Baldwin County Commission Regular - workshop

Good morning. We're fixing to get our Thursday, May 21 pre meeting work session started. I'm gonna get commissioner Underwood to lead us in an invocation followed by, commissioner McKenzie to lead us in a pledge allegiance. So y'all please stand.

Thank you everyone. If you please bow your heads. Dear heavenly father, lord, we come to you today. We thank you so much for all that you do for us here in Baldwin County. And lord, we just ask you to be with us as we go through this work session and and help us to have strength, courage, and and always to do what is the best and right thing for the citizens of Baldwin County. In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

Alright. Gotta get my brain wrapped back around this stuff. Some of us have had no sleep for a few days, so be patient with us today during this work session and the regular meeting after this. So we're gonna set the consent agenda right now. First thing we got is Bratz. Got a couple of items there for Bratz.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm good with those. Wanda's on TV if we need to talk to her about any budget items. Got a lot of them. This is gonna be CE one through CE 11.

I'm fine. Good.

Hey, Wanda. I wanna ask you a question. The qualifications for the courthouse remodeling, When would we know something about that?

We have to advertise for three weeks, so it's gonna go in the paper for this Friday. And then we get them back in, and we'll have a committee review them, and we'll select the pre the ones we want to prequalify.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. CIS, you're good with them selling stuff?

Yeah. I'm good.

You got elected officials stuff? Good to go.

I'm fine.

Solid waste, environmental management now is what it's called.

I'm excited about that. Just for you guys to know, I don't know if you guys really looked at, but behind the central annex building, there's a area where there are just recycled dumpsters, and they kinda do what recycled dumpsters do. They get more than recycle, and it's kinda unattended. It is unattended. I'm sorry.

It's not kinda. And this will be an opportunity for the Solid Waste Authority to create a charm center for the centers for hard to recycle materials, and so it just gives more avenues. And by the way, campaign signs are recyclable. Please take them to a charm if you got one in your yard or something. But anyways

I'm using mine for target practice. What are you talking about?

Hey. Mine are dated, so they won't be ever needed again.

I'm taking mine to the hunting camp.

Anyways, that's gonna be a great addition for the Central Baldwin area, very easily accessible for, of course, I always put in a plug for Central Bowen.

Okay.

Alright. So next up, we got a couple of vehicles going to facilities management, probably much needed. Good with that?

Good.

Finance and accounting? Good.

I'm good with that.

Yeah. Grants? Good. Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Highway?

Yep.

Yep. Yes,

sir. Personnel items?

Yep. Yep.

Planning and zone. You have the acceptance of notice to intent to request a referendum.

Yep. Okay, you good?

Good. Yeah, I'm good.

Now we're up to, we're going back to the first page. Anybody here from the public that's wishing to speak? We've got something different coming up with a presentation style thing that's not listed that we'll do on another part of this. But, is there anybody here that's from the public that wishes to speak on any item on the agenda today? We do have public hearings that will be coming up in our regular meeting, for the planning and zoning cases that's a different time for public speaking at those.

Hearing nobody here that wants to speak on anything, that's good. Any commissioner have requests? Commissioner Gruber? Nope. None? Nope. Commissioner Underwood?

I'm not quite ready. I'll wait next time.

Okay. Pat?

Nope, I'm good.

I'm good too, I have no request. So that skips over to senior staff reports which

I don't know if we

Actually, have a couple but I just wanted to ask if we wanted to go ahead and address the agenda item that was added, if you wanted to keep that separate in the meeting or add that to the consent agenda. Because that's gonna be after all

the Let me put on consent if if everybody's alright. Yeah. I

I just figured the number of public hearings we have planning and zoning, we wanna go ahead and

Yeah. That'd be

a good idea.

Because we might we might forget it.

I'm I'm good with it. Okay. And so

We'll move we'll move j one to consent. Everybody's good with it.

Okay. Alright.

And with senior staff report, we do have two. First one we have up is AltaPoint regarding the stepping up initiative.

Thank you, commissioner Ball. I'm Turk Schlesinger with AltaPoint Health, and you may see a little bit of some different things from AltaPoint coming around the county. I think we've opened up our first integrated primary and behavioral health care location in Foley called Acordia Health. It's where we're starting to integrate primary care in with behavioral health and vice versa, and so we're pretty excited about that. We're looking to continue to expand that model throughout the county.

Glad to be here with you today. I do have a couple of people with me. Robin Riggins, of course. She used to be the the CEO of Baldwin County Mental Health before our organizations came together. We've got we've got Kimber Maribel, and she is our person who's over our crisis teams here in Baldwin County, and Megan Griggs is one of our chief clinical officers for this for this county.

But anyway, today I was coming to really to respond a little bit to where we are on some crisis things that we're doing both in the jail and in the community. And commissioner Underwood, thank you for inviting us to do this. I do wanna start off by saying I went in around 2002, I got a call from Robin when she was over here at Baldwin County Mental Health and she said, you know, I'm gonna need some crisis stuff. I need one to two beds in your hospital in Mobile and that's that was a big deal. That was a big deal.

One to two beds. Today, Baldwin County takes up about 37% of all of our 220 psychiatric hospital beds in Mobile and Baldwin County. And so you can see the growth of the county has met the growth of AltaPoint, especially in the areas of service provision here. Today I'm gonna go over where we are with crisis. None of this was in place in 2002, but it certainly has changed.

So this is just our lead off slide if you go yeah, to crisis response. So what we have in Baldwin County from 9AM to 9PM, seven days a week, is a group of crisis response team members who go out and respond to the community, to law enforcement needs. They respond to any in anybody who is in crisis. We had a neurologist that called and let me know the other day that there was a crisis in her lobby, and with somebody who was there, we ended up sending the crisis team there. They stabilized or moved her to our hospital.

That's the kind of thing that they do every day here in Baldwin County. So the crisis response team is is a big part of our rapid response. But another thing that has really been making hay in in our areas in in kind of in a way that's that's, you know, I know we've been looking at the Baker Act in Florida in terms of getting emergency containment of individuals who need mental health care. We don't have that in Alabama, but what we have been doing is a more newer innovative thing where we are putting iPads with patrol officers and with EMS throughout the county. So when a police officer goes to a call, any type of call where they're they're encountering a mental health patient, they will immediately hit the red button on the iPad, a master's level clinician shows up immediately, we do an intervention right there and try to help get that person to the right place instead of going to jail.

And one of the places they could go is to our crisis center, which is down by USA Hospital in Mobile, or they could go to one of our two hospitals in Daphne or in Mobile. They could go into an outpatient office, and so this is an immediate response 20 with a face to face clinician trying to do the right thing with somebody who is in a mental health crisis instead of just taking them down, booking them in jail because they don't know what to do with them. So this has been a huge hit. We've already got this going on in Fairhope, Daphne, Foley, Gulf Shores is starting up right pretty soon. Bay Minette is starting up very soon.

So we're we're putting it throughout the county. We're talking to the folks at Spanish Fort right now. So these police officers also, a big user of these are the sheriff's department. So that's another one of our able abilities to do crisis response. There's also a blue button on that iPad.

If if an officer is in crisis, whether it's from their own personal life or whether they've just seen something very traumatic in the field, somebody was killed for instance, they can actually push the blue button and they can get a master's level clinician immediately to talk to the officers to help them figure out what is going on and how they can continue to get help in that area. So these iPads are a huge hit. We hope to continue to roll them out to every municipality and and and the sheriff's department. So crisis intervention team is is the is the the next thing. We do training for all law enforcement, the the sheriff's departments, the police departments throughout the Baldwin County on how to train their officers to respond to crisis.

