meeting transcript provided by public resources · 2015. 3. 10. · recognize and pay significant...

1 This transcript is actually a copy of the live closed captioning text that was broadcast at the meeting and to be used as a reference only.

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Meeting Transcript Provided by Public Resources

February 27, 2007 Good Morning I Would Like To Call The Meeting Of February 27th To Order. We Will Have The Invocation. Good Morning. Let's Pray. Lord We Come To You This Morning And Thank You For The Opportunity To Stand In This Great Country, And God We Ask You To Bless This Country And All It's Leaders, The President, Those In Congress And Those Making Decisions On The Federal Level And Those Making Decisions In This Room Today. I Thank You For The Decades Of Education That Are Represented In This Room. And God I Ask Your Wisdom Will Reside In Here As Well. Your Perspective, Your Truth. I See Children And Families Are On The Docket. Bless The Kids As They Are Taking Their Fcat. I Thank You For The Opportunity To Be Part Of The County, Like Lee County Where We Can Take A Moment To Give You Honor And Glory And We Do That In Jesus Name, Amen. I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag, Of The United States Of America And To The Republic, For Which It Stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All. Thank You Very Much, Charley, Appreciate It Greatly. There's A Number Of, Well Two Ceremonial Resolutions. The First One I Will Have The Privilege Of Presenting. I Tell You, It's With A Great Deal Of Pride And Interest, Joy That I Present This. Todd? Whereas Lee County Welcomes 2004 Major League Baseball Champion, Boston Red Sox And Families Back To Their 15th Spring Training In Fort Meyers And Lee County Became A Partner With The Boston Red Sox In December 2003 Transferred Operation Stadium To The



County And Boston Red Sox Organization Signed A 15-Year Lease Renewal. Whereas The Partnership Between The County And Red Sox Has Flourished Since That Time With The County Adding Improvements. Most Recently, Right Field Entertainment Deck, Whereas Lee County, Boston Red Sox, We Recognize And Pay Significant Community Value, The Red Sox Have Helped Raise Millions To Lee County Charities To Their Foundation. Whereas Lee County Again Extends Our Appreciation For The World Series And 2004 World Series And Is Now Proudly Displayed Public Viewing, Please Take A Look If You Vapt. Be It Resolved The Board Of Commissioners Of Lee County Florida, Along With Lee County Parks And Recreation Department, Visitors Convention Bureau, City Of Fort Meyers Proclaim Full Support For The Upcoming 2007 Baseball Season. Dually Executed This 27th Day Of February 2007. I Would Like To Present This To You. [Applause] Hold The Resolution Up So They Can See You Actually Got One. I Would Just Like To Say I'm Honored To Accept This For The Red Sox And Be A Partner With Lee County. Sounds Like A Broken Record Year In And Year Out, I Know We Heard Larry Say How We Feel As An Organization. Thank You Very Much. Just So You Guys Know You Are Pretty Much The Talk Of The Grapefruit League When We Have Meetings And Deal With Other Municipalities And Talk About Issues And Problems They Have, I Smile And Say We Don't Have To Worry Because We Have Lee County At Our Back. It Works Out Great. My Goal Is To Accept These Resolutions When I Have As Much Grey Hairs As Bill. If We Start Signing Japanese Players It Will Be A Lot Sooner Than Later. Thank You. Have A Great Week. Thank You Very Much, Todd. We Have Another Resolution Read By Commissioner Judah.



Thank You. If My Long Time Friend Barbara Saunders Could Step Forward Please. I Would Like To Welcome Barbara And Give Thanks To Have The Opportunity To Read This Resolution, It's Lengthy But An Important One. Having To Do With Celebration Of Families. We As A Nation Really Need To Come To Grips With Reality That We Need To Do A Whole Lot More For Our Children In Terms Of Healthcare And Education But Probably More Importantly Listen To Their Concerns Take The Time To Provide Guidance And Supervision Our Children Need. It's A Privilege To Read This Resolution. Whereas The 12th Annual Children's Week Celebrating Parents And Children Will Take Place In Tallahassee February 25th 2007, Bringing People Together To Share Valuable Knowledge. Whereas The Purpose Of Children's Week Is To Create A Shared Vision To Children And Families And Engage A Long Term Process To Develop And Implement Strategies And Does So By Encouraging Children's Week Activities, To Strengthen And Enrich Our Families And Community. Whereas Children's Week Is Teamed Up With Association Of Early Learning Coalition Step Up Florida Program, Prevent Child Abuse, Winds Of Change Campaign And Non-Profit Organizations To Expand The Network Of Community Involvement And Advocacy At The Local Level. Whereas The Early Learning Coalition Of Southwest Florida Is One Of 31 To Manage And Oversee. The Children Will Have Optimal Health, Education And Learning They Need To Be Successful In School And Life. Whereas Step Up Florida Is A State Wide Initiative By The Florida Department Of Health, Highlights Variety Of Physical Activity Opportunities By Hosting Local Events Throughout The Month Of February. Step Up Florida. In All 67 Counties, Whereas In Recognition Of Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Florida Department Of Children And Families Is Launching A State Wide Public Awareness And Education Campaign, Winds Of Change Turning Choices Into Khaings. Change.



Symbolized By This Pinwheel, Whereas Non-Profit Organizations Representing Many Different Children's Issues Are Participating Providing A Holistic Approach And Encompassing All Issues. Whereas Local Children's Week Celebrations In The Month Of February Through April In Lee County Will Include Dots For Tots. Art Collection, Events Throughout Lee County In Partnership With The Lee County Health Department, Early Learning Coalition, United Way, Child Care Southwest Florida And All Learning Programs. Be It Resolved We Proclaim February Through April 2007 For Celebration Of Children And Families Dually Executed This 27th Day Of February 2007 Signed By The Chairman Robert Janes. Barbara I'm Pleased To Provide This To You, Would Like To Take A Photo With You And Hear A Few Words. [Applause] On Behalf Of The Children And Families In Lee County I'm Very, Very Proud To Accept This Honor And Very Grateful To The Board Of County Commissioners Of Lee County For Recognizing Children And Families In This Important Time. As Mr. Judah Stated, Number 31 In The State. And We Are Charged To Administer And Oversee All Federal And State Spending On Early Learning And Education Programs. Lee County Is One Of Four Counties That Our Coalition Has The Jurisdiction Over And We Partner With Many People As Evidenced By This Lengthy Resolution, It Definitely Does Take The Village To Raise The Children, That's What We Are Doing By Partnering All Over The State. While We Are Here In This Courthouse Reading Our Resolution, Counties All Over The State Of Florida Are Doing The Exact Same Thing And We Will Meet In Tallahassee To Hang About 20,000 Hand Prints Of Children In The Capitol Rotunda. Thank You For Acknowledging This Important Issue And Supporting Children And Families Of Lee County. Thank You. [Applause] Thank You Very Much Barbara. Moving To The Recap Sheet. We Have Several Items, First Consent Item 9-A.



There's A Request To Move To Consent Agenda And Also A Request To Defer. Motion And Second. Discussion. I Want To Make Certain We Are Still Okay With Regards To The Time Frame Of The Current Bid That's Out There By The Contractor That This Isn't Going To Jeopardize That Potential Contract. We Have It In Writing They Are Agreeing To One More Day, The Bids Were Good Until The 12th And You Guys Will Take It Up On The 13th. We Have That One Day Extension, If It Goes Beyond That There's Been No Discussion Beyond That Point, I'm Not Saying It Would Or Wouldn't Be Extended. So That Agreement Is In Writing. Thank You. Further Discussion. All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? So Ordered. Want To Change The Blue Sheet Number From 270 To 271. So Moved. Motion By Commissioner Judah, Second By Commissioner Hall, Discussion? All In Favor? Opposed? So Ordered. We Have One Walk On We Will Consider. I Do Have One Other. John Has A Continuation On Baptist Church Issue. Or Do You Want To Wait For The Zoning Hearing? Mr. Chairman, That Is Public Hearing Number One. That Is Public Hearing Number One. And They Have Requested A Continuance And It Will Be Up To The Board To Decide That.



Okay. So We Could Do That Now Is What You Are Saying? No, Sir. You Can Convene That Public Hearing Before You Do That. Thank You Very Much. That Concludes The Recap Sheet. We Now Have Public Comment. First I Will Call On The City Manager From Cape Coral, Terry Stewart. Welcome Terry. Mr. Chair, The Board, Thank You For The Opportunity To Come Speak With You, Always Enjoy Coming Here, I Love This Building. I'm Fascinated Every Time I Come Into It, You Did A Great Job Remodeling It Years Ago. I Would Like To Speak With You About The Infrastructure Surtax Amendment. Essentially It Makes A Minor Word Change In The Language But It Has A Significant Impact In What We Are Able To Accomplish With It. And Very Briefly I Will Read To You A Very Small Section. The Governing Authority Made A Discretionary Surtax Of 1%. Will Be Enacted By The Majority Of The Members. Here Is The Critical Word. The Current Language Says And. We Would Like To Substitute The Word "Or". It Still Allows The Referendum And Provides For It To Be In Place If So Chosen But Also Allows The County Commission To Make The Decision To Move Forward. The Way We View This, I'm Going To Steal A Phrase From One Of Your Commissioners, This Is Another Tool In The Tool Box, If You May. I Must Attribute That To County Commissioner Hall, We Talked About This, She Probably Had The Best View Of It And What We Are Trying To Accomplish. It Enables Us To Move Forward In Accessing Those Revenues That May Be Applicable For



Communities Such As Ours, That Have Tremendous Growth. Many Of You May Say That Growth Has Slowed Down In Lee County And It Has Slowed Down A Good Deal But If You Look At What's Happening Here We Are Still Far And Above What Most Communities Throughout The Country Are Experiencing. We Would Ask For Your Support In Pushing Forward This Change In The Legislation And I'm Prepared To Answer Questions That You May Have. I Just Want To Say From A Professional Standpoint I'm Glad You Are Staying Here In The Community. You Are Unkind. It's A Great Community. Next Cecil Carter. Mr. Carter? Mr. Chairman, Members Of The Board, I'm Cecil Carter, I Serve As President Of The Lee County Tennis Association And I'm Here To Address Agenda Item 11-A Provides Amendment In The Contract Between The Lee County Community Tennis Association And Lee County Parks And Recreation. I'm Here To Seek Your Support Of That Amendment. For The Past Seven Years The Community Tennis Association And Lee County Parks And Recreation Have Enjoyed A Partnership That Can Best Be Described As Efficient, Effective And Productive. I Think It's Been A Win-Win For Both Parties. We Have Enjoyed Continued Support Of The Parks And Recreation Staff As Well As The County Commissioners. This Amendment Will Strengthen, I Believe That Support And Enable Us To Continue To Offer The Programs, The Services, The Instruction, The Competitive Leagues And So Forth That As Part Of Our Mission To Promote Tennis In Lee County. I Ask You To Give This Agenda Item Your Favorable Consideration. Thank You. Thank You Mr. Charter. Next Anita. Mr. Chairman And Commissioners, My Name Is Anita Pinder Representing Crow Wildlife Hospital.



