Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

That is why our sponsors here in Brevard County are so important. I'd like to thank our many area sponsors, businesses and medical providers who support the mission of helping seniors that help us carry the cost of our media efforts. If you'd like to join us either as a business partner or simply donate as an individual, We welcome your call at 321-473-7770. You're always welcome to visit our website at www.helpingseniorsofbrevard.org. Thanks so much for your help. It does make a difference.

you . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting, please fill out a speaker card. Each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card. The chair has the discretion to determine or alter the time limits on any agenda item. The Board of County Commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comments section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to county business that are within the board's control, authority, and jurisdiction.

Okay, I'd like to recognize Keith, is it Beecher? How do you pronounce it? Besher. Keith Besher to lead us in the invocation today.

Good morning, Commissioners, staff, and all in attendance. As we prepare to begin this meeting, may we pause to acknowledge who is in this room and who this room is meant to serve. We are representatives and citizens, conservatives and liberals, atheists and believers. We come from different neighborhoods, different backgrounds, and different beliefs. These, along with the multitude of identifiers we attach to ourselves, need not divide us, nor keep us from doing good work. Our communities thrive not because we hold a sameness of belief, but because of the values we choose to share, how we treat one another, fairness in governance, and a commitment to improving our county for all. These values do not require agreement and belief, they only require that we show up. American writer Zora Neale Hurston reminds us that there is nothing to make you like other human beings so much as doing things for them. That is not a matter of doctrine. It is a matter of practice, and it is exactly the practice of good government. We've all heard the old adage that democracy isn't a spectator sport. It isn't. It is built vote by vote. meeting by meeting by we the people willing to speak, to listen and to disagree without contempt. Every voice in this chamber and every voice not in this chamber has a stake in what we decide here today. So let us proceed with open minds, with respect for one another and with the seriousness this work deserves. Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here. Commissioner Felton would like to lead us in the pledge. Please join me in the pledge.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to allow Mr. Goodson to join us by phone.

I'll second that. There's a motion to allow Commissioner Goodson to join us by phone. All in favor say yay.

Yay. Yay.

Carries unanimously, thank you. Okay, our first order of business is, I'd like to call the meeting officially to order. The first order of business will be D1, amendments for approval, May 19th, regular meeting, August 13th, the Melbourne-Timberwater controlled public hearing, and July 7th, regular meeting.

I make a motion to approve.

This motion, is there a second? I'll second. Motion and second to approve the minutes. Any discussion, changes, corrections, deletions? All in favor say yay. Yay. Opposed? Carries unanimously. Okay. We'll now go to resolutions, awards, and presentations. First item is E1, Resolution Acknowledging September 2026 as Brevard County Hunger Awareness Month.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And today we have Stephanie Plasios, Senior Director of Advocacy and Government Relations with us here today. And I'll read your resolution and we'll recognize you and we'll pass it and then you can you can speak. Okay. 2026 Brevard County Hunger Action Month Proclamation. Whereas hunger is an issue of vital concern in Brevard County, where 13.2% of people, including one in every five children, experience food insecurity, and whereas Brevard County is committed to taking steps to combat hunger in every part of our community, and whereas Brevard County is committed to working with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida to educate people about the role and importance of the Food Bank Network and how food banks stand alongside neighbors facing hunger to ensure everyone has access to the food and resources they need to thrive. And whereas Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida distributed over 9.1 million meals to Brevard County residents last year through a network of 84 partner agencies, food pantries, meal programs, and other community organizations. And whereas the month of September has been designated Hunger Action Month to bring communities together to elevate the voices of people who experience food insecurity and inspire everyone to take action to end hunger. And whereas food banks across the country including Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and its partner agency network will host numerous events throughout the month of September to bring awareness and help and hunger in their local community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida does hereby recognize September 2026 as Hunger Action Month. Done order adopted in regular session is 15th day of September 2026. Mr. Chair, with that, I'll make a motion for approval.

I'll second.

Motion and second. All those in favor say, aye. Aye. It carries unanimously. Thank you, you're recognized.

Thank you so much and good morning. As Commissioner Feltner said, my name is Stephanie Palacios and I'm with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and we have the pleasure of serving this community as well as seven counties total in Central Florida. We can't do the work that we do without our partner agency network. We have 84 partner agencies in Brevard County that are doing this work every day. They are working with neighbors, they are working with us, and they are serving families, children, and seniors in the community. One thing that I can ask, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask the community to do, is to volunteer. Hunger Action Month is a time where we can take action, and the action that you can take is to work at a nonprofit near you, one that's close to your heart, and you can volunteer. Many of our partner agencies ask us to help them recruit volunteers because that's something that they struggle to do. So I'll call to the community. If you have a church or a pantry near you that you want to help, Now's the time to volunteer. Also, our branch in Melbourne, we can accept volunteers there as well, about 25 volunteers. If you have not been to our branch in Melbourne, please feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to give you a tour and share with you a little bit about what we do and that's an all call to the community too. If they want to come visit us for a tour, please come, we would love to have you. Thank you all so much and it's nice to see all of you.

All right, I have a frame resolution for you, okay?

Thank you so much for what you do. Now are you, you have 11 counties, do you live here in Belvoir? Seven, we have seven.

I live in Seminole County, which happens to be right in the middle of all of our seven.

Thank you for coming over.

Of course, anytime. We have an office in Melbourne, so.

It's bigger than she is.

Okay, next item, E2 is a resolution recognizing ADUDA and Sons, Inc. on its 100th anniversary. Commissioner Feltener.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I have two people here today from Duda Company, if you'll come up. We have Tracy Duda Chapman, Duda Chief Legal and Administrative Officer, and we have Todd Pokreva, Duda CEO of the Real Estate Group. I think everyone seems to know these two individuals. We have a lot of interaction with them. Brevard County, Florida resolution recognizing A. Duda & Sons Inc. on its 100th anniversary. Whereas A. Duda & Sons Inc. was founded in 1926 by Andrew Duda, a first-generation American Slovak heritage and entrepreneurial spirit established, the foundation for a family business that has grown across five generations and whereas for a century, A. Duda and Sons, Inc. has played a significant role in Florida through its diversified agriculture and real estate operations and its responsible stewardship of the land and its resources by maintaining a long-term view of the land and the people who depend on it. And whereas A. Duda and Sons, Inc. is the parent company of wholly owned subsidiary, the Vieira Company, along with all businesses comprising its real estate group in Brevard County, including Vieira Builders, Vieira Pools and Outdoor Living, Vieira Commercial Properties, Duran Golf Club, Addison Village Club, Duda Side and Duda Ranches. And whereas the Duda family's Slovak heritage remains, an important part of its identity, as is demonstrated in the name Viera, the Slovak word for faith, which was given to the Brevard County master-planned community developed by the Viera Company in honor of the family's Christian values and long-term vision for the community. Whereas Viera has grown into a thriving Brevard County community, reflecting the mission of the Vera Company to create a vibrant, livable community built on faith, integrity, and thoughtful stewardship of the land. And whereas A. Duda & Sons Inc. has supported Central Florida communities through charitable giving, partnerships, and initiatives that create opportunities and improve the quality of life for local residents, And whereas 100 years of family ownership is a significant achievement made possible by the dedication of the Duda family, employees of the company, and others who have contributed to the company's success, and whereas the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners recognizes A. Duda & Sons, Inc. for a century of enterprise, innovation, and service, and for the lasting role the company and the Duda family have played in the growth and appeal of Brevard County, Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners hereby recognizes A. Duda & Sons, Inc. on the occasion of its 100th anniversary and extends its congratulations to the company and its employees and the Duda family as the company begins its second century. Done order and adopted in regular session this 15th day of September, 2026. With that, Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion for approval.

There's a motion for the resolution. There's a second? Second. All in favor say yay. Yay. Carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Would you like to say a few words?

Thank you very much, and on behalf of the Duda family and the company, I just want to say thank you for Brevard County recognizing us on our 100th anniversary. It's a major milestone, and we've been celebrating with a tagline of Duda 100 years strong, because we really are blessed to have really amazing employees, past and present, who have really made our company what it is today. and we've honored them throughout our celebration. As you said, you know, Vieira is named Faith and the company really is driven by really a lot of faith in terms of decisions that it makes. And I would say I think the three seniors, my grandfather and his two brothers, as they rode horses looking at the Brevard County Cocoa Ranch when they purchased it in the uh 60s 50s and 60s that they had faith that one day it could be something else and the third generation really had faith when they decided to embark on a real estate business in 1989 and so i just want to say thank you to brevard county having faith in us as a company that we could develop a community that people would want to live in right here in central brevard county and i think we've delivered on that promise so thank you to brevard county the staff commission and past commissions and staff because y'all made a difference in our success so thank you very much thank you

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. I just want to add a couple of things to what Tracy shared. I have the great privilege of working for DUDA and leading our real estate group here in Brevard County. We have hundreds of employees across all of our business operations here locally and many more that preceded them. Like Tracy said, on behalf of all of them, I want to thank you. We have a great partnership. with Brevard County. We wouldn't be able to do what we've done and be ranked as one of the top selling master plan communities in the country without that collaboration that we have with you, Brevard County government, as well as all the other major stakeholders here on the Space Coast. So I thank you on behalf of all of them. We have 16,000 homes that have been developed to date, 4 million square feet of office and commercial space, over 1,000 jobs in the master plan community of Vieira. We still have a long runway in front of us. So we're expanding the tax base. We're creating value, providing a place for people to live, work and play. And thank you again for this opportunity and this recognition of our 100th anniversary.