And so, basically, this is a national model. We're very involved in the national model to train law enforcement officers to be able to take care of somebody who is at the scene and be able to treat them appropriately. Of course, we know that there's a lot of accidents that happen whenever somebody is responding to a mental health call, and a lot of times if they had better training, they can have better outcomes with that. So that is that is another big area that we're involved with in Baldwin County. But the one that Commissioner Underwood actually asked us to come and talk about is Stepping Up.

And Stepping Up is a program where we are basically one of two in the state who get best practices in this area. Stepping Up is a program that's in the jails and in the in our Baldwin County Jail, in our municipal jails, where we actually go in when someone's being booked and we assess them for their mental health problems. If they're one of our patients and they're on medications but they haven't been getting their medication, we'll actually bring an injectable to the jail and give them their injectable in order to try to stabilize them. If you don't know about injectables, injectables have come a long way. It used to you gave everybody a pill.

They didn't like the side effects and so if they stopped taking their pill just like we stopped taking our antibiotics early then they're going to become symptomatic and they're going to decline. Injectables started off with thirty days now injectables go up to ninety days so somebody can get a shot for an anti psychotic diagnosis and they can be stable for up to ninety days. And so if they're in jail it's a great way to stabilize somebody who is truly mentally ill. This is not somebody who's in there for with a personality disorder or some somebody in there who has some other mild issue going on. This is for people who are seriously mentally ill that we're able to stabilize in jail.

It helps them get to their bond hearings, helps them be able to be processed quicker, be discharged quicker, and then of course we have mental health court that we've got here in Baldwin County, and we're able to, if they are seriously mentally ill, and we can put them in mental health court, follow them when they come back into the community. All of these things are are being put in place to be able to help manage the population that's dealing with law enforcement. We call it justice involved services. And so that is what a big part of stepping up is. We've had an incredible success stories of taking care of people who have been booked into jail for some kind of a typically a misdemeanor, and we're able to stabilize them and get them back out and try to keep the jail free of people who do not really need to be in there.

The big key to this is not just the initial service though. I think what we what we have at AltaPoint in terms of the continuum of care is a service provision where we can step them down into the appropriate level, whether it's stepping them to out of jail, into a crisis center, into an inpatient unit, into what we call assertive community teams that go out to their houses, or whether we just take them and make sure we follow-up with them in our outpatient offices. And I think, you know, when you're dealing with mental illness, you're really always seems to be somewhere on that continuum. Of course, we want to keep you at the lowest level of that continuum, but having the full continuum at at our disposal certainly helps us be able to take care of people who are in crisis. The the last area I want to talk about is our crisis centers, and and our crisis center is one of six that was put in place by the legislature, governor, commissioner of mental health.

AltaPoint got the first crisis center. It's the one that's over there by USA Hospital. And it is a twenty four seven, it's 23 bed for quick stabilization and be able to be discharged back into care. We also have some long term beds in there up to seven days, and it has been a godsend. And that it's basically we get calls all the time, we don't know what to do.

We don't know what to do. This this location is serves multiple purposes. One is it's an urgent care for mental health. Anybody that you know, anybody that you all know out there who need a mental health intervention and they're voluntarily willing to go, you can take them to our Crisis Center and we will take care of them right there. So that has been fantastic.

The other big part of what we do in the Crisis Center for Baldwin County is is that all of your municipal police departments and your sheriff's office know that they can pick someone up, and instead of taking them to jail, they can take them to the Crisis Center, they can drop them off. The average length of time for a a a law enforcement officer to stay there is only about four minutes. So they can actually get quickly across the bay, drop the person off in our care, we'll take care of them, stabilize them, reintegrate them back into the community where they belong, and be able to do that without being too much of a disruption for the law enforcement officers. So that's just a little bit of a synopsis of kind of what we're doing in crisis care. I've got some really smart people over here who can help if you have any questions.

I'd just like to make a comment, Tarka, and I've visited your facilities over there because I put myself through the crisis intervention training due to a last minute cancellation that happened with the group, and it was probably the longest forty hour course I've ever taken in my life in just five days, and it was really rigorous. You were there for five days, all eight hours you were doing something, and I think touring the facilities, we went over there, brings to reality what y'all actually do, and what y'all do is a phenomenal service to our community. And I know it costs money and all that stuff, and y'all are willing to take care of it, but it is the mentally ill, just really, since all the hospitals have closed down, there's not there's nothing that bridges that gap, and and y'all do it. And we're doing it in in in our jails. We've got the new jail that's coming online ready to deal with the the mentally ill when they come in by by supporting a old part of the jail by making a mental health wing.

And just that training alone has helped me in my other job capacity dealing with the public. I mean, I have intercepted probably four severely mentally ill patients that have been brought into the crisis center by their family because they volunteer, you have to volunteer to go over there. And it's just me recognizing that something's not right the way they're talking to me, and that crisis intervention training taught me how to talk to them without buying into their story and believing what they're saying. I know they're sick now when I can talk to them because of the stuff they're saying. It's just been a blessing to have been a part of that.

I'm not an officer, so I don't get to go out on calls. I would love to, but it's just not my thing. But I just wanted to just basically thank y'all for all of this that you do. There's so many facets to it that the public just doesn't understand. I'm glad we're getting the word out today, so thank you.

Thank you, commissioner Ball. Did you pass the class?

Yes, sir. Tell you, the role playing was the hardest part. I mean, you know, that was I I was in there, you know, Johnny was Yeah. Is excellent at his job, but when they got all those cast members to come in there and give us role playing scenarios, I was literally scared. I mean And not having any law enforcement training background, it made a difference, but a lot of the stuff stuck in my mind. I think the biggest thing was when we sat there and had to listen to voices in our head for about ten minutes and got to take their earphones out when people in real life hear that 20 fourseven. I think the statement was, I can get all of y'all to take meth by the end of the day. And he was like, No, can't. We put those earbuds in for ten minutes. I said, If that meth had taken that away, I probably would.

That's right. That's what happens with a lot of this stuff. So I think a lot of people, what it really helped me recognize was is that some people's not high on drugs, they're mentally ill, and the two mirror each other dramatically similar. We just got this stereotype, oh, he's high on this and he out and he's not. Their brains aren't working like ours do. There's not Going through that class has given me so much more respect for what you do and what goes on in the community, and I look for great things to happen with with what you do.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Well, I wanna thank you for coming today. I had been asked to come to Robertsdale Honey Bee Park last month from NAMI, which is the National Alliance of Mental Illness. I think it's a national program that helps to kind of bridge some gaps in the community for people. And what was so interesting to me was Commissioner Ball and I had participated for second term commissioners have an option to participate in the county commission, the Alabama Association of County Commissioners of Alabama has a leadership program called the acronym is PLAN. And what that stands for is passion, leadership, accountability, and networking.

And each time they every I think it's like every eighteen months because you can only do it like after you've you can only have like two of those every time because of this four year terms that you serve and you have to be a second term commissioner. So first term commissioners have to at least get elected a second term in order to be in that. And so I was very blessed that we were actually able to participate in it together. There was only like 12 of us in that program. We had to pick a passion project.

And in the past, what we were told was that people picked sometimes they picked their own passion project and worked on it individually. And so we elected as a body, you know, to do a group project so that we could make a bigger impact. And it was kind of interesting how, you know, you go through, people put up there, what do you want to see happen? What do you want to see happen? And mental illness was the winner.