As Many Of You Know We Have Put In A Request To The T.D.C. For Tourist Development Dollars For Building Of A New Visitor Center At Crow On Sanibel Which Will Serve All Of Lee County, It's Residents, Visitors And Tourists. We Do Not Have The Capability Right Now Or The Facilities To Welcome Visitors In This Way To Educate Them About Our Areas, Environment, Ecology, Wildlife And What They Can Do To Help When They Return Home To Their Own Areas. So We Would Like Very Much To Thank You For Your Consideration Of This T.D.C. Grant That Has Been Given To Us And Thank You For Your Support. Thank You Very Much, We Appreciate It. Tom Clark? Good Morning Commissioners. I'm Here To Speak On Agenda Item 3-A. Administrative 3-A. The 1% Sales Tax. At A Time When Government Should Be Looking For Ways To Save The Tax Payers Money, It Seems Like Government Is Trying To Find New And Innovative Ways To Put Their Hands Deeper In Our Pockets. This Morning, Trudy Williams, State Representative, When Quizzed About What She Thought About This Agenda Item Said And I Quote "That's Obscene". When I Ask Whether Or Not That Came Before The Legislation How She Would Vote She Gave A Thumbs Down. I Think You Should Leave This In The Hands Of The Voters. They Have Done Very Well So Far Way Back When You Were Looking For A 1 Cent Increase On The Sales Tax For The Hospital Trauma Center And The Voters Voted That Down And In Retrospect They Actually Found Another Way To Get The Money. So I Think You Should Leave It In The Hands Of Voters. Thank You Very Much. Jack Panner? Welcome, Jack. Good Morning. For The Record My Name Is Jack Tanner.



I Live In Fort Meyers. Also Speaking On Item 3-A, Proposed Tax Increase, I Believe The Proposed 16% Sales Tax Increase Ignores Local Voters Because They Would Defeat It Same As They Did Previous Tax Increases. I Recently Supplied You With Details Of The Fair Tax Plan To Replace Property And School Tax With Sales Tax. And Suggested That You Individually Request State Legislators To Allow Local Governments The Option To Use It. Anyone Can View The Plan Online At Fairtaxlee.Org. The Fair Tax Plan Involves A Monthly Rebate To Cover All Sales Tax On The Basic Essentials Of Living Up To The Poverty Level. A Class Action Lawsuit Was Filed This Week Asking A Florida Judge To Throw Out The Save Our Homes Property Assessment Cap. And Refund Back Taxes To Thousands Of Non-Homesteaded Homeowners. I Suggest You Change Spending Priorities. Tax Payers Are Screaming For Tax Relief, Not Tax Increases. Police -- Please Review The Plan At Fairtaxlee.Org. That Concludes The Cards That I Have. Anyone Else Wish To Speak? Going Going Gone. That Concludes The Public Comment Period. We Will Proceed With The Consent Agenda. First Item On Items To Be Pulled By The Board, Commissioner Hall? 11 B. Okay. Commissioner Mann? 2c, 4a, 6a, And 6e. Some Of These I Just Got Quick Little Questions I Think We Will Run Through Them Fast. Commissioner Judah?



Did I Hear Commissioner Mann Say 4a And 6a. I Would Like To Pull Those Also And 6e. Got That One Too. And 9a Was Continued. That's It, Thank You. Commissioner Bigelow. 2b. 6c. And 9b. 9b. Okay. Very Good, I Need A Motion On The Balance. So Moved. Motion By Commissioner Hall, Seconded By Commissioner Mann. Discussion? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye, Opposed? So Ordered. Commissioner Hall, 9b? John Yarboro? The Reason I'm Bringing This Back Up I Know Commissioner Judah And Commissioner Janes Remembers When We Made The Transition To Estero Community Center, I Want It On The Record And For The Public's Benefit To Talk About, We Agreed To Keep The Carl Facility Open. Can You Give Me An Update. I See We Are Rescinding This Agreement There's A Lack Of Attendance. If You Could Give A Brief Update What's Happened. Sure. John Yarboro Parks And Recreation, Since We Have Opened The New Recreation Center At Estero Community Park We Agreed To Keep Carl Drews Open For An After-School Program.



And Y'all, If You Remember Approved An Agreement With Child Care Southwest Florida, We Gave Them Every Opportunity We Could. We Wanted To See Them Be Successful. However, The Attendance Or The Participation In Their Program Dwindled Down To Actually Two. I Think It's Partly Financial. They Charge More Than We Charge For Our After School Program. And I Think It Also Was Just, If You See Both Facilities, It's Obvious Which One The Kids Want To Be In. So At This Point We Have Over 50 Kids Enrolled At Estero Rec Center. To My Knowledge, We Have Not Received A Call From A Parent Stating That Their Stock Or What Are They Going To Do Now That This Program Is Closing Down. So Everybody Is Getting Their Okay And It Seems To Be Moving Smooth So It's A Nice Smooth Transition Then. There's A Motion By Commissioner Hall To Approve Item 11 B, Second By Commissioner Mann. Discussion? The Key To Success Here Has Been The Transportation. And Right Now We Are Picking Up The Slack In Terms Of Providing That Transportation. I Think Long Term We Are Anticipating Or Hoping The School Board Would Step In. Correct. How Are Discussions? What's Happening Now Is We Are Using A Large Van. The Kids That Normally Go To -- Or That Have A Normal School Bus Drop Off At Carl Drews Are Then Being Transported To The New Rec Center. Parents Pick Them Up There. They Are Fine With That. They're Not Fine With The School Board Not Being Able To Have A Drop Off For The Kids At Estero Rec Center.



Barbara And Myself Have Been Working With The School Board Understanding That We Opened Kind Of Mid-Year For Them And We Certainly Are Hoping In The Next School Year Normal School Bus Drop Off At Estero Rec Center Will Solve That Problem. Thank You, John. Further Discussion? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye? Opposed? So Ordered. Commissioner Mann, 2c. Mr. Chairman? If I Might, 2c Is One Of Those Oversights, We Need To Pull 2c And Do Some Of The Research We Need To Do On The Numbers. We Talked About It With Construction Design. Until We Get Some Things Cleared Away We Will Bring It Back At Some Point In Time. You Certainly Can Discuss It Now If You Want To. So Moved For The Deferment Until A Certain Date. Until Staff Brings It Back. Second. Got A Possible Contract Here, Prices That Have Been Agreed Upon. This Delay, What Will That Do To The Current Prices? As I Understand It We've Had A Number Of Discussions About It, It Has Been Ongoing. We Just Need To Find Out Exactly What We Are Doing And How We Are Doing. My Concern Is Whether Or Not We Are Going To Lose This Particular Amount. We Won't Lose The Amount, It Won't Be Delayed That Long, We Will Make Sure C.M. Holds Their Price, We Probably Have At Least 30 Days. I Don't Think We Will Jeopardize The Numbers. Do You Want To Make Sure That's The Case And Bring This Back At 5:00 Today? I Can Say With Certainty We Have At Least 30 Days. Okay. Jim, Can We See A Little More What's Being Proposed For $700,000.



We Will Get Into It -- When It Comes Back. I've Got Questions Too. Anymore Discussion? All Those In Favor Of Pulling The Item Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? So Ordered. Commissioner Mann, 4a. This Is Affordable Housing, And I'm Pleased To See It On Here, I'm Certainly For It. I Was Curious Is The 900,000, Does That Come From The Same Million Dollars The Commission Set Aside That We Still Haven't Spent? We Are Finally Finding A Use For It? Can You Explain How This Works? Hopefully It Produces 110 Units When We Are Through. The Commissioners Made Available $1 Million And Requested Proposals For An Innovative Way To Spend The Money. These Two Non-Profits Joined Together And Propose Today Help Incubate A Community Land Trust, A Third Non-Profit, It's Been Incorporated. And So These Two Non-Profits Will Continue To Act As Affordable Housing Developers But Once The House Is Done There Will Be Simultaneous Closing And Owner, The Household Will Own The House And Community Trust Will Own The Land. That Reduces The Cost Of The House Because They Are Only Mortgaging The House. Later The House Can Go To Another Qualified Person. I Want To Make Sure I Understand Community Land Trust. This Independent Corporation Non-Profit Will Own The Land, The House Is Owned By The People. When They Sell It, Who Makes Money And Who Saves Money? How Does It Work? Five Years Out, Couple Moves To Minnesota, They Sell The House, What Happened? They Sell The House. The Community Land Trust Will Have Right Of First Refusal. Because They Went Into Community Land Trust.



The Idea Of The Land Trust Is To Provide A Wrung Between Rental And Full Ownership. They Will Have A Resell Agreement That Will Limit The Amount Of Profit They Can Take. We Are Having A Big Problem With People Taking Windfall Profits, So By Limiting The Resell Value We Guaranty The Next Property Owner Will Also Be Low Income Owner. They Can Just Get One Of The People On The Waiting List Qualified To Step In And Take The House And Purchase It. What's A Typical Price Of One Of These Houses? Over $100,000? Yes But Subsidized. The Advantage Is They Will Only Be Mortgaging The How's It Self. House Itself. Right Now By Just Taking The Land Out Of The Equation We Are Lowering The Mortgage Because They Are Only Mortgaging The House. For Some Examples, Pretend Like A Whole Package Unit, Is This A House Or Condo Unit? It Can Be Anything. Let's Say It's A Free Standing Single Family Residence, Total Value By Appraisal Would Be $150,000, For The Sake Of Discussion Say $50,000 Is Land, $100,000 Is The Building. It Appreciates $50,000 In Five Years, They Sell It. How Does The Appreciated Value Get Distributing And How Does It Benefit Someone Else Needing Affordable Housing? They Will Have Agreement With The Community Land Trust, They Have Right Of First Refusal. They Will Only Be Able To Take A Certain Percentage Increase Each Year Of The Value. They Might Not Get The Full Appreciation, They Might Not Get The $50,000, They Will Probably Get Less. The Reason For That Is To Keep The Price Low Enough So The Next Family Is Also In The Low Income Bracket. One Of Our Problems As Houses Escalate In Price, The House Bought By A Low Income Person In Some Cases Has Been Purchased By A Physician, We Have To Keep The Price Low Enough So The Next Is Also In Low Income. We Are Building Affordable Housing But Losing The Affordable Housing Pool.



This Was Guaranteed We Provide Subsidy, The Household Still Needs A Subsidy, They Stay In This House, They Get A Reasonable Return, Enough Maybe To Help A Down Payment On A Fee Simple. Let Me Interrupt And Give You Another Pretend. They Have To Sell Back To The Community Land Trust? Yes. Right Of First Refusal. That's The Way It's Designed And Then The Land Trust Because Of A Formula They've Got In The Original Contract Perhaps Buys That For $120,000? Something Like That. You Could Say That. But There Is Some Formula That's Going To Dictate That Price Five Years From Now? Yes. Versus The Market. Yes. And Then The Next Person, Single Family Mom Comes Along Who Needs This House She Can Buy It At That $120,000. That's The Idea. That's How It Works? Okay. We Still Have $100,000 Left? Non-Profit, That's Been That's Been Allocated And They Have Been Very Prudent How They Use This. Because They Had $100,000 In The Bank, They Have Been Able To Get Lawyers And Accountants To Donate Their Time So They Haven't Had To Dip Into That. So The Whole Million Will About Be Gone When We Finish This Transaction? That's Right. I'm Okay. I Will Mach A Motion Whenever It's Needed. Shouldn't We Be Limiting The Stay Up Front Percentage Of Increase They Can Take Out? That Would Be Up To The Community Land Trust.



