Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

okay okay that's what's that phone number your phone number yeah i got your phone number yeah okay yep all right okay he's been out there yeah

We'll call this meeting to order at this time. Mr. Phillips, everybody who stands for the implication and the pledge, please.

Thank you all for this beautiful day. Thank you all for being a blessing.

Thank you all for the pretty weather we're having and the rain we're getting.

We really need all of that. Lord, just be with all these kids here tonight. Make sure they get home safely.

Be with all of our first responders in and out of this country. Be with all the commissioners tonight as we make the best decisions we can make. And Lord, just wish everybody a lovely evening after and be home safely. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have two additions, the Rural Infrastructure Fund Planning Grant Application for the Florida FWC Gateway Outdoor Center for 300,000 and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Salary Assistance Grant for 1.685240. and then as we were talking about in the workshop we're asking to delete the last item on the agenda we do have one other deletion we want to delete uh number one emergency preparedness and assistance grant empa 2026-27 the state withdrew it this morning because they have a correction to make and they'll be resubmitting it to us with the amended information that they would like in that agreement.

Okay. Okay. At this time, I seek a motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Motion to second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Okay. Proclamation. Joel, if you would, please read the proclamation, please.

yes sir mr chair proclamation number 2026 p-25 investing in tomorrow a proclamation of the board of county commissioners of columbia county florida recognizing the life skills leadership and personal growth achieved by youth participating in 4-h summer day camps whereas the youth of columbia county represent the future leaders workforce volunteers entrepreneurs and engaged citizens who will shape the future of our community And whereas Columbia County Extension 4-H summer day camps provide research-based, hands-on educational experiences that help youth develop leadership, teamwork, communication, responsibility, confidence, problem solving, and other essential life skills, whereas during the summer of 2026 columbia county extension 4-h will provide eight educational day camps serving 119 youth including the three weeks of columbia county 4-h school of life skills for magical beings and five additional specialty day camps that inspire learning through science agriculture outdoor education sewing and animal science And whereas the Board of County Commissioners recognizes that investing in opportunities for young people to learn, grow and lead as an investment in Columbia County's future, helping prepare today's youth to become tomorrow's employees, business owners, agricultural leaders, educators, public servants, volunteers and community leaders. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Columbia County Board of County Commissioners hereby recognizes and celebrates the leadership, character, and life skills demonstrated by youth participating in Columbia County Extension 4-H Summer Day Camps and commends their commitment to learning, personal growth, and service to their community. Be it further proclaimed that the Board encourages continued support for programs that empower young people to reach their full potential and strengthen the future of Columbia County. Adopted this 16th day of July, 2026.

Move to approve.

Got a motion?

Second. Got a second? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, and I believe we've got some presenters.

Yes, we do. So I want to thank y'all for allowing us, commissioners, to come up before you. And you guys had in the packet a copy of our flyer that had our summer day camps listed.

But I'm going to give you a copy again. Because we are proud.

And I think it's going to go ahead and try to delete everything for us.

You know that technology never works.

We may not have music. It was so grand with music, I promise. So for one week each summer for three years, these youth came to learn with us. And they faced many tasks, both individually and as a team. And their leadership training has taken years, and these are some of their experiences and life skills that they acquired. Identifying personal values. Communication skills. They had a blast. Critical thinking and problem solving. That was a total escape room. They did amazing. Empathy and science. Herbology class. Confidence and fire safety. Following instructions and we do know how important that is. Confidence. Teamwork. Active listening. They had potions class, yes, and it was science, measuring, and cooking skills that they learned. Friendships and a sense of belonging. Connecting with adults. And this is a picture of our year three kids that went to Universal Studios. Self-discovery is one of the things they learned. Empathy, caring for creatures. My wonderful dog Rex there in the photo. Problem solving is one of the things they did during year two. Challenging yourself. They went to a ropes course and did high ropes and that was super challenging. Bullying prevention and social media safety. And lifelong friends. So you saw those photos, and we're going to let you hear from those kids here in just a minute, some of the ones that decided they were available to come tonight. But some of the things we wanted you to know from this is that this is a total community investment. It's not just businesses that put in the almost $6,000. You guys added to that as well. It's not just the family investment of $9,000. It's the kids that are totally involved in this that are coming out with outcomes that are setting them up for success for the future. So what I would like to do is invite Ms. Bailey Ambrose to come up and tell you about some of the things she learned.

Good evening, commissioners. I've attended this leadership camp for three summers, and each year I've grown in a different way. During my first year, I learned to trust myself. During my second year, I learned to work with others. This year, I learned how to lead by encouraging people instead of trying to control them. The Harry Potter theme made camp exciting, but I remember long after I'd forgotten the puzzles are the lessons about responsibility, communication, resilience, and serving others. Those lessons will stay with me far beyond camp. Thank you for investing in opportunities that help young people become leaders in our community.

All right, Ms. Blakelyn McNutt is next.

hello my name is blakelyn and i've attended the country harry potter themed life skills leadership camp for the past three years when i first went i was quiet during groups activities because i was afraid of saying the wrong thing camp challenge challenged us to work together solve problems and communicate teaching me not only to share my ideas but also to listen to others today i'm much more confident speaking in front of group CAMP didn't just teach me leadership, it helped me believe my voice matters, and I'm grateful this country invests in programs that help young people grow into confident leaders.

Thank you, Blakely. Next is Josie Harlow.

Hi, my name is Josie, and this is my third year attending Leadership Camp. One of the most valuable lessons I learned was how to work with people who think differently than I do. During team challenges, people approach problems in different ways. At first, that was frustrating, but I learned that the best ideas came when everyone worked together. Since camp, I've become a better teammate in public because I listen and assume everyone has something important to offer. I hope more young people will have the opportunity to participate in programs like this and discover their own self-potential. Thank you and have a good night.

We have Nate Harlow next. Good evening. Good evening.

My name is Nate, and this is my third year in attending this leadership camp. At first, I thought I was signing up for a Harry Potter camp. Instead, I found a leadership camp in disguise as adventure. Escape rooms, scavenger hunts, and team missions, they weren't really about the magic. They were about communicating trust, problem solving, and resilience. Sometimes our team failed the first attempt, but our teachers encouraged us to reflect on what went wrong instead of giving up. These experiences have helped me in school projects, sports, even difficult CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS. THESE EXPERIENCES MADE THOSE LESSONS STICK IN A WAY THAT SITTING THROUGH A CLASSROOM NEVER COULD. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. HAVE A GOOD NIGHT.