Like, out of a dozen people, it was like I don't know. I'll be honest, it wasn't my first choice because I'm not in that kind of an arena. And most people are not in that arena as far as with your jobs and things like that. And so but collectively, I've always been one of these kind of people that I may not fully agree, but I can fully support. And I really didn't know a whole lot about what was going on with with mental health in the state of Alabama except for I knew they had closed the state psychiatric hospitals in 2012. Am I correct with

That's correct.

Uh-huh. I had a stepbrother who was mentally ill, and I remember one time he had a really serious situation. He has since passed away recently last year, but we had to have him committed his mother had to come here from Louisiana and have him committed to Searcy. So I started learning a little bit of things about that, you know, over the last probably twenty, thirty years. And, you know, to me, was kinda like, well, there's nowhere to take anybody anymore.

What what is going on now? And people say, oh, AltaPoint. And I'm like, well, what is AltaPoint? I mean, seriously, if you if you've not been involved, you don't know. And so then when I got elected and then we were, you know, a part of this plan program and and so they chose mental health, mental illness as if I'm like, what in the world are you gonna do to help? We're county commissioners. We don't have the ability to create law. We don't you know, what are we gonna do? You know? So what we did was we partnered with commissioner Boswell from the Department of Mental Health, and they gave us a great opportunity to help with the Stepping Up program.

If I remember right, I think there was only about 17 counties that were they're shaking their heads. Yeah, there was about 17 counties three years ago that were participating in Steppin' Up. And in all reality, I didn't realize that we were, like, the flagship county, and that's because of you guys helping. Okay? And so my whole viewpoint it's not that I had a negative viewpoint.

I really didn't know what to think about. It's just like when I hear people criticize what we do as commissioners, I'm sitting here saying they just don't know what they don't know. They need a but who in the world has time to get out there and study county government? Who has time to study what you guys do? So we were challenged with these are commissioners from all over the state.

There happened to be two from Baldwin County, but there wasn't any other county that had more than one commissioner. And so people from top to bottom, we have commissioner from Limestone County, commissioner from Chambers County, commissioners from Marion County, Etowah County, all of these different counties that were participating. And so little by little, we kept going. And even when our eighteen months had ended with our plan leadership program, we continued. And this past March, I have an email in my phone where it says that all 67 counties are now committed.

Now some counties don't have their own jail. They they they there's a lot of small counties out in the Black Belt and rural areas. And so there is a commitment, and the legislature stepped up. And even though stepping up is a a national program, the the Department of Mental Health, the state funds these things, and so for for the county jails and stuff. And so it was really I mean, I don't like to ever try to sound prideful or anything because I didn't honestly do that much because we were already involved here.

You know? And I don't know the sheriffs from all the other counties. And so we were kind of assigned, like, hey. Call us can you call Escambia County? Can you call Covington County? Can you call these different counties? And and it was like, you know, you call and you're like, hi, sheriff so and so. I'm Billy Joe Underwood from Baldwin County. We'd really like you to involved in the stepping up programs, you know, and it was like, it wasn't easy. But I did get a couple on board, but I'll admit I was not the one that was the the the ringleader of getting all these people on board for the rest of the state.

Because I always tell people that we're we're not alone here. We're we're all bowling. We're all Alabama. And so I hope that the efforts that were extended there will spill over into other states and other places. And I don't know, there may be other states that are already a 100%. We always seem to be behind in some things, but I wanna be ahead in some things. Know? We're definitely behind in recycling in Alabama. I'm trying to do with everything I can do to help on that. But there was no way in in in my lifetime we will ever be at the point some people are in that.

But and and and look. Just just for the record, I believe you can replant a tree, but we really need those aluminum cans. But anyhow so thank you for being here. And and we the thing about it is is we have to tell what we do because people just don't know, And and I appreciate that. So

Great. Well, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you all for showing up today and giving us that great presentation. How about the attorney?

I got one one

more report.

One more report. And I know sometimes when you see the word American Rescue Plan Act show up on the agenda, we kinda sigh and and kinda tired of hearing about ARPA. And I will tell you, this is probably maybe the second to last one that you'll have on it, but this is a this is a good

Oh, yeah.

This is a good report. A couple weeks ago, we had the county administrators conference. We had you know, there was the program investing in Alabama counties that that that you could join that counties could join. And they kinda did, a report card on how the program is because as you're aware, we had to obligate all the funds by the end of twenty twenty four. Everything has to be spent by the end of this year.

We definitely may met met the goal of 2024 of having anything obligated. We're well on the way of having every dime spent by the end of this this year. And the and ACCA did, like, a kinda report card, a graphical report card I thought was kinda neat. So I've asked Ryan Underwood to come forward and kinda do our own version of it to show you where a good bit of the funds went into because you did take the money and you did invest it and utilize it in many things that that definitely the county needed from storm water to water water tower projects and and various other things, facility improvements needed to be done, and really took advantage of the program. I know there was originally early on, there was a fee that everybody kinda was hesitant to pay, but I wanna tell you it was definitely well worth it.

I think you hopefully, you hope you'll see in his report the value of being a part of that program. Part of the program also provided us that, you know, other counties did not join the program. Many of them did not meet the full obligations. Some of them were struggling to, you know, to be able to meet all of our obligations by 2024, and they will definitely not spend all the funds by 2026. But the most important thing is is that no one within the program has had any audit findings.

The counties that did did not go into the program have had some issues when the state aid examiners have come in and looked at how they utilize their ARPA funds. So I think that was that that in itself probably was well worth the fee. I mean, hopefully, there's other things that you guys found value out of that out of that out of being a part of the investment in Alabama County's program. So Brian can show this little like I said, this little graphical kind of picture of of what how we utilize the funds and where we stand today.

Good morning, commissioners. I wanna follow-up on the good news which Roger mentioned as we do have very good progress being met on the ARPA program. The the the funding has facilitated significant investment within infrastructure and community support services within the county. It's just been very, very successful. Our diligence in effectively administering those funds, which exceed 43,000,000, has led to complete success of the ARPA program.

Thank you. Right there. Okay. So as our deadline to finalize the expenditures approaches, the county and our partners have roughly seven months to complete the expenditure of $1,900,000 and complete those unfinished remaining projects. As you can see, water and sewer or excuse me, water and sewer is 96% completed.

We still have some completion remaining with the town of Summerdale and Silver Hill on their water towers. It's very very close. Regarding our HVAC facilities as well as the atrium and Sally Port expansions at the courthouse, that's 90% completed. And regarding the highway highway road county road improvement projects, those aspects are 96% completed. So the positive outcomes within our communities have been achieved through the dedication of multiple partners, county departments, the ACCA, IAC, as well as our community partners within the counties.

Again, a very successful program and we're winding down. We have seven months to go. Thank you.

Question can I ask?

Yes, sir. Yes,

sir. What about I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but because you're on track. What if what if we didn't meet the deadline? What if what what would the government federal government set try to do or state?

Basically, you're supposed to say whatever is left over that you do not spend, you you basically send back to the treasury. Yeah. Okay.

I'm very confident we'll finish the the HVAC projects are nearing completion. Highway just has one or two projects which are almost done. You know, we got seven months barring any hurricane event or whatever you don't know in the future. I think I think we'll achieve it. That's right. December 31 deadline.

But, I mean, in all reality Thank you. Let's let's say that you couldn't meet it all. 1.9 out of over 43,000,000 is amazing accomplishment.

Not nagle to nagle. It's very minor. So definitely

Yeah. Correct. Okay.