It Would Depend On The Market And Other Things. That's Usually Something The Community Land Trust Board Makes And It's Something They Vote On. And After We Get The Land Trust Incubated And We Have What We Call The Trigger Number, After We Have 110 Units, The Composition Of The Board Will Shift, A Third Of The People Will Be Actual Owners Of Land Trust Houses So They Will Actually Have A Say Eventually On That Resell Formula. How Did The Date December 31st 2022 Come Up? When The Application Was Solicited Non-Profits Had To Bring Something To The Table. They Have Pledged That The Total Number Of Units Will Be 110. They Need Time To Produce 110 Units They Thought It Would Be A Reasonable Amount Of Time. They Will Need To Get Land And Money For A Community Land Trust, We Don't Even Have A Board For It, It Seemed Like A Reasonable Time, Maybe Won't Take That Long. We Are All Hoping It Won't Once It Gets Going. Did We Appoint That Board, Mr. Chairman? You Will Have Four Appointments On That Board But We Haven't Gotten To The Point Where Appointments Have Been Made. How Will The Nominations Be Made? We Haven't Gotten To That Point Yet. Currently The Community Land Trust Will Have Four Representatives From Each Of The Non-Profits And Then Four Representatives Appointed By You. That's The Land Trust Board. That Board Would Stay In Effect Until The 110 Units Are In Place And At That Time That's The Trigger When The Actual Lessees Will Have Seats On The Board And There Will Be A Big Shift. Did You Say There's Four And Four? That's An Even Number Board. Actually, It's 12 Which Is Also An Even-Numbered Board. We Can Look Into That. That's The Proposal. Usually We Go Odd Numbers.



Yes. We Will Look Into That. We're Just Beginning. We Haven't Gotten To That Point. We're Just Incorporated. The Bylaws And Everything Are Still Being Worked Out. Will We Have A Chance To Look At The Bylaws? Absolutely. Can I Get A Copy Of The Original Submittal When We Approved In 2005 The Acquisition Or The Request For The Funding. That's Number One. And Then Secondly What Is Your Income Basis For These Homes, Qualifiers? Are We Doing Low Income Or Moderate Income? Right Now Only Low And Very Low. I Just Want To Make That Very Clear. We Talk About Affordable Housing As We Talk We Really Look At People Qualifying Who Are Really Moderate Income Residents, That's Where We See A Huge Need, Not That We Don't Have A Need For Low Income. But Don't Want People To Misunderstand This Is For Moderate Income Families Such As Firefighters And Teachers. I Don't Want There To Be Confusion, For The Record. If You Could Get Me A Copy Of The Original Submittal We Approved In May 2005 I Would Appreciate It. Any Other Questions? Commissioner Bigelow. Gloria, Thank You So Much, You Are Doing An Excellent Job Standing On Your Feet There. What Is The Qualifying Threshold? Is It 80% Of The Mean Income? The Ceiling Is 80% Of The Area Median Income. That's The Threshold For Low And Very Low?



Yes. I Was Struck By The Fact There's No Requirement These Be Single Family Or Multi-Family And As I'm Looking At Attachment Two Which Is The Repayment Schedule. Let's Say In The Next Two Years, Multi-Family Complex Is Built. They Are Holding Onto A Lot Of Money Not Repaying Until 2017 Over A Five Year Period. Wonder Is That Factored Into The Agreement Here? I'm Not Sure I Understand Your Question. Let's Say In Two Years From Today They Build 110 Multi-Family Units, Apartment Complex Which Would Be Permissible Under This Agreement, Correct? Yes. And They Are Holding This Money Until 2017 Before We're Ever Being Repaid, Correct? I Think That's Very Unlikely That Could Happen. There's A Non-Profit Strap For Cash. I Think That's Why The 2022 Horizon, You Are Thinking These Non-Profits Are Pledging To Build 110 Units For Very Low And Low Income People. They Will Have To Be Educated In The Community Land Trust Concept. It's A New Program. I Really Think That Our Thinking Was To Do A Repayment Prior To That So That Date Would Burden Them To That Point They Would Be Difficult To Do. One Of The Things, You Know, One Of The Big Questions, I Think They Have Right Now And I Know I Talked To Them About This Quite A While Is Exactly Where They Are Going To Get The Funds To Actually Do The Repayment. Certainly They're Customer Base Is Not Such You Can Increase The Price Or Anything And They Aren't Going To Be Able To Sell Units At Higher Prices, The Whole Point Is To Keep The Price Down. Usually What It Is, They Will Be A Small Maintenance Fee That Each Unit Will Pay. And Hopefully At Some Point There Will Be A Critical Mass Of Those Early Maintenance Fees That Will Make It Possible For Them To Kind Of Start The Repayment Process. Okay. Is Michael Brown A Local Expert? He Is With Burlington Associates.



He Is In Vermont. He Lives In Minnesota, The Company Is Called Burlington Associates. Whether We Could Have Him Talk To Us. He Has Made Several (Taugses To The Committee Before We Would Be Glad To Have Him Again. There's Been A Motion. Sorry, Commissioner Judah? First Of All, The Million Dollars That Had Been Approved By The Board Of County Commissioners, That Was At Least Four Years Ago, Five Maybe. I Don't Know It Was That Long. Four Or Five Years Ago, It Was A While Back. Just Seems We Have Been Moving Excruciatingly Slow. The Two Not For Profits Working With Bonita Springs. Finally Getting To The Point It Appears With Discussions Taking Place At Least Conceptually And Ideologically That The Board Is Willing To Accept That This Is An Appropriate Step To Take, To Support This Community Land Trust And I'm Very Elated To Hear The Discussion Taking Place Thus Far Because This Is Certainly What's Been Proven To Work Throughout The Country And Given Our Housing Deficiency For Low To Low Cost Housing And Also Moderate Cost Housing Participants, This Is A Step We Truly Need To Take If We Are Serious About Trying To Shore Up The Deficiency And Affordable Housing In This Community, What I Had Mentioned Over The Last Several Months Was The Recognition That There's Been Obviously A Dramatic Increase In Land Prices. That A Million Dollars Wasn't Going To Be Enough And I Talked About Two Or Three Million Being Infused Into This Program. What I Would Submit To This Board This Organization It's An Incubator Program Here In Lee County And We Want It To Succeed And What I Hoped This Board Would Consider This Morning Is Instead Of Possibly Infusing Another Million To Two Million In The Programs Make Sure It's An Accessible Program We Can Allow These Not For Profits To Buy The Land To Create The Program That We Consider That Instead Of A Million Being A Loan And With The Problems With Repayment Because As Gloria Said Where Will This Money Ultimately Come From, That We Make It A Grant That We Don't Place This Hardship On The Two Not For Profits That We Truly Partner With These Organizations And Provide An Opportunity To Succeed And Let Them Plow That Money Directly Into The Program And To Make It A Grant. And I Use That As An Alternative To Possibly Infusing More Dollars. As You Well Know The Value Of Land Has Sky Rocketed.



That's Not Going To Last Very Long. But This Is A Core Issue Here In This Community And I Think We Could Go A Long Ways In Our Partnership To Provide This Money As A Grant And Not As A Loan. Commissioner Janes? Yes Commissioner Hall? Commissioner Judah, This Organization Isn't Even Six Months Old And You Can Hear Gloria Stumbling In Explaining Where We Are At And Not At. They Are Trying To Get Themselves Organized. This Is Low Income Affordable Housing, Not Moderate Affordable Housing. I'm Not Unsupportive Of A Grant Program. I Really Need To See Some Coming Together Of These Two Agencies And Seeing How They Can Get Together. I Think Once We Have An Understanding What They Are Doing, How They Are Doing It And We See How They Are Going To Look At That Repayment, I Think This Board At Any Time Can Make The Decision This Should Be A Grant. We Put Out A Request For Proposal And The Only Agency Submitted I Think You Would See A Different Submit At Process If It Was A Grant. There Was A Process To Get To This Point And I Would Like To See It Followed Through A Little More And Give Them An Opportunity To Get Structured. Give Them An Opportunity To Come Back To Us So We Can See All Of The Back Up That We Have Here And Then Make A Decision, Is This The Way We Want To Go. I Don't Disagree More Money Is Needed. Land Property Has Certainly Come Down, We Can See That In Our Own Purchase Of Property But I'm Not Prepared Today To Say This Should Be A Grant. I'm Suggesting These Two Organizations While They Come Together In Coordination And Partnership With Lee County To Help Push The Community Land Trust Do Have A Well Established Reputation, If What I'm Hearing Is The Board's Reluctance, Maybe A Consideration To Forgive The Loan And Accept The Fact That This Is Going To Be A Difficult Project To Move Forward And To Make Sure It Succeeds So Again This Money Could Be Plowed Into The Program, The Board Perhaps Again Would Reconsider In The Future, I Guess That's All I Could Hope For But I Think We Could Send A Good Strong Loud Message We Would Like To See This Community Land Trust Succeed, We Know These Two Organizations Have The Where With All To Accomplish The Objective, But It Would Certainly Be A Tremendous Boost To Submit This Money As A Grant Rather Than A Loan.



Commissioner Janes? I Think That Gloria Is Hearing The Conversation Going On, And I Think They Can Organize Themselves And Come Back Once They Have Their Act Together And Make That Request Of The Board And I Think The Board Would Consider That Seriously. But I'm Not Prepared While They Are In Their Infancy, They Have Had Their Ups And Downs And Challenges. This Is The First Time They Are Coming Together To Do This, This Is A Very Complex Program They Are Undertaking. And I'm Just Going To Go Back To My 12 Years Working In Public Housing Pulling Organizations Together To Do These Programs, I Think They Need To Be Able To Come Forward, This Is Public Money And Show Us What They Are Doing And Make A Request For This Loan To Be Forgiven Or Ask For The Grant. I Think We Have In Confidence A Program We Can Say Absolutely To. But I'm Not Prepared Today Without More Information. But I'm Not Opposed To Doing It Either With More Information And I'm Certainly Very, Very Supportive Of The Program And Extremely Supportive Of Affording 110 Families The Opportunity Of The American Dream Of Home Ownership But I'm Also Looking Forward To Commissioner Bigelow's Affordable Housing Program. If I Can Speak, I Think We Have Time Because The First Repayment Is Not Due Until 2017. I Agree. Certainly They Are Not Under The Gun Right Now. I Think, That's My Only Comment On That. Let Me Say The Purpose Of This Item Today Is To Allow Them To Start Developing And Convey Dwelling Unit To The Community Land Trust, It's Not About Revamping The Program. While We May Want To Do That Down The Road I Too Feel We Need To Dot I's And Cross T's, Because There Are Fuzzy Things That Need To Be Nailed Down, For Example, I Would Like Them To Address How Much Profit Is Allowed. I Think That Ought To Be Clear In The Program. I Think There Are Other Procedures And Processes That Need To Be Identified, This Is A New Organization And I Know They Are Grappling With These Issues But I Would Like To See What They Come Up With First And Where We Could Help Out Instead Of Making A Grandiose Statement Of Making It A Grant.