Commissioners, citizens, and fellow students, my name is Charlotte Granite, and I have participated in three years of 4-H summer programs. I think that 4-H helped me grow into a more well-rounded person and make a lot of meaningful connections. It also helped me get out of the house, This is very important because sometimes school is the only place children can create connections with each other and get off the phone. While that is very important, kids need a stress-free environment where they can learn meaningful life skills and lessons alongside each other without having to worry about things such as grades. 4-H provides this to our community. Thank you for your time and please consider students like us in your future decision making.

all right and our parents don't always think to pick up the phone to give you guys a call so whenever i told them we were coming up to do a proclamation tonight some of the parents decided they wanted to get up in front of you guys and speak to you about what 4-h means to their family so first we've got miss kaylee miller joining us

Hello, my daughter has been participating in the leadership camp for the past three years. And as a parent, I cannot express how proud I am of her and seeing her growth from being a person who took a little while to acclimate and get used to everybody, we usually say shy, to standing up in front of everybody and saying the 4-H pledge. And I just stress that because we all know the American pledge, the 4-h pledge there is a lot to it and she got in front of 20 students and was able to recite all of it this has been such an amazing opportunity for us we started with the day camps and we have been able to start actually participating in their school camps sorry i'm not good with this but seeing her growth in leadership seeing the bravery that she has now she has gone out and done karaoke which is incredible and just the learning she's doing a poultry club so she is learning all about animals and how to take care of chickens properly that is a huge commitment so i really appreciate the funding that you guys have given to 4-h i really hope that you continue to give it some funding because seeing these kids grow all of these kids grow has just been incredible thank you

And Mr. Harrison Ambrose wanted to speak to y'all as well.

Hi, Harrison Ambrose. I know some of you run into you around the community. I'm a 27-year veteran teacher. I'm a United States Army veteran, member of Post 57, and a member of First Presbyterian Church. I've been around these programs for a long time. The interest came because it was Harry Potter. But when we found out what it was and the involvement and the intricacies and the intelligence put into this program by the hardworking, dedicated administrative staff, I was absolutely amazed. I watched these kids grow up over three years and the different programs and activities. and the relevance that it had and the impact that it had upon their lives. And I just wanted to say that all the programs and different things that I've personally been involved with, I absolutely 100% recommend and would ask for any support, any more support that you could possibly give to the 4-H programs through the University of Florida Extension. Thank you.

And I promise we won't take, but just a moment more of, I just want to make sure that you know that we truly appreciate everything you guys do for us. I didn't know most of these kids before they walked in my door three summers ago. And I've seen several multiple times throughout the year, volunteering for the libraries, volunteering for other things that are happening. And there's just things that some of them have grown so much that it just amazes me, not just hype, not just putting on makeup, not just actually getting up in front of people, they have grown in their way of leading of being and they have turned into wonderful young adults that they are continuing growing so we'd be happy to get a picture with you guys if you want thank y'all

She bullied y'all. She beat me up. Thank you.

That's great.

this time we'll have uh this is caleb hurley i believe it is that right the man that's got all the good news

Money falling out of the sky.

Okay. Well, thank you guys for having me. Once again, my name is Caleb Perla. I'm one of the partner owners at Powell and Jones CPA. And I'm going to go over the results of your September 30, 2025 financial audit. The audit opinion that we released for the audit states that we conducted a full financial audit of the county, which includes the board and each of the five constitutional officers. The audit was conducted in accordance with applicable auditing standards, including generally accepted auditing standards, government auditing standards, federal single audit standards and state single audit standards. The primary objective of an audit is to determine whether we, the auditors, believe the financial statements are accurately stated for the period under audit. In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly in all material respects the financial position of the county as of and for the year ended September 30th, 2025. This unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements of the county is the highest level of assurance that can be provided with an audit report. Management's discussion and analysis section of this report contains certain required overview financial information for the county. If you're looking for a good place to get a short summary of these lengthy financial statements, as you can see, they're quite thick. I would highly recommend reading this section as it is only eight pages long. It starts on page 11 and goes through 18. Next, we're going to discuss the governmental funds. Columbia County has 33 governmental funds, seven of which are classified as major funds. Financial data for each major fund is listed separately and all non-major funds are aggregated together into one column on pages 23 to 24. A breakout of all the non-major funds is also provided on pages 99 to 102. Governmental funds are prepared on the modified accrual basis of accounting, which aligns with governmental budgetary practices. Next, we have a slide showing the governmental funds balance sheet in a consolidated format with the general fund and the total for all the governmental funds as of September 30th, 25, which is on page 23 of the document. I wanna go cover the total columns here. For assets, you had a total of 120,431,000. For liabilities, you had 49,281,000. The difference between those is your fund balance, essentially your net worth as of year end, which was $71 million. These were segregated into several different categories. We had amounts that were non-spendable of 2.4 million, amounts that were restricted of 36.3 million, assigned balances of 14.6 million, and unassigned balances of 17.7 million. Those unassigned balances represents amounts that can fund future operations of the county. These represent approximately 24% of the expenditures and transfers out of the general fund. Yes.

Go ahead.

The non-spendable 36304774.

That's the restricted. Yes.

Is that reserves?

So what that is, is that's like grant money or other restricted money like state gas tax money that has to be used for a specific purpose.

So that's restricted funds?

Yes.

Okay. Yep. What is the restricted right below it then?

Oh, sorry. So non-spendable is the $2.4 million. The restricted is the $36.3 million. So the largest balance there is that restricted balance.

Caleb, unassigned.

Yes, the unassigned represents your reserve. Well, it's the net of your assets and liabilities. So it's basically what you can bring to bear. Those are like your net worth, essentially, as of your end that can be used for future operations.

So where do you put the reserves at? Where do you have that?

Yeah, that's the 17.7. You're talking about money that you can spend for future operations, correct? Yes, that would be your $17.7 million.

And this is just in the general fund?

Yes, because that fund holds basically all your reserves. The other funds are usually restricted or committed for certain purposes. That's why they're segregated out from your general fund.

But this is the cumulative fund?