I have two resolutions I'll bring down to you. I'll just say real quick, it's an honor for me to be the VIRA Commissioner, and I say Sun Tree too, and so we're always excited about the new things that open up, and I consider myself an ambassador, so anyone who's coming to meet with me, I'm like, hey, have you been to the new Olive Tree? It's beautiful this time of year, let's go. And so we do a lot of that and enjoy all of those new things that are brought to Vieira. So it is an exciting place to be. Okay, I have the resolutions for you.

All right, we ready?

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the partnership that we have with Duda and Vieira. Okay, now we will move to E3. Resolution recognized in September 2026 is National Suicide Prevention Month. I'd like to read, I asked Jeanette Grindling. Jeanette, did I get that right, Jeanette? Thank you for being here. Whereas September is designated as National Suicide Prevention Month, as recognized by the National Association of Mental Illness, and whereas many health officials and community leaders locally, state, and nationally understand that mental health illness is a significant issue of concern, particularly among our youth, and whereas we realize that to address mental health issues requires more open and honest discussions about mental health, and whereas one major hurdle is removing the stigma attached to mental health treatment and discussion, and whereas individuals, businesses, organizations, public officials, and many other recognize the importance of emotional health, and whereas the Brevard County Board of Commissioners support efforts on the Space Coast to provide education and resources for mental health problems. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida does hereby recognize September 2026 as National Suicide Prevention Month. and encourages those with mental health issues to seek the help of a family member, friend, colleague, and or licensed mental health professional to assist them in times of need. This is done, ordered, and adopted in regular session, 15th day of September, 2026. The motion be in order. So motion? I'll second. Second for approval. All in favor say yay. Yay.

Yay.

Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioners, for your support, and especially Commissioner Altman for sponsoring the proclamation. I'm Janet Ginling. I'm the president and CEO of Space Coast Health Foundation. Your action today is important because Brevard County is the only one of Florida's 67 counties where all municipalities and governing bodies pass proclamations and resolutions to support efforts to prevent suicide. It's another reason why this county is special. On the Space Coast, the suicide numbers hit a little harder because Brevard has one of the highest suicide rates in Florida, more than 17 people annually for every 100,000 people. We don't know why it's higher in Brevard, but the Space Coast Health Foundation and our partners are committed to reversing it. If there is one thing we can each do individually, maybe it's just being there for someone who is visibly distressed. In 2000, a young man named Kevin Hines jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. He somehow survived and is now leading advocacy work for suicide prevention and mental health. Prior to jumping, Kevin said he was walking on the bridge, sobbing and clearly in poor emotional state. No one asked him what was wrong. Kevin said if someone had stopped him and asked if he was okay, he probably wouldn't have jumped. Let's take that lesson and always be that person who asks, is everything okay to someone who is in need? It's likely to make a difference in someone's life. Thank you again for your support and I'd like to let my partners make a comment. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Kelly Haskins. I founded Do It Pro Hunter, which is a local nonprofit based out of Merritt Island. We've been around since we lost Hunter, almost five years ago. It'll be five years, the end of this month. We do many activities in our community to bring the You Matter message to our community. I know everybody's heard You Matter, but we are kind of like boots on the ground and we do things to try to make a difference. Myself and Colleen, we both lost our kids and so this is what we do. I brought some things for you guys this morning. We do have an activity or an event coming up this Saturday. It's called You Matter Day. It'll be our fifth annual. It started as a lemonade stand and now it's progressed to a really great community event. I hope you guys can come. It's at Merritt Island High School, nine till one o'clock. We hope you can come, okay?

Tell us a little bit about Hunter. You said the name of the organization's do it for Hunter.

Yeah, Hunter was my son, is my son. He was 18. We lost him to suicide when we sent him off to UCF. He had a bad day. That was it. Yeah. And Emily, same.

Yeah, give yourself a reason. You know, 18 years old, went to FSU and took her life. So, beautiful. Shouldn't be happening.

We want to kind of make awareness as well. So, we're kind of... One is too many, we say. And, you know, our goal is to just save one. So...

Okay.

Oh, there are some goodies. You can share these.

Okay, thank you.

Good morning, Kristen Wherry representing 2-1-1 Brevard. On behalf of 2-1-1 Brevard, we want to thank the County Commissioners for your support ongoing for our efforts. As you may know, 2-1-1 Brevard hosts the 988 Lifeline Crisis Call Center and 988 is a very important, we're in our fourth year, And a very important number for texting and calling. I just wanted to share a few stats from our community dashboard of the nearly 43,000 points of contact last year. There were about 5,400 specific to 988. and the 211 number as well that refers for mental health and suicide prevention. That's averaging 400 a month points of contact, whether they come from 988 or 211 that relate specifically to suicide and crisis prevention, mental health support. So again, we want to thank you for this recognition. And obviously with our partners, it's a very important recognition. And so thank you.

Thank you. Okay, our next resolution is Disability Voting Rights Awareness in District 3.

Thank you. Could I have Nicole Grabner come up? She is the director of One Voice of Brevard. I'm going to read this and then you can make some comments. A resolution on behalf of the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners recognizing the week of September 14th through the 18th, 2026 as Disability Voting Rights Awareness Week. Whereas access to the ballot box is a fundamental right essential to self-advocacy, personal dignity, and full community participation for all eligible voters. And whereas individuals with intellectual, developmental, physical, sensory, and psychiatric disabilities represent a vibrant and integral part of our local community. And whereas eligible voters with disabilities continue to encounter unique obstacles to civic engagement, including transportation barriers, inaccessible polling places, and complex voter registration process. And whereas local government thrives when every eligible citizen that is effectively able to do so has equal, unhindered access to exercise their right to vote through reasonable accommodations. and whereas community organizations, self-advocates, and public officials work collaboratively to promote voter education, ensure accessible voting systems, and empower individuals with disabilities to make their voices heard. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim the week of September 14th through the 18th, 2026, as Disability Voting Rights Awareness Week in Brevard County, and encourages all residents, community organizations, and elected officials to promote equal voting access, civic participation, and voter registration across our community. Done, ordered, and adopted in regular session this 15th day of September. And with that, Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion.

I'll second. Motion second. All in favor say, aye. Aye. It carries unanimously. Thank you.

Nicole? Thank you very much. Good morning. My name is Nicole Grabner. I'm a disabled veteran and mother of two children on the spectrum. I really want to thank you so much for presenting this joint resolution proclaiming Disability Voting Rights Awareness Week in Brevard County. Recognizing this week is far more than a symbolic gesture. It signals to thousands of residents across our county that their voices, their civic contributions, and their fundamental right to participate in local self-governance matters. The ballot box is where our community shapes its future. When voters with disabilities cast their ballots, they're advocating for their essential resources that make daily life possible. Accessible infrastructure, strong support systems, and equal opportunity to live independently. The civic participation is especially vital today. As broader discussions around civil rights regulations evolve, we are reminded of just how critical it is to protect the core principle of community integration, the simple truth that every resident has a right to live, work, and fully participate in their home community. Real accessibility doesn't happen in abstract policies. It happens right here at home through accessible polling places, reliable transportation, and local spaces that keeps all residents integrated and engaged. By issuing this resolution today, Brevard County is demonstrating that full community access is a priority for all of our residents. Voting rights and daily community access go hand in hand. We cannot have one without the other. Thank you so much again for your leadership, for recognizing Disability Voting Rights Awareness Week, and for standing with all disabled residents across Brevard County. Thank you.

We have a framed resolution if you just hang on. Okay, thank you.

Thank you all.

Okay, our next item is item F, consent agenda. Does anyone have anything they'd like to pull from the consent? We do have a few cards. Richard Heffelfinger, F7.

Rick Ethelfinger, District One, 2000 Juniper Drive. Good morning. I feel like I'm picking on Eddie again. Utility Services Department, I get attracted to big numbers and I also get attracted to emergency purchase orders. I don't know exactly what's going on here because this started as a $50,000, I would think it's a rental, and now it's up to 340. I don't know if that's rental plus improvement. I don't know if it was an uncompeted bid, but it started quite a ways ago and we still are paying for something and I don't know what. So if that could just be expanded upon, that would be nice because when you talk about emergencies and purchase orders without competition bid, that worries me at 340,000. That's all I had on that one. I don't know if Eddie's here. There he is.