I Think When We Brought This To M.M.P. The Way We Discussed It This Organization, We Would Have The Organization From The Board. You Could A Appoint Representatives. We Need A Huge Leap Of Faith Showing Commitment But We Have Never Really Gotten It Off The Ground. It's Been Done Around The Country By A Lot Of Counties And Cities But This Is Our First Try, I Want Us To Do It Right, If This Is A Recurring Loan Program, I Would Love That. Because You Continue To Reach More People, If It's Not That Way You Have To Do Like Commissioner Judah Suggested And Dig Deep To Find More Dollars, We Have A Lot Of Work And Are Counting On You, We Are Committing That Million Dollars. So That's No Small Step Here But I Want Some Heavy Duty Over Sight As We Move Into This And I Want A Whole Lot More, Just About The Bylaws And Appointments On These Folks And I Want To Make Certain Frankly This Commission Is Watching It Very Carefully As It Goes Forward. With That I'm Through. There's A Motion, Discussion? There's A Motion To Amend This. The Repayment Is To Begin In 2017 There's No Need To Make A Decision Where We Know Nothing About Or How It's Going To Be Structured. And Somebody Probably After All Five Of Us Are Gone Are Going To Be Forced To Make That Decision At That Time. It's An Untimely Suggestion That We Structure It Hard Core One Way Or The Other. We Don't Need To Deal With That Issue At All. My Comment Wasn't Meant To Be Grandiose As You Had Stated. I Think Both Of Those Organizations As They Stand Alone And What They Do, They Do Adequately And In Some Cases Extremely Well. This Group Hasn't Worked Together. Some Dummy Left Their Phone On. I'm Not Opposed To A Grant But We Don't Know Who The Officer, We Don't Know Who The Members Of This Board Are Yet. I Can't Support The Amendment And I Think It's Very, Very Free To Suppose We Are On The Right Track.



I Guess Everything Must Be Final To Gain The Contract. When Did They Receive Their Incorporation? They Were Incorporated Last Year. The Way This Will Work Is The Money Will Go -- We Have Been Working Very Closely With The County Attorney's Office By The Way, Melanie Bowers Spent Ungodly Amounts Of Hours With Us. What's Taken So Long Is Figuring Out How We Wanted To Formulate This. The Idea Was That We Will Have A Non-Profit That Will Just Be A Community Land Trust And We Will Keep Existing Affordable Housing As Development Corporations Which Is What They Do Now And Eventually At The Simultaneous Closing As The Units Get Built The Community Land Trust Gets In The Business Of Just Managing The Land Trust Itself. So Formulating That System Where We Could Actually Reach Out To All The Existing Non-Profits Has Been What's Taken So Long And I Can Assure You The County Attorneys Have Been Involved Every Step Of The Way. Further Discussion? Yes. Commissioner Bigelow. Thank You Mr. Chairman. The Chief Complaint I Hear About The Overwhelming Tax Burden That We Have Placed Upon Our Residents Is We Seem To Be Squirreling Away Or Sitting On It. I Agree With That Sentiment, It Appears We Are Just Hording Our Money. It's One Thing To Do That And Not Have A Plan To Spin It So We Can Show How We Are Using The Money. I Think In This Particular Case We Have A Fine Example Where We Can Say We Are Recognizing A Problem, We Are Going To Be Bold And Innovative And We Are Going To Take Some Risks And We Will Try To Solve Some Of The Problems Out There Such As Affordable Housing And Partnership With Those Willing To Take The Risk. I Wholeheartedly Support What Commissioner Judah Is Trying To Do Because Of All The Reasons I Just Stated. I Believe We Might Not Move This Particular Amendment To The Motion That We Would Consider, Then We Would Look For A Majority Here That We Would State We Are Willing To Consider As Soon As The Land Is Found And A Proposal Is Brought Forth To Consider Making This Majority, If Not Total Of A Million A Grant.



I Would Suggest The Amendment Might Be Willing. I'll Just Make A Quick Comment. I Think Everything You Were Hoping Would Be Accomplished By Not Adopting But Moving Forward But We Are Willing To Spend A Million On This, It's Not A Grant. But We Are Still Willing To Spend Money, We Aren't Saving It, Squirreling Away Like You Were Suggesting. That's Just Not The Case. But Let Me Just Say, Is There Any Further Discussion? I Think That We Can Send A Message Loud And Clear That We Are Willing To Partnership In A Big, Bold Way, Give Them The Hope That This Is A Big Shot In The Arm That If They Can Find The Property And Start To Move Up That We Are Willing To Partner With Them And Forgive The Loan. Okay. Further Discussion? Any Question Arises On The Adoption Of The Amendment. All In Fair Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? The Adoption Loses By A 3-2 Vote. On The Balance, The Original Motion By Commissioner Mann And Commissioner Bigelow To Adopt This. All In Favor? Opposed? So Ordered. 6a? Commissioner Mann. This, I Don't Really Have A Question, Just A Confession That I Got This Beautiful Map, The 2020 Map But I Don't Really, It Doesn't Tell Me Very Much. Nominations '06 And Nominations -- I Just Need Somebody To Come Visit Me, This Is A Request For A Visit And Explain And Point Out The Very Expensive One's And That Sort Of Thing So This Map Starts To Mean Something To Me. I'm Glad We Have It And I Think It's Helpful But I Just Need Help On It. Motion To Approve Then?



Yes, We're Not Buying Anything, We Are Just Accepting Your Beautiful Map. I Don't Know Why It Requires A Motion. We Hear You On Your Request. Commissioner Mann. Actually My Staff Has Just Recently Put A Package Of Information For Me To Have A Visit With You. Next Week Will Be Fine. We Will Be Contacting You For That. We Will Add The Acreage, The Map Is A Requirement Under The Ordinance For Identifying What We Are Currently Pursuing And What We Have Required. Further Discussion? Karen, Good Morning. The Annual Filing With The Board Is The Map Of What We Have Acquired. So At Any Time We Can Provide You With What I Would Call For Lack Of A Better Word A Live Map Of What We Are Doing As Of Right Now. Every Other Month I Send Out A Report To The Commissioners That Has All The Updated Information On The Amount Of Acreage, What We Are Pursuing For Acquisition And That Includes A Map As Of That Date Of What We Are Doing. The Wish List On The Place, As Soon As People See On The Wish List, Upgrade The Price, So We Want To Be Careful How We Work On That. The Map Seems To Delineate Our Conservation Lands. Since It's Inception The Lands Acquired Under Conservation 2020 As Well As Those Acquired In 2006. What I Do Note And Hope The Other Bored Members Will Be Looking At This Map Is An Obvious Deficiency In Our Attempt To Try To Provide The Greatest Comprehensive Approach To Enhancing The Ecological Value Of Those Lands We Have Acquired. It's Wonderful To Note That We Have Indeed Acquired A Significant Amount Of Land Throughout The County But What Would Make It Infinitely More Valuable Is To Connect Over The Years. As You Look At This Map I Think It's Pretty Apparent If We Could Be More Proactive In Securing Lands That Provide The Linkage Or The Connection Such As Six Mile Cypress Slough.



What I Would Ask This Board Is Consideration For Giving Direction. If You Want To Use The Word Solicit, I Would Just Say Be More Proactive Recognizing We Need To Provide Wildlife Corridors, Linkages. While The Scatter Gun Approach Has Been Okay Because It's Allowed Us To Spread The Dollars We Collect County Wide To Purchase Land County Wide We Have Only A Very Narrow Window Of Opportunity To Actually Connect These Preserved Lands. So For The Board Members I'm Hopeful You Can Consider Giving Direction To Class Act To Be More Proactive In These Valuable Class Action Lands. Commissioner Judah. We Do Have Right Now Quite A Handful Of Properties That We Are Pursuing That We Are Under Negotiation That Actually Are Linkage Parcells, They Have Been Reviewed So We Do Have Several That Will Be Add On Parcells To Preserve Areas. Also In The Criteria Review Process A Property That Is Contiguous To A Reserve Receives Additional Points In The Reading Of It. Okay Commissioner Hall. Smart Growth And Value Where They Have Environmental And Habitat That Was Part Of Our Big Picture Of Envisioning, Are We Making The Objective And The Goal That Is On Our Website. To Have A Habitat Not Only For Species But Plant Life And Water Quality We Are Going To Lose That Opportunity And That's Where I Ask Administration Rather Than Talking About These Ideas There Needs To Be A Plan Of Action For The Board To Give Guidance Or Staff To Give This Board Guidance And I'm Waiting For That Action Plan And I Have Been Waiting For Two Years Because I Continually Have These Conversations With Mr. Daltry And Mr. Stilwell. How Do We Avoid That Future Land Use Map Looking At That As It Does In 2016 Or Even Worse Yet 2030? If I Could, Call On Commissioner Bigelow. Go Ahead, Commissioner Judah. You Are Being Very Visionary In Anticipating Mr. Bigelow May Want To Speak But I Just Want To Thank Your Comments Commissioner Hall And I Would Agree I Think The Smart Growth Committee And Class Act Could Perhaps Somehow Work Together And Provide A Position Paper To This Board That Would Allow Us To Be More Proactive In Our Approach With Land Acquisition. I Would Welcome An Opportunity To Be Part Of Staff And Coordinate With Class Act To See About Getting A Position Paperback To This Board.



I'm Ready For A Plan Of Action. We Have Lots Of Position Papers. We Have A Wonderful White Paper That Talks About All The Initiatives Of Smart Growth. Let Me Get Right To It Then. I Was Trying To Be Respective Of The Procedure But I Would Like To Go Ahead And Have This Board Give Direction To Class Act To Actively Solicit And Search Out Ways To Provide Linkages To The Conservation Land. There's Mixed Signals They Can't Go Out And Actively Solicit. That Was Certainly The Impression I Had. If This Board Gives Direction They In Fact Can, What You Are Saying Karen, You Are Already Looking At Properties That Will Provide Linkage, But I Don't Know If That's Happenstance. Commissioner Janes. I Had Asked When Mayor Humphrey Not Here But Representing A Client, I Asked David To Clarify The Position Of Class Act Because Apparently A Letter Had Been Sent To His Client With A Request, Are You Interested In Participating In Our 2020 Program, So We Already Had Clarification As To What's Called Soliciting Or What's An Inquiry, So I Was Under The Impression If There Are Lands We Could Finally Just, That It's Not, And David I'm Looking At You, It's Not Inappropriate For The Staff To Contact That Property Owner And Solicit An Inquiry If They Would Be Interested. We Can't Aggressively Enforce Them Or Do Anything Along Those Lines But It Was My Understanding, If There Was An Interest In Participating In The 2020 Program. I Wasn't Certain Of That, But If The Board Concurs. I Got A Letter Or Email Saying That's Appropriate. I Was Concerned And I Wanted To Make Sure There Was Some Discussion On The Record As To What Staff Had Did Or Didn't Do And I Want To Make Sure I Didn't Misunderstood The Ordinance And Didn't Want Staff To Be In Jeopardy. A Month Or Two Ago That Question Was Raised. I Provided You All With A Memo On That, There's No Problem With The Class Act Committee To Seek Out And Inquire As To The Availability Of Properties, Beyond That's It Gets To The Willing Seller Program. If They Are Interested They Can Go Through The Process.