Yes. It's a $17.7 million. It's all in general fund. And like I said, that represents approximately 24 or 25% of your expenditures and transfers out, which is about three months of expenditures for your general fund. The Government Finance Officers of America recommends at least having two months in there. So you have a little more than that. And so that's a good balance there, especially since we have some hurricanes here. It's good to have a little extra there. Next, we have the statement of revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balance. This is similar to an income statement, once again prepared on the modified accrual basis of accounting. Shows that your revenues were $123.2 million, expenditures $122.7 million, and other financing sources and uses, which was a deficit of $9.9 million. The total deficit altogether was $9.4 million for your governmental funds. It was $12.6 million in your general fund. Now, at first that seems surprising, but that's because you guys moved a lot of excess funding out of your general fund and moved it over to your capital projects and your utility funds. So that was just basically a reallocation of those and left your basic operating capital in your general fund. For your proprietary funds, which were all enterprise funds, these are intended to fully operate from user charges and apply the full accrual basis of accounting like for-profit businesses. The county has two proprietary funds, which are both classified as enterprise funds, which are your landfill and utilities funds. These are on pages 26 and 27 of your report. These funds had total assets of $85.8 million. total liabilities of 22.3 million and the net position which is essentially the net worth of those operations was 63.5 million of which 18.6 million is your unrestricted balance which can be used to fund ongoing operations essentially your reserves like we just talked about okay On the next slide, we have your statement of revenues, expenses, and changes in net position for those proprietary funds. Your operating revenues were 5.9 million. Operating expenses were 2.5 million, with a net operating income of 3.4 million. You also had non-operating revenues and expenses of 15.5 million, bringing the total change in net position to 18.9 million. Non-operating revenues and expenses were primarily transfers in from other funds to the utilities fund. And let's move on to the next slide. For capital assets, you had $448 million as of year end. Approximately two hundred and fifty two million of those assets were used up based on their accounting estimated useful lives, leaving a net balance of one hundred and ninety five million. You can see this shows that it's 60 percent used up. which is a decrease from the prior year of 66%. So that shows that you're investing more in your capital assets than your capital assets are being used up based on their lives. So this shows an active investment in your capital infrastructure. This was a year over year change of 13 million. Now we're going to move on to long-term liabilities. The total liabilities altogether were $79 million, $60 million in your governmental activities, and $19.6 in your business-type activities, which are your proprietary funds. Some of the more important notes here, you have $12.8 million in notes and loans payable. The landfill closure liability was $12.6 million and net pension liability was $42 million. Now that net pension liability is a large number that represents your share of the state's deficit in their pension plan. You guys participate in the Florida retirement system and that plan has promised more benefits than it currently has in assets in the plan. So that's going to be funded with increases in retirement contribution rates over time if things continue as they are. Next, we have the management letter. As required by Chapter 10.550, Rules of the Auditor General, and it contains the following major elements. Follow up on prior year findings, which it notes that we had two findings which were repeated for the Board of County Commissioners and one finding repeated for the supervisor of elections. I'd like to note here, though, that due to the timing of the release of the prior audit, there was insufficient time to correct some of the audit issues that we identified. Therefore, some of these findings were repeated in this audit, but this does not mean that the county management or constitutional officers did not take active steps to correct these issues as soon as they were made aware. There's also a financial condition assessment, which we did, which we found that there were no deteriorating financial conditions or financial emergencies for the county.

Could you Elaborate on the two findings?

Yes, we'll get there in just a minute. Got that on another slide. The independent accountants report on page 114 says that we perform certain procedures according to rules of the Auditor General, and those procedures involved investment of public funds, E911 grant compliance, the clerk's court-related budgetary compliance, the clerk's compliance with state court performance standards, and clerk's alimony and child support payments. We didn't have any findings regarding these matters. For the federal state and single audit report, this includes extended compliance procedures over selected major federal and state projects. This report contained no findings or question costs regarding those major programs and projects. The government auditing standards report is required by government auditing standards and goes far beyond the financial issues and includes internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations and contracts and related matters. It could have a material effect on the financial statements. This report identifies that there were findings during our audit as listed in the schedule of findings and question costs. The schedule of findings and question costs summarizes our audit results and identifies the major federal programs, identifies major state projects, and lists the findings and question costs for all audit areas. First, we have our single audit major programs and projects. We had the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds as your federal major program. And then we had three state projects, which were major projects, which were the small county outreach program, the local transportation projects program, and the strategic intermodal system supply chain demands project. Those programs were subject to extra scrutiny under our single audits. Now for the findings, we identified six findings during our audit. One finding was classified as a material weakness and the remainder as significant deficiencies. First for the Board of County Commissioners, there were two audit findings, 2025-001 on internal controls over grant activities. The issue was that there were substantial accumulated unbilled grant revenues and no centralized grant management. We recommended that additional staffing and new policies and procedures be put in place for grant related activities. The county responded to this finding that they hired a new grant manager and that they are working to develop formal written procedures to continue to strengthen this area. Finding 2025-002 was regarding building and zoning department deposits and reconciliations. The issue was that deposits and reconciliations were not being made in a timely manner. Our recommendation was that they submit deposits and reconciliations daily. And the county management responded that it has increased monitoring of these deposits and has established new cash handling and reconciliation procedures to correct the issue. Once again, both of those were kind of rollover findings from the prior year because they occurred and were continuing like process issues that occurred during the year, though right at year end, a lot of these things were starting to put steps in place to get those corrected. Next, for the Clerk of Courts, finding 2025-003. the Florida Clerk of Courts Operating Corporation, CCOC monthly reconciliation. There was an issue because the calculation errors in that report, which caused an underpayment to the CCOC. We recommended that the clerk establish protocols for preparing and reviewing this reconciliation. The clerk's office responded to this finding that under new leadership in their finance department, they have implemented strengthened internal controls and established a formal month end and year end process to ensure the accuracy of the calculations going forward. For the supervisor of elections, we had three findings. 2025-004 regarding bank reconciliations, which was the repeat finding. The issue was that banks were not reconciled, which allowed double booked transactions, omitted checks and omitted deposits to go undetected until our audit uncovered them. Our recommendation was that they use QuickBooks internal bank reconciliation feature to regularly reconcile the bank account to catch and correct errors. supervisor's office responded that they made updates to their tech stack to facilitate these internal bank reconciliations within quickbooks and they have implemented additional review to ensure their accuracy finding 2025-005 payroll discrepancies the issue here was that payroll was posted incorrectly causing an understatement of wages and an overstatement of payroll liabilities We recommended that the supervisor implement procedures to ensure proper recording of payroll and reconcile liabilities regularly. The supervisor responded that they will add additional review of payroll journal entry postings in the future. And then finding 2025-006 regarding improper classification of credit card payments. The issue was that credit card payments were being posted to supplies instead of individually classifying each charge to the proper account. Our recommendation was that the supervisor establish procedures to review and post credit card charges individually to their proper accounts. The supervisor responded that they will implement a system to categorize receipts before submission to the bookkeeper for proper posting and regularly reconcile the card payments for accuracy. This concludes my presentations. Do you have any questions for me?

