfy after that, and told him under the best of circumstances all she can do going forward is make sure this type of event does not happen; she appreciates him coming forward and highlighting the issue; but at this point there is nothing that can be done.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated there is nothing that can be done; it is a bad way the County can get it cheaper; but he assures him this should never happen again.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated the County has to have some integrity in the bidding process; it is cleaning that up; that does not mean the taxpayers has to pay $46,000 for something because of a mistake a few County employees made; and that is where it is not totally fair. 

 

Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Bolin, to authorize staff to reject all quotations for 30,000 cubic yards of fill dirt for the Rodes Park Project; approve moving forward with purchasing the material from City of Palm Bay; and authorize staff to re-quote in the event an interlocal agreement cannot be negotiated with the City of Palm Bay.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Robert Tamburro stated mobile home parks are regulated by Chapter 723 of Florida Statutes, and by a State Agency under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation; the reason he is here is whenever a park owner wants to get a set of rules approved to distribute in his or her mobile home park, the rules must be preapproved by the State of Florida; when a person goes through that process, the State will reject certain rules; and if the Board will look through his handout, it will see where the State rejected his rule requiring skirting to be on mobile homes; and the reason for that is the prospectus in a lot of these really old mobile home parks that have been around 30 or 40 years, did not state in them that skirting is required to be attached to mobile homes, so that cannot be allowed unless the local government Code requires it.  He advised he had discussions with them and pointed out how his mobile home park has rules that say the tenants and the park owners are to abide by local Brevard County Codes; so the State regulators said all he needed is a Code saying skirting is required.  He stated the reason he wants that is because aesthetically it looks better; and also there is a space of about a little over two and one-half feet between the mobile home and the ground, and he has had people ask him to tell people to put skirting on because of their little children playing outside.  He noted the rule he has says existing skirting shall be maintained; he had a discussion with Steve in Code Enforcement and he pointed out to him that what he has seen people do in other parts, it says existing and what they will do is they will get a notice by the park owner to keep it maintained and all they have to do is just take it off and throw it away.  He advised that is why he is present today to see if there is any way to get a Code saying existing mobile homes shall have skirting and keep it maintained.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired how to do that; stated Mr. Tamburro wants it in his park, but there may be another park down the road that does not agree with the Ordinance; and inquired if the Board would now be forcing that group to skirt all of their mobile homes.  Robin Sobrino, Planning and Development Director, advised that is certainly conceivable if there was something applicable to all Brevard County mobile home parks.  Commissioner Fisher stated it would mean forcing other residents of other parks to abide by the new Code or he or she would be in Code violation.

 

Commissioner Infantini stated aesthetically she likes Mr. Tamburro’s idea, but the County has so many rules in place already; she is not in favor of making more rules; right now it would force others to put up skirting and maintain it; and some people are really struggling with just keeping their homes and making the payments on them.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the Board needs to get rid of a few Codes before any are added; Mr. Tamburro may have a beautiful code that makes a lot of sense; but for everyone he makes he has to convince the Board to get rid of one.

 

Mr. Tamburro stated he is thinking about the doctrine of attractive nuisance; it could protect park owners and residents eventually, because a good legal argument could be made that this is an existing dangerous condition that a child because of their age would
not anticipate or reasonably understand; and it could lure a child to that.  He advised the skirting in the picture can be purchased at Lowe’s and Home Depot for $13 a sheet and cut it in half and put it on.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated right now for some people $13 is hard to come up with.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if the people own the mobile homes; with Mr. Tamburro responding the people own the mobile homes but he owns the land; the original prospectus for Pinewood Village does not say on there that they have to have skirting; and the law said you cannot change the prospectus to existing tenants just new ones. 

 

Commissioner Bolin inquired if there is a homeowners association of any organized type at Pinewood Village; with Mr. Tamburro responding there are one group of people who call themselves the Garden Club who clean up and do things in the park.

 

Chairman Nelson inquired as mobile homes are replaced, can the new mobile homes be required to have skirting; with Mr. Tamburro advising the new mobile homes can be required to have skirting.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if he wanted to sell the park, can they be vacated; with Mr. Tamburro responding only if the use of land is changed and that is a big process.  Mr. Tamburro inquired what if there was some kind of an ordinance that said that it is the park owner’s responsibility to make sure the skirting is on the home, because the park owner makes a profit, and for him it is not big deal to put skirting on a mobile home.  Commissioner Fisher inquired what if it said a park owner has the option to force.  Commissioner Bolin stated Mr. Tamburro said that there are people who do not want the skirting; and they have rights as well.

 

Chairman Nelson stated it is commendable that Mr. Tamburro is willing to put the skirting on for them; he wishes more people would take advantage of it; and he is at a loss to understand why they would not.

 

Mr. Tamburro stated the few that do not, it is not fair that the children and other people have to be put at risk because there are a few people living in a closed in tight community.  

 

 

 

 

Upon motion and vote, the meeting adjourned at 4:51 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

ATTEST:                                                         ___________________________________

                                                                        CHUCK NELSON, CHAIRMAN

                                                                        BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

                                                                        BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

_____________________

SCOTT ELLIS, CLERK

      

          (S E A L)