I'm Aware It's A Willing Seller Program. I Think It's Great That Class Act Can Solicit, We Need To Make Sure They Do That. Over The Last Ten Years Of The Program Staff Has Probably Sent Over 500 Letters To Property Owners. Providing Information About The Program. Where We Are Very Cautious Is When We Contact A Property Owner We Don't Give Any Indication It's A Done Deal That If You Come To Our Program The County Will Buy Your Property, What's Happened Through Some Of These Contacts With Property Owners That's What They Hear, So When We Get Into The Review Process, If The Property Doesn't Muster Enough Points To Really Be Considered Seriously After It's Gone Through It's Critical Review The Property Owners Express That They Feel Staff Had Indicated This Was Something That The County Would Buy And Puts Us In A Precarious Position With The Property Owners. There's No Prohibition I See And There Are Different Opinions Among Your Advisory Members As To Whether Or Not There Should Be Active Pursuit Of Property Owners By Staff Or The Advisory Committee But We Have Done It. Could We Get A Clear Direction From The Board There Shouldn't Be A Problem With Interpretation As To The Class Act's Mission To Solicit Ways To Link These Lands. Are You Suggesting That As A Priority Or Want It In The Program? Because I Think I Have A Problem If That's All You Want Them To Do. Not To The Exclusion Of Buying Other Lands But I Think It Certainly Needs To Be A Goal And A Mission And The Effort Needs To Take Place, Otherwise We Will Lose The Opportunity. I Think 500 Letters Out Is Some Indication You Are Doing That. But That Has Nothing To Do With Providing Linkage To The Conservation Lands. Well No, Commissioners. The Letters Have Been Strategically Parcells Identified And Specifically In Most Cases Identified By Our Land Managers Of These Preserves. So They Have Been For The Majority Of Those Numerous Letters They Have Been Parcells That Are A Adjacent. To Provide Linkage? Yes. That's Good To Hear And I Appreciate Clarification.



You Also Have An Excellent Tool You Adopted, Lee Master Mitigation Plan We Spent Three Years Going Over With Every Regulatory Agency And The Council Put It Together, The Most Critical Pieces Of Environmental Land All Across Lee County Have Been Identified And Are On That Map. Mr. Chairman? Yes, Commissioner Mann? I Want To Let Commissioner Judah Know I Share 100% Of His Coon Certain Here -- Of His Concern Here And Interest. What I've Seen Disturb Me Are Individual Parcells That Are Frankly So Small And So Far Away From Something Similar To It That They Mean Nothing As Watersheds Or As Wildlife Habitats Or Any Of The Purposes For Which This Well Run Program Was Designed. His Point Is Very Well Taken, But Back When Mr. Owen Sent That Memo Out I Had Already Been In Touch With Karen And Some Of Her Staff Over There To Make Certain We Were Able To Do Precisely What You Are Talking About To Approach Adjacent Land Owners So They Could Make These A Wildlife Corridor Where There's A Gaping Hole And Maybe A Highway Plan. I Think, I Was Very Comfortable After Talking With Her And Her Other Staff They Are Doing Precisely What You Are Suggesting. I Don't Know What Lange Wang. -- Language We Could Graft That Would Say Do This, Without Doing It As A Priority Then We Lose Some Of The Other. I'm Comfortable Where They Are And I Believe Doing Precisely What You Want And I Believe It Makes Sense. I Guess We Will See This As This Program Unfolds. Further Discussion? Commissioner Bigelow. Thank You Mr. Chairman. I Think If We Were To Look At This Map And Look At The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve We Have Missed Some Opportunities. They Are Forever Gone. The Development In The Northern Half Of The Slough Is Built Up Next To It In Such A Way It's Significantly And In Very Seriously Compromised. Had We Been More Aggressive In Pursuing Properties That Understood The Holistic System, The Ecological Systems In The County I Can Assure You That Particular Slough System



Would Have Been One Of The Highest Priorities. We Would Have Appreciated How It Needed To Be Buffered From What's Happened To It. And We Would Have Identified And Pursued The Lands That Are Now Forever Mostly Impervious Surfaces. So I Think This System, While It's Very Well Intentioned, Of Course, Is Over Ten Years Old And We Need To Consider Looking At It Because Nothing Is Perfect In This Man Made World. And We Need To Address How We Can More Aggressively Pursue Acquisition. Two Closing Comments, I Promise. One Is I Would Like To Applaud Commissioner Judah For His Efforts That We Send A Message Loud And Clear To Class Act We Want Them To Aggressively Pursue With More Letters As Standard Operating Procedure Of The Way They Do Business But Second I Would Like To Propose We Consider A Friends Of The 2020 Program Advisory Committee To Help Us Understand How This System Could Be Revamped. Take It Back To The Drawing Board. There Are Some Problems With The Map, I Think We Are All Quite Aware Of It. Has To Do With Evaluation And Developability Of It. I Think That Could Be Done In A Way That Could Get Us To Where We All Know We Want To Be. Remember There's A Willing Seller And If The Seller Isn't Willing To Sell Our Hands Are Kind Of Tied. And I Hope We're Not Suggesting We Look At Condemnation To Accomplish What It Is We Are Trying To Do. That Wasn't Suggested. Mr. Chairman, To Date The County Has Purchased 69 Separate Parcells Throughout The County For This Program. Every Single One Have Been Put Through A Stringent Review Process. There Are Some Who May Say How Does That Fit Into The Overall Mix Of Things But I Can Just Rest Assure The Board That Your Advisory Committee Is Extremely Diligent In The Reviews They Do. Your Staff Is On Top Of It.



We Have Over The Ten Years I've Been Involved In This Program Since Day One Have Revamped, Have Made Changes, That Have Made Sense For The Program To Be As Successful As It Is. And Every Single Parcel We Have Acquired, Anyone Reviewing The Files Should Be Able To Clearly Ascertain That Those Properties Every Single One Have Met The Criteria Of This Program. I Appreciate The Discussion, It's Kind Of A Segue Off What The Purpose Of This Is, That's To Approve The 2020 Program Acquisition Map, I Guess. Just To Accept The Map. I'm In Favor Of It. Would You Make A Motion? I So Move. Is There A Second? Second By Commissioner Hall. Discussion, All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. So Ordered. I Still Have One More But I Will Pass It To Commissioner Judah After These Quick Comments. We Have Worked On That And I'm Disappointed To Learn The Island Task Force Which Has Been Ineffective And Hasn't Done Anything For Years. I Know If They Are Disturbed By Speeding Boats, The Birds Will Not Nest Or Reproduce. It's A Critical Issue Or It Could Be, I Know Commissioner Judah You Were Here Before When This Was Originally Set Up And I'm Just Looking For A Little History. Are We Premature In Abolishing This? Is There A Second? Second By Commissioner Judah. Discussion? Commissioner Hall? I Would Like To Ask Steve If He Could Explain Why Staff Is Recommending, I'm Assuming And I Hate To Assume That You All Are Doing What The Task Force Was Doing And They Didn't Feel There Was Any Work, But Could You Explain Why You Would Recommend Dissolving The Task Force And If You Don't Dissolve It Do You Feel There's A Role For A Group Of Citizens To Come Back And Play How We Could Protect These? Basically We Came Up With A Group Of Individuals Met Several Times, Looked At The Issue, They Agreed There Could Be A Problem And Because Manatee Zones Expanded That



Mitigated The Problem To A Certain Extent. Beyond That What They Agreed On Which Wasn't Much Was That Eco Tours Observed Some Problems And Recognized Education Was An Important Way To Address That. At The Same Time The Society For Ethical Eco Tourism. How To Do That Responsibly And Ethically. But The Bigger Issue Came Up In Our Discussions With The Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission, They Told Us That If We Decided We Wanted To Keep Boats Away From Islands And Regulate The Way Boating Activity Occurred There That We Don't Have The Authority As A Local Government To Do That. We Can Only Regulate For Boating Safety Or For Manatee Protection. For Sea Grass We Can't Regulate Boat To Do That Under Statutes The Way They Are Now. That Lead To Arguing And We Weren't Accomplishing Anything. We Have An Ordinance That Designates Certain Areas Because Of The Presence Of Luxurious If We Have Luxurious Grass Beds Left, But There Was A Time Where They Needed To Be Protected And Boats Had To Shut Off Their Motor Through There, We Designated Two Such Areas. I Think What You Are Referring To Was Adopted Back In '89 Or '90. The Ordinance Has It's Been Amended Eliminated Those Areas. First Of All I Wasn't Aware It Was Eliminated And It Shocks Me And That's Something We Need To Pursue. Chairman? If I Could Finish Up With Steve. What You Are Saying Is We Have No Regulatory Requirements, Is That A State Fish And Wildlife? Who Is The Statutory Over Sight In Reference To Those Types Of Issues? In Terms Of Our Statutory Authority We Have Been Dealing With Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation And Captain Alan Richard Current Legal Counsel For Them. Just Like We Do With Manatee Overlay Zones, Not A Way For Us To Work With Them, If We Look At Ways To Provide Enforcement At An Overlay That Maybe Would Be State Versus Local Ordinance So We Could Come Together With Them And Maybe That Would Be An Area, First Of All, I'm Hearing Frustration On Your Part With The Group Together. I Know That We Have A Class Group Of Scientists Together. But That You Could Prepare A Protection Plan That, There's Lots Of People Out There



Involved In This, Meet With Them And Come Together With That And Then We Could Possibly Present That To Have That Overlay Just Like With The Manatee But We Have Federal, State And Local Manatee Zones. The Coastal Aquatic Managed Areas Of The State Aquatic Preserves Commonly Referred To Is Looking Now Under Their Management Authority, Because They Can As A State Agency Regulate Boat Traffic For That Purpose. Federal Agencies, Wildlife Refuge Can And Does Do That. Are We Willing To Look At What They Are Looking At To Maybe Expand To Include Areas They Wouldn't Be Aware Of But Our Folks Are Aware Of? They Are Starting That Effort Right Now. I Was Actually Contacted Last Week From The Aquatic Preserve Manager And With The Marine Law Enforcement Task Force Anything They Adopt We Could Plug Into That Mechanism To Support The Law Enforcement Side. My Last Question, Do You And Your Staff Feel At This Point It's Important For Us To Maintain A Task Force To Leave The Door Open Or After Hearing This Conversation This Morning Are You Still Supportive Of Sunsetting It? My First Recommendation Would Be To Sunset It And We Will Continue To Work With The Managers On A Daily Basis And Support Whatever Efforts They Had And Their Efforts To Manage That As A State Rule. Thank You Mr. Chairman. I Will Pop In Here Now And Recall Something, I Apologize I May Have Moved Too Fast For My Colleagues To Keep Up With It, But We Agreed By Motion And Second To Sunset And Dissolve The Equity Study Commission. If We Vote To Sunset Then The Balance Still Is On The Board For Discussion. The Conversation Was Flowing Nicely But I Want To Bring Us Back To Where We Are, There's A Motion To Sunset The Study Commission. Second? Could We Clear That Off The Docket? Any Further Questions? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? So Ordered. I Think Commissioner Hall Was Leading To A Way, I Would Like To See This Island Task Force Working With Staff To Take A More Proactive Approach, I Don't Want To Sit On Our Collective Hands And Leave It To The State And Feds Because The Appropriate Protection Isn't Being Provided.