I mean, the balance estimates were pretty close to where I thought it was. You know, on the cash end of that, it's the only thing I really worry about. David, do you have any input?

Just that the board typically votes to accept the audit.

And then we've taken action to hire our grant manager. That seems to be working out very good. Okay. Move to accept the audit. aye all opposed thank you kevin thank you for having me god bless you sir we need to balance the budget this year so y'all discount your rate next year okay all right uh i'm seeking motion to approve the consent agenda motion approved second motion David, I think you're already there.

So we canceled the first one, emergency preparedness grant. That was one we deleted because they're changing the actual form. Right. So the first one is resolution number 2026R-22, local improvement and maintenance assessments for Southwest Powell Glen MSVU. This is a new MSVU. Lisa's here as well. She helped prepare all this. This was a lot of work on her part that she does every year for us. And it's very detailed work. BASICALLY THE PROPOSED RATE FOR THE FIRST TIME IS GOING TO BE $653 PER DWELLING UNIT FOR THE LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS, AND THEN THE ANNUAL MAINTENANCE FEE IS GOING TO BE $93.

I'LL SECOND IT, BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE A FEW COMMENTS.

Mr. Ford.

I'll second it. So this is what I was talking about the other day when we were under the discussion of right-of-way acquisition. So everybody on this road was sent letters. And the way this works, the only votes that count is the votes that are returned. So it don't matter if 50% of the votes that are returned are in favor of this everybody on that road gets charged whether they're in favor of it or not that's what i you know so i mean i'm okay with this this is the way it's been done forever but you're putting this charge on people that haven't voted or or you know might not some of them didn't pick their letters up some of them didn't sign for a letter someone signed a letter never sent a ballot in so um i just want to be on record that this is how we do this. And you know, when you're, when you're looking at right away, you got 90% of the people want to do it and you got 10% that don't you just say, well, we're not going to do it, you know, but we're charging these people 663 or $563 a year plus annual maintenance of $93 for 10 years. Oh, you know,

What's the percentage, Mr. Ford? What was the percentage of activating this?

So six people, I think, turned in a ballot.

Am I correct, Lisa? Come on up, Lisa. You can't come out of this late at night and not get it all.

There was letters sent out to everybody.

So Lisa is the one that actually conducts the balloting and counts the votes and counts how it turns out.

So I had some paperwork. I just wanted to get clear on the procedure. Right, yeah.

okay so there are eight lots so there's eight property owners total and we only had five that actually responded to the certified letters that we sent out and all of them were yes votes so am i to understand then that if there's 75 people out there and you only get five votes back you're only counting how many of those five was yes or no Our ordinance says that we count the affected property owners voting. That's what our ordinance says.

So you're exactly right, Joseph. They don't vote. So we dealt with this about seven or eight years ago. Every single one that goes out is a ballot. Right. And they count, right? So we used to have an assumption that if they didn't return it, that was a yes vote. That is an incorrect assumption. So we need to go double check that.

I've got it right here if you'd like to look at it.

I understand. So what you talk about here, we have to discuss this because you were affecting people's private property rights and you're exercising taxing power. So I need to go review that because I don't believe that's a correct interpretation.

Because it says a ballot not returned will not be considered as a yes or a no vote but shall be discarded.

But it still counts against the volume of votes necessary, right? it doesn't say that i understand that but if there's it needs to be looked at because typically when people don't vote at all the implication is no they don't agree with it right and so we've got to analyze that and i i'm not saying this is wrong or invalid because i mean this is where it is and we're in there'll be a public hearing on this September 3rd. Yeah, so this is the preliminary rate resolution, but I know the last time I was asked about this, again, seven or eight years ago, me and the county engineer went through this. We're going to have to assess this. So, as Commissioner Ford indicated, it's a $600 bill. Please speak.

got a motion in the second so how do we have you can proceed you can proceed tonight you can proceed tonight but commissioner ford brought up the issue i just want to make sure we're we're all in the open on this i just my only issue is you got people that did not respond that's going to automatically be charged and i don't know that that's sure that's the way it should be done because when you join right away if people don't respond you just you know

don't walk away from you walk away right exactly yeah yeah i i i just i was listening to you real close i agree with rocky i mean that's that's that's tough yeah this this will just require a little examination but you know i i know that when when mr williams has asked me about balloting if if they're an effective property owner so just with the lighting district i think out in emerald lake an emerald light okay that's not the line we have a question for you but i want to go back with what we did because when we were first getting that approved it was not commissioner hogsworth it was one of his predecessors but that commissioner really wanted that lighting district to go through so he was advocating if they don't return it you should count it as a yes and he said well that doesn't make any sense right because it's like one of the bug here again it wasn't robbie holland i know we analyzed this so i need to go back and i need to pull my files i need to go take a look at this um and again i think this is a little bit different species too so i we'll look at it commissioner ford raises a valid point though if we've got a situation where a lot of people have just not responded at all we can't assume they're aware just because somebody signed off and this is assessed on their property tax yeah it's going to show them okay my question is if i can't pay it can they lose their property because 100 percent this is what i'm saying so just like we got to be careful with this so is this is this a new is this something we do every year with this subdivision

This is a new one.

This is the first one I've seen in seven years. And that's right. It's probably the first one he's seen in seven years. So the issue is once the balloting goes through and you adopt the initial rate resolution, which is what this is asking for, which again, Lisa's right, now it's on the books and all you do is renew them every year. So this is really when we look closely at them. Is it the initial assessment? We look very closely.

So on that light, Chairman, I'm going to take my second off. And I would like to see this table till we get more clarification on this as well. So that's the Robbins.

I hate to pass something, but when you approve a rate resolution, I think we do need to back off of it and just not approve it.

Well, let me start real quick. This is the preliminary rate resolution. Yeah, this is not final. So I would recommend that you actually approve this. Is this not final? This is not final. Okay.

Because we have another public hearing on it.

So let me clarify something. If you choose not to approve this tonight, it will not happen because you won't be able to mail notices.

Okay. Well, let's go ahead. moved to approve primary rate resolution i'll second it got a motion in a second any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed so the next one you might as well hang out here at least because we like your company and i just want to say we may have all the others in here when the public hearing happens we might find out who they are they may be sitting there looking at us i just don't know that they know that you know what i'm saying

And so just to be clear, before we go into this next round, all the rest of them are renewals. Yes. Yes. All the rest of them are not subject to balloting this year. They were approved previously, and you're just renewing those assessments. Right, exactly. I'll make sure we're clear on that.

And fire and solid waste are a little different also. So this one is the Forest Cove maintenance, 2026R23, no rate change. The amount we charged last year, $200 per stormwater management and $310 for road maintenance.