Okay, let's go ahead and have all three, and if the commission has any questions about F10. I think I have F9 card too, don't I?

F9, yep. I was just wondering, again, another big number for fire rescue. It sounds like that they actually have proposed in the budget $275,000 for the software. I wondered where the 275 came from. I guess they have software now if that's just an estimate based on what they have. I don't know if that's a reoccurring. Did it say that? But that's a lot of software, so I just question a big number like that for software. That's all I had on that one. Okay, and F10. F10, here's another big number. I don't have a lot of question. I think I know what the EDC does. They issue discounts to people for tax incentives. 1.4 million, that's another big number. So I just wanted to bring attention to $1.4 million for tax benefits for not us. That's all I had on that one.

Okay, Eddie, do you want to respond if so? Sure, so to explain the circumstance, the Sykes Creek wastewater plant, the dewatering equipment for the biosolids broke. Without that equipment, we have no way of disposing it. The landfill will not accept it because of the high moisture content. So when that occurs, that's an emergency situation for us. We issue a $50,000 emergency PO which allows the vendor to proceed. It's a mechanism to start the project with the understanding that upon the completion of the work, We come back to the board to reconcile the remaining amount, which is what the $340,000 is. The equipment is soon to be repaired, should be concluded by the end of this month, and that's why the agenda refers to the month of August and September as being the conclusion of this emergency PO.

Was that competitively bid for the repair? Oh, I'm sorry. I just.

We're not in a question and answer thing. We want to hear your presentation and then the staff. Okay. But he can answer that question. Just make sure you get all your questions together in your presentation.

Because the situation is an emergency, we do not have time in order to go out and procure it through a advertisement. In the sense, we define it as emergency because without this, immediate assistance would be a violation with the FDEP, which would lead to a consent order. So and Cinegro is quite honestly the only rental that rental company that has such equipment. This is in the world of utilities in Florida when situations like this occur. It is like 99% of the time Cinegro who's providing that rental equipment.

I'm sure that it was competitively quoted and selected based at Shopton. It was not like we were just held at total mercy to the vendor.

Yes, when we have a reference to an existing contract to use as a basis for the compensation, we use that mode.

And Mr. Chair, this also shows the checks and balances. Eddie has authority up to $50,000, so that's why it's an emergency appeal. That's why it was issued in that amount. I have authority up to $200,000. So you see in the agenda, I signed up to $190,000 and the total cost is $340,000. So we need to bring that to the board. So you actually see this is within the purchasing system and that's how it works. All right.

Okay. All right. We'll go to F9. He did nine. Oh, okay. Good. All right. Thank you. Motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second. Motion to second, approved. Okay, great, thanks. I think we have to vote. I'm sorry, sir. We have to vote on that one.

On which one? The one we just did. We had a motion, second.

Oh, did we not vote? We didn't. Oh, all in favor say yay. Yay. Opposed? Carried unanimously. Thank you so much. Consent agenda's passed. All right. Okay. Next item is item G, public comments. And we do have a couple cards. We have one from Richard Heffelfinger.

Rick Heffelfinger, District One, 2000 Juniper Drive. I'm gonna use my public comment to again appeal to you about the five million dollars for an animal shelter that the sheriff asked for that you were going to provide the five million by busting the cap for an animal shelter. If you look at the charter, it says that Notwithstanding paragraph A and B, the Board of County Commissioners may impose an ad valorem tax for county, municipal, or district purposes at a rate which exceeds the limitation in paragraph A and B if a supermajority of the Board, which you had, concurs in a finding that such an excess is necessary because of emergency or critical need. I could read you the definition of an emergency, a condition of urgent need for action or assistance, a serious situation or occurrence that happens unexpectedly and demands immediate attention, an unforeseen occurrence, just a few there, and then what about critical needs? Sudden occurrence, a critical need can emerge, emergency situation, pressing necessity. I don't think it meets any of those. Matter of fact, during our budget workshops, it wasn't mentioned until the third workshop. It wasn't, it managed to show up as an unfunded need. It's an animal shelter. I don't see where, Public safety, that's referred to in some of the write up that's in there to try to justify it in the resolution that you presented back on nine eight. It doesn't meet those requirements, it's a violation of the county charter. That five million needs to come off of there. Now you could have put that five million somewhere else and I wouldn't have said anything because you had a whole crap list of critical needs and emergencies. You wanna talk about a real public safety emergency is that six story building. They got sewage running down in the building, That's bad, man, you're putting those people at risk and yet you're designated five million, your largest designation according to the reason for busting the cap. It's the biggest one there. I would also question your numbers on the millage that you increased and the number of money that you're gonna yield. You're asking for $902,580 more than what you've allocated in the critical need. I don't know where that money goes. If you do the math on the sheets, so you're asking for more than you need and you're asking for five million that doesn't meet the charter requirement. So I just, I don't know what action it would take for you guys to have to go further to justify that. The sheriff says it's critical, I don't see it. I don't think anybody can see it. So that's what I just wanted again, come up here, we talk about, you know, hunger, You're spending $5 million that's causing taxes to go up on people that are pushing their ability to pay right now. They've got insurance, now you're busting the cap and you're raising their income, their real estate tax. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. I just want to say something on that, being that we took a vote that was critical. I think anyone who actually have been in that shelter and seen the Dire Straits, it's a very old facility. It's been there for quite some time. It's an emergency situation. Animal Control's core to our mission. It's a public health issue. I think we were justified. Just want to say that for the record. Jennifer Mark?

Hi, good morning. My name is Jennifer Mark. I would like to ask your consideration in discussing the puppies store at 1714 Riverside Drive in Titusville. I drive by this store a few times a week and every time my heart hurts. I see the same cars in the parking lot and I never see dogs in the yard. I emailed this store to ask what this puppy's business was and I received no response. From their website, you can tell what this business is. They are selling dogs. Some of the photos look like these puppies have grown into dogs and have lived their puppy year in a cage. In 2021, Orange County Commissioners enacted an ordinance to shut down the puppy mill pipeline into that county. They joined 70 other jurisdictions to ban this activity within the great state of Florida. At this time, the owner of this store just skipped on down 50 into Titusville and set up shop in Brevard County on riverfront property. This puppy store, named in the tax records, is Breeders Pick Orlando Inc. and it brings in a whopping $160 to Titusville. The owner has registered his puppy selling store as retail sales, so these dogs are considered retail, like a shoe. I have dogs that wait in the window every day much like many of you have I am sure. One of my dogs gets extreme anxiety during thunderstorms and I think of these poor pups in this store living in these cages who are scared and alone every night. Look at their website and these pictures will make you sick. So, to no surprise, there are no comments of this business on the Better Business Bureau. However, there is a big red alert on the profile. The AKC and the BBB offer advice to consumers to do their research of where these dogs come from. On August 14th, I called the Brevard County Animal Services line and I also sent an email to Sheriff Wayne Ivey. I did receive a call back from Jennifer Strait, Animal Services Supervisor, who was directed by Sheriff Ivey to do an investigation. I'm still waiting on that report. Ms. Strait suggested I take this up at the Titusville meeting, which I did, and then here I am today. Mayor Connors at the Titusville meeting said that they were going to discuss this matter at their meeting in private. Just another note, back in 2019, Brevard County Commissioner Brian Loeber initially proposed a strict adoption model which would allow rescued and sheltered dogs to be sold in pet stores only. Currently, there is a pet store in the Melbourne Mall and these puppies are not rescues or strays. It sounds antiquated to me that there is still a business selling dogs in a mall. They are in cages with wire floors. It's cruel. So I'm asking for assistance and next steps in getting these puppy and mall pipeline stores banned in Brevard County like our neighboring Orange County. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Thank you. okay that concludes our public comments i believe um and um item h public hearings h1 we do have one card

good morning mr chair and commissioners in 2023 the florida legislators changed or updated the florida statutes to require counties every three years to post any surplus property that we have that is suitable for affordable housing so we posted in 2023 we again are going to post it in 2026 after you have a public hearing on the resolution that's attached The Housing and Human Services Department did a review of the surplus properties and they're recommending taking off seven of those properties and Ms. Juanita is here to explain that.

The properties that we recommend removal, they lack adequate improved roadway access and necessary utility infrastructure to support residential development and would require substantial infrastructure improvement beyond those typical of residential site development, therefore making them not affordable. So we recommend removal.

So Mr. Chair, if we could have a public hearing on the attached resolution to accept public comment.

Okay, we will have a public hearing on the attached resolution. We do have one card for H1. Richard Hufflefinger.

Rick Heffelfinger, 2000 Juniper Drive, District 1. I only had one question. Does the county then, because those properties are all county owned, do they sell them to some outfit to then build housing? Is that how that works? So there's potential revenue for the county here? Somebody buys them, I hope, or would donate them? That's the only question I have. If you can answer that, thank you.