While They May Be Starting To Look At Ways To Provide Better Management I Think We Need To Step Up And Come Up With Our Own Plan, Provide The Reasons Why A More Comprehensive Approach Needs To Be Taken To Protect Our Islands And Present That To The State And Feds To Hopefully Have Something Incorporated Here Expeditiously. A State Legislation Amendment? If That's What It Takes Or If They Would Incorporate Our Suggestions In Their Management Plan And Do It A Little More Quickly Than The Current Time Frame They Have. Commissioner Hall? Commissioner Judah, I Don't Disagree But What I'm Hearing Our Staff Saying Is They Got In Gridlock With The Task Force. I Think There's Lots Of Dealing With Our Water Quality Issues We Reached Out To A Lot Of The Non-Profit That's Deal With Areas Of Conservation And All Of The Things That Concern Us. What I Hear Our Staff Asking Is To Let Them Internally Put Together Something They Could Certainly Go Out And Bring In Other Non-Profits. Because I Think What He Wants To Do Is Participate Proactively And Not Be Tied Down And I Think We Can Get There By Allowing The Freedom To Not Have Another Monthly Meeting That We Would Have To Get Together, I Think Time Is Of The Essence To Work With These Agencies. We Have Found Our Staff Does A Very Good Job Working With These Agencies And We Have Been Able To Build A Lot Of Partnerships With Them. I Don't Want To Put Words In Your Mouth But Is That More Along The Lines Of Where You Would Like To Go. I Believe In Terms Of Getting To A Bottom Line, Be Able To Input Regulation That Will Protect The Islands, The Quickest Way Will Be The Aquatic Reserves Initiative And They Are Working To Try To Define Exactly Which Rookeries Are At Risk. I Don't Know Our Task Force Was Really Contributing Anything That Would Have Helped To Get Us There Sooner. Commissioner Judah? I'll Make The Motion To Sunset. Second. Second By Commissioner Hall With A Caveat. Next Available Management Planning Is April, March Is Already Full With Some Type Of Action Plan To Present To The State To Provide The Necessary Protection. We Will Start By Finding Out Where They Are, What Their Process Is Defined To Be And



Give A Report. Signify By Saying Aye. So Ordered. Commissioner Mann. You Did Create An Agenda. I'm Sorry. That's Okay, It Shows A Diligence And Attention To Detail Which We All Like To See. Item 2b, Commissioner Bigelow? Thank You Mr. Chairman. I Would Like To Ask We Defer This, I Don't Feel There's Enough Information Here For Me To Adequately Understand What It Is That Phase Iii Site Plan Phase Iv Facilities In The Amount Of A Quarter Million Dollars Is All About. I've Read Through The Back Up To This And It's Just Not Clear To Me As To What It Is That We're Looking At Approving. For That Kind Of Money. It Is Change Order Number 12. And As I've Tried To Make Requests Before, I Just Don't See Where 1-11 Is And How It, What's The Evolution Of This Project That Brings Us To This. Could We Have Another Week? Another Week, Okay. It Would Be Two Weeks, We're Not Meeting Next Week. I Don't Want To Delay This Because We Haven't Had A Chance To Look At It. We Need To Move Along. I'll Make A Motion To Defer For Two Weeks, Is There A Second? There's No Second. The Motion Dies For Lack Of A Second. Mr. Chair, Just A Quick Summary, Synopsis Of What's Intended To Be Accomplished With The Item Today Perhaps Barbara Could Give Us On The Record Exactly The Specifics On The Expenditure Of The Dollars.



For The Record Barbara, Parks And Recreation, This Is Saved For In The Final Phase Of Veteran's Park, After This There Is No More Parkland To Build On. We Have Progressed Along Phase I, Original Phase Of The Park, Two With The Softball Fields, Three Is The Current Changes That Are Being Made And Improvements Which Are The Tennis Courts, The New Playgrounds, Covered Basketball Court And This Is Phase Iv, Design Of Phase Iv, The Football Field And Buildings That Go Along With It, Bathrooms And Football Team House. So That's The Full Scope Of The Project, Not Including Of Course The School And The Rec Center Which Was A Totally Separate Project With The School District. That Pretty Much Finish It Off. That's It. And The Dollars Are There And Community Impact Fees. Commissioner Bigelow? It's A Really Nice Facility That's Been Coming Along. I Would Agree Our Blue Sheet Didn't Tell Us What Phase Iv Which You So Eloquently Pointed Out. I Think I Knew That's What Was Coming On And I'm Perfectly Comfortable Moving Ahead With This. Motion To Approve. Signify By Commissioner Judah, Discussion? Jim, If We Could See What We Have Done Before And How This Fits In, I've Made That Request Before, It Doesn't Seem To Be Consumable For Me When I'm Looking At This Back Up. Typically You Will See These Where We Start Out With A Multi-Phase Project With One Design Consultant And Because Of The Learning Curve And Their Knowledge Of The First Phase We Tend To Stick With Them And Go Through A More Efficient Process Because We Don't Know What The Scope Is Beyond The First Phase We Tend To Negotiate The Contracts, What We Can Afford To Build And What We Are In Budget With And Still Stay With The Same Consultant Based On Qualifications Through The State Statute Process, You See That A Lot, We Have Done That Numerous Times In The Past. Projects Are Out Fazed Because We Are Collecting Impact Fees And They Come In Per Year At A Certain Amount, We Do Phase I We Do That And Then Phase Ii And So On. We Doubled The Size Of This Park Some 8-9 Years Ago. We Had A Parcel About 50 Acres.



The Board Decided To Buy The Other Portion And Basically Doubled In Size That's When We Decided To Continue With Facilities And With The Growth In Lehigh We Have Continued To Add Facilities And That's What This Issue Is. But We Stayed With The Same Design Consultants. Can I Just Say For The Record, Jim, I'm Not Objecting, My Criticism Isn't Centered On The Consultant Picked But I Can't Understand With The Back Up, A Lot Of Numbers And It's Really Just Not Consumable For Me. But I'm Not Going To Stand In The Way Of It. I Have Been To The Park, It's A Beautiful Park, Glad To See It Coming Along. Further Discussion? All In Favor? Opposed? So Ordered. 6c. That's Me. Karen, This Is A Bug A Boo Of Sorts. In This Coastal Engineering Consultants, I Guess It's An Appraisal, It's Not Titled As Such But Somehow It's Establishing A Value Of This 14.41 Acre Track Based Upon A 2.5 Acre Parcel At $110,000 Per Acre. It Doesn't Make Any Sense As To Where They Are Getting This Cost Basis From. I Would Point To The Second Page Of The Summary, It Says Market Value Of 2.5 Acre Portion As Of August 16th '06 Is $300,000 But In Parentheses It Says $275,000. It Is Kind Of Circumspect For Me. I'm Wondering On The Blue Sheet It Says There's An Attachment, Five Year Sales History And That's Not In My Packet. For The Record, Karen Forsythe, Director Of County Lands, Commissioner I Can Answer Some Of Your Questions And Then To The Details, I Will Ask Robert Clemens Of My Staff Who Is The Review Appraiser For The County To Come Forward. You Should Have First Of All A Five Year Sales History Sheet. Are You Missing That As Well In Your Package? It's The Last Page. 14.4 Acres Total.



During The Design Process And As The Design Was Getting Finalized For Utilities, It Was Identified That The 2.5 Acres May Not Be Quite Enough And Also To Acquire The 2.5 Acres Of Uplands Could Cause A Problem To The Remainder Of The Site . The Opportunity As This Is The Only Site Adjacent To The Existing Facility For Future Expansion And Allow For Quite An Area Of Even Additional Expansion Later On Years Out As Well As A Good Buffering Of The Area We Felt It Made Sense To Pursue The Entire Parcel And Not Cause A Potential Severance Of The Remainder Site. So The Appraisal Was Done On An Across-The-Board Acreage With A Value Set At $110,000 Per Across-The-Board Acre. $110,000 For Each Of The 14.4 Acres Across-The-Board Whether They Were Wetlands Or Uplands, Didn't Split Out A Value For Uplands And Value For Wetlands But An Across-The-Board Value. Looking At Acreage Being About 6.5 Acres Of The Overall Site, Looking At That From A Per Square Foot Value We Would Be Looking, Through The Appraisal About $6 A Square Foot For Commercial Upland Property. We Find From The Comparables In The Appraisal And The Full Report Is Thick We Don't Attach It To The Entire Blue Sheet Package But From The Comparable Sales In That Report It's Very Clear That $6 A Square Foot For Commercial Property, Upland Property Is Indicative Of Market Value. We're Very Comfortable With The Number Before The Board Of The Purchase Price. Saying The Purchase By This Seller Was Not Indicative Of Market? Potential Seller Of The Site. We Believe Was An Arm's Length Transaction, From What We Can Tell There Was No Relationship Between The Prior Parties But We Do Not Believe That The Purchase Price Was Indicative Of Market Value. What The Motivation Was, The Seller At That Time To Sell At The Price They Did To The Current Owner, We Are Not Able To Determine. Was Able To Get A Favorable Acquisition As Far As Dollars And Cents Are Concerned. Less Than A Year Before It Sold For Less Than Half Of This. Right But We Don't Know How Long It Was Under Contract, Commissioner. I Can't Take Issue With That. I'll Stand Behind My Constructive Criticism, Five Year History, Notation. I Don't Have That In Front Of Me To Answer That.



It Just Raised More Red Flags Than It Answered Questions For Me. I'm Not Going To Stand In The Way. Robert Doesn't Need To Come Forward. 9b. Thank You. Jim, We Discussed This, I Asked Why Is This Not An Improvement Since We Are Adding Capacity Of Sorts. I Know It's A Turn Lane But It's Being Triggered By The Need For Capacity, Am I Correct In That Assumption? Scott Gillbertson. D.O.T. For The Record. It's Created By The General Growth And Background Traffic, Overall Population Growth In Lehigh Acres. Motivation For This Was To Provide For Continuous Northbound Flow. Vehicles Were Turning Left Into The Park. That Would Back Up The Northbound Traffic On Williams To The Point That Extended Back Into The Through Lanes. My Question And I Asked Jim, Why Wasn't This A Need Triggered By A Development Where The Development That Was Coming Online Was In Meeting The Capacity Why Didn't That Trigger. That Becomes A Site Related Improvement. Okay. Thank You. I'll Move The Item. There's A Motion To Approve Item 9b By Commissioner Bigelow, Second By Commissioner Judah. Second, All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. So Ordered.



That Concludes The Consent Agenda, We Will Proceed With The Administrative Agenda. Item 1a. Move The Item. Second. Motion To Approve Item 1a, Second By Commissioner Hall. Mr. Chairman, There's One Change I Think Would Be Important To Make And I Say This Because Of Discussions Taking Place Throughout The State. The Coalition Conference. All In Favor Say Aye? Opposed? So Ordered. So Moved By Commissioner Hall, Second By Commissioner Judah, Discussion? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye, Opposed? So Ordered. Item 1b. So Moved. Motion To Approve The Regional Government Legislative Priorities List By Commissioner Hall, Is There A Second? Yes Second. Second By Commissioner Bigelow. Discussion? Yes. Yes Commissioner? I Don't Know What To Do About These. We Are Supporting A Change In The Law That Provides A Sales Tax Exempt For Certain Vendors But We Are Griping How We Would Like To Do Away With $2 Billion That Exists. If It Satisfies Us As An Exemption Than We Are For It, If It Dissatisfies Some Other, We Are Against It. It's Not Going To Go Anywhere. I Agree With You. I'm Just Frustrated Here.