And then well, it's it's it's an interesting challenge because with, you know, with, you know, with most projects, you always wanna make sure you have allowances just to make sure to cover any cost of risk like that. So that's where the challenge has been. Some of these projects have definitely come under budget or come under, you know, the contract. And I'll it's very rare for me ever to call up a department and say, you need to spend some money. Find find something that's eligible to to make sure we don't have to send any of this back to treasury.

Thank you. Thank you. Great job, Brian.

Thanks, Brian.

Good deal. Good job. Yep. Thank you. I'm glad to hear that.

I'm glad that you're handling that and not us.

We have a great team.

Yeah. When we when we first started that that venture in our life, it was quite chaotic. So thank you for making it so seamless. Much appreciated.

I just wanna point out, good thing you did join the program.

Well, don't think we would have met you if we hadn't.

That's right.

Well, we had met you, but I don't think you would be here.

Yes. That is that that's what brought me brought me to you guys.

That's right. Yep.

Yep. Thank god you didn't tuck your tail and run.

Alright.

Attorney. Thank you, mister chairman. No executive sessions today.

Amen. Good.

Are you serious?

Yes, ma'am.

Man, must be selling something right.

I wouldn't. Let's not jinx it.

Yeah. Why why you wanna draw drum up something?

No. I just Alright. Way this week's went.

Alright. We're done until ten. Thank you all. Open this meeting up today. Today's commission meeting, 10:00 regular meeting, is gonna be led off by pastor Randy Warrell with the church of his presence. If you would come to the podium. Following that, will be commissioner Gruber giving our pledge of allegiance. Thank you.

I was here in September because my wife and I just moved here from Atlanta, and I tell you, I went to D And B. Everywhere I went, everybody had been so nice and kind. I thought, oh my word, this is like heaven on earth almost. And then it's been incredible, and I felt I made a comment, I felt like everybody been trained at Chick fil A or something. That's right. And then but the other day my wife found out one rude person and of course I wasn't there so I'm not sure how rude but I told my wife, you know, she probably not even from here or she just got here. Yeah. I wanna encourage us, if anybody rude that moves here, let's influence them. Don't let them influence us. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for joy and laughter and peace. We thank you for an incredible place to live and to serve. And, father, I ask your blessing upon this meeting, upon each elected official, each representative here today, that their needs will be met, they'll be brought closer to you, and and their and the reason for being here today will be heard, and the it'll be resulted in a good report for everybody. And father, we ask you continue to bless our nation, our president, all of our officials everywhere, and draw us closer to you, and help us to always to influence others for the good, and draw people to you every day in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge. 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 all very much.

Thank you, Pesh. Alright. Commissioners, we have before us our agenda. Today, we need to adopt the 05/05/2026 regular meeting minutes.

Mister chairman, I'll make the motion that we adopt the 05/05/2026 regular meeting.

I'll second it. Got a motion and a

second to adopt our minutes. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Okay.

Next up, commissioner Gruber. Okay. Mister chairman, I make a

motion that we, pay the bills. And in this report, it includes 799 invoices and a distribution totaling $3,000,485,400 dollars and 23¢.

I'll second it.

Got a motion and a second by commissioner, Gruber and a second by commissioner Underwood to pay the bills. That's a good thing to do. No further discussion and arguing about that. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Bills pass.

Mister chairman, I make a motion that we do the ratification of interim payments as allowed by policy number 8.1. And then this report includes 441 invoices and a distribution of $3,643,966.91.

I'll second it. You got a

motion by commissioner Gruber, second by commissioner McKenzie for item number b a two. That's the ratification of interim payments as allowed by policy 8.1. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Alright. Thank you all. Next up, commissioners, we have our consent agenda. And just remember when you make the motion on the consent agenda that you reference item GA one, which was an addenda.

Okay. Mister chairman, I'll make a motion that we approve our consent agenda that was discussed in our work session prior to this meeting. And in addition to what's on the consent agenda, the addition of item g a one that was listed as an addenda.

I'll second it. Motion by commissioner Underwood, a second by commissioner McKenzie to adopt our consent agenda. Any further discussions on that? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes. Next we're up to our presentations. We have some retiree recognitions. Come on up, Bo. Bo,

you retiring?

Good morning. Today we are recognizing Susan Hill for over sixteen years of service with Baldwin County and I wanted to say with almost seventeen years in county government, she is probably one of the nicest, kindest, and hardest working people I've ever had to work with. So I would like to ask Commissioner Fouse and Ms. Susan Hill to come up please.

Thank you, Bob.

Ho, me. Well,

I've been here for right at eighteen years. And when I was sworn in in September 2009, I was kind of a fish out of water. As you might all of y'all have been there before, I'm sure. Yes. And I worked with Susan at a prior job, and that that job had kinda fizzled.

It was we had a bad economy, and and the timing worked out great. I asked her to come work with us, and she did. And, Lord, I think the preacher said it right when it's kinda like heaven on earth around here. You get somebody you know and trust and love, and and you get to work with that individual. And she passes that love along to so many others.

The the employees have absolutely respected her over these years. She's done a phenomenal job. She's gotten to know everybody. A a quick little story. One of the first things I had her do was call do I can't remember what it was, but, anyway, she had to deal with miss Gaultney.

And miss Galtney, Wanda gave her a slap on her wrist, and she was oh, that just broke her heart. She didn't know what to do. Never been anything like that, but that was rectified real fast. And, she went on to have a great career with us, and, and I'm so proud of her and and wish her the best as she goes forward into the rest of her life and and know that you always have a place with us, Susan.

Thanks. Thank you. I

just wanna thank everyone. It's been a blessing to work and an honor to work for the county commission, and I'm gonna miss everyone.

Yeah. Enjoy it.

Thank you. And

and, Teddy, we call that type of experience with that slap on the wrist, that's called on the job training. We all learn it, you learn what not to do again. So thank you so much for your eighteen years of service, I don't I

can't remember.

Sixteen years. 16. He's 18. You're 16. So thank you so much for that dedication and a quite chaotic department that we have an umbrella with.

People like you that have that personality and, like he said, share the love with everybody, it's much needed when people walk in there with not so happy faces because they're paying property taxes or have liens or whatever, and you probably make them feel better. And what we do from this desk to his office is to help the public. It flows out to the public, and we need people like you there to and hopefully, people are just gonna follow your footsteps and do the same thing, which I'm I'm sure they're already doing, but you're gonna be a great void in that department over there and we're gonna miss you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Miss, is there anybody else?

Susan, just wanna say thank you for your service to the county. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. When I saw you in here, I'm like, no. She's retiring. Oh my goodness. But working with the revenue commissioner Fowse has been probably and and and the department that you guys lead has probably been one of the the Chick fil A experiences that I have had as a fellow elected commissioner. Sometimes it you know, there's a lot of people out there that people all say, just gotta get to know this person. They're okay. That's not the way it is with with with you guys. It's it's been good from the beginning. You talk about somebody that doesn't, like, stir the pot or anything like that.

It's just always been wonderful. I'm not saying others do. I'm just saying that it's just always been an easy transition. And and that's amazing because what you guys do is you're the tax collector. Okay? And it's like, you know, nobody likes the tax man, the tax collector, just in general from what taxes are. But we don't I don't get that feeling from you, and I guess people don't always understand that taxes are a necessary part of a civilized society. I mean, I was down in Foley Elementary School the other day for Career Day. Not really sure why they wanted me there, but that was a really unique experience. And I I talked from about 980 elementary school students, and I'm sitting here thinking, what can you tell them about Career Day?