I think specifically, is it on the seven that aren't suitable? Because those will be offered to nearby neighbors, is that right?

That's correct, sir.

Does that answer that? Okay.

Okay, a motion. This is the end of the public hearing. A motion for item J1 would be in order. It's a motion to approve. Is there a second? All in favor signify by saying yay. Yay. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item J2. J1.

Good morning, Commissioners. Item J1 is coming from the TDC. It is a request for approval on 45 event grants, both cultural and sports events, in the total amount of $664,120, which will come from a combination of the cultural fund and the marketing fund.

Okay, this is a public hearing.

We have no cards. Okay, and... Seeing no discussion, I do want to mention we need to pull out a portion of this and like to read something into the public record. It's my understanding that one of the recipients of one of the grants is the Astronaut Memorial Foundation. I'm the president and CEO of the Astronaut Memorial Foundation. I will not personally benefit from this grant, but the EMF will. and therefore I'm required to abstain from voting. Also, I had absolutely nothing to do and no involvement whatsoever in the application for the grant. Didn't even know we had it until I was later briefed. So I will abstain from that portion of the vote.

Can we split this item so that we vote for the rest of J-1 minus Astronaut Hall of Fame and then we'll take that separately? Can we do that? All right. If there is no other discussion, I'll make that motion for all of J-1 minus Astronaut Memorial Hall of Fame. Memorial Foundation.

There's a second? Okay. All those in favor say, yay. I encourage unanimously with myself abstaining.

And then I'll take up the second motion for the Astronaut Memorial Hall of Fame. separate from from j1 okay we have a second by commissioner pritchett all in favor say aye aye aye and i abstain from that as well that's my understanding i'll show that show that passes 4-0 thank you

Item J2, sir? Yes. So Item J2 is our annual marketing plan for the fiscal year 26-27. It's a plan that's quite comprehensive, had a lot of public input, took us about six months to put it together. Total budget is $15,027,500. Of that, $3,069,546 of that is going to pay for lifeguards and then also the grant fund that was just voted on. So that leaves a net of $11,957,954 for the marketing and promotions piece of that program. Happy to answer any questions. Attached was a marketing plan that both the marketing committee and the TDC approved unanimously.

Okay, any questions from the board? We do have one card. Go ahead and hear from Eric. Okay.

Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you. I'm Eric Garvey. I live at 245 North Avenue in Merritt Island. I am here this morning as president of the Cocoa Beach Area Hotel and Lodging Association, representing our 21 members who employ about 4,000 Brevard County residents. Our ask is fairly simple. We ask that you approve the marketing plan as presented in your packet. I want to talk a little bit about how we got here with this plan. Over the last couple years, Commissioner Feltner, as chair of the TDC, has done a great job. We appreciate him with Peter Krannus and his team really creating what I think could be a model for how a local community, a local county works with their hospitality community. We are actually collaborating in great spirit, not arguing anymore, which is quite an accomplishment in Brevard County. Our association is community oriented. A lot of our hotels are owned and operated by locals. We understand the fiscal pressure that is on this county, on our local cities, as we look at Amendment 3. We ourselves will feel that burden. We expect large increases in our commercial property taxes, which affects our operating budgets, so we feel you. With regard to lifeguards, our association supports 100% funding the lifeguard program with tourist development tax. We really just ask that you we do it the right way. Commissioner Feltner, working with Representative Soroy last year, got clear language put into the state statute. so we can enact that through ordinance and stop pulling that money from other funds that weren't intended for. Until that's done, we fully support funding lifeguards with tourist development tax. With that, our ask is simple. We have over 2,000 hotel units in development right now that will come online in 2017 and 2018. Our current annual growth last year was three and a half percent. This year, Peter, I think we're gonna be somewhere around five or six percent, but we gotta keep up that pace to fill the 17. We gotta fill up those hotel rooms. That's the challenge. This plan addresses that challenge. So we ask that you pass it as is, without delay, so we can get working. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. That's our only card. Yes.

Mr. Garvey, good to see you again. I just have a couple of requests for us. I do support tourism and the importance of Brevard County as a destination. I think we do need to look at the committed 12.4 million that we're doing for marketing. It says 15, but 2.67 is already going towards lifeguards. We have an ability to look at these funds because they can be used for facilities, transportation, and certain other items including the rest of the lifeguard funding. Commissioner Feltner, you did do a great job moving a lot of those funds over off of the weight on the general fund to this and great job. We still have a delta though that we're having to cover out of the general fund. Because we are facing an uncertainty regarding what's coming up in the future with property tax revenues, not that it should ever be on the tourist development funds, but some of these funds can be used for tourist development and would relieve some of the pressure on the general fund. So, you ready, Mr. Garvey? We have 15 million advertising fund, 2.6 is going to lifeguards, which means we have 12.4 that right now we're currently using for the advertising in this plan, correct, sir?

Yes, the 400,000 of that, however, is being used for the grant program, so it's 12 million, basically.

Okay, and the amount that we have to do is a 40% threshold, and so of that delta that's left over, 758,000, I would like, if we could, is to identify what types of opportunities there would be for the county to use some of those monies on, which is the delta between the amount we're allowed to use for different things. And I do know you had told me that the capital fund has an availability as well, correct?

Yes, ma'am. There's about $2.7 million in unallocated funds in that.

Okay, so I think it would be important if, I would like to just, not that this might not get approved, I don't know, but we take it to next meeting to give staff an opportunity to come back if there is any other opportunities. I personally would like to recommend that we put all of the lifeguards on this at this time to alleviate some of the pressure that's going to be on the general fund. I'm trying to find alternative revenue sources, and definitely it's not comfortable what we had to do with the taxes this year. I know Commissioner Feltner didn't support having to go over it, but it's something we had to do. I'm looking for funds, so here would be at least another pot we could move over to alleviate some of the pressure off the general fund. I don't know where we would put it right now, but I do know we have a lot of air conditioners breaking in the county. This is general fund funds that we still have a lot of critical needs for. So it wouldn't be a bad idea to either move it into reserves till county would come back with some recommendations of where the funds need to go as well. But I gave you guys a request here from me and what I'm thinking is that we just go ahead and put this off to the next meeting so you guys have time to get some data from staff and review it and see if there is any other opportunities that we would like to move the funds with because ultimately it's on us because we're the elective body of how the funds move in the county.

Okay.

All right. So we have item J2, and then you got sort of a separate thing that you want to bring back in the future, right? You want all of J2 to be tabled? To be delayed.

Just so you guys have...

just so you guys have time to look at it. I just started work on this Sunday night and I can't talk to you. So I had to come to a board with it.

Well, there's a couple of things I think I could split with you here if we pass J2 today. First of all, we could just pay for the rest of the lifeguards. 100% funded, I think we could do that. Possibly some of that could come out of the capital and get moved to marketing and then pay for the lifeguards. By doing that, that's a general fund So if you want to free up general fund dollars, that's the way to do it. And that would free that up for staff. I'd like to leave the rest of the money in capital because we got below $900,000. The board had decided let's build up capital again because in the last year we were below that amount. So I'd like to leave that for now, but I would do the lifeguards with you. Also, you have another thing on here, item D, where you want to change that, you know, the director, instead of the director of the county manager, be able to access disaster funds. I think that's fine. I would go with you on that.

I like it. There is 2.5 million in the capital, so I would like staff to come back if there's anything that we missed that they can identify so we can vote where we want to do it. That has to come from the county commission. But I do believe we need time to really take a little bit of time and study this so we don't do any knee-jerk reactions. But the rest of it I like. I think it's a great marketing plan. These are just some options I thought we should look at, since we are really trying to find money and move money around right now, without hurting tourist development. It might come back with just the lifeguards, but I would like for you guys to have an opportunity to spend a little bit of time on it and look at it. Again, if I could pick up a phone and call you, I would have done it already.

All right, so that's your motion.

Do you have a motion? Yeah, can I make a motion just to table this to the next regular meeting? And then it's not going to hurt anything by doing that, correct, Mr. Kranus?

It would cause a delay in our fall campaign, yes. But, I mean, we'll work with it, whatever the board would like to do.

Do you want to bring it back to the budget meeting then next week? Maybe do it as an add-on? Would you all like to do that at the end? That's fine with me. Okay.

That would be great. Thank you.

Okay. Motion to move it to the next item.

There's a motion to table this item to the budget meeting. I'll second. There's a motion to second. Any discussion? No discussion on the table, is there? So all in favor say yay. Yay. Opposed? Nay. uh commissioner goodson did i hear your vote yeah i think he said no yes it's a no no vote okay and i agree with that i vote no so it passes three but then i want to i want to reconsider because if we're just going to pass this then okay okay well there's a motion to reconsider is there i'm not on the table but you're not on the prevailing did the tabling fail

I think because Commissioner Feltner's changing his vote.

I'm willing, no, I would willing to do this next week. I'm willing to, yeah, okay. But I want to get this done today. So I want to reconsider.