I Wanted To Put It On The Record. And We're Going To Be Opposing A County Being Charged Exorbitant Attorneys Fees. This Is Another One That Just Isn't Going Anywhere. The Courts Usually Allocate What Fees They See As Reasonable. I Always Think They Are Exorbitant. When It's Imminent Domain Government Pays For The Land Owner To Sue Us And We Pay Through The Nose, It's Horrible And We Tried Through The Years. So You Are Supporting. I Don't Want To Take It Out, It's Like Being Against Motherhood. I'm Against Attorneys Ripping Us Off But This Resolution Or Whatever We Are Doing, These Are Our Priorities. This Is A Selfless Consortium Which Includes Collier, Charlotte, Lee, Hendry And Glades And Our County Managers Get Together And Bring These Back To The Boards, I Don't Disagree, Some Of The Challenges, These Are Positions They Would Like Us To Support. Yes Commissioner Judah? Commissioner Mann, I Couldn't Agree With You More. It's The Industry Of Trial Attorneys That Have Influenced Legislators That Have Changed Imminent Domain Statute To Allow The Fee To Be Paid. We Need To Continue The Struggle To Focus On The Inequities On The Current Changes The Legislator Has Created. We Will Try To Rectify Those Problems. Support Changes In The Law. I Don't Know What We Are Trying To Attempt To Do Here, It Says Legislation, Closely Monitor, I Agree With Commissioner Mann, I Wouldn't Want To Support Anymore Sales Tax Exemptions But Maybe We Monitor This To Make Sure That Doesn't Happen, Or Is It To Support Sales Tax Exemptions? This Was Particularly Brought Up By Cape Coral. I Know Terry Is Here You Might Want To Ask. We Just Added That On As An Addition At The Request Of The City Of Cape Coral. Mr. Chairman, I Didn't Have A Problem, Because It Didn't Say To Endorse, It Said To Follow



The Legislation And If We Felt We Needed To Jump On And Take A Position Of For Or Against, The Growth Management Glitchville. Governing Board Members, Construction Manager At Risk, Cape Coral's Issue, The Sales Tax Exemption Providing Services For Municipality And Imminent Domain, These Were All Things We Are Monitoring As We Are Going Through Committee And The Legislature, We Are Just Saying Staff, Let's Keep An Eye On Them As It Goes Through The Legislation. I'm Not Suggesting With My Motion We Are Endorsing Any Of Those Items Under The Title Monitoring. Can We Just Get A Clarification. I Appreciate What You Are Saying. Are You Talking About Supporting These Exemptions Or Monitor To Make Sure They Don't Get Approved? We Would Support The Exemptions Only For Projects That The City Is Doing Or The Counties Are Doing. In Other Words If We Have A Contractor Coming In, He Is Allowed The Exemptions But The Paperwork Is Excessive, If We Could Allow Them To Use Our Certificate Without Having To Do The Other Paperwork That Goes Along With It, Then We Would Save Administrative Costs. Kind Of The Same Way We Get Away With That Doing Construction Management Projects. But I Think Cape Coral, These Are All Positions They Are Supporting. What's Before Us Is To Monitor. I Don't Doubt That Everyone That's Got This By Their Name Is Supporting The Issues. As Long As It's Abundantly Clear To Monitor, I Wouldn't Support More Sales Tax. This Isn't Allowing Them Anything They Don't Already Get, This Is A Process That Would Make It Easier And Take Away Administrative Costs That Go Along With It. Only For Counties And Cities Public Projects. Let Me Restate Again My Motion Is So We Don't Spend Hours Debating It, We Don't Have The Legislation In Front Of Us, My Motion Is To Closely Monitor Those Items, Sb360, Construction Manager At Risk, Sales Tax Exemption And Imminent Domain Attorneys Fees. Further Discussion? I Believe It Had A Second? Seconder Agrees. All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye.



Opposed? So Ordered. I'm In Favor Of Monitoring. Yes, Sir All Right, Let's Take A Look At Item 3a. Move The Item. There's A Motion To Approve 3a Which Is Made By Commissioner Judah. Second? Second. Second By Commissioner Hall. Discussion? I Will Go With The Amended Language, Referendum On The Sales Tax Surcharge. Let The Legislature Argue That. Make Sure It's Or, Not Specifically That It Would Be -- Go Ahead I'm Sorry Commissioner. For Discussion Purposes I Want To Make It Clear This Board Is Not Supporting Raising Sales Tax For Infrastructure But We Are Supportive Of Having Flexibility. Even When We Have That Flexibility We Have Gone Out To The Community And Said What Do You Want To Do. I Support That Process That We Traditionally Have Done But I Also Recognize With The Challenges We Are Seeing In The State Legislature And Government's Ability To Fund The Challenges We Have, I Like The A Idea That Those Decisions Are Left To Local Government. I Feel People Have Elected Us To Do Their Business, When We're Not Doing It They Speak Loudly And Clear I Would Like The Option To Have That Ability, That's Why I Support Moving Forward With It But I Don't Want Anyone To Infer That I Support Not Going To Referendum. We Have To Be Pragmatic. What's Going On, We All Recognize At The Local Level The Way They Have Been Balancing Their Budget Is Shift The Cost Of Services, Unfunded Mandates Place The Burden On The Backs Of Local Communities. Now That They Are Looking At Restricting And Capping Property Tax Revenue It Makes It Extremely Difficult From The Standpoint Here We Are Locally Already Trying To Shore Up The Deficiencies Because Of The State's Responsibility And Areas Of Providing Funding For Road Construction, State Roads.



Health Care With Nursing Homes. Education. Law Enforcement, Correctional Facilities. The List Goes On. We Continue To Get Beaten On That We Are Trying To Dig Deeper Into The Pockets Of The Tax Payers. I Would Submit That's Clearly Not The Case. That In Fact If The Same People Would Take Note Of The $20 Billion In Sales Tax Exception, Certainly Pairing Down That List And Freeing Up Those Dollars For Essential Services Would Be A More Appropriate Way To Address The Inequities To The Tax Payers Here In The State Of Florida. But To Just Disregard What Needs To Be Done In An Area Of Exponential Growth Where We Have To Provide For Services And Infrastructure, We Have To Have The Tool In The Tool Box. It's Not To Say We Will Exercise That Right But We Need The Options To Make Sure We Responsibly And Realistically Take Care Of Our Growing Communities. Further Discussion? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? No. We Will Record Commissioner Mann As A Negative. Item 9a. Motion To Approve By Commissioner Judah. Second. Second By Commissioner Hall. So Ordered. Item 12 A. Move The Item.



Motion To Approve Item 12 A On The Administrative Agenda By Commissioner Judah, Second By Commissioner Hall, Further Discussion? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye, Opposed? So Ordered. That Concludes The Administrative Agenda. We Do Have, We Can Take The Walk On Now If You Want To Get That Off And Then Proceed With Our Hearing. Walk On Item Number One. Is The Emergency Management. There's A Motion To Approve Item Walk On 1, Second By Commissioner Mann, Discussion? All Those In Favor Signify By Saying Aye? Opposed? So Ordered. Now Let's Move Over To The Hearing Portion Of It. Public Hearing Portion. Public Hearing Number One, John? Thank You Commissioner Janes, John Assistant County Attorney, I Have Two Petitions To Vacate For You To Take Up In Consideration This Morning At Your Public Hearing At 9:30 A.M. Let Me First Begin By Indicating I Have An Affidavit Of Publication For Each, One Has Been Looked At And Reviewed And Placed Into The Record Back On January 30th. I Have A Second Affidavit Of Publication Also Has Been Examined With Regard To Legal Sufficiency And It Too Is Legally Sufficient To Go Forward With That Hearing And I Will Give That To The Clerk At This Time. Let Me Begin By Reintroducing Public Hearing Agenda Number One, A Continued Hearing From January 30th 2007. This Was Case Number Vac 2006-00025. A Request To Vacate A Portion Of A Plat With No Right Of Way Located At 935 And 936 Entrada Drive North. We Have A Request For Continuance On That. March 13. I Wanted To Introduce That, We Have A Request From Larry Hildreth On Behalf Of The Petitioner, Requesting The Board Continue That Hearing To March 13th At 9:30 A.M. In These Chambers.



That Request Has Been Placed Before You. A Copy Of That Letter Was Given To Each Of You Yesterday. I Have A Copy I Will Introduce In The Record As Well This Morning. So Moved. There's A Motion To Continue This Until March 13th, Motion By Commissioner Hall, Second By Commissioner Mann. Commissioner Bigelow? This Is Probably For Pete Ecenroad If He Is Here. Under Background It Says There Are No Objections To This Petition To Vacate And The Residents Would Like To Take Issue With That. Maybe We Need To Talk About How The No Objection From The Utilities -- For The Record Pete Eckenroad, If We Receive Anything Written In The File, We Will Certainly Note It. I Have To Look In The File Again Whether We Had Specifically From The Residents In Connection With The Vacation. Typically Also If There Is An Objection That's Been Filed By One Of The Public Agencies, Any Of The Utilities Will Certainly Note That. Okay. So We Will Be Able To, I Guess If The Residents Care To Submit This Into This Particular File They Will Be Able To Do That? That's Correct. All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? So Ordered. Public Hearing Number Two. John? Yes, Sir, Number Two On Your Agenda This Morning For The 9:30 Public Hearings Is Case Vac 2006-00032. This Is A Request To Vacate A Portion Of A 12 Foot Wide Public Utility Easement Located At 17565 And 17567 Rockefeller Circle In Fort Meyers. Move The Item.



There's A Motion To Approve Public Hearing Number Two By Commissioner Hall. -- Sorry Judah. Second By Commissioner Hall. Under Discussion, Remember This Is A Public Hearing. So We Call On Anyone Who Wishes To Make A Presentation Any Members Of The Public Wish To Speak On This Issue? Being None It Goes Back To The Board. John, Whatever The Pleasure Of The Board Is, We Made A Motion To Approve And Second. Further Discussion? All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye? Opposed? So Ordered. Are You Regretting? No I'm Just Happy We Are Moving To The End Here. That Concludes The Public Hearing Portion. We Will Go To The Walk Ons, We Have Taken Care Of That, Committee Appointments? Commissioner Hall? I'm Sorry, Back Up, Let's Do Commissioner Items First. Commissioner Hall. I Would Like To Thank My Executive Assistant Carmen Solema, I Was Invited To Participate In The Judging For School Booths At The Lee County Fair Which Opened Last Friday, The Theme, There's Magic, 68 Schools Participated. From What I Understand The Caliber The Way The Booths Were Decorated And Efforts Put In By The Students And Their Teachers Was Fantastic. And I Want To Congratulate For The Record, The First Place Winner, Bay Shore Elementary, Charger And River Dale. And Want To Thank Those For Participating. Earl Roesh And The Fair Board Also For Inviting My Office To Participate. It's A Great Event, A Wonderful Fair And Continues On Through March 4th. I Also Want To Comment.