Approved preliminary resolution. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All in favor.

The next one is 2026R24 Pine Ridge Court MSBU. Again, no rate change. $90 for the improvements, $90.10 per dwelling unit for the improvements, and $130.17 for the maintenance.

Motion. And I would say this is one that's been going on for a long time. This is one of the first roads that's done this program, and they're very happy with it, I'm going to tell you.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay.

Resolution number 2026R25 is for Spring Hollow Street Lighting, MSBU. No rate change. $55.50 per dwelling unit.

I make a motion to approve preliminary rate resolution 2026R-25. Second.

Another motion. Second. All in favor say aye.

Aye. The next one is 2026R26, Carolyn Heights Street Lighting, MSBU. Again, no rate change. $74 per dwelling unit.

Motion to approve. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Okay. The next one is 2026R27, Laurel Lakes Street Lighting MSBU. Again, no rate change. This one is $118.53 per dwelling unit.

Motion to approve. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Them people in Rockland, they're scared of the dark.

There must be some big lights out there.

The next one is the Emerald Lakes one. So this next one is the Emerald Lakes Street Lighting MSBU 2026R-28. Again, no rate change. $46.04. Motion to approve.

A motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

Finally, we're up to the funds. Oh.

Yes, ma'am. Steve Everett. All right.

So finally, we're off to the fun stuff. This is our favorite solid waste collection and disposal services. This is based on the Adams contract that we have for providing services next year. It will generate $5,636,420. The proposed rate for each dwelling unit is $245.81. This is resolution 2026R-29.

So there's no rate changing? No rate change there?

It is a rate change.

Absolutely.

It absolutely is a rate change.

How much? It's $59. How much was it altogether?

The rate change he's asking.

A lot more than a cup of coffee.

I think the original rates right now are 200 and... 208, yeah. Lisa confirmed it's 208.

Give her a brief overrun real quick, if you would, please.

Oh, I'm sorry. Lisa says the current rate is 210.15. Okay.

Thank you, Lisa. That's what we're looking for there. But, of course, in this discussion of the... And, of course, this will go out in the trams. You know, I mean, trim notices and what have you. And of course, this is, go ahead, Kevin.

Mr. Chair, I think it's important to point out that that's an annual cost. Okay.

Right, the monthly cost.

245.81 is an annual cost? Yes, sir. It was, it is 210. This is a pass-through. This is what it costs.

That is what's going to be on their taxes at the end of the year. Correct. When they come out in November.

Roughly, Mr. Chair, about $35 per household per year.

With the new negotiated contract.

And that was during post-COVID, too.

What? Don't confuse us no more.

The last time we did that. Okay, I guess.

This is already set, right? Yes.

So this is what you're paying. The question is, are you going to collect the revenues? As Kevin said, this is a pass-through.

Your contract... Well, no, this doesn't get...

This is the preliminary rate resolution. The final will be at the first meeting in September.

I mean, ultimately, it's the Board decision. Put it this way. If you...

agreed to charge anything less the remainder of it comes out of the general budget correct because right now it is a pastor whatever we pay we pass along and that's based on the rate study that was done yeah and

I will say a lot of people don't understand that this is what they charge us to do their track. You know what I mean? It's what they charge us to pass through. We're not making any money off of it. We don't make a dime off of it.

We're not making any money off of it.

To refresh our memory, we come in, we historically looked at a residential rate only. This board decided to look at a commingled rate with commercial and residential rates. next lowest bid went up significantly on residential i'm sorry i've got to take it back if we would not want a blended rate you the residents were going to pay my memory says like 34 increase in lieu of three dollars a month increase that when you went with a blended rate both industry and residential were treated fairly in this board's opinion if you would have went with a residential only it would have been, remember that's $3 a month per household is what this is. If my memory serves me right, you would have saved like a dollar and a half a household per month, but industry and commercial, we're going to have like a 41% hike or some number like that. So this is a $3 per month per household increase.

Okay. Motion to approve. Okay, you have a motion. Second. You have a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye.

And then the next one is the preliminary rate resolution for 2026R30, which is fire protection services. This is what we're proposing for this year. It will generate $9,010,921 generated. It does not fully fund fire operations because it can only, cannot fund ALS type services. And we're recommending approval. To give you an example, the maximum rate that you're approving is on the right. That is how high you could raise it to over the next few years until you do a new study. But we're proposing the rates on the left, which is, that's what we're asking for in the upcoming year. And those are both within the resolution.

For the EDU, meaning EDU. right what's the equivalent dwelling unit okay that's what do you say that what the public could understand we all knew it maybe okay and then uh real quick off the top of your head david just for public's knowledge what else do we you know you just said it does not uh provide for als trucks i think we've got three of them correct

Right. It does not provide for ALS trucks. It does not provide any of the $1.6 million that we spend on EMS services. It does not provide any of the money that we do for community paramedicine, which is funded through the opioid settlements. So there are still a lot of things in the fire services program that are funded

outside of this okay but fire protection i don't want to get it commingled here because that's where i thought it was going my point is that ems is still over here at one six correct and it's not funded by this keep it over there out of the conversation how much more is the taxpayers propping up the fire we got nine million dollars generated here correct so what do we in general and out of our general fund what do we what's our addition so if you take out the um

opioid money and the paramedicine, we typically add about a million dollars to the assessment.

Okay. I appreciate that. I just wanted that for everybody to understand that this does not pay the whole bill. Right. And it's smart to take the opioid out because it's passed through theoretically.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. Any further questions? Need a motion?

170.

Okay.

Maximum rate. So the maximum rate is what we could do it, right?

This is what we're doing. The one on 26.7 is what they're proposing, and the household rate is going to be 317.68, correct? Okay. And then the Amol family, they're right on down.

So if this is what you could go ahead, Lisa, you could adopt the maximum, but that would be what you would charge. That would allow you to have room to charge as your costs go up over the next two or three years without having to redo the study. Is that a fair way to say it?

Correct. And that is the maximum amount is what will be advertised both for the fire and the solid waste so that we can save that money. to not have to do the notices every year. And that's approximately $60,000 savings to the taxpayers.

So not only do we have the study that has to be done when you're raising it over the maximum, every person whose property is affected has to get mailed a notice. And that's where the cost is in all the mailing.

And it's up to Jamie. Put your hand in there. It's up to Jamie to write it correctly in the newspaper tomorrow. And he will. He always does. We go through it every year. I'm on Jamie's side. I think he does a pretty good job with it. Got a motion? Second. Got a second? Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?