So we can just call it again. There's a motion for reconsideration on the TDC vote. Is there a second?

Is there a second? Tom, do you want us to vote again? Yes, that is a second.

A second. Okay, all in favor say yay. Yay. Opposed?

Nay.

That motion, you voted yes, Commissioner Goodson? I think he wants to reconsider it, yes. So it's passed 3-2. Okay, we're back on J-2.

Okay, we're back on J2. I would just say again, I would go with you on the lifeguards, fund them 100% this year. We can get that done. I'd like to leave the rest in capital at least. I mean, we can come back at any time and discuss that. But I think definitely it could be further discussion there. And on item D, I'm with you on that. So my motion would be The marketing plan that we have in there also fund the full amount for the lifeguards and we change to read as item D, authorize that the county manager be able to access disaster funds. Fund 1444 in the event of a state and local emergency. You can read the rest. The county manager shall notify the board of county commissioners of all changes at the first board meeting.

Commissioner Feltner, just say there's not enough in that to totally do lifeguards. You're going to have to tap part of it into the capital fund.

That I agree with. I think I said that right, Peter. We'll take it from capital because that's one of the things we'll do to spend down, okay? We'll take that out of capital, and I think technically we'll have to transfer to marketing before we spend it on the lifeguards.

That's all. It works, yes, and it's $889,949. Okay. And that would leave a remaining amount of 1.8 million in the capital fund.

So can I include that in my motion then, that transfer? Can we do that? Are we okay with that?

Mathematically, it makes sense. Yeah. Commissioner Feltner, one more quick thing is on C. I just think that when they do the spending, we do have to have reported on a quarterly thing. So that's what C is. So that that's happening with what was wanted in that. But after they do the spending, we get a quarterly report of all the spending that was done for those things as the Board of County Commission.

I don't have a problem with C. Okay. Okay.

So this request is actually good for you other than coming back with how to do the capital funds. You want to do that later, correct?

Yes. I want to leave the rest of, but we're going to take out $889,000 from capital. We're going to move it to marketing. We're going to then pay the 100% of the lifeguards. That's going to free up $889,000 for general fund for the county. Yes.

okay that's what i was kind of looking for and then we can talk about capital later if we have to do something include item c for the quarterly reporting and then d what i read earlier about county manager being able to access disaster fan that way the the board itself can maybe come up with ideas if they have ideas for the capital expenses of what they can do to help increase tourism but still alleviate some pressure off the general fund next year okay that's my motion

there's motion second okay i have a number of questions i want to be sure we completely understand what we're doing here so uh Where are we taking money from and where are we? I just want to specifically know what's being cut. That's okay, sir.

From the capital fund, we will take $889,000. So I don't think we have, Peter, we don't have capital obligations so far for that money that's sitting.

No, the $2.7 million is unallocated, so it's not committed to anything. And it's $889,949 is the amount for lifeguards.

And as a tourism council, we were trying to build that fund back up because it was at about $900,000 or a little bit below. So we got some funds back. But from that, from the capital, we'll take... and we will transfer that to marketing and then we'll take it immediately out of marketing, right, to pay for the last quarter of the lifeguard program and that will free up that $189,000 for general fund for the county.

Okay, how much would that leave for capital?

Be 1.8 million would be remaining in capital. And those projects have not been selected yet? No, sir.

Those would be free and clear dollars for now. Okay. All right. Thank you for clarifying that. Yes, sir. Any other questions? All in favor signify by saying yay. Yay. Yay. All opposed carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So item J3, consideration and direction implementation of the nine cent unleaded motor fuel tax and local option unleaded motor fuel gas tax. Okay.

Mr. Chair, this is what the board asked to bring back at the last board meeting. So we brought together an agenda package that shows the different options for the fuel tax, which is the one to five local option gas tax. And then just as you mentioned, the nine cents gas tax. And we brought, you know, and listed you could use it for road repaving, resurfacing, drainage. Covert replacement, drainage inspection, transit service, traffic operations, transportation, construction, capital equipment, and some various other items attached. We put together a listing of how each of the counties implement their gas tax. There's a revenue generating option update from Public Works Department. And then there's some of the questions about electric vehicles. We provided some information on what different states do for the registration. And last but not least, there's a chart showing how much the gas taxes generate over the last five years. We stand ready to answer any questions the board may have. Okay.

So we do have a couple cards. I assume what we should do is have the cards first. First speaker is Mike Shaw from Southeast Petroleum. Mike, you're recognized.

First of all, good morning, Commissioners. My name is Mike Shaw. I have lived and done business in Broward County for more than 46 years. And I care deeply about the future of our community and the Space Coast. I'm here to respectfully ask you to vote no on any additional local tax, local gas tax. I understand the county needs money for roads, drainage, and transportation. These are real needs and we should address them. But before adding another tax, we need to ask, what will be the economic consequences and have the people of Broward been given a proper voice? Broward is different from many counties. Every day, thousands of people travel into our county to work at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, defense and aerospace companies, construction projects, and other businesses. Gasoline is a product where the price is displayed in huge numbers right on the street. Consumers see every penny. It's like right now, around $4.17 per gallon for unleaded gas and over $6 for diesel. If you make gasoline more expensive in Broward, people who use or travel outside the county have a choice. Some can fill up before entering Broward or after leaving. When we When we lose that gasoline customer, we don't just lose gallons. Our convenience stores can lose the coffee, food, drinks, and other purchases the customer would have made. The attack That affects local business independent operator and their employees. If volume declines enough, business have to reduce expenses, reduce employee hours, or sometimes reduce their workforce. The county projects that this optional tax could generate approximately 9.1 million per year. But I respectfully ask, does that project fully consider changes in consumer behavior and the potential loss of fuel volume to surrounding counties? Before approving this tax, let's understand its complete economic impact, not only how much government affects to collect, but what it could cost our local business and communities. Also, most importantly, I believe the tax should have been placed before the voters of Brabant. But having the legal authority to impose a tax and deciding whether public should have a voice are two different questions. In additional transportation funding, a truly necessary explains the need to people, so the exact where the money will go, so then the project will fund, that put on the ballot and let the taxpayer decide. Mirabal County already has a six cents local option tax. Commissioner, please don't solve one problem by creating another for our resident employees and local businesses. No additional gas tax without the voice of the people. Let the voter decide. Thank you for listening and thank you for your services to Brevard County. Thank you again.

Okay, thank you. Next speaker, Richard Heffelfinger.

Here we go again. We've got an opportunity to take some action that has already been offered so many times, it's enough to gag a maggot. This was presented to you guys during budget workshops. The exact same numbers were given. Now we've got a little more information, though. At least we clarified something about the electric vehicles, because it's only a small percentage of the vehicles using this system. that would be not being hit. You can play that game about registration if you want to, I don't care. But here's the thing, we have a lot of tourists and they buy gas in Brevard County. I would rather the tourist pay a little extra and have us pay a little extra instead of you guys busting the cap to give 1.6 to road resurfacing. This thing is eight point something, two, nine something. Wow, that would be some good money. We could actually adjust. Hey, you could take that, well, 1.6 doesn't fix the road surfacing. What, we're billions of dollars in arrears on transportation. Every little bit helps. We're already taxing the gas. Why don't we just finish it off There are some good numbers of revenue that comes in on the gas taxes. I mean, we're seeing $23 million, $25 million over the years. This is just another nine, and it's a good way to keep it off the backs of the county residents who are paying to make up the difference when we have options. This is an option. You talk about coming up here and saying, you know what I'm saying? I want you to tax the gas. I want everybody in Brevard County to have to pay a little more for gas because I don't want to be paying for it out of my real estate tax. We talked about ways, being creative, finding ways to get revenue. This is one, but you have to take the bite. You've seen it, you've seen it, you've seen it, you refuse to do it. We've already got a whole load of them. What's one more, right? So take that bite, take the pressure off the real estate tax, because you're not going to be able to rely on it if that amendment passes, right? You're going to be hurting. You better start ponying up. And it's going to take courage. I got a compliment from the chairman about courage to come up and say, hey, you need to take some action. There's a lot of things that were proposed. This is one of them. You can do it with a super majority tonight. Don't kick it down the road. Talked about kicking it down the road. We've been kicking it down the road for years. The time to kick down the road has stopped. Do it now, get that money in for the 27, 26, 27, and take some of the heat. We can re-spread the budgets and take some of that heat off of the real estate tax. Busting the cap doesn't look good. This is much easier than busting the cap. And you can all blame me. That's all I had, thank you.

Okay, thank you. I believe that is all the cards that we have. Okay, we'll bring this back to the board. I have a question in relation to the agenda item. Now, if we approve this, do we actually develop an ordinance and then bring the ordinance back to the commission for a vote? And do we need to reach out to the cities? Does that require a local agreement like the original gas tax required? and how that would be divided amongst the cities and the county.