You know? And I'm like, well, we're the county commission. We we do roads and bridges, and and and we we write the checks for the taxes, you know, that that build this school you're in. You guys have AC in your school gyms now. We didn't have that back then. They smell a lot better with the AC. And and it was just amazing because you couldn't take too many things to an elementary. You know, you had 20 kids coming through every five minutes. And but, yes, thank you, and congratulations on your retirement. Enjoy the best of the rest.

Susan, thank you.

What you're gonna do, know, driving back and

forth to work,

and then you buy yourself in that vehicle.

I know.

It's gonna

be boring.

Let's move your office down here. Susan,

thank you so very much.

Thank you.

You know, you've made a big improvement to the revenue department. You know, y'all have come a long way. As I was talking to a revenue commissioner a while ago, you know, Baldwin County has come a long way since we first took office. You know, we've had our ups and downs, but, you know, we always made it, and we made it so that, you know, it was the better thing for the citizens. We always try to improve on that.

And y'all have always been that, you know, in trying to help the citizens pay their taxes or whatever, you know. And not only just pay the taxes, but do some exemptions and stuff like that, which is very important, you know, because a lot of people, they depend on that. You know? So but and, again, thank you so very much for your service, and I hope the very best for you in the future. Thank you.

Thank you.

A good one. We got a picture. Alright. So next up, we're up to our public hearings phase of our agenda which deals with our planning and zoning cases that we have before us today. There's a few guidelines with our public hearings when people speak on behalf of whether it's developers or whether it's people against or for projects.

There's three minutes per speaker allowed to speak. If you're gonna be speaking for a group, you have five minutes. When you come to the podium to speak, if you don't mind stating your name and property address for the record, and then just stay on topic. We maintain decorum in here and be concise. Meaning, if one person is representing the group, we don't want five people up here telling the same story if if the one story gets out.

So because I'd be respectful and we don't interrupt. No personal attacks. No vulgar language and disruptive behavior and applause and then clapping and all that stuff. It's just, you know, it's just but it's a live meeting, we'll we'll get to that, and I monitor that. But those are just some little guidelines there, and I'm gonna let miss Salina take over from here.

Mister chairman, before we get into the first one, I would say, I believe the KCS one, the applicant is here, has requested to table it. Yeah. But since within the seven days of the meeting, you guys have to approve that table.

Commissioner, y'all good with

I'll make a motion that we accept that request through table.

I'll second the motion.

Okay. We got a motion to set a second to table item e s one, which is case Z26Slash08, Coburn property rezoning. Any further discussion?

I I would like to say something about that particular case. That is very close to the town limits of Silver Hill. And it if if it weren't so close, I believe it's within about 40 acres or about a quarter of a mile from the city limits of Silver Hill. The mayor had discussion with me yesterday about developments that happened right outside their city limits that they are trying to look at larger lots within their own footprint. And I think that it would be worthwhile for this to be tabled to give an opportunity because Silver Hill, even though there's a sign sticking on the front of the property, there's so many signs out there.

I've been told by highway engineers, more signs you have, the less people look at them. And so I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't think people see everything. And so they really weren't aware of the request. And so I think that tabling it would be a good idea to give those involved an opportunity to have discussions with the town.

So they want it to go from RSF 2 to RSF three, I'm assuming?

That's correct.

And I'm assuming that Silver Hill doesn't like it because their other their surrounding is probably that too, I guess. Or twos or threes. What was the mayor's what was his concerns? There was

an email from the mayor, did you not read it?

No. Didn't see.

Well, I think

When when does his email come out?

His email came yesterday afternoon about 05:00, and it was very detailed. And the the arguments that or the the concerns that he stressed in there were number one, this area just came under zoning a few years ago. And when this area came under zoning, it it was it was unzoned and then it came under as an RSF two. And so the surrounding properties, as you can see over here in the staff report, are all either agricultural rural district or RSF two. So what this actually does is it increases the density between the what do call that little intersection there?

And the town limits. Even though Silbury Hill has not been aggressive with wanting to really expand their footprint, they have interest in making sure that density isn't increased right outside the limits. And they are planning their new zoning and comprehensive plan. They're in the process of doing that right now. I think that was discussed in in his email that they want to see a minimum of 12,500, which is less than an RSF two, but it's more than an RSF three as far as the footprint.

And I think that would give I think tabling is a good option because it gives this landowner or the developer or whoever an opportunity to have discussions with Silver Hill in the event that they want to. But now if this existed in a vacuum and there was way away from where town limits would be, then I think it might I think there's arguments that could go both ways on the request. Since they're asking to table it, I don't think there's any need beating the dead dog anymore than I beat it. There you go.

I I want to make a statement. Respectful for the mayor for sending us an email telling us what to do and what not to do and what he doesn't want. But at the end of the day, we represent the county, we work well with our municipalities. But, you know, y'all table this thing and come back to us with it and and and see if we can, you know, get to an agreement. But this is in Baldwin County. It's not in Silver Hill. Will it affect Silver Hill? Absolutely. And but, you know, we need to we need to come to an agreement on some stuff. And Mhmm.

I mean, we're we're sitting here, you know, I was like I said, I respect the mayor's email and and I just just remember we're in Baldwin County when we're talking about it. So we we have had our motion. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Alright. That motion passes to table this. Next up is case Z26SlashO9, Hildebrandt property rezoning. So if there was anybody here for that case, you you free to go. So yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

He's for

he's Oh, you're here for this case?

Yeah. Okay.

So I'm a let miss Salina do her thing, and then, yes, sir, you'll be able to come up.

Alright. This is the Hildebrand property rezoning. They are requesting to go from RSF 1 to RSF 2. The subject property is located in the Lillian area. It's in Planning District 33.

It's just West of County Road 99. The current zoning is RSF one, residential single family. The applicant is asking for RSF two, which is also residential single family. It consists of 1.27 acres, and their request for the RSF two is to be able to divide their property. They wanted to do a family division of land, but since this is in a platted subdivision, they have to go through the subdivision process, so they are asking for r s f two zoning.

Here's the adjacent properties. Here's the locator and site map. You can see, the subject property is surrounded by RSF one zoning. There is a subdivision to the north and south that is RSF 2. The FLEM shows this area as rural agricultural and low impact development.

The subject property is approximately 1.27 acres, and they have requested the RSF 2 in order to divide their parcel into two. The zoning map amendment is somewhat consistent with the factors in the zoning ordinance, and it is not consistent with the flume, but the smart growth scorecard strongly supports the request.

Alright.

Commissioners, do y'all have any questions for Selena?

No. I do not. K.

Alright. So gonna open this public hearing on case Z26SlashO9, Hildebrandt property rezoning. I do not have my I'm trying to get my computer working, but it's not. So who do we have signed up to speak for this one?

He's the applicant.

Okay. Come on up, sir, and and state your name.

Yes, sir. Ma'am, distinguished county commissioners, my name is John Hildebrandt, and my residence is 33080 Road. I moved to Lillian in 1997. I've been a resident there since, and I intend to stay there. The reason why that we wanted to open this property for my sister and my my brother-in-law is that as they if we get older, we need to be close together, and I wanna provide for them as far as security and safety and all. That's my family. We grew up poor. We only had each other, but we had each other. And that's the most important thing in the love in the family, and I hope that you will consider that. In fact, I'm not making any money on the deal at all.

I just wanna help my family and be good to them like a good brother should. And I thank you for your time and hearing my calls. Thank you.

Mister Frank, sir.

Yes, sir.

Do y'all have any questions for mister Hildbrant?

No. I just wanna say family is very important, so thank you. Thank you, Yes. Alright. That's all you have. Public

hearing is closed. Commissioners, I have a motion.

Mister chairman, I'll make a motion that we approve case number Z26DashO9 to Hildebrand property rezoning.