So we had two additions. The first one was the application for an RIF grant for planning for the Florida Gateway Center, which would be at the 500 acres. It was written for us. It was written and turned in at the last moment. So it was not able to get on the agenda. So it's $300,000 no match for a planning grant to design the outdoor center.

David, I'd like to point out, just for everybody's knowledge, it did go before the grants review board. Yes. Okay.

The grant committee reviewed it. The budget for the grant is in your package, so you can see where the money's going.

But I also did some research, and this grant came available on the 12th of June. So I just simply asked staff, you know, with these things, because... another day it could have been in trouble. Right. And I know that's not on staff, on staff, our staff, because this was kind of a combined thing, but I would just ask that, you know, we need, we need to tighten up on that. You know, that's, that's one of my findings in the audience. But, uh, you know, because, you know, you know, I was the other day, I got to read what I'm reading and it's, uh, but this is a great, great, uh, Grant, is it worthy? Everett? Rocky? No, you didn't go to Georgia, did you? Kevin and myself.

This is the one that Mr. Wynn wrote for us, right? Correct, correct, correct. And I'll make a motion we approve it. Good deal. I'll second.

Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, Dave.

So the next one is the state sent us the contract for the $1.6 million salary supplement for the sheriff's office. They asked us to walk it on because they don't want it. They want to get it approved so it doesn't impact their operations in delaying their payments. It was included in the budget. It's built into the budget. So they just wanted us to walk it on so it would not impact them getting their money late.

This is a law enforcement supplement. Right.

This is a law enforcement supplement that the state legislature budgets every year.

Motion to approve. Got a motion. Second. Got a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed.

Thank you very much.

Okay. And then let's see. Okay. And then on the number 11 that I took off or that I said I was going to take off, the decision is I'm going to give my Suwannee County partners over there their opportunity come forth. I don't see a time restraint here. Y'all just get imagined like you do every year with the budget. If this slows you down, just use your numbers from last year. Do what you got to do, but we ain't going to carry it through. Well, that's up to you, but we're not carrying it through both nights. It's going to come back to us for a moment. Who knows? We'd like to see it change next week.

It's going to change if everybody doesn't adopt the rates. Yeah, but we won't know that until after the budget anyway by the time it goes for both boards and four legs.

well the director of the north florida water utility should have thought about that about last friday presentation and then a today presentation so he'll you know they paid enough money over there he can deal with it okay so i would like to add that um we i did recommend to them that they decide what they want to do on the rates prior to the budget only so that their budget is built on realistic expectations of revenue rather than saying we'll get a rate increase and then the rate increase never happened, and they operated a deficit.

Sounds like he'll be calling some special meetings. Okay, so open puppy comments, three minutes. Mr. Lonnie?

Lonnie Harrell, resident of Fort White and current councilman in Fort White. I came, Chair, Your Honor, thank you for letting me speak. Commissioner, thank you for hearing me today. I came to speak to the board today as a citizen of Fort White and a council member that represents a certain portion of Fort White and the constituents. And as a partner with Columbia County currently through an interlocal to provide our utility water, I come to ask you and plead with this commission to do your best to keep the water utility rates low. I was shocked with the initial proposed. I'm happy to hear that there was some discussion after that initial proposed rate was released. And so we're in a unique situation in that the county has the agreement with the town to provide our water utilities, but you guys are letting that be serviced from North Florida Utility Authority. So it's my understanding that whatever rate increase request would come from the county to the town council, and then we would have to publicly notice that to our citizens. However, given the circumstances of the uncertainty of our agreement and the divided council on the future fort white utilities i think that uh the cost of the service is going to be uh you know the paramount concern uh for the citizens of fort white and uh history has a way of repeating itself And I've been around long enough in Fort White to remember when Fort White did control their utility. And I know why they no longer control their utility. So I don't want to see history repeat itself. I want to use caution and that's why I've supported holding off changing the current agreement and moving forward in any other direction because we have security right now with the County backing us. So thank you for hearing me, and God bless you all, and the Supreme Beings guide you in your decisions.

Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Lonnie, I'll just say, too, I think most of the board members on the North Florida Water Utility Authority were shocked when they saw those numbers, too. And that's one reason we didn't vote on it. I wanted a chance for everybody to study it, look at it, and come up with something different than that. I wouldn't have supported that either. I'm just going to say that. Thank you, Lon. Thank you.

Anybody else? Yes, sir.

Sean Holmgren. I live at 240 Northeast Laguna Drive in Lake City. I represent the Columbia County Makerspace. And you folks have been kind enough to work with us over the last year to accommodate us into the back of the old Lake City reporter building. I came to you last month and said I had some very time-sensitive donations that I would have lost by now if I hadn't been able to collect them. And as such, I've got about $10,000 worth of 3D printers and electronics and routers and switches that are currently located in your facility. Thank you. My request is now to accelerate access to the building. It's it's currently housing storage. It's storing old desks that are meant to go to the sheriff's department and to the I guess it's the animal control facility. And there's about 17 pallets of emergency water that was delivered there two years ago for from FEMA. for a hurricane, but it's just sitting there. And so when I spoke to staff and I asked if we can take possession of that space in the next month or two, they said, the mandate isn't there for us to move this water and to make this space available. It's sort of like a quiet zone where nobody's, nobody's got an instruction for us. So my request is this, can we move those 17 pallets of water out And I came up with a solution. Maybe you can give them to the, there's eight, I think, community centers that serve as recipients for your water distribution. And there's also about a dozen food banks and food pantries and community service agencies that deliver supplies to the community. Could you donate that water or could you move that water? out to these other places so that we could take possession of that property and build our wood shop and our training center and our put our computer work center in there because right now we're we're not even able to have a key to the building because it's secured due to these other assets that are in that location so i have no access to the building and so i'm asking you for access in the next two three months i've sent you all an email with a list of all the food banks in columbia county and my comments today in the hopes that you would read it tonight and maybe give me an opportunity to take possession of that property before the end of the year so we can start training and and start our programming thank you so much god bless you paul okay anybody else

Come on up, sir. Joe, I don't think we have any legal measures. I mean, needs there. You go ahead and get on out there if it's going to help you any.

No, sir. I'm in it to the end.

Thank you, Doug. You're in it to win it. Go ahead. State your name for the clerk, please.