We would need to work. We got the mayor of the largest city in the county right with us. We would work with the cities on the second local option, five cents gas tax, like the first six cents, or there's a default formula that's provided with regard to the ninth cent. I don't believe there's a municipal share for that, but Ms. Wall knows better than I. In order to levy it, however, you do have to levy that by ordinance. We didn't have direction to have an ordinance today. Ordinance has not been advertised because we don't have that board direction. In order to do that, to be effective January 1 of 2027, you'd have to do that by October 1. We have to advertise an ordinance for at least 10 days in advance, so we'd be looking at a special meeting prior to the end of September. If a super majority vote of the board wanted to do that, we'd prepare that ordinance and bring it back.

So on that point, so to advertise an ordinance for consideration, not to pass the local option gas tax, but strictly to advertise the ordinance, does that require a supermajority or does the passage of the ordinance require a supermajority?

Good question.

all right technically a simple majority of the board could direct me to prepare an ordinance and advertise it and call a special meeting as a practical matter if the votes simply aren't there maybe an exercise in futility but certainly you know three of you could make that direction could call for the advertisement could schedule the meeting all of those things okay now

Hypothetically, we advertise the ordinance. I want to be clear, do we need to reach out to the cities for some sort of agreement or can we just pass the ordinance?

I think the ordinance would come first and we would work with the cities on the agreement or we could be working simultaneously if there was clear direction from the board that we were gonna implement that. Okay.

Question, Chair. Okay. My question is this. Does anybody know how this will affect construction, diesel, stuff like that?

Good question. Is diesel treated differently?

The way I understand it, the one through five would tax diesel. We're already taxing diesel on the nine cent. The nine cent would only put an addition on gasoline.

But it is true that even gasoline will affect construction. Does anybody know how much gasoline is bought for construction?

I don't have that information.

I think that's something that we would want to know before we vote on this, because if you vote on it and you kill construction, I just find that strange, but maybe everybody else is happy with that.

Well, one thing to keep in mind about construction is if you were to pass it, all that money would go toward construction. It would produce a significant amount of construction.

I'm not sure that is because if it goes toward construction and you're forcing the people to buy gas to get out to Blue Origin or the Cape, it's going to kill that, isn't it?

Well, I think the idea is to provide access to get out to the origin. Roads are getting pretty crowded, but that's probably a discussion and a debate we'd need to have if we were considering. Mr. Chairman? Yes.

so for me um i've talked before about the the ev vehicles but i'm also not really very comfortable with the tax right now like we all keep saying it's getting difficult out there so i'm not necessarily for a gas tax now, but I'm not opposed to putting it on the ballot to let the residents of Brevard County decide. That's just my two cents.

Okay. Thank you for that input. Could I say something on that specifically? Yes. Because you don't have to make the decision now to put something before the ballot or before the voters in 2028. In fact, you can make a decision as late as July of 2028 to put something before the voters.

And that would be the first time we would be able to put it before the voters, is that correct?

it has to be in a general election the referendum has to be on a general election ballot the deadline for the november 2028 is going to be sometime in august of 2028 so the board has a lot of time between now and then if you want to go the referendum route for us to do come back after the gene break you can start your start budget and as part of that you can decide to put this before the voters in 2028 and the only saying is that you don't need to take a vote today to put it before the voters in 2028.

With me, I'm out of here. I understand that part. So I'm not going to take any hit on this. So I was willing to take it, even if y'all want to do it, because you're going to get in your elections times again that time, and everybody gets a little more hesitant. So it's going to depend on whether you're willing to take that hit, which I hope you are, because that's what makes public leadership fun, is going ahead and just doing what you know is right. I was just making the distinction. If you're willing to do that, I'm impressed. Thank you.

Okay, do we need a motion if we don't? I don't think we need a motion. If there's no motion on the floor, we'll just. I don't think we need to table it or anything.

This was just bringing back the request for discussion and direction. So I'll only need a motion if the board wishes to give us any direction.

All right, is there any motion on this item? If not, we'll move to the next item. All right, we will move on. Thank you. Okay. So next item is item J4, speaking of roads. And we have the mayor, who's very patiently sat through this entire meeting. Thank you for being here, the mayor from Palm Bay. We received a letter, and we do have a couple cards. Let me talk a little bit about it before we go to public hearing or public comment. We received a letter from the city of Palm Bay requesting that we consider reaching out to the Central Florida Expressway Authority to have them simply conduct a study to see if, to do a toll feasibility study to see if this Palm Bay Heritage Parkway could be built as a toll facility. Right now there's no money, no way that it's going to be built in any comprehensive way. And so I have a letter that basically mimics what the City of Palm Bay requests, very similar. Agreeing to that and responding to the City of Palm Bay and asking the Central Florida Expressway Authority to conduct this study to see if it's possible. Mayor, I would like to recognize you and see if you'd like to say a few words.

So good morning, commissioners. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to speak. First and foremost, it's been years since I've been in these chambers. As you well know, I was an aide to a county commissioner, so I feel right at home. I see the additions of security. These doorways were always accessible, but the times have changed, haven't they? But first and foremost, before I even ask about any requests, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you. I understand what it is to serve. I understand the sacrifices and Commissioner Pritchard, you just nailed it. It's always about doing the right thing. It's always about taking the heat for doing the right thing. So I'm here before you to support our venture. The Palm Bay City Council unanimously gave direction to staff to look at additional ways to improve our evacuation corridor, which includes the south part. Many people understand it as the compound. We've renamed that the Phoenix Business Park. That's another story. But what's actually happening ever since COVID, as you well know, Our population has truly increased, and South Brevard continues to increase. We have to look at mobility ranges, we have to look at different accessibilities, and evacuation is critical. Part of that is, what are we going to do with the south side of the Heritage Parkway to connect onto that I-95 corridor? So our staff has, and they're here for any questions. I'm joined by our city management team. Our staff has identified and had meetings with Central Florida Expressway in an opportunity to conduct a feasibility study that would probably cost in the range of a million dollars. Absolutely FREE to us. And we would just like to get that intel, get that information to see how we could, as a body, be well-informed on how we could move our community forward in regards to our future, because I know that my great-grandchildren may not even have an opportunity without this opportunity. So if there's any questions of me, please ask. But it is a letter of support that would come from the county. The Space Coast TPO, as you're well aware, has supported this. And so we're just coming to you and requesting for that concurrency and letter of support.

I do have one question. I think I know the answer, but I definitely wanted to get on the record. Now, the million dollars is something that the Expressway Authority has agreed to pay for 100%. 100%, sir.

No cost to any one of us, and it's exciting that they will conduct the study. Public input is part of that, and it's exciting that it won't cost us a cent, but we'll be able to gather intel, and whichever way we go, at least that information will be readily available to everyone.

So, and I have reached out to the Expressway Authority to, obviously we believe you, we would never doubt you, but to just have verification, what you tell us 100%. I do want to mention in our letter, we're asking for the feasibility study to be from I-95X at 166 to I-95X at 182, which is basically from the Mikio interchange at 95 up to the Ellis Road interchange. We're gonna look at the whole corridor. The whole corridor. Okay. We do have a couple cards. Any questions for the mayor?

Thank you guys. Thank you for your time. Thank you for considering us and God bless you.

it's great to have you here i love your energy and you don't have far to come right to the meeting from your office well yes sir i've uh recently retired from that other office oh i didn't know that yes sir oh well we're gonna miss you but thank you for your service as the mayor of our biggest our largest city thank you thank you so much okay we have a couple cards uh first speaker richard heffelfinger

Is this your letter, sir? Is that your letter?

Yeah. Rick Hevelinger, 2000 Juniper Drive, District 1. Is this projector, I'm confused about where we're talking about putting this. Is this on? Yeah.

It is.

And I do this? Or I do this?

You've got a mess up there.

I don't know, the St. John's Heritage Parkway starts at 192 and I think runs all the way down to, what road is that? Is that the road we're talking about or is Ellis Road included? And is that a county-owned or responsible road, or is that a Palm Bay road?

Well, it's multiple jurisdictions. We have an extensive corridor study that was commissioned and completed where we evaluated potential corridor, but there's no specific corridor. It's very much a, some of it's been completed, only a two-lane portion of it. Some of it has right-of-way acquisition and others is a big question mark, so it's a planning, this is a planning process.

Okay, so CFX has not been approached about this yet, the letter? Oh no, we've spoke to them, but we haven't formalized it in the term of a letter. I'll bring up another issue, it's kind of a procedural thing. Who's our CFX representative to that board?

Well, it was it was Commissioner Delaney, and I'm gonna address that under my report later on in the meeting. Okay, so you're gonna designate a CFX? Yes.