I'll second it.

Got a motion to accept it. Excuse me. Motion and second to approve this case. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Next up, we got Z26ten, the Shoneman property rezoning. Guess I

That's correct.

I hope I did that right. Alright.

This is a request to rezone from BCZ, which is base community zoning to RSF one. Here, you can see the subject property is located North Of County Road 34. It's in the Planning District 8. They are requesting b c I mean, they're currently zoned b c z, and they're requesting RSF one single family. The subject property is 6.7 acres.

It is currently vacant. Here's the subject property and the surrounding properties. This is the locator map and the site map. You see to the where the property is highlighted is surrounded by BCZ, and to the east is RSF 1, which was recently rezoned from BCZ, and to the north is the city of Fairhope. The flume map shows this area's part mid density and also ideal conservation preservation area.

As stated, the property consists of 6.7 acres. The larger parcel to the east was recently rezoned from BCC to RSF one. The parcels to the north are in the city of Fairhope and are zoned r one that allows 15,000 square foot lots. The Flume does identify this area as mid, density development, and most of the surrounding areas is evolving towards low and mid density residential. The zoning map amendment would be consistent with the factors, and, also, it is consistent with the future land use map. The smart growth scorecard strongly supports this request.

Any questions for Selena? Chair is now open. Is there anybody signed up to speak on this matter? What's your name,

Chris Lee. Okay.

Good morning. My name is Chris Lee with Lee Engineering Company. I'm here on behalf of the developer, and I'll answer any questions if you have.

Don't have any questions? No. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Anybody else? For or against? Alright. Public hearing is over. Commissioners?

I'll make a motion that we approve this request. Second.

We got a motion and a second to approve case Z26-ten Shona Man property rezoning. No further discussions. All those in favor, sing by by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes. Case number Z26Slash11, Fralick property rezoning.

Alright. This is a request to rezone from residential to rural agriculture. The subject property is located just south, of Silver Hill. It is located in Planning District 14. It's currently zoned r s f two residential single family, and the applicant is requesting it to go to r a, rural agriculture. It consists of a little over 10 acres. It's currently vacant, and the rezoning, is requested for a residential accessory use. Here's the surrounding properties. Here's the locator and site map. You can see on the locator map, it is surrounded by RSF two zoning.

Most of the uses are residential or agricultural in the area. The flame shows this as moderate development potential area and also ideal conservation. The subject property is a little over 10 acres. The applicant is asking that it be rezoned to r a to allow an accessory structure on the subject property without a dwelling. The flume shows this area as mostly moderate density development. So the zoning map amendment is somewhat consistent. It is not consistent with the flume, but the smart growth scorecard somewhat supports the request.

Any questions for Selena?

No. I

don't like now, though.

Alright. Any

open to public hearing on this case. Is there anybody here that wish to speak for on behalf of this case against it? We don't have anybody here. Public hearing closed. County commissioners.

What? I don't know if he said did you you

I'm getting a head shake there in the back. There's no sign ups. So is there somebody who wants to speak on it?

We're both here at the premises for property.

Okay. I just didn't know that post sometimes.

Yep, y'all good. So Okay. Mr. Chairman, commissioners, I need a vote on this one.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve case number Z26Dash11, the Fralick property rezoning.

I'll second it.

Motion is second to approve case number Z26eleven, Fralick property rezoning. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. A motion passes.

Next

up is Case Z2612 Gillis Property Rezoning.

This is gonna be her last presentation.

Good morning, commissioners.

Good

morning. Is Case Z2612, the Gillis property. The request is to rezone from BCZ to RR. Here's the location of the property within the County. This is in Planning District 39. The property is located North Of US Highway 98 and East of Marion Beach Road Extension in Fairhope. It's approximately one acre. The current use of the property is vacant, and the applicant is requesting to rezone for commercial use on the property. Here are the adjacent property images. Here's a locator and site map.

The property is surrounded primarily by BCZ zoning with either vacant or residential use, and then we have unzoned property to the south in Planning District 17, and it is used as commercial. Here's the future land use map. It is the property is within a rural crossroad center node, but underneath that activity node, we see primarily ideal conservation development potential with a small area of rural agricultural low impact development. In terms of the staff analysis, as mentioned earlier, the request is to rezone the property to r r for commercial use for a proposed auto repair shop. Areas in this, subject near the subject property are designated for residential use, within base community zoning.

In terms of conformity to the master plan, as mentioned earlier, it is within a rural crossroad centered node, but we do see ideal conservation development potential with a small area of low impact development potential. In terms of the impact to health, safety, and welfare for the county, the property does lie within the highway construction setback. If this request is approved, a highway construction setback appeal would be required during the site plan approval process. So staff has determined that the requested zoning map amendment is somewhat consistent with the factors specified within the zoning ordinance, but not consistent with the future land use map. And the zoning map amendment was evaluated using the smart growth scorecard, and it somewhat supports the request.

And I'll be happy to answer any questions.

I I do. This is a very unique shaped piece of properties. And with it being on a US highway, what is the setback on The US.

25 feet. 125 feet.

Okay. And it's not quite an acre. And my only concern is you said it's gonna require a variance on the highway setback? An appeal? Yeah. It'll go to

the Planning Commission for a highway construction setback appeal.

Yeah, but isn't that the doesn't ALDOT have a say so in that? And I think they're very rigorous about that. Are they not? I don't want to give people false hopes that they're gonna Frank, could you speak to that or Mark? Yes.

Commissioner. You're correct. I mean, it it you know, local law does establish the highway setbacks, and and that is something we need to be very mindful of of of whether, you know, variance will be considered or, you know, an ALDOC would have a say that this is a state road and and that is something they would be very interested in in addressing, I would think. So, and it is for for future growth planning. There's a reason those setbacks were established for Baltimore County, and it is

because that is only a two lane highway at this point in time.

That is correct. And and so that is absolutely something that needs to be considered as we look for few you know, long range planning, and and the reason is there is to keep structures from being placed in a footprint that could likely be impacted down the road if future roadway expansions would occur. So it's something that we

would That's my biggest concern. The use portion is not an issue. It's the it's the uniqueness of this the the shape of the lot. I personally own a very unique piece of property in the town of Summerdale that's on Highway 59, and I don't even know if that would be rebuildable because it's been there since the sixties, and Highway 59 was two lane. It's become a five lane road now.

And I'm I'm just concerned that that that this might be an issue for the the property owner. I just that just concerns me, and and I really don't like to give people a false sense of hope that just because you rezone something that you're I would really be interested to know, maybe has there been any discussion with the the landowner or the developer about that potential? Have they discussed it with or We don't know.

Can I ask a question on top of that, Jay and Frank?

Who's here for that?

Comes to y'all with a a request like this, y'all lay out lay out all the if, ands, and buts. Right? So these I'm sure the the owner of this property has been clearly made aware of the highway issue and is still wanting to move forward with this case?

Yes.

We're a buyer beware state

that I just Okay.

Well, me ask you this if you don't mind. Can you pull the map back up, where it says, that little triangle, that weird shape? If you look, and and I don't know if y'all seen it lately, but a couple lots to the, that'll be towards the east, there's a house being built. A house being being built with this weird shape. So, I mean, it's not saying it can't be done. We just and they they're aware of it. So I I I just want y'all to be aware. There's a house being built right now next to that that little cemetery.

So Right.

So just to be clear too, the the highway construction setback is a 120 feet from the center line

That's right.