Good evening. My name is Rusty Anne Brown. I'm a veteran and an officer of the American Legion Post 423. We are a new post here in town. We've just been in operations for a year. We are, we have brought into the county commissioners a proposal. We're looking for a home. where we can have our meetings, where we can help veterans out. And I know personally from dealing with the majority of you guys over the last four or five years, y'all have been instrumental in helping our veteran community. I mean, huge improvement in services. And this is just another step in helping our veteran community. We have the ability of, we want to be able to have veterans walk in and have us being able to help them. We want to be able to help the community. There are buildings we're hoping or we're hearing that there's buildings that are available that are empty. We would actually take care of the buildings. We would, maintenance, we would take care of anything that needed to be done. We're asking for some consideration for a place, whether it be temporary or permanent. at a nominal rate. And I believe we can continue accomplishing a lot in our veteran community.

Dave, have you heard anything about this or is it new?

Basically, the problem is I don't know of any vacant space.

Did y'all break off from the others?

Yes, we did.

So y'all broke off and formed your own?

Because we're more family oriented, more children oriented than we are about the canteen.

We're taking a different approach at our post with trying to bring in the younger veterans, the guys that have families, the grandkids, trying to get them involved, not just showing up at the post and having alcohol. That's just not our main concern right now. We've got, what, 19,000 veterans here? We have approximately 12,000 that we can account for in Columbia County. Do you already have a membership?

I'm sorry.

We do. We do. We're already chartered.

How big an area would you need? I mean, I'm just going to look around for something, whether it be the county or whoever, you know. Right. Because we've got a lot of veterans, got a lot of building in this town. Right.

Right.

How many people do you have in yours?

We be new, so we have 60 members.

60? 60.

Okay.

How big a building? I'm not saying this on behalf of the county. I'm asking for me, so I'll know people to be looking.

Something like 30 by 30, if possible, or... um we did get our our writers uh charter so um the problem is is once once we have a home or someplace stable then we have people in the wings that are just itching to come but we just cannot we can't ask them uh to come because we're we're being shifted around here we don't have that homeless so we're homeless and it's getting hot outside

right i would that's what i do okay thank you for the input yeah i think i think you have an old veteran might want to do that you know what i mean okay

Thank you guys for your time.

Real quick, as y'all ease it back, as a suggestion, with everything that's going on in the school system, them shutting schools down, building new schools and what have you, I would suggest you might want to reach out to them for some of these portables. I've seen some hooked to a truck at Melrose the other day, and when I first come on board, I acquired two of them, and we turned one into a voting precinct and then we put another one out here by the jail that uh we may may uh end up putting an ambulance service in or something so well you have to have a piece of property to put it on i understand i understand the sixth grade center you know it's richardson it's closing and i think they're using the gym for exercise and all that they may have some of that

i'm going to go ahead and put some pressure on the city of lake city right now they just acquired five points elementary there's a lot of classrooms a lot of places there and i i be honest i looked at that and and the way that that set up with the uh with the children being in there i mean it would be a good environment for i mean if we were able to have a canteen or bingo um then I don't think that would be such a good environment for our children.

Just a suggestion.

Yeah, I was out there looking that over, and I spoke to a gentleman out there that's taking that over.

I think on 137, it's in Jason County, but it's right up next to us. There's some guy out there building a little lodge up in the little field there. I'm sure he's got a bunch of room there or something. That's only a joke, isn't it?

It's a very nice lodge. Not me. Thank you guys.

Thank you. Thank you for your services. Okay. Any more updates, David?

No, sir.

No staff comments.

Commissioner Collins, Kevin. I got a couple things. David, if you will, update us on the Richardson grant.

Yes, it was submitted. We are working with several people. I'm waiting to hear back if it gets awarded, but it was submitted on time. um we're waiting to hear so it is submitted which way to hear back on yes okay the back school event i think i mentioned that last meeting have you reached out to those folks and got everything set up for that the first one i need to get a hold of you about the second one okay um so she's told us that we could have a table under the shelter so we don't need to bring tents and we just have to uh assign personnel to uh attend the event gotcha perfect and last thing um

Our budgets, we're here at budget season now, so we have a lot of money that goes in the bank. want to see if we have that money into like a high yield account or something so that's the clerk i'd be the clerk for that so we have to check with them and see but just you know if that's we need money for eminence we need money for a lot of things if that money can generate more money then we may be able to subsidize some other options with that and if let's say if it's at a bank and they say well no we're not going to give you guys any higher rates i bet if we say we're going to go pull x amount of millions of dollars from your banking or somewhere else we're probably going to get what we want I think we can negotiate at that level, I would think, anyways. With the amount of money that we have in the bank, I think that we should be able to negotiate and make sure it's at a high yield. Therefore, we can then use the money that our money is making. I know when I go to the bank, I put my little $5 in. I want it to produce back the most. So we need to do the same thing with our millions that we have for the county. So just an idea.

All right.

That's all I got.

We'll pass that along to the clerk's office. They handle all our investments.

So while ago we were discussing utilities and stuff in Fort White, it was brought up that you and Kevin went to Tallahassee and presented a plan to put a sewer plant between Fort White and Ellisville. Was that ever discussed with the town of Fort White or brought to this meeting? I don't remember.

I don't remember. I'd have to go back and check. We spoke with them about the fact that we were no longer working with the town of Fort White on the sewer plant. And we presented the different scenarios that were out there.

Lonnie, did you ever hear anything about that plan? I didn't hear about it. I mean, he was on the board. He was on council at that time, right? Yeah.

Yeah, it was right about the time that we knew we needed something in Ellisville.

So it was never brought before, Fort White or this board?

I don't remember that it was, no.

I think everything fell apart before that ever happened. Okay. I was just wondering.

So I don't think DEP was interested.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't think DEP was interested.

Say again?

I don't think DEP was interested.

when they sit across the table don't say nothing now i'm pretty much sure that's not interesting high and by i think was the two word used the uh uh uh board real quick uh next thursday david that is the explain the meeting again please okay so next thursday we have a 5 30 meeting at night it's a special meeting on the agenda is the discussion of data centers

and what we try and understand that we have a better chance to deal with data centers and how we as a county want to deal with data centers. It's going to try and be a balanced presentation of both sides. That meeting will also have the preliminary resolutions for the millage rate for the general fund or for the, yeah, for basically general government and the military for the industrial park. There is an MSTU at the industrial park and that military will also, the preliminary rate would be hopefully set that night. That's why it's a special meeting because the board will have the ability to vote.

And board, we set this meeting, I'm 100% for the speech, but I just want to make everybody aware at the initial gavel of that meeting, Mr. Parnell will be chairing that meeting. because I'm going to have to be right down the street here at the only planning and zoning meeting I've ever attended because of a tower issue going on in the county. And please pay close attention to what the situation I'm in as commissioner, because I hope none of y'all ever get there. But while we're doing these LDRs, our planning director recommended highly that this is a perfect time to go back and look at this tower issue because we've, as the years I've sat here, you've sat here, Rocky, we've dealt with a bunch of towers, but it's never affected residences, you know, the way that these do. You know, we had that one that Stu argued about one time. I can't remember the detail, but it's... Is this the one in Columbia City?