Nobody's been there since April. Yeah. Yeah, so I just came out of the weeds. We don't have a representative, so I don't know what we're doing here, but I mean in the past Katie Delaney made statements that We don't want toll roads in this county. They've got plans in 45, 2045 to come over with 524 and they've got multiple corridors, which does, it solves a lot of your problems about the evacuation problem that's been identified multiple times and when we build, build, build, we still need to get the hell out of here in a hurricane. So I think you might actually be in some violation of some of that requirement from the state. I've heard that, don't know if it's true, might read it on the internet. But so I know there's a requirement and it would be great because CFX would then build the road, improve the road and take tolls and pay for the maintenance, right? So it would be off the table to us. Is that true? Possible. if the numbers worked as possible. They're collecting tolls. I hope they're paying for the road and paying for all the maintenance too, right?

That's how it works? It could be 100%. It could be partial. I mean, there's precedent throughout Central Florida.

Well, they took 100%. I think that would be a good thing because we don't have any transportation money to pay for that. That was just, I had some questions, and I don't know the whole toll thing, but hey, to do a study, if they're gonna pay for it, I'm sure they'd love to do the study so they can try to sell you a toll road. They need more toll roads, because CFX is poor. Yeah, okay, that's all I had.

Thank you, thank you. Jason Lorenzo.

Good morning, Chair Altman and Commissioners. Jason DiLorenzo, I'm the Deputy City Manager for the City of Palm Bay. When I arrived in Palm Bay about a year and a quarter ago, we started having regular meetings about what we formally call the compound. Now you heard the Mayor say the Phoenix Business Park area. And those planning sessions have been fruitful. We've brought in almost six and a half million dollars of state and federal grants for infrastructure, but the one thing we kept bumping up against is how are we gonna solve this 13 and a half mile gap from Malabar Road down to the southern interchange? And our estimate is that's gonna be between 250 and 400 million dollars to create that with land acquisition and everything else. That's going to be needed. That brainstorming led us to reaching out to the Central Florida Expressway to just have a conversation and understand what they do and how they do it. That and then some future conversations with your staff and the TPO led us to this potential for a feasibility study. As you heard from the mayor, fully funded by them to understand the corridor. I like your suggestion that we expand it all the way up to Ellis and consider the entire piece, which is I think almost 20 miles worth of road for economic development. And of course, the biggest piece is that evacuation route from the southern end of the county up into the central part of the county. Every time I-95 gets closed for bad accidents or wildfires, we have all kinds of trouble along Babcock. And so we're looking for that alternative corridor to help us through those situations. So I just ask for your assistance with this letter of support, and I can answer any questions if you have any.

Do we have any questions? No questions. Thank you so much. Okay, we'll bring this back to the board, and I had submitted. I think, I certainly, I've worked at the Space Center, and it's very difficult now. I mean, we have a lot of employees who live in Palm Bay that work in American Space Launch Center, but many of them are unable to work up there now because it's about a two-hour drive, hour and a half, two-hour drive. And they said, well, that's the hard part is about 45 minutes to an hour of that. It's just getting out of Palm Bay. And so it has huge economic impacts on all of the county and our desire to our need to provide what we do best is put people in space. nobody does that better but and there are other reasons in south of our that we need to have mobility and this may be as the mayor said this may be our only hope so i'd like to ask for support to send the letter to the expressway authority i'd like a motion to approve the letter The motion is second to approve the letter to the expressway authority for them to conduct a study for a potential use of tolls to build the Palm Bay Heritage Parkway. Any discussion? All in favor say yay. Opposed? Carries unanimously. Thank you so much. Can we take a few minute break? Yes, we'll take a 10 minute break.

Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. so so Thank you.

Call the meeting back to order. Let's figure it out. Okay, we go to item J5, Commissioner District Annual Budget. Okay, we have one card, Richard Heffelfinger.

Rick Heffelfinger, 2000 Juniper Drive, District One. This one really concerns me, kids. The policy red line is, the policy is titled Commission District Office Annual Budget. It used to say that you were capped at 380,000, and I think that's per, I don't know, the total, 380,000 for each office, I guess. because that was compensation for benefits, travel, office supplies, telephones, membership, capital outlay, and other administrative costs. So that looked like your operating budget for one year. You redlined all that out and said now the only thing this addresses is the annual budget of controllable staff salaries costs for each commissioner. So I'm assuming that 380 was each commissioner as well. Now you're capping the salaries at 230,630, 230,630 dollars and 67 cents. Interesting number. I would imagine that cap maybe is your worst case scenario right now with the pay that you have for your staff. So everybody's under the cap. I think that's true. You could answer that question in your discussion. But this does not address the total allowable expenses for each commissioner. I don't know what that is now because before it was stated. So if you could answer that, that'd be great. I hope we don't get a creep. I did print out the line item budget for the Board of County Commissioners. And some of this I can make sense of. 301,365 is executive salaries. That's you five guys at 60,107 times five, gets you roughly at that number. So I understand that number, and you guys haven't increased yourself. You have the right to go 3%, I think, but you haven't done that in a while. Then there's regular salaries. So executive, regular salaries, and that's 202,007, so 202,000, and then regular wages salaries at 770,000. So your salaries are 1,273,702. That's a big number. I don't know if this, This district office annual budget is allowing you to, are you just capping the salaries and saying the other hundred and so thousand is for your office operation? Don't know if it's a creep of that. Would like those answers. You look at the total compensation of benefits. $1,914,516. I don't want to see that number get bigger. I don't know if this reflects this cap or if this is based on something, but I would have thought this policy as being titled Budget for Commissioner District Office would include everything, and I thought before it used to. So I don't know exactly what you're doing here, but the cap in the salaries is probably not a bad idea because, you know, Some of these positions could, theoretically, if you didn't cap it, you could burn all your budget on salaries and then don't buy any office supplies. So, you know, capping the budget would also, but it does allow you a 3% or cost of living increase on your salary. So just a little clarification on exactly what the total is for each position and salary.

Okay, great, thank you. I have a feeling that somebody here can answer those questions. Sure.

Okay, Commissioners, I brought this up, I brought this policy forward a long time ago, and the reason I did it is that we are the only ones that can regulate ourselves. County staff's not going to tell us no to anything because of the pressure of us just firing them, so they're not doing it, so we have to do this with ourselves and have conversations. At the time I did this, I took the highest amount from one of the districts and we capped it there, and then we did the same thing of only increasing it with the CPI, or whatever we increased at the time. Over the last few years, I've kind of recognized this, that as we move, and I'll use my district as an example, that there's some costs that we could do that is going to facilities that we will not see as a board. So I gave you a chart of things that happened in District 1, and not that anybody necessarily did anything wrong, but we had over $111,000 spent that I really think the board should have heard about, and it should have been a discussion. Back in the day when I was on, if we moved, we had a discussion on the board up here if we were moving, or, you know, Frank, the County Manager at the time, had a way of letting us all know so that we knew, but I think if we start spending a lot of funds here to move around or to redo our offices, that really, not that you can't do it, but I think it should come before the Board in all fairness for transparency for the community. The cool thing is with us is everything we spend money on, we put it on the bill folder. So we're very transparent with that, it's there already. And I think also watching this too when we're traveling, we bring that to the board too, so that everything we're doing, we are doing in the public eye. This won't change what anybody's doing right now, but what this will happen is if we get a commissioner and a new one, And let's say the worst-case scenario, this kind of puts a little bit of cap on it, so everything has to come before the public before changes are made over a certain amount. And this one, again, this was stated. I took the highest amount we have in a larger district, and that's our line right there. So, like, if you have a... staff right now and you're a little bit below you have a little bit of flexibility if you need to move up to keep you within the ranks of what all five commissions do so that was my purpose with this I wouldn't mind keeping the other a I struck out and putting in the one below it too if you want but it's kind of redundant because you have to bring all the other expenses in the only other thing I put in of course that is if we're doing anything that's going to be charged to facilities you know, putting in new walls, changing carpet, which again, these things might be fine, if it's over 500, it's just got to come up here for discussion, so that we are just making sure that we all know what we're doing, because again, staff will not be telling us no to any of that, so we kind of have to be on that, so that's my reason for this. And if you notice the note here, normal operating facility maintenance costs, office rentals, electricity, water, all those things that have to be maintained by a county maintained building stays the same. That's on county. So anything they have to do isn't part of our controllable budget. Again, this is just our controllable costs. We can't control our own salaries. we can't control frs we can't control the health insurance and those things this is just where we put our funds that we can control personally so this is just my recommendation if you guys want to take some time to think about it but i i think it's a good format here to protect us moving forward so you probably don't have to have hard discussions on the board in the future either

Yeah, thank you. So I like the idea of big purchases coming before the board. We all know that those got out of hand a little bit, and we were all kind of taken aback. Not sure I'm super comfortable, and everybody can be mad at me, about the cap, because at some point... We'll have to address it again in the future. But definitely big purchases coming before the board. I'm not opposed to that. I don't know what that number should be. I know you've said 500.

But that's just a couple of my thoughts on it. I agree. If you guys have a different number you want to throw out. The cap right now, though, is for where we have salaries right now. Now, that will increase. Again, that will always increase by what we vote as a board for all employees in Bard County. What was the amount that we raised salaries?