On Highway 98. So it it probably doesn't include the entire property, but it does significantly impact. And the fact that this is just kind of a strange triangular shape is it's gonna take a lot of that western side, you know, out. But but, yeah, commissioner, Ball, we do, you know, always give them the whole way of plan of everything they're gonna be dealing with. But

Well, just because we're rezoning it doesn't mean they're gonna get their wishes all the way around. It's what we're getting to.

That's correct, yeah.

And the wards had a business there already. The family that used to own it years ago, it was the wards and they had a shop there. So it's not then that setback's probably been I mean, how long has that been? ALDOT has had that in

I would think that old car shop probably predated the set

how we should say that.

But, you know, that's been going for

a while.

Started it.

Yeah. It's it's just a challenging piece of property

for sure.

Alright.

Alright. Thank you.

Thank you, Corey. Mhmm. Anybody here I I didn't see anybody sign up to speak on this. Anybody here that wants to speak on this one?

Well, we are here.

We didn't sign up to speak.

Okay. If we if we need you, we'll yes, sir. Y'all y'all heard everything we talked about? Y'all aware of of the uniqueness of this property?

So yes, sir.

I'm gonna open the public hearing. And so nobody's signed up to speak. We do have the property representatives here if if y'all wanna ask them questions. But if if if I hear none, then I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing.

Do you mind if I ask the

Absolutely.

Do you mind coming up and I'll ask you a question to the owners? It's not gonna be a hard question. I'm not gonna try to trick you or anything, trust me. Mr. Gerald Gill, this is also Yeah, because I know what it used to be there. It was the Warwick family that owned it years ago when I was growing so there used to be a mechanic shop there. And I think that's what your plan I

cleaned it up.

Yeah, it looks good. Y'all done

a and lot of I did measure from the front of the slab to the center line. The front of the slab does meet, it is past a 125 foot. So what was previously there did meet the setbacks. I have delineation stuff on the right side, but I've I've been working through all that. And I I I'm been brought aware of all this. This is why there's been nothing there still.

I appreciate y'all cleaning it up.

Yeah, yeah. And I believe in the property. I don't wanna give up on it. So right now I'm just cutting grass.

That's right.

Well, we appreciate it. Yeah.

Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. Any more? Public hearing is closed. Commission?

Well, I just wanna state for the record that I'm not opposed to what you wanna do. I just understand the challenges. And we're dealing with the situation on 181 with the MPO of a subdivision that has houses built in the footprint of where the four lane is gonna go, and those have all been mean, seriously. Okay? And and it's like, that's gonna end up eventually in something happening.

Either they're gonna have to condemn it, tear them down, or I I don't make decisions for Aldott, but I can't see them dadoing the road around just to go around a house. You know? And so it's just, you know, we've just been through a rigorous it ain't over yet, but election season. And everybody's like, when we gonna four lane the East West corridors? When we gonna do this?

You know, that's an ALDOC decision. But at the same time, you do what you want to do, but at the same time, it's like I would probably look to buying a little bit of that land behind me and moving it off the road a little bit so that because you don't look near as old as I am. You might live long enough that you might see a four lane, you know? I just it's just it's common sense. Okay? Thank you.

Do we need to make a motion?

I'll make a motion we approve it. That's what they want. And there ain't nothing wrong with it, it's just something

that So we got a motion

to I'll

it. I got a second. Hearing no more discussion on this, all in favor, say by saying aye.

Aye. Aye.

Alright. Next up is Case Z26Slash13, BOE Road Property LLC rezoning.

Alright. This is CaseZ2613, BOE Road Property LLC. The request is to rezone from b c z to b one. The property is also located in Planning District 39. It is North Of US Highway 98 and East Of Reno Road in Fairhope. It's approximately 2.75 acres, and the current use is vacant. And the applicant is requesting to rezone for commercial use on the property. Here are the adjacent property images. Here's the locator and site maps. The property is surrounded by base community zoning to the north, east, and west.

And to the south, we see unzoned Planning District 17. The property is surrounded by either agricultural or commercial land uses. Here's the future land use map. It is located in a rural crossroads center node. The underlying future land use map development potential is primarily rural, agricultural, or low impact, and we do see a small area of conservation development potential.

In terms of the staff analysis, the applicant is requesting to rezone to B 1 to allow for commercial use. And at the time the zoning regulations were established, there were surrounding properties designated and developed for commercial purposes. Also, this site as well as the neighboring parcels are part of a palated commercial park subdivision. And as mentioned earlier, the future land use map shows this property within a rural crossroads center node, and it is primarily rural agricultural or low impact development. So staff has determined that the requested zoning map amendment is consistent with the factors of the Baldwin County zoning ordinance as well as the future land use map, and the smart growth scorecard strongly supports the request.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Corey?

I don't really have a I don't

really have a question, but this is just one of those situations where that we've got a couple of zoning request applications in for other districts. We need to be very careful of the original designated zoning because this makes no sense that these parcels adjacent to this or this parcel were given this designation. So I I feel like that, you know, that's worth stating.

I'm gonna open up public hearing. Is there anybody here sign up to speak for this case? I don't see anyone on my list. Anybody wish to speak for or on behalf of this? Hearing none, close the public hearing.

I'll make a motion we approve this request.

And I'll second that.

Okay. Got a motion and a second to approve case Z26Slash13 BOE Road Property LLC. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Is that four ayes?

Aye. Yep. Okay.

Yep.

Robinson Cranley and Rezoning Z 26 Slash 14.

Alright. This case is to request is to rezone from RSF 1 in RTF 4 to rezone the entire parcel to RTF 4. Here's the location of the property within the county. This is in Planning District 22. The property is North Of Collier Road and East Of County Road 93 in the Lillian community.

It's approximately 2.5 acres. The current use is residential, and the applicant is requesting continued residential use on the property. Here are the adjacent property images. Here's the locator and site maps. The property is surrounded by RSF one zoning with primarily residential land use.

Here's the future land use map, and the majority of the property is within the rural agricultural low impact development area with some areas of the property identified as conservation development potential. So in terms of the staff analysis, as mentioned earlier, the applicant is requesting to rezone the entire property to RTF four to support continued residential use. Before the establishment of zoning, the property included both single family and two family dwellings. And upon adoption of the zoning map, the property was classified as RSF one. In 2019, we had a partial rezoning of the property to RTF four, but no development occurred in that area, and it left portions of the property still zoned RSF one containing nonconforming uses.

So the current request seeks to rezone the remaining portion of the property from r s f one to r t f four to bring the existing residences into greater conformity. So staff has determined that the requested zoning map amendment is somewhat consistent with the factors specified in the Baldwin County zoning ordinance, but not consistent with the future land use map. The smart growth scorecard somewhat supports the request. And I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions before?

It's just another weird situation that if I'm understanding the staff reports and what you just said, that there's been no construction since it came under zoning, that every bit of this was in place prior to zoning and that it's nonconforming use. Is that correct? On part of the buildings that are on there? That's correct. Okay. Just another example of another day in Paradise. Okay.

Gonna open the public hearing. On this case, I don't see anybody signed up to speak on this. Anybody here?

I'm I'm here for representative.

Okay. Do y'all have any questions for the applicant? Okay. Close the public hearing and, commissioners need a motion.

I'll make a motion we approve this request.

And I'll second it.

Got a motion and a second to approve case d 26Slash14 Robinson Cranley property rezoning. No further discussions, assume. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay, motion passes.

Thank you, Cole. Thank you all. You load us up today but they were good.

Yeah, thank you, Celine.

All right.

Other staff recommendations? Thank you, sir. You've taken care of our agenda item. I would think I would thought this place would be crawling with press today, but they're not. Anybody here representing the press? K. Commissioner comments. I'm gonna start off with commissioner Gruber.