I Had An Exciting Weekend A Couple Weeks Ago At La Belle. Livestock Auction, They Had Over 100 Exhibits And I Had The Opportunity To Participate In A Hog Purchase And It Was A Wonderful Event. It Was Very Well Done And The Students Displayed Their Steers And Their Hogs. It Went Until 11:30 At Night And It Was Very Well Attended And Very Exciting. It's A Butcher Required. But It Was A Really Wonderful Event To See The Parents And Students Work Hard To Raise Their Life Stock To Auction For A Worthy Cause, It Was A Wonderful Evening And I Applaud Them For The Hard Work They Do. Thank You Very Much. Commissioner Mann? None. Commissioner Judah? First Of All, Ought To Be Supported And Commended To Help Support The Future Farmers Of America. Glad You Brought That Up. Mr. Chairman, Lake Okeechobee Protection Act Requires The District To Provide An Evaluation Of Phosphorous Load Reduction In Lake Okeechobee To Help Improve The Water Quality In Lake Okeechobee, Their Baseline Data Went From 1991 To 2000. At The Recent Governing Board They Decided To Dismiss The Data From 2000-2005. As We All Know We Get Into A Wetter Climate Pattern, It's Not Surprising To Know The Baseline Data Has Been Collected. It Shows Greater Phosphorous Getting Into Lake Okeechobee But The District Has Decided To Ignore The Data So What I Would Like To Do Is Ask Our Attorneys To Help Us In Our Efforts To Be Able To Appropriately Direct Communication To Whether It's The Governor Or Legislature To Make Sure The District Incorporates The Data As Required By The Lake Okeechobee Protection Act As Part Of Their Evaluation And Period Of Record. Why Did They Not Include It? They Decided It Was An Anomaly Because Of The Hurricanes Of 2004-2005, That's Not Their Decision To Make, It Happened We Are In A Wet Cycle. The Data Is There That Needs To Be Incorporated In The Period Of Record. Commissioner Hall?



We Had And I Don't Remember This Board Taking A Position To Have Updates On District Happenings From Our Staff, It Was Sort Of A Standing Thing For M.M.P.'S Given That The Whole Board An Update, I Know D.E.P. Has Been Discussing This Also As Well As The Department Of Agriculture And Like I Said Auto Bon Also I Know That Dr. Grey Has Been Very Supportive Of The Inclusionary 2002-2005 Era. I Think The Whole Board Should Be Brought Current. I Wish I Had The Information, I'm Not Qualified To Give All The Technical, I Don't See Curt Or Rowland Here. I Think They Are Fully Aware And We Have Another M.M.P. Thursday Or A Week From Thursday. The 12th. And Maybe They Could Give Us That And We Can Give Direction To David Where They Feel The Best Place For Us To Hit That Issue Would Be If That's All Right With Commissioner Judah. That's All Right As Long As We Can Get It Scheduled For The 13th. I Don't Think It Will Be A Long Update, But The Last Two Weeks There's Been Movement And I Want Us To Be Able To Go Forward And Have Staff Have The Latest Information, Different From What We Heard Probably At The Public Hearing. Staff Is Involved With That Conversation. So We Will Hear From Staff On The 12th And We Able To Take Action On The 13th? I Would Think So. Okay, Thank You. The Situation Of Ronto, There Was Excavation On Public Lands Supposedly The South Florida Water Management District Was Supposed To Handle What Was A Have Violation. It's Crew Lands Which, But It's Their Land Because The District Ended Up Purchasing A Lot Of The Crew Land. They Were To Address The Situation But It Appears We Are Still Left In The Dark As To Whether Or Not This Is Going To Be Rectified Or Corrected. We Still Don't Know Where That Fill Ultimately Was Taken To Whether Used For Private Purpose And Tim Jones With The Attorney's Office Indicated This Time The County's Office To Accomplish The Results Or File Suit To Compel Compliance With Regulations. I Asked Didn't This Require A Lee County Permit. I'm Being Told Because The District Had Evidently Included Ronto, The District Is Exempt



From Having To Get Permits. I Just Want Answers. I Don't Want To Have To File A Lawsuit But I Would Like To See If We Could Get The Information From The District Works Is The Restoration Going To Take Place And Where Did That Private Fill Go Since It Was Public Resource. We Could Bring That Up At Mmp Meeting Could We Not? Could We Seek From The District? It's Just Hard To Get Answers. Maybe They Could Give Us An Update. There You Go. If They Can't We Will Take Other Steps. Okay. I Just Didn't Want To Hold Off If We Can At Least Direct Attorneys. I Did Receive A Copy Of A Response From Karen Ryan With Lee County Utility Co Op With Regards To Underground Utilities. Could We Have A More In-Depth Discussion At The Next M.M.P. That's All I'm Asking. Could We Do That In April, Commissioner? Fine. Let Me -- I Want To Make Certain, Are You Talking About Underground Utilities Captiva Is Going Through? Commissioner Judah Brought This Up From Bonita Springs Resolution. I Had Sent An Email To Florida Power And Light And Lee County Electric Co Op To Ask What Their Policy And What The Cost Factors Involved Are. I Will Make Sure The Board Gets That Response. Okay. Mr. Chairman Real Quick, David You Will Get Back To Us, This Board's Ability To Perhaps Send A Letter Formally Stating That We Are, Or We're Not Going To Be Involved In The Power Plant Citing Act. The 13 Mg. Okay Thank You.



I Understand As Far As Collection Of Impact Fee Issue That Will Come Back On The 13th Also? And We Will Have An Answer From The Florida Association Of Counties By Then? Okay. I'm Still A Little Concerned About Cutting Off Lake Water Release This Time Of Year When We Need Minimum Flows, Inasmuch As There Is Emergency Placed On The East Coast There's Not A Consistent Water Rationing Requirement And Doesn't Seem To Be The Effort That Needs To Be For Hydrating. I Don't Want To Just Drop This, I Need To Get Some Idea From Staff How We Will Approach Not Just Accepting Cessation. We Heard From The District They Were Going To Go Ahead And Shut Us Off. Only For The Water Plant. I Just Want To Make Sure We Are Stating We Are Upset They Aren't Giving Us Environmental. Only Pulses For The Water Plant. Our Estuaries Continue To Get Hammered. We Can't Just Take This Sitting Down, Lying Down, Especially When There's Action That Could Be Taken By The District. Can We Get Some Kind Of Formalized, Hopefully A Paper Or Letter. I Have No Problem, Just Need To Ask A Couple Questions, Number One If I Could, I Would Like To Ask About The Reservation System, Are You Saying Now, Because We -- Reservation Requirements. Not For The Estuary. I Do Have A Problem Too, That Is If You Are Requiring Releases From Lake Okeechobee This Time Of Year, Rather Heavily Mixed With Nitrogen And Phosphorous. All Year Round It Is But We Need To Impede The Saltwater Intrusion. Just Want To Understand What The Ball Game Is. Commissioner Judah, I Know You Are The Liaison To The South Water Management District. Did You Have A Chance To Go To Their Board Meeting And Make The Request Publicly And Ask Them To Respond From A Board Respective Why Has Staff Put In. I Know We Have Staff That Attends Those Board Meetings.



I Know When Ms. Wheelly Was Here, Was It Two Weeks Ago, We All Heard At A Board Meeting Not At A Workshop And So I Guess What I'm Looking For From You Is Are You Suggesting That We Go To The Board, The Governing Board And Share With Them Our Concern? Are You Suggesting We Just Send A Letter To Them? We Sent A Letter And Determine Legally What Recourse We Do Have. The Fact Is There Are Opportunities From The District To Be More Proactive To Conserve Water On The East Coast. So I Guess What We Need To Ask Them Is What They Have In Place Now And What We Would Like To See Them Do. I Know We Have Some Of The Strictest Water Restrictions In South Florida. She Brought Up Her Technical Expert. As I Find Unfathomable. I Didn't Want To Just Accept That Response, I Wanted To Go Ahead And Have Our Staff Delve Deeper. I Had To Get A Paper Off To The District, There Are The Options They Can Pursue. Just Trying To Hit It Pragmatically, Position Where We Ask What Their Regulation Schedule Is And What's In Place And Continue To Go Through The Layers. But Again I'm Not Trying To Think For You, You Are The Liaison And It Provides Whether You Do It Or Staff Does It. Maybe Already Have It, I Don't Know. Would Just Need An Official Paper From The Chairman Of The Board, If Administration Could Work On It. Someone Over There Prepare A Letter? Yep, You Heard. -- Yep I Heard. I Saw Lips Move And It Sounded Like Yep. Last One, Mr. Chairman, Can We Include The Fertilizer Issue With Regards To The State Effort And Also Local Effort How Best To Control Manage The Release Of Fertilizers? There's A State Wide Plan Now In Draft Stages. We Have Had A Number Of People Now Respond With Comments But I Think Collectively This Board Should Hear What Steps We Could Take Both Locally And State Wide So If This



Could Come At The Next Mmp. We Are In The Process Of Scheduling Order Napses, Are We Not? -- Ordinances Are We Not. Maybe Wait For The State. We Are In The Process Of Developing Legislation Which I Think Will Work With That. I Don't Know If We Officially As A Board Decided Here Are Our Comments To Send To The State. We Haven't Done That. No We Have Not Done That, As A Matter Of Fact They Are Still Working On Developing The County Ordinance But We Were Waiting Until We Heard From The State As To What It Was Anticipating And Move It From There But We Hadn't Made Any Comments. We Have Already Had The Agriculture Extension Service Made Comments, Natural Resource, I Would Like All Those Comments Bundled Into One Document We Could Send To The Board. We Will Just Blue Sheet It And Bring It On. Commissioner Bigelow? Nothing? Okay Last Chance. Okay, I Have One Item That I Would Like To Bring Up. There's A Senate Bill 1764 That Has To Do With Representation On The Water Board. Introduced By Senator Saunders. And What It Does Is Change South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Requirements For Lee County, What That Does Is Would Make Lee County Like Broward A Board Member Should Be A Resident Of Lee County. Second. They Would Like A Letter Of Support For That. Second. There's Been A Motion By Commissioner Judah, Second By Commissioner Hall. Discussion? Somebody Will Make That Letter For Me?



Thank You Very Much. All In Favor? Opposed? So Ordered. Thank You. I Believe That We Are Down Now To Committee Appointments. Am I Right? Commissioner Hall? Reappointment Of Richard To The Creek Special Improvement District. Second? Second. All In Favor? Opposed? So Ordered. Is That It? Yep. Commissioner Mann? I Have One, This Lady Is Already The Unofficial Mayor Of Kharl Son Park, Nettie Roundtree Reappointment To The Neighborhood District. Second. All In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed? So Ordered. Is That It Commissioner? Thank You So Much. Commissioner Judah. Mr. Roy Hendry To Intercoastal Operation And Mr. Detriech To Historic Preservation Board. Second By Commissioner Bigelow, Discussion. All In Favor? Opposed? So Ordered. Commissioner Bigelow?



No. No One. I Have Several. They Are All Reappointments. Josephine Williams To Cherry Blueberry Improvement Committee. Bonnie Mcghee To M.S.T.U. Ron Gutman To M.S.T.U. And Paul Going To The M.S.T.U. Second. I Need A Motion First. Which You Have Just Made And Seconded By Commissioner Hall. You Appreciate That Very Much, Commissioner Mann. All Those In Favor Signify By Saying Aye. Opposed. So Ordered. I Believe Now It's Safe For Me To Say We Are At County Manager Items. Nothing. County Attorney Items? None Today. Very Good. I Believe I Have Covered Everything On The Agenda, Have I Not? No Further Business, Now Remember There Was A 5:30 Meeting But There's Nothing On The Agenda. Nothing Scheduled Therefore We Are Done. Thank You.

meeting transcript provided by public resources · 2015. 3. 10. · recognize and pay significant...

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