This year's budget will be at 3% cost of living or $1 an hour, whatever is greater.

So the high amount number, you're going to multiply that times 0.03 and that becomes the new cap moving into the year, which is consistent with what we're doing with all salaries.

So how would it, if I wanted to give my staff more than that, more than that 3%, it would have to be a vote from the board. So the position that I'm in, I have only two staff, not three. You have a lot of funds still. And I do, yeah. And they're working their tails off. But it could be at some point. I mean, I'm just talking about the future. You have a lot of funds. Yeah, I'm pretty under.

Yeah, you are. I know. So that's the flexibility of that. You know, when we get to the point where you guys are having to make more management decisions next year or the year after, you might consider keeping you guys all at two staff members instead of three. It just might be something to consider. I don't know. But I'm taking the hard shot for you. I'm throwing out ideas. But that's going to be your all's decision in the future. But I think on the way out, I see a loophole that I left that kind of, happened when I was gone that I think we probably need to get something done with this. So you guys are having discussions on these things.

I have a question. So what is the problem that you're trying to resolve by this?

having county commissioners, especially the new ones that don't understand. When I first got in, we had Marcia and Carol, and they didn't let us spend any money. Matter of fact, we didn't buy furniture. We had to go buy it at the trailer, so much so I took my credit card and just bought our office all our furniture. We were just very, very frugal with funds, and Carol laughed at this, too. Ms. Marsha even made us buy our own toilet paper and bring it in on a rotation basis. So, we learned very well. So, I just, I know we have this 380 budget we had before, that included everything. and that did cap our salaries already, that it's already in there, and it's like Mr. Heffelfinger said, I guess you can never buy paper again and raise it, but we're going to all buy paper anyway, so this just controls our controllable cost, and it's a high amount of money, we've got some money to maneuver with, but I think if you had a new commissioner come on, that if we do not get something capped on ourselves, that this could get very, very high, and I think it's wonderful the way the Board of County Commission has a party of five people where we make decisions, because if it's one person, so many things can get out of line, so I really love the way this government's set up, and I think just on the larger items, or if you're going to go above what's typical for a commission office, it should be a discussion up here, so...

So the problem you're trying to resolve is the problem of a new commissioner coming in and possibly spending too much money. Okay, so what do you think the benefit of doing this would be?

It helps alleviate pressure off of the budgets. It helps alleviate the pressure off the manager and all the staff.

The staff. You made a very good point. Yeah. I thought that was a really good point.

A big pressure off of that. And it also makes it very, very transparent as far as the public because everything we do now and broken out is on purpose. By the way, starting January 1, every... employee of Brevard County's salary will have to be posted as public. So even our staff, everything we pay our staff, is going to be made public starting January 1 of next year. I thought it was public already. I don't think it is.

It's public, and it can be available upon request, but there's a new requirement that it actually has to be positively posted on a website without somebody asking for it. Right now, anyone can ask for it and receive it, and there are websites that have it, but we have to post it.

so this gets ahead of all that too it just gets everything set up for us to protect the board moving forward i think one dynamic that's changed from when i was with the commission before and i read in the charter and correct me if i'm wrong but it apparently in the charter it is required that each commissioner has their own office in their district No choice. That is a requirement. And so every district's different. I mean, it's gonna be a lot harder to find office space in District 4, 3, and 5 than it would be in perhaps District 2 or 1, especially. I was just up there, spent a lot of time in District 1, like it up there, but man, there's a lot of empty office space. And so there is disparate, disparate issues. Every district is different. And I hope you're providing for that.

Those are things you can't control. So that's not part of ours. But that's rent, everything. That's not ours. But, you know, if we were going to move to the west and make a nice office, I think that would probably need to be a discussion for the board. But I think you guys would all find out about that pretty quickly, too. But normal rent, everything you've got going on will be in this.

Okay.

But if a new commissioner comes in and they want to move, you guys really do need to have a discussion.

Okay. All right. Any other questions by the commission?

Can I make a motion to approve the change proposal?

There's a motion to approve the change proposal. Is there a second?

Could I? I'm sorry, you were asking if there were any other questions. Can I say something here? First of all, I got this yesterday, right before my briefing.

I know. I tried to give it to you all so it wouldn't be a board report because I want to.

have time but i got it i got it yesterday i haven't had much time to and i've i've had a lot of thoughts since then but admittedly yesterday was a busy day for me and then you gave us some i think some additional things here today i also feel strongly that we do have two new commissioners coming in november who will be duly elected They'll be sworn in here in about 60 days and I think this discussion ought to include them. So I think it's something that should be postponed. I have no problem having discussion about any of these items. E here on your thing is well taken but I want to include the two new commissioners. We have one who is an elect right now and then we have still an election in district one.

Well, I would think that would be fine, except that I'm getting paid $1,000 a week right now to dig through and find things that we might need to fix, and so this is something we really need to fix. And you're going to get a new commissioner on, they're still going to be filling their oats, getting it ready, and I have been doing this for nine years, and I do know this is something that the heart of what was set up a few years ago, I left a loophole in, and it really needs to get adjusted and fixed. and this isn't gonna affect any of you guys, but let me tell you, if you get a new commissioner in and they wanna move, it's fine, let them move. It'll be y'all's vote, but all five of us would own it or all five of them will own it that we're gonna foot that bill and do it and the community needs to know what we're spending because this all went on the facility and nobody knew about it. A couple of you guys had a few questions on it, but I think if you would've known about it, you would've had a lot more discussions and you were able to do it.

Mr. Chair, I have some ideas about how the spending by facilities, any commission district office could just simply be part of bill folder. And I think that would address that because you would see those costs in there. I just have some other ideas like that. I'd like to ponder it a little bit, but...

Okay, we can bring it back to next meeting. I don't mind, but I am going to make a motion to try to get this done eventually. But if you have some changes you want to tweak, I'm open for it completely. But I know we have to fix this. And I don't want to put it on new commissioners to try to figure it out at the beginning. Because that's going to be your big problem. And you guys aren't going to challenge new commissioners either because you're trying to make relationships so that you can get votes on important things. So this would really be the time to manage this right now.

Well, one, thank you for giving us a little time to digest, and two, thank you for bringing some really good ideas. I've been here before. You've done this a lot. You've worked on this, so thank you for sharing with that. We'll take it and digest it, maybe even have some additional changes, and we'll take a look at it. Okay. all right do you have anything else we have no public comments okay we'll go to reports county manager

There we go. Yes, Chair, I just have one item. District County Commissioner District Goodson's office sent us an email about the nice job Utilities Department did. We had a resident that had a plumbing problem. It turned out he had to work with a sewer line. And the person wrote in the email, the response and professionalism of the crew was impressive. Thankfully, the sewer line was successfully cleared. Plumbing issue was resolved and resolved several of their neighbors' issues. and they want to thank the county the utilities department especially the crew who responded for the exceptionally prompt response and resolving the issue so efficiently so i don't have the crew's name but i want to thank the crew fantastic okay uh district two no report sir no report district three no report

District 4? I'll say quickly, if you've gone through the improved intersection at Wickham and Pineta, it was a big effort to get there and our road and bridge staff finished that project and it is wonderful and it's a huge improvement and so I'm very grateful to our Public Works folks who got that done. Thank you. We'll have to go drive that.

Yeah, I will. Okay, I have a couple items. One, it came up earlier that we have a vacancy on the Central Florida Expressway Authority Board. I would very much like to serve on that since I'm going to be in the midst of this issue. I'll make a motion for you to serve on that.

I'll second it.

Motion and second. All in favor say yay. Yay. Yay. It goes unanimously. Thank you. That's great. Secondly, I was at a press conference about a week or two ago that our U.S. Senator held up at Space Florida, Ashley Moody, and it was announced that she's going to sponsor the legislation to create the Space Academy, and it was fairly well attended. No one knows where that's going to be. but there were a lot of of our kind of folks and there's an effort to at least be at the table and Advocate and I just like get approval as chair to But what little time I have left this chair to To try to reach out to some of the affected parties like the EDC space, Florida Space Force to see what we could do to make sure Bavard County is being seriously considered for the location of Space Academy

i've also had a lot of conversations uh another a lot of other ancillary entities out there who are interested in the vocational technical training part of it and so i think it'd be a wonderful thing if it if it comes here so to that end what you need to do to to help us get that is great

So I'll let, I'll keep the board informed. Obviously everyone's included in that. Anything that you could continue, we as a group really need to advocate. I think one of the things we first need to do is really look at, talk to the Space Force and see what are they looking for. I understand the President's supposed to appoint a special commission. and to see what are the things that they're looking at. And I'll definitely, at every board meeting, I'll report back and let you know because it's a real exciting opportunity and it would be wonderful to have that here or even in Florida. I know it's gonna be incredibly competitive though. And that's all I have. All right, excellent. Meeting's adjourned. Thank you.