Correct. Correct. Okay. Well, I got a call about that also. Now, I was told by the people who called me, they said, if this gets approved, which I guess it's already been approved by the Planning and Zoning Board. Well, anyway, they said if it gets approved, we're going to appeal it to the Board of County Commissioners. Now, from past discussion with Joe, It seems like we need to stay out of it until it comes to us because we want to be unbiased.

I totally agree. I'm just saying, keep your eyes and ears open.

Yeah, I mean, you said you were going to the meeting.

Well, I owe it to my constituents. You know, I've been kind of drawn up. In the years I've been here, I've never been to a planning summit meeting one time. 4 minutes for, you know, but I'm just saying nobody's done anything wrong here that I can see. But. We, as commissioners, I feel like I owe it to my constituents that this is important. We're going to have here in the 23rd. they were concerned about the timing of the next sure. I was. right but the but with the uh would that be i just wanted to make sure that you know when i i'm not skipping out on immediate ghost hunting nothing like that but it's uh but as soon as we're done there if y'all are still here i'll be right back but but the uh i just owe it to them and uh i'm i'm assured i know uh y'all can you know set the rates of what happened and we had a good discussion this morning about the uh economic rocky was uh president

joel on the data centers but it needs to continue on to this board here and uh i see you put your hand up kevin go ahead so i think you're you're learning from my borrow pit issue i was advised to stay out of that meeting as well and i got a borrow pit so go and talk to your people because i was advised to not go or or to not speak yeah and i'm looking at a borrow pit

Watch it on YouTube. You'll see how I handle it. Okay.

All right. Well, let me say this. Go and see about it because I stayed cleared and didn't understand the appeals process and all that. And I'm going to borrow a pit my folks have.

And Kevin, I agree with you 100%. And I always have, for that reason, let the process take its place. Right. But the process is at a critical point right now. The process is brutal. And I'm not, you know, I'll just say it's at a critical point. I just feel condoned. So...

if there's an appeal of a decision of land planning and zoning board or the board of adjustment to this board and you have publicly adopted a position or you make a statement of that board you'll be disqualified from hearing the appeal which could be one of the biggest disservices you can give to your constituents so if you are you can speak to your constituents you can hear their concerns they do need to understand though that you might have to disclose ex parte communications prior to any quasi-judicial proceeding we've been real lucky we've only had a few appeals that have come to this board you all remember the stu looker one from a few years back they're they're rough and i'll bet you guys you guys sit in the capacity of judges so when somebody comes up and says let me tell you about this You can hear their opinions. You can hear what they have to say. When you're asked to make a decision in a quasi-judicial proceeding, you must base your decision on substantial, competent evidence. So it's not just conjecture. It's not just, I don't want to look at that. I'm sure a lot of people don't want to look at that. that's not competent substantial evidence in opposition to whether or not the board can or cannot grant the appeal because we have to win if we get sued that's the objective right i want to make sure y'all win if we get sued and there's a lot of reasons you can reject issues but it's got to be based on competent substantial evidence it can't just be based on i don't like it right so i don't think in my district so so just let's all be mindful where were you advised me before when they want to put the campground on 27 between fort white and high springs

told me i recommend you stay out of that meeting i will always recommend you right now and i just i just heard what joel said so that uh i'll uh now if i meet with a state attorney that they have hired to say hey i may have to oh i would not meet with their legal counsel okay under any circumstances so here's what happens so you're all acting in good faith you represent your people well i know all five of us

you're all very motivated to do the right things i know all five of you pretty well now if you put yourself in that position the other side just like a judge will argue that you're biased against them okay and what they can do is they can have you disqualified or if you vote and you happen to be the deciding vote they can sue and have that thrown out gotcha

and so again they want to win all of them i agree i wanted to be part of that because i felt like i need to be there but they're at the same time it's going to come to us at some point anyway yeah you have to let your constituents know i'm not there because i don't want exactly because it can't be because if you ever want me to make a decision but it is going to come if they do what they say you're going to do it's coming back to us anyway i've been asked to go to

So when it does come back to us, if they've checked all the boxes, does it still go through?

So your people missed the timeline to bring it to us. Right, we did.

So you're talking about checking the box. Whether or not they checked the box is a matter of competent substantial evidence, right? the appellant has to come and improve hey they say they check the box and that's the evidence they presented that they checked the box but here's the evidence that they didn't right and a lot of times that can be a survey an expert a concurrency concern that wasn't properly addressed maybe their traffic study has flaws you have to it's it's not easy you have to attack not because i don't like it you can't do not in my backyard you have to be able to say something they use to check a box is factually wrong and here's the evidence that it's factually wrong now once this board hears some competent substantial evidence that unchecked the box guess what y'all can do now now you can grant the appeal you can override the decision of the planning and zoning board because you're sitting in the capacity of the judge you think about if you go to court right we have to prove things by evidence And you, when you're in a quasi-judicial capacity, you are a judge. So you're only allowed to rule on facts that are proven by competent substantial evidence. You're not allowed to rule with your gut. Legislative decisions, you can rule with your gut. You say, I just want to do that because I feel like it. When you're in a quasi-judicial capacity, it's non-legislative. You are applying the law to a set of facts. And again, I'll be here to walk you through that. There'll probably be multiple attorneys in the room. We'll all be arguing about what the evidence is and whether or not it's admissible. But it's really important between now and then that y'all keep yourselves clean. We call it beyond reproach. You wouldn't want a judge to be sitting down there talking to a criminal defendant like, I'm going to get you off. It's no big deal. As soon as it gets to me, that judge will get disqualified. You guys don't want to create that for yourself. And I appreciate that y'all want to be there. I completely get recently. We brought another attorney onto that board because guys, the stuff that's coming is getting more and more controversial. And it got to a point where y'all need to have an attorney separate from that board. That's why I did what I did. I mean, we needed to separate because we've just gotten to that size.

Okay. Well, good dog. I'm gay. You're good. road in ellisville around the sun stop has been completed and it's not got traffic stopped up in the road anymore you can go all the way around and don't get clogged up in the traffic but there's still construction going on to improve our whole intersection down there and i just want to let them better know everything did they find the outlet where they had to hook up the extension cord to get the power turned on i don't think so

okay we have nothing else we're adjourned thank you we just we dismissed you