Again, thank the staff, you know, for, getting this, meeting put together, getting all the paperwork taken care of. You know you know, Susan, you know, she's retiring. That's, you know, that's, you know, that's good for her. I just wanna wish her the very best. And we have somebody that's leaving us and going for another place, and that's Corey.

She's going to the city of Foley. She's going to be there in their planning department, so we're gonna definitely miss miss her very much. And just thank you for all the years that you've helped this county and bringing the planning department into where it's at today. You know, we've got a good staff and good leaders, you know, we're we're doing the very best that we possibly can with the regulations that we have. You know?

And that's what we can only do. That's all we can do. We have we're going by the regulations. So, you know, I hope everybody understands that, you know, some of the stuff you don't may not like it, but it's by the regulations. And so, again, thank you very much.

My next? Just wow, Corey. I'm gonna piggyback on what he said. I always thought you did a very good job in the planning department. And the challenges that we have with PNC and and county government is is something that people absolutely have no idea.

And I even I was talking to someone about a book that I have, and actually, I'm gonna pull it out. This is a book that is I put it in Ziploc bags. I didn't want it get all bent up. I don't like bent up stuff. But y'all can see I've flagged it a lot.

I've not read this whole book. I don't even know how many pages, but that's more than thick of a book I ever wanna read at one time. But it's called Alabama in the Twentieth Century by Wayne Flint, and this book was recommended to me by none other than Cliff McCollum that was working in the legislative office about maybe four or five years ago, and professor Flint is retired now from Auburn University. I see Roger over there chuckling. That's not fair.

You're gonna make me laugh. But all I gotta say is that county government is so hard in the state of Alabama, in my opinion, because if especially if you're in a fast growing county like Baldwin County, because everybody thinks you can do this. And then I had somebody tell me the other day, they're like, well, I'm just tired of you telling me you can't do something. I said, well, then you know what? Then change the law if you wanna I said, because the law is the law, and I follow the law.

And I said, and I tell you the truth. I said, you want me to sit here and just, oh, I wish I could do this. I said, I'm gonna tell you the truth. Under the current law, we can't do this. And so this book has some really good explanations of the last of our 1901 constitution.

People can say whatever they want to say out there, but until you really study it and even if you study it, you might not understand it because it's complicated. But with all that being said, I think I started out talking about Corie, but we'll miss you, Corie. If y'all want an interesting read, I think I ordered that used off of Amazon because I didn't wanna pay the full price. It might not even be in print anymore. But I actually met Wayne Flint last year at the To Kill a Mockingbird play up in Monroeville.

He was there because he was really, really, really, really good friends with, Harper Lee. But all that being said, this week has been a week that's been hard for the commission, for those that are up here. It it's bittersweet in a lot of ways. I'm thankful for the opportunity to continue, hopefully, serve. I know I still have November, but thank you guys for your support and prayers for all of us up here. It's not easy. Thank you.

Staff, thank you. Corey, Selena,

it's been an honor to work

with y'all and the staff, everybody here. You've done an excellent job. I hate that Foley's taken out all of our employees, so maybe the commission can do something for the budget to keep employees.

Maybe they can take us.

I know. Maybe we can go to Foley after this.

We'll see. Thank

you. That's right. That's right, Jeff.

But no, just thank you. Since I've been on the commission, your y'all's presentations has been very professional and done an excellent job and I'm very proud of that. Like Commissioner Underwood did say about it's been tough this week. But the people spoke and we're gonna move on. And there's chances for things. It's heartbreaking when you lose something, but it's okay. God's got a plan for all of us, whatever he decides for us to do. And I'll find that out. What I don't like is how dirty politics always happens, but it's politics. And that's just something we have to deal with every day and everybody knows that.

But I want you to know something from the bottom of my heart. When I went to y'all's planning and zoning thing, there was no will or wrong intentions. My intentions were just to find out about a job. I want y'all to know that. I've never done that and never will. Ever put y'all in that position where y'all have to say, hey, no commission, you can't do that. I understand that but I respect y'all for guiding us and helping us during this transition or during my four years. Politics is a beast and I hate it. I really do. I'm really shocked that some of the deputies that came out and the ones that left, I was gonna say it, but I'm really shocked at what they did when I ran for sheriff.

But that's okay. They have the right to their First Amendment. But you know what? There is policies out there that they need to stick to, and hopefully they will. Hopefully that'll be looked into. But to bash my career as a state trooper and as a police officer, I I take that very offended because I worked my butt off. And in my Marine Corps career, I'm very proud of what I have accomplished. And so for them to do that, I'm really shocked. But that's okay. Politics is a beast, but you know what? They were they were But it's alright. But anyway, I just wanna say this again. Thank you for everybody that's helped me. Thank you for the citizens that are listening. Thank you for the citizens that voted for me.

Because this new sheriff is gonna have to work on those other half of the people that voted for me and to make a change and make a difference. So good luck to you all of y'all and thank you again for voting for me. So thank you.

So I got a little bit different take on things. Talking about the poll workers, wanted to reach out and thank every single one of those guys that step up and do that almost on a volunteer basis. All the people that stay in the Commission chambers late at night are helping out with that, that's involved with our staff. Thank you for stepping up and doing that. It's a long night and you know, I just wanted to recognize the poll workers, our staff for putting together this agenda.

And, let's not forget that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend. And I and I kinda looked this up because I wanted to talk about this, that, this has been around for a long time, and this is a somber part of our year, but there's more to it than just that because there's four distinct themes that happens during Memorial Day weekend. Number one, definitely is the honorable, and they honor the mourning and loss of all US military personnel that was lost in the line of duty. This is different from Veterans Day, and that's my biggest message every year doing this. There's two totally different things.

Not one is more important than other, but this is honoring the fallen heroes that lost their life in the line of duty. And, also, there's Decoration Day origins where a long time ago, back in the eighteen hundreds, they decorated Confederate graves with flowers on this day. And and then we have a national moment of remembrance on 03:00, and whatever time zone we're in, we we pause to recognize this day. And then it's the unofficial start to summer, So the hot weather's coming. But my message is is it is a is it is a weekend that, a lot of people celebrate.

A lot of activity down south at the beach, and I just want people to stay safe and, you know, get safe drivers if you've been drinking and and avoid fatalities. And and and this Memorial Day is when we have our highest if you've been a state trooper, you know, have our highest rate of traffic fatalities on our highways, and it can be avoided if you get somebody to drive you around instead of trying to take the chance after you've been drinking and come home or something, boating is just as dangerous as well. So use common sense during this weekend. Take a moment to reflect that when you're barbecuing on the grill, y'all get a day off on Monday, whatever it may be, that there's a reason for that, that we get to have these luxuries in life. And I suppose there's blood that was shed for those those people that gave their lives for us to have a free country to be able to grill out on a Monday and take a day off of work and spend time with the family and usher in the summer.

So it's a very, you know, somber day for us to to reflect on, and there'll be some ceremonies going around. I would encourage you to look for Memorial Day ceremonies. We'll have one at the State Veterans Cemetery. There's one at William F. Green, as we always do. Commissioner Gruber usually attends every one of those as well as I do. And just look for local events and attend. They're very, very powerful messages usually delivered at those types of things, and it makes you feel proud to be an American when you hear those comments. And also wish Susan well with her retirement. I know she didn't stick around any longer today because she had to probably catch her ride back somewhere, but Susan was a great employee for us, and I'm gonna miss her.

With that being said, I don't have any further comments, and I'm gonna adjourn the meeting.